Our Memorial Day Weekend

Friday:

On Friday night we had a family night.  Friday night family night is a tradition around the Carlin house.  We don't do it every single Friday, but if Josh isn't working nights, then we usually do.  We usually have something fun for supper like hot dogs or chicken nuggets.  Then we pop popcorn on the stove and watch a movie.  This time we watched some dog movie.  Josslyn yelled "DOG!" every time the dog(who was the main character) came on the screen.  After about the 9,000 time, we had to tell her that we were all well aware there was a dog on the tv and it was time to stop yelling about it.  She is a funny little thing.  When she gets it in her mind that she wants you to acknowledge something, she isn't going to quit until you do.

Here is Daddy with half his crew.

The Twinsies

Even though my new kiddos don't understand alot of English, they all are very intruiged by dogs, so everyone liked the movie. 

Saturday:

That morning we had the Bring Him Home 5k fun run fundraiser to help bring Kirk home to the Hazleton family.  The kids all did GREAT.  I was also very blessed to have some friends participate that helped out with the kiddos.  Kinda hard to keep up with 6 kiddos moving at 6 different paces.

 All 6 of 'em, post fun run 

He's ready to run to help get his buddy home!

My sweet friend, Denise.  Danil just loves her.

She pushed Danil the entire way.  Through GRASS.  What a trooper!!!

Me, Josh, Kellen, Alik, Ray, and Josslyn

Luke with my mom.  Luke and my mom RAN the whole thing.  I was so proud of him!!

A 5k was nothing to my mom, who ran the Houston Marathon the past 2 years, but I was super proud of Luke for being so tough and not quitting.

Yep, I'm cute.

Alik hitched a ride part of the way. 

My friend, Micah, has been with me since the very beginning of our adoption process and has been a blessing every step of the way.  Now she is helping the Hazleton's get Kirk home!

Finished!

Sunday:

Sunday afternoon after church and naps for the little people, we went swimming at my grandparent's house.  All the kids, except  for Josslyn, LOVE the water.  Even though she doesn't like to get in the pool, she is very content to watch everyone swim.

Kellen and Daddy

I KNOW that Danil is wearing pink floaties and that  Alik's floaties are mis-matched.  Last year my only kid wearing floaties was a GIRL.  I need to get us some boy floaties.

I wouldn't smile either if I was a boy wearing pink floaties.

In spite of how it might look, he really does love the water.

Dare-devil Luke

Brave Alik

Ray on Uncle Mike's shoulders.  She's ready for a chicken fight!

Monday:

Monday for lunch we went out to my mom's boyfriend's boat house on a local ski lake.  We ate and had a great relaxing time.

Ray fishing.

  That girl loves to fish.  She gets that from her daddy.

Alik wanted to fish, so Ray gave him her pole and taught him how to use it. 

He was hooked after that.(No pun intended.)

My mom on the grill. 

Uncle Mike waiting for lunch.

Josslyn petting Sal.

Ray took a tumble out of the hammock and needed some Granny lovins.

You might be shocked to know that tiny girl is an eater!

Eating some apple

I don't know if you have noticed, but Danil tends to look different in all of his pictures.  It is sorta hard to document what he really looks like.

Oh, and for those who are curious about the kids names, I guess I'll take this opportunity to quickly explain.

Danil is how we are spelling Danil's name now.  We still pronounce it "Daniel", but we wanted to keep some Russian in his name, so we left the "e" out.

Alik's legal name is "Parker Reid Carlin".  We are calling him Alik though and are going to stick with that.  We had to make the official decision about his name before we had gotten to know him.  We plan at some point to have his legal name changed to Alik Reid Carlin.

Josslyn's given name is Lena(pronounced Lynn-uh).  We call her Josslyn and she answers to Josslyn.  She calls herself Josslena though.  I find it amusing that she has mixed her new and old names together. 

 

Granny on Lanny's 4-wheeler with Luke, Alik, Ray, and Kellen.

Kellen actually fell asleep while riding.

Granny, Uncle Mike, and Danil.

Danil loves stuff like this.

Monday evening we swam and had super with some dear friends.  I hate to say that I completely forgot to whip out the camera and document any of it though.  You will just have to take my word for it that we had a good time.

I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  I hope you were able to spend it with family and that you took the time to remember those who have given their lives defending our right to live in a free country and worship God freely.

More soon!(and hopefully it will be more than just pictures!)

Sponsor us, please!

