Happy Halloween!

Annabelle the Ballerina
Andrew as Pluto
Both sweet babies ready for the party!
Well, our 3rd Halloween was a bust!  No actual trick or treating (Annabelle was a little scared of the costumes), but we did go to two parties (on consecutive weekends).  The kids had a ton of fun showing off their costumes.  I will say having 3 Halloweens in a row where all I did was dress the kids up (year 1 cows, year 2 a goldfish and a shark) and parade them around in front of my family made me rethink our holiday traditions just a bit.  Any ideas for Halloween next year?  Dinner and  movie?  But the kids did look cute in their costumes so here are a few pics! 

Here is the excerpt:

There are so many things we are going to miss about our Pappy.  We will miss the way he rolled around on the floor with us, and played horsey.  He always knew just how high to throw us, not too high, but high enough to have a great time.  We loved it when he put his hat on crooked and scrunched up his face.  We loved going grocery shopping with him; he always let us eat the blueberries before we paid for them.  We loved walking to the park and taking a popcorn break at his house.  We loved giving him hugs and kisses especially when he said he didn’t want them.  “No kisses!!!”  He would say.  He made us laugh so hard we would go weak in the knees and fall over.  We will miss snuggling with him on the couch watching an Elmo video.  We learned so much from him in the short 2 and a half years he loved us.  Pappy was the one who taught us how to shake hands with people when we met, “How do you do?” He would say. He taught us that a chocolate chip cookie can cure any sadness or ailment.  He taught us to love our naps- “I wish I could take a nap” he would say.  He taught us we don’t need a reason to stop by and visit the people we love.  He taught us that anyone can be a grandpa, but not just anyone can be a Pappy.  We love you Pappy and we are so proud to be your living legacy. 

Everything has changed

Usually when I haven't posted in a while it is because I have been busy at work, or I have been sick, or the kids have been sick...  The list goes on!  But this feels much different, because from the last blog, everything has changed.  On Tuesday, September 9 at approx. 6:30pm my dad died.  We just finished with the visitation and the funeral.  We longed for today to come so we could finally rest.  Now, here I am almost 2 hours after taking 2 Excederin PM's and no rest to be found.  I am sure like a lot of other things in my life, rest will look different now.  Here is an excerpt from the memorial, a message about my dad from Andrew and Annabelle.

Okay, I caved!

I have a dear friend, Andi, who also has an Ethiopian daughter and we have made a pact to not give in to the "princess movement".  Little girls are just that, little girls, not princesses!  No t-shirts, no tiaras (until they get married), no hats or room decorations that speak of our daughters being "the princess".  Now I have to say, I am really glad about this because Annabelle thinks she is the Queen (not just the princess) of Sheba without any encouragement from me.  Now, don't get me wrong...  We love pink and sparkles and anything "be-dazzled", but I didn't want Annabelle to feel entitled to being treated like a princess because everyone calls her a princess.  So here is the story of how I caved.  

I have taken to calling Andrew "Baby Handsome", I know LAME!!  But I do think he is sooo handsome and he just does not fit any of the nicknames that go along with Andrew.  He is not an Andy, a Drew or even an AJ (his first two initials).  I have called him "handsome" for almost a year now, and it fits him! The baby is just to make me feel better about them getting older.  Which by the way, I am not handling too well.   So as for Annabelle, I had to follow suit!  She is not a Belle or an Anna although sometimes we call her "Annabelly".  One day, "Baby Princess" came out and she loved it!  She even refers to herself as the "Tiny Baby Princess".  Now, we won't be registering them for school this way, as baby Handsome and Baby Princess Sanborn, hopefully they won't be too full of themselves from their childhood nicknames!  So goes the story of how I went from boycotting the princess movement to giving in full heartedly!  I am sorry Andi!

A little busy??

Annabelle modeling the 2008 swimsuit line

Andrew snuggling with daddy in our last sweatshirt weather in MAY!!!

