Rambling on about Pigeons

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!!!

Here's the boys goofing off with Brighten. I've learned my lesson with the (sweet) mongrel that is Brighten and always check her Mom & Dad's nest for eggs when I change the aviary water. As much as I love birds, 7 is just perfect for the size of enclosure we have, so I've been vigilant about checking that nest and removing any eggs laid during the night.
Well, I know they say that Pigeons are stupid, but Mr. Moo & Mrs. Grays' pea-sized brains went to work on outsmarting me. They made a second, hidden nest. By the time I became wise to their game and found the twin eggs, they were, I suspect, about three-fourths of the way "done". Looks like we'll be having twins for Christmas.
This makes me realize that we'll need to do something about this prolific pair. Maybe, once springtime comes, I'll liberate Moo. Although I hate to do that as he's one of my prettiest birds. I would rather release Gray, but I wonder if Moo will then just take a new wife and our quandary will continue? Brainstorming chastity belts for pigeons......Anyway. Blathering about birds probably isn't why you stopped by, so here's another picture of my darlings asleep. I may have more shots of these 2 with their eyes closed than open!

Speaking of pictures, my kiddos is going to be in one of my favorite magazines, Adoptive Families (www.adoptivefamilies.com)! They're pretty excited that their picture was chosen as we often look at this magazeen together. It's got some really good articles about all sorts of stuff. It's second only to my Family Fun subscription.
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving Day with those you love!

Guess Who Signed Adoption Paperwork Today?

WE DID!!!

Here we are waiting in the lawyer's office

Zephan and Daddy

Signing the petition to adopt!! This will now go to the judge's office and his staff will set up a ceremony date for us. After we see the judge it's a done deal! He will officially be:
Zephaniah Henry!!
I think it's cool how, even though this adoption didn't go through "on time", we'll finalize at Christmastime just like we did with Levi. It makes this time of year extra special for us. So much to celebrate! Last year it snowed on Levi's "Gotcha Day" which was oh so beautiful and such a treat. The memory of the boys running down the courthouse steps in the snowflakes is burned into my memory. And how this flood of relief and awe washed over me that nobody could take him away, now. He was MINE. We went out for dessert down the block afterward and I watched both sides of our families enjoy one another and chat while the boys giggled and ate their danishes. It was a perfect day. And now I get to do it again with my 4th son. The little stinker will be MINE.

How blessed am I.

November? Are You Kidding Me?

My little Supermen and Ninjas:

Happy NOVEMBER! Can you even believe it? We're officially into the holiday season. I'm in shock. October went super fast and ended with the Pumpkin Party at church. My guys had a blast and this was the aftermath:
What was that? You want a closer look?

I seriously don't understand how they sleep like this! Levi is usually cuddled up on the foot of the bed with the dog. Lately they've been asking for Zephan to join the mix, but he tends to get Levi riled up and subsequently ends up back in his crib. Maybe someday we'll need the crib for somebody else, then we can debate the pros and cons of the dog pile sleeping arrangement with yet another brother.
Speaking of baby, I'm once again pining. Zephan is waaaay too big and is more enthused about playing (even cooperatively - gasp!) with his brothers than he is about being my baby.

Micah is still in the "rolling his eyes stage" of our discussion about another placement.

I say, "I know you, you old softie. You'll fall in love with a new one just as quickly as you did with our sons." to which he says, "Yeah, like I did for our daughters, too. Remember them? Rayna? Savannah? Secilia? Selina?"

Sigh. I remember. All to well. And I don't blame him for wanting to shield us all from the pain of loss. Especially Solomon who has such a soft heart and tender spirit. It would be really difficult for him to lose a child who he had come to view as a sibling. And, hey, we've attained permanency twice in a row - we're due for a good old fashioned heart-break, right?
Sigh.
It's hard to know what to do.
So, I'm praying for wisdom AND PATIENCE. When it's time we'll BOTH know. In the meantime I'm finishing up some projects. Pre-nesting, you might say. The boys decided on a color scheme for the Cluhouse (with surprisingly little input from the Mama) and we ended up with this Americana-type look:

We stuck some hay bales and ropes inside and threw together some super-easy festive curtains. You know, the kind that only need a tension rod, a yard of fabric and a package of plastic rings. We'll make some for Christmas, too. It's just too cute of a detail to pass up :)Micah just needs to put in the door and steps and we'll be all set! He's also talking about finishing the inside, but we'll see. For now they're having fun graffiti-ing the walls with their crayons. It makes me smile.

Fall Fun!

