Catching up

Well, we just finished our soccer season! Wow, all three boys were on different teams this year. We had practices almost every night sometimes twice a night! Brian coached Jacob's team. He had fun with it, and Jacob still calls him "coach dad". It's nice to finally be able to breath.

Our school year got off to a great start. Owen is reading like a champ now, and learning cursive. He loves writing in cursive. Zach is my all around good student. He gets his work done fast and efficient. Jacob, on the other hand, is sooooo not into school. He will do anything to not do any school work. He hid behind a chair for almost an hour to avoid school. He is following in Owen's footsteps. Recess is his favorite subject! However, today he was all about school. We know more about the letter "K" than anyone, I bet! I feel so blessed to be at home with them.

I need to get some pictures from Halloween up here. They were so cute for trick-or-treat! I'll try to get the pictures on here in the next few days. Some of the Guinea Pigs too. They are growing like weeds... the boys and the pigs...

Wonderful Husband!

I have such an amazing husband. He's always telling me wonderful things... like how I am beautiful or I'm aging like a fine wine. I know he is lying, or maybe he just needs glasses. I think I am aging more like milk than wine. He is still amazing, and he can keep the lies coming!!! He has even got the boys telling me that I'm pretty and amazing and wonderful. Actually the word Owen uses is "beautifulest". I may get a big head over all this if they keep up the sweet talking!

More Vacation Pictures

Here are some of the beach pictures we took.... Just by me, not the photographer. Her's are so much better. Can't wait to post those!!! We played a lot in the sand. We drew our names, played tic-tac-toe. We made crazy designs, and we even made a race track complete with our own lanes. Man, just thinking about it makes me want to go back real soon. We took so many pictures, and it's very difficult to pick which ones we want to put on here, so these will have to do for now!

Vacation 2009

Ok. Where do I start? We went on vacation, and had a wonderful time. We weren't ready to come home, but when the doctor's not in... neither is the money!!! We saw "Winter" the dolphin. She doesn't have a tail. It was caught in a crab trap. She now lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and uses a prosthetic tail. How cool!?!? We went on a 2 hour pirate cruise. We ate tons of ice cream and went to a zoo, and the Florida Aquarium. We played kickball on the beach, and we flew our kites. OHHHH so much fun!!! We even had professional beach pictures taken. I'll post a couple when we get them back (with permission of course).

We all agreed that "Winter" was our favorite... YES... even better than the pirate cruise. There was lots of beach time too. We had a condo right on the beach. Brian and I slept on the balcony a few nights. It was nice to wake up to the waves crashing on the beach. The boys took over our king-sized bed, when we weren't sleeping on the balcony (it was a private balcony), we were sleeping in the two twin beds in the boys room.

Every year we pick a special ornament for our Christmas tree. We all decided that since Winter was our favorite we chose to get a Winter Christmas ornament for 2009. We want to go back sometime to see Winter! I'll post some more beach pictures later.

Hershey and Oreo!!

OK, so everything is about food with us. We have gone to visit our guinea pigs, and they have a web cam so we can see them anytime we want. Everyday the boys want to GO to see them. The web cam isn't the same as actually seeing, holding and hearing them. We were so excited to actually hold them that I forgot to take pictures of them. You all will just have to wait another 2-3 weeks to see them. That's when we'll get them. Their names are Hershy and Oreo. Pretty cute names if you ask me! It will be difficult to hold the boys off on holding them for another few weeks. We have some stuff they will need, and the boys and Brian will make the cage next week. We are very excited to get them home. Owen made a list of the things we need for the little piggies about 6 months ago. It's been on our refrigerator for a very long time. He brought it to me the other day, and said "Mom... This is really gonna happen.. Isn't it?!" I said, "Yep, Baby, I think it is!" To which he replied, "I'm not a baby!"

Gosh, we are going to have a mini zoo at our house! Brian and I will pick some more stuff up this weekend.... shhh don't tell the boys... it will be a surprise! We will keep you all posted!

