mission completion!

The parents came, conquered and sadly,returned. My mom's project was cleaning the blinds. In our house, this is no small project. All the windows have either old metal blinds or the new kind in our addition. We also have those doors that look like shutters on many of the closets and she did those too.....Thanks Mom! Dad helped us get the cars in for tune-ups and the mower to the "mower doctor" (Nick's terminology)....he was very worried! :)

Pat's parents helped stain our cubby shelves and they turned out great. The one below is for Nick's room and the other one is stained a bit darker and will be in the eating area. I am so glad to have that done before the bed's arrival soon! We would not have gotten them done any time soon. Thanks to the best in-laws ever!

We had some great cool weather and everyone enjoyed our park for quick fun before Ata Bob and Grandma Roof left on Sunday.


Nick is really funny lately with mimicking. Pat was on the phone tonight and Nick sat right next to him with his phone and proceeded to copy any motion and chatter just like Pat. I was working on the computer and he got up on the stool next to me and opened up the calendar and proceeded to pretend it was a computer just like mine and was typing and everything. Too cute. I had to get a picture.

We had to have a costume for our preschool halloween party so my good friend Dannette offered a sweat suit type turtle outfit which he wore without difficulty and looked darn cute in if I may be so biased.

He was not too thrilled with the parade of costumes especially after he saw me with the other parents. But he made it back inside for the fun stuff.

He played the games a little better than he did at the carnival and was able to wait in line without falling apart like before. He even caught the elusive pumpkin fish!

He was worried about where I went as I came around the table to take this picture. Looks a bit solemn but he did have fun. They did a sweet little prayer with hand motions before their snack and he knew it all. Cutie!

After our party at preschool, we went to surprise daddy at work. Well, we surprised him so much that he wasn't even there. So, Nick practiced being really professor-like at the computer. Good shot of the back of his costume. He always talks about Dad and going "back-a-work".

And then we found Daddy and he was so happy to see us and big smiles all around! I will probably have to frame this one.

We have had our first fever today. After our big day, I could tell he was not quite his chipper self after nap and checked his temp and it was 102. It is his first fever state-side so I hope it is over quick and nothing more than a little quick virus. Funny thing is that he had a little extra sugar today and then did this fever.....Those Kazakh doctors have got me paranoid about sugar now after telling us that we were always affecting his health with any snacks that we brought to the orphanage........Somebody please remind me that sugar does not make children sick...does it?

I will write more later but want to get to bed in case we have a long night ahead of us! Thanks to the Grandparents for all the help! We love you and miss you already! and Pat would probably like me to say GO PACKERS......Brett can still make the game exciting. We have a new clothing item from Ata Bob that we will have to wear some time this week in honor of the Monday night game. Have a great week!

Sunday Fun!

We had a very busy Sunday with a Family Reunion for my Grandma's side of the family. We have a group picture but it is on my dad's camera. We did not get in the group pic as we were headed to our 2nd annual Kazakh kids party. Last year at this time, we had just sent the dossier off and I had a broken hand and attended the 1st annual party as newbies in the adoption process. Boy! how things change in a year!

I found this elementary book on Kaz at the library sale and thought it would be a good starter for Nick to learn about his home country. He was looking at it on the way to Harrodsburg to see all of the family. He was trying to hide his face from the camera and had the giggles. Cute!


Nick loves going to Cousin Noel's house (somehow he doesn't get that it is Susan, Hannah Beth, and Hayden's house also) Just Noel because he has the TRACTOR! Nick loves this trampoline. He runs around in circles until he can't stand up! It is much more humorous in person.



His cousins also have the coolest playhouse. I want one like it but log house looking. You can even sleep in it and it has electricity. We had a great time seeing all of the cousins. Some for the first time. Nick wouldn't stop long enough to visit but they saw him in a quick blur! We left the reunion and headed back home for the Kazakh cuties party.

Nick and Wyatt in a quiet moment. I was so busy talking to the students from Kaz that I did not get very many pictures. I missed the other little sweet girl from Kaz. There were two new families who are about where we were last year...both getting ready to send their Dossiers to Kaz. We answered lots of questions and hopefully did not overwhelm them too much. What an adventure they will go on in the next few months but very worth it!

