Happy Holidays 2010

Yes, it's that time of year again - and we know you have been wondering, "What's up with that Stephens family? Or maybe not, but we are going to tell you anyway!

Our big event this year was our trip to Orlando. We left the day before school was out and were down there for 12 days. We went to all four Disney parks and two days at Univeral Studios. We saw everything and did everything and by the end of the trip, Ray and I were so done with amusement parks. But we all love roller coasters and all kinds of rides, so we checked everything out. Our biggest thrill was getting on the new Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios. It was set for the grand opening that week but we were able to go on it twice earlier in the week while they were doing "test" runs. It was fantastic!

Our family did a lot of camping this year and most of it was with the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. We did go on a our annual family camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa Fenton to Hoffman Lake and enjoyed it immensly. It was pretty hot that weekend so I kicked Jake out of the air conditioned RV and sent him to the tent with Ray! As for Scout camping, if it involves outhouses, port a potties, or lack of showers, then it's a guy thing and I stay home and scrapbook and watch chick flicks!

The boys and Ray continue to be active in Scouting and many of our activities are related to Scouting. Riley is helping Ray with his den this year and completed training as a Den Chief to assist with the Webelo den. It takes all the help you can get to wrangle 4th grade boys. Riley is working towards his Star rank in Boy Scouts and hopefully will have that the first of next year. He is looking forward to a High Adventure camp next summer.

Verizon was bought out by Frontier, so Ray is now an employee of Frontier. He is in the same position, but as with any buyout, things are very different and it's a stressful time of change. I finally gave in and went to work part time to help feed these growing boys!! I am currently working 3 days at week at the Fort Wayne Community Schools Nutrition Center. The hours allow me to put the boys on the bus and be there when they get home. Not to mention have the same vacation days,s now days, and summer vacation. I am still a substitute worker, but for now it seems to be working out.

October was a difficult month for us as Ray lost his mother on October 13th. Her health had been declining and she had some heart issues. We traveled to Ohio to help plan her service with Ray's sister and we had a family service at the gravesite. We all miss her a lot and we remember how generous she was to our boys and our family. Then four days after we returned from Ohio, we had to send our Sasha dog to doggie heaven with the help of the vet. We knew she was going downhill and as much as I didn't want to let her go, we knew it was time.

Which brings me to the new addition to our family, a rowdy, crazy, dog named "Brownie". We got her from a rescue about month before Sasha died. She is a boxer mix and is about 11 months old now. The boys love her because she plays like crazy, frisbee, soccer, football. Riley seems to have a special bond with her and she sleeps on his bed every night. It's been difficult for me going from my 11 year old mellow Sasha, to a dog who is always running, biting, and stealing food. But she is a lot of fun and makes us laugh.

The boys continue to be active in sports and Riley was on the Blackhawk Middle school soccer team this spring. Riley is playing indoor soccer at the moment and Jake has just started Upward Basketball. They both consisently are on the honor roll at school and seem to do very well at school. We continue to marvel at how blessed we were to get these boys! Don't get the idea they are little angels, we have our share of arguing and pounding on each other.

So that's it in a nutshell! We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and good things coming your way in 2011!! Pam, Ray, Riley and Jake

Another Year has flown by!

Hello to all our friends and family,
We hope the end of 2009 finds you in good health and good cheer and that you are looking forward to 2010. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was gearing up for the whole Y2K
scare and spending New Year's eve in front of the computer server. We know this has been a tough year for a lot of our friends and so many people have struggled with unemployment. We pray that 2010 brings a much better outlook for everyone.

Going through our photos for 2009 we realized we didn't take very many pictures this year! I guess we were so busy doing things that we forgot to take pictures. Maybe I will be able to catch up on scrapbooking if we don't have many pictures.

Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts play a huge role in our lives and we enjoy doing many activities. In February of this year Riley "crossed over" from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and is now in a troup with boys from 6th grade up. Ray is still the den leader for Jake's den and very active with the pack events too. It was hard at first to send Riley to weekend campouts by himself with the Boy Scouts since I was so used to always having Ray there at Scout events and knew he would look out for Riley. Ray did go on a couple of the Boy Scout events and enjoyed them.

