Tony's missing teeth

Less than 2 weeks ago, Tony still had all his front teeth.
Look at how things can change in just a short time.
This is a week ago....


And this is today.


I'm not sure how many more he can lose in front before we'll have to put him on a liquid diet.

Running out of time

For some reason I thought I'd check on my New Year's Day post from this year. I knew I had listed some things I wanted to accomplish so I figured I check them out to see how I've done.

Um....bad idea.

The way I see it I have 2 options.....

I can either say forget it, I failed miserably

Or...

I can take the next 6 weeks and try and do something....anything.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure yet which option I'm going to take.

It's 1:15am and I'm tired so option 1 seems like a pretty good idea right now.

I mean, it's only 6 weeks away from being able to start all over again.

Maybe in the morning I won't be in such a hurry to take the easy way out.

To be continued.......

Two Months

Yesterday marked 2 mos. since we saw our Olivia's face for the first time. We are on day 62 of waiting for our LOA. Maybe we are supposed to count from our PA time which would knock about 2 weeks off of that wait. At any rate, we're getting closer. The average time to LOA is 6 weeks. I'm praying we get it this week. I don't think I can stand it much longer. I just want to have that and move on to the next part.
Soon....I hope.

Proud mama

I have to say, if the boys ever quit wrestling I think I will be in mourning for a long time. I LOVE it! It is the most exciting sport they play. On the mat it's just your kid and the opponent. That's it for the 3 rounds. Unlike football where they may or may not get the ball or a play. In wrestling, it's all them for the moment and it's exciting!
Last night was probably the best night of wrestling in the 5 years we've been a part of it. It was the round robin tournament which means that every kid is on a mat with 3 other wrestlers in their weight class and they verse all of them. Unlike Wednesday night when we had the team tournament (where our team remained undefeated for the season and won the match to become 1st place champions), this one is for individual placement. We went into the evening with Tim and Trae both going all season undefeated in their individual matches and Tony and Tanner each only losing twice.
Okay, here's a warning.....I'm gonna brag about my kiddos for a minute so if you don't want to hear a mom who thinks her kids are the bomb...stop reading. :)
Seriously.....Tim and Trae are amazing on the mat. In all fairness to the mom braggin' thing.....I'm not the only one who thinks this. They stand out. I've heard more than a couple coaches on opposing teams tell their kid who is up against them that very same thing. On Wednesday, they both versed other undefeated kids and both easily pinned them. The coach to the one Tim challenged was overheard telling the kid not to worry about that one cuz Tim was the best wrestler in the organization. Honestly makes my chest heave with pride. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of my boys no matter what they do and how good they are.....but dang, it's sure fun to hear stuff like that. Timmy has done a move to pin several times this year that everyone is calling his 'signature move'. He get his opponent in a position where he can grab him around the back of his neck and pull him around into almost a somersault and then presses the kids shoulders down for the pin. Hard to explain, but pretty cool to watch.
I was approached a couple weeks ago by the Middle school coaches and they want Tim to join their team for the season. Even though our boys go to private school, they are still allowed to play sports through any public school program. We're actually not going to have him do it for many various reasons (most of which have to do with the season's scheduling) but it was a compliment for them to notice him.
Trae is a wild man on the mat. This is not the same kid that is my drama queen at home. He's a different kid when he wrestles...it's quite the transformation. He has pinned just about every guy he's versed and even got a "tech" win on 2 matches which means he was winning by 15 points so they call the match. He just doesn't let up, the other kid just barely has a chance cuz Trae is all over him.
Our coaches are awesome! One coaches at the high school and the asst. is a H.S. wrestler himself. They have had fun this year teaching Tim and Trae moves that they don't normally teach at this level. Great ways to pin the opponent that look pretty darn cool when they pull it off. The kind of pin where the bodies get so wrapped around each other that the other kid hardly knows what hit him before the Pin is called. There are a few times when we've had other parents tell their kid to watch when Tim and Trae wrestle cuz they can learn something. I know Jason has had 2 other dads come up to him this year and tell him that they tell their sons to practice moves with them as much as possible cuz it's a good way to get better.
Our coach talked to us last night about them and Tony too (cuz he's got mad skills too for only being 7) and told us that at the level they're performing at this age, he could see them being state ranked in high school. Now, of course, this is an opinion and you just never know. But just the fact that he thinks that highly of them was quite a compliment and exciting to tell the boys.
Oh my gosh, okay that was more than just a minute of bragging. I'm just so proud of them. It's fun to see them doing so well.
Watching his brothers this season and last night made Tyler rethink his plan to quit wrestling this year. He had decided he wouldn't join the school's team in January for the first time in 4 years. Tyler's not as good at wrestling as his brothers. He never will be...it's just not his thing. I say that with total love and affection for my oldest, but being athletic is just not one of Tyler's strong points. Now, if you want to have a conversation about his grades and how he does in band....that's a different story, he excels. Each kid has his gifts. I've been really trying to get him to reconsider wrestling though. He's already put all these years into it, I thought he should finish out his 8th grade year. Plus, he will be the team captain and the coach has really been trying to get him to change his mind. Last night he told me that watching the other boys made him want to play again, so I'm really happy about that. I think he'll be glad he did.
So at the end of the night, we went home with Tanner winning second place and Tony, Trae, and Tim all getting first place. How exciting was that! They'll have their picture in the local city paper.
Tanner getting ready.....

