It's A Zoo!!

 Above: Joshua and his friend Finn feeding the sheep

Below: Joshua with the chickens

 Above:  Joshua loved the baby goats!  This one was a twin!

Below:  Cutest boy holding the cutest goat I have ever seen!!

Joshua's little program or school that he attends had a petting zoo set up for the kids on Monday!  Joshua was extremely excited about this!  He kept asking me if there were going to be cows, horses and goats?  I told him that I didn't know what would be there, we would have to wait and see!  He told me that he thought there would be goats there for sure!  He was right!  All the animals in the petting zoo were babies!  Baby goats, bunnies, sheep, pigs, and chickens.  The chickens were older, but they were still gentle.  The kids in his class had a ball!  Joshua was not afraid at all, he was very anxious to get in there and get started petting all the animals!  This did not surprise me, because we have been to a couple of petting zoos before and he seemed very relaxed.  He was all over the place, feeding, petting and even holding a baby goat!!  The goat in the picture above was super cute and so gentle!  Joshua even got to bottle feed the goats and sheep!  I thought he would be a little nervous about that because they all came at him at once, but he just laughed and kept backing up.  I love that he is not nervous and was able to get excited about this activity.  He doesn't get excited about much, so it makes me happy when he does!!  This program has done wonders for Joshua.  I will post about that later.

One End to the Other

Sorry about the lack of blogging.  I usually try to blog in the evenings after the kids go to bed, but lately I have just not had it in me.  I didn';t realize it had been since March that I had put a post up.  So, on to this new post...


I have a 5 yr old son and a daughter that is 3 yrs old(that we are in the process of adopting).  It seems that God has given me two VERY different children.  I know that all kids are not a like, I just find it humorous as to who God gave me the privilege of raising.  So, I thought I would jot down some differences between the two, so I can have something to look back on one day.

My 5 yr old

*Quiet
*Timid
*Plays well by himself
*Does not necessarily want to play with others
*Social settings are not really his thing, but he is getting better
*Is all about Routine


My 3 yr old

*Loud
*outing going
*does not play well by herself
*loves to play with others for the most part
*Social butterfly after she warms up
*More go with the flow, could careless about a routine


None of these are bad qualities and it makes them who they are!  I just thought it was funny that God placed this sweet little girl with us and she could not be more opposite of our 5 yr old!

I guess it is true that opposites do attract, because they balance each other out and play very well for the most part(the sibling love/hate relationship).  God knew exactly what he was doing when he placed her with us and when he gave us our son 5 yrs ago. 

What's Happening in Pictures

                                                      Joshua as Captian America

                                    Baby girl found her foot for the first time and is also eating rice cereal

                                     My big boy enjoying some very blue ice cream with sprinkles

                                            Hanging out with family and each other

Rainy Day Activities

 

This weekend has been pretty yucky outside!  Friday was beautiful, but Saturday and today were overcast and cloudy and then eventually it rained!  So, to keep the kids from going stir crazy, ok, who am I kidding, to keep ALL of us from going stir crazy, I decided to break out a few "rainy day activities" for the kids to do.  A big thank you to Pintrest for all these wonderful ideas.  First, the kids made their valentines for the kids in their class.  I found this cute idea on pintrest to use a white crayon and write on paper "You blow me away" and then let the kids paint over the wording with water color and the message appears and then you attach it to some bubbles. Brilliant!  They turned out cute, but I think you have to stick to the light colors for the wording to show up really well.  Today, we are playing with "fluffy stuff."  It is like moon sand, but with cornstarch and shaving cream.  The kids are calling it snow and having a blast.  They are still playing with the "snow" as I am typing this blog.  I think they have been playing for about 45 minutes and when I ask if they are done, they scream: "NO!"  I will tell you that it is not the cleanest of indoor activities and I will not lie and say that I haven't had a couple of moments of "what the heck was I thinking", but they are having fun and that is all that counts.  I can always sweep and mop my floors and the kids will get baths, so it's all good!!  So, I would say that we kicked this rainy weekend's booty!

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!!

Dan Flew and We went to the Zoo

 

If you recall in my last post I was hoping that our January would slow down a bit, well since the last time I blogged was back in December and it is almost February, I guess we can say that didn't happen!  We are a busy family of 5!  We try to have alot of down time on the weekend and try to do some fun things with the kids,since they work so hard during the week, with school and therapies.  So, last Saturday we went to the zoo.  The kids had so much fun, ok, the adults did too!  I love seeing the kids explore and get excited over seeing all the animals.  We made a day of it and we all had a great time.  Joshua's favorite part was the aquarium and L's favorite part was the Giraffes.  The baby, well her favorite part was being snuggled up in her carrier and sleeping almost the entire time. After our eventful day at the zoo on Saturday, we went to watch Dan "fly" at a place called "Ifly" it is basically indoor skydiving.  I bought him a gift card for his birthday.  The kids loved watching him in the wind tunnel and even said that they wanted to "fly"!  You only have to be 3, so technically they could have both gone, but we weren't sure if they were ready.  In fact, Joshua was about 5 minutes away from us buying him a time slot for the next group, but he decided he wanted to wait and do it some other day.  It was a fun filled weekend.  This is weekend is not as busy, so we will be able to take it slow, which is always good to do.

