"I'm not eating that......

I am having cereal for dinner tonight!" This is what we hear from Christian EVERY night at dinner time. He defines a picky eater! Unless it is pizza night which we usually do one time every week or two you can bet that dinner is going to be a battle. At this point he is winning and I am frustrated. He had his six year check up in December and I explained my concerns to the pediatrician and she recommended that we introduce a new food to him every day for 14 days and he could decide at the end of two weeks if he liked it or not. She said she was not too concerend with it because his growth is normal. He agreed that he would give it a try. So the next day I gave him a baby carrot. He would not even pick it up to try it. I will admit it was hard in December to enforce this with the holidays so I decided in January we would really try to put in effect this new rule. So far we have been unsuccessful. If it isn't peanut butter and jelly, pizza, or chicken fingers he is NOT interested. Breakfast is usually okay because he will have oatmeal or cereal. Lunch is always peanut butter and jelly and a piece of fruit. For snacks he will eat yogurt, pudding, or crackers.

Ethan and Logan were picky eaters when they were around 3 years old but they grew out of it. For the most part they are open to trying new foods. In a way this is new area for me as I expected him to grow out of it like his brothers. Maybe I need to be more forceful and make him sit there until he eats it but he will literally sit there for an hour and never touch his dinner. He might try it but he already has it in his head that he doesn't like it so he never gives it a fair chance. I of course will not let him go to bed hungry so he usually ends up with a bowl of cereal. Yes I know that he is in control of this situation but I am hoping it is just a looong phase and he will grow out of it. That or he is going to have a really hard time finding a date who only wants cereal for dinner!

Back to the gym

Now that the holidays are over I need to get back into my routine of going to the gym. I usually hit the gym 3-4 days a week but with the boys being on Christmas break it was hard to find time to go. When they were younger I would take them with me but the child care at the gym is geared more towards the toddler age and they would get so bored. I should have made them go anyway but instead I did The Firm at home. I really like The Firm workout as an alternative but I feel I get a better workout at the gym. Maybe it is the variety of equipment or the motivation of those around me working out. So today after Christian goes to school I will be hitting the gym!

The Ipod controversy

Every year at Christmas the boys get a gift from Dan and I in addition to their gifts from Santa. This year Ethan really wanted us to get him an Ipod. My feelings were mixed because I knew it would cause problems over the music he wanted to put on it and what we felt was appropriate for him. Before Christmas we told him many times that if he ended up getting an Ipod that he would have to follow the rules as to what songs he was allowed to listen to and that we didn't want an arguement every time we told him "no" about a song. He agreed. So....

On Christmas he got his Ipod plus an iTunes gift card. Until this weekend we have been able to come to a compromise about his music. Over the weekend he had a friend spend the night and he brought his Ipod over. He let Ethan listen to some of his songs(or at least partially due to our intervening) and now Ethan wants a song called Soulja Boy and Sexy Boy on his Ipod. Of course this is NOT going to happen! We do not allow our boys to listen to any type of music that is suggestive in nature. We do not feel it is appropriate for our 10 year old son to be listening to "Sexy Boy." What positive message can this song possibly have for a 10 year old?

I understand that Ethan wants to be like his friends and enjoy similar music but I hope to teach him that you need to make good choices and that you don't need to follow the crowd. I know this is hard for a 10 year old to understand but it needs to be instilled at a young age. I remember what it was like for me when all my friends were allowed to do something and I was not. It IS hard. In the end it is OUR responsibility to instill our values in our children.

The compromising will continue and I am sure we will still have some disagreements but I hope that one day Ethan will realize we made these rules because we love him and want the best for him.

Family goals in '08

With the begining of a new year I have been giving a lot of thought to what we can do as a family to make our lives happier, healthier, and more purposeful. I do not like thinking of it as a "New Years resolution" because I think it often sets you up for failure. How often do we hear of our "New Years resolutions" being forgotten by the first week of the new year? Instead I feel that we can make small changes in 2008 that can make a big difference in our lives! I will allow room for flexibilty because I think too often we tend to give up if we can't commit 100%. Here are some of our family goals for 2008.

~ We have decided as a family that Friday nights will now be "family game night." The TV will be off and we will spend time playing games as a family. I will try to make this a priority as much as possible because I feel it is important that we laugh and have fun as a family without the distraction of the TV. This will make a great memory for our children and for us!*Subject to flexibility.

~ We will sit down together as a family every night for dinner. This is another rule that will need to be flexible due to our schedules but it will be a priority. Too often I am busy getting the kids their dinner or have some other distraction going on and by the time I am ready to eat they are almost done.

~ Going GREEN! I watched the Oprah show yesterday and was very inspired to start to do something as a family to help our Earth. It was interesting to learn that even small changes can add up!

1. We are going to change our lightbulbs to GE smart energy bulbs. One audience member said that by doing this she is saving $50 a month on her electric bill!

