Random Things

Several random things to post about today!

Joshua recently got a buzz cut to match the rest of the boys in the family - pretty cute now, isn't he? I kinda liked his old hair too.....but it was pretty messy. He really needed a haircut!

I am hoping to buy this milking pail from Hoegger supply today!! I have great ambitions for milking this year, and I intend to make it as easy as possible. I have been using quart jars, but that means you have to milk one side at a time, which takes forever. I could milk in half the time by using the pail. Pretty excited about that!

Now that the China trip is over and Joshua is settling in, I am back to school - and hitting it hard. I have gotten behind because of how busy we've been, so now I am trying to catch up. My goal is to do double school (2 days worth of lessons) each day. So far I 've been able to do that with most of my subjects. It feels kind of good to have my nose in the books again!



I have a sore throat today.....likely the results of the potluck we attended last Sunday at church. So now I am drinking lots of hot tea with butter and honey in it. The butter and honey makes tea so much more creamy and really coats your throat - I always drink it when I have a sore throat!

And lastly, this is my new way of life!!! Seriously!! I often have both boys clamoring for my attention at once!! Usually one is all smiles in my arms and the other is in tears on the ground! We're trying to work on directing the boys (especially Joshua) away from ME and towards Mom. SHE is their mother, not me!! He needs to know that! As hard as it is to resist those gorgeous Joshua-eyes, I am trying to turn him to Mom when he comes running to me.

And yes, I KNOW I need to fix my blog header, it shouldn't still read "and soon to be eight".

:-)

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Big Squirt and Lil' Dude

Can you guess who Big Squirt is? I'll describe him for you.

Chubby.

Always wants to eat.

Desperately needs a haircut.

Desperately cute.

And desperately spoiled.

Lil' Dude should be easy. Read the following attributes of Lil' Dude and see if you can guess.

Short and skinny.

Knows everything there is to know. Yeah right!

Loves to pick his nose and then wipe his finger on the nearest victim.

Calls me "Nee-hul".

Bursts into the "Hallelujah Chorus" several times a day

Asks if he can have a beard yet.

Plays with dolls.

Thinks saying "no ma'am" is hilarious

Asked Mom if she wears pull-ups too.

Figured it out yet? Yeah, I thought you might. :-)

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Joshua's Chinese!

For those of you who are wondering if Joshua speaks any Chinese, wonder no more. He SPEAKS Chinese.

Fluently.

And non-stop! It's amazing to hear him just go on and on about...something. That's the down side of things, I guess - I don't have a clue what he's saying! I can sometimes catch little words or phrases, like when he says "ji daan" I know he wants eggs, and he says a certain phrase over and over when he wants to eat. Sometimes I'll catch the word "baba" in a sentence, and I know he's talking about Dad. But other than that....I'm clueless. I would love to know what he's talking about, because he talks all the time.

Poor Isaac is definitely experiencing a little jealousy, I think! He had a pretty rough day yesterday. I decided that he needed a little bit of time apart from Joshua, so I told him that since Josh was to "little" to go outside, just Isaac and I would go for a walk, because Isaac is "big". You should have seen the little grin that sparked across his face! He'll need some one-on-one special sibling times to make him feel included.

One of his favorite new activities is to boss Josh around. He is constantly correcting him! It's pretty funny to see. This morning he was almost in tears trying to tell Joshua to be quiet because Mom was still asleep. You'll see a bit of this brotherly love in the video below, plus a great sampling of Joshua's Chinese chatter! I'm sure some of it's just baby talk, but I think there's definitely some Chinese in there. It's adorable!

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How Joshua Is Doing

Well.....I have a lot of things to say about this little cutsie patootise but first I want to say how NICE it is to have my family back! It was really getting lonely around here....but now that we have two little tornadoes running around, things are never boring. (Or quiet.)

Although is is incredibly photogenic (unlike his older sister) and smiles in nearly every photo....he is definitely grieving. He's had a pretty hard day today so far. He goes back and forth between crying and being all smiles and giggles. Part of that is because he has been terribly spoiled, but he's also had a very tramatic couple of weeks and that definitely affects his behavior.

