Post Thanksgiving

The Friday after Thanksgiving we got up early to go to the mall. Not to go shopping, but to have pictures taken of all six of the cousins. This weekend was the first time all of them were together. Most of the pics turned out very good. We stopped at McDonalds for a very late breakfast.

Before we went home John and I were able to do a little bit of shopping, each of us getting new cell phones, the LG Voyager. I must say they are awesome, call them an early Christmas present. Actually we have already gotten our BIG family Christmas gift, but the kids don't know yet. Thely will be so excited. Shhhhhhh, it's a secret!

We finally got home around 2 PM. Kathy, Kyle, Kris, and Kendall came over one last time before going back to their respective homes.

For dinner, my family came over and we had leftovers. Now they are pretty much gone, so no turkey sandwiches. After dinner we watched 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles', hey we had to it was Thanksgiving weekend. Tomorrow we will get down all of the Christmas decorations. I have already switched out all of the dishes.

Mom x3

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was finally here! Last year I had turned on the Macy's Day Parade for the kids, but they didn't understand what it was. They have since seen parades and enjoyed watching it while they made some Thanksgiving day cards. They really like to make cards.





John helped me get the turkey in the oven by 8:30. Then we did a major cleaning around the house. A total of 17 people were coming for the meal at 1 PM. Later I made mashed potatoes and put some rolls in at the last minute.

we had a total of 6 pies

7 people sat in the kitchen

10 people sat in the sunroom

After the meal we were able to sit around and relax before starting on dessert. We have so much to be thankful for this year. Sometimes I feel like I have to pinch myself to realize we actually have three children. At other times, I can't imagine what it was like before them. The kids have come along so far. Now they understand what Thanksgiving means, (as much as a child can). I think they are all truely thankful they are no longer in Ukraine. I'm positive if we took them back to see what it is like, they wouldn't want to stay.

Later after the kids went to bed we watched Iron Man. The guys likes it I guess, but I thought it was a little too much.

Mom x3

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

The past few weeks we have been anticipating Thanksgiving. This year the kids understand more of what it means. Michael can tell the story of the Pilgrims and Indians. Last year they couldn't even understand what I was trying to tell them. They play with their "Lil People" Thanksgiving set and Mayflower set. In Michaels class they had a feast and Michael was an Indian, he was so proud of his costume.


Last Saturday John braved the cold weather and went with the guys to the UVA game. It was 37 degrees at kick-off. I was so glad I was at home with the kids. I was able to take Luba and Michael to have their pictures taken. (Kristina's will be done in a few weeks.)

We had been trying to decide where to eat Thanksgiving. Then we realized the kids would rather be at their own house so they could play after the meal. We will be having my family and John's family over, a total of 17 people. At least everyone will be helping out by bringing some food.

Michael has been talking about Thanksgiving all week. This morning he walked in our bedroom. (When he stands by the side of the bed he is right at my eye level when I'm lying down.) When I opened my eyes and smiled at him he said, "Mom, tomorrow is Thanksgiving!" I said, "What does that mean?" He said, "It means you are thankful." I said, "Michael, what are you thankful for?" He said, "I'm thankful for my family." It brought tears to my eyes. Here was a 5 year old boy who knows he is thankful he has a family. Many kids wouldn't even think about not having a family, but he knows what it is like to not have one. Having been put in an orphanage at 2 years old, he wouldn't remember anything about his previous family, which is probably a good thing.

School was only a half day today. Once the kids got home I started making an Apple Crisp. Luba and Michael helped me cut and peel the apples, while Kristina took picture. They enjoyed eating literally all the peels.


Mom x3

Back into the routine after the trip

I think everyone has finally caught up on lost sleep from the trip. Michael had looked so tired for days. Vacations can be so tiring, but oh, so fun.

Since I'm now working I have to run most of my errands on the weekend with everyone else. It is not fun and takes a lot more time. Friday I picked the kids up from school and went straight to the store to buy groceries. It was crowded, but not nearly as bad as it would be on a Saturday.

Saturday I was able to run errands by myself. I was gone for six hours! I must say I was very productive. I was in such bad need of clothes because all I wore last year was jeans. John bonded with the kids by watching three movies. I'm sure he fell asleep during some of them. I was able to buy a number of Christmas presents, I can't name them because Kristina is reading over my shoulder.

Sunday after church we ate at the Cracker Barrel. The kids love it there. When we got home the kids played outside while I finished planting all the pansies. Our yard is finally ready for winter.

Tuesday the kids were off of school for Veterns Day. I had to take them to my dentist appt. Then we went Babushka's (my mom's) house. They all went outside to rake leaves with D'adushka, (my dad). My dad loves to put them to work and they love to work out in the yard with him. They had fun jumping and playing in the leaves. They also buried each other. They thought this was so great. We don't have many trees in our yard so we don't have leaves to rake.

Wednesday I didn't go to work since Kristina had surgery. She is doing so much better and even the nurses are noticing a huge difference which is encouraging to her. Since I was home I was able to clean around the house and even put some more flooring down in the attic. The kids thought it was great to see up in the attic, especially because they know we have Christmas presents hidden up there.

