July Already???? Wasn't it just April??

Since my last post, Jace has signed up for kindergarten and Eli strongly finished 1st grade. We are in true summer mode....camping, swimming, playing, going to the library, science experiments, etc. At the beginning of summer, the boys and I made a list of 85 things we would like to do this summer....it will be interesting to see how many we are able to get to :) 

Right after school was released for summer, we headed out for our summer camping excursion.  We stayed a couple nights at Guersney State Park, then headed up to Cody, Wy (had to check out the Buffalo Bill Historical Center), then onto Yellowstone National Park.  After several cold days/nights in YNP, we headed into Montana and Utah.  We had a fabulous time with the exception of our truck taking a poop (traveling 25 mph for 5 hours...through construction, so fun!!). We ended up purchasing a new truck in Brigham City, Utah (Happy Father's Day to Rob).  At that point, our vacation was over and we just wanted to head home.  I think I only took four pictures in Utah (that's unheard of for me!!).

The boys and I are taking advantage of our library summer reading program. Once the boys fill out their reading card, they will have earned a very special hardcover book...so cool!  They also love all the little prizes that they earn along the way.

A few weeks went by before we started another camping adventure at Glendo State Park...SO MUCH FUN!!!  This place reminds me of some of the beaches in Michigan...real sugar sand and the the water was delightful. The kids were in the water non-stop!

Pretty Much Suck at Updating Our Blog...lol!!!

Eli loves his Goosebump books...he also loves to draw!

Having fun at the Winterfest in downtown Cheyenne.

Hum...What is my brother doing that I think I need to be doing???

Crazy zombie boy!!!

The boys loved the tunnel at the Winterfest!

The best Nana and Papa are about to head our way....We are very excited for them to get here!!

 

 

Easter has come and gone...so have many normal weeks, but I just can't seem to find time to document our life on our blog. Tomorrow we get to head to Casper for the Cleft Palate Clinic. In order for the boys to have any surgeries, they must attend this clinic...urgh! We will make the best of it by checking out a few fun things to do in Casper. I was hoping to bring the boys to this amazing outdoor play area. However, the other night we got a huge snowstorm and dumped about 14 inches of snow...two days later and almost all of the snow has melted...typical Wyoming storm :)

 

Over Spring Break, we took a little family vaca up to Rapid City, South Dakota. Our hotel had a water park in which we had to ourselves (I will have to post pictures later as I have no idea how to upload pictures to the computer...haha). The boys had a blast on the pirate ship...they even had a waterfall mushroom. Jace had no problem running under the falls...Eli on the other hand was a different story.  I had to bribe him with a Goosebump book purchase in order for him to go under the mushroom.  Eli HATES water in his face....but he did complete the task and now owns a new book! Somehow, we have also managed to never bring our boys to Chuck E. Cheese's ( amazing, right??). Well before we headed back to Chey-town, we went to C.E.C's...again, we had the entire place to ourselves.  SWEET!!! The boys had a blast spending all their tokens. I did figure out that Jace isn't quite ready for the Skeeball game..He has balls flying everywhere!! At one point, Chuck himself came out and danced with the boys.  After dancing he threw about 100 tickets in the air for the boys to catch...which turned into picking up! For those of you that have been to C.E.C,,,it is sooo much fun to put single tickets into the ticket counter...NOT!!  Overall, we had a blast on our little vaca.  The rest of our break was spent at the library, park, and several other silly projects!

 

We have been working non-stop with little man Jace's on his speech. He is really struggling with sounding out his words. He has kindergarten registration next week...sure hope his speech skills are reading (all of his other skills are up to par....just speech is lagging).

 

Eli has been flourishing in school...granted we continue to work on his ability to focus and follow directions but hey, you can't have everything. Since moving to our new house, Eli has played outside non-stop. He is the neighborhood social butterfly...always asking if so and so can come over or it he can go to their house.  I love his new found freedom and willingness to try something new. 

Finally some pics!!

Flat Stanley came to visit us from Muskegon, Michigan.  The boys had a blast taking him to various places and taking pictures.

Rockin' the wind and cold weather with Uncle Joe

Getting in the goof-master!

The boys hanging out after the parade.

