A bunch more random photos from the trip

On our way to New York, we imposed upon my brother and his family on the day which also happened to be Hannah's birthday. We walked in to see balloons tied to the chairs and a delicious looking cake on the table. (I should not that this also turned out to be delicious tasting, too!)

The present stack looked better than the bag contents were but Hannah posed next to the carefully balanced pile, just the same. There was a karaoke machine in the big one on the bottom which kept us entertained well into the evening!

Steve's Uncle Richard invited us to stop by his farm on our way out of town to pick grapes. We jumped at the chance and picked quite a few! We're still eating them. Most of the kids have been averaging at least 2 bunches a day and there is still a day left! Mmmmm! Thank you, Dick and Stephanie!!

The kids had fun getting the last of their wiggles out for the day on this spinning teeter-totter like contraption. I don't know what it was, exactly, but it was fun!

Steve's parents home was overrun with pets. Theirs and visiting animals. Four baby kittens were excellent entertainment. This is Misha pretending to like the kittens. He really doesn't know why we all held them or why his brothers and sisters carried them all around. He did notice that holding a kitten and smiling would win him a spot on the camera. :-)

Wendy and Little-Wendy.

Steve helping his soon-to-be new little sister with her homework. Selena loves her Uncle Steve. My family will get a kick out of the fact that he is, hands down, her favorite uncle. As in, she cried for an hour in her bedroom after we left. Ha! Beat that, Aunt Elise. ;-)

Max and one of the four kittens. This one's name is Oreo. Another of Steve's new little sisters told me his name. Trouble is, she doesn't say her "r" sounds. So she said "Owee-owe". It took me a minute...

Ivy and a kitty watch Vitali color. He wants no help from the kitten.

But look at this trick, Mommy!
My next words were, "Ivy! don't do that to the kitten!"

Ivy as a flower girl again.

Pretty Annie

Vitali

All but two of this generation of the family tree.

Steve dancing with Hannah and his youngest sister-to-be, Yasmin.
(pronounced Jasmine, for some reason)

Okay, that's it for now. I think the next photos will be about something else.

Panama Rocks

We decided to go to Panama Rocks instead of Niagara Falls this time with the kids. I think it may have been Mary's suggestion. All I know is Steve asked me which I wanted to do and Panama Rocks sounded great. I was not disappointed in that decision!

Panama Rocks is full of great, big, huge, rocks. And, it is in Panama, NY. Hence, the name. There is a path to follow but there is no risk of being lost forever in the woods if you wander off the trail. Good for us because that is the whole fun of it: Climbing up rocks, seeing if you can fit through crevasses, daring to find out where that light at the end of the tunnel is coming from...

Also, there were a lot of nice woodsy things like moss and ferns and fungi. The only time fungi is nice, by the way. Even hollow trees.

The bummer for me is that my flash ruined the pictures by bouncing off of things unnaturally but when I turned it off, things tended to blur. The odd processing of some of these pictures is my attempt to save an otherwise lousy picture, so bear with me. I really need to figure out that f-stop thing!

We found a couple of sprites in a hollow tree. Aren't they cute?

Moss.

All of us. the third, but finally successful photo.

Leaf.
(In case you're stupid and need a caption)

Another sprite.

Fungi.

Fun Guys.

Climbing.

Happy, Hugging Cousins.

It's amazing how these trees manage to grow on top of the rocks by
stretching their roots around until them they find dirt. It's also fun to climb them.

If you like nature and are in the western NY area, Panama rocks is a great place to go! We had the perfect fall day for it, too. But there will be many more fall days left for you to enjoy!

Wedding

We went up north for Steve's youngest brother's wedding. Ivy was their flower girl. She looked so beautiful. All her siblings told her so. The little ring bearer did too. She was in her glory!

Enjoy the photos!

venting but smiling.

(Vitali, looking all sweet and innocent.)

