Tappy New Year!

The tres amigos celebrated New Year's Eve with their good buddies Mr. Dave, Miss Izzy, Adam and Owie-Boots. So much fun! We drank "bubble juice" (sparkling cider), opened crackers, played with rocket balloons, played a Seinfeld game, the wii and played superheros in pjs to our hearts' content. Eli also shouted "Tappy New Year" many times throughout the evening. I'm not sure what a "tappy" new year is but we sure wish you one!

Dora, Diego and Whose Line Is Is Anyway?

This morning Eli and Noah were watching Dora and Diego while I was getting ready. Now if you know anything about Dora and Diego, you know that they are big fans of having kids yell out stuff during the show. I heard Dora say, "Say your line..." meaning the kids were supposed to say "Give it back" to these pigs that stole their treasure. However, Eli and Noah simultaneously said, "Peace" and "They opened their treasures and presented him with gifts." (These were their "lines" in the Christmas musical.) Then Dora said (as she always does), "Louder!" (As an aside, does anyone's child really need to be told "louder"? For our amigos, volume is never a problem.) And Eli and Noah yelled, "PEACE" and "THEY OPENED THEIR TREASURES AND PRESENTED HIM WITH GIFTS!" I giggled as the pigs gave back the treasure and the boys nodded triumphantly at the TV.

Amazing Grace...

http://www.box.net/shared/lvrrekl98g

Here's Eli's version of Amazing Grace from the kids' new karaoke game from Linds and Jer. Enjoy!

Christmas Day...

We had so much fun on Christmas day hanging out with Steve's side of the fam! After waking up and praying and singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus (Noah and Grace's idea), the kids opened their gifts with Gigi, Papo, Nancy, Auntie Mimers, Grammy and Papa Joe watching. They especially loved their gifts from each other. They really know each other well, I don't know that I would have chosen the gifts they did for each other but now I think I'll have them choose gifts for everyone. If you get a Mr. Potato Head R2D2 for your next birthday, try it...you just might love it!
Then we headed up to Cheyenne for more fun! We played Wii, the kids opened super exciting presents and we ate great food! Grace's presents from all the Cheyenne and Boise-based clan was a muppet that she gets to design herself. How cool is that? She gets to choose its eyes, its nose, its hair and its clothes. And then it gets made by the same people who make regular muppets. She had so much fun with Sicken and Bla-Bla designing various muppets and having people vote on which muppet should be produced. The boys loved, loved, loved their new toys and there was some cut-throat Wii competition going on with the grown-ups. (Pretty sure the Wii was for the kids but you wouldn't know it if you looked at hours spent playing the thing per person!) Our kids always have such a good time in Cheyenne. They cheer as soon as they see the Wyoming sign when we cross the state line. It's so fun to watch them play with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and big cousins. Don and Noah had quite a hilarious foam airplane war in the backyard. Eli and Dave colored together for a very long time. Grace and Sicken and Bla-Bla designed the muppet and wrote a riveting princess story. We're so blessed to have family that loves our kiddos so much!
I've also included photos of our Christmas with Grammy and Papa Joe. It was such a good time. After they opened their gifts they got to play with them/put them together with Grammy and Papa Joe. Eli wanted to put together his scuba diver and shark legos with "just Grammy." And Grace and Papa Joe researched the breed of horse that she got for her American Girl doll and set up a very tricky jumping course. And Noah loves his new lego dune-buggy that Papa Joe and Daddy helped him build. It's super fun to have so many cousins their age on that side of the family and they love to get together with everyone but it was also nice to have some time with just Grammy and Papa Joe.
So there you have it...awesome Christmas! Doubly blessed!

Christmas Eve...

You know, we should know by now that when God shows up, he shows up BIG! You'd think I'd remember that. But I forget and every year I freak out about the Christmas musical and every year people talk about their hearts being touched by the kids and all they have to share through the service. And again this year...I freaked out. I thought that this musical, this year, BY FAR, was the most difficult we've ever put together. And it probably was. And because it was so difficult, I missed out on how touching it was. And you know what? People were touched. They were touched by our little dancers who danced with their whole hearts for Jesus. They were touched when Matthew sang his solo with a voice as pure as an angel's and with humility that humbled us all. They were touched when the kids offered their "gifts" to the baby Jesus...their wobbly cartwheels, their crayon pictures, their newly acquired flute-playing skills, and, in the case of our Eli, their kisses. And we all realized that Jesus is happy with what we give him. When we play our very best lullaby on our little violins to him and our notes are mostly in tune or when we play a concerto so beautifully that it makes grown men weep...Jesus is happy with that. We just need to humbly and happily bring what we have to offer and God does BIG THINGS with those little gifts!