It doesn't help matters that he seems to like me best! Although it sure is nice to be clung to by this little stinker, it does cause problems as Mom is the one he's supposed to be attached to. We're trying to work on that. This morning he was just sobbing for "jie jie" (big sister) over and over when I went out to feed the goats.

But other than that he is just a heart melter - look at those eyes!! That smile is sooo hard to resist......:-) Some little girl is going to be verrrrry lucky someday!

Mom brought home a few childrens books from China that have pictures of different objects and then the Chinese word next to it. Instead of reading it to him, I had Joshua read it to ME - and my goodness was he chattering! From what I could see he was prounouncing the Chinese words for each item very well. He asks for "ji daan" often (eggs). I want to video tape his Chinese before he loses it - it is priceless. Although he speaks Chinese almost non-stop, he is learning English. He knows how to say please, and learned how to say Rachel and Joshua the other day!! It was so cute!

Isaac has become quite the older brother. When Joshua does something wrong he just goes over to him and says "no no no!". Joshua usually doesn't like this too well! This moring Joshua was fussing about eating his banana and what Isaac did was SO cute. He brought his little Bible over to Joshua, opened it and pointed to the page, and then said "Joshua, o-b-e-y, obey! I will!"

There have been a few squabbles over certain things...like the rocking horse. Most of the time Isaac is very willing to share but sometimes we do have fights to settle!

What a sweetie pie God has blessed us with!! I love him so much and am so grateful for him. It's amazing that this little boy, who was born clear across the world, has now joined our family and is my very own brother. What a HUGE privilege it is.

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They're Home!!

After 2 LONG weeks of Mom and Courtney being gone, they are finally home!! It is SO good to have them back!!

Here's Isaac running down the road to meet the truck! He was so excited!

First meeting! Isaac did amazingly well with Joshua right from the beginning. He has slipped into his role of big brother very well! He kept trying to hug Joshua at first, but Joshua was much more interested in getting down and running.

Here you can see another attempt at a hug. Joshua was not interested in hugs, but he sure was excited to play with his new big brother! They are such a pair!

TWO boys!! They are actually both very similar in size - they love to be held at the same time, one on each side.

Waited so long to do this!!! A cutie on either side of me!!

Our first afternoon/evening with Joshua went well. Mom and Courtney were exhuasted, of course! Joshua went right to me (Mom said he LOVES to play with long hair) and was just a fountain of smiles and giggles! He kept calling me "gie gie" (big sister). He just pratters on in Chinese all the time. I would just love to know what he's saying. :-)

Like I said earlier, Isaac has fallen into his new role of big brother so well. It was so cute to watch him "mother" Joshua. He kept trying to pat his hands and kiss him/hug him, but Joshua was like "out of my space!". But all in all they've done well together and they had fun playing so far. Our *one* mishap last night was right before bedtinme. Mom told me to take of Joshua's shoes which threw him into a massive tantrum as soon as I did. He was on the floor screaming and crying, which really upset Isaac. You could just see the wheels turning in Isaac's eyes....he just watched with a very concerned look on his face and then burst into tears himself, with his hands over his ears!! I felt so bad for him!

They are just such a cute pair. Joshua is already into everything. He tried turning on the dishwasher and little parent Isaac came right up behind him saying "no no no!". It was so adorable!

What a blessing Joshua is - I am so grateful that God brought them all home safely. I think we're in for some busy days ahead....but I look forward to each and every one of them.

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Silly Isaac and Chicken Casserole

Here's what we had for dinner - honey mustard chicken casserole and steamed broccoli.

Mr. You-Know-Who was in a goofy but great picture mood so I grabbed the camera!

If you're wondering why Isaac has a towel draped around his kneck, let me tell you!! It's a substitute bib. Because his others (all five of them) are still dirty. And needing to be washed.

And that is my project for this afternoon!

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Jonathan's Pizza

This afternoon for lunch, Jonathan made a delicious pizza.

(New crust recipe Mom - it was good!)

It looked a little greasy prior to going into the oven....but it came out nice and crispy and was really very good!! One less meal that I had to make!! Thanks Jonathan!

We are really getting close to the best day of this year - this Saturday. And I am working as fast as I can to get things ready! What I did today:

~washed both little boy's bedding (Mom that means clean bedspreads and sheets!)

