Cheer and cycling

Hannah has been in cheerleading for two months now and of course Nate has been doing long distance bicycling for a while. Here they are before we headed out to cheer practice and Nate to his spin class with uncle Rob. I think they are SO adorable!

Then.....

suddenly....

small wee ones crept....

into the picture.....

And the best for last,
Long, long ago I myself was a cheerleader... so Hannah and I did a little cheer together. To funny! Yep, that's a black eye on me. Compliments of Liam late last week. Head bonk. Ouch.

Hannah is hoping to compete in a national competition in March and with some faith and a few pennies I'm going too to help out!

Preschool observation

Today we had the opportunity to observe the preschool 'in action', where Tommy & Liam will attend. It was very well organized, the teachers are gifted with talent for our kids learning, clean, nicely paced and very comfortable. We stayed two hours and even got to look inside the bus at the seats with their baby seat harnesses. The sign language interpreter was good, the medical asst who does g-tube feeds was patient and talented in those and the teacher and other aide were great at each of the routines for the day (concepts, snack, speech, etc).

Colin and I felt like a weight had been lifted from our shoulders driving home from the preschool. Okay, I was much more anxious about 'where' the twins attend preschool. This is a wonderful opportunity for Tommy & Liam to learn from peers, teachers and receive individualized OT and Speech/sign is huge. The teachers were just lovely in every interaction with the kids.

Later this month is their evaluation by the school district and then beginning of December is their IEP meeting. And although their third birthday is 12/12, we decided to wait until after winter break and join the class on Jan 4.

To all of you who have kids in Cascadia preschool, your kids are so stinking adorable. We look forward to meeting more families thru this opportunity, just like we did in the 0-3 yrs program.

National adoption month

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=9b08ab7214bb71b4b33e33&skin_id=1602

November is national adoption month and today is 'orphan' sunday. A day that can be shared the faces and stories of children waiting. Waiting in foster-adopt care here locally. Waiting nationally. Waiting internationally. What better way to share the awarness of these orphans and faces that are so heavy on my heart, than a video that an amazing mom created. Perhaps you have room in your family and heart for one more? Or perhaps you have room to share sponsoring a child so they can be closer financially to adoption. Watching this video brought tears streaming down my face!

SUPPORT those who support them …and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds... -Hebrews 10:24 Reece's Rainbow adoptions of kids with Ds and other developmental disabilities has a wonderful Christmas fundraiser, to the right is their ornament with more information on sponsoring.

We continue to pray for Millie (a little orphan that we had sponsored), to keep good health and hope that her parents (maybe you?) will come forward for adoption. There are so many children locally, nationally, internationally that are orphans. http://tommyupdate.blogspot.com/2009/10/orphan-waiting-for-her-family-to-find.html

Join us in praying for the MILLIONS of orphans.

Re-energized

We enjoyed a fun weekend and feel reenergized as parents. Ready to tackle anything :)

Friday night Colin, Nate and Hannah went to enjoy movies (I say plural because Hannah met a friend and went to a different movie than Colin and Nate). Fun was had by all. Tommy, Liam and I made homemade playdough and just hung out at home.

Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a supportive parent training sponsored by our county Parent 2 Parent. It's called "Helping Parent" support and offers newly diagnosed parents the ability to be matched with a parent who has personal experience with that particular diagnosis. The offer of someone to listen, to care, to not try to fix everything but rather be supportive and listen is wonderful!

But the best part of the weekend was Grandma Sue drove up and gave us the chance to get out together! She gave Tommy his g-tube feeding and I did his last nebulizer for the day and G'ma and the twins did fantastic. Colin and I had a hot date night. We went to the Temple Bar in B'ham and listened to fantastic live jazz, then walked on down to the Upfront Theatre which has live comedy improv and laughed our butts off..... and even topped the evening off with *trying* to watch a late night movie. We fell asleep about a quarter of the way into the movie. Too funny! Guess we need more practice at taking care of ourselves and date nights.... Thank you G'ma Sue!

Hope each person reading this takes time to take care of themselves. Even twenty minutes to just sit and relax in silence re-energizes our internal batteries. During the Helping Parent training some of the other parents had *fantastic* ways they take care of themselves. My friend Allison was there and she is one fantastic mom and shared so many ideas with me (baths, camping w/kids w/special needs, preschool, etc). I feel like I'm energized again and not in the pit of last week! Go ahead, turn the computer off and go take time for yourself!

Retro post

I'm getting nostalgic tonight.....

Remembering bald headed babies....

Baldness times two... double baldy heads...

Shiny bald peach heads of babies...

Oh how they do grow so quickly....


These photos were between 3 mos and 10 mos old. Next month the twins will be 3 years old! Where does the time go? And where are those peach headed baldies? They are stuffing their faces with Halloween candy and driving their sister and brother crazy.

I think I'm nostalgic because Hannah gets her driver's permit this week. She will be 16 in February. And she is ready to drive :) Of course, I'm no where near ready for her to drive.

Halloween 2009

Daddy was hard working this weekend helping our checkbook out, thank you daddy! So that meant we four had mommy running in a few directions. Tommy LOVED keeping track of the pumpkin seeds while we carved.

As usual, Nate has fun designs for his pumpkin.
After pumpkin carving and drinking some witches brew (crockpot apple juice/pineapple juice/lime jello package and allspice).... it was off to trick or treat with our cousins.

The twins were Buzz and Woody from Toy Story

I'm woody from Toy Story!

Here we are with most of my cousins (missing Andrew). They taught us how to trick or treat real quick! And were always helpful.



Of course my mommy just LOVES her niece Madison. It doesn't get any better than her in that costume.

HUGE thanks to Uncle Rob and Aunt Debbie who as usual are mommy's extra hands with a child who thought he was a cross between a bat and a gypsy (Tommy), many times on a dead run thru the night air in the wrong direction. Uncle Rob always had a great sense of humor! THANK U!

Our treat bags were sooo cool. They were made by G'ma Sue and G'aunt Elizabeth a couple of years ago. They are TINY pillow cases and have lil' pillows that mommy put back in them for the sleepy ride home. Perfect for the car seat and great for our hands to hold, thank you!

Apple picking

Last weekend the weather was just perfect for apple picking. The sunrise over our swingset was our first clue.

We like to pick apples at a farm not far from ours. It has 2,000 Jonagold apple trees. That's alot! And it has guinea hens (lower left corner) that follow us everywhere.

We've picked here for four years now and there is something new this year.....
Mommy, come and see what's new this year at the apple farm this year.....

I am eating apples!

(you can eat as many apples as you want while you are picking, trust me, we do!) Tommy can now eat apple slices by using his only two lower teeth to 'bite' appropriate sizes off the slice and chew 'em up. Yippee!