I woke up weary this morning. No one to blame but myself for staying up too late. (I got a new book at the library.) I am promising myself a quick nap this afternoon...we'll see.

Vitali has been trying my patience lately. I think he has five-minute-willpower. And that is a generous estimate. For instance,

Me, the other day: "Vitali! Don't bang on the walls with your hammers. That is the third time this morning I have had to tell you." It was 9:30am. "You may not play with your hammers any more today."

Time passes. approximately four minutes. Vitali and Ivy are arguing.

Vitali: "I had it first!!!"

Me: "What?"

Vitali: "I had it my malleto!"

Yes, you guessed it. 'Malleto' means 'Hammer'.

Arrrrgggghhhh!


He was cute last night, though. I was singing with my little malinkees (small ones) in their bed. Vitali loves to sing along. His rendition of this one, complete with arm motions, is so .... so .... so "Vitali":

"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
little ones to Him belong; they are weak but he is MUSCLES!"

Off to get ready for school today...
Melissa

Ps. Oops! I meant to post this on the adoption blog. I just put it over there, too. But with a different picture. for variety, you know.

John Piper: Abortion Is About God

I saw this on another blog this morning and watched the entire 8 minutes and 26 seconds even though I had intended to only get the jist of what he had to say.

What he has to say is not new to me but so close to my heart that I thought I'd share this.

My Hannah

I was just sitting here at the computer. All the children in bed and while browsing through blogs I hear Hannah and Annette talking. Mostly Hannah. She reminds me of myself when I was younger. I remember having a hard time falling to sleep because my mind would be so busy! Hannah is like me but she is like her dad in that whatever she is currently interested in becomes her PASSION. This sometimes makes her pretty intense and, to her siblings, annoying. At the same time, it makes her excited, full of life and driven to learn and experience things.

I think we all have our faults that turn out to also be our strengths. For instance, the things I admire in Steve are the same things that sometimes drive me up a wall! Annette's sensitive side, while causing her to delight in being kind to others, also makes her especially prone to hurt feelings. Hannah's eagerness to do the next thing makes her tend toward impatience. My love for staying home allows me to be happy to home-school, love to play with the children and love to be available for my husband. On the other hand, I drag my feet on going anywhere or calling anyone on the telephone. I could easily be a hermit, I think. But then, my husband is annoyingly, and blessedly, social.

But I digress.

Anyway, I was thinking of Hannah and what life might look like from her perspective. She's a deep-thinker, loves to talk, read, learn, and socialize. In the last year and a half she has gotten used to and enthusiastically embraced the idea of three new siblings. She has never once complained of having to share my attention or of doing with less. She helps me eagerly and follows me around-- sometimes chatting endlessly until I stop hearing her but she doesn't get offended when I admit that she talked so much that I forgot to keep listening. In fact, she's kind-of proud of being a chatterbox, like Anne of Green Gables.

Her latest persistent request was that we start going to the library again. I admit, I have been avoiding it. Don't get me wrong, I love the library. I love that she loves to read. But, I'm scatterbrained and prone to procrastination, so If we are going to go to the library, I need to make it a weekly habit or else we'd end up buying a new wing for our local library in the fines we'd rack up after going once and forgetting to return the books.

Also, I have been dreading taking all six kids to our local public library. The ladies there are not friendly at all and the children's area is not closed off from the rest of the library. In fact, it is right next to the study tables. Anyway, I am pretty sure Vitali would not be a big hit with our librarians!

Finally, I compromised. We'd make time each week to stop at our church library. Hannah was thrilled and we stopped in Wednesday night after her class. She and Annette were so excited to pick out their books. One of the books Hannah picked out was called "How to make your room special" (or something like that). It is full of all these steps and tips for cleaning, organizing and decorating her room. Written for little girls, it was just the book for her! she scurried through her schoolwork yesterday, eager to get started on the first phase, cleaning up. Tomorrow she is looking forward to orgainzing and the next day? Decorating!

