MIA

I have been MIA, mainly because our house is decorated for Christmas. We normally keep our camera in the dropleaf table in the foyer but we put our Christmas tree in the foyer, so we moved our dropleaf upstairs. That means the camera is upstairs and I never grab it to take pictures. I have a few from my phone that I'll share. They'll all Miss Emalyn, of course. We have been spending quite a bit of time, 3 hours/week, at physical therapy for Maddi's knee. That's where several of these pictures are from. Maddi is doing really well with the therapy but they still want her to go for 2 weeks without the brace to get her to 100%. Brett and I decided it's best to continue with the therapy now because a.)we've already met our deductible on our insurance, so it will cost less and b.)she's out of school for two weeks, so it's much easier to fit the 3 hours in each week.


Other than getting ready for Christmas, I feel like I've spent most of my time at doctors offices. We are at PT 3 days/week, Maddi was at the doctor on Tuesday for strep throat (first time to have it in 2 years) and Emma was at the doctor Wednesday for breathing issues. She's on the nebulizer now. When I told Emma she was going to the doctor, she said "Bubba's ok, Sissy's ok, Emma's sick". She has spent many hours of her life in tow with various doctor visits for her siblings. Oh yeah, Brett was home Tuesday too with a terrible migraine. Knock on wood, I've stayed healthy to take care of all these sickos! Here's one of my sick kiddos.

We had our neighbors over for a little Christmas get together last weekend. We missed our old neighbors, the Balls, but it was nice having the new family too. Emalyn disappeared to the basement for the night with Emily. Emily will be 4 in May and Emma thinks she is the greatest thing ever. She follows her all over the place. We had a Chinese gift exchange and it was so much fun. Cade ended up with lottery tickets and won $25, lucky boy he is. Cade got some fake lottery tickets this summer and we ended up playing a trick on Debbie with a fake ticket. It was hilarious. Here is the youtube video. She's a good sport about it. It wasn't planned to trick her, the conversation just led to it.

We had a fun little table activity at MOPS this week. We had to pick random things and then use those random things to decorate a gingerbread scene. This was my tables gingerbread. I'm thankful that I have some creative moms at my table.

This was the gingerbread that won the contest. All of them were super cute. I enjoy going to MOTS and spending time with other mommies and hearing some great speakers.


In other news, Cade is accelerating to 5th grade math when the kids go back from Christmas break. We are so proud of him and excited for him to learn new things. He's such a great student and he enjoys learning so much. His teacher has been trying to challenge him beyond the fourth grade curriculum, but he needs more. Since Maddi is also in 5th grade, but goes to a resource class for extra help in math, we've asked that he not go to her class for math. He will go to Mrs. Von Kaenel, which was Maddi's teacher last year. Cade knows a lot of the kids in that class and he's really looking forward to it. Maddi has been a good sport about it and knows that everyone has their own gifts and some things are easier or more difficult for each person. We are proud of Maddi's efforts at school too. She probably tries harder than the average student, but doesn't always have the same success.

It's amazing to me how getting Cade moved up a grade was so much easier than trying to get extra help for Maddi. I'm sure it's because special education is a government thing so there is so much red tape. We have to have meetings with her teacher, the school social worker, the school principal, the special education teachers, the school psychologist and the district special education coordinator to determine what kind of help and how often Maddi gets. Cade is skipping half of the 4the 4th grade curriculum and all we had to do is have the gifted teacher reccomend him and we had to write a few paragraphs about why he should be accelerated and that's it. A clear example to me why the government isn't so great.