Christmas @ the Farm-2009

The slideshow above is from our time at the farm. We had an absolutely fantastic time there! We got to see so many relatives and introduce Fia and Kwame to many of them. It was our first time traveling on a plane as a family of seven and I can honestly say, that besides fitting our bags in one car, it was a piece of cake! We have excellent travelers. Unfortunately, the parents behind us didn't have as good of luck during the bumpy flight with their little one-yuck!

We traveled on Christmas Day and I really wish I would have my camera or video camera ready for when we were about a mile from the farm. We hadn't seen any cars in over 90 miles because there was so much snow and all of a sudden, there are two deer that are coming on the road straight at our lights. We slow down and they realize they need to turn around, so they do, but they don't leave the road. They just run directly in front of us at high speed. Eventually we slow down because we didn't want to scare them, but they too, just slow down and stay on the road. At this point we told the kids that they must be Rudolph and Vixen leading us into the farm; after all, it was Christmas! We decided we needed video,so we stopped the car for me to look for the camera, and then they stopped and actually came up to the car-it was surreal! We eventually spooked them and they jumped into the drifts(up to their heads). Just at that moment, we got to Daron's lane to his farm and Daron's dad came down the hill in his John Deere tractor with plow!Grandpa was our hero-they kids were totally cheering(and screaming!). We never would have gotten up without him and the plow lane was EXACTLY the width of our tires! (read-good driving Daron). What a fun adventure on Christmas night as we arrived-we will never forget it!

The rest of our time was fun(and cold)as you can see from the pictures...some of you may have already heard me whine about no espresso stands within 60 miles from the farm, and that was terribly challenging for me(hee hee-maybe just a little exaggeration), but I have a great mother-in-law that bought some strong coffee and a brother-in-law that brought me some Starbucks Frappucino's-thanks guys!! Wow, am I high maintenance??!! Good thing for me they think I have cute kids that are worth it and balance me out!

2009 Christmas in WA

Happy 4th Birthday Kwame!!

Happy birthday to our sweetest little boy!! I am so thankful that we get to spend his birthday with him for the first time this year. We missed him SO much last year and this time last year, my heart was aching for him. Now, we get to celebrate with this little guy, who has stolen our hearts-we love you Kwame!

(Kwame asked for peanut butter and banana with some sugar cereal for his special breakfast in bed!)

Kwame has such an excitement for life; he lights up a room whenever he walks in. He is easy going, super loving towards his siblings, and just loves people! He is a daddy's boy and a mommy's boy all at once-we are blessed! On this Christmas Eve morning, we have so much to be thankful for. We LOVE you Kwame!!!

Kwame got a cool John Deere bike this year! We are thinking his Grandparents at the farm are going to love it too! They are mostly a 'green' farm. We actually got it for him at an auction earlier this fall for Water 1st and it has been so hard to hide it from him!

"Ho, ho, ho..Green Giant!"

Remember that jingle at the end of the Jolly Green Giant commercial? Did you know that there is actually a replica of him in MN in a little town near Daron's family farm? I think it is Blue Earth. I'm guessing that's where the company began. We used to stop by there when we would drive from Chicago to MN all the time(there was a Dairy Queen there). Anyway..I told the kids that they are growing like the Green Giant......

It was six months ago exactly that we last measured Fia and Kwame, so I decided, what the heck, I already have 100 things on my list to do today, why not add one more....(two, now that I am blogging) THEY HAVE GROWN TWO INCHES SINCE JUNE! I have been hang drying their pants lately since I thought they were shrinking, but in reality, these kids have been growing like weeds. Kwame(4 tomorrow) is also 3 lbs. heavier than Fia(5). He is pretty proud of that and keeps saying that Fia is little-er. Fia was very relieved that she was still an inch taller than Kwame. The other kids are also growing, but in comparison, they grew two inches in a year. Justus is almost 5 ft. and Ella is a inch taller than Justus was at this age...anyone following? Random post I know, all this to say we have been focusing on growth this morning.

**Also, as an addendum to the last post, my dad was over this morning for donut day and I asked Kwame to tell him what tomorrow is (thinking he'd say his birthday/Christmas Eve). Kwame looked at him and smiled-"ipod!"**

The simple things (or not!)

This is Kwame and Fia's first Christmas with us. It is also Kwame's first birthday with us this December 24th. Kwame is three and going to be four next week. People have been asking what we are planning for him and honestly, I thought we would celebrate with family over the holidays this year, but as he gets older, we will make sure to plan a party before Christmas so he doesn't feel jipped.

