Going crazy around here......

Ok, so it is too quiet around here this week. Ali and her best friend, Sierra, are in Louisiana attending a music camp that my brother is leading at their church. They are staying with my mom (as my dad is out of town this week). They are having a great time...however, I sure miss her. Clark and I will be going over on Wednesday and bring the clan home on Friday afternoon. She will go to swim practice Friday evening, attend a swim meet on Saturday, we will leave bright and early Sunday morning to head BACK to Louisiana so the girls can participate in the musical that they are learning this week (they learn a musical at camp and present it during morning worship), then rush back here so that Ali can play her guitar in a recital Sunday afternoon. Wowzers!! As you can see, it will be one crazy weekend.

We have been having some fun the last week. I started watching Sierra and her brother, Jacob, last week. I will watch them off and on throughout the summer. One day I took them to Space Center Houston (our kids LOVE that place...obviously!) and they had a blast. I had to just about drag them out of there.

Ali had her last summer league swim meet this past Saturday. The only thing left is a special meet on Saturday. She made a certain time on her events and it qualified her for this meet. (lucky us...hahaha...just kidding...she was proud of herself) So after Saturday the summer league is officially over...minus a pool party in July. She will be back to just her year around team. She will get 3 weeks off for a summer break in August which will be very nice. What will we do not going to the pool just about every night? It will definitely be strange.

Clark......OH CLARK....he has been a little tart for the past week or so. Tart is putting it nicely. I don't know what has gotten into that little guy. We are having to buckle down and be extremely consistent with consequences. He really fights us. He is either super sweet/compliant/easy going.......OR......strong willed/irritable/fighting our authority, etc. It is exhausting! However, I know we will overcome this. He truly has a very sweet nature and we DO love him dearly. He is just wiping his poor Mama out. Ha!!

So what good books are you guys reading these days? I am horrible at trying to get through like 3 books at one time.....never quite finishing any of them! Anyone else like that? Right now I am usually reading some type of parenting book. I am trying to get through Bringing Up Boys, The Strong Willed Child (both of those are by Dr. James Dobson), and What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. Bringing Up Boys has been so helpful in understanding boys...they are OH SO DIFFERENT than girls. What's So Amazing About Grace is fabulous. We are going through it during the Sunday School hour at church. It is so convicting in its teaching of God's grace. I love a quote by C.S. Lewis that is included in the book "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God forgives the inexcusable in you." If that isn't convicting, I don't know what is. In the book Yancey makes a statement, "Grace alone melts ungrace." I just love that. How often do we harbor resentment and hostility towards someone when we should be showing grace because of the grace Christ offers to us. I am so glad that I decided to take the study and read this book.

Oh, the cutest Clark story. This past weekend we had a storm pass through and T.C. spotted a double rainbow outside afterwards. He called for us all to go outside and check it out. As we were turning around to come inside Clark adds, "Noah did it." We were shocked that he put that together. Ok, so he wasn't exactly right...but close enough! That was awesome.

So where are the comments blog friends? What are you guys doing this summer...please share!!

Oh, I will clarify about the picture with Clark and the gator...it is fake. Since the summer swim team are the "Gators"...they have this fake gator at the pool. However, after looking at the picture it looked like I plopped our son right down by a gator. Ummmm, NO NO NO!!

summer happenings...

Summer outing....

We had a fun outing to Space Center Houston yesterday. However, I think every summer program in Houston had the same idea. There were kids everywhere! There were YMCA groups, day cares, etc. Wew! We got there just in the nick of time and were able to get in line right before most of them. SCH has a traveling exhibit called "Daredevil Island" that I thought the kids would enjoy. Boy did they! Clark was too small for some of it, but he enjoyed what he was able to do. Here is what it says on the SCH website: "Nowhere else can you swing high in the air unharnessed on a giant trapeze; test your climbing skills on a 4 story high spider web; bungee jump on bouncy trampolines; or test survival skills through a mystical maze! Thrill-seeking visitors craving an "Indiana Jones" type of experience will discover a wild expedition only at Daredevil Island!" At first I thought "sounds good, but what will it really be like?" You know when you expect something grand and you get there and it is a flop? However, we were pleasantly surprised that it was exactly like it sounded. Ali was able to swing from a trapeze, climb a tower of bungee cords, and more. Clark was able to jump on the trampoline with a harness, try his hand at the tower of bungee cords (he was just too small to make it past the first level), and he did the maze with Ali. The worker that helped Clark into the harness later told me that he needed to be on a diet of steak and eggs so he could be a football player. Ha! Yes, he's little...we know! They also played in the huge play structure a little before getting overrun with all of the other kids. I am sure we will be going back while that exhibit is there.

Ali began a morning swim practice this week.......can I just say it gives new meaning to the word MORNING. I had her at the pool by 5:30 (as in AM!!) and she swam until 7:30! Oh the life of a swimmer.... But, that is just for the month of June. Next month we are back to her 2 hour evening practices. Right now they are sharing the pool with a summer league and therefore having to work around their practices. Believe it or not she doesn't seem to mind it...once she is actually awake. She is a little slow to get out of the door. Ha! Well, one summer league swim meet tomorrow and then one more to go next Saturday. (no complaints here) She will have 3 weeks off from her year around team for "summer break" in August.....what will we do with ourselves? Just imagine 3 weeks of NO practice. I am not sure what that will be like.

