Oodles

Okay, Summer is almost gone and I am going to try and play catch up on posting pictures. Hope you enjoy!

Hannah working hard on our road trip

Remember the slip and slide days? How about the inflated stopper at the end? When I was little we just hit the end and kept on going. They kind of took all the fun out of it...

Soooo, needless to say, Dad did not think this was quite exciting enough. The next weekend I walk out and see this....

The weekend of the 4th we JUST HAD to get one of the long rectangle pools. I don't have pictures of the fun but I am sure you can use your imagination.

Here are some pictures of some of the fun summer visits with the Grandpartents.

The kids had a blast digging for treasure under the old oak tree with Gandmoma.

Since it is almost time for back to school it is just in time for some of Seth's pictures from last semester at Early Arts. Sorry they are so late in being posted!

Music Class

A jumper for Nadia's Birthday Oh Boy!

Food and Fun with Friends

Happy July 5th

Well, the family has yet survived another 4th of July and although we still have Constitution Day in Puerto Rico and Pioneer Days in Utah we are breathing a sigh of relief. This was actually the first July 4th I have been in in quite some time and we enjoyed a day with family and a night filled with fireworks.

We are preparing for the upcoming travel ahead as I leave for Canada in about two weeks with others to come. Please pray for comfort for the kids and patience and sanity for Todd. Sorry such a short post but I will leave you with this quoteon this July 5th.

It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. ... I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. -John Adams

Georgia on my mind

Well, it's Tuesday night and our last night in Georgia and boy have Hannah and I had some bonding time. I never knew you could play 20 questions for over 12 hours at a time. Chatty Kathy is enjoying the hotel pool at the moment while I get a little quite time pool side. I know some of you were wondering how the men were doing since they were both sickly this weekend. Neither of them made it to work or school on Monday as they still just did not feel up to par however, Todd did try and get to work today but Seth would not go in Day Care. No matter what Todd said to try and make it better he just cried. Guess he was still a little out of sorts with Mom being gone. Todd is going to attempt to coax him in tomorrow and who knows maybe third time will be a charm. He has still not gotten accustomed to going all day in a day care environment and is resorting to the same behavior as when I was working full-time. It would just break my heart every morning to have to drop him off crying. He unfortunately does not understand it is only until the end of July. I guess if hardship builds character he is going to be full of it.

As for Hannah and I we have been to so many stores now to see fireworks that I think I have ruined her for life on ever enjoying shopping again. Her future husband will probably appreciate that someday :) She thought it was pretty neat to be able to go in the backrooms of the stores and pull product to the floor to merchandise on the shelves. When I asked her today what was the funnest thing she has done she said (get this) being with you Mom. Awwww.... That just melted my heart.

As a side note, God is Awesome! Hannah and I were on I85 today going a speed of 70 miles per hour while I was on the phone with a buyer (I know already a bad combination) when a truck in front of us lost it's 6ft aluminum ladder. It was like slow motion, it hit the road just up ahead on the left of us and started skidding our way. I had a mac truck behind me and cars to the right of me but the ladder missed by inches. It did however get caught under the trucks back tires and flipped up on the car behind it and caused a wreck. We were shaken but know that God had us where he wanted us at just the right moment.

Pray for a safe trip home tomorrow and an easy morning for our men. Till next post.

What a week!

This week has been a whopper of a work week! Hannah has been at home with me this week and has been a big help around the house. Seth has been going to day school and is enjoying being around other boys. Hope it lasts....

We have visited the Boyacheck's a few times the past couple of weeks and they have visited us. For those of you who have not read my Bogata post they are the family that just adopted 3 children from Bogata Columbia. It has been neat to watch them play together. The language barrier does not seem to matter in the least. Seth has been picking up quite a bit of Spanish from being around John. They have been swimming in their pool and Seth and Hannah both are beginning to feel more comfortable in the water. So much so that they are both jumping off the diving board! Seth swam so much last Saturday that he had a rash under his arms from his swim vest. Fun to watch but just a little nerve racking for Mom....

