Mackenzie's Birthday

Well I have successfully downloaded pictures from Mackenzie's birthday party! I think we all had lots of fun, Jeff and I included. We played the Wii a lot and ate pizza and cake and ice cream so really what's not to love? She had 5 girls overnight and only one ended up not staying the whole night! They all seemed to have fun and I managed to get them into bed pretty early considering. They were all out by 11 at the latest and woke up in the morning before I got up! I think some of the girls thought it was more fun to watch Jeff and I play the Wii than it was to actually play themselves but then they go into playing against us to see who could win! Needless to say I am not that good..:)
Here are some pictures from the big event!

Wii Fit

I am convinced that the best ending to a somewhat rough day is to watch your husband do yoga on the Wii fit. If laughter is good for the soul than watching Jeff doing yoga is definitely good for my soul:) We just purchased the Wii fit. We have been looking for it everywhere for what feels like forever and we finally found it at Toys R Us. I am really excited because we gave up our YMCA memberships to help save money monthly and we though the Wii fit might be a fun way to help us stay in shape. I am convinced that laughing also builds up your abdominal muscles too so this is a win win situation!!

After reading one of my friend's blog today I realized that often what I post glosses over the many hard things I experience every single day in parenting my children. I try to parent well but there are many days that I am just not successful. Especially when it comes to parenting a child with special needs. Knowing how to meet Ellie's everyday needs can be daunting and overwhelming and sometimes just downright frustrating. But I don't post those things because I don't want to always highlight the difficult things and focus on those. Hopefully I can keep it real without dwelling on the difficult challenges of each day that seem to arise. Not that Ellie hasn't made a lot of progress because she has but there are so many things that pop up day to day that can be daunting. Knowing which specific issue to work on in any given day can be overwhelming. Take for instance our Sunday morning experience. We got to church and I needed to be in the Children's area for a little bit to help find the sign in sheets. Ellie followed me in but I took her back out and shut the door so that Jeff could watch her. She proceeded to thrash against the door and throw herself to the floor. Jeff picked her up but when she is throwing a fit she makes her body so rigid and arches her back so much that she is difficult to hold. So he tried to set her down in a safe place. But we meet at a school and all the floors are hard. She managed to throw like a 15 minute fit and wouldn't let him comfort her. When I came out, she wanted me but she had to stop fussing for Jeff and that made her even more angry. I walked away and she must have hit her nose on the floor because when Jeff turned around she had a bloody nose. I had to spend 5-10 minutes cleaning up her bloody nose from her 20 minute temper tantrum and missed worship. And we still had to idea what set off the fit and how to help her deal with emotions. An ongoing struggle that seems to occur in cycles. We are by far perfect but fortunately we have a perfect Heavenly Father who loves us and helps see us through every day. We aren't helpless and hopeless but rest knowing that He knows exactly what we are going through and will give us wisdom to get through the day to day stuff.

Awana

Mackenzie and Ainsley got dressed up for Awana for crazy hair night. I wanted to take pictures of both of them but Ainsley didn't want any taken of her. I did get some of Mackenzie as I did her hair like Pippi Longstocking. I thought it looked pretty cute and she won for her class this year so she thought that was fun. We have been pretty busy in the last few weeks and I can't believe I didn't post more! The girls had all of last off due to weather here in KY. We got about 5 inches of snow, topped with 1-2 inches of ice and then 4-5 more inches of snow. Lots of people in parts of KY are still without power and will be till mid February I have heard. I am so thankful that we didn't lose power! Compared to so many others who lost power and have had to manage without many things the last few weeks, we are sooo blessed!
We actually had a pretty fun week with the girls off school. We played outside a lot and went sliding in our backyard. Though Jeff doesn't like our backyard and wants to do landscaping, I keep telling him that it is perfect for sliding! The neighbors also use it too and the all seem to have lots of fun. So even though the first time I got out last week after speech Monday morning was Friday at 4 to take Mackenzie to Drama, it wasn't too bad! We had fun times together playing inside and outside.
Now we are onto a new week and getting back into the swing of things. Of course the kids have today off too because of more snow. It doesn't seem to messy out there though and I will probably go grocery shopping later. We did get probably 2-3 more inches of snow yesterday afternoon and evening but it wasn't too bad, at least that I could see. Roads were a little slick but I guess all the snow we have is supposed to melt by Saturday. Mind boggling if you ask me!
So we are hanging out this morning watching Spiderwick Chronicles.
Ellie had a speech evaluation for Apraxia Monday at Children's Hospital. It went well and she did well. I think the therapist is making the recommendation that she has apraxia in her report that will go to the doctor. We will see what we decide, if anything to do with the information. I was hoping to get more help for services so that we don't have to pay as much our of pocket but I am not sure how many hoops we will have to jump through to get funding or coverage. But she is continuing to make improvements in her speech so that is encouraging. Our regular therapist, whom we saw on Tuesday, gave me lots of things to work on with Ellie in the next few months at home too. So we have some work cut out for us!
I will post some weather pictures and some recent pictures of the girls. Ellie LOVES having her picture taken. Ainsley however DOES NOT. So if you see more of one than the other that's just because capturing Ainsley on film can be difficult.