Her room looks great and she is so proud. I love it. Thanks to that passion for her task that she gets from her daddy, she is sleeping now (done talking for the night) in a very prettily cleaned bedroom. And she is satisfying her urge to accomplish something artistic (I think that one comes from me) because she has made her bedroom look pretty again and is occupied with dreaming up organizational strategies and decorating ideas.

What a cool little girl. I think if I were eight, I'd want to be her friend.

A new post, at last!

HI! Remember me? Haven't heard from me in a while, have you?
Sorry! I've been busy.

Don't hold a grudge. Look. I have pictures. There. Feel better?

We are back in school now. Back in school meaning back at the kitchen table much of the morning and some of the afternoon. Sound fun? Ha! fooled you! Just kidding. Actually, I like being back at the books. The stack is much taller this year and the table much fuller but it is nice to have a routine again after the summer. Also, it's entertaining to hear,

"Stop shicken table!"

over and over all morning. (Max, thanks to his Russian accent and limited understanding of English, says 'chicken' and 'shaking' exactly the same way. He doesn't even notice when us girls tell each other to not to "chicken" the table.)

Ivy and Vitali join us at the table for a while and then wander off to play together. They try to alternate that with harassing each other at random intervals so no one at the table will spend too long thinking on only schoolwork. It is their public service to us. For this we are truly thankful.

Here, during a break, Vitali poses for my camera by sweetly aiming a doomed kiss at the reluctant Ivy. Even at three she has my hard-to-get-ness down pat, doesn't she Steve?
She's pretty cute so it's worth another try. She did her own hair that day. Apparently it attracts four-year-old, really cute boys. Too bad this one's her brother.

Another swing and a miss. That one was closer, Vita. Better luck next time!
Know what else we've been up to? Revamping the only room we haven't touched (except to paint it white) since we've moved in. The green bathroom. As you will see, it is now the blue bathroom. Doesn't matter. No one has yet called it that. It's been the "Green Bathroom" (thanks to the dark green faux marble linoleum) for so long!

And, let me point out that this was a worthy endeavor. First of all, no one was fooled by the green marble. It may have been more convincing if it weren't curling up where someone was too lazy to lay it under the toilet and had settled for making it a ten-piece puzzle of curling grossness around there. The cabinet was crumbling. It was pretty much all fake wood and when the faucet sprung a leak underneath that no one noticed till it was time for a new roll of (soggy) toilet paper, the thing swelled and warped till it had successfully trapped all the kids toothbrushes in the drawer.

It was time. Trouble was, if we were going to fix the cabinet, then it was time to do the floor. Couldn't do the floor until we changed out the tub which had complexion issues when we arrived that not even a heavy-duty helping of elbow grease could touch.

So, we (Steve and his merry men) hacked out the old tub. Steve put in the new one. I would like to point out that I helped.

Then he put down ceramic tile. I helped with this too.
...ok, I didn't. I cannot tell a lie.

I did paint, though. Light blue.

Cabinet, all wood. Sink. Faucet: brushed nickel. Also brushed nickel towel holders and bathtub faucets. It's gotta match, you know.

Mirror. Finally found this at Home Goods, which is owned by Target. And I do mean FINALLY!

Mom took ALL the kiddos for a whole day (Haaaa-le- lu-Yah!) and, although the bathroom was done, no one was allowed to use it until it had its finishing touches. Steve actually used date-day to go shopping for picture frames, and a magazine rack. (Don't click your tongues at me, we did other stuff too. We saw Iron Man, for goodness sakes! That's definitely a guy thing!)

And a couple of fluffy towels and white rugs and a step stool and it was ready for 'business'. if you know what I mean.

