The Tooth Fairy Sucks!

Truth be told, I suck. See, when your kid loses a tooth, then puts said tooth under his pillow, even if they're the smartest kid in the world, they believe wholeheartedly that the Tooth Fairy does exist and will indeed come and magically change said tooth into $$. The problem arises when mommy forgets to "tell the Tooth Fairy" there's a pick-up and said child accidentally brushes the tooth out form under his pillow in the middle of the night, never to be found. Now, said child thinks the Tooth Fairy jipped him and proceeded to write the following letter:

Yup, that's definitely my kid! Not gonna be taken advantage of....gettin' to the bottom of injustice and makin darn sure he can be contacted in the event of the Tooth Fairy owning up to her mistake!~ Gotta admire his forthrightness!

Some more Floridian Winter for ya...

Have I mentioned how much we love the beach and how I didn't really think I'd miss it this much once we moved further inland? We LOVE the beach! I mean, how could you not when there are super cute old people just laying around, soakin it up and giving in? How cute is he? (No we're not related - he was just some random old dude.)

Cate, if you blow this pic up and look closely, you can see some really nice twist dreads forming quite nicely! Of course I had just done them the day before! Silly me! (I will post better pics of his hair once I get my new beeswax on Thursday - this stuff is CRAZY awesome and works like nothing else!)

Anyone wanna guess how long it took me to get all that sand outta his velcro hair? That was NOT fun!

Cai was practicing being at one with the sand. He stayed in this position for an extraordinary amount of time.

Then decided he would rinse off, but you know how that goes.

Too much sun and fun...

Cai lurvs to throw sand, but Papa reprimanded him for it after he repeatedly hit Phoenix in the back of the head. Phoenix feigned insult and well.....

This pathetic little picture of defeat is what transpired.

Hot Winter!

I know many of you who read this blog are shivering in your long johns right now and for that, I am sorry. Hopefully, pictures of our weekend at the beach, in near 90 degree weather will warm you up! Here's the scene: Jensen Beach, Florida. Ocean inlet with a park and fishing pier. Low tide. Early morning. Fiddler and horseshoe crabs. Dolphins. Yes, I said dolphins - playing and chasing their breakfast not too far off the end of the pier. Bar-B-Q. Afternoon fishing. Boys caught enough fish for dinner! Hazaa!

Our little girl....

Yeah, that's right, I said it. Let me tell you a story.

There is a little girl. A sweet little girl who desperately needs help. (And I'm such a sucker for situations that need fixing!) Her name is Saraphina and she has been in the same Haitian orpahange we adopted our 2 boys from, for 2 years now. Some of you may know, some of you may not know, but she was in the process of being adopted. That was until recently.

Recently, it was found out that she has Sickle Cell Anemia. For those of you unfamiliar, I will give a brief synopsis. Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease in which, basically, your blood cells are misshapen. While normal blood cells are round, squishy little things, Sickle Cell blood cells are shaped like crescents. This makes for very painful passage through the blood cells, bouts of "pain episodes" and a shortened life expectancy (about 40-50 years). Now, in America, this is both a very treatable and in fact, CURABLE, illness. In Haiti however, this can be quite fatal. Blood type/availability is not certain, nor is the affordability/availability of transportation to where blood is for a transfusion should a "pain episode" occur.

Long story short, she desperately needs to come to the States on a medical visa. Here she can get the treatment she needs and a chance to not only survive, but be cured. Here's where we come ito the story. Because of our involvement with her previous adoption process and many other issues that I won't get into here, we feel it our duty to step up and take responsibility for this little cast away. God has not yet said no and plans have been set in motion to get her here. We will be her host family while she is receiving treatment and she is likely to be here around the end of March if all goes well.

Honestly, after much deliberation and prayer, we've realized that it will likely be very hard to give her up to another family, both on us and her. So, we will likely begin the process of adopting her a few months after she gets here.

We don't even have a car that fits our whole family at this moment. Our truck got totaled and our awesomeness of a pastor is loaning us his station wagon. We don't have anything for a girl.....don't even know what to do with one of those! Point is, this is what we have been called to do. To obey - to step out - blerg, to leap out! And that's what we're doing. God will take care of the rest.

Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up so that when you start seeing random pics of a little girl in our house in a couple months, you won't be all like wtfrak? what just happened?

Cai's Best Friend

His name was Jiminy. He was just waking up from his winter sleep and was sunning himself on the sidewalk. In true Cai Cai fashion, he walked right up to him, said "Hello, friend," put his hand down, and Jiminy crawled right on. He and Cai hung out for about a half hour before Jiminy crawled up to Cai's shoulder, flicked his wings and flew away. Cai was devastated. He had lost his best friend. Ice cream was in order.

Best. Present. Ever.

