Fun at the Train Museum

The Temple Train Museum always has a Christmas event. This was by far Clark's favorite visit to Santa because he handed out fruit snacks to the children. Clark devoured about 4 packs in 2-3 minutes.

San Antonio Trip

I don't like sitting around the house for more than two consecutive days when I'm off work, so we took a quick trip down to San Antonio. It was one of those times where I was completely and perfectly happy. I have every reason in the world to have these moments every day with what the Lord has blessed me with. However for some reason, I very rarely get overwhelmed with joy. This was one of those times though. The kids were perfect all day. While Shannon was at the outlet mall, we went to Wonder World in San Marcos. The kids liked seeing the cave and feeding the deer. From there we took our last visit to Fiesta Texas for the year. They even had a sledding hill with snow (or Sonic type ice). Audrey is a getting big! She rode the Road Runner Express ride twice. Apparently Shannon screamed the whole time, while Audrey laughed. From there we went to our hotel on the Riverwalk. We walked around, went to the Alamo and saw all of the lights. We almost went to The Lion King as it was being performed right two blocks from our hotel, but didn't want to pay $125 a ticket. We then topped the night off with some Hagen-Daaz ice cream. It was some flavor Shannon found a couple years ago in Boston but has been unable to find since. Audrey summed up the whole day perfectly when she yelled at the top of her lungs on the Riverwalk, "I love my family."

Christmas Program

Audrey performed very well in her Christmas program at school.

Fashion

Two different senses of fashion.

In Which Clark Challenges Joel to a Duel

Open Gym

We took the kids to local gymnastics place for open time. The kids loved it! I don't think Clark stopped running for 2 hours. He routinely cut in front of kids. We couldn't believe they would let Clark on this harness but he loved it. Audrey and her friend Emily had a blast jumping on the trampolines.

Snow Princess

c

Audrey went to a great birthday party today for her friend. The party favor was this cape which I'm sure will be worn daily for many months.

Cute note

I got home from the grocery store to find this post-it note on the front door:

Whee or goweeg too Masees too get mom a speshll treet at Masees.

This writing just kills me. It's so funny and she does it all day every day (can you tell we learned the digraph wh this week?).

Unfortunately the "speshll treet" she had picked out for me was a $450 ring. So they didn't pick it up. :( She even offered to help pay for it!

Tree Decorating

The kids got ornaments from our Estes Park trip this year.

He's a Morrison

You might not know the Morrisons well enough if you don't know why this is funny. For those of you who would like to be filled in. We ate a lot of meals by ourselves. Mainly cereal. Love you Bethers. But anyway, we need some sort of reading material anytime we sit down to eat.

Watercolors

Audrey's favorite activity these days...here is Elmo with Dorothy.

Big news!

Today we received a letter we have been waiting for to make our big announcement...we are adding to our family!

We have begun the process of adopting from Rwanda! We are all so excited and ask for your prayers along the way. Everything has moved very quickly (astonishingly so) up to this point and now the waiting begins.

I'm sure you'll have lots of questions so I have tried to think of the most common ones we get and list them here:

Why adoption? Why international adoption? Why Rwanda?
We have always wanted to adopt in a general sense. We've met and hugged and cried for orphans in the US, Haiti, Belize, and Mexico and knew that adopting was definitely something we wanted to pursue. We have always wanted a large family and it just made sense for us to grow our family in this way. Josh took an amazing course last year called Perspectives and through all that he learned in that class we decided we wanted to do international adoption. Josh first fell in love with Africa in college when he took Swahili so we narrowed it down to that continent (where there are approximately 50 million orphans). Our dear friends the Lowes and our cousins the Medinas both did Ethiopia so we looked into that, and then our friends the Bowers told us that they had just begun the process of adopting in Rwanda. We immediately loved the idea of Rwanda. We've had a deep affection for Rwanda ever since we saw Hotel Rwanda, and our church has a partnership with ALARM, an amazing ministry based in Rwanda (this video from ALARM's website is amazing). Celestin Musekura's sermon at our church had brought us to tears. When I investigated it further, the program sounded ideal. It's a small country (10 million people) with a small international adoption program (17 adopted to the US last year). It's less expensive than some other programs, and the wait can be shorter too. Best of all, we discovered a couple of unique things about the program that addressed some of our anxiety about adopting. In Rwanda it is illegal to abandon your children (in some countries families unable to feed their children drop them off at orphanages and may or may not return). So orphans in Rwanda are true orphans (their parents are dead or they were found on a street corner with no identifying information). In addition, there is no fee to adopt in Rwanda. So the combination of those factors made us feel certain that we would not be prey to any "baby-buying" schemes.

