Thankful

There is always so much to be thankful for every year.
Our family, our health, good friends, and good times.

Every year just gets better and better.

More fun and more adventure.

Learning something new everyday!

I am thankful that I get to be Mom to Alek and Maks. I am grateful everyday that I get to watch them grow and thrive.

I am thankful for a great hubby who is an amazing dad, an awesome handyman, and a still a cute date!

I am thankful for our families who love and support us through good times and bad.

I am thankful for the amazing grandparents and great-grandma's Alek and Maks have and that they get to spend lots of fun time with them! I know they are memories they will always cherish, just as we remember all the times we spent with our grandparents.

I am thankful for old friends and new ones. I love that we are both still close with those friends we grew up with and yet through our children have discovered new friends with whom we are forging great memories with. I am thankful for the close friendships the boys have discovered and it is fun to watch them grow. I know they will always remember their first best friends!

Alek, I am so thankful that you made me a mom. My first miracle. I love your smile, your eyes melt my heart. I love that you are still not to big to snug with me on the couch or give me a kiss good bye (as long as your friend's aren't looking). I love listening to you read to me, I love watching you draw, I love watching you play baseball and your excitement for games! I love your interest in learning and exploring new things and the fact that you are never afraid to try. You are an amazing boy and I am so thankful that you are my son.

Maks, you are my red-headed wonder. I am so grateful and thankful that you completed our family. You have fascinated me since the day we first met you. I love your strength and resilience. Your stunning blue eyes and huge smile melt my heart each day. I love that you are like a bull in a china shop, yet are tender and sweet as you snug up to me and tell me 100 times a day you love me. You are such a monkey, you climb any and everything. You are so strong it amazes me. I love how hard you try at any task or any game. I love that you want to get it right. You are an awesome boy and I am so thankful you are my son!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!!

5 Years!

November 20 2006....

The day you officially became the Makadoodle!

5 years have gone by in the blink of an eye and it has been amazing watching you go from that scared, sick little 13 month old to the brave, brazen, courageous, loud, funny, loving and smart 6 year old you are today.

You are such an amazing character. You fill a room with your presence and your smile can light up anyone's day. You crack people up and half the time you don't even realize it!

The stories of your one liners, your funny facial expressions and your sideways glances are endless. I can't tell you how many times I have had people tell me, "God I love that kid".

You are intense, a perfectionist at what you are focused on and you will plead your case until someone acknowledges you are right. In the span of 30 seconds you can make us crazy only to have us laughing at you. You are an awesome brother and a great friend.

We are forever grateful that you came into our lives and forever grateful for those in Murmansk who made us officially a family of four.

Happy Family Day Maks-Joseph Kirill!

You have brought us such joy, love and laughter.

You completed us!

We love you to the moon and back!

What the?

SNOW?

Seriously? Is this some sick Halloween joke? Well, its so not funny!

Yes we were spooked with a Noreaster on Halloween weekend, leaving us with 5 inches of the white stuff which I hate!

But as always we made the best of it. It came falling down the day of our neighborhood Halloween party. I felt bad for my neighbor who was the host. Lots of people in the house instead of outside like usual.
So all the kiddos came in costume and had a blast. Our new neighbors from CA got to experience their first east coast snow and seemed a bit worried at how early this started!
Our guys stuck to the Star Wars theme and wore their Darth Vadar and StormTrooper costumes. Seemed all the boys at the party decided on the same..

Our new neighbor, D rocks. She is so creative and crafty, I felt seriously inadequate around her. Me of the break and bake cookies...

She premade chocolate rice krispie houses, 3 of them. We divided the kids into 3 teams and each team was decorate their haunted house, she had all the decorative treats in little bags. The kids were totally into it. Well except for Maks. As soon as he realized he couldn't immediately eat the treats, he retreated back to the playroom.

The dads were the judges and each team received an award for scariest, coolest and yummiest.

I may be partial, but I think Alek's teams was the best, especially when they wrote Keep Out on the back of their house. We then raffled off the houses to make it fair.

The kids totally loved it!
D, also made this amazing cake (picture below), homemade everything, seriously! You can see why I felt inadequate. I am pretty sure I overheard Alek saying, my mom buys our cakes and cookies at the bakery. Well isnt that why God created the bakery?
It was a great party, the kids all piled on their snowgear and played outside for hours. They sledded, built forts and had snowball fights and built an awesome snowman. A good time was had by all and thankfully the majority of the snow was gone by Sunday afternoon. We really didn't even need to shovel.

Sunday after the boys played in the remaining snow for awhile. Kevin built our first fire of the season. Alek and I snugged on the sofa and talked and then we both fell asleep. It was awesome. I know I have so few of those snuggly moments left with him. I soaked it up. Nothing like a nap in front of a toasty fire.

Sunday night we went back down our neighbors for leftovers, so yummy!

Then we all headed out to a local house which has all these awesome jack o laterns throughout the yard.
Apparently a local farm donates the pumpkins and a whole group of people, young to old carve them out. It was truly impressive. The kids favorite was Phineas and Ferb.

My favorite was this one that had a shark coming out of the water towards a swimmer, it was so intricate. I am impressed at the patience of these people!!

Halloween day was fun. Maks spent the whole day at LL since GS was only open a half day. He had a whole day party basically and being the mother of the year that I am I totally forgot to send him in costume. Thankfully they had costumes we had donated the year before (Alek's Incredible Hulk), so Maks was happy to wear that and I didn't have to drive back home. Whew!

Alek had his fall party at school. No Halloween stuff allowed there, so all fall themed. He had a great time and enjoyed the half day spent with daddy.

After a semi healthy burrito dinner it was off to trick or treat. Daddy stayed home to hand out candy and we walked around with the neighbors. The kids had a blast, though we were disappointed at how many less houses were lit up this year. But it was enough to appease the kids and we were back home in our house by 7:30, which was fine by me! They counted their candy and each had 2 pieces. Then it was up to shower and extra scrubbing of the teeth and off to bed!

The month of Halloween was finally at an end. Between Maks' Halloween themed party, our neighborhood party, school parties, I am Halloweened out! I look forward to taking down the decorations and getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Yes, cannot believe October has come to an end!

I am hoping and praying that was the only snow we will see this year, but some how I think Mother Nature has other plans.....