Octoberfest

Despite our early snow for the season, followed by way too much rain, we otherwise have been having a beautiful fall season.  This is absolutely my favorite time of year.  It's why we got married in October and why we went to Banff in Canada for our honeymoon instead of Jamaica (Ok, so Russ had a lot of say in those things, too).

Last night, we went to my parents to celebrate my sister's birthday.  The theme was Octoberfest.  Our family Irish Stew consists of Russ' Irish background, Caleb and Asher's Chinese background, then me, who is German-and-a-couple-other-things background.  So, last night we celebrated a birthday with bratwurst, German potato salad, spaetzle, and sauerkraut.  Yum! I guess when it comes down to it, my family really is just a bunch of foodies. My sister is a fabulous cook, and she and my mom prepared much of the food. 

 

I wish I could take credit for this apple dessert.

 Russ and I had brewed some homemade beer for the occasion.

  

Caleb has been working very hard on his speech at school, and we are definitely seeing progress.  We have made a book at home of pictures of things he likes so he can practice the words.  Then, when we work on a new word, we add the picture to the book.  This week, we added pictures of 'waffles' and 'water', since we have been practicing saying W's.  It's slowly coming along, almost like learning to say every word as if it is brand new.  Many of the pictures we started with were of family.  For a long time, Caleb has talked mostly with vowels, so we have needed to work on the consonants.  For instance, my brother Matt would be called "aa", and my neice Maesa was referred to as "ay-ah".  My family is one of those whose names all start with the same letter: M.  So, we have had great practice with our M's.  Anyway, my birthday sister's name is Martha, but for years, we have called her by her nickname, Marf (don't even ask how this started, I have no idea).  Caleb would always call her "ar".  Since practicing his letters, though, the other day we were looking at pictures and he was sounding something out:  Mmm-aarr-fff.  Marf!  We were so happy to hear a full and complete word, very clearly.  So now, it's Marf-this and Marf-that all day, since he loves to say the name.  And, I'm pretty sure he loves her quite a bit, too. 

It's officially been fall for only about 18 days and it's supposed to snow here tomorrow. So much for that lovely autumn weather, I guess. I've been trying to do some of these seasonal things but apparently we are running out of time. Even the stores have almost moved beyond Halloween to Christmas. I just can't keep up. But I really do love this time of year. Caleb and I made caramel apples yesterday and we're getting ready for Halloween costumes. He has told us that he wants to be a puppy this year, but I don't know if that is a definite thing. Being 3 years old means that you change your mind every 5 minutes (or less) so we'll actually commit to something for a costume in a couple more weeks.

I received a couple of emails from people who had information for me about the Shantou orphanage where Asher is currently living. I guess the group Love Without Boundaries has done a lot of work there, as well as other orphanages in China. They have a nutrition program that our son is most likely a part of, and I'm told that we could maybe get some pictures of him, but not until after we have adopted him. Still, it would be nice to have pictures of this time when we are not able to see him.

Today is also Russ' and my 5th wedding anniversary. Wow, that has gone fast. I was thinking that 5 years ago today I was up very early and running errands before getting ready. I remember thinking that it was so weird that it was my wedding day--a day that I had pictured and dreamed of since I was a little girl, and I wanted it to be very special. I thought about all of this as I was sitting at the kitchen table this morning, seeing toys strewn all over the floor, dishes in the sink, and my reading material was an ad for a sale at Ace Hardware. Hmm. Things really do change in 5 years. Of course, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I managed to dig up this picture that my sister sent me, a photo taken in our little dressing area of the church on our wedding day. I was waiting around in my huge, fluffy dress for the big moment when I was going to see my Groom:

That's a keeper, isn't it?

Tonight, Caleb is staying at Grandma's and Russ and I are going out to celebrate our years that we have built together. Here's to many more!