How Are The Boys Doing?

All in all they are doing very well.

We are in the awkward adjustment phase where they speak Chinese to me and I speak English to them. Neither of us has a clue what the other is saying.

Of course it would be best to know some of the language but we always muddle our way through this phase and somehow come out okay with time!

We do have a few translators in the house (Sarah, Mia and Melissa) but they do not speak Chinese back to the boys very often.

The boys spent the first couple days figuring out our home and going from room to room!

They checked out the all the toys, their closets and the dogs!

We had  balloon bouquets to welcome them home...

They are no longer with us ;-)

At one point in time we had about 8 balloons on the ceiling.

Spiderman is still up there...

Thinking he will start to sink sometime in March!

I did tell hubby that the "singing angry birds balloon" would be dying soon...

He said, "I think it's going to be more like a homicide!"

(Cause this Momma was going after it with a scissors as soon as the cute little kiddies went to bed!!"

The weather has been chilly in this neck of the woods so as soon as we had a break in the temps, we had the children play outside!

They were going a little stir crazy inside the house and yet not ready to conquer the world!

Joey is from southern China...

all this winter gear is new to him and he is tiny!

He lost his mittens quite a few times and needed his big sisters help!

He seems to gravitate toward Ellie which makes her feel quite special.

He was the first to come in and he was chilled to the bone.

He needed his Momma to comfort him!

It was my pleasure!

Ben stayed out a long time with out any problem!

He loved playing in the snow with Sam and all the children!

Since Saturday, it has been much too cold for the children to play outside ;-(

Feeling blessed to have all 13 children home!

I wasn't sure if we should have school or not on Monday BUT we do have 13 kiddos and they all do best when they are on a schedule!

Plus we lost a few days in the fall and we have plans for the late winter so we need to do school whenever we can!

Truthfully, 

I LOVE DOING SCHOOL with the children!

I had Ben do a few math worksheets and then let the 2 new boys play.

I want them to see the others doing school and hopefully in time they will desire to join us.

 I also want them to see what we do each day - our schedule and daily routine.

Joey has been a pretty good boy since they have been home!

We have been pleasantly surprised!

Ben is a very good boy but he only wants to listen to Dad.

If he doesn't want to do something he would wave me off and shake his head no...

Ya'll know me by now...

that does not fly with me!

At this present moment I am probably not his favorite person ;-)

But with time he will learn to listen to Momma and do what she asks!

Both Joey and Ben "recover fast"- which is really nice!

If they disobey and I tell them no they are only disgruntled for a short time.

That is a good quality to have!

All the children are enjoying their new brothers!

They have been watching and reporting to me when necessary!

Sam and Luke had their haircuts done late last week.

Now it was Ben and Joey's turn!

They were both thrilled to have their hair cut!

Mike, the barber cut our oldest son Matt's hair when he was 18 months!

Matt is 30 now!

He still cuts, Hubby, Mark, Johnny and all our younger boys hair!

(Billy does his own!)

Joey was thrilled with the TLC!

Ben watched intently as Joey got his hair cut and now it was his turn!

Both of the boys did very well!

After the haircut we had lunch with Dad and then our pediatric appt.

The specialists appts and dental appts are next week.

I look forward to learning more about the health and care of our two new boys!

We loved our time together!

Just Mom and her two boys!

Tonight Dad brought home a Christmas tree.

We plan to decorate it this weekend!

WE are behind in...

most everything!

But trying to do our best to get back on track!