Happy Halloween!

Waymond & Ermias got dressed up today. No costumes at school for Isayas. Waymond went as a hipster and Ermias is still Clifford. Isayas wanted to wear my boots to school, but he would have tripped about a thousand times and hurt himself! :o)

Christmas Gifts

The last several years I've tried to get our Christmas shopping done early. When I worked at Starbucks, I tried to have it all finished by November 1st! And, actually was pretty successful. This year we have mostly homemade gifts and most of them require our boys to put some time in on them. This has made it a bit more difficult to get Christmas gifts completed early, but we are working on it!

Glubs

We got some gloves for Isayas and Ermias since it's getting chilly here. Ermias lovingly refers to them as his "glubs" and he hardly takes them off.

I've been super impressed with how well they've kept up with them. They take them to school everyday and so far the gloves make their way home!

The other day they asked for scarves, since they've seen me wear mine (actually I have about a million scarves that I wear ~ not at once). I think I'll make them some out of fleece instead of buying them. They are slowly getting used to the weather here. Isayas still asks me, "no sun today mom?" in the mornings. I think he might be ready to break his winter coat (me too!).

Isayas reading!

Isayas has been learning to read!! We've been practicing daily and he's getting better & better everyday. We are super impressed with his teacher at school and his skills!

Family Fun Night

Last night there was a Family Fun Night at Isayas' school. The kids were to dress up as their favorite book character. Ermias dressed up as Clifford the big red dog and Isayas was Papa Bear from the Berenstain Bears. We couldn't find over-alls (well we couldn't find used over-alls and we weren't going to buy them new), so Waymond drew him some on a white t-shirt! They were SO cute!!

Making Brownies

Ermias helped me make some caramel brownies. His favorite part was unwrapping the caramels (an eating a few), licking the bowl, and then having a tasty brownie! That boy loves himself some chocolate!

Chilin'

Due to our rainy weather and that boys need to do a whole lot of running and other active activities during any given day, we utilize the mall play area!

I usually stop for a coffee (if I've got money on my Starbucks card). Here's Ermias chillin' at the mall Starbucks watching people and having some popcorn while I'm waiting on my coffee!

I think he could eat his weight in popcorn (and spend all day watching people and asking questions about them - rather loudly.)

Colors

Ermias has been having a difficult time learning his colors. He seems to second guess himself. I'll ask, "what color is this?" and he'll say, "green, blue, no brown." One day while eating some M&M's I had a stroke of genius (or subconsciously I've seen this somewhere else).

I got out the M&M's and told Ermias if he could get the colors right he could eat the chocolate. This boy is motivated by chocolate. He did very well, missing only when he was trying to be funny. After several rounds he then drew a picture of M&M's for Waymond!

Head Stands

Our boys LOVE to stand on their heads and they have amazing cores! Check it out.

Pumpkins

I saw a cute project in a magazine that I wanted to try. Using an old jar, create a jack-0-latern face with tape on the jar and then let your child paint the whole thing orange. Once it's dry, peel the tape off and voila you have a festive tealight holder!

They turned out pretty cute, but they are kind of hard to tell exactly what they are, but the boys had a good time painting!

Homework

Isayas has homework every Friday. He usually has until any day during the next week to turn it in. But he HAS to have it in on Monday. I think he gets to get something out of the prize bin if he has it on Monday. I hope he is always this studious!

This is what Ermias & Waymond were doing while Isayas was doing his homework... being lions and playing cars.

Style

The boys have style all their own!

Loose tooth

Someone's got his first loose tooth! He's not too happy about it, it interferes with his eating sometimes.

Octoberfest

Waymond's company does the website for the local Octoberfest, so we got tickets for free. Surprisingly they had a lot for the kids to do, at least before 7pm! We went when they first opened in the afternoon.

For whatever reason they have these hand chairs at the fairgrounds where Octoberfest was held. Isayas thought they were the coolest thing ever!

They got to hammered nails:

They decorated pumpkins:

Got their face painted:

And there was all kinds of German dancing, which we didn't participate in.

New at this

So, as most of you know reading this that we are new parents. We jumped in with both feet with a four and (now) six year old. Well, the last few weeks we've experienced our first parenthood ritual, the parent-teacher conference! We had a meeting with Isayas' teach last Monday and honestly, I'm not sure it could have gone better. We knew he was a well behaved kid, but who knows what they do when you aren't there!!

Isayas' teacher had rave reviews about his attitude, behavior and school work. He tested into the highest reading program, which is impressive since he's been speaking English for something like six months now! And, I feel like I can brag because we've had very little to do with it! :o)

November 1st will mark our SIX MONTH anniversary with the boys! There are days when I feel like they've been home forever, like we've never been without them and other days I feel like it's only been days!

Rotator Magazine

This may sound like a sales pitch, but I (Waymond) wanted to let everybody know about a project I've been working on.

Rotator Magazine: the magazine as art form. I’ve had the great privilege of working with an amazingly talented group of individuals from the Tacoma/Seattle area on the first of what hopefully will be many issues of Rotator Magazine. Adam Welch and I spent a ridiculous amount of time and some late, late nights putting the finishing touches on the online translation of a beautiful piece of print. The print piece is limited to 500 copies and is worth far more that its $20 price tag, as it come folded in a hand-cranked 3-color letter pressed cover. A beautiful thing in and of itself. Buy one here.

the staches

Waymond grew a mustache for his company's 10th anniversary (the invite had a mustache). So we found some stick-on ones for the boys! Isayas really owned it. He might have a real one some day!

How cute are these guys? VERY!!

Holiday gift ideas

Our Adoption Agency is having a Holiday Auction to raise money for holiday gifts for kids still waiting for families! So, if you are looking for some holiday gifts, check it out here.

God's Provision!

Our budget has been a bit tight since I only work about 10 -16 hours per week now (but who's budget isn't tight these days). But we have been experiencing God's provision!! Our neighbor brought over a pack injera on Friday night. I can't begin to tell how excited the boys were. They have literally eaten it breakfast, lunch and dinner since Friday night.

And then today she brought over another pack of injera and a tupperware of miser wot (Ethiopian red lentil soup)! She works with a lot of Ethiopians and when she told them that we adopted two boys from Ethiopia, ALL the ladies said they wanted to make us real Ethiopian food.

So now we have about three big bags of injera in the freezer, a big bag in the refrigerator and a lot of miser to eat with it! And, it's REALLY good miser. Thank you Jesus!!