Great 1st week of 5 kiddos!

Dad found two happy helpers who request to go out to shovel!  In fact, Jayne could not wait to get home from church so she could shovel!

 

  

~Beautiful music…duets, solos…piano, violin, vocal and guitar~

Two birthdays this week…Uncle Brett and Bumpa. 

Surprisingly, Jayne knows how to sing Happy Birthday!  Does that make our choir a Quin-tet?!*

 

 

 

 

Pampering ourselves…long showers and tubs, lotion, deodorant, lipstick and nail polish.  These pretty fingers have colored MANY pictures this week.  Brynn gets tired of coloring rather quickly and moves on to putting stickers on her sheets. And Jayne colors each picture very nicely with one color per page.  Blue appears to be one of her favorite colors.

The boys are also joining in the coloring fun.  Mark is all about speed.  He can finish a picture in no time flat.  Luke colors every centimeter of every picture.  He has managed to do two pictures…one for Jayne’s locker and one for Brynn’s locker.   Caleb has far too busy of a social life to color.

 

Mr. Popper’s Penguins showing now in the Yokom living room…Popcorn and M & Ms mixed in the same bowl, and lots of laughs.  Two thumbs up from the Y. crew on this show.

 

Brynn hiding from the camera, and looking kind of guilty as she fishes ONLY for M & Ms!

 

 

Other highlights of the week, Jayne’s first word is puppy, AND she is definitely still in love with Ben.  So much so he has started to hide from her.  Jayne also had her first trip to the library where she borrowed two books about puppies. 

Our week was also filled with lots of visitors, so fun to have everyone meet and greet Jayne! 

Today Uncle Bob, Auntie Melissa, Cousin Brody and Cousin Kate came up for open gym and ice cream, but the visit wasn’t just about fun as noted by the help Auntie Melissa received with Kate’s diaper.  Of note, this was the only picture Mom got WITHOUT kids plugging their noses :)

And now we are ready to dribble, shoot and score into February…Caleb continues basketball (2 practices and one tournament this week) and Luke starts basketball.  Coach Dad, the boys and their cheering crew seem ready!  Let’s Go, Let’s Go, Let’s G-O Go (channeling my Gackle-Streeter cheerleading days)!

Ready, Set, Goooooooooooo!

 

We are set! 

Our bags are packed, and we are so pumped to get to China and bring our Jayne HOME!!

http://tickledpink-ourjourneytojayne.blogspot.com/ 

Come along…Let’s Gooooooooooooooooooo!!

Baby Kate “fix”

     

Before going to China, we had to visit cousin Brody (Mr. Silly) and cousin Kate (Miss Adorable). 

 

  Note: no picture of Mom holding baby Kate because Brynn has a REAL HARD time sharing Dad and Mom.  Not the best timing for this problem!

 

 

 

  Mark fell asleep on the way home after all of the fun!

 

 

 

 

  Luke loved the baby.  He asked to hold her a second time, and he found himself a master of the nuk.

 

 

 

 

Sweet Dreams Sweet Baby Kate

 

Happy New Year! ~2012~

We brought in the New Year needing back amputations courtesy of Caleb’s list of “to-do’s”

 

Yep, we are T minus 4 days before departure for China to bring Jayne home, and we thought it would be a good idea for each of the kids to pick something extra they would like to do with us prior to our travels.  Caleb, in pure oldest child style, convinced the rest of the kids on a full sheet of paper of ideas.  The sheet of paper came with the disclaimer, “Some days we will need to do more then one thing or we are never going to get this all done.”  The backache requiring amputation came courtesy of idea number 2, “Camp downstairs.” 

The backache was worth it!!

 

After a great night’s sleep ;), we went to church.  Brynn obviously slept well enough to be spunky cuz 2 minutes into the sermon she shouted out, “AMEN!”

Here we go…it’s going to be a great year, “AMEN!”