Everlee's birthday pinata

The pinata was much stronger than we thought! But eventually it was destoyed.

Scouts, birthdays, and new jobs (yes, that's plural)

Thursday was Randy's Pinewood Derby! He was very excited about the car he made. It was a dragon (so he says) and he spraypainted it gold. He named it the "Golden Nugget Dragon." Can you guess what his two passions right now are? As always, he likes rocks, and since moving to Alaska, he's been begging me to dig in the back yard for some gold nuggets to add to his collection. And then, of course, dragons.

The front row were comprised of junior primary seats and the boys whose cars were racing got to sit up there. And Tony. It started with the wolf pack (That's Randy's group - the 8-year-olds) and then bears and then... whatever's after that. Weblos? Who knows. Anyway, the kids just kept getting older and older, and Tony was sitting right up there with them ENTHRALLED with the racing. In the two hours, he didn't get bored one bit! And the interactions he had with the other kids were so cute! This kid is developing his facial expressions so well, and it's a hoot!
Everlee's birthday was on Friday. Tony and I went into her classroom with apples and cream cheese dip, and one of the girls in her classroom had a birthday this week, too, and she brought in mini lemon muffins. Everlee had fun being sung to, and Tony always has fun being a big boy at school.

Here is the finished product of our pinata! What a pain it was to make! Well, it was actually pretty easy to make, it was just VERY time consuming. But we're very pleased with how it turned out. And it was way stronger than we thought, too! It took lots of hits!

Due to having the pinata, we decided not to have cake, so we put candles on top of the pizza, which the girls seemed to get a kick out of (see video in previous blog post to see her blow out her candles.). I was surprised at how much pizza those girls put away! Randy and his friend, Quinn, eating the pizza helped, too, I'm sure.

Thank goodness for our upstairs! Most of the party happened up there, including the breaking of the pinata (I'll post that video as soon as possible) then they piled underneath Everlee's princess net on her bed with their bags of candy and giggled and squealed like only little girls can do. Happy birthday, Miss Everlee! I hope this next year is the best one so far!

On a more adult note, Scott and I have big news of our own! First, I finally have a job!!! Hooray!! I'll be working for the school district in their HR department doing payroll and recruitment, for the most part. The pay is excellent. The location is excellent (across the parking lot from Randy's and Everlee's school, and down the street from Tony's preschool). The benefits are excellent. The hours are excellent (did you know Alaska has a 37.5 work week rather than 40?). The environment is excellent. This is an excellent job! And I'm really excited to be starting work on Monday!

The other more exciting news is Randy has quit his job! A headhunter contacted him just before Christmas, and he went through all the interviewing process, and was offered the position of store director of Jo-Ann Fabrics! We're pretty excited this new prospect. It should teach him a lot about being a business manager. It'll mean he'll be spending about a month in the Anchorage store learning the ropes, so I'll be a single mom again (good thing we got lots of practice when he was up here in Juneau!), but only for a month, and he'll be able to come home on the weekends. One of the best things about this job (in my opinion) is the hours. While he's working the same amount of hours as Fred Meyer Jewelers, he gets to go into work early and he can be home by 4pm! That's WAAAAY better than the requirement to be in the store until at least 6pm. That's more papa time! And we LOOOOVE Papa!

Everlee's birthday pizza!

Yesterday was Everlee's 7th birthday! Happy Birthday! This year she got to invite a few friends over and have a birthday party. She (and Randy) have been asking ever since we got them if they could have a pinata, and we finally broke down and let her have one. As a result, though we didn't have any cake and ice cream (all that candy was enough sweetness!). So instead of putting candles on the cake, we put candles on the ice cream instead. We had trick candles again, and she didn't seem quite as thrilled about them this time as she did last year, but I thought they were funny!

Everlee and Tony Present Pirates

Apparently the kids watched the Pirates of Penzance a lot while we were in Alaska (especially Tony), and they know all the moves. Tony identifies very much with Frederick, and anything he's doing is exactly what Frederick is doing (as seen through the eyes of a three-year-old). Maybe it's just 'cause I'm the mommy, but it cracks me right up!

