The Tooth...

Today we celebrate the loss of Grace's tooth also known as "snaggle" and "pokey". We will be forever grateful for Eli's hard little head and the collision which started the process. This is how the tooth met its demise...

Hooray, hooray! Doesn't her little smile look so cute with the first grade gaping hole in the front? Love it!

Thankful Thursday...

Today I am thankful...

• that it has been a long while (at least a week or two) since Noah has had a night terror or migraine!
• that Eli made his bed all by himself this morning even though he thought he couldn't. I'm thankful that he's learning that he can!
• that, even though Steve was out of town last night, the dogs did not wake me up 5,000 times looking for him.
• that we are super blessed with good health most of the time.
• that my brother and his family live so close by now! It's been awesome for our kids (especially Noah) to see them so often. I'm thankful for Joshy and Noah's funny little relationship -- they have a great time together! And it's been awesome for me to be able to build a "grown-up" relationship with Matthew and a friendship with Brooke (which includes but is not limited to each of us only having to cook 6 nights out of the week and only having to drive one way to preschool. Hooray!).
• that Joey's hearing is okay and he seems to have come out of a really scary accident relatively unscathed! Yay, God!

Xīn nián kuài lè!

Happy New Year! The amigos celebrated Chinese New Year on New Year's Eve this year by going to Happy G's for some yummy Chinese food with our buddies the Wyss family. We met the Wysses a few years ago when Grace and Emma were in preschool together and we were waiting, waiting, waiting to bring Eli home. Their very handsome and sweet Chinese son, Sam, had been home for a while (I want to say a year or so) and we were all so excited to meet another family who were adopting/had adopted a boy from China. The boys are all great friends (Eli and Sam are in the same preschool class) and Grace and Emma, too. Tonight Noah was asked a few times if he was from China, too...from Sam and from the waitress who was from Guangzhou. The waitress was very fun and funny and taught the kids many things about Chinese New Year. She even tried speaking in Mandarin to Eli (who doesn't seem to have retained much, if any). It was a great night! What a blessing to have another culture to weave into the fabric of our family!

P.S. The 2nd to last photo is the kids pointing at themselves in the first photo we ever had taken as a family of five. Look how much they've grown almost a year and a half!

"Mental Detector"

So the kids were in the back seat of the car rejoicing over their new toys from Arby's. Noah wanted to know what the other options were that they didn't get and was trying to sound out the words on the Arby's bag. Grace looked at her bag and quickly responded, "Noah, you can get a tape measurer, a magnifying glass or a mental detector." Steve and I grinned at each other and really hoped someone did get a "mental detector". We could really use one.

Belated Thankful Thursday...

Today I am thankful for...

• Colorado...I can't imagine a better place to live.



• Ella and Hero...although they are, at times, crazy pooches, they're ours and we love them so much. I love the companions they are for each other and for us and I REALLY love that they play together to channel all their labradoodle energy in a positive direction. I'm thankful that Hero survived, that he's healthy and that we're allowed to be his family. And I'm grateful that sometimes we allow ourselves to make stupid choices with our hearts (like, say, for example, getting another dog) while our heads say, "What are you thinking???" and they work out.



• my friends, old and new. I'm thankful that there is an abundance of amazing people to befriend and that God brings them into our lives at just the right time. I'm thankful for reconnecting with people who I haven't seen in years and hearing their stories of God's grace in their lives. I'm thankful for friends who've been super consistent and loyal over all the years and thankful that we're allowed to walk through life together. I'm thankful for new friends who are encouraging and fun.



• my van. Even though it has seen better days, still it gets us to preschool, to school, to doctors and therapists, to gymnastics, to violin...all in one piece.



• our kids' teachers. Grace's first grade teacher is amazing and such a blessing to her this year. She challenges her and encourages her and allows her to discover that she is capable of more than she thought possible. Noah's preschool teachers encourage him to lead and call him to a higher standard...and he meets it. And they enjoy him! Eli's team of teachers work hard with him to help him become the four year old boy that God intended. They truly like him, which warms this mama's heart, and he feels safe with them.

What are you thankful for today?

Here's Eli singing a song from preschool. Listen to how clear his words are! He's been working so hard over the past few months and we're so proud of him!

Muppets...

Today we had a special visit from UPS delivering...you guessed it...Grace's self-portrait as a muppet. Thanks, Memere, Pepere, Aunt Susie, Aunt Ne, Uncle Dave, Cole and Andy! The new muppet is very fun! Here it is:
In unrelated news, yesterday I asked Grace and Noah to help with folding some laundry while Eli and I did the dishes. We heard immense amounts of giggling followed by the word "underwear" over and over again. Hey, whatever gets them helping! :) (Please tell me that our laundry room isn't the only one that looks like a bomb went off!)
Also, Grace has a tooth that just will not say die. It's her front tooth and it is highly unfortunate as it sticks straight out. So here she is modeling her very attractive tooth (and new-found eye-crossing abilities...this might be yet another post that she might not love as a teenager!):

Yee haw!

Today we spent the whole day with Team Z at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo. Here are my observations from the day...

This morning before we left I told Eli we were going to see some cows today. "In America?" he asked.

