Fun at the Museum

Yesterday was another "Free day" at the museum. Wally always has a blast. It wasn't nearly as busy as the "Free nights" are. This time, Wally discovered the post office. And, of course the airplanes "like Papa Randy's!"

We also discovered the "floating balls." I love watching his mind work:

A Big Day

Friday (Feb 12) was a big day for us. First of all, we got our paperwork back from the state, so I quickly added it to our dossier and Wally and I ran to the FedEx place and sent the whole thing to Washington DC. This is hopefully the last we will see of all our the paperwork. After a courrier carries it to the Department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy, it will be mailed back to our adoption agency. The agency will then send it off to Ethiopia and we will be allowed to receive referrals. We just need to be patient and trust that God will help our agency find our kids at the right time. The second thing that made this day special was that it was Wally's 3 1/2 birthday. I've been struggling with Wally lately, mostly because he is a 3 1/2 year old trying to see what he can and can't get away with, so I took this milestone to my advantage. I decided to play up the day and therefore make him realize what he can do now that he is a BIG kid and what is expected of him. It's only been a couple days, but it is working! The BIG kid helped me make a cake. I was hoping for chocolate frosting, but since he was helping, he got to pick the frosting...pink!

We then made some almond bark hearts and flowers to decorate the cake. He took this part very seriously.

After a delicious dinner of frozen pizza (with olives), we had cake with 3 1/2 candles.

Because he is a BIG kid, he got to help light the candles...

We sang "Happy half birthday."

And he huffed and he puffed...

And he blew the candles out...

As a present, I got him a grab bag from the Dollar Store. It turned out to be perfect for him and quite a hit. Perhaps a great idea for road trips.

Joel does try to take pictures of me with Wally, but Wally always gets squirmy. Here we are reading books before bedtime. Fire Dog (thanks Jenna and Molly) has become a favorite stuffed animal and goes with Wally everywhere. Tonight Wally told me that "Fire dogs keeps me warm at night and I keep him warm at night. We are a team."

Walking on Water

The weather warmed up enough for Wally and I to play outside in the snow earlier this week. It was actually quite nice with the sun shining. Not sure how many pictures we have with Wally and this tree, but I'm sure there will be many more of him like this and many of his brother and sister. I wanted a picture of him making a snow angel, but he wouldn't cooperate. So, I just added another cute picture of him instead.

Yesterday, we went out to Lake MacBride for a walk and some sledding. It was beautiful like it was when we went with Grandma Mary and Papa Randy, but a little whiter and a little colder. Personally, I don't think this picture looks like Wally. Maybe the Daughenbaugh squint. He really enjoyed walking on the walls again, but this time he had the added hazard of snow.

We went out on the lake for something new. We figured it was safe since there were many ice fishermen out there. Wally and I took the sled down the boat ramp to get on the lake. If you ever wonder what a 3-year old does on the way down a hill, here it is. He was chewing on his zipper the whole way!

We found some holes that had frozen over. Wally still thought they were neat enough to pose by.

Here, Wally is showing me an ice hole. He couldn't see any fish, just "nothing" and "dirt."

A man and his dogs walking on water...

We of course had to stop in the middle of the lake to put Wally's "food" in the sled. He then would lay face-down in the sled eating his "food" while I pulled. That kid!

There was a random icicle on a tree on the hill above the beach that I had to try to be artsy and take a picture of.

When we asked Wally if he wanted to go to the lake for a walk, he immediately responded, "I need my Sponge Bob fishing pole." He fished in the car all the way there and then in the porch when we got home. He and Daddy are both ready for fishing season.

Last night, Wally was doing his obstacle courses and we found his jump rope. Here is a video of some stellar jump-roping!

Mowing in January

Wally's creativity is brought out with toys like blocks and tinker toys. Though he still needs a lot of help building with his tinker toys, he has a lot of fun and really adds to the creations. Here, he is mowing the lawn.

The last month or so...

I've been crazy busy with editing and adoption paperwork. Good news is that we now have things shuffling between adoption and government agencies. If things go smoothly (we can all hope), then we will be ready to receive referrals by mid- to late-February! Yea! I'll get back to Christmas pictures soon...

My boys... My silly boys...

I love those eyes and smile!

My "King"

Why I should never check my email while Wally is awake...