Everlee explaining things

Tony the Tiger on ice Skates!

Pinewood Derby Car and Ice Skating lessons

Well, in the spirit of updating the blog more than once a month, I'm taking the opportunity to do it while the kids are in their quiet time. Today has been a fun-filled! This morning I took Randy to work on his Pinewood Derby car. This time last year we had an entire woodshop to work with, but with no tools, we were uncertain how we were going to construct it. Luckily someone has an in at the University, and there was a workshop happening this morning. Of course Scott had to work, so it was left up to me to help construct the thing. I was very concerned about this, but Scott told me to just go to this place, and of course some guy would see the poor mother who knows nothing about anything and take over. And you know what? It worked! Luckily Randy and I were the only people there, and the man running the workshop really helped Randy out a lot with the design and cutting. It's amazing that no matter how much a mother tells her eight-year-old something, when another adult tells him the same thing, that eight-year-old takes it as gospel truth. Anyway, Randy is making a dragon car, and it's pretty dang cool!

Right after, I picked Everlee and Tony up from my friend, Mandy's house (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!) and we dashed over to the rink for their first ice skating lesson. You could tell that it was their second

time ice skating ever, and that all the kids in their classes had at least ice skated a few times before. I was amazed at how well some of the tots were skating in Tony's class! Mostly, though, Tony's class was just working on standing up and sitting down on the ice. His class was only supposed to last for about a 1/2 hour, and that was about right, 'cause by 30 minutes into the lesson, he was sick of falling down on the ice and really just wanted to sit there. His primary mode of movement at that point was on hands and knees, unless one of the coaches were there - but there were about 12 kids and only 2 coaches, and so they were spread pretty thin. Randy and Everlee's skill was basically just walking on the ice, and they were pretty sick of it by the end, too. Hopefully they get better as the lessons continue! We're planning on skating on Monday, and I hope the falling snow doesn't cover up the ice too much!

Reunited - and it feels so good!

Well, it is a much overdue update on our little family! The kids arrived on December 22nd with Chris in tow. As I was pulling out of our driveway, I saw the plane landing, and said, "Oh no! I'm not going to be there when they arrive!" We're obviously still getting used to not living

20 minutes from town.

I took the quick 5-minute jaunt to the tiny airport, and waited and waited and waited! Where were they?

Finally people stopped coming out the doors, and they still weren't there. Chris had texted us and said they landed, but... DID THEY GO TO THE WRONG AIRPORT?!?!? Did they land in Anchorage? I don't get it! Haha! Obviously I had forgotten about kid time. They finally came out after being the last ones off the plane and then having to stop to use the potty. And boy were they happy!!!!

Little Rosie's reaction to being here was, "I'm so happy to be back together with my family again."Doesn't that just make your heart swell?? Eathen seemed a little wild and uncertain about it all, but he held my hand so tight and gave lots of hugs and squeezes. And as we were going down the escalator, he looked up at me and said, "This is Alaska, Mama." Isn't he a smart one?

Chris only had a few hours with us before she

had to catch another plane back to Seattle

(and then have a five hour layover in Seattle until her flight back to Yakima - for a three hour drive. We love the State and how logical they are, right?) But we drove around a little with her and showed her the house she lived in 30 years ago when they lived here downtown and went up to Mendenhall Glacier and of course gave her a tour of our house. We wish she could have stayed a

little longer with us, but I'm sure she was ready to get back to her family. We cannot say enough

about how grateful we are to her and Jon for opening their home up to our kids and taking care of them while we couldn't until we could. They will always have such a warm squishy spot for their Aunt Chris and Uncle Jon - and yes, we've had our fair share of "Aunt Chris never made us ..." and "Uncle Jon let us ..." We're back to playing the "We're the meanest parents in the

world!" card, to which the kids just giggle and

count their blessings without even realize

they're doing so. And I'm pretty certain that the Fowlers are enjoying a some well-earned peace in their house without three more screaming children.

There was a little snow on the ground when they got here, but the next few days it snowed a lot more. Across the street there's a nice big park

with toys to play on and a hill to slide down, and we had fun doing those things. It's nice to just be

able to walk down the street and do it.

