Celebrating our Birthday Boy!

Our big boy is 10 - is this when we start to call him a Tween?  I'm just having a hard time with him being so old!  It just seems like yesterday that we brought him home or that we realized he was joining our family even!  Parker is turning into such a great young man though.  He is just amazing with his little brother and sister (most of the time:).  i.e.: This morning he started a water fight with his brother then deserted him but left the water with our little man.  This ended up with one of Parker's art pieces being destroyed by water and his devastated reaction followed by Carter holding him and saying "I sowwy Pawkew" and patting his back!  From 'tragedy', such sweetness.  :)  They are always a joy!

It really is fun to see how they grow up - I know he's only 10 but yesterday, I mean, a year and a half ago we celebrated with him that he was half way to leaving us for college.  Although he says he will be at home forever.  :)  Parker had some struggles staying focused at school this past year and we have had a fear that he would loose his love of learning.  Looking at this after 3 months of prayer and investigation, we have discovered that it was just God's way of getting our attention to get on track for where He wanted us to be with Parker and as a family.  We are 'holding our nose and jumping' into homeschooling for 2012/13 school year which feels like a fast moving train coming toward us.  The thing I'm reminded that I can do at this point besides read, read, read to get prepared is to just trust in the Lord with all my heart and know that He will direct our path.  It's all very overwhelming but we are taking one bite at a time to learn.  We are all very excited about what the end of summer brings us this year!

So at 10 years old, Parker loves, loves playing with his siblings and prays every night for another sister.  He is still into legos and anything creative and is enjoying playing LAX.  Most of the time, Parker is very giving and thinking of others.  He is full of joy!  This year's celebration included a trip to the new LegoLand Creativity Center at Phipps Plaza with his friend Andrew.  They had a blast!  A couple of weeks ago at the homeschool conference, Parker discovered Duct Tape Armor.  Since then, he has been completely into making it and planning wars with his friends (below PVC pipe for making swords).  He also got a new kitten a few weeks before his birthday and has been having so much fun with her.  We all are actually - she is just supper playful and keeps us laughing.  So this is what 10 is like!  We love it!

Reunion in FL - Chinese Cousins

We had such a treat yesterday - Gracie Lin was able to reunite with Aubrey Mei. Aubrey is 3 days older than GL and from the same orphanage care. GL immediately reached out for Aubrey and was so interested. I so wish I could know what they are thinking and if they remember one another! They met on the beach and Aubrey wasn't thrilled with the sand so once we moved them to the deck, they started to show interest in one another and follow one another around a little. We went back to the house and GL would follow Aubrey and then give up. Then, Aubrey would follow her a little. We took these little girls out for dinner along with Carter. Fortunately, we were outside because their favorite game (all three) was to copy each other banging something on the table. It was such a special time to see them together!

Spring is here! What?

Next week is Sping Break! We actually leave town this Friday. It seems that once Spring Break happens, the school year is gone; the rest of the year is a blur! Well, the entire school year has been a blur for me so I'm hoping that Summer brings a new pace for the Lyman family! I have been terrible at keeping up notes for my kiddos this year on the what has happened in their lives. I thought maybe a wakeful night would be a good time to note some events.

As soon as the weather got warm (so early this year!), the kids were in the water! Carter and Gracie played in water at the ball park one afternoon while Parker practiced Lacrosse. They were both stripped before the drive home one in underwear and the other in a diaper for the drive. :) I wish I had gotten Gracie Lin on camera - she was in a dress and just soaked and covered in mulch and grass clippings. There are still green stains on that little dress. Of course, Parker has been off to the creek as often as possible. He and his friend Danny took advantage of a great fishing day and certainly didn't forget to bring along the dog to splash around and frighten the fish!

Last week, the kids had a great time playing out front. Who can resist a blossoming Cherry tree? In Parker fashion, he is wearing camo, flannel pajama pants and a long sleeve under armor top. Note how everyone else is dressed. Carter is getting so tall - at Christmas time, he stretched to reach the ground on his little bike, now both feet are on the ground, legs bending. Grace just became an overnight expert on that tricycle. She would pull herself up the hill a little and let it roll back down with her. She only took one tumble and just took that in stride! Not sure what Carter found but he was certainly showing it off! I have to add one more very excited picture of Carter running down the drive - he was marching up and running down.

