Max won Grease, You’re the One that I Want!!

I've been cheering for him since the beginning.  He reminds me of our youngest son, just a little goofball, but so cute!

I so wish I could go to NY to see Grease!!  I still remember when my mom first let me see it and I've loved the movie ever since.  I've seen it far too many times to count.  I can't wait until my daughters start watching it with me.

It's a timeless movie that is so much fun.  I'm so glad my man Max won!!

Happy Family (Airplane) Day Girls!!

This week is a special week. It marks the 1st anniversary of our youngest joining our family and the 4th anniversary of our oldest daughter joining our family. We generally, don't do a whole lot other than go out to dinner, but dad is also making our 4 year old's favorite meal for supper, so it's chicken noodle soup here. It was so much fun making these slide shows. Although, Kaelin's was just so hard to believe how much they've all grown as I watched hers playback. What happened to my babies?  We love you!!!!!! 

Kaelin's Slide Show Here

Chelsi's Slide Show Here

Update on Donations for American Heart Association Heart Walk

Donate Here

We're at $60 with offline and online donations and have until July.  Please keep donating.  Cole really wants to hit at least $700 this year.

Thanks!!!

Busy, but great last few days.

Whew.  I don't think we've had time to breathe lately.  Cole's birthday was Thursday.  He got a new football from mom and dad and loved it!!  He also got $$ from Grandma/Grandpa H. and gift cards to Bass Pro from two of his Godparents.....along with many phone calls that night.  Our phone rang off the hook for him.

Happy Birthday big boy!!!

 

Saturday was designated Spring clean up at our house.  We're so used to such mild Winter's that we've always been able to keep up here and there throughout Winter, but this year was much different.  The temp came up to around 60 degrees, so while dad was at work the four kiddos and I cleaned up the driveway and cleaned out the garage....for 4 hours!  They did well and Chelsi put up with being outside for so long and even overlapping naptime, very well.  Here are some pictures from Saturday morning/afternoon.



And last, but not least, someone on one of the adoption boards posted a great link to a picture/Korean dictionary that speaks.  Kaelin thought it was so neat that she now asks if she can get on the computer to study.  So we're starting her with numbers.  She's so serious and it's so sweet.  Here she is hard at work.

 

I do all the work and SHE falls asleep

After church it was time to get the house cleaned.  I strapped Chelsi to my back and went to work.  Usually she doesn't want to be carried very long, but she fell asleep about 20 minutes into my chores.  By then, I may as well finish so I did.  But she did look awefully darn cute sleeping back there, so dad took a picture.

Eating mommy's back.



Head falling to the side.



After taking her off my back she just flopped onto my bed still very deeply sleeping.



Then daddy tried to wake her with kisses (it's not nap time yet).



Oh yeah, had to throw in a new Chelsi face.  We call it 'old man face.  :)

More photos!!!!

Goofball had his Valentine's Party and his teacher was nice enough to email pics to me.  I can't imagine why he said he had so much fun that day.



Mom, M and I went shopping yesterday at the outlet mall and came back with some great finds for the girls.  Here are the outfits they got (Chelsi's shirt is actually from her Godparents, N and T).

They're such girlie girls!!

Funny girl

Oh, Kaelin's such a dork sometimes.  Okay, so she doesn't know the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star....she says "uppa uppa world so high".  Well, she was playing with Chels' see'n'say and she had the rooster.  She says "crocodiledoo" instead of "cockadoodledoo".  What a goof!  Wish I had a picture of a rooster with a crocodile head to insert here.  :)

Big prayers needed now!!!!!!!!!!!!! for this little girl

http://discussion.bethany.org/viewtopic.php?t=29635

Please pray for little Brea.  She was born in China and has since arrived home and caught a virus.  The virus has caused fluid to build up on her heart and she's now needing an emergency heart transplant.  She will be having the transplant this week.  I work in this area and I know how well these little ones can do afterward so I have total faith that God will guide the hands of these doctors to heal this little girl.

Lord, please keepy little Brea with her parents and heal her sweet heart.

Lisa

Lunar New Year 2007 - Year of the Pig

Here are some pics of our kids from our celebration.  We went to our local Korean restaurant with a couple of other Korean adoptive families.  The food was EXCELLENT, as always and the kids really enjoyed it.

Just finishing yaki man do and bean sprouts waiting for chap chae.



Waiting for their food.



Enjoying bean sprouts and waiting for mom and dad's dishes so Chels can munch off of them.  The don kat su, kal bee and bul gogi was so good!!!

American Heart Association Heartwalk 2007 - Please Donate!!

Donate Here

It's the time of year when we call on our friends and family to support us as we walk for a near and dear cause.  You can read Cole's story here.

Please help support something he's so proud to participate in as a 10 year old.

Lisa

Cute pictures over the past couple of weeks.

Messy, messy.



Chelsi silly girl.



Finally, she goes out.



Kaelin just looking pretty.



Playing beep beep.



Chase reading to Chels.

My poor sick girl

She's been sick before, but never this tired.  She laid around ALL day and let me hold her ALL day.  My poor, poor baby girl.  This is just a sinus infection, but bad enough to make her feel like crap.

This morning sick.



Tonight

Why I work for my insurance

$2,704.00 spent on home health care and pharmacy for one synagis visit for Chelsi....mind you this is a monthly charge every month for 6 months.  We pay $0.00!!

The perk to my work.

Yuck STREP!

Chase had a lot of trouble breathing Friday night and early, early Saturday morning so off to the doc's we went.  Fully expecting to hear something about his reactive airway disease the dr tells me has bronchitis and strep!  Nasty.

