Birthday Boy

Wyatt turns 13 this week.  While I try and wrap my head around that, I will share a bit of our celebration of this momentous occasion.

Per our tradition we celebrated early to put a little distance between this birthday and Christmas.  However, we ran into some unexpected glitches.  Andy got sick at church.  I ran him home between the service and our class and told him to text the group if he was not up to the party so that we could postpone.  Savannah had been feeling under the weather for a few days, so I assumed he had a stomach virus that's going around.  Just a side note on that - I awoke at 6:00a.m. Saturday morning to one sick daughter.  As things do go, she had to take the ACT.  Savannah already has the score she wants, but she is applying to schools that require the writing, and she has not yet done the writing.  She was in bad shape so I suggested she just take those schools off the table as they are not her first choices anyway and skip that test.  In true Savannah fashion, she opted to fight through and take the test.  I bet some of you reading this had no idea that she can be pretty stubborn.

Anyway, back to Andy.  We left church later than usual because we ran into old friends and stopped to chat - rather I stopped to chat - Julia and Wyatt wandered off and patiently waited.  We then had to fight through traffic.  Julia checked on Andy, and he said he felt he could handle the party, but then he. never. got. out. of. bed.  I raced around trying to finish preparations that included going to the grocery store for party food and drinks.  Guests were to arrive at 3:00, and I literally left for the grocery at 2:30.  I was impressed with myself when I had the first pizza in the oven at about 3:20.  

Our guest list was smaller than usual.  Jonathan and Danielle were out of town, and Tiffany and her boys could not make it, but I think Wyatt had an okay time.  Maybe next year Andy will present him with the special speech and gift he delivered for Zach's thirteenth birthday.

Andy's mom drove a couple of hours to be here and was on time.  It was killing her that she could not go and try and nurse Andy back to health.  I must point out here that Andy is not your typical man.  When he is sick, he prefers to be checked on occasionally and mostly left alone.  He does not moan and groan and beg for attention.  So his mom served up the desserts which included her amazing chocolate pie and visited with us.  We enjoyed visiting with her.  When Andy came to say goodbye, she scooted on out the door as it was apparent that he belonged in bed.

The Star Wars Dairy Queen cake looked so much better when the frost melted off and you could tell that the background was black instead of brown.  Unfortunately, we cut it before I could get a good picture.  I love the way Wyatt lets you know he wants something.  He asks a question such as, "you know what my favorite _________is?"  This is how he requested his birthday cake.  He asked, "did you know that ice cream cakes are my favorite cakes?"  To which I asked, "is this your way of asking for a Dairy Queen cake for your birthday?'  His honest response was, "yes."

What can I say about Wyatt on this momentous occasion?

He's our always ready helper.

He's an early riser - mostly because he wants to play Minecraft for as many waking hours as possible.

He's charming and clever.

He still hugs his mom in public - even in front of his friends.

He's forgiving.  We can have a rough day with him, and he will still say we are the best.

Thirteen candles! How can it be?

I just love this picture of Kinsley.

My dad and Joshua slipped out the door before I took their pictures.  Boo

Wyatt's gift was a telescope, so we ventured out to a park to try it out after everyone left.  The cloud cover was too great to see anything, but tonight is clear, so we might try again.

Note that Zach is wearing short sleeves and Savannah is in shorts, and yes, it is December.  We need a good freeze to kill off the bugs and germs, but I could be okay with this weather for the winter. By this time last year, we had at least one snow day behind us - not so this year.  I think I was born to live in a tropical climate.

Happy Birthday,Wyatt! We love you more!

Deck the halls...

Over the past few weeks, we have slowly decorated the house for Christmas.

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We found our tree.

All the kids helped decorate - that hasn't happened in a few years.

ah- the finished product 

If you've visited the blog for past Christmases, you know that this picture pretty much looks the same every year.  I do not mix it up.  We add ornaments each year and may have to start decorating a second tree to accommodate my growing collection, but it would be a small tree.  I don't want to store any more.

On a grocery run, Julia won all three of these prizes from a claw game.  I stand corrected on my admonishments to quit wasting her money on that game.  However, who really needs tons of stuffed animals?

What is Christmas without music?  The dial on my car radio has been set to a station heavy on Christmas music since they started playing it. We still get to enjoy a school band concert for the Christmas season courtesy of Wyatt and Julia. I was not sitting where I could get pictures during the concert, but the school has this gorgeous tree, so I sought a good picture there.  People were waiting while these two goofed off and poked at each other until I was ready to draw blood before we finally got a decent photo.  Then I sat in the parking lot in traffic.  I should have just waited.  

The concert was amazing.  Their school concerts are so good that you just don't want to miss them.

I am slowly finishing the preparations for Christmas.  It's hard to get excited about it when the world is such a mess, but I have had a few things to remind me to anticipate this fun holiday.

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking.  How we need to hear from God.  You've been promised, we've been waiting....  - from the song Welcome to Our World

True more than 2000 years ago and true today. 

and I just love this:

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child himself. - Charles Dickens

The neglected blog

I have failed to keep up with the blog over the last several weeks, so this is a recap of what we've been up to.

Julia's quarterly book chats are breaking our budget.  I've been torn between her pursuit of creativity and the cost of the supplies she requests.  I am leaning toward letting her be creative.