Parker just returned from his first Turkey hunting trip with Grandpa Marvin. He thought it was pretty cool to hear the turkey calling but they didn't get anything. As always, he had a great time at the farm! He is having another great school year. It seems that just in the last month or so, there is a new maturity to Parker. He surprises me with solutions he comes up with to help with the little ones or times when he just takes care of something that needs to be done.

Carter is talking in full sentences - he can tell you a story now and it's pretty amazing. He is making great strides at putting his lips together to form letters and helping us understand him! He is having adenoid and tonsil surgery on April 24. We are hoping that helps him to get better sleep at night and helps his speech. He still LOVES "Cars" movies and he has discovered match box cars since Christmas. He has had a couple from the cars movies for a long time but just recently started to really get into the huge box of cars his Dad and brother have collected over the years.

Gracie Lin is so close to walking. We have been working to help her get her left foot straight and teach her to balance her weight on both legs and not just the right. She has been taking 3-4 steps at a time but last Wed. with some little pushes from Ms. Holly (PT), she took about 8 steps. Last night, she walked from one room to the other - maybe 20 steps. I only caught her from falling back once. GL also has 6 teeth now. She got them all between Feb. 14 and Mar 14. She has not really complained at all about them! She does soak thru a couple of shirts a day on occasion with all that drool. It's so finny too, when she does physical therapy, she works so hard and drools so much in that 1 hour that I have to change her top afterward.

John and I just got away for a couple of nights to Washington DC. It was a work trip, but we got two full nights of sleep and a dinner out alone - we celebrated out 12th wedding anniversary. We are so very thankful for Annette & Marvin to be able to take over for a few days! When I sat down at the airport, leaving Atlanta, I realized that I had been alone for almost 2 hours! I have been to events with John and friends but to just be alone... It was such a strange feeling not to have at least one child with me. There is never a dull moment now that there are three of them! We wouldn't change it for anything!

Gattlinburg, TN - Winter Break

So we set off for a winter break retreat on Feb. 17 to Gattlinburg. We arrived in time to settle in and then have a terrific meal at a place called Black Bear Grill. It was right on or in the middle of a stream. The atmosphere was as lot of fun. We had live music - Carter and Gracie loved it! They spent lots of time dancing in their chairs.

I had been here as a child and didn't remember much except the entrance to the Ripley's Musseum had a suspended faucet. I told Parker all about it on the way here. The faucet is still there but it's not the center entrance attraction anymore. They now have a huge marble ball spinning over flowing water which Parker loved rolling and trying to make it stop. I wonder if he will always remember this! He had 4 things on his wish list for this trip and was ablew to accomplish them all. :) I think that he was a little concerned the first day when we walked and walked but he didn'tactually get to do anything other than walk by those majorly desirable attractions. We did finally get around to Ripley's that afternoon and it was a long adventure for the little two. Parker did have a special time making a wax mold of his hand. It was a pretty cool process.

Day 2, we got up early so that Parker could get in a snowboard lesson. We were told that we sold arrive early beaches he parking lot filled by 1o that first day. Well, we woke up to pretty heavy rain so I don't really think the lot filled up at all. It turned out to be a great day for the lesson though because there weren't that many people. Based on what we saw, I think we have a snow boarding lover. We knew he loved the snow. He was out there for 2 hours and finally came in soaked to the bone. John said he was doing really well. We hung out at the hill for a little while and had lunch.

On the way down into the town, the little ones fell asleep so I dropped the big boys off on a street in town to go play. They decided to do the mirror maze and putt putt golf. I drove back into the national forest with the kiddos's sleeping and enjoyed some quiet time.

We returned to our cabin early on Sunday, went for a swim, ate dinner at the condo and then just relaxed. At the end of the day, just before sunset, the snow started to fall. :). It was very exciting for the boys. Gracie Lin was sound asleep before it started. I think we've worn her out! Parker, being the scout he is, went up to the rental office to gather fire wood:) and built us a great fire to enjoy as the snow fell. It was quiet peaceful (once Carter was in bed:). I was reminded though how precious it is that we are doing life with these three amazing little miracles and how very blessed we are!

Update 2012

The year is getting away from me! I haven't posted really any news this year. Q We have been getting into routine actually stepping out into real life after having the end of the year off basically from any outside home responsibilities. Our sweet girl is adjusting well to the new busy schedule. The hardest part has been getting her used to staying with Ms. Jan. who is our sweet friend who has a moms morning out. Many children have a hard time with separation anxiety but I'm extra sensitive to her possible feelings of being abandoned. Last week she had a break thru and didn't cry every time a mom came in. Two days later, we had another break through and she stopped crying by the time I reached the top of the stairs and was off to play with friends! She was so thrilled to see me when I came back but didn't cry to show me that she was not happy that I left her! On Feb 14, Gracie Lin finally got her first tooth! Wahoo! Poor thing wants to badly to eat everything we do! She is making a little progress toward walking but so far has just taken 4 steps on her own maybe 2 weeks ago. We start PT this week so Ill bet she will be moving and growing in no time!

Carter was moved up to the older 2's class after the first of the year and is just thriving since he moved. He turned a corner last week in adjustment too - on the way to school he said, "Ms. giddy (Jenny)" as apposed to Ms. Debbie! He has so much fun! Recently, he has started talking in 5-6 word sentences. He is still hard to understand often but he is really communicating a lot! Carter's biggest news is that he is potty trained. On Feb 5, he asked me for a pop so I told him that if he went poopoo on the potty, I would give him one. He ran straight to the potty and hasnt looked back. He had a hard time for about 3 days and then hs has only had a few accidents. He has stayed dry most nights too. The only down side to that is that he calls me at 3AM to help him go to the potty. Oh and two 2 year molars came through in last January which leaves us with a much happier little boy. He is changing and maturing in so many ways. He has started to sing songs for us too. Twinkle, twinkle; Jesus Loves Me and ABC's. He skips a lot of words/letters but it's so sweet to hear! He also surprised me by counting to 10 last week - 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 - YEAH! He's so proud of himself and doesn't even know he skipped two numbers! :)

Parker has moved into the second half of 4th grade in slow motion it seems. He is ready to move on to Middle School (which is 5th grade at his school). I think he's a little bored and needing some challenges. Seems like his parents need to come up with some extra curricular challenges. He did get to start learning the recorder in January. Maybe music would be an option. We are about to start spring Lacrosse. He is going next weekend to Hidden Lake in TN with scouts. They also have a spring camp out coming up in April. Parker just gets better every day at being a big brother, he's a natural and has become so relaxed about it is the only word I can think of. He is just matter of fact and has it all under control.

That's the update on 2012 so far. We are enjoying a get away weekend it he mountains right now and the snow is coming down outside and the fire is crackling inside. Just enjoying some great family time!

The Hard Way

Although there are other unfinished posts to be done, I just had to take this moment to write a funny. Carter has, for a while now, let me know at night that he doesn't think my shoulder is very comfortable. When I start to rock him, he will pat my shoulder and say, "I wan dis Mama, I wan Daddy." In other words, I want Daddy's big comfy shoulder. Usually at that point, nothing will do but to have John rock him. ( Something you need to know for this story: Lately, John has been asking Carter if he wants to do things the easy way or the hard way when he doesn't want to respond to us.) So tonight when I was rocking Carter, he started to tell me that he wants the easy way... "I wan essy way Mama, I wan essy way." When I asked him what he wanted the easy way, he patted my shoulder and said, "dis de had way!" I laughed and laughed and he just giggle with me for a while! Since John isn't here, at least he never asked for Daddy - I think my laughter distracted him. Fun time!

Christmas Day fun

What precious memories of our THREE amazing babies enjoying Christmas Day! It was fun, crazy, messy, overwhelming and many other emotions. We are feeling so full and blessed!

I like the paper the best!!

Favorite gift in 2011.

He's awfully excited about something he has no idea what it is. :)

Always the helper.

Our new photographer.

They are having a blast with this tunnel!

Balance bike without pedals. He's not quite sure about it yet.

Parker declared this to be the 'best Christmas ever' and when we asked why, his answer was,

'because of Carter and Gracie!'