On the way

We are so excited to be going to SC for Thanksgiving this year. We haven't seen my brother and his family since last Thanksgiving and the girls have been dying to see their cousins for a LONG time. We will be seeing my brother and his family, my mom and my other brother, Aaron. We are really looking forward to it. Other than seeing family, I asked Ainsley what she was looking forward to most. And I quote, "the things you roll up with cinnamon." I was perplexed and couldn't for the life of my figure out what she was talking about so she went on to explain that they are the things you roll up and eat. And then it hit me...she's looking forward to Aunt Janice making roll-ups. Hopefully Aunt Janice knows this since mommy doesn't make them! Mommy is pretty much a dismal Moody failure when it comes to many things I am sure my mom thought she would pass on to me when I grew up. I can't sew-my mom made lots of my clothes. I can't knit, crotchet or anything else remotely domestic other than clean. AND I can't cook Norwegian pancakes (or roll ups as some affectionately call them). However I have taken one step forward on the roll ups front. I have purchased a griddle! I now have the capacity to make the roll ups though probably not the skill. Alas! However, I will attempt to get the recipe from either my mom or Janice even though I am not sure if it is formally written down. Maybe at some point in Ainsley's lifetime I will be able to make roll ups. I wouldn't hold out for them till maybe High School or even college but maybe just maybe I will acquire at least one skill that she hoped to pass on to me. I am pretty sure my mom gave up the dream of me ever being a domestic queen long long ago. But maybe there is still hope for me yet! Here are some recent pictures of the girls.

The girls sitting for Christmas pictures

Ellie with her speech therapist, Lori

More Christmas picture sitting

Random nature shot

Ainsley

Bike riding

I know that I have already posted video of Ainsley riding her bike.  But she is now riding down the driveway and wanted me to post new video of her doing that, so here it is!:)

Ellie Year One

I can't believe that it has already been one year with Ellie.  How time flies by when you are busy! Ellie's technical "gotcha day" was on Halloween but that isn't really a good day to celebrate since we are so busy with other stuff.  So we chose Sunday to celebrate and we went out for Chinese after church.  We went to Memories of China and had a great time.  The food was great and the girls had fun and Ellie polished off an insane amount of noodles!  She seemed to have a lot of fun.

In a year's time, Ellie has made vast improvements in her language acquisition and expression. Though she is still very much delayed, her improvements are very noticeable.  Her gross motor is very close to being age appropriate which is huge.  Her fine motor skills have improved though they weren't as severely delayed.  Her ability to interact with other kids her age has improved tremendously.  She is in preschool and doing well.  She is able to identify 10-15 letters, count to 10 and identify numbers 1-10.  I am still blown away by how God has done such amazing things in her life and in ours.  She is a beautiful and amazing little girl and we are so blessed to have her in our family.  While she still has temper tantrums on occasion, she has made vast strides in this area...moving from maybe 15/day to 1-2/day and some days none. Thanks to everyone who has offered us encouragement and prayed for us over the last year.  I look forward to what the next year holds and the ways that God will continue to use us and Ellie to further His plans for our lives.

Halloween

So I am finally getting around to updating the blog again!  The girls had so much fun on Halloween this year and Ellie seemed to really enjoy it too!  She had a halloween party at school and loved it and then seemed suprised that she got to dress up in her costume again halloween night:)  We went trick-or-treating with the neighbors as we usually do but the older girls took off like a wildfire and I could barely see them let alone catch up!!  I had Ellie, the single stroller and Ainsley while Jeff stayed out in the culs-de-sac and passed out candy with all the other men.  Ainsley was a bit grumpy at first and we almost came home but she did eventually perk up and have fun and catch up with the older girls.  I took Ellie to only a few houses as keeping up with Mackenzie required a much faster pace than Ellie! But she had a blast anyway and was pretty content to stay in the stroller after about 6-7 houses which was great.  My neighbor Erin stayed with the older girls so they weren't alone in their pursuit of the most candy any child could ever need!!  Here are some pictures of the girls and Ellie at her party: