Big Sister of 4

2011-12-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

Enter @MundieMoms 31 Days of CP SIGNED Ed & Heather head shots & CP Audiobook Giveaway http://mundiemoms.blogspot.com/2011/12/infernal-devices-clockwork-prince-31.html

Moving On...

2009-08-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how many people actually still go on here.. maybe no one at all! But in case anyone happens to come on here, I'd just like to point you in the direction of my new blog, which will document and record the stories and adventures as my family moves to South Africa in the Fall! Its crazy and exciting and nerve wracking and I can't believe it's actually happening so soon now!!

So in case anyone still does go on here from time to time, hoping that my horribly lacking blogging skills have somehow revived themselves, please go on over to my other blog, which will, I promise!!, be updated as much as is possible when I can find an internet connection!

And just for fun, here's a few pictures from my trip to Uganda that I edited :)

Just Singing a Song

2008-11-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a video of Moses singing in the car on the way to church. So cute :)

"Autumn Leaves are Falling Down", a made up song to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down".. so cute (especially the gulp for air in the middle :D)

Cool pics

2008-10-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures I edited with Picnik (an application on Facebook :D). Its so fun! :)

At camp during the summer :)

Me and my friend at about 8 (we met at 3, and we're still friends now :D)

Jesca, my sponsor girl's sister.. in Uganda.

Me and some friends on the ferry back from Vancouver Island

haha love this one.. Me and my friends on a dressup day at school (the clothes are real, the hair's not :P)

haha my little Moses :D

Me and my friend.. we have the same birthday, and when we were younger everyone thought we were twins, so we've always called each other Twin 1 and Twin 2 :P

Dressing up for an awesome youth event.. go team black!! :D

Me and my sibs on the ferry to camp

GORGEOUS little twins that my friend and I babysit for a weekend in Whistler (along with 3 other kids)

The Gorgeous Ones <3

2008-10-20T19:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures taken during a little model shoot with Ayana and Moses.. I appoligize for the huuuge amount of photos (and this is after deleting a bunch!)..we were bored :P

And as Moses was being unusually cooperative, I thought I'd seize the opportunity and get some good shots of him! :)

I love these next ones of Ayana, because she was totally just being a goofball, but it captured so many parts of her personality perfectly! :)

Aren't they just the cutest, most beautiful little things you've ever seen?!? They're even cuter in person ;)

Coming up next.... pics of all my siblings, and some wonderful photoshop/picnik edited pictures by moi! :)

Aldor Acres.. The Pumpkin Patch!

2008-10-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Aldor Acres, which is an adorable farm where you can go and just hang out, and look at/hold the animals. There's also a pumpkin patch where you can go and get pumpkins there, and at Christmas they have a Christmas tree farm. There's not much to describe, so I'll just put the pictures up... so pretty!

The batteries were almost dead on my camera, so we bought a disposable camera too... so the pictures on here are the only ones from my camera, and the other ones still have to be developed :)

Tiniest, cutest little 3 week old bunnies ever... I wanted to take them all home!!

Ayana and Moses checking out the bunnies

Me holding a baby piglet! It was actually screaming the whole time I held it!! Haha.. I was born to live on a farm! :P Actually, no joke, I would love it!

The cutie pies

Loving the goats

Going for a hay ride! :P

Moses looved the tractor ride the best!!

With our baby pumpkins

Moses being a goof

Just Some Exciting, Fantastic, Incredible, Amazing, Wonderful, Sweeter than Sweet News!!!!

2008-09-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, so for those of you who don't remember/know, my school sends out teams of 10-14 students plus leaders to different countries around the world each year to do various outreach projects. Last year I went to India, and had a fantastic time, and loved the girls at the orphanage we were working at. This year, there are 12 teams (more than ever-last year was the most so far, and there were 10), going to:

- South Africa

- Tanzania

- Nimibia (new team!)

- India (new last year)

- Slovakia (new last year)

- Ukraine (new last year)

- Trinidad

- Kibaale, Uganda (the school we sponsor in Uganda, where my two gorgeous sponsor children are)

- Cuba

- Israel

- Guatemala

- Thailand

You apply in May, and put down your choices of continent or Israel(ie: I put 1. Africa, 2 Africa, 3. Israel(Africa).... haha, think I got my point across?? :P) but then you don't find out where you go until the first Friday of the new school year.

So they got us all into the auditorium and gave a loooong speech about outreach, and the different locations, and stretched it out SO long, and then finally we all went running up to the lobby to find out what teams we were on.

Ok, to set this up properly, I should mention that not only did I write Africa on my list, I wrote Kibaale as well, AND wrote a 1 1/2 page letter on why I should go to Kibaale AND prayed about it non-stop alllll summer. Basically, I wanted to go to Kibaale so bad I could die. Plus, I knew that the leaders were really good friends of ours, so that would be even more exciting! However, since I went in the summer after grade 8 with my family, I was almost 100% sure that I wouldnt' be going.. but I prayed and hoped all the same.

Ok, so we all go running up, and checking the list to find our names and locations, and as I'm scanning the list for my name, I see.... I could not believe it, I started hyperventilating. There is my name; Wiebe, Erin.. and right beside it, it says...

UGANDA!!!!!!!!!!!

I started screaming, when all of a sudden I hear one of my best friends, Carissa, screaming too. So we run over to each other, and scream (at the same time) "I'm going to Uganda!!!" (let me just mention here that I'm not the kind of girl who goes around screaming.. I'm actually quite quiet at school-except for with my friends-, so I'm pretty sure I gave like half my grade a heart attack when I started freaking out like that!) Yes, me and one of my best friends since grade 6, are both going to one of the best places ever!!!!!

My other really good friends are going to South Africa, Trinidad, Tanzania, and Israel, so I'm soo excited for them, those should be awesome trips. However, I have to say, I'm am SOOOOOOOOO pumped about my trip! I am going to KIBAALE UGANDA!!!!!!

This is pretty much (along with Israel) the most popular place, and the hardest to get into because everyone wants to go. So needless to say, I am sooo excited, I can hardly stop smiling. Even now, I'll be sitting there (usually looking at pictures of my sponsor kids.. WHO I WILL BE MEETING IN A FEW MONTHS!!!!!!) and just randomly start smiling, because I just can't stop thinking about how unbelievably happy I am.

And to make it even better, our leaders are good friends of ours, one of my best friends is going, and all the grade 11s on our team are the really mature ones that I'm already friends with!! So pretty much its my dream team.

I am so excited I could puke. And its only been 2 days since I found out! I don't know how I'll make it through the next few months until we go!!!

Here are some pictures of the incredible place that I will be visiting in only a few short months!!!

First of all, my lovely little Jackie (9 1/2):

And my beautiful Reagan (almost 7):

Jackie's adorable little sister Jesca

At church

My brother reading a book to the grade 2s

LOVE this picture.. mine and Gloria's hands

Little Dorcus (Gloria's twin)

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!! :D :D :D

I Want to be a Pilot

2008-08-29T13:41:00.001-07:00

I found this incredibly moving video on Youtube, and just had to share. (Hopefully it actually works for me this time!!) Its about a little boy called Omondi who lives in Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya) and longs to become a pilot, so that he can fly away from his life in the slums. It just makes me want to go and bring him back to Canada, and give him his dream.... the sad thing is, just how many Omondi's are there in the world who will never ever get a chance at a better life, or even a chance of recognition or love?

I'm not entirely sure whether the video is actually true (as in, that is actually that little boy's story), since the credits are slightly confusing, but the story is true enough in a sense that that is what is happening to children all over Africa, all over the world. It represents those children, gives them a voice, even if the story isn't strictly true.

This is why I know that God is calling me to help.. this is why I can't wait to get to Africa and start to actually do something! I hate it when someone says something along the lines of "But what can you do to actually make change happen? Helping one person isn't going to make a big difference." The thing is, even if you only help one child, it makes a difference to them.

***I know the movie is kind of long but please try to watch the whole thing, at least up to the quote by Nelson Mandella (the rest is pretty much just the credits). Trust me, its worth it!***

Pictures

2008-08-25T17:39:00.001-07:00

Here are some recent pictures of Ayana and Moses... so cute!

These were taken at Capernwray (I wrote about it last year, but I'll hopefully get a post about it up this year too), and they are just adorable pictures.

An Update on Ayana

2008-08-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

I just realised when I posted the Moses Update that I haven't written about Ayana for a while. Well, that doesn't seem very fair, so even though she's not being a little monster like Moses, and there's probably not many rebellious stories I can think of about her, I will do my best to catch you up on the youngest Wiebe girl.
Ayana is about to turn 4 (in November), so she is becoming quite independant- and stubborn! If she makes up her mind that she is going to do something, no one can stop, or help her, until she does. Or gives up, which can take quite a while.
She also sometimes still talks in baby talk, which can make it seem as it she's not very smart, but we know how well she really can speak.. the other day she said to my dad, "Ababa, if I'm allowed, can I colour my Dora picture please? I just can't reach the markers." She really is quite smart, but for some reason she often decides to play dumb (as in, "Ayana, which one is the square?" "Ummm... that one" [points to a triangle], even though two seconds ago she had shown us exactly what all the different shapes are.) We're not quite sure why she does this (maybe trying to be more of a baby like Moses??), but we're trying to encourage her to act her age, and to show how smart she really is. My mom just bought her a pre-preschool learning book, and she LOVES it! She can point out all the shapes, colours, decide which one is different in a row of images, and is having fun learning her numbers and letters.. we're hoping that by doing this, and having fun while doing it, she'll realise that she doesn't have to act like Moses to get attention, but is smart and funny just by being herself.
Of course, I'm not saying that she just tries to be like Moses, and acts like a baby the whole time, or doesn't like herself, or anything like that.
She is really quite the little cutie. She's such a sweetheart, and is very caring and loving towards others.. and she loves playing with friends! We recently visited some friends in Seattle (the two youngest girls -of 6!- are 4 and 2, and Ayana ADORES them, but unfortunately can't see them very often) and she had an awesome time with them, playing on their trampoline, and riding bikes together. When we left, she was absolutely heartbroken; She was sobbing for ages, and it was the saddest I've seen her in ages. :( But she had a great time, and keeps on asking when we can go and see them again.
I'm not sure what else to talk about, but I'll put some recent pictures of her (and Moses too) when I get home. They are both getting cuter by the minute!! :)
Oh, and just as an aside... we went shopping at the Seattle Outlet malls (and Target.. best store ever! We definitely need to get some in Canada!!), and I got quite a lot of new clothes, and saved over $100!! I was quite proud of myself :D

A Moses Update

2008-08-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Last time I posted about Moses, I was sure that he was in the Terrible Two's. Now I'm pretty sure he was just warming up.
Moses is one of the naughtiest (and most hilarious!) kids I know... and unfortunately everyone thinks it adorable, which just makes him do it more. Oh of course my parents punish him, but it doesn't really seem to phase him. I don't have any pictures at the moment (I'm working- I've been part-time nannying these kids all summer, and they are currently in the middle of a movie. I thought I'd take the opportunity to quickly write a post!) but I'll try to describe it the best I can.
For example.... Moses was in the backyard screaming about something (he was having fun, just being too loud), so my mom looked out the window and said "Moses, be quiet. No screaming please." So does Moses stop screaming... well yes. But then he turns around, looks at my mom and says (with a little smirk on his face). "Hmph. Stop screaming MAMA."
Of course, he was sent off for a timeout, but when my mom tried to talk to him he started growling at her. Yes, actually growling in her face. So she came over and sat beside him, and pulled his face towards her (not roughly.. he was just refusing to look at her) and told him to stop being rude. So he goes "Grrr.... BURP. BURP BURP MAMA."
Well by this time my mom was trying so hard not to laugh (I didn't help much either.. I was hiding round the corner laughing :D) that he could tell she thought it was funny; he started laughing and doing it more.
So that is just one example of naughty little Moses. Another one happened just the other day. My mom and her friend were sitting outside talking, and Moses did something (not sure what, probably threw sand or something small) so my mom told him to stop. He looked at her, pouted- he has the best pouty face ever!- and marched inside and slammed the door. He was probably on his way to give himself a timeout, which he does quite regularly. Apparently though, before he could get there, he changed his mind and came back outside. He walked over to my mom, started growling, and put up his fists in a little fighters stance. And he just stood there, growling at her, with his fists up!
Yep, my little brother is quite the little moster! But we all love him so much its hard to be mad. Even when he looks at me, pulls his best "mean boy" face, and says "Hmph... not friends with you! Yucky Rara. Hmph!" :D

Moving On...

2008-08-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a long time since I posted on any blogs.. I've been busy this Summer, and haven't really found the time. But now I just wanted to post some news.

Next Fall (2009), my family will be moving to... AFRICA!!! Yup, its true, we're moving to South Africa (at first, later on we may move on to other countries) to work with an organization called Hands at Work (www.handsatwork.org). Its a Christian organization that works with AIDS orphans and widows, and is majorly focused on home-based care.

After a while (6 months to a year), we'll probably be moving out to either Uganda, or Ethiopia to expand the organization's bases in different African countries.

Hands at Work also has this awesome missions training program for graduated students, which I really want to take part in. Its called Footprints, and basically you spend 3 months in South Africa training, and then the other 9 months of the year in another African country doing volunteer work in whichever branch of missions you feel called to (ie orphanages, hospitals, homebased care, schools etc). Its really sweet... if you're into missions, you should definitely check it out! :)

So in summary, I'll only be posting on this blog for a little while longer.. soon I'll be moving on to another blog, which will be focused on our journey to Africa (but will also include videos/pictures/stories about Ayana and Moses, and our family life in general for those of you who are still interested :D)

Hope there's still a few of you out there who haven't given up on this blog entirely, and will still check back on us once in a while :)

Ayana's Dance Recital

2008-06-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Ayana has been taking dance classes since September, and has LOVED it! The dance class is actually taught by two of my closest friends, so they were so excited when we signed Ayana up for it!

Two weeks ago they had their year end recital, and it was absolutely adorable! Here are some beautiful pictures from the special day...

Rehearsal

Intro to Dance Class, Ages 3-5

Dancing onstage.. they're all going different ways =)

All 3 classes together

Ayana and her adoring fan :)

Ayana's big bouquet of flowers... YELLOW!! (her favourite colour)

Ayana with her two awesome dance teachers Carissa and Kirsten

Funny Story

2008-05-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

I know I've kind of neglected this blog this last week, but since our devastating news last week, I haven't really felt up to it.

I just had a funny little story to share, and I just couldn't resist posting it!

Tonight I was doing a workout video (Jillian Michael's 30-Day-Shred.. soo HARD!! My muscles are burning!!) when Moses came over, and said "Me do movie too Rara!"

When I looked down, he was trying his very hardest to work out with me. He was wiggling his butt, shaking his hips, and kicking out his legs, in his own interpretation of what was happening. He even went and grabbed a pair of shoes to use as weights when it came to the strength section!

I was laughing so hard I could hardly follow the exercises properly!

I know this was very short, but I just had to share this quick story- and I have a ton of homework to finish! I wish I wasn't such a procrastinator! But this weekend is a 4 day weekend, so tomorrow's the last day of school for the week- soooo looking forward to 4 days off!!!

Here's a picture of Moses with his big brother Josh. I wish I had a picture of him 'working out' with me, but I'll definitely try to catch it next time!

Please Pray..

2008-05-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

Today we had an emergency school assembly, and were told some shocking, tragic news. I'm still kind of in shock, and don't really know how to feel, or respond.

Nathan K, a guy in my grade, passed away in his sleep on Saturday night. We don't know any other details, other than he wasn't sick, and was perfectly healthy, and hanging out with his friends late Friday night. No one at school- and especially our grade, and his close friends- knows what to do right now, and school was all but shut down all day. The Auditorium was open all day for anyone to go in and just pray, or cry with friends; classes didn't really happen. Me and my friends were in the auditorium all morning, and then me and Carissa, one of my close friends just came home after lunch.

