We have had a few days lately, where the weather was pretty chilly. Those days are always fun to watch and see what the children come up with to do. Here are a few ideas the little boys had.

I guess there are many uses for my bowls.

You Gotta Love Florida!!

My oldest daughter(Baylie) and I recently got home from a short trip to St. Petersburg Beach, Florida. If the place has "beach" in the name,then that's a place for me. Florida has beautiful white sandy beaches, warm weather,

and palm trees. Aahhh, nice change from 30's-40's and snow flurries. One day was 75 degrees and sunny, the other 2 were in the 60's and rain. That's o.k. It didn't stop us from swimming,

snorkeling, playing on the beach, or sight seeing. We were just a bit soggy doing it. Not a problem.

Baylie and I had great one on one time together. She couldn't

get over the fact, that such little food would feed 2 people, since we usually shop for 9.

Our main purpose for going down was to go over the "Passport to Purity" information--a weekend get away for the parent and same sex child to discuss many issues the child will be

facing in the teenage years. Great info. I wish my mom would have done a weekend like this with me growing up.

Baylie got to experience several firsts: airplane ride, airport shuttle, supershuttle van ride, seeing the beach--that she will remember anyway, trip with only mom, and eating at a Japanese steakhouse. So glad we were able to make such great memories together in a fun place.

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Some may be wondering how those ...left behind... did. This was the first time for me to be away from Dan, Daniella, and Charlie; since they joined our family. Daddy and the other 6 children had a nice time together. Matt took off work to take over the "mom" duties. He said he has no plans of becoming Mr. Mom anytime soon. hahah I received a text message on day 2 stating......hurry home, please!!! Too funny. In my most compassionate tone, I simply wrote back...no dirty diapers to change here, off to the beach. :) Dan, Daniella, and Charlie each had one episode of crying and asking for momma; but overall they all did well. We were excitedly greeted at the airport home by 7 family members with "Welcome Home" signs. How sweet. Upon approaching the family, Charlie stepped out and began running to mama. It's always nice to be loved!! Dan grabbed onto my hand to walk to the van. Daniella was happy to closely walk on my other side. We are glad to all be together again.

update

Well, it's November already. I guess I'm due for a post. On opening day of our local ice skating rink, they offer free skating from 6-9a.m. This year Truman, Jack, Baylie, Zarah, and Matt went. The children made it on our local TV news channel. Fun was had by all ,minus one pair of ripped pants and Matt's sore ankles.

The children made/ put on a trampoline performance of Robin Hood for us. This was followed by a short dance performance by Baylie, Zarah, and Daniella. They all did well. For several weeks they were practising; whether they wanted to or not , thanks to their oldest sister. :)

Here's the Halloween photos for this year.

The lineup consisted of a tomato, bumblebee, cheeseburger with very tall lettuce hair, blonde airline stewardess, clown, spiderman, batman, and superdog. Yes, Jack made the dog a costume. I was impressed that he could use my sewing machine. Good job buddy. I kind of got carried away with Halloween this year. We went to a community party, a puppet show, and a visit to our neighbors. Getting everyone dressed up for 3 seperate occasions. What was I thinking?!? We enjoyed all the activities though.

Our schedule has gotten a little more complicated. Zarah is doing gymnastics twice a week. She is doing very well. They moved her from the beginners class, past advanced beginners and intermediate, to the competitive team. She certainly doesn't get her skills from me. I was always more of a flop flat on to your back kind of gymnast in PE class.

Jack is doing well in his boxing. He possibly has a match coming up in a few weeks, so he is practising 4 days a week.

Baylie's flag football is over with. She did well this season and really enjoyed it.

Dan and Daniella are still working hard 5 days a week on their neurodevelopmental program. Daniella is up to speaking mostly in 4 word sentences. She is running faster, can recognize 13 site words, add single digits, remember 5 auditory numbers, and remember 5 visual numbers. Dan is mostly potty trained during the day, he can walk on most all uneven surfaces now, running faster with his arms down at waist level, make several animal sounds, knows and is able to say 7 body parts, and is saying about 7 other words.

Truman is riding his bike now without training wheels. He looks so little as he fearlessly jets in/out/over things. He had 2 bad food reactions again this last week. He gets hot, from head to toe turns bright red, and begins wheezing as his lungs fill up with fluid. Thankfully so far, benadryl and the humidifier seem to resolve most of the reaction in about an hour. I haven't had to use his epinepherine pen thus far. Thankfully. I just hate to see him go through that. Maybe with time he will outgrow it. I don't know. For now, no chicken, turkey, pork or almonds for him!!!

