Reid and Stefani Adopt

This past week Irma made her grand entrance all over the state of Florida.  She was a BIG storm.  We decided it would be better to hunker down in our home than to fight the lack of gas and long, long lines of traffic out.  We made a blanket fort with the kids Sunday night, and read together, and then we had a "sleepover" downstairs.  The most scary thing was all the tornado alerts.  We didn't get hit with one, but a couple of them did touch down in the cities nearby us.  The worst of the storm happened, again, at night.  The kids slept beautifully.  Even when Esther fell off the couch, she stayed asleep.  Reid and I didn't sleep so well, and we lost power around 11:30 pm. We did hear a big crash, which we assume was the playground equipment outside that fell over.  Monday morning, we woke up to water all over the street, and almost up to our garage.  The water had already receded a bit by the time I took the pictures below.  W...

Today Esther's birthmother called.  That happens occasionally, and it is almost always a pleasant conversation.  Isaac is starting to catch on to the fact that Esther's birthmother has my phone number, but his birthmother does not.  He is getting jealous of his sister.  So when I took a picture to send to her phone, he wanted me to take a picture of him to send to his birthmother.  He's a handsome little devil, isn't he?  All the little girls adore him, including his little sister.  He may be jealous of her, but she just loves him.

This boy cracks us up. Most mornings we can't get him out the door on time, but then there are days when he puts his clothes out, including his underwear and socks, the night before. We're down with the brown in our house. I expect by the end of the day that his underwear will start to match his color scheme too.

So it finally happened.  My baby boy is now in Kindergarten.   He was pretty apprehensive about going to Kindergarten all summer, but after meeting his teacher, Mrs. Lenix, for the first time, his excitement grew and he couldn't wait to get started. He and I went to a Kindergarten screening in which Mrs. Lenix discovered that not only was Isaac ready for Kindergarten, but he was way beyond where most Kindergartners are.  He is reading very well for a 5 year old that has never been to public school before.  He has been very good in school his first week, coming home with only positive notes from the teacher. I was also happy to discover that his class has some diversity.  He's still in the minority, but at least he'll see other people "with brown skin like me," as he likes to say. All in all, I think it will be a good year for him.  He makes friends easily, and is eager and excited to learn.  We're so proud of him!

Esther has always slept with her mouth open at night and snored heavily.  Lately she's been not hearing well either, as well as having multiple ear infections.  After a couple of visits to the ENT, we decided she needed tubes put in her ears and some of the adenoid tissue out of her nose that she could breath easier.   She had her surgery this past Friday.  The whole ordeal took about 15 after she had been put to sleep.  I got to hold her as she was coming too.  She was a bit grouchy and clingy afterwards, but the popsicles and juice she got afterwards helped bring her around to her cheerful self.  Today she was good enough to go to church.  She's still healing a bit, so after hopefully after a few days she'll sleep more soundly than she ever has before.   Notice the bear in this picture.  This is Esther's all time favorite bear dubbed "soft bear."  He's not so soft as he once was, because she has literally loved the stuff...

This summer we had the privilege of hosting the Carroll Family Reunion in Florida!  Then we promptly forgot to take pictures of it.  So we took pictures of our trip to Idaho/Utah instead.  We spent 2 weeks in the mountain west, and every day was a delight.  We got to go camping in Idaho, go four-wheeling in Utah, and play with so many different cousins that the kids had a hard time keeping them all straight.  They loved it.  Reid and I got to sneak off to go biking and hiking and enjoy a little bit of the fun that we enjoyed before we were blessed with our kids.  Now that both of them can ride on a peddle bike by themselves, though, we hope to take them with us sometime in the near future.  I still get a thrill of joy watching them peddle their little bikes independently.  They are really growing up. Esther holding baby cousin Charly at Uncle Tim's house. Biking in the mountains by Pocatello, ID.  I had an electric assist bike, ...

A friend from our church wanted to have us over for dinner and make father's day special for Reid and our kids.  Her name is Vashti and she is the most energetic 84 year old I've ever met.  She made us quite the feast, complete with turkey, butternut squash soup, greens, fruit, rice, beans, potatoes, and dessert.  I know there was more, but I can't quite recall everything.  It was overwhelming the work she put in for us.  She also bought presents and cards in behalf of the kids so they could give him something special on Father's day.  She had signed them as if she were the kids.  It was so darling.  So thanks, Vashti, for such a special father's day!