Please, please pray for his poor family.. I can't imagine what they're going through right now. And also for his closest friends, and those who really knew him well, and for our whole school; that we would all make it through this grieving time together, and that we'll be stronger, and closer after this horrible time. I didn't know him too well, but he seemed like a good guy. He could be a little annoying at times, but what high school guy isn't? He loved photography, and was amazing at it, and he always seemed so happy. I wish I had taken the time to know him better; the only good thing is that we know that he's happier than we could ever imagine right now, in Heaven with God.

We'll miss you Nathan, and won't ever, ever forget you.

I'm not going to post any pictures of him up, but here is a little sample of some of his photography.. as you can see, he was sooo talented:

Another cute video..

2008-05-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you who read my mom's blog, feel free to skip over this post. But for those of you who don't, I just had to share this video! Its one of the funniest videos of Ayana and Moses ever. This was totally not posed at all, and they (or at least Ayana) weren't showing off for the camera at all.. this is just what they're like!! It was taken about a week before last Christmas, and Ayana and Moses were just enjoying watching the snow, with some beautiful background music.. so Ayana decided to express how she was feeling with some interpretive dance.. and Moses decided to copy her. Enjoy!

Pictures

2008-05-01T20:53:00.001-07:00

Megan just downloaded a 30-day trial of Paint Shop Pro Photo Edition, and I've been hooked ever since! I've just been playing around with some pictures, and thought I'd share some of the cute ones I've come up with. (They're not all of Ayana and Moses, but there's some really nice ones of them.)

These are pictures from Crescent Beach (I think I may have posted some of the originals back in February- from the Flag Ceremony at our church)

This is one of the pictures from Christmas Eve last year, up on Grouse Mountain (don't really like the effects on this one, but I'll have to fix it up later)

Here's one from my trip to India.. me and my friends in the Arabian Sea! (I'm the second from the right)

This one is from my cousin's wedding about 6ish years ago.. Megan was a flower girl, Josh was a ring bearer, and I was a junior bridesmaid. I loooove this picture! :)

Hope you like them! :)

Cute Video

2008-04-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

So I was just looking at some old pictures and videos from when we first brought Ayana and Moses home, and I found this adorable video from Ayana's 2nd birthday. Its really short, but its soo cute! Just thought I'd share it.. :)

Referral-iversary

2008-04-18T15:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, I was trying to think of a way to combine "referral" and "anniversary" in some unique way, but the best I could come up with was "Referral-iversary". Not very creative, I know, but you'll just have to live with that. :P

Despite my rather lame title, its still a special day! It has been two years today that we recieved our very first pictures of Ayana and Moses. And how different they were too! Scared and confused at 3 months and 17 months, they looked so different from the energetic, mischevious 2 and 3 year olds they have become.

Moses is now talking up a storm, running around, and pretty much terrorizing everyone and everything he comes across, while Ayana is happy, communicating fairly well (she sometimes has trouble coming away from the baby talk.. ie: saying "I want a drink of water please" instead of "Ayana want water". She knows how to do it, but when she gets nervous or tired, or just can't be bothered, she lapses back into baby talk.) and is a beautiful little girl. She even goes to dance class, which she absolutely loves! (which just happens to be taught by my two best friends :P)

Here are a few pictures of them, so you can see how far they've come!

Ayana at referral, and 1 month after..

Moses at referral, and 1 month after...

Both of them at referral..

And today... matress sledding down the stairs!

Easter..

Grumpy Moses on Easter

Enjoying Easter chocolate!

Moses being dramatic with his chocolate racing car..

Mama, Ayana, and Calico, the "Easter Bunny"!! :)

Mama, Moses, and the Easter Bunny

Together in Seattle

India...

2008-04-05T16:09:00.000-07:00

I don't have time to update this blog right now, but I just spent about 1 1/2 hours writing a post about my trip to India on my other blog, so feel free to go and check that out! (http://erin-livelaughandlove.blogspot.com/)

For now, here's a picture of me on my trip.. I'll update about Ayana and Moses another day. They're doing great! :D

Parade of Flags, and a Day at the Beach

2008-03-01T16:37:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday was the first week of "Missions Month" at our church, so to mark the occasion they had the annual "Parade of Flags" service. Since we just started going to this church in January, I've never seen the Parade of Flags, and didn't know quite what to expect.

It was far beyond anything I'd could have imagined. They had different people carrying the different flags of countries from all over the world, all dressed up in national costumes. The choir was all dressed in a different countrie's traditional dress, and it looked so beautiful. They started singing (I'm not sure what the song was called, but it was so good, and talked about how all the nations, all the cities, and all the people of the world belong to God) and a few little kids slowly came in, and did a little dance at the front, all carrying the different provincial flags of Canada.

Then the song changed to "I am not Forgotten", with an African/Indian sounding twist, and the flag bearers began marching down the different aisles. My dad and Moses were carrying the flag of Kenya, and Josh and Ayana got to carry the Ethiopian flag, so it was especially cool to watch. There were so many flags, from all around the world, and the choir sounded beautiful.. there were many people crying. We only got a few pictures, and they're not all very good, but I'll put them on here to give you a taste of what it was like.

In Ethiopian/other African traditional costume!

The Choir

Not the nicest picture, but it was taken as they were walking down the aisle, and they weren't ready for a picture!

Ethiopian and Canadian!! Or.. "Opia and Ca-naw-da" (as Ayana would say it!)

After church we went to the beach with a family friend (Cathy- thanks for the pictures! :D), so here are some pictures of that too.

Haha... this wasn't posed at all! :P

Sisters!!

When Moses saw this, he promptly told me,
"Mama, DoyDoy-MEEEE!!!, Caffy, Callie! Picture!"

Family Pictures!

The day wouldn't be complete without icecream! (and a goofy face from Josh)

Moses' 2nd Birthday (Second Try)

2008-02-25T19:13:00.000-08:00

Since last time I tried to post this (about 3 weeks ago) I've felt guilty every time I passed the computer. However, since Blogger has deleted my posts about 10 times this year alone, I just couldn't motivate myself to try again. Finally I've worked up the courage, and I'm hoping beyond hope that this will actually post!

Last month it was the big boy's birthday. Moses Ermias Wiebe turned two years old, and he is definitely living up to his age... he has officially hit the "Terrible Twos" (although I believe he hit it long before his birthday!). Now don't get me wrong, he is still the most gorgeous, amazing, adorable, hilarious little baby I know. Even when he's being "rebellious" he's still adorably funny. Just now that he's two, he seems to think he can get away with anything.

For example, if he's doing something he knows he shouldn't be, he will watch us carefully, but do it anyway. The minute someone tells him to stop, he gets this huge grin on his face, turns towards us, and says, "No!" He will then procede to continue to do it, shaking his head whenever he is told to stop. It probably doesn't help that the rest of us are trying hard to stop killing ourselves laughing when he does this.

What he can't stand, more than anything else, is being alone, so his punishments are always timeouts, and no one can talk to him for 2 whole minutes. The stairs are the usual timeout place, and until now, he has been content to sit there, crying, and looking angrily at everyone walking by.

Now, however, he has realized that the much naughtier thing to do is to lie across the stairs, so that no one can get over. When someone simply steps over him, he is outraged that we dared to out think him, and it will set him off on another round of screaming.

Of course, he is always extremely good at saying sorry (usually only when he is actually being punished. He'll sit on the stairs shouting "Sowwy! Sowwy!" and hoping that it will mean he can get off of his timeout early). Sometimes when he's feeling extremely bad, he'll refuse, but for the most part, he's perfectly willing to own up to what he's done, and apologize.

Anyway, since he is now two years old, I thought I'd give you a bit of an update on his life. That is the more rebellious side of him. Now for the deliciously adorable side.

His vocabulary is huge now, and he can talk quite well now (in baby words, and short sentences of course.. but we always know what he means!) And if he can't say it exactly, he'll be able to communicate what he's trying to say by describing what he wants.
Here are a few examples of Moses talk:

- "Cup Please!" (he's thirsty)

- "Car push car, funny Mater tuck"--> (he wants to watch the movie Cars, which he got for Christmas, and I can truthfully say, has watched it probably about 20 times since then.. and I've watched it about 15 out of those 20 times.. it really is a funny movie!! :D)

- "Wake up Jeff!" (he is talking to one of the Wiggle's characters, Jeff, who is always falling asleep)

- "I wan' dat one" (this one's self-explanatory)

- "I wan hot cho-cuh-lut" (he's recently become obsessed with hot chocolate.. he actually has a bit of an Ethiopian accent when he says it too, its hilarious!)

-"Humphy nowman" (Humphry the snowman.. this one is kind of strange. My mom, jokingly, told Moses that the snowman he had made outside was called Humphry. From then on, Moses is convinced that every single snowman is named Humphry, and he loves them all)

-"All-ri ha!" (Alright hat... his favourite song, called Ethiopia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MxsZwWvGeo ... this is the music video on Youtube. Sorry, but my Blogger won't let me embed the links into the words OR post videos on my blog. Its soo frustrating!!! I'm trying to figure out why it won't let me, but if anyone has any tips, that would be awesome!!) Mike-E, says "Alright, everything with be alright, we can make alright" and repeats this several times throughout the song, so Moses and Ayana call it the Alright song. Moses also has this rapper kind of hat, and he loves it, and calls it his Alright hat, because he thinks he is like Mike-E when he wears it. Its so cute!)

- "I want more dabo" (bread in Amharic.. Ayana still calls bread "dabo" so Moses has learned it too!)

- "Hallellulah!" (he is currently singing this as loud as he can around the house, driving his yellow Tonka dumptruck across the floor)

- Today was one of the cutest "Mosesisms" ever. I heard someone banging around in the kitchen, so I went to go see. Moses was there getting a fork and knive for dinner, reaching into the drawer, singing Jesus Loves me this I know at the top of his lungs. Here are the lyrics, Moses fashion:

"Jesus loves me, this I noooo
For the Bibe-ULLL tells uh huh..
Yessss Jesus loves me!
Yess Jesus loves me!
Yess Jesus loves me,
The Bibe-ULLL ellss a soooo!
Huwway!"

There are sooo many other things he says, but I can't seem to think of any other funny/cute ones. I'll be sure to post when he says something cute! Anyway, his birthday was very cute, and he got some exciting presents. We didn't do anything amazing, but he had lots of fun. Here are a couple of pictures from his big day.

The next week he had his birthday party, which was also tons of fun. All his favourite friends came (except for his special "Opia" friend, Mikiyas, who couldn't make it :( ) and they had lots of fun. We just did it very simply, with toys, a snack, and a movie. It was Cars themed, so everything was Cars.. the table cloth, plates, cups, movie! :) It was adorable. I'm not going to go into detail, but I'll just put some pictures of his party on here, because they'll probably describe it a lot better than I can!

And just so you know we could never forget her, here are two pictures of my little Ethiopian Princess, Ayana Kalkidan Wiebe! (dressed like an Ethiopian Princess!!)

UGHHHHH

2008-02-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Alright, well I had a super long post about Moses' birthday, and party, and the snow here and everything, but Blogger didn't post it when I tried to, and then it deleted half of what I wrote, and half of the pictures. This is the second time this week, and I'm too frustrated to try again, so I will re-try tomorrow. Just thought I should let you know why there hasn't been an update lately.

Here's a picture of Ayana and Moses enjoying the snow (and the fact that their big brother is buried in it!) to tide you over! :)

The Adoption Meme.. a little late...

2008-02-04T13:25:00.001-08:00

A while ago Staci tagged me for her adoption meme, and I forgot to do it, but I figured I might as well do it now! So here we go:

What is your Gotcha Day date?
August 23rd 2006

How old is or was your sibling when he/she was adopted?
When we adopted them Ayana was 22 months, and Moses was 7 months.

How old were you when the adoption started and ended?
When we first started the process in March 2004, I was 13. When the adoption ended in August 2006, I had just turned 15.

Did you travel with your parents when they adopted your sibling?
Yes, our whole family went.

How old is your sibling now?
Ayana is now 3 years and 3 months old (39 months) and Moses is 2 years and 1 month old (25 months). They're so big!! :D

What is your siblings favorite food?
Well they both have a major sweet tooth, but they also really love fruit and yogurt.

What agency did you use for your siblings adoption?
CAFAC

Changes...

2008-01-21T20:42:00.000-08:00

In case any of you have been wondering why I haven't posted for a while, its because my mom has asked me to change my blog. Because I share so many pictures and names and stories about our friends and family, I have decided to make my blog private.

I will send invitations to those who I know read this blog regularly. If you have been reading my blog and want to continue to read about Ayana and Moses, please leave a comment, or send me an email, and I will be happy to send you an invitation so that you will be able to access it.

**Only those who I send invitations to will be able to read my blog; you must sign in with your username and password in order to access the blog.**

I hope those who want to will still be reading up about my gorgeous little brother and sister from Ethiopia (and of course my brother and sister from Canada too :D), because I know that they will certainly be having many more adventures! :)

Hooray...

2008-01-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Thank-you so much to everyone who might have been praying for Moses since yesterday. He's doing so much better today, and his fever is almost completely gone. He was much happier all day, and back to his normal, goofy self. He started to feel a bit worse towards the evening, but nothing compared to how he was yesterday. Now he has just more of a cold and a bit of a cough left. We're so thankful! :)

At last.. the Wiebe Family Christmas!

2008-01-04T15:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry it took so long, but I've been pretty busy this week. But now I finally have some time to sit down and update my blogs!

Our Christmas was awesome, although to me it felt slightly rushed. Not Christmas itself, but beforehand. We had school until the Friday right before Christmas, and all my teachers were giving us tests and projects that week, so there was hardly any time for shopping. As terrible as this sounds, I didn't even get my sister's present until Christmas Eve morning!

But by Christmas Eve we were finally ready (after decorating our tree on the 23rd! We've never done it that late before!) to relax and celebrate Christmas.

Here are a few pictures of decorating our tree. Moses and Ayana loved it, and Ayana definitely remembered it from last year.. even Moses remembered not to touch it! We had almost no problems at all with them wanting to touch the tree, which was great.

Christmas Even was lots of fun. During the day we went up to Grouse Mountain, where they have "Christmas on the Peak"; ice skating, Santa's workshop, carolers, and real reindeer all help to set the mood. There was tons of snow, and Ayana and Moses had lots of fun sliding down the snow wherever and whenever they could.

In the evening we have several traditions, which include my mom doing the Christmas story with felt characters that she made when I was born (so cute.. Ayana and Moses loved it!); my dad reading a story, which is different every year; opening our stockings (yes, we do that on Christmas Eve!); and watching a movie.

This year we watched (after Ayana and Moses were in bed) the Nativity Story. I'd seen it before, but it was cool watching it on Christmas Eve! Its a really good movie, and they made it well; it really shows what Mary and Joseph must have gone through, with Mary pregnant and then traveling to Bethlehem. It gives the Christmas Story a new twist, making it seem more real almost. I'd definitely recomend it. :)

Waiting for the gondola

On the way up

The skating pond

Josh got skates from his friend, and was very excited to try them out!

Sliding down the snow!

Meeting Prancer

Prancer and Vixen

This was how Moses decided to rebel.. anything he didn't feel like doing, no problem; he would just lie down in the snow. That sure showed us!

Our stockings, ready and waiting!

Doing the felt story.

My dad reading a christmas story.

Ayana's new pjs and robe!

When Christmas morning finally came, Ayana was so excited! She totally remembered it all from last year, and couldn't wait to go downstairs to see all the presents under the tree. Moses was excited too, but mostly because he could tell that everybody else was.

They both really enjoyed getting their new toys, although they did get a bit overwhelmed. Moses even started backing away, saying "No more presents!" It was so cute, and definitely the first time I've ever heard a kid say that! For the rest of the day we just hung out, played games, watched movies etc.

