You Gotta Love FREE Food!

Chick-Fil-A is giving away a FREE chicken biscuit! Yummy!

Make any purchase on January 1, 2009 at any Chick-fil-A from 10:30am-6pm and you'll be eligible for a free chicken biscuit on your next visit. Limit one offer per person. More details here.

Evaluation Day

Trey was evaluated by the early childhood interventionalist today. She was so good with him and he sat right down ready to play. She gave him the Batelle, which is an assessment that I am very familiar with. I was afraid he wouldn't qualify and I was right. She said that the Batelle evaluates communication as a whole, so he scored really high on the receptive part (which I knew he would....he understands WHAT we say to him), but scored on the low end for the expressive portion (not always able to SAY what he needs to). So when you combine those scores together, his overall total put him in the "typical" range. Angela, who is also a speech-language pathologist, thought if Trey is still talking like he is now when he turns three, then she thinks he will qualify for services in the public schools for speech. She said in her professional opinion, he probably had a mild delay in the area of speech. The Batelle does not test articulation, just language. I know he has the language, just not always clear what he is trying to say. She says that from what I have told her, that most of his behavior could be from the lack of being able to say what he needs to, especially when he gets upset or angry. She also said that she has had to tell another 2 1/2 year old's family that their child did not qualify based on scores like Trey's even though he only had 3 words. His receptive language skills were in the high range as well. So we will continue to model for him and hope that he improves, if not then I will do a parent referral for testing in the school system once he turns three. He did score really high in the areas of motor skills and cognitive skills, so that was nice to find out. We will keep you posted!

Be Vewy Quiet.....Shhhhh!

What boys won't get into! Trey snuck into the bathroom this morning while I was taking a shower and got into my hair wax, which he is infatuated with. He has eaten it before and I guess now he has finally figured out what to do with it......I thought I screwed that lid on tight enough.....hmmmmm...........

Santa Was Here!

Pictures of our Christmas and bowling from this weekend! Enjoy!

Christmas Traditions

On Christmas Eve, my mom came over in the evening and we had pizza....which always seems to be the easiest before the church service. Trey and Daniel stayed home b/c.....another new Christmas tradition seems to have started. Trey started running fevers off and on and had this really horrible cough. Lily had been to a sleepover over the weekend and inadvertently came into contact with the croup. I took Trey to the doctor just to be sure. Dr. R made the comment that Trey just didn't seem to get sick much (knock on wood) and had made a visit this time last year (for his ears). I said that he was pretty healthy even though he was in daycare. Well, they did a blood count and it turns out Trey had viral pneumonia. Yuck! Doesn't that just figure! I was so hoping this year Trey would get to be excited about his presents....last year he was not....he was just miserable all day. He got on an anitbiotic, which has actually seemed to help. He woke up on Christmas morning and once he saw what Santa brought him (his own garbage truck w/ Mr. Gilly included), he was excited! Now to the girls.....let me just say that this must be some evil payback for something that Daniel or I did when we were younger, but I heard Lily coughing around 4am and I thought I would get up to go check on her when I hear this whispering and then two little sneaks tiptoeing down the hallway. I nudge Daniel and tell him that the girls are awake. He takes the flashlight to go check on them. They, of course, have found what Santa has left them, Trey, and the whole family. He talks them into coming back up to their room. They stay up until about 6am, when Lily falls back asleep and then everyone is up at 8am once Trey wakes up. Meghan got a Kate Spade backpack purse from Santa and Lily got lots of Littlest Pet Shop. They had lots of goodies in their stockings too! Daniel and I exchanged stockings on Christmas Eve, just b/c neither one of us is very good at keeping things from each other! The girls really loved the Wii that Santa brought our whole family to share. Meghan has been religious on the High School Musical 3 Dance game and Lily, so far, holds the high record in Wii bowling at 180! She kicked her Daddy's tail last night! Jamie and Erin came over with their kids on Christmas day as did Andy and Alyssa and the boys! I hate that we are not together more. We missed having my dad here this year. He decided since he was a "foster parent" for some dogs, he had better stay put in TN. So not a lot of family time, which I really did miss. I just love this time of year being around family and playing games and hanging out. Just not something that gets done often enough with everyone being so busy. We also missed not having Dan and Carol and Aunt Katie here. We did get together with Erin and James again today with all the cousins to go bowling! That was a lot of fun, but with so many kids, the bowling lost its luster after about 6 frames for them! They wanted to play in the arcade instead!

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and were able to spend time with your family enjoying each other!

Too Cute!

Last Week

We found this cute snack idea in Family Fun magazine and decided to make them when it was Lily's snack day at school. They were a huge hit! Meghan helped Lily make them.

