A few tidbits...

I was going to log on last night to give you a short but funny "Angie-ism". But by the time the kids were down to sleep and I'd done a few things around the house and finally sat down, I was TIRED. So I decided to go to sleep instead...I think that was a good decision! :)

Last night when I picked up Angie from daycare (we are just finishing the 1st week of Angie in full-time daycare. She is adjusting well but it is killing Mama! Hope we don't have to do this for too long...) and had to bundle her excessively due to the ridiculously cold temps up here in MN. Yesterday it was a regular temp of -25 with windchill of up to -47!! Today isnt' much different. So Angie had a long sleeve shirt on, a thick sweatshirt and I was putting on her coat, big fluffy hat and thick mittens. Soon she stood there like the little boy in 'Christmas Story' that can hardly move due to all the bundling! This was not making her happy - she gets a bit claustrophobic with too many clothes on. It made it worse when I strapped her into the carseat...with the layers and the seatbelts, she was really stuck. She was crying and kicking and carrying on with a good ole meltdown! She was talking too - about school and supper and all sorts of things. I can't remember what she was saying, but I had asked her something about it. She didn't answer, so I asked again. She put her mittened hands up to her face, wiped away her hair and tears and said in a sighing 'giving up the meltdown' voice "Mommy, I can't talk anymore...my brains are breaking" I'm pretty sure this meant her head was hurting from her crying & fussing...but oh, what a great description! I'm going to use that sometime... :)

Here are a few pics from Robert's graduation in December. He graduated with his Masters of Business Administration from Bethel University. Juancho came with us to the ceremony while the girls enjoyed 'girls night' with babysitter LaDonna. Juancho was super intrigued by the whole ceremony and the whole concept of college and advanced degrees. He has told us he wants to be a chef and a teacher and a principal. Who knows, maybe he'll be all 3 someday!

Angie's 4th Birthday!

Angie turned 4 on Friday! We had a quiet family celebration at home (minus Laura - she was off on her FIRST overnight retreat with her girls Awana's group - she had a blast!) on Friday. Saturday evening we had a Dora the Explorer birthday party for some of Angie's little friends and their parents! It was a lot of fun. Before I get into those pics - here is a blast from the past pic of Angie at her 3rd birthday, about 2 months after she became our Forever Daughter, in January 2008!


ABOVE: Angie in January 2008 - turning 3 at her Elmo birthday party

AND NOW, ONE YEAR LATER...


ABOVE: Angie at her Dora Birthday Party celebrating turning 4 in January 2009!


ABOVE: We made a homemade version of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", but Dora-style! In this classic party game, the kids had to Pin the Backpack on Dora!






ABOVE THREE PICS: Being a Dora the Explorer party and all, naturally Angie got a fair share of Dora gifts...and she loved ALL of them!


ABOVE: Angie has been becoming more and more "girly" as she gets older. Her nearly daily request is to wear a dress, but living in MN in winter means that temps are generally not too much higher than the single digits (if that high!). However I was able to find some warmer jumper dresses that long sleeved shirts and thick tights or even leggings could be layered underneath. So while her wish to wear a dress won't be fulfilled EVERY day, she may get it at least once a week with these new provisions!


ABOVE: Kudos to Robert - he made the Dora cake! Our friend Ty's mom happens to work for a baking company and was able to set us up with all sorts of great Dora cake decorations. Good job making the cake honey - it was a hit!

Now I'm going to try uploading a video or two...it has never worked for me before...but here's to hoping!

New Year's Resolution?!

To update this blog once a week at a minimum! Main reason is to have a journal by which I can go back and re-tell the story of my children's first years with our family. But I also love to keep our friends and families updated too!

Here's a few pics to enjoy since it has been a while!


ABOVE: Our family Christmas photo - December 2008
Robert & Holly, John (age 11), Laura (age 9) and Angie (age 3), also PJ our faithful and loyal dog!


