I'm finally getting a chance to post some photos from the birthdays!

This is sweet Dylan when he was about 8 months old. What an adorable little boy he was!!

Here's our handsome 10 year old Dylan now! The time passes so FAST!

His crazy crew for the party!

Here's our sweet Alyssa before adopted her. This is one of her referral pics and she's about 8 months old. This was the first glimpse we had of our first and only (so far!) daughter!


Now look at this grown up, beautiful girl! What a cutie-pie!
Mommy and Alyssa on her birthday




Alyssa's crazy crew at her party

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HALLOWEEN PREPARATIONS

So, I hate to complain but my husband has been working non stop, crazy shifts for the last month! I feel like I've been doing everything on my own...he's been working night shifts and the evening shift of 2-10 pm. Now, all parents know how sucky that shift is - it means I have the kids after school, homework time, supper time, extracurricular activity time (for 4 kids), bathtime, and bedtime. By the time he comes home at 10:15 pm, I'm in bed watching a movie or reading...I'm pooped! Anyway...that's life for now so I need to deal with it!

So, tomorrow is Halloween and I had been waiting for a time to carve the pumpkins and get everything ready for Halloween when both Chris and I would be home with the kids. Well, that wasn't possible so tonight the kids and I set up in the kitchen and we carved 3 very beautiful pumpkins if I must say so myself!!!!

Evan is THRILLED that tomorrow is Halloween...he has never experienced Halloween in China and the concept is beyond his comprehension...I mean, he's 5 years old and we are telling him EVERY SINGLE HOUSE in our subdivision will be passing out candy tomorrow night - and he gets to keep it all and eat it all. Really, does it get better than that to a 5 year old????

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Caleb - dressing up as a monster...he's hoping to lay on our deck and scare kids as they come trick or treating...he tried that last year but soon gave in to the need to get candy instead.

Dylan - a nerd

Alyssa - ballerina

Evan - spiderman (FYI - Evan dresses up as Spiderman everyday! He even goes into town as spiderman)

Daddy - a handsome but dangerous pirate

Mommy - a witch (it's easy!!).

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TIMEOUTS

I rarely have to put Evan in timeouts, he's very good to listen and hates going to his room when he might miss all the action in the rest of the house! But, tonight the kids were all going a little bananas and mama was getting a tad frustrated and Evan was being just TOO LOUD so I sent him to his room for a few minutes. When I called him back out to the kitchen to finish his supper, he comes running down the hall dressed like this: (yes that's underwear on his head and socks on his hands...I guess he found ways to amuse himself in the timeout!)

Honestly...the kid has such a personality!!!!

Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!

BIRTHDAYS!

We had a busy weekend with our birthday parties! Honestly, I know everyone says this but I can't believe my kids are getting so grown up! Dylan turned 10!!!! To me, he's still that sweet, adorable, chubby 3 year old! And our Alyssa...how could she be 5 years old already??? Seriously, it feels like we just went to China (well, we did - LOL) to get her! And now she is tall, beautiful and not a baby at all anymore!



The parties were lots of fun...believe it or not, Dylan had 16 boys at his party (at our house) and it was awesome! This is a great age where they can entertain themselves and find lots of things to do. It was a beautiful weekend so that helped with having them play street hockey and a BBQ outside!



Alyssa's party was a bit quieter with 5 girls and lots of "girl power"! Still, lots of fun with games, pinatas and cake!

I think they both really enjoyed their special days. Evan is on the countdown to his birthday (it's not until Feb) and he says "only 98 days till my happy birthday!" He's also very excited that his birthday will be in the snow! He's never seen snow before (except the pictures we've shown him) and he CANNOT wait to see it for real! I'm not sure how he'll handle the cold weather because he's already wearing his winter coat, hat and mitts, while the rest of us are still going outside in sweaters!

I'll post some pictures of my birthday kiddos in a bit...next up, Halloween and then Christmas. I just remember last year at this time being so frantic about our adoption and how slow things were moving and would our dossier EVER get sent?? And now, here we are celebrating birthdays, halloween, christmas, etc altogether as a family. It's really nice.

I know there are many of you waiting still for your children...all I can say is the waiting SUCKS but it will happen! And when it does, it is WORTH IT!!!!

Enjoy the day!

EXCITING NEWS for our friends!

Our friends, Megan and Shawn, have recieved exciting news on their adoption!!! They had their dossier submitted for review. They are adopting from Ukraine, so the process is quite different from Ethiopia or China. Once their file is submitted to Ukraine, they will hear within 21 business days of their travel dates to go and find their daughter!!! CONGRATULATIONS guys!

