About Me
- Missy
- Sunny Florida, United States
- I am the proud mom to 6 kids: Natasha, 24, Nikolai, 20, Reese, 20, Maylee, 14, Erik, 10 and Violet, 7. The kids come from Russia, Ukraine and China; I'm so proud of my family sometimes I think I'll burst and I needed an outlet for it - so I've created this weblog. :o)
Motivation for Moms
|
|
My Blog List
-
Waiting - It was a long long wait. In the fall of 2023 he obtained his official license to drive but then he had to wait. He waited through the winter, the sprin...
1 year ago -
-
-
Reece's Rainbow is TEN | #RRisTEN #OurWorkIsNotDone - [image: photo rrtennotdonegif.gif]10 years ago
-
Coffee date - These two girls got a special coffee date with mama for memorizing the ENTIRE first chapter of James in the Bible. I was never good at memorizing and I mus...
10 years ago -
Posisi paling enak saat melakukan bercint* - Posisi paling enak saat melakukan bercint* : *simak langsung di sini saja*
10 years ago -
What an Honor! - Our local newspaper, The Minot Daily News, ran a story about our adoption journeys. The writer, Marissa Howard, did a amazing job writing the piece. Her...11 years ago
-
-
-
Someone is 16 Today! - Someone who is Beautiful... Sweet Unique Silly OK and downright Goofy! It will be birthday party central here today...more on Josi's 16th birt...
12 years ago -
-
Another Acronym. Another Specialist. The Long Story. - We finally got Darah in to see the rheumatologist to confirm what other specialists have told us she likely has. We LOVED the rheumatologist we saw and s...
13 years ago -
My strength didn't come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up every time i was knocked down. - My strength didn't come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up every time i was knocked down. ♥♥ Share Inspire Quotes ♥♥ Inspiration...
13 years ago -
News And Repair From Life Insurance - Life insurance is one among the foremost counseled places wherever you'll be able to get complete and elaborate insurance quotes. This website can assist ...13 years ago
-
Slip proof rug - Any of you have hard wood floors? How about rugs for your hard wood floor? It wasn't until we moved into our current house with hard wood floor, that we ne...
15 years ago -
-
Showing posts with label Nikolai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nikolai. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
1:44 PM | 
Posted by
Missy
Remember the old days when folks went on vacation and invited their friends and neighbors over to watch 1500 slides of every single minute thing they did? Well, now we have BLOGGING!! The modern way to bore our friends and neighbors! The best part is, you don't have to look if you don't want to (I'll never know!), and it's such a chore uploading photos to this blog that there will be about .5% of the amount of pictures shown that were actually taken! :o) Do I hear any cheering out there??
Reese, Erik, Nikolai and I drove 24 hours over 2 days from FL to Reinbeck, IA, where my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents all are from and where both of my grandmothers and several aunts and uncles still live. When I was a kid, my brother Mike and I used to get sent up there most summers, and we spent many Christmases there, too. To us, Reinbeck and the surrounding areas were the best places to vacation in the world. As an adult, I lived there with my kids, but it didn't last too long (see post from July 4, or so) before we relocated to FL. Anyway, I hadn't visited IA for about 4 years at this point so the kids and I were very excited to go! As a bonus, my mom and stepdad were also going to be there (from Seattle)!!
Here's how we spent our time from July 3 - 9:
Reese and his Papa Joe (my stepdad) love sparring at ping-pong in my Gram's basement!! You'll have to ask them who won the most games, cause I'm not getting in the middle of it!
Take it easy on him, Joe! He's only a boy!!
Take it easy on him, Reese! He's a Baby Boomer!!
Here's the gang (sans me!) getting ready for the Fourth of July parade. Hey, Joe! Look THIS way!!
Reese's favorite part of the parade is getting candy that the people on the "floats" throw! He's got his bag ready and everything! I think he'll always be a big kid at heart. ;o)
"Hey, when's the parade gonna start, Mom and Reese??"
While Mom is waving hi to her friends on the float, Reese is saying, "Hey! Throw me some candy, lady!!" LOL
What's gonna go by next, Erik?
Takin' some time for a sweet kiss from his Gram.
What? Sitting in Old Men's Row??
(Actually, Erik was spooked by some of the loud noises and felt safer sitting a ways off, with the "grown ups"!)
Hey!! You gotcha one!!
