Happy New Year!

In one last post before 2015 is upon us, here is a good New Year's Eve cuddle I got from sweet Avery and her sister, Snow White.

We've had such a nice holiday, celebrating with our family. I feel very lucky to have them around me and the bubs. I also feel like this season has not been quite as stressful as the past couple of years, which is a bloomin' miracle, really. Or maybe I am learning a better balancing act? Who knows.

I have a lot of wishes for 2015, and hope for the future. And I hope everyone reading this is looking forward with hope in their heart as well. I wish you all peace and happiness in the new year! 

And with that, I have broken 40 posts for the year, and actually kept my resolution from last year. Hurray!

I had a dream

Now that sounds dramatic. It really wasn't. I just happened to have a great job at Houston Ballet back in the pre-kid era which included a lot of behind the scene workings of the ballet... including a close and intimate relationship with The Nutcracker. More on the Public Relations side than the actual performance side, but no matter how many times I watched that particular production (from backstage or front), I would always get a certain emotional chill. The music especially makes me feel sentimental. So I did dream of one day taking my little(s) to watch something that meant a lot to me. 

I decided this was the year.

Now, logistics of taking a 6 year old with profound special needs to watch a 2 hour and 20 minute ballet may sound a little daunting.... they were. Luckily, I knew my 3 year old would do just fine, and I was totally right on that account. Did you see the last post? Yea, she likes ballet a little bit. I also knew I would need the VERY wonderful Bub the hub to be on standby in order to make this work for Avery. 

Owing to some unforeseen circumstances, Maddie and I ended up attending the entire performance while Avery and the hub came in to watch the second half. There were some hairy moments here and there, but it ended up just fine. Mostly because of my darling hub. Avery got to listen to the music and watch a little bit, and cuddle with mommy in her lap a lot. Maddie got to ask questions the entire time, dance a bit in the aisles and overall just love it tremendously. Both girls got to wear their sugar plum dresses! yay! 

Instead of trying to take photos of this event, I tried hard to just enjoy it. I only have two to share and none of my Avery, but it's ok because it was something I didn't think was in the cards for her and we made it work anyway. Plus Maddie's utter delight! I will never forget it.

it's about to begin!

Afterwards, she wanted to perform on the stage, but

agreed to just take a photo with me in front of it instead.

My Sugar Plums

I found the most exquisite dresses for the girls to wear this year for the holidays. First I saw and coveted them on etsy and then found them less than 50% off on Groopdealz. It was a Christmas miracle! As soon as we got the dresses, I knew that I wanted to do a Sugar Plum theme for our Christmas card. Couldn't resist is perhaps what I should say. Just look.

They are so frilly and balletic! I die.

This next pic is my new fave though. Been needing a good one of the 

two of them together for SO LONG.

love this one too.

And from my family to yours...

Sweet Ballerina

Maddie had her ballet recital!! She's been going once a week to a very casual class at our athletic club. I wanted to make sure she really enjoyed herself before we signed up for anything formal. And enjoy herself, she has! She performed three dances, two of them with the group and one very VERY precious solo. 

Gettin' ready to do some toe pointe!!

the excitement is hard to hide...

A little more practice... 

Ready to rock-n-roll!

And for your viewing pleasure, Maddie's solo :)

Further Avery Brag

I need to add more to my brag from last post! Avery and her Occupational Therapist, Ms. Bridget, work on a Christmas art project every year to enter in a contest at the therapy company. It's a pretty large company with many therapists and clients, and Avery has worked on something every year for the past 5, maybe 6 years! This year SHE WON! She had her art work featured on the front of the company's holiday card, and they had it framed for her. I'm so proud of my love! 

They traced her hands for the wings, and she practiced her scissor and glue skillz.

And here is my sweet little giggler at Thanksgiving.

♥♥♥

All About Avery

Well, I blinked and November went whipping on by. Just to summarize, the weather went hot/cold/hot/cold, the girls got runny noses, we took fun family pics, raked a ton of leaves and made lots of delicious pumpkin bread. Then I was Thankgiving party mom at Avery's school, hosted 30 people for Turkey Day, went to the Aggie/LSU football game with Bub the hub and got to hang with Uncle Drew!! Whew.