The Law of Stinky Crazy Hair Day

Heretofore, the day after school gets out shall be called "Stinky Crazy Hair Day" and none of the fair amigos shall shower and all amigos shall have crazy hair. Also, all amigos shall reside in a tent built by the amigos in the land of Mommy and Daddy and shall (attempt to) nap in said tent according to the law set by the princes and princesses of the land of kids.

Oh, the DRAMA!

This week has been drama week for the Pouliots. It started with Grace's first grade Holidays Around the World program on Tuesday and culminated with Eli and Noah's preschool programs today. So first...Grace.
As you know, Grace is a big fan of a spotlight. Girlfriend is not shy. So she was just THRILLED to learn that she would be singing a duet in the first grade program at school. Grace and another little girl named Ella were to dress as reindeer and sing the beginning of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer all by themselves before the other kids joined them on the chorus. She practiced Rudolph and all of the other songs from the program over and over at home, in the car, in the shower, everywhere. Finally, it was the day...Tuesday, December 16th. Grace had been counting down. The first graders got to do the program twice, once for the school and once for the families in the evening. Luckily, I got to go to both. I say luckily because when you put 100 first graders and all of the people that love them in a gym in folding chairs and your precious child is short (read on the first row of the risers) it is IMPOSSIBLE to see her. But during the school performance I had a great view (easier to see over small people sitting on the floor)! Grace and Ella came out on the stage first. They stood before two little microphones and the taped music began. The girls came in singing and they were not shy...they were nice and loud! After their duet, all of the other kids came in and lined up on the risers and the girls just kept singing their little hearts out and shaking their jingle bells. I'm not sure that I could have done that at 6 years old in front of the whole school and then hundreds of grown-ups but those two did it! Whoo hoo, Gracie! The whole program was just awesome. The teachers figured out a way to give each of the 100 kids a part that they were super excited about. I don't know how they did it but it was awesome!
Then, today, Noah and Eli had their holiday programs. Unfortunately for us, they were both at the same time. Steve was out of town (poor guy!) so the grandparents all stepped in and we had at least one grown up in each classroom to celebrate Joshy (Matt and Brooke's second), Noah and Eli. Noah has been pretty excited about today because today he got to be the gingerbread man just like Grace was when she was his age. They did the whole gingerbread man story and Noah got to say all of the lines. The best part, though, was watching that little gingerbread man run in place. He was RUNNING! When it was time for his lines, he was winded from all of that fast gingerbread man running! I'll try to post a video of both Grace and Noah's performances if I can figure out the technology. Then I got to watch sweet Eli sing "You Are my Sunshine" and "Jingle Bells". He was really into it, did all of the motions and sang his heart out. He's also been practicing all week..."Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, All the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Such a fun week!

Company Christmas and Salvation Army

Today we went to Steve's company's kids' Christmas party. (Wow! That's a lot of possessives!) The party is one of the reasons we love Steve's company so much. They really value families, which we appreciate, and they celebrate kids, which we love. So every year they have a party for the kids in the company. Each kid receives a present and gets to participate in games and such. As we all know, Santa is a hit or miss for kids. Some kids are big fans of running up and sitting on Santa's lap and telling him all about themselves. Some think it's a little insane to run up to some man that you don't know and sit on their laps...they think, seriously, people, is this really safe? Our kids have definitely been in both camps at various times in their lives. We have photos of the kids with Santa from every year of their lives so far on the tree. Each year someone is screaming in the photo (or at least looking pretty freaked out). However, this year all three kids RAN up to Santa when it was their turn and jumped on his lap. They loved their presents, they loved the other kids, they loved decorating cookies (see photo of Noah's cookie...mmmmmm, frosting!) and writing on the glass wall at Daddy's work, they loved the whole shebang. Yay!
After the party, we took off to go ring bells for Salvation Army with Grammy. It was so awesome to see the kids ringing their little bells and thanking people for donating money and wishing them a Merry Christmas. There was a man playing his guitar and harmonica so they danced around and sang and were so joyful. Wouldn't it be awesome if we all served with joy? Anyway, if they were all joyful, Eli was exuberant! He rang his little bell with a great deal of energy, he yelled "Merry Christmas and thank you!" to everyone who gave, he galloped around the bucket and danced with joy. What a pleasure to see this boy who once was supported by a family through Love Without Boundaries to be able to live in a home with a foster family and receive the medical care he needed...to see this boy ringing his heart out to make sure other people could have those things, too. Yay, Jesus! Right before we had to leave to take the boys home for their nap, a teenage girl and her mom (who I'd noticed watching the kids ring for awhile before they went into King's Soopers) came out with a box full of candy canes for our kiddos to encourage them to keep ringing. People are so cool. Seriously. So cool.