As I am writing this, we have been getting lots and lots of needed rain but our roof started leaking again. Pat came home again and has been up on the roof all morning trying to add tarp. We are getting a new roof next week but not soon enough. It did a little more damage this time on the inside but we are just praying that the extra tarps will hold until they come. Ugh! On a happy note, Pat figured out the leak in our shower and used the always fabulous Duct (Duck) tape on the shower head and the leak has stopped until we can buy a new shower head. So, now hopefully we don't have to rip a hole in the basement ceiling.......although now the possibility of ceiling ruinage is in the new kitchen....oh well, I am trying to be glass half full like my very handy, manly man who found the other leak and saved us! :)

Mom and Dad left yesterday morning and should be getting home early today. I already miss them but have Pat's parents to look forward to in two days! I wish they could stay longer but will take whatever we can get. They are going to help stain some shelves for Nick's room and get our garage back in order since we have emptied it of most of the furniture. We still have one set left but may donate or garage sale it soon. Hope everyone has a good fall week! The trees are getting great here. Love it!! K-Pat and Nick

and a few pictures.....

An addendum to last night's post.....

Last night when I posted for Nick's 6 month anniversary, the blogsite would not allow pictures. So, apparently overnight the computer gremlins were at work and they gave us picture access again. So, here are just a few from our busy Saturday. After my Grandfather passed away and we finally decided to sell their house in Richmond (where I had been living), all of the furniture from that house was just moved up here to my house to use. When Pat and I got married, we had an abundance of furniture to say the least. Over the last few years, mom and dad have rented trailers to slowly take back furniture that they or my sister wanted to use. Well, with the addition of a little one, we needed to re-arrange furniture once again. So they are taking back my favorite bedroom set from my grandparents house (very old, very ornate). Luckily, my parents have just remodeled too and have an empty room that they can move this great set right into as I could not handle it going into storage. I am hoping that my niece will want it some day as it is more "girly" and really not something you could use for moose, airplane, or superhero motifs! ;)

Nick was beside himself with the moving and lifting and trailer experience. He was bouncing off the walls. I was worried that he would get stressed out because we moved every thing out of his room (Full mattress on the floor goes with the bed set, baby bed, and Pat's old dresser) and then moved our sofa bed mattress up to his room for his temporary bed. His new bed may be ready next week!! I will be so glad to finally get to make his room a little more homey. He has been living pretty sparsely as far as his room goes. After we got most of the trailer loading done (Thanks to Ryan for helping with the big heavies!), we had another favorite visitor, Emma and "Emma's mama" Dana. The kids played so hard and fast. We were all tired but they finally slowed down a minute and we got some cute pics of them playing "house". We kept missing the hugs with the delay on the camera but they were being such a progressive little household as Nick was in bed and Emma was going off to work. We had a crazy lunch of "donnnald's" and then finally got Nick down for a nap.....it took him a bit to calm down with all of the craziness of the day. Enjoy the pics! K-Pat and Nick

6 months ago today!

6 months ago today at about this exact time (1045p), Nick and I were landing in Lexington to see our family and friends for the first time for Nick and the first time in 10 weeks for me. I know Nick's view of the world has changed dramatically but so has ours. I think often of Kaz and the extended journey that we had there. I don't miss the food but I do miss the simplicity of every day life. As I have told my friends here, I miss being "Hearty". I miss walking everywhere, climbing 6 flights of stairs with a load of groceries, living very simply with even more simple accomodations, and using my limited Russian and even more limited Kazak to communicate. I have to admit being a new parent has challenged and pushed me just as much but I wouldn't describe it as feeling "hearty" but mostly "weary". Being a career woman for 15 plus years and single for most of those makes for an uphill transition and quite frankly, Nick just makes us tired! His energy is unending and his strong will sometimes equally unending. It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions for me from the beginning. It is amazing still how just one smile or funny comment can get you thru the day like a really good vitamin or Starbuck's buzz. Most days I cannot even discuss adoption without crying but I have accepted that this is OK and it just shows how deep the emotions go when talking about our journey to and with Nick. I can't imagine how Nick will change in the next 6 months considering how different he is from Nurik in Kaz but I will be hopping back on that roller coaster bright and early tomorrow morning and holding on tight with God's help and, hopefully, a sense of humor and a big hug from the cutest little Kazmaniac around! Nick, Mama and Papa love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around the neck! Thank you for all you have brought and will continue to bring to our lives.

Family and friends, and more friends!

We have had a crazy busy and fun week. My parents arrived on Monday and then our Texas guests arrived on Tuesday. We took both our cars to the shop this week since Dad could help us out and Nick was the co-pilot every time. He got quality time with Ata Bill and has already learned some southern gospel songs to sing with him. Finally, the cooler weather has arrived and we got out the jeans and jean jacket (thanks, Auntie Rhino!)


Wednesday, we took our Texas guests to Hall's on the River. It was a nice drive and equally nice meal. Nick did great but he has discovered the joys of Ata Bill's Suburban which has a really great DVD system......boy, that makes a long ride much easier!





