Photo Update- Thanksgiving and Tree Decorating

 

Just some fun photos from our first snowfall right after Halloween, Thanksgiving, and our annual tree decorating. Time just seems to slip by and I can't seem to get the time to write a good post. But, thought you might like some cute photos!



 

 

 

Craziness

Craziness. That is what we have been up to lately.

It has been a while since I have had the chance to write on here. Our schedule has truly gone up in smoke. And with a 3 year old who loves schedules, it hasn't been much fun. Today we are home snug and warm while outside it is a big icy mess. We are now on Snow Day #9. (I think. I have lost track.) But here's an update.

1) Colby continues to enjoy school, when he gets to go. He was starting to get used to the schedule of Pre-school in the morning and then daycare in the afternoon but that has only happened maybe 2 times in the past 3 weeks. He loves Mrs. DeCarlo and Miss Stacy at Pre-school and I am very proud of what he is learning. He surprised everyone by naming most of the letters in the alphabet. The school teaches them the letter that starts their name but Colby has learned all the letters for his friends too, including Z for Zachary! He now knows his colors and shapes and he can count to 20, and 10 in Spanish too. Hopefully the snow/ice will stop, spring will come, and we can get back to school.

2) As for school. I am trying to get marking period and mid-year reading assessments done for grade 2 complete but these snow days are killing us. The kids are all out of sorts and when we are in we end up with a late start or early dismissal. But I think I have them set and report cards are done. The grade 2 teacher is out on maternity leave so I have been overseeing much of the assessments and grades in there. Ugh!

3) We have s much snow we don't know where to put it all. Thankfully Colby has not been lost in it yet! He has enjoyed sledding in the back yard, down the small slope and over the short stone wall area. And he loves climbing on the big piles in the front yard, thank you city plow driver. Don't worry we stand right there while he slides down them near the street.



4) We recently had a pretty big Russia boys get together. There are about 7 families in the area from our adoption agency that have boys from Russia. The oldest is now 7 and home for a few years. The youngest is only 20 months and home only since last Nov, about 3 months. The rest are 3 or 4 years old. We went to a huge indoor play area/arcade. There wasn't much for the little guys to do but they did have a climbing area and jump area. The boys got some much needed exercise and run around time and the adults had time to chat. We definitely need to do that more often, preferably somewhere less crowded and noisy. I would love to get our group even bigger and have meetings more often.

Snow day!

It finally looks like days of old around here! We were just hit with 2 feet plus this past snow storm. So, what better to do on a snow day or two?

Play outside! Thankfully no one got lost in the snow.

And bake! I'm not so sure Daddy enjoyed our new song, "We're making.....brownies!"

Christmas 2010 Recap and a Big Wow (edited for the Big Wow)

Better late than never, right? We all here would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope the new year brings everyone much happiness and love.

Our Christmas was hectic but fun. We enjoyed spending time with both families. Thankfully everyone is nearby so our travel isn't very far. We spend Christmas Eve with Mike's family and Christmas Day with mine.

Christmas Eve we went to Mike's parents and then his grandparents'. Colby loved playing with Lizzy and her toys. And Lizzy loved Colby's toys too! He received an amazing hand-made book from Grandma Laurie. It is all about animals with a fact for each jungle animal and a cute saying about Colby and his family. It is something we will definitely treasure forever. He also received an Alphie, a cute learning robot that some might remember from our childhood. I know I had one but they certainly have updated them. At Nana and Poppy's he received a couple things but his favorite is his Hess Truck and Jet. Of course the jet is motion sensored so it goes off constantly!