Handsome!

Our Noah has always been a fan of being "handsome". He really digs having people tell him how handsome he looks and being thought of as a handsome guy. But he's also a VERY "BOY" boy (if that means anything). He loves superheroes and baseball and getting dirty and injuring himself in any manner of ways and anything you can think of that would be a "typical" boy thing. So most of the time "handsome" means a shirt that is not ripped or dirty and some pants instead of shorts. But every once in a while, Noah goes through a hyped-up handsome phase. In these times, handsome means a tie (with any shirt, it is a tie that makes one handsome, you know!) and corduroy pants. I don't know why cords are handsome except, perhaps, that he doesn't really like to wear them with his usual Superman shirts. Maybe handsome pants are those which one does not like to wear. (That definition actually works for me with my "dressy" clothes, too, now that I think of it!)
Mr. Noah is one of his hyped-up handsome phases right now. This morning he came into our room all dressed and ready to go in his Christmas outfit from last year. The blue cords are a bit too short and tight but otherwise a very well put together ensemble...red vest over plaid shirt, red zip tie, belt and blue cords and, of course, snow boots. And he was ready for preschool (and very appropriately dressed for it, I might add)! He even brushed his hair and said, "Mommy, do I look just like Steve Carell?" (I should explain that I am a BIG fan of Steve Carell...possibly too much of a fan considering Noah's question...in all fairness to me, though, one of Noah's favorite scenes in any movie is the scene where Steve Carell gets ready for work--including some serious nose-hair extraction--in Evan Almighty.) "You look just like him!" I replied giving him a big hug and he grinned and happily went down the hall to put his brother into a head-lock. Sigh.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Guess what? It snowed. And it was a good one! We love the snow! We love to play in it, throw it at unsuspecting loved ones, and our favorite thing to do, at least the three amigos favorite thing to do, is eat it. We all have differences of opinion about the cold, though. Me? I get cold really easily...I like to sit six inches from the fire and bake my skin. Noah joins me. Don't worry, we flip sides so we don't cook too much on one side. Gracie D. is somewhere in between. She is not crazy about heat like Noah and me but also not craving the Antarctic like her daddy. Steve is always hot. And Eli is definitely in Steve's camp. But Eli takes the cake in extreme temperature reaction. First of all, if it's possible to remove clothing in any situation, Eli wants to do it. As soon as he gets in the car he wants to quickly remove any outer layers and, if he could, shoes and socks, too. He asks to wear shorts every day of the year (even this morning he woke up and said, "SNOW! Can I wear shorts?") and would like to sleep in his underwear without covers every night (hmmmmm...he might not be happy with me sharing that one when he becomes a teenager. Oh well.).
Today was my volunteer day at school. I love volunteering at school. It's so fun to play with all of the kids and totally interesting to watch our kids interact with their peers. Also, it's interesting to see their little quirks come out at school. I was not disappointed today. Since it was above 20 degrees, the kids got to go outside to play. It was cold. Really cold. The other kids were doing a lot of whining and whimpering about their frozen little toes and fingers...some were even sobbing. The bravest were playing through the pain of their frozen little appendages. But Eli? Eli was intentionally falling face-first into the snow and laughing as he stood up with a "snow beard" all over his face. Over and over again he'd fall and stand with a face full of snow just cracking up. Gotta love that crazy kid!

All you ever wanted to know about Christmas musical rehearsal...