We did go to my aunt's house for a couple of hours to see my aunt and uncle, and my Oma, who stayed with them over Christmas. Fortunately, they live right across the street, so it was no big deal to get ready and go see them! :) Oh, and it started snowing in the afternoon, so we even had a (semi) white christmas!

Opening her first present!

Moses getting his FurReal kitten

Ayana's FurReal kitten

A beautiful ballerina!

Josh making us french toast for breakfast.. he's actually really good at it!

And now skipping ahead to dinner....

This was his own special creation.. a fork on your head is way better than a silly old paper hat!

Snow!

Our New Years was good too, although Moses and Ayana didn't have much part in it. They went to bed at around 8:45 (which is pretty late for them!) so they missed out on welcoming in the new year. They still had a good time though.

Our friends came over like they do every year, and we had a little party with them. Its fun, but Megan and I never get quite as much enjoyment out of it as my parents, Josh, Ayana and Moses do. Their kids are all 10 and under, so there's not really anyone for us to hang out with.

We went to our friends' house (we're both best friends with another pair of sisters, which makes it easy to get together :P) for a couple hours, and came back in time for midnight (my mom wanted us home at the actual count down part). I'm glad we did though, because it was fun to be with family as we began a new year.

Watching a movie

The girls!

Welcoming in the new year..

So now, I come to the end of my "catching up" post, and I just have one more thing to write about. Moses has been kind of sick for a couple of days, but last night he suddenly developed an extremely high fever (40.2) and was shaking and coughing like crazy. His fever has gone down to 39.1 today, but my mom took him to the doctor this morning, where they said he most likely has either bronchitis, or pneumonia. He has to go back to the doctors on Monday, and they said if his temperature goes back to 40 or above, to take him straight to the hospital. He's extremely listless today, and all he wants to do is sit with someone, and watch his Wiggles movies. Please pray that he'll recover soon, and will be back to his happy, fun-loving self as quickly as possible!

Poor baby.. all he wanted to do was lie down, or sit with someone, and watch movie, or sleep. :(

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

2007-12-25T22:40:00.000-08:00

More on the Wiebe family's Christmas to come later..... :)

We're Back!!

2007-12-23T13:49:00.000-08:00

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH... ok, so I just spent about 1 1/2 hours writing this post, and putting pictures on, and then the pictures all got deleted again!!! so there won't be half as many pictures as I had on at first. I could almost cry I'm so frustrated!!!!

Anyway, here's the post I just did..........

Things were getting super busy with school, and our school production of Les Mis, so I took about a month off from doing my blogs, but hopefully things have settled down, and I'll be able to post semi-regularly again!

I'm sure I've missed a billion and one things, including Ayana's 3rd Birthday Party. Ugh.. I spent about 2 hours writing and huuuuge post about it, with TONS of pictures, and then just as I was about to post it, blogger decided it didn't really like my pictures, and deleted them all!! I could sometimes strangle blogger.. that's the fourth time its happened this week!! So I'll just copy the blog post I was going to post on, but I'll only put a couple of the pictures I was going to.

"Yesterday Ayana Kalkidan Wiebe had her very big girl birthday party, which she absolutely ADORED! She was thinking about it all day, and when she woke up from her nap and saw all the decorations, she nearly went wild with excitement!

There were 9 kids all together (including her and Moses) and all of them were specially asked for by Ayana (even if she can't say all of their names right. Alexis came out as something more like "A-les-ixus" :D).

It was a very simple party, with no structured games, but we set out different "stations" for the kids to play at, and it was actually really great. They all had lots of fun. There were puzzles, books, blocks, a tent full of books and groovy girls, a Thomas set, and a mini bowlin set. For the first hour the kids just got to play and have fun. Then, at 4 they all did their crafts and had snacks and cupcakes. As we had guests ranging in ages from under 2 to 9, we had to make sure that there was something for everyone! (6 year old Kohl and her sister Molly, who is 8, along with Alexis who is 9, were invited to be "helpers", but they had just as much fun as the younger kids! :D)

The craft was a big hit. We got a wooden frame for everyone, and enough feathers, glitter and sequins to recreate any princess fairy tale, and let them do whatever they wanted with it (within reason:) ). The end results were really cute, and once they were done drying, we printed out a picture of each child sitting with Ayana and put them into their frames as a special surprise. They were all adorable, even though a lot of the glitter seemed to end up on the glass part, rather than the wood!

Instead of a big cake, each child had their own cupcake, (specially decorated by moi! :) ) and they all had their own candle to blow out.

Anyway, everybody had lots of fun, especially Ayana (she got some adorable gifts too!). So now, enjoy these pictures!"

Getting Ready

Playing

Crafts and Cakes

Present Time!

All the kids...

So that's what you would have seen a couple of weeks ago (minus a few pictures) if Blogger hadn't deleted it... after which I grew fed up, and abandoned my blogs in disgust for a while! But I'm back, and ready with some more recent news; Snow! It's snowed a couple times this winter already (there's actually snow outside right now! Although its more slush than snow at the moment.) In fact, our first snow fall was on the first of December. :) Anyway, here are some pictures of Ayana and Moses enjoying the snow (you can see the amount of snow piling up throughout the day!)...

Sad News...

2007-11-20T20:12:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already, please check out my Egypt blog (http://erin-egyptandbeyond.blogspot.com), as our team just yesterday found out some extremely bad news. It will take too long to explain again, but in case you haven't heard about this, I am part of an outreach team from my school (going in Spring Break), and we found out at the beginning of the year that we are Team Egypt; the first team from my school to ever go to Egypt! However... well, just go and read my blog. Please pray for our team, as we try to understand this news, and discuss what it will mean for us.

Happy Birthday Ayana!

2007-11-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my sweet little sister's third birthday!

I can't believe that Princess Ayana is already three years old... it seems ages ago that we first met her, at 21 months old, so scared and anxious. Now she's a happy, confident, bubbling three year old!

She certainly made the most of her birthday too. She had been excited for about a month ahead of time, when one of us made the mistake of mentioning that "Ayana's birthday is coming up."

But this last week has been one of endless, agonising waiting for her. I really don't know how she managed to survive.
The first thing she said when she woke up yesterday morning was, "Ayana's birthday, presents, cakie with candles, happy birthday, please, thankyou!" She was so excited she could hardly put together a cohesive sentence!

When we finally got downstairs to where her presents were waiting (after having to sit through a terrible 5-whole-minutes-long hair session!) she could hardly contain her excitement. And I must say, we did spoil her a bit! Not that there were piles and piles of extravagent gifts, but there were quite a few.. maybe a few more than a 3 year old could truly appreciate. But she was happy, and was very, very grateful (saying "Thank-you so much guys!" after every single present.) so I guess it wasn't too much.

One of her favourite presents was a little kitchen, complete with a sink that makes sounds when you turn on the tap, an oven, and a stove that sizzles when you cook on it. It came with a pot, a pan, and two serving spoons. My parents also got her two sets of food (one fruit, one vegetable- they're all halves or thirds attached with velcro, so she can actually cut them apart!) with a knive and a chopping board.

She also got some puzzles, two books, a Diego (as in Dora the Explorer's.. cousin is it? brother? I don't know.. related to her somehow :P) safari lego set, and a My Little Pony DVD. By the end of the day she had played with, put together, read, watched, and baked with every single one of her presents, and was a truly happy little girl.

In the afternoon we went to visit my Oma, who gave Ayana her very first money ever (a loonie and a toonie.. $3 for the 3 yr old!), which was very exciting. Ayana likes it so much she's not going to want to "trade it in" for a toy.. maybe she'll just end up keeping it.

In the evening, instead of going out for dinner like we had originally planned, we decided to order food from Milestones, and pick it up on the way back from my Oma's house, which was very delicious, and much better than going to a restaurant. Moses hasn't been very.. complient lately. As in, he has a temper tanrum whenever he doesnt' get his way. Going to a restaurant with him in tow isn't the best decision these days!

Me and Megan had also baked a chocolate orange layered cake (which was delicious if I do say so myself!) which we topped with candles, and gave to the very excited little birthday girl. She had been talking all day about "cakies with candles" and the look on her face when we all started singing to her as we brought the cake out was priceless.

So by the end of the day, Ayana was one very happy, very full, very sleepy little girl. Of course, she didn't really want to go to bed, but she was pretty good about it, and didn't complain too much, or get angry.

Oh, and she even learned something new. If you ask her how old she is, instead of saying two, she says, "Umm.. FWEEE!!!!!"

**Please excuse the massive amounts of pictures I put on here, but there were just so many cute ones, I couldn't resist! **

Coming into the room, and seeing her presents for the first time (her smile is a bit funny because she was laughing.. we told her to wait in the hall, then we all ran into the kitchen, got the camera ready, and told her to come back in. The moment she came in, we all starting singing Happy Birthday to her, and cheering.. much to her delight! She was definitely Princess for a day!)

Moments before opening her presents!

Moses with his special present (from my aunt and uncle)

She is such a poser! Say, "Smile!" and she'll stop whatever she's doing (even in mid-sentence), turn to wherever the camera is, do a cute pose, smile, and wait for the flash. As soon as its over, she'll go right back to what she was doing, as if nothing had interupted her!

This was her face when my dad brought out the kitchen set. It was so big we didn't wrap it, but saved it for the end.

Figuring out the Diego lego set. Moses was very excited about this present!

Washing her hands in her very own sink!

Here she is baking a "lemon avocado cakie" for everyone to enjoy.

Oma and all us kids.

It looks kind of messy, because the filling/icing was put on a bit more excessively than necessary, but trust me.. it was good!

You can't see it very well, but this is Ayana's face when we were bringing out her cake, while singing Happy Birthday to her.. pure joy!

Forks take too long.. let's dig in!

As you may have noticed, there were only a few of Moses... please don't think he was forgotten on her birthday! While he did have a bit of a hard time with it, he certainly wasn't "ignored"! He got his fair share of the attention, cake, and even got his own present from my aunt and uncle (seen in the picture above.. the little plush baseball and baseball bat!) Trust me, even if we had been planning to ignore him, his personality would not have allowed that.. he would have been back in the center of attention in no time! :D

Congratulations Ayana and Moses

2007-11-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

This is just a very short little post to say...

Ayana and Moses are now officially Canadian Citizens!

We just got their citizenship cards tonight, along with the certificates. This is the very last step in the adoption process, and now its finally all over.

Ayana and Moses had no clue what was going on, but my mom was so excited, and she told Ayana and Moses that they're Canadian now. Ayana had seen me hand the mail to my mom, so she said, "Ayana, Doy Doy (we still call him Doy Doy.. it just stuck!) Canada now! So exciting! Thanks Ra-Ra! (and they still call me Ra-Ra!) Thank-you so much!" :P

It was so cute. Anyway, that was just a quick little bit of exciting news.

I'll post soon with Halloween pictures, but some of them are on my friend's camera, and she's taking a little while to send them to me. So hopefully I'll have been able to post them by the weekend at the latest.

"God did that?"

2007-10-27T23:44:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Ayana looked out the window, and was astonished by the gorgeous different colours of the tree in our front yard. She turned to my mom, and exclaimed, "Wow! Mama did that?"

My mom explained to her (not thinking that Ayana would understand at all) that, no Mama didn't make the leaves change colour, but God (Baby Jesus' Ababa) sure did. Ayana nodded, and pretended to understand completely, and be all together very wise about the whole thing.

The very next day, Ayana looked out the window again, and looked at our tree, nodded, and said, "God did that". She then looked down our street, gasped upon seeing that there were many of the same things happening everywhere, turned to my mom, and said, "God did it AGAIN??"

Since then, whenever she sees the trees changing colours, she looks at whoever happens to be nearby, and tells us that, "God did that. God did the trees."

And, of course, as Moses has to be the same as his awesome big sister, whenever he sees the trees, he shrieks "God trees, God trees!" while clapping his hands.

Ayana and Moses

2007-10-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have a specific story to post about, or much of an update, so I though I'd just share some cute pictures of Ayana and Moses from last year (September-December '06). I might have posted a few of them before, but most of them I haven't... so enjoy seeing more of my beautiful little brother and sister!

Thanksgiving

2007-10-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Since (Canadian) Thanksgiving was a while ago, and I still haven't posted about it, with our gorgeous pictures, I will try to make it brief. I know I always say that, but I'm serious this time. I will focus on the pictures, and let them do all the talking! :)

Our Thanksgiving (Monday) was really awesome actually. We did the big family thing on Sunday, so on Monday it was just our family. We didn't do a whole lot, but we went for a walk at Tynhead Park, which is GORGEOUS this time of year, and had a really good chicken dinner (my mom didn't feel like making more turkey, after having so much the day before :D) and just had a nice time as a family.

We treated the walk as our own private photo shoot, which is why I keep raving about the gorgeous pictures we got. With all the colours of the leaves everywhere, and everyone being in a really good mood that day, we really did get some beautiful pictures.

So without further ado, here we go!

Just for fun... let's compare this year's Thanksgiving dinner picture (of the kids) with last year's!! :P

Quick Catch Up

2007-10-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok, I know.. I have been horribly neglecting this blog. I'm sorry! I was fully planning to do a post on Thanksgiving (I have some adorable pictures!), but I've just been soo busy! I've been getting tons of homework from all my classes, plus I'm still taking piano lessons, so that's 360 minutes a week of practicing, plus a lesson, and then I'm also in Les Mis (my school play), which is a minimum of 12 hours a week (its often more.. for example, this Friday we have no school; instead we have a 6 hour Les Mis Rehearsal!!).

Anyway, enough of my complaining..on to Ayana and Moses! That's what you really care about anyway! :P

I'll just do a quick update, because its getting late, and I really need more sleep (I know, enough complaining about my life!)

I babysat Anna again the other day, and with her history (screaming for 1-2 hours straight!) I can't say I was really looking forward to it that much. This time, however, she was awesome! She cried for about 10 minutes at the very beginning, and then she was cheerful as anything the rest of the time. Her, Moses, and Ayana had a great time together; they coloured, played with Groovy Girls, used stickers, played in the leaves outside, and even washed the car! (That's a big hit at our house! Ayana and Moses love it!!)

I won't say much more, but I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.. I got some adorable ones! :)

I'm telling you, if you're stuck when you're babysitting.. let the kids wash a car! Its a lifesaver!! :)

She's leaving, on a jet plane....

2007-09-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

And will not be back for two and 1/2 weeks. Yup, my mom is gone until October 5th, which makes me the "resident mom"!

Its my grandma's 70th birthday tomorrow (Happy Birthday Gran-Gran! :D) and my mom went over to England to celebrate it with her, and the rest of her family. She left on Thursday, and it already seems strange without her! It hasn't been too crazy, because my dad is determined to be organized, but you never know what could happen in a household with 5 kids, and only a dad.. who is used to having a mom around to help! :P

Ayana and Moses were a little concerned at first, but we told them that "Mummy is on an airplane, to see Gran-Gran." Moses of course didn't really get it so we told him that "Mummy is coming right back" and he's happy, but Ayana got it straight away. The first thing she said was, "Uh oh Mama. On airplane.. don't fall off!" She's so smart! She's only been on an airplane once, and that was over a year ago. Besides, how would she have even known what it was, let alone its something you could (potentially :P) fall out of? She amazes me sometimes!

Since my dad works all day, and we're at school during the week, we have to have friends come and look after Ayana and Moses, and stay a little bit after school to help with dinner etc. We have a schedule, with several different people coming over, and yesterday Katherine and Anna came (see previous post about "Baby Nana and MoMo") and they had lots of fun! Here are some pictures of their exciting day together (they were taken with a cell phone, so the quality isn't the greatest.)