So what's next?
We have to get a couple of documents authenticated in Washington DC and then deliver them to the Rwandan Embassy. The Ambassador will issue a "non-objection letter" and then our dossier will be on a plane to Rwanda! It will be sent to the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion there, where they will review our file and then issue an approval (usually 4-6 month wait). About 8 weeks after approval, the nuns that run the orphanage will give us a referral with pictures, medical report, and age. We have 24 hours to accept or reject the referral, and our court date happens pretty quickly after that. Usually parents travel 2-6 weeks after referral. We'll spend a week in Rwanda and then head to Nairobi for US immigration processing.

What are you requesting?
We've requested one or two children younger than Clark.

What agency are you using?
We are not using an agency. The Rwandan government prefers to work with independent families so we have chosen to try the DIY route. We used an amazing agency, Generations Adoptions, in Waco to write our homestudy report. It was hands-down the best experience we could have hoped for, and a much better experience than any of our friends have had as well. I can't recommend them enough!

Thanks so much for your support and prayers. If you have more questions, please feel free to comment and we'll try to answer them! Let the waiting begin!

What's on the menu at Audrey's Restaurante

Why, we have chips and queso, extra tortillas, taco soup, enchiladas, quesadillas, ice cream and M&Ms cookies.

*Edited to add, sorry to those of you non-grandparents who might be tired of the phonetic spelling.

This fall's new trends

Audrey recommends pink and red striped sweater, green t-shirt, patchwork skirt, black polka dot leggings and rain attire.

Crazy Hair Night

Mt. Bonnell

We had a great day today in Austin. We started out with breakfast at a fancy ChickFilA!

Then we headed to Mt. Bonnell for a little hike.

More fonetik spelling...

Dog Cat
Dofin kilr wel (dolphin killer whale)
mustr lidl mustr (monster little monster)
baby mustr horbll (baby monster horrible)
baby god he wus born
in chrismis
papp brfday happy brfday
too you i love lord jesus

Before and After

Here's our little guy this weekend. I don't remember when his last haircut was, March maybe?

Glen offered 4 different times to give us money for a haircut, and two old people at Northside clinic thought he was a girl, so I figured it was time.

And a little Derek Zoolander action.

You owe me $10, Glen.

How to Exercise while watching TV

This is what Clark does anytime there is a football game on TB (what he calls TV).

Halloween

Audrey's Race

Audrey ran in a .5 mile race today and finished without walking once!

Cuties in costume

Ariel and Harvey Penick had a great time handing out candy tonight.

Still Football Season

e

Clark's souvenir from Chicago was Bears jersey (yes, I know Grossman doesn't play for them anymore but for $10 what can you expect). We made a special trip to the Shedd Aquarium gift shop to get Audrey's beluga whale souvenir. Here's yet more pics of Clark with his football.. Let me first say that I am not a deadbeat dad and I throw, catch and play tackle him daily. However, Clark's love for football is so much he has resorted to throwing the ball to himself, catching it, running around and tackling himself. Audrey didn't want anything to do with football and resorted to the ole reliable tire swing.

Lazy Sunday

We had a pretty quiet day around the house with the rain we got. Audrey asked me, "What is the name of the football team we like?" So I got her cheerleader outfit out and Clark then demanded his Texans shirt. Audrey made a sign for the game and when she finished she said, "Dad-you can hold me up like a cheerleader now."

Fonetik Spelling

But Mom I luv giteng sunbrn wif my cusin molly but my ant ferfer puts her loshin on me my.

More Baseball Pics

We aren't exaggerating when we say that all Clark likes to do all day is play some sort of sport. I took him to the driving range today and had to drag him home. "More golf. More golf, Daddy!" Here's some recent baseball pics from our recent San Antonio trip.

I'm seeing a theme here...

Almost word-for-word what I just heard from Clark in bedtime prayers:

Thank you God for

baseball game
ChuckECheese
animals on YouTube
Astros
Express
Astros ball
Astros bat
glub (glove)
Baylor hat
Baylor Bears basketball goal
Handy Manny ball
football
Spiderman bat
Daddy soccer ball (this means it's a big one)
baby soccer ball (this means it's a little one)
golf club
the other golf club
and the other golf club
and Audrey.

Amen.

Golf Clubs

So I had a dilemma when we moved to Temple and we had children.

Problem
#1 Not many of my friends play golf here in Temple.
#2 I don't like to spend 4 hours away from my kids on the weekend.

Solution

Call the Bullpen- "Bad Throw"

Clark isn't too happy about my pitching. He does insist on having batting practice everyday for about 30 minutes though.

