Shine Like Stars

Shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the Word of life (Phil. 2:15)
We're not trying to be rock stars but just shed some light on a sad and lonely world. Stay tuned for how God works through weak and tired, sometimes really cranky vessels.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Three's Company




So I've moved Addie out of her "lofty" room into the boys room. We've been thinking about moving the boys to the bedroom on the first floor so that we won't have to walk through Addie's room all the time. A couple days ago I set up the pack-n-play in the boys room to test things out. She was so crazily excited about it. Her and Caleb played in it for a long time. Just laughing and laughing. Then when it was time for her to take a nap she just sat in there talking and laughing for over an hour.


That night was a little rough though she kept on waking up and I couldn't tell if she wanted to sleep in her crib or the pack-n-play or what, so I decided yesterday to just move the crib into the boys room.


She completely wigged out when she saw that I had taken the pack-n-play down. Then when I started to take her crib apart she was following me around whining...."Mommy, what the heck, where am I going to sleep?"


Our crib is all cracked out so it took forever to take apart. I actually didn't take it all apart because the screws are stripped so I had to wrestle a half-taken apart crib down a couple of stairs and then up a couple of stairs into the room. Addie seemed a little relieved when the crib was in the room.


So I got over the hurtle of getting the crib in the room but then I had to put the sides back on. This crib is a hand-me-down (that I totally appreciate) and it's seen better days. In order to get the sides on everything has to be lined up at once, by the time I'd get one side right the other would move and I was losing it! Lots of AHHHHs and grunts happening. Addie was walking around the crib with a wrench, helping. All the while Nathan was reading books and resting in his bed, he totally didn't even look at me. Seriously, it took me way too long to put it back together. I was sweating like I had just worked out for hours. Real sad.


So she's in the room now. She's loving it. The boys are loving it. Everyone's happy.

Hint-Hint



This morning the boys were quiet for way too long, when I checked on them this is what I found.


I'm wondering if they are hinting that I need to step up the cooking and the cleaning:)
Fat chance boys!
But really they read Rachael Ray and Real Simple for a very long time.

Haircut Update

To talk Nathan into letting us cut his hair I showed him this picture:







Then I pointed out what Michael's hair looks like in the back. He then let Michael cut off the tail, but only the tail. Now he looks like this:

After Michael cut it he said "Now do I wook wike Daddy?"

Notice the sucker in the picture:) "Wow Nay Nay you let us cut one little piece of hair, you get a sucker right before bed." Pretty smart:)

Even though he can be a little tough to deal with sometimes, he's so cute. His voice is really endearing. He makes me laugh....here's a little snipet of cute Nathan talk:

Monday, October 20, 2008

Mommy's Naptime Barber Shop




Nathan is ridiculously opposed to grooming. He hates getting his nails clipped and completely freaks out when I cut his hair. The last night I cut his hair I really thought I was going to get a call from CPS. I brought the clippers outside and tried to convince him it'd be fun to get a haircut while he sat on his bike while eating sucker (I'm telling you, I've tried every kind of bribery out there.) I ended up having to pin him between my legs and hold his head with one hand while, cutting his hair with the other. All the while he's screaming, crying, almost hyperventaliting. Caleb meanwhile is trying to convince him that it's not bad and that it doesn't hurt. When trying to talk to him didn't work Caleb started singing to him, to comfort him. He was unsuccessful, but he made me laugh which took the edge off my frustration with Nathan:)


So.....I'm trying a new thing....cut it while he's sleeping.


He woke up before I could do the back, hopefully he'll let me cut some tonight:)

Monday, October 13, 2008

K-wub

This morning before church Caleb was playing in the toyroom. From the other room I heard this when Nathan walked in:

C--Nathan, can you go away please, I want to play by myself.
N--No, K-wub, I want to play too.
C--But, Nathan, I just want to be by myself.
N--Guess what K-wub.....
C--What?
N--I wuv you, K-wub.
C--I love you too but can I play by myself.

Traumatizing Addie

Today I was being sassy and Michael picked me up and threw me on the couch. Addie was watching the whole thing and even though I was laughing, she stood there staring for a second then she completely broke down and cried and cried. She was really upset with Michael for a while.
Being the good parents that we are, we decided to do an experiment, how would she respond if Michael was the victim? So I pushed Michael to the couch, very similar situation as before (we're super scientific around here), she just watched, no emotional response. Then Michael pushed me..... she was so sad and burst into tears. It took her a while to calm down. For some reason it made me feel so loved:)
I think this picture is Addie's vision of Michael while he's bullying me:)


Friday, October 10, 2008

We inked ourselves


We have to send our prints in to get state clearance for the adoption. Michael thought we could do them ourselves. Hopefully it will work. (Michael says I sound sassy when I say that, I don't think I mean to, but maybe I do, who knows.)

Last week we got our adoption planner and we are officially in the Ethiopia program. We had a conference call with Christy yesterday and talked about the the paperwork we need to do. She's super nice and I'm excited about working with her. I warned her that I'll probably become her stalker over the next year. She wasn't too scared of me so that's good:)

So here's how it'll go--we'll work on our dossier which will take 2-3 months. Then we'll official be put on "the list" 6-8 months later we'll get our baby!!!
For now, we have so much paperwork to do with finishing up our homestudy stuff and starting our dossier, my head's spinning a bit. :)