This pretty much sums up Sundays at our house- for Bill anyway!

Andrew's first big boy shoes.  His feet are so wide, it's either skater shoes or orthopedic shoes!

Annabelle's hot pink satin leopard print Vans- sooo her!!!

Okay, so school has started and my dad spent the last week in ICU- so our lives have been a blur!  Dad is recouperating now, a little tired and weak from being in a coma for almost 3 days.  He had MRSA Virus, a really bad staph infection of the blood.  Scary!  Thank you to everyone lifting our family in prayer.  

I had such an amazing summer with my sweet peas...  And I am again wishing I would have gotten more of our escapades on film!  Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Happy Famiversary!

Annabelle "sleeping it off"

Andrew is a little upset by the pookie!

Annabelle's first pose as our daughter

Yep- every picture is just like this, no wonder his African name means "worried"

Today is our 2 year Famiversary!

Exactly 2 years ago today we met sweet Andrew and Annabelle (Yecheneku and Hamelmal respectively)!  I will never forget those first moments.  The nurses walked them down the path and handed Andrew to me and Annabelle to Bill.  In the video, I have this obnoxious nervous laugh.  Really, I was trying not to get hysterical in front of complete strangers!  I know, to those of you who know me, getting hysterical is my spiritual gift so it shouldn't have been that big of a deal.  But it really freaked the Ethiopians out!  I just kept telling these tiny babies how long we waited to meet them.  The orphanage workers led us to a tiny room called the "family room" and left us alone.  LET THE FREAK OUT BEGIN!!!  We counted fingers and toes, wiped their little runny noses, fed them each a bottle and put them in the snugglies and went back to the guest house.  Before we could leave, a precious doctor stopped in to see our babies.  She checked them out from head to toe and referred to them as "Yechy" and "Hamme".  She told us we were very lucky.  And now, two years later, we are feeling more and more blessed each day.

Story Time Anyone?

So we started potty training today- What an adventure!  Annabelle peed on the kitchen counter, on the floor, in 2 pairs of princess panties and finally in the potty chair (3 times).  Andrew peed on our bedroom floor, and then on the big potty (twice).  He did however poop in Annabelle's closet and used his "silky" or blanket to wipe himself.  I should be glad he is wiping- right?  And all of this was before 10am!  Wow- what a day you say?  I'm not done...  We were homebound all day getting the hang of the potty thing so we went to story time at the Library tonight (wearing diapers by the way).  The kids loved story time at the Library last week.  Tonight, the minute we sat down, Andrew started running around the room screaming, an excited scream, but a scream none the less.  Literally running in circles screaming.  As I looked around the Library I noticed Andrew was the only boy and I was the only on there with two kids.  So you guessed it, everyone else at story time had only one girl each.  Can you imagine the comments on their blogs tonight?  And by the way, each little princess had 2 parents and I was (sigh) ALONE!!!  Annabelle was sitting quietly listening to the story hoping no one linked her to the maniac in the white t-shirt.  I removed Andrew from story time and we watched through the window.  At craft time, I went in to get Annabelle and I turned my back for .32 seconds and Andrew was eating a glue stick.  We promptly left story time.  As we left, I shouted out, "Bye Miss Jenn, see you on Wednesday!".  Ten Bucks says she quits.  The good times kept rolling as we got home and there were only 11 minutes until bedtime.  Any sane mother would have put her kids straight to bed, but not me!  I wanted to have some time with Andrew since he seemed so "out of sorts".  Our quality time consisted of him eating a crayon, spitting the bits on to the couch and being ordered to time out.  When his 2 minutes were up I went to go give him a hug and talk with him and noticed he had not spit out all of the crayon onto the couch.  Oh no- he had squireled away a few small bits, just enough to scribble on the time out wall.  

Oh well- tomorrow is another day right?  Oh yes, Day 2 of Potty Training!