An Amazing Gift...

My sister, Janine ('Bean' to me and 'Aunt Nini' to my kids), surprised us this past weekend by sending this beautiful ladybug quilt that she made for Meili. I knew that she had purchased fabric a while back and had the project in mind but between her full time school psych internship and finishing up her master's degree, I never expected that she would have it done so soon. I'm still trying to figure out where she found the time! I am just not a person who cries (I find yelling to be much more effective...) but this gift brought me to tears. What an amazing gift-thank you, Bean!

I love the cherry blossom fabric that she chose for the backing.

Our Aunt Nancy helped Janine do the quilt stitching

and Janine embroidered the tag above by hand!

Is this our week?

So far this morning, no emails from our agency and no news on the web about a confirmed cut-off date or any packages being sent. It's still looking like Friday the 1st or Monday the 4th. We're in the home stretch!

*UPDATE: Our agency sent an email earlier today that said that they have not received any updates from CC*A-no indication that matching has begun, no news about packages being sent, nothing about a possible cut-off date. No worries-this could still be our week. Last month, they still had no info as referral packages arrived throughout the world. At this point, it really could be any day.

Noah's Baptism

Today, Noah was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was a special day shared with family and friends. We are so proud of Noah for the decision he made and know that his Heavenly Father is proud of him too.

The First Rumor!!!

Someone has heard through the grapevine that an agency has told clients that the cut off is the 14th! Of course, it's just a rumor. Let's hope it pans out. A 6 day batch would be wonderful!

Update: RQ has rated this rumor as an R1. Even though it probably doesn't have any merit, it is nice to be in the rumor phase of the referral cycle. It's one step closer to our call!

I'm also starting to think that there is a good chance that referrals will arrive on or near the 1st of May since there is a National holiday in China on that day (their Labor Day.) It is customary for the CC*A to clear their desks before leaving on holiday and a similar thing happened last month. Referrals began to arrive on the day that China was celebrating Qing Ming Festival.

4 Years Ago Today...

April 23rd, 2005 was our decision day. I remember the date because we were in Southern CA visiting family and they had a combo birthday party for Audrey and Noah while we were there. (The photo above was taken at the party and later included in our dossier.) While the party was going on, my brother and his wife were at the hospital having a baby. When I look at my niece, Rebecca, (Happy 4th Birthday!) it's an interesting visual of just how long we have been at this adoption.

Earlier that day, Matt and I had attended a China Adoption conference put on by what would become our agency. We went there wanting to adopt from China and left there knowing that we would. We had also chosen our agency (but only after I cornered the director at the conference and gave her an inquisition.) We just had to figure out when to start.

I'm not sure if I've shared this before, but even though we have thought about China adoption for many years, we didn't plan to start the adoption process as soon as we did. In April of 2005, Xander was only 18 months old. China adoptions were taking about 6 months from DTC to referral (Those were the days...) and we weren't quite ready for child #5 so soon. In fact our original plan was to wait until he was 5. 'Funny' how that worked out afterall... Prior to that, I had started to have China adoption on the brain in January of 2004, shortly after my 30th birthday. Imagine my surprise when I found out about China's 30 year age requirement... We started talking seriously about adopting from China in December of 2004 and I sent away for info from several agencies in February of 2005. However, our plan at that time was to do research and gather info for a year and then apply and start our dossier sometime in late '06. We weren't in a hurry.

Attending this conference started the ball rolling at a different speed, however. Unfamiliar with the process, we had thought we could slowly gather paperwork over the course of months or years if need be but learned that we would need to instead 'paperchase.' At the end of the conference we won a free Dragon Plan (agency did all of our certifications and authentications for us) which seemed like a good thing. The catch was that the prize expired in 6 months. This was only the first of many signs that we were to begin the process sooner than planned. I began to feel that we needed to adopt from China with the same urgency that a person would feel the need to flee a burning building. I knew that we needed to begin immediately. I felt rushed and I fought it but I couldn't ignore it. It's all a bit ironic now from where we sit 4 years later. We had no idea that things would slow down like they have but someone did and I'm sure that He was looking out for us and for our girl. If we had followed our own plan, we wouldn't be about to see our daughter's face. In fact, I don't think we would even be in line.