We are on this awesome team at church that does a Christmas musical (almost) every year. Steve directs the acting, Lindsey heads up the kids' music stuff, Andi choreographs and costumes, Jason is the go-to guy for any of your Christmas musical needs, Jeremy is the king of sound, lights and special effects and I...do whatever I feel like and take a totally unfair share of the credit for all of the hard work that they do. But this year it's really hard for me to do even that because I have these two little 11 months apart 4 and 5 year old full-time jobs with me at every rehearsal. Noon is not their best time of day. Check them out at 9 am...awesome. Play with them around 3:30...such a pleasure. But noon? Well, noon is lunch time, nap time, being by themselves time. Noon is not sit and listen to everyone else's part during rehearsal time. Noon is not focus on your job and learn where to be time. But this is the first year the two littlest amigos get to be in the musical and they are all about that! They know their lines (Noah's is "Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts." Eli's is "Peace."), they know their acting parts, they love their parts and they love to be there. But they are tired. They are manic. I don't know about other kids because I only have these three as reference but when our kids get tired, since they were teeny-tiny, they get manic. They run around like crazy people. They are loud. Their little bodies are all over the place. It's like they are in a race against the sleepiness and they are not about to lose. So each Sunday, we try our best to control that manic drive just a bit. Today, though, Noah and I ended up running many races around the church while waiting for his turn. And Eli was flopping all over Linds and, with his total lack of volume control, talking REALLY LOUDLY during the entire rehearsal about who-knows-what.
Now Grace, on the other hand, is focused on the task at hand. There is nothing Grace loves more than theatre, nothing Grace loves more than a spotlight, nothing Grace loves more than singing and dancing...it is like a little piece of heaven for Grace. Today, she demonstrated that focus in the most interesting way. We were all watching a small gaggle of girls rehearse a dance. Grace, who being tiny is in the front row, was dancing her little heart out with the angriest expression on her face. The other grown-ups watching and I couldn't help but giggle. She was really punching those arms to the beat and militarily moving her little body back and forth. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on. After the rehearsal, I said, "Hey, great job with the dance! Your movements were right on the beat. Do you think you could try to have a more pleasant expression on your face when you do it?" "Oh, no!" she responded, "Andi said we had to be really sharp." "But, honey, why does that mean you have to look angry?" "Doesn't sharp mean pointy, like mad?" A thesaurus or dictionary for our oldest for Christmas, perhaps?

Getting our hairs cut...

Grace and I went to get our hairs cut today. Grace thinks she might want to be a hairstylist (or, depending on when you ask her, a singer, an actress or a teacher) when she grows up like her Aunt Nee and Aunt Dena (photo is Grace and Aunt Nee). So today she was paying close attention as Samantha the Super-Stylist highlighted and cut my hair. Her favorite part was the hair washing part. That part she could actually participate in. We didn't feel that six is a good age to become full apprentice with scissors and the works. Shampooing was plenty. She also wanted to go ahead and wax my eyebrows but we put the kibosh on that as well. While Samantha went to mix the toner, Grace gave me a mighty good head massage. And then Samantha taught her to do the secret-recipe towel wrap that doesn't fall off your head as you walk back to the chair. I think I would be quite happy with Grace the hairdresser. Although when it was time to style my hair she kept getting the comb stuck in my hair and was unable to extract it unassisted. No pain, no gain, I guess...
In other news, our violin buddies, the Youngs, left today for Korea to go get their baby girl! How exciting is that? If you think of them, you could pray for them as they're taking their 6 and 5 year old boys with them to Korea. The early days of adjusting to family life for an orphan are not always easy. I'm sure that they'll have the adventure of their lives, though!
Also, I have a pink camera. Just wanted to let you know. Got it for Christmas from Steve and my parents. They rock. Thought you should know. Any future awesome photographs that you see here...think pink.