Today, the mail lady brought what has to be the best. present. EVER. Our friend, affectionately known and heretofore referred to as "the Dood," had purchased this for us for Christmas. It's called the "Yacker Tracker." For those of you that grew up in the 80's with me, this may bring a bit of silly nostalgia. Crushing on Ricky Schroeder in Silver Spoons, I always wanted a real working stop light in my room. Now, I have one with a purpose!

This beauty is a noise level detection and deterrent system! That's right! Just plug this bad boy in, set it to the acceptable decibel level and let the quiet times roll! Those who know me know that I, in futility, utter the phrases, "Quiet down," "Settle down," and "Shush, shush please" (think the scene in Encino Man where the douche jock is hanging the sweet nerd from his undies on the wall of the cafeteria). I'm not thick, I know the futility of my attempts with 4 boys in the house. But this, this is my hope, my audio savior.


I set mine to decibel level 60. This seems acceptable for now. When all is good and the noise level is acceptable, the light remains green. When the noise level creeps to 15 decibels above what has been set, the light flashes yellow. Once it reaches 30 decibels above what has been set, the red light flashes and a siren briefly sounds. Now, with a noise monitor, one would question the decision of making a loud siren go off once the noise has already reached epic proportions, but I can appreciate the idea. It lets the kids know, without me saying anything, to settle down or the pain is coming!

To put this in perspective, normal conversation flows at around 40 decibels. A restaurant during rush hour, hits levels of around 80 decibels and roadside construction hits around 110. That's right, the noise in my house at any given time is between rush hour at a restaurant and roadside construction. But, not any more!

So, thank you to "the Dood!" A brilliant, funny friend who truly cares for our family, and my sanity! If you want to get one for your family (a Yacker Tracker, not "the Dood"), hit up Amazon.

Teach a boy to fish....

and one day, maybe he'll catch something instead of his mom having to draw imaginary fish hanging from his imaginary line!! See what happens when I get bored? Bored, you say? With 4 BOYS? Yes, bored.....it was VERY cold today and I made my son pose outside, BAREFOOT, for this pic in 45 degrees.....Yeah - I'm a good mom!

Brotherly Lurv

Trying...not.....to....cry.

They get it. The bonding has begun.

Our standing arrangement is that if the boys behave well all day, they get to play Rock Band with mommy and daddy before bed. Moise was good today. Logan however was quite disrespectful, mouthy and all together argumentative. After he completely ignored 4 separate requests I made of him after dinner tonight, Daddy made the decision that Logan would not be allowed to play. Then something spectacular happened. Moise, realizing he would not be playing with his brother and that his brother would miss out on the fun, interceded on his brother's behalf! That's right...INTERCEDED! He told Logan, "You must say you're sorry! Mean it!" Then Moise turned to Daddy and pleaded for a commutation of Logan's sentence. He insisted that Logan was sorry and would apologize."

It was beautiful. It was sincere. It was a moment. Much like the stirring moments earlier i the day...moments of change, so brief, so small but so significant. They have become brothers.

A Moment in History

Sitting down in front of the computer, explaining what Inauguration Day represented, what it meant and why this particular one is so very important, I didn't expect the tears that came. The more I told my natural born son and my Haitian son, who has just become a citizen of this wonderful country, about the great importance of this moment, the more choked up I became. To realize that for hundreds of years, black people of all nationalities have been disrespected, mistreated, made to live in a manner less than worthy....to witness this moment when equality has truly come. When a black man, has risen above, to now sit in the highest office in the land....That stirs emotions. It doesn't matter if you agree with his politics, or even if you personally like him. That one fact, the historicity of it all, is enough. As a mother now of black children, immigrated and now citizens, it is powerful. We watched the inauguration together, and though I doubt that either of them really "got" it, they will. Soon they will understand. Soon they will know that they lived in a time of change. They witnessed a historical turning point in our nation - one that will hopefully, prayerfully, bring about change for the good.

Tampa Zoo

Today was our first trip to the Tampa Zoo and Moise and phoenix's first time to any zoo - EVER. It was a GREAT time and Moise especially was overjoyed to be so close to the animals and able to touch them! I've been to MetroZoo and the Palm Beach Zoo and the Tampa Zoo is by far the BEST ZOO EVER! The weather was perfect, everyone had fun and we can't wait to go back! I'll be uploading more pic sinto a slideshow tomorrow, so check back for that.

A beautiful sight....

I love Cai's heart. It's so big and so compassionate. I see great things for him in the future....

