Fun Facts For Friday

Could it have been any nicer outside this week?!  I haven't closed the windows all week.  We have been going straight outside in our jammies as soon as breakfast is over.  Love.It.

Tomorrow morning I am headed down to the large town of Ridgeway, SC for an Alumni brunch at Camp Longridge.  I was a camp counselor at this camp during the summers while I was in college.  I'm really excited to see friends of mine that I haven't seen in almost 10 years!

Areyna finished her reading chart this week.  She was determined to complete it so she could surprise Josh when he got back from his conference.  Since she finished it she has been a reading maniac!  She has a Bible that helps her read and she read 70 pages of it just yesterday, WHAT?!  She is beginning to sound out words and write them down too.  It is so cute.  I got my first love letter from her yesterday...be still my heart *sigh*

It says: I love Shabila. Mom I love you because you are nice. I love you mom.

Cai is, by far, my most cuddly child!  He would be totally content for me to carry him around all day in a sling.  My back, on the other hand, screams in protest at the thought of carrying this almost 30-pound 1 1/2 year old around:)  Anyway, he has a few criteria that must occur if he is to be content while you are sitting and holding him.

1 - Your full attention - he hates me to get work done on the computer while he is in my lap.
2 - He has to be ON.MY.LAP.  Not sitting in between my legs on the floor.  Nope, that simply will not suffice.
3 - He must have his back completely against my chest.  He has no boundaries for personal space.

You have to be totally engaged in this cuddle to make it work, ha!  I grabbed a shot of Cai as soon as he backed into Rainy's lap to give you an illustration:)

My kids just finished a whole box of cereal in just 2 mornings.  Man can they put some cereal away.
UPDATE: Make that 2 boxes of cereal in 2 days!  Thank goodness for Harris Teeter triples, I got those boxes for almost nothin'!

Every morning this week I've heard Areyna's door open, before it's time to get up, a close just a few seconds later.  I found out what she's been doing.  She's been confiscating my hairbrush to brush her hair as she gets ready for the day.

Dear Rainy,
Could you please stop growing up so fast?  K, thanks!
Love, Mom

The kids have appointments this morning to get their shots for Uganda.  Cai is too young to get any and Rainy and Zeke only need one.  They have mixed feelings about this step in the adoption process, but they are looking forward to the promised ice cream from Sonic when they are done!

Happy Friday ya'll!

Making (A) Room For #4

The Girl's Room
Rainy and Shabila will be sharing the futon.
Can't wait to hear their little conversations as they learn to love each other!

I've been SO excited to have a girly room!

Before : After

Before : After

Before : After

 The Boy's Room

Before : After

Before : After

The kids love the rooms,  I love the rooms, and Micaiah has transitioned into his big boy bed without any incident!  We even went on a pack-n-play-less road trip.  He slept on the floor in a sleeping bag next to Zeke like a champ:)

Ahhh, I'm Losing All My Marbles

Due to the craziness of life, and the instability of our current schedule my attitude the kid's attitudes were in major need of an attitude check!

I was trying to brainstorm a creative way to keep our attitudes in check without feeling like I was dishing out "consequences" all day long.  It was time for some intervention...and quick!

I decided that we needed some kind of reward system so we can see just how good our attitudes had been throughout the day.

I got a couple of old Glade candle holders and wrote Rainy and Zeke's names on them.  The one in the middle is for me, because let's face it, momma's need attitude checks every once in a while too:)

Every morning we each start out with 20 marbles.  The goal is to keep our marbles all day (pun intended, ha!).  Whoever has kept the most marbles by bedtime gets to choose the story book that I will read to them.  If there is a tie we both (or all three) get to choose a book.

I must admit that I was the one who lost the most marbles for the first 2 days, but you will be happy to know that my attitude has vastly improved over the past couple of weeks!  It helps to have that accountability.  I mean, who likes to take a marble away in front of their kids because of rude words, unkind talking or just plain rotten attitudes?!

There has been an added bonus to this "Marble Mania", which we have so cleverly named our little game.  Zeke can now consistently count to 20 on his own, a task which was not even on his radar a couple of weeks ago!

So, we're working on counting, our attitudes, tone of voice and kind words all in one!

I can guarantee that I won't be losing all my marbles today:)

I Just Couldn't Force It Anymore

I remember exactly when it occurred.

My brother and I had made a fort out of quilts and card tables in our living room, as was a normal occurrence for us growing up.  I remember sitting in my "fort room" and feeling weird.  Trying to live in the present while pretending to be in a make believe world of best friends, bad guys and adventures.

Imagination.

