The Cousins Visit

At the end of last week my sister Katie came to town so Johnny and Cullen could spend a little more time together before Katie's family headed back home to North Carolina.  Johnny came while Cullen was still in school.  Cullen spotted Johnny waiting for him while he was still on the bus, when he got off the bus he ran right into Johnny's waiting arms...

Katie has all boys, who don't like to shop.  So Katie decided to take Nasuuna out and spoil her.  Which of course lead to shadow dancing in her new outfit.

 Cullen spent one morning by himself with the cousins.  He wanted to take them to Lambeau Field, so to Green Bay we went...

 He had fun hanging with the boys...

Cullen even got the chance to introduce his cousins to our good friend Beth.  Which lead to everyone trying on the Green Bay Packers Super Bowl ring...

 The below picture just might be my favorite from the day...

 Cullen had a lot of fun on his day with the cousins.

 We are all looking forward to seeing them again in June!

Nasuuna's 6th Birthday

 Today we celebrated Nasuuna's 6th Birthday

For entertainment Geremu surprised us by preformed a stunt that involved the cake...

I've been prepping Nasuuna and asking her what it is she wants for her birthday and her standard response is, "Nofing, I got everything I want."  I am humbled to be a part of this girl's life.  

Long Easter Weekend

For our long Easter weekend we headed to my parents house.  My sister Katie had flown home from North Carolina with her boys and my sister Megan's family was in town from Minnesota.  It was great having most of the family together even if it was only for a little bit of time.

Nick took the older boys out for a little hiking fun...

They enjoyed it and came back filthy!

We decided to celebrate the "spring" birthdays while we were all together.

 Easter morning the kids all had fun hunting for their baskets.

 Before heading out to church.  

Since the kids were all clean and dressed nice I had to take a picture.

 Granny Bird and Pop with all the grandkids.

When we got back from church the bunny had visited again, eggs were all over the yard.  The kids lined up for instructions.  Each kids had a different color egg this year.  We had to make it fair for the little kids.

 And it's a good thing we did because the little kids did not jump the gun, look at them still standing nicely.

 We always have judged Katie's trips based off of how much she cries when it's time for her to head home.  If she cries a lot she had a lot of fun...  What I didn't anticipate was my own sensitive son Cullen crying when it was time for him to say good-bye to Johnny.   It was heartbreaking I tell ya.  The good news is we have found a little time later this week for the kids to get back together before the cousins head back to North Carolina.

10 Year Anniversary

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary on Friday we (Nick and I) headed up north with our 3 favorite people...

The weather was beautiful, it was in 20's with LOTS of snow!

   

The kids stayed busy sledding and building a fort...

They were hoping to surprise Uncle Corky with snowballs when he came over.  

But Corky had other plans...

When Corky beat a 5, 6, and 7 year old in the snowball fight he made sure everyone in the north woods knew...

The snow was really deep.  Below is what happens when you don't want to travel the road and don't want to put on your snowshoes...

We had to call for Nick's help a few times because the kids would literally get stuck in the snow.  If I was able to get them out it was without a boot (and once the sock went missing too)...

No boots or socks were lost, just temporarily missing.  

The kids had fun trying to break the ice on the river...

 Cullen made-up his own "live" version of Temple Run.  He also holds the record for the fastest time.  The tunnels were so small the adults had trouble getting through them.

Thanks to this good-lookin' guy...

 The last 10+ years of my life have been pretty fantastic.

And these little people are just the icing on the cake...

We like to party...

I must first start by wishing you all a very Happy St. Patty's Day!

We had an eventful weekend.  Cullen was down in the dumps at the end of last week with a pretty high fever.  So he spent most of the weekend laying low- recovering.  It's our first illness of the winter (knock on wood) so we really can't complain too much.  

We woke up on Saturday to a fresh layer of snow.  

So my child who loves to shovel (Geremu) was out at it again...
For hours.

We spent some time at the library and outside again in the afternoon.  

Nasuuna stayed busy making little snowmen and snowdonkeys...

So Geremu could run them over with his bike...

I went outside because "You need to see my snow donkey!"  When I looked in the garage the car was covered in snow.  I asked the kids what happened and they both busted up laughing.  They had taken snow into the garage and threw it all over Nick's car.  The amount of snow they had used was pretty inpressive- the windshield and hood of the car was completely covered with a good 4-5" of snow.

Saturday afternoon we begin celebrating St. Patty's Day early with some good friends.  Beth, Patrick, Erica and Curt came over for a green celebration.  This picture was taken a week ago but it has the kids with Patrick and Beth, they are so good to my kids and us.

