Look what Otis did!

He likes to lay on my PJ's while I shower. He climbed inside of my sleeve and got stuck.

I felt bad for him but couldn't stop laughing. It took Jeff and I both to get him unstuck!

Look how sweet my two little boys are cuddled up sleeping in my bed.
Matthew may shoot me for this one someday, but isn't he cute!

Matthew was sick last week but he looked so cute napping with Teddy!

My nephew Cody trying to get the door open on Halloween. We were all watching him because he can't walk yet, but he pulled himself up, then turned to us all and said what sounded like

"See Ya"

Halloween 2009

Grandma Audrey and the boys
My Grandma Myrtle and the boys

My Grandma Eileen and the boys

My Aunt Diane and Larry?

John John and the boys

(Matthew calls him John John because he is hard of hearing and everyone has to say his name twice to get his attention so Matthew thinks that is his name) =)

Matthew is a bat. I made the costume for my nephew Caleb a few years ago and Alex is a evil tree-NO that's what he looked like but he was a transformer. I know I am out of touch with boys superheros.

Matthew's Halloween art.

Luke (neighbor), my neice Emma and Matthew showing off their Halloween crafts they made before going trick or treating.

Otis doing what he loves to do..... lay next to my dresser because there is a heat vent under it.

Fall 2009

(why is the toilet in the picture you may ask--it is the only room where it is totally dark so you can see the jack-o-lantern)

Alex's

Matthew's

Alex was a bit confused-he had never heard of pumpkin carving before.

Jeff gave up trying to carve this huge pumpkin and stuck plastic pieces in instead!

Ginny loves laying in the leaves!

Matthew's 6th Birthday!I can't believe he is six years old-wasn't he just two?

Baby Cody

Baby Levi

Only on your birthday can you get away with this!

Cousin Tory

2009 TRIP TO A PUMPKIN PATCH

This year we went to a huge pumpkin patch outside of Gretna, Nebraska. It cost way to much to get in but the place was huge and had all sorts of activities.

Caleb and Alex
The three middle ones (as we call them: we have three big ones, three middles ones and the babies) jumping on a huge balloon.

Pumpkin express

More pumpkin patch photos

My baby is turning six on Sunday! Here's a picture from Nov 2005 when we first met him in Odessa at his orphanage and one from last summer (09). He has changed so much!

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

Grandpa Melvin's birthday at my sister Holly's new house on moving day!

My sister got a new job, new house and found out she is pregnant all in the same few weeks.

My Grandmas-I love them soooooo much!
My dad and all the kids-I think Holly should have a girl-the boys are really outnumbering the girls.

More homecoming photos

Otis at the football game

Caleb is the boy holding the sign with the kid in the football jersey.

Ben is the one in the cowboy hat next to the high school girl in the gray t-shirt with white sleeves.

My cousin Ryan walking with the third graders

Emma

Katie

Alex in the camo pants

EPJ Homecoming 2009

Levi waiting for the parade
Matthew walking in the parade-he is the one on the far left.

Matthew and Cody

My Grandma Olson and Otis.

Matthew's new alarm clock!

This is Otis our new miniture datchshound. He is a wonderfully little guy!

Matthew and Grandpa getting ready to combine, Matthew could sit in there all day and "help."
A beautiful South Dakota sunset.

Grandma Eileen and Levi watching football.

My sister Angie, our friend Maggie and I walked in a cancer race at Adam's nature center. It is beautiful there.

Cooking hot dogs and brats for supper on our fire-pit.

This is what the boys have been up too. My uncle gave them an old go-cart, they fixed it up and have been cruising around the farm.

We went to Denver over labor day to see my cousin(but I forgot to take pictures), Jeff's brother and his family and some friends of Alex's from Ukraine. We had a blast. We met some wonderful people and saw some beautiful mountains.

Jeff's niece-she is such a sweetheart!

Looking for treasures.

Matthew loves road signs!

An old steam shovel-like the one in the book Mike Mulligan and his steamshovel MaryAnne.

More Labor Day photos!Alex is braiding Mikayla's hair-he learned how to do this in his orphanage.
Alex playing thumb wars with Roland.

