A thunderstorm in February?

A smiley boy
Watch out, Henry! I'm going to kiss you!
Me and my big brother.
Charles loves to do puzzles. And, play with trains as you can see in the back.
This is me in my new monkey towel. Appropriate since my mom and dad call me a monkey. Thanks Steve and Kelly for the towel!


Well, as a matter of fact, we are having a thunderstorm tonight. Complete with lightening. I really like thunderstorms...in April. This rain is going to freeze. We will be going out tomorrow though. It's Charles Gotcha Day. In the adoption world, gotcha day is a celebration of the day we gotcha. Tomorrow is the day Charles came home. We've had some interesting conversations about that lately...with both boys. Travis and I were talking about how glad we were to let Henry wait to start kindergarten. Travis commented that it was nice to have all the boys home at the same time. Especially since it will likely be the only time they'll all be home with no school requirements. It was good reminder of having perspective. One thing I learned when I was sick is that there is no guarantee, and that we need to enjoy life and the people around us as much as possible while we're here. So, I decided the most important thing is to spend time with my kids. With this as priority, it places things like housework a little bit lower on the totem pole. Just so everyone knows, if you come to my house try not to notice the dust on the shelves, the dog hair on the couch, or the dirty shoe prints on the floor. There will probably be sand on the rug, fingerprints on the window, and pictures taped to the wall by little boys and moms. There may be train tracks set up on the floor for weeks, and the laundry may take a few days to get folded. But, we'll be having fun, playing, and hugging, snuggling for books, and making grass and rock soup outside. We'll probably have pet worms, and the refrigerator may look like a giant collage of stuff. All visitors are welcome, but I hope you don't mind a lot of chaos and little dust. We're going to be having fun.

I have a great Charles comment today. All the boys had baths tonight. Travis was taking care of Andrew, Henry was taking care of himself, and I was helping Charles put lotion on. He was staring at his hands, and then yelled, "Mom! Mom! My hands are squish!" He had been in the bathtub too long : )

Also, baby James got out of the hospital today. I was relieved and thrilled to see his smiling face.