Christmas was certainly a treat for us all. There were the inevitable squeals when they got to open one present on Christmas Eve, and the obligatory groans when they realized the presents were their pajamas. But at least the two younger ones enjoyed the pajamas.

For Christmas Eve, we also got to pick out our new names. I'm sure you all know that Randy and I are going by Scott and Grace now. This was an idea we had explored when we were dating and newly married - having different names for different locations and seeing what it would be like to go by a new name. Little did we know that our funny little "what-if" idea would come in handy, too! We gave the kids lots of choices of names that they could take, and they finally decided on them. Kie'Aundre is now "John Randall Naegle," Rosie is now "Cady Everleaunnese Naegle" (Those of you who know

the background of Everleaunnese are, I'm sure, chuckling,

but believe me, it was completely her idea, and we didn't even

initially put it on the table. She just wasn't finding the right name, and the minute we put it out there, she latched onto it!) and Eathen is "Anthony Sawey Naegle" Of course the two older ones who know that Scott and I are going by our middle names wanted to go by their middle names, too. So from now on we're calling the kids Randy, Everlee, and Tony. To be completely honest, I wasn't sure if it was going to stick, but today Tony was yelling at Randy by his new name rather than habitually calling him Kie'Aundre, and I just chuckled to realize how smooth of a transition it has been. I'm especially surprised at how much Randy loves being Randy. He wants to be just like his papa, I guess!

Anyway, the Randy had a fun time getting everything ready for Santa Claus. He set out some milk and fudge, and he even set out some treats for the reindeer, too (unbeknownst to him they were a new cookie I had tried to make and massacred. Perfect for reindeer food,

right?). He also wrote a note to Santa and wrapped a present for him, because Santa deserves one, too.

Randy was very delighted when he came down and Santa had opened his present and written "Thank You!" and many of the cookies were gone, but couldn't understand why he'd only taken one bite out of the fudge. We explained to him that lots of kids leave Santa food, and we're near the end of his trip (oh yeah! We tracked Santa on NORAD all day, too!), so he's full by the time he gets to us. We left out that "Santa" has been making fudge for the past month and is

sick of it!

One thing you learn when you adopt kids is that in some ways, all kids are the same. And in other ways, they are completely different. Of course the kids were soooo excited to open their presents! But... we had to wake them up to do so. I remember waking up at 3 a.m. to get my stocking and sneaking back to bed to look at my stash. Even though we had told the kids they could get their stockings whenever

they woke up, they forgot or it didn't register, and finally around 8:00 we told them to come do

wn and get them. (By the way, we love that the sun doesn't come up until 9am right now. The kids sure are

sleeping in great! I'm dreading the summer, though.) These types of family traditions will take a few years to establish, I guess, but it's sure fun to get them started!

We were so lucky with Scott's job that he was able to take December 27 - January 4 off of work, only being called in once or twice to work, so we got tons of wonderful bonding time with the entire family before school started up again. We've done lots of hiking and sledding and ice skating and beach combing before real life and normalcy started happening again. And then he took the next weekend off, too.

Now that we're back to normal life, though, that means getting back to the extracurriculars, and I've signed all three kids - and Mama

too! - up for ice skating lessons! It's a six-week session, and hopefully at the end of it, we won't be terrified to go across the street and ice skate on the lakes.

Now that the kids are in our home, the next big step is to complete the actual adoption. Who the heck knows how long that's going to take, but right now we're just soaking up being together again and feeling like a family. It's amazing to

me how knowing that the kids are going to be in our lives forever has helped solidify the feeling of family for not only me, but all of us. There are still the occasional references to bio-mom and sadness, but these kids know that they're family. They are Naegles, and they love it. And we love it too! It feels so good to know that we're parenting our own kids, and we basically have no one else to rely on or blame but ourselves (that's not to say we won't try, though!). Next thing we, and the kids, are looking forward to is adoption, though! And they're already asking when we can be sealed. Well, I have no doubt we're raising kids with a severe hatred for paperwork.