What did I do to deserve this?

And I mean that in the best and most honest possible sense. I can't believe I'm so lucky!

This last week has shown me, once again (through a variety of both large and small events) that I am richly and undeservedly blessed. My husband is such an awesome and incredible guy, and I have the four best munchkins on planet Earth. :) I'm amazed and humbled that God saw fit to give me each of my children. There are so many times each week when I feel like I'm not up to the task, but He is faithful and thankfully I am learning more each new day. We've been discussing gratitude this week in school, as we approach Thanksgiving Day, and my heart is overflowing right now with true gratitude for my precious family!



Landry, insisting on using Mama's hair dryer. To make her hair, "Poofy." :)


Laney -- falling asleep during lunch. :)

Running about like a crazy woman this morning....

But I wanted to upload two quick pictures. The first is of Laney...and I share it to illustrate how well her hair is coming in. Hasn't it grown so much? It's really looking cute , and is so much softer and shinier. Yay Laney!

And this one is of Colby...minutes after we came home from Trick or Treating. He is checking out his loot. I can't believe how much candy my kids hauled home! They each had candy poking out of the top of their pumpkins and Landry couldn't even carry her pumpkin because it was so heavy. LOL!

Laney absolutely loves taking a bath in the kitchen sink, while I'm cooking and cleaning around her. We just laugh and giggle and she splashes. All of my kids have had kitchen-sink-time, and it's fun to see Laney enjoying it too.

Enjoying time at Paradise Park...

Lily's slumber party...

My sweet girl, Lily, turns 8 on Saturday! I can't believe it. She is becoming quite the beautiful and sweet young lady. Truly a joy to hang out with! Her birthday is the 27th, but she asked for a slumber party so we had that for her last night. Two of her little friends, Nichole & Caitlyn, came over and they had lunch out, played at Paradise Park children's center, made crafts, watched movies, ate TONS of snacks and had a grand time. Here are pictures of my almost 8-year-old girl!
I think she liked her presents! (Opening up her American Girl doll's (Kit) new furniture)
Blowing out the birthday candles...with a little help from brother...

Landry & Laney have a slumber party....

Laney enjoying one of the last warm days of fall...

Landry and her gourd...

A visit to the Pumpkin Patch!

I haven't added anything to the blog in a few days, because I'm generally inspired to write by the pictures I take...and I lost my camera! Thankfully, I found it today and we were able to document our fun trip to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a ball. As seems to be the trend these days, the pumpkin patch was far less about "pumpkins" and far more about pigs, ducks, goats, slides, hayrides, mazes, and more. Laney did great...even with all the animals (as long as we didn't get too close) and we did come home with some actual pumpkins as well.

Landry fell in love with this bizarre, HUGE, curved gourd and begged us to buy it. We did and now she wants to display it on her dresser in her room. That kid cracks me up! Here are some pictures from our day: (click on them to make them larger...)

Laney had a great day today...

we met our Early Intervention developmental specialist, Miss Beth, and she evaluated Laney in several areas: speech, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor. Overall she did really well! The tests (tests? Really more like fun play time ) revealed that Laney does need some help filling in gaps related to her fine motor skills and her speech, but I'm so thrilled to know where her "gaps" are and to get her the help she needs! The therapist assured me that these are extremely normal delays to see in children who have been in orphanages their whole lives. They just haven't been given the same opportunities for development and learning as kids in a normal home environment.

The therapist was blown away by Laney's open, sweet disposition...and how well she seems to be attaching to me. She makes excellent eye contact, smiles, kisses and hugs and really engages when you interact with her. The therapist said, "These are all things that are sooooo challenging to overcome. The stuff she is delayed in, well, that's easy to master! The really important bonding things seem to be going great and I'm so happy for you!"

So, yay Laney! We'll be working with her therapists for at least the next 9-12 months and I have every confidence this kid will be progressing faster than we can imagine. We love you Laney!

I'm including a picture from earlier this morning. She is playing with one of her *favorite* toys in our toy box...Landry's xylophone. (Deb, she loves it as much as Landry does! Thank you again!) The picture is out of focus, but I just had to post it. She's so adorable. :)

Two happy sisters...playing in the water....

Our FIAR book this week is Patricia Polacco's "Mrs. Katz & Tush"

I'm really excited because this is a book Lily has yet to row...so it will be new to both she & Colby. We have so many great lessons to explore this week, and we'll certainly be doing a lot of history, geography and cooking. (Have to make my favorite kugel!) I have several things already laid out from our FIAR lessons, and I know my kids will come up with things to research and talk about that I haven't even considered!

If you've never had the chance to read this great story, you're missing out! As usual, Ms. Polacco does a masterful job of weaving history, emotion, friendship and gratitude into her tale.

I'm off to start breakfast and get Laney. I hear her stirring now...

Headed to church...

This morning we went to church together...minus Daddy. Troy worked today, and so I braved taking all four children by myself. It actually went well! I'm so thankful that Laney is adjusting smoothly and that she is such a cheerful, cooperative baby.

Here are the kids on the front porch before we left. They wanted to take a picture all together.

