And now…it’s all about Corban :)

What’s he into?

Pretty much everything… and mostly things he shouldn’t be.

• He’s just now catching on to the fact that he can hand us food off his tray when he’s done instead of throwing it on the floor.  Thank God!
• He’s working on getting like 4 teeth right now.  Kind of a tough time to be a Corban.
• He will go to bed at nearly any time we want him to.  7:00, 7:30, 9:00…it’s nice.  Then, he sleeps till about 7 or 7:30am without a peep each night.  Also nice.
• His favorite toy is probably his plastic golf set from Gpa Luke and Gma Shannon.   He’ll hit just about anything with ‘em.
• He LOVES to “tow-whoa” (color).  Since his sister does this nearly 30% of the day, so does he.  Usually we throw in a sheet of stickers to also keep him busy.  This day it was Christmas present labels that his Daddy-O bought especially for him to mess up!

• He’s a bit of a bugger.  He knows what buttons to push when it comes to his overly dramatic sister.  Makes life interesting.
• He’s sort of like a ping pong ball (as labeled by my mom).  He bounces from one thing he shouldn’t be doing to the next.  We’re working on this…he’s fairly easy to redirect still.
• He gets cabin fever after like 20 min. inside (I think I said this on here before).  Needless to say, he spends a lot of time outside.  He’s more pleasant that way.
• He talks his pants off!  I think he’s probably got a bigger vocabulary than Cailyn did at 16 months, and even if he doesnt, he TRIES to say nearly anything you ask him to…unlike his sister would.
• He is extremely social.  He hates to be left at Bible Class alone, but he will say hi and bye or talk to anyone he meets.
• He also loves to read.  I think sister and his Honey have taught him that reading is the cool thing to do.

• He loves to chase Cailyn all over the house.  Even though he’s half as fast as her, she gets quite a thrill out of it, too.  It’s hilarious!
• He’s a screamer.  He gets popped on the mouth for that…usually. It can be draining.
• He is pretty much the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen.  No joke.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Cailyn & Corban (except It’s all about Cailyn…haha)

I haven’t really updated on the kids much recently, so I thought I would do just that.  I’m also attempting to get it in before I have pictures of Christmas that are also just sitting and waiting to be posted.

The kids are just simply a joy these days.  I mean, we have our moments, hours, morning/afternoons, days…etc.   But…don’t we all.  In general, they are both in such a fun stage, and we are loving it!  Before Thanksgiving, a dear friend, Hannah Vickers, took some photos of the kids.  They are precious, and we are so thankful.  Here are a couple of my favorites. If you click here or on her name, you can see where she posted more/others on her blog.  Thanks, Hannah!  You and your sweet kids have been wonderful “new” friends for us while we’ve been back in Abilene!

I think this is a favorite, because it just shows how sweet Cailyn can be with Corban.  He LOVES her, too!

This next one is all about Corban’s personality…very aware that we think he’s absolute cuteness!

This picture of Cailyn is my all-time favorite!

Cailyn’s Favorites:

• She colors/cuts/pastes something new every day.  She can cut and color like a champ.  I know I’m her mom, but I’m not lying.
• She’s really into hot chocolate these days.  One of her December treats was a little mug that you can decorate.  Quite the excuse for hot chocoalte, I’m afraid.
• She prides herself in doing everything on her own, and that’s nice…usually.
• She would go to the library every day if we took her, which is something we’ll miss deeply when we go back to Peru.
• She will sit for an hour sometimes and read books to herself.  She’s really into checking out early reader chapter books from the library, and somehow she finds something to “make up” about them.  I limit her to one of those, and we try to get picture books otherwise.
• She is listening to a chapter a night of “Charlotte’s Web” with her Daddy-O and Honey.  She’s enjoying that.

