PARTY AND TRICK OR TREAT...

Emilie had her very first "costume" party on the 30th. We don't do "scary" here so we sent out invitations requesting kids dress as their favorite tv or movie character and in nothing scary. Elijah would have been stressed anyway! I think they all had a good time. They played Fear Factor, which was fun and then played some other games as well. Emilie was a CSI agent and Elijah was the very famous BLUE from Blues Clues! :) Tifanie and Randy were AWESOME to stick around on their Saturday night and help me. They even dressed up for the occasion as well. I have pretty great kids!
We did go trick or treating in our home town. Elijah just went visiting as I did not really want him to have the candy! Em decided this was to be her last year. She was kind of bored by the time we were done. When we got home, Don had to take our little Blue around to show his buddies. Elijah enjoyed the attention and this time he DID get candy. In fact, at one of the houses he thought he would just take their entire candy bowl. He sat his bucket down and picked their bowl full of candy up! It was pretty funny.
It is hard to believe we are already into November. Some days I feel like we just got home from Ethiopia and others it feels like a lifetime ago.
Many changes are headed our way in 2011. Some are good and some not so good so I think I will hold tight to 2010 and try to enjoy every minute of it!
Here are a few pics of our Halloween weekend:

"Here's the mail it never fails it makes me want to wag my tail and when it comes I want to wail MMMAAAIIILLL!" The little guy LOVES when mail comes on Blues Clues. I love how his little hands are crossed here.

This is one of the teams for the games...Randy's team along with Elijah who tried to get involved as much as he could!!

This was the other team...Tifanie's team. They were having fun!!

We only did a little decorating...a spider web with orange and black spiders.

*My thankful posts will follow in a week or so. I really think about blogging everyday...but then I just run out of time! Chasing a toddler keeps me very busy!! BUT I am loving every minute of it!! Hoping our re-adoption will be completed soon. Who knew we lived in such a finicky county in MO!!

Blessing to all~

OUR FIRST BABY BOY!

How quickly time flies when you have children! I was told this several times when I first gave birth to Tifanie but at 19 yrs old...it did not sink in! Now at almost 40, and with Tifanie 20 and Randy almost 18, I am wishing I had listened to them a little more.
When Randy was about 8 yrs old he assured me that one day he WOULD be a soldier like his Daddy! He would protect and serve our country and us just like he watched his Dad doing. He assured me he would be ready to go anywhere when he was told to. He was 8 so I said to him...Ok honey! That would make Daddy and I very proud. Well...as the years have passed my boy turned into a young man and the whole time he never waivered on what it was he was going to do with his life...the only uncertainty was WHAT his job in the Army would be. SO...on Friday Oct 15, 2010 we watched our son make his dream a reality. He was sworn in to serve our Country just as his Dad has done for 22 yrs and his grandpas had done before him. As scared as I was at that moment, this Mom could not have been more proud! The older Randy gets the more I see his Dad in him and that could never be a bad thing!
SO...As Randy counts down the months until he "gets" to leave and start his career, this Mom is going to hold on just a little tighter as she counts down the months until she "has" to let go and let him fly.

Blessings~

Tina

LOVING THE FALL...

I LOVE the fall. I like watching the leaves change to beautiful colors and seeing God's wonders unfold in front of my very eyes. This year has been no different other than we are sharing it for the first time with our sweet boy Elijah. He enjoys being outside as much as possible!
We took him, Emilie and his little buddy, Alex to pumpkin patch recently. Elijah loved every minute of it. He is now 17 months and so very independent already. He absolutely LOVES his Daddy. If Daddy is around that is all he wants. He will scream for Daddy if he walks outside to get something only to come right back in. So my plan for another Mama's boy has failed...so far! :)
Our lives have been so very blessed by this precious boy. He is also at such a fun age. He can really make us laugh at some of the things he does. Yesterday we were eating out and Daddy was giving him tastes of his water. Then he told me to give him a taste of my tea...Elijah suck it from the straw and said "Tank You...MMMMMM". We just laughed at him. We were also at Target and Daddy was letting him walk instead of ride. Elijah walked right up to the candy shelf and grabbed a bag then walked to my cart leaned on his tippy toes and threw it in! Now...we do not give him candy especially, snickers! We had to laugh because it was SO cute.
He is learning by leaps and bounds and I love it! He will sing along with me when I sing to him. (it isn't the exact words but I know he is trying) He will climb up on my lap for no reason and say PAY... then fold his hand gibber a little then say AMEN!
We are gearing up for a fun next few months with the Holidays coming. It will be so much fun to watch Elijah through all of it.
Here are a few pics.

Trying to ride the pumpkin at the pumpkin patch!

