A beautiful day

 Ella loves exploring and is just so so curious about everything!  It's so much fun to watch and experience nature alongside her!

 Wait.  This rock isn't what I thought it would be.

 I love that this is our view when we walk to the park!

 Kisses for Ella!

This weather makes me long for spring!

My BIG boy!!

Casey has been doing so many big boy things lately!  The timing was actually perfect.  Ella has naturally been getting a lot of attention since her homecoming, so we've been intentionally focusing on making Casey feel special.  I am relieved to see that instead of regressing (as so many do when a new sibling arrives), he is more excited than ever to prove that he is a big boy!

He learned how to ride a big boy bike.

 Since his brothers got a bunk bed, he inherited a big boy bed!  (Poor little guy was sleeping on a futon mattress up until now.  ;)

And best of all, he is going potty in his big boy potty chair.  I should re-iterate... he is peeing in his big boy potty chair.  The other one... *sigh* not so much. :0)

I also just signed Casey up for preschool today!  This is the first year (after four years of driving Jacob and Gavin to preschool) that we took a break.  Between traveling to Russia and staying home with Ella, it has been really nice not to have to worry about preschool.  I really miss it though and he is really ready!  Plus, his best little friend will be in his class!!

Six weeks!

Ella has been home over a month already!  Some days it feels like we just brought her home and some days it feels like she has always been here.  It's been a strange adjustment to go from traveling on back to back trips to Russia to staying home the majority of the time.   Almost like you are in a whirlwind and, all of a sudden, it comes to a complete stop.  (Not that raising four children isn't a whirlwind in itself, but you get what I mean.  ;0) 

Although we were careful to stay home for the first several weeks, the bonding/attachment specialist from our agency was giving us some insight to see if Ella is adjusting well enough to slowly introduce her to our "normal" life.   (They basically want to see that she is depending on us instead of running into the arms of every random adult she sees.  ;)  When we first brought Ella home on Christmas Eve, she definitely would go to anybody without a second thought.  Everybody was so impressed with how friendly and easy going she was (since her survival in the orphanage depended on going to anyone who would care for her needs)... but it actually wasn't a good thing.  I have seen such a huge improvement with this in the past few weeks though!!  More often than not, when friends reach out to hold her and she shakes her hand "no" and clings to her mommy.  One friend who came over this morning was watching as Ella laid her head on my shoulder and snuggled into Adam and said, "Wow!  She is incredibly bonded with you both already!"  Which for an adoptive mom, is music to your ears.  :)

So after several weeks, we are finally starting to venture out!  Last weekend, we braved shopping with all four kids in search of a bunk bed for Jacob and Gavin.  Instead of the "Wow, three boys!  You sure have your hands full!" comments, we are now getting "So you finally got your girl!" comments.  That's one thing about adopting from Russia, everyone assumes she's biological.  We love telling them she's adopted though... it usually strikes up conversation and an opportunity to share our story.

I'm not gonna lie, life with four kids is seriously busy!  At one point yesterday, I set out to empty the dish washer and with all of the distractions in-between, it was another two hours before it finally got unloaded.  Potty training Casey has definitely added to the craziness.  Thank goodness (probably due to the fact he is three and a half... and that he will do almost anything for treats ;) potty training has been going well so far.  I was worried about Casey being jealous of Ella, but it ends up that lately Ella has been more jealous of Casey!  Even if I am playing with her at the same time, as soon as my attention shifts to Casey, Ella will let me know that she is one unhappy camper.  I guess, bonding-wise, it's a good thing she wants mommy all to herself?  Gavin cracked me up the other day because he saw Ella crying when I was giving Casey a hug and he said, "Mommy, I think Ella wants you to hug her too."  He is all about protecting his little sister already!!

 Feeding Sy.  Again.  ;)

 We asked Casey if he wanted Ella to sleep with him.  We were joking, but he seemed okay with it.  Until a few minutes later when we heard, "Mommy, get E-wa back in her crib!"

Reaching for Casey's potty treats...

... got 'em!

Saturday morning forts

Ella's horsie (from a very special friend)

Taking a bath with her big brother!

Considering she just broke two molars, she is one happy girl!

Winter wonderland

We were so excited to get some SNOW!!  There was a little bit of snow in Russia... not much though!  (Our tour guide was saying it was the mildest winter she had ever seen!)  Plus, we wanted to play in the snow with our kids!! 

Ella was loving it too!!

When it snows, we break out the go-cart, motorcycle, sleds... pretty much everything we can find!!

The boys made their first snowman all by themselves!!  Jacob said, "Come on Gavin, let's use teamwork!"  It was super sweet.

Meanwhile, Casey was throwing snowballs at me from our play fort.

The finished product with golden coins, a sucker, and Jacob's snow hat!

Daddy taking the boys out for a ride!

Ella even joined them for a bit (and daddy went really slow ;)

 

It kept snowing...

and snowing...

...and snowing!

Casey's favorite thing was for us to throw him snowballs and he would chop them in half, saying, "Hi-YAH!"

This is our neighbor's quad... but Adam is sure trying to convince me that our family needs one!  :)

 Gavin's hair was cracking me up!

Sweet girl... feeling right at home.

My little Case!

Ella is teething like crazy... she wants to knaw on everything!

Watching all the boys play!

 Daddy definitely helped with this snowman.  I think it's the tallest one we've ever built!!

 Later that night, we came out for more fun!  All of the "toppings" had fallen off the snowman's face, so Adam created his own masterpiece.  ;)

 And Casey built his first lil' snowman all by himself!

 The icicles were shooting out everywhere from our tree... so beautiful!

  Love this icicle with my family playing in the background.

 A winter wonderland for sure.  The power went out over the next few days and that wasn't as fun.  ;)  By the time it came back on, our snow was all gone.  :( :(