ABOVE: Angie showing off one of her hand-made ornaments when we were decorating the tree!


ABOVE: John & Laura decorate the tree on a snowy Minnesota December day


ABOVE: Daddy & his girls


ABOVE: Our family on Thanksgiving - it was a special day for us all!


ABOVE: Angie decided to cut her hair one day when working on a craft with Laura. Even though they were kid scissors, she still cut a chunk out of the middle of her hair, thus inspiring the pixie bangs! Laura loved them so much, she wanted some of her own. So I took on the role of hairdresser for the night! It was much more successful than the time I tried to be a hairdresser for Juancho - click HERE for a refresher on that really bad hair day! :)


ABOVE: Another "New Haircut" picture


ABOVE: Having a 3 year old means I see the expression above on a daily basis. I call it "Miss Sassafrass" :)


ABOVE: Having girly girls means that we get all sorts of fashion shows regularly (note that Angie is wearing Laura's winter hat and Laura's tennis shoes...on the wrong feet!)

There is a snapshot of the Dressel's over the last couple months. If I keep up on my resolution above, you'll hear more from me by or before next Saturday! :)

Halloween!

Hi All,

Yes, the blog was on sabbatical for nearly 3 months! Whew how time flies when I'm away from the blog! I really do love to blog - mostly to be able to remember these precious memories in months and years to come. As I was organizing my photos tonight I was realizing that there have been quite a few photo-worthy occurances that have transpired that haven't gotten mention on the blog - due to my attempt over the summer to 'catch up' on what had happened in the past. Meanwhile the present kept charging forward - getting me further and further behind. So I'll just start today in the present and maybe someday I'll catch you up on all the stuff I missed! Yesterday was Halloween! The kiddos were looking SO forward to Halloween. They've always loved to dress up. Even within the few photos that we received from their foster home in Colombia, at least 6 or so are pictures of them dressed up for Halloween. They did celebrate Halloween in Colombia, but it was much more subdued of a holiday. They would dress up and either go to a Halloween party hosted by the Child Welfare Institute OR they would go trick-or-treating at neighborhood stores. They did NOT trick-or-treat at homes - nobody did. They said the amount of candy they got from stores only added up to a few pieces.

They loved carving pumpkins and Juancho carved his own ('Howling Wolves') from start to finish! Laura and I collaborated together on her "Scooby Doo" themed pumpkin and all Angie did to assist with her pumpkin was to pick out the pattern ("Kitty Cat"). We washed and dried pumpkin seeds (well actually friend Kim did that) and though we haven't toasted them yet, we plan to by the end of this week. Leading up to Halloween Juancho never wavered in his decision and desire to be Harry Potter. Laura, on the other hand, changed her mind daily - sometimes more than once a day! It varied between Cinderella, Ariel the Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty and occasionally something a little more random like Hannah Montana or one of the girls from High School Musical. Never did I hear mention of a desire to be Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter). That is until I told her she needed to make a final decision because I was going to start picking up items to use for their costumes (I had decided NOT to buy any pre-made costumes this year b/c finances were tight and $30 for a chintzy costume is a tough bill to rationalize). Suddenly she wanted to be Hermione Granger. At first I thought it would be hard to put together a costume that worked, but once I got going with it, it was a breeze!

