Christmas Decorations and Sad Reminiscing

Alex's Tree

Our home - Christmas 2011

Front Door Wreath

Tim's Star Trek tree

Family Tree - my mom made the tree skirt and stockings years ago!

Mantel - new decorations this year. I love it!

Twice lately, Alex has cried for the children left behind at the Baby House. He says that he misses them and that he wants them to have all his toys, all his books, etc. He also said that he never wants to go back there. We have reassured him that he will never have to live at the Baby House again and that Mama and Daddy are sending clothes, toys, etc. back there.

Alex had never said anything about this until we did the Joy Boxes to send to the Baby House. I think he has matured to the point that he realizes how blessed he is to have a family and a home of his own. It hurts so bad to see him this way because he is having the same thoughts and emotions that I experienced when we returned from Ukraine. I had problems sleeping because I would wake in the middle of the night with the children on my mind. Please pray for our son to find peace in his heart. We love that he is kind and tender-hearted, but it hurts us so much to see him upset and hurting.

Meanwhile, we got all of our Christmas decorations done this weekend. I had the brilliant idea that we, (meaning me), needed to redo all of the bows on our decorations. This was quite a task. Over the past several days, I made 25 bows - most of them today. Alex has his own tree in his room and he helped Daddy decorate outside yesterday and today. Hope you enjoy the photos.

By the way....Sasha the Elf is back to report Alex's behavior to Santa. Stay tuned for those updates.

Love to all,

R & T & A

Halloween Happenings

Alex as Buzz Lightyear and Woody as, well....Woody!

Alex loves Woody! Aren't they cute?

Alex's costume for school.

Buzz! - So proud!

Help Mommie! The mantle is squishing me! LOL!

Taking Flight!

Alex and his cousin, Jordan. Alex says that Jordan's mask was silly.

You have got to be kidding me! Uncle Barry tricked him with a bowl of rocks.

The look says it all.

We had a great time Trick or Treating. First, Grandma came by as we were getting ready. It was quite hectic trying to get Alex & Woody ready at the same time. Then, we went to the other side of town to see Granny Carolyn, Grandpa and Taco (their dog). Woody and Taco got along great, but Taco "got after" Alex when he tried to hug Granny Carolyn goodbye. He was jealous!

Then, we went to the other side of town to see Uncle Barry. Alex says, "Uncle Barry is crazy!" Then, we ended at Granny and Grandpa's house where we trick or treated them and then had pizza and tossed salad - which I am proud to announce that Alex ate! He is doing do good eating his vegetables.

Of course, we got to bed late and Alex had a bad behavior day at school today. He was on red and he doesn't get to watch TV tonight.

Alex starts gymnastics tomorrow. The pre-school has an association with the local YMCA and they go once a week. Alex has been asking to go for some time now and Tim finally agreed that he can go and signed him up today. Tim is an old-school, macho dad and he felt that it was for girls. Of course, Alex didn't help the matter when he told his daddy that he wanted to be a princess when he grew up. LOL!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Our new addition, Woody!

The Mamas who adopted from Alex's baby house got together and collected joy boxes for the children. There are 115 children left behind there and the group collected around 200. At least one other orphanage and possibly two will benefit from this effort. I am so proud of this wonderful group of ladies. Our entire church only collected 183 boxes and this group of 18 Mamas rocked it! Thank you Baby House Mamas!

Alex's first jack-o-lantern. Notice Alex's Hawaiian Punch mustache!

Father and son

Beautiful boy and beautiful tree

So excited to see the gorillas this time. We missed them last time. Of course, Alex had to comment on their big behinds.

I loved watching the bears. They seemed to pose for us.

This is at the entrance of the zoo and all the kids get their photo made on either this or the mama & baby lions.

I got to check off an item on my bucket list! Finally got to feed and pet a giraffe. Two, actually - there was a baby as well.

The baby was not tall enough to reach over the railing, so we had to feed him through the rails. When I bent down to do so, the adult was a little pushy and bonked me in the head! We had a good laugh.

Baby

Meerkat. Granma loves these and watches them on the Animal Planet show, Meerkat Manor. This one was so cute, but chubby compared to the ones on the show.

Alex wanted a picture of himself climbing on the turtle.

Don't have a clue what he was trying to do here.

Lion by the tail

Riding the dino

My little monkey

Riding the pony

One of this three train rides.

