July, 1st 2009

July came in with a bang. Peyton Elijah Whartenby was born July 1st at 4:04 pm. Everyone is doing well and enjoying their new little brother.

June 2009

June saw the end of the school year. Eyob and Isabella graduated preschool and we now have two kindergardeners. Soccer came to an end for the season much to Eyob's disappointment. Isabella and Ella performed in their annual dance recital and Patrick finished baseball with a winning season. We are now ready for a relaxing summer.

Eyob and Isabella performing during their preschool graduation

Our KindergartenersEyob and Izzy with their soccer trophies after the last soccer game

Isabella and Ella ready for their big performance

Our Yankee fans ready for summer

May 2009

May was a very busy month. We spent most of the month at baseball and soccer games. Isabella turned 5 and Eyob celebrated one year home. For Isabella's birthday we celebrated with a few of her friends at The Clay Cafe were we painted pottery and had cake and ice cream.

We celebrated Eyob's adoption day (May 12th) with cupcakes and we gave Eyob a wrist watch which he wears all the time. Memorial Day weekend we took the kids to the zoo, which was the first family outing we had when Eyob came home. That was Memorial Day a year ago, what a difference a year makes. May 2nd, 2009 - Isabella's 5th birthday - Isabella is our little princess, she loves everything girlie, makeup, dressup, fancy hair dos. She's also very dramatic. She tells you how she feels, what she feels, when she feels it, just ask Eyob. They've become very close this year, but she'll let him know when she's had enough. I love this kid and her spunk and of course her beautiful smile.

The ZOO

Good bye til next time..

Easter Weekend

We had a very busy and fun Easter weekend. Saturday was Eyob and Isabella's first soccer game. Eyob scored 8 goals and Isabella scored one. Eyob had a great time and would have stayed in the whole game if he was allowed while Isabella took a break every chance she got. They both seemed to enjoy playing though and I do believe we won even though we aren't supposed to keep score. Of course explain that to my very competetive 7 year old who didn't understand why the coach would take Eyob out when they were tied at the end of the game.
Eyob getting ready to kick a goal

After the game we went to The Holiday Inn for Ella's 10th birthday. The kids had a great time and didn't seem nearly as tired as Mom who didn't even get in the pool.
After the party we colored Easter eggs and went to bed early to prepare for our exciting Sunday.
Patrick and Daddy
Eyob and Izzy
The birthday Girl

Easter morning the kids found their Easter eggs and than we all headed to Grandma's for church and Easter dinner. They got way too much candy and Ilana was bouncing off the walls and could not fall asleep that night even though she missed her nap. Overall we had a great day even if it was an exhausting weekend for Mom.

Eyob with his loot

Ella and Ilana having fun

Our darlings in their Easter best

Introducing the Littlest Whartenby

Peyton Elijah Whartenby is due July 9th. An unexpected blessing. We are all eagerly waiting his arrival!

Here We Go Steelers!

When you live in Pittsburgh and the Steelers are in the Super Bowl, Super Bowl weekend is like a holiday. Friday was full of pep rallys and buffet lunches and school parties. Most restaurants and shops are closing early Sunday for the Big Game, even Eat n' Park, the local 24hr restaurant. At work, it was a very festive day. We had black and gold beads for our patients, most of which were also dressed in Steeler attire. We took lots of pictures and had lots to eat. It seriouisly felt like a holiday. Of course all the kids had to wear their favorite Steeler shirts to school. Eyob is already a Steeler fan and was very excited to wear his special shirt.



Our Little Steeler Fans!!