We are awaiting a referral to go through for Clark to see an ENT. He had an appointment with his pediatrician this week, and she decided that we do need to move forward with his speech issues. She said we must first rule out a medical issue for the nasal sounding speech before we hit full force with speech therapy. My gut feeling is that it is a learned speech issue and perhaps not medical. He is...shall we say...a little lazy when it comes to his speech. He will run things together, skip what he would consider not important words, and just doesn't take his time to speak clearly. We have been trying to be more diligent with making him repeat us word for word. He gets frustrated, but I think it will help. We will see. It could be much worse. We just want to take care of it before he gets older. He is so darn cute it is easy to let the speech slide sometimes. :) On a side note, our little man has grown 3 inches since he came home last Aug. Wahoo! He is now 37 1/2 inches tall and 30 lbs. So at 4 1/2 years old he isn't on the growth chart yet, but I have confidence he will be soon.

I want to say HAPPY FATHER'S DAY early to my wonderful hubby! Our children are blessed beyond measure to have such a fabulous Daddy. And HFD to my Dad and father in law.....we love you both! Oh yes, my brother has something to celebrate this Father's Day also.....they are expecting a baby boy in November. How exciting...we need another boy in this family! (congrats again Jay and Paula...don't worry, I'll try not to spoil him too much...NOT...heehee!!!)

Space Center Houston

Our summer has begun!

Well, it is scorching here in good ole' Texas with temps already in the 90's. Ugh...guess this means we have one hot summer ahead of us. Thank goodness for AC and the beach! The beach usually has a nice breeze.

We had a fun start to summer with family in town for a few days. I tortured them with touristy "stuff" (heehee...hopefully I didn't REALLY torture them) The first day we spent several hours at the Kemah Boardwalk. Our kids love it out there and our cousin, Christopher did also. The 3 kids played in a dancing fountain for quite a while. I think they would have stayed much longer, but the adults were melting. We were just about to the point of running through the fountain as well. We also took them on the little train ride, had lunch, and fed some sting rays. They have a large tank full of sting rays that you can feed. Clark just couldn't get up the courage to stick his hand in the tank....so Mama had to feed those STINKY little fish to the rays. My hands smelled forever after that. LOVELY!! After Kemah, we hit Dairy Queen on the way home for some much needed ice cream. That evening Ali had swim practice, so we just stayed around here. The next morning we got up and headed to Galveston for the day. We took a drive down the main drag to see the beach and then we stopped at the state park to let the kids play in the ocean. They had a great time. Clark is always content to dump out all of his sand toys and go to town digging in the sand. There was a storm out at sea, so there was a lot of seaweed and rough waters. The children didn't seem to mind at all...despite the not so pretty water that left their white shirts discolored. Oh well!! We then headed to The Strand District to visit Ali and Clark's favorite old fashioned ice cream parlor and candy store. All in all we had a great time and enjoyed their visit VERY much. Lisa, you didn't think I would include that picture of Clark with that *funnel* did you? Ok, I will explain...we were in a Wings beach shop and Clark spotted a beer bong....his Aunt Lisa just COULDN'T resist getting a shot of him with it. I know it was a little tacky of me to include it...but what can I say? Let's hope he isn't a future wild frat boy!! Ha! Mom, I know you are thinking "oh we raised her better than this." Ha!! No, I lied and told him it was a huge funnel to play on the beach with...heehee. Don't worry...we didn't buy it!!

T.C. is officially a chaplain in the Texas Air National Guard 147th Reconnaissance Wing........FINALLY! This has been over a year in the making. He transferred out of the Air Force Reserve into the Guard. We just didn't know it would take SO long. But, the wait is over and he is very excited about this new chapter in his military career. He began work this weekend. He will pull one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year (or something like that). Today we attended a family day at the base. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. They were changing from a fighter wing to the reconnaissance wing, so they had a ceromony for that. Afterwards, there was a catered lunch, bouncy houses for the kids, car displays, plane displays, booths, etc. Ali loved looking at all the cars as she is quite a fan! Clark loved the bouncy houses and literally cried when it was time to get out. I was able to meet the other chaplains and a few wives. We are excited to see what ministry opportunities the Lord opens up for T.C.

We hung a bird feeder in our grand oak tree the other day. Ok, it isn't so grand...it is a baby actually! T.C. still questions why a builder would plant the slowest growing tree in the yard of a new house. Ha!! He wants to uproot it...but I have become quite attached to it. Anyway, Ali and I were doing school the other day when I looked outside. I thought the bird at the feeder looked odd. I went outside for a closer look and low and behold it was a parakeet. I am guessing someone in the neighborhood is missing their pet bird. It has returned several times since then...quite an odd little sight.We have very much enjoy watching all the birds that show up at our lone little feeder. We have quite a few birds despite our lack of trees in this neighborhood. Lisa brought us a hummingbird feeder this past week, and we are anxious to see if some hummingbirds find it soon!

Clark is continuing to do well. His speech still needs quite a bit of work, but maybe this is to be expected with changing languages only 9 1/2 months ago. If we still feel he is behind in a few months I will have him re-evaluated by the speech pathologist. We understand a lot of what he says, but others don't always. Aside from that we are having some whining/crying issues, but we are really working on that. I think it will improve over time. He just gets upset easily...I am sure it somehow stems from orphanage life. I don't mean he throws fits, it is literally just a true cry. (but still grates on the nerves after the millionth time..haha) Anyway, when the fam was here this week we took the kids to our pool one evening. Clark was really getting the hang of the whole swimming thing! He just might take after his big sister after all. He was really moving those arms and kicking those legs. You could tell he had watched Ali a zillion times as he was trying to move his head like on freestyle. Now that was quite funny! We also think he is going to love music. He hums to himself non stop. He will start children's choir and hand bells in the fall. He loves it when the children perform a hand bell special in church. He stops what he is doing, stands up, and doesn't take his eyes off of them until they are finished. Uncle Jay, does that just warm your heart?