So, when I look back at that picture and reflect back on that day, I think about how long it has taken and how hard it has been but it also reminds me that some things, including the timing of it all, are just meant to be.

A Report That Matching Has Begun!

I woke up this morning and thought to myself that since it is the 22nd of the month, we should be hearing rumors anytime now. I also noted that I'm not as antsy about hearing news about a potential cut-off date this month as I was last. In fact, we can just skip the cut-off rumors and go straight to the referral call if you ask me! There is definitely a sense of peace about knowing that we are next (as long as our file isn't lost, skipped, etc.)

I promised to educate the masses about what happens in the matching room once we heard that matching had begun this month. We haven't heard anything directly from our agency but the first matching rumor has hit the web. It's hard to believe that after all of this time, Meili's file and our file are in the same room right now, maybe even on the same desk and some stranger for some reason will help determine which of China's precious baby girls will become our daughter...

Here's what RQ has to say about the matching process:

First, they review the baby dossiers and make sure there are no issues with them. We are told that they then count up all of the baby dossiers that are eligible for matching that month and then look to see how far this stack will go in the parent dossiers without sending out a partial day, and they pull all of those parent files. That is the likely cut-off date. Sometimes something happens and they don't get this far. Sometimes something happens and they get farther.

Next they match orphanages up with agencies. This orphanage has six babies, this agency has six families. These two orphanages are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families. When they are through with this is when (I believe) some agencies start to get information about the cut-off date. Or at least it is when they used to start getting information.

And then they start matching individual babies to individual families. At some point during this part of the process most agencies used to hear from their person in the matching room to let them know how many referrals they will be receiving and from what province(s). Some agencies shared this information with their clients. Some chose not to. Recently I’ve gotten the feeling that many agencies are still getting this information but they are being given orders by the CCAA to not share this information with the families.

Just as in the review room, each matcher is assigned certain agencies and is responsible for communicating with their agencies. Some matchers tell their agency the cut-off date, some matchers tell their agency “you have X number of referrals arriving”, some matchers give their agency a list of that agency’s families that will be receiving a referral. And some matchers don’t say anything at all to their agencies.

The next question that comes up is generally how the matchers match families and babies. I’ve heard from several people who have had the opportunity to speak with someone who works in the matching room. The various conversations seem to all agree that they first look for something that stands out: a matching birthday, a baby who looks a lot like a parent, or a baby who likes music and a parent who teaches music. Several matching people have stated they match by bone structure of the baby’s face and the parent’s faces (this is why they need our passport photos, so they can compare our mug shot with the baby’s mug shot). Some have stated that they used Chinese astrology, also. Once they’ve matched the obvious matches they then start to look at things like age of child requested. The age requested is not a priority for them, they feel they are matching families and not filling orders. And I have to say that they’ve done a wonderful job matching us and our Big Girl, and now I trust they will do an excellent job matching us with her little sister.

It still doesn't seem real that after all of this time the answer to the question, 'So, when do you think you will be getting your referral?' has gone from, 'Hopefully, this year.' to 'PROBABLY NEXT WEEK!!!' This is so exciting and I am so ready!

STORK WATCH 2009-The Monthly Cycle

No, I'm not talking about THAT one! I'm talking about the referral cycle and this is IT, folks! We've been at this adoption thing for 37 months now and there are certain phases (usually with corresponding RQ posts) that each month has in common. Since this could very well (and better be!) our last time tracking the stork with such intense scrutiny, I thought I would record the psychosis here just for kicks:

• Once word hits the web that referrals are starting to arrive in various parts of the world(April 3rd and 5th last month), we wait on baited breath for confirmation of a cut off date. (Last month it was March 8th, 2006. We are March 10th!)