It was a big year for Riley as he turned thirteen in August and started middle school. He has adapted to middle school very well and kept his grades up. He is also enjoying all the after school activities and playing soccer through school. Jake was a little nervous about being without his brother on the school bus and at school but he did just fine. This way no one can tell on him! He is in 3rd grade and he turned nine this summer.

We did more camping this summer than we ever have! We had several campouts with the Cub Scouts, our annual family campout with Mom, Dad, Kim, Scott, Jenny, Diana, Doug and Bella, and then we borrowed Mom and Dad's RV and camped for a week for vacation this summer. We have a small, low-sided trailer that we pull behind our van which makes it nice for hauling all the camping gear.

In between scout camps, the boys spent most of the summer in our swimming pool! It wasn't a very warm summer and they didn't get in as much swimming as they would have liked. The boys and I planted a garden but it didn't do very well with the cool temperatures either. I ended up buying a bushel of tomatoes since ours didn't every produce enough for canning. I got on a crazy canning kick this summer and canned tomatoes, pizza and spaghetti sauce, banana peppers, and strawberry jelly.

We had a couple really fun bonfire parties this fall at our house. Ray's scout den came over and we carved pumpkins and had a hayride and cookout and then the next weekend we repeated the party with more friends. We can hook up the trailer to our large lawn tractor and take the kids on a hayride and they love it. We go through the fields beside our house and past the woods.

I wish I could tell you where my days go but anyone that has raised children knows the answer to that! Scrapbooking and card making are my crafts of choice and I try to fit those in between the boy's sports, school, scouts, and managing the household! I still go out on a few computer consultant jobs now and then and love the extra income every so often. Ray is still with Verizon and wondering what the future will hold since the part of Verizon he works for has been sold to Frontier. They are in the middle of transitioning to the new company so he doesn't know a lot of details about what may change. Hopefully his job will be secure.

So all in all, nothing too exciting has happened this year but we are grateful to be healthy and have our boys, our parents and our sisters and their families, and are thankful we have a good life. Ray, Pam, Riley and Jake

P.S. Check out the link to the right for 2009 pictures.

Happy Holidays!

Greetings to all of our friends and family! First of all, we apologize for the year or so delay in updating our blog and the lack of Christmas cards last year. We moved to a different house mid summer of 2007 and it really threw everything in to a tizzy! Between putting away boxes, taking care of 1 1/2 acres of land, and house remodeling, things just went by the wayside. Who knew that moving four people and a dog could be so much work?

Riley is now in fifth grade and twelve years old and Jake is in 2nd grade and is 8 years old. They still attend the same school as before we moved. Actually, we only moved about a 1 1/2 miles away from our old house.

The boys are active in cub scouts and Ray is a den leader for Jake's den. Pam is the "craft" leader for the den and works to come up with a craft project for the den meetings. Upward basketball started last week and the boys are looking forward to playing basketball again. They played soccer in the fall and could hardly wait for the next sport to start.

Ray is still with Verizon and Pam is doing a few small computer consulting jobs now and then. We keep pretty busy with the boys, school, sports, and scouts.

Please check out the link to the left that will take you to our website with many new pictures posted for 2007 and 2008.

Wishing you all a happy new year. Pam, Ray, Riley and Jake

Basketball

The boys are doing Upwards basketball thru the church and we are about midway thru the season. Riley's team is the Longhorns and Jake's is the Panthers. Jake's games are at 8 am and we need to be there by a quarter til, which is kind of rough on a Saturday morning.

The kindergarten teams are pretty darn funny to watch. Traveling, double dribbling and not being allowed to steal the ball are all facts of life at that level. Riley's group pretty much is following all the regular rules for the game. They aren't ultra strict, but he's held a lot more accountable.

Jake is doing pretty well. This morning, he made three baskets and got a star for good offense. He's starting to display a little too much competitiveness. Last week, he got really mad at the kids guarding him. It wasn't because they were doing an outstanding job of guarding him, it was more about the ball smacking him in the face at least three times when he was trying to rebound. I told him to raise his hands when he looks up for a rebound this week. It worked much better.

He's also kind of being a ball hog and wanting to be the one to drive it down the court each time. He was giving his coach attitude this morning for not letting him be a ball hog. We've discussed it and hopefully he'll do a better job of being a team player. Riley went thru a similar thing with soccer last spring, but by fall he was a great team player.

