Happy Halloween

Well, we started the evening off a little confused about this whole Halloween thing, but we ended it with 2 happy girls with bags of candy. Wilmore does community trick-or-treating downtown. They close off Main St. to traffic and the business owners sit outside and hand out candy. On the way to downtown, Chloe said, "I have no candy in my bag." Mommy had to explain that the people would give us candy. To this Essie asked "we go get candy and then come home?" Yep, that pretty much sums up the Halloween experience for us. Our girls were the hit of the town with their Carebear costumes and they got excited to see lots of princesses and Tinkerbells along with a Buzz and a Woody. We spent all week explaining to them that some people might look scary, but it was just a person with a mask on. The girls did great and everytime we saw a scary costume, one of them would say, "it's ok, I not scared."

The after-trick-or-treating meltdown

Just a quiet Saturday at home

Today has been just a quiet Saturday at home. Ababa's been hard at work writing the Christmas program for our Church as well as preparing songs that he will sing at his parent's church tomorrow. Mommy bathed the dog, scrubbed down the bathroom and has been washing load upon load of laundry. The most exciting part of the day for mommy so far has been running the first load in her new dishwasher. That's right, the new dishwasher is here! Yeah! The girls have been entertaining themselves very well today while they wait for the highlight of their day-going trick-or-treating. Just wait til you see their costumes!

The girls coloring while Ababa works

The new dishwasher!

First load & guess what? Every dish came clean.
That's a first in the 1 1/2 yrs. we've lived in this house.

Blue/White Game

Last night we went to the UK Blue/White game at Rupp Arena, along with over 14,000 fans. The girls actually paid attention to the game for about 30 minutes and then occupied themselves by dancing and making funny faces the rest of the time. Essie was her normal affirmative self by clapping throughout the entire first half everytime someone made a basket. The girls were disappointed that the dancing girls (cheerleaders) weren't there but they thoroughly enjoyed the band. Fun was had by all.

Ababa & Chloe

Essie & Mommy

Trying to figure out what this whole basketball thing is about

Tip-off

Getting giddy because it is way past our bedtime

Loving our "Go Cats dresses"

The gift of hospitality

On the fourth Sunday of the month, our church has supper together. I think the girls are really enjoying it because Monday morning I walked into our family room the the scene above. Most little girls I know would have said they were having a tea party, but our girls said, "It's a food party!" Since they dragged down half their stuffed animals and babies from their room to join their food party and the girls would not sit down until everyone had food on their plates, I'm hoping they are learning about the gift of hospitality. Good food and good friends can't be beat!

New toothbrushes!

In honor of our new faucet, we decided to break out some new toothbrushes that Meemaw had bought the girls. The new brushes are the motorized kind, something very new to the girls. First they said, "like Meemaw's!" Then they said, "It tickles." It has encouraged more brushing though. Thanks, Meemaw for the fun toothbrushes that tickle.

Chloe

Essie

p.s. Still no dishwasher. =(

When it rains, it pours

My mom always said this when either the bills were piling up or things were breaking down around the house. Well for us, its been the latter, which of course causes stress in the first category. Our dishwasher has been broken for over a week now. After waiting on our home warranty company for almost a week, we went to our local home improvement store last week to order a new one, just to find out they didn't have the model we wanted in stock so it had to be ordered. We are praying it comes in tomorrow and then hope to have it installed by the end of the week. While at the store, we decided to replace the faucet in our upstairs bathroom that has been leaking for a couple of months now. The leaking has slowly gotten worse and our water bill had slowly been growing as well, so we decided it was the time to replace it. What we'd thought would be an easy replacement, of course was more complicated than we thought it would be, but Matt persevered and we now have a lovely new faucet.

The girls and Caesar helping mommy wash the dishes after it was determined that the dishwasher had indeed died.

The girls helping Ababa replace the leaking faucet.

Our new faucet

Picture of the day

Even farmer girls need to feel like princesses

The firetruck comes to story time

Ok, ya'll know how much I love story time at our local library, well today was a special treat because the local fire department came to talk to the kids about fire safety. Essie was very into it. Chloe has been experiencing anxiety lately with large crowds so she mostly hung with mom. The whole experience open a lot of conversation though about what a fireman is and what they do, which is good. Honestly, its not a conversation we've had yet. There have been so many new things in the last 7 months, talking about what to do if we have a fire in the house has not even crossed my mind. My parents were volunteer firefighters for years, so I should know better, but thanks to our local library we have had another important conversation about safety. I did have to smile to myself while I was watching the girls try to figure out what this man below was doing in his funny jacket and pants. Just to think, a year ago the girls were running around their rural village in Ethiopia without even knowing what a house was, let alone what to do if it catches on fire.

Essie getting up close and personal with the fireman.

Chloe getting to look inside the firetruck.

Essie & Chloe with one of the firemen

The best part of story time-seeing Ababa

Essie with Sparky, the fire dog

Chloe & Sparky

Essie at home, showing off her fire hat and Jr. firefighter badge

p.s. Chloe is not looking very happy b/c she'd just taken a tumble down the stairs. Mommy was just proud of her for catching herself after 3 steps, instead of falling down them all, which has happened before.

