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kirsten land

Let's Play Ball!

Daniel as the "pitcher". His favorite position

Daniel at Bat

Evan Parking his cars

Daniel is playing T-Ball for the Fall season. This is his second season playing for the Sluggers and he loves it! You can just see his confidence growing right in front of your eyes at every game. He is running faster, hitting and throwing the ball farther. Brian is the third base coach for the team and is having a great time with all of the kids. Since this season is short they have two games per week so the coach has cancelled most of the practices. Brian and I have taken it upon ourselves to practice with Daniel. I am hoping that Evan can join the team for the spring season so we work with him too.

Last season, Daniel spent a lot of time playing in the dirt or picking flowers for me. This season he still does that but, not as much. Just last week he hit the ball all the way to the fence and had to jump over another player to reach third base (so relieved he didn't stomp on him). We are having a great time with the other kids and their families too. It is a positive environment where everyone is encouraging to each other. A great way to spend a beautiful fall evening!

Happy Birthday Evan!

Evan celebrated his 3rd birthday on Saturday, September 24th, 2011.  Since he is obsessed with cars and the movie Cars, we decided to have a Cars 2 themed party for him.  We held the party at our office and set up a race track in the garage to let the kids race on all of the cars and bikes we own.  After the race they beat up a Lightning McQueen pinata..so sad!  Evan loved every minute and he is so proud that he is now three-years-old.  I think he really enjoyed being the center of attention and was especially excited about his gifts which every single one was a different kind of car!  He had many special guests attend his party but among the most special was his Aunt Allie (my sister visiting from Houston) and Godmother.  

The following day Evan was baptized at our church.  Many family members attended and was followed by another party!  It was a wonderful weekend.  

Evan's Gotcha Day Anniversary!

Today is our first anniversary of Evan's Gotcha Day or Forever Family Day. It
is amazing to think that a year has gone by already . So much has happened and
so many things have changed. Adding Evan to our family has been such a joy and
I often remember to give thanks to God for all of these great blessings.

This year has been filled with lots of adjustment and changes that have been
difficult for all of us. There were times I questioned my sanity especially
when Evan would throw one of his famous tantrums or the boys would fight. 12
months after receiving Evan into our arms he is a different kid. No longer a
baby but a real little boy who loves cars and looks up to his big brother. He
has a great sense of humor and showers us with lots of kisses and hugs too. I
absolutely love watching my boys play together. You can see the admiration that
Evan has for Daniel. Whatever big brother is doing you can bet that a smaller
version will be following closely behind.

Daniel has been an amazing big brother. There are times when he declares that
he no longer wants a little brother and then immediately asks Evan to play with
him. He is protective of Evan and shares his most precious toys with him too.
Watching their relationship grow and blossom over this year has been a joy.
When watching the video of receiving Evan into our arms you can hear Daniel in
the background yelling "my brother, my brother, that's my brother". I will
never forget that first night in our hotel room when Daniel leaned over the bed
and kissed his little brothers head and said "I love you, little brother".

This is what I dreamed about all of the years that we were trying to build our
family. All of the pain as door after door closed and the wait grew longer and
longer. This journey was worth the wait, worth the pain and worth the sadness
because now I have the two most precious children I could have ever hoped for
and I thank God that he chose me to be their mother. I am a very lucky Mama!

Halloween 2010

Sunday, November 21, 2010

I know it has been a long time since my last post. That is because I have been so busy running my little characters around town! Daniel is in Mother's Day Out twice a week, Kindermusik, Awana (bible club) and both boys have speech classes and all three of us take Mandarin classes (Chinese). We have been having a great time attending all of our activities as well as having play dates with friends. The last week in October was especially busy because of Halloween.

I love Halloween. When I was a kid it was one night and now for my kids it is a whole week of activities! There are so many things to do that I have to restrain myself from attending all of them or we will end up sick from exhaustion. This Halloween was special because it was Evan's first. He wore Daniel's costume from two years ago and was adorable. Daniel was Batman. He wore that outfit everyday for five days. He loved running around with his cape flowing in the wind while he fantasized about "crashing the bad guys". Evan was a dinosaur and when requested to do so, he would roar like a lion, very cute!

Our Halloween extravaganza started with going to the Story Book Forest at Lake Arcadia in Edmond. We had never attended this before and it is now my favorite Halloween activity! The parks department sets up trick-or-treating stations along a tree lined path through the forest. Each stop is a famous story like; Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and The Three Little Pigs. At each stop children were allowed to take one piece of candy. On the first stop Evan tried to take a handful of candy. After prying it out of his little hand, he threw a major tantrum when he realized that there was more candy to come, he was excited. At the end of the path there was a hayride, games, roasting marshmallows and hot dogs. It was awesome.

