Up and Coming!

I have been feeling very bad that I do not journal any of teh wonderful things my kids do.  So I will update my blog...if possible and record some of the wonderful things that have been happening in our life.

below is a list to remind myself:
montly update from March till now of day to day stuff...nothing fancy!
gf diet
o hugging c on way home from school
pillows on couch
beehive teacher
liv- math, reading, social, braces
sam- kiss me, eyes,
chlo- gf wont eat food unless knows good, preschool,
lu- firecracker, putin corner knows why
dad's cancer
mimi
fit for life
soccer
baseball
bob- work,
saving for house
walk a thon winery
doing the hard things!
life is like unto a dream
life is like a fairy tale

4 eyes

I have always thought Sam was such a cute boy.  My good friend Mandy said Sam reminders her of the little boy on the front of Mad Magazine (not because he is naughty) but because she thinks he looks like an all American boy.  I know exactly what she means, he is just adorable.  Well, my cute boy can't see.  He has 20/80 vision.  So he is going to get glasses.  Then we will officially be the cutest boy around.  I am sure he will do well wearing his glasses.  If I can find an image of what he has been seeing with 20/80 vision I will upload it.
 Click here and you can see the glasses Sam picked!

A.P. update

A.P.= auditory processing
Last night Chloë had on Olivia's undershirt and Olivia wanted her to change.  So I asked Chloë to go change and I took off her jammie top to help speed up the process. Chloë went into her room and the next thing I hear is her crying.  So I went into her room to see what was wrong.  For the billionth time I asked Chloë why she was crying.  Every time I have EVER asked her this I would get no response.  By now this WHY question was just rhetorical.  Her nonresponse was just part of Chloë's a.p. issue; she might not answer because she does not understand what this WHY question means or she might be so distracted by the fact that she is crying that she can't answer.  But to my surprise Chloë said, "Because you hurt me."  I asked her if I hurt her feelings or her body.  She said "You hurt body."  (apparently I took the jammie top off too quickly-but this is not the point of the story)  I could not believe she just answered my question.  I was so happy to hear her answer. 
Then tonight at dinner she asked me if I liked my corn.  I said "yes, especially with lots of salt and butter."  Then Chloë said, "I like corn of the cob."  Yeah! she is communicating with us.  Chloë loves being with people sometimes I forget she doesn't talk much.  Then when she asks me a question and says something like, "I like corn on the cob."  I realize questions and statements so specific are few and far between for her.  I think preschool has been good for her.  It gives her opportunity to talk to others and share with me what happened during the time at school. She is positively progressing.
p.s.  today is her 4th birthday...i will post about that later!

fun at home

Sunny Winter Days

It has been great weather lately.  On the way home from school Sam said he wanted to have a picnic.  I thought that was a great idea.  Next thing I know he is calling Lula and Chloë to sit on the grass in front of our house.  OH the joys of living on a busy road!

Most Fridays I take the two younger girls to the park with from friends from church. 

Great to be 8

The ward we attend has over 130 kids!  There are 18 kids Olivia's age that will be getting baptized this year.  Here are some of the girls.  They decided to sing at each other's baptisms.  Here they are practicing their songs.  Far left: Lilly Burt, Bethany Liddycoat, Kelly Smith, Taylor Picket, Lucy Alebest, ? Budge, Olivia Ledesma, Vivian Reed, Samantha Fairnanks, and upper right, Sarah Bettinger. 

Beehives

I have been teaching the Beehives at church for about a year (there are about 13 girls).  Beehives are the girls ages 12 and 13.  I love working with them.  Every Sunday I get to talk with about important gospel principles such as faith, family, modesty, work, the Holy Ghost, God, and especially Jesus Christ.  I share with them every week my loves for Jesus and his restored gospel.  I made each girl a journal like the ones above.    Each week I give the girls an important quote and I ask them to take notes from the lesson and write their feelings down.  I hope the girls will love to re-read their journals when they are older.

no second thought

I am so proud of Olivia.  Today she received a birthday invitation from a girl she has wanted to have over to play.  Olivia was very excited, she opened the card, read all the details out loud and then said, "Sunday! It's on Sunday."

Then she picked out some stationary and started writing a letter.  When I asked her what she was doing, she said she had to tell Francesca she couldn't go to her party.  I asked her why she couldn't go, and very matter of factly she whispered, "It's on Sunday." and then she smiled.

Olivia may or may not have a complete understanding of keeping the Sabbath day, but she has wonderful faith and obedience in the principle!

Chloë started Preschool

After much research and money, we have decided to start Chloë in a small (6 kids) preschool at a larger private school.  She has been seeing a speech therapist for a little over 3 months.  She has some auditory processing issues, which is a broad term, but basically she has trouble processing what others are telling her for several reasons.  The most common ways in which Chloë has a hard time processing what we are saying are: (1) if she has something she wants to tell us she won't "hear" our question until she gets her point across (so she gives us any answer to appease us) and (2) if there is just too much outside stimulation, so she just turns off and drops into the background.   

Chloë made great progress with Dawn, the speech therapist, and I learned better ways to cue Chloë into to listening to us.  For example, I have learned to ask her questions with visual cues as well as speaking. In addition to her speaking skills I was concerned that Chloë was always complaining about her tummy hurting, which could also contribute to her lack of energy and interest in interacting with others. 

I am beginning to figure out Chloë has some food allergies.  It seems she might be allergic to milk...which could be a big problem!!  She is definitely lactose intolerant, and the blood test indicates that she is allergic to milk.  So we are having allergy tests given to Chloë at the end of the month to be sure. 

I will get back to you when we have solutions!