random stuff

Caroly and Andrew watching Thomas the train.

It seems that Carolyn has a built in napkin. Yes and she's clapping about it.

That face. lol to cute.

We finally got some rain after not having any for what seems like forever. We even had a rainbow and if you look closely you can see 2 rainbows.

The road was steaming. I think if you listened close enough you could hear everything sigh in relief.

You know standing out there watching it rain for the first time in a long time and watching the neighbors watch and laugh and talk excitedly was quite the thrill. It also reminded me that God is our cleansing rain. He takes our dried up and dirty souls and pours down on us making us new and refreshed. Praise God for cleansing rains!

Carolyn's First Birthday Party

It is hard to believe that my baby girl turned 1 today! She's getting so big so fast. She's walking and talking and has 2 teeth. Oh my where has the time gone?

We had a little party for her. We didn't do much but wanted to invite some friends over to help celebrate with us.

This first picture is of Katey's cake! This cake was just fantastic!! I loved it so much! It was completely perfect!

Ok so I know you all are wondering where did you get the cake? right? Well a friend of mine's daughter made it. I must point out she's only 11! Yep that's right she that cake. I am so proud of her. She did an awesome job!

Katey eating her supper. We had one of her favorites hot dogs and baked beans. Not sure why she likes baked beans so much but she does. Then of course cheese balls. lol

The cake with the candle on the top.

It's so cute! Ok so I guess I could take a moment to explain why a lady bug. Well basically because I call her my little lady Katey bug. Sometimes I call her just lady bug or Katey bug. It started because lady and Katey sound similar so i started calling her lady Katey just because I liked to say it. Then some how bug got added to the end and now she's our little Katey bug. lol

Yum!!

This is the face of a little boy who ran out of cake!

See the roses? Those are from my hubby. Yep he spoils me. I love flowers they smell so good and they are so pretty! If I could afford I'd have fresh flowers here all the time.

Katey with all her presents.

She is so cute!

Look at that face!

Can you find the baby?

She loves Thomas the train. Thomas is a big hit in our family for some reason. Albert still likes it. Andrew absolutely LOVES thomas. Carolyn likes it too. She especially likes the song.

Opening presents.

Looking at her book. I think here is where she was trying to figure out how to open it.

LOL! That bag is about as big as her!

It was a ball!

HEHEHE! Look at her face! She was quite excited at having a ball. After this picture she picked up her ball and started walking away. She had a ball she decided she was done.

She's trying to figure out to get the toy out.

Posing with her new clothes.

That bow was super cute I think!

She got a baby doll! She loves babies!

Trying to get the box off of her baby. She carried that baby around the house until she went to bed. I did not let her take it to bed because it has wings that make a crinkle sound. I figured that it would wake her up.

Sarah made her a noise maker! It's a loud noise maker too.

At this point she was done with gifts and wanted to go play.

And she wanted that stupid thing off her head. lol

She got a horse which Andrew ended up riding around.

She got some money! Which she could have cared less about really. lol Oh that will change soon enough.

She liked the sparkles on the front but didn't want to hear what it said. We will try again tomorrow on reading the cards. She was to excited about all the new stuff to play with. She also just loved making everyone clap. She would clap and everyone would clap with her. She just thought that was the greatest thing.

She listened to most of that card.

Another card she liked the picture on the front.

Below are videos of diffferent parts of her party. I can't tell you exactly what each are because I can't play the videos on the computer until after I post this blog post. Then I can watch them like you all do. Before putting them on here I can only watch them on my camera. I have no idea why but that's what it is. So anyway my point is you have to watch the vidoes to find out what they are. I know there is Carolyn eating, Carolyn eating cake, and Carolyn opening some gifts.

First day of school!

The first day of school! They have sucessfully gotten on the bus! Yay! The older kids have been gone an hour and Andrew isn't happy that they are gone. He's watching out the window and he keeps saying "there is goes". I think he thinks if he says that the bus will come back. lol Poor little fellow misses his sister and brother.

The 2 younger kids already to take sissy and buddy to the bus stop.

Awww............

They are growing up so fast.

My 2nd grader and 5th grader ready to go to school.

I love them!

There goes Albert. If you look real close you can see him through the bus window. I forgot to take a picture of Sarah getting on the bus but then I would probably have embarassed her so maybe that's a good thing.

Albert

Yes there's 2 posts in one day crazy I know. lol I wanted to update everyone on the progress with Albert and our journey with getting him the help he needs. I guess I should say I am speaking of little Albert. As most of you know Albert had been having some problems in school. His kindergarten teacher suggested we take him and have him evaluated for ADHD and get him therapy because he was a bit behind on his fine motor skillls. So we took and him and sure enough they said he had ADHD and he needed a bit of help with his motor skills. So he started on occupational therapy and we started him on medicine. I didn't want to start him on medicine but it was the right thing for him. His grades in first grade went from just barely passing to all a's and b's. He still had some problems but he had come along way. Then at a meeting with his teacher she suggested that I have him evaluated for possibly having aspergers syndrome. She felt that what she was seeing wasn't ADHD but something a little more than that.

So our journey with him took us back to the doctor. We sat with her for an hour. Her and I talked while Albert played. She was watching him play with various things and she talked with him off and on as we were talking. At the end she said "He definitely has more than just ADHD going on." So we need to have anoter appointment with her to evaluate him a little further to see where he is on the autism spectrum.

When I was talking with her some of the things she asked about it was like wow! This explains so much of what he does and why. It was an amazig feeling to see some one else see in him what I've been seeing and see that he isn't doing it because he's bad or rude. Like not responding when being spoken too. She even asked "has anyone ever told you they think he has a hearing problem?" Yeah in preschool we had his hearing checked because the teacher said she didn't think he was hearing her.

It's been a long road and it's still even longer ahead but with God's guidance we are getting there. I thank God that he gave Albert's teacher the (ummmm I am not even sure what word to use there) to see there was more there with him than ADHD. I would never have even thought that it was possible he had autism. So now because of her we can move forward and get him the help he needs. I have a lot to learn about autism so I can better understand how to deal with him.

Ok so I once again haven't updated this page in a long time. Now that things are getting back to some kind of normal I will try to become a dedicated blogger. Haha.

I think pretty much everyone knows by now that we have moved on base. I will try to tell that story. We were possibly looking at Albert getting out of the military because he had failed his PT (physical training) test. So we immediately started looking into selling the house because we did not want to be stuck still trying to sell the house when it came time to move. Especially because our house needed a ton of work done to it still. There wasn't really anything major wrong just some basic updating is what it needed. Anyway we found a buyer and started moving along in the process. Meanwhile Albert heard from his commander finally and he suggested separation for him (meaning there was about 5% chance he'd get to stay in). So we started making plans for me and the kids to go ahead move back home so they weren't moving halfway through the school year. So after some minor speed bumps we got our house sold. It was hard to let go of that house. It was Albert and I's first home together that was really ours. Then of course Andrew and Carolyn were both born there and it's the only home little Albert remembers. It hold a lot of memories for us. Then we absolutely loved our neighbors. God knew what he was doing when he put us in that house. We were blessed truelly blessed. Anyway so we moved on base. Then we found out due to paperwork not being properly done Albert is getting to stay in the military. Theeeeennnnnn we found out he was on the list to cross train into another career field. He didn't have to retrain he was just on the list as being an option he had because if not on that list then he wouldn't be able to retrain (I hope that made sense). So he volunteered for retraining. Right now we are in the process of waiting to here if he was accepted and when he goes to school. I am hoping to be moved before next school year starts.

Well that's the story or most of it anyway. The important parts are there anyway. lol

Albert and his birthday cake! That cake was really cool I think. We had spagetti and meatballs for supper and this cake. It's one of his favorite things to eat. At first he thought it was real spaghetti and meatballs on it. lol He said "the meatballs are burnt". I had to explain that they were chocolate.

This was before the cake came look they do love each other.

My 2 babies aren't they cute?!

I think the below picture is one of my favorites. They are very cute! They sat that way playing for like 15 minutes which for them to sit in one spot is a loonnnngggg time.

I found the shirt Albert has on at the family dollar store. I jus had to get it for him. He sort of collects funny shirts like that an this one is so appropriate for him because I swear he actually feels that way sometimes.

I beleive the bottom video is of carolyn dancing. She has figured out to turn on the stereo. She really likes her music.