That about sums up our start to summer. Leave comments on what is going on with you guys and your summer plans!

Here are some photos from the week. It is not letting me post captions with the pictures. I will try again another time....blogger is giving me a fit tonight.

some summer fun

Not much of anything....

Not much news here. Our school year is winding down, had to recoup from vacation, back to swimming/swimming/swimming, and that is about the extent of it. Seriously, how boring of a post can I possibly make it you ask?

Ali had her first swim meet today with the summer swim team, Dickinson Gators. She came in first in everything she swam in. It pays to swim year around when most of the other kids only swim on the summer team! Hahaha...it was a boost to her self esteem, that is for sure. Because she isn't the fastest (or even close to it) at the year around meets...which are USA meets. So this is nice for her...more relaxed and can have some fun with it. I will attach a clip of her freestyle...she is the one in a white cap on the far left.

We have some of my family coming in this week from Shreveport. We are so excited. It will be their first time to get to come since we have lived here. Ali is just glad her cousin, Christopher, is one of them!! They get along really well and have a great time playing. We have some fun things planned for while they are here.

It is officially HOT around here...summer is definitely in full swing. We had to go and buy a huge umbrella for our patio to get some reprieve from the sun. The kids love to play outside...but that sun is scorching.

We are thinking of looking for a soccer team for Clark to play on. How cute will that be? He has a pretty good kick...but will he pay attention long enough to learn the rules? Humm...we don't know.

Enjoy the beginning of your summer......

swim meet

Back to the grind.....

Our vacation is officially over, and we are back to the grind. We had a fabulous time in Destin, FL. The weather was glorious with no rain and a breeze everyday. It was so wonderful to relax and be refreshed. We felt like we were seeing a little piece of paradise from morning until night while we were there. It was absolutely gorgeous. We would eat breakfast on our patio, and hit the beach shortly afterwards. The kids had a great time. Clark loved the ocean, and wasn't even afraid of the waves. We began our vacation with a night in Pensacola. On the way we stopped off in Gulf Shores to have dinner with a friend from high school and her husband. It was great to see an old friend! The following morning we took the children to the Naval Aviation Museum on NAS Pensacola. They loved seeing all the airplanes. We used to take Ali there when she was a toddler, since we lived an hour away. Speaking of that...after we left the museum, we went to Ft. Walton to take a tour of the town. We had not been there since we moved from there almost 9 years ago. Ali wanted to see our first little house and the hospital where she was born. It was a lot of fun driving around our old stomping grounds! After being all nostalgic, we finished our drive to Destin. We could NOT believe how much the area had grown up since we had moved. Destin is one high rise after the other now. We were sad to see all the changes. However, we pulled up to our little apartment and we were in awe at the beauty of the ocean right out in front of our window! The view was amazing. When not out on the beach, we lived out on the patio! During our stay, we took a sunset dolphin cruise. We were fortunate to see quite a few dolphins. They would come out of the water so quickly that Clark kept telling me "Mama, I can't see their eyes!" Haha..it was so cute. One evening we also went to a park called "The Track" where we played putt-putt and rode go-carts. Clark also rode a few kiddie rides like a train and some airplanes. We had a fun time that night. We were able to see some old friends from our Ft. Walton days, Becky and Hannah. Becky and I met at church and were pregnant at the same time. Ali and Hannah were little playmates back then. They hit it off instantly and had a fun time running on the beach. We were so sad to see our time at the beach come to an end. I guess that is how you tell a good vacation though, when you are sad to leave! On our way home we stopped off in Gulf Shores for a picnic at Gulf State Park. We went there many times growing up and I wanted to see it again. It had changed quite a bit due to having damage from Hurricane Ivan, which was sad to see. After our lunch, we stopped off in Mobile to tour the USS Alabama. We then spent the night in Biloxi, MS and then spent Friday night with my parents.

Now we have bags to unpack and laundry to wash. YUCK! That is always the downside to taking a vacation...but it is worth it.

Ali and I have 2 weeks left of school. We will both be glad when we are finished up. Hope everyone has a great week!

vacation

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you fabulous mothers out there. Enjoy your special day. Here is a quote from Humor for a Mom's Heart "Who am I? I am a cooker of oatmeal and cleaner of soap scum. A taxi driver, spider killer, purchaser of folders with pockets and prongs, pencil finder, and dental appointment maker. Loudest cheerleader and most fervent pray-er, encourager of dreams, and holder of hands. I am a tear wiper and boo-boo kisser, the tooth brushing gestapo and an example of faith. You know who I am. I AM MOTHER." I thought that was pretty cute. You know what they say "Motherhood is the toughest job you will ever enjoy." Right? I am blessed to be a mother as a result of giving birth, and also through adoption. No matter how I became my children's mother...I am their mother. It doesn't matter that my blood doesn't run through one of their bodies, I am HIS mother just the same. I have loved Ali from the moment I found out we were expecting her...and I have loved Clark from the moment God called us to adopt. Each so unique...they are so loved. I hope one day they will each know just HOW MUCH.

