Happy Birthday son-in-law!

We will have a belated birthday party as soon as you get home!!!

We may even blow up the bounce house!!

This is what you do with cooped up children in between fevers and coughing! Or they do not sleep!! Ayden was feeling 100% better - Ava was about 85% better - Alec not so good - but the fresh air made his cough better - so he was not complaining!

THE FLU

Yep - we have it. Confirmed Saturday night at the ER (long story short - Ava fell out of her swing - we took her to the ER because she was acting "funny" - found out there that she was running 102 temp - no wonder she was acting too wierd!) Poor baby - I didn't think to check her temp I was so worried about getting ice on her head!) Anyway - the trip may have been a blessing in disguise since now we know we definitely have it and can just hunker down until it has run it's course. Poor Ali had it earlier this week(her fever was over 104)...and is finally feeling better. Sam and Korbyn have escaped it so far....so let's keep our fingers crossed!

In between fevers and coughing - we have tried to do some calmer activities...like going to the creek.....

exploring and spending some time outside in this beautiful fall weather!

Pumpkin Soup

September 22 is Ayden's "forever gotcha" day.

Shannon and Sam flew into Cap Haitien, Haiti on September 22...rode in the back of a pickup truck to the orphanage and Daddy held his son for the first time that day. An amazing year in the life of our family....Ayden has matured SO much....he was such a little boy...

still a baby in many ways at 2.5 years old. Now a tall lanky youngster at 3 and 1/2 who bounds through the house talking a mile a minute and singing all day long. He was sick on his forever gotcha day...so he and momma stayed home together...which really ended up being super special. We took a break, went outside and explored the creek...took pictures and ran as fast as we could! For some reason he giggled hysterically at the sight of his momma running - but hey - I did it!

Through the years we plan to celebrate this special day for our children with a few gifts, traditional food and sometimes a party. Last night was a bit disjointed because of Ayden's cough and fever...but I tried my hand at Pumpkin Soup (Soup Joumou)....maybe not totally the Haitian recipe....but yummy none the less. (He wasn't too thrilled with it but Alec LOVED it.) In Haiti Pumpkin soup is made on January 1 in almost every household in celebration of Haiti's independence and to honor their ancestors. On Ayden's special day - we too honor his ancestors and say a prayer for family that still lives in Haiti. We are forever grateful for the gift of this beautiful, smart, funny, loving little boy we are blessed with as our son.

The past few days...

are a bit of a blur for everyone I think.

Korbyn has already changed so much....and it has only been 5 days since we were sleeping on waiting room chairs! She is so beautiful...and her mommy and daddy are making us all so proud.

A new family

Lovingly nicknamed "the three musketeers"

She has eyes!

and I wasn't kidding about the long toes.

first bath

Everyone is home and doing great. Almost too much for me to blog about right now with 2 of my 3 helping. Ali and Sam were amazing....calm and collected. And now at home....the same calmness is evident.

Answered prayers.

More to follow!

Korbyn Erin Nichole Liebler

Arrived this morning at 5:28AM weighing 7 lbs 8 oz...19.5 inches long. She has wavy dark hair....a darling button nose...very very long toes and fingers....beautiful lips and is absolutely perfect. Mom and Dad are doing wonderfully....in fact Miss Ali was totally amazing. And Sam was a perfect birth partner...even cutting the umbilical cord.

I have amazing pictures that I will post later - but these are from my cell phone since we are still in the hospital!

What an exciting day for our family!!! Kim

A new chapter begins...

in our lives! Baby Korbyn will be arriving soon! We are headed to the hospital bright and early tomorrow (7:30AM) and everyone is very excited and nervous. Wonder if she will have hair...will it be dark or light? I have watched Ali's tummy get bigger and bigger...but tonite the realization that I am going to be a Grandmother is starting to sink in. "Gracious Mercy" as Ayden would say....this is big stuff! He was practicing saying "uncle Ayden" tonite....not sure he completely understands - but of all the kids - he has paid the most attention to Ali's tummy and always had questions for her about it.

Now we just pray for an easy delivery for Ali and for her health and our precious little Korbyn's health. And for Sam too of course!

I will post as soon as she arrives....so stay tuned! Kim

Time flies by

This 1st video is Ava singing a song that Erin taught Ayden one day in the very back of the van...and Ava has decided is worthy of singing as well. (probably because I am CONSTANTLY saying "no biting, no hitting, no scratching, no pulling hair!)

2nd video is this weekend...the kids took really long really late naps so we were trying to wear them out!

It was a fun weekend here at the old BLT. Our house looks like we didn't do much to it...but we did clean carpets! We spent time with family...ate yummy homeade ice cream...and played ALOT.

I got some very very funny pictures from my son-in-law late last week. (He must have read my post from Thursday and thought I needed some cheering up!) And by the way....I am much much better. I don't have many days like that - but that sure was a hard one! I do fret alot about making sure these 3 are attaching and bonding OK. Most days I believe they are...but some days I think I am just falling short...and Thursday was one of those days.