Donation for Toys for Tots

Jace and his snacks

Love these boys!!!

Getting ready to put food out for the reindeer

Hulk...smash it! 

Teeth, Transformers, and a Time for Giving Thanks

Proud Eli showing off his gigantic hole in his mouth compliments to losing his 1st tooth



Chinese tradition...placing the top tooth on the roof on your house

Can you believe this little tooth of mine was in my mouth?

This is how big I want my pumpkins mouth to be!

The guts....ewww! I remember when Eli would refuse to touch the inside of a pumpkin.

Our two Captain America's....two more costumes to add to their collection.

Captain America meets Optimise Prime and Bumble Bee

Can you believe its Santa?!?!

Thanksgiving speech..so proud of our little boy!

What a busy month the end of October and November has been! Rob officially earned his way off of FTO (field training officer aka riding around with another deputy.  He was able to bring his patrol car home...needless to say, the boys were beyond thrilled to check out his car. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments as this has been a lifelong dream of his.

Eli has had a whirl-wind month a half.  His adhd medication seem to be lagging in certain areas.  His 1st grade teacher has been so incredibly helpful to getting him back on track after his kindergarten year.  At times, there seemed to be a lot of pressure on him and he was resisting..creating a little boy that refused to complete any work at school.  This three week (not totally under control but incredible improved) period was tough on everyone.  We were considering holding him back in 1st grade (I know its early in the school year, but I never realized how many academic strategies he missed out on).  There may come a time that he needs academic support in the resource room due to his development concerns...then mix his adhd into the scenario!  Whatever it takes for our little guy to succeed will be worth it...this has taken me awhile to accept! During this time, we also had parent-teacher conferences.  Granted, I have had my share of conferences, but its totally crazy when your the parent instead of the teacher.  I found myself thinking...man, I really wish I could see a hidden camera to watch him in class because this is such a different kiddo than I am used to having at home! His teacher has made it a mission to help him become successful.  She gets him. Understands him. Loves him. Tears are welling in my eyes as I type this because a week later, we received the most awful news.  His teacher had passed away, taken from this earth far too early.  God must have needed a very special angel in heaven, because he received one amazing, caring, and understanding lady. I don't think a day has done by that I haven't thought about her children and grandchildren. May God look over her family and all the students hearts that she has touched, literally changed forever. One last assignment that she had assigned the students was to create a speech about their Thanksgiving.  Those of you that know me, realize how adventurous our Thanksgivings Thankmas' used to be...the entire fam at the casino for what would always be an amazing time. Getting back to the assignment...we I was struggling with this assignment..Thanksgiving just isn't the same as when we lived in Michigan. Dad and Eli created the pre-planning sheet, then the poster that was used as a prop.  After several days of practicing, it was the big day. His poster was one of the only ones that didn't have adult assistance...he drew every picture and wrote every word.  We were so proud of him! His presentation went great...just needs to work on projecting his voice. Way to go, Eli!!!

Little man Jace has finally started growing...two inches since April.  This is a huge feat for him as he doesn't have height on his side! Along with his growth spurt, he has become the little chatter box. Even daycare told me the other day that they remember when Jace was so complacent (umm..scary) and rarely spoke...not anymore! He rambles his day away, which is great as his speech has also began to improve.  We continue to work on the letters b, f, s, and several others...everything with time.  Something else that has also grown on him is his stubborn and sassyness...whoa he can give you a run for your money.  He and his daycare buddy got in trouble for calling another daycare friend a baby...not just once but over and over. What a little stinker he can be. On the other hand, his ability to be an absolute goofball has also increased.  There will be times that he will just start laughing and dancing around the house. His laughter is so contagious! He has the most amazing expressions. He loves to go to school...everyday, he asks if it is a backpack day! Then on Mondays, he has a speech class that he attends at night. This is an interesting class as some of the people that attend the class...well, let's just say I would move to the other side of the road if I were to see them walking down the road...yeah, hibby jibbies!!

October...really!

Woke up this morning to our first trace of snow...the boys will be disappointed as they really want a big storm so they could build a snowman.  Ah...to be little and enjoy the white stuff!

