Chinese New Year

We had so much fun at a Chinese New Year celebration for local families with children from China!  I arrived before Jeremy and Parker (they were at a basketball game) and immediately upon arriving, Elli went into one of her fits of rage.  I'm thinking, "How in the world am I going to manage all of these kids here?"  Within seconds I had all kinds of wonderful people helping-- getting plates of food for the kids, bringing us drinks, helping them with eating and crafts-- all people we didn't really even know.  I am SO grateful for all of the genuinely GOOD people in the world!  (: (: (:  We had a great night-- there were crafts, a parade, dances, skits, and lots of yummy Chinese food.  My kids loved seeing so many families that they could relate to.  Thank you, everyone that made this night possible!

The Avacado Whisperer

(Read this with your best Rod Serling impression)

Picture this.  A man wandering through WalMart.  A glazed look in his eyes.  Stumbling around  trying to find the wonder ingredient hawked by the sample lady on his last visit.  A simple formula for fantastic guacamole.  He turns a corner, and there she is!  Setting up her sample booth.  Preparing to share her culinary cunning with another lucky customer.  The man rushes up and asks, "Are you the guacamole lady?  What was the secret ingredient you were selling last time?"  She replies, "Rotel.  End of aisle 7.  Top right."  The man rushes down the aisle.  There it is!  He also grabs four avocados.  In less than three minutes he has found everything he needs, so he returns to say thank you.  As he rounds the familiar corner, he stops short.  She's gone.  Three minutes.  Nothing left.  No booth.  No wares.  No lady.  Which makes you wonder:  was she ever...really...there...at...all?  DA-DA-DAH!

Seriously, it was like I was in the Twilight Zone.  One minute she was there, the next she was gone.  Perfect timing to answer my question.  She was like my own little guacamole guardian angel.  I was never really a big guac fan until our November 2011 trip to Mexico.  There I became hooked.  And this Rotel stuff was great.  I made it about two weeks ago.  Half the kids loved it.  Half the kids hated it.  (I'm obviously rounding here!)  But that's par for the course in this home.  If it's not pizza, it's virtually impossible to find something that everyone likes.

Does anyone else go shopping at WalMart, fill up one cart, check out and load it into the car, then go right back in and fill up another cart?!?

I am still in love with price matching.

I took Taylor and Parker skiing the other day.  Started out fantastic:

Sadly it ended with Taylor taking a pretty good spill and spraining his knee.  Consolation prize--he got to go to the ER and get a pair of the coolest shorts ever:

Not to mention crutches and all the corresponding attention from the girls at school.

I love it when I find one of the kids "books" lying around.  Jesi and Xander are usually responsible for these creations:

I'm not sure if they contain more pieces of paper or more staples.

Me:  "I sure have beautiful kids!"
Sophi:  "Yep, you do!!!"

-Jer

Stinky Houdini

We try so hard!  We double pull-up.  We use one piece jammies.  We have a washable, waterproof mattress cover.  We have been getting her up relatively early to avoid leaks.  Sunday morning I woke up a little before 8am.  I could have rolled over and gone back to sleep, but I heard Elli.  I thought to myself, "I'll at least go get her up and help her use the bathroom."  So I stumble downstairs and into her room.  As I open the door, an unmistakable announcement wafts through the air: Elli is messy.  But no worry!  Worst case scenario is a leaky diaper and the need to launder the sheets and mattress cover.  Unless....

Several years ago a rather unfortunate mattress purchasing experience left with an extra king-sized mattress.  For a while this was in the guest room.  This was a rather small guest room and the king-sized bed ate up most of the space, but it's a nice mattress and our guests seemed to like sleeping on it.  Then we adopted Lexi and Sophi.  This required Elli to move into the guest room.  So Elli has the most "bed-square-footage-per-person" in the family.  At first we didn't do all we should to protect this somewhat expensive piece of furniture from sweet Elli.  A $100 plus cleaning bill encouraged us to take more precautions.  So we bought a king-sized mattress cover.  This mattress cover is a beast to put on.  It slides over the entire mattress and then zips to completely enclose it.  It takes two people to do this.  Over time the cover has shrunk just a bit as it has been washed.  At this point we rarely zip the top.  But understand, just putting the thing on should be plenty of protection.  The bottom of the cover is between the mattress and the box spring.  There is no way to pull it off, or even more than a few inches down, without lifting the very heavy king-sized mattress.  Clearly beyond Elli's capabilities....

