ODE TO a JOYful New Years!!!

Happy New Year!!!

I couldn't find a picture I liked to represent New Years.....
so instead, here's my favorite muppet singing (well, meeping) Ode To Joy.
Wishing you all a very JOYFUL New Years!!!

S'Winter and a Holiday Cutie

Did anyone else have freakishly warm weather the day after Christmas? If you are a Phineas and Ferb fan, you will understand why we were singing the "S'Winter" song (Some people call it "Wummer" LOL!) while we were playing in the snow. I was outside without a coat...in the sun...making a snowman. Very surreal!

Bazzy was pretty sure I had lost my mind when I let him go outside in only his jammies and boots (and Cars hat, of course.)

Katryna wanted to make a snowman, so we had to dig up some old candy for the face, and find some sticks for arms, and a baby carrot for the nose (good thing he was small snowman, cuz we only had small carrots!)

AW~ isn't he cute?
He only lasted about an hour and then
his poor little face started to melt.

After warming up WHILE playing in the snow (SO wierd!)
...we came inside and had a snack.
Kris decided the "Holiday Cutie" sticker from the Clementines we ate belonged on Charlotte. She was definitely the holiday cutie this year.

Did anyone else play outside on this beautiful S'Winter day?

Christmas

I finally have time to get some pictures up from Christmas. Sofia is FINALLY looking like herself today. We're very thankful for that!

This is what Sofia looked like the night we came home and opened presents. She was definitely not feeling good, but it was so great to have everyone together and the other kids were thrilled to finally be able to open some presents. That was tough day for them too. They were very patient.

The only thing Mia has asked for for Christmas was Blendy pens. She had seen the commercial months ago and she's been talking about them ever since. MONTHS of hearing about these Blendy pens!
Here she is...finally holding these glorious Blendy pens. She was a happy kid!

This is my adorable nephew, Keaton. :)

Charlotte~ trying to figure out what a present is.

"I don't understand the point of these, but they taste pretty good!"

Katryna still LOVES Webkinz.
She was very excited about this new hedgehog.

Charlotte... after finally extracting her present
... after slobbering all over it.

Bazzy got Cars for Christmas.
There's a shocker, aye? LOL!

Kris found a new Art set for Katryna. She loves to sit for hours and draw, so I'm sure she will get a lot of use out of this and will learn some new things.

Katryna and Charlotte on Christmas night.

Bazzy and Keaton in their new jammies.

Mia wanted to hold Charlotte for a picture too, of course.

Charlotte in her new Christmas jammies.

I tried to put our Minnie Mouse Santa hat on her,
but I think her face shows how she felt about that.

Christmas ended up to be a lot of fun and a time to be
thankful that Sofia was OK.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

We're Home

Wanted to let you all know that we are home. Yay! Sofia is exhausted and still not feeling great, but she is no longer dehydrated and since her labs were back to normal they said she might as well be resting and getting better at home. We even got to open presents with everyone tonight, so that was very special for all of us. Sofia kinda half slept and half participated, but she was very thankful to be in a place where no one will be trying to stick a needle in her constantly.

We're still not sure exactly what was the cause of this, but we're assuming it was not a contagious something since no one else was affected. Thank you SO much for all your thoughts, prayers, and messages! It meant a lot to us and to Sofia. Hopefully she will be feeling better in the next couple days so she can start to enjoy her Christmas presents and playing with her sisters and brother again. :)

Merry Christmas again!!!

Picture

merry christmas

Hello from childrens. Santa (hospital volunteer) came this morning
bringing a bag of fun toys. If she wasnt feeling so icky she would be
very spoiled right now. Her kidney function and bloodwork is much
better. She's still got a lot of stomach pain and is completely whiped
out, but hopefully we're on the upswing. Kris is here with me now, so
I'm happy to have someone to keep an eye on things and to help with
anything involving needles. Sofia and I were both in tears last night
when they couldn't find a vein.
We still have hope that she might come home tonight.
Merry Christmas !

Hanging in there

Poor sofia is recovering from them trying to find a vein. This was
equally traumatic for both of us. She was doing pretty good but now
spiked a high fever all of a sudden. Her blood count and other things
are high so they are watching her close.
Right after the needle trauma, she got to pick a prize because she won
bingo with Santa that was being played over the hospital tv. She got
to call the Santa from her room and even though she could barely talk
she told the Santa she got bingo and her room number. She was really
hoping the barbie prize would be left and yay it was. I even got a
little smile after that.
She's sleeping now and I'm trying to keep lulu quiet. Thanks for the
thoughts and prayers.

