Laurens 1st day of Preschool

Today Lauren started her Early Intervention Preschool.  A big step for her and an even bigger step for mom. :-)  They will be helping Lauren with her speech and socialization.  We are really excited her her to have this experience.  This is us getting her for school and getting her lunch.  She goes from 1120 to 120.  She gets to ride the bus and it comes to get her at 1043 so we have to have lunch first.

Waiting for the bus and finishin her juice.  Isn't she pretty.

Lauren was so excited when she saw the bus coming.  We requested they have a bus at the school open house last Wed, which they did, to see how Lauren felt about it.  She loved it then and loved it today.

She got right on and sat right where they asked her to and smiled bubye.

She rides a long bus to school, bus 48 then comes home on a short bus, bus 102 with driver Jim and Assistant Ed.

This is her getting off the bus at school

This is Laurens classroom. She is in Mrs Chari's class, room C

This is her schedule today. Circle time they sit in on a rug circle and sing the roll of who is there.  It was a little crazy but expected for the first day.  Then at the centers she did imagination first, which was play dough, then peer group (playing with block/Lego's with other children) then puzzles that taught shape and colors.  At snack time she sat at a table and was encouraged to raise her hand that she wanted a snack.  Because Lauren doesn't speak (much) she was given picture cards to the 2 snacks and was encouraged to point  or hand the card to receive that treat.  It took some doing but by the end she was getting the hang of it.  Then it was outside play time and circle time to get ready to go home.  Yes I watched her entire class from the inside window.  I wanted to know what and how she was be doing.  She reacted to school the way I knew she would, she was good until she was asked to change activities, then she would have a fit.  Once she calmed down she would join back in.  As she gets used to the routine she will do better.  I think it will be really good for her.  I love her so much!!!

Tess

The kids stayed with my Mom and Dad while Daniel and I went to Georgia in June.  One night while we were gone Aliyah told my mom "grandma will you give me a dog for my birthday.  I really want one and my Daddy wont let my have one.  So can you give me one and tell him I have to keep it."  Off and on I have wanted a dog but Daniel never wants an indoor dog and thinks it to hot outside.  Aliyahs plea musta melted his heart cause when I told him about it he said, "maybe in the fall." 

Yesterday I was looking at furniture on craigslist and notice the free tab above furniture and thought what kinda crap do people list for free,  and clicked it.  The second posting was for a dog, purebred yellow lab, house trained, knows: sit, shake, down and come. Comes with kennel, toys, food, leash and bowls.  FREE. I showed it to Daniel when he came home and we decided we would email about it.  Like an hour later our friends the Spilkers called to tell Daniel it was there dog and to hurry and come cause some other people were coming to look at her.

Crazy I didn't even know they had a dog and they only live 4 blocks from us. We went and meet Tess and decided we would give her a try, the price was right, she has some training and figured if she didn't work out for us maybe my Dad or Char would want her. :-)

She has been great so far.  Lauren is in love and has spent the whole day out with her. I had to make her come in for drinks and lunch. She is great with the kids, I don't even worry about Lauren out with her.  She is a sweet dog.  Hopefully we like her just as much when the newness wears off. :-)

Aliyahs First Day of First Grade

Aliyah is now in first grade.  She is in Ms Alexanders class.  We were surprised how many of her kindergarten class was in her first grade class.  She had been so excited to start school!

 This is her friend Megan S. She and Aliyah sit right next to each other.  Ms Alexander asked me if they know each other and I said "Yes, and I bet they wont be sitting by each other for long".  Both love to talk and play!  UPDATE: Yep second day of school they were moved apart and Aliyah came home yellow because she was talking.  My mom and I love that Aliyah has personality and even though she has to learn to be quiet we love that she is just her!!

After school for FHE we had Daddy give the girls a blessing.  Aliyah was such a big girl and sat so still and listened. 

Lauren had one too, even though school doesn't start till the 29th for her.  She did pretty good to sit as still as she can.  Daniel just had to be quicker and somewhat hold her down with her head but she did better then I thought she would.  Christian was already in bed and asleep so he missed out. 

We sure love our kiddos!!!

