Bliss

I rarely take enough time, especially on the blog, to talk about my sweet husband. Usually our posts are about Jack and now the Z boys, our house, theme dinners, adoption, recipes, and other randomness. Since our anniversary is this Wednesday, I wanted to tell some of my FAVORITE things about him.

He's passionate about so many things. His zeal for the Lord is contagious. His love for me is always apparent. His family is his priority. Always. He's a Believer, Husband, Father, and Worship Leader. In that order.

He's constant. His mood rarely changes. He's quick to forgive and then forget. And never to bring it up again.

He's funny. Hilarious in fact. We laugh ALL THE TIME!

He's so personable, respectful, and polite with everyone.

He loves his job. And in my humble, but encouraging opinion, he's awesome at it. He's such a hard worker.

He takes care of himself: physically and spiritually. And good thing he exercises so much, because he loves to eat. Fortunately, I love to cook. :)

He truly lives out Ephesians 5 which says, "Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives."

Thank you for loving me consistently and unselfishly. I still get excited to see you walk in the door. I love watching you wrestle on the floor with boys climbing all over you. I love how you get so excited when you grill something. I love your impulse CD buys at Starbucks. I love how you Christmas shop on December 24 EVERY SINGLE YEAR. I love that your shoes are always in order. I love (and appreciate) that you always drive the crappy car so I can have the nice one and you never complain about it.

And this list, in NO WAY, can ever be complete. I'm better because of you. I love you.

Tyner Top Ten

1. We're giving our farmers' tans a break this week and "practicing" playing inside since it's been freakishly cold!
2. Dreading winter. (see #1)
3. Practicing, practicing, PRACTICING violin.
4. Ben Z can tie his shoes. He says, "My shoes tired!!!"
5. Eli Z has gained 4 pounds. He's not so itty-bitty anymore!
6. All 3 boys can now make noises with their armpits.
7. Made asparagus and everyone, I repeat, EVERYONE ate it.
8. Jack is finishing up his last full week of school!
9. Jack won the 100-yard dash at Field Day! (I'd like to say I snapped a picture, and I did, but of the wrong kid. My allergies were so bad, I didn't have my contacts in. Oops.)
10. I've scheduled myself a much-needed facial for Friday. :)

For the Grandparents

Jack's first violin recital is this week. We've been doing lots of extra practicing. Here's a short clip of his piece he'll be playing. It's MUCH longer, but only so much will download on the blog. He really wanted all the grandparents to see him play. :)

Energy Buster

Major changes will be happening at our house due to the tornado damage, and we might be finishing out our bonus room at the same time. Yippee! When we bought our house, which we still absolutely LOVE, we were a family of three and at that time, had no intentions of adopting. Now, adding two more people, we're utilizing every square inch. :) One thing I know, as much energy as these boys have, all three of them, we need another play space before the weather changes in the fall. We'll be going from about 4-5 hours of outside time to ZERO. This Florida girl, and I'm guessing these African boys, don't go outside if the temp is less than 50. So along with our bonus room, this will probably be our next purchase...

Blog Changes. Or Not.

So the header on our blog is of a super cute 4-year-old boy, who's now 7. And it featured our only child, who's not an only child anymore. And our blog address is jontyner.blogspot.com because Jon started it 4 years ago. He'd write about random things, and honestly, I never read it. Now he never writes on it. Some people have asked me when I'm going to update these things. The truth is, I'm not a tech-savvy person AT ALL, so I probably won't be changing anything. Since I'm not a creature of habit and like only a few things to be consistent, let's keep the outdated blog. And my morning cup of coffee. And the 8:00 kid bedtime. And that's all.

Blue...The New Black

The Tyner Language Institute

We found this website that translates words (on their list) from Amharic to English. Most of the time, it works great. Sometimes, it doesn't work since Amharic is the boys' second language. That's right. English is their THIRD! We're trying to video every bit of them talking to each other while they still remember their language, whatever they're speaking. For those of you expecting children from Ethiopia, this website is SO helpful!

It's absolutely hilarious to hear them put together English words. For example, when they know they've done something wrong, they say, "Good boy, no?" Ben Z asked me today in Wal-Mart, after seeing a pretty overweight man, "Eat 1 cookie? No, 10 cookies!" They get it. :) And Jack can interpret anything! Even things we don't understand. Maybe it's universal with kids.

Ben Z likes to quiz us on Amharic words. He'll say, "Mommy, dog?" and I have to give him the Amharic word which is wusha, or something like that. He thinks it's funny to hear us say his words. :)



Words they know now and can say:
Shirt
Shorts
Jeans
Socks
Shoes
Pajamas
Closet
Bed
Book
Eat
Hungry
Cheerios
Strawberries
Banana
Bike
Scooter
Helmet
Car
Sidewalk
Church
School
Store
House
TV
Not now
Later
Tomorrow
Swing
Turner :)
Bath time
Bedtime
Kitchen
And SO many more I just can't think of. :)

Life

Life has been happening in our house lately. We're on a pretty disciplined schedule right now, and for those of you who really know me, that's not how I roll. :) But for now, consistency is the key. We wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, make beds, say bye to Jack and Daddy, play outside on and off until lunch time, take naps, pick up Jack, play outside again until dinner time, bath, and bed. These boys LOVE to be outside! The occasional TV watching is thrown in there as well as puzzles, books, trains, and so on.

Some things of note, and really are of no importance, but we run out of food SO quickly! Everyone with boys is saying a big ol' fat I TOLD YOU SO right now, but seriously, they're only 3 and 4. And laundry. I just can't keep up! I know after they're really used to things, it will all get easier. But these boys have put anything and everything into an outlet, pulled every single string on every set of blinds, turned on every single light switch, touched every picture, stand in front of the oven just to see if it really is hot when I open it, ask for just one more bowl of Cheerios (just to make sure we actually have more), and still ask for coffee at least twice every day. The list could go on and on. And even though we missed their first steps, first words, and first tooth, we still have so many "firsts" with them. And it's amazing.

We were also hit with all these tornados last Wednesday, so we're waiting on insurance while we make sure our house is waterproof and pray the rain stays away until our roof and ceilings are repaired. The next day, someone backed into me at the grocery store. As Jon said one time, "LIfe happened today."

We had some new family pictures taken by a friend of ours, Jon Matthews. Check out his website here. I'll post a few of my favorites. :)

That's all for now. Back to life. :)