I also want to say a special HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to my incredible mother. She was a wonderful example of a Godly mother and woman of God....and also to my mother in law who raised her son up to be an incredible father and husband!

We decided to celebrate Mother's Day and my upcoming birthday yesterday. Ali and I began our morning by heading off to get pedicures! It was such fun to just sit there and watch her. She looked all grown up in that massage chair. She had a ton of fun getting her toes all pretty. She wanted our toes to match...so she chose the color. We also decided to have a little fun and get flowers painted on our big toes. Hers turned out just adorable...mine...well, my gal went a little crazy. (I am not sure what is supposed to be on my big toes!!) Oh well...it goes a little like this: The cost of 2 pedicures with "decorations" $59 (yikes, a little steep!!) The cost of my precious daughter telling me "Mom, thanks for taking me to do that...I had such a good time with you." PRICELESS!!! It was definitely a special Mommy morning. I loved it. We just thought that all gals need pretty toes at the beach, right? heehee...any excuse for a pedi!

After our fun morning, we attended Clark's end of the semester gymnastics showcase. It was so cute. He started out strong...then lost a little interest. He would take his turn, then turn his attention to any ledge he could catapult off of, etc. All the children received medals and a t-shirt. He was pretty proud of wearing that medal around his neck! After gym we had a late lunch at a new Mediterranean restaurant we had been wanting to try. That is one of our favorites! It was wonderful and we had a good time just being together. This morning I also got pancakes and eggs cooked by T.C. and Ali! What a treat.

If I don't get a chance to post again before we leave on Thursday, I will be posting lots of pictures from our trip when we return. We have some fun things planned for the kids. Take care.....

Mother's Day

Life zoomed in.......

It occurred to me yesterday as I was attempting to take pictures of some precious little ducks we see on our nightly walks....that I often look at our lives "zoomed in." What I mean is, I was trying to zoom in the lens on a little duck's face and realized it was zoomed in too much. I couldn't make out what the picture should be...it was blurry. All too often I do that with our daily lives. I ZOOM in on the little things...this tantrum or that whiny fit or this preteen attitude or that. But the big picture needs to be zoomed out and allowed to come into focus...where I focus on what incredible gifts God has bestowed on us. He chose us to be Ali and Clark's parents. What a gift! At the end of the day, do I choose to focus on the little things that drove me crazy...or relish in the fact that I am home with our children and got to hug them and kiss them and watch them blossom into incredible little (and not so little) people. I got to walk into Ali's room and see her Star Wars city come together...and see her floor covered in Build a Bear clothes because she decided the drawers where she kept them needed to be cleaned out (right as we needed to start school...see, I had to zoom out again!!)...and I got to see Clark fit inside a storage cubby, because he is just that little :) ...and help him tie a teddy bear around his waist with a ribbon because he wanted to carry it on his back. Those are my precious moments. No, I may not be saving a life or keeping an astronaut safe (heehee)...but what sweet moments I get to treasure! They are my two amazing treasures. How unworthy I am of this calling, but so thankful he entrusted me with these blessings.

The pictures speak for themselves. Ali dressed she and Clark up the other day as Luke Skywalker (and someone else...sorry, I don't know anything about Star Wars). They played and played on the trampoline and it was so funny. She has quite a few Star Wars Lego's sets, and the other day she covered her floor with all the sets. She takes pictures of everything...so she took those. The ducks we have been watching for weeks now. When we first spotted them they were so tiny...16 of them actually. Now, they are growing and there are 14 left. We love to stop and watch them when we walk...and of course Clark loves to feed them. We try and remember to bring bread once a week or so. He thinks the baby ducks are so cute.

Well, the vacation bug has hit us hard..............can we make it another week? We have to, right? We will leave next Thursday afternoon when T.C. gets home from work and spend the night in Lake Charles. That will put us 2 1/2 hours closer to Florida. I am also going to get to see a couple of old friends from high school...oh that was many moons ago. Anyway, since I graduated from high school in Pensacola...I still know a couple of people in the area. That will be fun. We will see how shocked they are by how much I have aged. Ha!

Star Wars and ducks

Nothing exciting.......

Well, I don't seem to post much lately...same old same old just isn't real exciting. The summer should bring a little more fun into our lives. We are READY for school to be out. Ali and I have the summer bug already. We will finish up the first week of June. Ali is excited about what her summer has in store. Her first week long camp, swimming on not one but two swim teams, music camp in Louisiana, hopefully a sewing day camp, etc. It will be full and hopefully very memorable for her. Clark will continue taking his little gymnastics class, and will have to tag along for everything on big sisters list! I am going to help out a friend since she works full time, and watch her children a couple of times a week during the summer. It just happens to be Ali's best friend and her brother...so they are SO excited about seeing so much of each other come June!

We met my parents half way between here and Lake Charles today for lunch. It is just over an a hour each way. We enjoyed seeing them. They are leaving on their vacation this coming Friday...so we wanted to give Mom her Mother's Day gift before they left. Speaking of Mother's Day...it will be my first one with Clark home...and his first to have someone to call Mama! I LOVE that. (and let me just add...he says it a lot...like a million times a day...haha)

Ali had a photo shoot with our cat, Happy the other day. We had the windows raised in front of her school desk and the cats just love the windows up. He jumped right in the window and spread out. She got some great shots of him being his typical lazy self.

