Winter Break, so far

With Billy still working during the holidays, we do our best to keep a normal schedule, but have more time to play, since school is out!

Emily's gift from Uncle John and Aunt Diem, was the last one we were waiting on, and she was so excited when it arrived!

And we got our bill from William's mishap earlier this year. If I weren't posting about Christmas and other fun things, I would go on a rant about insurance costs and medical bills, but let's just say that I'll happily pay the $702.

My mom bought Juliet an Ariel shirt, because she *loves* the little mermaid. But then Grace found a hello kitty dress at the other end of the closet, and while it is a tiny bit big for her, it is a dress not a shirt, which meant that Juliet rejected the shirt.

So my mom found a skirt for me to make her shirt into a dress.

Both are knit material, so it is loose fitting, and kind of on the big side, but she loves it just the same.

And, with the leftover elastic band, I was able to make her a matching headband (with buttons also courtesy of Avia.)

William is usually a willing partner when Alice is looking for someone to play the Wii with her, but he's not necessarily helpful.

I think I bought too much ham.  The kids an I had it for lunches twice, and we had a full leftover meal with Billy, my mom put some in a breakfast casserole, and I put some in omelets, and still have some left. = O

I served up a breakfast brunch earlier in the week, which usually goes over pretty well with my crowd, because it is a come and eat as you are hungry.

They gathered up every blanket they could find.  I think they might be a little cold here in Michigan.

I installed my Christmas gift from Haley & Chris:

The twins got into my stamps, and stamped a bunch of empty envelopes.  I'm thankful that they at least knew what stamps were used for, and only wasted one by sticking one on a computer cabinet.

William and I ventured out to the dentist in unreal temperatures. = /

I saw this this line on our bill this month, and I'm so thankful for the people who made this happen.  It is too cold here to be without electricity!

I did finally get them to all sit down for lunch with me, when I made grilled cheese and tomato soup = )

And it snowed again.

Yesterday I got the urge to start on teacher end of year gifts, but had to clean off my sewing pile first.  So I mended a towel, and remade my bag.

I made myself a purse over the summer, but the material was thin and did not hold up to the stress of daily use.  It was literally ripping to shreds, but I'm proud to say my seams were holding up just fine!  I had to wait until I had a chunk of several hours, because I actually don't have a back up.

I cut out the inside lining, because it had all of my handy pockets and elastic straps, but I had to add fabric to the top, bottom and sides to make it the same size.  I had just barely enough to make a new one!  While I was adding fabric, I gave myself an additional pocket and sunglass loop, because I could. = )

Even my old strap was in poor condition, so I had to make a brand new one.  This time I used fusible fleece on all of the components, so I'm hoping it will hold up better than before.

The lining fabric puckered a bit, but the whole piece feels sturdier than before.  And I'm glad I made the cord for my Aldi quarter purse so long, since I had to cut it out of the old one.

I also cut out the pieces for the teacher gifts, so once the feeling comes back I'm already one step in. = )

later days

Christmas

Santa came, and it would be the last time I'd see the floor for the next 24 hours.

Emily sorted the gifts for everyone, and there were squeals and excitement all around!  My mom came over and cooked up bacon for breakfast, and all the adults helped open, assemble, and sort.

Aunt Rocky did make a brief appearance, but illness is rampant this season, so she did not stay long.

Just after noon it started to snow pretty hard, so my mom headed back to Sarah's.

We had a nice ham lunch with a little something special for everyone.  We also popped our Christmas crackers, but the twins had already fallen asleep.  Alice got a pen, Emily a key chain charm, and William a mini bowling game.  They weren't nearly as good of prizes as last year but the kids liked their hats and jokes. = )

It turned out that my mom made the right call, we got a lot of snow on Christmas!

Playing the new Wii U with Daddy.

Sadly, Billy doesn't have much vacation yet, and had to return to work the next day, so I got out and cleared off the driveway and sidewalks.  The snow blower makes it much easier to clear off the pavement!

I think it's safe to say that we all had a fun relaxing Christmas.

later days

Waiting for Christmas

Waiting for Christmas is so tough when you are a kid!  We did our best to bide our time.

I am working hard to let the kids have natural consequences for things (i.e. If you don't get your backpack out of the car, it will still be in there the next morning.) I'm such a micromanager, that it has been hard to not just grab it for them, but I'm working on it. 