• Next comes the fun part. Chinese baby faces hit blogland and we celebrate with and live vicariously through those parents whose dreams have finally come true and tell ourselves that this roller coaster ride will end one happy day for us, as well. (I shared the joy a few posts back...)


• Then, based on the amount of referrals CC*A was able to squeak out for the current month, RQ comes out with a PROJECTIONS post. She looks at what the CC*A has done historically (including the previous month) and comes up with 5 different cut-off date scenarios of for the next several monthly batches. Unfortunately, the recent trend is that referral batches fall somewhere in between the first two columns. The good news is that this month, every single possible scenario includes not only us but our friends who are logged in on the 13th!


• The next question that comes to mind is WHEN the next batch of referrals will arrive. RQ saves us the mental exercise by putting out another post on the subject. Here's what she said this month: The last 12 referral batches arrived at 28, 38, 28, 35, 22, 27, 37, 36, 18, 24, 39, and 32 days. The average is 30 days, the median is 30. We see 28 twice. The shortest interval is 18 days and the longest is 39. That would mean the soonest we’d expect to see them would be Tuesday, April 21 and the latest would be Tuesday, May 12. (Based on historical data, nothing says the CCAA has to stay in this window, just that historically that’s what they’ve done.) The most likely arrival date based on time between referrals would be either Friday, May 1 or Monday, May 4.
  
• Then comes the part of the month that I enjoy the least. It's when we have already eeked every bit of information that we could out of the previous batch and start to look forward to rumors trickling in about the next batch only to find that there are none. To add insult to injury, this is the time of the month when RQ resorts to reviewing vampire books... This is about where we are right now. Ugh.


• The next thing that we can expect this month are random rumors about the next cut off date. These early rumors are usually very positive and ultimately false. We know this and yet there is something in us that makes us want to believe that a speed-up is around the corner and that this month might finally be the month that the early positive rumors turn out to be true. My head knows this, but my heart hasn't learned it's lesson yet.


• Eventually, our agency will notify us by email that matching has begun. When that happens this month, I'll post about how (supposedly) we are matched with a baby. Ultimately, we know that Heavenly Father has chosen the child that will become our daughter but it's still fascinating to me to learn about what 'man' has to do in order to help accomplish that.


• Within a few days of the 'matching has begun' news, we start to see rumors coming from more reliable sources about a potential cut-off date. The rumors that come later in the cycle tend to pan out more often that those that come earlier so these really tend to get our attention.


• Then, we wait to hear on the web or from our agency that a package is on the way from China. There is never confirmation that the package contains referrals but we can usually guess by the timing that it is definitely the 'Stork' in the air.


• Next, once our agency has our referral in hand, we'll receive a 'Stork Has Landed' email and expect to get THE CALL from our agency within an hour of receiving it. At this point, I fully expect to be breathing into a paper bag and wearing Depends...
• During THE CALL, we will learn Meili's given Chinese name, her (probably estimated)birthdate, her measurements at the time of the report, the province in which she lives, and whether she is in an orphanage or in foster care. There are so many unknowns. It will be nice to finally have answers to just a few of our questions.

It will be a relief to exit this cycle and begin a new adventure in parenthood but our thoughts will never be far from those who continue to wait to become parents and the children who continue to wait to become part of a family.

Party in Blogland!

It's been so fun over the last few days to see blogfriends who have been waiting as long as we have finally see the faces of the little ones that they have been waiting for for so long. I'm linking a few below to share the joy:

I've been following this blog for a long time. So cool to click over there and finally see that cute little SMILING Asian face!

These women were logged in just two days before us with our same agency. So, not only have I been able to watch their dreams come true over the past few days, I've also been in on the 'on deck for referral' agency emails and now know exactly what to expect next month when it is OUR TURN! I've been taking notes such as: Agency emails that a package should arrive by 1pm. Package arrives at 10 am!....etc. So happy for you guys!

She was my awesome Secret Pal and is now the proud Mama of Lilli. What a cutie!

This fabulous woman that we've actually met in the flesh also received her referral. I'm still waiting to see her face but I think today is the day!

