Blowing bubbles and eating Christmas cookies

It was finally warm enough to get outside for a little while. Annaleise and Jeremy went out back in their pajamas to blow bubbles. Annaleise is ok to wear her pajamas in public, but you'll notice she needed to put on her jewelry, grab her princess cell phone, oh -- and don't forget the matching belt!

The "J" Tree

The kids made candy-canes out of beads to hang on our plant in the living room. We call it the "J" tree because every time Jeremy sees a candy-cane, he calls it a "J" for Jeremy. As I was looking that the tree more closely, I found a few plastic animals hanging from the branches. The kids decided to decorate with their own ornaments by tying dental floss around their animals and hanging them :)

Christmas Morning

The kids had a great Christmas! They were surprised to see their stockings stuffed AND presents under the tree! It was great fun to see their excitement and very touching at how thankful they are for everything.

Enjoying the snow!

Elijah and Troy are building a snow fort while Annaliese and Rachel have fun on the sleds.

Gingerbread Houses

Jillian, Elijah, Annaliese, and Jeremy had a great time with their cousins on Saturday. They each decorated a gingerbread house.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Butsko Open House 11/23/08

It was great to meet some of you for the first time and to reconnect with old friends! We were so happy to have you meet our children and to thank you for your support and prayers over the past few months.

This is just before we left for our open house -- really, I didn't tell her to pose like this. She goes into "supermodel" mode as soon as she sees the camera!

First family photo

It's almost impossible to get every person to look at the camera and smile! We had several of these taken while at the open house, and I did not see one perfect picture :)

OSU vs. Michigan

Jeremy loved that his jersey matched Nick's!

It was cold enough this weekend to start a fire. The kids love sitting in front of the fire until it's too hot on their back.

Poor Madison

Our cat, Madison, gets a lot of attention from the kids. Annaleise thinks that she owns the cat and gets very upset if anyone else is petting her. Jeremy finally got a chance to play with her.

First day of school

I took this quick snapshot as we were running out the door for school. I am still not used to the amount of time it takes to put shoes and jackets on 3 kids, and get them buckled in for the 2 minute ride to school. We were almost late!

You might be able to see that Annaleise has all of her jewelry and hair clips on. She never leaves her room without everything!

Trick or Treat

The kids were great at saying "Trick or Treat" and "thank you!" We let them munch on candy for a few days and then threw the leftovers away.

Another day at the park...

Jillian's 16th Birthday

Thank You all who donated!

We were overjoyed when we got home and saw how many of you contributed to us. Our house was stocked with everything we needed to get started raising these three kids! We were so in need and your donations made such a difference in our lives that we want you to know how significant your gifts were. We are at a loss as to how to express our gratitude.

Two people deserve a special mention for also making this adoption and transition back home happen.

Brian/Jayne Reese attended to all of our affairs while we are gone. We could say so much about these wonderful people but will will simply say we could not have done this without them.

Cindy Henricksen completely organized the all of the donations and set up the kids' room. This was a job of great magnitude, with countless hours working and we would have been lost without her great help.

Life is good at home!

Life is crazy in our house! 5 kids! Our 3 new additions are so excited (and loud) about everything... Imagine being in a circus 16 hours a day! We are enjoying this time and appreciate the great blessing these kids are. Their English and table manners are improving a little each day. They are so excited at meal time but they know we must pray before we eat. So in anticipation they say "A B C D, Amen" and look to me to see if that's sufficient to allow them to eat! They are beginning to call each other by their American names. They love their bicycles and big wheel! Scooby Doo is the favorite show. They sing and dance with the theme song but the only words they get right are when the chorus sings scooby doo.

Funny eating habits: They hate peanut butter and cheese of any kind. They will not eat cereal with milk in it. They love tomato juice but will not drink milk. They love fruit but will not touch crackers.

We took them to school to get registration started and the South-Western school staff (especially Mr. Kennedy) were very generous with their help to us. Hopefully next week they will be attending classes.

We are Home!

We are back home and everything is well!

We are on schedule

We had a great experience at the US Embassy today. All visas and paperwork are in order. We will be leaving Ukraine tomorrow and arrive in Columbus by 9:00 p.m.