I will become by earth, presidents, and heaven.

um guess who needs a haircut

First Day of School

one girl, many faces.

Last Weekend of Summer

I'm not 100% it counts but we did make a quick trip this weekend to Galveston/Houston. So it depends on your definition of swimming holes if we completed our task or not. I do think we will try to visit some in a couple weeks down in San Antonio. I (Josh) had a great time being with my kids as Shannon went on a girl's weekend trip. We went down to Galveston with Gigi, Dada, Carol, Lauren and the kids. Then we had a great suprise as Bebe, Pop, and Molly showed up. There had been rumors they may come but in somewhat typical Bales fashion- no direct communication to confirm.











After the beach, Clark went to his first Astros game. He was in love. The pic from the rail is when he first got in the stadium and ran to see what it was all about. It was another of those times when I can say that I would have rather done nothing else in the world. Holding him and watching him take in everything was really special. His expression in the up close picture tells it all. He yelled "Go Astros" and kept wanting to go find that rabbit (their mascot, Junction Jack). After we bought his Astros logo ball (tradition for all the ball parks he visited which I do have to rebuy thanks to the guy who broke in our house), he wouldn't let it go at all. Kudos to Brigid for getting me a Biggio collectible even though we weren't one of the first 10,000.

Fort Worth -#4

Our great friends Chris and Anna recently returned from overseas missions and brought home two really cute children, Ezekiel and Nehemiah. Please check their blog out to see how richly the Lord blesses those who follow his commands. We celebrated Anna and Ezekiel's birthdays along with the Billmans in Fort Worth. Since we were in Fort Worth already, we decided to visit Burger Lake to cross #4 off our list of swimming holes. I'll have to say it was probably my favorite so far because there was so much to do with the kids. It's a spring fed lake but obviously from the pics they've added some slides and diving boards. Next time we go up to Ft. Worth, we'll try to go back for sure.

Krause Springs-#3

We got to mark off #3 on our swimming holes goal. Krause Springs is in Spicewood close to Marble Falls. They had a rope swing and a cliff to jump off. Jake and Kalan came up to share in the fun. If you look close in our family pic you can see a guy doing a flip off the cliff. Or you could just look at the other guy about to eat it off the swing.

Swimming Holes

So we set a summer goal of visiting swimming holes. #1 was Pace Park in Salado which we've gone too. For my birthday Shannon surprised me with a visit to Blue Hole in Georgetown for #2 on our list. Often times I hear people complain about there not being anything to do in Temple, but when you come from the Beaumont swamp where the Neches river is your main water source there is plenty to do here in regards to water activities. We visited the Monument Cafe before dinner. I like this picture of the three of us at dinner. Kind of like a cheesy band photo were no one looks at the camera.

Hiking in His Creation

Josh and I took the beloved Sky Pond hike which is a long and somewhat challenging hike up past the timberline. but boy is it worth it.

First you get to Alberta Falls.


Then the Loch Vale.



Climb up Timberline Falls,
then you'll be at Lake of Glass.


A short climb later and you're staring at Taylor's Peak (the continental divide) overlooking Sky Pond.

It's absolutely breathtaking (even the fifth time). I kept singing to myself the old hymn, Fairest Lord Jesus. You know the first verse, here's the rest.

Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring: 
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host: 
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.

Beautiful Savior!  Lord of all the nations! 
Son of God and Son of Man! 
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.

Clark's knees are the result of 9 falls during our 1 mile hike to Alberta Falls. I do have to commend the lil dude because it never deterred him and he continued to run the whole mile down the mountain. We found out the Clark loves mini-golf and you can't hit your ball until he is completely finished. They both had a fantastic time riding the ponies. Apparently, I'm also the meanest dad in the world because I made Clark's trout bleed.

Colorado Vacation

This week we met my dad's family in Estes Park for an awesome vacation to Estes Park (where we went every other year when I was growing up). We're officially hooked. We haven't been since our honeymoon (7! years! ago!) and we're planning on going back next year. So here's your official invitation to join us! Somewhere around July 17, 2010 is the likely date.

Here's the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen. It was actually a double rainbow (though it didn't come out in this picture) and I learned for the first time that in a secondary rainbow the colors are inverted. We also could see the end of the rainbow on the ground (another first for me).


The view of my parents' cabin's front porch:


The hummingbirds went crazy for this food--at one point we saw seven hummingbirds crowded around it.


Audrey with my cousin Dani who is 6.


And this is Steven...one of Dani's big brothers. He is all-boy...or couldn't you tell?


Josh and Clark found a fishing pole and Clark quickly learned how to cast and reel in the line.