Friday, December 11, 2009

Now THAT'S sketchy!!

After posting the kids' Santa pictures, I had to share this....

A friend shared it with me on Facebook, and it cracked me up--and made me very thankful we didn't go see some of them! No wonder some little kids are terrified! Enjoy!


Thursday, December 10, 2009

Santa 2009!

We had a successful visit to see Santa today. The kids were great! They were really interactive, and Reagan was a gem this year! Hooray!



Compare this to last year and you will see why I am so happy! (Although, I still LOVE this picture!)


Christmas Treats and Fun!

Here are a few pictures of our recent Gingerbread House and Christmas Cookie-Making Fun!

Rush even got to help some!


This is what Reagan tried to do most of the time....


Rush putting his special touch on the back...


There it is! It's a perfect choice for this Hokie Family!


Showing off their handiwork....Reagan is pretty excited as you can see!


There it is!


Time for cookies!




I love Christmas....so many chances to make sweet little memories with the kids!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A Very Liberating Feeling

I made a decision this year that I didn't think I would ever make. It's trivial in the scheme of things, yet, I still struggled with it quite a bit. Here it is....

This year,



there will be no...



Middleton Family Christmas Card!



Ahhhhh, I feel better just saying it. You see, I LOVE Christmas cards. I don't know why, but I do. And for the past 5 years, I've loved making Christmas cards of the kids. But, I've also realized how difficult it can be to get that "oh so perfect" picture (or not so perfect), how annoyed I get at the kids while trying to capture that picture because they would rather fight and make silly faces, picking out the right design, price shopping, addressing, deciding who to send them to (or not), etc, etc. So, this year, we're not doing it. And I will fully admit that I am a tiny bit sad about it....but the bigger part of me doesn't care. It's one less thing to do, one less thing on my list, one less thing to stress me out during the holidays, and one less thing to pay for!

So, please know, we still love you all...just not enough to send you a card! :)


In other news, we got notice that the government received our updated paperwork to extend the Immigration Approval for our adoption. We're just waiting on an appointment to get re-fingerprinted. And then, we'll wait some more....and some more....and some more. That's it for now!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thankful!


If nothing else, my job often reminds me of how much I have to be thankful for...namely, healthy kids. Unfortunately, this year, I know a lot of families who are experiencing their first holiday season without their child, and others who are about to surely experience their last. In a word, it stinks. I realize that there are so many little moments I take for granted with my kids and I complain about them driving me crazy way too much. I fuss about potty training, and ear infections, and viruses, and so many stupid, silly things. I am fortunate in many ways to be a part of the journey of some families whose child has a major medical issue, sometimes terminal. It definitely puts things in perspective for me. I am not great at remembering these things sometimes in the midst of the daily grind, but here, right now, I am thankful even for these:

-Jonah's accidents,
-Reagan's attitude,
-fighting over eating veggies,
-biting,
-waking up in the middle of the night because of a bad dream,
-crying over minor boo-boos,
-Jonah getting distracted over, and over, and over,
-Reagan screaming...etc, etc.

I am thankful, because these things mean my kids are alive, and breathing, and healthy, and normal. This year, I don't need anything other than that. Everything else is just icing on the cake. Thank you God, for my 2 babies!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Halloween!


We went to a local farm to pick our pumpkins and got our own personal hayride!





Indiana Jones and his spider friend came to visit...


She's still not too sure why she's dressed up!


Jonah's intense "Indy" look...


We went Trick-or-Treating for the very first time this year. We've never gone before because our church's awesome Fall Festival is usually that night. This year, it was on the 30th, so we got to do both! We had a blast! Reagan was a little unsure at first about going up to people's houses....but then quickly took to it once she realized they were giving her candy! At the fall festival, they both had their first taste of cotton candy. I can't say they'll get that again! While Jonah passed out on the way home, Reagan was going strong until almost midnight!

Time to check out the loot!

Perfect Timing and a Worthy Cause

Last Monday, October 26th, a friend from Virginia Tech who was in the German Club with Rush, was killed while serving our country in Afghanistan. His name was Seth Mitchell, and he was a Captain in the Marine Corps.

Rush recently decided not to run the Richmond Marathon this year for a variety of reasons. Just the other day, however, he was asked to run the 1/2 marathon with the Wounded Warriors Project Team....a fund Seth's family listed for contributions in his obituary. The timing and situation was perfect to be used to raise some money to donate in Seth's name and memory to this worthy fund.

So...Rush is running....and raising money. Please see www.runforseth.blogspot.com for details.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Jonah and Soccer!


I just realized I haven't posted any pics of Jonah playing soccer! He loves it, although he spends most of his time on the field pretending to be Indiana Jones "whipping" people, or just running along with the mass of kids. We'll see how it all develops...






Jonah and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I've had lots of times as a mom in which my heart has just broken for my kiddos...mostly they have revolved around physical pain: shots at the doctor, falling and scraping knees, etc. However, I have noticed that as Jonah has gotten older and more mature emotionally, it's the emotional boo-boos that kill me! I'll explain...

Jonah's kindergarten love-saga has continued. He has remained crazy about a little girl in his class, who also lives in our neighborhood. Her dad used to be a police officer and just so happened to be our realtor when we moved into our current home. However, about 2 weeks ago, he came home and said he had another girlfriend (as an addition, not a replacement to the other one). Mind you, this makes 3 girlfriends within a month or so time period. He was so funny talking about her...apparently she knocked his socks off on picture day in her pretty pink dress. She's not in his class, but rides his bus. He was determined to marry her as well as the other girlfriend. (Rush had a little talk with him about marrying 2 people.)

