The Birthday Boys

Roman turned 4 in January and Max turned 3 in March!!! They both had family birthday parties and got to pick out their special party theme ... Roman went with "Barney" and Max chose "Thomas the Train". As you can expect they were both spoiled on their special day and really enjoyed eating cake and ice cream and opening presents just for them!!! Roman invited his teacher Ms. Sheeran to his party and she came... that was a special treat for him!!! We haven't really gotten into the big kid parties yet .. I know one day we will paying to rent somewhere with Inflatable Bouncies or something along those lines but for now we are just enjoying small parties with family and close friends!!!

Roman's 3rd birthday was actually his first day back at montessori school after Christmas break. The tradition in his class is to do a "birthday walk" for each year you have been alive. Roman was really looking forward to this and we had to send 3 pictures to school ... one for each year!! Luckily we had a picture from when he was a 18months old and first went into the baby home so we were close and could see how much he has changed since his very first year!!! Since this was a special day for Roman, Max and I went to school with him for the birthday walk and dinner that night was Roman's choice so we went to his favorite place .. the Alexis Diner and had the BEST chocolate cake EVER!!!!




Pictures from Roman's "Barney" Party ...






We started celebrating Max's 3rd brithday the day before by going to see Elmo and all his friends from Sesame Street!! The show was great and both boys had an AWESOME time. After the show Max got to choose lunch and we headed to RED ROBIN ... YUM!!! It was a great day for all of us and a great way to start the birthday celebration for our Elmo fan!!!






Pictures from Max's "Thomas the Train Party"







And just in case you are curious ... Grammy (my Mom) is the cake maker!! She make wonderful cakes and they are all unique to what the child wants!!!

The end of the journey the beginning of LIFE!!!

It's been some time since I sat down and blogged about life with Roman and Maxim but that's not to say that we haven't had anything to share ... we've just been living as a family and enjoying each and every experience as a family of four.

I've also been trying to decide if I should continue blogging or if it was time to say goodbye to the blog... I'm still not entirely sure ... after all I started this blog almost 3 years ago when we began thinking about adoption as a way to keep family and friends posted on our journey to parenthood and now that journey is over and we are enjoying the journey of life with two very active and loving boys!!!

The journey we have taken to become parents was not an easy one but in the end we made it through and fulfilled the dream we both had of being a Mom and Dad and some nights when I watch my boys outside together playing I find it hard to remember life before they invaded every inch of our being!!! What a ride it was just to get to this point and to be honest every day since we've become a family has continued to be a hell of a ride!

My favorite quote along the way hangs just to the left of my computer in my office at work ... at times it kept me going and other times it brought me solace for the difficulties we were experiencing "The journey only looks long from the beginning. When we look back up the path, the reality is, we can be happy we started or we can wish we had." When I look at my boys, hear their laughter or their many request at night to sing "pleasant dreams" ... I know .. KNOW this journey was worth it in every way we experienced it!!!

Our journey to having a family is complete but the journey of life together continues and I think I will post occasional updates of the boys and what life brings our way!!

Sledding Fun

After our "holiday blizzard" the boys got the chance to go sledding in our back yard. They are pushing each other into the area that will have our pool this summer ... it's the funniest thing I've seen in a long time!!!

Enjoy!!!!

Christmas Day and the beginning of the New Year

We had a great holiday season at the Pupek house!!! Santa was very good to all of us and we stayed home this year and enjoyed the day with all our new presents and relaxing around the house!!! On New Year's Day we piled into the truck ... Lucy and Happy with us and headed to Grammy's to celebrate the beginning of 2011 with the Nadeau's and to celebrate Christmas and more presents!!! We hope everyone else had a great Christmas and New Year and we wish everyone a wonderful 2011 with lots of new memories!!!!

Santa came ... Santa came!!!

So excited for the presents from Santa

We LOVE LOVE BARNEY

New hats ... a kitty and a penguin

Giving his brother a lift in his new tractor

Christmas Morning ... our little family!


Presents from Grandma and Grandpa

Light Up sneakers for Roman

New boots for Max

Getting ready for Santa

Christmas Eve 2010 - we began the night by joining some of Roman's classmates at the local hospital to hand out gift bags to any children who were too sick to be at home and had to wait for Santa in the hospital. After, we headed to Marist College for Christmas Eve mass with Fr. LaMorte and friends we know from the college. After church we came home for a quiet dinner just the four of us and opened our first gift of Christmas ... Christmas pj's ... a family tradition!!! After the boys got on their new pj's and then we got ready for Santa to come visit!!!

All ready for Christmas Eve mass and dinner ... handsome little boys!

Opening the first Christmas gift from Mama and Papa

Christmas pj's for Maxim

Christmas pj's for Roman

All the Pupek boys ...Happy, Papa, Roman and Maxim


Cookies for Santa

Carrots for the reindeer

Snug in their beds waiting for Santa to come

A Shepard and a Sheep

Roman's school held their nativity play for Christmas the other night and he played a Shepard (thanks for a great costume Grammy). He did much better in this role than he did the Fall school concert ... he sang his heart out and we were very, very proud of him. Max got to star in the play as well .... he was Roman's understudy in case Roman couldn't remember his line "the wise men ... Maththew 2, 1-12" but at the last minute they called Max to be a sheep!! You've never seen a cuter or more animated sheep!!!

Christmas Spirit 2010

This past weekend we took Roman and Maxim up to the North Pole ... Jefferson, New Hampshire to visit Santa and get ready for Christmas!!! After the 6hour ride from New York it really did feel like we travelled all the way to the North Pole!!! The boys had a great time and we are definitely ready for Santa to come to our house this year!!!
The other highlight for Roman and Max was the indoor swimming pool at the hotel!!! The minute we arrived Roman was constant chatter about going swimming ... we got to see first hand "nature vs nurture", because Stephen said he was the same way when his family did a similar trip when he was a little boy!! Every time Roman asked about going swimming, Stephen just smiled and said "you are definitely my kid"!!! Another moment of "what a year it has been and look at how far we've come as a family"!!!

Pictures from our visit to see Santa at the North Pole!!!




Santa's Reindeer ... they really DO exist!!!