This year for his bday present, we actually bought him his first bike. It's a super cool John Deere one. To everyone else that has asked what he would like(inquiring Grandma's and relatives) I have been saying not to worry, nothing big, and that he won't even notice. I said he doesn't need anything, but it will be fun for him to open a couple presents so....maybe just something little like a matchbox car, playmobil, or a small nerf gun so he doesn't keep taking his big brothers. WELL, I WAS WRONG!!! Guess what this 3, almost 4 yr. old keeps telling people he wants this week??? (mind you, he is the youngest of 5) Well, Kwame keeps saying he wants an ipod. Yep, my little guy wants an ipod! I almost spit out my coffee when he said it. We keep trying to lower the expectations for him, telling him that he is too young or too little for one, but he keeps showing us with his hands just how tall he is and that he is getting bigger! Haha! It is cute and funny this week, but if you remember me telling you how he holds grudges, I am worried for next week...(there may be a certain sibling that is getting the ipod nano..we'll see....either that or coal!). This might be interesting....

Yum...Groundnut stew!

Today I took Fia and Kwame into the city for my haircut. Yes, there is something wrong with that sentence, but I just wasn't thinking! Anyway...afterwards I took them to a restaurant near Pike Place Market called Pan Africa. It serves mostly Ethiopian dishes I think, but they have a few that are labeled West African. I was so excited that they served some Ghanaian dishes and thought the kids would be excited. Fia kept saying she didn't want Ghana food, but when she ate it, she loved it(except for the onions). We had chicken groundnut stew. This is a common dish in Ghana prepared also with goat. It is a peanut based stew with chicken, onions, yams, carrots, and spices. It was served with rice and delish! I am excited to go back for a couple of their other dishes. Good size portions and good prices. For those of you that live near Seattle or are visiting soon, it also looks like there is another restaurant that just opened near the Key Arena. It is called KwaTays's and I think this could be a great meeting place for all of us adoptive parents in the Pacific Northwest one day! Anyone want to take a field trip?? Let me know if you ever come this way and want to meet up. Or...if you have never had Ghanaian food and are interested in trying it, I always love an excuse to get into the city.

St. Lucia Day!! (and a preschool Christmas song)

Today is probably the day of the year that Greta looks forward to most in our home. Swedish tradition has it that the oldest daughter in the home wakes up before anyone else and serves pastries(we do pepparkakor cookies) and coffee to those that are sleeping. It is a tradition that Sweden has celebrated for many years, but they have actually adopted it from the Italians.

In order to help our 9 yr. old out(in case you're wondering), the coffee is set up to brew for her in the morning and after she gets dressed in her Lucia gown and crown of (battery operated) candles, she wakes her siblings up to join the Lucia train, and eventually ends in Mom and Dad's room. I think it is one of the BEST traditions ever!!

This year we decided to surprise a few friends and family before the sun was fully up and deliever cookies to them to. Our rule of thumb was that if the lights weren't on, we wouldn't wake them(I didn't want any friends mad). So, a few of you got passed by and I think we only broke the rule at one house because Ella said, "I know she is awake, she wakes up at like 6am everyday!" Don't worry, we didn't get to most homes til close to 8!

Later in the morning we headed out to the church where Fia goes to preschool for their Christmas program. The preschool sang a song for us and Kwame got to join in too! They both thought it was so much fun to stand on the stage and sing out for all the parents -what joy kids have! I love it!

P.S. Happy Birthday Aunt Ingrid!

Blogstars and Nose Jobs

I am sitting here trying to catch up with blog posts and life, and as I am reflecting, it is exhausting remembering the ups and downs. Hours were definitely not wasted these last couple weeks.

Ella had her tonsils out and she was a rockstar in the recovery and the whole process. She got pretty used to eating only ice cream and it was hard to know when she was 'healed' since Ice Cream was all that she wanted to eat for days to come for some strange reason???? I was then supposed to have surgery exactly a week later for my nose job (deviated septum and some polyp that needed to be taken off) but with my grandma passing away, I couldn't imagine going to her visitation with a mustache bandage under my nose. I know, really, why do I worry about what others think?? Really, I thought it would not be conducive to crying.

You may have seen the post on the memorial and the court date, but what you may or may not have noticed was that we had Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mark in town for a few days. Daron and I love having them in town, and of course the kids do too. We always love sitting around chatting, playing board games, etc. at night, doing crafts with Kathy, and getting bedtime stories told by Mark. I felt bad that our time was so limited when they were here, but they got to see how a family of seven is never dull. We were thankful to hear that they still want kids, their number just may have dwindled a bit! Oops.

This weekend, Justus's soccer team went to the finals for the state soccer champs in the President's Cup tournament. They did such a great job and we got to see Justus score more goals! Their team ended up being the final four of eight teams, but ended up losing their last game. This tournament started at 9am in Burlington, so we had to leave the house at 6:15 in order to make it in time-that was not fun! These games were all freezing!!! We are having some arctic cold, but sunny weather here in Seattle-pretty crazy! Starbucks and Crossroads Covenant Church coffee shop we found there were our friends!!

