Spring Break

This week was our spring break, but due to a birthday, play practice and a baptism we decided not to attempt going anywhere. So we made lots of things and the kids finally got to play outside and ride their bikes (a lot). I've been working on cutting out and sewing some costumes and making some (small/simple) props for the Jr. High musical. Oh, and cutting off pants for shorts this summer. In the process Grant and Morgan have become facinated with sewing and have been asking me to help them sew things. I finally told them in the summer we could make some things, but some how Grant talked me helping him sew the wallet, pictured above, out of cut off levi's. Pretty clever kid. It turned out pretty good for just winging it. Then in Young Women's Tanya learned how to make these scarves and finished this one this week. We also painted little china sets for the dolls and not pictured made lots of cool rings. It was a fun week, but I'm ready for school to start so I can finish all the little things I started, Grant would appreciate that too since the sewing machine and craft stuff is in his bedroom.

Happy Birthday Ana

Happy 9th Birthday Ana! We were planning another birthday party at Kangaroo Zoo, Ana worked all month for a party - she has some behavior issues at school and she went 3 weeks only getting written up 9 times, that is less than half of what she usually gets! We were so proud of her. But we planned the party over spring break and everyone was out of town so we talked about doing a big present instead. She is always "borrowing"/taking Morgan's mini and ds so we got her her very own ds. I think it more than made up for not getting a big birthday party.

Morgan got her a Hannah Montana doll, if you know Ana she is obsessed with Hannah Montana and likes to be called Ana Montana. As for Grant in all the pics who knew? He's usually hiding from the camera, so we'll take what we can get.

The bike

So Morgan and Ana had both out grown their bikes from last summer and so we headed down and got a new bike for Morgan and Ana got Morgan's old bike (which she is always asking Morgan to ride). When they got home Ana just ran through the house down to her room. Troy said she was upset because she didn't pick out a new bike. So I headed down to talk to her, thinking all the while of starting a grateful journal like fellow adoptive mom, Wendy ; ). So I sit down by her on the bed and aske her if she is sad. She yells YES and pouts and burries her head in her arms. I said that I thought that sounded more like she was angry than sad. She looks up at me and yells YES again. She starts to pout and then spits out, I jealous of Morgan's bike! I broke out in a big grin and held back a laugh, because for Ana that was a great sentence and how did she know what jealous was? We haven't gotten to that emotion, maybe at church.... So I asked her what jealous ment and she said she wanted what Morgan had, I again was so impressed. So we had a little chat about being happy and being jealous doesn't make us happy. Then I told her the big secret, that the younger siblings get to go on more trips and get newer stuff in the end. I being the oldest (and a bit spoiled) shared some stories of my younger (and very spoiled - you know I'm teasing you Kat) littlest sister. By the end she was wide eyed and smiling and took off to ride her new/old bike. Later she did have to ask Tanya and Victor if they knew what jealous was, my fault I let it slip that I didn't think they knew what it ment, and from the blank stares and Victor's, "What is this?" question we both knew the answer and that twinkled stayed in her eye the rest of the night.

Easter

Another first, even though the kids lived in the Ukraine and the Ukraine is famous for it's Ukrainian Eggs, the kids had never been on an Easter Egg hunt or colored Easter Eggs (died American style or painted Ukrainian style). So Saturday we joined the neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Because of the snow they moved it to the tennis courts. It's for ages 1-12, so Grant avoided all pictures and since Tanya had never been on an Easter egg hunt we let her run around. I think she enjoyed it more than anyone else.

Tanya was the only one excited to have a picture with the Easter bunny.

Ethan just wanted pics with his friends being silly, no Easter bunny involved!

Easter Sunday the kids found their baskets by their doors with the color of eggs they had to go find through the house. Troy and I slept in and so I didn't get pictures of their baskets. The usual a silly, small Easter toy, t-shirt, book(s) and some candy and whatever was in the Easter eggs they found.

After conference we colored Easter eggs.

Priesthood Session

This is Troy making a rare posting appearance.

There are still quite a few "firsts" with our adopted kids, now a year into it, but certainly less than there used to be. Tonight was a good one: Victor's first priesthood session at general conference.

I explained it to him earlier today. I warned him it would be long, but that he, Grant and I would all be going and I hoped he'd enjoy it. I also let drop that there was a good chance there would be ice cream afterwards. He was game at that point.

The first 1/2 hour went fine. The next hour he was struggling but largely hanging in there. The last 1/2 hour he was the horse heading toward the barn and was pretty wired. Overall, I was proud he sat through it and even listened occasionally. He of course had to keep the Victor humor going, and would whisper a wisecrack to me or Grant every 5 or 10 minutes. Often non-sensical, but occasionally funny. Here are a few of the funnier ones:

Victor: Next time I am going to bring a pillow
Dad: No, Victor
Victor: And a blanket
Dad: (At this point, dad understands it's a joke) Ahh, I see. Very funny.
Victor: And my bed

Victor: Dad, I am hungry. Can I eat you?

Victor, referencing the conductor as he directs the choir with broad arm movements: He is Kung Foo man.

Winter wonderland

Random things that happened in March

Grant has to see a musical each term for his Musical Theater class at the Jr. High. It's been fun because I love musicals and I get to spend that time with my baby (he's growing up too fast). Sorry I haven't been very sentimental, not one of those moms who cry when the kids go to kindergarten or are afraid of swim lessons. I'm a wave good-bye and throw them in the pool kind of mom... well I was, now that I've added three more I feel like I never have enough time with each of them or keep up on their lives. That was so off topic...