I also played my first game of scrabble with Mackenzie.  She did a great job and actually beat me.  I need to work on bigger words next time.  I took a picture of the scrabble board for her to show her big win!  I also have a few pictures of my new hair cut and highlights.  Not sure how well you can see them but I will post them anyway.  The last pictures will be of Chinese New Year that we celebrated with our local FCC group in NKY.  I didn't get too many pictures there but I did try to get a picture of each girl.  I didn't get any of them all together which is a bit of a bummer but sometimes that happens:)

MLK Day

So we spent MLK Day with friends in Springfield. The girls had a blast with their "adopted" grandparents and our friends the Nelles'. Kristen and I went to Cedarville together and though it seems we should be able to get together more often than we do, it just doesn't happen. Her oldest in in Kindergarten and with our kids being in school, getting together during the week is difficult. And what with busy weekends...well it just doesn't happen! So MLK was a special day! We spent the day with her parents in Springfield and we had so much fun. They live a bit more in the "country" and have lots of land. And a tractor! Papaw hooked a sled up to the back of the tractor and the kids had a blast. Not to mention the fact that they had probably 6 inches of snow and we have none. Add that to having friends to play with the day was fantastic! It is a lot of travel for one day and the kids really wanted to spend the night. But of course, school beckoned:) I thought I would post a few pictures of our day.

Ellie Loves Dress Up!

Here are some recent pics of Ellie getting dressed up. I loved them and so I thought I would post a few:)






And here is Mackenzie and her recent foray into being a bunny...




And I just had a recent haircut. I brought Mackenzie with me because she wanted to come and she decided to get her haircut too. Apparently it took me a while to get my hair cut because when I went to find her..I couldn't!! At least I didn't recognize the person in the seat she was previously occupying. But I stuck my head around just to make sure and wouldn't you know it..it was her.. with her hair straightened! I had never seen her with her hair straightened and she looked adorable! So I will post a few pics of her hair and mine:)

Star of the Month

Ainsley was selected as star of the month for November. She was honored at this months' PTA meeting and so we decided to go. However it fell on a Tuesday which is cell group night. So we opted to have me go with Ainsley and Jeff take the other two to cell group. She originally wanted to go but as it got closer to the time to leave, she changed her mind. I told her in no uncertain terms that we were going. So we got to the school and she was really nervous. She told me she didn't want to walk up there so I told her that was ok. We would just stay and watch and pick her certificate and prizes at the end. But as the evening wore on and she saw the other kids go up from all of the other classes, she seemed to pick up confidence. At first it was.."I'll go up if you walk me up" and then it was "I think I can go up alone." I wasn't sure if she would do it but she did and I was very proud!

Here are a few pics from the big night!

Christmas Pics

Here are some pictures from Christmas. I you can see the girls did Gingerbread houses. Jeff's mom has brought them the last two years. I think she decided that next year they would all be pre-assembled as Ainsley really had some issues with hers! Faulty construction I say!:) Ellie is also now into dressing up. She loves to get dressed up and get her picture taken. The only problem is that she doesn't stay still very long because she want to see herself in the camera immediately. So it means that often the picture I take don't come out that great. I think she is learning but getting a picture where she is looking at the camera these days can be difficult!

 

Can anybody help me?

I have tried multiple blog layouts and editing and I can not get our blog to post the date for each entry.  I have edited it to post it and several different layouts thinking maybe it was just that layout that wasn't working but that isn't it.  I have removed almost everything and still it won't post the date.  And obviously I really want the date.  It has been missing for months and have tried many times.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I came, I saw and I forgot to blog about it...

As par for the course, I haven't blogged in a number of weeks.  I have been too busy following my friend's blogs to actually keep up with our own!  And my friends..they all seem to be doing great in the New Year:)  We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Jeff's mom and brother came in the day after Christmas and we spent 5 wonderful days with them.  We received a Wii from Jeff's mom and stepdad and have loved it!  We have had a lot of fun learning how to play multiple different games.  I, of course, have spent the least time on it and Jeff has spent the most. The girls have actually spent a bit of time with it and Mackenzie has reached a World Record on the rowing event on Mario Olympics.  She's pretty happy...Ainsley not so much since she can't beat Mackenzie!  But Ainsley enjoys the bowling a lot and does well at that and they both duke it out on tennis.  I think I may have arrived at my first Wii injury, which is fascinating since I play it the least!  Apparently, I have a very violent throw when I bowl so I need to learn how to bowl without throwing my shoulder out of joint:)

Christmas was just a great break to catch up with each other as a family and we had such a nice and relaxing time.  We didn't travel, didn't actually get out much but had fun together just hanging out!  Our friends, the Lukes, were in for New Year's Eve and stayed till Jan 3 which was a fun treat.  We don't usually get to see them that much over Christmas and we had a blast as of course did the kids!  What could be more fun than having 3 teens give you attention!:)

And now our New Year is off to a great start.  We are looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting things that God has in store for us this year.  The girls are still really enjoying school and Ellie is making some great strides in her speech.  I am hearing her start to say 2 word phrases which is good.  Often it seems to be that she takes some strides forward and then back which I have noticed since every one has gone home from Christmas but I am sure she will settle in and continue to progress.  She seems to have the most difficulty adapting to change in routine but she loved Christmas this year!  It was fun to see her open gifts and have fun.

I will post some pics when I have a few more minutes but thought it was time to catch up and not just follow everyone else's blog!