Holly Jolly Christmas

The 3 cuties in the wagon from Grandma!


Tia and Max swinging on the new play set.


Tyler getting ready to slide.


The cutest house cleaner ever!!! He loves his new vacuum and can usually be found with a hat on.


We had a wonderful Christmas. Kevin built an awesome playset in the backyard that we managed to hide until Christmas morning. The kids went nuts with excitement when they saw it. It was really fun. They got great presents and and had lots of fun with cousins.

A Special Day

Last Saturday was a special day for our family. Tia was baptized! We are so proud of her for choosing to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. She was on cloud 9 all day. We are so thankful for our family and friends who came out to support Tia on this amazing day. I love the month of December. For our family it is a birthday filled month with Braxton's birthday (he would have been 11 years old this year), Tia's 8th birthday, and Max's 3rd birthday on Christmas Day. Can you believe he's going to be 3 on Friday?! Stay tuned for Preschool pictures in January. Wow!

We are so blessed with family and friends and hope everyone reading has a happy and safe holiday. May you all be able to focus on the true reason for the season and reflect on the birth of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Halloween and other stuff

All 3 kids looking in the same direction!!

It's not fair that he is SO photogenic--but I love this picture.

Our small but mighty Buddy Walk Team this year.

Daddy's birthday present. He loved it and so did the kids!


Halloween- Tia as Tinkerbell


Tyler my astronaut--every good astronaut needs a teddy bear right?!


If I had a UPS man this cute, I would order a package everyday!!!


So why don't I blog anymore? Well, mostly because life is busy but also because I now have an account on Facebook and if I have spare time for the computer I go there. I love Facebook. It is such a great way to hook up with old friends and find out how everyone is doing in a glance. But, I know I need to get much better at blogging.

School is still going well. I am stress a bit because Max will start preschool in January and I am not sure I am ready to leave him for 2 1/2 hours a day, 4 days a week. He still seems too little for school but I remember thinking that about Tia and Tyler too. The teachers are so great at their school and I know he needs more than mom to really develop his skills. The class is made up of children with special needs as well as typical kids. The class sizes are small and he will get Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy at school as well as home now. He is SUCH a busy boy. He never stops moving and learning and discovering. He will keep the teachers busy for sure. He reminds me of Tia at that age. Tia never stopped and we even had a psychologist tell us she probably had Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) when she was 3 years old. Totally NOT the case anymore. I mean, she talks a mile a minute and will perform at the drop of a hat and is full of energy BUT she also does great in school and focuses well and sits for long periods of time. Hopefully, Max will learn to sit longer eventually too. =-) Tyler is my couch potato. He likes to play board games and cards and things he can do in one place for the most part. He is a climber though. I'm convinced he would be a lot less active if it wasn't for Tia's influence.

So, we all got the Swine Flu last month. It was OK but Tia got pneumonia from it. Funny story about that: We wake up on a Sunday morning to Tia having a hard time breathing and really pale. So I tell Kevin I am taking her to the ER and we decide to say a prayer before she goes. After the prayer Kevin tells her that she will be just fine because she has a "prayer on board". So, she told every person at the ER that daddy said a prayer so she won't be bored. It was so cute. She is the most pleasant sick child. All the doctors and nurses couldn't get enough of her. She made them take her dolly's blood pressure every time they checked hers. And everytime they did any procedure she thanked them and told them she was all better now. Too cute!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving on Thursday. I know we will. We have so much to be thankful for!!

School is in session

School is going really well for the kids this year. It is our best year yet. Both Tia and Tyler are in regular classrooms with aides. Both of their aides are terrific this year and they both have teachers who are happy to have them in class which makes life so much nicer for them. The resource teacher is great too. Ty goes 30 minutes a day and Tia goes 1 hour a day. We found out 2nd grade homework is much more demanding than 1st grade. However, after parents complained, they reduced the load a few weeks in. Hooray.