NOW, I really need to do some bragging on my Avery! She's had a great start to this school year. I kept hearing from her teacher about how well she was doing on all of her goals, which always puts a huge smile on my face. I knew some of the things they had been working on, but when it came time for the teacher/parent conference, the hub and I were so blown away at what she had mastered. 

Avery correctly recognizes her name, age and gender by using sight words. She also now recognizes numbers 1-10 and capital letters A-G. She has 16 other sight words she has also mastered. Sight words!! This just gives me so much hope for future communication!

Avery also knows her colors, having already mastered RGBY and pink, she's now recognizing white, black, gray and currently working on purple :).

She is so much happier than she was earlier this year (sure it had something to do with this) and beams that big, beautiful smile every morning at me when I go in to greet her. What I really love though is the very end of my sweet girl's day, after dinner, when we have our special mommy/Avery cuddle time on the couch. She curls up and still somehow fits in my lap with those crazy long legs. Sometimes she "talks" to me, and giggles. But mostly she is super tired from long days of working hard on her goals, and every once in awhile she falls right to sleep under my chin. That's my fav.

State Fair 2014

As usual, we had great fun at the Texas State Fair! The girls were really good and I feel like I was able to be more relaxed this year than I've been in a long while--  since having kids I guess. It's no secret that Avery's special needs have changed me in a lot of ways, but especially my stress level. That's a whole 'nother post though!

We started the trip off right with a great nap and an introduction to headphones, plus a little movie (not sure if you've heard of it) called Frozen. All of these things made the time pass by ever so pleasantly!

For the first time in many years, Avery did NOT have a meltdown for the very last 30 minutes of the car ride! I believe our girl is growing up. 

We stayed with the very wonderful Rob & Christine Patterson, who were perfect hosts and doted so much on my sweet girls. We also got to visit with Granddaddy, which is always a special treat. AND we had the most beeee-autiful weather for Fair day, after two years of cold and rain! 

Putting the girls in matching outfits always gives me quite the thrill. They looked so cute. Some of you might notice that Uncle Rob is acting pretty silly right behind us. He thinks he's pretty funny ;)

One of the first things we did was visit the "Little Hands"Farm, which teaches kids about life on the farm. They get aprons and baskets and do things like gather eggs and veggies and pretend-milk the cows!

Both girls highly enjoyed riding on the Farm's little tractors.

We got to visit the cows, sheep, horsies and some very nice goats. They even tolerated some petting.

Avery liked the chickies!

 I always enjoy seeing the baby piggies. Maddie really wanted to pet them.

The car buildings did not disappoint this year. Maddie would stay and just pretend-drive cars all day if we let her.

We got to sample the award winning "Fried Sweet Texas" in one of these buildings. The official description:

"Fresh pie dough filled with crunchy pecan pie, juicy peach cobbler, and creamy buttermilk pie. It is then deep fried until the crust is golden brown and flaky, and then served up with a side of Texas’ own Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream."

My description: Yum.

I thought Maddie did a great job walking all day. Avery was in her stroller but we didn't take one for M. She managed to hitch a few rides though.

We always save the games and rides for last. Maddie played the pick-a-duck game and won a prize. I tried to flip chickens in the pot but no luck. Mike tried the basketball shot game and won a huge stuffed animal doggie. Just what we needed!

I was excited because Avery rode the choo choo train with me and ended up liking it :))) Maddie rode the most rides. She got to do the elephants with me, then another ride with Aunt Shannon, one with daddy and two with Uncle Rob! She's a brave girl.

We didn't get any good family pics this year with Big Tex, but we did get this gem. Technically it is with Big Tex.

And this one is pretty awesome too.

BAAAAAA

Halloween 2014

We had a really nice Halloween! Lots of pics to share... like my sweet pumpkin Avery

She had a fun party at school today while Maddie and Mommy visited Daddy at work! In costume, of course. This expression just kills me.

This afternoon it was time for some pumpkin decorating and Maddie was intrigued, but not so excited about the "insides" of the pumpkin....

You want me to touch what?

