2 Very Different Pigtails on 2 Very Different Girls!

This is Jovie "Monster"! Her piggies stick strait up off the top of her head! They don't even flop down with the weight of the hair... they just stick straight out! She is independent, wild, clever, shy, a 'rascal', loves to be chased, loves to sleep, likes to bite on occasion and always loves a good joke! She likes to ask for lotion and then when you give it to her she immediately puts it in her hair! She thinks she is a big girl and likes to do things herself!
This is Callie "Sugar Bear"! Her piggies curl into perfect "teddy bear ears" on the top of her head! She is a lovie, clingy, cuddly, friendly, huggable, loves to smile at other people, loves to be the center of your attention, hardly ever sleeps, likes to pinch on occasion, and loves to be tickled. If you give her lotion she will smack her hands together and watch it explode all over the place! Her favrite place to be is in someone's arms!
2 very different girls, but boy do they love each other! If one is awake when the other is asleep the one awake is very lonely! They love to sit by each other in the car and pick on each other! Usually they are gentle, and they share very well, but every once in awhile they get caught in a hair-pulling gridlock! Both have a handful of the other's hair and neither will let go! But most of the time they hug, wrestle, kiss,...

And...

LOVE BEING SISTERS!

They are the cutest little perfect odd couple!

Callie Cow!

My dad likes to name his cows! There is "Satan", "Ugly", "Lola", "Twinkle", "Charlie Brown", "Tuffy" etc. He even names them after people. He has one named Lettie because she was born on Lettie's bithday! The problem is, Lettie is one of his black cows, so you never know which one is her cow. Now Callie has her own cow!



And here she is -->


Now, you may ask, "Why was this particular cow named Callie?"


Well... because...







Her dad is black, like this cow -->



But she came out with the EXACT same coloring as her mom!

Here is Callie Cow with her mom-->

Pretty isn't she?!









I just thought that was funny and worth sharing!!! There is a little black cow with a spot in the middle of it's forehead that looks like Africa... it really does... so I told dad that it needed to be Selamawit!!!
So, here is a picture of my cute farm girl Callie, with her taboggin on, in the back of the truck, ready to go see the cows!

After a trip on the Kubota, she fell asleep in her grandpa's arms!!! Isn't that sweet!!!

You know he loves her when he names a cow after her!!! :)!

11 Days Away!

I am so nervous! Not so much about the traveling as much as making sure I have everything! I have to make sure I have Passports, Embassy paperwork, clothes, etc... all in order! I am excited though!

On the way back, we will have 3 kids on a 15 hour plane trip! So... ideas? What should I pack for them to keep them occupied?

Also, ideas for me? I want to read a good book, but don't know which? I am a Jane Austen fan... any good gems by her (not Pride & Prejudice or Sense & Sensibility) that I may not have read that you would recommend, or any other authors like her that you think I might like? Or anything new out there that you think would be my cup of (herbal) tea?

Just thinking about it, I am SO excited! Hopefully I can get everything in order!

We have a travel date!!!

Actually, we have had one for a couple weeks now... but I just have not gotten around to blogging about it yet! We leave:

May 9th!

We are so so so excited! We are leaving a day and a half early and by doing that we will have 2 days in-country without kids to look around, get adapted to the time change, do some shopping, and eat some yummy African food!

So, We leave May 9 in the morning, fly to DC, and then have a 3 hour layover. We then take a 15 hour flight all the way there. We stop once in Rome just to refuel. We do not even disembark! We get there (with the time change moving us forward) at 7am on May 10. We meet our kids on May 12 and get their visa. We spend 3 more days in-country and then we leave late at night on May 15, and land May 16 in the afternoon!

Two couples from Charlotte who are also picking up older kids will be on the same flight as us. So that will be nice. I hope to use the internet cafe and blog when I can so you guys will know a little bit of what we are up to while we are there!

So, now we have less than 3 weeks before we go. There is so much to do. A little more paperwork, making copies, gathering some odd things, setting up appointments, readying the house, and packing up. I went shopping the other day and bought pants, a bathing suit, PJs, socks, and underwear for all the kids. I also bought a few more shirts for the boys. So, I think I have basically everything they need but toothbrushes and some things for them for the plane trip! The Disney Store was having 40% off their already Clearence prices on their PJs, so I bought Disney PJs for everyone! I will have to take a picture of the whole family in their Disney PJs!

The only thing I hate is that I am leaving my US babies for a week, but they will be fine! I am leaving them in good hands and they will be at home and still have each other so they should adapt well!

