Kate's Day in Court

For those of you who thought that the adoption process was all over and done with for Kate, there was actually one last step...

While we should have done this last year, having a houseful of small children made it more difficult than with Sydney, and we just dragged our feet. Wednesday, though, we finally went to the Denton County Courts with Kate (while the other three stayed with my mom) and had her adoption officially "recognized" by the state of Texas. Some families do a "readoption" in their state of residence, but Texas only requires a "recognition" of the valid adoption that was finalized in China. This allows us to, among other things, file a birth certificate for Kate in Texas so that we can get copies down the road. The certificate will say that she was born in China, but will be on file in Texas rather than having to use a translated copy from China.

We've actually been to the Denton County Courts three times now. We made two trips with Sydney, and this one with Kate. All three differed greatly, despite the fact that we were attempting the same action all three times...

Our first visit, shortly after we adopted Sydney, was unsuccessful, as the judge presiding that morning was filling in for the regular judge, and was not familiar enough with the process to feel comfortable completing it without more documentation than we had provided and had been told (by other adopting families) was needed.

Our second trip was a few weeks later, when the "regular" judge was back on the bench, and the process was over in 10 minutes. We probably answered a few questions, provided our paperwork, and were in and out quickly after filing the resulting court order and paying the fees to file a birth certificate.

Our third trip took us before yet a third judge who was either less familiar with the process or just more formal in general. After filing our request with a county clerk who clearly had no ability to deal with people who don't know the jots and tittles of the legal profession, we took our file to the court bailiff and awaited our turn. His Honor swore us in, asked us to identify ourselves for the record, and then asked us to proceed. Um... proceed with what, you might ask? I wasn't sure myself. He clearly expected us to present something, though, so after a few moments of awkwardness I started to describe the timing and circumstances around our adoption of Kate. His Honor interrupted a few times to make sure the record reflected who was speaking, etc (as the court reporter dutifully transcribed everything), and after asking a few questions about the information we had submitted, our backgrounds, etc, he made everything very official by declaring it in the best interests of the child and the state to... well, I don't remember how he said it, but it was done. He signed our papers, at which point we went back to the county clerk to be chastised yet again for not dotting some "i" or crossing a "t". Finally, it was all done, though, and we paid up and left. It says in the fine print (I'm sure the county clerk could quote chapter and verse) that we will get a birth certificate for Kate in the next few weeks, at which point we will be done with paperwork the formalities.

Oh, as a teaser, my next post will be a collection of photos of Kate "accessorizing". That little girl loves shoes with a passion, and we've started trying to snap photos of her when we see her clunking around in shoes belonging to everyone else in the family...

Update on the last two months

I. Have. Four. Kids.

What? I have a blog too? Pssh, like that gets to factor into things...

What have we been up to since I last posted on April 22nd with a promise to post some photos? A lot... See for yourselves...

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Ethan's Birth Announcement

Ethan's First Week

So, for those dying to know, here's our week in pictures:

Ethan has been doing lots and lots of this:


, though he seems to be the only one. Meanwhile, we have taken the opportunity to do lots of this:



and this:



and this:



and of course trying to capture it all by doing this:



The high point for Sydney and Peter was today, though, when, in an effort to get out of the house, we visited the newly completed fire station down the street and did this:

Frii as in Biir

I woke up this morning and went to check on the kids so Amy could keep sleeping. I found them in the playroom (a small-ish second family room between their rooms) playing together. At first I didn't think anything of the fact that Peter and Sydney were sitting on the stairs next to each other while Kate watched. Or the fact that each was holding a Lincoln Log in one hand and a plastic hoop (from some other game) in the other. It was not until a few minutes later, after I had dispersed them to their rooms to start gathering clothes, etc, that I picked up on what they were saying and realized what game they had been playing.

They were playing Wii.

And no, we don't have one. But friends of ours do, and that's enough to set their imaginations in motion now, isn't it?

Ethan James Bredenberg

WELCOME TO THE WORLD!!!!

Mom and baby are great. 8lbs even!

Ready, set, go!

We're at the hospital, Amy's doing great. Real soon now!

Just another day...

March 3rd, and all's well!

Just got back from working out (5th time in two weeks... *gasp*... trying to get rid of some of these "sympathy" pounds...) to find Amy asleep on the sofa. They may have debunked the "eating for two" thing, but she definitely needs to sleep for two!

Here's a photo from Monday, when Amy and the kids went with family to a fun kids' place to play:



The rest of Monday didn't go quite as smoothly as we'd hoped, but I did manage to get one photo when no one was pestering anyone else and everyone was sitting somewhat still (in front of the TV watching the video from five years ago). Enjoy...