Like mother, like daughter! Thankfully we have a Bub the hub that will handle that business. And great at carving too.

Avery joined in the fun too

Maddie was super psyched about our finished products. The pure joy totally overwhelms me. I just love my littlest bub pumpkin. 

Having said that, neither of my pumpkins are interested in taking posed photos for mommy right now. Avery could care less and Maddie refuses to even look toward the camera most of the time. I end up begging and jumping around like a crazy woman. Sigh. Bub the hub tried to take some for me today and here are the results. 

Pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

And the best I could get of Princess Jasmine and Supergirl, drum roll...

We didn't do a lot of trick-or-treating but the girls still got some awesome goodies. Watching Maddie hand out treats to the kids at our house was definitely the highlight. I can't believe we didn't think to video it! She would run full speed at the door every time and yell trick or treat! and throw enormous amounts of candy into every kid's bag. She'd say "Hi, Elsa" or "Hi, Skeleton" and then, "Happy Halloween everybody" as they walked away. It was priceless.

My favorite by far was when a group of junior high girls were walking away and she told them, "say bye Jasmine" as in for them to say bye to her, and they all chimed in a big, "Bye, Jasmine!" just as she had asked. This girl is something else.

I can't believe it's all over, again. I love celebrating the holidays with my little family. Last year, Maddie only asked for about 5 months whether it was time for Halloween again. Can only wonder how long it will last this time!

Bub Update

15 days since my last post! eek! Life got in the way, again. A lot of life. Avery has had tons of doctor appointments and got another Botox treatment, which her tired muscles appreciated VERY much. Maddie is a whirling dervish of activity and currently experimenting with giving her nap up, which is making me a little sad. Both of them are growing like weeds, going through clothes and shoe sizes like you wouldn't believe.

I finally got an appointment for Avery to try horse therapy in December and Maddie is thoroughly enjoying her gymnastic and ballet classes.

In the past month, I have decorated the house for fall, hosted a neighborhood book club, worked on about 15 card/party orders, held a successful garage sale and played Candy Land about a 1000 times.

We've also been able to take advantage of this new, beautiful weather and the girls are loving it. This past weekend we went to Dallas for our annual State Fair visit and had so much fun!! Photos will be coming soon. No photos for this post, sadly. More soon :)

Maddie at Three

I wanted to do this post as part of M's birthday, but we just finally went in for her doctor check-up and I got her stats. No wonder she is still fitting into all of her 2T clothes, sweet girl is 3'1'' and 30 lbs. so that's 38th percentile for weight and 42nd percentile for height. Skinny minny I call her.

I could not resist a good toddler interview. Here are her answers to my questions:

What is your favorite color? "Red!"

What are your favorite things to eat? "Applesauce and yogurt"

What are your favorite things to wear? "clothes" yea, she really said that. LOL. Then I asked if she had any favorite outfits and she said "dresses." Awesome.

What do you love to do? "To play with my trucks. And I love to play with my ball on the trampoline."

What is your favorite song? "Music" I asked again and she said, "Jesus." She's talking about the songs she sings at MDO. I'm pretty shocked she didn't mention a certain Frozen song!

What is your favorite day? "Tuesday" I asked why Tuesday and she said she got to play with her friend Leah. awwwww

What is your favorite toy? "Cars" and then "Elsa toy"

What is your favorite animal? "A cow!"

Where do you like to go eat? "At Lenny's" (Lenny's Subs)

What's your favorite thing to do with momma? "Playing with Candyland"

What's your favorite thing to do with dada? "Eating breakfast" haha

What do you like to draw? "A person"

What's your favorite book? "Ariel" I'll assume that's The Little Mermaid

What makes you happy? "Mommy and dada and my family" omg cue my crying

What makes you sad? "When people talk about sad." Makes sense to me.

What makes you laugh? "Funny words"

What are you really good at? "Changing clothes" Alrighty then?

What are you not very good at? "Um, I dunno. Hammering." She's referring to her toy tool box, I assume.

What do you want to be when you grow up? "A princess." oh, love

Where is your favorite place to go? "To the grocery store. With my family. With Nana."

What is love? "That I love my family" ♥♥♥