 The kids woke-up today to find that someone/something had gotten into our house again and dropped...

Chocolate money!  The $10 bill was not dropped purposefully.   We were stunned when the kids woke us up holding the real money with the fake gold.  I think one of our guest from the day before dropped it in the kitchen.

To add to our weekend of celebrations we celebrated
Adisa's birthday today!

 This afternoon the kids swam and hung out together.

 Everyone was in bed early!

Bed Early = Successful Weekend

Babies

Geremu's teacher had a baby yesterday.  Geremu came home today and told us all about the babies arrival, which was basically just the babies name.  Then he asked me how babies get out of tummies....  Before I could even figure out how to explain this to him Nasuuna took over.  She didn't even have to use words, she pretty much did an all out demonstration that included squatting and screaming.  The two boys and I just stood there watching her with our mouths hanging open and eyes bulging out of our heads.  When she was finished Geremu and Cullen killed themselves laughing while Nasuuna smiled at them proud of what she had taught them.  I was silent with shock.

Once Geremu and Cullen pulled it together they wanted to know more,  "Mom is she right?  Is that how it happens?"
Nasuuna said, "Yes, I be right, it's just like peeing."
A statement like that would only naturally be followed up with, "Well then does a girl's dinker swell up?"

I'd love to say that this conversation ended with me reminding the kids that girl's don't have dinkers...  Only boys do.  But that would be way too easy.  I answered their funny questions in an age appropriate way (I hope, fingers crossed) that seemed to satisfy them.

Tonight the kids had religion- on the way to religion we drove by the hospital.  Geremu announced that his teacher was in the hospital with her baby.  (He wanted me to stop so he could go see her.  Yeah, I don't think so kid.)  Nasuuna was shocked to hear this, "Why she be in the hospital?"  I explained that when people have babies they often have them in the hospital.

She informed us, "That not be how you do it.  You go outside, AHHHHHHHH (insert scream), come in with baby.  No hospital."

This girl is a wealth of knowledge....

Girl's Date Night

Today I had a date with Nasuuna to go see Disney on Ice.  Before we left we went to the grocery store to make sure there was a meal waiting for the boys when they got back from their activities.  Cullen was out tubing with a friend and Nick & Gere were at a wrestling tournament.  As soon as we walked into the produce aisle Nasuuna spotted sugar cane.  We bought a piece that is over 5' long and made it out of the store without knocking anything off the shelves, a miracle.

As soon as we got home Nasuuna wanted it cut it up.  When I started to get out the sawzall Nasuuna informed me, "That not be how you do it..."  Shockingly, I didn't lose a finger in the process of getting this just how she wanted it with a knife. 

Nasuuna was so happy with the treat...

I ended up having to cut another bag full of sugar cane so she could take it with her the rest of the afternoon. 

Disney on Ice was pretty amazing if I should say so myself.  We went with some good girl friends and had a great time.  Before we went I explained that the entire show was on ice and the characters would be ice skating.  She said, "Like Geremu?" Um, not exactly;)  Half way through the show she said, "Mom, Dat be ice?  Dat be REAL ice?"  

Before I continue on with the story I want to say that Nasuuna's language had really developed.  She has been in the United States for about 15 months and she is an a-mazing little sponge.  She still has her adorable accent that seems thicker to me when I talk with her on the phone.  Since she has picked up the language so quickly it's hard to remember that some times she has no idea what we are talking about because she just doesn't have the background knowledge.   Tonight was one of those nights...

Nasuuna has not seen any of the Disney Movies that were a part of this show, because of her lack of Disney knowledge she was more than a little confused.  When the characters would talk she had no idea who was talking because their mouths don't move and she doesn't know what voice goes to what character.  She could not figure out "Why that man (Pinocchio) nose be so long?" When Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) was on the ice dancing the Beast came to join her and Nasuuna yelled, "AHHHH, A MONSTER!"  I corrected her and told her it was a beast to which she said, "A beast be a bear?"  During the Nemo segment a large shark came out- it was clearly two skaters under the costume.  She said to me, "Mom fish have legs?"  The questions were priceless and just kept on coming.

On our car ride home after leaving our friends house she had a lot of questions about the show.  Even through she didn't always know what was going on she still loved it because it was fun to watch.  Once we were home Geremu wanted to hear all about the show.  Nasuuna said, "I don't know anyone.  Mom you tell Geremu about it."  Gere was disappointed he wasn't invited but once he learned we were not the ones ice skating he didn't seem to care about the show.