I have been working on Clark's life book. What that is is a book that you make for adopted children that tells their life story...or at least everything that you know. It keeps the children from guessing about what happened to their birth parents, etc. and nothing is ever a secret. You write it in storybook form, so that you can read it to them. I am putting pictures in his. Well, I had a copy of the earliest picture we have of him...it is a terrible quality picture of a group of kids at a Christmas celebration. He is a small toddler. I pointed him out and he loved seeing it. He held the picture and looked at everyone else and looked up at me and said "Mama all gone?" He noticed I wasn't in the picture. It was so cute. I explained that he didn't live with us yet. We try to always be very open about everything. A few weeks ago T.C. was talking to him at bedtime about what it was like in the orphanage. He asked him if he got to sleep with a stuffed animal at bedtime. Clark said "oh no Papa, one toy behind door." He remembers that he had a little cubby/closet where he would put his shoes, jacket, and ONE red truck. Though he didn't get to leave the orphanage with it....he does still remember that detail.

I am reading "Bring up Boys" by Dr. James Dobson. It is so fantastic in explaining the differences in raising boys verses girls. It is great to actually read in print that we are not alone in this venture. Ha! A couple of months ago I begin to panic as these traits were coming more and more into light. But, I can breathe a little easier now knowing that boys are just different!! I mean...I knew it all along...duh, right...I just don't think I knew just how different it would be. But, with that said.......we wouldn't change a thing! He brings so much joy and laughter into our lives.

Clark will soon have a little wooden play structure to play on in our yard. I am so excited. Our neighbors are giving us an older one out of their yard. It was in the yard when they moved in...and they have no need for it. Clark will really love it. We may need to purchase new swings for it, but we sure can't complain about FREE! Woohoo! Their teenage boys are going to help get it into our yard in the next couple of weeks.

Here are a few random pictures.

being sillly, lazy cat, and early Mother's Day

Who says make-over parties are just for girls?

Ok, so we headed to Lake Charles on Friday so that Ali and her friend, Sierra, could attend Abby's 9th birthday party. (Abby is our niece) Well, have any of you heard of a Club Libby Lu party? Well, Lake Charles is fairly small...so they have a local version called Club Tabby. You can check out this website http://www.clublibbylu.com/ to see what it was like. It was cute. The girls get their hair done complimented with crazy colored hairspray, nails painted, make-up, dress up clothes, walk a runway, etc. Ali, being anti girly girl, just had blue spray in her hair and nails painted. She left the other stuff for the younger girls. It was cute watching them all strut their stuff on the runway! Well, I will admit, Clark decided that NO girl was upstaging him...yes, he jumped right up there and strutted his stuff also. You will see in the pictures that someone stuck a PINK hat on him...we are still searching for the culprit of that one. Ha! We secretly called him "Hef" during the party (as in Hefner!!) They called each girl up by name and had them walk the runway...at the end, they leaned down and asked Clark his name...and called him up there as well. Too funny! After the party, Ali and Sierra headed over to Abby's for a sleepover. They stayed up until at least midnight and were awake again by 7:00am! Needless to say, Ali and Sierra slept most of the way back home.

Clark is registered for preschool! We finally made a decision on where to send him in the fall. I fell in love with a small program at a church very close to us. They only allow like 28 children total...and that is spread between 2,3, and 4 year olds. I think he will have maybe 10 children in his class. The director was so sweet and I just felt at peace that it was the right place for him. It is actually called "Mother's Day Out", but they have very structured days with crafts, letters/numbers/etc., chapel, memorize a Bible verse every week, gymnastics once a month, story-time, etc. I think he will love it. He was able to take a tour of his room. He will attend twice a week from 9-2. They bring their lunches also.

This week Ali and Clark made stepping stones for our front patio. I wanted to get his little hands and feet in stone while they were still small. Nona and Poppy gave them the kits for Christmas. They turned out cute. Ali made the state of TX, and I put Clark's hand and footprint on his. He is so proud of it. Every time he walks by it he has to talk about it. Pretty cute.

We decided to let Ali attend her first summer camp in July. She is attending with 2 of her best friends...Ashlyn and Sierra. They are all so excited. It is a Lutheran camp located in La Grange, TX (in the hill country). Check it out http://www.lomt.com/ ! It looks like so much fun...Ali loves the outdoors. We drop her off on a Sunday, and pick her up on Friday. I think it will be a great experience, and opportunity to meet many different people.

Ali was asked to move up into the next level in swimming. She is now expected to swim a minimum of 8 hours per week. EEK! Oh and I already felt like we lived at the pool. Ha! She loves it though. She will swim 2 hours 3 evenings during the week, and 2 hours on Saturday mornings. She and Sierra also want to join the same summer swim league that they were on last year. It is our community swim league...Dickinson Gators. I suppose we will let her do that, I mean...why not swim every SINGLE day of the week...right? Ok...not really, but it feels like that. I think she will swim mostly with her normal swim team and just occasionally with the summer league...mainly she wants to participate in the weekend meets to see how she has improved from last summer....and to see her friends that swam last year.

We only have about 24 days of school left...yahoo!!! We are SOOOOO ready for summer. We leave for our little vacation in 19 days, but who is counting? Ok, we are!! Destin...here we come!

We were in the living room this afternoon and we thought we heard Clark playing in the front room. It was a strange sound so we called him...no answer. T.C. went into in there and found Happy's nose plastered to the front door and the noise continued. There was a snapping turtle at our front door. It was seeing his reflection and snapping at it. T.C. had to pick it up with a shovel and take it back to the ditch beside our neighbor's house. Interesting thing to find, to say the least.

