My little elves

Well Xmas is over and on to New Years. We had a great holiday and I will include some cute pics of the kids on Christmas eve and day. we were blessed with my Uncle Joe comming to visit and play Santa for us again this year. lilly loved it , Abel hid the entire time behind Grandma. Maybe next year for him. we were going to attempt to go to Christmas eve services but then it started with me a horrible case of the stomach flu. Needless to say we all stayed in the house for like 4 days as it traveled through the entire family. Yuck.

random pics

Here are some random pics of the last week or so, although we did go to see Santa at this great park that they do up with lights, and lots of toy trains...Abel and Lilly would have nothing to do with Santa when face to face. So funny since they were both all talk all week long leading up to this. Then when the moment arrived it wasn't easy.

Never ceases to amaze me

Just when i think I have Abel figured out, he throws me through a loop. I thought for sure Abel would be a difficult one to get all these cavities filled which is why we arranged for the nitrous oxide. Not only did the kid not need it , he assisted the dentist by holding his own water pistol and light gun while drying the cavities. he took numbing shot and everything without a wince. I don't get it. Even myself I wince at the pain and the vibration of drilling, noise , etc. He has 4 new fillings and is proud showing them off to the secretary staff or whoever else in the waiting room wanted to look in his mouth. Our dentist is needless to say amazed and stunned that a 2.5 year old would not only cooperate but assist in the procedure.

Getting geared up for x mas

All is well here in the household. Abel today got a hold of a permanent marker on my floor. Yikes, it was a heavy duty clean up too, but with the help of some magic goo Frank has I got it off. He is about to go to the Dentist in an hour for filling all of his cavities. Thank Goodness for nitrous cause I can't imagine that boy sitting still for this. I just hope they can get to all the cavities today so we don't have to do a second round of this. We are decorated for Christmas and so look forward to celebrating with all of the kids. Abel and Lilly are really fun this year. They are both really into it and we have been hyping it up for them just a little bit too:)

Catching my breath

So I haven't updated for awhile cause I've been horribly busy. Well its official, they are not babies anymore. They both reluctantly threw all the baba's in a box that will be given to other needy babies (so they are told) I didn't want to say I was pitching those chewed up things in the trash you know. And the potty training is pretty much over for both, an occassional accident while sleeping but that is about it. As a mom you want to rejoice their movements towards growing up and independence but inside you are screaming NOOOOO!!! I'm not ready for them to start driving a car. OK Get a grip I know, But it goes by just tooo fast. Next week we are scheduled for Abel's 6 month follow up, although its only been 4 but Illien I guess wants it really early. And Abel is going to the dentist to have all these teeth filled. Its a ton too so he will have a little happy juice to get through it all.
Abel is really facinated by Christmas lights he screams out "Look" every time we go by a house with lights. it's amazing to watch the miracle of Christmas unfold to a child who has never imagined it possible. it makes me sad for the kids that will never experience it. All he talks about is Santa aka (HoHo). He use to ask me occassionally to go back to Ethiopia and when i asked him recently if he still wants to go back he said in broken English. "'No, I Americano boy, HOHO comes America, I stay here."

terrible-wonderful 2's

well they sure work together to cause trouble. My older daughters left nailpolish out and they got to it, they painted themselves up really well too. Lilly even had a blue nailpolish mustache. Abel painted his entire fingers down past the knuckles. It is never a dull moment in this house anymore and I have to have my A game on just to keep up. This Thurs. and Friday I have to take classes for a new computer program at work we are implementing in the OR. So my mom and Brother are comming for 2 days to watch them. i'm somewhat worried about them because my mom just had a knee replacement about a month ago and my brother is not use to being around little kids so this should be interesting. Abel adores my brother so it was a natural choice since Abel has never been without Frank or myself yet. And Lilly just loves her Grandma so I pray they will all have a great visit. Also I almost have them both potty trained too. There are still the occassional accidents but they ask to go to the potty 75% of the time now. YEAH.

More pics of an Awesome day

Heres a few more

More pics of an Awesome day

Here are the fall pics we took today at the park and Lake Erie

A long time since an update

Well we are all doing fine here. Actually better than fine, we are ecstatic about the new change in Government and really proud Ohio plays such an important part in it all.
Our weather today was gorgeous. i mean very unusual for Nov. in Ohio. It was 65 degrees so the little ones and I spent the day at Lake Erie. Our neighborhood sits on the Lake and we have an awesome park for our use. We had a great day. Swinging on swings, Sliding down slides, Playing in leaf piles and going on the beach. Abel had a faceplant yesterday off his tricycle. He kept telling Wesleigh to push him faster and faster then oooops , off he went. He looks like a banged up hockey player. But I guess this is life with a little boy.
He is making great advances in his English and he is starting to mimick other boys on the playground and play along with them Today he told a 4 year old who asked him his name and he shouted out he is SPIDERMAN. I have to laugh, cause the kid throws his hands out like he's shooting webs and says Spiderman all the time in the cutest African accent.
Life is Good. And he lets me stay in his room at night while he goes to sleep now. He had /has some issues relating to trusting Women due to some issues he has had in Africa, but he seems to be slowly overcomming them now. Don't let anyone kid you attachment in a toddler adoption is rough. But with persistence and patience I think we will all make it.

More Boo at the Zoo

Heres more pics from last night at Boo at the Zoo

Autumn

Autumn in Ohio is the most beautiful time of year, we spent the day yesterday hiking in the woods and looking for unique leaves to make a collage for the kids. I love the smells of fall and walking through the woods is so peaceful, not to mention the crisp cool air, unfortunately this also means winter is not far behind. I hear the Farmers Almanac is predicting a doozy this year to.
Last night we all went to an annual event here called Boo at the Zoo, It ws a good time had by all and Lilly and Abel looked really cute as Bumble Bees this year.

Continued

Continued

video of Gotcha moment

Bear with me and I'm going to try to post some video clips of our Gotcha moment inEthiopia,There are like 3 or 4 that run together since it was done on my digital camera.

need to update

Wow to say its a busy household is an understatement. Frank and I had to laugh tonight as we are frantically trying to clean up after dinner, help 1 with homework, the other is freaking out calling classmates cause she forgot hers, and the 2 toddlers screaming out because they both want to ride on the red firetruck. i just looked at Frank and said "can't you work any faster" We both just bust out laughing as well. We so look forward to those few minutes before sleep where we can have a conversation about our day. Maybe soon we can hire a sitter and have a meal out alone. :) Once Abel isn't so scared of abandonment that is. He is doing much better on that front tooo. he went to his gymnastics class and fully participated and had fun without me having to carry him on my hip through the class that is. He is outside right now in the backyard with his 2 sisters jumpping on the trampoline, but I have to get going now to get the older ones to ice skating lessons. Whew. I'm tired. But loving it.

One more pic

One more shot of the two two year olds.

The Crud

So Lilly has had a pretty significant fever for 1 week now and it appears Abel is now comming down with thatever it is, She has fevers and hives all over her body, Even her face is puffing up. The pediatrician ordered some blood work so i will wait to see what come of it. Now tonight Abel has a low grade fever and was not interested in lunch or dinner. He is now napping so i'll try a light snack in an hour or so. We did get all the kids pictures done by a photographer last Friday and they turned out pretty well considering Abel was pretty freaked out as well. I had them do the "school pics " for the older girls as well as I refuse to order any more pics through the school picture day ever again. The last few years I have seen their prices go up significantly (more than a photo session where we went) and the quality shall we say sucks. So I'm much happier with a pose we have some say in as well as different backgrounds. i'll try and post them