Jr. High concert last night

This is the 7th grade choir and acting class at the Jr High concert last night.

Today is 4 weeks!

Tonight I realized that it has been four weeks today since Troy and the kids made it here.  I thought I'd capture what they were doing... riding bikes, the first thing they did when they got here.  I couldn't get the girls to stop for a picture, so they are in motion.  Victor was at scouts, other wise I'm pretty sure he would have been on his bike also.  

Bear Lake Weekend

We went up to Bear Lake for Memorial Weekend.  It was rainy and cool, but the kids just loved riding their bikes all over the place and swimming.  I did get a book read while watching them swim and ride bikes.


It was windy on and off all weekend and as soon as the wind picked up the kids were out with the kite.  It was a great kite, really easy to get up and keep up in the air.





We took a drive around the lake on Sunday and stopped to skip rocks.  I was finally able to get a few pictures of everyone that weren't blurry.




Playing with clay and watching the rain were good Sunday pastimes too.   

Morgan and Ethan were the only two brave enough to play on the beach for a bit, about a half hour.  It was a bit chilly.

Sunday evening the sun came out and we played some ultimate Frisbee. Ok I took pictures while everyone else played.... I had to make and clean up dinner in between games.  There weren't many people up there for the weekend and it really was beautiful even with the on and off rain showers all weekend.  We watched a movie every night... I think that is the most they have watched since being in America!

1st grade opera

Last Wednesday the first graders had there first Opera Performance.  A group in Idaho helped them compose the music and words, but it was all from the kids.  They decided the theme and idea and words and this group helped them put it together.  The kids even painted all their own back drops.  Ethan and I came up with this dragon costume.  Later we realized he had no green clothes to wear under it so we went with blue.

There Opera was about dragons, bats and crystals in a cave.  A storm destroys some humans homes and they come seeking shelter in the cave.  Very cute idea and in the end a good moral of doing unto others.

Grandma and Grandpa Keller

A little blurry, but the kids got to meet their Grandma and Grandpa Keller today. In fact they are at the hotel swimming with them right now (well while Grandma and Papa watch). We had other friends over and I needed a shower after three hours of weeding, so Troy and Grant took them to meet their other grandparents. They were so excited to go swimming, who knows when they'll come home.

Utah Day for the 4th grade

The fourth grade celebrated the state of Utah Friday with a play about Utah, dutch oven cooking and some pioneer games.


Morgan did her county report on Morgan county. They were supposed to bring something to share that is produced in their county. We forgot to do something and so last minute made a sign for Browning Guns, which are manufactured there, and she gave out these little shooter toys we had for a pinata. Lucky us. Dad and Grandma even made it for the play and Grandma stayed to see their displays after wards.
One clip is of the kids dancing in the play and one of Morgan being a Seagull pulling the crickets off of the stage. She also got to introduce the play which I missed, but heard she did a wonderful job! She always does.

Doctors and School

We returned to the doctor's office today to have their Tb shots looked at and both were positive, but the chest x-rays were clean. So the info is being sent to the cdc to find out if they will need to take the 9 months of antibiotics. I think I would prefer the yearly chest x-ray. We now have four appointments set up at Primary Childrens Hospital with one surgery looming in the future. June will be a busy month for us. Otherwise everyone is healthy and all the blood work came back negative, yeah!

I would love to hear about peoples school experiences. We just don't know what to do about school yet. Victor is doing ok, so far they don't think he is too far behind his grade level and as he learns the language he'll catch up. He's also pretty social and has a lot of neighborhood friends already. Ana doesn't like school and says she doesnt' need to learn English (I guess that comes with siblings who interpret everything for you : ) Tatiana is catching on to the language, but can do no math. We've talked to a couple people about her repeating 6th again (we felt it would be good for her too), but it puts her in with Victor and that really upset her and she said we had told her in the orphanage that she wouldn't be in school with the babies... etc. Anyone have any similar experiences? Any recommendations that we can mull over as we try to plan what would be best for the kids? I'm totally open right now.

Art Show

Monday night was LPA's Art show. The elementary kids all performed a couple songs they have learned this year. Ethan's class wrote an opera about dragons and crystals. Here is Ethan in his Dragon costume : ) Ethan's class will be performing their opera next Wednesday!

This is a song from earlier in the year when Morgan's class performed Sleepy Hallow. I missed her solo, but isn't she just the little actress! Her class is doing a play about Utah History on Friday at school.

Happy Mothers Day

Grant got some cute pictures of the kids getting my Mother's Day Breakfast put together this morning.  (And eating my mothers day breakfast treats : )



They also washed and walked the dog for Mother's Day, best gift ever!
And... I'm now the proud owner of a Suburban!  We can all fit in one car now, WOW!

First day of school

Monday a sweet mom, Jodi, who speaks Russian, came and took us on a tour of the elementary school and helped the kids meet their teachers. We also showed them where all the bathrooms were, the computer room, the lunch room and playground. Everyone was so nice and helpful and excited to finally meet the kids. So yesterday we went a little early and found their class rooms again and got them settled. I checked my phone 50 times through out the day, but no calls, emails or texts. So I assumed they were fine and met them at the flag pole at the end of the day. They came out looking for me and I even got a couple quick, short hugs. The kids seemed to do well, their teachers came out with them, and said they did great. They also told me that there were always kids with them at recess and lunch. So I think it was a good experience for them.

Today we are going to try to ride the bus...

update on birthcertificate for an adopted child (utah)

Alan emailed me about my information on getting a birth certificate for the kids here in Utah. You don't have to go before a Judge, but a Judge signs it. Hopefully that is correct. Our school did take the Ukraine birth certificate, but as was pointed out to me if that is ever lost or destroyed we'd have to go back to the Ukraine to get a new one. I'd much rather go to the vital records office here than the Ukraine to get a new one : )

This is the information Alan sent me.

Here is the contact information for obtaining a Utah birth certificate
for an adopted child: Carolyn Lucas is the person to contact. It takes
4-6 weeks to complete the process. She will send you a letter with
instructions of how to proceed if you contact her. By now, there
might even be something on the web that she could direct you to.

Carolyn Lucas
Adoption Specialist
Registration Unit
(801) 538-6363
cslucas@utah.gov

Street Address
288 North 1460 West
Salt Lake City, Utah
(801) 538-6105 (Phone)
(801) 538-7012 (Fax)

Here is the web address for the Utah Office of Vital Records:
https://silver.health.utah.gov/index.html

Trampoline... another first

My kids get home from school and everyone just goes and plays. It's been nice to just check on everyone, take pictures and just relax a bit. These were from yesterday, but it was the first time for the kids on a trampoline. They would just laugh and laugh. It's the neighbors tramp and a bunch of kids were over yesterday showing them different games to play, like crack the egg, dodge ball and mark-o polo. Pretty cute of the neighbor kids.