~scoured the master bathroom

~cleaned up Mom's room

~did 3 (or was it 4?) loads of laundry

Right now I have a little boy hanging on my kneck (a.k.a. strangling me), giggling, and kissing me non-stop!! Sweet!

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Getting Ready

Oh yes..we're getting ready! After nearly two weeks of this room being in serious disrepair, I finally got everthing organized, cleaned, and put away!

Welcome to Isaac's and Joshua's room! Isn't it so cute??!!

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Huge Duststorm!

We are under a weather alert today - but it's not rain! It's wind - which also means dust!! Around here a wind storm means dirt. And that's exactly what we got today.

These are pictures through the windows - I wasn't about to go outside just for a picture!

As I was watching clouds of dirt go by and hearing the howling wind I was growing increasingly thankful for our house! Thank the Lord for tightly sealed windows and doors!

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Fun With Friends!

Yesterday was a fun time for us - the Doughty's came out for the day! It was a great way to get our minds off of waiting. :-) We always love having them out!

All the boys on one couch!

Miss Amanda the cowgirl!

David and Amanda.

Isaac helped Mr. Doughty grill the hamburgers. He was desperate to go play with the big kids on the tire swing but we distracted him with a safer activity. :-)

Dad and Mr. Doughty had a great "manly" chat as they grilled the burgers! We had to keep on warding Buffy (the dog) off as he was loving sniffing the cheese slices.

Jonathan gave horse rides, of course.

Isaac looking just too cute in the dirt!! (By the way Mom, notice his visor? He had a BLAST making it the other day. Gotta love the pink flowers.)

All in all we had a great day - thanks Doughtys for bringing the ice cream - and for LEAVING it with us!! I'm looking forward to having a bowl this afternoon!

We are still surviving here at home...and I cannot believe that my new little brother is coming HOME this Saturday! Hooray! As I type this we are having a HUGE dust storm. It's been so windy so now we have walls of dust that sweep across our property. It's so thick right now I can barely see the horses out front. Yuck!

So my big focus this week is getting the house out of chaos stage and back into normality. And making quite a bit of food ahead of time for this weekend. I want to just enjoy Joshua and not have to worry about cooking for the first day or so. :-)

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We still hangin in there...

I realize I have NOT posted daily like I planned during the trip....but I also planned on having a lot more time available! I am truly learning the ropes of being a full time "mom"!! And it is much more time-consuming than I had expected!

But.

We are still hanging in there and very anxiously awaiting Mom, Courtney's and Joshua's return home on the 12th. As I type it's 6:30 AM and I have a little cheerio muncher by my side. It seems to be our new routine...he wakes up calling for me around 5:45, then we snuggle for a while, and then I go check Courtney's blog while he digs into cheerios.

Just 7 more days!!! Until this adorable little boy comes home!

I don't have any pictures to share from our last few days; because I've been too busy to take any. :-) And Courtney's blog is a WHOLE LOT more interesting at this point!! However I will try to be better about that this week.

Instead, I'll share with you some things I've learned about being a "mom":

~diapers fill much faster than you think. It's VERY wise to change them often or you will go through countless pairs of pants a day.

~never put a load of laundry in at 10:00 PM.

~fix hair and apply makeup in under 3.5 minutes.

~clean the kitchen entirely the night before or you won't feel like making breakfast the next morning.

~the crockpot is a mother's best friend.

~always make a 3 year old go potty BEFORE getting in the bathtub. It's vital.

~leftovers are lifesavers.

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Thursday Update

We have been having gorgeous weather the last few days (no fireplace use mom!) and so yesterday I got to open all the windows and we took Isaac outside for some fresh air. It was just so nice to be in the warm sun again - hopefully winter is finally gone!

We found Joshua a cowboy hat identical to Isaac's, except it is red-rimmed instead of blue. They're going to look so cute matching!

More horses arrived for Jonathan a few days ago - he bought two and is already working on training one of them.

Cowboy tickle time!

Isaac and I made a paper chain for all the days Mom and Courtney are gone in China. It started out pretty long, but now that we're down to almost a week left, it's getting shorter (we tear one link off every day). I tell Isaac that when we get to the top, Mama will be home!

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