In Memory of a Very Special Little Friend

2007-09-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the 9th, a little 7 yr. old boy from our church passed away. He had been very sick since the age of two, and was in the hospital for these last 7 months. He was in a lot of pain for the majority of the 7 months, but he was so brave throughout it all; he was a very special little boy, and he touched everyone he met.

He was very close to my heart, and I'm really going to miss him. I'm not going to give away any information, or names, because his parents might not be comfortable with that; I just wanted to give that special little warrior the recognition he deserved.

He's definitely in no more pain, which is wonderful, but those he left behind are grieving. Please pray for his parents, as they prepare for his "celebration of life" service, which is this Saturday, and get through this extremely difficult time. And also for all the rest of his family and friends who loved him dearly, and will truly miss him.

Way to go bud. You were the bravest knight of all, and you'll always be my special little hero.

Old McDonald Has a Farm....

2007-09-12T21:28:00.000-07:00

Ee-i-ee-i-oh!

And we visited it last week before school started! Well, we went to Maplewood Farm, which is just as good! :D

Ayana and Moses were so excited to go and see the animals.. although Ayana was more excited about the idea of the animals, than the real things, as she was slightly freaked out by anything that moved.. including the ducks and chickens! But she still had fun, and she did love petting the bunnies!

Maplewood Farm is this really neat farm that has... well, all the animals you would expect to see on a farm! But its really cool, because the animals come right up to the fence, and you can pet them, and there's also a petting zoo for the goats and sheep, and you can walk inside the rabbit hut and pet them too! Its a fun place for kids.. and I enjoyed being there, and seeing Ayana and Moses get so excited too. And of course, I do still love animals :D

While I could tell you some different stories, I think I'll let these pictures speak for themselves! :)

Me and Ayana, ready to set off and see some animals!

The cutest little pony, called Humperdink or Snickerdoodle or something long and crazy like that! :P

Feeding the ponies

"I'm not entirely sure if I want to do this, but Moses did it, and I have to copy him.. besides, it is kind of funny!" :D

Bunnies! More poor animals for me to terrorize! (He tries to love them, but he's just a bit rough...)

This was an adorable 4 day old baby calf called Rosie.. isn't she gorgeous! I have to say, I love cows like this. They are really cute!

You can't really tell, but it really is us out there.. I promise! :P

This was another calf- this one 3 weeks old- at lunch time.

I love geese.. they remind me of Beatrix Potter!

Yes! I can chase them, and I won't even get in trouble!

This was an accidental zoom, but it actually turned out kind of cute!- me and Megan.

That's waayy bigger than my nose! Lets see how far my finger will go....
(Actually he really was about to try, before we quickly stopped him! :P)

I love goats!

I don't really love goats.. actually they kind of scare me... but I'm going to pretend I do, for the sake of this picture!

Egypt!

2007-09-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

Some of you might know that I applied to go on an outreach team with my school.. well, I just found out today that I'm on Team Egypt!! Yup that's right... in springbreak, I'm going to be going to Egypt!! I can't believe it, I really can't!

I've made a blog for my trip (already.. can you tell I'm excited? :P), so there's more details on there:

http://erin-egyptandbeyond.blogspot.com

Check it out! :D

Note...

2007-09-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, so apparently Staci (http://journey2sarah.blogspot.com) was able to watch the video! Yay! She said that if you copy and paste the first 3 lines of the link below the embedded video into your search browser, it will work. I just tried it, and it worked for me too, so give it a try, and let me know if that works for you.. I honestly am so lost when it comes to the video thing, as you have probably seen, so I'm really happy that someone was able to watch it!! I took a long time making it.. so try it out! :D

Gotcha Day Video.. Take two!!

2007-08-31T21:19:00.001-07:00

Ok, lets try this again.. in case you missed the first failed attempt, this was a video I made for our one-year-Gotcha Day Anniversary. I haven't been able to post it until now, so I'm REALLY hoping this will work. You can check back to the first try for more information. If this doesn't work, then I really don't know what to do.... any suggestions????

http://video.google.co
m/googleplayer.swf?
docId=1122079230862263104&h
l=en-CA" flashvars="">

Videos

2007-08-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, obviously, if you saw my attempt to post my Gotcha Day video, you've seen that its not really working. I've tried copying and pasting, embedding it, linking it, and everything.. its downloaded on Google Video, but it just won't go onto my blog. Does anyone have any tips and/or suggestions??

"Game" Time!

2007-08-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

I saw this on Nikki's blog (http://dreamasifyouwillliveforever.blogspot.com) but it looked kind of fun, so thought I'd do it too!

1. How many blogs are listed under your favorites list that you check EVERY day?
Umm.. I only have 9, but one is my other one, and one is my mom's. I check, out of those ones, probably 3 everyday. However, I also check other blogs that I don't have listed down.

2. How many times a day do you "go to the bathroom" and end up checking blogs?
Haha, I always use this one with babysitting! When the kids are watching movies, I often have to go to the "bathroom" several times within the movie! Probably 3/4 times.

3. Do your kids recognize the other kids from the blogs that follow??
Sorry, I don't have kids!

4. Do you keep track of how often people update their blogs and get upset when they don't keep to the schedule??
I don't get upset when they don't post, but I get really excited when there are new updates!

5. Favorite time of day to check blogs?
Truthfully... anytime!!

6. Who's blog is your favorite?
I like tons of blogs, but I really enjoy Nikki's and Susy's (http://bigsisdiaries.blogspot.com)

7. How many of the blogs that you follow are people that you have never met in person?
Most of them!! Some of them I know, (like my mom!! :D) through adoption and everything, but most of them, I have never met. It feels like I've known them in person for ages though! :P

8. How long have you been married?
Nada... I just turned 16!

9. Fav. food?
Oh man, I love food! Umm lets see.. well, I have a sweettooth, so lots of sweet stuff, and chips etc. I also loove different kinds of salad, like brocoli salad, greek salad, asian noodle salad, and bean salad. Oh, and fruit is always good too!

10. Fav. TV show?
I don't really watch much TV. I used to like 7th Heaven, but its kind of old and lame now.. not much happens. I like America's Next Top Model, although I almost never watch it (I watched last season, but other than that, not really), and I love watching the audition weeks for American/Canadian Idol!! Hilarious! Oh, and Amazing Race.

11. Anything that you forbid your kids to watch on TV?
I don't have kids, but they probably won't be watching much anyway.. I don't watch much.. I'm more of a movie type person than TV.

12. How long was your adoption journey from beginning to end?
April '05-August '06... 1 1/2 years (April was when my parents decided to adopt, and August was when we brought Ayana and Moses home)

14. What did you imagine your family to be like as a little girl?
I've always wanted lots of kids, from all over the world! I think its really cool to have families with biological kids, African kids, Asian kids, Indian kids... like a rainbow family! :D

15. Favorite down time activity?
I'm obsessed with reading.. seriously, I could read for hours and hours and hours. And I do! :)

16. Do you have more online friends than "in person" friends?
No, I have way more "in person" friends than online friends, but I do have quite a few online friends.

17. Tell us the cartoon character that you most look like:
Well when I did the test in Disneyland, I think I was most like Alice in Wonderland.. but I don't really look like her. I always wanted to be Ariel though!! Unfortunately, I don't have a tail, or red hair! :D

18. What toothpaste do you use?
Umm.. I'm pretty sure its Colgate. My mom bought it. :P

19. Stupidest adoption comment/question that you've recieved?
Well, this was to my mom, but still... stuff like,
~"How much are they?"
~"Where did you get them?"
~"How many real kids do you have?" (yea, because everyone knows that Ayana and Moses are fake!)
and the worst one..... one lady says to her friend (very loudly so that my mom can hear):
~"Do you want to get yourself a couple of those?" and her friend replies,
"No, I give my money elsewhere!"
Oh man, my whole family was ready to go and hunt those two down when my mom told us!!! Can you believe it?
Of course, its always funny to see it really confuse people. Ayana and Moses were going down a slide once, and this dad was waiting at the bottom for his little girl, who was right behind them. When Ayana and Moses came down, he smiled, then looked around for an African couple.. when he saw them run towards us, he did a complete double take, stared for a second, then quickly turned away when he saw us kind of watching him! :P
Oh, and then, at the zoo, a little girl looked into the stroller and saw Moses. She quickly looked up at my parents, then with this really puzzled look on her face, looked back at Moses, and back and forth several times, until she just kind of wandered off to her parents, looking really confused! It was so cute! lol

20. Fav. website?
Lately I've been completely addicted to Facebook (not to mention about a gazillion blogs!!)

My Silly Little Sister... or was it me that was the Silly One???

2007-08-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ayana is constantly surprising us with her level of comprehension. She seems to understand everything that goes on around her! She is really smart, and is picking up English just like that. She's good enough to be able to have a normal conversation with her (as normal as a conversation with any 2 1/2 year old can be!). In fact, the paediatrician said, at their last check up, that Ayana is completely on target with language for her age... for kids BORN here. And she's ESL!! I am so proud of her. Every day she says something that completely surprises me, and I had no idea that she knew. For example, yesterday we were driving to go to Maplewood Farm (this really cute farm, with a petting zoo that we occasionaly visit- I'll post about it soon!) and we drove through a tunnel. Well, in those tunnels, it gets darker, so Ayana was very surprised.
Our conversation was as follows:

Ayana: Oh! Lights out! Who did that?
Me: I don't know! What do you think?
A: Silly lights. In house.
E: What? What house?
A: Lights out in house. Ayana, Rara, Mama, Meme, Joshua, Doya and car in house.
E: Oh.. we turn the lights out in the house. Are we in a house right now?
A: Yup! House!

Just then we drove out of the "house", and continued on the freeway.
Ayana turned around to see the "house".

A: See Rara? There house.
E: Where?
A: Right there house! Gosh!

It wasn't so much the conversation on a whole, it was just the little things that made it up. She had seen the lights go "out", and wondered what happened. Then, remembering that inside we can turn lights on and off, she figured that we must be in a house! So, when I didn't quite understand, she had to wait until we got out of the house, in order to show me (I don't always get Ayana's logic. I am a bit silly, and she often has to show me exactly how everything works, because.. Gosh! Rara is so silly and grownup. Of course Ayana, a two year old knows better than her! :P). How silly I am! Of course we were in a house! Gosh Rara!

Anyway, its just little things like that that continue to amaze me. Another example happened just last night. Ayana was having her bath, and afterwards, my mom sat her down to take out her braids. This isn't Ayana's favourite pass-time, but she sat still, and was generally a good little girl. When they were all done, I went upstairs to see.. and it was hilarious! Ayana's hair was all poufed up from her head, in a HUGE afro!! It was so crazy, which I said out loud. A little while later, I was sitting in my room reading a book, when Ayana and Moses burst in to say goodnight (I love it when they come in, all cuddly, and want to give me hugs and kisses! Unless, of course, its Moses, at about 7 in the morning, which he is known to do! But then again, what better way to wake up, that to pudgy fingers slapping your arm, and slobbery kisses all over your face? Hmmmm....). Moses came over, and gave me a huge hug and kiss, saying, "Ni-ni! Ahwowo!", which is generally used for "Night Night! I love you!" Although, he does sometimes use it to mean other things! :D

So then Ayana came to me, to give me a hug and kiss goodnight, but before she did, she stopped, and said, "Look Rara!" and pointed at her hair, which had been moisterised, and slathered full of the leave in conditioner they have to have. It was very cute, and curly, and not huge and crazy at all. I said to her,
"Oh, very nice!" She looked at me rather sternly and said, "Its not crazy. Its cute." I laughed and laughed, and told her that, yes, her hair was beautiful, and not crazy anymore. She looked at me slightly suspiciously, but decided that it was good enough, and gave me the nice big cuddly hug and kiss goodnight that I love so much.

She's so funny! I seriously don't know how we ever did without her to make us laugh. And of course Moses does his fair share of entertaining! He loves to sing, and dance, to whatever music is available. I'm sure that's its a reflex reaction, because the moment music comes on, his shoulders jiggle, and his arms wave around, and he starts to bob around the house (or carseat, or high chair, or playroom...you get the point!)

He's doing very well with his level of understanding, and his lanuage too. Yesterday my mom came outside with him, and asked my dad where Josh was. My dad replied that "Josh is climbing the tree." The minute he said that, Moses turned around, and stared at the tree, until he could pick out Josh among the leaves, and then pointed to him, and shouted triumphantly at my mom "Jaja! Jaja! Jaja!" He can totally understand everything we say to him!
Here's an updated list of his words I have to warn you.. its long! In fact, there's no way I can put it all down.. I'll just give you a sample! :D

~car= cah
~truck= tuck (although lately he's been saying Turuck)
~bird= tweet tweet
~tree= twee/turee
~chicken= chickie

~bike= bak

~book= book.. yay he's got this one!

~walk= wuk

~more= mo mo mo (he never says it once. He has to say it three times at least!)

~no= NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

~yes= owe (for some reason, he says that in Amharic... he probably picked it up from Ayana, as she still says it sometimes)

~there= dere

~I love you= some version of Ahwow, although if you get him to repeat after you, it goes something like this:
"I"... "Ah"

"Love"...."Uh"

"You"... "MEEE!" this last part is said with a grin.. he knows exactly what he's saying!

~Mummy= Mama

~Daddy= Baba

~Erin= Rara

~Megan= Meme (said Mee-Mee)

~Joshua= Jaja

~Ayana= Callie (we REALLY have no idea where this came from. It was her nickname at the orphanage, and it comes from Kalkidan, her birthgiven name. But he was only 7 months when we brought him home, and we almost never call her that, except at the very beginning.. How on earth does he know that??)

~Moses- DuhDuh (An attempt to say DoyDoy, which is his nickname from the orphanage, that has just seemed to stick. I almost never call him Moses!)

~go= GO!

~bad= ba

~dog= do/woof-woof

~gosh= goh (I know, slightly strange for a one year old, but "Gosh" was kind of a family joke for a while- someone I knew always said it- and Ayana and Moses both picked it up right away! :S Ooops!)

~cheese= CHEEEEEEE!!!! (he says this any time he sees anything resembling a camera, and screws his face up into a cheesy- no pun intended!:P- grin which slightly resembles a grimace. Because of this, we have several nice video clips of Moses standing in front of the camera, hands behind his back, face in a little.. "grin", saying "CHEEEEEE! (breath) CHEEEEEEE! (breath) CHEEEEEEEEEEEE! (breath) CHEEEEEEEEEE!" and so on, until my mom laughed, and told him to say hello. Which reminds me.....)
~Hello= Hewwo!

~Bye= ba/ba-ba

~rabbit/bunnie= buhee (he says this anytime he sees me getting rabbit food out to go and feed our three darling little dwarf rabbits.. I'll post a picture of them sometime!)

Well, I think you get the picture! I should go now, because I'm really trying hard to post a video I made for Gotcha Day. I know that was almost a week ago, but the computer is just not letting me post it!! So, this is my final attempt.. lets hope it works! :S Keep your fingers crossed!

Gotcha Day Video

2007-08-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

I made this video last week, in honour of our One Year Gotcha Day Celebration. Its made up ofhalf video clips, and half pictures. Oh, and in honour of Ayana and Moses' favourite dancing music, the background soundtrack is the one and only Bob Marley!
I hope this works, because my computer has not been letting me download it, or post it or anything!

