Happy 7th Birthday Ella!!

Happy birthday Ella!! We are SO blessed to have you in our lives!! You have the very special gift of lighting up a room when you walk in it. You have a twinkle in your eye and a great love of life! You make your mom and dad's heart's swell with so much love that we both just smile when thinking or talking about you. We LOVE you!! I love how much you are enjoying reading right now - we are very proud of you! It is also so much fun to see you play soccer, dance, sing, and play with family and friends. Have I said we love you yet??? ;) I hope you have a fabulous birthday and and fantastic year being 7! For Ella's birthday, we surprised her and brought her to get her ears pierced, as she has been asking for it. We thought it fine since her 5 yr. old sister already had them pierced. She was very surprised as we stopped for an errand and she continued to have her nose in her book walking around town. Eventually she figured it out and covered her face with excitement and embarrassment as she realized what we were doing.

So, here she is with her new earrings!!

Happy 5th Birthday Fia!!!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful princess!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives and thank God every day for your smile and your contagious laugh, for your love of life, and your willingness to help others. We pray that you know how much you are loved by all your family and friends and most importantly, by your heavenly Father. WE LOVE YOU!!!

October -The good, the bad, and the ugly!

We have had a crazy October so far, but the good news is, that it can only slow down, right?? Ha! I still have three birthday parties for my lovely daughters before the end of the month, so it looks like we will have to wait until November to slow down....so far this month we have had Ella and her allergic reaction, Justus got a concussion at church(seriously!), Ella got the flu, Daron left for MN. with Fia for a week at his family farm to harvest, Greta got the flu, I got a sinus infection, and now I got the flu last night! Phew!! Not looking for sympathy, just wanting to spew! So....it has been interesting around here and I am crossing my fingers that the the rest of the family stays healthy and doesn't get this fever flu that is going around. I mean really, we have parties to plan!

Anyway...here are some pics from the month so far. Fia had her first field trip from her preschool-which she LOVES!!(Thank you again to whomever is blessing her with this opportunity!!) We went to a local pumpkin patch where they have a miniature hay maze, a larger corn maze, an area to jump in the hay, and a pumpkin patch. Fia (and Kwame) had so much fun going there and eating lunch with her classmates. A picture perfect scenery too, as you can see.

We have also been all about SOCCER, SOCCER, SOCCER! The three oldest kids are all in soccer and 5/7 nights every week, we are running back and forth between practices and games. It is so fun to watch the kids change every year in their skill level; it is getting pretty exciting for the older kids. Fia and Kwame aren't playing this year, but they are having a lot of fun playing on the sidelines and getting ready for their turn.

New Family Photos

This is for the grandmas! Hope you enjoy-we just took these this weekend because we needed a family photo for our agency as a follow up. We also took a few festive shots for our photographer, Christina Koon, so that is why we are wearing scarves. It wasn't quite cold enough for those yet!

Check out this link for the pics: http://www.photobiz.com/slideshowbiz/slideshow.cfm?slideshowID=88174&photographerID=3678

No More Walnuts for Ella

Well, I guess our little Ella has a walnut allergy!! We don't know for sure yet, but after yesterday, we are not taking any chances with ANY nuts until her appt. with an allergist in two weeks. I am SOOOOOO thankful for how I was able to see God's hand in protecting our little one Tues. night; especially when I kept ignoring what Ella was telling me.

After Ella's soccer practice Tuesday night, we walked over to the high school to watch the girls varsity soccer game. Greta's team was actually getting the opportunity to escort the team onto the field and watch the game on the sidelines. So...after practice, I handed the three little ones some of the infamous mini chocolate chip cookies with walnuts from a local general store that makes them fresh every Tuesday. They are delish!! We all ate them and raced to the game.

Soon after we got there, Ella said that the cookie was sticking in her throat and she was coughing a little. I told her to get some water and then she went off playing more soccer. She came back a couple of times and said it was still bothering her and she was being what I thought was obnoxious by coughing and spitting and I told her to stop it!! (Oops!! )I thought she was overreacting and I actually had the discussion with my friend that she was tired and being a bit dramatic. (Oops again!! God forgive me!) Finally I looked at her closer and her lips were swollen like Mick Jaggers or like she just put on some 'plump me up' lip gloss. Then it hit me-she was having an allergic reaction! Ahhh!! How could I have been so dumb, self absorbed, unresponsive, etc. etc.....this is something that I know about! My dad is deathly allergic to tree nuts, which is basically everything except peanuts. We went as quickly to the car as we could and left Daron and the big kids there- I figured they could fend for themselves(nice, huh?, but Daron is a personable guy, and as luck had it, he got a ride from our friend, who is also the kids P.E. teacher). As we got to the car, I realized her ears were swelling up too and her eyes and face were getting red and blotchy.
***I realize this is long, I just want to get it all out-it helps me process and reminds me how God really had his hand in everything! As I heard from a quote today, "coincidences are miracles in which God prefers to remain anonymous"
We hightailed it home, got some benadryl and called our doctor who then told us to call 911. Really??? I asked. Yes. -Oh boy, that was hard for me to do since I had never done it before. Isn't that crazy that I second guessed it? I guess I had heard so many stories of people that call for the dumbest things and I didn't want to do that. Mistake #2-Don't worry about people pleasing when your daughter is having a hard time breathing!!!

The second the firefighters and EMT's arrived, I was put to rest as we knew two of the guys that were on the call. One was Ella's teacher's husband from last year that we know a bit from school and around town, and the other is a good friend that we go to church with and his daughter and Greta are close. The other guys were also fantastic, but it felt so nice knowing that our friends were taking care of Ella. After they checked her out, they decided that we should head down to the hospital, so Ella and I had our first trip in an ambulance, which thankfully was pretty uneventful. There, they gave Ella an IV for some steroids, as well as oxygen and wanted to watch her for a few hours to make sure that she didn't have another episode. Luckily, her skin got better and her face wasn't swollen anymore after this, but her tonsils remained HUGE. They then actually released Ella and sent us on our way to pick up our prescriptions, but while we were there, the doc called us and said he would feel much better having her monitored through the night in the hospital-so we went back. I was actually relieved b/c there she would have a heart monitor and would be watched in case it was hard to breath through the night (although it was actually morning since we got to bed at 2:30 am) with her mammoth tonsils.

Other small 'coincidences' were that when we were in her ER room, I looked out into the hall and our friend was the social worker on call (another friendly face). Then, when we went to check Ella into her hospital room, the nurse we were assigned was a mom I know from our Elementary school! Wow! Seeing these people really eased all of our minds and helped to keep us all calm. One last thing was that when we were driving down in the ambulance, I guess a couple of our friends saw me so they went over to our house to check on us. Daron was still there, passed the info. on and they spread the word to some of our friends to pray for Ella. It helped knowing that people were praying for Ella.

Ella ended up doing great through the night and we were released late morning. They put her on some steroids for a couple days and we are now proud owners of epipens. Ella's favorite part of the experience was that she got to pick out any food she wanted in the morning at the hospital. Oh, and she took home her hospital gown. I was going to order a cappuccino off the menu, but realized that they probably wouldn't believe it was for her, so we stuck to chocolate milk.

Two days later now, Ella is doing fine. She is bummed about not eating peanut butter for two weeks, as that is her favorite, but we are staying away from all nuts as a precaution until she sees the allergist. We are so BLESSED that she is doing great and that things turned out how they did. Sitting there watching her in the hospital bed was not fun, but it always puts things into perspective.

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.