Miss Chloee

Ok, so I am only a week late!!! My sweet baby girl just turned 9!!! I still am having trouble wrapping my brain around this. I have this funny problem with my 2 youngest kids where I still see them as little toddlers, I don't do this with the older ones and I don't even realize it until I look at pictures:) Maybe it's my way of coping with not having little ones anymore, but it breaks my heart at how old they are all getting!

When we asked our little princess what she wanted to do for her big day she simply replied, "sushi & a movie.....with a friend of course."

So our girl had her big day and is now a year older and sassy as ever!

Love you sweetie:)

KAYMI

On to our eldest daughter.....Miss Kaymi. If I had to describe Kaymi with one word it would be~heart~. Everything this girl does is done with her whole heart. Just yesterday we attended a banquet at her school to honor her and a handful of other students selected for the good citizen award, we were very proud, but not surprised:) When they described her they said that she has set herself apart from the average teenage drama of middle school and she is always there for others to talk to, awesome.

This past Saturday was the last of the volleyball tournaments for the year. Kaymi's team played their hearts out from 8am to 4:30pm and took home 5th place. (she was not very happy about this) Now onto track for this one!

Kaymi is singing in the honor choir and just performed an amazing quartet at their last concert. (She has a great voice, now all she needs is a little confidence!) It is truly an honor to parent this young lady, she is tons of fun to be around and still has an honest sincerity about her that we are praying will continue through high school!!!

CADEN

I know that this blog is labeled as our adoption blog, but because I am short on time and already have this one I thought I would write a little on our other children too:)

This week I am going to brag on my middle son Caden! In his 11 years this boy has accomplished a lot. It is kind of a joke in our family that anything Caden tries he does it well. This last June a lot changed in Caden's life. On the last day of school he broke both bones in his arm and his elbow! OUCH! Many of you know that this ended his gymnastics career:( That year Caden had won 1st place in State and gone on to take 4th place in Regionals....to say the least he was a very talented gymnast. But when God closes a door he opens a window! This year he jumped right into ice hockey without ever having really skated before (it was a little humbling for a few weeks because the other boys had been on the ice since age 4) Anyway, the season just ended and he became a wonderful player:) Now right into soccer!

Sixth grade has also been great! Caden has been on the high honor roll all year and he is moving into an accelerated math and science program, we are very proud. Violin is still a love of Cadens along with guitar, (he is currently saving his money to pay for guitar lessons because it is not offered in school). In his spare time Caden loves to snowboard, draw, play basketball and skateboard....All of which he is great at:)

Yeah, I did a "DO"

I am a licensed cosmetologist but I can tell you that Kyah's hair is becoming a challenge for me! I think that girl has the tightest curls of any head of hair I have ever seen. Anyway, I was excited because her hair is now long enough to do something with, other than a head band :)

Something new everyday!

(Sorry about the spelling again, I'm not sure what is going on!)

For about the last two weeks Kyah has really been opening up and telling us more and more about her life in Ethiopia. Sometimes it is sad and hard for us to hear, and sometimes her stories are hystericaly funny! Last night she was sharing with us about the day before she was taken to the orphanage and as she was telling us the story she said she asked her grandmother on that day, "How old am me?" (I love the way she talks:) ) She said her grandmother said 11, but you must say 6. (This most of you already new), but then my husband and I looked at each other.....we both then realized that that was December 2006! That means that our little girl is 12!!! This made more sence because the dentist had said if she was 11 that she was very far along in dental maturity as she has lost all of her teeth and already has her 12 year molers. Because she has no understanding of the months we pulled out the calander and showed her. She just laughed and laughed and went upstairs and told each of the kids, "I 12"! In a weird way it is kinda of sad for us because we went to pick up our little 6 year old in December and she has already aged 6 years!:) I am happy that we are finally getting this all figured out, especially for her sake, I would want to know how old I truely was if I was in her shoes. Yesterday she also rode a bike for the first time! It is amazing all of the firsts this girl is having. And for any of you who have adopted older children you know that it is much harder to teach an older child to swim and ride a bike than a toddler! I think it is a fear thing and that we get smarter with age ( and further from the ground)!!!! I'm sure that we will have many more surprises around the corner:)

Busy Busy Weekend!

I think we crammed in as much in 4 days as humanly possible!!! We just returned home from a road trip to Portland for Chloee's gymnasitics competion. Along the way we stopped at the largest duck pond I have ever seen,Kyah went swimming for the 1st time,we hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls~ in Danskos and Uggs (Chloee & I), saw a million family members, ate way too much, toured AGCI, had dinner with Martha and Christy, watched Chloee compete and drove home! I have to say that this has been the most enjoyable road trip we have ever had. It must be because the kids are getting older, but no tears were shed and none of the kids even argued! Halleluja:) Here are some pictures from our little excursion. (I don't have any of Chloee competing beause Grandma took them with her fancy camara!

{I know I probably have a million spelling errors, but the spell check won't work right now! SORRY!}

Can you say "Americanized"!!!!!

Wow, in 7 weeks how things change!
Everyday there seems to be new growth and new challenges! As I had posted before, Kyah started school pretty much right after we returned home, with our reluctance I might add..... and it has been wonderful! Last weekend we let her go to one of her school friends birthday party and to a movie. The movie was a 3D Hannah Montana concert and she came home singing at the top of her lungs, too funny. The funniest part is that she sings with an American accent!!!!! I am so amazed at her English, the school has an Ethiopian tutor that comes 5 days a week to class with her to help her with her English and also so she can keep speaking Amharic. I do have to admit I am a little sad at how quickly she is becoming Americanized. I guess I was nieve thinking it would take a little longer, but she is just a typical 11 year old girl, she even has a crush on a little boy in her class:)
All in all things have been coming right along with bonding... (everyone keeps asking) From the begining she has been very close with her daddy. Every moment she could spend with him she did and he is still her favorite person. It took a little longer for us. I'm not sure if it was a guilt she felt for her mother, or just a personality conflict, but now we are on our way! She is a very compassionate, loving and very strong willed young lady who knows exactly what she wants! We are enjoying this time of amazing growth and learning, and I hope we can hold onto these memories to laugh about later:)