The Kirby

I was going to post about this a while ago but never got around to it. I guess since technically it was a birthday/Christmas present to me it's appropriate to still post. To understand how funny this story is, you have to have some background information. When Justin was a kid, the Kirby vacuum salesman was at their house giving a demonstration. If you haven't sat through a demo before, they make it a dramatic as a vacuum demonstration can possibly be. I'm sure with 7 kids in awe of the awsome power of Kirby watching, the pressure to buy wasn't just coming from the salesman. At the end of the demonstration, the kids were allowed to choose between buying a T.V. or a new vacuum. They picked the vacuum (it must have been some demonstration). Justin went without a T.V. for most of Justin's life (which I think is a good thing but Justin doesn't agree) So as long as I've known Justin, the above story always ended with "That dang Kirby salesman!!!"
Fast forward to a few months ago. The Kirby people came around setting up appointments to shampoo one room. I like clean carpets as much as the next person so we agreed to sit through the demo. The entire time (which was about 2 hours) I told the guy there is no way I was buying a vacuum. At the end, he stepped outside to let Justin and I discuss the vacuum. I figured there was nothing to discuss. Justin immediately says, "I think we should get one" It's true that our vacuum was on it's last leg but I wasn't going to spend that much on a vacuum. At that point he suggested that the $$ would come out of his pocket not the household account. The best part of this whole story is that Vanessa had recently put chips in the DVD player and in his attempts to fix it, Justin killed the TV. The TV we are currently using is a 9 inch portable that Justin has for the camp trailer (once again, I don't think it's a bad thing) I'll have to admit, the Kirby is a great vacuum. The only draw back is that it's on the heavy side (not fun for stairs) and you have to practically take it apart to use the attachments. So now everytime I need attachments it's me saying "Dang Kirby salesman".

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yesterday we had our first little snow storm. The kids were so excited. It didn't last very long and it melted away pretty quickly but it brought huge, wet flakes that were perfect for catching on your tongue (Ethan) or making snowmen(Caden). Vanessa spent most of the time just running with her arms stretched out. Alliya loved eating snow. Justin had risked life and limb to hang our Christmas lights (OK he never was in any danger). Having the house decorated and a little snow really brought the holiday excitement home. The kids ask about a million times a day when Christmas is coming.
I almost lost the magic of Christmas for Caden on accident. I have a little Santa Claus that sits on the table. One day Alliya was trying to feed her yogurt to the Santa. I casually told her to stop feeding the Santa, he's not real (meaning he couldn't eat). Caden (with a lot of emotion) said, "Yes he is, he's REAL". I think there's been some debate on the school bus between the older and younger kids as to the truth about Santa. Caden is not about to quit believing. He would really like a turtle for Christmas and he knows mom's against it. Santa is his only hope (even though I've explained to him that Santa asks the mommy first if a pet is requested). The other kids aren't really concerned (I don't think they realize there's any debate over Santa's exsistence). Driving down the road, Vanessa saw an inflatable Santa Claus that wasn't inflated at that time. She pointed and told Ethan, "Look, Santa's dead" then without missing a beat started pointing out the other sights.
I love this time of year, especially with young kids. It's such a magical time for them and I hope they believe for a long time to come.

Winter Wonderland

Alliya's 1st Birthday home

It was so fun to celebrate Alliya's birthday for the first time as a family. This was the 1st time her birthday was more than just extra hugs and kisses and a cake for everyone that had a birthday that month. We went to the Treehouse museum again and this time we took Caden, Daddy and Erika. It was fun and really nice to have a 3 adult to 4 kid ratio. The kids got to split-up and see the areas they really wanted to see. I also was able to see areas we'd missed the first time. Because Alliya and I share the same birthday, I'm well aware of the problems a December birthday presents. Growing-up, I hated Christmas wrapping paper on my birthday present or when I was given a gift that was for my birthday AND Christmas. So when I ordered Alliya's birthday cake (just her's this year, for once she wasn't sharing a cake with anyone else), I made sure it wouldn't reflect the holiday season. Even though ladybugs are red, there is nothing about a ladybug that reminds people of Christmas. Imagine my dismay when I picked-up a Ladybug Birthday cake with green holly leaves on it. Who puts holly leaves on a ladybug????? I didn't have time to make them fix it and I knew the only one that would care would be me so I just left it at that. Next year I'm going to see if they'll put a Santa Hat on a butterfly.
It turned out to be a near perfect day (we did make Erika late for work) and it was nice to have Alliya home for our birthday.

