Iveyrock

January

officially started working towards adopting twins from Eastern Europe.

Micah’s 2nd birthday

Aunt Rachel, Uncle Troy, Isaac and Levi visit.

February

snow!

Ian’s 6th birthday

painting the house

March

Dossier finished! Months of paperwork, ready to send.

Chava turns 4.

April

May

Soccer- Ian’s first year playing and Ray’s first year coaching

The Big Red Van

Celebrating the twins’ third birthday… bittersweet.

Chava’s dance recital

On the plane! First to Ohio, then to Eastern Europe.

Kiev

Official Permission to meet the twins.

June

meeting Max and Lena for the first time

twins! visiting and getting to know each other.

July

Gotcha Day, July 4th, 2011. Six months of dreaming and waiting, and they are officially ours! Paka Paka, groupa!

Heading out to see the city, the twins first day with a family.

back at home and settling in.

Just keepin’ it real…

August

First day of school

September

October

Family Project

Trick or Treating with friends

November

Thanksgiving

December

Grandma Jayne and Bedstefar visit

Twins’ first Christmas!

This has been such a year of firsts. First fishing trip, first time playing soccer, first dance recital, first night away from Mom and Dad (Ian, Chava and Micah), first trip to Europe, first international adoption, and
hundreds of firsts for the twins, big and little. It’s been a whirlwind of a year! Can’t wait to see what 2012 brings.

This was the big project a couple of weekends ago.

(you can see where the old box was inside the new one.)

Chava hosted a sand tea party the next day

The temperature dropped today, and the kids (and mama) were thrilled. Ian and Chava spent their time in the backyard making snow shovels, and Micah watched out the window for snow.

I didn’t have the heart to tell them that 69 degrees does not equal snow.

We’re still here…

As soon as October first hit, Ian and Chava started preparing for Halloween. They are spending every day dreaming about costumes and making decorations. I am a little startled, because it’s never been a holiday that we put much emphasis on, but they are serious about it. In Chava’s words, “mommy, I love Halloween, because there is dressing up and candy!”

(Chava’s costume so far, as made by Ian and Chava)

Today was our first official day of school for the year. Ian is in first grade this year, and I have four preschoolers. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how I want the year to look, especially since we are still adjusting to the twins coming home. The night before last Ray and I stayed up making sure that everything was set and ready for the day. Then I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that it was imperative that we go to the zoo today instead. So we did.

Ian made guitars for everyone

Real Playing!

After a rough start to the day, we finally made it outside in the late afternoon…

Aunt Hilary, Aunt Emilee, and Cousin Crystal came to play today.

(Max and Aunt Hilary)

They came with presents, and all the kids had a great time. As Chava was falling asleep, she told me how much fun she had.

(Aunt Emilee helping with the play-dough)

Things got a little crazy. I wouldn’t have believed I could be so proud of my kids for just… playing like kids. It was so much fun to watch the twins go wild with the balloons, right alongside Ian, Chava and Micah. There was a time I questioned whether they would ever play like that.