Yep - looks like Aaron is enjoying his job immensely!

Aaron - you totally made me laugh when I opened these up. You are such a fun addition to our family - you cannot know how much we look forward to you being home.

No Korbyn yet - but an ultrasound on Friday indicates that she weighs in at 7 lbs 6 oz.....so Ali is hoping she comes soon before she weighs 9 lbs!!! Erin survived her first week at her new job! Looking forward to the project actually getting started....and getting into a routine. Claire survived the "dog farm" as well. I think she may spend two weeks a month with us and two weeks at the "farm" - but we shall see how she does this week. Kind of like leaving your child at daycare for the first time!

And the biggest news of all....we got our first night of uninterupted sleep in 3 months last night! No one woke in the night crying!! That is so huge. Hopefully it is the first of many. Hard to believe Alec has been home 3 months, Ava 1.5 years and Ayden almost a year. We will be preparing his "gotcha day" celebration soon!!!

Time flies by......

do you ever feel like...

You got nothin' left? I think some days when I go to bed....I have nothin' left. And I worry that I have hugged and kissed and emailed and called my kiddos enough to keep them feeling safe and secure. And wondering if my littlest kiddos eat too many fruit snacks and not enough fruit. (Knowing they do not eat enough vegetables.) Stressing that I do not even have the energy to hug my husband much less understand his stress from work or cows or whatever. A little panicky about my job....and feeling sorry for myself cause I can't keep up with it all....

Oh well.

This too shall pass.

And it is almost Friday.

And I have a beautiful song I am working on for Sunday that is already making me feel better.....I have missed singing.

so....enough whining already.....

Some pictures to lift your spirits since mine are in the dumpster!!!

happy 20th birthday Miss Ali! Not the party I would have given you 2 years ago when I was the party queen - but hopefully you had fun and know that you are loved by this crazy zany family you now are part of whether you like it or not! (I liked this picture - I know it is kinda fuzzy -but the birthday girl is in focus - it is all the craziness around it that is in a state of fuzzy - which seems so very appropriate) and this very very funny picture of our fun loving, energetic, hilarious, beautiful Miss Lexy that her momma sent me. The kids are still talking about meeting Lexy and cannot wait till the next time we get together.

Aaron - we LOVE YOUR FAMILY!

The "girls" plus Alec. Too funny. And Claire got in on the fun too!

And I am thinking from the time and date indicated on this picture that Miss Lexy took this great one of her mom and dad! Great job Lexy!!!

And sweet Alec - his first "eating out experience" - and just 3 months home to boot.

Quite a guy.And now I am going to bed.

Labor Day Weekend 2009

We were a little nervous starting out this Labor Day weekend and almost cancelled all our plans...well actually we did cancel all our plans as of Friday night because Alec acted like he was coming down with something very yucky...but on Saturday morning when everyone woke up perfectly fine - we rescheduled it all!!! So Saturday AM - we drove into KC - met with our wonderful social worker for Alec's second post-placement visit and then spent the afternoon and evening with Aaron's family! It was so great to finally meet them...and they are absolutely just as special as Erin has been telling us. We look forward to many fun times to come as our families get to know each other better. The kids had such a blast with Aaron's little sister Lexy! We walked to the park, went out to dinner (yep - we went out to dinner with 3 under 3!) and spent the night at Erin's! (And everyone slept all night - we adults are all a little tired from being kicked or pushed during the night - Ava slept with Erin and she is our kicker, Ayden slept with Shannon and he is our shover, and Alec slept with me and he is our bed hog) We got some fun pictures - but they are on the memory card that we accidentally left at Erin's - so those will be on another post.

It is really hard to work on projects with 3 little people - but we did manage to do a little bit more painting, planted some flowers and fixed Erin's wireless....nothing like the work we used to do before the 3 A's joined our family - but not too bad considering.

Here are some pictures from this past week and tonite to tide you over!

Happy Alec!
Happy Ava on her new swingset!

They are daredevils!

Ayden knows how to "pump"!

Ava loves bugs.

And Alec is just too cute.

We are indeed blessed.

Can you find?

Shannon has been diligently working with both kids using a big book of words and photos.... to help Ayden with his English and Ava with just talking (since she took her sweet time). Now they have advanced to playing games with the "Big Book". They have to wait for Alec to go to bed because he is a "Big Book" destroyer....but they do not let Daddy forget that he promised....so as soon as Alec is in bed...out comes "Big Book". Last night he had them identify objects for each other to "find". It was absolutely precious...and of course the battery was dead on the video camera. Tonite they played again - not quite as robustly - but still cute!

And a crazy 24 year old decides to paint her house...by herself this week! And it looks amazing!! Can't wait to visit this weekend and hopefully help get it finished before she starts her new job Tuesday!!! Go Erin!