Max and I go to the gym most mornings and he plays with the toys and other kids. He loves it. He loves his one-on-one time with mom all day too. He is talking a lot more now and has over 50 words. He understands about everything and is a great little helper. He will start preschool in January which is crazy because he still seems so tiny. His backpack will be to his knees! He will love it though. I remember thinking Tia was too little too. She started preschool in 18 month-2T clothes. Tyler has never really been "too little". LOL Anyway, that's the Huff update for now.

Kids in July

Pictures of 4th of July at my sister's house!





I guess I better post this month before July runs out. I am definitely keeping busy. I am really nervous for the kids to start school soon. I don't do well until I know they are settled, with a good aide, in a good classroom. We'll see. Ty will be in Kindergarten and Tia will be 2nd grade. There was no half-day Kinder at our school so I will be pulling Tyler out at 1:30 everyday. That way he can continue his therapies at home another year without rearranging his schedule. He's going to be exhausted for a few weeks but he's not much of a napper anyway. It will be fun to have only Max home during the day. I know he will really miss T&T though. He loves to follow them around and do everything they do.

So, I decided for this post I would tell a few funny things my kids have said. I have a journal by my bed that is specifically for "Tia-isms" and I need to get one going for Tyler too.

Tia is a singer! She sings morning, noon and night. She used to sing the correct words to songs but now likes to add her own. For example the other day she was singing, "Rockin Around In Tia's Room" and "Bring Back My Dolly to Me". She told me one day that she wanted to sing the garden song. I said, "What garden song?" She said, "You know mom, 'Oh My Garden, Oh My Garden, Oh My Garden Clementine."

Tonight as Tia was going to bed:
Tia: " Good night mom, good night Movers" (Imagination Movers TV show featuring 4 guys)
Tia: in deep voice "Good night Tia, have good sleepers."
Tia: in normal voice, "OK I will."

Tyler: "What's today?"
Me: "Today is Thursday. We eat breakfast, play, Heather comes, then after lunch Denise comes."
Tyler: "Oh. Eat breakfast, play, Heather, ice cream and cake, then Denise." (totally straight faced)
Me: laughing "Ice Cream and Cake!?"
Tyler: Curls up in a ball laughing so hard!
This from my son who frequently asks for pizza for breakfast.

Oh, Max has more words this month. One of which is (drum roll please) Mama!!!!! Yeah! Finally. He has added this month, "Please", "Fish", "Down", "Frog", "Car", "Up", "Help" (which is adorable by the way--"Hep Hep") and a few more animal sounds. He already had, Shoes, Ball, Go, Daddy, Daisy (the dog's name came WAY before Mama by the way!), Hat, Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Hair, All Done, and a handful of signs. I am super excited he is communicating more. He is very pleased with himself! I will try to record some of his words but he is pretty shy about performing for the video cam. We'll see.

"Birthday" Party for Max

Max's fun smile! Can't you just hear him laughing when you see this picture?!

Max on the bouncy slide in the back yard.

Since Max was born on Christmas Day, it is difficult to do cake, presents, etc. on his actual birthday. So, we decided to do it around his "adoption date". It is close to Memorial Day so we had a family pool party/birthday party. He loved opening his presents and playing with his new toys.

Max LOVES balls so I made him a soccer ball cake. He didn't eat any of course but he danced when we all sang Happy Birthday. He was much more interested in getting back in the pool than hanging out to eat anything.

Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 cuties in the tub

Tia and Tyler at the award ceremony for baseball. This was Tyler's first year and Tia's 3rd. They LOVE their coaches and teammates and are always sad to have the season end.

Tyler's graduation from pre-school. He will be in a regular Kindergarten class next year!

GOTCHA Anniversary

Friday, May 15th, 2008 was our official papers signed- Gotcha Day. Today is our Home One Year Day!!!!! How amazing to have our sweet son for a whole year now! He is just doing so wonderful.

