Looking Ahead

It has been cold and dreary here for several months and I am so ready for warm weather and Summer time. We are booked on a family cruise leaving Cape Canaveral on April 26th. I am excited about taking the kids to the Bahamas and on a big cruise liner. Josiah is especially excited. We will have to take him out of school for a week in order to go, so we are figuring out different ways we can incorporate fun learning while on the trip. Josiah said he would like to learn about the animals that will be in the ocean that we are sailing on. I think that can be arranged. We are still waiting on Naomi's passport to arrive in the mail. We are praying that there is no major hold up on it especially since the paperwork for a passport for an adopted child can be tricky. It shouldn't be, but it is. Please pray that we get it in time. I have joked with Greg that if we don't get it that he and Naomi will have a fun time at home while Josiah, Greg's family and I cruise. He did not find that amusing. In anticipation of going I having been looking at buying some sundresses. I was shocked to see the price of little bitty dresses on line ($50 each), so I began an adventure that I haven't had in many years. I found myself in a fabric store buying patterns and fabric to make dresses. Yes I said make them. It has been about 17 years since I made any article of clothing for myself. I was nervous to say the least. I spent $60 and will have 3 dresses and possibly 4 to show for that. I think that is a good deal. This weekend I made the first one. Here it is:

A fun Day Out

One day before school started back up I took the kids to All About Kids for open gym. they got to play in the bouncy are for about a half hour and then got to go into the gymnastics gym. We were there for just a short while when Josiah came over to me and said pone of his friend's from his class at school was there. That was surprising to me since he goes to school downtown and what would be the chances one of his classmates would be there. Turned out to be great for me since Josiah and Ben went off together with Ben's Dad and I got to just play with Naomi. Another fun thing we have been doing with Josiah are experiments. We have 2 kits that have everything in them we need to do the experiments. One kit is chemistry based and the other is about light. The other night we grew salt crystals. It has been fun to watch them grow bigger each day and to see Josiah's reaction to them. Each time we do an experiment he writes about it in his journal. He took his journal to school to show his teacher and didn't bring it back, so when he does I will take pictures of some of his observations and post them. We also learned about how light travels in straight lines. He is having a blast doing this.

Naomi swinging.

Josiah and Ben playing.

Salt crystals

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.