Some good local friends of ours, who I mention in this blog post, need our help bringing their son home.  They are SO CLOSE to finishing their dossier, but they are not close having their adoption fully funded.  They are waiting on ONE little paper to come in the mail and their dossier will be ready to send overseas.  I know the excited and anxious spot that the Hazletons are in right now.  I also know what it is like to feel the weight of you adoption not being funded.  The Hazletons have stepped out in faith and obedience to God's call on their life to adopt Kirk.  They, as well as I, believe that God is going to provide the funds to pay their son's ransom.

A group of awesome folks have gotten together to put on a 5k fun run/walk as a fundraiser to help bring Kirk home.  Our entire Carlin Clan will be participating in this event.  We would love if you would you donate to sponsor our family in the 5k.  Our registration fees have been paid, so every penny of every dollar you donate will go towards bringing Kirk home.  No amount is too small.  Even if you feel that you don't have much to give, God can multiply it.  To read more about the Hazletons and their journey to Kirk, you can go to their blog here.  You can sponsor our family by using the chip-in at the top right of my blog.  If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to the Hazletons adoption, you can do so here.

Thanks!

Bug Hunting

The kids went on a bug/rock/treasure hunt this morning.  I have been needing ONE MORE big yogurt container so that they could each have their own.  This morning when Kellen finished off the rest of the yogurt, I knew that today was a good day for a treasure hunt. 

Before you go thinking that I'm so great and all, I do have a confession....I don't have it all under control.

THIS, is where I found the baby this morning.

Yep.  That's my 15 month old standing in the bathroom sink. 

It gets even better.  I'm not even the one who found him.  One of the other children actually informed me of his whereabouts.  I dont' know why, but the baby is suddenly obsessed with climbing in the bathrooms.  Hum.

Anyway, I got him out of the sink, handed out the bug collecting containers, hopped on the Google translate so that I could explain to my Russian speaking children what we were doing, and then we all headed outside.

He likes it! 

He wasn't so sure for a while. 

He kinda just walked around the yard.  I honestly think he was trying to AVOID any bugs.

Any treaure here?

Pretty little thing

Finding some good stuff

All done!

Now that I'm done, I wanna swing!

Hunting for ants....in an ant bed.

*Now before you go calling CPS saying that I let my kids play in ant beds, let me clear this up.  Luke really wanted ants for his collection.  He is 8 and he knows the consequences of messing with ant beds.  I would NOT let any of my younger kids play in an ant bed.*

Oh, and for the record, he didn't get bit.

NOW he's starting to get in on the fun!

Little brother want to help

Look what I got!

All six of them

The bug hunt was a success and it got us through that pre-lunch hour, where kids are starting to get hungry and ready for naps.  Now, I just need a solution for that crazy pre-supper hour.....

Sweet Danil

This is video of Danil playing with Ray's hair during church on Sunday morning.  No, we  do not carry around our video camera on the chance that there might be a sweet moment that we want to capture.  Luke and Ray sang for church that morning, so that is why we just happened to have the video camera with us.  Glad we did.

Last Week in Pictures....

with a few explainations.

Ray with a rolly polly in a my little pony car.

Luke doing school.

(Yep, he's squatting, on a stool, at the table.  It's homeschool.)

Ray and Alik bug hunting.

Danil.  He's hiding his collection of stuff in the seat of the car.

The baby.  He figured out how to take his diaper halfway off.  I found him walking around the house with his diaper around his ankle.  He was pretty proud of himself.

He also pushed a stool up to the counter and got in to a bag of cookies.  Smart guy.

Danil and his new BFF during Luke and Ray's musical Sunday night at church. 

He was sooooo tired because he chose not to nap during nap time.  He fell in love with Chelsea, and then could barely keep his eyes open. (Chelsea is one of the awesome girls in my junior/senior girls Sunday school class.)

Ray after her part in the musical.

The water fountain attacked her.

My happy guy

My other happy guy

We went to the beach on Friday. 

Cutie pie

He warmed right up to the beach.  He was born to be a Carlin!  He just LOVED it.

Luke.  He could live at the beach.

Watchin Beauty and the Beast

First haircut since he was a free man!

Playin'

I'm hoping to get a chance to actually blog about how things have been going soon.  Overall things have been going excellent.  Not perfect.  But honestly, the kids are doing much much better than I ever expected, planned, or hoped.  It's totally a God thing because I feel so inadequate.

Gotta run.  Chinese checkers and Luke are calling my name.  More soon.