I will try and keep up with my posting but with the time of year it is (see countdown clock) they will be short posts. Hannah will be traveling with me in the next couple of weeks to see stores where we will visit with the managers and put product on the shelves. She is very excited but I know it will not be as fun as she thinks. I am going to teach her the meaning of the word "work" on this trip. I usually work from 6am in the morning until 9 or 10 pm at night when traveling during the season. This allows me to cover more ground in less time. Ought to be interesting and I should have quite a few funny stories to share when we get back.

Until next post. Have a happy weekend!

Vacation Pictures!

Okay, I know this is long past due but so much has been going on the past few weeks I have not had a chance to sit down and get these pictures posted. Vacation was a much needed getaway and we all wish we could go back for the summer since it was a little on the chilly side when we were there. It did not matter to the kids though, they were blue and shivering but still having a blast in the pools.

I will try and fill you in on the rest of our adventures the past couple of weeks in the upcoming posts so keep checking back.

Here is Hannah under the waterfall in the walkway tunnel and their bedroom that had a beach view and of course their favorite, a T.V.

Here are the kids at putt putt golf. Can't say that Seth enjoyed the golf but loved climbing on everything and trying to throw the ball in the water. I also added some pictures of Waterscape where we stayed. It was a new resort and just fabulous!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a great weekend filled with our Mother's love. It was great to be able to spend time with both sets of grandparents this weekend and we all loved every minute of it! Seth has been calling both Meemaw and Pawpaw and Grandmomma on his Lightning McQueen cell phone tonight. I am not sure what he is saying but he refuses to share the phone with Hannah and keeps stating emphatically that she can not talk to them. Kids.... Only they can fight over an imaginary conversation with Grandparents.

Thank you to both Mom and John and Judy for the great presents! The hanging basket John and Judy gave me has beautiful red and yellow flowers and should be sun hardy which means maybe I can't kill it. Mom gave me some "comfy" clothes and a bonsai tree which I hope will teach me patience. Isn't that what the old guy said on Karate Kid?

Since it's Mother's Day I just want to take a few lines here and let both my mom and Todd's mom know how much I appreciate both of you. I never knew how much work it took to raise us and how many prayers were said each night that we would turn out okay. Thanks for doing such a great job and I pray that God will give me the strength and wisdom that he gave you every day. I love you!

I hope to get the vacation pictures developed this week and I will post as soon as I do. Good night for now.

Picture Perfect

Well, today was our first and hopefully "my" last modeling photo shoot. The company I work for is redesigning the website and will incorporate pictures of people in different settings each season or event throughout the year. So, they enlisted the associates and their families for the shoot. Hannah, Seth and myself were scheduled for the St. Patrick's Day, Back to School, and the Fall season shoot. I will try and paint you a mental picture of how it went. Please keep your outbursts of laughter to a minimum.

This morning Hannah was excited about being "checked out" of school early since this was a first without her being sick and of course Seth didn't know what he was in for yet. So began my tug of war to get everything ready for the shoot. First off to Target to buy a green shirt for Seth which was a feat inside itself since he had no intention of going anywhere while Scooby-Doo was on. So of course I had to bribe him with a popcorn and lemonade as soon as we walked in the doors (sugar #1). Once that was taken care of it was on to the library to return some books and pick up some more. While looking for some books that Hannah had requested I look up and Seth is running full blast on top of the bench that runs the entire length of one wall at the library while squealing and chasing a little girl. Who saw that coming? I cut my search short and tried to leave as fast as I could before we were escorted out, but Seth ran into the Clifford Doghouse and would not come out. With all eyes focused on me I decided to go for bribe number two. A sucker waiting in the car for him(sugar #2).

Once home all he would eat for lunch was cheese which did nothing to counteract the sugar but filled him up enough for a short nap which I hoped would help us at the photo shoot. Once he was up though I could tell it did nothing but give him an additional burst of pure 3 year old energy. I thought I was doing good to have us all dressed in our green when we got to the studio since changing clothes is not Seth's cup of tea however, as soon as we crossed the threshold they informed us that they had gotten ahead of schedule and didn't need us in green, so could we please change our clothes? This is where I realize it is going down hill.