Poor Sofia

We're at childrens hospital and they are admitting sofia for severe
dehydration. She got really sick last night and couldn't keep anything
down while continuing to get sick over and over. Her levels were all
really off and they said she'll have to stay for possibly a few days.
I guess we'll be celebrating at childrens hospital this year for
Christmas.
We're thankful we brought her in when we did. I'll try to post an
update when I can.

Bundled bazzy

Half an hour of getting bundled and only two times down the hill
sledding before we were frozen solid.

The PERFECT hill

I am sitting upstairs, posting pictures on the blog, and watching my kids sled from our bedroom window. Too cool. We had heard that the hill behind our house was awesome for sledding, and I can definitely say now that it is true. The girls have been out there for over an hour. The weather is actually so mild that they aren't even cold. So I guess having a snow day wasn't too bad after all.
I'm still bummed about not being able to watch their Christmas Programs this year or be at their little classroom parties, but they are all having a ball with about every other kid in our school district who are also sledding and even snow boarding down the hill.

(Mia is using a toddler sled and the girls had to share with neighbors, cuz they have sleds coming for Christmas.
But don't tell them. It's a secret. ;) )

Hand-Me-Downs

Charlotte will be wearing her sisters clothes for many years.
I love putting Katryna and Sofia's old outfits on her and remembering when they wore them. This little dress was Sofia's when she was a baby. Katryna has a matching one in the 12 month size...so you will probably be seeing this same dress in a bigger size next year.
Of course I HAD to take a few pictures! She's obviously still teething. Her hand or a toy are almost always in her drooling little mouth. Someday she might actually get a tooth!

Kids and Fire. Really?

I don't know if your church does this, but every year at Christmas Eve Service I question the decision of why we allow small children to hold fire in church. Kris and I spend the entire song or end of the service or whatever it is trying to keep the kids from burning themselves, others, or torching the sanctuary. How is this peaceful? I have no idea. I know you all know I LOVE Stuff Christians Like, and this one truly cracked me up. I might try to keep my candle this year. or get the "Christmas Eve Service Candle" App for my iphone. ;)

(if you get a chance, check out the one about Donating Junk to church/missionaries that's on there right now too. We've done enough sales and donation collecting at our church now to have gotten some pretty funny things donated as well. Many times I thought "What was this person THINKING???" )

Ninja Stars and Candles - Remix #176. Giving open flames to kids on Christmas Eve.

Imagine if one night a year, your church held a special service and when you walked in, they gave you a Ninja Throwing Star. That would be a nightmare right? Just throwing stars stuck in hymnals and Bibles and legs as far as the eye could see. It would be a bloody mess. But it's not that different from what a lot of churches do on Christmas Eve when they give everyone hand flames.

Singing a few songs by candlelight is honestly a really beautiful experience, but it's also funny. The other 364 days of the year, parents work diligently to keep their children away from torches. We put covers on our electrical outlets, hide matches and lighters in hard to reach places and yell if they get anywhere near a hot oven. But on Christmas Eve, it's fire time.

Here are a few ways to multiply the fun of having a lit Christmas candle in a church setting:

1. Pretend it’s the Olympic Torch.
I’ve always admired the guy that demands to be the last person clapping in church. While the rest of the congregation has gone quiet, he throws in one more clap, as if to say, “There, I put the punctuation on that clapping session. Done and done.” But that guy has nothing on “last man standing” during Christmas Eve service. See how long you can keep that candle lit. Pretend it’s the Olympic Torch. Be the last one standing in the aisle with a proud flame of “refuse to blow this candle out” while everyone else is gathering their coats. If someone asks you to blow it out, say, “We’re out of fire at home, I need to save this.”

2. Get the “Christmas Eve Service Candle” App for your iPhone and hold that up instead.
I don’t know if they have this yet for the iPhone but if they don’t, you’re welcome, I just made someone a billion dollars. Think about it, they already have DVDs that make it look like there’s a beautiful fire blazing in a fireplace on your television. Why not an application that flickers and shimmers like a church Christmas Eve service candle? Then, instead of a fire hazard, you could hold up your iPhone and sing by the light of your app. That’s even better than Festivus.

3. Blow out other people's candles.
I don't think I have to explain this one, but I promise, it is delightful. My brothers and I turned this into an art, because you can't just come on out and blow it. You have to do this weird, breathe out of the side of your face, move in which you send a gust of wind with the accuracy of a sniper at someone else's candle.

4. Play with the wax.
In addition to melting your candle on the shoes of family members, it's also fun to see how long you can get the wax without it breaking off. You have to hold it at the right angle though. It has to be tilted enough to make it all pool like one of those stilagtitesdifficulttospellcorrectly things in caves but not so tilted that the weight of the wax breaks it off.