There is a beautiful park nearby, that I suspect is rarely used, and is a wonderful place to take pictures! I would love someday to be able to do freelance photography (or pet portraits, baby portraits and the like) so I practice on my kids a lot! This day, Mom and I took Erik (the boys -ahem!- declined to go) down to get some nice shots of him. Unfortunately, in addition to the fact that Erik is already a rather difficult subject to photograph (he's not always terribly cooperative and has no clue what "smile!" means), it was very, very hot and VERY humid that day and the bugs were HORRID. *I* would have had a tough time relaxing and smiling for a picture, let alone poor little Erik! Nevertheless, we tried, and these are the best shots that we ended up with. :o)
Often, the only way to get him to smile is to do the "I'm gonna get you!" thing. Unfortunately, he had his hands up still when I got this one, but I had so few ones of him smiling that this one is pretty good! lol
I love this one of him and his Gram!!
And this one's sweet too! Isn't this a beautiful park??
**********
Mom worked for quite awhile teaching Erik to give a kiss!!
Pucker up...
Get ready...
AND KISS!!!
Ah, poor Joe got sentenced to a day (or two) staining my Gram's deck! It sure did look nice when he was done!! Good job, Joe!!
Here is rarely photographed Carlos, my first cousin's son. So that would make him my... second cousin?? He's spending July with Reese, detassling corn. He was also visiting my aunt (his grandma) from Tampa!
And my very sweet cousin, Steve.
Here is my Gram visiting with another second(?) cousin, T.S. and his wife Anne, from Minnesota. Super nice people. :o)
That little Erik is learning stuff easier all the time! Here he is, with a Jack-in-the-box at my Gram's house, cranking the ...crank. He didn't care so much for Jack and the way he jumped out of the box, but he liked the music and he learned how to crank the ...crank, and in the right direction, in no time! We were all really impressed! He loved this toy and played with it every day for a long time.
A visit to my Gram's isn't a real visit without a wild Marble Game!! Here she is with Carlos (left), Nikolai (middle) and Reese (right). I stayed away while they played. I didn't want her to beat me if she got "sent home"!!
Here we are, four generations: my Gram, my mom, me and my kids. :o) I hate this picture because I look soooooo fat, but I figure it's motivation for me to lose weight!!
We had a lovely visit in another town with my dad's side of the family! Here is my Aunt Annie, taking my picture!
And my great-uncle Leroy, brother to my hugely loved grandpa - he and Erik really hit it off! Uncle Leroy is such a riot and such a good time. :o)
Reese, Erik, and Uncle Leroy
Here is Erik, practicing his newly learned High Five with his uncle. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of my grandma!! If she finds out, she'll have a fit! Yikes!!
Ahhhh... After 2 more days, and 25 more hours on the road, it's GOOD to be home.
Reese, Erik, Nikolai and I drove 24 hours over 2 days from FL to Reinbeck, IA, where my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents all are from and where both of my grandmothers and several aunts and uncles still live. When I was a kid, my brother Mike and I used to get sent up there most summers, and we spent many Christmases there, too. To us, Reinbeck and the surrounding areas were the best places to vacation in the world. As an adult, I lived there with my kids, but it didn't last too long (see post from July 4, or so) before we relocated to FL. Anyway, I hadn't visited IA for about 4 years at this point so the kids and I were very excited to go! As a bonus, my mom and stepdad were also going to be there (from Seattle)!!
Here's how we spent our time from July 3 - 9:
Reese and his Papa Joe (my stepdad) love sparring at ping-pong in my Gram's basement!! You'll have to ask them who won the most games, cause I'm not getting in the middle of it!
Take it easy on him, Joe! He's only a boy!!
Take it easy on him, Reese! He's a Baby Boomer!!
Here's the gang (sans me!) getting ready for the Fourth of July parade. Hey, Joe! Look THIS way!!
Reese's favorite part of the parade is getting candy that the people on the "floats" throw! He's got his bag ready and everything! I think he'll always be a big kid at heart. ;o)
"Hey, when's the parade gonna start, Mom and Reese??"
While Mom is waving hi to her friends on the float, Reese is saying, "Hey! Throw me some candy, lady!!" LOL
What's gonna go by next, Erik?
Takin' some time for a sweet kiss from his Gram.
What? Sitting in Old Men's Row??(Actually, Erik was spooked by some of the loud noises and felt safer sitting a ways off, with the "grown ups"!)
Hey!! You gotcha one!!
