Happy Birthday, Ira/6 Month Milestone!

Today was a big day.  First of all, Happy Birthday Ira!  I'm now officially the mom of a teenager/2 year old.  Depending on how she's acting at the moment. LOL  Is that normal for a teenager or is it JUST the adoption?  I swear I've found more gray hairs since coming home than I ever have before.

Second, I can now say that the first 6 months are behind me!  Phew!  In so many ways we've come so far.  In others...holy cow.  Have we made any progress at all??  Still, it feels good to get to this point.  As my sweet friends have been saying to each other at each airport arrival we've been to, "I'm sure glad that's not ME coming home!  At least I have 'x' time behind me already!"

Oh, how I love these people!  I am continually amazed at how close we're becoming all the time, despite living anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours away from each other.  It's good for our kids that we don't live closer.  They need to be independent and not have each other as a crutch or as a mini-orphanage here in America.  Still, for us moms it would sure be nice to live closer to each other.  Thank goodness for texting/email/Skype!

Anyway, I will post more later.  I'm getting quite the list of things to write about, including our birthdays and fun little saying that Ira says.  TTFN!

Let the Celebrations Begin

Today marks the first of a whole week of birthdays at our house.  Tomorrow is my brother's birthday, then Sunday is Ira's and then next Wednesday is Mom's.  4 birthdays in a week.  First is mine though, and that's today. :)  It started off great by getting a package in the mail from Disneyland.  I got a watch for my birthday last year that wouldn't keep time.  I finally sent it in and today I got a new one in the mail!  Talk about awesome timing!  We've got celebrations in about an hour, so I suppose I'd better make this post quick.  I can't save it for later or it'll be days before it shows up on a blog roll.

Things have been going well on some days and not so well on others.  I suppose that's to be expected.  I've had lots of, "I want Ukraine!"  She has problems with her glasses still.  She takes them off on her way to the bus and puts them on before she walks out the school door for me to pick her up.  Little stinker.  Ah well.  Oh, and I love Little One more than her as well.  *rolls eyes*  It's getting a little old, to be honest.

The package we sent off to our Polish friends to take to the orphanage arrived!  I talked to them this morning and they got it either today or yesterday, I'm thinking.  Awesome!  They'll be taking it over to the village in a couple of days. :)  Technology is amazing.  I love Skype. :)  I'm not so fond of the time zone difference.  Every time I can talk (like to Masha) it's late there and she's going to bed.  When she can talk I'm usually in the middle of things.  We still manage to find time to sit and talk to each other at least every couple of weeks though.  Usually on a weekend.  Hum...I seem to be rambling.

My brother and I we part of a flash mob at the county fair this summer.  It was a blast!  Little One was supposed to come dance too, but she decided there were too many people when we actually did it and got scared.  Still fun though. :)

http://youtu.be/UV8IfCjU2l4

We had a ward party a few weeks ago with a Mexican theme.  I didn't bring my camera (I've been on a picture fast apparently) but I did take a couple with my iPod.

Coloring a pinata

Waiting her turn

Getting blindfolded

Hitting it.  She got the first piece of candy to come out!

Ira refusing to do the Macarena

Little One wearing all the hats from the tables

We also took a trip up to northern Idaho to visit my Grandma.  It was a really nice trip. :)

The girls wading in a lake on the way up

Playing Phase 10 with Penny.  I didn't get any pictures with Gram. :(

Then we had some sidewalk chalk art on the driveway as well.  Some of these aren't rotated well.  Sorry about that.

Ira's rainbow/star

Little One learned out to draw stars. :)

I liked Ira's moon on this one. :)

This is supposed to be up and down instead of sideways.  It's a rainbow with a reflection in the water.

More of Little One's stars

Ira's flowers and a man by Little One

Little One's rainbow/reflection.  We ran out of the blue for the water.

I'll write more in a couple of days.  Probably Sunday as that is a big day. :)

     

Kassing's Coming Home

Wow, I'm a bit behind again.  I went to finally download these pictures on my computer and put them in a folder for August pictures, only to look at the date on them and have it be the end of July.  Things have been super busy as we've started school and tried to establish a routine that works for us.  Now that that's the case, I'm hoping I'll be on here a bit more.  I have at least kept up with blogs I follow, I just haven't added to mine at all.

Anyway...on to the reason for the post!  Skip and Jami were some awesome people that I met after the hosting program was over.  It's amazing to me that we all met each other before the kids arrived, but even with all the activities we did as a whole group, I really only got to know a few people during the actual hosting.  The rest I've gotten to know after the fact as we were all trying to get our paperwork done together.  Kassing's were some of those.

I felt really bad that I'd missed the last two homecomings (sorry Howick's and Conway's!!!!!!!) as I'd really wanted to be there, but it just didn't work out.  I was very glad that I made it see Jami and Pasha arrive home, even though it was just barely!  I went to say hi to Skip and saw him looking anxiously down the corridor for his wife and new son so I didn't bother him until after the fact. :)  Congrats, guys!!!!!!!!

Skip looking for Jami and Pasha

Jami coming in!

The Welcome Home sign

Pasha was good friends with Anne's kids and they were happy to see each other.

Gotta have my traditional picture in there.

Kassing Family!

All the support they had there at the airport.  Welcome Home!!!