Riley is also doing well. He's a speedster and if he gets the ball, can be down the court before the other team even knows what's going on. Unfortunately, his lay ups and shooting need a bit of work. He's all about passing to the good shooters if he's not in good position, so his team effort is excellent. He's also very good at stealing the ball. It's all about being quick with him. The other guy will be dribbling along and all of a sudden, Riley has the ball and is driving back down court.

Boy Quote of the day - I was bantering with the boys on the way to the game this morning and accused them of having monkey brains. Riley is a very serious voice said, "Look here. It's better to have a monkey brain than no brain at all." It cracked me up.

Merry Christmas

It's been fifteen months, since the boys came home with us. This will be their second Christmas in the states and a lot has changed since the first one.

Jake continues to be the goofy child. Looking back on my first impression of him from this blog, his personality really hasn't changed. Here's what I originally wrote about what I called our little brute, "Jake is not fat, but is stocky. He apparently has a bottomless pit for a stomach and is always smiling. He's not as much of a climber as his brother, but can kick a ball nearly as far as Riley who is four years older. He's got the makings of a linebacker, I guess."

Jake has grown a lot in those fifteen months and is a lot leaner, but other than that - he's much the same. He's really good at soccer (he's a natural team player and plays position well) and is starting out in Upwards basketball with his first game after the start of the year. Jake's the tough one of the two and it won't be long before he's bigger and stronger than Riley. He's a video game nut (only on weekends), likes to play any board game, look at comic books, and play with his action figures. Interestingly, he's more of a strategist than his brother when it comes to playing games. It's fun to watch him think through his moves and he oftens wins in any strategy game we play.

Riley is also a lot like we originally perceived. "Riley is a bit short for his age, very lean but amazingly fast. He climbs like a monkey and seems to be very active." He's still fast as can be and lean. He's also a really good soccer player - in the spring he didn't seem to get the concept of team work and was more of a ball hog. This past fall, it clicked with him and he's ended the season as one of the best players on his team. Riley is also getting started in Upwards Basketball at our church. Riley is a big time movie fan and will watch about any movie you'll let him watch. He's also an avid reader, since he's got English figured out. He was also a surprisingly good reader in Ukrainian. Interestly, he can remember how to speak Russian somewhat, but can't read it all any longer, since learning the English alphabet.

Both boys are doing well in school and Riley recently took the ISTEP testing and he's right where he needs to be with his skills and his grades are very good. Jake is showing a huge interest in "learning" this year and is working on the alphabet and spelling. Riley has also joined Cub Scouts and we have been enjoying that time. The big event this fall was a fall campout in a fort on the Boy Scout property. We camped under a roof and had a tarp on one side and a wall on the other. Otherwise, we had only our sleeping bags to keep us warm in the nights. It was below freezing both nights. Pam and Jake were thinking about going to the campout until she heard there wasn't any running water or bathrooms!

I'm still working for Verizon and as always, this time of year is more hectic for my group than any other. And for four years running (or is it five?), we are short handed for the holidays. Our center got hit by some downsizing, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I live for the weekends so I can spend more time with the boys. We play games, watch cartoons, throw around the football, go on scouting activities and spend lots of time at practices and games. One of my favorite things with the boys is their questions. While they often have oddball questions (who would win between a power ranger and a jedi knight? That was actually a good question), they also ask some pretty interesting ones. We've been doing a lot of talking about astronomy, reading books and looking at pictures on the internet about the universe, the solar system, the moon, etc.. All in all, life is good.

Pam keeps busy taking care of our family and trying to keep up with our hectic schedules. She takes Jake to kindergarten every day at 12:30 and is happy to have some time to get things done in the afternoons. She volunteers at the boy's school and is the room "mom" for Riley's class. She is busy planning the Christmas Party for his class next week. She is still doing some computer consulting work for two businesses and has recently started working with a realtor creating web sites and virtual tours of the realtor's listings. She also likes to work on her scrapbooking when she can and attends "scrapbooking night" once a month at our church. And of course, she still spoils our dog Sasha!

Here's a link to some new pictures: http://mysite.verizon.net/res08a93/rayandpam/id38.html

Hope you all have a great Holiday Season and a Happy New Year! Ray

It's been a year already!