I remember sitting there trying to imagine that this pretend reality was real.  But for some reason, this time it was different.  I just wasn't "feeling it" anymore.

I remember being sad.  I remember thinking that I was missing out.

So now, when my kids are make-believing that the medical building behind our house is Carowinds, or when they put endless hours in making the perfect fairy house in hopes of actually catching a real-life Fairy, I smile.

I love that they have imaginations!  I want to encourage their pretend realities (to an extent of course:), and I want them to hold on to them as long as they can...

...because quite frankly, I kind of miss mine.

Just Micaiah - Just Because

It's A Rainy Day

Fun Facts For Friday

Is it really Friday already?

No, not already, but FINALLY!

I made it to Colorado to celebrate my Grandpa's life.  It was good to see family again, but we really do need to stop meeting like this.  Three funerals in a little over a year for my family...

We got another "Change For Change" donation this week! We are $30 closer to bringing our little girl home.  We are at a grand total of $231 made solely on people saving their spare change for us!

We were also informed, this week, that our Dossier is on it's way to Uganda!  Here is a pretty cool realization, from the date we signed on with our adoption agency to the date our Dossier left for Uganda was exactly 6 months!

I have been slowly piecing my house together after the craziness of the past 3-4 weeks.  I finally finished a MAJOR clean over the whole house this afternoon, a mountain of laundry is now cleaned, folded and put away, and I talked my sweet hubby into helping me rearrange the kid's rooms.  We now have a boy room and a girl room.  Now, we just need another little girl to cuddle in that bed with Areyna:)

Along with the changing of the rooms, we transferred Micaiah to a "Big Boy Bed".  We rotated Zeke to the top bunk (he kept asking when bedtime was because he was ready to be able to sleep on the top bunk) and Cai is now on the bottom bunk where Zeke used to be.  Zeke had a harder time with the transition than Cai did because he missed Areyna.  It'll be good for him.  Right?  Right?

Cai stayed in his bed until I opened the door to get them up at 9am this morning!  We'll see how naptime goes:)

And, since we are going to Charlotte to play this weekend, it will be the perfect time to stop by IKEA and pick up the finishing touches for their rooms!  I'll post pictures of the whole house transition after the rooms are perfected, ha!

Well, it's now time for a shower.  I'm pretty proud of myself for accomplishing this feat before bedtime.

So, Happy Friday everyone!

From Chaos To Control: Toy Bins

I have a love/hate relationship with toy bins.

I love how toy bins can keep all the kid's toys organized.
I hate how the little pieces get thrown in the nearest bin, instead of the appropriate bin.
I love how toy bins make cleanup a quick process.
I hate the feeling I get when I see a stuffed animal head poking out of the "Tool" bin.

Because of my OCD tendencies I had to give myself "toy bin limits".  For me, I could spend my whole day trying to keep my kid's toys organized and in the appropriate bins.  So, I set one day a week where I go around the whole house and gather the toys that are in the wrong place.  I chose Thursday because that is my cleaning day.

 I bring all the toys into the play room and empty out one toy bin at a time.

Then I make piles (until I have an empty bin to put the organized toys in) to organize them.

I make a throw-away pile, as well as an I-don't-belong-in-the-play-room pile.  These piles must be taken care of before this task is complete.

The rest of the week I don't care if there are 5 cars in with the barbie dolls or play make-up in with the hand bags because I know that Thursday is right around the corner:)

Yard Sale Success

Wow, what a weekend!

We had our joint yard sale with my brother and sister-in law

to raise money for our adoptions.

Kelly and Katie folding the mountains of clothes that were donated.

 The preparation was just as hard as the yard sale itself.
But thankfully we had LOTS of help!
We sure could not have done this on our own.

Our kids did AWESOME for us!

It helped that they had an endless flow of friends and cousins around.

They found several ways to keep occupied as us mommas worked.

Areyna and Zeke searching for "Diamond Castle"

Our yard looked like a freakin' flea market!

The 2-day madness was a steady stream from 7am until nighttime both days.

We even had a friend's youth group donate a van full from Richmond, VA!

 The older girls worked hard on selling Lemonade

as they joined in the yard sale fun.

Josh's brother, Jared, offered free magic tricks and entertainment

accompanied by Josh:)

I think my feet are still recouping after running around all weekend...

but man, what fun we had.

And, again, the Lord really showed off for us!

We made a grand total of $3780!

Again, we are humbled by the love and support we have had

from our friends, family and church as you all have stepped up

and helped in so many ways that we cannot even begin to list.

So, thank you!  We have been blessed.