Celebrating Sydney's Gotcha day

Believe it or not, it was five years ago today that we adopted Sydney! It has been a blast, so far, and God has blessed us more richly than I would have thought possible.

We've celebrated the anniversary every year since then (more regularly than we've written about it here), with various friends and family joining us here and there. Sydney was well aware of it this time around, and came out of her room this morning carrying her photo albums and ready to share them with everyone!

Our traditions include watching the video of our trip to China and giving her a gift that we brought back with us from China on that trip (yes, Amy has that much forethought...). Tonight we'll be having dinner with family and sharing memories of the last five years. I'll post photos tomorrow, hopefully.

Maybe another project will do the trick...

So apparently we haven't been busy enough to make Amy go into labor yet. Hmm... we can fix that!

Yesterday, as part of everything else we did, we cleaned out a desk that is going to find another home for some undetermined period of time. We're not giving it away, because I designed it and my step-father built it for me (he did custom cabinetry and other carpentry), and it has too much sentimental value to let go permanently. But for the present, at least, we need the room for other things. Today, after church, we disassembled it (we being Amy's dad and me, not Amy...) and transported it to its new home.

Well, now that it's out of the way, why not start redoing the office where it used to be? So I broke out the paint and put some sizable patches on the wall to make sure we like the color, and tomorrow we'll judge it in the light and either pick a different color or move the rest of the furniture out and go to town. Again. And I'm sure Amy won't sit idly by and watch. So if you're listening, little man, now would be a good time to make something happen...

Work Day

Today was a full day! It started out with a little house work, followed by the kids' favorite, a project for kids at Lowe's. I've attached a few pictures below. After that, we worked in the yard, getting dead stuff trimmed back for Spring, killing weeds, and just generally spiffing up. And before you think I made my almost-40-week-pregnant wife work outside, know that it was her idea, and she was more than half-hoping it would make something (i.e.- labor) happen...

I took Peter and Sydney to the coin operated car wash here nearby and washed both cars, just because it was a beautiful day and it seemed like a good idea. Maybe not so much after letting Peter and Sydney take turns with the power-spray nozzle, but oh well...

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SCIENCE!!!

Sydney loves science experiments. And her dad loves getting to do them with her!


That's salt making the glass on the left cloudy in case you were wondering. Oh, and it makes the egg float too. But contrary to popular opinion, it won't save you from having to salt the egg when we cook it.

Vinegar and Baking Soda. Stinky, but fun. And yes, the wine had been safely ingested with friends several days earlier, don't fret! Sydney was very interested to know when the balloon would deflate. Turns out the answer is "pretty soon", as the air (and freshly generated carbon dioxide, naturally) seeped out around the neck of the balloon before bedtime.

Kate's version of a science experiment is rolling her head around on a sofa and enjoying having her family laugh at her hair. If you can't see her hair, click to see a larger version. She looks like she just grabbed hold of a Van de Graaff generator...

Peter's favorite stories

For a while now, Peter has been in the mode of loving to hear stories told before bed. Actually, he loves stories all day long, but we have set the standard that right before bed (nap and at night) is the time for Mommy and Daddy to make up a story. It's not as hard as it sounds, as pretty much any story that involves a little boy named Peter gets two thumbs up. Past storylines have involved Peter riding a train, flying on a rocket, helping to put out fires, and all kinds of other activities that little boys love to dream about. His favorite, however, is to ask for a story about a boy who doesn't have a hammer and nails.

I can see you re-reading that last sentence to make sure you didn't miss something.

That's right, he asks for a story about a little boy (named Peter, of course) who does not have a hammer and some nails. How exactly we arrived at that is not completely clear to me, but it involves the construction of our swing set last Spring, Peter's assistance in said project, and the inevitable stories that went with it about building all kinds of fun things with a hammer and nails. Invariably, the little boy in the stories starts out by getting a hammer and some nails and various other tools, and proceeding to build whatever Mommy or Daddy can come up with off the tops of their heads, but it is very important that the story start out sans tools, which is fascinating to me. I'm not sure if it's because Peter recognizes that he does not own such tools, or if he thinks the story will be longer if the boy does not start out with what he needs, or if there is some other basis for the story that is not understood even by Peter. I do know, however, that anyone who offers to tell Peter a story about a boy who doesn't have a hammer and nails will find themselves with a captive audience.

Two weeks and counting!

Amy's due date is March 4th, just two weeks from today. Wow, what an amazing thought! I STILL can't believe we're going to have another little one...

There are of course a bunch of to-do items that go with preparing for a baby, like

• pulling out clothes and filling in any gaps created by giving away infant clothing because we thought we were done
• buying diapers
• and so many others...

