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.