Have a wonderful week!

birthday party

A swim meet weekend...

Well, we spent our entire weekend either at the pool or driving to/from there. Since the pool was an hour away at least 2 hours each day were spent in the car. Ali's friend, Sierra, spent the weekend with us also...as her parents were busy this weekend and couldn't get her to the meet. So...we also had giggling girls for 2 days. :)

Ali swam in 6 events between the two days...her last being a 200 meter freestyle. She was exhausted after that! She did well...all we ever ask of her is to do her best. That is all we can ask of her. We don't care if she comes in first or last, if it is her best. What I have really enjoyed seeing her learn is what being part of a team means. Learning to encourage the other team members, even though some are much stronger swimmers than she is! I love that. I love to hear her tell a friend that she did great, even though I know it stings a little that one of her friends is a super talented swimmer and comes in first a lot. They cheer each other on, help each other out, and encourage one another. That is what I hope she takes from this experience!

Our poor little Clark man got TWO bloody noses this week! As if spinning around on the trampoline and hitting one of the poles wasn't enough, he ran into another pole at the pool today and it happened again. He doesn't really look where he is going...like EVER! I was holding his hand and watched it happened, but couldn't do anything about it. I hate situations like that...where you want to protect them, but it is too late. I look over and his poor nose was pouring blood. We were so glad he didn't hit his teeth! Let's just say between the bloody noses and a few falls scraping up parts of his legs...he has had a rough few days. Hopefully we will have an accident free week. I should get used to the scrapes though...with having a boy, right?

Hope everyone has a great week....it is after 9:00pm and we have been gone all weekend. I will close this for now.

swim meet

Lizards...the new obsession!

Our children are obsessed with lizards. They catch them all the time and put them in containers to observe them. Even Clark has taken a liking to the little critters. Our bushes out front are sometimes covered in them. The other day, one unfortunate catch had to endure a ride in a plastic boat in Clark's water table. Then, that same lizard was brought inside and Ali had it climbing up Clark's shirt. He thought that was the greatest thing. (meanwhile I am thinking...oh yikes...if that thing gets loose!)

On Saturday morning, Clark gets up and goes into Ali's room. She is already awake and had her window opened enjoying the fresh morning air. I walk in and find Clark sitting beside her, both staring out of the window. It was so precious...that of course I had to get a picture. They later curled up under the covers for a minute. I love moments like this!

Saturday was our "work in the yard" day. Oh what fun...or not. We wanted to take advantage of some cool weather so that we were not melting while in the yard. We knew we would be tied up the next two weekends with a swim meet next weekend and our niece's birthday party in Louisiana the week after that. So..we planted flowers all afternoon. Ali was all ready to help out...then she quit after she claimed some pots for herself and planted her 4. Ummm, thanks a lot kiddo! She picked out some pepper plants, mint, and lemon basil for her pots. The neighborhood bunnies have already taken a munch out of some. Bummer, hope they don't eat them all up. Any suggestions on keeping bunnies out of our plants?

The pictures of Clark feeding the ducks were taken last week. While Ali swims, we have been walking around a lake in a neighborhood close to the pool. The lake has ducks that Clark enjoys feeding. They come waddling up when you stop on the sidewalk. We have enjoyed our evening walks very much. (not sure how we will feel in July when it is 100 degrees out...ha!!)

We are in the middle of writing our first "post placement report" for Ukraine. For the first 3 years after adopting you must have a social worker write a report on the child's adjustment, etc...then one has to be done every 3rd year until the child is 18. Ours has to be into our agency by June. We, however, want ours finished before we go on vacation in a month. It is fun thinking about how far our little guy has come since being home. He has been an amazing trooper! We are so blessed to have a friend here that is a licensed social worker. She has offered to do ours free of charge! Actually, we are writing it and she is reading and signing it...she might add a thing here and there if she chooses. We really just need a copy of her license to put with the report.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

feeding ducks, our yard, and lizards...

A couple of matching cuties....

Even though Ali is 11, she still thinks it is pretty cute to match her brother. But the pictures prove it.......of course they are cute!!! :) She waited a long time for them to wear these shirts. Quite a while before we even went to Ukraine, Ali had a little gift card for the Disney store. She decided to spend it on matching shirts for she and her future sibling...we just chose a neutral print in the smallest size they offered.

Ok...so here is a visual for you...as of Sunday, we are some of the newest members of Hope Lutheran Church. We were supposed to go down front during worship with the other 6 families that were joining at the same time. We do, and we thought all was going to be fine. Then it happened, Clark decided he didn't want to JUST stand down front...why not lie down where we take communion...yes, that sounded perfect to him. So he does...we try to ignore it...and then he decides lying down is a little boring...why not kick his feet all around in the air. T.C. was closest to him...so I lean over and ask him to please grab Clark...he does...but we quickly find out that moving is just not on his list of things to do right then. So he puts up a squirmy, whiny, etc. fight. We TRY to act like all is well...hoping everyone just ignores the noise coming from the small child that T.C. is holding on to. Shew, we were a little relieved when we were able to head back to our pew! Then, the church held a potluck lunch for all of the new members...that is where the pastor introduced us all by name. We would stand up from our table so that people could see who we were. Here is our introduction from our pastor..."and this is T.C. and Rachel Judd, their daughter, Ali...and son, handful Clark." Everyone got a big kick out of that while T.C. and I were just shaking our heads! He later comes over to our table and tells us that he can say that because he has a 3 year old grandson that acts the same way...Ha! At least we are not alone.

