My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

And the projects continued with Grammie and Grandpa! My mom created these amazing pillows the kids could decorate themselves, and my Dad played games with the kids while finding time to build shelves and paint the girls’ bedroom.  We can’t thank them enough for the wonderful week.  Come back again soon!! 

Lots has been going on around these parts! As some of you may know, Jim and I have been in the process of getting licensed to do foster care since last fall.  Last week, we got a call to tell us our license was finalized and asking if we could take a little newborn into our care for a few weeks!  So here we are, with a (very) tiny week-old baby, and we couldn’t be happier! Everything is going very well, and the kids are adjusting beautifully.  I can’t say I’ll be quite as regular with blog updates as I usually am due to this joyous addition to the family, but I’ll do my best!  Before I share some pictures of our gang with the new little one, I need to catch up pictures from my parents’ wonderful visit a few weeks ago.  We had such a fun-filled, action-packed week with them!

Here are the kids anxiously awaiting the arrival of Grammie and Grandpa’s plane:

Let the fun begin!

We put Grammie and Grandpa to work, including designing a future dream tree house!

Susie’s first attempt at “quilting” – it only lasted a few minutes, but we both sure enjoyed it!

Jimmy, looking at the ingredients I was preparing for dinner: “Is that baloney?”

Me: “No, it’s bulk sausage.”

Jimmy: “So it’s made from bulls?”

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While in the car listening to the radio, I had explained to Danny that our eardrums inside our ears help us to hear things.  A few minutes later, he excitedly declared, “Mama!  Mama!  My eardrums are singing you a song!”

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Danny, upon entering the refrigerated section of Costco with me: “I’m so cold I’m gonna burst into flames!”

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I was pointing at pictures in a book and asking Danny to name the items I indicated.  I pointed to soccer balls, and I said, “Dan, what are those?  What kind of balls?”

Danny: “Um…footballs?”

Me: “No…try again.  Another kind of balls…”

Danny: “Meatballs?”

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Jimmy was trying to figure out the science of how a baby is fed in utero.  I explained it the best I could, and then he said…”So babies have extension cords?”

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Susie: “Cigarettes are bad for you.”

Jimmy: “Yeah.”

Danny: “Yeah. There could be two spiders inside a cigarette and they crawl into your mouth. It’s bad to eat spiders.”

What does any Alaska-lover need in her room?  A bunk-bed-turned-igloo, of course!  Susie had the delightful idea to turn cover her bottom bunk with papers to simulate ice blocks.  Here she is mid-project.  She managed to completely enclose her bottom bunk, except for a small space to crawl in, and she’s kept it that way for weeks now.  She’s truly an Eskimo in training (maybe I should turn down the heat upstairs to give her a real taste of the tundra)!

Here’s a picture she created in school.  I think she’d be thrilled if she could be a snowman for a day!