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!

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