Kids Pictures

So how lucky are we to have an Aunt Sarah to come down and take pictures for us?? We are very lucky. We just did the kids this year. They do so dang cute if I do say so myself. The one of all the kids together makes me laugh because Nick is so much taller than everyone else. Nick and Aeryka are only 18 months apart in age.

All I want for Christmas

Well All Jessy wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. Within a week she has lost both of her front teeth. How is this happening to my baby? She does look awfully cute with them out.

Snow Day

I know it has been a while. The computer is now working and the e-mail is all straightened out so I thought I would post a few pictures of what has been going on the last couple of days. We have got about 20 inches of snow (Yeah). Bring on the white Christmas. The kids got their first snow day out of school. If you can't tell they were very excited to get out and play in the snow. Robby and Aeryka were out for over an hour. Nicholas' favorite thing was to climb under the swing set and play because their was not any snow under it. The last two pictures are of the back porch before everyone went out to play. Now I will have to figure out why the words are all over the place. Sorry.

Why some people are in our lives

Do you ever wonder why we are so blessed to have the people we know in our lives?? You know what I'm talking about, the people that help you remember that you are so lucky to have this very special boy in your family. No matter how hard things are at this given moment, they help you find the blessings that you know are there but you are having a little hard time recalling. I read this awesome post the other night after having an especially hard couple of days dealing with Nicky and some of the many challenges that come with a sweet little boy that has to deal with aspergers. So I thought I need to post this so that I will always have something to look back on and remember how awesome Holland can be. We will still have our challenges but it is always worth the trip. I am so thankful to Merodene that she put this post up so I could read it and then steal it and share it with everyone that I know.





WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley
©©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley.
All rights reserved


I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......



When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.



After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says,"Welcome to Holland."



"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."



But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.



So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.



It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around....and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.



But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."



And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.



But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ...about Holland.


I am so thankful for Nicky and the special set of challenges that are in our family because of this wonderful little boy that chose to come into in our family. I am so thankful for his kindness and the love that he shows to his family. I am also thankful to wonderful friends, that help me remember to enjoy where I am at.

My little Bakers

I thought it would be fun if the kids started learning to cook/bake this summer. I told Robby he could be the first one to choose what he wanted to learn to cook. So he chose pumpkin pie ( in the middle of the summer). I did want to encourage him so we went for it. Robby helped with the pie part and Jessy was in charge of helping with the crust. They were so excited that we had enough dough and filling to make 2 big pies and one little one for them to split. Aeryka didn't have a chance to help with this pie but she did plan dinner another night and she is learning to make homemade macaroni and cheese one of the few things that she loves to eat. Nick is learning things that he is interested in baking such as cookies and bread. Every once in a while he will help with dinner, he is actually more interested in eating dinner than what actually goes in it.

Gymnastics

Aeryka has been doing gymnastics for about 6 months now and man does she love it. She is on level orange (2) and she is doing great. These pictures are of her when she passed her first level and of her spring spectacular. She is really strong and was able to do a backwards pull over on the first time she had class. Bar and floor are her strong points and she will keep on working on vault and beam. She always has a blast and she is very excited to move to the next level. I thought that she would be on level orange for a while but one of the teachers told me that she is almost ready to pass to the next level. I guess we will see when she has pass offs in the beginning of August. I am so proud of Aeryka and the hard work that she puts in to improve herself in this sport. One of the things that I want to remember about her is how funny she is when she leaves the living room. She always does a cartwheel or a round off or a flip over to leave. I think it is so funny. I am so thankful for this sweet little girl in our family. She has been a great helper to me this summer and it is so fun to have this shy sweet girl in our family.

T-Ball

What could be more fun than being on the same team as your big brother?? Oh yes, being on the same team as your big brother and your cousin!! Robby loves t-ball, he loves to go after the ball, he loves to bat,and he loves being cheered for and is always looking for a thumbs up after he does anything. Basically he is really into baseball. Then after Jessy begged me to let her play( she didn't want to be the cheerleader any more). So I have had 3 kids go through t-ball and I have never had one quite like her. She doesn't want to bat you have to remind her to run and after all that fun she goes out in the field and dumps handfuls of dirt on herself.

The season is almost over and she still cannot run the bases in the right order. The first couple of games she walked around the bases just like Eeyore. We finally got her to jog and she flaps her arms like she is a bird. I'm telling you this girl walks or jogs to her own drummer and he is playing the slowest march ever!!

At least she's cute and you get to enjoy that as she takes a year to get around the bases. I am looking forward to the end of the season. I usually need a year to get excited again but once it rolls around I can hardly wait.