BE MINE!

Hello all!
Evie had her Valentine's Day Party today at school and I volunteered to help and I took pics!
I hope everyone has a "sweet" day!

American Heart/American Stroke Association:

American Heart/American Stroke Association:

Click on this link to sponsor Evie in the "Jump Rope for Heart" Event!

I'll Tumble For Ya!

Evan's first somersaults! He's "on a roll!"

A much needed reunion with friends!

Some of our dearest friends are here visiting for the month of January from China!
(Our Austrailian/American friends)!

The kids and I met Alyssa and her kiddos Alex and Sebastien at the mall today for a playdate and lunch. Evie and Alex immediatly embraced! Alex brought Evie a beautiful pearl bracelet from the Pearl Islands, China.
Evan and Sebastien gravitated to each other often in the play area, even though they haven't seen each other for over a year! It was sweet to see them all playing as if time had never passed. *sigh* It was fantastic for me to see Alyssa as well!

Here are some cute pictures of their day together!










We hope to see you guys alot more before you leave!

Update on Evan Wevan

Hey all!
It's been a while since I have posted an update on Evan's development. He's been doing speech and developmental therapy for about 4 months now and is really catching up!!!
He is about 30 months old (2 1/2 years)
On receptive language, he is right there with the 2 1/2 and 3 year olds.. that's understanding functions of objects, points to pictures when names, follows 2 step commands, understands big vs. little, in, out etc.
As far as colors, letters, shapes and numbers, he is meeting standards of 3 1/2 - 4 year olds. (Those are his PASSION)

On Speech, he is with the 3 year olds, uses all of the beginning and ending sounds pretty intelligibly.

On Expressive Language, he's more at the 24 months area... he names pictures and usues one word to desribe or ask for something.
he calls himself and others by their name, but is not using 1st person pronouns (me, mine, I) (although he sometimes says, "I'm sad"... he doesn't answer simple questions, not attempting to relate experiences, not using 2 word negative phrases such as "no want" or "no go", not using plurals by adding s, not speaking 3-4 word utterances..
Those are all typical of 2 to 2 1/2 years old. So he's getting VERY close to being on target..
So it's pretty obvious that expressive language is the area that we are working on.
In all other areas he really seems ahead so we are less worried than we were 4 months ago when he couldn't even recognize or tell us what a "ball" was. Amazing what 4 months can do!

He goes to a speech/language therapist now on Mondays as well at Carle Therapy so I'll continue to keep you posted!

Christmas Snow!

We had plenty of snow this Christmas.
(The snow on our patio table)


Today the kids had a chance to get out in it. Not for too long, though.. with wind chill it was only 16 degrees. Under all their clothes, you'd never know it.. I had them very bundled up! Although their little hands got cold fast so we rolled some snowballs and went down the slide a few times and came in for a warm bath, hot lunches and relaxation under Mommy's heated blanket. Enjoy the videos!



Like how Evan falls off the slide at the top? LOL

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve!
Today the kids and I had a festive day at home. We started the day off with a lovely breakfast from McDonald's! (Mommy's favorite! And the kids love their hotcakes and sausage, too!)
Joe got off work early in the afternoon and helped us make a Christmas Village.
We used coconut for the snow, sugar cones covered in green icing for the trees.. every type of candy you could think of and colored marshmallows for the decorations.. and we made another gingerbread house. We even made a pond with blue tinted icing and put goldfish crackers in it for the snow man cookie to fish for!
The kids decorated cookies for Santa as well.






We all opened our gifts to each other.. Mommy got a nice heated blanket, (I'm always cold!) Daddy got a portable cd player from Mommy and warm cozy slippers from Evie and Evan. Evie got her very first scooter! She loved it and learned how to use it very quickly! She was all over the house tonight!


Daddy got some awesome video!



And Evan got his first drum-set! You'd think he had been playing for years the way he picked up those sticks and hit each indivdual drum with such rhythm!


Daddy got some rockin' video!



Both kids are in bed for the night awaiting Santa's visit! Happy Holidays!