Learnin' The Game

The other day there was a football game on TV. It wasn't an important game cuz it was just Winnepeg and Edmonton playing. Mesele wanted to learn a little bit about this game, so he sat close to Daddy and daddy tried to teach him some basic concepts of the game.After a few minutes of "teaching" the TV screen had MANY fingerprints all over it, but Mesele was slowly catching onto the game. He would get so excited when he could find the ball all by himself!
We can only hope that one day he will be as big a football fan as Mommy and Daddy are!
WE GOT RIDER PRIDE!

Riding Our "New" Bikes

I'm sure that everyone knows just how much Mesele and Abinet LOVE to ride their bikes. Well, for Mesele's birthday, we got him a knew bike. He was so excited!! The problem is that the tire doesn't hold any air. Brent has tried to fix it, but it's still broken. We already put the training wheels on Mesele's old bike, and there is NO WAY Abinet is going to let Mesele have that bike back. Oh dear......Daddy felt bad for Mesele yesterday and decided to give him a ride on his bike. Mesele just hung on for dear life and laughed like crazy! Thanks to Daddy, Mesele now thinks that he can ride that big bike all by himself!
Abinet just minds his own business and cruises around on his "new" bike. I think he's feeling quite grown up, now that he no longer has to ride a tricycle.

He even decided to show off a little bit for the picture and stand on the peddles! He really is growing up. What happened to my little baby?!?

Camera Shy? NO WAY!

For a while I started to think that I was taking too many pictures of the boys. So, I put my camera away and thought I would only pull it out for something really special. Well, one afternoon, the boys were out riding their bikes and Mesele came running in saying we needed to come to the garage and take a photo. There was nothing exciting, just 2 little boys sitting on chairs thinking they were too cute to resist. (It was too cute!)Another afternoon, Abinet was riding his "donkey", Mesele, and they wanted me to get my camera. They were disappointed when I didn't bring the video camera. I guess they wanted to watch themselves on TV afterwards. I took a few photos and then, to their delight, I got the video camera. What a bunch of actors! (Must get it from their daddy!!)

Mesele's 4th Birthday Party!

We had a wonderful day for Mesele's birthday party. We stayed outside and all the kids had fun taking swings at a Pinata, and jumping in our "Jump n' Slide." I think there were about 17 kids here in all, and when the adults came, there were about 40-45 people. I know.....what was I thinking?!?!? I hope everyone had a good time. I know Mesele REALLY enjoyed it and he and Abinet are having a blast playing with all there new toys. Thanks for coming everyone, you helped to make this a very special day!

I Finished the Cake!

After a long, tiring day I put the boys to bed and looked in my kitchen. Now the work was really going to begin. I had to decorate a cake for Mesele's birthday and I was a little bit nervous about doing it. I started decorating at 8:30 in the evening, and at 11:00 I was finally done!! I am fairly impressed with how the cake turned out. In fact....the cake looks MUCH better than I do! After taking a few pictures of the cake, I stuck it in the freezer, left my kitchen in a disasterous state, and went to bed! I needed lots of sleep in order to be ready for the party the next morning.

I will post some pictures of the party tomorrow. Stay tuned for more.......

Mesele's First Day of Preschool

Yesterday morning was Mesele's first day of Preschool. He was so excited! When he woke up, he thought he should be going to school right away. He didn't like it when I told him that he was going to have to wait a couple hours before we could leave!! He loaded up his back pack with shoes, snack and his stuffed animal. Then.....it was time to go.

We rode our bikes over to the school and Mesele met his teacher, Mrs. Wassenaar. He had no problem walking in and seeing the other kids. I think I was closer to tears then he was! The two hours that Mesele was gone were a little difficult for Abinet. He's never really been apart from his brother, so this was a new test! Mesele is anxious for another day at school and I'm sure that he will be lovin' school all year!

Learning to Write My Name

Daddy thought that it would be a good idea, if Mesele tried learning how to write his own name. He only starts pre-school tomorrow, but Daddy was very determined that this would be a very good thing. At first Mesele was a little bit frustrated that he couldn't make his letters just like Daddy, but with a little coaxing, he continued to try!

The end result isn't that bad! It's too bad there are so many "e's" is his name because that was the harderst letter for him to do. I think he was hoping that they would be a few more "l's" cuz that was one that he liked to write! What can I say....My boy can write his name and he's only 3!! (for two more days...)

My Two Cutie-Patooties!

I don't really have a lot to say today. (I know.....what a surprise!) I took these pictures a few nights ago, and they are just so cute, I thought I better share them with you all!

It's hard to believe that Mesele is going to be turning 4 on Thursday! They're growing up and they've changed so much in the six months they've been with us. Mesele loves being on the computer and I know that he would love to hear you all wish him a happy birthday, so leave him a message sometime, and I'll make sure that he gets to see it!
Have a wonderful day!! I better start working on his birthday party.....

