My baby lost his first tooth-at a church dinner(5-23-09) and he swallowed it.

goofy kids

Levi watching Caleb and Alex's ball game

Alex pitching- he did a pretty good job!

My neice Emma's 7th Birthday party. Poor Thing- the next day she had her tonsils and adnoids out. Then on Saturday she had to go back to the hospital because she was dehydrated and vomitting. She is starting to do better now.

Levi in a bag

Cody with wrapping paper

Our cat Fluffy-she thinks she is a dog. She goes for walks with us and isn't afraid of our dogs. She just had kittens if anyone wants one.
Alex is learning to mow, he has done a pretty good job so far. He even stopped the mower instead of running over the dog poop

Matthew wanted to help with the yard work- the spreader is empty but he thinks he was helping.

Alex scored 92% on his science test, before he had been getting 20-30 % on them. Science has

to be one of the hardest classes because of all the new vocabulary-especially for someone who is learning english.

Matthew in the tub with his new puppy toy. Grandma Lynne gave him the dog for his Pre-School Graduation.

WE HAVE A DR IN THE FAMILY!!!

My sister Holly graduated this weekend as a Doctor of Physical Therapy. We are very proud of her.

Holly and my grandmothers

Matthew's preschool graduation
Matthew and Murphy (a good friend's daughter)

Jeff's brother was married in April, Here is the new family.

Easter!

Baby Cody and Baby Levi watching the big kids look for Easter Eggs outside.

Alex was baptised at the Easter Vigil, Jeff joined the church, they both made their first communion, and Jeff was confirmed.

Ben asleep at church

Alex and his Godparents, my sister Angie and her husband Scott.

I forgot to mention this in my last post but I want to thank everyone who has given the boys clothes, bikes etc. Alex's foot has grown from a size 4.5 to a 7 since we came home six months ago. So we really appreciate all of the hand-me-downs we have gotten. He is outgrowing his size ten clothes quickly-especially jeans and pants. So if anyone has any 12's laying around we would really appreciate it. We could really use a couple of baseball gloves also so we can play catch with the boys. I hate to go out and buy new ones for just playing catch. Thank you!

A BUSY COUPLE OF WEEKS!
It has been over 6 months since we came home from Ukraine! It seems like we were just there.

Matthew only has two days of preschool left and Alex will be done next week. Alex started hunter safety class last night, baseball tonight and both boys are taking two weeks of swimming lessons starting Monday.

My sister Holly is graduating as a Doctor of Physical Therapy on Saturday, Congratulations!

I have been procrastinating about posting because I wasn't sure how to say this. In the beginning of April Jack moved to Virginia to live with another family. It became clear to us that Jack and Alex should not live together, they both have many "past hurts" from their lives in Ukraine that need to heal. They can not heal when they are together. I know most of you won't understand this, but our social worker and other families who have adopted older siblings will. Jack hated living in the country and his new home is in the city. He is doing well, he calls us frequently and seems to like his new home and school. Since he left I have noticed a lot of positive things happening for both Alex and Matthew. Jack picked on them and impeded bonding, etc. We are starting to feel like a family now. There are many other reasons but I don't feel comfortable posting them on our blog for everyone to see.

Easter Egg decorating, Alex's first time to do this. He did a pretty good job and he loved to eat the eggs-so does Matthew.

Caleb slimed his baby brother!
Levi wasn't too sure about the slime.

Katie's 10th birthday-one week after Alex's!

Another picture of Teddy, Matthew put Teddy here while he took his bath. I like how he propped Teddy on a package of wipes.

Alex's Birthday party

Alex's 11th Birthday!!!!!

I couldn't get the picture with Jack in it to rotate so I didn't post it.

Baby Cody wasn't freaked out by the bunny.

Alex, Matthew and Cody with the Easter Bunny-Emma refused to be in the picture.

She says "the Easter Bunny FREAKS me out!"

Alex won an easter basket at the hunt too-they drew names for each age group.

Alex and his eggs, He really found a lot. The egg hunt is for 0-10 year olds and Alex turned

11 the day after the hunt.

Mattthew and his easter eggs at the prairie estates nursing home egg hunt.

One of my Dad's cow's had a calf but couldn't produce enough milk to feed it. So we have been helping out by bottle feeding it. We enjoy watching how fast a calf grows, his name is Socks because he looks like he is wearing white socks on his feet.

In March my whole family stayed in a hotel to celebrate the March birthdays-there are quite a few: Alex, Eric, my mom, & Scott. The second picture down is the birthday crew (minus the baby).

The first picture is all the grandkids on the slide (minus the two little girls in the background).

Alex and Ben swimming, Alex swam for about 7 hours straight!