So I took Grant and Morgan to Viewmont High Schools production of Cats. Absolutely amazing! Every year I go to Viewmont Highs productions because they are as good or better than other small theater productions in the area. We've started attending Woods Cross productions too, really good. It's amazing what these teenage kids can do these days, let alone the sets they come up with.

So here is Morgan on the stage after the production and posing with one of the cats. She would talk to every performer if she could, I think that is her favorite part of the show! But they did an amazing job. I heard they had 90 kids/cats in the performance. When the show began they came down the isles and onto the stage and they just kept coming and coming and coming. They all did a spectacular job.

Ethan and Ana's class earned enough points (or something) to have one of their teachers bring in her pet. The kids just loved it.

Ethan had all A's last term, well every term, and so we went out for ice cream in March. He picked some kind of sherbet with pop rocks in it! What will they think of next? I, myself, picked chocolate ice cream with raspberries... mmmm.

On a side note, when we got home from ice cream, Victor started to ask questions about grades and what A's were and F's were, etc. The entire next week he refused to do any work in class and just told all of his teachers to give him F's and that he hated school. I didn't know till the following Friday when a couple of his teachers emailed me about the situation. I began to wonder if it was triggered by the ice cream episode. I talked to Victor and told him how proud I was of hard he had been working in school (not mentioning I had heard from his teachers) and that in just this year he had moved from a third grade math book to the fifth grade math book and was getting an A in math (he does have a couple math classes so that we can try and catch him up so he can be in 6th grade math in 6th grade next year). He only had one B+ and all A's this term and Morgan also had all A's and a B this term (this year has been hard for Morgan, she's had her first B's and so she has struggled with not getting to go for ice cream with mom too). So I asked him if I could take him and Morgan out one day for ice cream because they had worked so hard and all he said was, "I will work so hard in school mom and I will do better in math". I took that as a yes. It's that sneaky attachment disorder working in him, if he's not the best he quits because he's not good enough and so no one can love him and why even try. He's that way in games all of the time, if he's not winning he quits and walks away. He's getting better, but I just never know when it will show up or what will trigger it. He and Ana are so mild compared to Tanya's but it's there, it's so sad that it stems from a little (or a lot of) neglect or abuse (in our case by their mother). It's something they will deal with all through their lives.

Troy and I went to a little Italian restaurant the other night and they had an Argentine BBQ, sorry forget what it's called in Spanish. Troy served a mission in Argentina and we celebrated our 10th anniversary (many moons ago) by taking a trip down there. We just loved it down their and loved having a couple of sweet girls come live with us for a summer after that. The dinner made me think of them and miss them. It also reminded me that it is warm and sunny down their right now! Here we sit in the snow.

Grant, Morgan and Ethan all went to the eye doctor last Monday (since we had no school due to a teacher prep day). At least once a week I'm pulling Tanya, Victor or Ana out of school for some doctor appointment and I still schedule Grant, Morgan and Ethan on days they won't miss school, poor kids. Grant ended up getting contacts and Ethan really needed glasses! A few times he has said he can't see things and I just brushed it off. He was a little near sited at his yearly check up last year, but not enough to go to the eye doctor, but here he is more near sited than Grant. He's probably needed them all year, but never complained enough to get my attention. He was dang cute in the doctors office when they gave him the lenses to look through. He walked around the entire office telling me all the things he could see with his glasses on! Poor Morgan goes with the boys every year with the hope that her eye sight will go bad so she can get glasses, but no she has perfect, well 20/20 vision. Needless to say she was in tears as we left, so we had to stop at her favorite restaurant and cheer her up!

At last! Tanya, after three visits, finally let the dentist, Uncle Brady, fill her cavities. Well half of her cavities. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! One more dentist visit for Victor, Tanya and Ana and we should be done for a bit. What will we do when Brady moves this summer. He has capped all of Ana's teeth (except for her front teeth, which are permanent and doing well and a molar in the back which now has a cavity)! We thought she was done after her four previous appointments, but no, back again.

Funny Ana story, I don't know if I have blogged it or not... but since I'm rambling I'll share it (again?). After our last visit to the dentist with Ana, to finish capping her baby teeth (because they were crumbling out of her mouth), Ana was so excited to show everyone at school. She really liked seeing all that silver in her mouth and felt that she could now chew anything. (She had had a lot of pain while eating before all her dental work). Well the next day she came home from school and the kids were all trying to tell us about Ana's super strong teeth. We finally got them to slow down and tell us what had happened. Well, at school Ana was showing all the kids her teeth and that they were invincible and all powerful. So kids started asking her what she could do and she started biting/chewing different things. For her grand finally she chewed right through a tin can! Oh, yes, that is our fearless Ana who won't turn down a challenge! So needless to say we had to have Uncle Brady chat with her about her teeth not being indestructible, only because she didn't believe her parents...

So here is brave Tanya who after biting two dentists on previous appointments, finally let Uncle Brady fill 2 of her 4 cavities. We have come a long way! She really doesn't want anyone but Brady to work on her and where he is moving in the Summer she started begging to go back and get her teeth filled before he moves. I guess that is one way to over come some fear and anxiety.