2. I am going to switch our cleaning products to non toxic products. There are a couple brands they sell at Target such as Method so this would be very convenient (since I am at Target so much!) and better for our household.

3. We will also start to recycle our newspaper. We will stack them up in the garage and then take them to be recycled.

4. I will be taking a water bottle with me to the gym instead of bottled water. Those plastic bottles really add up!

It is interesting how some awareness can cause you to want to make changes in preserving the Earth. Even by doing small things we are helping to make a difference and I hope I am teaching my children that it is everyone's responsibility to care for our planet.

~Less yelling notice I didn't say "no yelling." I need to be realistic. Lately there has been far too much yelling in our household and the winter months are not helping! It is hard especially for the boys not to be able to go outside and burn off some energy. I also find that my patience with them is wearing. Lately it seems that they would much rather aggravate each other than play together (which to some extent is normal) but I get tired of breaking up fights, tattling, name calling, and just flat out unkindness. My wake up call came when Logan told me "Mom, I don't like it when you yell, it scares me." That was horrible to hear and it broke my heart. But it forced me to do a little self examination. As parents we set the tone in our households. How can we expect our kids not to yell when we are yelling at them? I have told Logan that I am sorry and that I need to work on it. Now I am accountable to my eight year old son. How can I fail? Simple~I can't and that little sentence was all the motivation I needed to make a change. So in 2008 I am hoping for a household with more peace and less yelling begining with me.

Happy New Year!

May your new year be filled with happiness, health, & peace! Here's hoping that 2008 is your best year yet!

Reflections on 2007

As the year 2007 comes to a close I decided to reflect on some of the memories made in the past year. There is so much to be thankful for and it is easy to forget in the business of everyday life the many blessings that we have been given. We are looking forward to a wonderful 2008!


Another year of celebrating the love of family!


The promise of the start of a new life together!


The excitement of starting kindergarten!


The fun and (sometimes mess) of having a new puppy!


The excitement of discovering a new passion!



The joy and wonder of our family vacation!


Three healthy and lively boys!

The Christmas tree is DOWN

I really enjoyed our Christmas this year as you can probably tell from the many pictures. I even enjoyed the weeks leading up to Christmas with the anticipation, the decorations, the shopping, and the many Starbucks white chocolate peppermint mochas I consumed this season(gosh I will miss those when they are gone!)but when I am done I am DONE and I am done with Christmas! Not in a Scroogy type of way but I can't stand for my house to be cluttered and having to rearrange furniture to accomodate the tree. We had our tree up for nearly 5 weeks so that is a long time for most or at least me. I was ready for it to come down and for the house to return to some type of normalcy. I comtemplated keeping it up until after New Years(I have never been able to do this) but like every year it manages to come down a day or two after Christmas. So tonight I will enjoy a less cluttered house and remember a wonderful Christmas behind me.

More Christmas pictures

My cousin Lindsay sent me some pictures that she took over Christmas. She had some great live action shots as we played games and sang Christmas carols. It is great to have a mixture of "posed" pictures and some "in the moment" pictures! You can tell from the pictures we had a great time!

Our Christmas

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year full of family, food, and fun! Our Christmas celebration started on Saturday with the arrival of my Aunt Michele and Uncle Mike, my cousin Shane and his girlfriend Bridget, and my cousin Lindsay and her husband Ryan. On Sunday my Aunt Pam and Uncle Bruce came for a visit with my cousins Paul, Ashley, and Jenna. We have a great time visiting, watching movies, playing games, laughing, and of course opening presents!

Santa was very good to the boys this year! He fulfilled their requests for football jerseys, games, football cards, action figures,& books. They were very excited on Christmas morning and we felt fortunate to have been able to have slept in until 7:00am! After they opened their presents I made a big Christmas breakfast and we headed over to my parents house to continue the celebration with family.

Of course Christmas served as a reminder for the family that was missing this year. Last year my brother and sister in law from California surprised us with a visit and we definitely missed them this year. I found myself throughout the day remembering last Christmas with them.

I thought alot about Mia yesterday. It is very possible that she has already been born. Obviously she is not aware that it is Christmas but I pray she felt the love of whoever may be taking care of her. I pray someone took the time to hold her close. I pray that she felt love, contentment,& peace. I pray that next Christmas will be much different for all of us.

Today everyone headed back home and while it is sad to end the celebration and fun I will always treasure the wonderful family memories we made this Christmas!

Christmas cookies

Our Christmas cookie baking ended today with cut outs. I am so glad I waited to make the cut outs last because my sister was in town to help and the boys lost interest in making the cookies until it was time to decorate them. They turned out okay but they have ALOT of icing on them thanks to the help of three boys! They had fun with Aunt Dani and that is all that matters!