There is a beautiful park nearby, that I suspect is rarely used, and is a wonderful place to take pictures! I would love someday to be able to do freelance photography (or pet portraits, baby portraits and the like) so I practice on my kids a lot! This day, Mom and I took Erik (the boys -ahem!- declined to go) down to get some nice shots of him. Unfortunately, in addition to the fact that Erik is already a rather difficult subject to photograph (he's not always terribly cooperative and has no clue what "smile!" means), it was very, very hot and VERY humid that day and the bugs were HORRID. *I* would have had a tough time relaxing and smiling for a picture, let alone poor little Erik! Nevertheless, we tried, and these are the best shots that we ended up with. :o)
Often, the only way to get him to smile is to do the "I'm gonna get you!" thing. Unfortunately, he had his hands up still when I got this one, but I had so few ones of him smiling that this one is pretty good! lol
I love this one of him and his Gram!!
And this one's sweet too! Isn't this a beautiful park??**********
Mom worked for quite awhile teaching Erik to give a kiss!!
Pucker up...
Get ready...
AND KISS!!!
Ah, poor Joe got sentenced to a day (or two) staining my Gram's deck! It sure did look nice when he was done!! Good job, Joe!!
Here is rarely photographed Carlos, my first cousin's son. So that would make him my... second cousin?? He's spending July with Reese, detassling corn. He was also visiting my aunt (his grandma) from Tampa! 
And my very sweet cousin, Steve.
Here is my Gram visiting with another second(?) cousin, T.S. and his wife Anne, from Minnesota. Super nice people. :o)
That little Erik is learning stuff easier all the time! Here he is, with a Jack-in-the-box at my Gram's house, cranking the ...crank. He didn't care so much for Jack and the way he jumped out of the box, but he liked the music and he learned how to crank the ...crank, and in the right direction, in no time! We were all really impressed! He loved this toy and played with it every day for a long time.
A visit to my Gram's isn't a real visit without a wild Marble Game!! Here she is with Carlos (left), Nikolai (middle) and Reese (right). I stayed away while they played. I didn't want her to beat me if she got "sent home"!!
Here we are, four generations: my Gram, my mom, me and my kids. :o) I hate this picture because I look soooooo fat, but I figure it's motivation for me to lose weight!!
We had a lovely visit in another town with my dad's side of the family! Here is my Aunt Annie, taking my picture!
And my great-uncle Leroy, brother to my hugely loved grandpa - he and Erik really hit it off! Uncle Leroy is such a riot and such a good time. :o)
Reese, Erik, and Uncle Leroy
Here is Erik, practicing his newly learned High Five with his uncle. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of my grandma!! If she finds out, she'll have a fit! Yikes!!
Ahhhh... After 2 more days, and 25 more hours on the road, it's GOOD to be home.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Several years ago, we went shark fishing on Nikolai's birthday. It was a night trip, and unfortunately, he wore a tank top. He froze, was seasick and was the only one onboard that did not catch a shark. Poor kid! Trying to make up for that disaster, I (Reese did not go this time) took him on another fishing trip for his birthday - this time, a day trip, fishing for deep sea fish! Our boat left out of Port Canaveral, the same place where the cruise ships are, and it was fun to see 3 of them lined up, and we even got to watch a HUGE Carnival ship leaving as we were coming back after our trip. A guy from another building next door to our dock shouted, "HEY!!!" at the passengers on the ship, and it was SO COOL, hearing all of the waves of "HEY!!!" in response! What fun! It was kinda like the show "Love Boat", when they left port, only no one threw confetti. They just shouted. (lol)
Here we are, ready to board!!
The empty dock, as we left.
Here's Nik, waiting with the other passengers. It didn't take long for almost everyone to go either inside, or up on the top deck, leaving us with the place almost to ourselves!
I don't know why this did not crop in closer, but it is the fin of a dolphin. We saw quite a few dolphins, who enjoyed swimming alongside our boat. :o)
We hung out at the front of the boat, for the most part.
There were lots of nice folks on board with us, and one of them took this nice picture of Nikolai and me.
Still heading out. It took about 10 min. to leave the inland waterway. After that, it was another hour and a half to get to the fishing spot! Today the water was particularly bumpy and the ride was exciting!! UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, sea spray all over us, ...and yes, lots of barfing from many of the passengers...
The only fish I was allowed to keep, and one of only FOUR on the whole boat!! The fishing was terrible!! The deck hands said they didn't know why, but for the past 3 or 4 days, fishing had been horrible, and this time of year it should be excellent!! This is a "pig fish", that audibly grunts!!
This is a better one, but I had to throw it back. It was a black sea bass, and until May 1, we couldn't keep any of them. (I noticed several were caught, but of course, they had to be thrown back.)