Happy harvest, everyone!
We're all enjoying ourselves over here. We were invited to my niece's Grammy's house for a pumpkin party last weekend and had such a great time! We got to spend the night out on the farm where they have an assortment of rescued critters, lots of land to play and run and awesome gardens. Here's Lana helping the kiddos pet Phillis the Hen:

Above is Sneakers and below are the hens:
We brought our own pumpkins to carve, but we didn't need to, as there were so many that had grown right there on the farm. There were long tables set up with all manner of carving instruments, cider on the tap and a fire going. It was a pot-luck and there was soooo much yummy food!

There were tubs of warm water at the end of the tables to rinse slimy hands and towels to dry them - a great idea! Here are some of our creations:

Below is Solomon's Bumkin Pumpkin

and above is Malachi's Arachnaphobe Pumkin:

Mommy did a bat and moon

and Uncle Shawn did this spooky guy :



and our collective work for the evening:

It was so peacefull and pretty and in the morning Solomon and Malachi helped gather eggs for a french toast breakfast. I adore their hen hut! Saturday we have a party at our church but it's early in the afternoon which frees up the evening to settle in with a hot cup of coco.

Oh, and the boys and I made these fall leaves to bring to share. They're made out of basic pie dough and painted them with food coloring and egg. They were very pretty - too bad I left them sitting on the counter. D'oh.

More random updates...

The month is going waaaay too fast! Micah's fully entrenched in Nursing School now and working full-time as well. It's busy, and we squeeze in every moment we can with him.
We got the Zephan's full DHS file/medical records and were shocked at the extent we didn't know. Keeping in mind we DID know about the various cocaine, alcohol, pot, anti-psychotic overdoses during the pregnancy and also the severe beating she endured while carrying my son. I am IN AWE of God's protective hand over this child. I will also try harder to remember that the strong will I sometimes battle is the same strong will that refused to give up in-utero. He's my miracle.

Malachi impressed us all by earning his yellow belt!! He did great and it was so cool to watch him, the littlest in his class, work his ninja. He's got his Daddy's talent. And he's adorable.
As it's been getting cooler outside, I've been finding him and Furgus cuddled up. Those creatures are kindred spirits!

As the weather changes, we're also finding other creatures cuddled up in different (and slightly stupider) places:

We've also had a mass infiltration of Blue Birds. They're SO big and beautiful! And really noisy. The boys love to shred the heels of bread and scatter them out in the back yard. The wait is always worth it when the birds visit :)

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Here it is, Fall again, and the weather was beautiful for our annual trip to Bauman Farms. The last 4 years have been rainy, so we found ourselves over-dressed and having to strip off layers. This seemed like a milestone year for me for several reasons; Solomon & Malachi took their buddies and a flash light and conquered the Dark Maze. And when they say dark, they mean DARK. Hay bales make up a HUGE maze which is then enclosed, letting in no light. Most folks take 45 minutes to get through it. My eldests and their buds emerged on the other side, all smiles. Way to go, bigs! Also, this year Zephan wasn't in a sling or a front-pack. I had 4 walkers (runners?) to keep eyes on, but we're falling into a system and my littles are learning to stay close by. This is a good thing!
Zephan really liked the train ride and the apple cider donuts, but all the activity and people (120 from our homeschool group alone) sent him into several over-stimulation meltdowns/panic attacks. I ended up toting him a lot and making several trips back to the van to sit quietly with him for a few minutes at a time, which settled him fairly quickly. Then he was ready to go again. All in all, a very good day was had!
This was the cider room. A big ol' machine presses the apples until the juices flow and they put the fresh cider right on the shelves from there. It's SO good. Right, Malachi?
Then on to the animals. This place has everything cute and cuddly. And I managed to get pictures on this leg of the trip as Zephan was willing to get down and interact with the critters!





I wanted to covertly stash a bunch of these critters in the van, but you know how Micah is about illegal farm animals/more poop in the yard. Kill joy.
And then, of course, we had the huge castle built of hay bales, ginormous swings, obstacle courses and treats aplenty. Tomorrow they're going to lift a 500 pound pumpkin up into the air with a helicopter and drop it on a car. All proceeds donated for watching this event is going to The Make a Wish Foundation.
Cool, cool place.

Brothers: Can't Live with 'em, Can't live without 'em

They were quarreling quite a bit today and I had had enough. "Little boys! If you can't play nicely together and share, Mommy will separate you! Zephaniah Henry, go outside and play in the back yard. Levi Anthony, you go to the nursery and play in there."

10 minutes later:

Levi's looking longingly out into the back yard and Zephan's dragging a table across the yard and putting it under the nursery window in an attempt to break in from the outside.
Sigh.