I was finally able to coerce Seth into changing his clothes. If only he was excited as Hannah about getting his picture made! Then we had to wait around until everyone else was ready and we all had our makeup on. Hannah thought it was just fabulous that she got to wear lipstick. While waiting I tried to keep her occupied with homework and Seth with cars. Bad idea..... Hannah couldn't concentrate for all of the buzzing activity around her and Seth began catapulting his cars across the studio under every ones feet. So up went the cars and out came the picture books. I thought I had tried to come somewhat prepared for a wait but there were just too many new things to see and climb. You get the picture.

Finally we were ready to get in front of the camera. They had props set up for a backyard barbecue complete with grill, glasses of orange punch, and a table full of cookies and a very unsteady punch bowl. They wanted Seth to sit by Hannah at the punch bowl table because the "just loved" the yellow color of his sweater by her brown shirt. I had to remind them he was 3 and not very likely to sit still and they could count on punch flying everywhere. So they had to improvise and asked me to hold him.

Let me first explain why this was not such a great idea. I have been working in the yard redoing our landscape the past two weeks which included transplanting some very large bushes. I woke up Sunday morning and could not move my neck and yesterday it hurt even worse. I had Todd put the menthol muscle patches on half of my back all the way up to the top of my neck last night and felt somewhat better today. So I thought it would be okay to hold Seth for a short time while they snap a few shots should be fine. However, I never thought it would be for 45 minutes.

There were about 16 people in this particular shot and I guess Seth got the shy bug while Hannah had to be by all the boys. I later found out that she got on to them because they kept burping and told them how disgusting it was. Good for her! I had to bribe Seth to look at me by giving him Teddy Grahams (sugar #3) while I pretended to talk to someone else. This lasted though the first 20 minutes and of course all the Teddy Grahams were gone and my neck was killing me. I just wanted to get out of there and obviously Seth did too because he began telling me he wanted to go home quite loudly. So what did they do? Gave him a cookie with raisins in it (sugar #4). Are you guys getting a picture of this yet? Seth and sugar does not mix well.

While shooting the last shot I was frantically trying to keep up with all the soggy raisins that Seth was spitting out while trying to get him to look up at the ceiling. We were supposed to pretend to be watching a fireworks show. That went over like a ton of rocks after the first 2 minutes. After that he was trying to climb down a hole in the floor that they use as some sort of prop. He was looking for a treasure chest. The sugar was really kicking in.

I think we were all glad to get home and the first thing I told the kids when they opened the car door was to go outside and RUN! Of course I was hoping to burn off all that sugar. It must have worked because they are both fast asleep. "Thank you Lord"

I don't know if any of the shots will turn out okay and actually be used. I guess we will have to wait until fall to see if they show up on the website but I am glad it is over. Hope you enjoyed our picture perfect adventure. I am off to get menthol pads slapped all over my back and I am praying I will be able to move in the morning.

A Friend from Bogota

Hannah has been corresponding with an 8 year old girl from Bogota Columbia that Jim a co-worker of mine is adopting. Jim and Jamie will be bringing back Leidy 8, Jhon 3, and Stefani 11 months home in about 4 weeks if all the paperwork is completed in time. They are all siblings and were living on the streets before they went to the state's custody. They have been updating their blog with all the exciting things going on with their new expanded family. The emails from Hannah to Leidy has made her feel like she will have a friend when she gets here and Jim said he has been translating them (she can not speak English) and she has been grinning ear to ear and can't wait to play with her. Hannah is so excited and keeps asking when she is coming to play. Of course she has it all planned out for a day of fun.

First Blog

Hello evryone. I hope I did the email alert correctly. If I did and you have visited the blog please post so I know you were able to find it. You may have to sign up for a google account but it is free.

I will try and post at least once a week. That's all for tonight. It's beddy bye time and Seth can't seem to stay in bed.