Camping Adventures

I never thought I'd be able to say this, but I survived tent camping with three little children!

Phew!  That was a lot of work!!!  But it was a lot of fun, too, and I'm really glad we did it.  I think that we will try again next summer for sure and it will be even easier with the kids being a little older.

We found a great campsite that was private, surrounded by trees, and separated from other campers.  Plus there was a ton of sand everywhere and it was like a giant sandbox for the kids.

The kids absolutely loved camping!  Matthew actually cried when we left because he was enjoying it so much.  Hannah wandered around with snacks and was as happy as could be.

I tried to prep a lot ahead of time so meals were pretty easy.  It's never very relaxing to feed little children but it really wasn't much worse than at home :)

The kids were crazy excited about this little hill that went up from our campsite to the van.  They ran up and down it about a million times laughing and screaming.  I'm not sure how it could be so much fun to keep running up hill, but it sure kept them happy!

Speaking of happy...this is what happened when I asked Brad to give me his best, "I love camping!" smile.  Crazy guy!

Matthew looks like he's in a bit of a chocolate coma!  

Who could have guessed that sand and dirt with a bucket and shovel could occupy these little ones for hour and hours?  

Our littlest camper :)

All in all it was a great time!  Sleep was not terrible (it was a bit cold) and we ended up coming home early because of rain, but we were all glad we went.  I'm looking forward to more camping adventures next year!

A Perfect{ly} Normal Day

Today was a totally normal day...

And it was a really great normal day.

No big plans,

Left the house once (to grocery shop),

Had a headache that put me on the couch being

totally unproductive during the kids' rest time,

And yet it was a lovely day.

We had a visit from my sister and her new baby.

The kids have been thrilled to have another new cousin!

My sister had a baby girl a month ago and Hannah absolutely adores her.

We introduced Hannah to Isabella by telling her

this was her new best friend :)

I think Hannah agrees!

She lights up when she sees her and loves to hold her.

I can't wait to see these two grow up together!

We have had the best weather the last few days

and we've been soaking up every minute of it!

Playing in the yard...

Having some little impromptu photo shoots...

Spending hours in the sunroom...

These little ones have become not only siblings

but best friends over the last 7 months.

Seeing them play together, laugh together, make up stories,

help each other, care about each other...

it's amazing.

We are leaving for a 2 night camping trip tomorrow (if the weather cooperates!) and we had two little chairs...and three little kids.  Yesterday the kids and I stopped in at Goodwill and happened upon a third chair that was exactly like the other two (except it's got Mickey and Minnie on it instead of Cars!).  It was only $2 - how great is that?  Matthew was most excited about a Nerf gun we found for $1.  

The sunroom is full of stuff to take camping and it's feeling more overwhelming to pack for this than it was to pack for 2 weeks in China!  Seeing the boys' excitement about it makes it all worth it though.  Hopefully I'll still feel that way in a few days!!

Our Little Talker

When we first put Hannah's new hearing aid on I kind of expected a big reaction...or any reaction, really!  But it was hard to tell if she was hearing better or not.  She didn't turn when we said her name, she didn't react to loud noises, and I kind of wondered if it was even working.

Now that she's been wearing her BAHA for a few weeks I am starting to notice a big difference.  I think maybe she just had to get used to it and she may have been too overwhelmed at first.  She now turns as soon as we say her name, and she is starting to talk so much all of a sudden!  It is very exciting to see her progress in such a short time.

We had a lot of trouble figuring out where on her head to put the BAHA.  At first we had it behind her ear but it was driving us crazy!  It is on a softband, so it moves around, and when it gets hair under it and doesn't make good contact with her scalp it gives off an obnoxious feedback sound.  It was getting really frustrating to have to fix it every 10 minutes and Hannah was annoyed with it too.  Even though she asked for it first thing in the morning (by patting her head), she would pull it off when it was making the annoying buzzing noise.  

I'm glad we figured out a new place to put it on her head that works much better!  It is now up on her right temple and is working much better.  It hardly ever buzzes and she leaves it alone and seems much happier with it.  Success!

Hannah starts speech therapy next week so I was making a list of all the words she is trying to say.  I was surprised as I saw how many she really is saying (or trying to say) and I am adding to the list daily!  So far I have:

Up

Mama

Dada

Ready

Baby

More

"Right back" - when she is going somewhere she puts her finger up and tells us she'll be right back...it's my favorite!

Wet

Help

Daisy (our dog)

Done

Hot

Nana

Papa

Bye bye

Hi

This week when Brad was leaving for work she shouted, clear as day, "Bye Dada!"

I think she will be catching up to our two other little chatterboxes in no time at all!

Why I Quit Facebook

I quit facebook this week.

Our parting of ways was a long time coming.

It was just too easy.  Too easy to walk past the computer and wonder what my friends were up to, or what was new, or to find myself reading some article that didn't really matter to me, but it was there...so I read it.

And it was just too easy.  Too easy to compare my life with everyone else.  To see what they were doing with their kids and feel guilty because of the crafts I don't do or the books I don't read or the places I don't take them...and on and on and on.  Nevermind that I do lots with them, all I was thinking about was the things I wasn't doing.  It was crippling.

It really was too easy.  Too easy to miss life.  Too easy to miss the moments happening right in front of me because my nose was stuck in my computer and I was distracted way too often.  

The conviction had been there for a long time, so yesterday I pulled the plug on facebook. I'm done with it for at least the rest of the year...maybe forever.  I don't in any way think facebook is wrong or evil or any of that.  I think that for me it was too addicting, a great big time sucker, and something I used as an escape from little people who were screaming!

But I don't want to miss this...

So I'm all done.  It's only been one day...but oh, the freedom!

Sharing Our Story

We were thrilled to be able to share our adoption story on our adoption agency's website this week!  This is the agency we used for both Nathan and Hannah's adoptions (they were our placement agency and we used local agencies for our home studies). We cannot say enough good things about AAC Adoption and would not hesitate to use them again (if I can ever talk Brad into it!!).

Click here to read our story!

Our First Campout

We had wanted to try camping with the kids but hadn't gotten around to it yet, until this weekend!  Truthfully I was a bit scared that it would be awful :)  But we thought we'd give it a try in our backyard first, so that if it was terrible we could just go inside and pretend it never happened.

We started with dinner...

...and ended the meal with marshmallows (the kids didn't want them cooked and I was pretty glad about that - they get in such a mess when they eat cooked ones!)

Then it was playtime!  In the tent...

...the sandbox...

...helping little sister on the slide...

...and just hanging out!

A few spins around the yard...

...and finally it started getting dark enough that we could go to bed!

I was exhausted and ready to sleep by 9pm!

The kids took a while to wind down, but at long last 

we were all asleep

in our cozy little tent!

I was thrilled that the kids slept so well.  Hannah woke up once to go potty, which is pretty normal for her.  Other than that, we all stayed tucked into our beds until almost 7am.  Success!

Saturday was filled with laundry, bath time (filthy children!), more laundry, playing outside, napping, putting everything away, and of course popsicle time with Daddy!  I think the aftermath of camping is my least favorite part.  In a couple of weeks we are hoping to try out a real campsite for a couple of nights.  The boys are so excited and surprisingly, so am I!