The Sing Off...

In celebration of the holiday version of "The Sing Off" last night, I decided we should have our own holiday version at home.  What started out as a duet, quickly turned into a battle of who could better outdo the other...
Enjoy... and make sure to watch for the facial reactions of the non-singing competitor...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unt--ib2xtQ

Until next time,
Angie

A Gingerbread...

I know you've probably seen the pictures.  They can be beautiful.  I've seen them with ornate frosting in just the right places.  I've seen many with candy beautifully covering every crevasse and corner.  I've even seen them with accessories, like a white picket fence, a tree, and even a garage.  That's right, I'm talking about the seasonal Gingerbread House.

Tonight we attempted to make our first one as a family.  See last week Michael and I were shopping while Gabriel was in school and Dad at work.  When Michael saw it he started begging immediately, "Mom, can we have this?" Please Mom, we don't have one." "Mom, we can do it as a family." and with that, his final plea, he had me.  In the cart in went and home to sit on the counter until we found the perfect family night to do it.

Tonight Dad was able to get home at a reasonable hour so we decided to attempt it tonight. The boys were very excited about it and very willingly did everything I asked right away as to not lose the chance to assemble it tonight. While Michael was showering Gabriel helped me measure the exact amount of water to mix up the cement and while Gabriel was showering Michael poured the water into the cement mixture to make the glue.

They moved all the candy over to the table and as we all sat down I came walking over with the bag of glue.  It was then that I noticed we forgot to bring over the actual gingerbread walls.  As I turned from the counter to the table with the glue in one hand and the gingerbread pieces in the other...
And this is the part of the story where everything takes a turn for the south.

See just moments later, our lovely gingerbread pieces looked like this...

Yes, you are correct, there are only suppose to be 6 gingerbread pieces to the gingerbread house.  Not 46.

See clumsy mom happened to grab the pieces and on her way over to the table decided to throw them on the tile floor.  Okay not really throw them but you could say accidentally dropped them. You now see what happens when the pieces come in contact with a hard surface.

After a few moments of sadness and pouting (mostly on mom's part), Dad and Mom brainstormed if there was any salvaging of the activity and quickly decided there was not.  So instead we each picked a few pieces of the broken puzzle that should have been our lovely gingerbread house, and instead had a decorating competition. 

Gabriel made a snowman complete with mint disks and black sharpie marker outline.

And Michael carefully inspected every single piece of candy to see if there was even one piece that was edible (see Mom told them none of the candy was edible, it was only for decoration).

Dad was the photographer and tried to cheer everyone up.

And pretty soon everyone was really happy and having a lot of fun.

And at the end everyone picked their two favorite pieces (see we each got to have about 12 pieces each to decorate) and placed them in the center for judging.  Here Gabriel is helping Michael pick out his 2 best pieces.



And after all that, here is our finished product. 



Turns out that everyone got to vote and here's how the voting results came out.

Mom voted that Michael's were best

Dad voted that Gabriel's were best

Gabriel voted that Mom's were best

and Michael voted that Dad's were best.

You know it is funny how things sometimes work out.  See when Michael picked out this activity it was just important to him that we do it together.  When I looked at this activity, I was hoping to create a picture perfect family gingerbread house.  After dropping it and seeing my hope shatter into 46 pieces, turns out the true lesson in this was for me to learn.  It really isn't about making a picture perfect house, it is about making the most of the pieces we were given.

This holiday season, it is easy to get wrapped up in the "perfectness" that Christmas and the holidays is suppose to bring.  The perfect tree, the perfect present, the perfect card, turns out that really isn't what this time of year is about at all.  Thankfully Gabriel, Michael and Dad are around to remind me of this lesson.

So the next time you come by our house, please remind me to show you our beautiful and many piece gingerbread creation.  It may not look like the pretty picture on the box, but it sure is perfect in our mind.

Until next time,

Angie

Yankee Doodle...

We were recently told that kids these days are not familiar with the nursery rhymes we all learned back in the days when we were kids.  Not wanting to believe the "myth" I asked the boys recently to recite some nursery rhymes. 

It was, using a term from this day in age... an epic fail.
When we asked about Mary Had a Little Lamb... the boys thought the verse was... "Mary Wanted Some Ham"  and when we asked about Jack and Jill, they thought the saying was Jack and Jill went up the road to get a bucket of water... Jack rolled down and carried his crown and Jill came walking too.

and when we got to the song about Yankee Doodle, Jarrett about had a heart attack.  As Jarrett began to sing the words to Yankee Doodle the boys interrupted him and said, "Dad, that's not right... thats the Barney song.

And from that moment on it became Jarrett's mission to teach the boys the real words to the Yankee Doodle jingle...

I'll let you decide how Jarrett's efforts are paying off...

Guess the myth might actually be the truth.

Until next time,

angie

Thanksgiving feast...

Last Tuesday at Gabriel's school, his classroom had a thanksgiving feast.  It was adorable as the kids learned about the first Thanksgiving and how the Pilgrims and Indians celebrated together.  To honor the first thanksgiving parents were able to come in and celebrate with the kids.  The kids had worked hard to create costumes and then dressed up as Pilgrims and Indians and ate their feast together.

On the way home from school that day Gabriel was telling Michael all about their feast and about the first Thanksgiving.