Yesterday was Alex's 5th birthday. We celebrated by going to Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing how much Alex has grown since our birthday trip last year - not only in size, but emotionally as well. We didn't do a big party this year because there were so many others in his class who did parties and because he wanted to go to the zoo. He will have a small family party at Granny & Grandpa's on Saturday.

I will update again next week with Halloween photos. Halloween is not a favorite holiday of ours, but we do allow Alex to participate as long as he only wears a "nice" costume, avoiding things that are against our beliefs - witches, werewolfs, vampires, etc. We strive to teach him that it is for fun and not a ritual.

Love to all,

R & T & A

A New Addition & Fall Beach Trip

Three weeks ago - the day we met Woody.

Chloe has been pretty good with Woody, but she does not want to share her new water bottle toy that Mommie & Daddy brought her back from the beach.

Hard to get a photo of him because he is rarely still. This is his windblown look. He had been running and his ears are stuck backwards.

Alex taming the dino at Broadway at the Beach

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Alex loves his Daddy

Entranced by the speed boat on the Lagoon

In the elevator - heading out for his first sunrise ever!

On the walkway - cheesing!- So excited.

My boy and the beautiful sunrise.

Thank you Lord, for my son and this beautiful world that you created.

Mommie & Alex at Broadway at the Beach. Daddy wouldn't play along.

Precious hands of my precious boy.

Learning to boogey board.

Our house has been a little quiet and lonely (for Chloe) since we lost our sweet PJ. Tim agreed that we could get a new Boxer puppy. After searching the internet, losing "dibs" on one that I really wanted, and calling several people, we found our new addition. He is a brindle boy who Alex named Woody. You can guess where that came from!

Chloe is doing as well as expected with Woody. We picked him up on the way home from the beach and he cried all the way home! He is so sweet and a cuddle bug. He has his first vet check-up yesterday afternoon and he weighed 18.2 pounds! My biceps are killing me from toting him around. We are working on training him to walk on leash and he is doing well with the "sit command. We took him to the park today and everyone had a fit over him. He sleeps cuddled up to his Mommie and Chloe sleeps on the other side, cuddled up to Daddy.

We had a great time at Myrtle Beach. Alex got to experience his first sunrise and he made almost every one after that! No rest on vacation with Alex! We saw dolphins almost every day from our balcony. He played in the ocean, made sandcastles, practiced swimming in his swimmies and fell in love with the "hot bathtub." While in that hot bathtub, Ales asked me, Mommie, am I your precious boy? Yes, baby, you always will be - forever.

Alex and Daddy rode rides at Broadway while Mommie enjoyed relaxing by the lagoon. He really likes the little speedboat that runs on the lagoon. Maybe he can ride when we go back in June.

Alex had his evaluation in K4 and he is doing really well. We make sure that he does his homework each day and he enjoys learning. He didn't even complain about doing his homework while on vacation.

We are looking forward to fall, cooler weather, and Alex's birthday coming up. We are going to do a party at school and then we are going to do something as a family on his actual birthday. I think he wants to go to Riverbanks Zoo.

Enjoy the photos.

Love to you all,

R & T & A

Special Request

Please see the button at the left side of the blog - Operation: Christmas in Nikolaev. Some of the mothers who have adopted from the Nikolaev Baby House (Alex's Baby House) are organizing an operation to send "joy boxes" to the 115 children who live there. All info is posted below the button. Anyone in our area who would like to participate, I will handle shipping the boxes to the US collection point. Thanks!

Lost our friend

Pina Junior (PJ) Dixon

We lost our sweet PJ today. She was 17 1/2 and we thought we were prepared, but we were not. She had 9 teeth pulled last week as a last ditch effort to save her, but after that, she could not keep down food or fluids and we found out that her kidneys were not working properly. She had been at the vet's office since Friday and Tim and I went there today at lunch time and watched our sweet baby girl go to Rainbow Bridge.

Chloe is 9 years old now and she had surgery on Friday to remove some glads from the corner of her eyes. She has an allergy and the glands had become inflamed and painful. She is much better and has to go back Thursday for a re-check.

PJ never had much to do with Alex, since she was older when he came home. She just kind of avoided him since he is so lively and she was an old lady. He will be devastated when something happens to Chloe. He loves her and she loves him! She is 9 and the life expectancy of her breed is 10, so I dread the day that we have to handle that one - for all of us.

Alex knows that PJ is in Heaven with Jesus and he told me that we aren't supposed to be sad because she is with Jesus. From the mouth of babes.......