This & That

Our school year is off and running! (Furgus likes to keep a careful eye on the students :)
I'm teaching 1st grade, Kindergarten and Pre-K this year with lots of field trips planned.
Micah's starting Nursing school in less than 2 weeks and we're enjoying as much time with him as we can as the next 2 years will be full time work AND full time school for him. I'm apprehensive about the amount of work he's taken on, but so proud of his attitude of faith and determination. Even financially, he's planned as well as possible and where he sees (sometimes very scary) gaps in incoming money and expenses, he says, "God's got it. We'll make it!" I'm so blessed to have that guy! Let's see. Updates:

Our little bird, now named Brighten, is growing into an insufferable pest due to all the attention she's received from the boys since her hatching. She'll be our tamest bird by far, although her mixed parentage has made her a bit of a mongrel.

I found Zephan a new shirt which I think fits him nicely as he moves his 2's in just a couple of weeks.

The Clubhouse is coming along nicely...it has a roof now! Micah's trying his hardest to get the door up and siding on it before school begins, but time is getting away from him with school preparations and working overtime.

I've had a few fun craft times with my boys, including beading their Converse, making breads and fun snacks, and doing this to the big boys' socks:

"Why?", you may ask? Because their Sensei spends 10 minutes each class correcting the boys on their right and left feet. I kept hearing, "...now, step forward with your left foot. No, Malachi, your OTHER left." So, I brainstormed and got out my tempera paint and alphabet sponges. Worked great! Sensei LOVED it!

And our first field trip of the year was at the beautiful Oregon Gardens for Homeschool Day. It was gorgeous.

I wish I could have taken more pics, but my little guys need both of my hands. They're such good little guys, but with so many ankle-bitters running around, it's easy to lose track of mine!
It was a great day of hiking, friends, and afterwords we went to House of Dragon, Solomon's favorite restaurant, and shared a couple of Sweet and Sour Chicken lunch specials. Zephaniah's fortune cookie said, "You deserve respect and you shall soon get it."
The kid already shows signs of being a future Mafia don, all he needs is encouragement from a stupid cookie.

Wedding

We went to a wedding yesterday and had a blast. It got me thinking how short of a time we really have to raise up and enjoy these little guys. We were sharing a table with a single dad who has 2 children who have just left the nest. He was saying that he had to put a boom box in his sons' room and play it continuously so as to distract his brain from the hole they left. How he absentmindedly makes meals for more than one and then realizes that it will only be him in the dining room. How his house is quiet as he comes through the door. He's having a difficult time.

This morning Micah and I woke up to boys laughing, little feet jumping on the couch, a baby pleading for his sippy of milk, a boy who needed help getting a bowl, another who had a dream he wanted to share with us. We hit the ground running (when they finally pry us loose) and get so busy that I forget they will spend the majority of their lives away from me. I'm going to approach today with joy and gratitude for my little guys. It's easy to do when they're THIS cute, though:

Thank you, Lord.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

So, if anybody even comes around here anymore (I've been so lazy about sitting down and posting since the weather has been so awesome!) Here are the end-of-summer-ish updates, in chronological order :)

It got to be REALLY hot for us Oregonians - 107 degrees! The sun chased us to the beach where we enjoyed time with Nana, overcast but warm conditions and just a perfect day in general. The waves were georgous, the boys played and then Nana treated us all to lunch at The Spouting Horn, right on the world's smallest bay. We watched the boats come in and ate bacon cheeseburgers until our hearts were content.

The kids are great and we're gearing up for another year of homeschool. All their curriculum came in the mail and supplies are bought. Levi will be starting Pre-School this year and I'm excited to see how quickly he picks things up!

On the Zephan front - the adoption still isn't finalized (I WOULD post that, no matter how nice the weather!) and his caseworker told us that there was a little legal issue they had to clear up but they didn't want to worry us as it's not a big deal. Hmmmmm. This beautiful pic was taken after he fell and broke his lip open. We e-mailed the worker to let her know what happened and she mentioned the amount of supervision he requires. We'reconsidering having him evaluated to see if he would be elligible for the next higher bracket of benefits, for kiddos who require more assistance. I think this guy would qualify, but I don't want it to bite us in the butt when we apply for a new little one. Will they think we have enough as it is and not place with us? I don't think so, but we need to think a bit more about it....

Let's see. What else. Oh, our pigeons didn't waste any time "getting to know" one another and produced these 2 lovely eggs. Of course, because they're fertile, this means that we don't have all females (duh). And, of course, we can't have this going on continually, but it's a cool life-cycles lesson for my boys and I was thrilled to get the 3 eldest out of bed last night so they could watch the babies hatch. Congrats, Moo & Mr. Grey!

Solomon tested and passed for his yellow belt! We're so proud!

