Counting down the days...

I have 3 more days until Spring Break! Can you tell I am ready? The only bummer is that Cody and Carleigh are on Spring Break this week. To some that wouldn't be a big deal, but I value spending time with my children. I love seeing them grow and learn new things. I would love to be home with them full time and homeschool them if they didn't have developmental delays and I didn't need to work. However, God changed our family dynamics and I am fully at peace with His plan for our lives. They are blessed to be in a great school with wonderful teachers who are helping them. I am blessed to be at a school with a Christ-centered focus. For now, that is where God has placed us and it reminds me of words of a hymn "where ever He leads me, I'll go."

Next week, I have 4 appointments: 2 dr. appointments for Cody, 1 for me and 1 school meeting for Cody. Then the week I go back, I have another doctor appointment for Cody. *sigh* My life revolves around pediatrician/eye/children's hospital/school appointments! I do have a few fun plans in store and we are going to do some fun things on Good Friday when the kids and I are both off (in the morning as I have a school meeting for Cody in the afternoon.) While the kids are at school, I plan on finishing the latest Karen Kingsbury book that I am reading and organizing my laundry room and kitchen pantry. We are hoping to switch back the laundry room into a bedroom and then we will have 3 bedrooms again so I have to get it all ready for the switcheroo! I will have 3 mornings to get it accomplished.

Carleigh is doing extremely well with wearing her glasses. If only she would rub off on Cody!

The Diva gets her glasses

This morning, we picked up Carleigh's glasses! She was so excited to get them and of course, Cody was then encouraged to wear his. He wore them for a few hours while we shopped before lunch.

Carleigh is doing great with wearing them. Occasionally she doesn't want to wear them, but for the most part, she had a great first day. I think it also helps that I wear them as well as Cody (well, he is SUPPOSED too!).

Playland

We met the cousins and Papaw & Memaw Schmidt at McDonalds for lunch and Playland. Cody and Carleigh LOVED the tunnels and it was difficult at times to get them OUT of it! Needless to say, they took a GREAT nap afterwards! LOL We will definitely have to take them again soon.

Email from Cody's teacher

Cody's teacher emailed me this afternoon and just had to tell me Cody's latest progress! He said to one of the instructional aides in his classroom "Hi, Miss Sara!" He also said "I found it!" "I found a blue one!" I am one proud Mommy!

He also was outside playing and saw me in the doorway. With outstretched hands, he yelled "Mommy!" and ran over to me! Thinking he missed me dearly, I hugged him, but he quickly pulled me away and ran over to his piano and said "Oh, there you are!" I am trying not to be too jealous of the piano!

SILVER LAKE JELLYSTONE PARK

SILVER LAKE JELLYSTONE PARK

It's official...

We are definitely going to this destination for our summer vacation this year! My wonderful sister made our reservations today and we got the last camping room! We will be going the last week of June and the beginning of July. I am STOKED! I have never been to Michigan before and have never seen Lake Michigan or the sand dunes. Cody and Carleigh will have an unbelievable experience that week. We have lots of things planned some including rafting, shopping, cookouts, lighthouse visits, lazy days at beach of Lake Michigan, go cart racing, campground wagon rides/activities and sand dune adventures. I have high suspicions that we will have a very hard time getting Cody off a dune buggy after that week!

Is it June yet??!!

Brag Time

This time last year, Carleigh was saying one words. Granted she was saying a ton of words correctly, but were not linking them well. Now, Carleigh speaks in 5-6 word sentences. I am just amazed at her speech! Yesterday, she came over to me and said "I am tired, so I am going to sit on the couch." I couldn't help but giggle because it was so cute! She is also showing a flair for fashion. She wore a My Little Pony jacket on Sunday and decided yesterday that she MUST wear it to school. Last night when I came home from my Daniel Bible study, Carleigh was in Matt's lap with her jacket on over her pajamas! What a character for sure!

I was drinking Gatorade for dinner last night and if you know anything about Gatorade, it has a big G for its trademark. Well, Cody shouts "G" then he makes the hard "g" sound several times and of course Carleigh decides to say the soft "g" sounds afterwards. It startled me because I wasn't expecting Cody to just should it out! He knows ALL of the sounds to the letters (except long vowels) and I am thinking of working on reading words with him this summer.

Furniture

Yesterday, we went to IKEA and found a great deal on a kitchen table and chairs. I put it all together (yes, the bad thing about IKEA is everything has to be put together.) That took all evening, but now we have a beautiful kitchen table and chairs! The kids were excited to eat lunch today on the new table in which Carleigh refers as "her table." During lunch, Cody bowed his head, says a sentence and then says "Amen" before raising his head. It does a Mommy heart good!