For both Harry Potter and Hermione I picked up some REALLY cheap black fabric at Wal-Mart to make their cloaks with. I sewed their cloaks in 45 minutes with no pattern. I made it up as I went along and it turned out well. Granted, looking at the cloaks in the light there are definitely uneven seams and some shoddy 'quick fix' elements, but they worked perfect to complete their costumes and the imperfections were not noticeable in the dark. John and Laura colored Hogwarts crests that I printed out from the Internet to staple to their cloak to make it look official. I found some old wire framed sunglasses and punched the lenses out for Juancho to use as Harry's glasses. Juancho has liked them so much he wore them most of today as well, even though he was not in costume! Juancho wore his own gray sweater and black pants, and carried a stick turned into a wand. I drew the infamous lightening scar on his forward with eyeliner. For Laura I curled her hair and we sprayed it with gold sparkle to make it really shine! She work a black shirt and shirt along with her cloak and also carried a wand. Finally, Angie's costume was easiest of all! It was a full suit penguin costume that had come in a bag of 'hand-me-down' clothes someone gave us before the kids even came home from Colombia. All 3 kids have put it on over the year as they've played dress up...and up until the last few days before Halloween Angie was torn between being Cinderella or the Penguin. I'm so glad the penguin won out - it was super cute on her! We went trick or treating in our neighborhood and in an adjacent neighborhood and even though we only hit about 25 houses, the kids were struggling to carry their bags home, they were so loaded with candy! Now I am keeping the candy up high to deter kids that may be tempted to sneak a candy or two (or ten!). They are rationed out in small quantities - at this rate we'll just be finishing candy in time for Halloween next year! :)

Better load some pics now - even though tonight is 'fall back' on time - that extra hour won't even make a dent in my sleep deprivation!

Love you all!

Day at Minnehaha Falls in June

Okay, back to the 'catch up'! We have done so many fun things this summer so far, and I've got so many great pictures that I don't want to skip over anything! But I'm way behind in the 'catch up' game! Here are some pics from a day that the kids and I took to Minnehaha Falls on June 14th. I love hiking and we haven't really done a ton of hiking with the kids since coming home from Colombia. Walking, yes. But hiking, no. On the way to Minnehaha Falls Juancho was asking me "Mommy, what is 'hiking'?" and I tried to explain it to him, but to him it just sounded like walking around in the woods. "Solo eso?! (That's it?!)" he exclaimed, a little dismayed. But once we got there, ate our picnic lunch, ventured down the wooden steps to see the waterfall and then commenced on our hike, they were all in love with hiking! We're hoping to pull off a camping weekend in early September, but that will remain to be seen! On to the pictures!

Picnic Lunch (above & below) before beginning our hike. Don't ya love Angie's sassy face below? :)

This is Minnehaha Falls - located near downtown Minneapolis. Beautiful urban place to hike and spend a leisurely day...Angie was more interested in looking at the falls (below) than posing for a picture... I don't blame her!

There were some great alcoves and areas of fallen rock (below) that led to great adventure in climbing and exploring the nooks and crannies!

PJ loved hiking too - and got a little muddy when he fell off the boardwalk in a swampy area...not that he cared! :)

There was a great wide spot in the creek - perfect for wading and skipping rocks - my kids loved doing both!

Juancho & Laura posed in the creek

Angie preferred to stay near shore - playing with the dirt as though it was sand, though she did venture into the creek for some wading!

After the full day of hiking, we stopped for a DQ treat on the way home...Angie sure loves her ice cream!

Laura enjoys her blizzard - yum!

Juancho loves his ice cream too! Isn't he one handsome fella?

In case you were wondering, PJ is one loved pooch! (And yes, he and Angie slept all the way home!)

Jay & Jen's Wedding

Over Mother's Day weekend Robert and I took our first weekend away without the kids! Crazy that it fell over Mother's Day - my first at that! - but it was a fun weekend nonetheless (though we missed the kids like crazy!). Tia Michelle flew in from Chicago to stay with Juancho, Laura & Angie (along with my niece Ashley) and they had a GREAT time. They went to Underwater World at the Mall of America (a great aquarium), played outside at the park, and I'm sure got all sorts of treats! They went out and bought Mommy a pot of her favorite flowers (gerberas!) and some chocolates!