On that same note, I'm also a big fan of trading off my chores for rewards.  The three big kids have been packing up their lunch each night, so that they can stay up an extra 5 minutes.*  I don't know how long this will last, but it is amazing.  I help them clean up a bit, and pick out the correct containers, but they have been doing an awesome job.**

Legos have been a big hit with the twins lately, and while Avia was here one afternoon, the big kids wanted to join in building too, before she left.

Juliet and Grace love to dress up!

Why play on your own computer, when you can just watch big sister play?

I assembled Aunt Rocky's Christmas present, and of course William wanted to play in it.  The twins wanted to help, so they put on the cover. = )

The snow had melted just a bit, but then it started to come down again.

Alice was so excited to build her airplane model, and was beyond disappointed when the paint and glue were dried out. = (  We tried soaking them in water to see if that would help, but couldn't recover them.

Billy and I made a special trip to the dollar tree while everyone was in school on Friday, and got Alice some paint, and glue.  As fate would have it, there was one small diy wooden birdhouse model right next to the paint.  So, of course, I bought it for Emily, since she lives for crafts. = )  They were quite excited to get to work.

The snow did eventually stop.

It picked back up after the morning Christmas eve service, and with no schools in session, the plow and salt trucks were scarce. So we didn't go anywhere that evening. = )

Alice was the last one awake on Christmas eve, so she wrote the note to Santa.  We have a chimney for our furnace, but no inside fireplace.  Alice was worried that santa would be scared of the dark in our basement, but I told her that he could probably tap Rudolph and his nose. Because of that, she left Rudolph the longest carrot she could find, and several shorter ones for the other reindeer. = )

Especially on Christmas eve, it is nice to slow down and reflect, instead of go go go, on what an amazing gift this season brought.

later days

*William, not yet 6, does not have any minutes, so this was 100% increase for him.  Emily has 10 minutes because she loads her own dishes into the dishwasher and now 5 more for lunch making. Alice has 10 for dishes, 2 for hanging up her own clothes, and 2 for collecting all the dirty laundry from around the house, plus her 5 for making lunch. = )

And maybe don't mention it to them, but it takes them longer than 5 minutes to make their lunch.  They just do it so cheerfully and willingly!

**Emily is to thank for this actually.  One night she made her own lunch so that I "could go to bed earlier," since I'm usually very tired in the evenings. = )  She something special, our Emily.

IEP Meeting for the Twins

This is the latest post in the series of William, Grace, and Juliet's journey with hypophosphatasia.

Those of you who are teachers, or have children in school with special needs, know how formal all the paperwork is for an IEP meeting, and we had one the final week of school for the twins.  Their teacher, speech therapist, and additional speech therapist, and school nurse (who also happens to be the nurse at the big kids' school) were in attendance.

The entire meeting they told me how well the twins were doing.  That they had met all of the goals from the paperwork I'd brought up from Texas, and that they thought the twins were misplaced.

I was inclined to agree.  Their placement was in a special education classroom. Which they were in a class with other children with varying developmental delays, and in this particular case, cognitive as well.  The twins are not behind in comprehension, or motor skills, or learning ability, they truly only lack speech skills.

Juliet's vocabulary is above the average range, at least the way they tested her, and Grace is at the upper end of the range.  It does explain why they were never excited about school, though they did love riding the bus.

All of the other preschool programs for their age group are full for the remainder of the year, but they are not leaving the twins out in the cold.  We will go up to the school twice a week for 25 minute speech therapy sessions. This is not nearly as convenient as a bus collecting them, and I will certainly miss my 3 hours to get done chores each week, but I know this is in the twins' best interest.

And, in the coming couple of months, we will get them registered for next year, which should go much smoother, than last year since they are already in the system. = )

later days

<what happened previously
what happened next>

Christmas Parties

This entry is a bit out of order, since I've already posted about the matching pajamas, but I finally downloaded the pictures from my phone.  Seemed like a good thing to do before the start of our new year!

For some reason, William's party was in the morning, so I helped set up, and partied with my favorite little boy.

They made cute Grinches on a toothpick with marshmallows, grapes, strawberries and bananas. = )

After his party, I checked him out of school to go to the doctor.  My mom met the bus for the twins.  Once William was done, I dropped I'm off, then ran back to the house to pick up the twins for Emily's party!  Then we went back to the school, but I did not get a prime parking spot on this final trip.

She was already working hard on her 'gingerbread' house.

The twins enjoyed pretending to be big kids in their sister's classroom.