Unfortunately, I don't have a fish-eye lens for my camera so you get to see only a sampling. Oh, and those roses are real, My honey brought me those. Isn't he sweet?
Vitali fell in the driveway and got the first bath thanks to his skinned knee and scraped eye. He was pretty proud because all his siblings stood around wishing they had a good excuse to try it out. Luckily for Ivy, her hair was full of something sticky and so she got to jump in too.
She did enjoy brushing her teeth on that new step-stool later, too. Not the best picture but she sure is a cute little chub, isn't she? I love three. What a cute age.

All Righty, that's all for now. Thanks to those of you who still visit my sparse blog-postings. (sniff, sob) You are a wonderful bunch of very valuable people....provided you leave nice comments, that is.

The kinds of things that make my days un-dull...

The other day I took my little Ivy to the grocery store with me. Just Ivy. Our store has a shopping cart that looks like a race car. With multiple children, this ride is the source of many the grocery store disagreement. Little Ivy, all alone, giggled with her good fortune that day. In her happiness, she sang sweetly and unashamedly as she "steered" throughout the whole store, "I wuv Mommy; I wuv my mo-o-o-ommmmeeee....." while occasionally peeking back at me to smile proudly. I don't often do all my grocery shopping with a goofy sentimental grin spread across my face, but there it was that day, ear to ear.


Misha, mouth very full of banana managed to be aghast at Vitali's lack of manners, "VITALI! Do not talk food mouth!!!"

And--

After my shopping trip with Ivy where I had discovered yogurt on sale, Misha greeted me at the car to help me carry in bags. "OOOOOH! Yogurt! A LOT!" He exclaimed as I handed him a bag. When I followed him into the house, there he was, eagerly stacking it in the refrigerator with a song just bubbling out of him. "A lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot...." The boys still get so excited to see the refrigerator and the fruit bowl full.
At our family reunion, Misha turned seven. Also, there was a gift shower for the new arrivals, including the three boys. Each gift was opened with huge enthusiasm! Once, Misha opened some clothing wrapped in a shirt box. Not realizing that the box held more, he cheered, "A BOX!!!!" and held it up for us all to admire. Vitali did the same thing. We thought it was a joke until they didn't open them. They just laid the precious treasures in their laps and admired them.

On Misha's birthday, he opened some flip-flop style shoes. I had tucked them together, end to end before wrapping them. When he opened them, he held up the little bundle, "ONE SHOE!!!" he cheered. We pointed out the second shoe tucked into the first and he was even more excited, "TWO SHOES!" Later, wearing his shoes on a car ride, he showed off his new shoes to a friend, "Look!" he said, proudly displaying his feet, "Shoes! Two!"

Family Reunion in Pigeon Forge Tennessee 2008

I think I'm first to get these pictures posted! Yay! We just got home on Monday and have finally awakened from our sleep-deprived fog so that I could post some pictures of our fabulous weekend together! Vitali loves Evan because Evan rough-houses with him a lot. Evan has been in Alabama for several weeks so we've missed him!

Man, this guy is handsome! I'm glad I'm related to him!

Here is my sister's new little guy. Steve held him a lot. He doesn't usually hold the babies so much but Jude is tiny and just feels cozy...or maybe he just misses holding little babies....?

Each family group wears a different color of shirt. Red was our color this year. Grandpa gets his own color. He chose to be bright yellow. He likes the contrast in the big group picture.

Unfortunately, the big group has a light flare throug all my shots! If any of you can decrease the exposure in just the middle, let me know. My software doesn't do that. Or, if you got this shot, I would like a copy. Grandpa likes to get it on his desktop for the year asap!

Here is the dignified pose of Grandpa and his children(except Michael, whose family was missing this year). But my favorite is the next one, despite the fact that the camera seems to have focussed on the tree instead of the faces.

See what I mean?

Sweet little Alexander made his first appearance at the reunion this year. Look at that hair. It is even softer than it looks. I couldn't resist petting it-- A LOT!

Alexander is Dan and Kari's newest. They are pictured below. Here with the ice-cream-cone cupcakes is little Owen. He's a big brother now! Isn't he a cutie?!

Okay, More later!