We also bought a black bed that my dad helped to put together. My mom and I put the new comforter set on and it looks beautiful! I am decorating my bedroom in black and white after an inspirational wall hanging I found at that Sauerkraut Festival last October. After our bedroom is finished, we will be deciding on a bed for Carleigh. She is already talking about "my bed" and what as wants. I am painting all the rooms in the house this summer one at a time, painting one per week. The house hasn't been painted for about 11 years (well SOME haven't!).

Carleigh enjoyed shopping with all her birthday money. We found some cute blouses, shorts, a few summer skirts, a couple pairs of shoes and she still has some money left over. Cody has his Easter outfit. I was going to get a suit, but was rather doubtful that the jacket would stay on, so I found a cute sweater vest, shirt and pants combo at Target. I might find a tie that matches and make it more formal.

We are all looking forward to Spring Break! Cody and Carleigh's Spring Break is the week before mine. Ugh! I do have doctor's appts galore scheduled for Cody, but we have some fun things planned for the afternoons that they are off school. I am going to be thrilled to be off work, plus have a little "me" time to get some spring cleaning and organizing taken care of while they are at preschool.

Just two more weeks to go!

Exhausted

The above word best describes what I feel like over the past two weeks. Last week, I was busy getting ready for Carleigh's party, shopping, etc. This week, my personal life is back to normal, but I have report cards, second grade chapel (the second graders lead the worship service), grading papers, and grading writing portfolios. Of course I am not feeling the best which makes it all worse!

I could really sleep for two days, but with a 4 and 5 year old, that is not an option! So....I am trudging on and looking forward to a lazy weekend!

This states how I feel so clearly...

ADOPTION:


Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously
My own.
Never forget
For a single minute:
You didn't grow under my heart,
But in it.

--Fleur Conkling Heyliger

The Bike

We went shopping for her bicycle Friday night. She found a matching helmet which is really cute. It has ladybugs and flowers on it and googly eyes on the ladybug.

On the way home, she manuvered her way out of her car seat and tried to get on top of her bike...she was that excited to have it. Of course, we weren't happy about her getting out of her carseat while we were on the way home. *sigh*

Carleigh's Princess Party

We hosted Carleigh's Princess party at our home yesterday. We had 23 people with 7 kids and 16 adults. I served baked spaghetti, salad, breadsticks, cake and of course ice cream. The party went well and Carleigh received a lot of summer clothes plus a significant amount of money to buy maybe some summer toys and a few shorts.

Our present was her first two wheel bike with matching helmet and some summer clothes. Matt's parents bought her a My First Scooter and she is already loving it!

Birthday Cake

Carleigh couldn't wait to blow out the candles! She talked and talked about it ALL DAY LONG! Yes, ALL DAY long! When it came to actually doing it, she became very SHY! LOL

The Princess opens her presents

She opened her presents so fast that I couldn't keep up! As I was opening her card, she had all of the presents out of the bag and trying to hand them to me! Whoa! I think she could be the Guinness World Record on opening gifts!

Hanging out at the party!

Happy 4th Birthday Carleigh!

My little Princess turned 4 years old today! Where has the time gone? We brought her home on a Tuesday afternoon when she was 2 days old and was the cutest little thing ever. That 6 lb 0 oz baby is now a 38 lb preschooler!

She is so excited about her birthday and party. This is the first year she really GETS what a birthday is. She is working on holding 4 fingers instead of her usual 3 fingers that she shows everyone.

Lately, she is interested in dress-up, Littlest Pet Shop, princesses, and dresses. Carleigh still enjoys Hot Wheels, trains, and motorcycles. (I almost made a pink train cake for her birthday!)

Happy Birthday my little Princess!

More patience PLEASE!

I forgot to mention what Carleigh did to Cody Monday night. My niece babysat for them Monday afternoon and Carleigh took full advantage and grabbed a small bottle of baby powder and hid it in Cody's room. I remember seeing it under a bed, but forgot about it in the busyness of the evening. I was doing laundry when I hear Matt talking to Carleigh. Apparently, she dumps the WHOLE yes I mean WHOLE bottle on Cody's head! She also puts some on her face thinking it is makeup! Matt said although it made a mess and he was upset, it was funny looking at Carleigh because she looked like a ghost! Poor Cody though. He looked like he was 90 years old with white hair!

Then, last night, Carleigh locks the bathroom door with no one inside! I needed to go to the bathroom and found the door was locked. We could not open it and had to unscrew the doorknob and take it off! Finally we were able to get in there, however, we couldn't get the doorknob back on. Grrrrrr!!

