Happy Birthday Princess!

Today Annabelle turned 6...  Where has the time gone?  Both kids opened their "clothes" presents this morning.  Annabelle was up at about five asking when she could open presents and she knew full well the presents were all clothes!!!  That's my girl!  While wrapping last night I realized we were WAY heavy on the Andrew clothes side and way light on the Annabelle clothes side.  HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!!!  So today she got to spend the day with me and Mimi picking out some more new things.  She picked (and I let her buy) a purple sparkley cowboy hat with a tiara pinned on the front.  Don't judge me, it IS her birthday!  Here are a few stats on Annabelle:
Height: 50 inches
Weight: 56 pounds
Missing Teeth: 2 on the bottom (the big ones have already grown in)
Favorite Food:  Bean Burritos
Favorite Color: Pink and Purple
Favorite Outside Activity: Riding her bike
Favorite Inside Activity: Watching a movie
Favorite Subject: Science
Favorite Toy: Barbie Guitar (mind you she does not have one...  I think this is a hint to me)
Please feel free to read the mushy stuff here.  Annabelle, you are such a marvel to us!  Everyday you do and say things we could have never expected and cannot believe.  We are so proud of you and we love you to the moon and back!  Happy birthday Annabelley!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

We celebrated our oldest baby turning 6 today!  We had such fun!  The kids got Leap Pad's for Andrew's birthday and they are so excited!  We held off on the electronics as long as possible.  They have never played video games or anything so they are AMAZED with these gifts (Thank you Mimi).  We had a half day from school and student-led conferences which I loved being on the "Mommy side" of the table!!!  Here are a few stats about Andrew:
Height: 52 inches
Weight: 55 pounds
Missing Teeth: 5 (lost 2 and 3 knocked out), but the 2 on the bottom are growing in
Favorite Food: Peanut butter
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Outside Activity: Jumping on the trampoline with his friends
Favorite Inside Activity: Playing with Benjamin
Favorite Subject: Writing (on his conference form, "Riting", go figure)
Favorite Toy: Dinos, and now Leap Pad

We CANNOT believe our Bubby is 6, but in an effort to keep his birthday post upbeat, I blogged the weepy, sentimental stuff here.  Happy birthday Andrew Jess Yecheneku, we love you most!

So different, and yet...

As a teacher, I noticed the differences between boys and girls pretty early on.  I even had a kiddo offer a commentarty, "Boys and girls are so different, and they expect us to grow up and get married?  It's crazy!"  Of course with my own little social experiment (The A Babies), I noticed this to be sooooooo true!  We even had LOTS of gender neutral toys and it didn't matter!  Once Annabelle got into dolls...  Sure, Andrew would play dolls, but that consisted of him bashing a baby against the toybox or putting her face down on the floor and scooting her around like a car.  Annabelle would play cars with Andrew, but she always made a "situation" out of it.  Andrew would be crashing cars all over the place and she would be trying to organize the "errands" the "mommies" inside the cars would be going on after they stopped by the "dealership" to get their cars fixed.  Hilarious right?!
As of age 6, not much has changed...  Or has it...
Annabelle rides her bike in front of the house "crusier style", just fast enough to keep from falling over, but not so fast as to not allow her to have a conversation with anyone who will listen (I just don't know where she gets it).  Andrew is with his buddies throwing toys into the street so that they will break into a million pieces.  SOOOO DIFFERENT!!  Until we were in the car yesterday.
Andrew: Mom, I see land!!
Annabelle: (Rolling her eyes) Andrew, we are ON THE LAND, so of course we can see land everywhere.
Andrew: (Rolling his eyes) It's called using your imagaination Annabelle, you should try it sometime.

So yes they are different, but sarcasm cuts both ways!

Have you ever thought about?

Have you ever taken the time to think about the way your family was formed?  I think about it a lot since we do do a lot of adoption paperwork and they kind of make you think about it, analyze it, categorize it, reflect on it and think about it some more.  Sometimes the pressure is almost unbearable.  Someone gave me these sweet babies to ruin  um, raise.  It's like I sometimes feel like I have an invisible birth mom looking over my shoulder making sure I am doing a good job.  It's maddening!!!  I obsess about everything they eat and do and wear because I want it all to be perfect.
Then, times like tonight happen.  I was reading stories with Andrew and Annabelle after Benjamin had gone to bed.  We ran out of books and I sent Andrew for another one.  He walked to the book nook, turned around and said, "I sure love you Mom".  Well, of course I immediately welled up with tears, and took instant stock of how God had formed our family.  Amazing, unforeseen, wonderful, heart-wrenching ways. He chose this time, this place, this husband, these sweet children (plus the one sleeping soundly in his crib) to build our family.  When I look back at all of the pieces of the puzzle God had to work together just right to build our perfect family...  Wow!  I know He is all powerful and all knowing and everything, but all of this?  Just to make me a mom!  So when you have a minute, please think about the way God is building your family.  If it is anything like mine (or looks totally different) it is blessing upon blessing.