Christmas we had fun opening our presents at home. Santa and the reindeer ate the cookies and apple (sorry, the carrots were bad), and the milk and water. Colby actually woke up late. He has been exhausted. He woke up and wanted to crawl in bed with us. I'm not sure he really thought it was Christmas. But after seeing the presents he was ready to go. Santa left him some dinosaurs, a LeapFrog Tag reader with books and a U.S. map (ok, yes, I am showing my teacher side), and a digital camera. He also left a remote control F-150 for Mike and Colby to share. Mike also got parts for his HO Model Train set and I got a new lens for my Canon digital camera. Colby made me a cute red apron and chef hat. We went to my mom's house for a late brunch with my brothers and sisters. Grandma Donna couldn't wait to give Colby his Cars Guitar. Yes, a guitar!!! Grandma's was followed by a trip to my Uncle Lou's to have dinner with my mom's family and of course more presents.

I'm not sure Colby knows what to play with. He is so excited about everything. He seems to really enjoy Alphie, the Tag reader, his GeoTracks, and of course the Hess truck. Thankfully the holidays were lots of fun and Colby loved playing with all his cousins. However, this post is late because I proceeded to spend Sun and Mon on the couch with a wicked migraine headache. Thankfully that has finally gone away and I can now spend my vacation cleaning, running errands, and trying to catch up with school work. We have lots of reading testing coming up and of course CMT's (CT Mastery Tests) to get ready for. Ugh!

But for now, here is the little man enjoying his Christmas and the blizzard we had the next 2 days after Christmas.

Ok. I posted this a couple hours ago and just came back to check on things. I noticed my timeline at the top of the blog. It has been just over 22 months since we brought Colby home. He has now been here for as long as he was in the baby home in Russia! Simply Amazing!

Snow, Winter at Lyman Orchard, Colby's Baptism, and A Year

We have certainly had a busy February. We finally had a pretty big snowstorm. All the snow had been staying south of us (sorry Joy). But this week we finally got enough snow for Colby to really enjoy playing in. And he definitely did. While I was tutoring, Mike and Colby built a little snow fort/igloo, complete with crawl spaces. Colby and Misha loved climbing on it, instead of in it. We also went to Lyman Orchard on Saturday. They have a Winterfest complete with ice carvers, snowboarders, and even a small hill for the kids to go sledding on rubber innertubes. The ice sculptures had a medieval times theme this year. Colby enjoyed watching the man use the power tools to carve the ice. Then we had a nice sled ride, all be it in the mud! The snowstorm we had had earlier in the week gave way to warm temperatures and lots of melting. Yuck! But, the day was warm and it felt almost like Spring is near. I think Colby's favorite part was sledding down the little hill on the innertube. He went sitting down first but then I had him lay across the tube. He loved it. That and watching the snowboarders go down the small hill they had made to do a few tricks. In Colby's words, "I do that!" Yikes! Do we have the next Shaun White?

But the weekend ended with a celebration. We had Colby Baptized. When we were planning his Baptism, I wanted to wait until after the holidays. It was such a hectic time. So I called the church in early Jan to discuss a date. I mentioned Feb and was reminded that the church only does Baptisms on the third Sun of the month and the date happened to be Feb 21. When I was asked if that was ok, I said that it was perfect. What timing! We brought Colby home on Feb 21 of last year. He has been home a year! I know many people like to celebrate Gotcha Day, the day they pick up their child/children from the baby home. However, we picked Colby up on the 17th and then had to still go to Moscow to the Embassy. It didn't truly feel complete until we reached home. The moment I saw my mom. My parents and Mike's parents picked us up from JFK Airport around 9 or 9:30 at night, after we had to wait in immigration. The first person I saw was my mom and a total sense of relief hit me. We did it! Colby was home, we were home, and we were a family. That moment I knew everything turned out ok. What a sense of joy!

So, now this year, we celebrated Colby's welcome to our family last year, and his welcome to God's family. And I couldn't have been prouder. As Rev. Gordon brought Colby on his walk down the isle he mentioned the special meaning of the day. He also mentioned that it was Gotcha Day. Another coincidence, our Rev also adopted his little girl. He certainly knew how special the day was. We had a nice lunch with our families at our house and just enjoyed being together. What a special day and what special memories I will always have for February 21st!