Buddies

Bub's favorite sibling at the moment would have to be Hana.  He adores her!  He loves to wrestle with her, climb on her, and will let her be his little mommy.  Pretty darn cute.  She loves him too and is a great big sister to him.

Serving With Smiles

 Just a couple of photos from our last Serving with Smiles project.  We had a good turnout.  Above Eden is in the green shirt next to her buddy Bonnie Skarstedt.  And below is Hana with a bunch of boys.

Sam In Nursery

 My youngest, my baby, has started Nursery!  He doesn't like Mom leaving him yet, but if she's there, he's happy.  And he loves to play with the cars.

Teens Dance

 Celeste and Jonah went to their middle school Valentines Dance.  They had another Dance at the middle school around Christmas that I let them go to, so this was not their first dance.  But the Valentines Dance is the dance that they both danced with a person of the opposite sex for the first time.  I was chaperoning so I was there to take photos!  They are bad photos because it was dark and I was trying to be discreet, but I still got them.  The one above, the next few, are Celeste's first dance with a boy.  Her friends got these two together to dance.

 This is Jonah dancing with a girl for the first time.  She asked him :)  It made his day!  He did dance with me before this picture, but Moms don't count.

 Celeste got the nerve to ask this boy to dance with her.  (After I basically pushed her into it with a very convincing pep talk.)  She asked another boy or two as well.  Something I was so shocked to see her do.  She was thrilled when it was all said and done.

 This girl was Jonah's second time dancing with a girl.  She asked him too.

Happenings at Home

 Sam trying to clean up the milk he spilled on the ground.

 Hana likes to do my hair, and I love to let her!

 Charity being happy.  Notice Sam in the background.  He likes to pull chairs to a desired place to turn off lights, play with the water dispenser in the fridge, and other fun stuff.

 Getting messy.

 And HATES getting his head sheared.  I say shear because it feels like I am shearing a sheep.

Sam preparing for his very first haircut.

Right after.

Charity being silly with her underwear.

Sam trying to look like Jonah in his glasses.

Winter

 We all went up Ogden Canyon with Janice and her family at their time share for a weekend.  We all had a really great time.

 Our back yard on a clear, cold, day.

 Driving in a storm in Lehi.

Sick Babies

Near the end of January our babies got really sick.  Charity with croup, and Sam with RSV.  Sam was admitted and in the hospital for just about a day.  Charity needed a breathing treatment and some meds and was able to leave.  This was a first of Steve and I to take two children to the ER at the same time.  They were so pathetic.

All Woman

Charity loves to play dress up, get her nails painted, and to make her self look pretty.  She is such a girly girl.

Christmas 2012

Dinner on Christmas Eve.  We had it by candlelight, but that photo did not work.

 The gifts.  We gave the kids stockings junk from the Dollar Store..  Besides that, they got a bunch of books from us, along with gifts from Grandmas and Grandpas, and so forth.

 Christmas breakfast goodies.

 Sam seeing the gifts as he came out of his room in the morning.

 Jonah opening his "stocking"

 Celeste with the next book in a series she likes.

 Adorable Eden. Poor girl was puking all through the night before.

 Hana was so excited!

 Becca and her wild bedhead.

 Steve and his wild bedhead too.

 Charity.

 Andy trying to cover up the skeleton's private parts.

 And it was a gorgeous day!  White all over and beautiful blue skies.

Hair Care

Adopting really was a difficult thing to do.  It is for everyone I know.  It took way too long and way too much money, heartache, worry and stress.  We kept being told that it was when they get home that the real tough part starts.  And we did have a really, really rough period with Andy as he was gaining trust and adjusting and learning so many things.  But for Hana, I have to say, she's been fairly easy.  The toughest part of her has by far been her hair.  I know I have made a big deal about it before, but it really is a big deal. Nobody can really know unless they've actually handled her hair and tried for themselves to take care of it.  Not every African has hair as difficult as Hana's.  And I tend to think her hair tops the list.  

Taking care of her hair is a very long process and I suck at it!

Months back I spent a pretty penny on having a professional do Hana's hair.  And it was so worth it!  This lady is from Kenya and really knows her stuff.  She braided Hana's hair into cornrows, then loop-tied some fake hair in to make her look extra adorable, and to take my troubles away.  But you can't keep it in forever.  It has to be taken out at some point so that you can really clean and condition her natural hair again.  

So as I took out her fake hair, I took photos of the process.  I want to document it here.

As you see here, her real hair is in grown-out cornrows.  I have taken half of the fake hair out, which you can see some of at the top of her head.

 See the difference between the real and fake hair?  Night and day.

 Getting all the fake hair out took about an hour.  Here she is holding it.

 Then there was getting her cornrows out.  I saved this for another day.

 Still in the cornrows, right before I took them out.

 Getting the cornrows out took over an hour too.  Here is what her hair looked like after taking them out.

 It's kinda cute.  It's like a white girl's hair after taking out braids, in a way.

 But a LOT more poofy.  But I couldn't keep it this way.  It needed to be washed, conditioned and combed through.  Just washing, conditioning, and combing through took over an hour too.

 By this time I didn't have much time to style it.  So I hurriedly put it in 2 French Braids for the next day.
At this point I had spent about 4 hours at least, on just getting her hair undone and cleaned.  It was taking me back to the days when this was a weekly process.  I have way too much on my plate to devote a few hours a week just on one child's hair.  Sorry!  So I decided to get her back in to get new fake hair and cornrows.  But before we did that, I needed to get it cut.

 Here's Hana at Great Clips just before getting that done.  I had them do a deep conditioning treatment on her first because her hair was so dry and brittle.  Then the poor lady attempted to comb through her hair.

 After quite some time, she asked for another lady to come in and help her.  And with conditioner and combs in both sets of hands, they worked through her hair together to try and get it combed through.  Her hair is extremely thick.  We're talking world record, type thick.  Here she is after the washing, conditioning and combing.

 And then the process of cutting began.  This took quite a while too.  She took about 4 inches off, although you can't tell because there is so much kinkiness to her hair, that you can't tell how long it truly is without stretching it out.  The process at Great Clips took about another hour.

 Then I had to take Hana to the African hair place, where she'd get the cornrows and fake hair tied in.  This took another hour and a half to do.  Which in my opinion is quite speedy!
I let her choose the color and I am afraid I don't like it too much.  But oh well.  She also wanted it super long, so I told her she could keep it long until she has to go back to school in a week.  I will cut it shorter for her then.
Here's the finished product.  Total time to get from point A to point B?  About 6-7 hours!  You white girls need to be thanking the Lord daily for your hair!