This blog friend (and faithful commenter!) has also received a referral for a little girl and we're waiting on the edge of our seats to see a picture!

Yesterday, some of these folks were still awaiting their referrals due to a package delivery problem. (It wasn't UPS is all I can say! FYI-Matt has made a sales pitch to our agency to switch over to 'Brown.' It may be time for a follow up...) I spent the day shampooing carpets and only let myself check the web between rooms or between water changes. It made the time go by fast and kept me motivated to finish! Who knew that chore could be so much fun!

Congratulations to all these new or 'new and improved' families!!! Wishing you safe and speedy travels to bring those babies HOME!!!

Odds and Ends

• Just came back from a Chinese banquet put on by my Mandarin instructor at a new Chinese restaurant across town. It was an 8 course authentic adventure in Chinese cuisine and delicious! Let's just say that I'll eat just fine in China. I ate duck and lived. And serving yourself some fish while it is staring at you is really not that big of a deal... A new favorite is Cong You Bing. It's a green onion-pancake type thing-sold on the street in China apparently and a popular breakfast item in Taiwan.
• I start another 10 week Mandarin course next Thursday. My skillz have gotten rusty and I need to get back into the swing of things before we go to China. The good news is that the native Chinese that we were eating with tonight told me that my pronunciation is very good-there's hope!
• Last week we went to HIGH SCHOOL orientation for Taylor (We're officially old...), Jr. High orientation for Audrey, and registered Xander for Kindergarten. Our kids are going to be spread out over three schools next year. Add a new baby to the mix and it's going to be wild. (I can't wait!) Xander was asked to count to 100 at the registration to which he replied, "Would you like me to count by 10's or 1's?" I think he's going to be just fine... We are waiting to see if he will have full day Kindergarten or if they will have to scale back to half day to pare down the budget.
• Taylor is participating in Track this quarter. Today they had a clinic at the high school. A couple of coaches there asked Taylor for his name. He thought he was in trouble but they wanted to recruit him for Cross Country and Track at the high school next year. He's very excited!
• Audrey has announced that she wants to play volleyball. This is the first time that she has shown interest in a sport. I think she'll do great-If she stays on her current growth curve, she'll be 6' one day! We have a net set up in the back yard and she's been practicing every day. I would love to enroll her in volleyball camp this summer but still can't say for sure when we'll be in China. In fact, we can't really enroll any of the kids in anything this summer while we are in China limbo.
• Noah officially starts his baseball season this weekend. It's going to be fun to watch his games!
• On the adoption front, it looks like it's another whopping two day batch this month. That leaves just two LIDs to go before they get to us. I seriously thought that I was mentally prepared to not be in this batch but I was surprised at how upset I was at the news. Part of me REALLY wanted to be in the same batch as my March 7th and 8th blog friends. I think that makes it a bit worse-feels like the party of the century is about to happen and I'm not invited. I've had a bad two days but I'm ready to suck it up for another month. It doesn't change the fact that I'm truly happy for those who are about to see their babies' faces for the first time next week. Besides, we're NEXT!!!
• I have great friends and family. Many have called to see if we are 'in' or not this month even though they were afraid to ask. A mom of one of Audrey's friends hung her head (and half of her body) out of her car window in the drive-thru line at Mc D's yesterday just to yell, "Any news about your baby?!!!" I'm grateful that so many are still along for the ride with us.
• I'm also grateful that April of 2009 will go down in history as the busiest month we've ever had. We've got Easter, two birthdays, a baptism, two sets of houseguests, cub scouts, baseball games, two school field trips, Mandarin class, and the list goes on. It should certainly help pass the time until the next batch of referrals come out. Did I mention that we're NEXT???

Meili's Dad is Starting to Get Excited

I'm not surprised that Matt would be excited to put the crib up in our room this weekend since it is a manly job that involves tools.

What surprised me was that when he was done assembling the crib,
he took a look at the crib bedding in my hands and said, "I'll do it!"
And he was really serious about doing it right. I think he tied at least 20 little bows...
When it was done, he said, "Now, all we need is our baby!"