Her cheer team entered a competition.  Upon their arrival it was clear that this was beyond their expectations.  They finished a clean routine and finished third.  This is a developing team, and even though they were only one of four teams competing in their division, there is no doubt that they are working hard, and it shows.

This girl turned two, and she will be a big sister before she turns three.  It will be fun to watch sisters grow up together again.  We've not had that in a while.  So Happy Birthday Kinsley, and we are anxious to meet Kallie in January.

Prepping for hosting Thanksgiving dinner meant more than just cooking and cleaning.  We needed some fresh paint on a few doors and some trim, and we needed new blinds.  When the window is above the kitchen sink, it helps to have a small, strong person to take care of screwing in the hardware.

Savannah worked on the last project for her online college art class.  She created some cool photos using her sister as a hand artist and some body paint. Julia didn't want to wash it off.

Wyatt introduced us to robotics when he joined the school's robotics club. We spent a day at a competition.  Much like a swim meet or track meet, you wait for hours for a few minutes of action.  The difference is that the parents know when someone wins a race unless it is close.  Robotics is not a race. We gauged our reaction to the robotics competition by the looks on the faces of the kids. :)

It's been busy, but we've had busier seasons.  I am enjoying my afternoons as I don't have to pick anyone up from school most afternoons this year.  I'm really spoiled and messed it up this week when the kids needed another way home, and I forgot to arrange it.  Yikes!  I will miss this freedom next year, but it is always nice to hear about their day when they are willing to talk which is usually in the car.

Feeling Pintersty?

For the last couple of years, I have waited until the January clearance sale and purchased year-in-review ornaments from Personalization Mall.  This year, inspired by a gift I received from student last year, I made the ornament above.  It took about 10 minutes and cost less than a dollar.

How to:

1. Purchase clear ornaments from the craft store.
2. Type or write your memories on strips of paper and slide them into the ornament.  I curled mine first but would not do that again.  I think it makes them hard to read. Replace the top of the ornament.
3. Decorate the outside with glitter glue pens.  I put the year on this one, and in the future, I will use a paint pen instead of a glitter glue pen for that.
4. I hung it from a handle on a kitchen cabinet to dry overnight.

So many ideas for these...

I am purchasing two copies of A Christmas Carol and will cut out quotes from them to make ornaments for the teacher librarians who work with us daily at school.

I suggested doing one for a gift exchange for Julia's cheer team.  We could use the cheers they chant for the strips of paper and even note their third place finish in their only competition.  We could decorate with school colors on the outside - also a great idea for a coach.

I could do these for each child counting blessings or noting what was important to them this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

We enjoyed celebrating this year with both sides of the family.  Andy's mom drove in and joined us on Thursday, and my family came over.

I was overwhelmed with the idea of preparing for so many people, but once I offered to host, everyone else offered to bring the majority of the food.  I contributed mashed potatoes that were too runny because I cooked them too long and green beans.  Savannah made green bean casserole because she insisted we must have it and the really yummy apple pie pictured below.

When Jonathan and Danielle arrived with the turkey, they asked for a platter.  I have no idea where my turkey platter is, so I offered my biggest plate and then laughed and laughed over it.

We traveled to visit Andy's side of the family on Saturday and really enjoyed our gathering with them.  It's really the only time of the year we get to see them all together.  This year we have two new additions: Andy's sister Dianna is engaged, so we met her fiancé, and our niece Page has a boyfriend of a few years, so we got to meet him too - both great guys as far as we can tell.

We enjoyed the day, and I was reminded of Psalm 136.  Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.  His love endures forever.

P.S. I earned my meals (okay, not quite), but I did six Jazzercise classes including one on Thanksgiving day.  I even squeezed one in before we left town on Saturday.  

Picture Update- Kinsley's birthday

We raced to Tessa's place to celebrate Kinsley's 2nd birthday.  It was one of those days where we were running ragged, but I was able to snap a few shots.

She thinks she's a movie star - loves her sunglasses.

Kinsley loves her new doll stroller. For a little girl into dolls, a stroller is a must.  That's how I used to get Savannah to walk through the zoo.  If she could push her doll in as stroller, she never asked to be carried.

Even though our time was short, we were so glad to see Kinsley enjoy a little of her birthday.

National Adoption Month

On Orphan Sunday Love Without Boundaries posted this quote on social media:

"I always questioned if I was ready to adopt and then realized no child was ready to be an orphan."

It took me back to a conversation I once had with a relative.  After bringing Julia home, my strong desire was to return to China for a child with a heart condition.  A relative asked, "why would you even consider that? Don't you realize that child could die?"  At the time my thinking was that I would be pursuing a child with a minor heart condition and that we have great pediatric heart specialists in the area.  None of my children came with a guarantee. None of us is promised tomorrow.

My thoughts are different now.  Of course losing a child would be something from which my family would never recover, but there is something that bothers me more than that possibility.  I am more bothered by the fact that a child would not survive childhood and would die without ever knowing the love of a family, without having a champion for him or her.

Over the years my desire for another child has waned.  We brought Wyatt home, and the future needs he faces terrify me.  They are not life-threatening, but our insurance covers so little, and he faces lots and lots of surgery and specialized orthodontics. I think I know we would have returned for another child if our financial circumstances had been different.  While I still hold on to a small piece of that desire, I am content with where we are and certainly getting too old to hang on to that old dream.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13