 So we've spent the last few days with mommy playing doctor, more than mom; administering meds to 3 of our 4 kids.  Took Kaelin to the dr today since she's been running a temp and she has strep too!  Cole has a cough, so it's expectorant for him and Chelsi has a stuffy nose, so it's Ocean Spray for her.  On top of the strep Kae and Chase both have colds, so they're also getting expectorant.  Then there's the constipation for two of them.  That's kind of personal, so I won't say which two. :)  

We have so many meds lined up on our kitchen counter right now it's crazy.  We go through medicine droppers and cups.....too many to count per day.  At least Chase is done with his steroids.

Oy!

We have a new pet in the house

M had a cat that A's not real thrilled about it so since we thought we had a mouse in the garage, we took him.  He's enormous!  The boys all worked on a cat house for him and before Brian had seen him, his plans for the house were WAY too small.

Here's our Kitty 고양이.  Kaelin named him, what else, but "Kitty".

Got milk?

Some new pictures

Glasses seem to be a hit with our girls.



My sweet girls in black and white.



Chelsi's sweet pout and lower lip.



Chase kind of looks like an angel, but trust us, not often.  :)



Mom and Kae have girlie time.

3rd Synagis Round Tomorrow

We have a new nurse too.  Please say a little prayer these will stop hurting Chelsi.  She's uncomfortable around the site of the injections for the first day and a half. 

I am VERY grateful our new insurance for 2007 has quickly agreed to cover these, in full, as well.  These are VERY expensive injections...I believe around $1,000 and we're not responsible for one penny.

For anyone who doesn't know what Synagis is (I didn't know before Chelsi); Synagis is an injection that can be given to prevent RSV in premature and other babies that are more at risk for contracting this terrible virus.  This virus kills and it's absolutely necessary for a baby born as prematurely as Chelsi was (10 weeks) to have this for the first two years.  She missed the first season as she was in Korea the entire time they do it (November through April), so we've been doing it since this past November.  Anything to keep my baby from being hospitalized with a life-threatening illness.

Chinese Squeaky Shoes

Well, I know that they're all the rage with Chinese adoptive families and our girls are Korean, but they're just the cutest shoes ever! Someone was selling some pretty cheap online, so I had to get a pair for Chelsi. I thought now that she's really walking she'd think it was pretty funny and also encourage her to walk more. It worked! She walks everywhere when we put them on her and we know exactly where she is :pToo cute, come see.

AHHHH!!! Learn Korean Overload!

I REALLY would like to learn, at least, some Korean.....write and speak.  I'm understanding some of the consonants and vowels, but if you don't know the romanization it doesn't help.  I'm really struggling.  I have a wonderful Korean language exchange partner who's been EXTREMELY patient with me.  It's just hard when you can only email once a night and not hear anything.

I had the bright idea of trying to find an inexpensive book and cd combo, as funds are limited.  I thought then I could listen in the car and study at lunch time. 

I'm so overwhelmed looking for something.  I'm afraid of wasting money and getting something that won't teach me correctly or getting something that's missing and important component of learning the language. 

I just want to get something that's helpful and can get me started.  WAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Chelsi’s officially a walker

Okay, so I wrote "She Walked" on 11/23/06.  Apprarently those few steps was all she was going to do for awhile.  But, this past week, she's REALLY been walking, not just a step here and there.  Chelsi actually uses walking as a mode of transportation about 80% of the time now...at least.  Almost 16 months, but she's there.  Really, she's on time, by any standards, let alone a 30 week preemie. 

Oh, and not only can she walk, she's added to her vocabulary.  She's now rolls it up (as in Pat-a-cake) and says roll it up at the same time.  She's really just starting to take off.  It's so amazing!

Go Chelsi go!!!

I hate you mom!

Okay, we've all heard this from our kids a million times.  Most of us would be pretty well off if we had a dollar for everytime we heard it from all of our kids.

I heard it from Chase today, but because I "threatened" to take a picture.  :)

He told me I was mean and he hated me.  Can't help but laugh at him. 

Here's the story:

I was doing dishes and the boys were watching their youngest sister (keeping her out of the kitchen).  I could hear them pulling her pull toy up and down the hall as fast as they could.  They started doing it because she was laughing at them, then she just became disinterested.  Our hallway is hardwood, so I told them to keep the toy off the hardwood, to which they looked at me like "whatever".  So I told them if they didn't quit I'd take a picture of them playing with a baby toy (6 and 9 years old).  Chase says "you don't have your camera"....ha ha Chase I keep it in the kitchen.  When he found that out he started telling me he hated me.  So afraid someone might see him playing with a baby toy.

You have to laugh.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2007

Great new year.  I've had influenza for the past 3 days.  If I took a picture of myself and posted it here you'd see what death walking looks like.  I look bad on a good day; the past 3 days have definitely been bad....maybe a cross between some sort of meth addict and.....well, nope, that's about it.

On a worse note, my sister had her purse stolen on New Year's Eve.  Happy New Years M.  I don't know why people (kids) can't find something better to do then cause chaos in someone else's life, thinking it's funny or a game.  I know kids did it when we were that age too, but, guess what.....not impressive to the girls.  Thanks for making her night suck!

Aside from all that we're all well.  We think we found a mouse in our garage while putting away the Christmas tree (M, where's your cat).  The kids are happy and healthy (so far so good) and Brian has been wonderful while I've been sick.  I mean I haven't been able to move.  This flu stunk!  I'm ready for a normal life again.