Alliya's Birthday

Play group at the Treehouse

Our FSA (Families Supporting Adoption)group had a play group at the Treehouse Children's museum. It was so fun. We'd never been there before and the kids could have stayed forever. Ethan discovered the Medieval area and was hooked. He loved dressing up as a king or a knight (or knightmare as he called it). It's halloween everyday for Ethan. He wanted to wear his power ranger costume to the treehouse and I told him to put on regular clothes...so he wore a karate outfit. When he found out he got to dress-up at the museum he was in heaven. I haven't heard about dinosaur park for days. The girls had a really good time as well. In fact they decided that we needed to go again for Manoucheca's Birthday party.

The Treehouse

Disclaimer for extended (birth) families

OK, I've been worrying about how the blog will be received by all of our wonderful birthfamilies. Mostly, I'm concerned that if I don't have the exact same amount of pictures and stories for each child, it will be interpreted as favoritism. For the record, I love each and every one of my children with all of my heart. So, if you don't see one child as much as the others, let me give a couple possible reasons: 1) Caden is at school most of the day and exciting things like homework and dinner don't make the list of kodak moments very often. The kids that spend the most time with mom (and the camera) tend to have more pictures 2) Ethan is REALLY into posing for pictures right now and is always looking for reasons for me to grab the camera (he thinks homework and dinner ARE kodak moments) 3) Sworn to secrecy. Caden is old enough that it embarasses him if I tell cute stories about him. At times, it's hard to get permission to pass along stories. 4) technical difficulties. My computer and I are rarely friends. For example, currently there is a video clip of Ethan on the blog but none of the other children. I'm trying...but my computer just won't cooperate. I'm not giving up and eventually I will have video of all the kids.

So these are the kinds of things I lose sleep over. If I ever offend anyone, please let me know. It would be completely unintentional. I realize that I'm probably worrying too much and that until I pointed it out, none of you were counting pictures. I just hope that this blog is a source of joy and a great way for me to share the kids' lives with those that love them so much.

Ethan at soccer

Ethan kicking the ball in at soccer practice

I Bubba

Being "Daddy's Little Girl" is a priority around here. Vanessa caught on very quickly that daddy was wrapped tightly around her finger and she is not afraid to use this power. She has a shirt that says "Daddy's Little Girl" and she uses it to her advantage. The second Justin walks through the door, Vanessa will run up to him, give him a hug and point to her shirt and say "I'm Daddy's Little Girl", then she will ask for anything under the sun knowing full well that she will get it. Manoucheca has caught on to this now too. For no other reason than the simple fact that he's Justin, Justin decided to nickname Manoucheca, Bubba (as if she doesn't have enough names already). When ever Justin is around, she always tells him that she's his Bubba. She even points to pictures of herself and states "that's Bubba". It's always done with a smile and a sly look toward Justin. They even have the other kids calling her Bubba. How in the world did my little princess turn into Bubba (isn't that a redneck name?) As I rock her to sleep, I've always asked "Are you my baby?" to which she'd reply "I your baby". Now I get "No, I Bubba". Part of me says "Don't worry, this too shall pass" like when he wanted to call her Moo Moo. Then there's the part of me that's a little nervous because I've met a 40 year old woman named Scooter, a nickname she received before the age of one.