Tony going in for the pin.....

Good sportsmanship first, Trae.....

Good form, Tim.....

First place winners!

Livi's gifts

Last year about this time, another blog I read led me to this great gift idea for girls at Christmas time. I saved the link into my favorites and never forgot about it. I knew I wanted to get them to bring to China for a toy for our future little one to play with in the hotel.
Well, here we are....at that point...
and it just happens to be Christmas time.
So.....I figured, why not get it for her for Christmas.
Okay, not really
Since she won't be opening it until months after
But, it can be under the tree
and we can dream about next year when she will be here.
How fun will that be!
I think she's gonna love her new gift
I can't wait for her to open it.

We got her 2 of the dolls....

Including the Asian one names Linh complete with karate gear....

And a light up dressing room to hold it all

30 days of giveaways

Just passing on some cool news from a pretty cool fellow blogger. Stefanie at Ni Hao Y'all is giving away a gift 30 days in a row. I'm a little late, so there are now 25 left. All you have to do is be a follower of hers (I know a few of you already are) and leave a comment on each day to be entered. I'm hopin' to get lucky on this one cuz all the gifts are unique and fun.

Spare time

This is the sort of thing the boys do in their spare time....Legos creations.....big ones. I love it actually. It sure beats watching them numb themselves in front of some mindless TV show. Tyler did this one and took pictures of it before destroying it....which, by the way, if you're a boy, is as much (if not more) fun than building it in the first place.
Here are the pics of the house he made, complete with 5 levels, interior rooms, stairways, furniture, and crazy detail.
Can you find all the elements he put into each part?
In the kitchen.....
Do you see the sink? The cabinets and the fridge? How about the stove?

This is the living room....
There is a stairway and entry door, a couch (with a remote on the end) a fireplace and a small TV. Find them all?

He even made his bedroom....
Look closely and you'll see a bathroom (with no walls...LOL) a stairway into it, a nightstand with lamp, his bed with even a pillow, dresser, and a desk.

Every great house should have a game room....
...and every game room should have a pool table and a ping pong table.

As if having a game room wasn't enough, he added a dance studio. Do you see the DJ table and the red, blue, and green dancing lights?

Next is the family room. There's a couch with remote, large screen TV with a Wii along the side of it. Pretty cool.

And here it is. The whole thing. It's all enclosed from the outside, but if you open it up layer by layer you find all the details he worked so hard on. Very creative!



Wanna know what I consider the most impressive part of all of this?.......
.
.
.
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It's the fact that my family room floor in the background is actually clean. Wow...now that's impressive.