But those are the obvious ones. When we were in the early stages of thinking about a fourth child, Amy came up with a "goal" for each of the older children.

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Not REALLY pigs in blankets...

Yesterday we woke up and made pigs-in-blankets for breakfast. At our house, that means little smokies (sausages) wrapped in crescent roll dough. And baked... obviously...

Anyway, Peter was quite interested in helping, and as always, had a million questions.

"Why is it called pigs in blankets?"

"What are little smokies?"

"Why are you cutting the dough?"

I tried to explain the concept of a pig-in-a-blanket, with the "blanket" being the dough and the "pig" being the sausage. I thought I had done a good job explaining, when Peter asked the question to end all questions:

"Do you cut off the heads?"

Fashion, toddler-style

Peter likes his clothing. He particularly likes his shirts and pajamas that have fun prints on them, like his shirt with a baseball and glove, his pair of socks with baseballs, soccer balls, and basketballs on them, or his pajamas with moose and trees. He doesn't usually ask for particular clothes, though sometimes he will request the previously mentioned pair of socks.

This morning was a weird one. First, I got paged about 5:30am to deal with an issue at work. By the time I got off the phone an hour later, Peter had been awake for a while, and Amy had gotten him dressed and asked him to go back to his room to play with his trains and cars (that's an important detail) until Kate and Sydney woke up. He came out periodically to ask Amy questions as she sat in the living room reading and praying, and each time he would go back into his room to play a little more. The last time he came out, I was back in the bedroom, and I heard him come out and say something to Amy. I couldn't hear what he said, but Amy's response was laughter, after which she told Peter to "go tell Dad what you just told me." So in comes Peter, probably not sure what my response would be or why Mommy laughed, and he comes over and says "I should have a vehicle shirt on." I said "oh, why, because you are playing with vehicles?" "Yeah," he said, and walked back to his room. "Good idea," I said, as he left.

I tried not to laugh until he was out of earshot.

Part of me wonders what 2 1/2 year-old even knows the word "vehicle"? The rest of me just thought it was so cute I had to record it somewhere...

Baby Boy Bredenberg

It's a boy! And he looks healthy! Nothing else to say but praise God!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Yep, today is Kate's first birthday. I can't believe she's one! I also can't believe we don't have more pictures of her up here, but we'll remedy that soon-ish.

The birthday party is going to be a picnic dinner at the community pool. Nothing fancy, no friends, etc. Just us, wishing her a happy birthday and continuing to be so glad she's a part of our family.

Backyard Improvement

We've been silent for a while now on this blog, but all the while I've been dying to share photos of a project that has been underway in our backyard. If I had put more thought into it beforehand, I would have taken more photos, made sure they were from the same angle, etc, so you could flip through them and see the progress, but oh well.

The only real "before" shot I have of this spot in the backyard is a picture we took almost two years ago before we moved in, showing the redbud tree that was there:



That picture does not reflect all the pruning we had done, but it doesn't really matter, because a month ago it looked like this:


Yep, bye-bye tree. We hated to pull it down, but with two other large-ish trees in the backyard and no other place for what was coming, it had to go.

Next step? Those are 6x6 timbers surrounding a 10' x 20' area covered with 6" of play mulch, or chips, or whatever it's called. Why do we need a huge area for mulch...?


TA-DA!!!!




Keep in mind this is time-lapse photography. It took about 40 man-hours over Memorial Day weekend and the following week and a half to assemble what you see above from the individual pieces of lumber and accessories that came pre-cut and labeled. Many, many thanks to Grandpa Peck and Uncle Matthew for helping with all the sweat and hard work!

Just yesterday, Amy and I got out and finished the last step, which was creating a sand-box underneath part of the structure and lugging in about 450 lbs. of sand for it. Here are some close-ups:








Some of what you see in the sandbox are dinosaurs Amy bought to be buried and found by our budding archaeologists, which never would have occurred to me, but is the ultimate crowning touch!

The kids are gonzo over this thing, which Sydney has insisted be called "Redbud" (see the first photo above...) Peter would spend all day every day sitting in the swing and being pushed, and he can't wait until he is big enough to climb up to the second floor without Mom or Dad being outside to supervise. Kate pretty much just sits and plays in the chips, but I think that's her way of saying "wicked cool, Dad!"

I'm not quitting my day-job, but this was a rewarding project, and it gets more rewarding every day they spend playing outside and enjoying it!

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Yes, it is true! It is my dear wife's birthday. She has survived another year of me, and has done an incredible job with two and then three children. She is the highlight of every day, and I want to take this opportunity to say

"Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!"