I can't believe our little turkey is 7

WOW, last year just flew by (not to mention the 6 before that). I can't believe Caden is already 7. Evidently he feels differently about it. Cade woke-up the morning of his birthday and the first thing he said is, "Am I FINALLY 7?" I guess he'll spend the next year patiently waiting to turn 8. He wanted a turkey birthday cake this year (I think it's because he went to a Halloween themed birthday in Oct so he decided he'd need to do a Thanksgiving theme). It is probably the first ever turkey birthday cake, one of kind just like the birthday boy. He had a blast at his party. It was complete chaos from my viewpoint but we survived and everyone had fun. It was very hard for him to limit the number of guests and I was pleasantly surprised that he stuck pretty close to the limit I had set. He made the invitations and delivered them by himself (Mister Independent, as usual) so I was expecting most of the neighborhood. He loved all of the gifts. As he opened the gift card from Grandpa John and Grandma Patsy, his eyes got wide and he exclaimed, "They sent me a credit card. Now I can buy anything I want and not pay for it until later". Between the gift card and the cash Lindsay sent, Caden thought he was the riches 7 year old in the world. Of course, he went shopping immediately and was very pleased with the Stormtrooper helmet he picked-out. Always wanting to keep-up with big brother, Ethan is currently planning his 7th Birthday. I'm trying to convience him to just focus on being 4. Caden got to read a book to his class on his birthday and the kids and I went to listen. Caden had Ethan come sit up front on his chair with him. Ethan was so proud, he was in absolute Heaven. He doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't just skip the rest of pre-school and Kindergarden and go to school with Caden right now. They are all growing-up so fast.

Caden's Birthday

A day at the Zoo

Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween!! We had perfect trick-or-treating weather (normally we freeze while we're out) the kids didn't even need coats. We all had a good time walking around the neighborhood. We would have been done a lot faster if we'd let Caden and Ethan set the pace. They were sprinting from house to house and quite frankly, Justin, the girls and I were holding them back. I was surprised at how quickly Manoucheca got over her shyness when she realized there was candy at stake. The hardest part for her was to not stop and eat each piece. Vanessa was having a hard time walking in her Minnie Mouse feet so she was content to sit in the wagon and have Dad pull her around while Caden brought her share of the candy to her. She was quite the little diva. Towards the end, all four kids plus a family friend managed to climb aboard the wagon and let Justin tow them. I estimate that he was pulling about 190 lbs and not even complaining. He's such a good sport. Caden would have hit every house in the valley if we would have been willing. He doesn't even like candy that much but he loves to trick-or-treat. He is such a social kid. Ethan was really proud of his costume and was excited that Caden and he were BOTH power rangers. He looks-up to his big brother a lot. So, it meant a lot to him that Caden thought Ethan's costume was cool enough that he wanted to be a ranger too.

We had waited until the Tuesday before Halloween to carve pumpkins and I'm glad we did. They were already getting mushy by Saturday. The kids had fun carving (or making mom carve) the pumpkins they picked out. Caden did his entirely by himself. Ethan wanted his to look like "Big Green Monster" his favorite book so he had me carve it. I'll tell you, scraggely hair is hard to carve. I wouldn't let the girls play with knives so they just told me how they wanted the eyes, etc.. I did allow them to clean-out most of the seeds however. They didn't enjoy that slimy part, especially Vanessa. Not surprisingly, Ethan didn't mind playing in the slime one bit.

BOO!!

A day at dinosaur park

Still trying to get up-to-date

I think this gets me current. Below are a couple new slide shows. I went to Sam's Club today determined to get prints to send out...well there was 213 pictures on the card and it would have taken me the rest of the day to make sure I got the right # of each picture to send out. Long story short, I decided to post them instead. The miracle of technology. Some of the pictures I've blogged about before...there's just more pictures because I was having a hard time putting multiple picture with one post, and they are all facing the right way. I'm warning you, there are a lot of pictures (so many slide.com wouldn't let me put them in one slide show). So, if you don't want to see them all, just don't watch it. However, there will be a quiz later and if you don't pass, I'm taking your name off my Christmas Card list.

