My parents- in DC

I know I occasionally get notes from family that watch this blog so I thought I'd share a picture of my parents on their trip to DC.  They got home last night.  This picture was taken by no other than my sister Elizabeth- during her business trip to DC.  Enjoy!

No, I won't be keeping this layout!

I like the colors, like the kiddos (of course!) but you can't click the post titles and link directly to them :( So unless I can figure out how to code that, I will be changing back very soon.

Oh- and Amy- I got your comment on my deleted post and if your sister is still interested in redoing my blog I would be very glad for her to do it! I was just getting... um... annoyed at the old one... and I haven't heard from her yet :)

A blogging award

For those of you not familiar with the grand world of blogging, there are awards that come around every so often and are sent through blogs to other deserving blogs.  This one is for creativity, design, interesting material, and contributing to the blogging community.  Christina nominated me for this award.  THANK YOU!

I am now allowed to pass this award on to other bloggers that I feel deserve the award.  Here are the blogs I have nominated:

RK at "Just RK"

Renee at "Life with my Special K's"

Gillian at "Pocket Lint"

Emily at "Lovely and Amazing"

Valerie at "From the Trenches"

Now, here's the rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and that contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, the origin of this award.

5. Post these rules.

Now... we'll see if any of them actually read my blog ;-)

p.s. to my award winners: if you don't want to post your award I will not be offended :)  I usually skip 'memes' myself and understand completely :)

Pictures from the weekend

She found a replacement to sleeping           Emma's first intro to CHOCOLATE

on Micah                                                   (she didn't actually like it, seriously, weird! LOL)

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These were taken by a friend over the weekend.  She came over just to hang out and play and got a hold of the camera too.  Thanks for capturing memories, Liz!  Yes I was pretending to take a nap.  That's pretty much an invitation to get jumped on, climbed on, and get some snuggles too :)

Today's a wash

It's almost 1:30.  I'm in my pajamas.  I haven't showered.  We just finished lunch.  What's different about today than most days?  Mike's home. LOL

I love having him home!  It does somehow make the day SLIDE out and stretch out.  Usually by 8:30 or 9 all the kids are bathed, dressed, and fed.  Today it was 11.  Lunch is usually at 11 or 11:30 and naps at 12 or so.  Today lunch was 12:15 and naps, well, Micah and Emma are still awake, Brianna JUST crashed, and I just started a movie for K (he 'rests' now instead of napping). 

I must admit, I'm kind of bummed today too.  Not that everything's behind- that doesn't bother me really.  Mike was supposed to be going to a conference in Atlanta soon with the church leadership.  He and I were going to drive up separate from the group and the kids and I were going to meet up with Andrea, the director of Reece's Rainbow and spend a few days with her and her family then drive back home.

Unfortunately, Mike found out last night that there's no way he can miss his night class on Monday night that week and he's going to have to either spend all night driving and arrive there around 2am (not an option I'd like to take with the kids!) or fly up and get a taxi or limo service to bring him to the hotel or conference- depending on whether he flies on Mon night or Tues early morning.  No option of me just driving separate because I think it would be stupid to attempt an 8 hr trip alone with 4 kids.  Plus the gas cost we'd budgeted will be used for his midnight drive or his plane ticket/taxi.  Believe it or not the plane and taxi is cheaper.  Just logistically a little more difficult.

Long story short(er), it doesn't look like the kids and I will be joining him.  I was really looking forward to meeting Andrea and her family and also visiting with the family that lived with me in Ukraine, but I know there will be other times.  So, today I'm bummed because it means not only do I not get to go visit with friends, it also means another loooong week home without Mike.  It's only 4 days, just they become LONG days when Mike's not home!

Yes, I'm done complaining and I'll tell you more about the adventures of the 4 musketeers and share a picture or two AFTER I take that shower.  Ooooh... or maybe a bath.  It's been a long time! :)

Ok, done for now!

If you usually read on a reader, come see the new blog layout :)

I'll probably still play with it some, but naptime is now over so I must put it down for now.

This week

Monday: OT in the morning, Mike has class at night

Tuesday: KAD for K and B in the morning (PT at KAD), K's playdate with "Bella" after school

Wednesday: Bloodwork in Orlando?? for B, M, and E, ST in the evening

Thursday: M's Eval for Early Steps, K's "Sonshine Days" at KAD, KAD for B

Friday: ??? Wow, no plans, REALLY??

SHE CRIED!!