On top of all of this, when I woke up this morning, he had ALREADY CHECKED RUMOR QUEEN. He's never done that before. In fact not two months ago, he was still asking me what our log in date was. He's off work today and just called from the oil change place as I was typing this to ask if there is any news. I think somebody's excited!

Another Project

About a month ago, our local group of waiting moms got together for lunch and a tag blanket project. I just finished mine yesterday. Yep, still all about the ladybugs...

Rumorland

looks a bit like this right now. The storm is brewing but it just won't rain. NOTHING going on. I'm going to get my butt off the computer today and get something done. Our agency isn't expecting anything until next week so I'm not going torture myself and wear out my refresh button looking for something that's not going to be there. I'll check back in on Monday...

Ready when you are, CCAA.

With my luck, I'll either be speeding down the freeway or buck n*ked in the shower when the call finally comes. Hopefully, I'll be home and have my head (and clothes!) on somewhat straight when the big moment arrives. I've got everything I think I need ready to go.

Our agency sent out a 'Referral Update' email today that didn't say a darn thing. The news is that there is no news even though we are starting to hear whispers that matching has begun in the RQ forum. It's probably safe to say that we won't see any referrals arriving this week. Let's hope it's earlier rather than later next week that we start to see something happening. I'm still not expecting to be in this batch but I have to acknowledge that it is within the realm of possibility. If this ends up being a 'dress rehearsal', hopefully it will be the last! We're ready, CCAA. Bring it on!!!

Tub Swimming

A few nights ago, the kids worked up a sweat running around the house playing hide-and-seek. I wouldn't normally tolerate it but it was nice to see them feeling well enough to get off the couch. They asked if they could put on their swimsuits and sit in a cold bath. Crazy kids.

Easy Project Idea-Hooded Bath Towel

I love the soft little hooded baby towels that you can buy at the store but once your baby is more than a couple of months old, they aren't long enough to keep their feet from sticking out during the after-bath cuddle time and cold feet=unhappy baby. This one will last well into toddlerhood!

Seriously. If I can do this, anyone can. All you need is a bath towel and a coordinating wash cloth. I picked these up from a going out of business sale a while back so not only was this easy, it was also cheap!

First, you take the washcloth and fold it in half. Sew along one of the short sides.


Turn it right side out and you have a hood!


Place your hood right sides to right sides (and your towel may or may not have a wrong side) centered on the long end of the towel like so:


Pin it and sew it:

And there you go! See, told ya' it was easy!

Thanks for modeling, Audrey!

Spring Break 2009

Looks pretty wild, eh? Unfortunately, this is what Casa Bouton looked like for most of the break. Xander started us off with the stomach bug to end all stomach bugs, then the rest followed suit with the flu-and not just the sniffles with a fever that some people call the flu. This was full out In-flu-en-za. I've determined that we will be first in line for flu shots next year!

By Thursday, I decided that my mental health was suffering more than the kids' physical health so we left the confines of home and went to an indoor inflatable play place in the morning and went to the roller rink in the afternoon. On Friday, we met friends at the park with a picnic lunch and had a wonderful time. On Friday night, Matt and I went to a dinner party at a friend's house and played the 'Newlywed Game.' It was a blast but there are certain social circles that I may not be able to show my face at any time soon...;o) We came home Friday night to find that poor Xander finally caught what the rest had. He's still fighting a fever and is losing his voice. I'm hoping the older kids will all be well enough to go to school tomorrow and that Xander can make it to preschool by Tuesday.

Adoption Nesting

Yep, it does exist and I'm convinced it's worse than the variety that preceeds birth because you are still in an able-bodied state.

My referral day prep is done and we've done as much baby/travel preparation as we can do without Meili's referral information. So, I've moved on to the housework section of the nesting list and it's a doozy. I can remember quite clearly how much a person can't get done once a new baby enters the scene so I'm trying to think of every feasible household chore that may have to be done in the next year or so and cramming it into the next two weeks.

