Merry Christmas

Christmas Preparation 2009

This weekend we finally got into the Christmas spirit. On Friday night after dinner we decorated our gingerbread house. We usually do it closer to Thanksgiving, but just didn't get it done until now. We have tried, in the past, putting the house together then icing it with not so good results. The roof would always slide off under the weight of the icing and candy. this year we decided to decorate and then put the house together when the icing was dry. It worked much better this way.
On Saturday we did our usual Tae Kwon Do and then home for lunch. Chris, Laura, Max and Madison came over for lunch. We had Chicago style stuffed pizza. After lunch we started a new tradition for our family and made the Zoeller's tag along. We went to Flame Run to blow a glass ornament for our Christmas tree. Josiah got to choose the colors and blow the ornament. He was scared at first to do it, but after we had a test run without the rod attached he did fine. He chose a blue and red ornament with a little white on it. It is so fascinating to me how these glass blowers can make such interesting things out of glass. Max and Madison chose a red and white striped ornament design. It was really cool. We got to pick them up yesterday. Laura has pictures of Josiah blowing his ornament, so when she sends them to me I will post them.
Sunday was a very sad day for Greg and I. We said goodbye to our dear friend Tamara. She has battled breast cancer for 4 years now and finally lost her battle. For us it may seem she lost, but really she gained everything. She is with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, worshipping the Father in heaven. She is no longer in pain and is not suffering any longer. The last few months were very difficult for her yet she never wavered in her faith. She pointed everyone that had contact with her to Christ. She kept telling us that even in her pain, God is always good. She is an inspiration to me. Please pray for John, her husband, and her two boys, chad and Matthew.

Christmas Preparation 2009

Our Little Daisy

Graduation

About a year and a half ago Naomi started speech therapy through First Steps. Her therapist, Laura Mize, is the best. When she started she would not imitate sounds or words, she would not say very many words and we were just starting sign language. She progressed nicely through the year and was able to express herself with her few rehearsed phrases. She said what she needed to say in the same way every time so that she wouldn't get confused. If we tried to get her to add words to what she was saying or lengthen the number of words she could say in a row her speech would come out garbled. In the last 6 months so much suddenly changed. She is able to imitate well now and she can say almost anything she wants to. When she get excited her speech still comes out garbled, but if we slow her down and listen carefully she is very understandable. I didn't want her to be discharged from therapy because we love Miss Laura so much, but when strangers started telling me how well she talked for her age I knew it was time. Laura came over one last time last week to do a discharge test. Naomi has now graduated from speech therapy. Check out Laura's website, Teach Me To Talk.

Preparing For Christmas

We had a good Thanksgiving with Greg's parents and sister. The kids played well together and we ate a lot of good food. The day after Thanksgiving I got up at 4:30am to go shopping. I got to Walmart at 4:45am and the parking lot was full and there were no shopping carts left. I shopped until I couldn't hold any more and then got in line to check out. I was in line by 5:07am and didn't get home until 6:30am. I ask myself why I do this, but then I see the good deals that I got and think I will do it again next year. After nap time we got the Christmas tree up and decorated. I thought it was going to be very difficult to do with the kids, but they were very good and helpful.

Privse for Boys

We had some friends over for dinner one night and Josiah and Jack decided that they didn't want the girls to play with them. Josiah made a sign in order to keep the girls out of his room. Here it is.