Trey had a visitor at daycare on Wednesday. Santa came to his room and Trey got to sit on Santa's lap (which he did willingly...yea!!) and he got a present. When Trey got home, he talked of Santa and put on his own Santa hat and kept saying Ho Ho Ho all thru the house!

Lily had her party at school on Thursday, which I was able to go to due to Mom's surgery. That was nice and it was fun just being Mom instead of teacher. She had a good time and got lots of yummy stuff to eat!

My Mom

Tuesday evening, my mom's doctor called with her pathology report from her lumpectomy. It turns out she has invasive cancer and had to go back for surgery again yesterday. Keep in mind she just had surgery 10 days before. I took the day off (party day, mind you....I hope that sub wasn't too exhausted!) and met Amy and Mom at the hospital. Dr. P told us that the lumpectomy was in fact non-invasive, but when she had made her first visit to him, he had discovered a lump which he thought was a cyst. She had to have them (there were 2) biopsied, but was only able to get one due to bleeding, so Dr. P took the other one out during her first surgery. Well, turns out the one they didn't get to biopsy was invasive cancer. So Thursday's surgery was to take out lymph nodes to check for tumors. Her lymph nodes were negative (but they will dissect them just to make sure), so that means her invasive cancer is stage 1 and she has to now have full breast radation, but no chemo. Dr. P did say he got all the cancer out during the first surgery, but since it is 2 cancers, then she is not a candidate for the localized radiation. She did well during and after the surgery. So keep your prayers coming and hopefully this will be the last we hear of the C word!

Cookie Fun

This past Saturday, we had our annual tradition of cookie making with Heather, Camden, Kaia, and Layna. We also added Evelyn, Libby, and Anmol. The dadshung out downstairs and played Wii. It was so much fun and we capped the evening off by going to a local drive thru nativity. You just gotta love traditions!

Snow Day #1!

I know....it isn't even January and it is the last week of school before having 2 weeks off, but I am so glad it is a snow day! Trey woke up at 2am Monday morning throwing up. He stopped sometime around 5am (my usual wake up time). Daniel was able to stay home with him (I was getting a new student and REALLY needed to be there). We are not sure what was wrong with him b/c he didn't get sick again and never ran a fever. We had an appointment with the early childhood interventionalist for Trey's speech at 4pm. Luckily the weather held out so we could go. It went well and we should be seeing someone this next week for his evaluation. We are crossing fingers that he qualifies. We were also able to hit the grocery store to stock up on some groceries (luckily there did not seem to be a mad run on milk and bread). Then at 3:30 this morning, Lily decides to wake up crying that she can't breathe due to a stuffy nose. Got her some water, propped her up, and back to sleep she went. I looked outside and the roads just seemed wet (I am sure now that it was ice), went back to bed, alarm goes off at 5am, look outside and see snow. Turn on the tv and, yep, we are out of school! I crawled back into bed and slept until 7:30....oh so nice! Daniel said when he was on his way to work that even the main roads were NOT clear (which is unusual here), so I am glad I didn't have to drive in any of it! Happy snow day!

I have pictures from our weekend of cookie making and will post later!

Many Updates!!!

Okay....I know it has been a long time since I last posted and do I have a lot to post about! It has been busy around here!
Last week, Trey had his annual Christmas performance with his daycare. They were so cute! He did not sing, but did stand up there w/o his fingers in his mouth, which is a step up from last year!
Sunday, Daniel's unit had their annual Christmas lunch, so we ate yummy food and the kids got to see Santa and open a present. Trey thought Ho Ho was a little scary, but worked up the courage to talk to him....from a safe distance, of course! Sunday evening was our church's 2nd annual Variety show/Christmas play. Lily got up and played the harmonica while her friend Hannah hula hooped. Meghan sang a song from Mama Mia!, and then Trey was a sheep in the play while Lily was a shepard. Meghan helped the little angels out, so I guess she was officially an angel as well. It was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs!
Monday was my mom's surgery. Everything went really well. She goes back in two weeks to discuss the pathology report and to hopefully find out when she starts radiation. I am sleeping better now that the surgery is over. I just feel better knowing that the cancer is out and that hopefully the radiation will take care of any residual.
Tomorrow is Meghan's Christmas concert at school. She is excited and I will be glad to hear some other music practiced....ha ha!
Wheew! I will be glad when Christmas break starts....I think I will actually be able to slow down for a little while!

Turkey Day

Here are some Turkey Day pictures from West Virginia. We had a good time and ate a lot of great food! The kids even played in the snow.......and we also had our traditional Thanksgiving Day play, written by our very own Meghan!

Posing with Nanny B.

Trey the Indian playing his drum

Sailing in on the "Mayflower"

Little Rory the baby Pilgrim girl

Posing with Mimi and Poppy

Ty the littlest Pilgrim

Trey loves "babbitball"

Lily has her papoose.....a baby named Turnip (don't ask)