Scott with the babies. They were born last summer, 6 days apart. Cody is on the right, Levi on the left. (not twins, cousins)

GREAT NEWS!!!!! THE BOYS' SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS FINALLY CAME!
I CAN DO MY TAXES NOW!



Words of Advice for parents of internationally adopted children: Make sure you tell your child where you can pinch someone who isn't wearing green on St. Patrick's Day BEFORE they go to school! (We told them before they got on the school bus, I can just imagine the phone calls we would have gotten).


Matthew knocked on the bathroom door while I was in there a couple nights ago. I said "What is it?" He replied "I need some privacy here!" and I was the one in the bathroom.

Alex used the word "Actually" in a sentence the other day. His English is pretty good, in fact sometimes he talks so fast we have to stop him and tell him to slow down.

The truck is tied to the wagon and the wagon tied to the bike for a train.

Alex and Matthew had lots of fun playing outside yesterday in the mud. It was about 55 degrees and they were outside for most of the day. They both had to have baths afterwards

Alex with his second place trouphy for wrestling at South Sioux. Check out his glasses!

Jack got the same trophy but wouldn't let me take the picture.

All 9 Donnelly Grandkids together for Ben's (center front) 6th birthday!

Matthew loves to watch the coffee drip.

I left my empty bed to go wake up Jack and Alex for school and this is what I found when I came back. (That's my pillow!)

Doesn't he look sweet all cuddled up with Puffy the whale.

Jeff, Alex, Matthew and Ginny the dog made a snowman yesterday. Ginny kept chewing off the sticks they put in for arms.

Alex making the head of the snowman.

Alex placed 4th in Youth district wrestling, my nephew Ben placed second. They get to move on to regions next weekend.

Funny story.

Matthew and I went to Sioux City on Friday to go to the Social Security Office (not the funny part but hopefully three months after I applied I should get the boys' SS# so I can file our taxes) and the eye glass store. I need glasses for driving and watching tv-not reading (yet). So Matthew and I went into Eye Mart -the same place where I got Alex's glasses. I told Matthew "make sure I don't pick out the same ones as Alex has." Guess what we did anyhow, so now we match.

Matthew wanted to get a pair of pink ones-he hasn't stopped talking about it since he tried them on.

HOME 16 Weeks, 4 Long Cold Months.

It has been a long four months, partly because it has been so cold and we have all been trapped inside. Yesterday was nice and we were able to be outside, I am getting spring fever, I want to start working on the garden. I need to expand it this year because the boys love cucumbers and tomatoes.

Alex is really starting to come around behaviorly. He is also starting to understand slang and seems to be playing with kids at school-hopefully making friends soon. Hopefully these better behaviors become habit and he doesn't fall back into his old ways. Alex started CCD on Wednesday afternoons. He seems to like it. I would like for Jack to start going, but I don't know if his English is good enough yet and I don't want him to start hating church.

Jack just can't seem to understand that rules are rules, he thinks they pertain to everyone but him. He has gone two weeks without tv because of his yelling at us, talking bad to us and doing things he shouldn't. Last week he decided to ride his bike 7 miles to town without telling anyone. We were able to figure out where he went with help from several people who saw him. He rode home in the dark wearing a black sweatshirt and black pants-not very smart considering it is a pretty busy road. We printed out (in English and Russian) what needs to be done in order for him to watch tv. He was at least trying for a couple of days. The problem is all he does is watch tv-even when it is nice out-the more tv he watches the moodier he gets. He doesn't play games with us or even want to go out side.
Jack and Alex wrestled in a tournament in South Sioux City last weekend. They both got second place and they received huge trophies. I will try to upload a picture soon. Jack is done wrestling now but Alex will wrestle at youth wrestling districts this weekend. If he does well he will go on to regions. My nephew Ben will also wrestle this weekend. I love to watch the tiny kids wrestle they are so cute. Hopefully Matthew will want to participate next year.
We are trying to get Jack to go out for track. He is pretty fast and I think he would do well if he would try.
Matthew's vocabulary has exploded, he uses all sorts of words and frequently I have to explain them to Alex. Some of the words have been: disgusting, ingrediant, oh and he explained how fog is made this morning. He is a funny little guy. He is getting his 6 year molars and has two loose teeth.

Remember the little girl I posted about last, well if anyone wants to adopt her (I would still love to) the shriners have an orthopedic hospital in St. Paul and would most likely pay for most of her treatment.

Thanks to those who posted advice about the boys, I have read those books (some more than once) and used quite a bit of it in parenting. The problem being is that Jack has had so much independance that he can't accept any of the boundaries that are set in the books and when everything is taken away he lashed out at us and starts harassing his brothers. The things work ok with Alex.