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1122079230862263104&hl=en-CA" flashvars="">

*For those of you who have adopted from Ethiopia through CAFAC recently, and are wondering where on earth we picked them up from, this was at the old Foster Home.. a few months before they moved to the new one that they're at now.*

Capernwray on Thetis Island

2007-08-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe I'll finally update this blog on everything that has happened this summer, since we left for Caperwray....I'll try at least! There's lots, so brace yourselves!
If you have ever heard of Capernwray Bible College, you'll know what I'm talking about. They are all over the world, and they have one on Thetis Island, here in BC. Every summer they have a family camp, which we have now been to 3 times. Its really great.. there are adult sessions, along with teen, pre-teen, kid, and baby/toddler groups. Each group has their own fun activities and lessons they do. For example, every year the teen group drives to a campsite, and spends the night under the stars... its a really cool place, and we really enjoy being there. We've gone twice before this year, in 2003 and 2004, and we really liked it then. We thought we would come every year, but it didn't really work out again until this year.
Anyway, there is also freetime, which is when they open up the waterfront. They have boatrides, water-skiing, tubing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, and a couple other water-type activities. They also have crafts to do, and fishing, and two ropes courses.... basically during the afternoon you can do whatever you feel like. Its very relaxed, and everyone always has a great time.
This year was the first time going with Ayana and Moses along. They l.o.v.e.d. it!! They were in the baby group, and they absolutely adored their leaders. Ayana called them "friend Jenny, friend Jol, and friend ummm... the oder one". I guess Stephanie was a bit too hard for her to say! (and Jol was otherwise known as Joleen- sorry, I have no idea how to spell that! :s) Ayana and Moses adored them, and loved it when it was time to be dropped off (the teens would stay for the morning talk, and everyone 12 and under would go to their groups while this was going on...then later during the afternoon talks, everyone would go to their groups, teens included).
Ayana also enjoyed being able to be a part of the craft- elastic/mousetrap powered cars, or sea-shell necklaces (take a guess as to what Ayana made!). She loved choosing beads, and colours, and helping me paint it, but most of all, she loves wearing it, and showing it off to everyone she sees! She is very proud of that necklace! On another note, Josh took part in the car side of the craft. At the end of the week, there was a derby for all the cars that had been made that week. There were 5 heats, and the winner of each heat would compete in the final race. In Josh's heat, as his car was going down the track, the wheel teetered, and fell off! Somehow, despite only having three wheels.. Josh's car won that heat! Everybody laughed so hard, and wanted to see what would happen in the finals.. well, believe it or not, Josh's faulty car won the entire derby race!! I can't even describe how big my brother's smile was.. he was soo proud of himself!
Throughout the week, many fun and exciting things happened, and we all had a lot of fun. Its kind of hard to write in one post what we did all that week, but hopefully this will give you a little glimpse into what we did, and how much fun we had. And, a picture's worth a million words (my new and improved version!), so here's a few more pictures to make up for my lack of words! :D

Me waterskiing

Josh winning the race-car derby

Ayana and Moses with their friends (leaders)

Me, Megan, Josh and my dad went on a boat tour one afternoon.. it was so cool! Towards the middle of the trip, they stopped the boats, and anyone who wanted to could climb onto the roof of Boat #3 and jump off into the water.. I went in about 7 times!!

Walking down to the waterfront

Josh jumping off of the swimming dock

Josh and his friends tubing.. they got LOTS of air!!

In front of our cabin

Josh and my dad making their winning car!

Making necklaces

The finished products (mine's on the left, Ayana's is on the right)

Some of the scenery we saw on the boat tour

On the way home, Moses got hooked on my iPod.. I was actually holding it, and he had one earphone in, but we gave the whole thing to him for the picture.. after that, he wouldn't give it back!

Gotcha Day!

2007-08-23T14:41:00.001-07:00

I can not believe that its been a whole year since Ayana and Moses legally became ours. Its completely surreal! Its been a packed year of new beginnings, of crying, of first steps, of laughter, of stress (no, it hasn't been perfect!), of happiness, and of all around love.

Looking back, its amazing to me how much they've changed, and grown.. how much we all have! Our family is so much better with them in it. Its like it was almost complete, but something was missing.. when Ayana and Moses came along, they stepped right in, and filled that gap perfectly.

These are three of the pictures from our referral. Its incredible how different they look! Moses was still a chubby little baby back then, but Ayana looks so sad and alone. To see the life in her eyes now, and the joy she emits to everyone around is just amazing.

We could even see the difference from our referral, to our 6 week update. They were both looking happier, and healthier.. its incredible what 6 weeks of love, care, and good food can do to a child!

The day we finally got to meet them (I didn't get a chance to post about it, but the Anniversary of the day we first laid eyes- and hugs and kisses!- on them was yesterday!) was one of the best days of my life. After months of preparing, and hoping and dreaming and waiting and longing, there they were. It was like a picture coming to life. We had stared at those pictures for so long, and suddenly, they were there in front of us, big as life, and completely real... it was actually a very strange experience at first.

The very next day, we went back, and got ready to take them away from the foster home, to be ours forever. That was a very emotional day. You could telll the staff had really loved the children, and it was hard for them to let them go. They wanted them to have a new life, with a family that really loved them, but they had become so attached to them.. there were many tears that day! But when we were finally in the car, heading back to the Weygoss Guest House, it really hit; they were ours! Ayana Kalkidan and Moses Ermias were Wiebes, and were part of our family forever!

They had never been in a car before, but they took to it surprisingly well. Moses even managed to get one or two bounces in! (He could hear the music playing.. he's loved music, right from the beginning!) Ayana fell asleep straight away, in my dad's lap, but Moses was content to sit with my mom and stare out the window, occasionally taking quick peeks at us.

The first few weeks went by in a blur, what with adding two new kids to our family, traveling back from Ethiopia, and major jet lag.. we were glad to be finished with that, and be able to start settling into our new lives.

Ever since then, Ayana and Moses have bloomed. From inching his way across the floor to crawling, to walking and running all the way to beginning to peddle on his little tricyle all by himself (a new development, first occuring today!), Moses has grown out of being a chubby little baby, to being a chubby little toddler. Ayana has gone from being a shy, quiet nervous toddler to a beautiful little girl, bubbling over with laughter and sunshine.

There have been so many firsts in this year...

~ Moses had his first birthday

~ Ayana had her first birthday with us (she turned 2!)

~ Their first car ride

~ Their first plane ride (what a disaster that was!)

~ Their first Christmas

~ Their first snowfall

~ Their first Halloween (complete with cowboy and princess costumes!)

~ Their first Thanksgiving

~ Moses' first wobbly steps

~ Ayana and Moses' first bike rides (Ayana can now ride around very well by herself- with training wheels of course!- and Moses runs around behind her, pushing his!)

~ Their first family vacations (to Pender Island, and this summer to Pentiction and Thetis Island.. which I will be sure to write about soon!)

~ Ayana's first English word (she now chatters away!)

~Moses' first words (he now chatters away as well, although half the time you have no clue what he's talking about!)

It seems like just yesterday they were coming back to the Guest House with us, in Ethiopia, all nervous.. its hard to believe so much has happened since then!
I love them so much, and I'm so happy that they are part of my life. Tonight we are going to our family favourite; an Ethiopian Restaurant! We'll have fun celebrating their first year in our family.. our forever family!

My Cousin's Wedding

2007-07-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, my cousin Terry got married. His wife is called Laura, and she is so lovely... we all love them both so much! They really make an amazing couple. So we were so excited about their wedding, and had been planning for ages about our outfits, hair, nails etc. (I got a manicure! :D)

What was especially exciting was that Ayana had been asked to be one of their flower girls! I have to say, we were so much more excited about it than her.. she really had no clue what was going on. But she would smile and nod when people asked her if she was excited. All she knew was that she got to wear a beautiful white dress, and a new necklace ("Ayana's neck-a-lis!"), and be a special girl with her favourite cousin(s) in the world, "Tewwy and Morla!!" Oh yes, and there was going to be a party. She was excited about that part! Ayana lives for parties. She is seriously such a party girl. One mention of the word "party", and she's up, running around, laughing and singing, and generally asking every five seconds when she gets to go to it.

Needless to say, on the day of the "party-wedding" , she was pretty hyped up. She kept on saying, "Mama! Party today! Its today! Hooray!"

Moses obviously had no idea, but he very much enjoyed having a bath (just like Ayana), getting into nice new clothes (just like Ayana), running around shouting (just like Ayana), and getting his picture taken several times (just like Ayana... in case you haven't noticed, Moses needs to be just like Ayana!) He was also extremely pleased with the fact that he and Joshua were both in new, matching clothes!! That was one of the whole highlights of the day. And Josh was so proud to be all matching, and to be able to show off the fact that he is a wonderful big brother to everyone who would be at the wedding.

So it was finally time to get ready, and set off (it was a bit stressful getting ready... and I'm not actually talking about Ayana. When there are about 1 1/2 hours to get ready, three girls, lots of hair, and one curling iron... things can get a bit rough! :S We got over it. :D)

The wedding was held at somewhere called the Hart House. Its this huge old house, that has been re-done, and is now used as a restaurant, but they host many weddings there as well. Its really gorgeous; it sits overlooking the lake, with a huge garden, and an old, English-looking design, it was beautiful.

The whole way there (it was about a half hour-45 minute trip from our house) Ayana was ecstatic that she was finally going to the party that she had been waiting for for the past 2 or 3 months. We didn't get her changed into her wedding clothes until we got there, but when she was finally ready, she was adorable! Laura was very insistant that everything about the two little flower girls be very simple, and not too fancy.. she really wanted them to just be two little girls. So Ayana wore this little white dress, with some embroidery on the front, her hair loose, but with a lacy headband on, and some little white sandals. She also had, much to her delight, a brand new necklace, shaped like a heart, and a couple little silver bangles. The final result was very cute. And when her and the other little flower girl, Maya, were together, it was adorable! (Maya is actually the daughter of one of my teachers at school.. in fact, the vice principal! :P) Maya wore a similar white dress, and her hair was just up, with a little white ribbon in it. The effect was very simple, but innocent, and adorable.... they got almost more attention than the bride!

There was quite a bit of waiting around before hand (because Ayana was in the wedding party, we had to be there at 3, for pictures, when the wedding didn't start until 5:30.. but it was very cute to watch the pictures being done!) but when it finally got time to sit down, we knew it had been worth the wait. Unfortunately, it was raining that day, and they had planned an outdoor wedding (of course its all nice and sunny now! I felt bad for them.. who would think, that after planning your wedding in July, you'd have rain??), so the wedding ended up being in the pavilion that was for the reception as well. Everyone sat kind of around the tables, and they had made an isle in the middle.. although at first I thought it was going to be kind of a let-down, and almost lame, they did it beautifully, and everything looked perfect. The colours that they had chosen were turquoise, and white. Kind of an unique choice, but it all looked absolutely beautiful when it was all finished. Ayana, Maya, and Laura were the only ones in white, while the bridesmaids, were in turquoise, and the groom's men had turquoise vests underneath their jackets.

Despite practicing the walk down the aisle several times, when it got time to walk down, of course Ayana and Maya had no clue where to go. This just made it all the more adorable to watch, of course. They came down, carrying a little lace parasol each, instead of flowers, got to the beginning of the aisle, and stopped, watching people watch them. Finally one of the ushers came over, and whispered in their ears, pointing out the way to go. Everyone melted watcing them, you could almost physically see their hearts turn into little pools.. they were just so darn cute!! They went and stood at the front with Laura's sister, who was the maid of honour, and is almost identical to Laura, although they are several years apart. Ayana got bored, and started to lecture Maya; "Maya, hold hands. Right now. Maya, HOLD HANDS! Umm.. Maya... hold hands now." She got right up close to her face, and was whispering this to her, until Katie leaned down, and whispered, "You both hold my hand, ok?" Eventually, Ayana was quietly lead off, to go and sit with my aunt for the rest of the ceremony, until it was time for her to walk back up the isle with Maya again. All together, she did wonderfully.. Maya was much better at standing still, and being quiet, but then, she is 2 years older than Ayana, and understood much better what was going on.

When it was time for the reception (my dad took Moses home to a babysitting in between the ceremony, and reception.. we weren't willing to deal with a cranky baby until midnight!), Ayana and Maya really let loose,and started to party. They were running around, and dancing, and eating macaroni (they served it especially just for the two little flower girls, which was soo sweet!), and just being hilarious, and having an extremely fun time doing it! During the little speaches from the parents of the groom and bride, Ayana came over (me and Megan were at a different table than Ayana and my parents, and then Josh was yet another table.. he loved it though.. he was the center of attention most of the time, and he got to sit with one of our goofiest cousins ever. Seriously, he's in his twenties, and he acts about 10. He's hilarious, and Josh loves him!) and sat on my lap. I was just listening to the little talks, and giving Ayana little sips of water, when I looked down to find Ayana being the biggest goof in the world. Me, Megan, my cousin Rachel, and her husband Jon, were all killing ourselves laughing (completely silently of course!). She was jerking around on my lap, and making fun of the talkers, and twisting her face into the strangest expressions ever.... I've never seen her being so hilarious.. or so hyped up and goofy!

There were several very cool things that happened at the wedding.. both Terry and Laura are very energetic and outgoing, and had some very unique ideas. For example, Terry decided that all the groomsmen would be wearing black flip flops for the wedding, and he would be wearing white ones. Very strange, but its just the kind of thing that Terry thinks of, and really enjoys doing. They had a little candy stand, called the Sweet Shoppe, with all the candy colour coordinated to match their wedding colours, and you could go and help yourself. They also had cotton candy (turquoise blue of course!), which my brother was in charge of helping with, much to his delight!

One of the coolest things though, of the whole day, was when they left. There were two sparklers at everyone's place setting, and when they were changing to leave, the mc announced for everyone to grab their sparklers and head outside, toward the lake. There we all lit them, and stood in two lines, making a pathway in between them. Then Terry and Laura came out, walking in between us, down to the lake, where a little boat was waiting. They got into it, and while all the groomsmen were singing, "For he's a jolly good fellow", they rowed off into the dark. It was the coolest, most romantic end to the wedding ever. When everyone else had gone back inside, my mom and Ayana were still standing by the lake, and my mom suddenly noticed that she could vaguely see the shape of the boat, just stopped in the middle of the lake, as if they had stopped to watch everyone go back inside the pavilion. So my mom leaned down to Ayana, and told her to shout goodbye again. "Bye Tewwy. Bye Morla." A few moments passed, when they both heard drifting back to them, "Bye Ayana!" Ayana then shouted, "I love you!" They answered back, "We love you too Ayana!" My mom said it was definitely the sweetest possible end to the day.

The beautiful flower girls.

Dancing with Maya and Morla!

Getting Ready

Me, Laura, and Megan.. Laura was stunning!

Going down the aisle

Terry with his two little followers!

Joshua of course, had to steal as many sparklers as possible.. boys! :S

The Whole Wedding party

Picture time

So cute!

We love you Laura!

Terry loves Ayana!! And Ayana, of course, is obsessed with Tewwy.

The matching boys

Sisters

Our whole family, all dressed up! :D

Practicing with their parasols

Moses poking in through the window.. I want attention too guys!

So a huge congratulations to my cousin Terry, and my brand new cousin Laura.. I'm soo happy for you guys!

Baby Nana and Mo-Mo

2007-07-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

There's this couple that goes to our church who have a little girl, around Moses' age. Her name is Anna, and she's really cute.. in fact, I babysit her twice a week. She can get a bit upset, as she's not used to being left by her mom very much, but she's really sweet. Anyway, she is obsessed with Moses! She calls him "Baby Mo-Mo", and everytime she sees a picture of him, or any other little black baby for that matter, she grins, and says, "Mo-Mo!!!", and gives it kisses! Her mom told us that the other day she was hugging and kissing a Huggies box, and was so excited. When they went over to see what she was doing, she pointed at the picture of the little black boy wearing Huggies Diapers on the side, and said, "Mo-Mo!!!" She calls herself Baby Nana, and I think that it might be catching on with Moses!
Moses loves Anna too, and they play together all the time, and love to see each other. Here are some beautiful pictures of them playing the piano together last week during one of my babysitting days.

Concentrating very hard

"No, Mo-Mo.. its a C major! Not C minor!"

" You do know that you are disturbing our practice session..."

"Lets continue, shall we?"

Great big kisses! Lots of love! :D

Its so cute seeing them play together, and actually makes it a lot easier to babysit, when they are both occupied!