"Michael, did you know the Indians and the Pilgrims ate lunch together?"
"Why Gabriel"
"Because they wanted to have a feast"
"Why"
"Michael, I don't know, they were really hungry."

Interjecting, I asked, Boys what are you thankful for?

Michael: "I'm thankful for God."
Gabriel: "I'm thankful the Indians can have normal food now."
"What?" I asked...   "Gabriel, what do you mean normal food?"
"Mom, you know, the Indians had to use a bow and arrow to get deer and it took a long long long long time... now they can have normal food like chicken."
"I see Gabriel."

I asked, "So that's what you are thankful Gabriel?"
"YES mom, wouldn't you be more happy to have chicken instead of hunting a long time with a bow... Mom you'd be starving."

I'm so glad out of the many lessons he could have gotten from the story of the first Thanksgiving, that the message of food convenience came through most clear.

Until next time,
Angie

Thanksgiving...

For the second year in a row I feel truly blessed and am more thankful than words can addequately describe.  I can honestly say I now know what it feels like to have my heart overflow with love, happiness and to truly feel as though you could not ask for anything more in life.

On Thanksgiving morning I sat in church with the three men who complete my life and I thought about how the pieces of this great puzzle in life must be perfectly to make such a wonderful picture that has become my life.  If I hadn't married my high school sweetheart, if we hadn't move to Arizona, if we didn't endured such a difficult health challenge in 2007 and if we didn't struggle for so many years to grow a family, this puzzle could look so much different.  And the same questions for our boys' life.  What if their birth mother hadn't decided to bring them into the world?... what if the foster family and case workers didn't pick us to be their parents?... what if we had not... and the questions could go on and on.

Just three years ago I remember the holidays as a challenging time because it always brought up difficult emotions and feelings that certain pieces of our life was missing.  Don't get me wrong I will always be forever thankful for my wonderful spouse, but we both knew, something was missing... now we know who.

Being a family brings with it its daily struggles, and streses as we race from here to there and make sure the daily responsibilites of each person are taken care of.  Sometimes, make that a lot of times, it can be very easy to forget about just how many simple blessings we are given each day.   For example... the random "I love you Mom!" from Gabriel or Michael when they want to say something but can't think of anything else but that.  Or the embraces, hugs and kisses when I didn't even ask for them, just because the boys need the reassurance of our touch.  Simple gifts and I try to remind myself that soon enough they will be teenagers and too cool to show affection to their parents.  In the daily hussle and bussle that is this life... I remind myself just how lucky I am to have this puzzle.

Thanksgiving is a holiday we should strive to celebrate everyday of our lives.  I've said it before and I'll say it again... in the words of Sara Evans... I have been blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving...

Until next time,
Angie

A year ago today...

A year ago today we officially became a family.  It was a day I had dreamed of for many years and it was more special than any dream I had ever had.

It's hard to believe a year has passed by so quickly and now I'm convinced the saying "Don't blink or you'll miss it" is true.

It seems like yesterday we sat in the courtroom with our stomach knotted in excitement that it really was happening. How thrilled we were that so many of our family and friends were there to celebrate with us on such a momentous day.  It seems like yesterday you were looking so sharp dressed in those cute suits and running all around the courthouse from activity to activity and how great you did when you spoke your name into the microphone after the judge asked you for your name.... Gabriel Joseph Haskovec... Michael William Haskovec.

It seems like yesterday, but in fact it has been a 365 yesterdays. 

A year ago today the law officially recognized us as your parents however it sometimes seems like we've been a family from the very beginning.   We feel truly blessed to be your parents and we hope you will always remember you are the answers to our prayers, and the true love of our lives.  Simply said, we are blessed because of you.

Happy Adoption Day Gabriel and Michael... we love you always,
Mom and Dad

Our first carved pumpkin...

Last year for what ever reason, we never got around to carving our pumpkins.  However this year we made up for it and spent the afternoon before Halloween carving our "scary" pumpkin.

Here are a few photos to highlight the boy's first experience....

Dad and the boys getting ready to start.  By the way the boys do normally wear shirts around the house but being the one who does the laundry, I asked them to take theirs off so I wouldn't have to try and scrub pumpkin stains out of their shirts.  We have enough stains without adding pumpkin to the mix.

Michael got to cut out the shape of the lid of the pumpkin would have.

He was very determined to make it perfect!

Then Dad removed the lid.

And the boys got ready to pull out the "slimy" seeds.

Michael was all about it, Gabriel on the other hand was a tad more hesitant to stick his hand in the stinky and slimy pumpkin.

but eventually he did.

and they both had a lot of fun pulling out the seeds.

Michael really enjoyed it!  Here he's making a scary face to match his slimy hand.

After we had cleaned out the insides, Gabriel went to work drawing a face on the pumpkin.

He also tried very hard and wanted it to be perfect.

Carving our first pumpkin as a family was really enjoyable.  Maybe the boys will look back and think, "Mom did you have to take a picture of every little thing we did together for the first time?" And I'll proudly answer yes.  I'm not sure they'll ever understand how much these silly little firsts mean to me.  For a long time, I wondered if I'd ever get to have the chance to share "first" moments.  For that reason, all of the times that are our "first (fill in the blank)"  are extra special to me.

Until next time,
Angie