Cha cha cha changes

Things are moving along and life is changing and getting busier everyday. The kids have started school and I have started working on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are trying to get adjusted and back into the swing of things. The good news is that in spite of all of our business, my wonderful husband has took the time to schedule us a trip to Hawaii for our ten year anniversary. YAY!!!! I am so looking forward to going. And I'm hoping to drop a couple of pounds before heading out if that's possible, if not I'm still going to enjoy my time away. This will be the first time since Adam and I got married after our honeymoon that we have gone away together with just the two of us. Long overdue. So if any of my friends out there who have been to Hawaii have any recommendations or suggestions, please let me know.

Ashlyn and Landen have officially started school, with the exception of being out right now because of the hurricane, and for the most part seem to be enjoying being back. It took Landen all of four days before he got a note sent home from his teacher. He did not want to follow directions and wanted to do his own thing. Imagine that. So in return, Landen had to write his teacher a letter apologizing for not listening and promising to do better. So far so good.

Ashlyn on the other hand tries her best to be a people pleaser. She likes her teacher and is always trying her best to please her teacher. And with school comes all of their extracurricular activities -voice/piano, tae kwan do, gymnastics, soccer, and Adventure Guides. They don't all do this, but for all three of them this is what the activities include. I know it's insane, but sometimes I think I'm trying to make up for the things that I could not do when I was growing up. I was not completely deprived as a child but things like piano, gymnastics, or dance were never an option for me as a child. If I got to do something it was because a friend's mom would pick me up and drop me off. So I want to make sure my children have a lot of opportunities. I never force them to do anything (except for Ashlyn's piano and voice), but it's their decision on whether or not they want to do these extracurricular activities. Which I am totally for because I don't want them watching T.V. and playing video games all of the time.
Aidan has not started school yet. His first day isn't until October 7th and he is doing his best to stay patient because he enjoys going to school as well. It's hard for him at times to see his brother and sister going to school while he stays at home.

I am currently working at a MDO program for a little extra money every month. Even though it is taking me a while to see the benefits of working part time because of the cost of finger printing, Alexandra's deposit and being out a week because of the hurricane. I am with ten two year olds. What a challenge. I enjoy it, but come home tired because of all the running around I have to do. The hardest part is bringing them all to the bathroom. They run all over the restrooms, play in the water and almost always need assistance. And for those little ones who have to wait while the others are going to the restroom, they have a hard time being patient.

When Alexandra turns eighteen months old, she will be coming with me. I think she's ready because she has become so independent over these last couple of months and she's like a little sponge. She still loves books and at times I will find her sitting down looking at a book pretending to read. So I think she is going to enjoy going to preschool. She's getting to the point where I can now go to church and the YMCA without her crying when I drop her off. It's strange because we have only had our daughter for six months, but I can't imagine not having her before. It's like she's always been part of our family. She's such a blessing and joy. Adam tells me she was the longest delivery ever. That's true. Both of my girls were a lot of work, Ashlyn with IVF and waiting for Alexandra for three years.

Yikes it was Ike

Here are some pictures of our yard after Ike came through.

The renovations moving along in our house. A couple of doors and a huge window so that I can now watch my children as they play outside. There's still a lot more left to do.


Alexandra eating her first chocolate popsicle. I think she likes it.

August News

Unlike last year we didn't let this summer pass us by without a trip to Sea World. We all had a good time, with the exception of Landen and Aidan not being able to ride a lot of the rides. It was very very hot, but we managed. We will go again when the boys are a little taller, not in August and not on a weekend.