So, I am going to still try to catch up my blog a little bit before I go... but if I am a little inconsistent it is because I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off with a huge check-list of to-dos before we travel! But I wanted to let you guys know what is going on and we will keep you updated!

Easter Morning!

Here are the kids Easter morning doing their Easter Egg Hunt! The Easter Bunny ate some lettuce and carrotts. Jovie was really into it! Callie just crawled around looking pretty enjoying everyone else running around!




















This is how I found Jovie later that day! Nolan had hid his Easter basket... and of course Jovie found it, brought it into our room, and hid while she dug into brother's candy! She is such a sneeky one!

I ended up having to wean Callie this way:

Cold Turkey!

And no... she was not happy about it! Miss Independant Jovie loved a bottle and weaned herself! Callie is my child I could have nursed until she was 3 years old. But #1 I have to go half-way around the world VERY soon! #2 The girl wouldn't sleep! and #3 I am not crunchy enough to nurse a 3 year old! I tried the gradual thing, but she was just as bad as when I cold turkied her! Not a happy critter one bit! Everytime I would try to cut her back she would pitch a fit! When I just stopped it comepletely, the first night was bad, but after that she replaced nursing with hugs... so now she will give you a huge bear hug with her huge sugar bear paws!

Here is a picture of my newly weaned... not happy about it girl:

She has gotten to where now she will just sit on my lap sometimes and fall asleep! She is really such a cutie! I love my girl! I am so grateful I was able to nurse her in the first place!

The Egg-straviganza!

Ok... I am WAY behind! WAY WAY WAY behind! I need to get caught up on Easter pictures and then mountain pictures, and then Williamsburg pictures, and then just generally cute pictures and stories about my kiddos! Anyway... here is some Easter pictures of the Eggstaviganza. It was fun, but crowded. It took forever to get in, forever to get out (you had to shuttle to the parking lot) and on the way back to the car I had a sleeping Callie and arms loaded with Easter Baskets and a diaper bag, Levi was holding Jovie and dragging a stroller behind him... then we looked at each other and realized that we used to laugh and pity people just like us! Haha! But honestly, I would not have it any other way!!!

I went inside from dying eggs with Nolan and Lettie to find this:

My terrible twosome breaking into Nolan & Lettie's loot! They are too cute together! Jovie loves the hat granny made a couple years back! They were so proud of themselves!

We made it through court!!!

Hooray! We are SO SO SO excited and we will be traveling mid May we hope, could be later, but the hope is for mid May!!! HOORAY! We are now officially a family of 7!!!

(Yes, the post does look different than before. We can post pics when we pick them up!!! Hooray!)

No One Can Make a Face...

Like my Nolan can make a face!

The kid has the hugest eyes and he loves to make faces! It is hard for me to get a picture without him trying to make some sort of face. And sometimes he closes one eye and it makes his other eye really bug out! He makes me laugh. He is ALWAYS the entertainer!


Yep... he is at that age! Body humor is ALL THE RAGE! Booger, Farts, Burps... sigh!

Some of my favorite faces of his are in these 2 pictures! He was making a monster face of the camera... and I thought he really pulled it off well! Look at the intensity, and the way it looks like his right eyeball could just pop out!!! He was a GREAT zombie!!!

Don't get me wrong... he can look very sweet! And he is VERY handsome!

But then when the intesity strikes, that boy can bring it! The Easter Bunny left sand "ruins" in his basket. You use a brush and a hard plastic pic to dig out an artifact. When he really had to use pressure to break through the hardened sand, you could really see it in his face, so of course I had to take pictures!


This one is my favorite! Look at him go! Go Nolan Go!

I love my Crazy Boy!!!

Deja vu!

What is with my kids and sneaking chocolate pudding? I suppose it has to do with me not keeping a constant watch on the child with the chocolate pudding!

This is Lettie once upon a time when she was about a year old! Nolan had to have pudding to put some medicine in. I would put the medicine in a spoonful of pudding and then when he took it he could finish the rest of the pudding. He left it on the coffee table while I was doing dishes. I came into the living room and this is what I found:



Now fast forward to just a few days ago. Lettie still has trouble eating some things, so she requested chocolate pudding. She must have left it unattended on the couch she was sitting on! Sure enough, I come into the living room and this is what I find:



The good thing is she much have finished up most of the pudding and Callie was trying to get the little bit leftover. When Lettie got into the pudding it was basically a whole container EVERYWHERE! The thing I wonder is how come it always end up dripped down the middle of their forehead? How do they manage to get the pudding right between the eyes?!? It is amazing how a little container of chocolate pudding can make such a mess!