Happy Birthday Blake

Holly and Brian had a very fun family birthday party for Blake who turned 2 on Monday. Here are some pictures of the cute birthday boy. He is such a sweet heart. I always wondered why my Grandmothers kissed us several times when we would go to visit. It always seemed enough when people gave us one kiss but i NOW UNDERSTAND! for Grandmas you just can't help kissing those cute chubby cheeks a number of times.

Seminary Graduation

Here are a couple pics from Seminary Graduation. This is Devin and Melanie who is a very cute girl in our ward who is good friends with Devin. They will be going to Prom together on Saturday.

Payback

It seems like May is the "payback" time of the year with graduations and award banquets and the recognitions for all the hard work they put in all year. It seems to me that I am entering the payback time of life and we are starting to see the rewards of all those Diapers and "hard work in the trenches" time of life. The adoptions put us back in the trenches for awhile but the hard work (or mere endurance) is beginning to pay off. This past couple of weeks were full of proud moments for us. Here is a quick rundown:
Tyler-headed off to New Jersey to work for the summer. He is doing great.
Devin-Graduates from Seminary tonight, Sang at a City wide contest and did great. He is serving in a stake calling to organize Camp Helaman for the priests of the stake next month. He is looking for a summer job and looking forward to serving a mission when he turns 19 next April. He plans to attend Utah State University in the fall.
Daniel: Was just awarded the award for outstanding Sophmore actor (all those early morming practices paid off)and he was put in the presidency for Encore next year. He continues to write songs and is going to sing in some of my EFY sessions this summer.
Alisa: Was awarded a medal at the Breakfast of Champions for getting a 4.0 the whole year. She is the most likely from our family to be a valedictorian like her dad.
Vitaly: is as close to getting straight A's as he can get given the fact that he has only been speaking English for a few months. We have been amazed at his transformation from being a boy who went to school completely to flirt with girls and develop socially and who cared nothing about an education to a young man who really cares about his classes, grades and performance. He even took a math test over again and got 100% correct. This would never have happened 6 months ago. He will be playing soccer in the kohls cup this next weekend.
Spencer: Loves school and played his last soccer game yesterday (they won :) He played a duet at the kids piano recital and is fighting to hang on to his ability to
speak Russian and Ukranian.
Scott: also played the piano at the recital. He is becoming quite a good artist and gets the award for "best peacemaker" in the family.

One Year Later

A year ago today we arrived in Ukraine. It was the beginning of a wonderful adventure full of many growing eperiences for many people. Despite the trials we can say that "Yes" this was a good decision and "Yes" we would do it again.

The boys we adopted are doing fantastic. Their progress has been incredible. It is hard to imagine that there will be another year in their future when they will face as many changes and make as much progress as they have this year. They went from being skin and bones little guys to skin, bones and muscle little boys. Although they are still as skinny as I aspire to be, they have each gained about 30 lbs and grown several inches. They are both doing well in school and getting good grades and actually earning them without special allowances from the teachers.

Their english is great. They still have accents and don't know every word in our English language but the challenge at the present time is trying to make sure that Spencer keeps his Ukrainian/Russian. Vitaly still rattles it off well, but Spencer is starting to forget words and phrases. He talks a lot about wanting to be in the air force or being a pilot and we think that he will have great opportunities in life if he can hold on to his bilingual abilities.

We talked to Bryan (our son who is a missionary in Ukraine) today for Mother's day. As he talked about the country that he has grown to love, I actually didn't experience nausea. I am losing my distaste for Ukraine as time passes and I don't flinch at the thought of returning there someday. Amazing how memories tend to sweeten with time.

Vitaly and Spencer like to go to church and have been able to manage other actiivities like scouts and sports and they are integrated into the family just like the rest of the kids. They shower everyday and don't hoard or tattle or display the other inappropriate behaviors that rattled us at first. They are not afraid to pitch in and help with family chores and they have stopped trying to show their willful talents and have come to sincerely appreciate the blessings and security of life in a family.

Today for Mother's day the kids made a special book with letters from and pictures of each of them. Vitaliy signed his entry "your adopted son" It actually struck me funny to read that. Maybe he is just afraid that I may be forgetting that he is adopted or something. It is possible that I may have had a few too many Mother's day treats today but I have to say that Family blending can be a beautiful thing.....a year later.

Women's Conference and Happy Birthday Devin

Thursday and Friday I got to go to BYU and join my cute Sister Debby at Women's Conference. We heard many words of wisdom and inspiration in the classes and were able to be a part of the huge service event. We tied baby quilts and made little princess crowns for homeless shelters. I made the mittens in the picture (I haven't made these ever before) and we felt the great feeling of being with thousands and thousands of good women who love and desire to serve the Lord.

Devin turned 18 yesterday and we have been dragging out the celebration as much as possible. We watched a video of the day he was born and WOW, how things have changed over the years. It is hard to believe that 1/2 of our children are officially adults now. That is worthy of some celebration isn't it?

Happy Day
Christy

Hoppy Easter

We had some fun Easter festivities. We dyed eggs, had an Easter dinner and an Easter egg Hunt. Here are a few of the pictures.