Ashlyn and Alexandra displaying their gifts of love given to them by their dear friend Ms. Stephanie and Harper.
Our family photo taken for our Social Worker's visit the next day. We have plenty of photos of everyone, but very few of all of us together. (Someone has to be on the other end of the camera). This is one of Alexandra's favorite thing to do, play rough with her dad. The visit went really well with the exception of me wanting to choke Ashlyn. The social worker has to come and see how we are all doing six months and then a year after our arrival from China. While conducting her interview with me, the kids did not want to leave the room. I asked them to leave, but they wanted by all means to stay. I told them they could stay if they promised to be quiet and listen. Well about two minutes into the interview, the boys had had enough and left the room. Ashlyn on the other hand stayed and decided that she would answer the social worker's questions. I told her several times that the social worker was talking to me, not her, and I asked her to leave more than once. She just out right refused to listen. Okay let's just stop the interview with the social worker so I can strangle my daughter. The social worker asked if Alexandra was sick since we brought her back. I answered no, she just had a bout with allergies that I needed to check out, I noted she was allergic to peanut butter and possibly had some outdoor allergies. And then Ashlyn chimed in, "Oh remember Alexandra was really sick when she had a fever of 103." (I forgot about this), and then she proceeded to say that Alexandra had a black eye too. From that point on, I just wanted to say yeah, and we lock our kids up on the closet too. Let's just say I wasn't a happy camper with Ashlyn after the interview. I wanted to tell her that if she really wanted to do an interview with the social worker then she would have to go to China and get her own kid.

This is what we did during the summer. I cannot tell you how many Saturday's I had to show up at the gym at 8 o'clock in the morning for the games. I don't think we will be doing any summer sports again. This was the first season that the kids played basketball and for the most part all of the kids seemed to enjoy basketball. I think Aidan was kind of in la la land about half the time - he was with the four year old team. Ashlyn and Landen played on the same team. They both did really well. Every time Landen got the ball, he ALWAYS passed it to his sister.

This was a wonderful treat for us. We had a mini reunion with some of the families that where with us in China. We were able to meet in Austin before going to Sea World. It was so nice to see everyone again. My only complaint was that it was not long enough. I got to talk to everyone, but couldn't really speak to just one person in depth. I really did miss these guys. You wouldn't believe how close you can get to someone after spending three weeks together and having to share the same experiences together. This is just a small portion of our group. We are trying our hardest to have a reunion sometime in the future with the whole group. The baby being held in the back by her dad, Julieann was Alexandra's crib mate.

August news

I cannot believe the kids will be starting school in less than 2wks. Wow, the summer has gone by quickly. Maybe it's because we have been sooooo busy.

It's A Family Affair

With everyone pitching in and the help of family and friends, our house is finally finally getting started with renovations.
The kids love helping their dad work on the house, especially the boys.
Ashyn did not want to be left out, so she decided to pitch in too.
I've been wanting to do this for a long long time - knock this wall down. We are expanding our back wall from our living area that had a horrible design of two windows on opposite ends that were way too high to see the outside yard. And I hated it because I could not see my children while they played outside. With this wall down we will have about an extra three feet added to our living area and I will be able to see my kids play outside from any area of the living room without having to get up and look out the window. We have added a door, french doors, and a huge window that takes up about half the wall. It really has opened up the room. So far Adam and the kids have knocked down half of the wall, next they will do the fire place in the middle and then the other half of the wall. YAY!!!!
Nope, this is not a posed picture. I am really up on the roof, screwing the plywood down. It took me a while before I started to get blisters on my hand to look over at my husband and see him wearing gloves. He forgot that minor detail while handing me the tools. OOPS. I managed to finish the job in over 90 degree weather. There are very few times that I am willing to pat myself on the back, but I was sure damn proud of myself for getting up on the roof for over an hour bent over drilling the plywood. (Yep, I was sore the next day) So see, I'm not a total girly girl. I also helped drill the holes in the yard when we first got our house to put up the fence. I wonder if I can add all of this to my resume and who knows, by the time I look for a paying job, I may have to look into this line of work. It's been so long since I've done administrative work - yep, that's why it takes me so long to blog because I'm not as efficient as I once was years ago on the computer. Not to mention the alone time is few and far in between. But hey, for the most part, I'm happy.