Can you share too many pictures of your kids? Not if they're this cute.

Our life in review

More Toys

I promise this isn't a toy blog but it seems like we've been working on toys a lot lately. The slide show is updated with the newest toys...the barn is my favorite so far.

The Toys

Hot off the factory floor...the first of our toys

So, here are the first samples of Justin's toy business. I think the dollhouse turned out pretty cute and the girls have enjoyed playing with it. He's also making a barn that I think will be super cute. For some reason Justin didn't take a picture of his dump truck before we shipped it off to Idaho but it turned out cute and is Ethan's favorite. So, this is why I'm not able to park in the garage. I hope he's done before winter, I HATE scraping my windshield!!!

Fun Run...more of a walk, run, push

Today we participated in a Fun run and walk to help raise money for an orphanage in Haiti. We chose to walk because 1)The kids were participating and 2)I probably would have been carried off in a stretcher half dead if I'd tried to run a 5k. Our friends Amy and Angie showed their support and walked with us and it's a good thing they did. Caden decided he would run the mile instead of walking and of course, Ethan wasn't going to be out done by his big brother. Angie overheard me tell Justin that I'd push the girls in the stroller while he kept-up with the boys. Being the wonderful friend she is, Angie volunteered to run with the boys, despite the warning that Caden is pretty fast. They signaled for us to start and Caden took off. Angie had to sprint to keep-up. Amy was jogging alongside Ethan until he decided after about 1/4 mile he was a little tired and had Amy carry him on her shoulders. Meanwhile, at the back of the line, the girls had decided that they wanted to run too. So, Justin pushed the stroller and kept pace with Vanessa while Manoucheca (running her very hardest)and I were in last place. I finally convinced Manoucheca to get into the stroller and Vanessa joined her while Justin ran up to catch Ethan and hopefully get him off of Amy's shoulders (I certainly didn't want to be reponsible for an emergency room visit for Amy). At the front of the walk, Caden has decided that Angie is following him closely because his mom is overprotective. Mister Independent kept turning around and telling her to quit following him, he was OK by himself (he really thinks he's a lot bigger than he is). Eventually he lost Angie about the time we finally caught-up. Angie, being a trooper, sprinted ahead and caught-up to Caden and they finished the first lap together. Meanwhile, Justin, Amy and I are playing musical kids. Sometimes they would walk, sometimes they would ride, sometimes they would run. As we all finished the 1st lap, we spotted Angie and Caden hanging out at the side of the road (it was the first time I'd seen Caden since they'd said go). Caden was tired so he sat in the stroller with Manoucheca while Ethan and Vanessa ran. About half-way through the final lap, Ethan and Justin had to find a potty fast so they left the walk. Amy and Angie swapped pushing the stroller (which meant 80 extra pounds, not the easy job) and I got to be Vanessa's cheerleader as she ran most of the 2nd lap. As Vanessa and I crossed the finish line dead last...we were informed that they had mismeasured the race and we had actually walked 2 miles instead of one. That meant 1)Caden sprinted (almost non-stop) one full mile. I think that's pretty impressive for a not quite 7 year old. 2) Vanessa and Ethan ran about half of the time so they probably averaged a mile of running. Not bad for a 3 and 4 year old. and 3)I owe Amy and Angie big time because they either pushed or chased one or more of my kids for a full 2 miles. And they were really good sports about it although Angie claims we didn't inform her that Caden was that fast. Thanks ladies, it was fun.

Haiti Fun Run/Walk

Why you should never make mud pies with Ethan

The kids were out playing in the sandbox while I caught-up with some house work. It wasn't long before Vanessa came in covered with mud. When I asked her what happened she explained that Ethan had thrown mud at her. Vanessa followed me outside and I tried to explain to Ethan that it wasn't nice to throw sand at his sister and he would have to come in for a time-out. The problem with this approach was that Ethan wasn't paying attention to me at all. He kept looking at Vanessa and laughing saying, "Vanessa looks FUNNY". After several attempt at discussing the situation I finally gave up (I was having a hard time not laughing at this point). So I took some pictures and put all three of them in a bath. Honestly, could you have disciplined that giggly faced boy????

