If you thought we were crazy before...

...just wait.  It gets crazier.  Big news getting ready to break here soon.  Stay tuned...

Christmas Day 2011

We went to church first on Christmas morning, so didn't get around to opening gifts until afterward.  Before you start feeling too sorry for our poor, mistreated children (haha) - you should know that they got (entirely too much) stuff from their Grandma Schoemig on Christmas Eve.  And after we opened gifts at our house Christmas Day, we went over to Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst's house and they got more (a Nintendo Wii with a charger and 4 controllers).

Tim and I (okay, I - since Tim doesn't shop for any gift other than mine) didn't go nuts on Christmas this year.  However, as you will see below, I think the kids were happy to get what they got from us.

Now she has the big pillow pet, the small pillow pet and the matching slippers...

Oscar with his iPod Touch and a new zip-up hoodie...

...and the matching slippers for Claudia too.

A penguin hat and gloves for Diana (she has a serious penguin addiction).

Dog treats and toys are unveiled for Hank and Hanai.

 

...and this is what we saw - pretty much for the rest of the day (or at least until the batteries died).

Photo Shoot

In my never-ending quest to trim our family budget, I decided that I would take the photos for our Christmas card this year instead of hiring a photographer.  Next I had to decide where we would take them and what the kids were going to wear.  I bought some super-cute dresses off eBay for the girls - they aren't wearing all the same ones this year, but they all match in style and color.

I also decided that we would do a 'location' photo shoot at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in KC.  The kids weren't real excited when we told them that we were taking them to an art museum (instead of a photography studio) to take their Christmas pictures.  However, when we arrived at the Nelson they really liked it!  What's not to like?  The place is gorgeous inside... and full of some really cool stuff!

Once again, I won't post the actual picture we plan to use.  But, I will post another one that we really liked - but didn't make the final cut for our 2011 card:

Cost for parking at the Nelson $5.  Cost for forty, semi-custom, self-designed Christmas cards from walmart.com $16.68.  Cost of hearing your kids say "Cooooool Mom, can we come back again some day?" - about a museum of art - ...priceless.

Thanksgiving, etc.

As we have every year since about 2001, Thanksgiving was at our house this year.  We were down 5 people though since my younger sister and her family moved to Florida back in May of this year.  But we still had a nice family gathering with my Mom, my older sister and her family and two of my aunts (my Mom's sisters).

Looking ahead, I'm pretty excited about Christmas this year.  Last year I had a hard time figuring out what to buy everyone for Christmas.  I think they liked what they got, but I don't think they were 'blown away' by their gifts.  This year I bought the kids each an iPod Touch (don't wig out - we didn't win the lottery, I bought them all off eBay so I saved more than half what the newest 4th gen costs).  I think they are going to absolutely love them - just my gut feeling.  I've found tons of inexpensive educational games and ebooks on iTunes - and also PBS kids TV shows.  Awesome!  Can't wait to see their reactions!

This month we also moved our old PC and the printer out of the 3-seasons porch (off Tim's and my bedroom) and put it in the dining room for use as a 'family computer'.  I cleaned up the hard drive and added a gig of RAM to the motherboard.  It was running very sluggishly - now it runs like a champ and didn't cost me that much to fix :).  After that, I bought and loaded several kids learning games on it.  The girls all ask me constantly now if they can play on the computer (they actually started asking before I even had a chance to get everything set up).  The dining room is a little more cramped now, but it think it is well worth it.

In other news, our friends from church are leaving this week to travel to China to adopt their little boy Jesiah.  Their family had a really rough time this past year, but are ending on a positive note by finally being given the green light to go to get their little one.  Keep them (Nathan & Michelle) in your prayers if you are so inclined, they are leaving two small children behind here in the States while they travel.  I know they are worried about all their children - near and far - at this time.

Mayerly's 10th Birthday

I wish I had something witty and inspiring to write today in honor of Mayerly's birthday.  Unfortunately, I've been fighting a chest cold for about 2 weeks now and I'm too wiped out to come up with anything.  So, I'll just be posting some pictures before I call it a night.

 Blowing out the candles

 She's cheezin' in this one with her imaginary knife and fork ready to eat all the cake herself...

 Bratz Leapster game from Grandma and Grandpa Verhulst

 Furry green body pillow, also from G'ma & G'pa Verhulst

 Incredibles Leapster game from Mom & Dad

 Doll clothes from Mom & Dad

Doll from Grandma Schoemig

The Starfish

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said,
“I made a difference for that one.”