I spent 4 hours on Saturday reorganizing and purging the master bathroom cabinets and drawers and another couple of hours raking rocks and trimming bushes in the front yard and sweeping gravel out of the street in front of our house. There is definitely some psychosis at work here. The good news, though, is that we'll be more than ready for home study #4 next month!

3 Years...

Here it is-the post I hoped I'd never have to write. Three years have passed since our file was logged in at the CCAA. I bet by now the file is dusty and the pages are crusty and starting to turn yellow.

I thought it would be a rough day but not so much. Between sick kids and a full calendar with Cub Scouts, Baseball practice, etc., I hardly had time to sit and feel sorry for myself.

We knew that today would be a busy one so to commemorate the occasion last night we went to a new (to us) Chinese restaurant. It was clean, the food was good and the owners speak Mandarin so we have declared it referral day celebration-worthy. Can't wait! Actually, after three years I think we've proven that we can...

Projections and Predictions...

Every month, shortly after referrals come out, RQ puts out a 'Projections' post. Based on several historical scenarios, she comes up with a chart like this one to give us a guesstimate about when our referral might arrive. (Things have been averaging out somewhere between the Spring 2008 Small and Winter 2008 (Horrid) scenarios, FYI) I remember the first time that our log in date actually appeared on the chart. It was monumental just to see it sneak into one of the 'now too good to be true' categories. I noticed on the most recent chart that now there is only one box in the chart that does NOT include us! In China adoption land, I guess we'll celebrate anything that looks like it might resemble progress...

I'm working on a poll to gather up some predictions about when our referral will arrive and Meili's age and province. I'll come up with some prizes , as well. My official guess is that we'll receive the call on Monday, May 4th, that Meili will be about 8 months old (would be really freaky if we find out that she was born on September 6th when I had a dream about her) and my agency seems to get a lot of referrals from Jiangxi province so I'll guess that she might be there...

Miscommunication

Last night, when I asked Taylor to start the dishwasher and use the 'orange dishwashing detergent' I meant this:

Not this:We got this:

I guess the difference between dishwashing detergent and dish soap is lost on the male species...

Hmmm...

I've been going to this site every now and again throughout our adoption process to see when 'they' think our referral may arrive. It's an online Magic 8 Ball of sorts and I honestly don't put much stock in it. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see this come up when I punched in our LID this morning:

Our prediction for LID 2006-03-10
China has 4 days of dossiers to be processed before they get to your dossier. China currently processes about 4.4 days of dossiers each month.
Our best guess: 2009-03-29

Weird to see the referral prediction come up for the month that we are currently in. That's definitely a first. I don't expect to get a referral in the next batch, but I certainly don't mind seeing it in print either.

Have You Read These?

If you are not familiar with the first book, the author is an American who lived in C. hina for four years and volunteered in an orphanage. The book is a journal of her experiences and observations while there. It's a thick book but an easy read. And by easy I mean that the print is large and the vocabulary is accessible. Everything else about it is excruciatingly difficult. Add to the equation that the plight of the children exposed in the book unfortunately is probably not too dissimilar from what your own daughter is experiencing at that very moment and it's almost too much to take.

While reading the book, I made two observations that I'm willing to share. I'm invoking the 'Thumper Clause' for the other ones that I shouldn't. 1) I'll admit that I have felt a bit guilty about requesting a non-special needs child even though we did request to be considered for a special needs child a while ago and it was made very clear to us that it's just not meant to be our path this time around. Reading this book brought some of those feelings back. 2) At the same time, if this book is an accurate representation of orphanage life in C. hina (and it probably is), I have to wonder if there really is such a thing as a non-special needs child?

Even though it's hard to read, I think it's important to know what our children's early life experience may have been like and why love might not be enough to help transition them to family life. Ultimately, reading this book has reignited my desire to read or re-read everything that I can get my hands on to prepare us to help Meili learn what it means to be a part of a family. I've read all of the standards and have been working as an adoption social worker for about three years but still feel that there is much more to learn. Doing that has become item #1 on my infamous 'list.'