Christmas Morning....so far

Christmas Morning thus far has been surprisingly peaceful and low key. We got up at 5:45 to try to beat the kids, but as soon as we walked out, Logan and Phoenix came strolling out. Moise came out 1/2 hour later and we finally had to wake up Cai shortly after that. Each boy had 1 unwrapped present under the tree and were allowed to play with those as well as whatever was in their stockings while Jeremy made breakfast. During breakfast, Jeremy read the Christmas story and then it was present time! Each boy opened one present at a time so mommy could get good pics. Fab idea as it created this calm instead of feeding frenzy! Now, everyone is playing happily and the turkey is about ready to come out. We'll post more pics at the end of the day. Merry Christmas EVERYONE!

Christmas in the Square

Our church held Christmas Eve service in the historic downtown square of Ocala. It is beautiful and every year it gets decorated with millions of lights and the horse-drawn carriages come out to play! It would have made for a picture-perfect Christmas Eve had it not been 82 degrees! In any event, the boys were excited to get to hold candles and sing, but were super disappointed that the whole thing was only 30 minutes. Bummer, indeed. Then we went to KFC for some holiday grub, only to wait 25 minutes in line before being told that when we placed out order they had already run out of food and it would be an additional 30 minutes before any magically appeared! Bah-humbug! (I had other choice words, but we'll stick with Bah-Humbug!) Then we went to Steak and Shake which had already closed for the evening and were forced to seek food in other, less desirable locations. But, I digress. The kids are in bed, sound asleep, and the presents are being placed under the tree presently! I have to go help Mr. Claus now .... maybe there'll be milk and cookies in it for me!

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Weekend...

Let the fun begin!

Downtown Disney!!

The benefit of living where we live is that Disney and all is glittery, shiny, ooey-gooey goodness is a mere 45 minutes away! This was a weekend a relatively money-less fun, which is ALWAYS a good thing! The weekend started off with the baking of some super yummy peanut butter cookies! The big boys helped with he rolling and the forking (hehe!) and of course, with the taste-testing! Then on Saturday it was off to Orlando for some fun. You have to realize, my kids idea of a grand time is an hour in Smaland at IKEA. And since IKEA is mommy's happy place, we were happy to oblige! I have already bored you with my long-winded ramblings of my love of all things IKEA, so I will spare you this time! After IKEA, we headed to Downtown Disney. By the time we got there, it was already dark, which was really our plan all along! The whole area/marketplace is done up in the beauty and excitement and the gaiety of the holiday season! Lights, street performers, Christmas music, special yumminess to sample and of course, a train ride! The kids LOVED watching the silly husband/wife yoyo team, the jugglers, the Renaissance string trio ad the Toy Soldiers on stilts! All of this goodness would blow any little kids' mind - but for 2 little ones who just came from Haiti - well, there was a glaze and a sparkle in their eyes, a ridiculously large grin and silly dancing any time we stopped for but a moment! Moise's mission was just to get to the train. He's obsessed with trains and to get to ride on one - well, there wa nothing to make him happier! Well, maybe except for the cotton candy and Mickey Mouse lollipops! Oh, and getting to take his picture with his hero, Buzz Lightyear. And, did I mention the "what the heck is that?" discussion he had with Logan upon seeing the life-size Lego Santa Claus? Pretty funny! Even Jeremy had a "happy shiver" moment when he stumbled upon the fully assembled Lego Deathstar in the Lego store! Speaking of Lego store....when putting your child on your shoulders and browsing a store, always, ALWAYS have your spouse check the caboose, lest you end up with a really great photo-op! In case you're wondering about the water- fountain pic - it took him a while to figure out the whole water fountan thing, since it was his first time using one - pretty funny!

Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!

Charlie Brown Christmas Revisited from Heather Pihl on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving Pt.2 + Grandparents Weekend

This weekend marked the last of our Thanksgiving celebrations. My parents came up from South Florida and spent the weekend. We also decided to celebrate Mo's birthday. It's not until December 22nd, but we wanted him to have a real birthday experience and not feel either jipped or overwhelmed. So, my parents brought him up his birthday present: a new bike. He was retardedly happy and took off like a rocket! My mom brought up hats and gloves she'd made for the boys and they were in heaven! Their little hands have been SO COLD these past few weeks! We also went and got a Christmas tree and spent the day decorating it. What fun for the boys! Their first Christmas! I wanted to get pics of Mo picking out his first ever Christmas tree, but I had taken my mom's cam since it fit in my purse and failed to realize that my SDHC card wouldn't work in an regular digital SD camera. Grrrr! So, no pics. Anyway, plenty of pics of the decorating and such...so enjoy!!

Boys bein boys

Caught the boys wrestling....

Have I mentioned that I <3 this kid's laugh?

Portrait of (2) 13 year olds! cn u c it?

Cai-ism Pics

Since a picture is worth a thousand Cai-isms.....BEHOLD! The Cai:

And say hello to his little friend!

Pics of Boys

Took pics of Moise and Phoenix this morning just cause it was cold and they were cute. I love the last one cause it looks like such a "superhero" shot! Please to enjoy: