Wordless Wednesday!!!!!!

Fav Photo Friday

We squeezed in a quick trip to a pumpkin patch this weekend. Here are a couple photos from the visit. We also had soccer that afternoon which is why Will is still in his soccer gear! On Sat Will got his Ingerra bread and we tried out the modeling agency. It was a pretty legitimate agency, but many of the people there were older tweens and only a handful of small kids were there. They wanted the kids to walk down a stage, and I did not know they were going to ask Will to do this, so I did not prep him for that. It's not like I am going to have him modeling clothes live! I think he looks great in the still shots! Anyhow, little man was intimidated by the stage walking, so we left. We weren't going to force him. Jacklyn and Jaymie were pretty upset as they wanted Will to model so badly. I say just give it time and when he is a little older he may be a little more ready to understand it. It is not like this kiddo is going to lose his modeling looks overnight. He can only get more handsome in our book!

He's got the look

I have been stopped on more than one occasion by strangers, friends, family etc... on how beautiful my little son in. I was out with Will last week sometime and I had 3 women stop me and comment on how he should be a model.... Well, I decided to do a little research on agencies in the area and I emailed his photo off to a couple of them. Low and behold, I was called by a scout this week that wants to meet Will on Sat. Well, the big subdivision rummage is this SAT and my girls are going to try to sell all the stuff we hauled here that didn't work in our house. It ends at noon and the scout wants to meet Will in Charlotte around 1:00 on SAT. So, if I can pull it off I'm going to look into it. It could be a scam and they call everyone who sends them a photo, but I figure it is somewhere to start. I've researched and they say to not give the agencies $$ up front. They are actually working for you if they are interested in his looks and once they find Will work, they can get paid. So, that is the latest in the life of Will. Tomorrow we are also off to Ethiopian food for some much need ingerra bread. Be on the lookout for Will modeling GAP clothes!

Wordless Wednesday

It's 4am and I should be sleeping... but can't. I hate it when I can't sleep when my kiddos are sleeping. I hope I'm not tired the rest of the weekend. Anyhow, thought I'd type a blogpost since it has been a while. Lets see.... updates...
Jaymie has adjusted well. She has had several little sleepovers at various new friends houses. She is my very social child and loves doing things with her friends. Last night she spent the night at a neighbors house which she seemed to enjoy. She has not complained much about getting up so early to go to school. Poor thing catches the bus at 640 in the am. She takes a flashlight to the bus stop. Crazy! She has been gently asking for a another cat/kitten to replace our cat Belle who we lost to kidney stones earlier in the year. So I have been on petfinder looking into a couple different cats. We will see how the search goes. Jacklyn is doing well. She is really happy being near her cousin again. She is challenged by her new school, but is keeping up. She is such a responsible girl. Her tennis game continues to improve. We just looked into getting her a couple private lessons to have her serve worked on a bit. She plays every weekend with the subdivision team . Will, well what can I say. He continues to do great. He loves preschool. He loves sports. He is busy. It is fun watching him play soccer on his team. He has another game today. The weather here has been just beautiful. My sister has relatives from out of town visiting so we took them on a sunset cruise on the lake this evening. Some leaves are starting to turn here and the sunset was beautiful. It was nice to be able to take a boat ride w/o kids as they all stayed at the house.... all 3 cousins and my kiddos and it was not even a mess when we arrived back home. Jacklyn and Maddie are good babysitters:) and free too. Enjoy the Fall weather wherever you are. LOVE this time of year!

Time for Soccer pics

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Just when you thought........

he couldn't get any cuter...... he digs though my sister's kids dress up box and puts on a cowboy outfit. He has my vote to be a cowboy for Halloween! This will be Will's second Halloween. Last year he was a cute little leopard. This year I think he will have a little more say in what he wants to be. He has been saying Spiderman, but then he is all covered up, mask and all! He thinks the blow up muscles in the costume are cool. I have not bought one yet,so I'm still not convinced that he won't change his mind and be lasso'd up by all the little cowgirls in the neighborhood if he wears this cowboy outfit. I've been warned by neighbors that Halloween in our neighborhood is just crazy. I've been buying a few bags of candy a week just to stock up. It should be fun. WE are looking forward to not having to cover up the kids outfits in Parkas because it is too cold outside to just go out in their costumes.

Enjoying the lake

We had a small block of time between Will's soccer game and Jack's tennis match to get a little boating in today. Jeffrey and the kids had fun jumping off the boat and swimming around in the lake. There are a couple islands that you can pull your boat up to and lounge on which we also did for a while. I want to make a slide show with todays boating pics, but for now I leave you with these.... The weather here is still summer-like even though it is Fall in a couple of days.....I"m not complaining one bit

cutie pa tootie!