(This one should have gone up higher in the list of photos.) I love watching pelicans, and this guy was checking out the fish below, getting ready to dive!
And here are a pair of them diving together!!
C'mon, Nicky!! Catch something!!!!
Tired from a long and lousy day of fishing. And yes, working on his tan.
Here we are, ready to board!!
The empty dock, as we left.
Here's Nik, waiting with the other passengers. It didn't take long for almost everyone to go either inside, or up on the top deck, leaving us with the place almost to ourselves!
I don't know why this did not crop in closer, but it is the fin of a dolphin. We saw quite a few dolphins, who enjoyed swimming alongside our boat. :o)
We hung out at the front of the boat, for the most part.
There were lots of nice folks on board with us, and one of them took this nice picture of Nikolai and me.
Still heading out. It took about 10 min. to leave the inland waterway. After that, it was another hour and a half to get to the fishing spot! Today the water was particularly bumpy and the ride was exciting!! UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN, sea spray all over us, ...and yes, lots of barfing from many of the passengers...
The only fish I was allowed to keep, and one of only FOUR on the whole boat!! The fishing was terrible!! The deck hands said they didn't know why, but for the past 3 or 4 days, fishing had been horrible, and this time of year it should be excellent!! This is a "pig fish", that audibly grunts!!
This is a better one, but I had to throw it back. It was a black sea bass, and until May 1, we couldn't keep any of them. (I noticed several were caught, but of course, they had to be thrown back.)
(This one should have gone up higher in the list of photos.) I love watching pelicans, and this guy was checking out the fish below, getting ready to dive!
And here are a pair of them diving together!!
C'mon, Nicky!! Catch something!!!!
Tired from a long and lousy day of fishing. And yes, working on his tan.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Here's a fun little blast from the past! Back in March 2007, the boys and I went to Orlando to go (once again) to Universal Studios. Well, we forgot our passes so we decided to see what else there was to do, so as we were driving down International Drive, we spotted this fantastic putt-putt place! Here is a picture from back then...
And here are my big boys today!!
(Plus Erik, of course!)
Where there's water, there's Erik, even if it's only just a trickle.
This is the neatest course, and has hills to climb, sharp declines on some of the holes, a cave that has a pirate in prison with a talking parrot, etc. It's such a cool putt-putt place!
Looks like he found some more water...!
Taking a break while Reese takes his turn.
Nik's turn!
He had to hit between those "stones" sticking up.
This hole just about got the best of Reese! Here he is, fishing his ball out of the "river".
It's hard to see, but this hole has a hill just around to the right where the ball goes FLYING and you hold your breath hoping that the ball doesn't bounce totally off of the green! LOL
And here are my big boys today!!
(Plus Erik, of course!)
Where there's water, there's Erik, even if it's only just a trickle.
This is the neatest course, and has hills to climb, sharp declines on some of the holes, a cave that has a pirate in prison with a talking parrot, etc. It's such a cool putt-putt place!
Looks like he found some more water...!
Taking a break while Reese takes his turn.
Nik's turn!
He had to hit between those "stones" sticking up.
This hole just about got the best of Reese! Here he is, fishing his ball out of the "river".
It's hard to see, but this hole has a hill just around to the right where the ball goes FLYING and you hold your breath hoping that the ball doesn't bounce totally off of the green! LOL
Whaddaya know, there's one of ME in here! I hated this hole, cause I had to keep fighting those stupid rocks in my way. ;op
While Reese and Erik go on to the next hole, Nikolai fights to get his ball in the hole which is ON the incline at the back of the green (it's hidden by his body). Not an easy one!
Hope you liked the pictures of our fun day!
While Reese and Erik go on to the next hole, Nikolai fights to get his ball in the hole which is ON the incline at the back of the green (it's hidden by his body). Not an easy one!
Here's the one where we go through a cave and see the pirate in prison with the parrot. It's pretty creepy in there!
Hope you liked the pictures of our fun day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Please donate
<div align="center"><a href="http://reecesrainbow.org/81148/sponsorvoigts" title=""><img width="100%" src="http://i1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc502/ReecesRainbow/fspvoigts.png" style="border:none;" /></a></div><div align="center"><a href="http://mylittlestarfishes.blogspot.com/" title="">Grab This!</a></div>
My family
Nikolai, Mark, Missy, Reese, and Erik
Nikolai, 19
Reese, 19
Erik, 9
Daisy
Mary
