Sept. in Review with LOTS 'O PICS

Warning: This post is just a hodge podge of pictures from September!

Kwame and his cute cousin Simon (what is the official term for cousin's kid?) got to meet up for a quick lunch playdate at UVillage.

1st day of school-'Donut Day' with Gramps! It is a special treat the kids get on days that Grandpa has his Men's group in town-they look forward to it every week.

Yes, that is Justus, and he is almost as tall as his teacher this year. CRAZY!!!

Yes, I got to be one of the coolest mom's to my girls (thanks to T&T) and take the girls to the Miley Cyrus concert with many some of their closest girlfriends and moms! They were SOOOO excited for their first concert and I was happy to be there with them. Lucky girls!

Do you think they could be more excited???

Almost there.... Ella was beside herself. She was wearing her Hanna Montana boots and carrying a newspaper purse that Justus made for her.

Fia and Kwame got to visit Grandma Gwen and she took us to dinner. They had so much fun and got to be the stars of the retirement home for the night.

We had a women's retreat at Cascades Camp and I got to spend some quality time with four lovely ladies from Alive. Here I am with my great friend, Tarra,who I am SO thankful for.

The two of us climbed the climbing wall at camp and got to go canoeing too. As a group we were able to listen to a fantastic speaker, have all meals made for us, worship with some rockin music, hike, sleep(sort of), get massages, drink coffee, eat some more, horseback ride, and lots more. It is wonderful.

Hilary, Laura, Tarra, and I: the brave souls who survived 4 women snoring in one cabin!!(none of us, of course)

One of the best parts of the weekend for me was the time that I got to myself one morning. No one was on the lake, it was quiet, and I just got to BE. God and I had a great chat! Ahhh...I just love being in God's creation-there's nothing like it. My life is what it is because of time that I have spent at three important camps during the summer's of my life. This experience was no exception.

This sign is one that we saw heading out with friends to the Olympic Peninsula. Isn't it just perfect for the NW?

Of course part of our tour or the peninsula was to show Jennifer and Lou a NW winery-that is a no brainer!!

Fia's first day of preschool!!!!

Preschool just wasn't going to be in the cards this fall because of a variety of financial reasons as we get back on track after the adoption. But...we got a call from a local preschool we had looked into and an anonymous group had decided to pay for Fia to go to their school this year-Wow!!! We were beyond amazed and humbled. Thank you so much to whoever you are-this little girl is SOOOO excited and we are so thankful for YOU and

to God for this experience!

Fia and Kwame got to have their little cousin over for lunch as Inger and I made plum jam the other day. 'E' is super cute and we are so excited to have her living by us for a few months right now. I also find it funny, as she is almost three years younger than Fia!! Can you tell???

This picture is from dinner tonight-aren't they cute sisters??

We also had a fun day today, but I forgot my camera. It was a teacher institute day(we have at least one a month-no wonder school goes so late, huh?) and we headed out to the Point Defiance Zoo with some of our good friends. The kids LOVED seeing all the animals and sea creatures, as it also has an aquarium there. I was enthralled with all the different types of sea horses! I don't think I had ever really noticed them before-wow!Thanks again 'F' family for everything!

If you are still reading...goodnight! Sorry SO long!

Another Giggle from the Kwamster

You know what 'Mr. Invisible ' a.k.a. Kwame did last night? You remember the story of Little Riding Hood when the wolf dresses up as the grandma? Well....(still laughing over here) last night the kids and Daron said they were ready for me to come and say prayers with them and I should come into the girls room first. I tucked Fia in and laid down on the girls bed. All of a sudden, they started giggling and I said, "Fia, you sound just like Kwame!" They burst out laughing and there was Kwame dressed in Fia's purple nightcap and her pastel, polka dot pj's all tucked into bed-by ME!!! It was so funny and the kids loved that they tricked me. I said I needed to go and get the camera for the blog (ha!) but Daron nixed that and said we should really do prayers (I think he just didn't want Kwame to be embarrassed down the road, he is nicer than me! The Kwamster really would make a pretty little girl, or as he likes to say about Fia these days, "she is pretty as a princess!"

Mr. Invisible?

This is the new 'thing' that Mr. Kwame has been doing at bedtime. I think he believes that if he covers his eyes, I won't see him get up. After we say prayers, I tell the kids to close their eyes and go to bed and not get up unless it is an emergency. :) Of course, I am all about going to the bathroom if needed, but most of the time it is just a reason to get out of bed and see what mom and dad are doing/watching in the family room. So....below is a video that I got of Kwame after he went into the bathroom. I wish I would have caught him before he went in too, it was hilarious!