I tried my hand at cornrowing Levi's hair, and I think I could become proficient at it. I missed the curls, though, and lamented the fact that it made him look older, so I soon took them out. He really liked them, though, so we'll maybe experiment some more.

Micah is building the boys a clubhouse! He's trying to get it all up before school starts...we'll see. They're already having fun with it! Micah was able to find cheap windows and even a skylight from a place that sells things that are still usable from tear-downs and slightly irregular building supplies. The clubhouse is the big topic of conversation around here and discussions are being had concerning exterior paint color, flooring options, and if we'll be able to find a small section of kitchen cabinets to install inside. They're happy as clams about it.

Well, soon school will start and we'll have more structure and with more structure will come more posts, but until then....I'm off to finish enjoying the sun!

Where'd You Go?

Hey! Loving My Amazing Life! Where did you go? Your blog was shut down, and because of the current circumstances plaguing your family, I worry.
Leave me a comment, lady!

Major Hiatus

Sorry for the utter lack of posts lately - summer has scooped us up and has had us going and doing!

So. Updates: We got all sorts of big fancy pigeons for the aviary. They're beautiful and the boys and I are really enjoying them. What was cool is that the bigs and I made our way to the Pigeon Show (anyone who knows Zephan knows those birds dodged a bullet when I left him home with Daddy). Once the sellers were made aware that we weren't breeders or showers, we just wanted some pretty birds to enjoy, they began handing us free "imperfect" birds. They didn't want these in their breeding lines because the crest is too high or the eyes are the wrong color, and their fellow breeders didn't want them either! So folks were just handing us different breeds to take home! Perfect! We spent a whopping $5 for our "slightly irregular" birdies.

So, this is what I usually see while I'm doing dishes: One or more boys in the aviary, one or more cats waiting vigilantly on the roof, praying to God that one of those kids leaves the door open, and the dog supervising the whole arrangement.
Kids have been cute as ever, see below:
We had a fun week with Auntie Cyn visiting and my little Malachi turned 6. We met a bunch of his friends at the splash park and then in the morning.

Then, later on we had family over to eat Alien Cakes :) Can't believe that kid's 6! Combine that with camp for the bigs, tons of activities and swimming weather and you get zero blog posts! Consider yourself updated! Looking forward, this next school year is going to be crazy. Crazy exciting, crazy busy. God is doing a new thing in our little family - wait and see!

Happy Birthday, America!!

~Cousins~

We spent the 4th in relaxed bliss in Grants Pass with our family. Auntie Angela has a huge jet tub that she stocked with any kind of bath product I could could want. Uncle Daniel is king of the BBQ and blessed us with awesome dinners. The boys' cousin, Edan, was excited to share her toys and house with a horde of little boys for a few days. Goga and Papa drove down, as well. They live beside a big mountain and our evening walk brought us into the domain of beautiful deer (I was holding Zephan as we saw a baby deer and whispered, "Fin! Look! What's that?" He whispered back, "Chihuahua!")
It was such a great time of chatting on the patio together, watching movies and just enjoying one another's company. We're very blessed to have them.
This is everybody watching the fireworks show in the back of the truck:

Mommy's Helper

I'm trying to get caught up on laundry (hahaha) before we head out for a fun weekend with Micah's Auntie and Uncle. Goga and Papa are already down there and we're heading out in the morning. It'll be a great time - have a wonderful 4th everybody!!
I'll be back with pics....

Space for Rent

Well, the Aviary is in full bloom and I'm jonesing for occupants. Chickens are still illegal in my neighborhood (stinkin' bureaucracy!) until the zoning commission has it's 45 days to talk it to death. Then it goes back to the commissioners for another vote. By the time the bill ratification is complete they estimate it will be February 2010. All that just to change the wording so that 3 hens per family are allowed inside city limits.
And we've been fighting for 18 months already!
So, so stupid. I mean, my neighbors can have a pack of Pit Bulls and I can't have a couple of hens? Anywho, many folks around here have found a little loophole in our law. It allows pigeons.
Heh, heh, heh (rubbing hands together in a diobolical fashon).
So, the NW Pigeon Fanciers is having a show next month. The place will be brimming with fancy pigeons and doves.
I'm so there.

Just in Time for Fathers Day...

Micah got his acceptance letter.....to Nursing School.
Wow.
The next 2 years are going to be CRAZY!! But at least it's only 2 as he's got all the pre-recs done. I am so proud of this guy, let me tell you. It's an expensive and intense program and he just jumps in with his whole heart because he feels that it's something he should do. That God is calling him there. How we'll do it? He doesn't know....but God does.
"It'll be fine!"
As long as we're together, hon, it will be!