 

Sorry, I am not able to post pics of the girls' faces, so that is why all the pics are of the kids backs.  I did get some cute ones of them smiling at me, and maybe someday I will be able to post them!

FIVE!!!

 

I am about a week late on the birthday post, but such is life these days, always late for something!  On Dec. 14th our little or should I say BIG boy turned 5!  I can't believe that he is already 5 yrs old.  I remember when he was just a few days old, looking down at him and thinking to myself, man 5 years seems a long way off, I wonder what he will be like when he is 5...and here we are!  He has accomplished so much in just one year! Overcoming great hurdles, and growing beyond measure.  He seems so old, but so young at the same time.  I thought him turning one was a rough one for me, but I will have to admit, that turning 5 hit me hard and fast and weeks before his actually birthday!  I guess maybe it is because he is no longer in a baby, toddler or even pre-k catagory anymore.  He will be in kindergarten next August and that makes me a little crazy!  We are so proud of the little man he has become!  He has the sweetest, most giving spirit!  He definitely takes on the first sibling roll well.  He is very independent, but still needs me sometimes and for that I am greatful, because I know that soon he will not!  Let me share a little example of how giving his little heart is and this is probably one of the proudest moments to date for me as a mom:  Every year before his birthday, we clean out all of his old toys that he truly does not play with, so we can make way for all the new stuff that he will get.  I always done this without him, because well, as most kids do, they finally want to play with it when you are wanting to get rid of it.  I decided that this year, I would get him invovled and he can learn a lesson in gving.  I was all prepared for this to be a disaster, not because he didn't want to give his stuff away, but because he has a great attachment to most of his cars and trains that are in his room.  He has always been very protective of his cars and trains.  Not any particular ones per say, just trains and cars in general.  I started talking to him about it a few days before hand and I didn't know if he completely understood what was going to happen, but we would soon find out.  The day came and I explained to him one more time what we were doing.  He said ok.  We made two piles, one to keep and one to give away.  I explained to him that the ones he gave away would go to some little boys that would not have anything to open on Christmas and that he would never see the toys he was given to the little boys again. He wanted to know what there names where(ha!).  I told him there were too many to know all of their names.  Anyway, as we went through his room he bagan to give away all of his cars and trains.  We made him stop and explain to us what he was doing, to make sure he understood.  He said, "momma, I am giving these toys to some little boy that doesn't have any so he will be happy at Christmas! If I don't give it to him he will be sad."  Ok, he gets it!  I tried to tell him that he didn't have to give every single car and train away!  He did keep some but insisted on giving about 90% of them away.  He kept saying this little boy is going to be so happy!  I found myself asking him, "don't you want to keep this one?"  Shame on me!  It actually became too much for me, I started to cry.  I couldn't believe that he was giving all his precious cars and trains away, the ones he had to have and sleep with and play with constantly.  I also couldn't believe how grown up he was being about it.  He was actually giving with a cheerful heart, because he wanted to, not because we were forcing him to.  We ended up with a huge garbage bag full of toys.  I let him go with me to take it to the children's shelter. He walked up and said, I have all these toys for a little boy and he is going to smile!!  MELT MY HEART!  He actually got the whole point of what I was trying to teach him!  Proud, Proud moment!!  He is growing up so very fast!  He still makes us laugh and still puts a smile on our face.  He is still very stubborn and strong willed, and we love that about him, even though sometimes we want to cry!  He went to his 5 yr well check yesterday and he is good to go!

 

He weighs: 38 lbs (50%)

His height is 42 in (25%)

 

His taste for food hasn't changed much.  Still pretty much likes the same foods as before. He is willing to try alot more things than before, so that is good!  He can put his shoes and socks without any assitance.  He still needs help fastening things, but can pretty much dress himself when he wants to.  He is pretty chatty these days and we love that!  He still loves to play outside and even asked for a skateboard for Christmas(we will see)! 

 

WE LOVE OUR BIG 5 YR OLD! 

Only Way to Describe It

 So, the only way to describe our life right now is BUSY!!!  This is why the blog has taken a backseat. The older two are outside playing and the baby is sleeping, so I thought I would sneak in a post before someone starts to cry or tattle on the other one. :-)  Our life is not BUSY in a bad way, but in away that keeps us on our toes!  After the last post, we received another placement!  A sweet little 4 day old baby girl(Oct. 31).  So, that makes 3 total kids 5 and under.  I used to think I was busy with one child, HA!  We basically went from 1 to 3 in a matter of 3 weeks. We are still getting used to the idea of 3, but it seems to be going fairly well.  The oldest thinks he is the boss, the oldest of the 2 girls thinks she is a princess, and the little one well, she likes to party when others like to sleep!  I have never seen so much laundry in my life and the crockpot has become my new best friend!  We have 3 carseats packed into the backseat of our car and someone is always asking "where are we going?"  I am by no means complaining about this, because this is exactly what I prayed for and what my heart desired.  I am just describing this choatic life that we live right now.  Thank goodness for a husband who is willing to jump in and help after being at work for 9 hrs.  He is very sweet to give me a break once he gets home.  We are both learning together this new controlled chaos that our new family brings.  It is like we have always been a family of 5!