Friday was a pumpkin patch with some friends, Saturday afternoon carving pumpkins with Uncle Gary & Grandma and Saturday night was Trick-0r-treating with more friends and Sunday night was a trunk-or-treating at Daniel's Mother's Day Out church. It was almost too much fun. Daniel said his favorite part was trick-or-treating with his friend Nathan. Nathan was Spider man so it was fun watching the cutest ever Spider man and Batman running around from house to house collecting their treats!

Evan's Birthday Party

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Today was a big day for Evan as he celebrated his 2nd birthday with his first
birthday party in America!  Since he loves Thomas the Train that was the theme
for his party.  He was so excited with he saw Thomas on his cake.  When he
opened his first birthday gift he didn't want to let go of it to open another. 
Daniel and his friend wanted to see the gift, but Evan wasn't about to let that
happen.  The only way I was able to get him to let go of his new treasure was to
put it back into it's gift sack and put it under the table.  Once it was safe
from his big brother's hands he could focus on opening the other gifts.  Evan
still doesn't understand what he is supposed to do with a wrapped gift but he
let me guide his hands and eventually he tried a little on his own. 

After all of the gifts were opened, we enjoyed cake and ice cream.  We helped
Evan to blow out his candles.  If you ask him how old he is he will hold up two
fingers while giving a big smile, it is absolutely adorable!

Since it was a beautiful day we headed outside.  Brian had a fire going in the
fire pit so everyone could roast marshmallows.  The kids also enjoyed blowing
bubbles and running around.  Evan had a wonderful time playing with his
six-year-old cousin, Madison.  She played with him and he enjoyed every minute! 
Daniel had so much fun helping me plan Evan's party that he is now busy planning
his own party....for February!  I guess it is never to early to start!

Evan's Big Birthday Weekend!

Evan turned two on Friday, September 24th and we kicked it off with a bang. We got up early and met up with My friend and her son to ride on Thomas the Train. Evan loves Thomas and makes a great train whistle sound whenever he sees him. Even though Daniel claimed to not like Thomas he was excited to see him when we crossed the street into the exhibit.

We did many things including climbing on the jungle gym, playing with the trains on the train tables and watching a magic show that Daniel thought was very funny. When it was our turn to ride on Thomas, Evan rushed to our stroller to get in when I noticed that he was having a hard time getting in and that is when I started laughing because he had his arms filled with trains that he took from the train table. I had to pry them from his hands and boy did he have a meltdown. It was no big deal since he was only one of many who were having similar moments.



Daniel was extremely excited to ride the train but Evan didn't seem to share in his excitement. I think he tolerated the ride and was anxious to get back to the train tables which by the way, we have one at home. After the ride or before (can't remember which doesn't really matter to the story) we got in line to take a picture in front of Thomas. Daniel was all ready for his picture with Thomas but, Evan, not so much. He did not like me leaving him on the bench with only his brother. We tried having the two boys standing next to each other then sitting. Nothing worked so I had Daniel take the picture by himself. I didn't think until later that I should have taken the picture with them. The best picture I got of the two of them was Evan pushing Daniel away.



Daniel's picture turned out so sweet so I had them make me a copy. This picture is the one that I took while they were taking the good picture.





After a fun morning and afternoon we headed back home for a quick rest before we headed out for our evening of fun. This time we were headed to UCO for the Asian Student Association Moon Festival. This festival is very important to all Asian people as it marks the first full moon of the Fall. In China they shoot fireworks for hours at a time to commemorate the occasion. We didn't have fireworks at our celebration but there was food, activities, and a show with Japanese drummers and ended with not one but three Chinese Lion dancers that was about the best we have ever seen. The best part of the entire evening was seeing many of our adoptive family friends that have become like another family to us.

At the end of the evening we headed to a local Chinese restaurant where Daniel and Evan enjoyed lots of noodles!

The next morning (Saturday) we met with another family to tour the Orr Family Farm. The boys had a great time seeing animals, jumping on a pillow trampoline and riding pedal cars (OK, I did too)! The highlight of the morning was riding the hay truck to the pumpkin patch to choose our pumpkins. I'm sure Evan thought we were crazy but he is so good about going with the flow. He chose his pumpkin and Daniel did too but had a hard time holding onto his. We rode the wagon back to main part of the farm where we tried out a giant slide and then rode a small steam engine train around the park. About lunch time we headed back home and Evan slept until early evening. It was a lot of fun and yes, there is such a thing as having too much fun!