Clark for sure can be a handful these days, however, he also brings unspeakable joy to our lives. His language is coming along everyday. It was funny over the weekend he had told me something several times because I kept asking him to repeat it (I didn't understand him)...he finally looked at me and said "uh, I told you 2 times." T.C. said, "well I guess he told you." Yes, I suppose so! As of April 16th, he will have been home 8 months. I just can't believe it. The time is passing so quickly. Before I know it he will be heading off to college....haha, ok, getting a little ahead of myself.

Mickey shirts

Our Saturday....

We woke up this morning and planned to taking the kids to ride the trolley along the beach in Galveston. We get there....and the trolleys were not running today. Just our luck. Clark was not very happy about that. However, there was a neat bird show going on that we were able to watch. The kids also HAD to go to their favorite old fashion candy/ice cream shop and watch the man make taffy (they do a demonstration every Sat.) and catch a few free pieces they he tosses out. Ali loves salt water taffy, and always talks me into letting her get a couple of dollars worth. We surprised the kids afterwards and took them to have lunch at Rainforest Cafe'. It is so expensive that we do not go often...Clark had never been. He was mesmerized by the entire inside of the restaurant. When the thunderstorms would start, and the animals started moving...it scared him a little. I walked him around when we got there and he liked the gorillas from a distance, but when I asked if I could sit him down to get a picture...he said "no, too scary!" He was brave enough to touch the elephant's trunk and would you believe that right when we reached over to touch it that it started to move and he about jumped out of his skin. I felt so bad. But, all in all he enjoyed being there. That is one of Ali's favorite places to go. Though she has only been to Rainforest Cafe' about a handful of times in her life at different locations. It is a special treat when she does go.

Clark was invited to his first real birthday party today. It was a pirate party where they had a live interactive little pirate show.He had a great time...though it got a little long for Mama! A zillion screaming kids running around for almost 3 hours got to be a bit much. Hahaha...but in the van heading home he said it was really fun, so it was worth it. It was a little boy from gymnastics class.While we were partying it up...arrrrghhhh matey, Ali and T.C. went to a movie and had some great Daddy/daughter time.

Galveston and birthday party

Our new schoolroom is now complete....

Well, this weekend we finished transforming some wasted space in our bedroom to a new schoolroom. We love it. It is working out great. Ali loves having her own desk (she wasted NO time in decorating it with personal items!). All we have left is to get her cork board hung and for her new chair to come it. We ordered it and it is on its way. I wonder why we didn't think of doing this before? I even made a shelf for Clark with books and a basket of small toys. He loves sitting in his little chair and looking at books...or playing on the rug.

The pictures of our cats.....well, we thought we could buy a little scratch pad for Angel since she isn't declawed. So...T.C. picked one up at Wal-Mart the other day. He gets home...follows the instructions and sprinkled catnip on it...and OH MY GOODNESS. The goofy cats wouldn't leave it alone. Angel doesn't scratch on it mind you...but they take turns lying across it. Especially Happy...who is declawed...AAARRRGGGGHHHHH!! I think our cats are retarded. Ha! Happy jumped up on the counter and wouldn't leave the box it came in alone...he just kept licking the box for the longest time. Maybe Ali dropped him as a kitten. :) So good thinking on our part...just not the outcome we were hoping for. So we must come up with another idea so Angel quits using the couch as a scratch post!

Clark had his speech evaluation today. There was also a child psychologist that joined the evaluation along with the speech pathologist. They seemed to think that he is adjusting great and that his speech will come along without help. He can be re-evaluated in about 6 months if he isn't improving like we think he should be. But, as for now...we just wait and see. She said it was really too soon to tell since he is still learning the language. They did give me some exercises to try at home to help with a couple of sounds. They both think he needs to interact with other children more often. They said children learn language best from other children. So, we will look into a Mother's Day Out program (their recommendation). He does attend Sunday School with other children and is in gymnastics...so hopefully a day or two a week of MDO will help even more.

new schoolroom

Exploring a little bit of TX

T.C. was able to take off on Friday. After some research, we found a neat place that we wanted to explore. It is called Sea Center in Lake Jackson, and is only about 45 minutes from here. http://www.texasexplorer.com/SeaCenterTexas.htm It is a fish hatchery and has a great exhibit on local fish, touch tank, salt marsh, etc. (the best part is that it is FREE...nothing is free anymore!) Anyway, the kids really enjoyed it and we will definitely be going back again. Clark was a little unsure about sticking his hand in the touch tank...though he loved looking at all the crabs, etc. He did get brave enough to touch a hermit crab that Ali was holding. We were talking yesterday about how before we brought him home, Clark had most likely never even seen a fish...much less be expected to stick his hand in some tank...haha. Wonder what he was thinking?

Well, our big job for the weekend is making a schoolroom change. YUCK! Since we moved into this house, Ali and I have done school in our dining room. However, now I would like our dining room to be JUST that...our dining room. I am a little tired of walking through our front door and seeing school books. So...we have decided to move our schoolroom upstairs. We have a rather large bedroom and it is pretty much wasted space. We have decided to divide our bedroom up and use half for school. We are going to use bookshelves as our divider...pretty clever, thanks to T.C. for coming up with that idea. We are going to our favorite store today to get Ali a new desk and bookshelves. You just gotta love Target...$30 for bookshelves...SWEET!! However, I am not looking forward to emptying the shelves that we currently have so that we can move them. Oh well, it will be nice when it is complete.

