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.