Back to School 2009

Well, the kids are back in school and the first couple of days went great! The kids (and their parents) love the teachers that they have and we are excited for the new academic year. All the kids actually have some of their best friends in their class too, so we will see how that goes. Hopefully they don't get in too much trouble for talking...they get that from their dad! ;)

I love fall and all that it brings. Back to school, pies, sweaters, soccer, etc. It will also be great to get back to my church Bible study, as we always break for the summer. Church is also a little scarce in the summer too, so it will be great to see familiar faces from Alive that were away this summer on vacation or camping on the weekends. We are so blessed with the friends that we have that are a part of our church family. I am humbled many times by how people here really 'get their hands dirty' to serve and love as Jesus calls us to do. I know I have been on the receiving end many of times, but there is something so refreshing about giving. Please keep us in your prayers as we have our fall kick off this Sunday and we get back into the swing of things. We meet at the Sons of Norway at 4:56 PM if anyone wants to check us out at Alive Covenant Church.

Ahem...perfect angels by night

So, the kids had a babysitter tonight (thanks Rockstar!!) so that my mom and I could go and see Julie & Julia (or was it vice versa??), since Daron and Justus were already at the first Huskies game of the season -Go DAWGS!

Ever since my kids were little, they have been trying to pull the wool over the poor, innocent babysitters. Justus(age 3 at the time) once told his babysitter that he couldn't go to sleep without his bear-HE HAD NO BEAR! So, the poor babysitter searched the house with this seemingly pudgy and innocent little boy to try and find his bear. No luck. Another time Justus and Greta (age 4 &3) kept asking the babysitter to read them more and more stories about Jesus before they could go to bed. Of course, our babysitter(who we went to church with) couldn't say no to the pastor's kids when they asked for more Jesus stories and they got to stay up much later! Ha! Every time I come home, I wonder what the story will be....

Tonight I came home to the picture below: SO SWEET!! I guess the babysitter was told that he ALWAYS (never happened before to my knowledge) sleeps with his big sister when big brother is away and he is scared in his room by himself. Hmmm....not sure about the truth to that, but they sure looked sweet.

On a side note: I loved the movie and laughed at the whole blogging connection. I was a bit convicted by the narcissistic slant 'Julie' was given being a blogger and the reality that I too am pretty self centered thinking people actually want to read or see what I have blogged about. But...ha! Who cares??- I am documenting our life (mostly for my purpose) and it has become a moment of my time that I love to sit and reflect on our happenings in life. It was an especially great avenue to have throughout the adoption process, but now that we are living in 'the new normal', family and friends (cyber or the ones I can pinch) can choose to read it if they want.

Fountain Park

We still have a few days until school starts, so we headed down to enjoy the local fountain park with a cousin, a grandma, and a good friend!

super fun and super wet!

Golf and Not so High Tea

Greta and her good friend, T, just got to go to 'Golf Camp.' For those of you that don't know, my dad has always LOVED golf. I think, as a kid, I actually thought that he was a professional golfer because that is where many of his 'meetings' were. Now, flash forward twenty years and they live on a golf course near us, a fantastic one, so he can play whenever he wants(which surprisingly, isn't as much as I thought).

So this year we signed Justus and Greta up for some 3 day golf lessons (different weeks) and my parents said that they could bring a friend and stay at their house for Golf Camp (aka-special time with Grandma and Grandpa after lessons). Greta had never golfed, except for mini putt putt, so this was a big deal. She loved it and because we didn't have any lefty clubs, she was forced to golf as a righty and she did pretty good. She was excited because she won some of their contests and it was just what she needed to build her confidence. Her friend, T, also did great and as the golf pro said, she is a natural, so it will be fun to see these girls continue on.

I love this pic. because it is a CLASSIC of my dad! My sibs will agree!

Too bad the mountains weren't 'out', they are a beautiful backdrop!

A favorite pastime that the kids actually do with all of their grandma's is 'tea.' This time, they got to have tea at my mom's house and Justus was the server. They had a fun time and it is always cute to see Fia and Kwame's excitement with new experiences.

Blogging Moms Unite!

Tonight our family got to meet another of our cyber Ghana friends(ie: friend who I met through blogging that has also adopted from Ghana). The D family was traveling through, so we were fortunate to get to meet them for a couple of hours and share dessert together at our place. They arrived in one of those big vans with 6 of their kids. Funny thing was though, they didn't even have half of their kids with them!! (they have 13) I was just SO impressed by this family with how much they trust God and fully give their lives to Him! Lindsey, one of their oldest(20) was just so focused on serving God and living her life in service. To be honest, I was fascinated how parenting would be for a family of 13 kids since I have never had a family even close to that size at our home, but I was thoroughly impressed. This family was awesome!!! We loved having them in our home and kind of hoped that they would miss their ferry (for our sake). Fortunately for them, I think they made it and they are safely on their way home. Thanks for stopping, Laurel, we had such a GOOD time!!!