Oh my WORD! I think she tries her best to come up with the most sneaky and messy things to do! Oh I hope this stage passes quickly! Please let this be JUST a stage!

More antics

Last night, we were attempting to get Carleigh asleep for the night when she held her motorcyle toy and shook it. Then she said "Shake, shake, shake, shake your body!"

Matt and I looked at each other and was like "How in the world did she hear that one?" I had to laugh because these spontaneous little phrases she says surprises me and it is VERY hard not to laugh. (I also have very funny things said to me during the day by 7 and 8 year olds and I have to control my facial muscles very hard trying not to laugh.)

Carleigh is VERY excited about her birthday. She is constantly talking about picking out her bicycle. She wants a pink, princess bike. So hopefully the one I had my eye on is still available. Last night as we were getting ready for bed, she said "Let's play" and tried to open the door. Matt had to explain to her that we cannot play outside in the dark and at bedtime.

She is also doing some things that are REALLY testing our patience and I think the Lord is REALLY wanting to see how much patience I can muster as she hit Cody when he was sick and took his toy away. She also takes Cody to his bedroom, shuts the door, and either hits him or takes his toy away. She can be so devious! Then at other times, when he went to church when she was sick, she asks "Where's Cody?" I know she loves him, but also loves to terrorize that poor boy also. *sigh*

Cody Update

On Sunday, Cody took a turn for the worse. He slept the majority of the day. This is NOT like my little active boy. He hardly ever slows down enough to sit let alone nap all day. He was on the couch or in Matt's lap or he went to his bed on his own and slept. We had to force him to wake up to eat and take a bath.

Needless to say that Cody missed another day of preschool yesterday. He and my dad napped the whole morning at my mom's house while Carleigh went to school. My mom had an appointment in the afternoon so my niece Brittany babysat in the afternoon. My niece is nearing her days of having freedom in the afternoons because in April she begins nursing school. I am so proud of her!

Back to Cody, Britt said that Cody ate his lunch and then climbed back in bed and took another nap. When I got home, I was debating on taking him to Urgent Care as there were no doctor appointments available. Well, about a half-hour later, it seemed like Cody woke up from his 2 day slumber and drank all his juice, started walking around and playing with his toys. Yeah! By bedtime, he was back to typical Cody in almost every way. Whew! The flu bug really exhausted him!

Now I have to de-germ my house as we have Carleigh's birthday party here on Saturday. I am hoping to get most of it clean on Wednesday evening while Matt and the kids go to church. I have already cleaned all his bedding and all of Carleigh's bedding. It makes me want to sanitize everything in this house and I cannot believe that Matt nor I didn't catch the bug!

This Thursday, I have a meeting at the Kindergarten Center for all preschoolers who are transitioning to Kindergarten next year. I am so glad it is in the evening as I have had to take a lot of days for school or dr appointments this year. I cannot believe Cody is heading for Kindergarten in August!

Ringling Brothers & Barnum Bailey Circus

We had an AWESOME time at Ringling Brothers Circus! I have never been to one of their shows before and I now can see why it is called THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! The opening and closing acts were fabulous as well as amazing tricks and shows throughout.

We have WONDERFUL seats and did not have to do alot of walking or climbing up steps. Since Cody and Carleigh did well, we will have to go again and maybe venture to other things like DISNEY on ICE or other shows.

This was a way to celebrate their annual Adoption (Gotcha) Days as we didn't do anything for Carleigh's in November and Cody's 2nd anniversary was in February.

My sister, Britt, her boyfriend, their two friends, my sister's mother-in-law and Emily all went to the circus. Everyone were amazed and I thought the motorcycle in a ball scene was cool and a bit on the dangerous side!!

Cody and Carleigh were very engrosses in the first half of the show. This was a first for them as they have never been to an arena or a show other than one time to the movies. They did fairly well until the end where they started to get a little ansty. Well, Carleigh was more antsy than Cody. I was really proud of Cody who sat down most of the time and watched it. Of course lots of color, spinning and animals kept their interest.

The elephants were beautiful and so talented! They would sit up, sit down, lay down and do other cute tricks. The horses were absolutely beautiful and there were riders who would do flips and tricks on them. Cody and Carleigh enjoyed watching the dogs catching frisbees and going through the obstacle course. There was so much to watch and see, especially the black light flower show and of course the fireworks were a hit as well.

The Elephant light up spinning toys were great souvenirs from the circus! The kids LOVED them! When we bought cotton candy, it was in a souvenir hat. Cody didn't like the hat as much as Carleigh and I.