Charlie is still as fluffy as ever. We thought he would slim down with more activity, but he may always be a bit stouter built. He loves practising his animal sounds and body parts with me and Dan. Even though he is the littlest, he lets his needs and wants be known. Usually quite loudly. :) Too funny.

I guess that's about it for now. Hope you all are doing well.

until next time,

Vickie

Free

The weather was so nice today. We decided to take advantage of it. Every year there is a local attraction that allows residents of our city to go for free in the months of October and November; so we always try to go. Fun was had by all (except when Truman was allergic to his lunch and it came back up in the bushes, Charlie missed his nap which resulted in loud screaming and mom having to carry him most of the way, sore feet from walking 2 miles, pulling/pushing 80-90 pounds of wagon with small boys can get heavy going up big hills, loud barking noise terrifying Dan, etc., etc., etc.) Anyway....................























































































Have a great day,
Vickie

apple picking

The weather has been so nice here lately. Mid 70's. Cool breeze and sunshine. As soon as the weather starts feeling like fall, I start thinking about camping. An activity our family loves to do.

Our school support group has a camping trip planned for next week. Can't wait.

Our fieldtrip for this week was apple picking. Such generous people to let us pick all we want for free. The children always love it. Dan and Charlie had a great time picking apples up off the ground and putting them in their sack. Most of those apples were rotten, so they got dumped out. Then they would just fill it up again.

Then their attention turned to eating apples. Eating---one of their favorite all time activites. That fun lasted until Charlie bit into a rotten one. You should have seen his face, when he tasted that. Yuck!!

We got lots of apples. I see applesauce, dehydrated apples, apple cobbler,and sharing with others, in store.

The man also has a pond stocked with white catfish. They were fun to feed. What a nice day.

Hope you all are doing well. Talk to you soon.

The Big "4"

Dan's birthday has come and gone. It was a great day. He has changed so much over the summer. Here are some of the changes:

--the toddler look is gone

-- he's taken another growth spurt

--can mostly dress and undress himself minus socks/shoes

--potty training is going really well

--is shaking his head "yes" and "no" and trying to say the words. As communication skills have increased, the whinning has decreased.

--coordination is getting better; is running faster

--standing on his head to zone out is gone

-- he no longer is refusing to eat certain foods because of their texture

--is able to chew up his food without just swallowing it

--when he tries to jump now, his feet come off the ground just a little bit

I love to see his personality emerging. He is such a joy. Full of love, always offering a hug and kiss. He has a gentle spirit which makes for a good playmate. He loves to be silly. The children "helped" Dan decide to have donuts for his birthday cake. Of course, he liked the idea. Here's a video of him having fun. They are singing the "ice cream and cake" song. Warning-- it does sound a bit chaotic. I guess that is part of having fun.

Guess Who's Starting To Talk!!

Dan is looking older this summer. He's grown again and slimmed down. He's loosing his toddler build. His wonderful personality is really starting to emerge.





He is mostly potty trained at home during the daytime. I haven't figured out yet how to let him wear his underwear out in public. There is no way for him to tell me he has to use the restroom when we are out. I am teaching him the sign language signs for #1 and #2, but if I'm not looking at him how am I going to know he


needs to go?? I guess we'll figure it out eventually.


So, now for the biggie. Dan and I were sitting outside for a bit this Friday afternoon. Our neighbor/adopted grandparents pulled their car out of the garage. Out of the blue Dan says, "Nana". I looked at him. What did you say Dan. He said it again!!!! Then he said, "Papa" as Papa got out of the car. Wow!! He continued to say the names, so I walked him over to the neighbors, so they could hear him talk. How exciting. He has been saying Mama and Dada for a bit, but we hadn't heard any new words for awhile.

His running is getting faster and more coordinated. He seems so receptive to his neurodevelopmental program. After only a few months, he seems to show improvement. Pretty quick.


Now, Daniella makes progress too; but hers is much slower and requires a lot more work. I am so thankful she is willing to put in as much time as it takes. She is such a good/hard worker. What a sweetie.

All of our children are such blessings.




Have a great day,
Vickie