Anyway, these little girls are all he has talked about recently. It's been cute listening to him, but I never really thought about what might happen if the kids had a little falling out. Well, it happened today. Jonah got off the bus, and just had that look...I knew something wasn't right and he was upset, which was weird because he had a field trip to the Children's Museum today. We started walking home and I asked him what was wrong. He just started crying and I could barely understand what had happened. Finally, he told me that his pink dress girlfriend (who's dad is also a police officer....seriously, it's like the police kid love triangle) sat next to another little boy on the bus and said she only wanted one boyfriend...which was not Jonah.

Ugh....it was horrible. His little heart was broken in half and there was nothing I could do to fix it. What a horrendous feeling for a mom! I know it's really not that big of a deal in the scheme of things, and it's just little puppy love, but to Jonah, it was real, and horrible, and painful.

He's bounced back gradually over the course of the evening, and even came home with a little love note from the remaining girlfriend. Let's just hope that one works out...I can't handle the heartbreak!

Camping Adventure!

Over Columbus Day weekend, we decided to take the kids camping for the first time. Rush grew up camping a ton, and I've gone a few times (although it's been a LONG time) but we've never gone together as a family. We knew they were calling for it to be pretty chilly with a chance of rain, but we decided to take our chances and head to the mountains.

First of all, I had no idea how much STUFF you had to pack to take kids camping for 3 nights. Holy cow....I felt like we took everything but the kitchen sink. Amazingly, we (and all our stuff) fit in the vehicle.

We arrived to the campsite, finally got set up before it was too dark, and had a great dinner of hot dogs on the campfire. The first night was pretty warm, so there were bugs everywhere. Jonah would prefer to run into oncoming traffic as opposed to be around large bugs, so that made for an interesting eating experience. Later that night, Reagan decided she didn't like sleeping in a tent for the first time, so she decided to scream and flail about in the tent all....night....long.

After a LONG first night, we got up, had a great breakfast, and headed to Natural Chimneys. It wasn't as impressive as I expected, but still pretty cool. The drive itself was gorgeous....winding roads through some old small towns and farmland. The leaves definitely weren't at their peak yet, but just the hint of color was still beautiful.



We came back and listened to Virginia Tech smack Boston College on the computer (the campsite had free Wifi...how cool is that?!?!). That evening and most of the next day, we just hung out at the campsite, and had a great time.








We definitely had other ups and downs including our lantern falling out of the car and smashing at the beginning of the trip, our shelter's stake getting stuck in the ground, the car battery dying, our stove-top popcorn having a hole in the bottom and catching on fire thanks to the oil on the propane stove....ahhh, memories. :)

We also went apple picking on our way home....






Regardless, we had a great time overall and will definitely go again. Now if I can only finish unpacking....

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Cassanova

Boy is Kindergarten teaching us a lot about our son! He has loved school so far. Every day last week he got off the bus and said his day was awesome! After a few days, we found out that one of his friends had a girlfriend in the class. Jonah wasn't too happy about this because he said this little boy was usually playing with his girlfriend, and not with him. I guess he figured if you can't beat them, join them! He came home the next day saying that he had a girlfriend now too...it just so happened to be a little girl that he went to preschool with (and her dad is also a police officer!). Another day went by, and we found out that he and his best friend were both "sharing" the girlfriend...I was proud he was sharing so well....perhaps that virtue could have been executed in a better fashion though!

This weekend, in talking to his best friend's mom, I found out that Jonah had in fact, kissed her! He even owned up to it, but I got no details out of him....

Well, it's a new week, and I guess a new woman is in the mix. Yesterday, he mentioned another little girl in his class (who lives in our neighborhood, also with a father who used to be a police officer). I didn't think anything of it, until today he was sitting next to her on the bus on the way home. He said she was his new girlfriend. His first girlfriend was going to just be with his best friend. Oh the drama!

As we played outside this afternoon, he said something happened I wouldn't be happy about. I was a little concerned about what he was going to say. It turns out that he actually popped the question! He said he was going to marry his new girlfriend and he actually asked her to do just that! In his words, he said, "I mean, seriously dude, I want you to marry me. I mean, you are so cute!" Not quite the best proposal I've ever heard, but what can you do? Apparently she said yes regardless. I am thinking they should have a short engagement, since he tends to move on week to week. ;)

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Jonah's First Day of Kindergarten!


We finally made it....Jonah started Kindergarten today and did great! The morning started much earlier than we are used to as he has to catch the bus at 7:02. It was pouring down rain and really dreary, which made it seem even earlier than it was. Regardless, the weather did not put a damper on his mood and excitement!

I did ok! I had a few tears on the walk back home from the bus stop...but his excitement made things infinitely easier on me as he left. Poor Reagan wasn't too happy though. She fussed when he left, and all morning kept saying, "Where's my Jonah?" and "Go get that bus!"


Here's my man ready to head out the door!




Hugs for Reagan

Rainy walk to the bus stop

There he goes!

We drove up to school to see him get off the bus....he really didn't even care we were there. He was too excited to go inside!

Reagan helped me make cookies for Jonah to have when he got home....which he didn't even want. Go figure....


Anyway, he got off the bus this afternoon so excited about his day. He couldn't stop talking about all the fun he had, which made this momma so happy and relieved! I know he was exhausted though....he was in bed at 7:11 tonight and passed right out!

Kindergarten Orientation


We went to check out Jonah's school and classroom before the year officially started....he was super excited!

Jonah outside of the main school entrance

Outside of his classroom

At his desk!

The art room!

Library

Gym

His school mascot is the Glen Allen Cubs

Cafeteria

He looks so little...it's hard to believe he is old enough to go!