just a teaser......

We got our pictures back from our "photo shoot" with our friends. Nick was pretty good but did not like the camera as usual but did get a few good shots thanks to the persistence of our friend d'Art.....Thank You!

Here is just a few little teasers for the grandparents and other family because ....1. we have Christmas gifts to make and 2. we have Christmas cards to make.....so you can't see all of them!

Enjoy!

As if our volume-challenged child has any right to do this to Miss Emma! So funny!

Yes, I am cute!

For most of the phote shoot, Nick would not get 5 inches away from Papa! This one would have been great had he not had someone else in the pic! :)

He was so excited and he would get so tickled and cover his face. Another good way to not get the perfect shot but it is so cute!

I Love, Love, Love this picture. It is my Christmas present to me!

Emma and Nick had the best time running around and around!

They were so cute walking off in the sunset holding hands.....future prom dates maybe? :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so many things to be thankful for this year. I could go on and on and be super sentimental but I will save that for another post soon (this is National adoption awareness month and I have some thoughts that I am still putting together). We are truly blessed by our family and friends. We love you and thank you for all of the support this year.

Here are a couple of pictures of what I am most thankful for this year. I am the luckiest wife and mother ever. Pat cooked the best meal and watched Packer football. He was in heaven and so was I as I got the privilege of just watching my two boys play, laugh, and just be together as a family. Doesn't get much better than that.

We tried to give equal billing in this picture as both teams were playing today and Yeah! both teams won today. Now, I am not quite sure how we will dress next week when they play each other. :)

I love my boys. Thank you God for giving me such gifts!


We will not be joining in on the insanity that is the Day after Thanksgiving shopping like the rest of our family but will instead enjoy a quiet sleepy morning.....wait, no that was last year without a 3 year old....ok, this year it will be a snuggle-fest in the "little dark" of the morning with my sweet family. Happy Crazy shopping to the rest of you!

Who needs toys from China?

With all of the recent recalls on lead-laden toys from China, it is scary to think of buying any new toys for Christmas. But, I am pleased to say that we don't need to because of our Kazmaniac's incredible imagination....Love IT!

He found this piece of our leaf blower and said "TUBA" like on the Veggie Tales introductory song. He likes to play it to the song. He will play the tuba part that Larry the Cucumber does and then wants you to sing the Bob the tomato part. Then he wants to switch. Our goal is to get this on video so we can share it with everyone. I think he is so musical and this proves it.

Our next invention is the mini "GIANT" crane. We have so much construction going on in the city that he has fallen in love with Cranes. He had a drink from Sonic one day and took his head band off of his glases and stuck it in the straw and said "mama, Giant crane" I love his vision for what things could be.......I am thinking definitely Engineer, Architect, Researcher, Teacher, Preacher.....well, I guess this trait would be good in any field if allowed to use it, huh?

OK, this one is kind of mama's imagination but I love that he can go with it. We did try and find a mini leaf blower at the Toys R us but they didn't have one so I said "who needs it". We can make our own. Pat laughed because he knew I would find a way.....and I did. Turned out pretty well and Nick was totally happy with his "leaf blower" like daddy's. And, we put it to work immediately!

Nick telling Papa that we need to go over there next!

There are leaves everywhere!

And, the way to end all leaf gathering activity......JUMP! Well, he looks cute here but actually he busted out crying. He just could not understand why we would do this. We kept explaining to him that you were supposed to do this and that it was FUN! I had one of those "lesson" moments when I realized that my little boy was still learning how to have fun and what playing and being silly was all about. It made me realize how important it is for parents to teach their children how to have fun..... how to play. We do not autimatically know it unless we learn it from watching others. I hope that we can spend many days teaching Nick how to laugh and be silly and to have FUN! I sometimes shake under the pressure of all that we have to model or imitate for Nick to learn......He watches it all and is a fast learner. We just have to make sure that we reflect the ONE that we want him to learn about and to be like....what a big but awesome responsibility. Do we reflect God's Love? Do we reflect God's Forgiveness? Do we reflect the Light and Joy that has been given to us? Will Nick and others see that being a Christ-follower is everything to us and decide to take the leap and enjoy the journey with us?

We hope that as he decided that the leaves were FUN, FUN so will he also join us on this journey called the Christian life.....scary and unknown at first but well worth the risk and surrender to the JOY and FUN!

We are going out today to try and take some fun fall pictures with our friends d'Art, Dana, and Emma. Hopefully we will have some fun photos to share of the beautiful trees and equally beautiful kazmaniac! Love to all!

Quick Post but Cute Post

We were invited to a Princess and Prince party last weekend and I thought it would be a good time for Nick to where his Kazakh stuff although he would have nothing to do with it. He wanted a baseball hat! At the party, he was only interested in reading the books from the Nursery (party held at the Primary Princess's church) and I finally got the hat on him but he refused to look up....so funny! But how cute does he look in his hat. Definitely Prince material!

Now for Ata Bob and Grandma Ruth.......Does he look like a mini Favre or what? I love him in the football jersey. He looked so cute! The Hilarious thing was that he ran around most the day with his Dallas Cowboy hat and Packer Jersey.....now we just need to add our collegiate loyalties to his wardrobe and we will have a very colorful boy indeed considering we have 8 colleges between the two of us.......but Pat's count more...he actually got degrees from all of his....me, well, no! ;)

I tried to get a front and back view and he would not stand for a nice full shot......you gotta go with what you can get.

We got our hubby/daddy back on Tuesday from his trip to San Diego. We are very glad he is home. Every time we drove up to the house, Nick would see his car and get all excited that Daddy's home and I would have to remind him that daddy took the airplane. He would then say "Daddy far away". We were shopping on the day that Pat was to get back. It was one of our first really cold days. Nick was just shivering and warming up as we started through the store. A man sitting in the Deli commented on how Nick was shaking (yes, he had the appropriate clothes on.....he just has no body fat and always shivers when it is windy) and I smiled and said something back to the man and Nick turned around and said "Mama, no talk man, Daddy!". I just cracked up and told Pat when we picked him up that he had his own private security force in Nick. No inappropriate activities for me. While the big Cat is away, this mouse will get reprimanded and told on! ;) We do worry about the things he is going to say at preschool as his English gets better.

We thought we were going to get Nick to start going to bed earlier with the time change. Well, it worked for two or three days until last night when it seems he has now adjusted to the change. Last night, it took him over an hour to fall asleep and tonight seems to be a longer one too. We are still trying to leave him after a short time of laying with him. Most nights he goes on to sleep by himself so we are still hoping to get him to that point where we say good night and leave the room at a normal hour!

Have a good weekend Everyone!