Mommy and Eli Wednesday

Eli and I are going to blog together today so that you can get to know him (please bear with me if you already do!). We just got back from speech therapy and Grace and Noah are in school. Wednesday is special Eli and Mommy time. Eli is rocking speech therapy. A little more than a month ago, his super fantabulous speech therapist, Miss Theresa, thought he'd have to have another surgery to lengthen his palate because he was struggling to make "g" and "k" sounds. We prayed and prayed and he worked and worked and a few weeks ago, he started making those sounds! Whoo hoo! Right now, while I type, Eli is listing all of the people he knows and loves. It's quite an exhaustive list. In fact, just now he said that he loves "everyone" and...Gracie. And Mommy the best! Oh, and snowmen, too.
Eli was born in China with a cleft lip and palate. His lip surgery was done in China when he was around a year old. The surgeons did an absolutely amazing job. His lip is very handsome. After he was home for about 7 months he had a palate surgery to close the hole in his palate. He was so excited to be able to suck on a straw and make clicking sounds and not have everything he drank come out his nose. But most importantly, he was so anxious to have everyone understand what he had to say, because Eli has a lot to say and a lot of very important stuff to say. On days like today when it's just the two of us, he talks the entire time his siblings are away. You think I'm exaggerating (which you would have reason to think!) but I'm not. Literally the entire time, he talks. I think he's making up for the first 3 1/2 years of his life when he had a lot to share and no one could understand him. I'm happy to listen (although, I must admit, my ears are pretty tired by naptime on Eli and Mommy days!).
Today Eli wants to tell you about his palate surgery which happened in May. He says, "First I love Grammy. She goes to the hospital at the night time. I was going with Mommy. Daddy go home with Gracie and Noah. I wasn't scared at the night time. We just watched a movie at night time. Because Grammy come over to see who was in there in the hospital. And she see me. She come at the door. And then, we was watching a movie. It didn't hurt me. I tough. Now my palate is closed, I can talk and do it. Do click with my tongue. My teachers at school, I love them. And I love the Christmas tree and the snow man and our house and the dogs and the family and the friends..."
Now Eli wants to talk about China. He says, "In China, I play games. I live with Foster Mama. I play games with a lady but I don't know what games and I don't know what China lady I play games. And fly blue airplane...it was pretending to fly. And then I came back home and go in the airplane. And the family went in the airplane except the Pouliots were in a big airplane. And there was no movie and no windows...just seats. And the house has a movie we should watch and all the family...and I love sleeping in the drawer and going to the park and going back home. (I should clarify that Eli was pretending to sleep in a pillow-filled drawer in the hotel in China -- we do not make our children sleep in drawers.)"
Who Eli is..."I like to make a snowman. I like to make your hair with Noah and Gracie. I like to play with Daddy and Mommy in my room with toys. I like to do 'nastics (gymnastics) with Noah and Gracie. I like to cook with Mommy and help make baked ziti with Mommy. I love my Mommy and Daddy." Eli is a pretty easy guy to get along with. He likes to play with anyone and often by himself. He's a puzzle-doer and will do a puzzle over and over until he gets it fast and just right. He's a lego guy and loves to build airplanes and rockets out of legos. He loves beauty whether it's new paint on the wall or a mountain or doing Mommy's hair in a fancy new do (which is what he's doing right now -- I look lovely, by the way.). Eli is a very special little guy.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We love to decorate for Christmas. Love, love, love it! We love getting all of our boxes of memories out and finding fun places to showcase them all around our house. On Saturday, we decorated the ol' casa for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, our new house is my parents' old house, the one that I grew up in. You know how you have super strong memories of your parents' house at Christmas...this decoration is supposed to be here...we ALWAYS put the tree over there. Well, I was surprised to find that it was a bit of a struggle to decorate this year. There was always a certain feel about the house when it was decorated for Christmas, a warmth that I'm struggling to replicate.
The tree is up, the lights are all twinkly and colorful and the ornaments are a hit with the kiddos who hang out there asking me questions about whose is whose and what year they were from. The little Goebel angels that my Grammy collected for me when I was a kid were placed on the mantel by Grace who loved doing it almost as much as I did when I was little. The stockings are hanging above the fireplace from their P.E.A.C.E. letters. Gifts from former students are all around reminding me of some of my favorite people. Our many nativity scenes from around the world have not made the scene yet (we're waiting until balls don't suddenly fly toward breakable objects from out of nowhere...does that ever happen?) but we have a few of our favorites out. Christmas music was pumping throughout the house and Grace was dancing her little heart out with her silver leggings, pink sweater and Santa hat on. The boys were helping hang up ornaments and fluff the tree and making all of the noise-making stuffed animals dance and sing in one cacophanous, joyful chorus.
And yet, it just didn't feel quite...right. Maybe I need a little Linus telling me again the story of Jesus' birth to revive my Charlie Brown spirits. (That always gies me goosebumps...any child voice reading Scripture gives me goosebumps.) Or maybe I need to remember that, for our kids, these are the warm memories of their home at Christmas and, for them, it doesn't need to look just like the house I grew up in but rather to look just like the house they're growing up in.
Happy memory making to you and your family!