Rodents

Guess what!?!? The boys want Guinea Pigs! Yep, you heard right... Guinea Pigs! We have a friend from church who had a pregnant pig, and offered two of the babes to us. We can pick them up in a month. There is so much to do to get ready for them... Oh man, what am I getting into? I'm not sure who wants them more.... Brian or the boys!!! I think we need to pack up and move to a farm... How do I let them talk me into these things??? God Love my guys (all of them)! They can talk me into anything.... Just don't tell them that, please. I think it's good to let the kids have pets... JUST NOT CATS!!! I'm allergic to them. My eyes itch just looking at pictures of them.

On a more fun note... Only 4 more days of school, then I'll have a 3rd grader, a 2nd grader, and a big Kindergartner. Time flies by. We will be homeschooling again next year! We'll let you know when or if we ever stop! We are all pretty excited about SUMMER BREAK!!!

Zach's First Holy Communion

Our oldest son made his First Holy Communion on Mother's Day! What a gift on Mother's Day! I was a little saddened by how it was handled. We didn't get to sit with him, and we didn't get a good picture of it. They were kind of herded up there. I got a great picture of him recieving The Blood of Christ, but not the Body. Anyway, Fr. Danny (kneeling) and Fr. Thul (standing) are Priests at our church. Fr. Danny is our Parish priest, and Fr. Thul is the priest for the hispanic community at our church. Our friends got an awesome picture of Zach recieving Jesus' Body. I cried when I saw the picture. Perfect!!! Thanks to Jen and John for the picture. We had lots of family in. Only a couple of family members couldn't make it due to working. A very stressful yet funfilled weekend!

Adoption News!!!

Ok... We are on our way now. We had a visit from the social worker for the adoption. Of course a couple of the bedrooms were a mess, because we decided that day to start moving them around to make room for a sister! We aren't close to getting her yet, we just wanted to get things moved around. Did we have to pick the day the social worker was coming? Probably not, but we apparently like chaos in our lives. She interviewed Brian and I together, then separate. She then interviewed each of the boys. They were pretty nervous to be interviewed by themselves, but they did a great job. We just told them to be honest, and respectful. What else could I tell them... I didn't know what kind of questions she was going to ask. They came at me with the big question... "Mom, what if we don't know the answers?" I told them what I thought she would ask... how old are you? do you want a sister? what's your favorite subject in school? (She did ask this one, and I just knew Owen was going to say... lunch and recess, but he didn't. He said Spelling and Science!) So I roll played with Zach while Owen and Jacob looked on.
Me (playing SW): How old are you?
Zach: ummm 8?
Me (playing me): Babe, are you 8?
Zach: yeah!
Me (playing me): Then tell me like you know you're 8! Ok, let's try this again...
Me (playing SW): How old are you?
Zach: I'M 8!!!
It went on like this for a while. I had to convince them that she wasn't going to ask questions like what is 234/32 you have 10 seconds.... go.... Anyway, they did great, and we are one step closer to a sister... A sister that Jacob informed the Social Worker he wants to name Bugsy after the guinea pig in Bedtime Stories... I can see it now... "Hi everyone... I'd like you to meet my sister, Bugsy... Bugsy Wentz!

Yes We're Still Here!!!

We're here... just very busy. We were in a car accident a few weeks ago, and a still sore form it. The boys are ok. Brian and I took most of the hit. So, needless say, we've been dealing with insurance, and getting a new... well, nicely used car. We're huge fans of Dave Ramsey, so everything is paid for, and nicely used. If you don't know who Dave Ramsey is, you must google him. Thanks to him we've paid off a ton of debt. Don't get me wrong.... we still have some debt, but we are kissing it goodbye.

I'm babysitting two children to help raise money for the adoption... a two year old, and a 3 month old. We're still homeschooling through it all too. The boys are almost finished with basketball, which will help a little. We'll have a small break, then baseball starts. No resting for us. Brian and I have decided that we'll get plenty of rest when we're dead...

Have You Ever Thought???

Have you ever thought about the terminology people use? I have a couple pet peeves about word usage, so the few people that view this blog get to hear about them.

1. "Where or Who delivered your child?" I birthed my babies. Pizza's are delivered, babies are birthed. I don't care what kind of birth it is; it's still a birth.