Robert and I flew to San Fransisco for a wedding Robert was a groomsman in. He stood up for his buddy Jay who he used to be roommates with before we got married. Jay had moved out to California a few years ago with his job and not long after met Jen. Jen is a wonderful girl who has been a great mom to her twin 11 year old sons (who, incidentally, have passed along some GREAT hand-me-downs to Juancho...thanks guys!). It was a fun but quick weekend in sunny California. We flew out on Friday morning, had the rehearsal that night, the wedding on Saturday, a day of touring in San Fran (with some great eats in Chinatown...and some great bargains...the two girls got a cute San Fransisco t-shirt and Juancho got a now beloved San Fran baseball cap!) on Sunday and a flight home on the red eye Sunday night!

There weren't a lot of Minnesotans that were able to get out for the wedding, but it was like a mini-reunion of the roomies! Robert was there to stand up for Jay, his former roommate and the other guy they lived with - Mike - was there too. Then I was there along with my former roomie Becky (whose husband was also in the wedding) and one of our other former roommates - Jackie - who now lives just south of San Fran came up for the wedding with her husband Nigel. The weather was perfect and so was the weekend - a much needed breather during a pretty stressful time. Here's some pics from the weekend (a departure from the usual pics of the kiddos...don't worry those are coming back...I've got a lot of cute ones of those guys!).

Jay & Jennifer during the ceremony - it was a beautiful outdoor wedding!

Holly & some former roomies (Becky, Jackie & I)

The Fellas (Mike, Jay, Dave & Robert)

Jackie & Nigel

Robert & Holly

Visit to Iowa

In late June the kiddos and I took off to Iowa to go visit Grandma & Grandpa Meadows and all the primos (cousins) and tios (aunts/uncles). I have a pretty big family, so it is always a fun-filled time in Iowa! We went down for a few reasons. The main one was to see my baby brother (now 23 year old) before he left to move to Florida for his first big gig out of college - singing with the Voices of Liberty choral group through Epcot Center in Disney. It's a pretty sweet deal! Also, my hometown (Iowa City) had been MAJORLY impacted by the flooding that bombarded the midwest. My parents and my older sister both live in homes equally far away from the flooded river, but are all attenders (plus my mom has been the Office Manager for over 18 years there) at Parkview Evangelical Free Church - my home church growing up - which sustained significant flood damage! At one point there was over 5.5 feet of water standing INSIDE the church building. After the waters receded, the church was immediately gutted on the inside. It appears that they will be able to save the building and re-build inside, but for the rest of the year services will be held in my old high school and the office staff are currently officing out of extra space in a Christian counseling center. So we wanted to be able to survey some of the receding flood damage. We had a great time with the family - and enjoyed the hot weather by busting out the sprinkler and hose - the Dressel kids LOVED chasing each other around with water. We got some water balloons out there too - which were very short-lived - they had all of them broken within minutes! Great fun though! Here are pics...

Angie, Master Conductor!

"I'm gonna get you La La!"

Hmm...not sure if Juancho is having fun or not... :)

"I'm just testing the water Mom!"

Angie was ready to go for a water balloon fight - bucket half-filled with water balloons...and her pom pom! Guess she was planning on doing a little cheerleading!

John & Tio Jon - in reality the two boys did fall asleep all cuddled up like this...but by the time I saw them and got the camera, they had woke up - so we had to stage this one! :)

Laura & Tia Jenni looking stylish in their shades!

Laura in front of the flooding that was receding from Parkview Church

Two beautiful kiddos in front of some not so beautiful landscape - post flood damage at my home church in Iowa...

This is the backside of my home church - flood waters can still be seen in the background, though they had receded from the church and playground. The amount of mud was amazing! Two weeks prior this was all covered with green grass!

Tia Michelle & Angie - City Park is in the background - usually home to baseball diamonds, picnic tables and a great mini-carnival...now completely underwater!

Classic Stair-Step Picture of the Meadows Cousins: (L to R) - Heather (age 13), Joel (age 12 - and not so happy here), Juancho (age 10 - and always entertaining!), Sarah (age 11), Max (age 9), Laura (age 9) and Angie (age 3).