So when I went in and saw this:

I was amused, but still not fully comprehending.  Then it hit me.  She was INSIDE THE MATTRESS COVER!!!  This is virtually impossible. Look at the fitted sheet.  It is still covering all four corners of the bed, and therefore the mattress cover.  The only place there is an accessible opening to crawl under the mattress cover is at the top left corner:

 and there's seriously about a 1-inch gap there.  The only possible way to get under the mattress cover was for her to pull off the sheet, giving her access to the opening.  So in other words, she somehow managed to pull off the sheet, crawl head first under the cover and then pull the sheet back down over the cover.  All in a locked room!  This is patently impossible, hence the title of this post.  Here's a view of her after I pulled the sheet back:

And of course the kicker was that she was messy, had leaked, and we will once again have to seek assistance from a sure-to-be-spendy cleaning service.  Ah, life.

- Jer

PS.  In that last photo, Elli's legs are on the bed, and her head is the closest part of her to the ground:)

Honest Thoughts...:)

Jessica got a cute compact mirror while we were in China.  The type you could put in a purse.  It has rhinestones and beads on the outside and has mirrors on both sides when it opens up.  This morning she's been carrying it around and telling everyone to look at themselves.  She tried several times on me, but I was too busy making lunches.

She tried once more:  "Dad, do you want to see how you look?"

Me (having just seen the first round of kids out the door):  "Sure."  Then, looking at my reflection, "Man, what a handsome guy."  I gave her a raised eyebrow indicating that this was a somewhat sarcastic comment.

Jesi, very earnestly:  "Maybe not in the morning, but you do look better in the after...well, when you get all ready."

They sure do humble you, don't they?

-Jer

Any potential moms out there?? (:

This is the conversation I had with Sophi this morning.  It is pretty much word-for-word-- I was so touched that I kept hearing it over and over in my head all day.  It was especially cute in her sweet Sophi voice.  (:

Soph:  "Mom, I love you."

Me:  "Soph, I love you."

Soph:  "I love you so much!"

Me:   "I love you so much!"

Soph:  "We love each others, right?"

Me:  "Right."

Spontaneous kiss.

Soph:  "Mom, thank you for 'dopting me."

Me:  "Thank you for being my daughter!"

Soph:  "Cuz I was lonely in China, huh?"

Me:  "Oh, I'm so sorry you were lonely!"

Soph:  "Yeah, I was sad, huh?  But now I not cuz I have a family, huh?!"

Me:  "Yes, now we're all so happy!"

Soph:  "'Cept my friends in China are still lonely."

Me:  "Why are they lonely?"

Soph:  "Cuz they want their moms."
 

 

  The first photo we saw of Sophi

 Some of Sophi's friends

        

  Sophi's "playroom" where she spent most of her day

 Sophi's "sleeping room"

She became very somber when we visited the orphanage

 

Second day in China...

No longer lonely!

"Do you want to do something beautiful for God? There is a person who needs you. This is your chance."  --Mother Teresa

Sledding

While in Ferron (my hometown) over Christmas, we introduced Cali to the art of "farm sledding."  Grandpa ties up some sleds to the back of his Explorer and drives us around the farm.  It's a perfect way for Cali to sled because there is no climbing back up a hill when you're done!  She was VERY trepidatious at first as we were putting her snow clothes on and getting her into the car.  She kept giving me looks of, "What in the world are you making me do?!"  After about 30 seconds on the sled, she was hooked!   I don't know that I've ever seen her have so much fun.  When it was time to go, we couldn't get her off the sled.  She was frozen through to the bone and still refused-- Jeremy had to physically pry her hands from the sled.  (:  It was so much fun to see how much she adored sledding and of course we took her again the next day.   It's so much fun when we find an activity that she can do just like anyone else!

 

 Gotta love the no-make-up look combined with a tiger hat.  Hot!

 

My Dad's goal was simply to throw Jer off the sled.  It was hilarious to watch!

 Cali and Grandpa