Oh yes, I will explain the picture of Clark vacuuming...he has a fit when he sees me vacuuming...so sometimes I give him a turn. Well, he LOVES it. What can I say? Our upstairs vacuum is very light so he is able to push it easily. Why would we extinguish that desire?

Here are pictures from Friday...

Sea Center, TX

Clark never ceases to make us laugh...

Well, I don't have anything real exciting to write about...so I will tell a couple of Clark funnies! Yesterday T.C. was holding his hands and letting him flip around over and over and over and over...he absolutely loves to do this, and we can't for the life of us believe his little body is that strong. Anyway, T.C. was talking to me and said "I wonder if he could do the iron cross" (he was kidding) and Clark overheard and jumped down and did the sign of the cross on his chest. We do the sign of the cross a couple of times during the worship service at our church,and have been teaching Clark how to do it. Well, buddy he heard cross and wanted us to know that yes, in fact he COULD do it!! Too funny. Also, we have been teaching Clark "The Lord's Prayer" before bed. He knows about half of it and now we are working on the second half, which is taking longer with more difficult words to say. Anyway, the other night we were working on the second half and got to "Give us this day our.." and Clark blurted out "PRESENTS"!!! It was so funny but actually I think he was thinking of the next line "trespasses" and couldn't say it. I guess presents sounded good enough to him. Oh the boy makes us laugh!

Remember I mentioned a couple weeks ago that Clark was bothering one of the girls in gymnastics and she was making mad faces at him. Well, this week he was so proud after gym and he told me "girl no mad face." Guess he actually quit following her around and making her upset.

Happy Easter

What a glorious day as we have celebrated the resurrection of our Lord! We started our day with our daughter serving our breakfast at church. She had a fun time (mainly goofing around with her friends) helping this morning. We then had a beautiful church service.

This afternoon the kiddos dyed their Easter eggs. Ali then dressed up like the bunny, rang the doorbell, and Clark answered the door. We can't figure out if he ever figured out that it was Ali. Too funny!

A few pictures from our day....

Easter

Easter came early around here....

Don't tell Clark, but the Easter Bunny came early at our house! My parents came on Thursday, but had to leave tonight(Sat.)...so we decided to have Easter early around here. They wanted to see Clark get his first Easter basket. Let me tell you just how cute that was! He was so excited he just didn't know what to think of it all. The kids woke up to find their baskets, then we headed off to Easter Jubilation at our church. It was an Easter extravaganza for the children. The Easter Bunny was in attendance, crafts galore, singing, the presentation of the Easter story, snacks...and to top it all off it ended with an egg hunt outside. The weather was wonderful! The kids had a great day. After returning home, we cooked a nice dinner and then my parents had to head home. T.C. actually has tomorrow off, which will be very nice. Tonight is his last night for this flight and it will be back to normal hours on Monday...hip hip hooray!! Ali's age group at church is helping to cook breakfast tomorrow for the entire church. She will pull an hour and a half shift. That is right up her alley, as she LOVES to cook. It should be fun for her.

It was so cute...Ali decided to have her own egg hunt for Clark this evening. She stuffed some eggs and hid them outside...then told him the bunny left them. It was hilarious...he came equipped with keys attached to his pants and his toy cell phone hanging from his wrist. At one point he said "wait"...and proceeded to stop, answer his phone, and then finally got back to the business at hand. Oh boy!!

Here are photos from our day...

Easter came early!!

Oh the things we endure!!!!

I hope our kids know just how much we love them. We ENDURED the spring break crowd (just about every spot was taken in the HUGE parking lot) at Space Center Houston so that Ali could attend a "High School Musical 2 Dance Party" and Clark could see Diego in costume....and my only words are OH MY GOODNESS! Well, anyway...it was all worth it when we caught parents joining in on the dance lessons. We even caught some on tape...it is wrong, I know...to video people without them knowing...I should feel more guilty. However, just watch the videos and have a good laugh. The parents were trying to dance their way to a free poster for their kids....well, my wonderful husband leans over to his precious daughter and says "I will just buy you a poster"...and she responded "good idea." Haha! Man, these men deserved SO much more than a poster.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend with their families. We are looking forward to the first Easter with our son home...what a blessing! May we all marvel at the resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

Space Center Houston

Story-time, a ride on a horse, and a whole lot of water!

Well, with T.C. working the space shuttle mission that is up right now...that means he is working weird hours. (go in late in the afternoon/early evening and works until the middle of the night)With those hours means he is here with us some of the day. He was able to attend story-time this week and see how well Clark is interacting. Today we went to a children's program at one of the local malls. They had horse rides, a magic show, a clown making balloon animals, etc. He loved riding the big horse...he looked so tiny on that big thing! He really enjoyed watching the clown make the animals also. He also got to wave at the Easter Bunny. (that sure brought a huge smile to his face!)Then, after we ate dinner the kids wanted to play with the water table...and boy did they!! They were drenched...head to toe! They had the best time...they really prefer to just throw the water on each other. Ha! After getting soaked they slid around on the trampoline. They love that trampoline...one of the things they really enjoy doing together.

Clark is going to be evaluated by a speech pathologist on April 1st to see if he needs any speech therapy. His speech is really coming along...but we would rather be proactive than wish later on down the road that we HAD done something.

Here are just a few pictures from this week.

library, horse, water table