I'm beginning to think "Why did we bother?!"  Ha!
Even before our kiddos came along I had already bought the Baby Wise books to begin my babies on an eat, wake, sleep cycle.
I knew so many people that had success with it and knew that we would use this method.
Karis was already on this schedule when she came to us from the orphanage.  So that was easy!
Obviously, Brennan & Reegan did not come trained, so we began the process. It took some time, but they were sleeping through the night around  3 months old.  We went on this cycle quite well until each of them turned 3 years old.
Then the night waking started.  Obviously it started with Karis when she was potty trained.  It seemed to go in cycles where it's for a few nights and then it stops.  She is now able to go to the bathroom by herself at night, but she does still come in our room from time to time for a bad dream or something else random.

It's been worse with Brennan.  The last few months we've had nights where he has come in up to FOUR TIMES during the night.  Argh!!  And unfortunately for me I am a light sleeper and have a hard time going back to sleep some nights.
After the third time last night I began thinking "Why did I spend all that time sleep training when I get woken up 3-4 times a night??"  And why don't they wake up their daddy, just me?!

The other day I finally asked Brennan why he didn't wake up daddy and he looked at me and said "Daddy is mean at night!"  Ha!  And it's true.  Jerry is a BEAR when it comes to being woken up in the middle of the night.  Talk about a crank!!  =P

Now I do have to say that they are alright with going to sleep.  Oh, except when they can't fall asleep right away and get out of their bed about 50 times (slight exaggeration there =P) or I find several boogers by the night light smeared on the wall, like I did a couple of days ago!!!  Double Argh!!

Like Karis, I hope we'll be passed this soon.   Of course by then it means we'll be on to something else or Reegan will take her position in the night waking spot.  Two down, one to go!!

I KNEW it was only a matter of time before we would be hit with this season's sickies!
It was the strangest thing last night. We were getting ready for bed and Brennan let out the biggest sneeze I've ever seen (from him anyway). You know, those kind that leave you dazed and hurts your throat?! Ha!
As he went to bed he kept complaining and I could tell it was genuine. My kids LOVE medicine, so they really have to prove to me they are sick before I just start handing it out!
Then it all began! I just happened to take a Simply Sleep and went to bed early. I did not get enough sleep the night before and wanted a little help to STAY asleep. At 2 am Brennan came in our room. I have no idea why, I was very much asleep. The next thing I know, Jerry is running to the bathroom with Brennan. Poor guy "got sick" (I say that because I absolutely hate the word vomit or throw up! Crazy, I know) about 3 times before his tummy calmed down. He & Jerry laid on the couch for awhile then told Jerry he was so tired he wanted to go back to his bed. About 2 hours later Reegan cried out that she didn't feel well and she was feverish. I got her some medicine, she cried out again that her tummy hurt. I sat with her and it wasn't long before she got sick too.
What a night!! Luckily she only "got sick" once and fell back to sleep fairly quickly. It was crazy because she woke up that morning like nothing happened!
They acted ok the rest of the day, just a little feverish and sluggish but no more getting sick.
They had another night of low grade fever and seem to be sluggish a second day, but I think we are past the worst. I'm glad it was over quick! Still wishin', hopin' and prayin' that Karis doesn't get it!
All the while I am preparing for my tea party tonight! I can't wait to share more about it!! There are about 11-13 people coming and have plans for good food, tea, and games with some prizes! It should be fun!! We are also doing a tea cup exchange. I don't have enough teacups for that many. This is my 3rd time to do a tea party with the exchange. In the past we have always done the ever popular exchange game, but I decided to do something different this time. We'll see how it goes! I can't wait!!

After spending 2 Christmas' in America, I am missing it somewhat this year.
I know that Christmas is highly commercialized in America, but what I miss are all the events, the church Christmas specials, the Christmas parties and, not to mention, time with the family!
We made some fun memories with the kids last Christmas eve. We started a tradition of giving the kids new pjs for Christmas. We open them up on Christmas eve and wear them that night. After we did that we piled in the van (in our new pjs of course!), covered them up with some new blankets they got and went and looked at Christmas lights. The kids STILL talk about it!

Now don't get me wrong, Christmas in Prague is beautiful!! There is no shortage of Christmas trees. They place one on EVERY known square in the city. We even have one on our dinky little square that we live on. And downtown is gorgeous with mass amounts of lights and Christmas markets displayed on the major squares!! It is definitely something to see and enjoy!!
And we are celebrating in some fun ways this month. I am hosting a tea at my house for all our colleagues (ladies) and I am so excited about it! We are going to do a fun tea cup exchange game, then drink out of the tea cup we got and eat lots of yummy goodies!
Then we've got a Christmas Movie Party to attend on Saturday and then a Christmas Cookie Exchange with our Bridge Community family on the following Saturday. So, we've got some fun things planned!

Then I find myself thinking about where we will be one year from now. Our kids will be older and there is the possibility of us being in a new location by then (more to come on that later). This has been one crazy year with trying to get Karis' American passport to return to Prague, coming back to Prague after 16 months in Texas, readjusting to life here, major changes in the IMB structure that is and will continue to take months to be in place, lots of colleagues moving and relocating because of said restructure AND anticipating a move!!
What's interesting is that this 2010 is probably going to be just as crazy as 2009!!

Luckily, I'm not the type to stress about it. We'll just take one day, one month, one year at a time to see how and what God is going to do in our lives. He's taken us on this incredible journey to do and be for Him!!

We set out on a journey yesterday (and today) to take some fun Christmas photos!! I'll give you a sneak peak. I can't wait to share the rest of them with you!!

Our insurance is about to change, so we've been wearing a path to the doctor's offices as of late. Today it was the dentist. All FIVE of us! Jerry and I for cleanings and check ups and the kids for check ups. We went in at 11 am and got out about 2 pm. It went by fairly quickly. I had visions of hours at the dentist!! Ha! It helped that they had a great kids room with a tv to watch movies! I don't think mine could have lasted that long had it not been for their playroom!
This was our kid's first experience at the dentist (well, except for Karis went once when she chipped her front teeth at age 2, to make sure there was no damage). Karis had worked herself up and was so worried. I thought she would go first, but she did not want to. Then the dentist asked who would go first and Reegan was the brave soul!!
This dentist does all that she can to put their fears at ease. She let each of them take "a ride" in the chair before getting started. Once Karis & Brennan saw that they got to take a ride in the chair, they were just about stumbling over each other for a turn!
They had this cute purple dinosaur to show the kids how to open wide. Brennan wished the dinosaur had been red. Silly boy!! He doesn't like anything to be girly!! Ha!
And they got to wear sunglasses throughout the entire check up to protect their eyes from the bright light. They loved that!!
All 3 of them did SUCH a great job! In my haste out the front door this morning I forgot my camera, of course!! Argh!! You should have seen them sitting there with these cool shades on!
And I'm so glad to report that we are cavity free!! Whew!!

One of my favorite things about this time of year....starting in October through December is watching the Charlie Brown specials. First, we have "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" for Halloween, then "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving," and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
Did you know that the Christmas episode came out in 1965, the Halloween special in'66 and the Thanksgiving episode in '73?! I had no idea some of them were older than me!! =P
Of course, I remember watching them every year of my childhood, so that only makes sense!! Ha!
But there is an aspect of these shows that bother me. Why do they have to be so mean to Charlie Brown?? How could Lucy be so cruel as to pull the football away from Charlie EVERY single time?! Why do they have to call him a "block head" and WHY does Charles Shultz have to make it where Charlie Brown gets a rock in his trick or treat bag at every house?! Seriously, how much can a kid handle?! Poor guy!
What's funny is that as I was writing this I was looking through some write ups about these episodes and here is one I found on "It's the Great Pumpkin..."
This is from Wikipedia:

Charlie Brown's repeated line of "I got a rock" caused some stir among many viewers of the show, according to Charles Schulz. Schulz said that after the program first aired, bags and boxes of candy came in from all over the world "just for Charlie Brown."

I guess I'm not the only one that was bothered by the repeated rocks in Charlie's bag!!
You just can't beat the Christmas episode when Linus goes to center stage and quotes the second Chapter of Luke, verses 8-14! That is so awesome!

Even though I have my issues with how badly Charlie Brown's neighbors and so-called friends treat him, I will continue to watch these specials every year as it is a tradition that I have already began with my own kids!

Yesterdays was one of those days where I wish I had stayed home! Well, except for church in the evening. We've gotten in the routine of having lazy Sunday mornings, I cook "dinner" for lunch and then take sandwiches for the kids to eat before our gathering, Bridge Community, in the evening. We don't go out to eat very often and I just didn't feel like cooking this particular Sunday afternoon. So, Jerry suggested I quickly get ready and we go eat at the kid's favorite spot, the Flora Mall food court! Woohoo!! Not mine or Jerry's favorite, but hey, it's close to home and the kids love it!
We were standing at the bus stop letting the kids play around while waiting. I asked them to stay a little closer. The street can get busy and people like to drive like maniacs through there. All of a sudden I hear this woman talking behind Jerry. I thought she might be on her phone, but when I looked more closely I realized she was looking at Brennan, then Reegan & Karis. I was only catching words (our Czech is not the greatest, but we can sometimes get the jist). She was talking pointedly and saying something about how they should be speaking Czech and not English. She was not vicious but I could tell it wasn't nice. She started at it again and as Jerry and I were trying to figure out what she was saying, AGAIN she started. I finally just grabbed the kids by the hand and walked down about 10 steps. I was not going to subject ourselves to her!

Lucky for her Luckily, she didn't follow us. If she had I probably would have, in Czech, said "No!" loudly. There's not much else I am capable of saying in Czech! In my spirit I had all kinds of things come to mind and I kept thinking "She's lucky I'm a good Christian girl!" I feel badly about how I let her rile me up in side. I wish I could say that I had a gentle and quiet spirit about the whole thing. What I am glad is that we did the best thing we could do. We walked away. I wish my first thought would have been "How can we share Jesus with her?" But it wasn't. I was only thinking about protecting my children. But, it gave me something to think about. That's for sure. I'm not usually quick in my responses or actions. I figure out those things much later than I wish. What can I say, I'm still a work in progress!


I got a card in the mail today from my sweet friend, Karon!! We are both moms to fun-loving adopted kids who are energetic, strong-willed & independent. We love them to pieces, but we also have some rough days!
We recently talked over some of those days with each other. And what a sweet friend to send me some encouragement!!
What you can't see & hear is that when you open the card, it says "You're a SURVIVOR!" and plays the song "I Will Survive." So great!! I love it!! I will be referring to this card on those difficult parenting days that I'm sure to have in the future.
She also sent me some yummy tea!! The Bigelow brand teas are my favorite! Thank you Karon!!

I really didn't have plans today for the time my babysitter was with my kids. I thought about going to the store, but really, it could wait. So, I asked Jerry if he wanted to go to lunch. We chose one of our long time favorite restaurants, Maly Buddha. It's a little Tibetan restaurant close to the Prague Castle and actually has pictures of the owner with the Dalai Lama! The gigantic pictures, paintings & statues of buddha all over the place are the biggest downfall, but the food completely makes up for it! Our favorite on the menu, crab springrolls & prawns!! Oh yummo!! It was delish! I really should figure out how to make these on my own!
Lunch was followed by a trip to my new favorite coffee spot in Prague, Gloria Jeans Coffee. I haven't actually tried their coffee yet because I am so in love with their Chai Tea Latte. I was utterly stuffed after all that, but it's a treat! What can I say?!
The kids seem to be liking our new babysitter, Anna. Karis actually hugged AND kissed her when she left today! Wow!!

Saturday we decided to head to one more castle before Jerry's parents leave. We did some research and had heard good things about Konopiste Castle and decided to go for it. I had read online that there was a bus that could take you to the castle from the train station.....WRONG!!!! Nyet, ne, nilch! We searched around for bit and finally found a map and decided we could walk it. We had tried to ask and only seemed to find grumpy people unwilling to help. It was one of those "TINA" moments! That actually stands for "this is NOT America." Ha!
So, we started walking and I quickly realized that if I didn't get out of my own grumpy mood that it was only going to rub off on my kids and we'd all be miserable. As we got out of town and on our way we realized that we were going to have a beautiful country walk ahead of us. It was GORGEOUS!!!
This is seriously my favorite time of year, or I guess you could say "season." I love September to December. I get to decorate my home with scarecrows, pumpkins, indian corn and more and then switch it out for Christmas decor. I just love it!! And God's creation of yellows and reds and falling leaves!! Truly shows how awesome God is!!!
After walking about a mile and a half we finally made it to the castle and one of the first things we saw was one of the main residents!
A black bear! He was pretty cute!
We decided to take a tour through part of the castle. In preparing to do so we found MORE grumpy people who seemed unwilling to help the English speakers, us! Ugh!! They only had tours in Czech and they tried to talk us out of taking it!!! Argh!! We knew we could buy an audio guide in English to get a gist of it all. So, that's what we did. It was interesting, but it was not as good as I had expected. Oh well. We pumped the kids up with a chocolate ghost candy bar (in honor of Halloween) AND hot chocolate before trekking back to the train station.

I have to say that I think the beauty of the walk was more enjoyable & fun than the castle. It was extremely a bit cold or it would have been a perfect walk, which I think now we could have done in Prague! Oh well, Brennan got to ride a train and we now know not to go to Konopiste as they don't seem to like foreigners! Ha!

Karis was a breeze to potty train and it happened right around the time she turned two. She was interested one day and just about the next was trained. She wanted to wear big girl panties, had one accident and after that only had smallish accidents. That was it!!
My twins have not been so easy. Their 3rd birthday came & went and still no interest! Now, I do have to add that we had a lot of change in that time with being in TX for so long and then moving back to Prague. I just didn't stress it and knew we would have time to work on it. My plan was to start in the summer, but summer just about came and went and still no interest. And life with 3 that are 4 & 3 is just a crazy, busy time and having to be really focused on potty training, well it just wasn't a huge priority.
But then, one day Brennan finally showed some interest. It took some accidents and training (hey, what kid doesn't...they aren't all like Karis, Ha!), but we got there. Reegan, on the other hand, showed no interest whatsoever! Their Nana has been helping me to get her to go these past few weeks while here. Putting her in panties and having her go every couple of hours (the girl doesn't drink much....working on that too). And I must say she is finally getting it. I say that when she had 2 accidents today! She just gets busy and doesn't want to stop to go! I think she takes after her mama! I was having accidents up until I was 8 or so. Yeah, not one of my prouder moments! Ha!
While out on our excursions the past couple of days, Reegan WANTED to go to the bathroom AND kept her pull-up dry! Slowly, but surely we are getting there. And then NO MORE DIAPERS! Yay!!

And to end this post. I just heard Brennan on the outside of the bathroom door, yell to daddy "That's a good boy {for going tee tee}." Oh that boy cracks me up constantly!!! Ha!