HALLOWEEN

Last night was Halloween. Ava and Eliza honestly had no idea what was really going on..... We talked it up and made it sound fun and not scary. We got costumes and told them all they had to do was walk up to a neighbor's house, knock and say "Trick or Treat" and they would get CANDY!!! They were very excited. But when the time came, the nerves came out!! Check out the pictures and their faces will tell the whole story.

As you can see, they were less then thrilled :)

As time went on Old Man Owen, taught them the art of looking super cute to get more candy

Liza, my frog, getting ready to JUMP!

Ava, my beautiful cowgirl.

Liza and Luke...we weren't really sure what Luke was supposed to be...some sort of Zombie SuperMan, I think :)

Owen, the Old Man......funny that he is wearing this mask. Darren has had this mask for years and it used to scare the boys to death. They hated it when Darren would get it out, seriously, they would run in the other room. Oh, they grow "old" so fast...pun intended. Hope everyone had as much fun as we did, ration the candy kids!!!!!

My Heart is Full

Today was the first day that our little girls were really away from us. Ava started preschool and Liza went to the sitter while I worked. I was so stressed out I was making myself sick. I know how the girls are...they rarely let me out of their site, so I knew this morning was going to be a nightmare. But much to my surprise, the girls did great. Darren dropped Liza off at Miss Mary's house and she went with no fussing. He then dropped Ava off at school and she walked up like she had done this a million times. No tears, no freak outs. Well, except for me :) I picked the girls up after I got off work at the bakery. Liza was outside playing with Miss Mary and was happy to see me! Liza and Mary had a great day, went for a long walk and played outside. As we left Liza said " I go walk with Me Mary"....she can't say Miss yet, so it comes out Me. She has talked about Mary all day. I am so happy to have a great friend that I trust so much who is able to watch Liza for me while I work. We are very lucky.

Then off we go to pick up Ava from school. I waited outside nervously with the rest of the parents. You could tell we were all thinking the same thing....."oh boy, I hope he/she had a good day" All the kids came out smiling with their backpacks and in their lines following the teachers.....and there was my little Ava with a huge smile and she walks up and says "hey Mom". I was in tears, again. I spoke with the teacher after all the kids we taken care of and she said Ava did wonderful. This huge weight was lifted, I was so worried about her. She still has her moments when she shuts down and won't make eye contact. But not today :)
My heart is so full and I am so happy. Let's hope next week goes as well............ :)

Here are a few pictures from today.


Ava and Owen having breakfast before school.



Liza eating breakfast....with that look of "don't mess with me"




Self portrait of Miss Mary and Liza


A few pictures of Ava at school

It's Official....again

Once again, I apologize for not keeping my blog up to date, but hey-I have 5 kids, what do you expect??? :)....This entry goes back to July 7th. We appeared in court and officially re-adopted the girls in the USA. They now have Illinois birth certificates, names changed and Ava's birthday was also changed. For the last 6 moths the girls have legally been named Meskerem Darren Bodine and Tabita Darren Bodine. In Ethiopia, it is customary to give the fathers first name as the child's middle name. I wasn't real keen on the middle names and I doubt the girls would be either come high school graduation when they had to walk across the stage............ :) So, they are Ava Meskerem and Eliza Tabita now. We also asked the judge to legally change Ava's birthdate. If you remember from another post we had Ava's wrist x rayed and it showed that she was really older than what her ET birth certificate claimed. It is not unusual for birth certificates to be really off, I've heard some kids were even 2-3 years off. Ava's was about a year off judging by her language, x ray and dental exam. So we, along with the doctor decided it would be safe to move her birthday up about 6 months to make adjustments for her learning english etc.

It is never a dull moment with the Bodine gang and the court room was no different. We entered and all was well.....for a short time. I was sworn in and answering questions when the girls started fighting over a pen. The baliff quickly came to the rescue with markers and paper......but they continued to want what the other one had, OF COURSE. Meanwhile, the judge keeps talking and the court reporter keeps typing....I look at her like "oh my gosh, I am so sorry". She just smiled and kept on typing. No one said a word to us about the commotion but I bet the look on our faces said it all. After all was said and done, Darren joked on Facebook that he was surprised that we weren't found in contempt of court!!

So, all paperwork is done other then post placement reports. YEAH!!! Here is our picture of the final outcome with our lawyers, judge and the whole Bodine gang.

and more and more

and more.....

Summer Vacation --more pictures

Summer Vacation

Obviously, I have not been good about keeping up this blog. With 5 kids, I feel like I can't keep up with anything. So I thought I would at least post some pictures of our vacation.
Every other year we go on a big vacation with Darren's side of the family. Grandma Judy rents a big house for us and we all stay for a week under the same roof. Yes, seriously :) I know of so many people that comment that they could not vacation for 2 days with their extended family. We must be the exception because we always have a wonderful time. It is so much fun and we can't wait until the next time we get together. Usually, about a week after we return there are emails back and forth about where to go on the next vacation! This year was extra special because everyone in the family was able to join us. Cole, my nephew, is now in the Air Force, and we weren't sure if he would be able to make it, but he did!!!! Zac, also my nephew, just graduated from the U of I and was job hunting at the time. We didn't know day to day if he was going to make it either, but he did. Along with Seth who got to experience his first Bodine vacation.......poor guy. We are a very loud family :) Hannah brought her friend, Chelsie, and she was an awesome addition to our family......but also mentioned the loudness....... :)
Darren is Mr. Photo, so he took a TON of pictures, but here are a few of my favorites.