5. Try to keep the candle.
As soon as that last song is finished, it's like the spell that convinced your parents it was OK for you to have fire in church is broken. And it's nearly impossible to keep the candle. Trick #1 was about keeping the fire, which sounds like a song Patrick Swayze sang in the 80s. I’m talking about keeping the actual candle. I never actually executed this move, it's like the holy grail of candle tricks. There are three people you need to watch out for: Your parents, the ushers and that guy with the box that collects them all at the end. I don't like that guy. I think all that power went to his head. He didn't just consider himself the "guy with a candle box," instead he was always kind of smug and seemed to think he was the "gatekeeper of flame."

Those were my tricks, but I am certain that when it comes to giving kids torches, I have missed quite a few.

Rosena

This beautiful picture has already sold! I'm not at all surpised! SO cute!
How exciting to be able to send the money from this portrait to Haiti before Christmas!
Thanks Alexis! You ROCK!!! :)

Check out this amazing portrait that my friend Alexis did! Wow is she talented!
This is Rosena. She is a little girl that has had a VERY challenging life and she is STILL smiling. She is currently living at the Rescue Center.

Her portrait is listed on an Etsy Site that Alexis and I put together and I'm asking again that you guys spread the word so we can raise some money for the kids in Haiti.

Mobile blogging

I'm trying blogging from my phone. Kris learned how to do this.
Crazy! I can only post one picture, but if this works it will be
super. We are doing stuff for artists for hope today cuz kris got done
early. I'm blogging from upstream. How cool is that???

If You Give a Kid a Camera...

....she MIGHT just take some pretty great pictures! :)

We went to visit our Karen friends on Wednesday, because it had been forever and we missed them! Plus I had made Puppy Chow...and I figured it was about time they tried one of the best American treats EVER!!!

The two girls that MY girls usually play with were at English tutoring until 5, so to entertain them I gave them my camera for awhile to take some pictures. I love when kids take pictures because they don't think as much about what they photographing. They just snap what's interesting to them and a lot of the time they get some GREAT pictures.

This one represents our trips to our Karen friends' home very well. They have been giving us Pepsi or Coke EVERY time we have visited from the very beginning. I'm not sure if they were told that American's like Coke or what, but my kids LOVE that they get to have soda whenever we visit, cuz they don't ever get soda at home. The 2 teenage girls actually drove to get this soda when we came because they wanted to make sure we had some. So sweet! :)

Grandma is looking happy as usual. She was very excited to see Charlotte, but Charlotte was only wanting to stick to me. We're definitely in the stranger-anxiety phase.

One of the older daughters and Mom.

I love their smiles!

Isn't she cute???

Katryna snapped this one and I had to show everyone while we were there. Everyone was laughing hysterically! Very interesting, Sofia!

Charlotte checking out the iphone. ;)
I was actually finding the video from THIS blog of Mia singing in the Christmas program so they could see it. One of their Mom's only English phrases she says is "Mia, sing". Mia of course obliges and sings for her. So I figured she would like to see her singing in church.

One of the older girls joined the ROTC at her High School. It honestly took me off guard first when I saw her in her uniform. She is SO proud and excited about this program and she told me she's planning to be a police officer or join the army in the future. Wow! She could be fighting for her country in the future! Amazing! Scary, but amazing.

Another cute picture of the girls.

I was smiling inside as I was watching Katryna and Sofia trying to get the PERFECT picture of the Santa on the Coke can. They were very happy with this one.

This is very typical of what happens when we show up. They are SO welcoming and generous and as soon as visitors show up, food is taken out and drinks are poured and everyone is talking and laughing. We usually try to bring some sort of food over too~ and this time it was Puppy Chow and Corn Flake Christmas Wreath Cookies
(my all time favorite!).
They really like both of them, which made me very happy. Especially the Puppy Chow. It was funny trying to explain why it's called that to them. They never did quite get it and it really is kinda a weird name when you think about it.
"It looks like the food you feed to dogs. Here. Wanna try some?"

The pictures progressed to becoming more artistic.
We named this one "Katryna in flight"

Everyone was happy when the younger
girls got back from English Class.

This is Sofia being scary in the dark. Scary, aye?

I think I was explaining something to one of the younger girls, or I was trying to get my little kids in the car...but I like the picture of Grandma here. I think they REALLY miss Thailand when it's this cold. She looks frozen. Poor Grandma.

One last picture before we hopped in the car to head to church.

Our church is going to be sponsoring another Karen Family in the next month or two and I'm SO excited. I hope people will really want to get to know the family and will spend time building a friendship with them. All of the Karen people we have met are so kind and loving and I know anyone would be lucky to get to know them. :)