Making lots of noise and lovin' it!

WEEEEEeeeee! The boy LOVES the slide.

Oh...and this is one of his favorite things to do. He will climb in after I take laundry out and just sit in there and laugh at me. *Thankfully, my dryer is usually never empty!

****I am going to try and post more frequently. I figure people may get tired of reading this but it is my journal of sorts so I need to be better about posting. :)

Blessings to all~

Tina

ONE YEAR AGO

***It is hard to believe it has been a year since we saw this picture of our little guy for the first time. He continues to be such a blessing to us and our family. SO...HAPPY REFERRAL-VERSARY TO OUR SWEET BOY!

BLUES CLUES...

Our boy LOVES Blues Clues. He asked to watch it several times a day. He can even get the remote and point it at the TV to "try" to get his "booz cooz" on. His favorite part is the mail. He can be playing with toys and the mail song will come on...he will drop everything and start dancing. TOO FUNNY! BUT then he must get very close to watch the mail scene. (I know this is not good on his eyes but I had to capture a picture before making him move back.)

***I think the boy does not have enough toys! (Oh, yes...he has many more up in his room!)

SEPT ALREADY...

We have already had a wonderful Sept. We spent Mon and Tues of this week in St Louis, MO. We went to the zoo and the arch and then got to spend some time visiting with Tsegay and his wife Almaz at an Ethiopian Restaurant. This is the Ethiopian Director and his wife. What a blessing it was to be able to see them again and to visit with so many families WHO GET IT! :) Elijah had a great time. He kept trying to get into the kitchen/bar area. Emilie also loved seeing and visiting with everyone. She really enjoyed playing with the littles. She kept saying how cute they all were. She wanted to try lamb so Don ordered lamb to share with her. Then he taught her how to eat it without her fork. She did well trying all of it.

*Elijah eating injera and LOVING it!

Mommy, Daddy and Elijah at the museum in the arch

Mommy chasing Elijah through the tunnel at the zoo

* Emilie and Elijah at the zoo.

Last Sept started out as a very tough month for us. We were so tired of the waiting! We had been on the adoption roller coaster for over 2.5 years. We had been waiting for our little guy from Ethiopia for over 10 months. We were inching closer to the Holidays and the idea of spending another holiday not knowing our little guy was really tearing me up inside. Little did we know, God was getting ready to bless us in a HUGE way...

Have a wonderful week!! And if you think about it please say a little prayer for our family. We recently found out that my Dad is not getting a very good blood flow to his heart. He has been having "minor" attacks for about 3 months and has to take nitro to relieve it. He finally has an appt with the cardiologist on Sept 24th to see what they will do about all of this. Thanks~

Blessings~

Tina

SINCE I LAST POSTED...

Well, another 2 weeks have passed by very quickly. Why does time seem to get away from me these days?? Maybe it is this active little boy I spend most of day chasing after!??! BUT I so love chasing him. He is such an active little boy and we knew he would be from the minute he was placed in our arms. He was going up the all of the stairs within a month of coming home...big sign! He is already running and trying to hide from everyone. (we can usually still see him...but he "thinks" he is hiding)
School has started so the kids are gone all day. Em had transitioned much easier than we had ever thought. **Thanks so much for all of the prayers**I am certain they have helped. I forgot to turn the alarm on last night so I woke up at 602 this morning and rushed into her room and woke her up. She hopped right up...got dressed...did her hair...and all of the other things she needed to get done and was out the door by 630. She even ate a bowl of cereal. I am SO very proud of her!! Randy has it easier since he can drive himself. He doesn't have to leave the house until about 710. Em is already in her first class at that time...poor girl! Tifanie started her college courses this week. A few days a week I keep another little guy who is a few months older than Elijah. It is good for Elijah to interact with another little one AND he is learning to share his things.
Elijah had his 15 month check up this week and he is growing like a weed! He is already over 24lbs and almost 32 inches long. The pediatrician says he is advanced in his language skills. The funny thing is it came on all at once. The beginning of Aug he still wasn't really saying a whole lot of words but then almost over night I noticed him repeating words more and more. He has recently fallen head over heels in love with Blues Clues. He gets excited when it comes on and will sit for about 10 minutes straight without moving. He can even say Blue. (sounds more like bwoo) He also adores trucks more and more. I took him down the toy aisle at Target a few days ago and he got so excited when he say all of the trucks. He held is hands out and kept saying Uh huh...he wanted them ALL! Christmas should be pretty easy. :)
We are headed out of town this weekend. This will be our first weekend away from him. I have already told hubby if he cries we are just taking him with us! We will see how I do. I am sure he will do much better than Mommy will.
Hope you all have a wonderfully blessed weekend.
Tina