Where do I begin

Yes, happy New year to us. Some gangster decided to "tag" our fence for the New Year. It may be time to think about planting some tall shrubs on that side of our property.
Grace and her new doll house that her Great Grandpa and Grandma Nancy put together.
Our very snowy backyard. Evan playing with his new car.

Evan and Grace on Christmas day.

David and Dorothy

What a slacker I have been with my blogging. Well, everyone is busy in December, so there is my excuse. Things are great here. We had an eventful December with the crazy winter storms. We also were unable to make it to my parents house, along with my brother and sister in law in Alaska. So change one, change 2, change 3, we stayed home and had Christmas with David's family. Obviously God had other plans for many people, and I am thankful that we stayed put instead of risking our lives. My parents still came the following week and so did my sister and her family, so we saw 1/2 of my family over the holidays still. I am still hoping to get to see my new niece in a few weeks. Living 5 hours away (and a brother in Alaska) in every direction from my family members makes it harder for all of us to get together.

I did enjoy the downtime that we got as a family. David had a few days off, and we enjoyed Daddy being home since he is burning the candle at both ends until June, when he graduates with his MBA. Grace had strep throat, but got over it once we realized it was not a virus and she needed an antibiotic. Evan was spared, thank goodness and so were the rest of us for that matter.

Now we are back to what I call "real life". No more holidays for awhile, and the every day grind is back. Grace is back in preschool. Her Christmas preschool program was rescheduled for tomorrow. We are glad we will still see the kiddos sing their heart out. This week has been hard for me making a lot of decisions for next year (2010) already. We have decided to petition for Grace to get into another school in our district. They offer 1/2 day kindergarten instead of full day where we would go. I had a hard time with this, since full day would be way easier on me with Evan's schedule, but I think for Grace 1/2 days 5 days a week is plenty. It will be a natural transition from 3 days a week of preschool this year. We have decided to hold Evan back a year in school since he has a summer birthday. We would normally send him to preschool next year, but with everything he has going on, we will wait and have him go one year in a Pre-K program. I am hoping to get Grace in afternoon Kindergarten and then that will free up the morning for the majority of Evans appointments.

The biggest thing going on this week, is Evan's surgery. He will he getting his soft palate lengthened on Wednesday. He will be in the hospital for two or three days, depending on how quickly his little body heals. He has been recently growing like a weed and grew one inch and gained a pound in December alone. He also will be undergoing more Botox in February to see if he is a good candidate for it for continued future use. His body didn't respond to it the way we had hoped, but that could have happened for many reasons.....we will see if the 2nd time will be the charm, or if we will just not do future injections.

For those of you who pray and know and love Evan, please pray for quick healing this week, and that the surgery really does for him what we need it to to help correct his speech. Every day we are making great stride and I am feeling less and less defeated. I am thankful for a happy little boy, and only want the best for both of our children. Isn't that what all of us want for our kids?

December fun

I have been having some nice snow days off with the kids. Grace was a bit sick over the weekend with a fever, but seems to be perking up now. We got our tree, and went to zoo lights last week for David's company party. We are looking forward to David's week off from work and some quality time with family and friends....hopefully the weather will hold up.

Evan in the snow
Grace in the snow

The kids at Zoo lights

Family picture at David's company party/Zoo lights

Our snowy backyard

Our tree

Fun Times

Grace, Chase and Evan decorating the gingerbread train.
This is what a bad hair day looks like according to Grace.

The finished train!

First off, my brother and his wife had a beautiful little girl on November 24th. My sister in law was in labor for about 36 hours, so we were thankful when Cadence was finally born. She weighed in just under 8 pounds and was 21 inches long. Everyone is doing well and adjusting to their new rolls.

Evan's Botox has kicked in. He was a little debilitated by it for a day or so, but now when he is out of his braces, he has been running flat footed. We are excited to see this, but know that it probably is only temporary. In the mean time he has a few physical therapy appointments coming up to see if we can work with those muscles.

David has had a few weeks off from school, so we have enjoyed some much needed family time lately. We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving weekend, with a little bit of shopping too. David has school again tomorrow, and then leaves for a quick trip to the east coast on Sunday. We will have to wait to get our tree next weekend.

Our kitty Roger has adopted another family. The lady who lives behind us is in love with our cat. He started visiting her, and she started feeding him, and well guess what? He likes it there since she takes care of him, and probably is able to pet him more through out the day then we do. I called her today though to send him home, since he really is "our" cat, and we really do pay his vet bills and pay for his prescribed food. (I didn't say that when I left the message , don't worry) I hope to see him show up soon.

Last weekend the kids and their friend Chase made a gingerbread train for Christmas. They helped me decorate the house too, and now all that is left his to get the tree and the wreath that we ordered from our neighbor kids.

Last night as we were getting ready for bed, Grace informed me when I took out her pig tails, that she was having a bad hair day. I was laughing so hard, because I never say that phrase and I have no idea where she picked that up. Then the other day I wanted to put a single pony tail in her hair, and she told me it would look "weird". What! Does she even know what weird means?

To top off the funny stories...Grace has been making pictures lately. She can draw just about anything, and makes about 50 pictures a day. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Anyway, we told her to make a picture of her Uncle Ryan (our good friend) and her to send in his Christmas card. So she did. Lately the men she has been making have had what looks like a 3rd leg. You probably know where this is going. So, when I asked her what that was, she said it was his "gina". Well, we knew what she was implying, and told her that boys don't have those. She said "I know, but I gave him one." We explained again what boys and girls have, and that those are private parts that we should leave out of pictures and not talk about. I am not sure if she really was drawing that, or said it to be funny, but it was hard not to laugh.

Kids! You never know what will come next~