one happy lady

I am one happy lady. I have a new kitchen faucet and a new garbage disposer in the sink. My husband worked very hard this weekend. He ran into some plumbing difficulties so it was not an easy task. But he did not give up and after several trips to Lowe's and some online research, he did it! Best of all - he let the kids watch and ask a million questions and did not get frustrated. He's amazing!

...oh - and have I mentioned that he's grown his hair out and I find it incredibly attractive? Because I do. I'll try to sneak a picture and show you. He's like his grandfather in that respect - he gets even more handsome with age.

walking in the sun

The sun came out today. Amen and amen! The kids and I went on not one, but two walks today. It was lovely. During our afternoon walk on the trails near our home, Ethan picked up a rock. He kept saying, "wock, wock." Then he looked up at me and said, "take - wock - home - peese?" Four words. In a sentence. Oh my. I love that little guy. This journey with him just makes the milestones that much sweeter.

our week in pictures

Ethan on his Plasma Car.

Liam learning a new math skill with the base ten blocks.

Ever wondered what a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old might have in common? Trains!

Audrey is back in dance again and loving it! She's taking a ballet/jazz class.

Look at this amazing rainbow right out our back door!

The kids checked out a Star Wars book from the library - which of course leads to homemade lightsabers!

And our favorite babysitter in the world (my cousin Erin) came to play!

Oh, and school work, housework, speech therapy, Awana, basketball, Bible study, errands and lots and lots of friends over to play. It was a great week!

more words

Our little talker just keeps talking! My favorites this week:

"Oh no"
"mine"
"what?"
"I do it"
"please"

Oh - and he says "share". When he sees something he wants that someone else has he yells out, "share!" He just did it to Liam in reference to the blueberries on Liam's plate. Hmmm - we'll have to work on that one. But he's doing so well. We're very proud of him!

can anyone guess...

...what we're doing today???



AS I was typing this - the kids yelled - "Mom, Ethan's poopy."
Yuck. So we're done for today.

snow!

Woke up to snow this morning. Absolutely beautiful. Big kids have been out for over an hour. Ethan declared it "Yuck" and was back inside within 5 minutes.

look who's talking!

This little guy is talking! A lot! And for those of you who know us well - you know what an accomplishment this is.

I started getting concerned about his speech when he was around 18 months. He had only five words and used "eh, eh, eh" for most of his communication. But it wasn't until his two-year checkup in July that our pediatrician agreed that something was probably not quite right. We had a speech evaluation done and found that he was about a year behind where he should be. He was displaying classic signs of Childhood Speech Apraxia. His brain was fine - his mouth was fine - but being able to form the words proved to be difficult for him.

We began weekly speech therapy in September and were blessed with the sweetest speech therapist in the world. Her name is Vicki and Ethan and I adore her. She was basically training me to help him break down words into individual sounds and then getting him to practice them. We also taught him some sign language to help alleviate frustration until the words came.

We are seeing results! In the past couple of weeks his speech has just taken off! He will repeat almost any single word. And he has begun putting two or even three words together. Amazing! For instance - he knew the word "bye" and he knew the word "Dad" for a long time but he could never say "bye Dad" when Patrick would leave in the morning. Well now he says it! When he's being told to do something, he now responds with "Yes, Mom." And when the kids and I were running some errands this week, Ethan decided he was done being at Target. He whined "want to go" all through the store. And I couldn't have been happier!

We get so excited over every new word or phrase. This is a huge answer to prayer. And we look forward to many, many more words in the future!

pollyanna

Audrey has been reading Pollyanna again this week. She has been encouraging us all to play the "glad" game that Pollyanna plays -- you try to find something to be glad about in every situation. At dinner tonight I asked her how her glad game went today. "Oh great," she replied. "Earlier today when Liam hit me I chose to be glad that at least he doesn't hit me every day!"

I think Pollyanna would be proud.

Dancing In The Mine Fields

Just heard this on the radio yesterday. Love. This. Song.

happy new year!

We were invited to a little New Year's Eve party last night. It's the first time we've done anything special to ring in the new year since becoming parents almost eight years ago. So we were excited. And since it's the first time the kids have ever done anything fun on this night - they were downright giddy. We all had a great time. Lots of food, fun with friends, yummy drinks and we all made it until 11:00! Crazy! Then we came home and had all kids in bed by 11:12pm. We were praying for a late morning - but both boys were up by 6:15am. Could be a very long day! But worth it.

So here we are -- 2011. I love the feel of new beginnings. Anything is possible. I have been thinking of goals for myself this year and came up with four. That sounds reasonable, don't you think?

1. Get rid of everything in our home (and garage!) that we don't either use or love.
2. Exercise regularly - with the focus on health rather than weight.
3. Memorize 24 verses (along with Beth Moore and thousands of other women!).
4. Have more dates with hubby and one-on-one outings with kids (at least once a month).

Happy New Year everyone!