Saturday evening, My good friend from St. Louis and her family joined us for dinner and then an impromptu sleep-over as they (and we) did not realize that they would be trying to find a hotel when all of Louisiana and the Keeneland crowds were bedding down here also! Christine and I have been friends since about 6th grade which is a really long time ago......boy, I feel old especially after I calculated how many years that is.....Time flys when you are having fun?

They are travelling south and stopped to meet Nick. They have a 5 year old son who was the best partner in crime for Nick and they had a blast playing!



Boys will be Boys! They discovered that you could both ride the Little tikes car with a little creativity .......Nick's Turn!



Now, Kaden's turn!


Kaden is already reading so I told Nick to use that to his advantage and so we could rest! ;)

We still have another whole week with my parents and more projects. This week we have to finally pick a roofer for our new roof (remember the leak) and now we have another leak under our shower into the basement so that will require a plumber visit and possibly a big hole in our ceiling in the wash room......oh well, it could be worse and be somewhere that would be an eyesore. We have a family reunion and a Kazakh friends party at the end of the week so more friends and family to come!

We hope everyone has a great week and GO Wildcats! What a game!

Love to all, K-Pat and Nick

Help is on the way!

Amidst the Chaos, It does my heart good to see all my boys hanging out together!



This is not a great picture but it was an attempt to get all of our adoption support group together for a play date of sorts.....unfortunately, 90 degree weather, direct, pounding sun, and no nap did not give us a fabulous time at the orchard but we keep trying to do these "family" things....now if the weather would just cooperate....sweating in the fall is my idea of cruel and unusual punishment....it is just NOT RIGHT!



How cute is our boy? He is getting so big looking....much closer to 4 than 3 now. I think he has grown almost 2 inches since we came home. Amazing! The Rocker is my sister's...so cute and he likes to sit it between our two chairs so he can be like us!

This picture mainly cracks me up because our Pastor preached on men today and made a comment on how men love khakis because everything matches with Khaki.....notice what my men had on today at church....funny!

We are so happy that the next 3 weeks will be filled with family and friends from afar! Mom and Dad show up tomorrow for a few weeks. During this time some Tx friends will be coming thru to meet Nick then our Finale will be Pat's parents coming at the end of October. I am so excited to have them all coming to help with some little projects that are just harder now with the Kazman plus I just can't wait for them to hear all of the funny things that Nick says and see all the crazy things that he does. It is not something that we can catch in photos and phone calls.

Nick's latest interests are stoplights.....mainly, because he is so impatient with them. We have taught him that Red means stop and Green means GO. He now seems to better understand the way it all works and even knows what stopsigns are all about......sometimes he gets a bit mixed up and will say signstop......he does this with some other words so maybe it has something to do with language acquisition... who knows but it is so cute!

He is also starting to learn songs and phrases from books. We were driving to school the other day and I always listen to my David Phelps CD (former tenor for the Gaither Vocal Band)...think Christian Josh Groban..... David can belt out some ballads and one song says No more Night, No more Pain.....and the No more night part is big and loud....so Nick just starts singing with him....NO MO NIGH ! with such expression that I about had to pull over from laughing! Priceless!!!! I am hoping we can figure out how to post some of that on site. He likes to use some of his Russian words still which I encourage. His Russian book has a little game to find the duck on each page and he loves to yell "find the Oootka" and he likes to call his bed, a "kravat", and we have still never given up "Va-Nah" for bath. He has been the polite boy extreme for the last few weeks and every thing that we do for him or get him is met with a Thanka-welcome, mama, Thanka-welcome, papa.....it is again so cute! He is also counting to 10 on a fairly consistant basis......preschool is definitely moving this along. His favorite video right now is Super Spy backyardigans. He loves the Lady in Pink and her torture table which is the "tickle table". I just love to watch him learn more and more......He even saw bars of music in a book last night and said "music!" ...... gotta thank Little Einsteins for that one. I can't wait until he can take music classes someday. He loves books, Music, Trucks, Airplanes, Diggers, stirring his Chocolate milk, and washing the dishes.........I think I have a Renaissance man in the making! Yeah!

I probably spend too much time reading blogs from other adoptive families but they are strangely therapeutic for me.....I don't feel so alone with my crazy thoughts. I found this map of Kaz on one of the sights today and thought I would share it with you all since I have never quite found one that shows where Nick came from.....smack dab in the middle of nowhere Kazakhstan. It is spelled Dzhezkazgan on this map but we also spell it Zhezkazgan. Remember that Kaz is almost 4 times the size of Texas...this is one big country...and just picture it with Russia on the left and above with China to the right and a bunch of 'stans below as well as Turkey. Click on the picture to read the cities. We are in the orange section "karaganda region". We spent the last 2 1/2 weeks in Almaty which is towards the bottom of the map. Happy Geography lesson! ;)

Have a great week everyone!