Happy 20th Anniversary to my Parents!!!

2007-07-12T11:57:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was my parent's 20th Anniversary (Happy Anniversary!!!! :D :D :D)! My dad got my mom this huge bouquet of flowers, with a big singing balloon (yes, I said singing!). When you tap it, it sings this cute song called "You're still the one." Its really cute. We also made lunch for them (my dad asked us to, and told us what to make.. it was a little surprise for my mom), and we did a cafe type thing (Le Cafe D'Amour... my little bit of French from French class! :P), with appetizers, main courses, desserts, menus, a host, and waiters/esses. (It was pretty fun! :D) My mom really enjoyed it, and that's when my dad told her his big surprise for her.....instead of just going out for dinner, like they usually do, they went on a little mini vacation, and stayed in a hotel last night. She was soo excited! (of course, she got him presents too, but this one is just the one that applies to me, as I had to babysit! :P)

Here's a picture of my dad, with his special present for my mom

Joshua, as the waiter/host of "Le Cafe D'Amour" :D.. notice his lovely dress shirt, complete with his board shorts!

My aunt came over last night, and slept over here, but for the most part it was me babysitting. My parents still aren't home yet, and Megan and Josh went swimming with some friends, so its just me and the little ones. They're on their nap now, so I just thought I'd share some pictures of me, Ayana, and Moses having some fun in our backyard! :D

Ayana's expression is so funny in this one!

Cutie Pie!

He's saying, "CHEEEEEEEEE!", for "Cheese".

She's going to be a model someday.. she was doing all the poses herself!

She's SO cute!!!

Moses wanted to get in on the modeling too

Trampoline Time!

Look at her bouncing!! I love this shot... it was completely by accident!

Looking up from under the trampoline.. they thought this was hilarious!
I thought it was a pretty cool picture.

From One Extreme to the Next...

2007-07-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago we were in White Rock, in the sun, getting sun burnt. Yesterday we were in Whistler, going up to the top of the mountain, in the snow, all freezing cold! The Thomas family (visiting from England) have been in Whistler since Saturday, and we went up yesterday to spend the day with them. We all had a really good time, and we went up in the gondola, to the top of the mountain, which was probably the highlight of the day. Whenever we go up, we always hope to see bears, and we often do, while we're in the lift. Our friends really wanted to see one, so we were really hoping that we would see at least one. Well, we get in, and start going up (the gondola's each carry 6-8 people, so we went in one, and their family went in the one after us), looking around for bears. Suddenly, right as we were starting, not where you expect to see the bears, as it is right by the bikers, I saw something black, and moving. When we got closer, we realized that it was not only one bear, but a mother bear, and a cub, right close to the lift, playing in the dirt! We were so excited! It was the best bear sighting we've ever experienced... and our friends were so excited! It turned out that they had actually seen two sets of mother and cub, and we had only seen the second set! But I'm glad that we got to see the ones that we did. The cub was soo cute! :D

When we were up on the mountain, we went over to the snowiest part, and watched some people who had found these huge signs, and were sledding on them. Sam, Amy, Megan, and both Joshua's really wanted to do it (I wasn't feeling too well, so I just watched), so they waited, and then went down. It was so funny watching them! In the picture you can see them all screaming! :) Ayana and Moses loved the snow too.. they were picking it up, and throwing it at people, and sticking it in people's clothes, and sucking on it (only the very clean parts... we made sure! :D ). Moses went in, and some got into his sandals, and he quickly ran back onto the dirt, saying, "Co, co, co!!", which is his word for cold.

I was actually feeling very sick on the way up, and the morning/early afternoon, so up to about lunch time, I wasn't having a very good time. Fortunately, Becca had some medication with her, so I took a double dose of painkillers. They really helped, and I'm very glad she had those, else I wouldn't have had a very fun day! But I just though I'd mention that, as in a couple of the pictures I look pretty pale... I was not lying about being sunburnt! I was only pale because I felt sick! Anyway, we had lunch all together, and walked around, and went in a couple stores, and then we went up to their hotel room for a bit. It is soo nice! They're staying in Chateau Whistler, which is the nicest hotel there.. it would cost soo much pernight, but they actually got it for free, by using some traveler's points they had been saving up for a long time! It was so nice to go in there and just relax a bit.. walking around Whistler is actually very tiring!

Lunch time

Waiting for the gondola

In the gondola

The bears!

Up in the snow!

Sledding down the snow.. on a Nintendo Wii billboard! :D

Meeting with Bears!

I only realised afterward that I was the guy! :P But our hair matched up, so that's ok! :D

Josh (my brother) also got the chance to go on this cool trampoline/bungy thing. It was really cool. He got strapped up, and then lifted so that he could go super high, and then he did flips and bounced around and stuff. He said, as he was going on, that he was going to do a triple flip. He tried and tried (at first he was too scared to do any flip, but after a while he got it!), and then finally the girl who was supervising it said that he could have 10 more bounces. When he still didn't get the triple flip, she gave him one more.. and one more.. and one more.. he had about 15 "one more" bounces! And then, she told him that he really did have only one more.. and he had one more chance to try for the triple flip.. and he did! He was so proud of himself, and we all started cheering... even the girl was all excited for him!

Getting all strapped up

Jumping high!

In the middle of the triple flip!

A Beautiful New Hair Style!

2007-07-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

My mom just spent the last 2 1/2 hours (about) doing Ayana's hair. It is soooo cute! Ayana did very well, sitting still and eating a snack, but it did take a looong time. I sat and helped my mom put the beads on the beader, but even still it took ages. We were all happy when it was all done... especially Ayana! We had a little photo shoot right then and there.. so here are the pictures of the beautiful Ayana, with her beautiful braided hair! :D

The long ordeal (the yellow in her mouth is fishy crackers, if you were wondering!)

The last braid!!

The finished product

Look at me!

Beautiful new braids

So cute!

An Ethiopian Princess

I'm so happy to be done!! (I love this picture.. its so Ayana!)

We're really hoping that this style with last for quite a while.. I don't think anyone is ready to sit through more of that any time soon!

White Rock for the day!

2007-07-06T18:41:00.001-07:00

Today we went and spent the day at White Rock, which is a huge beach, with nice little cafes, and shops beside it... and when I say huge, I mean huge.. even on a sunny, crowded day, you can always find tons of space to sit down. So we went, with our friends from England, which was really fun. Everybody really enjoyed it, even Moses, although he decided that for the most part he wasn't going to show it. All during lunch he screamed, and after that, if anything didn't go his way, he would start screaming again! Very tiring for my mom, who had to walk him up and down to get him to be quiet. But then, as soon as we get in the car, away from the people everywhere who can hear him screaming, he becomes as happy, and content as anything! But he did like going in the water! I went in with him, and he was very brave, and went in as far as his chest! He fell down a couple times, but he would just laugh and jump back up. Ayana loved it too. She spent a good half an hour in the water, although after coming out, she was freezing, and had to be wrapped in a towel for almost the rest of the time there! All in all it was lots of fun. We went to a little cafe for lunch, and for icecream afterwards (White Rock has the best icecream store ever! SOOO good! :D ) The one bad point is that I forgot, until half way through the afternoon that I hadn't put sunscreen on. Needless to say... I'm burnt to a crisp! :S

A Little Note

2007-07-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Just to let everybody know, I've started a blog for just everyday stuff, about me. I'll continue to write in this, but in case you would like to visit my other blog, feel free to, at:
http://erin-livelaughandlove.blogspot.com
See you later! :D

Happy (Late) Canada Day!

2007-07-03T17:46:00.001-07:00

We didn't really do much to celebrate Canada Day, but we went and had a little impromtu barbeque with some of our closest friends, so that was lots of fun. Ayana and Moses had a lot of fun with their friends, and everyone else got up a good game of.. well.. I'm not quite sure what it was. They called it baseball, but there was no bat, and only two bases, and it seemed to consist of swinging at the ball with your arm, screaming, and running towards the first base.. if you could find it! The younger ones seemed to just scream and run! =) It actually looked quite fun.. and I had just joined in when my little brother got hurt (nothing serious, but with him everything is an emergency!) and we decided to take a break! :( But we roasted hotdogs over our friends fire pit, and then later some s'mores. Our parents wanted to watch a movie, but couldn't decide whether to take their kids up to our house (we live within 30 seconds of each other), or to just not do it. Normally we would do it at their house, as they have the best TV ever (a paint-on screen, with a projector.. the TV is the whole wall!! I love babysitting there! :P), but there were some people staying in their basement suite, who were using it. So, I came up with the brilliant suggestion of me and Megan staying there, and looking after their kids, so that everyone would be able to go to bed in their own beds, and our parents could still watch a movie. So everyone was more than happy to do it.. me and Megan went and watched a movie, and expected them to be home a little while after we were done watching it. Little did we know, they wouldn't return until 2:30am!! Needless to say, after staying up past midnight for the past 3 days, me and Megan were just a little tired.. and with being tired comes being incredibly hyper. When they got home, they found us on the computer, laughing hysterically at some stupid joke.. they thought it was crying at first! Thankfully, we've known them all our lives, so they didn't think we were completely nuts! But all in all, it was a pretty fun Canada Day.
Oh, another thing that happened that was pretty exciting, is the arrival of the people who, as previously mentioned, were staying in our friend's basement. My mom is from England, and so the rest of her family, and all her childhood/highschool/college friends are in England. One of her best friends, from University, had been saving up for a long time for their family vacation, and finally was ready to come.. to Canada! They arrived on Sunday, Canada Day, and it was pretty cool seeing them again (apart from one time, when I was two, and their older son was 3, I have never met them.. and I've never seen their younger two children, and they have never seen Megan, Josh, Ayana, or Moses). We spend the afternoon catching up, and listening to hilarous stories from my mom, and her friend, Becca. It seems like wherever they went, something bad happened to them.. they even managed to be kicked out of their homestay's house once! :P

Their names are Pete, Becca, and their children Sam, Amy, and Joshua (much to my brother's delight.. he has a new friend, around his age, with the same name! What more could he want? :P) They are in Victoria right now, but yesterday we all spent the day at Stanley Park. They asked me if I got tired doing all the touristy type things whenever guests come, but really.. I love it! Who wouldn't love spending the day on the beach?

Summer is Here!

2007-06-20T12:06:00.001-07:00

School's been really busy lately, so I haven't posted in nearly a month. Not much has happened, other than me finishing up school. But finally, its all done. School is over (I still have 2 exams, but no more classes), and summer is finally here! Yesterday was our last day of school, and we ended at about 12:00-12:30ish. Everyone was so excited about summer, and of course, no one got any work done in class! I can't believe its finally summer! No more school.. and I'm turning 16 in a couple more weeks! :D :D

While it doesn't get too hot here (but definitely hot enough to have fans on every night), the slightest bit of heat will get Ayana completely drenched with sweat. She sweats at anything.. which is kind of weird, since I would assume that she would be used to extreme heat.. isn't Ethiopia hotter than BC?? :D And it does get pretty hot for everyone else too, so we decided to get something to help us cool off. My mom went to the store, and came back with a little blow-up pool. Its a little small for everyone else, but its fun for Ayana and Moses! They absolutely love it! They get in there, and splash around, and splash each other, and splash the house, and splash other people.. they just love to splash!

My mom also bought the coolest toy. Its called AquaDoodle, and Ayana and Moses (and me! :P) love it! Its this little mat, with special markers, that you fill with water. When you touch water to the mat, it turns blue. So kids can colour, and 'paint', and it can't get on anything, except for the mat. No messes at all! And the pens can just be emptied when you're done, and refilled up at any time. Its really cool, and I actually use it for when I go babysitting.. all the kids love it! The picture doesn't really show it at all, but it kind of shows what it looks like when you use it! I'll try to get some pictures of Ayana and Moses using it soon.

So, we're ready for summer; a new trampoline, a little pool, AquaDoodle.. now all we need is an adult sized pool for the rest of the family, and we're all set! :D

Oh, and by the way, my dad finally took us to see Pirates! It took a little while though... Joshua's birthday party was on May 26th.. and we saw Pirates yesterday!!! :S Its soooooo good! But SOOOOOOO sad!!!!!!!! Jack is hilarious yet again, but some parts of it are just soooooo sad!! Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you stay after the credits.. its not a huge deal, but its kind of important.. and I liked seeing it!

Afternoon Tea

2007-05-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little story. Today its just Ayana, Moses, and me at home all afternoon and evening. It's Josh's 10th Birthday Party, and my parents have taken him and his friends to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3.. which I really wanted to see by the way. But I got stuck at home. I was kind of upset, and bored, and not looking forward to being at home all day, when Ayana said to me, "Rara? Ayana, Rara, DoyDoy have party?" So we did.

There was some left over candy from Josh's goody bags, so we got out Ayana's tea set, cut up a Snickers bar, unwrapped some Hershey's kisses, got the twizzlers and lemonade out, and sat down to our lovely afternoon tea party. Of course, a tea party just wouldn't be a tea party without some wonderful entertainment, so on came the Wiggles, "Racing for the Rainbow!" Their singing and dancing routines, along with the chocolate, was the highlight of the party!It was a really cute party, and they really enjoyed it. They got all dressed up too, with Moses wearing a black cape, and Ayana a white woolen shawl. They had to have nice party clothes of course!

Then, afterwards, Ayana and I did a craft, while Moses finished watching the Wiggles. So we actually had quite a nice afternoon. Now I just have to figure out what to do with them for the next 3 1/2 hours until my parents get home. Of course, they have to go to bed at 7:30, so just 2 1/2 more hours till that! (That grimace on Moses's face in the last picture is what he does when you tell him to "smile for the camera"! He's hilarious!) Oh, and by the way.. my parents have promised to take me to see Pirates next weekend! Looking forward to that! :D

A New Friend from "Opia"

2007-05-22T22:22:00.001-07:00

Whenever Ayana sees another black person, she points, and says, "Opia", meaning they are from Ethiopia. She gets very excited to see a new friend from her country.. whether they really are from Ethiopia or not! But the other day, she got to meet a new friend, who really was from her homeland.
There is an ESL student at our school, from Ethiopia. Her name is Bethlehem, and she's in the ESL grade 9/10 program in the highschool. She came in September, and when I found out where she is from, I was so excited, and so was my mom. She wanted to arrange a time to meet her, and get to know her. Unfortunately, it never worked out, until this last weekend. She's really sweet, and when she first saw Ayana and Moses at school one day, she was so excited. She said that when Ayana gets older, she's going to give her braiding, and Amharic lessons, because she said, "You can never lose your culture. That's a very important thing, ok Ayana?" She also said she'd love to come and help us with Ayana's hair some time. So, of course when my mom found that out, she jumped on the opportunity! :D

Bethlehem came over last weekend, from 2:3o, to 4:30, and braided Ayana's hair, and spoke Amharic with her (a little bit.. Ayana wasn't responding too much.. she was doing her hyper/shy mood.. a strange combination, but Ayana seems to pull it off well! :D) and talked to us about Ethiopia. It turns out that when we were in Addis Ababa, she was there too! And we arrived in Vancouver on roughly the same day...that was pretty cool to find out! She laughed at that, and said, "We probably saw each other walking around, but just didn't know it!" My mom thought we could have even been on the same plane.. but I doubt it!
Anyway, she did Ayana's hair beautifully, and said she had a lot of fun, and would love to do it again, anytime we need her to! She also offered to do our hair too, just for fun.. I'm thinking we should get Josh's hair done in cornrows! :P
She really loved playing with Ayana and Moses, and when she met them, she kissed them on the hand, just like they did everywhere in Ethiopia. I love that greeting for babies! Its so cute. When we go to an Ethiopian restaurant again, my mom said we should invite her.. she's only been to one in the 8/9 months that she's been here! :( So hopefully we'll get to know her really well.. Ayana and Moses really loved being with her too.. and so did I! Hopefully we all have a new friend from Opia!