Fav foto Friday!!! TGIF

Jaymie's adjustment to a new school was my biggest concern about our move. She had a great group of friends she left in WI and it made my heart very sad she had to leave them. To my surprise, she did great with the transition and is making new friends every day. She likes her new school and teacher and starts her gymnastics on Monday. I'm proud of the way she handled the move. Email has been a wonderful way for her to keep in touch with her friends. She checks it every day and has little conversations for them that makes me think they will continue to stay close.

4's preschool

Will was put on the waiting list of a few preschools here in our town and I was really thinking he was not going to go to preschool this year! But, low and behold, my first choice preschool called last Friday and said they had an opening! So Will started preschool on Wednesday. Isn't he handsome? There was a car accident on the way to preschool, so we were an hour late..... (thank goodness I had my ipad in the car for some much needed distraction!) but we made it and he did great. He was a little reluctant at first, but he eventually let me leave and he did great. I didn't get the pleasure of ever really picking him up too often last year because my wonderful friends and family did that when I was working (thanks nana, Christy and Sue) so I will be enjoying that this year. Oscar got a nice long walk while Will was in preschool and I did a WalMart run w/o kids! So as you can see from the photos, he is the big 4 year old preschooler now. Lets hope he enjoys the full 3 hours tomorrow. I know I've got plans for my 3 hours of no kiddos!

BMX bike track

What is this pic of to the left you may be asking? Well, as an added bonus across the street from our house is some common ground with a small pine forest in the center of it. In the pine forest a little bmx trail has been created by someone for kids to cruise on riding their bikes. Will has taken a liking to this. Of course he has, it keeps him busy and moving! Anyhow the area also has a bench for moms to sit on as they watch their kiddos perform their skills on their bikes. It took a while for Will to get around it without falling, but he pretty much can make it around the whole course now. He sets little goals for himself as he passes me on the bench shouting "mom, I'm going to go around 3 times without falling," then he ups the goal to 4 times and so on. His determination is amazing. He often sets little goals for himself and keeps his scores of whatever he is doing to try to challenge himself with his next attempts of things. A truly admirable quality for such a little guy! This next pic I took of our house from the bmx trail so you can see how close it is to our house. Oscar and I have already spent many minutes cheering on Will as he goes round and round the trail and over the jumps. And yes, I know, he has no helmet and no shoes on. Thats how I rode my bike when I was little! Actually he had shoes on, but we all know how this little man feels about shoes and they were the flip flops, so they didn't help to much with gaining SPEED>
Don't you just love all the pine needles on the ground for cushion from the falls. He also dodges the pinecones that are all over the track

Is that smile priceless or what?

Has it been a year and a half already?

I always like to look at before and after photos of different things to see the changes. Changes in rooms, or haircuts etc... But the changes we see in our little man from just a year and a half often take my breath away. The first two photos in this trio I took of Will yesterday. Yes, the last photo in this trio is a referral photo we got of Will. There is 2 years difference in the photos as his referral photo was taken in June 08, but I am still amazed. Lets see, in a year and half Will has been to the Ocean twice, learned his letters and sounds, is doing simple addition, can ride a two wheeler, is amazing on the trampoline, has mastered Mario bros on the Wii, and has moved from WI to NC. He always goes with the flow and adapts to new situations so easily. The determination this little guy has when he wants to do something continues to amaze me. I think the hardest thing about Will's adoption has been resting on me. It's not something I thought about too much during the adoption process, but something I think about daily since Will has been with us. It is his birth mother and the hole she must have in her heart and because of the hole in her heart the hole in my heart was filled. She may not even be still here on earth, but either way.....she had to say goodbye to this blessing and that whole situation challenges me daily. Why in this day and age people have to live like they do. Starvation and AIDS, corrupt government. I haven't put my finger on how I will make a difference yet.... Yes, I plan on going on some missions with the girls at some point and there is child sponsorship, but is the cycle ever going to end. Can it get better? Just food for thought.

We're still here!

Out of town guests,including Winston the bulldog, back to school commotion (they started back on Wed) Jeffrey left for banking school in Washington on Sunday and will be gone thru labor day, and a little time for boating have been keeping us busy. Jeffrey's sister came up from FL with her two kids and husband to keep us company for a week while Jeffrey was gone. She left yesterday and we are getting things in order. We had a good time doing a variety of things including some boating and tubing on Lake Norman. I'm learning how to maneuver the boat in and out of the slip and pulling tubers. The more waves and the faster the boat the happier Jacklyn is. She is a thrill seeking tuber. Will has gone on with Jaymie too and they prefer the calmer speed. Jaymie and Will actually prefer swimming in the lake compared to the pool. I think they like jumping freestyle off the boat and bobbing around in their life preservers. I'm planning a special post dedicated to Will being home one and a half years.... can you believe it. I have to make some time for it! Hopefully this weekend! Thanks for stopping by.. I have been a bad blogger lately. It didn't help my mac needed to go to the apple care genius's and have its software reinstalled because when I updated it it had some sort of glitch and made him move VERY slowly! He is all better now and able to download my pics again. Thank goodness for applecare!