Once we got to the Stock Show, Grace and I in particular were pretty focused on finding some pygmy goats. Sadly, no pygmy goats...but lots of llamas and alpacas. I mean LOTS of llamas and alpacas.

Grace, like her mom, cheers for the cows instead of the cowboys during the rodeo. Hee hee!

Eli DOES NOT want to be a cowboy. But he said he wouldn't mind being a tiny cow if he could run away from the cowboys.

Steve and Linds like maps. Mandy and Jer like to wander aimlessly and stop when we feel like it.

Linds and Grace are allergic to rodeos. Rodeos have a very well equipped first aid station with LOTS of allergy medicine options. Maybe it's not just Linds and Grace that are allergic to rodeos.

Eli liked the "horsies" and the "teeny cows" the best while Grace loved the "buckin' bull cows." Noah loved those horses that "blast out and you're like 'whoa, whoa, whoa!'"

Some people can do days and days and days and days of Stock Show and rodeo fun but Teams Z and P can only handle around 7 hours.

People watching at said events can be very interesting. Quite a variety of folks there!

The three amigos can put away a large bucket of cotton candy in record time.

A fried twinkie, according to Steve, should be re-named deep fried love on a stick.

Steve(in his Wyoming shirt) is no match for the CSU ram in a fight. li>

One should not accidently try to exit out of the wrong exit at the Stock Show because a security guard might tell one (and one's children) that he will "put them in jail" if they continue to exit that way. It might frighten one's children to be told this unfortunate information about "jail." (Where might this "jail" be? I wonder.) Also, said security guard might not care that it would take the three short-legged children, pregnant woman and three other very tired and lazy adults an extra 15 minutes to exit when they were 50 feet away from freedom on the other side.

And now I shall put three tired, but happy, amigos to bed! Night night!

Thankful Thursday...

I am now unabashedly yoinking an idea from a fellow blogger to have Thursdays be Thankful Thursdays. This Thankful Thursday I am thankful for...

• Steve's job...especially in this crazy economy, I'm so grateful that Steve has a job that he loves and that that is able to support all five of us yahoos.
• Our home...the precious fellow blogger that I referenced earlier just lost her home to a fire. Please pray for their family as they have just adopted two children and, as you can imagine, are concerned about how this will effect the two newbies and all of their six children that are living at home. Reading her amazing entry today made me realize how thankful I am for our warm home, the land to run and play on and our family all around us.
• Eli's growth in speech...when Eli first started speech therapy, super therapist Theresa told us to expect many years of private therapy. This week, when Eli came out of his session with her, she told me that she expects that he'll be FINISHED with therapy within a month or so! WOW!
• That every morning all three amigos pile on Grace's bed for some sibling cuddle and giggle time. Too cute! I'm so thankful that they love each other so much!

More next Thursday! There is so much to be thankful for...boy, I could go on and on!

You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly!

Yesterday Noah and Eli were giggling in the front room while I was working on something in the kitchen. After almost 15 minutes of giggling, my curiosity got the better of me and I had to go check it out. As I came around the corner, I saw Eli with three baby shower helium balloons tied around his waist and Noah tying a fourth one on. "Whatcha doing?" I asked. Noah replied, "We're trying to make Eli fly with balloons." Awesome! I wish it would work, I'd want a ride, too!

Our little writer...

Our little Gracie loves to write. We have pages and pages of stories to be found in every drawer in the house written by our prolific writer. A few months ago Grace wrote a piece for the Reflections contest at her school. Turned out, little pumpkin won second place in literature for her school and got to go on to the district contest. Today was the open house to celebrate the competitors and winners for the district contest. While Grace was a little bit disappointed that she didn't win, she enjoyed seeing her work up at the community college and really liked the writing of the child who did win. We're just so proud of Grace for trying! Yea, Grace!

Monkeys Everywhere!

For Grace's kid party, she chose a monkey theme which was appropriate since we had the party at her gymnastics gym. The kids had a great time playing the parachute games, swinging on the bars, jumping on the trampoline and climbing various apparatuses (or apparati?).

Grace Turns 7!

Grace had a great 7th birthday! It started in a bummer way with her throwing up from midnight on but became super awesome with every passing moment once the sicky night hours ended. Most of her family came over for her family birthday party today. The Vielhaks and Cheyenne Pouliots came down and Gigi and Pap, Grammy and Papa Joe, Grandma June and Grandpa Lou, Team Z and the Rillos family came over to celebrate with Grace. She got to do a lovely do in Aunt Dena's hair, open fabulous presents from family near and far, (Aunt Susie, she loved the American Girl t-shirt maker...Memere and Pepere, she loved the scooter and sweatshirt and Tita et al, she loved the clothes for Kit! Thanks!) eat LOTS of chocolate ice cream (Grace often says she'd like to swim in a vat of chocolate!), and hang out with some of her favorite people. From Grammy and Papa Joe, Grace got a choose your own adventure gift of sorts. She gets to choose a pygmy goat or a doll. Everyone had very strong opinions on which she should choose...Linds said, "of course, doll" and Matthew said, "of course, goat." Grace is torn though. She's thinking she'll name her goat after one of the American Girls. :)

It was especially nice to see sweet Joey up and about after his accident. We were so relieved to see his smiling face at the party. And we're so grateful to have Gracie!