Snow Day!

A couple weeks ago we got a fun winter surprise! No school for these kiddos, not with our inch or two of snow. Because snow is so rare here everything basically shuts down for just an inch or two.

I was the mean mom who made my kids walk around the snow and stand in front of the house until we got a decent picture before I let them run through it. I knew it wouldn't look so pretty once they had enjoyed it. I was right. The house looked so pretty with a blanket of snow on it. It would have made a nice Christmas card.


Of course Misha had to join us. Good thing Aunt Maya made him that scarf for Christmas!







Keaton had as much fun as his brothers and sisters. We actually had to take him in the house to defrost twice because he got huge buildups of ice on his paws and could hardly walk. He played like a puppy though.


This was the beginning of Sophie's snowman. Keaton ate him later that afternoon.


Julian in action. He was throwing a snowball.


Misha makes a snow angel.


Lily still manages to look adorable in the freezing cold.


She is so proud of her snow angel.


The birdhouse would have looked even more perfect if only a little red bird would have been perched on it.




We sled on our hill all year round. This was the first time any snow was involved though. All our neighbor kids and kids we had never even seen gathered in our backyard because we have the best hill. I loved having so many giggling kids in the backyard.


Before


After. The after actually makes me smile more than the before.

More snow fun:







Around noon we went in to warm up. Hot soup, "snow angel" sandwiches, and homemade chocolate chip cookies did the trick. The kids watched a movie while their clothes were in the dryer and they were back out to play with what was left of the snow in the afternoon.

Backup

Oh boy, did I get behind on my blogging. On Wednesday we started talking about taking our first family trip for the weekend, meaning two days later! On Thursday we confirmed that we would leave the following day and drive down to Orlando for a long weekend. How's that for last minute? The kids had a four day weekend (well, they ended up having a snow day makeup on Friday) and we wanted to take advantage of their time off and have some together time.

We didn't tell the kids. We put them to bed early like any other school night on Thursday night, woke them up in the morning at the same time as usual, and sat them down to breakfast. We asked them if they wanted to go to school or if they would rather go to "Mickey Mouse's doma." You can guess what they replied and after we finished getting ready, we dropped Keaton at the "dog hotel," and we were on our way. After we arrived we had dinner at IHOP. Ha, ha. We told the kids how special it was to have breakfast for dinner.

The next day, which was coincidently the 6 month anniversary of the kids being home, we went to Magic Kingdom. It wasn't very crowded, the weather was perfect, and we stayed from opening to closing! Let me tell you what troopers our kids are! No complaining on our 9 hour trip down to Florida, slept crammed in a bed together, and walked all over Magic Kingdom. They rode anything they were tall enough to ride too. Tate, who cried when we put him on a swing 6 months ago, and had never really left his detsky dom, rode Splash Mountain and the Haunted Mansion with a twinkle in his eye. He is one changed kid.

I will try to post a six month update sometime soon. The kids are just constantly amazing us with their growth, progress, willingness to go with the flow, and zest for life. Lots of answered prayers in this family. We feel so blessed and thank God for all the gifts in our lives daily.

One Cold Weekend

We have had some very cold weather lately. All last week was pretty cold and the kids spent very little time playing outside, like usual. We tried to come up with some fun activities to keep us happy and busy this weekend.

On Saturday I took the girls to see "Hotel for Dogs." I thought it was pretty silly, but cute. My dog-loving daughters thought it was the best movie ever.






Has anyone else noticed that there is a huge majority of children's movies that are about orphans? Kevin and I have noticed it lately. We don't really have the kids watch TV at all but we love watching movies and I think at least 10 of the movies we have watched have an orphan as part of the story line.

Sunday night they slept upstairs in the tent we gave Kevin for Christmas.





On Monday we brought a picnic lunch out to the lake to eat at Kevin's parent's property. We had lunch on the dock since they were working on the house and then we checked out the progress of the construction. Cold, but fun!














And today was a snow day! More pictures coming soon!

Project 365

No, I didn't mean to get you that excited. We aren't adopting again or pulling the kids from school (but those are interesting suggestions). I decided to do something called Project 365 this year. You post a picture everyday. I take tons of pictures already. I just thought it would be a good way to keep me blogging and a fun way to watch our family grow and change.

I will keep a link in my sidebar.

Enjoy!

Something New!

I have something new in the works. Stay tuned...

Happy 33rd Birthday, Pop!

Today was Kevin's 33rd birthday. We celebrated with his family before they left this week but we didn't want the actual day to be overlooked either, so we celebrated as a family today.


First we bought a balloon bouquet,


then we went to Pop's work.


We surprised him while he was sitting in his office having some soup at his computer. He wasn't feeling well so it was an especially nice surprise. He said later it took him a second to figure out that the person standing in his doorway who looked like his wife actually was his wife. I have never showed up at his office unannounced. :D






The kids decorated this fantastic looking cake! Chocolate and chocolate, just he way Papa likes it.



Hope your 33rd year is as wonderful as your 32nd was!

Adopting in Donetsk?

I just moderated a comment of someone who said they would love for me to email them because they had some questions. They are adopting in Donetsk. Please leave me another comment on this post. I posted your comment but then realized you didn't write the comment on one of my most recent posts and now I can't find your email address. Sorry!

:) Krista

New Year's Day

Brr! We had a chilly New Year's Day in North Carolina. Cold for us, anyway. We spent our day lounging around in pajamas, eating a special breakfast and dinner, and snacking on appetizers in between. The guys watched their final Star Wars movie and the girls watched "Felicity: An American Girl Movie." I did a ton of laundry as well. The kids played with toys and cleaned up their bedrooms and bathrooms as well.

In the late afternoon we braved the cold and practiced riding their new bikes. Kevin's parents gave them the bikes for Christmas and they have been getting better at riding them with almost daily practice. All the bikes are a little bit big for the kids which makes learning a little more difficult. They love it though!









After evening baths we let them eat a little of their gingerbread houses and then we watched the Rose Parade. They really enjoyed their first Rose Parade and thought the flowers on the floats were so cool. Kevin's grandparents lived right off of the parade route (where Kevin's dad grew up) until just a couple years ago. We spent our fair share of nights sleeping outside and watching the parade up close. One year it was windy and miserable and we ended up watching the parade back home after spending a sleepless night outside! Anyway, the kids made us native Southern Californians proud and enjoyed it thoroughly!