A minute finally

We have been so busy lately, its been hard to find a moment to come on here and update!
First, Pepper Jeannette turned 3 last week!! Wow, its so hard to believe my baby girl is already 3! She's so naughty and challenging and beautiful and funny and sassy! What a cheeky girl she is. The other day I had my back turned to her as I was outside grilling. She came out and said "Hi momma!" It sounded just like Daisy so I replied without turning to see "Hi Daisy!" To which a very indignant Pepper retorted "I'm NOT Daisy! I'm Pepper!!" Then she turned and huffed back in the house. Oh how I laughed and laughed. My firey little whipper snapper makes me want to tear my hair out with her antiks and laugh with her humor and wit. She had a luau in the park to celebrate her birthday, and has now found a love of  "mingos" aka flamingos. I have my sister and my grandparents on the look out for a stuffed one for her.

Okay before you ask this is her birthday doughnut lol. A friend of mine was having a fundraiser and instead of a cake I bought PJ birthday doughnut on her actual birthday. The party had real cake and cupcakes!

My little luau princess!

Her real birthday party cake- Pink Lemonade! The picture looks pink and gray, but it was honestly pink and purple lol.

Weston and great grandpa.

Presents!!

 

I like making cupcakes. I just made a bunch for a friends baby shower. Theme was "Little Man" and she jumped on the 'stache trend.

 

Daisy did a princess cheer camp the first full week of this month. She had a lot of fun and did a great job! After her preformance we came home and she was being goofy with the umbrellas we used for the pink lemonade cupcakes.

Baylie got student of the month this month! Second year in a row she's recieved this honor! We are so very proud of her and how hard she works in school.

My sister in law and I have been training to run a 5k using the couch to 5k program- we've been at it about 3- 3 1/2 weeks now. This last weekend we did our first 5k- we kind of did a run walk and finished it in about 45 minutes. Thats not bad since we are only on week 3ish of 8! Either way we had fun and we can say we did it. Its race #1 of 5 in the 'feet dont fail me now' series our local rec center puts on. The next one is on June 13th and its only a 2 miler. BUT the next one after that is on July 4th and its 4 miles! But, we will have completed our training by then and should be able to rock the socks off of both of the next races! We aren't doing it to win or for time but to say we did it. And to get in shape.

This is after we finished- no one passed out or had a heart attack- we consider that a win!

 

 

I cant leave off my little man. He's 10 months now and finally started crawling properly. He's trying hard to stand on his own. His vocabulary consists of "momma" "dadda" "dog" "no-no" and on rare occasions "hello".  He understand far more than that though. He's so happy and laid back, such a great little person.





 

Autism Awareness Month- April

This poem is NOT by me, but its beautiful and perfect. I am not a fan of the awareness ribbons, so I have decided that the puzzle piece butterfly is my prefered symbol for Autism Awareness.
April is Autism Awareness Month. So in honor of my Baylie:

God’s Beautiful Butterfly
I am a child who has Autism,
Who may not do things exactly like you.
But that does not mean I am useless,
I have feelings and emotions, just like you.

I can hear the things you are saying,
Even though with words I cannot yet speak.
I may not be able to play sports like you,
But that does not mean I am weak.

I know there are many things about me,
That you simply do not understand,
But please don't assume things about me.
Talk to me, and perhaps offer to shake my hand.

I may have a mind that works differently,
Pages in a book – I may flap instead of turn,
But that does not mean you can't teach me,
You might be surprised at just what I can learn.

If you think when I don't cooperate, I'm misbehaving,
And conclude that I'm not disciplined enough,
Please take a moment to consider,
That the road I am traveling can be tough.

When you stare at me, point, or start to whisper,
It makes me sad, and I so want to cry ---
Why do you view me as some crippled caterpillar?
Why can’t you see that I'm God's beautiful butterfly?

~~~~~~~~~

February update

Wow, here we are in February already! And, it's been a while since I've updated this thing so here we go!

Baylie continues to like school. For the past 4 or 5 months she's been insisting that she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. I tell her that's a great choice, but she will have to work hard and do good in school. She seems okay with this. She struggles a little in class, especially with reading/spelling/English, but she is improving and that's all that matters to us. She's a very loving big sister, she adores Weston and Pepper. She still fights a lot with Daisy, but I think its due to their close ages and general sibling rivalry. We've all been fighting a cold, but she seems over the worst of it now. She just lost her top 2 front teeth...on the same day! The tooth fairy sure had to fork it over that day! As of right now she has 3 holes in her smile, 2 on top and one on the bottom. This makes her absolutely adorable when she smiles! Baylie turns 7 in 3 weeks...7!!! Holy cow!!! To celebrate we are having a bowling birthday party!

 

Daisy is doing very good in school. She is now a registered Kindergartner!! She get's to start next fall at the same school Baylie goes to- provided she passes her screening on the 22nd of March. This is scary for me as Daisy is my little clown and, though I know she can pass the screening no problem, I worry that she will pick that day to be goofy with the tester and pretend like she doesn't know the answers. Talk about stressing her mommy out! We've been talking about how she will get to go to the big girl school like Baylie and how she needs to do good on the test or she won't be able to go to school any more. Perhaps a little over dramatic, but with her, over the top is best lol. She too loves Weston and is a very good helper with her little brother and sister. Daisy turned 5 in December! She had a small little party with family only, but we've promised her a "graduation" party in May when she graduates from preschool. Her cake was my first ever butter cream fill in picture- I now know that you must use thinner butter cream to "fill in" the picture. Live and learn I guess, she was tickled with it though- which is all that matters really :).

 

Pepper is...well...Pepper. She is lively and naughty. She love to push boundaries and buttons. But, she is one of the most loving children I've ever been around. She's so funny and her little voice is so cute. She had surgery last month to take out her tonsils and adenoids and to put in ear tubes. Surgery was rough on her. She ate lots of Popsicles but wouldn't drink anything. The Popsicles weren't enough to keep her hydrated and by her 3rd day out of surgery she went down hill in a hurry and landed in the hospital over night hooked up to an IV. The doctor said she was moderately dehydrated, but at that point the dehydration had made the swelling in her tonsils so much that she refused water completely, so he recommended the IV. After she came home the next day, she was a changed child- much more lively and active and willing to sip at her water. Since then she has made a full recovery and is up and bouncing around as usual. We have notice a difference in her speech and balanced, which tells me we absolutely made the correct choice in doing everything at one time. The picture is her waiting in surgery prep.

 

Weston is growing so fast! He is already 7 months old. He's now showing interest in crawling. He was interested before but couldn't get his big ol' belly off the floor, but over the past couple of days he's just about got it down. He didn't try hard before because he discovered rolling. And, I don't mean front to back woo-hoo, but rolling with a purpose to get from point A to B. Its so funny to watch him roll everywhere. He's my only roller. He loves his sisters and continues to be the easiest baby I have had. His happy relaxed demeanor attracts attention wherever we go, but I can't complain since he's the most handsome boy ever ;-)!! He's sitting up for longer amounts of time and he says "momma, dadda, and no-no". Just yesterday he started shaking his head no- which is super funny to watch. He is certainly a highlight in our lives.