What's Alexandra up to these days

This is Alexandra's favorite thing to do (other than eating). She loves to look at books and have you read to her. And unfortunately, if you look real close, she has a shiner. Nope, she didn't fall and hit the corner of a table. Her older brother Aidan scared our dog who in turn made a mad dash away from him that Alexandra just happen to be in his way, so without seeing her, he ran over her. Needless to say, I was not very happy and had to pray for forgiveness after a few bad words flew out of my mouth. And yes, this would be the first week that I would take her to our regular pediatrician, go the YMCA, and church, etc... I never had so many things to do with her in tow before. And I had to explain why she was sporting around her shiner. I'm sure it won't be her first. Even though it was a complete accident, this little girl is into everything. She's running all over the house, laughing all the time. She has climbed on top of a few things - the couch, out of her high chair, she's tried her bed and hasn't accomplished that yet -into the tub, on a storage box, and she loves to put whatever she can in her mouth. The other night she tried putting insulation in her mouth. The good thing is, is that if I think she's put something in her mouth, and I tell her to give it to me. She will spit it out into my hand. Since the day we got her she's always liked putting fuzz in her mouth.
This is what she did the whole fourth of July. She was not any different than her usual self. She ran around constantly, and it was very hard for me to get any pictures of her because she would not be still. Nope, she wasn't afraid of any of the fireworks or the noise.
Taking a little break with her dad and looking a little out of sorts after playing hard.
From the picture below, she's trying to get her hands on the goods. She even threw her head band in the box so she could have an excuse to stick her little hands in there. Don't worry though the box only contained things that the kids could play with like the pull string confetti, pop rocks, and sparklers. I was close by making sure she stayed out of trouble.
I also wanted to put in my blog some interesting facts that I learned about Alexandra's matching process to our family. How she became our daughter. I will never forget gotcha day, seeing all the little Asian babies and not knowing exactly which one was ours and how blessed we were to have her. So many people gave us complements on our trip about how she was the perfect fit for us. I know God had his hand in this, but what was the deciding factor for the directors of the orphanage. How would they choose this child to be part of our family. Believe it or not we were told that they do look for physical similarities. Alexandra and Ashlyn have the same mouth for sure. And I did run into some people that I had not seen in a while and introduced them to my daughter and they said that she looked like her dad. Sorry, I didn't tell them any different. But anyway, I'm straying here. I found out that other than the physical characteristics, they will match a child according to the birth date and their Chinese zodiac sign, which is not like the American zodiac sign. The Chinese Zodiac is done in years, not months. So Alexandra's birthday is two days before Adam's and her Zodiac sign is the same as mine. I thought that this was so interesting that I had to include it in my blog.

Landen's six year birthday and our days camping

My little boy is already six years old. The time goes by so fast. You blink and they are out of diapers and going into first grade.
Oops, just a little too close to the cake.
I can't imagine Landen being any other way. His nickname from his mom only is Sunshine. You can definitely see why here. He has the ability to light up the whole room. (There's also another side, but we won't discuss that now)
All the little Manuel's right before bedtime while camping. It looks like Alexandra is loving her first camping trip. She was great. We went camping just a couple of weeks after returning home from China.
This is my camping look. How unfortunate some of our camping buddies have never seen me any other way. Here, Alexandra and I are about to go walking on an alligator trail for a couple of miles. She liked the hike too, and never complained. There was one occasion though where this alligator was flailing in and out of the water with it's tail and growling. I'm from Louisiana and have seen many of alligator, but I've never seen one act like that before. Needless to say we did not stick around to see why he/she (I'm assuming it was a female because she was ornery) was acting irritable.