Mega Post

Here we are at the end of August.  Where did the summer go?  It's been so busy the past 3 weeks, I'm having a hard time believing we actually are almost into September.  The run-down for this month is as follows:

Colorado Vacation August 15 - 20

Finally.  We finally took a trip that was longer than just a weekend.  Our first in over 3 years.

Tim's family has a cabin about 45 minutes outside of Colorado Springs at the edge of Pike National Forest.  Tim and I hadn't been out there in over 10 years, so we decided we'd take the kids and go this summer since we had a week to kill between the end of summer day-camp and the beginning of school.

It's about a 10-11 hour drive out there from our house.  We left home at 4:30 am, packed breakfast and lunch and ate on the road at rest stops.  Here's a picture from our first stop for breakfast (pan dulce - Mexican sweet bread).

I don't have a picture of lunch because it was so windy it was literally blowing our food off the picnic table (western Kansas).  We arrived in Colorado Springs at around 3:30 in the afternoon.  The elevation (altitude) where we stayed is almost identical to the altitude of Bogota (where our kids are from) - I just thought that was interesting.  Here's where the Great Plains meet the Rockies...

The Verhulst cabin is, a bit rustic.  However, it has almost all the conviences of home - a kitchen (only missing a dishwasher), an indoor bathroom with shower and hot water, and a washing machine (no dryer, just an outdoor clothesline).  This is about as rough as I care to go when 'roughing it'.

The view of Pike's Peak from the back deck is pretty awesome... and it never looked exactly the same any two times you looked at it.  This is what it looked like one afternoon.

There were several things at the cabin that kept the kids occupied.  We had a zip line, a wagon, a dirt bike and a bb gun.  We saw black squirrels, deer, woodpeckers, elk, chipmunks, humming birds and rabbits - all without leaving our deck.

Mayerly on the zip line

Claudia on the wagon

Claudia and Tim on the bike

Doe with fawn behind the cabin

Herd of elk on a hill just down the road from the cabin

We did get out a few times.  Our first outing was to Garden of the Gods by day and the Flying W Ranch for a chuckwagon supper and singing cowboy show by night.  Another day we took the cog train up Pike's Peak from Manitou Springs.  We also drove over to Cripple Creek and Victor (a couple of old gold mining towns) for a look around.  Cripple Creek is mostly a strip of casinos now, so we actually liked Victor better.

Garden of the Gods visitor center

Balanced Rock Cafe - Garden of the Gods Trading Post (Tim, Oscar & I had buffalo burgers)

 Waiting at the table to tie on the feedbag at our chuckwagon supper

The kids' favorite cowboy (L.J.) - he was the butt of most of the show's jokes

It was 44 degrees at the top of Pike's Peak, with a windchill of 39 degrees that morning.

Here are the girls in Cripple Creek, CO.

Here's a view of Victor, CO.  They actually have an active gold mine there that pulls over $6 million in gold out of the mountain - weekly... WOW!

We drove home from Colorado on August 20th (an all day trip).  I can't figure out why sitting in a car or an airplane for MANY hours makes me so tired - but it does.  And I'm never ready for vacation time to end - but it ALWAYS does.

First Day of School - Oscar & Diana - August 22

Don't they look thrilled to be going back to school???

First Day of School - Mayerly & Claudia - August 25

3rd Annual Adoption Picnic @ Windhaven Farm - August 27

For the past 3 years Gerry and Teresa Rima have hosted a picnic at their dairy farm in southwest Missouri for families who have adopted.  Most of the families who attend have adopted from Colombia, but there were children from Ethiopia and China too.  It's a great time with lots of kids :).  The Rimas have 17 (that's not a typo) children total, 15 were adopted - one from the U.S. and 14 from Colombia.  They are amazing people and we are priviledged and honored to know them.

The Rima Family (minus their 2 adult children)

My little buddy Bella - she's taken a liking to me for some reason :)

Most of the families who attended the picnic (some left before we took this picture)

Who knew a hammock could be so much fun?

Oscar's Birthday - August 28

Last (but not least) our oldest (Oscar) turned 14 today.  He has matured so much over the past year (and I'm not just talking about how tall he is getting).  I'm becoming more and more proud of the young man he is turning out to be and so glad that we could play a part in shaping who he is and helping him achieve to his greatest potential.

The obligatory cake and ice cream...

PC games from Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst

Speakers for MP3/PC from Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst

PC from Mom & Dad (also Swiss Army type knife in his hand)