Of course, I'm not sure my dad was having as much fun as we were on Saturday. While we were inside listening to stories of Ethiopia, and watching Ayana's hair getting braided, my dad was outside (for seven hours!!) renevating our back yard. He tore down a whole bunch of bushes and trees, and moved our big bunny cage to the side of the house, and got rid of part of the garden. My mom was looking at our back yard one day, and suddenly realised that the way it was landscaped, was a really big waste of space.. at least it was for a family of 7! At least one third of the yard was taken up with bushes, and garden, and our bunny cage. So now, with all the trees and stuff out of the way, our yard is huge! It doesn't look very good at the moment; my dad still has to tear out the stumps, and we have to turf the yard (when I say 'we', I mean it.. my dad has told us that we were helping him next time, or else!) and build a nicer deck, but you can already tell its going to be a really nice, big area to play in. So in the end it will all be worth it.. but on that particular Saturday, I'm not so sure my dad would have agreed!

Another funny story; the other day, I was sitting at school, with Ayana and Moses.. we were just about to walk home, when this guy in grade 9 walked past. I think he may be from Ghana, but I'm not sure at all. Anyway, he walked past, and saw Ayana and Moses, and pumped his fist in the air, and said, "All right, some of my little brothers and sisters from Africa!" It was so cute. Then he came over, and asked where they were from, and their names, and how old they are... he was really interested, and yet he was trying to be a 'cool guy' at the same time. It was really funny! But sweet at the same time.

So, we had a great Saturday, and Ayana's hair looks beautiful.. thanks Bethlehem! :D

A New Trampoline

2007-05-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

We used to have an awesome trampoline; one of the Sundance ones, the square ones. They were really good trampolines, and really bouncy. Unfortunately, last summer, it split in two, and no one could use it anymore. Everyone was disappointed at first, but after a while we all forgot about it, and didn't even notice it any more. Then, since summer is coming, and several of our friends have them (and their little kids love them), my parents decided we could get a new one. So, last Saturday, we went to Walmart, and bought a new one, with a big net around it. The net was half for safety measures, and half so that Ayana and Moses can be zipped up in there, and have fun without 24/7 supervision. Its one of the normal, round ones, not quite as bouncy, but still fun.

We set it up last Saturday, and since then, Ayana and Moses have LOVED going on it. The setting up took two days actually. We set the trampoline part up on Saturday (with everyone helping, it took a while.. but then when we tried to move it into place, it didn't fit! We ended up having to cut down two of our bushes so that we could fit it in! :D) and then the net part on Sunday. That was not so fun. The bottom of the net had to be woven together with the springs, with this long string. However, it had about 150 little holes, and each one had to be threaded through the springs. I ended up just skipping every other one.. it was faster, and the trampoline is still completely secure!

Both the trampoline, and the net came in two big boxes, which of course are very exciting! So while we set up the trampoline (and my mom appointed herself "head photographer" :S) Ayana and Moses played in the boxes. They had more fun than we did, I can say that for sure. I think they were more excited about those boxes, than the finished trampoline. (We still haven't thrown the boxes away.. they love them so much! :D)

The trampoline has been a big success this last week! Moses thinks going on it is hilarious, and runs around as fast as he can, swaying, and tripping, and staggering around like he's drunk, trying to stay on his feet on the bouncy surface. Its hilarious! Ayana loves going on the "bouncy bouncy" with us, even though its a little scary when other people are bouncing. So since she is, of course, the queen of the house, if we are bouncing, and she would like to go on, she comes over, and tells us to "Wait jus' a minute guys! Ayana bouncy bouncy! Gosh!" :D Their favourite thing to do, is sit in someone's lap, and have the other person on bounce up and down. They sit there, holding on as tight as they can, laughing their heads off. Megan took a hilarious picture of this happening, on the first day we got it. (this is before the net was set up).

Here is a picture of Ayana, the queen of the bouncy bouncy! :D

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to say Happy Mother's Day to everyone who is, or will be a mom! We had a really good mother's day (Ayana did think it was my mom's birthday at first though!:D) I think my mom had a good day, and we went to see my Oma too, and took her some cards, and a big bunch of flowers. So I hope that everyone had a great Mother's Day. See you later!

Take me out to the ball game...

2007-05-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to a base ball game for my dad's work. It lasted from 5:30, to about 8:30. It wasn't the most exciting to hang out with people from my dad's work that I didn't know, but it was fun watching him play base ball, and Ayana and Moses loved hanging out with all the new people, and the kids, and the huge field to play on. Moses was all ready for the game too, with his track suit, and side ways baseball cap.. he was very cool! And with his amazing throwing arm.. wow! He should be signed up for the big leagues already! :P

Ayana was very cute and friendly with everyone.. and even got bossy with a lady from my dad's work who had been dying to meet them since we brought them home. She was playing with them for some time, so Ayana got all hyper (she does that with big groups, and new people) and began to boss this lady around. They were playing catch, and sometimes the ball would roll to the side, and out of reach. Instead of running over and getting it herself, Ayana would point at the ball, point at the lady, and shout, "Get it!" We were all laughing, so she of course got even bossier. Then, another lady starting handing out those little noise makers to all the kids. Ayana was so excited, ran over, and got a green one. She blew it several times, studied it carefully, then shoved it back in the bag, grabbed a gold one, and said to the lady, "Ayana, nother one, now!" The lady laughed and said, "Oh, all right then miss!" It was actually really funny. But my mom told us to stop laughing at her, because she would start taking it too far if she kept on getting so much encouragment from everyone. Oh, and by the way, she was wearing the shirt I bought her from Roots, when I was on the Whistler Music Festival Trip! It was really cute on her (you can't see it in the picture; its under the sweater), and she loves it. If you ask her where it's from, she says, "Rara!" That's what she calls me; She calls me Rara, Megan Meme, Joshua Jofua, my mom and dad Mama, and Ababa (but she sometimes says daddy), and Moses Doya Doya, and even sometimes Ermias, which is his Ethiopian name (now his middle name). She knows our real names, but she likes calling us by those nicknames.. Moses even calls me Rara now! Its so cute! And he can say Mama, Baba, Doya, Rara, Jaja, but he can not, no matter how many times we try to teach him, say Megan, or Meme! Its so funny!

Anyway, all in all, the baseball game was actually fun. My dad's work team lost (quite badly, actually!) but they had some good runs, and cheered a ton, which kind of made up for it. :P I ran around playing catch with Ayana and Moses for a good part of it, and we got hotdogs, pop, chips, and ice cream (for $5! pretty good :D) which was yummy! Moses loved to throw the ball around, and chase after all the big kids, playing catch and "football". He especially loved playing with the dogs that were there.

There were 3 dogs there all together, and Moses loved the biggest, loudest, (friendliest!) one, of course! He followed after him, as fast as he could possibly run, laughing and squealing, and trying to get the ball before the dog did. He couldn't, of course, but he had a lot of fun trying to! The dog was so sweet, and patient, and would actually bring the ball to Moses when he got it! It was really cute; they were playing catch together! Kind of.. lol!

Ayana was terrified of the dogs, of course, but she actually went with my mom and touched one.. for about one second before running away again. But she's getting a bit better. There was the cutest little chocolate lab puppy there too. He was adorable! I would love to have a puppy, but I have the feeling it might be a little too much work for my parents at the moment!

So we had a fun Friday evening.. even though my dad's team did lose! :(

Back from Whistler

2007-05-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got the opportunity to go on a trip to Whistler with my school. Whistler is a place up the in mountains of BC; a big skiing location, with great snow, and actually a popular place for bikers during the summer, when the snow has melted. I've been many times with my family, but its always lots of fun with your friends! I'm in Jr. choir (grade 9 and 10), and each year, both the Sr. music groups, and the Jr. music groups get to go on a trip to participate in a music festival. Last year we got to go to Edmonton, which was really fun.. a whole afternoon in Edmonton Mall!! :D :D That is the nicest mall I've ever seen. Its amazing!

Anyway, this year we went to Whistler with the choir, the band, the jazz band, and the vocal jazz to take part in the Whistler music festival. I stayed in a room with 5 of my friends, although one of them had to leave on Friday night for a volleyball competition the next day. But I was in the room with one of my best friends, K, and some other really good friends, C, J, N, and E (my mom told me not to use names.. so I'm using letters. :P) It was actually a lot of fun (although listening to the mandatory concerts, performances, and adjudications wasn't all that fun... especially when the concert on Saturday night went for 2 hours.. with the last song being about 45 minutes long. Just one song. Ugh.) But for the most part it was a great trip. Whenever we didn't have to listen to, or perform at any concerts, we went shopping, walking around, hanging out, and having a ton of fun. It rained from Thursday when we got there, until late Friday night (we had to walk everywhere, because we had no vehicles.. in skirts, dress shirts, and tights-the choir uniform-walking in the rain is not fun!!) but it was really nice and sunny all of Saturday, and Sunday too, so that was really good. I bought presents for everyone in my family (my parents gave me a lot of money for food and stuff, and I wanted to bring them something back in return). I got the cutest little shirt from Roots for Ayana (pink, with a sparkly flower), and a little 101 Dalmations book, and a "Whistler, Canada" baseball hat for Moses (to match with his "Canada Team" outfit he already has) and a Tigger book. They were both soo excited to get them! I was gone from Thursday afternoon, to Sunday evening, and when I got home, Ayana and Moses were so happy! I also got Megan some body butter, and a little Playmobile horse and kid (she's starting a collection of Playmobile :P) and Josh some sunglasses, and some wierd science/prank type stuff. Its powder that changes any liquid into gel. It's actually quite disgusting. I brought back tons of candy for everyone too, from the best candy store, the Great Glass Elevator. I love that store!! They have everything! Its awesome.

Since I was gone on Friday, and my parents, Megan, and Josh were going out, they needed a babysitter for Ayana and Moses. So I recommended my friend to babysit. (by the way, we were born on the exact same day... 2 minutes apart-I'm older lol- which is pretty cool! We always used to call each other twins.. we actually fooled one of the new kids! :P) Anyway, Ayana was excited about it all day, and kept on asking when "Rissa" was coming. They all really enjoyed it, and when I saw my friend at school on Monday, she told me to pump my fist in the air at Ayana when I got home, and say, "Who's your best buddy?" and see what Ayana did. So I got home, pumped my fist in the air, and shouted, "Who's your best buddy?" Ayana looked at me, laughed, pumped her fist and shouted, "Yaaaaaay, Rissa!!" It was hilarious! Ayana was brainwashed by my friend! lol.. it was so funny that I called her, and had Ayana say it to her on the phone. She laughed for ages. Anyway, the game is starting, so I'd best be off... Go Canucks!!! (by the way, Ayana is at Science World in the picture.. it might look really strange if you didn't know the context!)

GO CANUCKS!!

2007-04-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have no stories, or pictures to post, but I'd just like to say....

GO CANUCKS!!!!!!!!!

We just watched them score their first goal tonight (7th game- Monday night) and let me tell you, I'm almost deaf from all the screaming going on around here (including me!) I'm not usually a huge hockey fan.. I mean, I'd love for them to win, but this time... I actually care!!! :D :D Go Canucks!!

Dressing Up

2007-04-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ayana and Moses both love dressing up. We never used to have many costumes, but since Ayana and Moses have come home, we've gotten a little collection. It's not much, but we have a few cute things, and its enought for them to have fun playing dress up with. Of course, they aren't the only ones! Me and Megan used to love dressing up too, and there are countless pictures of us dressed up (mostly as Jo and Amy from Little Women, or Laura and Mary from Little House on the Prairie- the only things we had were old skirts, an apron, and a couple shawls, so the options were a bit limited!) And Joshua still does love dressing up. His newest costume is this wonderful Jack Sparrow costume he's showing off here. He had just bought the compass, head band, sword, eye stickers, and rings, and I had helped him with his makeup (that was fun! :P) and the rest of it. He was really excited about it, but when he came downstairs, Ayana shouted at him, "Ayana no like it! Naughty Joshua!" He couldn't stay downstairs for long, because she actually started to get quite scared, but he couldn't resist posing a bit, and chasing people around with his sword! But for the most part, Ayana and Moses really enjoy their costume times, and as you can see, they look adorable as kittens and cows!

Playing with the bunnies

2007-04-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Today me, Megan, Ayana, and Moses went outside to play with our bunnies. In reality they're more middle aged rabbits or even seniors than bunnies, but we always call them "the bunnies", so they'll be babies in our minds forever! This wasn't the first time that Ayana and Moses have seen them, but we haven't gone out there to play with them for a while, during the winter. Ayana is still afraid of them, and Moses still adores them. Mine, called Calico is probably the gentlest of all of them (we have three, mine, Megan's, and Josh's) so she's the one we get out for visitors, or younger kids to play with. Little Brown, Megan's, used to be quite fierce, and would bite if you picked her up, but she's calmed down a lot, and is actually getting to be quite sweet. So Calico, and Little Brown were the ones out on the lawn, getting pampered (and pulled- Moses still likes to grab their ears and whiskers and try to pick them up). Ayana, however backs up, and runs away when they get near. What was funny was that she half screamed, ran away from them, up the stair, and into the house, grabbed onto my mom, and said to her, "Ayana see bunnies. Ayana like bunnies. Funny bunnies!" I'm not quite sure where that came from! But by the end, we got her to sit beside Calico, and pet her gently. She was so proud of herself, that she didn't want to go inside to dinner, and just wanted to keep on petting Calico. And Moses stood up in his high chair, turned around, and pointed out the window, saying, "Buh, buh".. we're assuming he meant bunny. :) So all in all, it was a fun time, and we almost cured Ayana of her fear of rabbits. Maybe we'll work on our friend's terrifying tiny baby puppy next. :D

Hair and Hats

2007-04-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, we caught Moses in the kitchen with a very lovely look. Balanced on top of his tricicle, tying to ride it under the table, he had somehow managed to grab Ayana's hat out of the closet, and balance that on his head. He was very proud of himself for this daring feat. I think it was on Easter Sunday, so the colour of the hat matched perfectly with those nice painted eggs on the counter!

Well, apparently this wasn't enough to satisfy his love of hats, because yesterday he came up to me holding the hood of his jacket- not the jacket, just the hood- and patting his head. I asked if he wanted it on, and he looked at me very seriously, patted his head again, and said "Ow" (yes in Amharic). So I strapped it on him, and he trotted off grinning, to show everyone else his beautiful "ha" (hat). What made it hilarious was that his entire outfit was a diaper, and a bright blue hood.

A couple of weeks ago, Ayana also had a very cool "decoration" on her head. Her hair had been in little twists for a few days, and they were starting to get a little fuzzy, with hair falling out. So, when they were getting ready for their bath, my mom quickly took them out. The result was adorably funny! My mom showed Ayana in the mirror, and she grinned and laughed, and said to her, "Wow! Ayana funny!"

Our (belated) Easter Egg Hunt

2007-04-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

While most people probably do Easter Egg hunts on Easter Sunday, we decided to do something different. (in other words, we forgot!) So on Easter Monday, my dad took our basket of beautifully coloured eggs, and hid them around the living and dining room, with about 50% of them in plain sight, for Ayana and Moses to find. Ayana was a bit confused at first, but Moses got it straight away, and began picking up those eggs, and putting them back in the basket. With each egg he found, his grin grew wider, and in the end, he was shrieking with delight at each new discovery. Ayana finally got it, and loved it too, although in her excitement, she would find two eggs, take one in each hand, and bang them together, shouting, "Ayana found it! Ayana found it!" We quickly discouraged her from doing that too much, as about 2 out of every 5 eggs are now beautifully decorated with cracks and chips. :)

In the end, everyone grew tired of it, except for Ayana and Moses, so my dad and I hid them, while they both tried to find them. Moses kept on coming over to me, patting my leg (hard) which is his way of getting people's attention, and doing the sign (baby sign language.. he only knows one word!) for "more". So then we would have to show him an egg, put it down, and let him go and find it again! He never grew tired of it, and was a bit grumpy when we told him that it was "all done". Here are a couple of pictures of Ayana and Moses having fun finding those eggs!