Mälkam Gänna

We had a quiet but fun first Ethiopian Christmas together. Eyob wore his Ethiopian outfit to preschool. After school we went to TANA to have Ethiopian food. Seifu, the owner sat and talked to us about how he celebrated Ganna in Ethiopia. Eyob is always excited to have injera but he becomes very anxious when we are at the Ethiopian resturant. Seifu loves to hug him and talk Amharic to him. Eyob wants nothing to do with him. He acts like he has never spoken Amharic in his life and clings to me. The last time we were there he threw up when we got home. Today when Seifu asked him his name he said "Peter" (his American name). I about fell off my chair because we never call him Peter. It's sad to think that memories of Ethiopia make him so upset. In the evening we read the Visit of the Magi and talked about the king that might have been from Ethiopia (that king is actually African in our nativity set). We then gave each child a small present. At bedtime I read Eyob a little about Ganna from an Ethiopian Celebrations book because Eyob says he never celebrated Ganna in Ethiopia. Eyob seamed to really enjoy a day just about him and hopefully it will give him more pride in his heritage.

Christmas 2008

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December 22nd - Christmas Fun

This was not only Ilana's 2nd birthday but a very exciting day for the rest of the Whartenby kids. Because it was the almost the last day of school everyone had their holiday parties. Isabella and Eyob reenacted the Christmas story. Isabella was an angel and Eyob was a Shepard. They were so cute in their "costumes" and sang beautifully.

Eyob singing Silent Night (they made their own candles)

Izzy - The Angel

Izzy, Eyob and their teacher

Patrick's class had a short little play about Christmas customs around the world. Patrick was Kenya and St. Lucia. All the kids did a great job and we really enjoyed their performances.

Patrick as St. Lucia

Patrick and his best friend

Ilana turns 2!!!

Ilana had her second birthday party on Dec 19th and she officially turned 2 Dec 22nd. I remember the year she was born. I was so worried about not being able to be home for Christmas and the other children. Fortunately she wasborn at 2:45am on the 22nd and we came home Christmas eve. This year was a little less exciting.

Ilana blows out her candles

Ilana and her cousin (he is 2 weeks older )

Ilana's favorite present, an ATM machine. Once she opened this, she didn't want anything to do with her other presents.

Ilana and her friends. It was very difficult getting 4 toddlers to sit long enough for a perfect picture.

The Christmas County Spelling Bee

Our annual Church Christams Play was December 14th. Patrick was Randy Richards and Ella was a cheerleader/dancer. They both did an awesome job. Patrick remembered all his lines perfectly and Ella has shown how much she has grown with how well she performed all the dance moves complete with facial expressions and all(and she didn't have to look at her fellow dance partners once to remember her moves) Eyob and Izzy loved the play. Izzy sang and danced along. Overall it was a perfect performance and you could tell all the kids worked very hard (they'd been rehearsing since October).

Decorating for Christmas

Eyob was so excited to put up the tree this year. He loved hanging the ornaments and had a great time. We decided this year to go with an artificial tree mainly because we found one at Target we really liked and it was affordable. It also means I am not sweeping up needles all day and the dog is not trying to drink the water (less work for Mom is always good). Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Eyob Meets Santa

Eyob had his official first meeting with Santa at my annual work Children's Christmas party. They have a wonderful party for the kids. Including breakfast, balloon animals, meeting Santa and a present. The kids had a great time. Unfortunately our two oldest could not be there because they had dress rehearsel for their Christmas pagent but the little kids had a blast.

Eyob and Santa

Izzy and Santa

All the kiddos from my department

Eyob Meets Snow

Well our card reader broke and we finally got a new one so now I have a month worth of happenings to blog about in one entry. Eyob has had an extremely exciting month, starting with his first snow fall. From the time he saw his first flake, he could not wait to play in it. Finally we had enough snow to play in and he excitingly put on all his winter gear. He could not get enough of the snow. He ran around , rolled in it, ate it and licked it aff the playset(yuck). Unfortunately the time did not end well. When Eyob gets really excited, he can not control his impulses and he pushed his sister off our retaining wall and into the woods. Fortunately she was not hurt since she was well padded from her snowsuit but Eyob had to come inside for a time out( which resulted in a BIG tantrum). Then it was lunch and nap and after nap all the snow had melted. Hopefully we will have more snow soon.