Hey? Did I tell you I am a blogstar?? I guess that is what it would be called....I always wanted to be a star! Well, the real skinny is that a fellow Ghanaian adoptive mom, Andrea K., that I have never met in person, but are facebook friends and she has read my blog, wrote me a note later in the day and said she thought they saw me at a Burlington Starbucks. Her husband thought I looked too young (aw shucks!!) but the truth is that I never got to my makeup yet that AM. What was funnier is that I butted into their conversation with the barista and we still didn't know it was the other. After realizing we were both there after the fact, we did set up a meeting for the next day so we could make it official and all. The family is about to go to Ghana to bring home their daughter in the next couple weeks. Please keep them in your prayers.

After the last game, we jumped in the car to catch the ferry for our first Sunday of the month at Alive. Luckily we made it right before the service started. I know I have said this before, but I am so thankful for our church! They are real people there that I can really share the ups and downs of life with, that I can learn with, and that I can grow with. I am so blessed to be a part of this group! They are truly my family. I can't believe where we were as a church four years ago, and where we are now!

Monday morning, I had my surgery appt. at 6:45! All went well and I am now on the mend. Lots of bloody bandages and it isn't fun to stand up for long. Before surgery, the anesthesiologist came into our room and thought we looked familiar. He said we looked like the winners of Amazing Race. Ha! I don't know who he was talking about or what they look like since we don't watch it, but we played with him for a second and had him second guessing. Maybe he was just confused with me being a blogstar and not a reality star. I don't know? What do you think? ;)

Thanksgiving Weekened Re-cap

As I mentioned before, my grandma passed away right before Thanksgiving. What was wonderful about that, was that we were able to be with much of our family to celebrate her life and grieve together. We had a great time together playing games, making yummy foods (well, most were yummy-ha!) We had 21 for Thanksgiving and 18 of us stayed over night for 3 nights together. Yes, we do live in the next town over, but I just love sleepovers and all the late night chats and early morning coffees it brings. The kids always like it too, because then they get spend as much time as they can with their cousins and grandparents.

Here are three of the youngest four in our extended family. They LOVE spending time together.

Baby E and Fia got to wear matching clothes.

We have played football at Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. It started with our family, then when we moved away from family, we started doing the traditions with our in Bedford and now at Alive. So....this year was our 5th Annual Alive Turkey Bowl and we had a great mix of family, church, and friends. Even another local church added a few of their own. We were split into 6 teams and moved around playing three games. Of course, we had hot cocoa for afterwards!

It is hard to tell in this picture, but Fia lost her first tooth this weekend!!! She was so excited. It has been protruding and a little loose since we visited her in Ghana. I am surprised it stayed in this long. The tooth fairy came and she thought that was the coolest.

A special tradition for the grandkids is that Grandma takes them to the Farm Kitchen to decorate their own family gingerbread house. This year was special because we had all the grandkids here before Inger's family moves. The kids had a blast -thanks MOM!!


I think I can be honest when I say that Kwame had a good time!

Another tradition of our families is to go and cut down our Christmas tree the Sat. after thanksgiving. We haven't done it for a couple years now though because last year we were in Ghana and were gifted with a tree when we came home from some awesome friends! The year before that, we cut down a tree that was in our front yard. That one was perfect! This year, we went to the local tree farm and searched rather quickly (it was cold) for this years.

We found the perfect tree and had a great morning with the family picking it out. The kids also loved the free cookies, cocoa, and apple cider.

Happy Thanksgiving....now on to Christmas ( we are currently watching Charlie Brown Christmas).

Re-Adoption Day!

Today was the day that we went to court for Fia and Kwame's re-adoption. Yes, they were adopted in Ghana, and the U.S. recognized that, but to get a social security number and birth certificate in the U.S., you need to be re-adopted. So.....today was that day! And after yesterday, when we buried my grandma, I think we have had a roller coaster of emotions to last us for awhile!

Time to go to bed because Justus has a soccer tournament in Burlington tomorrow, but I wanted to introduce you officially to the newest, most official family of 7 this side of town. We are so blessed to have our family, as crazy as they make me! Today as we went to court Fia kept telling me, " Mommy, I love you. Mommy, you know I love you...." She was the sweetest and it has just been in the last couple of months where she has said it on her own and you can tell that she means it with her whole heart.

The court hearing went fantastic and the Judge we had was really neat in that he,himself, was adopted at a young age, so he seemed touched as well. He asked us a few questions, took our picture with him, and he gave the kids a stuffed animal. F & K thought he was the best! After the hearing was done, we hightailed it out to grab some homemade ice cream.

Today was also special because we had my parents along and Mark and Kathy. Thanks for coming!!