Ok, this is the weirdest post you'll hear from me for a while-I think anyway (the frog was pretty odd, I know). But guess what??!! Emma cried! I realize this seems like a strange thing to be happy about, but in the world of adoption, expressing feelings is an area where kids tend to have a lot of difficulty. Because she spent 5 years where she learned that when she cried from fear, pain, or other things those cries weren't answered, she generally doesn't cry. She thuds her head on the tile and goes on impassively. She gets bopped with this or that and doesn't blink an eye. Occasionally she grinds her teeth, but she rarely CRIES. Last week when I took her for her vaccinations she actually CRIED but I think it was more from being held down than from the actual pain.

But just this morning, she cried! She cried because Brianna bopped her on the head with a hairbrush. I'm sure that's not something to be happy about, but I'm glad to know that Emma is learning to express her emotions and is learning that when she cries we WILL come. Now, here's the funny part- she didn't cry immediately. I jumped up and went and took the hairbrush from Brianna (which of course made Bria cry...) and THEN she looked at me and busted out crying. TEARS and all. So she knew I was nearby and thought she'd try it out ;) Little stinker! But YAY! This is a big step for her! (and yes, her head is just fine :) )

Some quick videos

Kristopher is such a hoot when he runs! I love to watch him!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Emma figured out the piano- except instead of moving her fingers on the piano she knows moving her HEAD does it! And of course, Brianna's a HAM :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fun in the sun and other morning happenings

Just curious, how long do you suppose it takes me to make a post like this?  10, 20 min maybe?  NOPE :)  Try... 5 :)  It's WONDERFUL!  Ok, a few more, but those are 'unsupervised minutes'- I can hit "go" and the computer works its magic.  Pull chip from camera, insert into computer, automatic download begins.  Find video, start upload to OTM (see below).  Open "Windows Live Writer", drag and drop in photos that were automatically filed, type a few words, hit "publish".  The program uploads all the pictures automatically into my account on Picasa and there you have it :)  Technology at it's finest!!

 

Here's our morning: (yes, I know I take way too many pictures!!)

While I was making lunch Emma found her way over to the swing.  Micah is upset for a total of 2 seconds because he sees me and wants to be held, but quickly decides he's content where he is (he was asleep about 10 min later and yes he's spoiled and naps in the swing :) )

 

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

And lastly, Emma got a bottle before nap and just for kicks I thought I'd try a bit of this 100 calorie/2tsp strawberry syrup in her bottle.  Once again, a picture is worth 1000 words...

Note the full bottle and then the empty bottle? Do those eyes say "What? it's gone? no more?" to you too?? LOL  (and yes, she makes a HUGE mess usually but amazingly strawberry formula left very little mess... hmm... the sweet potatoes last night left an entire lake on her front...)

Want to enter a give-away?

My friend Renee has an online store and is doing a give-away for one item from her store :) Go here to enter! YOU ONLY HAVE UNTIL MAY 1!

Daddy's coming home :)

What? Daddy was gone? Seriously you don't think that I'd post here beforehand that my husband, mother, father, mike's mom, his dad, and 90% of my friends are gone all weekend due to vacations or this big church retreat Mike's been working on for weeks...

It's been a long weekend! And... it's only Sunday morning. We've had a nice 2 days and today will be good too, but it's harder having no break up of time in the evening where I can say- Daddy's coming home soon, let's pick up. Or- Why don't we save that super fun super messy project for whan another set of hands gets here? Or- my favorite- I don't know what we're having for inner, Daddy's picking it up on the way home!

But still, I have had some company. A friend came over yesterday afternoon for a little while and we ventured out to Target and Wendy's for some reason to be out of the house. And before that my brother and sister in law came over for a few and M and E got to meet them.

All is well though because Mike will be packing up and heading home shortly and my short stint as a single mother will be over. None too soon either. I am amazed by those who have busy households and their husbands serve overseas in the military or they travel for weeks at a time for work. I suppose you get used to it but for me a weekend was enough!

Babies babies everywhere (and a big boy too!!)

When getting ready this morning I decided a few pictures were in order... they always are ;)

What I really wanted was a pic or two of Micah and Emma that shows just how much they've filled out!  For reference, two "before" pictures (March 3rd):

and LOTS of 7 weeks out :)  Emma's ribs are still prominent, but especially right in the center of her chest you can see where her stomach has filled in and it doesn't look like there's a huge gap between her ribs and her abdomen!  And who's that CHUNKY baby boy??