And I thought Blogging was the answer!

I am not a scrapbooker.  I am pretty vocal about it too, not because I don't think it is a great thing but because I can't cut a straight line to save my life (even with a cutter) and I have a hard time being patient enough to make it look good.  So I thought blogging was the answer to my "will my children have any history of their childhood if I don't scrapbook" paranoia.  Now my scrapbooking guilt has turned into blogging guilt!  My number one reason for blogging is so that my kids have some recorded history of their childhood with little comments from me and a picture to go along with it.  In fact Kelly has said that for their wedding presents we are just going to hand them a hard drive of their life.  (I think he is a genius!)  But now I have 11 kids and a new computer (a Mac) which according to Kelly is awesome but i am still creeping up the learning curve of it.  A funny side note to that is that I am helping my teenage girls do an online computer technology class.  let's just say I am learning some basic computer skills finally.  I don't think I am ready for facebook games or changing my blog background yet but I just might do a different font on this post!

Ok now that all of that nonsense is out of the way.  I am going to try and do a quick catch up blog.

Christmas!

Our first Christmas with our new kids, was SO fun and So expensive and everything is now broken and I have nerf bullets in places in my house that it will not be possible to be retrieved.
My favorite thing was we did the nativity as a family and got it on video.  It was pretty intense while it was happening (we had at least 3 kids crying the whole time) and a few who wanted to be every character and a few who did not want to participate but overall the video turned out great and we have the memory to laugh over.  That was one of the things I was trying to post on here, but even Kelly wouldn't attempt that. So you will just have to come over and see it.  Here is a run down of the characters.  Daniel was Joseph, but only if Dibabe was Mary, Dibabe was a reluctant but sweet Mary and the 2 foot height difference between the two is one of the highlights of the video.  Caleb was the innkeeper/comedian/shepherd.  Sultan, Ramadan, and Bona were shepherds and wise men and to my surprise were way more into it than I anticipated.  Chaltu, Tayiba, Harmony, Fitya, and Mom were angels, and that was so cute!  Eva was the sheep in a dog costume and she really gets the academy award for best actress.
The second best thing was Christmas Eve and morning.  The excitement level from the little boys was so contagious.  They could have gotten one present each and been ecstatic, but by the time they got stuff from grandparents and us and Santa I think Bona was on the verge of passing out!

Overall a success and I guess we will do it again next year.

Christmas

Christmas was fun!!

New Family Picture!

Halloween

So of all the Holidays that my kids have never experienced. It is crazy that Halloween was their first. Ethiopia is a pretty religious country. All the music they listen to is about God, everyone has a religious affiliation. So to come to America and see witches on our doors, skeletons decorating our porches, and mini graveyards for our yard decor. My worst fear is that they think we are Satanic (we have had lots of family prayer to try and prove other wise :), and at best I know they think we are strange and they can't figure out what we are celebrating. Hopefully we can make up for it at Christmas.
So we finally talked everyone into costumes and told them they couldn't ride their bike trick or treating (the boys were not happy!). After about 3 doors they got it, and they took off, just like all good american kids living the American dream of how much candy can I get before we have to go home. They did well, and just like every year, the candy is all gone now, one week later.
And if you think that their stressed out mom who find comfort in chocolate helped......you are right!



We had a fun house full. My sister Deanna brought down my littlest sister Christy and my Ethiopian sisters. We also had the Coopers over who were in Ethiopia with us bringing home our kids and theirs.
From Left to Right: Caleb as Micheal Jackson, Tyler Cooper as a hippie Harry Potter, Daniel as a vampire, Christy as an Indian princess, Mom holding Eva the elephant, Harmony as a soccer player, Iftu as a princess, Fitya as a fairy, Ramadan as spider man, Chaltu as a cowgirl princess, Bona as Spiderman, Dibabe with a beautiful Headdress, Bessa hiding behind Sultan being a super football player, Talilea as her beautiful self with her arm around Yubo Cooper as Belle, Ricky Cooper with a great wig, and Tayiba in a concoction costume of her own creation.
FUN!!!

















After all the trick or treating I set a horrible precendent for myself and we played a couple of games. One was finding gummy bears in whipcream..with your mouth and the other that I don't have pictures of was unwrapping a halloween gift with gloves on. We had a great and LOUD time. I was so ready for bed!


If you think this post is long, imagine my day!

Firsts!!!

First snow:

The first snow was a huge hit! They thought it would be soft so they were bellyflopping into it and then laughing when it was hard ground they hit. Their eyes about popped out of their heads when I ate some. Then they tried it and were amazed that it tasted just like water..(and dirt). It was also another $150 trip to Walmart for boots and gloves.

We are united and home

Beautiful Dibabe
Beautiful Chaltu


The picture below is all the kids that were being adopted and the woman that was watching them before we came.

We love all our kids they are wonderful!

From Left to right top:
Ramadan Newman, Ramato Cooper, Bona Newman, Sultan Newman, Besa Morrell, Yubo Cooper, Iftu Morrell, Rose (tscarida) the helper.
Bottom: Chaltu Newman, Talilea Morrell, Dibabe Newman, Fitya Newman, Tayiba Newman.

It was a long week as we had to just stay in the house with the kids because of some political issues. But it was fun to play with them and get to know them.