2. (Referring to our adoption)... If I hear one more person say, "How do you think the "real" parents feel", or "I'll treat the child as if you are the "real" parents"... or anything about the "real" parents. I just might scream. We are very real. The terminology used is poor. I completely understand what they mean... They mean biological. But how would my child feel if everyone referred to Brian and I as "real" parents to our biological kids, but not "real" to our other children. We are not going to hide the fact that they were adopted, how can we.... We're adopting from S. Korea! We will talk to our child about their past, and their "Birth Parents" or "Biological Parents". That stuff is important. We'll talk about their culture, and hopefully have family vacations to the birth country.

Wow, I know there are a few more, but I can't think of them right now. I've gotta get the younglings off to naps... Maybe I'll right more about this later. There are OH so many more adoption terms to clear up...

"Bundles" of Joy!!!

Check out these "bundles" of joy. How handsome are they? We didn't get but 2 inches of snow, so all they could do was make snow angels. But they loved it. They tried to have a snow fight, and make an igloo, but there just wasn't enough snow. The igloo was pretty sad looking, but they had fun making it. There was lot's of fun, and loads of hot chocolate.

Adoption

So, all of you know by now that we have decided to adopt. We've been thinking and praying about it for a very long time now. After my car accident in high school, Brian and I weren't sure we could have biological kids, so adoption was something we talked about when we were dating. We knew we'd like to do it some day when the time was right. God blessed us with three biological boys, and they were one right after the other, so we knew that wasn't the time to adopt. Now, however is the time. So we have decided to adopt from.................. drum roll please......... South Korea. We are so excited, and can't wait to bring our baby home. We still have a long wait, but this is going to be our way to keep everyone up to date on the adoption, and everyday life. So, please keep us in your prayers during this fullfilling journey.

Winter Blues

OK, I'm really done with winter. It's just not a fun time for us. We don't get enough snow to do anything with, and it's just really cold. All the county schools were closed today, because of the cold weather. We however still had school. Not being able to send them outside to "run it off" has been hard. I have them run the stairs. I don't let them race each other. That's an ER visit just waiting to happen. They do time each other, and try to get their personal best. In my free time lately, I've been making some rosaries. That's been lots of fun. I wouldn't call it free time, I'd call it the time I should be ironing shirts or scrubing toilets or something like that. I need to scoot, the natives are getting restless.

Christmas and New Year's Eve

Let's see, do you want to know how our Christmas was.... Now that we are half way through the first month of the new year...

A few days before Christmas we went to see Santa. Jacob was less than excited. He held on tight to Owen's waist. He wanted to be anywhere else. He wouldn't come close enough to Santa to tell him what he wanted. It was pretty funny, and so cute that Owen just let him dig his fingers into O's waist. He took the big brother role to heart that day. Christmas was good. It's always good with the boys and Brian surrounding me. Celebrating Christ's birth is so much fun. We had birthday cake and and everything. We had lots of food. After Mass on Christmas Eve, we came home for our annual "dressed up Christmas picture". The older boys were sporting their sports coats. How handsome... They did ask me, "why do you call them a sports coat when you can't play sports in them?" Let me know if any of you have the answer to that one... Christmas day we went to a movie. We saw "Bedtime Stories". It was cute, and it's now on the list the boys started of "movies to own". Joan was here to visit also. We were afraid the bad weather was going to keep her from getting here, but she made it. There's nothing like food, family and fun to make the holidays grand.

The boys had more fun with New Years Eve though. This was the first time we let them stay up for the festivities. Jacob missed it by one hour. He fell asleep on the floor. I tried to tell them it wasn't going to be amazing. "It is just a ball that drops, and we count backwards from 10 to 1, then we say Happy New Year". They obviously had to see for themselves. Zach thought it was going to be a huge ball that drops into a big pool and makes a gi-normous splash for all to see. Boy was he shocked when it came down really slow, and did nothing else. Zach and Owen made it til the ball dropped, but were pretty tired the next day for Mass. We even let them have "kid wine" (sparkling cider) in a real wine glass. They thought they were so cool. They get it on most special occasions (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve/Day). We had the New Year's toast, and then sent them off to bed. They were out before their heads hit the pillows.