His 2 big areas of challenge are language and eating. He has about 8 words and 8 signs but we haven't gotten much further with that in a while. I think he has been so focused on moving that he has put speech aside for a while. He walks everywhere now and loves to put his cool new orthotics on. Which of course I thought he would hate. What do I know?! He will pretty much only cooperate with his physical therapist if they are outside. He LOVES to be outside. Right now it is over 100 degrees here so we are in the pool almost every day and he is in heaven. Yes, my baby who hated the bath, now loves it and loves to swim! (Well, float.)

Max also loves to eat but only pureed food. We have been going to feeding therapy but he is still not into eating solids yet. Hopefully soon. Any ideas are welcome, by the way. He puts solid food in his mouth like he wants to like it but then immediately makes a face and spits it out. His therapist said he will just do it one day and never look back.

So who is Max at age 2 years, 5 months? Max is a handful who loves life. He is a climber and right now has a big forehead bruise to prove it. He is ALL boy! He loves balls and cars, trucks, buses and rocks. He has a laugh that is SO contagious it makes strangers in the store laugh. He is smart and loves to figure things out. He loves to take off all his clothes which is pretty funny but we hope the phase ends soon. He also likes to put stuff in drawers and other containers so you never what you are going to find where. Today I found the remote control in the clothes hamper!! I would have been looking for that for days! Lucky I came across it before it got washed! Tears come to my eyes as I think of all the blessings Max has brought to our life. What a fun little "wild angel" he is.

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO:

I know, I know I haven't blogged in forever!! Max has been sleeping in the den where the computer is and thus making the computer inaccessible when he is asleep. Well, since I usually blog when the kids are asleep I am out of luck for a while. The original plan was to have Tyler and Max share a room. The problem was that one kept waking up the other either in the middle of the night or very early in the morning. So, we moved Max for a while.

Max is walking great now. He walks a lot more than he crawls. I've been buried in paperwork to get ready for Tia and Ty's IEPs for school. An IEP is an Individual Education Plan. It determines the goals for the next school year and which classroom they will attend. So, Tia will be in a regular 2nd grade classroom next year with one hour a day in the resource room for help with math and reading. I am happy because that is what we really wanted. Tyler's IEP will be in a few weeks, I think. I hope his goes well too. They are both doing so great.

Anyway, we had a wonderful Spring Break. We went to Grandma and Grandpa's in Missouri. The kids had so much fun at the St. Louis zoo, Silver Dollar City, Branson, riding a horse, visiting an alpaca farm, meeting new friends, and so many other great things. The kids were really well behaved and did SO great even with a lot of time in the car and on the airplane. Tia and Tyler are at a good age where they play well together and can entertain each other in the car.

I will post some pictures of our trip later. I can't get it to work right now.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Max in May 2008 and now Feb 13, 2009



WATCH ME WALKING!!!! Sunday will be Max's 9 month anniversary of his adoption day!!!! Look at how far he has come. He is doing so amazing! Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Busy month

Wow! It's been a while. Here's the updates in a nutshell: Tia has mono and strep and has only been to school 2 half days since before Christmas Break. She had a fever of 102+ for 9 days!!! A few nights ago her tonsils were so big she had a hard time sleeping on her back. (Got steroids for that.) Max is on breathing treatments a few times a day for a respiratory virus but is finally finishing that up I think. I really hope the mono and strep do not spread through the house. The new puppy is cute as can be but...a new puppy. He nips and pees and poops and chews etc. Tyler seems to be the only one in good health right now. He just has a chronic case of Stubborn-itis. Holy moly that boy is stubborn!

Now for the good news:
We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids had a great day and just watching them enjoy it was fantastic.
Our family was made a forever family on December 26 and it was beautiful! I will post pics later.
Tonight Max took 10 STEPS!!!! He's been stuck at 4 for a while now but tonight he did 10 followed by several 8's. He is so proud of himself. (Not unlike his mom.) It was so great! I hope to video it and put it on here.