Because Ethiopian Christians are mainly Orthodox, they celebrate Christmas on Jan. 7. Therefore, to celebrate with our kids, we made Ethiopian food for dinner and had a little party. Our adoption agency gave us 3 teddy bears. One for Wally, and 2 for Wally to take care of until his brother and sister come home. They joined us for dinner. Hopefully next Christmas it won't be just the teddy bears with us!

How to eat Ethiopian food:

Wally and the bears. I think the bears have really made the kids seem more real to Wally. Since the bears arrived, he hasn't talked about the babies in his pocket that came out of his tummy, only "our babies from Eeteeopa."

Next year, there will be kids holding all of the bears (we pray)!

It has been so cold here lately (even by Montana standards) and we have had high humidity. We decided to go on a hike when it was in the 20s a couple weekends ago. I think Wally needed to get out and run.

He enjoys going off the trail and through the trees.

Kissy Monster!!!

We found the vines that we played with when Gramma Kathy was up last June. It was a little colder this time, but still lots of fun!

Ahhh, the joy of painting.

This was actually taken this morning during our traditional Saturday morning pancakes. Joel is getting more and more creative with the pancakes for the more demanding Wally.

Wally has said many times lately, "Daisy is my best pal in the whole world." Did I say that in my last blog too? It's been so long.

We had an ice storm last week. We got almost 1 inch of rain in a single day. I had never seen anything like it. As soon as it hit the ground or anything, it froze. We stayed home, but it sure was neat to watch.

Luckily, we didn't lose any really big branches or even lose power. Salt certainly didn't cut it on the sidewalks this time.

A couple days before the ice storm, this was falling from the sky. Snow shards? Weather in Iowa sure is amusing!

Christmas Preparation Part 2

Wally and I decorated Christmas cookies. I made the first batch of frosting too runny, but ran out of powdered sugar, so it was just a sloppy mess...Wally loved it! No one but us was allowed to eat the cookies considering the "hygiene" that may or may not have been.
Here is the translation for the following video: "I love doing bells with pink!" Wally's favorite cookies to decorate were like Grandma Mary's, the bells.

We got a lot of snow. Joel may not have had fun shoveling, but Wally sure had fun in it!


Our little angel. His first attempts at making snow angels were unsupervised until I noticed him crying. He didn't like the snow on his face. I then had to tell him to make the angel while laying on his back.

Our neighbor girl and her friends make great snow caves. This year they made one that was an actual tunnel with 2 doors. Wally thought that was great. Too bad the snow plow came around the next day and crushed it.Wally had his friend Joel over to play in the snow. Two 3-year olds and a huge pile of snow makes for a great time.

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree. It was so lopsided that the first night it was set up, it fell over. We then proceeded to tilt it way back against the wall and tie it to the banister. How we didn't realize how lopsided it was when we chose it, we don't know. It was beautiful though and Wally sure enjoyed it. When we took it down, Wally's version of Jingle Bells. He is still singing the tune of Jingle Bells, but inserts his own words or weird sounds.

Wally is/was very into "show time," where he takes us into his room and sings and dances for us. Here is Joel's favorite, for obvious reasons. The show was called "Baseball."

Random Christmas Preparations, Part 1

The weekend after Thanksgiving, as is a tradition in my family, we went Christmas tree hunting. In Iowa, it is a little different than in Colorado, Montana, or South Dakota. Like last year, we went to a Christmas tree farm. Last year, it was so cold that we took the first tree we saw. This year, no hats, no gloves, just sun. Our friends Van, Stacy, Sander and Levi joined us.
Wally and Sander are self-proclaimed "best friends."

Wally tried really hard to pull the tree like Daddy...

But in the end, decided holding Daddy's hand was just fine.

Well, maybe if Sander helped...

Wally thought having a tree in the house was pretty cool. He told me yesterday as we were taking it down that, "I want the tree to stay long time!"

Oh, bath time. Always cute, even if it is over.

We found a little old (I mean obviously really old) artificial tree in our attic, so it got to be Wally's tree in the basement. Here he had to pose by it with his trike.

Our church had a "Christmas Pageant" of sorts. We all had a soup dinner, got the kids dressed in rather lame costumes, and headed out in the bitter freezing cold for a rather miserable walk to a neighbors driveway. There they read the Christmas story, we sang songs (luckily it was cut down to only the first verses) and then toted miserable kids back to the church for cake. This was the best shot we had of Wally dressed as a lamb.