Here's our little warrior boys enjoying a summer afternoon in our back yard! I was worried about how to keep them busy all summer and then all of the sudden it was time for school to start.

August 30th was our one year anniversary for adopting the boys. Ray and I were both amazed a year went by so quickly and still in awe of how well the boys have adapted to their new situation. Jake has grown six inches and Riley has grown three inches since we adopted them. All in all, I think we have done really well adapting as a family and the boys love their Grandma and Grandpa's and all of their cousins.

We did a lot of fun things this summer including camping, boating, swimming, festivals, Bible school, an amusement park, a 4-H fair, and trips to the zoo. The boys started off their summer vacation by taking swimming lessons at the community pool. They both did great and can swim under water. They also went to a gymnastics day camp and a sports day camp through our parks department. We read a lot of books from the library and played with our neighbor kids, Jenna, Jake, and Madison.

One of the highlights this year was traveling to Oklahoma with my mom on spring break to see our relatives. It was a first "vacation" for the boys and Grandma was very generous to take us with her and spring for hotels with swimming pools! The boys loved meeting all of their new relatives and we stayed with my cousin who lives outside of Oklahoma City on a big chunk of land. The boys had a great time running around their property and playing in the woods. We wish Ray had been able to come with us but he wasn't able to take vacation time for spring break this year. Hopefully next year.

The boys experienced their first taste of amusement park rides this year and of course they loved it. I think they went on the roller coaster about seven times. These boys are amazing on how they aren't afraid to try new things. They just walked right in to bible school and day camps, ready to make new friends and try something new. We are so proud of them.

They were starting to get bored by the end of August and there seemed to be more fighting. It's just lovely looking out the back door and see them on the ground wrestling, and pounding on each other! I do think I am adapting to being a mom to boys and I am learning to deal with the "boy" stuff like fighting, burping, farting, etc. All the stuff that makes their papa proud....

School started on August 21st and this year they are going to a "magnet" school that specializes in communications. The school has it's own tv studio and produces videos and newspapers. It is not an "ESL" English Second Language school, but we think Riley and Jake will be able to keep up. Riley is in third grade and Jake goes to afternoon kindergarten. So far I am spending my "alone time" afternoons trying to catch up on all the things I let slide this summer!

We are now mini-van driving, soccer parents. Yes, we traded in our Explorer for a mini-van and we have soccer practice three nights a week and games on Saturdays. It's nice to have the van for traveling, and with two kids and a dog, we needed the room. Just that neither Ray or I were too excited about driving a van! Oh well, if you can't beat them, you might as well join them!!

Check out some new pictures from this summer at: http://mysite.verizon.net/res08a93/rayandpam/id36.html

Summer Update - from Ray

Long time no blog. The boys and life in general have kept us very busy.

It seems like we've had the boys for a long time now, but it is actually less than a year. We are coming up on Jake's sixth birthday this Sunday. Amazingly enough, Jake understands barely any Russian/Ukrainian at all. Riley still understands enough for me and him to have some simple conversations, but he forgets a lot of words and his grammar may be worse than mine. He can still roll his "R"s like crazy.

While the boys have become very fluent, they are still finding a lot of words they aren't familiar with. It is usually more complex and uncommon words that confuse them, but sometimes it's the simple ones that stump them. For example: They know the word "frosting" for what goes on cakes and cupcakes. I grew up with the word "icing" for that, but it's not what they first learned.

We are also continuing to have other firsts. This past weekend we watched some fireworks with the family up by Lake Wawasee. Before fireworks started, I pointed out lightning bugs to them. They jumped and ran down to catch them with no prompting whatsoever. I had talked to the boys about these strange bugs a long time ago and this was the first sighting of them. They are usually in bed before dark since daylight savings started. The fireworks were good. They had seen some minor fireworks in Ukraine, but nothing like this show.

On Monday night our neighbors got together and they lit some small ones off. On the 4th, they saw the big show down in Fort Wayne and that was probably one of the best shows I've seen. They really enjoyed all of them.



Also on the 4th, we got together with the Sugar Tree gang and the kids played on a slip and slide then had a bike decorating contest and parade. The decorating and parade were Pam's idea and the kids loved it.

I've also started loading some videos of the kids on Google Video. Here's one from the slip & slide action on July 4th.