Matthew loves Aunt Jennifer's tub-he talks about it all the time. He was so happy to "swim" in it with Gabby & Mikayla.

Another sleeping photo of Matthew-doesn't he look so sweet.

Here is Alex with his two best friends from his orphanage, Era and Ola-or Sara and Jordan as they are now known. They were adopted right before we got to Ukraine. He has been talking to them on the phone but we finally got to visit them. They are two of the sweetest girls ever.

Jeff's brother Troy is a fireman-so Matthew was happy to climb all over the equipment with Gabby.

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE SUMMER!(sorry it took so long) The boys and Kagey the canary at a canaries game in Sioux Falls. Alex loves baseball-Matthew tolerates being there if I bring things for him to do.

Matthew loves the tub-he is wearing his toy dog's goggles.

Alex is playing tackle football -he is the one closest with the blue helmet. Again Alex loves it-Matthew and I tolerate watching.

This is one of my favorite blogs, smiles and trials. This entry is a great recipe that feeds lots:
http://smilesandtrials.blogspot.com/2009/09/shrimp-and-veggie-pasta.html.

First Day of school

Jeff waited at the end of the drive-way to watch the boys get on the bus.

Matthew and his teacher Mrs. Hall

Alex started 5th grade and Matthew started Kindergarten. It didn't bother me when we left him at school the first day, probably because he went to the headstart in the same building last year. But I had to choke back the tears when I watched his tiny little body climb into the school bus the next morning. He really likes the bus and school.

Alex scissorhands (trumpet-vine flowers)

Camping and prairie crafts at the state park

The canoe finally made it into some water other than the pool!

Baby Cody & Baby Levi's 1st Birthday party. Cody loved the cake, Levi hated it.

Boating fun

Gabby & Matthew

My skinny little boy

Jeff's brother Troy kneeboarding

Alex learning to kneeboard

Kira kneeboarding

Alex and Mikayla tubing

Gabby

This is how Matthew wants me to cut his toenails-at least all the clippings go in the sink!

All the Norby grandkids except Tory (who isn't a kid anymore)

Alex on cousin Jacob's dirt bike (don't worry it runs on a battery so it can't go very fast)
Kira on the dirt bike

The canoe right before they sank it

Jeff's neices came from Denver to spend some time with us in July.

Alex and his friend Dillion at the beach.

Canoe -still in the pool

Matthew and cousin Gabby pretending that the pool hose is a snake. They were force

feeding him his medicine.

Alex and Kira

Can you tell Matthew is in there too?

Matthew loves RR crossing signs (sorry I couldn't turn it)

After golfing we went next door to Arnold's Park. It is a small amusement park-you don't have to wait in line but it has lots of rides. Sorry there aren't too many pictures of Alex-I was watching the younger kids (Emma, Ben and Matthew) while the older ones rode the bigger rides.

The golf course had a pirate theme

More golfing

The scenary at the miniture golf place made for some nice pictures.

Most of my family miniture golfed

Matthew and Alex's first time miniture golfing

Another trip in the pool

The canoe takes another trip in the pool.

My neices and nephews love playing in our dress up box-they also love dressing up the babies.

Here's baby Cody aka Harry Potter
Super Baby Levi

A well dressed pioneer woman and baby, and an M& M

a tiny M& M with Katie and Caleb

Jeff, Alex and baby Cody taking it easy on a hot day.

Jeff bought a canoe off craig's list-they couldn't wait to take it to the lake so into the pool they went.

Ginny thinks this is her chair

Alex's first roasted marshmellow

Geo-caching at a state park. If you haven't been geo-caching, here's a short explanation: Someone (in this case-the state park) hide objects and then we pick up a list of longitudes and

latitudes to use with our GPS. We then go biking through the park until we get close to the location-then hike into the area and try to find the prize. When you find the box, you write your

name on a notebook inside then take a prize and leave a prize for the next person. This time

our prize was a sticker.

It was lots of fun, hopefully we will do it again soon.

You can't see the box in the picture but it is under the log behind the sticks.

Here I am, No one else would go into the long grass and wooded area because they had on shorts, so I found the first prize alone-and tried to take my own picture with it.