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:)

Heres are a couple pics of our 14 hour drive to NC from WI. What an adventure traveling with Bagheera. He actually did a lot better than I thought he would. We are still settling in here, but making progress daily. I hope to tackle painting Jacklyns room this weekend. The thought of my not returning to the classroom this school year is bittersweet! I know I will miss it along with my co-workers.....but being able to have more time for my kiddos and spending time with Will while my girls are in school will be nice too!

Well, we were not there when Will cut his first tooth.... but we got to experience him losing his first tooth. He was jumping up and down on our trampoline with his cousin and he yanked it out. I was not there but Jacklyn was and she said he said "look I lost my tooth and then he threw it into the mulch that surrounds the trampoline. Great Will, doesn't he know that I save my children's teeth? Nowhere to be found! He came running into the house with a bloody mouth asking for his beloved Jaymie as he wanted to show her the hole in his smile! So here you have it. My little BABY has lost his first tooth. Makes me wonder, is he older than 4, but then I googled losing teeth and it said kids do lose them at 4......

Will's room

Will saw Jaymie's room on the blog so the little prince wanted pics of his room on here too. So here you have it. We scored on having a baseball wallpaper mural already in one of the bedrooms, so Wills room was a no brainer. The bed I got on craigs list just days after I got here for a mere 60.00! It is Pottery Barn too! He was so excited to have his own bed. Now, when will he sleep in it? He still shares the love with either his sisters or Jeffrey and I. I'm good with that though:) Who can resist the little snuggle bug?

First change

Jaymie's room is the first room we tackled since moving in as far as changing the wall colors. It was a nursery for the previous owners I believe and we had to paint over a mural, but decided to keep the giraffe and just paint his spots to match the colors of Jaymie's room. We had to paint over a darker color, so that made the job that much more time consuming, but Jaymie is happy with the (almost) finished product and that makes it worth it.

Bagheera

Bagheera has been in our family for 8 years now. He completes us. He acts more like a dog than a cat and is very much loved by every member of our family. 2 days ago we thought we lost him. I had not changed the tags on his collar to our new phone # so I was very worried. Jeffrey had let him wander free in our backyard thinking he was going to be keeping an eye on him. Well of course he was distracted and forgot he was watching him and then all H _ _ _ broke loose when we thought he was gone. The girls go CRAZY when he can not be found. At first look around the yard we didn't see him. It is fenced in, but we still don't know if it is possible for him to jump the fence. He is kind of heavy... weighing in at about 20lbs. He is strictly indoors except for when we tie him up outside on his lead. He LOVES being outside and we have a flower that attracts hummingbirds growing over our back patio arbor and he loves to watch them. Needless to say, I went straight to petco after this ordeal and made a tag with our new number that gives Bagheera's name and says he is diabetic. Baggy was in the backyard hiding in some low bushes thinking he was a jungle cat. Thanks goodness we found him. Here he is in a basket on our computer desk looking like a rising loaf of bread!!!

Pool time

Having a subdivision pool has been so nice! Love it. Well, except for today when the prince Will swallowed too much water from bobbing around w/o his water wings and decided to burp really loud and throw up all the water he swallowed and that caused them to close the pool for 2 hours. I don't think we were very well liked by the 7 other kids in the pool at that time. Oh well, live and learn. Other than that little episode, things are coming together slowly. I just started painting one wall in Jaymie's room :) I hope to finish the whole room over the weekend.

update

MY Camera has been missing in action up until last night! Whew! I thought it may have gotten thrown away in one of the million of boxes we have unpacked. So I'll be taking some pics soon. Well, its been a week since closing and all the boxes are unpacked. Jeffrey hung up 5 things on the wall for me last night, so we are getting closer to completing the phase of "moving in". It has been HOT here this week. We had a busy weekend, but still took time to enjoy the pool and get out a walk the neighborhood. Jeffrey's mom arrives this week, so Jeffrey will finally get some dinners cooked for him. Ha! Meal prep is not the top on my priorities list right now. I plan on trying to get the kids their dentist and dr. this week along with signing Jaymie up for gymnastics. I also have to register her for school as soon as I can find her shot records. Jack has been registered since March and she is all set to go. She had homework assigned to her for over the summer and has already completed it. Will has done well with the move. He LOVES the pool and would be there all day if we let him. His swimming is coming along, and waterwings are a thing of the past with him. I also should have listened to him when he told me he did not need training wheels on his bike when he got it in June for his 4th bday. I told him that everyone needs training wheels for about a year.... well, he proved me wrong. He picked up a friends bike w/o training wheels,and Jacklyn and Jaymie ran down the street with him a couple of times and wouldn't you know this kid was up and riding a two wheeler. So the training wheels are off the bike now! I should have listened to him. He knows his athletic abilities!