Crazy Andrew

Andrew is our wild and crazy boy! As you can see from the picture, he is CRAZY! I asked him to smile for the camera and this is what I got. :-)



While Carole uses her blue eyes to her advantage, Andrew has figured out how to use those big brown puppy dog eyes! In this picture he has climbed up on the small shelf in our entertainment center. He looked so cute I just had to take a picture!


When one is wild and crazy, battle wounds are bound to happen. Here we have a picture of Andrew's mouth wound he received while playing rough with his 3 year old friend yesterday. We have no idea how this kind of injury happened, we just know the boys were just playing like boys!! :-)

Andrew is such a special boy! We want all of our readers to know that even though he is not our flesh and blood, HE IS OUR SON! We often have a hard time remembering that he was adopted. We have been through so much with this precious child that it seems like he was ours from the very beginning. We would not trade Andrew for ANYTHING! Both of our children are very precious to us in their own special way. I just wanted to clear the air on this subject because we have had friends ask us.

Our Sweet Carole

Don't these blue eyes just melt you? They get me every time! We are still in shock (at least I am) that God allowed me to conceive and give birth to this precious angel. The picture makes her look precious, but she is a very strong willed child. She has already figured out how to use those blue eyes to her advantage.



One day I walked into the room and discovered Carole sitting in her doll stroller reading a book. It is a wonder it withstood her weight!




Carole is also Daddy's little girl. She loves being with her Daddy!

But Why?

As I have mentioned earlier, Andrew is going through the "why" stage. Everything is "why?" all of the time. This morning we were invited to go play at a friend's house. I was trying to get the kids into the minivan when Andrew started in. "Why are we going to Ciara's house? Why are we getting in the van? Why, why, why?" On and on he went. Finally I just said, "Because I said so!!!" In our five minute drive to her house Andrew was chatting away nonchalantly. I don't even remember for sure what he was saying, but I asked him, "Why?" He answered my question calmly but I just kept repeating, "Why?" I did this in my best high pitched toddler whine just like he does. He finally answered in great frustration, "Because I said, Mom!" I just busted up laughing! I told him now he knows how I feel when he repetitively says "why" to me. He said, "Okay Mom, sorry." We will see how long his understanding lasts! :-)

Silly Andrew

There is never a dull moment around our house with Andrew in it! He says and does some of the funniest things. Today Phil took the kids swimming. It was nearing supper time so Phil brought them in the house to dry off and get dressed. Andrew ran in his room to get dressed all by himself. He is so proud when he is able to dress himself with no help from us. When he was dressed he came running out to the kitchen to see what he was having for supper. I noticed that his shirt was on backwards and said something to him. He said, "Oh well." I looked a little closer and noticed that his shorts were also on backwards. I said, "Wow Andrew, both your shirt and shorts are on backwards! Now we just need to turn your head around to match your clothes." He looked at me kind of funny and next thing I knew he was turning his head back and forth trying to get it to turn around! He did this for a good 20 seconds while I stifled a giggle behind my hand. Finally he said in frustration, "I can't Mommy, it won't turn!" :-) I love that boy so much!!!!

A Crazy Sunday

Today was one of those days where I wished I didn't have kids. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids A LOT! I just wanted to sit in church in peace. Let me explain...

First off for my morning, Carole woke up extremely crabby. She got a good nights sleep so I deduced it must be her molars that are trying to come in. Over the last few days I have been trying to switch her from the bottle to a cup. Yesterday she did great and today...well lets just say I wish I had earplugs in. She screamed and screamed her high pitched girlie scream. At this point I had no patience, so I just gave her the bottle. I figured it was her teeth and reached into the cupboard for the Tylenol so she would be good during church. By accident I gave her Benadryl which is also red like the Tylenol. Unfortunately the dose for Tylenol is more than a dose of Benadryl. I quick called a friend in our church who is a nurse and quickly explained my dilemma. She said Carole would be fine even though it was more than a normal dose. She said she may be sleepy. Not Carole!!! Her crabbiness just got worse.

When it was time to leave for church Andrew had a melt down because he wanted to wear his Thomas sandals that are too small for him. When he got over that tantrum we headed to church. Church was a disaster, for me anyway. Andrew would not sit still or be quiet. When Phil was doing the announcements he asked if anyone had anything else to add. Andrew stood up and loudly shouted, "My do!" Phil laughed and asked what he had to share. Andrew said, "I's just kidding, Dad." I was embarrassed. I felt like a terrible mother who could not control her kids at all. During all of this Carole was throwing a fit because her milk was in a sippy cup instead of her bottle. Aren't I such a bad mommy?! I took Andrew to the nursery and asked a friend to keep an eye on him while Carole and I ran home to get her bottle. Keep in mind it was 100 degrees here today!! At this point I just wanted to stay home but I had left Andrew in the nursery. We ran back to church with a BOTTLE and Carole finally ate. We made it through the rest of church, barely. She was so terrible whiny I fed her lunch as soon as we got home and put her to bed. She slept 3 hours. I guess the Benadryl finally kicked in.

Someday I will look back on all of this and laugh, but today I just wanted to scream. I had to keep saying to myself, "THIS TOO SHALL PASS!" Sooner than later would be nice! :-)

Summer pictures

Here are some pictures of the kids this summer!

It's been a long time!

Well, I thought I better update this site some. It truly has been a long time. As you can see from the picture we all have changed.

Andrew is a very chatty, rambunctious 3 year old now. Many of you remember his eating troubles he has had since birth. We discovered in February that the main cause of all of his issues were enlarged tonsils and adenoids. He had surgery to remove them on May 30. The recovery was a long hard process for all of us. Two weeks after surgery life slowly came back to normal. He now is able to eat just about anything without gagging, choking, and throwing up. We are so thankful for the changes we are seeing in him. Since the surgery, his talking has improved greatly as well. He no longer needs speech language therapy. Now we can't get him to STOP talking! :-) His also loves his little sister dearly. Those two are inseparable.

Carole is now a very busy 16 month old. She is into everything! She loves to climb and do whatever her big brother is doing. He favorite word is "happy." She loves to sing it and clap her hands repetitively. Just last month we were finally able to take her off of her acid reflux medicine. We go days and weeks without throwing up now. We are now in the process of trying to get her switched to dairy products. She has been drinking goats milk since she was 4 months old. Back in April we had a bunch of allergy tests done on her to find out what exactly she is allergic to. Come to find out, the only allergy she has is peanuts. That is such a hard allergy to deal with. You would not believe how many foods have traces of peanuts, peanut oil, or peanut flour in them. Even animal crackers do. So now we carry and epipen around with us wherever we go. Better to be safe than sorry.