The girls also seem to be more interested in boys. I'm not sure is this is a good thing or a bad thing. Today while eating dinner Kristina mentioned that all the boys like Luba and Luba said a boy stares at Kristina during lunch. Then they started asking about when John and I were dating and when can you kiss someone. We told them they could start dating at 18 :) Then John said to Luba, "When you and Kristina get married...", but he didn't finish his sentence because Luba said, "I'm not going to marry Kristina!" They think so literally it's funny. Well, that was pretty much the end of that conversation because everyone was laughing.

Mom x3

Hollywood Studios

Today I got up early to go to the front desk to get our boarding passes. We are flying Southwest and I didn't want to end up split up. We got all of our suitcases together and we were leaving the room by 8:45. We were off to Hollywood Studios.

First we raced to get the fast passes for Toy Story Mania, we were told it was the best ride in the park. Then the girls had to stop and watch the High School Musical 3 show which was going on, in the street.

Next we saw the Little Mermaid show and the Indian Jones stunt show. After leaving the shows on our way back to Toy Story Mania we walked down a busy New York Street.

We also stopped in the Honey, I shrunk the Kids playground.

Then on to Toy Story Mania, this ride was a 3-D video game. The painting on the walls were amazing. They had everything around from the Toy Story movies, even the green army men.

We were able to spend about 20 minutes going through a few stores to do some shopping. This was probably good, if we had had more time, we would have spent a lot more money.

We got back to the hotel and we were on our bus by 2:30 heading back to the airport. Honestly, we could have used a few more days, so we could have had some down time. John says maybe next time. Now the kids will hold him to the fact that there will be a next time.

We arrived back home at 8:15 and all the kids were in bed by 8:45. Some unpacking has been done, but the rest will have to wait. Unfortunately, or fortunately, which ever way you look at it, I have to work tomorrow, so I won't really be able to get some rest until the weekend. I can't wait.

At least being away we weren't aware of anything going on in politics. We did turn on the TV when we got home, to watch the election returns, but were saddened and turned it off.

All in all it was our best trip this year!!

Mom x3

Animal Kingdom and Epcot

We slept in until 8:30 this morning because we were so tired. So much for the early 'magical' hours. We finally left the hotel at about 9:30 and headed for the Animal Kingdom. Today seemed much hotter than the other day and we spent most of it in "Africa" which didn't help.

First we stopped and ate pastries for breakfast, John's favorite. Then we walked around and saw bats, tigers, and other animals, I'm not sure what they were.

Then we went on the safari ride. The kids liked watching all the animals, but were a little bit scared since we were very near to them. We saw elephants, pink flamingos, (they are pink from all the shrimp they eat, giraffes, an up-side-down tree and many other animals.

We were able to ride a few rides. John and Kristina rode the Expedition Everest while I took the younger two to the bird show. They loved it.

Later in the afternoon we went back to Epcot. We were able to get fast passes for Test Track. Then we walked around some of the countries. We ended up eating in America. We were able to watch the circle vision movie of China and go on the small boat rides in Norway and Mexico before going to Test Track. That ride is John's favorite. When we got off it was 8:15 and it said the wait time was 40 minutes, but they all wanted to do it again, so we got back in line. There was no line we waited 5 minutes, it was great. Afterwards we went back to the countries to watch the fireworks show. Tonight we got back to the hotel by 10 PM.

A very tired mom x3

Epcot and Magic Kingdom

Today we arrived at Epcot at 9, we were so grateful for the time change. We first got the fast passes to Sorin'. Then we ate breakfast and saw some shows. Sorin' was very awesome, you felt as if you were flying over California. You could even smell pine trees and the ocean. Later, it rained for a short period of time so John and the kids played a board video game.

Then we were able to get our pictures taken with all the main Disney character's. We waited 30 minutes to do this, but it was worth it.

We had to head over the the Magic Kingdom for an early dinner buffet with Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh. Michael got to wear his Tigger costume and was so excited.

We went on a few more rides after we ate. Then we found out the park was open till 11 PM for those who were staying at a Disney hotel. I'm honestly not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. We were already so tired and I was hoping to get the kids to bed at a resonible time. Keep in mind Michael usually sleeps 12 hours a night. Well of course we had to stay since there were hardly any lines and we were able to do a lot of rides in such a short period of time. Kristina and I did Splash Mountain at 10:30 with no wait at all. When we came to the top of the big drop we had a perfect view of Cinderella's castle all lit up for the night. Since we were in the front row with got soaked, which wasn't the smartest thing since it was getting cool.

the tea cups make me sick

some halloween decorations

The end of another long day, we stayed until 11 PM. On the way walking from our bus to the hotel an armadillo walked across the path about 20 ft in front of us. It was actually quite big, it's body being close to 12 inches. Not something you want to see late at night when you are very tired.

When Michael was using the soap to wash up he noticed there was a Mickey Mouse on it. I said, "Why do you think it's there?" and he said, "Because I see it!" I expected him to say, "Because we are in Disneyworld." He was thinking literally.

After taking showers they fell right asleep and didn't even move for a very long time.

very tired Mom x3