Show and Tell

Wednesday was Annabelle's "Show and Tell Day", FINALLY.  Andrew's teacher has each kid bring show and tell every month, and Annabelle has been WAITING. ALL. YEAR. for her turn!  She wanted to take Benjamin as her "most prized posession".  Here is how it went down:

Annabelle:  I chose to bring my baby for show and tell.  His name is Benjamin and I had to get special permission from Mrs. Andersen because he is ALIVE (surely her teacher meant to ask permission if you wanted to bring in a pet, but she is right, Benjamin is alive).

Me: Do you want to tell them anything about Benjamin?  What he likes or doesn't like?

Annabelle: Well, he drools a lot, he likes to chew on things, he has an afro, and one time when my mom was changing him he peed on her.

Insert hysterical laughter from the entire class.  If you know any 5 year olds you know why this was so funny.  Apon seeing how she was the LIVING. END. because of the pee comment, she had to insert another zinger.

Annabelle: And at night, he sleeps with his booty in the air.

More hysterical laughter.  Again, all 5 year olds think the mention of the "behind" is hysterical.

Me: Anything else Annabelle? 

Annabelle:  Yes, let's show the class how he can walk

I put Benjamin on the floor and he refuses to walk, but crawls right up to some little boy we DO NOT KNOW and kisses him right on the mouth.

Of course more laughter!

Benjamin, and by extension Annabelle, was famous by lunch time.  The whole playground had heard about the "stand-up comedian and her side kick in room 17".  Andrew asked if he could bring Benjamin for show and tell next time.  Stay tuned...

Early Risers

Andrew is my early riser.  Period.  He usually goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes around 5:30 or 6.  We have tried pushing back his bedtime, and he only gets up at the same time, but SUPER CRABBY!!!!!!  So we are working on ways to manage his early tendencies:)  This week however, he went to bed every night at 7:30, a few nights he was asleep by 7:15 and he was sleeping until 7:30, twice until 8 am.  I hated waking him up to go to school!  I was hoping we were entering a new phase, the "Mommy gets to sleep past six" phase.  Wishful thinking.  This morning at 7 am all was quiet when I got up, but all of the lights in the house were on.  A sure sign Andrew has been up for a while.  But his door was closed and the lights in his room were off.  A sure sign he is in the front yard riding his bike...  So I opened his door and flipped on the light and found this.

Here are my boys!  Andrew got Benjamin out of his crib (a stern talking to came later) and brought him into bed to help him go back to sleep.  This is the reason all the lights were off.  Do you see the smile on that kid's face??!!  Seriously in love with this idea!!

Brotherly love!!  And wrestling, isn't that the same!!!???

You may be wondering why Benjamin isn't wearing pants.  I was wondering the same thing!!  When I asked Andrew where Benjamin's pants were he said, "they are in my dirty clothes momma, they had pee pee on them."  I am hoping he wasn't so wet because of the juice box in the background....

I always think God has at least one more child in store for us...  I often hope it's a girl, I love the hair bows and the tutu's, and I secretly love the sassy:)  But today, I cried as I realized His perfect plan for our lives included brothers and best friends who are both early risers.

Okay, so blogging isn't my forte these days...

But I am going to change that!  I will have to back up just a little to get in all the amazing things that have happened since September...  Ew, I know, last blog was September!!!!  Here are a few pics to catch you up:)

I made my own baby food.... Turned out great, but I made so much (remember it is my first time with only one baby), that  Benjamin was on to bigger and better things by the time he finished this batch and I didn't need to make any more.

Sorry about the orientation!!!!  An entire college football season came and went, and our Irish didn't do too bad!  Looking forward to next year!!!  Go Irish!!!

Benjamin has graduated to doing chores, his favorite is "helping" with the dishes, but here he is doing laundry.

We have forward motion!!!!!

Andrew and Annabelle were in a "Nursery Rhyme Parade" at school.  They were adorable as Jack and Jill!

Halloween!!!!!!!  Spidey and Jasmine say hello!

And so does "Snuggle Puppy"

Biggest day of 2011, Benjamin Jer becomes a Sanborn!  Read more about this here

We lost teeth, OH SO MANY TEETH!!!!!  Annabelle has lost 2.  Andrew has lost 5, well, knocked out 3 and lost 2 if you want to get technical!

We are exclusively on solid food now (in addition to formula, no more baby food), and DO NOT GET BETWEEN BENJAMIN AND HIS FOOD!!!!  As you can tell by the face he is making in this picture!

More pictures to come!