Eli is loving his new school.  His self confidence and academics have soared.  Math is absolutely his favorite over reading!  He will finish his math homework lickety split...reading homework is a different story.  Yesterday, he told me that he has a girlfriend.  They used to sit by each other in class, but then the teacher moved everyone around so now I don't sit by her.  So cute!!  Last week, in karate, he graduated to the purple belt.  He was so excited to move up another level.  Two more belts and he gets to start using weapons...oh boy!

Jace is silly as ever.  He continues to work on his speech, which is much more difficult for him, because of his initial palate repair being much more severe than Eli's. I really hope he is able to improve his speech enough to go to kindergarten!  It would be very sad if he had to wait another year as he LOVES school.  Everyday, he asks if it is his turn to ride the school bus (he gets to ride the bus 2x a week for preschool).

My boys LOVE costumes.  I would say they have about thirty different ones in their play area.  Yesterday, I made the Goodwill stop to do our annual costume addition.  I scored four new ones!  It was like Christmas at our house last night!  I even found three with "the puffed out muscles."  The boys love going around the house pretending to be Ironman, The Hulk, Captain American, Bumblebee, etc.

A few weeks ago, I was the fortunate one to bring a group of 4th graders on a three day-two night field trip.  Our travels brought us to Cody, WY and Casper, WY.  The Buffalo Bill Historical Museum in Cody was fantastic...and I really am not a museum person!  The kiddos also went the the rec center in Cody....whoever voted down Cheyenne getting a rec center is nuts!  Our second day, took us back to the museum in Cody then onto Casper.  By the time we got to Casper, the kids were whipped.  The hotel had sent up a sperate area (oh thank you very much!!) for us to have a first-class dinner and breakfast.  I think it was the first time for many of the students to have a linen for a napkin, a salad fork, and someone removing their plate before getting additional food.  Then their was the pool...besides having a blast, it was NOISY!!  All around, it was a fabulous trip..a little long, but everyone had a great time.

Rob is in his fifth week of training for patrol.  He really enjoys his career move to the street.  His schedule takes a bit to get used to...he either works Wednesday-Saturday or Sunday-Wednesday...a little different from the rest of our schedules.  His cousin, Mark, is now staying with us.  He landed a job here in Cheyenne about three weeks ago.  The boys love having another uncle!

The boys with Addy

Eli has the answer to most Mount Rushmore trivia!



Eli lost his 1st tooth...so as Chinese tradition has it, he had to put his tooth on the roof of the house.

1st day of school....1st grade

1st day of preschool

2nd Anniversary of Jace's Gotcha Day

Two years ago, Rob and I were in China anxiously awaiting the phone to ring.  The sound of the phone put us on our feet...only to find out that the adoption agency was running late and instead of 10:00am, they wouldn't be to the hotel until noon...urgh!  Looking back, those two hours really don't add up to much, but at the time it was everything to contain the excitment of meeting our little man. 

The time came.  The. phone.rang. Our hearts were beating frantically just knowing our little guy was downstairs in the lobby.  Would he come to us naturally like Eli? Would he be shy and reserved?  Oh, the thoughts that go through your head as you walk down the hallway, take the elevator to the lobby, walk through the halls of the lobby to the special room that was reserved just for this occasion.  The above picture tells it all...he was so nervous as to what was going on.

However, it didn't take long for Pan Yu to welcome us  his daddy into his world.  For me, it took a few days.  I couldn't even lift him out of his crib.  He was extremely attached to his daddy!

Moving forward two years...he is quite the ham!  He loves to make people smile.  He can also be a little pout, pout fish.  As a matter of fact, I even found a book titled The Pout, Pout Fish.  He hates to have it read to him when he is being a grump!   He loves his brother Eli to the moon and back!  He is still working on a lot of his speech sounds.  (We can usually understand what he is saying but hard for strangers to tell what he is saying).  He has another year at Stride and the Language Clinic.  Hoping by next year, his speech will improve so he is able to go to kindergarten. He loves to play outside.  This summer, he has taken a huge love for the water...hint, hint...hopefully we can get a pool next summer!  He is mommy's little side kick :)

Fall Fun in Denver

Brothers!

Lake Michigan...so cool!