Once they were done with the books, they were able to partake in some cracker decorating too.

Alice's party had ice cream!  She also won a wooden airplane set to paint an assemble in their class "auction." She gave me her placemat afterwards, it was a picture of the two of us = )

Alice's party finished about 30 minutes before school let out, so we grabbed all of our big kids. William was sleeping, Alice did not want to go, because her class was watching a video, and Emily was out on the playground, plus they had a bunch of extra stuff.  I'm not sure how we made it out with extra bags and 3 children who did not want to go, but we struggled and grumbled through it. 

Alas, since it was only Thursday, we had to get up and out the door one.more.day.

later days

Ankle Pains

This is the latest post in the series of William, Grace, and Juliet's journey with hypophosphatasia.

William complained of ankle pains a few weeks ago, but I didn't think much about it, since he is a rough and tumble type kid.  When we saw Avia, he complained again, which sent up some flags.

I called the doctor to make an appointment, but they were completely booked through the break, but had some appointments on Thursday, which was school party day for my little ones.  I told her that I'd see if he complained again, before making the appointment.

I had time to mull it over that evening, and though he did not complain again, I realized that he has been wearing his boots while playing outside lately, which don't offer nearly the support that his tennis shoes do.

A bit of background: before we left Houston, the physical therapist helped us secure some inserts, to go into his shoes for some extra support, but once he outgrew those shoes, we just reverted back to regular tennis shoes.  It occurs to me now that it was quite an oversight that I did not get him back into physical therapy in Waxahachie.

So, I called back to make the appointment for Thursday, after his party.

We weren't able to see our regular provider, but another doctor in the office helped secure a referral to an orthopedic specialty clinic, and we will go in to see them just after the new year. 

When I spoke to the staff who made the appointment, she indicated that we would have to go back in to pick up the custom finished product. So, he probably won't have them when he heads back to school, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to collect them before the end of January.

later days

<what happened previously
what happened next>

Christmas Pajamas!

I had to skip out on the matching pajamas last year, so I was quite excited to bring it back again this year!

We were going to attend the evening Christmas eve service at the Methodist church here in town, but as the morning service that we attended let out, the snow was starting to come down. As we finished our few errands, the roads were becoming more treacherous with no plow in sight.  We decided to stay in for the evening, and the new plan was to let all 5 of them open up one present, their pajamas, at 7pm last night, but that also did not happen. Juliet fell asleep before 7, so we did not get a picture last night at all.  Oh well.

Today, it was fun to watch all of them opening gifts in their matching PJs.

After the excitement had abated a bit, I convinced them all to come in for a picture, but it was not without some resistance:

My heart is so full.  Merry Christmas everyone! JWAEG

later days

See how cute they were back in 2015!

The week before Christmas

Christmas is less than a week away!  It snowed quite a bit here last weekend:

The truck on the porch was totally hidden in the snow!

Billy and the kids got out and made a tunnel in the snow = )

We also, finally, put out our outside Christmas lights, and mailed off our Christmas Cards.*

Emily has been working diligently each evening to make rubber band bracelets and Christmas cards for each person in her class.

Last night she finished!  She is quite excited to pass them out at her party on Thursday.

My car looks so naked without it's Texas plates = (

for the record, I am parked *next to* not *in* a handicapped spot, as this picture portrays

Yesterday was the first day we've had above freezing (37F) in a few weeks, so I took the opportunity to go get my car washed!  Alice had a dentist appointment, so I went to the car wash in okemos that has the free vacuums and cleaned the inside a bit too. = )

The snow is melting, but the roads are wet leading to some hazardous conditions.  I witnessed a close call between a driver who lost control on the ice and a school bus heading in the opposite direction while pulling out of our driveway this morning.

And of course, a picture of my snow gauge:

Juliet has had a cough the past few days, so when the girls' school called today, I thought  she was being sent home, but it turns out it was Grace this time.  I picked them both up, a mere hour after they started, so they helped me wrap their siblings gifts, since that was my big to-do item today.

And I wanted to document our table deer, who we named as a family this year: Theo.  I am likely to forget in the next 12 months, so now I can just click back here. = )

Theo has a broken antler, and doesn't fly, but he is very loved.

later days

*I ordered them the weekend after thanksgiving, but accidentally shipped them to Waxahachie.  Shutterfly kindly sent me a reorder, which arrived on the same day as my original.  So, they are quite late this year, and I have twice as many as I need. = O