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

I'd just like to say Happy Easter to everyone!

We've had a great Easter so far, and it was so cool remembering that it was exactly a year ago that we first laid eyes on Ayana Kalkidan and Moses Ermias Wiebe. They were only 17 and 3 months old then.. they've grown so much since those first pictures. Especially Ayana. Looking at those referal pictures, and then watching her at church this morning, dancing with her new friends, or "helping" us on our treasure hunt, or eating a little hollow chocolate rabbit.. there's such a difference! And Moses was, and still is, just a baby, but you can still definitely see a difference from those first pictures.

We had a great breakfast this morning, and then headed off to church. Ayana wore the most adorable little summer/spring dress, and she just looked so perfect for Easter morning. Her and Moses love dancing around to the music at church, especially with their friends, and with the flags they provide for kids. Then this afternoon, after delicious french toast with strawberries, we all went upstairs to wait in my bedroom while my dad prepared some incredibly hard clues for our treasure hunt. Ayana and Moses got to help us, and loved the little jelly beans along the way with each new clue we found. When we finally reached the end, we each got some treats, and a new cd (Ayana and Moses got a few jelly beans, a card, and a little chocolate bunny). I got a Switchfoot cd, and I'm going to listen to it, as soon as I post this! :)
We just decorated our eggs yesterday, and we gave Moses one to hold while we took a picture. Well, he had just been eating his chocolate, so as soon as the egg touched his hand, he jammed it into his mouth, and began sucking on it! We took it away quickly, and left him with a strange look on his face as he peered at the eggs in the basket. Once he found his chocolate bunny again though, he was fine!

Ayana and Moses had to go down for a nap, and Ayana was heartbroken to have to leave her precious chocolate, and would only go upstairs after she had been promised that there would be more chocolate after sleepy time. They're just getting up now, so I think I'd better go and make sure all my candy is out of the way for now!

A Close Call.. Looking back

2007-04-04T16:43:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say a word of thanks to everyone who might have been praying for Moses last week. Moses and Ayana had to have a few TB tests and x-rays, to make sure that they did not have active TB. They had a skin test, and if they reacted to it, they had to have some x-rays. Whether it was active or not, they had to take meds, as children under 5 are more at risk that adults, once they have reacted to the skin test. Well, they did end up reacting to it, so my mom took them to a TB clinic to get the x-rays. We didn't expect them to have active TB, and were not surprized when the doctor said that they had latent TB, which means that they just have to take some meds, and will be fine. We also didn't expect the doctor to freak out about Moses' x-ray. We had a huge scare when the TB doctor told my mom that Moses' heart was "So abnormal" and he had "never seen anything like it before." I was so scared when my mom came home and told us that. I looked at Moses, dancing and running around, and didn't really believe that anything could be wrong with him, but when a doctor says something like that.. you usually listen! Thankfully, he went to a cardaeologist at Children's Hospital, who ran a bunch of tests, and told us he is completely fine. There had been some confusion because of a certain gland by the heart which is larger in children than in adults. But we were quite scared for a while. It was my mom's birthday, and she didn't really get to spend it all that nicely, as her and my dad were rushing around to Children's to get all the tests done. But there was a nice ending. So I'd just like to say again, thank-you to anyone who is reading this that was praying for Moses. It really helped! He's 100% fine.. which is quite easy to tell just by watching him for a few minutes... or for that matter, babysitting him for several hours. That can be interesting. :)

Back from Pender Island

2007-03-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

We were on Pender Island, in the Gulf Islands for the past week, and we just got back yesterday. It was a really great time. We had a whole week to just do whatever we wanted, and it was such an awesome holiday! The cabin we rented (I say "cabin".... it was more like a house!) was beautiful... and it had a hot tub! We went in it at least twice a day.. although by the end of the week, it wasn't such a big attraction.. I think we actually got sick of it! :) But it was so nice to have! We went in it almost every morning, every night, and several afternoons too! Ayana and Moses loved it too. Ayana called it the "big bubble water", and Moses loved to sit and splash whoever he could reach!

The house has 2 bedrooms, plus a loft, so Megan, Josh, and I slept in the loft, and Ayana and Moses shared the second bedroom. The only thing was, we only had one play pen for Moses, and Ayana had to sleep in the bed.... she was terrified! She's never slept in a bed (except for the first week back home, before we got her crib) and she hates them, unless she's with somebody. It would take her hours to fall asleep... she would sometimes still be awake at 11! She finally got over it,and got used to the bed, but it was so sad at first when she was crying at telling us to come back... my mom had to stay with her for a good 20 minutes before she would settle down.

Apart from that though, it was a great experience. We went to the frisbee golf course (soo much fun! We went twice, and the holes 19-27 were killer!! Up and down huge hills.... we almost died by the end!) We also spent a lot of time on the beach.. the views were gorgeous! It really is a beautiful place! We had picnicks all the time... just a great holiday for everyone.. and Moses and Ayana loved going to our favourite beach. It had pebbles, instead of sand, but there were actually really cool rocks.. I came home with quite a few in my pocket! All different colours and sizes.. I found the smoothest one.. it feels like glass! Ayana and Moses LOVED throwing rocks in the water.. and at us too! But my parents quickly put an end to that!

The island had a little shopping center, called the Driftwood Center, and it had a grocery store, a bakery, a book store, an eye clinic, a souvenir store, and a gas station. We loved going there, and we got movies from the gas station almost every night. The book store was really cool, because the front half had new books, and the whole back half had used books... shelves and shelves of them. We made quite a haul there! :)

They also had these really cool craft angels at the book store, called African AIDS Angels. They're $5 each, and all the money goes towards four different orphanages and/or organizations in Africa, working with adults and children who have AIDS. The angels are each given a traditional African name, in memory of a child who died from AIDS. They're so sweet. Me and my mom both bought one, and mine is called Selema, which means peace. They're all handmade, and they're actually really beautiful. I think you can find out more about them on this website: www.wolfweb.ca/angels ... I hope that works! It's really cool, because it was started by these seven people who went to Africa, and wanted to make a difference, and in the last 4 years they've raised over $100,000, just by selling these little angels! You should check it out. :) It's a really cool project!

Anyway, we just got home last night, and we're sad to be home, but happy that we still have another whole week of spring break ahead of us! I love having a two week spring break! :D

Half a Year has gone by!

2007-02-28T18:37:00.000-08:00

It's so hard to believe that its been half a year (tomorrow) since we came back with Ayana and Moses! Half a year has passed already since we walked through the airport, into the cheering crowds of people, welcoming Ayana and Moses to their new home. So much has happened...

~Ayana moved from a bed to a crib... its a little reversed, but it worked! :)

~Moses took his first little wobbly steps

~Our first special events as a family:

> Thanksgiving

> Halloween (Ayana was a fairy princess, and Moses was a little cowboy... they liked the dressing up and the candy, but not all the neigborhood decorations so much. The skeletons were a bit scary, but the scariest of all for Ayana.. our neigbor's tiny new puppy! Terrifying!)

> Megan's Birthday

> Christmas Eve

> Christmas (So much fun... Ayana was amazed by all the presents... "AGAIN??" And why was there a tree in the house??)

> New Year's Eve

> Ayana's 2nd Birthday (Ayana spent the whole day dressed up as a fairy princess with red sunglasses! Very cool!)

> Moses's 1st Birthday (One of his presents was in a bag bigger than him.. we have a picture of him on tip toe trying to reach into the bag.. very cute! :) )

~Ayana and Moses's first snow (Ayana looking out the window, "Oh Wow! Uh Oh! Who did vat? Ayana no did vat! Mama did vat?")

~Getting to know new friends and family (Oma and Opa, Gran-Gran, Aunties and Uncles, Molly and Kohl Peters- Ayana's new best friends and role models- baby Jamie, also known as "Baby Jesus" by Ayana! :) and lots more)

~Meeting Gran-Gran (my mom's mom) from England for real, instead of on the computer on webcam..she doesn't actually live in the computer screen like Ayana used to think! :)

~Learning more and more English.. even Moses is starting to understand simply words, and even has his own (coh=cold, booh=book, dow=down, Mama, Baba=Daddy, cack=catch, ba=ball)

~My friends have all fallen in love with them.. especially Ayana... one of my good friends, Kristie, just adores her! Once she asked if she could come over.. to play with Ayana! :S

~Ayana and Moses were dedicated at church.. it was a really cool service, and everybody was crying at the end!

~We've all bonded so well... we actually feel like a real family now, instead of just trying to make it through!

Its been an amazing half year, and I can't believe how much has happened. I'm looking forward to what will happen next. For spring break we're going to spend a week in a cabin on one of the Gulf Islands. It'll be really nice to have a whole week all to ourselves to just relax and be together, without having to worry about being anywhere, or doing anything particular. And the best part... a hot tub on the deck!! I'm so excited about it! :) :)
In the summer we're planning to go on vacation with our friends for 1 or 2 weeks and rent a trailer, which will be a lot of fun too. Plus... I'm turning 16 while we're there!! Sweet Sixteen! I can't wait until I can drive, and I'll take Megan and Ayana places, once she's a little older, and we can have sisters outings! That'll be really fun.

Just a quick little story from today: I was giving Ayana an "airplane" ride on my legs (while I'm lying on the ground, she balances on my feet, I hold her hands, and then lift my legs up in the air) She kept on coming off, running around, then coming back and saying "Aypane again!!" Then on the seventh or eighth one, she let go, and kind of slipped off my legs. She pretended she was fine, tried to laugh, got up, ran around, came back and said "Umm... aypane all done! Careful Rara! Gosh!" It was so cute!

Well, I should probably go now.. this is a pretty long post, and my mom needs to use the computer. Bye for now!

~Erin~

Sisters

2007-02-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

Today I made this cool slidshow on onetruemedia.com, about my sisters (Megan and Ayana) and me. It's really cute.. and it was really easy to make! Just click on the link below, and hopefully it will work..
~Erin ~
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=240b8b34689f8c6626cc00&skin_id=0&&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Ayana and Moses' Dedication

2007-01-31T17:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of Ayana and Moses in their traditional Ethiopian clothes. They're sitting in front of an Ethiopian flag, right before we left for church for their dedication.

Moses' 1st Birthday, and their Dedication.

2007-01-31T16:58:00.000-08:00

Moses turned one on January 12th. We didn't do anything fancy, but when he got his presents, he was soo excited. He got 3 extremely loud toys
and a trike. He had no clue what was going on, but it was pretty funny to watch him get all excited over the tissue paper! :) His new obsession is reading books, and watching an Australian group of dancers/singers called the Wiggles. It's on right now, and I can probably say I know every song on those four episodes off by heart. They're on constantly.. 24/7. It's pretty cute.. Jeff is really annoying, but the rest is.... cute. Here are some pictures of Moses getting his new toys on his birthday. We did go out for dinner (Ethiopian food.. what else?) but that was about a week later.

Last week (Sunday) Ayana and Moses got dedicated at church. They were in traditional Ethiopian clothes, and it was really sweet. We made a slide show about the whole adoption journey, and I'd say about 99.9% of the church was crying by the end. It was really nice. I'll put a picture of them in their outfits in another post, because it won't let me do more than 4 pictures at a time.

It's A New Year!

2007-01-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

When I posted the one about Christmas, I forgot to write anything about New Year's Eve. It's now 2007! That's so wierd. Our New Year's Eve and Day were nice. Of course, Ayana and Moses went to bed a lot earlier than midnight, so they didn't get to welcome in the new year, but they were obviously with us on New Year's Day, so that's ok. We went over to our friends' house, and ended up staying there until 3:00am! I think that's the latest we've ever stayed there! It was really fun.. just our family, and their family, and it was a lot more relaxed and fun than the huge party we had last year. We played some games, and all of us (except for Ayana, Moses, and their son) stayed up until midnight (and past). We had sparklers, and champaign/sparkling apple juice. :) When midnight finally came we all (even the adults) grabbed pots and pans, ran outside, and made as much noise as we possibly could! We were all screaming, and jumping around, and hugging, and our friend was videoing the whole thing! It was a lot of fun. Then on New Year's Day we just kind of hung out again. Josh went to our friend's house again, and they went swimming, and then in the evening we ordered out (Red Robins!) and then went to Chapters. It wasn't anything extra special, but it was a really nice family day, and we all had lots of fun. Well, that's about it, and I better go now. Happy New Year!

Christmas

2007-01-04T09:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas was really good this year. Our Oma came for Christmas Eve, which made it really fun. We always do our stockings on Christmas Eve, and Ayana was so excited about that. After all our Christmas Eve traditions were over, Ayana and Moses had to go to bed (which neither of them were very happy about, while the rest of us watched a new movie from Joshua, my brother's stocking. And none of us wanted to go to bed in the end either(except me--> I was really tired!) But we all finally got to sleep at around 11:00, which is very early for all of us to fally asleep on Christmas Eve, and then woke up at 6:00am, and had to wait another 2 hours, as my parents refuse to get up any earlier than 8. But we survived, and eventually got to go downstairs. When Ayana saw all the presents under the tree, she just kept on saying "Oh!! Konjoi!" (sp?--> means Beautiful in her language) Every time a new present would come out from under the tree for Ayana, she would say "Ayana, AGAIN??"It was so cute! And she wanted to help all of us open our presents (even when it wasn't our turn.. she would just grab a present at random, and start opening it.. which wasn't quite so cute!) She got soo excited.. it was a bit much, since she got too hyper, and didn't know what to do except run around screaming and opening other people's presents.... it ended in a couple tears! But she enjoyed it for the most part. Her very favourite present was a Disney Princess bike. It's a two wheeler (with training wheels), but it's so tiny! She rode it around the house all day. Moses didn't really get any of it, but he liked his new books and toys, and loved the turkey dinner, so he was happy. We had a really nice day, just hanging out, playing games, reading, watching movies etc. It was really nice to relax and have fun like that. And all of us stayed in our pajamas all day! That was nice too! :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!!!.........

2006-12-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

We now have our house all decorated for Christmas, we're out of school, I'm done all my Christmas shopping, and it's Christmas in 2 days! But even though all of that is happening, it still doesn't feel like it should be Christmas all ready... we just finished school today.. I'm not used to working right up to Christmas. But it's sooo cool getting ready for Ayana and Moses' first Christmas ever! It's going to be soo cute. And my Oma is going to come for Christmas Eve, which is going to be so cool.. it'll make it so special. I can't wait to see Ayana and Moses' faces on Christmas morning.. even Christmas Eve! It'll be so cool to see what they think. So anyway, we decorated our tree a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to put some pictures of that on here. Ayana was so confused... she did not get why we were putting a tree inside the house! But she was really excited none the less. I can't wait till Christmas!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D

Snow Day!

2006-11-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

Today was Ayana and Moses' first snow day. They were soo excited! Ayana kept looking out the window, and saying "fnow! fnow!" It was so cute. When we actually went outside to play, she loved it. She saw everybody throwing snowballs, and wanted to join in too.. so she did.. right in Moses' face! She laughed.. he cried. :D We went sledding at our friends house, and Ayana loved it the whole time. Moses got fed up, and went inside, but she kept right on going. After about an hour and a half, though, she suddenly realized that it was cold, and started to freak out. We went home, and she fell fast asleep. Moses was already asleep in my arms... dead asleep. It was really fun to play in the snow with them for the first time, and this was probably the coldest they've ever been in their lives. And now we get another day with them tomorrow... no school! Yay! Oh, and by the way, it's been snowing since 6pm last night.. and it's now 8pm the next day and still going strong... I'm hoping to get two, maybe three snow days out of this!