They were excellent on the flights home, but I don't think they want to go on an airplane again anytime soon.
Kelly and the girls, he love being the father to girls!....and boys but the girls hug him more.

We are home now and it is as crazy and as wonderful as we expected!

A big thank you to our ward, friends, and families for all their help and support.

Stay tuned for some great Halloween pictures!

We leave this Friday Oct. 2

Here is more evidence that what we are doing is real. This is the ginormous new van. It is a 15 passenger van with 2 DVD players and a back up camera. I am telling ya I need all that technology just to survive the 2 hour trip to Logan!

We are leaving this Friday Oct. 2 and bringing the kids home on Sat. Oct. 10.
Yahooo! it is really here

It is Official!

As of 2:24 am (here in the US) we are now "officially" the proud parents of 7 new children! We passed in the Ethiopian court! We now have to have the papers processed and sent to the US embassy for processing. (this could take up to a month, but hopefully faster!) Then Kelly and I will travel to Ethiopia to bring them home!

I just got home from spending about 10 days with them and I am so in love! They are beautiful and good! My heart is stretched across the world and I can't wait to unite my family!

From Left to Right (Top) Faith Fatiya (3), Sultan Isaiah (10), Tayiba Joy (11), 2nd row Chaltu Charity (14), Gabriel Bona (5), Gideon Ramadan (6), Dibabe Hope (16)

We are so excited and racing to get ready!

Caleb is 10-I have been a mother for a decade!

How did this happen! It has gone so quickly. I distinctly remember that yesterday Caleb was this tiny baby that would grab a piece of my hair to rub on his face to sleep. And today this is what he looked like!
He is a handsome and smart kid!

He had a great party for his birthday. He created this invitation:He had about 12 boys and 2 girls (one being Harmony) come to save the Pokemon. The practiced light saber skills on the wii, then the empire and the rebellion got into a sticker war and the empire cheated and won. So after that the jedi council had a jedi training course, and a treasure hunt to save the Pokemon and find Caleb's presents. Kelly and I were som busy managing all this that all we got was a few group pictures. Here is one:


A great lady in our ward named Sara Grant created this masterpeice of a birthday cake.

Caleb was so amazed. He said " Wow, My first professional birthday cake!" and I said "Your only professional birthday cake." he replied, "At least, until I get married." I guess one of the qualifications of his future wife is professional cake making. Get going girls!

One of the highlights of the summer for Caleb has been tubing behind the boat. He could live there, he even likes getting dumped off!


We also went on a fun hike up battle creek canyon.





The boys in the family are confirmed fishermen! After many attempts this summer they finally had success up at mirror lake at the father and son's camp out, where between them they caught 6 fish!

Back in May at school, Caleb's Spanish program put on a dance festival. It was fantastic! Caleb's class sang two songs and danced a partner dance.


Caleb is such a joy in our family. He is the peacemaker and the commandment keeper. He is a powerful Son of God and we feel privileged to be a part of his life. We love you Caleb!

Dan My Man

Daniel also had a Birthday in April. It is a big month for us, and as you can see I am still trying to catch up. But I have a deadline now as Caleb's birthday is in 2 weeks so I must get Daniel's done today!

Happy 6th Birthday Daniel!
Daniel had his first birthday party without combining with Harmony. Thus the theme was Superheros!
We played Superheros Says, we had a Superhero Training Course, We broke a Spiderman Pinata, and had a Superhero Supper ( hotdogs) and a Superhero Cake.

It was a fun time for all!



Daniel's newest passion is Karate! He is in a summer program and right now he eats, drinks, and loves Karate (at least on Mondays and Wednesdays!) He's got some moves!


This is Daniel's buzz cut for the summer. When he got this he was still in kindergarten. He felt like a new man. He said "Mom, this haircut is going to change my life in 3 ways! 1. I will be able to run faster. 2. I will be cooler for summer and 3. Sara in school probably won't love me anymore because she will think I am going bald! (That was apparently a good thing.) He is so funny!

Daniel and his buddies are good at meditation. Everyday on their way to Kindergarten they would stop and get into positions and say "Ommmm, Ommmm." What great skills they are learning!

It was also pajama day at school that day. He did wear school clothes everyday, although I am not sure I fed him everyday.


We went to Lake Powell this June with my family. It was so fun. Dad bought this great 3 seater tube. It was so much fun. I think Caleb would have been happy to do nothing but ride that tube the entire time, he even had fun getting dumped off of it.

As you can tell, Daniel didn't love it as much. In fact on one ride he was with my sister Katie and her 3 year old daughter named Roccio "Chio". Midway through the ride he was motioning the boat by pointing at Chio and telling us to stop. Katie said the whole ride he was saying. "We better go slower...for Chio, this is too fast for Chio, I think Chio wants to stop." Way to protect Chio, Daniel!

All the kids to our amazement tried the knee board. Harmony screamed the minute she wasn't touching the boat. Caleb stayed on for a while and almost got to step two, where you hold the rope and not just the knee board. Daniel got dragged for 20 feet(by Mom) without letting go and in the end was more scared about fish nibbling his toes than almost being drowned.
It was a great time!

Daniel we love you and you are a very special member of our family!