Going to Prom in my 30's!

This weekend I went stag to Prom!!! It was actually an 80's themed 40th birthday Prom Party. For the 'pre-party', I went over to Seattle and got ready with my brother and sister-in-law ! We had so much fun goofing off and remembering all that the 80's look entailed. You would not believe how heavy my bag was with all my cosmetics, hairspray, curling iron and hairdryer; I just don't use all that now. I quickly remembered my 'techniques' at getting the high bangs and fly-away sides; it was hilarious! I lent out one of my late 80's/early 90's dresses to Ingrid (see above) and it was so fun to see someone wearing it again! This hot pink number has been to quite a few dances at Libertyville High School, as my friends and I always swapped dresses since we had 3 formal dances a year! I was fortunate enough to be outfitted by my friend, Jenny(dress & accessories), who if you haven't read her blog, you have got to-she is hilarious! She is queen of dress-up and twirling on the dance floor, so I knew just who to ask when I needed help! I also got help from my friend, Megan, for accessories; I never could have done it without you ladies-thanks SO much!!!
My brother decided to go as, guess who? Yes, Magnum P.I.! We have similar coloring, so it was funny watching him put eye liner on his eyebrows, add a mustache, a wig, and slap on some furry chest hair. His short shorts were making me giggle every time I looked at him. What was even funnier was watching the babysitters and three of our kids faces as we appeared. Fia thought I looked really pretty and she wants to get a dress like mine sometime! ;) Lola also loved what her mom was wearing and thought she was amazing. My niece, Kaia(6), on the other hand, thought we looked ridiculous! It was funny.

Before we could go to the prom, we needed to stop at Metropolitan Market and get Ingrid's corsage. What made it even funnier that she had to go in dressed like Cindy Lauper, was that Brad works for the company and many employees came out of the woodwork to see them all dressed up! Brad was pretty unrecognizable.

Once we got to the prom, we had so much seeing old friends that I have grown up with but don't see too often. Everyone had so much fun with the theme! My friend, Sonja, actually wore this Laura Ashley number to her prom and she brought a picture to share; it was fantastic!

Ing and I both were 'stag' until her husband showed up and ruined it all! Just kidding, it was so great to see these two again since they have moved away; they were a highlight of the evening for me. Don't you just love Ingrid's glasses?

Carol and her husband, Ted, our good friends from church, were also at the prom. We had fun dancing to the 80's together and I heard them having fun telling people that I was their pastor's wife! :)

Brad, Kirk, and Blake look all dapper, don't they? ;)

Here are the official vote counters for Prom King and Queen......they took it very seriously
.....and the winners were....Kendall and 'Birthday Girl' Steph!!! Aren't they a cute couple?

Happy 40th Steph!!!What a fun way to celebrate!

Adoption Advocates International Reunion

We just got to have a fantastic experience by being able to reunite Fia and Kwame with some of their good friends from Ghana! Our agency, AAI, holds a bi-annual reunion for all the families that have adopted from their agency. Most of the families were from Ethiopia, but our new Ghana program had 7 families in different parts of the adoption process come to the reunion! Most of the children had spent time together at Eban House, so it was so exciting to have the kids see each other again and reunite! Their eyes literally lit up when they understood that these were their friends that they had gotten to know as family for a part of their life. I am not sure how much Kwame actually remembered, but he went along with Fia and acted excited! ;) It was also real fun for our older three kids too since they got to see friends again that they had also met when we traveled to Ghana last winter.

What I thought was cool is that we actually had two families come from CA! It was really neat to meet one of the families since their son was actually one of the first kids to be adopted in this program and I had followed their story from beginning to end. Another family came from Oregon and they are still waiting for the dreaded passport to bring their son home (remember our saga?-Please PRAY for them to get their son's passport soon!) I thought that they were such good sports to come without kids and meet all of us with our Ghanaian kiddos. I think it would have been hard for me to do that, so extra kuddos to them!

What I loved was to chill with the families as much as we could, get to know the parents more, watch the kids play with each other, and also do some Ghanaian drumming. Next time we do this, more families will be settled and hopefully we can get an even larger group of us together again. As I look back and reflect on the weekend, we are really fortunate to have these opportunities for our kids to stay connected to their Ghanaian heritage and their 'familiy'. It was absolutely priceless!!

On the Jag side of things, our family had a good time camping for the first time with 7 in a tent! The car trip up was a bit overcrowded with all our our bedding and such; I think we need to get one of those roof storage containers! But overall, we just fit and we were comfortable in the tent.... until Fia got sick from dehydration in the middle of the night, the last night, on THREE sleeping bags! Nothing better than sleeping in a tent that smells of throw up! Ugh! Not the best way to end a camping trip, but just another memory I guess! As the kids said, at least a bear didn't break into our car again! :)