Ethan's Christmas program

Last night Ethan had his school Christmas program. It was really cute but the lighting in the gym is awful and it is hard to get good pictures. Luckily Ethan stood right in front of us so it was fairly easy to get some decent pictures of him. He did a really good job though I do not think he was too happy about having to wear antler ears! He is at the stage where antler ears are not considered "cool."

Our favorite ornaments this year

Every year it has become a tradition for the boys to add a new ornament to the tree. This years picks were no surprise and they were excited to add their ornament to the tree. Of course I also added a special ornament in honor of Mia. I can't wait till the day that she is able to take part in this family tradition!

Happy 8th Birthday Logan!

Happy 8th birthday to my Logan! Today Logan celebrates his 8th birthday. He was hoping for a snow day today when he woke up because we had a lot of snow over the weekend but it wasn't to be. He packed up his cookies to share with the class and he was off to school.

As I reflect on the past eight years I can't help but smile at the blessing that is Logan. He is determined (when he wants to be), loving, funny, and challenging. Out of the three of our boys Logan is the most challenging. Of course with all challenges come great rewards. He has alot of friends and is more of a leader than a follower. Logan is definitely all boy!

He discovered a new passion this past year~football! This kid loves football and anything that has to do with football! His most wanted item on his Christmas list this year was football jerseys. For his birthday we got him a Dallas Cowboys Tony Romo jersey and the look on his face when he opened it was priceless! You would have thought we just handed him a millon dollars! If he misses a game he looks on nfl.com to check the stats and scores. His excitement and passion for his new found interest is so much fun to watch.

Happy 8th Birthday Logan! You have blessed my life with eight incredible years and I thank God every day that He has entrusted me with the gift of you. I love you more than words can say and today I celebrate you!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Today I took the boys to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and as we walked out of the movie theatre the snow was coming down! I knew it was coming but didn't think it would get here until later tonight. As we were driving home the roads were very snow covered and I was afraid the van would not make it up some of the small hills on the roads. We were suppose to go to Dan's company work party tonight but decided not to go due to the snow. I had a babysitter lined up and everything but we felt it was not worth it to risk anyone being in an accident. Tonight we will stay home, pop some popcorn, drink some hot chocolate, and maybe there will be some good Christmas movies on.

A post in honor our blog's #1 fan

I have been told by my sister that my soon to be brother in law Brian is an avid reader of our blog. He reminded her this week that is has almost been a full week since I have posted! No reason for my lack of posting other than there hasn't been much to post about. Thanks to Brian I now have something to post about. Brian is now the subject of my post.

My sister Danielle and Brian are engaged and will be getting married on July 12,2008.
I have the priviledge of being my sister's matron of honor(though I have been told by Brian that I cannont ride the party bus to the reception if I do not do a speech at the reception). Anyone who knows me knows I am not big on public speaking so we are still working that issue out~lol! I am not partial but I think Brian is marrying one of the most beautiful and wonderful women ever. He is so lucky!

As lucky as Brian is to have Danielle she is also lucky to have him. He is wonderful, caring, and alot of fun. I must admit when she first started dating him I wasn't so sure that he was "the one." He seemed more reserved and I wondered if he would fit in because our family is big and we are loud! Initially, I think we *could* be a little intimidating! The truth is Brian has fit in perfectly to our family. My boys LOVE him! Yes he is the perfect addition to our family and I cannot wait to officially welcome him into our family on their wedding day! Thank you Brian for loving my sister and thank you for being our blog's #1 fan!

~"Your soon to be favorite sister in law"

Fun in the snow

Today the boys wanted to go outside and play in the snow. This is the first decent amount of snowfall we have had this year so they were ready to go. Of course this meant pulling out the boots, snow pants, waterproof gloves, hats, and heavy coats! It took them about 20 minutes to get ready to go outside~with my help! You forget how difficult it can be to get all of their gear on! They had fun building forts and and having a snowball fight!

The boys have been elfed!

The boys get a kick out of this site Elf Yourself. Tonight I elfed them and they just laughed and laughed when they saw themselves as elves! It really is a fun site!

I also decided to elf Dan and I. Check us out Elf Yourself.

Ornament exchange

Our ladybug and red thread believers group had an ornament exchange and I received my ornament yesterday from Erin! It is a beautiful ornament! It says "Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away." Erin also included a Starbucks gift card! I love Starbucks! Our Starbucks is located inside another one of my favorites~Target! I am at Target at least a couple times a week and I am always tempted to go to Starbucks and get a white chocolate peppermint mocha! Next time I am there I will give into my temptation! Thank you Erin!

"I know who Santa Claus is.......

and who Mrs. Claus is. My friends told me." This is what Ethan said to me as soon as he came home from school today. As I prepare myself to honestly answer his questions, I quickly make sure that Logan and Christian are out of ear shot. I take a deep breath and ask him "Who do you think they are?" He rambles off a girl's name and boy's name from his class and says "They are Santa and Mrs. Claus in the school play." I breathe a sigh of relief.