Where the Wild Things Are

In honor of this movie opening this past weekend, here is Chloe taming our wild beast with a magic trick. As much as our girls love this book, there's no way we are taking them to see it (since everything seems to be scary to them these days). Mommy & Ababa may sneak out one night to see it though.

Big Blue Madness cont.

Just a few pictures from our Big Blue Madness party.

Essie
Essie
Essie & Chloe

Chloe & Essie (with Coach Cal on TV)

Future UK Cheerleaders?

For those of you not in Kentucky, tonight was Big Blue Madness (ie-the introduction to the UK basketball season). If you are not from KY, you have no idea how obsessed Kentuckians are with UK basketball. Yes, they are worse than Hoosiers and since I've lived in both states, I can attest to this. So Ababa was so excited to introduce his girls to UK hoops and Coach Cal. Mommy helped by breaking out the UK cheerleading outfits and the girls were thrilled to show their moves to the background music. Note to our grandparents and parents-we have no idea where the girls have learned these moves. You know Matt & I have no dancing skills whatsoever.

7 Months home

Can't believe the girls have been home for 7 months. They have changed so much in the last 7 months. Everyone asks us how they have adjusted and the answer is always amazingly well. They spoke English pretty well after 3 months home. We still have trouble with certain sounds like "v" and "f" and pronouns are confusing, but I'm finding they are pretty confusing for most 4 year olds. They are now picky eaters, just like every other 4 year old as well. They love fresh fruits and vegetables but today would not eat fresh tomatoes or peppers. Tomorrow, they probably will, just because its a new day. They are not attending pre-school this year. We tried to get them into our local early learning center but were told they did not qualify because their only need was language acquisition and that would come in time, and it has. So they are home with me during the days and when I have to do home visits with other families, we have some great sitters that come to the house to play. One of the advantages of living in Wilmore is being so close to Asbury College-great babysitters. Most days I enjoy being home with the girls, although balancing working from home and entertaining 4 year olds has been challenging. But I remind myself that they will be heading to kindergarten next year so I need to cherish this time I have with them. Below is the view out our front window every morning when Ababa leaves for work. The girls have really bonded with Matt in the last few months and question him every morning on why he has to go to work AGAIN. He has to wave all the way out of our street or the girls get very upset.

Many people have commented on how happy our girls seem in all the pictures. I usually joke and say that's because I take 200 pictures a day and post the 4 best ones. But the truth is, they are usually very happy. Essie has been fighting a cold this past week and one morning I heard her waking up in her room whistling in between coughing spells. She really is one of the happiest kids I know. She also loves to make people laugh. Chloe is our drama queen and loves to mock people or relay stories about other people to get a laugh. *I have no idea where she gets this. =)* They both love to sing and dance and play their musical instruments. They also love when mommy's clients come over to the house because they 1) get to watch a movie while mommy talks with her "friends" and 2) they then get to entertain our guests. This arrangement has so far worked out well minus a few embarrassing moments (see previous posts). They have also been wonderful ambassadors for adoption and specifically adoption of older children and of children from Ethiopia. Every night, I go to bed completely exhausted, but feeling completely blessed to be able to call these girls my daughters.

Jack-O-Lantern Fun

The lid comes off!

Smelling the pumpkin seeds

Watching Ababa carve the pumpkin face

Goofing

Essie with a pumpkin head

Swinging

I meant to post this video last week with our park pictures, but forgot. Now it seems appropriate since in the beginning of the video Essie states that she needs a Keenex (Kleenex). After fighting allergies for the last week, I believe today she has a full-blown cold. Poor kid.

Mommy Moment #475 & #476

#475- Yesterday I was trying to have a few moments to myself in the bathroom when the following incident took place.

Essie, "MOMMY, Where are you?"
Mommy, "Downstairs."
*little footsteps bang down the stair*
Essie, "Mommy, what are you doing?"
"I'm going potty, honey."
Essie, "I'm hungry, mama."
"ok, honey, when mommy is done going potty, I will make lunch."
Essie, "But mommy, I'm hungryyyyyyyy."
Mommy, "I know, honey, but mommy is going potty right now. As soon as I'm done, I'll make lunch."
Essie *while opening the bathroom door*, "But mommy, I'm bery (very) hungry!!"
"ok, honey, PLEASE shut the door. I'm almost done." *Essie sulks away from door.*
Before Essie is halfway up the steps, I hear another set of foorsteps coming down the steps.

Chloe, "MOMMY, where are you?"
"Bathroom, honey."
Chloe *while cracking the bathroom door*, "What ya doing mommy?"
"Going potty. Please shut the door and give mommy some privacy."
Chloe, "you goin' potty?"
"Yes, Honey, please shut the door!"
Chloe, "ok, mommy." *Chloe sulks away.*
No more than 2 seconds later I hear another scratch at the door. At this point, Mommy is exasperated and gives up on having a few moment of peace in the bathroom. I open the bathroom door in utter frustration to see our dog, Caesar, standing there. Are you kidding me? Even the dog won't let me pee in peace.

Moment #476
Today, Essie relays the above story about mommy being in the bathroom to some of my clients.