My latest discovery is Book #2. It is dense and reads like a psych text book in parts but it is quite a resource. It was written by a therapist (and China mom!) who worked closely with international adoptees for almost a decade. I found her composite 'First Year Home Group' to be particularly insightful. It's fascinating what you can learn about a child by watching them play and I was glad to see that the book follows through beyond theory and offers several activities that parents can do at home with their children to help them progress from 'reactive behaviors' to 'family behaviors.' It's a book that I'm glad that I bought (and I'm cheap with a capital 'C') because I'm sure I'll go back to it. I'm about 3/4 through it and plan to re-read it several times and take some notes.

If you have read either of these, I'd like to know what you thought and if you have any others to recommend, please share. I'm a woman on a mission!

Light at the End of a Very Long Tunnel

As I type, the stork is landing with referrals for families logged in between March 3rd and March 6th. For us, that's 4 days down and just 4 more to go. I think there's a 50% chance that we'll be included in the next batch and a 75% chance that we'll be included in the batch after that. Crazy to think that with only 4 LIDs to go (!!!), we aren't even 100% sure that we are two batches away from a referral... Even crazier, this blog friend only has 2 LIDs to go and can't say she's next for sure either (but we're certainly keeping our fingers crossed!) The next LID (March 7th) is a record breaker and may just be it's own batch next month. The consolation is that lots of blog friends are logged in on that day and can finally say that they are NEXT!!! Can't wait to see all of the babies' faces in blogland next month!

Another Hike...

Sure, they're all smiles in this picture but this was only about a 1/4 of the way in to the 8 mile hike. There were tears and tantrums along most of the trail after this point. Audrey kept complaining that the place 'really needed an elevator' and at one point I tried to encourage her along by pointing out that there was a clearing ahead where there was probably going to be a great view. Her reply was, ' Of what?, the skeletons of the people who hiked the trail before us?!' She can be funny when she is tired and crabby.
The 'pee tree.' No further explanation needed.

Daddy's little hikers.

We hiked 8 miles to 'The Springs' that would be more appropriately named, 'The Puddles.'

These camelbacks were some of the best money ever spent.

Rodeo Break

In our state, the kiddos get a 4 day weekend when the rodeo is on. We have lived here for 5 years now and even though it isn't our 'thang', we decided that we needed to add the rodeo to our BTDT list. We started out bright and early on the parade route and then made our way over to the rodeo arena. It was one of those freaky, early in the year 90+ degree weather days so we had a hard time staying in our seats in the beating down sun. Thankfully, there were some diversions to be had behind the scenes.

The kids enjoyed feeding some cows.

And practicing their roping skills.

None of the children asked to do it again next year, so I think we're safe there. Yee Haw to that!

Getting Along

One of the nice things about having 4 kids is that if two of them are starting to get tired of one another, there are other options for both of them. Usually, play time in the house consists of different combinations of pairs and singletons as interests divide them along age and gender lines. It warmed my heart today to find all four of them including one another and playing a game together of their own free will and volition. Just love the whole lot of them!

35 Months LID

and I'd give my left b**b for a rumor right about now...

Buddies

Xander just loves his two preschool buddies, Evan and Bennett. The three moms take turns driving carpool and having an afterschool playgroup on one of the preschool days each week. Here's what I found on the couch during playgroup at our house when I realized that I needed to investigate the quiet. Such cuties-I'm guessing that they won't sit this close over a video game as teenagers...

A boy in love...

The kids were outside with sidewalk chalk today and this was Noah's creation. 'N.B.' is Noah. 'T.S.' is Taylor Swift. They are holding hands. He's 7-good grief! This must be cosmic payback for my early 80's Michael Jackson obsession.

Pizza Night

It's become a weekly tradition at our house and the kids have become involved in the prep. They love to get messy, choose their own toppings and help put it together. After some trial and error, the homemade crust tastes about as good as the delivered kind (and I've been sneaking in whole wheat!) The trick is dusting the pan with cornmeal before rolling out the dough.

The recipe I use can be found at my favorite site. Give it a try!