Megan and Shawn are the first family in PEI to pursue adoption from Ukraine, they have had many battles along the way so it is extremely exciting to know they are so close to completing this adoption! If anyone would like information on the Ukraine adoption process, please let me know and I'll pass your info on to Megan. She loves to talk adoption and she knows all the ins and outs of Ukrainian adoptions!!! She does have a blog but it's private.

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Things are crazy busy here as you can probably tell from my lack of posts! :-) We have a new foster placement and it has been quite an adjustment!! Everything is going well, though. Evan is thriving and fits in like he has alwasy been here. Alyssa and Dylan both have birthdays this week so another busy weekend.

Dylan made the AA Atom Hockey team this year so he is beyond thrilled! We watched his first game on Sunday and we are so proud of him!

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Here're some pics from our pumpkin picking day!

Some happenings in September

A Little Boy Shower - Chris' brother, Dean, and his wife, Stacy and their family hosted another welcome shower for Evan. A few of the extended family members showed up and we had a great time chatting, eating food, visiting and enjoying the gifts for Evan. Thank you guys for hosting this shower...Evan was thrilled with a party just for him!!!

Dylan was STOKED to watch his first live NHL game and it was here in PEI. He and Chris took in the game and Dylan was beyond excited!

Chinese School started again...here are Alyssa and Evan dressed in their Chinese outfits...all the way from the Silk Factory in Beijing! (and looking too cute!)

MOON FESTIVAL - several families who've adopted from China (and some waiting to adopt) got together to celebrate Chinese Moon Festival. We had some Chinese food, special mooncakes and then walked the boardwalk with our lit lanterns.

Family Update

Hi all!
I thought I'd give just a regular, drama-free update today. Life has been in such a turmoil for me lately that I thought it would do me good to write something light and share some sweet pictures of our kiddos.

I haven't updated on Evan lately so I thought I'd give a report. He is doing amazingly well. We have been home for 3 months and 3 days. It doesn't seem possible that 3 months has already gone by. Evan's speech and English is incredible. He speaks in full english sentences and is starting to catch on to Canadian slang. The other day I wasn't feeling well and I kept saying "oh my nose won't stop running" and everytime he would crack up laughing while he used his fingers to imitate "running". Of course mommy's nose wasn't "running" anywhere - I tried to explain it meant yucky stuff kept dripping out - love the image! Hee hee! He laughs everytime I say "mommy's going to jump in the shower..." and then he starts jumping up and down.

His speech is getting better all the time...he can still be hard to understand because he talks SUPER fast! When we get him to slow down and think about pronouncing the words, he does really well. He cannot say the "k" or "g" sound. The speech therapist is very optimistic but says he really needs his palate closed before we can get the best results. TODAY we finally heard Evan will have his surgery on November 14th. We are so thrilled as it will really help his speech. He is also having dental surgery at the same time so Chris and I will be heading over to the IWK (children's hospital) for several days.

Evan and Alyssa started Kindergarten and they love it! We have seen an incredible change in Alyssa as she seeks Evan out to play with and they interact much better! There is the usual bickering between siblings but not that "I hate him" venom that she displayed all summer. They play together alot more at the house now and I even hear them laughing together which makes my heart feel good.

Evan is still grieving but not as painful as before. He still talks about China and we talk about his mama every day. He'll tell me things she did or said and he'll talk about how things are different in Canada compared to China. I love hearing all about it!

Evan and Alyssa started Chinese school and it's awesome. Evan has gone in the older class as they are practicing writing chinese characters, reading and learning conversational chinese. Last week I learned Evan can read mandarin and he was listening, understanding and speaking mandarin the whole class! It was so great! Alyssa is with the younger class and they do alot of singing, crafts, basic mandarin learning and just a lot of fun interaction with the other children and leaders.

Caleb and Dylan are doing well..settling in school without any problems. Dylan has already started hockey and is in full "try out" mode! He is so fun to watch!

We still haven't decided on how to arrange activities for all the kids - Alyssa wants to take dance again this year as well as violin, Evan wants to play hockey, Caleb will be in basketball and also wants to continue with his guitar lessons and Dylan is in cross-country and hockey. So far, we've got Dylan arranged and Caleb ready for b'ball but I can't get enough evenings free to squeeze in Alyssa and Evan's activities and Caleb's guitar lessons. Whew!!! That in itself is my full time job!

Anyhoo...I really should be so thankful for the 4 little blessings (and one big blessing - Chris :-)) and not dwell on some of the sad things in my life right now. I am really trying to do that...I'll keep that in mind the next time I'm in the middle of a full blown sibling argument with angry words, tears, fists and the need to pull my hair out! :-)

Pics will be posted in a bit.