What's up with the Manuel's

What's new with everyone

Well school has been out for a week. Oh my. Landen is officially over with kindergarten, Ashlyn is now going to second grade, and Aidan will continue to go to preschool. I think Ashlyn was happy school was over and looking forward to the summer. Of course there's the poor me scenario every now and then. I wish we could go to summer camp, I wish we could go to the YMCA pool everyday. Why we can't do that? Let's see, before school ended she was doing gymnastics, singing/piano lessons, baseball, and safari princess. Poor girl, she's soooo deprived. Anyway, basketball season starts and the first practice is this Monday. I got an e-mail from the coach introducing himself and letting me know when practice was. I had to e-mail him and ask which kid he was talking about since three of mine will be playing this season. I'm praying for a relaxed summer if that is possible, where I can hang out at the pool with my kids and enjoy spending time with them. It's only the motherhood mentality that makes me want to do this because otherwise I wouldn't be caught dead in a bathing suit.

Landen was very sad the last day of school. He didn't want school to end. He said that he was going to miss all of his friends and teachers. Oh and he got all of his pretty blond hair cut off for the summer. I refused to let him and Aidan get a buzz cut, but it's really short.

Aidan is pretty much easy going. He will go with the flow. It's just hard for me to believe that he will have to go another year in preschool. I think he's ready for kindergarten, but I know several mothers that think their kids are advanced. It's not so much his academics that I think he's advanced in, even though he can write his name and read a few site words. He just seems to be mature. And there are times that he is definitely more mature than his older brother.

As far as Alexandra, she is changing everyday since the day we got her. She now has more hair, four teeth, and she starting to get a little chunky around the booty and thighs. She is also walking all over the place. And her grandmother Betty has spoiled her rotten. She loves Ms. Betty to death and if Ms. Betty walks into a room and doesn't pick Alexandra up, Alexandra will start to cry. And when Alexandra sees her Grandmother across the room she will take off running with her arms up in the air. It's hard to believe that she wasn't with us a few months ago.

We've heard from Bryan. He sent a few pictures from Kuwait, but called Adam the other day to say that he was in Iraq, but he could not tell us where he was in Iraq. I might be afraid to know. He is hoping to get a few days leave in November. We are still praying for him to come safely home, and ask that our friends and family will do the same. Oh and rumor has it, he's very serious with his girlfriend. Hmmm, that's the first that I've heard of him having a serious relationship since I've known him.

Oh and if anyone knows our family there's never a dull moment and there is always some crises no matter how big or small. The latest is our neighborhood water supply. There have been several occasions where we had no water at all. How wonderful. A mother with four children and no water. Do you realize how many times I wash my hands and the kids a day? Thank God for sanitizing wipes. And yes, the matter is still being worked on. Today my poor mother in law took the kids blackberry picking, cut the grass, and then went home to get totally undressed ready to get in her shower only to find out that there was no water. While this was going on, I called the water company - Aqua Texas and asked as nicely as possible what was going on that this was probably the 3rd or 4th time that we had no water. The rep said she would look into it and then came back and said they were working on it. I asked her since we were having to do without water on a number of occasions if we were going to get a discount on our water bill? I was being sarcastic, which is something I can't stand when other people do it. But I thought it was quiet obvious. But she put me on hold to find out. I couldn't believe she thought I was serious, but hey it was worth the try, but to no surprise she came back and said no.

Well hopefully we will have a good summer and not suffer too much from the heat. And get our water working properly.

Our oldest son Bryan

Bryan during his last family gathering before being deployed to Kuwait. We ask that you please keep Bryan in your prayers that he will come home safely and for God speed.
Adam and Bryan May 9, 2008, gee they really do look alike.

Other family photos

Landen and Aidan crossing out the days while waiting for Mommy, Daddy, Ashlyn, and Alexandra to come home.
Aidan and Landen think that since they are wearing Chinese PJ's
that they are Chinese boys.
Aidan performing at his end of the year preschool show.
Landen's Kindergarten celebration-celebrating going into first grade next year.

Alexandra's 1st Birthday

Ms. Laura's gift to Alexandra - her birthday cakes.

I don't think Alexandra's seen one of these before. She's thinking (what is this?)
I think she figured it out. Mmmmm, it taste good.
Yep, she's happy and you can see the evidence all over her face.