I know the day is coming that he will "learn the truth." After all is is ten years old and I know there are probably some kids in his class who "know the truth" but thankfully today was not the day that "the truth" was revealed to him.

September 2006 is out of review!

I am happy to say that our dossier is officially out of review! What this means is that the CCAA has reviewed our dossier and moved us into the matching room! While this is an exciting milestone the wait for a match is still a looong way off at least through the traditional program. I have heard that being through review can make your process go faster after you have been matched with a waiting child. Meaning your time from match to travel *could* be faster. Only time will tell! Congrats to all the Sept LIDS~we are off to the match room!

I-171H renewal

Our I-171H is due to expire in January so we are in the process to renew it. The I-171H is basically a document issued from Homeland Security allowing us to bring an overseas orphan into the US. If we were not in the waiting child program we would probably just let it expire and wait to renew it until our referral was closer. Because we are in the waiting child program and we do not know when we will receive our referral (hopefully within 2008) letting it expire could delay our travel. We DO NOT want that to happen after already waiting so long! The USCIS allows for one free renewal which will save us around $700 but we will also need to be re-fingerprinted and have our homestudy updated which will not be free. It can be a frustrating process but in the end I know it will all be worth it!

Secret Santa shop

This week at school the boys are shopping the Secret Santa shop. I am sure many parents are familar with this annual Christmas event at school. I know my boys are excited to go shopping but this year we decided to send them each with only $5.00. They are going to buy something for one another. Ethan is buying for Christian, Christian is buying for Logan, and Logan is buying for Ethan. I must admit that I was the parent that when Ethan was in first grade sent him to school with $30.00 to spend on his family. Of course it was a lesson learned and now they each get $5.00. If they have money left they can buy something for themselves. I also volunteered to work two days this week at the Secret Santa shop so that should be fun!

Christmas card photo

This year we have decided to do something different and instead of sending out traditional Christmas cards we are going to send out Christmas card photos to all of our family and friends. I love to get cards with Christmas pictures to see how everyone has changed throughout the past year(especially the kids!). When I look at our picture, I can definitely see changes from last year. My kids are bigger, Ethan's hair is longer(the new style), my hair is darker, and Dan's hair seems to have more gray! I guess this means the biggest changes for us from the past year is our hair! I look forward to receiving everyone's Christmas cards and photos this year!

My favorite Christmas picture of my boys

I was visiting my friend Angie's blog and saw an adorable picture of her boys from a past Christmas. I thought it would be fun to post my favorite Christmas picture of my boys. Even though it has been a couple years since we had a family picture taken I do manage to get the boys Christmas pictures taken each year.

In need of a new family Christmas picture

This is our family Christmas picture that has hung on my wall for the past three years. I have decided that this year it is time for a new family Christmas picture. I am not sure why I keep putting it off. Maybe it is fighting the crowds or trying to coordinate five people's wardrobes. Or maybe in times past it seemed like nothing short of a miracle to get three kids to cooperate to get a nice picture. I have a friend who makes it a tradition to have a family picture taken around the holidays. What wonderful memories to have! Of course I also have friends who have never had a family picture taken. I guess I fall somewhere in the middle. So in the spirit of the holidays, I have decided it is time to replace some old memories with new ones.

Better late than never.....

Christian's 6th birthday party was nearly two weeks ago and I am just now posting pictures from his party. He had his 6th birthday at Chuckie Cheese. After all what kid doesn't want to experience a Chuckie Cheese birthday party? As for the parents, well let's just say one Chuckie Cheese birthday party per kid is all I can handle!

Happy 6th birthday Christian!

Today my little boy turns 6! Christian has been so excited knowing that his birthday was coming and that he would be 6 like his friends! Yesterday he kept reminding us all day long that tommorow is his birthday and he will be 6(as if we could possibly forget)!

It amazes me everyday that God has entrusted me with this gift and I have been blessed to be called his mother. He has such an infectious personality and smile. When he laughs you can't help but laugh right along with him. He is so loving and sweet but at the same time he is working towards finding his independence. This has proven to be a difficult adjustment for both him and I but we are working on it!

Happy Birthday Christian! Today we celebrate the blessing that is you! We love you!

Fall clean up~for Dad

The boys have been off of school for the past two days because of parent teacher conferences. Today has been a cold and windy day but they still wanted to got outside to play their daily game of football. As I went to the front window to call them in for lunch instead of football this is what I saw! Logan said, "We know how hard Dad works so we are doing this for him!" Notice that Logan is using a rake and Ethan is attempting to use a broom to rake up leaves! These are the moments as a parent where you can see your hard work paying off and it brings a smile to your face. It is hard to notice in the pictures but there were some small snowflakes falling!