• She had a terrible fit at McDonald’s today that came out of nowhere (I ended up carrying both her and corban out of there in my arms…not cool, people!), but I still feel like I can say her behavior is progressively getting better as the months go by.
• She is a COMPLETELY different child here in the States than in Peru when it comes to talking to people she doesn’t know.  She makes friends 100 times faster here.  In Peru she normally just smiles and watches the kids play…not to mention the stares/frown faces she gives adults there.  She’s a bit better here with adults, too.  I think part of it has to do with the fact that they kiss one another on the cheeks when they greet one another in Peru, and she is totally not about this.  She needs time to warm up.   We’re praying her new-found confidences transfer when we go back home to Peru.
• She still can’t recognize her ABC’s, but we’re beginning to work on it (she knows the song and all…just not what each one looks like).  I feel like maybe I’m behind on that, but mom is helping me tons!  She has a letter folder for her now that they work in often.  Please tell me some of the rest of you have children that didn’t learn that (without the help of daycare/school) before they were 4 years old!  Honestly, I just need to get on the ball.
• She reads to herself for over an hour at night after we put her to bed.  We used to give her a huge stack of books, but then we narrowed it down to 10 because she would read for like 2 hours sometimes.  Now it’s 5.  Get the picture?  That means she’s asleep normally by 9:30-10pm.

Here she is reading her “Arthur” chapter book.   Brother loves to read, too.

• We are hoping to be back to Peru soon so that she can start a pre-K type school in March…that’s when their new school year starts.  Please pray that God is clear with us if this is not his plan!

My parents took the kids to an amazing children’s museum when we were on a trip to meet with a church in Colorado recently.  Cailyn stayed at the painting station for quite some time.  She adored it!

The final product:  a rainbow…(surrounded by as much paint as she could fit on her paper)

Well, I’ll stop there.  I was going to write about Corban, but that will have to come later this week.  I’ve already put way too much in this one post.  Until next time…

Visiting the North…November 2010

AHHH…I’m SO behind!!  Anyway, here’s a look at our WONDERFUL visit with family in North Dakota from November 2nd-13th.

We drove there, and it was great…but long.  The kids, honestly, did amazingly well.  I took a bunch of fun stuff, so that made it a bit more bearable.

First Picture of the trip…we woke them up to head out that morning.  Don’t the look excited?!

Don’t worry…there was food to eat…

There were books to read…

Magnadoodles to doodle on…

Soft car seats to nap in…

Fun puzzles to work…

Many, many State signs to pass…

AND…fun traveling tickets to hand in to mom each HOUR of the drive!  This one was the most exciting to hand in by far!!…

Grandma Shannon didn’t skip a beat with Cailyn…they played Barbies the first night.  Cailyn even got to pick out a new Barbie at Wal-Mart…too fun!

Grandpa Luke had all the ingredients for Pumpkin Pie…YUM!

So, naturally, the kids got to try the pie…for the first time.  They LOVED it…of course.

Daddy and Grandpa Luke took Corban out in the cold to play…a LIFE SAVER considering this kid gets cabin fever after like 10 minutes…

Oh…and don’t worry.  Gpa Luke ALSO had ingredients for cookies…

oh, and…Little Brother helped, too.

We also celebrated Gpa Luke’s Birthday…Can anyone say, “WEEK LONG SUGAR HIGH!!” ??

Gma Shannon also colored ALL week with Cailyn…

We ALSO…yes…more fun to come

Visited Park River, ND…where Justin’s grandparents and several aunts/uncles/cousins live.  It was a lot of fun.

The kids and Justin got to go for a few Gator rides around the family’s farm land…

Gma Pud (Justin’s grandmother) made a wonderful lunch for us…

the kids got to love on some poor little kittens…i say “poor” because Cailyn pretty much thinks cats can handle ANYthing…

Then…we had a great time visiting with Gma Marie.  I could kick myself for not getting a picture, but we also had a great time with Gpa Warren and Gma Iva, Justin’s step-dad, Andy’s, parents.  They live very close and came to Marie’s house…then treated us all to dinner.  We had a great time.  After dinner, Gma Marie let us bathe the kids at her house before we made the 1 hr. drive back to Grand Forks, where Luke and Shannon live.

Sadly, it had to end.  So…we said our goodbyes to Gpa Luke and Gma Shannon…

and the dogs…

Then…we headed an hour South to Fargo.  We were graciously hosted by Justin’s cousin, Erin, and her husband Grant.  We were also extremely blessed to have lots of other cousins there as well as Justin’s Aunt Mary for dinner.  Mary made dinner for all of us, and we had a wonderful time visiting and seeing people for the FIRST time…and for the first time in a LONG while.   Here’s a picture of Grant and Erin’s kids with ours.  Maybe the best we got…haha…

Then…it was back in the car for our 18 hour drive home…

Finally, at 6am on the 13th, we rolled into my parent’s driveway once again…looking like this…

THANKS TO ALL OF THE FAMILY WHO MADE OUR TIME SO GREAT!!