Bedtime Prayers

Every night before the boys go to sleep, we sing 2 songs, read a Bible story, and have a little prayer time. Usually Brent or I will do the prayer, but the other night, Brent wanted the boys to say their own prayers. He got them to kneel by the bed, and as soon as I saw that....I had to get a picture!

They prayed for thier cousin, Jordan, who has a broken collarbone. Abinet's prayer was so cute. He explained to God how Jordan broke his bone and asked if God could make him all better! I just smiled and snapped another picture!
Bedtime is just so cute!!

We're Tough, Man!

Everyone is saying that these two boys are always smiling. I thought I better show some pictures where a little bit of "attitude" is coming through! This is Abinet's tough guy look. I think it's pretty cute because of how wrinkled his little nose gets!

Mesele was giving me a little bit of "black attitute." He looks at me like this and says, "What's up brother?" Again, it looks tough, but it's still so stinkin' cute! Don't cha just love 'em?!?

Don't be scared of us.....99% of the time, we really ARE smiling!

Pictures of Our Home in Ethiopia

Brent and I ordered a book that will be a keepsake forever! CAFAC emailed us info about a book that was put together to give more information about the region on Kembata in Ethiopia. This is the region where our boys are from, so we ordered the book.

The boys have loved looking through this book and pointing out things that they seem to remember.

This morning, I asked them to find a picture of their house. They looked carefully until they found the right page. They both shout, "there it is!" and proudly point to a one room grass hut. There is one bed, and half of the house is where the animals (cows) stay. It's sad and amazing that they can show us these things! After looking at that little grass hut, I can understand why they keep telling people now that they live in a BIG, BIG house!

More Speed!

These boys LOVE anything that moves, especially if it moves FAST! Saturday evening we were at the farm, and there were a couple of motorbikes there. Naturally, Mesele and Abinet asked around until they found the right two guys who would give them rides on the bikes!

Daniel and Kenton gave the boys a good ride and I think they had enough speed to satisfy my two little men! I am sure that one day, Mesele and Abinet will be begging Mommy and Daddy for a motorbike of their own. Hopefully that day is FAR in the future. Right now...they just need to try and get enough speed out of thier peddle bikes!
Thanks for the great rides, Uncles!!

Pictures Of Our Holiday Fun!

One of the things that we did while in Calgary was to go to the Calgary Zoo. We didn't have a lot of time, but we managed to get around and see the animals that the boys really liked.

We spent a lot of time looking at the hippo, baby giraffe, lions, baby gorilla, baby elephant, and of course, a tiger.

Although the animals were very cute, Abinet was more often wowed by the airplanes that were flying overhead!

Mesele and Abinet loved watching all the animals and Mesele asked lots of questions about different animals when he didn't understand. I think it's so cute how he is so eager to learn about anything and everything!






After walking through the main part of the zoo, we went walking through the pre-historic part.

Ever since we went through Drumheller and the boys got to see all the dinosaurs, they seem to just LOVE them all the more!

As we walked along, they would point out all the dinosaurs they could see. We stopped to take some pictures on a rock and the boys were a little nervous cuz there was a T-Rex in the background!! OH NO!

We had a lot of fun and I was so glad that we had the time to go through the zoo with these two little monkeys!

Hiarcut Time!

When the kids start cryin' because I want to comb
their hair.....it's definately time for a haircut!

Yesterday at lunchtime and I heard the boys ask me again, "MOMMY....haircut please!" I'm not the greatest at cutting hair, so we called Daddy at the church and the boys got to ask Daddy to please give them a haircut.

As soon as Daddy got home, the boys knew the time had come and they could hardly wait! Brent sets up his little booth in the garage. It consists of the wheelbarrow, a fold up chair and a Vidal Sasson cover (just to make it all look a little bit more fashionable!).

Mesele was the first one to get buzzed. Just look at how proud this little guy is of his new do! What a pose!!




















Abinet was the next one in the chair. He was so excited that he couldn't stop giggling the whole time Brent was trying to work. Now I have two buzzed little chocolates! What a couple of sweethearts!





















If you ever need a haircut, our chair is always open to you!

Our Bestest Friends

We just got back from another holiday. Don't worry.....I think we should be done traveling for a little while!

This last weekend we were in Calgary for a ball tournament. (I won't go into details about that cuz....umm..well, let's just not go there.)
After the tourny was done, we got to visit with our friends, Jen and Duff Gibson. They traveled with us to Ethiopia and adopted the best friends to our boys!

It is so cool to watch just how close these little guys are to eachother. On Monday, we all went to Calaway Park and Mesele and Gedion went ahead of us and were holding hands. PRECIOUS!

They all had lots of fun going on rides (if they were tall enough!), playing in a pit of balls, and just being with eachother. They are all such good friends. The first picture is of Gedion and Mesele and this one is of Abinet and Taye. What a bunch of Cutie-Patooties!

The last ride we did were the bumper cars. You had to be there to understand how much we laughed and why. All I can say is, it's a good thing these guys won't be driving real cars for a while!

Thanks Duff and Jen for a wonderful time! We love you guys and your precious little boys so much!