Today was one of those days...

where you stay so busy the whole day but at the end, you're not really sure what you were doing. Ever have days like that? Let me think...Troy was home and we did errands, bought groceries, picked up crickets for Sammy Jack (our pet toad), cleaned the house, went out to lunch, did laundry, played outside, made Glazed Apple Cookies, and Troy set up my new printer (which I love!!)....whew! I'm worn out.

Here are a few pictures from our busy Saturday...

Lily finishing her Five in a Row Fold-And-Learn that went along with our studies this week. She did such a great job!!



Landry riding her beloved red tricycle through the house. Note: She is wearing Lily's riding boots! LOL!



Colby enjoying some reading time on the couch...



Laney just laughing and being cute!

A delicious and dangerous confectionery find...

I was recently given a gift of the most delicious sweet treats I have ever tasted. They are made by world-renown chocolatier, Fran Bigelow. She makes delicious chocolate truffles, but she is best known for the item I recently enjoyed...her famous hand-dipped, sea salt caramels. They are to die for!

The company's website describes them as follows: "Soft, fresh caramels hand-dipped in 56% pure dark chocolate and sprinkled with flavorful gray sea salt harvested off the Brittany coast".

What more can I say? You can find them at Fran's Chocolates. I've already ordered boxes for two friends and I will definitely be sending these out for Christmas gifts as well. They are expensive, but a great indulgence for yourself or to send to someone you love. The salt and the deep, rich caramel meld into the perfect salty-sweet combination. Truly a tiny treasure!

And in other news....

Miss Landry Sue is a big girl now! We've gone two days wearing big girl panties and she is (dare I type this....) Potty Trained!! Yay, yay, YAY!!! I'd post a picture of her, flashing her new big girl briefs...but that would just be weird. :) But, rest assured, it is true and we are all thrilled -- most of all Landry!

New laptop makes for happy mommy....

I'm a Mac girl. I've always used one and hopefully always will. I also only function with a lap top. Desk computers don't work for me anymore. With four kids (and even before Laney) I need my computer to go with me. Sometimes the only time I have to check email is when we're in the backyard! LOL!

Anyway, I've owned two so far. An old clamshell iBook...in tangerine (a la Felicity). I LOVED that computer and had it for five years (which is about 40 in "laptop" years). It was literally cracked on the top and I finally had Troy pry it from my hands and say, "Honey, I love you. This computer is dead. Let it go...."

Then I owned my first PowerBook. Again, love at first touch and I used it for almost four years. I was very attached to it. LOL! Right before we left for China, my PowerBook died. *cue sad song......* I was totally bummed, but Troy said, "We leave for China in two days. No worries or stress about this. I'll buy you a new one as soon as we get home. Don't even think about it until we get back."

And, my sweet dh, true to his word, bought me a fabulous new MacBook Pro as soon as we got back to the States. I've been patiently waiting (almost 3 weeks now...), counting down the days and limping along, using his Dell laptop. (I don't get those machines!! Who can use a computer that uses backslashes for everything, doesn't let you drag & click and has a "ticky-clicky" keyboard? AACK! Where is my precious MAC?)

Well, it arrived TODAY! I'm so excited. I even got a case for it, which is by the clever people at Speck Products. Love their stuff! My iPod is in one of their acrylic cases and it has been seamless and sturdy for almost 2 years. Now they make the hard acrylic cases for the 15" MacBook Pros...and they come in colors! I picked out the cheerful Cherry red.



Some die-hard Mac fans out there find this to be sacrilege -- covering the beautiful brushed silver case with plastic. Sort of like putting tin foil over the Mona Lisa. I hear you. I do. Macs are nothing if they're not sleek & sexy. And yes, if you didn't understand that sentence, then you're not a Mac person. However, I have four kids and my computer is often in the kitchen. Having a fork drop on it is not at all unusual, so a case is a great idea for somebody like me. And if you need one, the folks at Speck make it fun! :)

The blog is changing....

As you can see, I've changed the name of our blog. Our trip to China is now complete (can't believe it!)...but the adventure continues! I have come to realize (through your sweet posts, notes, emails and calls) how many people have followed my blog and enjoyed my ramblings. It is so good for me, as a mom and as a writer, to have this place to come to at the end of my day. Even though this blog will now change direction (from adoption blog to family-of-six blog), I will still have the address stay the same. So if you've enjoyed popping in from time to time, please continue to do so!

I'm off to spend some quality time with my dear husband. Today was a CRAZY day. Lily has her riding lessons on Wednesday mornings, and then Lil, Colbster & Landry are all in swim classes on Wednesday nights. Whew! But tomorrow will be here soon, so I'm off to toss in one more load of laundry (does it EVER stop?) and then settle in for some quiet, downtime with Troy.

A few more from the day...

Colby working on his printing....


Lily doing copy work


Laney...falling asleep in her high chair after lunch


Bright eyed and ready to play after her nap

First Day of School.....

Today was our official first day of school! We are rowing "How To Make an Apple Pie & See the World" this week and the kids are loving it. Lily rowed this book 2 years ago, so she remembers it and Colby is enjoying it so much too. It is going to take me a few weeks to get into my new "groove" of two students and two toddlers (ACK!! LOL!), but overall it was a great day. Here are a few pictures...


Colby -- in the big K!


Lily -- lovely 2nd grader


Brother and sister


Landry -- photographer's assistant, helping the big kids smile