The biggest news of all

The biggest news we have to share is that we were finally able to bring our little girl home from Haiti. Alliya Manoucheca (nickname NewNew or AlliNew) has been home nearly 8 months. We flew to Haiti on the last day of Jan. and left the next day. It was a quick trip and we really wish that we would have been able to spend more time in Haiti but the most important thing is that we were able to bring NewNew home. She has adjusted really well. It seems like just yesterday we went to pick her up but at the same time, it's hard to remember what life was like before she arrived.

Justin and Kim in a nutshell

Here's a brief recap of what Justin and I have been up to:

• Justin still thinks the world would stop turning if he took a day off work
• Our house is for sale...again
• I've been busy with Families Supporting Adoption. I am currently vice-co-chair of our local chapter and I also serve on the National Board. I really like promoting positive views of adoption and FSA gives me that opportunity.
• We are now in the toy business. Me and my big mouth....during a recent trip to Idaho, Justin and his brother were discussing a set of blocks that their dad had played with as a child then they had played with and now our children are playing with. I mentioned that I'd seen someone selling similar blocks at a farmers market and well...we are now making toys in our garage. I will post some pictures as soon as we get some of the projects finished.
• Mostly my days are filled with cleaning, chasing kids and taking the kids to school and soccer.

Being 3 is GREAT!!!

Vanessa loves being 3. She is now officially a big girl and she reminds Manoucheca all the time that she is only 2 and is not a big girl yet.

Turning 3 meant that Vanessa was old enough to take swimming lessons this summer (which she loved) and is now big enough to go to pre-school. She LOVES pre-school. Vanessa is Miss Happy and is always asking everyone if they are happy. She has a contagious laugh and has Daddy wrapped around her little finger. I had to include a picture of her Elmo "punkcakes" because she still talks about them even months after her birthday and has the whole family saying cupcakes wrong.

Ethan...big man on campus

Ethan is offically an upper-classman at pre-school. He has been very helpful when it comes to keeping Vanessa on-track. From what I understand, he requires her to walk with her arms folded while at school. I wish he helped keep the order at home like that...it might get quiet around here.

One of the kids' pre-school projects was to make a paper doll that looks like them. I hope I don't compromise his mission by saying Batman's secret identity is not Bruce Wyane, it is really Ethan Freeman.

When Ethan isn't busy saving the world, he is amazing me with everything he can do. If Ethan wants to do it...he will find a way to do it. This past summer he taught himself to read, went from riding a bike with training wheels to no training wheels within a matter of minutes, and successfully taught mom that no matter where I put something...if he wants it...he'll be able to get it (the boy has promising potential as a circus acrobat).

In no particular order...just getting everyone up-to-date

A lot has happened since most of you have heard from us. Caden has been making the toothfairy earn some frequent flyer miles. He has lost 6 teeth now. He's in 1st grade and likes it but thinks it's too long. He's such a smarty and is reading very well. His favorite part of school is lunch and he loves riding the bus to school now. Sorry the picture of him getting on the bus on the first day isn't very good but I'm lucky I got the picture. He was so excited to get on the bus he didn't want to stop for a photo session. The above picture is of Caden and Vanessa riding an elephant at the circus. Ethan decided against riding it as soon as he got close enough to see exactly how big an elephant really is (he regreted not getting on later when Caden and Vanessa got to brag about their adventure). Manoucheca wouldn't even look at the elephant, she just keep saying "Oh, Scary".

I finally did it

Thanks to some encouragment from some friends and my overwhelming guilt about not corresponding as much as I would like with our birthfamilies, the Freeman Family is finally blogging. Hopefully, I will be better at keeping everyone up-to-date now. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. I still have to figureout how to do the fancy stuff and as you will notice, I don't know how to turn the pictures the right way. I'm hoping to one day be technologically savy.