A day at the zoo with our animals... err, children!

Won Kun already went to the Binder Park zoo with us last summer so he skipped out on us this time. It was a gorgeous day, except for the rainstorm on the way and then some sprinkles while we were there. In any case, it was a wonderful time together!

Loving our camera! We got many cool animal photos but this is one of our faves... the Mexican wolves.

Heading for Africa on the tram...

Morgan Ami entertaining us in Africa (with an Asian hat... typical.)

We thought we would never get the giraffes over to the feeding area. Something spooked them and they wouldn't come near us for a long time. I was *not* leaving until Lena got to feed a giraffe!

We found a couple of gorillas in the African outpost and took a photo. They didn't seem happy about it though.

"NO MORE PHOTOS, LADY!" (recognize that hat on that monkey's head?)
He started following us! A gorilla with a goofy old-man hat and red Converse... he got a LOT of attention from passers-by for the rest of the day. :-)

We are looking forward to many more zoo trips this summer and hope for many more beautiful days like this one!

Disney on Ice

Friday we went to the Disney on Ice, Worlds of Fantasy show at the Palace. When we asked Lena if she would want to come with us, she nearly cried she was so excited! Won Kun had a basketball game so he chose to stay in school... what is WRONG with that boy?!?

At the Princess pre-show, we were able to meet Cinderella and Belle. Parker (Snow White) was a little shy about it even though she has played princesses just about every day since coming home from Disney World in May!

Sweet sisters in front of Jasmine's costume. I must be influenced a little too much by my sons' love of weaponry... the first thing I notice in the photo is the glint of the sword!

No, we weren't the ONLY people there... just the first. :-)

The show covered four movies... Cars,

The Little Mermaid,

The Lion King,

and Tinkerbell.

It was a wonderful show and we look forward to Disney returning in October. We've definately become Disney Geeks over the last year. Of all the times we've been to Disney with one or more of the kids, 2008 was the most MAGICAL and one of my most treasured memories with my family.

Blessings,
Kelli

Oh, happy chaos!

Lena, Morgan, and Parker seem to be getting along just fine... Morgan dressed up as "Little Lena" complete with her cell phone and sunglasses. Parker got in on the dress-up fun also just after this photo.





Lena has been soooo wonderful with the girls. She is very patient and loving, plays and reads with them, and does lots of snuggling.





(I tried to get a nice photo with my new "daughter" but look who snuck into this photo.)

The funniest thing is the relationship between Luke and Lena (hey, that almost sounds like "Luke and Leia"... cool, maybe she won't notice if we start calling her that!)... Oh, sorry... those two are so hysterical together! The teasing and loving little "jabs" at each other make me know she really is a part of the family already. She's the big sister he never had- and he really needs someone to boss him around sometimes! Jalen loves to watch those two go at it!


Great father/daughter shot!



Won Kun and Lena have done quite well together, too. They've hosted several little get-together/parties as they share many of the same friends.

It has been a *very* busy time for us with four teens, a tween, and a little princess. We have one in drama, two in basketball, two in power lifting, two in Life Teen, and six with rich social lives! We have put a lot of miles on the family "bus" recently but have even enjoyed just driving all of the kids to different events, often multiple trips a day. Some of the best conversations happen trapped in the car together. :-)

A word that keeps coming to mind lately is "chaos"... but not the kind of chaos that's in John and Luke's current favorite movie, "Dark Knight"!! This has been what John and I call our "happy chaos." There are times I am mentally counting kids to make sure I know where they all are, who's in charge of them, and how they each are getting back home, or buying snacks to have 2-10 more kids over for the evening, or talking around the dinner table for a long time about anything and everything, and I am enjoying this time in our lives more than any other. I am more often ditching other responsibilities temporarily to take time to enjoy my hubby and each of the kids in different ways and I'm starting to look at ways to ditch some responsibilities altogether. I see how fast time is flying and it's definately got me thinking...

Thanks for reading!
Kelli

Yet ANOTHER teen in the house!

The photo below was taken in September. These are all of the YFU exchange students at WLHS this year. We had NO idea how much we would grow to love all of these kids!

Last week, Dae Sick stayed with us (front and center in the photo) while his host mom was on vacation. While he was here, Lena (far left) needed a place to stay while YFU searched for a new host family for her. She stayed with us overnight... just long enough for Morgan to beg to keep her! Sooo, we now have a 16 yr. old girl from Brazil in the family! We are now the Brady Bunch with 3 boys and 3 girls and loving every minute of it! Wait, maybe not EVERY minute, but most of them... just wish I could get my girls to go to sleep. They only want Brazilian lullabies from their new big sister!!

We are very thankful for ALL of our kiddos! Our bio. four have really welcomed and embraced new siblings so easily and beautifully and Won Kun and Lena are such a wonderful addition to the family. We are all learning a lot about other cultures, beliefs, languages, etc. and having an awesome time in the process!

A LAST FIRST :-(

At more than six-and-a-half years old, my last baby finally lost her first tooth!! She has asked me several times to help her wiggle it out. Finally, it worked!

Here's the before....


And the after...



And then calling her best friend Alex to give him the big news!...


Yeah, Parker!! You finally got a visit from the tooth fairy!

Another TEEN in the house

We now have THREE teenage boys in the house! (Pray for us!) Seriously, Luke turned 13 on Monday and spent the entire morning creating his Facebook account. He has waited a looooong time to be old enough to sign up for it and he is already as addicted to it as I am! It's fun to see the kinds of photos, status updates, and comments he posts. He's quite a funny young man!

Oh, the anticipation waiting for his gift! He HAD to know what it would be since he has been begging for it for months. Originally, he wanted a puppy but I wanted a gift that didn't need to be potty-trained!

Even though he was expecting it, Lukey-Bear (can I still call him that?!) was very appreciative and thanked us throughout the day. He was very sweet. :-)

Korean Thunder, Won the Mon, The Kun Man, etc.

A great dream-come-true story for you...

Won Kun, our exchange student from S. Korea, plays soccer at home. He had never seen an American football game before August. He went out for our JV team, made VARSITY, and went on to break conference records in kicking!! Check out our awesome #3 in action...


All Conference team!!!

Won Kun was invited to a kickers' camp at Rutgers where college scouts were checking out the talent. If he can figure out how to continue playing football and improving his skills, he may have a university scholarship in his future somewhere in the states! Of course, we hope it will be nearby... I hear Univ. of Michigan needs some talent. :-)