HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUTUMN!

My "Little Girl" is 25 today!

Where has 25 years gone? I remember it like it was yesterday. She was so fun as a child. One of my favorite memories is her opening our pantry in the kitchen and stacking the soup cans as high as she could reach and then climbing onto the shelf that she had just emptyed. I thought for sure that she was going to drop one of those cans on her toes but she never did. This was a daily routine for a long time. Oh...and when she learned to ride a two-wheel bike. The neighbors actually came outside to watch because she was so stinkin small. She was only 4 yrs. old and was zipping along with the big kids. I am sitting here wishing for those times back but yet so EXCITED for the time we are in right now. She has grown into a beautiful woman inside and out and I am so proud to be her Mother. It is such a blessing to have your grown children in your everyday lives. And, don't get me started about how awesome of a mother that she is and how much fun being a grandmother is. I love life!

Updates

Jake's Senior Prom

Jake & Rachel

Smores!

Multi-Tasking!


Look who got "Most Improved" at school!




Enjoying his first Mac-n-Cheese with Mimi!



So the other day Chuck had the little boys at the church after school and they were playing baseball. The ball rolled down the embankment of ivy and they searched for 10 minutes and couldn't find the ball. All of a sudden Alemu said "Dad, this is what we do in Kamashi when we can't find something that we are looking for". He proceeded to put a small pile of spit on the palm of him hand and then with the other hand slapped the pile of spit and the direction that the spit flew is the direction of the object that you are looking for. Chuck said that within 10 seconds Alemu found the ball. Bizzare! The boys said that it works everytime. Try it next time you can't find your keys and let me know if it works for you?

John Brown

So my husband Chuck always picks on the children in our lives. Whether it is the kids at church or school or in the family, he picks on them. So needless to say Alemu and Israel are no exception. Chuck recently has been asking Alemu what his name is. He is trying to get him used to our last name. Well last week Alemu turned the table on Chuck and said "what you name?" Chuck then replied: "John Brown, if you ask me again I'll knock you down." This of course caused everyone to laugh. The next night Chuck asked Alemu "What's your name?" Alemu replied: "John Brown, ask again, I beat you up!". We all busted up laughting.

Well...the gorilla struck again! This past weekend our dear friends from South Carolina were in town. Michelle brought with her 4 of her 8 children. Alemu and Israel were so excited to play gorilla, and played they did. They got so into the role they should have won an Oscar for their performances! Way to go boys!

It takes Us A While To Figure It Out...

I thought that this weeks post I would share with you some language issues that we have been having with the little boys lately.

So, it is 8:00 am. and I am sitting at my desk at work and Chuck just calls me and tells me that Alemu just told him that I let them drive my car last night after prayer meeting in the church parking lot. Oops! I confessed and said "yes" that I did. He goes on to tell me that Alemu is trying to convince him that I said that he can drive all the time in the church parking lot. Every time they go to the church. Which for our family that is many times a week. I then had to clarify that I didn't say that but what I did say was that they can only drive in the church parking lot and not on the street until they are 16 yrs. old. Once Alemu was reminded what I said he said "yes, that is what I said to you dad". You see he confuses the words "only" and "every". It takes a while but we all finally figure out what is trying to be communicated.

Here is another example. When they want the television turned on they ask if someone will "open" the TV. I have tried to explain many times that you "open" a door and you turn "on" a TV. Now we just chuckle to ourselves and open the TV.

Israel loves tomatoes! I mean really loves tomatoes. Most kids would not even try bruchetta, this kid devours it. He loves anything made from tomatoes. Marinara sauce, pizza sauce and especially ketchup! One of his favorite snacks is ketchup on a slice of bread. He told Chuck yesterday that "this is berry good"!!! Autumn suggested that we get him his very own bottle of ketchup for his birthday. Sad thing is...he would love it! As long as it is new. Not new...not good.