The Horse Call

On the 5th we were at the "Bumble Bee store" (DI), Aliyah had earned a little money and that is her favorite place to spend her money.  We always look in the outdoor section when we are there and immediately Lauren spotted this with her Horse Radar

  She climbed on it and I knew life would never be the same for her. 

I called her daddy but he said it was to expensive, $25 at the DI is, even though it was in great condition.  So I stayed there awhile hoping she might lose interest..HAHAHAHA!!  So after like an hour and her still in love with the horse I knew there was no way I would be leaving without it.  So who do you call when Daddy has says NO.......Papa, to the rescue. 

The conversation went like this
ME: How much do you love your granddaughter?
PA: Buy it, whatever it is.
ME How do you know its about buying something?

PA: Just buy it and I'll send the check.

What a good Papa.  Lauren is in heaven! The first night she tried to take it to bed, then got up at 4:30am to ride it.  The next night it was 3:30 and we would send her back to bed and moments later we would hear squeak squeak squeak...........Lauren go back to bed! She sits on it all day and insists Christian is held when she rides him so he or the horse doesn't get hurt (I haven't figured that part out yet)

There is no doubt this girl loves her horses and her Papa loves her.

Christian is 1 !!

 Christian is officially one.  Time has flown by so fast!  He is a wonderful baby, so cheerful and content.  Its crazy to think bad to his little rough start to life and to look at him now you would never know he ever had trouble.  Hes healthy, strong, chubby and happy.  He is still my little "son"shine and I don't know what I would do without him.

  

                                  

  For Christians birthday we were lucky enough to have my mom (New Grandma) and my Grandma (G.G.) come to be with us.  On the actual day of his birthday was really didn't do to much.  It was on a Thurs and we figured he really didn't know what day his birthday was, so we decided to wait until Saturday to celebrate.  I actually felt really bad and kinda guilty that on his actual birthday we only sang to him and ate pizza.  I am big on birthdays and this did not feel right.  However, Saturday came and it was perfect! 

My friend Stacy had the cutest outfits, hats and pictures done for her twins birthday, I had to have them too.  I search forever on the Internet and finally my mom called her mom (their good friend) and a lady from my moms home town custom makes them.  She was amazing she made them that night so so could bring them to my mom the next day!  They are fabulous!!

  So we set up a picture shoot.  I was not prepared enough to have it professionally done since I didn't know we were able to get his outfit until the day before his birthday.  I actually painted a bead board backdrop but forgot about it when I was taking his pictures with my crappy camera.  I made his cake.  It was butter cream but the whole idea was for him to be able to make a mess and one of my fondant cakes would not have done the trick.

 He was so darling taking the pictures, even though he had his Daddy genes of blinking as you take the picture so so many of them end up with sleepy or close eyes.

 Then we went to Enterprise.  It was important for my to have Daniel Dad at Christian birthday.  His health is not good and they didn't feel like they would be able to drive down.  I wanted Christian to know his Grandpa Staheli was at his first birthday, I don't know if he'll be here for any others and I wanted Christian to have pictures of Grandpa Staheli celebrating his birthday.  Christian and Grandpa have a special relationship.

That day Enterprise was having their 24th of July parade and Grandpa was in it for serving in WWII.  Unfortunately we missed the parade thinking it was starting at a different time. So we had lunch outside and then let him eat more of his cake and let Aliyah open his presents for him.  He really wasn't interested in them. And then he fell asleep.  It was a great day and we were lucky enough to have Daniels sister Nani and her family there to celebrate with us.

At one Christian:
Crawls
Sleeps from 7 till 6:30
Take one short nap and one long nap
Is in a forward facing car seat
Weights 25lbs
Is 31 inches long
Wears 12-18 month clothes
Shoes size 3-4
Says mama
Jabbers all the time
Laughs at everything
Is a total boy, he has to see whats in every cupboard, every drawer and what behind every door.
Loves to play the piano
Loves to crawl under the table and chairs
Loves Loves water!
Still has his hemanginoma
Like whole milk
Loves Ramen chicken noodles
Is a great eater
Loves people
Pulls up on everything and sometimes nothing and lets go to stand on his own, walking is not far.
He is wonderful and we love him VERY VERY much!
Love you Bubby!!