Its been a long time again between posts, sorry about that. Life just goes on and things are busy so I don't get time to sit in front of the computer and type up a monologue of happenings.

Today we went to town to get the mini dossier notorized and on its way to be apostilled. It should be on its way to Russia toward the end of next week. That doesn't mean there will be news forthcoming, it just means another step has been completed. We don't expect to have any news for another 4 weeks at the very least.

Will had his 4th birthday party at the pool this morning so we went in for that and then crowded the rest of the morning and early afternoon with appointments. Seems like any trip to town takes all day. Brayden had a blast in the pool as usual. He was hoping Miss Alex would be there, but to his disappointment she wasn't. We got out the pool toys though and they got to play with them and had a great time. He remembered how to get the rings off the bottom of the pool and ride the "horsey".

It is sad tonight though cuz when we came home we saw that Midas had NOT made it across the road for mouse hunting this afternoon. We had a short little teaching moment about why we don't go across the road without mommy and daddy and then had a little burial in the back yard. He will be missed by our little family though we won't be getting another one. He was a real moody and different cat, but I loved him anyway. :-) I am actually really sad to lose him. Its a risk we take every day letting them be outside, but he loved to catch mice.

Best get on with the rest of my day, while it is getting dark it isn't all that late yet. Here are a couple pics of Brayden's day.

We all had a monkeyin good time Saturday evening. Everything went off with a bang. Brayden loved the cake, loved the masks, loved the presents!! It was quite fun to have a house full again and he enjoyed all the attention to the extreme. He now has new toys to occupy his time. Currently our house is empty again, Uncle Bobby left this morning, driving back home on his birthday!! Brayden is at the kitchen table playing with his playdough machine and tons of play dough! Its a nice activity and I haven't vaccuumed yet, so its ok to drop some on the floor too. He has played with everything he got and enjoyed all of it. We will have another small party tomorrow night, on the actual day. We have saved a couple packages for that event so he will think it must be Christmas already! I will post some videos on here shortly.

This is camera celebration sledding, what a little show off!!

October snowstorm, it made for lots of good fun.

Brayden woke up yesterday morning and it had snowed alittle in the night, he looked outside and said "mama, my birthday is coming soon." We had told him it would snow after his birthday sometime, well it has snowed before his birthday now so he knew it must be "in a minute". He just knows everything happens "in a minute". Thats his current answer each time I ask him to do something too "in a minute mama". Can ya tell he has been told that several times in his life. Another funny, yesterday he was sitting in his rocking chair in the living room holding one of his books singing at the top of his lungs, then "another" voice says "excuse me wrong page", he apologizes and turns the page and begins singing again. It happened several times that he had the wrong page. :-) That happened to mama a couple wed nights ago, I just heard the wrong number and so started the wrong song...well he has seen it done before altho not more than once in a mtg! Then after a few minutes "another voice" says "need to go pee" so off he goes taking his little boy to the bathroom (he goes pee himself) and then back to his chair and leading the singing. It is definitely that age where you see yourself imitated all the time and hear your own words come back to you more often than not. Last night Jana Pritz was here and we all got together at the college to see her pics and have supper. About 1/2 way through supper across the entire room this little boy hollers "mama I need to go poop" yup thats my boy, the other little boy is only a few months old so doesn't say such things. No crawling under the table and saying thats not my kid, nope just had to tell grin and head for the bathroom. :-) There is lots of joy, lots of fun, and a few embarrassing moments mixed into raising a child. We have entered the embarrassing moment phase!! Out of the mouths of babes come many many interesting things. We wouldn't really have it any other way. His English is amazing his vocabulary even more amazing. Jana said something to him in Russian last night, he just looked at her funny for a minute and then went on. It might have sparked a brief memory, but it wasn't anything he could understand. Well winter has apparently arrived to our little area. We went from winter to summer just bang, no real nice semi warm spring, then from summer we went to snow bang. There are still green leaves on our trees. Now in the other yard there are gold leaves on top of the snow. Don't see that very often. This snow is just sopping wet too. Big puddles of water underneath it all. Enough update for now, its time to get a snowman built with our little boy!

This is what we woke up to this morning. The road map says no unnecessary travel all around riverton and lander. Its really wet too, Brayden came back in from sledding and his snow pants were soaked. He loves the snow though, and was actually sweating underneath. Guess I had him warm enough!

Special News

Wanted to put a quick note here for those that I don't have email addresses for. We have started the process for adoption in Russia again. We do hope the relations between the US and Russia will hold up for a while longer at least. We have been assured that the adoption community is separate from foreign relations, but one still wonders. We are starting with the homestudy process now so it will take a while before we are ready to travel. We had thought we would keep this under wraps until the homestudy was done, but we have entered the era of NO SECRETS in our household. Brayden has been mentioning to people recently about going on an airplane to get his brother. Its cute, but it also means that there are no secrets, so we are throwing it out there for all to know now. He mentions getting his brother to me now and I tell him it will be awhile, he says "in a minute mama??" its all in a minute to him. We have chosen a different agency from last time, we hope for an easier time. We hope to go to the St. Petersburg/Lindengrad region this time, it means we can fly direct and bypass Moscow till the coming home on the second trip. We can only save money on travel, the rest of the expenses are set, so we hope to be able to travel in Jan or Feb when its so cold that airline tickets are less expensive. The best laid plans though, they almost never work the way we plan. We hope to be as lucky this time as we were with Brayden, we are asking for another boy under 24 months. We will post any updates here as they come along. They will be few and far between for now as paperwork moves slowly. Its very nice to have something to look forward to and work toward. Brayden is thrilled as is the rest of our family. He is so very social that he will do very well with a sibling to play with.