Both the boys have been given "used" bikes from people in our church. Nice bikes. But they have this idea stuck in their head that because they are not new than they are not good? I am not sure where they got this idea that a new bike is going to be so much better than the ones that they have, but they are saving their money for new bikes. So far they each have $4 dollars. It will take them a while to save enough and probably by then they will need a new bike because they are growing like weeds. We have deliberately tried to not buy them many new things because we didn't want to spoil them right off the bat. But nobody needs to teach children the desire to want.

Last weekend we had our friends Jeff & Amanda visitng from Hood River, Oregon. Jeff loves to goof around. I told Chuck that he should bring home the adult size gorilla costume that we have at the church and we will have a little fun with it. So that evening it is getting dusk and we have Alex get the costume on and just start walking around (like a gorilla) on the patio out back. Israel first sees the gorilla and trys his hardest to explain to us what he just saw. He is even acting out how the gorilla was walking. Alemu at first didn't see it and was trying to tell Israel that it was probably a dog. Israel insisted that he knows what he saw and he saw a gorilla! At this point we are all laughing. Eventually, Alemu saw the gorilla as well and we all played along that it must have escaped from the San Diego Zoo. This went on for about 30 mins. before we decided that it needed to end (they were truely getting concerned). So we had Alex come in the front door and sit at the kitchen table pretending to eat a banana. When they glanced over and noticed the gorilla in the house they freaked out! We quickly had Alex take the head off and they looked confused. Israel then wanted to put the costume on (and he did) but Alemu wouldn't even touch the costume. The next morning they woke up and said that they wanted to play gorilla again. We explained that their new cousins Morgan and Shelby were coming for a visit that day and when it gets dark we will play gorilla again. Oh my gosh!!!! This was the best night ever. The boys were so excited to be a part of the joke. Shelby (age 12) and Morgan (age 14) fell for the joke hook, line and sinker. Shelby wanted us to call animal control and Morgan wanted us to get the only gun we owned ( a bb gun) and shoot it, or at least scare it away. The best part of the night was when Shelby called her dad and told him that there was a gorilla in Aunt Ann and Uncle Chuck's backyard. She insisted that she knows what she saw, and she saw with her own two eyes a gorilla. After literally an hour of this I told Chuck we need to end this, I need to put the little boys to bed. Both Shleby and Morgan were good sports about it but I know that they are planning to get us back next visit. Now everytime, the little boys know that someone is coming over they ask " do they know gorilla?" They are ready to play gorilla on our next victims. They are true Talcott's.

HAPPY EASTER!

This picture was taken at the Annual Kiwanis Easter Breakfast which has been a family tradition for the past few years. The little boys were not real sure about this giant rabbit but they hung in there. I am not sure how much they understood about Easter but they said that they liked it and wanted to play more egg hunt games! Saturday night Autumn was trying to explain to them that the Easter Bunny was going to come to our house while we were sleeping and leave them a surprise. They weren't to sure about that. Israel actually slept at the foot of his bed so he could keep an eye on the bedroom door at all times. He wanted to know how the Easter Bunny was going to get into the house. We said we didn't know but that it was magic. He suggested that maybe he was going to break down the sliding glass door and then fix it with magic when he left. All in all it was a really fun day and the weather in San Diego was perfect to be outside.

So Many Firsts!

Their first time in the hot tub! They love it!!

Their first time at the ocean.

Their first time fishing! Big success! 25 fish!!

Feeding the ducks at Lake Murray. Or maybe more like chasing the ducks at Lake Murray!

First day of school!

They love riding their friends bike after church on Sundays.

Their first time watching an American soccer team play. They both wanted to go and get uniforms and shoes right then and there.

Everyday with these guys is a first. It could be a new food that they have never had or a new word that they think is funny or watching the machine at Long's Drug store drop out the photos that I just ordered. Seeing this life through the eyes of children who could have never imagined life this way is such a priviledge. I have learned that we take everything for granted. We have it so easy in America.

Welcome to the Talcott Family Blog

Today is the debut of our family blog. After months and months of reading other people's blogs, I decided to start one for our family. I hope you enjoy following our journey through this crazy life. On the right of the blog page is: Our Adoption Story, just click on the link and it will take you to Autumn's blog where she shares how adoption was put on our hearts. My goal here is to feature one of my children a month and to share with you our daily lives.

Most of you know that we recently adopted two little boys from Ethiopia. After spending two weeks in country with them we arrived in the U.S on February 28, 2009. Our time in Ethiopia was amazing. We were able to experience the culture and spend 24/7 with Emily who is volunteering over there for a year. Chuck and I both fell in love with the people of Ethiopia, especially the children. If you have known Chuck & I for very long time you know that we both love children and to see so many that are orphans really broke our hearts. So without further ado I would like to introduce you to our two newest additions of the Talcott Family.

Alemu is 10 years old and a very handsome young man. After taking him for a physical the doctor seems to think that he is maybe 13 years old. He has all of his 12 year molers already. With all the changes that have been happening in his life we feel that changing his age right now might be a little too much. We enrolled him in the 5th grade at the local elementary school. His teacher is very excited to have him in her class. When she announced to her class that he was going to be in there one little boy went home that night and researched Ethiopia and did a class presentation the very next day. He is adjusting well and his English is improving. At first he would not eat his lunch at school. He would wait until after school and then eat it in the car on the way home. He told us that in Ethiopia you do not eat at school. The children there go home for lunch. It took a lot of convincing but he is finally eating at school. Alemu is a very happy boy. I love to watch movies or television with him because he laughs out loud. Very contagious laugh. He really has bonded with Chuck. They wrestle everyday. He is like a little puppy that gets excited and just can't quit. We have found out that he has a very real aversion to snakes. Big time! We have a couple of play snakes and he freaks out when they are around. Also, we were watching Survivor the other night and they kept showing snakes and he would actually squeal and talk to the TV to tell the people to watch out. It cracks us all up. The other morning Chuck is ironing his shirt and Alemu comes in and wants his t-shirt ironed because you all know how cold the mornings are in San diego. Burrrr. So he takes his shirt off and proceeds to touch the iron. Chuck says "you dingle fritz, don't touch the iron." Alemu says "what dingle fritz"? Chuck and I both laugh and then Chuck tells him that a dingle fritz is someone who trys to touch a hot iron when they are told not to. Alemu laughs and says "Dad, dingle fritz" and walks away!

Israel is 8 years old and very active! This kid is going to be great at any sport he trys. He had never seen a skateboard before and he watched Jake for a few seconds and jumped on and hasn't gotten off since. I told Jake I give him 6 months and he will be better than you and after spending a little time with him outside Jake came back in and said that he gives him 2 weeks and he will be better than Jake. Israel is our stubborn child. He has an opinion and is not shy to share it with you. I think he has met his match with me. He is not having nearly as many issues as he did at the beginning. We have always said that the key to good parenting is consistency. No matter how hard it is if we just stick to our guns it will pay off in the end. This one is going to really test that theory! I don't want you to get the wrong opinion of him, he is loving and loves to snuggle with me at night and hugs and kisses anyone who wants one. It's just when he doesn't want to do something he tells you. Funny story...so the other morning we were frantically looking all over the house for the "library book". All you parents out there know exactly what I am talking about. Anyways, after much searching it dawns on me that I may have thrown it away with the old magazines. He paniced. He kept telling me that he was going to get "punishment". No matter how much we tried to assure him that he wasn't going to get punishment he was clearly upset. After I confessed to Chuck what I think I did we took the garbage out to the garage and started digging. Sure enough three quarters of the way down there it is! He was so happy!!! I got out the 409 and picked the dried food off the cover and called it good. Israel was happy but not satisfied. The cover had a big crease across it. So...Chuck decides that he is going to iron the book cover. Israel was so excited, I had to take a picture of the two of them kneeling down ironing this library book. Too cute.
Anyways...enough of me rambling on. I will write more again in a few days.