Student of the Month!

That's right, my sweet little redhead got middle school student of the month. Not bad for it being the first time she stepped foot into a public school. I am pathetically proud. She got her picture taken (I assume for our once a week local free paper) and got a free t-shirt. It is a little unclear as to what a student has to do to get student of the month, but Leah said something about good grades and a good attitude. Works for me! Good job Leah!!!!

Julie

Oh. My. Word....He is soooo loud!

Asher is such a loud child. He could certainly pass as my bio kid based on that one fact alone. He isn't just loud when he is crying or irritated, he is just loud as a part of his regularly scheduled programming. It is how he communicates. Our little kids are not allowed out of bed until 8:00, Asher however is usually up by 7:00. He is still in our room so we are the only ones really affected by this, until we bring him into the rest of the house. This morning he was done with breakfast and ready to play by 7:40 and he just walked around the circle of our downstairs rooms yelling. No particular reason, just because he could. He would only stop occasionally and look longingly up the stairs. Seriously, he was watching for the kids to come down. He is a crazy boy I tell ya!

Here is goofy boy this morning (snot and all). Right after the little ones were awaken. See that chipped and mangled paint on my trim? That is seriously starting to bug me. When it is too chilly to work outside, painting trim will be my new project.

A super grumpy Anna this morning. She snapped out of it pretty quick though.

I just love how Asher always sleeps on his belly. This was particularly cute. He was totally wiped out from a morning at the soccer fields.

Anna and my beautiful niece Gracie (aka Peaches). Look how big she has gotten......

Getting warmed up for soccer with the 4 yr olds.

Action shot (kind of).

Ok, so he doesn't love hummus.

Asher and I visiting my awesome grandma! The rest of the crew was there also, they just didn't make it in the picture.

Watching the Labor Day parade in town. We still have bags of candy left.

Asher says "hi."

Gee and his "Bob" tie. He wanted to wear it and I was more than happy to let him. What a cutie! Oh and I can't for get "doggie." He loves that little dog. It has been de-rattled, sewn back up, half eaten by Patriot and washed probably 20 times. He is holding up well!

More of the parade crew. Aunt Esther, Uncle Scott, Coleson and Truett.

Well, that's all folks. Off to gymnastics!

Julie

Kid updates.....

As I am waiting for my apples to soften (to make into applesauce) I thought I would update you on the kiddos.

Leah:

She is enjoying 7th grade. I think she likes public school and she is doing really well. She is working hard and already getting really good grades. I think she is making friends also, which is good. Although, can we say drama? Holy cow, what is with middle school girls? So far it doesn't seem Leah is directly involved in the craziness.

Leah is still taking gymnastics and she really, really enjoys it. She is panning to join the track team this coming spring and she is already starting to run when she gets the chance. She and Logan are still taking piano.

Logan:

Logan is playing soccer again this year in our local recreation league. I think this is year 4 or 5 for him. He usually plays goalie and he really does a great job. I love watching him. His first game was last Saturday and he even made a goal. Yeah!!! That is not the norm for him because he rarely plays forward.

We are starting school next week (the plan was to start this week) and Logan is technically in 5th grade. He is already taking a Science class with our local home school co-op. With Leah gone, it is so good to have Logan home. Someone else to have an intelligent conversation with is always good!

Madeline:

Madeline will be starting Kindergarten next week with Logan. I am kind of excited to get her started. I really think it will be great for Madeline. She needs something like this to keep her busy and she is so itching to learn. She also has a very good attention span, which will be great.

Madeline (along with Anna and Gee) is playing soccer this year for the first time, I am her coach. Our team is great, we have my 3 little ones, my niece Katelyn and twin boys. So, only two last names on the whole team. Our first game was Wednesday and it was crazy. Madeline did great though and scored two goals!

We are still having some trouble with Madeline getting out of bed and such, but it is better. Praise God. I am also seeing a maturity in Madeline these days that makes me very sad and proud all at the same time.

Anna:

Anna won't technically be starting Kindergarten next week. I really do not feel she is even really close to ready yet, although I am starting to see a spark for learning in her. I will however let her (and Gee) participate as much as they want to, but I am not going to push it at all with them if they'd rather go play.

Anna likes to play soccer, but I think she likes getting to play with her cousin more. She (and Gee) get a little goofy when they get around Katelyn and it is all about a good time. In our game on Wednesday she was about in tears after only being on the field for a couple minutes. She said she didn't want to play and I think it was because she hadn't kicked the ball yet.

Something I am noticing more and more about Anna is that she is learning to hold her emotions in, which can be both good and bad. Anna is kind of going through a funny stage right now though and it is just enjoyable. She is a little bit sassy and she is at that stage where she is putting the particulars of life together and she is making comments based on her conclusions. I find myself thinking a lot "where did she pick that up at?"

Gideon:

Gee is doing good. We still have trouble with him taking forever to eat when it is something he doesn't love (which is a lot), but we have a system that seems to get us through. We are going to take him back to the dentist because I think his teeth are bothering him some.

Gideon really does a good job with soccer. I am impressed that he doesn't let the other kids intimidate him and he just gets out there and does his thing. He has good ball control and he pays attention pretty good.

Gideon is still a tender-hearted little guy. I love this about him although it can be a little difficult at times. A couple weeks ago Asher had my phone and Gee told me about it. I asked Gee to go and get it from Asher for me. I watched him and he went to grab it from Asher and Asher wouldn't give it to him. Gideon got into a tugging match with Asher and Asher won. I know ti was because Gideon didn't want to hurt Asher or make him sad. Very sweet eh?

Asher:

Asher walks more than anything now. He really even barely crawls anymore (Julie wipes tear). He has been cranky for about 6 weeks now and now he has a cruddy nose. Ick. He has 4 big teeth coming in though so I guess he has an excuse. Asher is a stinker. He is little a mini tornado going through my house. He leaves a mess wherever he's been. He loves to pull my measuring cups out of their drawer, his cloth diapers out and the DVD's out of the entertainment center. We try to close these things off, but that doesn't always get done. Oh well, I guess it is just part of having a toddler.

Asher was taking medicine twice a day for his reflux. I hated giving him meds, but they seemed to help. Well, about a month ago I took him off of that and he rarely spits up. I honestly believe his issues are all related to milk. He is still on soy and almond milk and he does well with it. I tried lactose free milk a few weeks back and he spit up a ton and had very runny stool. He can only tolerate a little cheese/yogurt also, which stinks.

So, there are the kiddos. All are doing well, praise God. Ryan and I are doing good also. Colepak has been busy to varying degrees for Ryan, which all in all is a blessing. He is still keeping books for a local guy and that is taking a little more time than I thought it would, but it is ok. Ryan (and Jason) is coaching Logan's soccer team and I know he enjoys getting to spend that time with Logan. I am still canning, freezing and dehydrating. I am also doing some organizational overhauling in the house which is much needed. We are looking to put in a pond, build a barn, put in a fence and buy some cattle in the next 6 months, so prepping and praying about that can be pretty time consuming also. I am trying to get all my loose ends tied in anticipation of school next week.

Thanks for catching up with us!

Julie

"I want my mommy"

Ryan and I have been and always will be very open about our adoptions with our kids. I am noticing though that even at an early age Anna and Gideon's capacity to be affected by their adoption experiences is very real. For the most part, Gideon couldn't care less. He is probably a pretty typical boy in that sense. I get the feeling though that it bothers Anna a bit. While we are very open about them being adopted it isn't like it is brought up all the time. We have 6 beautiful and amazing kids, I generally see no need to distinguish the biological from the adopted. I think there is potential there for half of my kids to feel a bit alienated. I try to be very honest but age appropriate with Anna and Gideon. I want them to be extremely proud of their heritage (Asher also) and I want them to celebrate the fact that they were adopted.

For the first time today though the topic of Anna and Gideon's birth mom's was really discussed. I get the impression that Anna feels a little bummed that she didn't come to us the same way Madeline did. She likes to reminisce about when she was a baby a lot and I just walk down memory lane with her. We talk about the first time I saw her and how I knew from that one photo that I wanted her to be my little girl. We just talk a lot about this. I have told her about our beautiful adoption experience with her and I have mentioned her birth mother before, but she must not have understood. We were in the car today waiting for Leah to get done with piano and the discussion went like this:

Gee and I were talking about babies and Anna chimes in....

Anna: "Mommy, like when I was a baby in your tummy, like the picture in your room?"

Me: "Anna, the baby in mommy's tummy in that picture is Madeline."

Madeline: "Yeah Anna, you didn't grow in Mommy's tummy."

Apparently and somewhat unfortunately Madeline was paying attention when Anna and I talked before about her birth mom.

My mind was sent reeling for a second. I want conversations about the adoptions with the kids to be very comfortable and very commonplace. I had to think really fast how to explain to Anna (and Gee because he was right there) about their birth mom's again, hopefully this time in a way they could get.

I will spare you all the details, but in the end both my little Guatlings seemed pretty happy and cool with things, to my relief. Probably one thing though in that conversation that I will never forget is Anna saying "I want my mommy," and she didn't mean me. I am almost crying as I even just post this. There was something in me that felt defensive and extremely possessive of my baby girl. I almost wanted to shout "I AM your mommy." But I didn't and I feel like God gave me grace in that moment and I responded, "I have a picture of your birth mommy Anna, would you like to see it?" I know Anna didn't mean she wanted to choose her birth mom over me, I think she was just so intrigued she wanted to meet this woman. Rightfully so. We got home past bedtime and this conversation was long gone by then, but I am going to find the picture's I have of Anna and Gideon's birth mom's and tomorrow we will sit down and look at them together.

May God protect my sweet adopted babies. I pray they never feel the pain or anger that can many times come with their amazing circumstances.

Julie

So Beautiful.....

Man, you cannot beat the weather today. Breezy, warm, low humidity..... I love it! I have spent as much time as I can lately outside. We added a deck to the side of our house last fall. It is right underneath a huge tree. We have really been enjoying that deck. We bought some furniture for it and on the weekends we have been spending significant time out there. In a month or so it will be great because it will overlook our pond. Yes, our pond is due to be started in a few weeks. I am a little nervous, but extremely excited to see how it goes. We have been debating whether or not to put a pond in for years. Finally, we are going to give it a go.

Poor Asher, he fell out of our garage today. He was in his walker and we have about a 6 inch drop of the one side of our garage. He plowed right over it (I wasn't out there) and flipped into the dirt. He busted his lip and was really wailing. As sad as it was it was somewhat sweet for me to comfort him. He is just always on the go and while he normally likes to be held, he doesn't normally snuggle anymore. He wanted to snuggle and it was great. Wouldn't you know it, not 3 hours later, he fell off the deck. Not anywhere near as hard, but pretty traumatic still. And yes, we do watch him, I swear. He has never fallen over either spot before. Today was just not his day.

It has been a nice weekend and it hasn't been just the weather either. Saturday we went to the Labor Day parade and the kids got lots of candy thrown at them. We went to church as usual and had a nice dinner afterwards. Sunday was a little lazier and in the evening we went to my aunt and uncle's house. Such a nice time with family. We had a little cook out and just enjoyed the great outdoors. Today was pretty busy until about 4:30. Ryan's family came over and again we had a great visit. So, gorgeous weather, good family time, it doesn't get much better than that.

Julie