What I've been tasting lately:

Is my child saying "No" to almost everything. And let me just tell you that it tastes soooooo good! I'm eating it up. Yumm...

The past few weeks Grant is getting very good at saying the word 'no' and he is using it to exercise his free will whenever he chooses. I'm loving the fact that I am having the opportunity to guide his free will towards an obedient heart when he tells me "No-no" after telling him to do something. In our house, he can tell me no if it's for something that I'm happy with either choice. But if there is only one choice (ie, Grant, come to the table. It's time to eat.) and he tells me no then we proceed onto the obedient heart part.

I have to say, last Thursday evening before leaving for church he was telling me no to almost everything. And the thought came to my mind, "So this is what it is like to have a child say "no" to everything" and the second thought was, "Thank you, Lord."

It's the little things like this that really aren't so little. It's so great for Grant to tell me what he wants and that includes telling me what he doesn't want by saying 'no'.

Thank you, Lord, for my sweet boy Grant and for him being able to tell me "No." It really is a beautiful thing.

Conversations with Grant

Yesterday I had a sweet conversation with Grant when I went in his room after he woke up from his nap. I picked him up and gave him a big hug and said "Hi Grant!" He said "Hi" and then pointed to his dog, which I let him sleep with for his nap - a special treat, as the dog sleeps in the living room at night - and said "Dog!" He was still so excited that I let him sleep with his dog. So the rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: "Is your dog sleeping or awake?"
Grant, smiling: "Nigh-nigh" meaning he is still sleeping
Me: "He's sleeping?"
Grant, nods head
Me: "When is he going to wake up?"
Grant: "Mmm, mmm, umm, mia mi." meaning "in a few minutes"
Me: "In a few minutes?"
Grant, nods head
Me: "Oh, okay."
Grant, wants down and runs off to play.

This is a small glimpse at how most of our conversations go with Grant.

Lately Grant has been talking to us about "mia mi", minutes, like how many "mia mi" do I have to put my nose in the corner, or how many "mia mi" until snack time, or how many "mia mi" until Joel comes home. It's pretty cute for the most part except for every time when he askes as his nose is headed for the corner!

Valentine's Day Party!

Friday Grant had a party at his school for Valentine's Day. Kate LOVES going to Grant's class and always acts like she owns the place. Ms. Patsy is always so nice and made a plate of goodies for her just like the rest of the kids. I couldn't get a picture of them looking at me but instead Grant is munching away on his chips and cookies and Kate is trying to unwrap a chocolate kiss. That's the first thing she went for. A girl knows what they want, huh?

After the kids ate their yummy snacks, they each passed out Valentine cards and some candy, too. Kate somehow managed to come home with a huge heart sucker that was wrapped in a plastic wrapper. As soon as we got to the car she wanted to eat it but they already had so much candy that I told her no. I didn't take it away from her thinking that she would just hold onto it and thinking that there was no way she would be able to unwrap it. Well, about 7-8 minutes later I look back at her and she is munching away on it! How did she unwrap it?!? I just shook my head and told her to show me her sucker, goey mess and all. So in the picture that is what she is doing, showing me her yummy sucker. What would we do without wipees??

Play Group with Kate!

At the beginning of the school year, Kate was tested for speech delay. When she was around 18 months I began to suspect she was a little behind speech-wise but decided to wait until after she turned two to see if her speech would develop further. Her 2nd birthday came and went and still her speech was not coming along as I would have liked. So I made the call to Parents in Partnership, a program through Garland ISD that is for children 0-3 years old with developmental delays. Grant started with this program when he was 15 months old. If the child qualifies for the program, a therapist comes to your house 1x/week to work with your child.

She was tested the beginning of the school year and at the end of the evaluation, the team told me she barely qualifies and it was basically up to me whether or not we wanted her to qualify. She tested right on target in every area (there are 5: cognition, self-help, gross motor, fine motor, and receptive & expressive language) except expressive language (talking) she was 4 months behind. They have to be 4 months or greater to qualify for services. Well, it didn't take me long to decide for her to qualify. While we don't see her as delayed as Grant, she is behind speech-wise and if anything, this will be a positive time for her speech-wise. She picks up a lot of things from Grant, both good and bad. Anyway, this is just a little background for you on where we are at with Kate!

There is a play group that meets almost every Friday during the school year for kids in the program and Kate and I started going towards the end of last year. We never went with Grant because Grant was still taking a nap in the mornings. I have to admit, it's not my first choice of places to go with Kate but I have found it to be a great hour of me and Kate time and for that it is totally worth it. In a way it gets me out of my comfort zone. Most families that come are ESL families and for a lot of them this is the only time their kids get to be around other kids. That is really hard for me to imagine, as Kate is around kids all of the time. Every time I go, it really makes me realize how blessed I am to have so much support through my church friends, to have family close by, and to have things like a gym membership where Kate can be around other kids, too.

It is great for me to see how she interacts with other children and I have found her to be quite the social butterfly. She is somewhat shy but likes being with and around other children. We sing a couple songs, which she loves, and a story is always read from a really big book that everyone can see. In between a bunch of toys are dumped in a big pile and the kids just go for it. Each week there is usually a different theme like farm animals, food & cooking, and this last time it was cars. You can see from the pictures she was having fun playing with the cars. I know this is typical for her age but she was very possesive of "her" cars and if someone tried to take "hers" away she would quickly tell them "mine". At the end every kid gets a sticker and Kate makes sure that she gets one.


We are thankful for Beth, Kate's speech therapist, who comes each week to our home. Kate loves "Be" and always get silly when she comes at first. When you think of Kate, please pray with us for her speech to continue to develop as it should and for wisdom in which direction to take as she approaches her 3rd birthday in July. At that time she will age out of the program and will be tested for speech therapy through public school where she would go 1-2 times a week (or something like that). Other possibilities might include starting NACD with her, the program that we are doing with Grant. At this point I'm not sure if I could handle two kids on program but if it is what she needs, I will do what it takes. Thanks, friends, for reading this long post and for supporting us with your prayers!

Zoo Trip

A few weeks ago the weather was really nice and the kids and I met up with Joel after work at the Dallas Zoo. We had planned on being there right around 2/2:30 with Joel leaving a little early from work but unfortunately we didn't get there until after 3. The Zoo closes at 4pm during the winter months so we didn't have much time. But we still had a good time and enjoyed being outside not cooped up in the house. Afterwards we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner and then to church for Community Group. Even though we only went to the Zoo for 45 minutes or so the whole afternoon and early evening was filled with some much needed quality time with the four of us. Here's our one and only picture from the day so I thought I would share:

Meet our Dog

Kate, our pink poodle! ...haha

My friend Sara let us borrow this dog costume last fall and Kate wanted to wear it for the first time the other day. I've asked her if she wanted to wear it before and she shook her head "no". Sometimes she is stubborn and has her mind made up about certain things and there is no budging. The dog costume was one of those things. I'm not sure what changed but when she saw it she insisted on putting it on. Once she realized that she looked like a dog, you know she was in 7th Heaven! She ran to the full length mirror in my bathroom to look at herself, laughing the whole time. She loves it and I have a feeling that we will have a little pink dog running around often. :-)

"Haha, I'm so smart!"

Yesterday I walk into the kitchen and hear a CD playing in the under cabinet radio. I was a little surprised because this CD was in the car earlier, and it's one of Grant's favorites. It's from church and has two of his favorite songs on it: Every Move I Make and Open the Eyes of My Heart. So I looked at Joel and asked, "Did you put this in?" With a surprised look on his face he told me no. I didn't put it in either. So guess who?


Hmmm... It wasn't Joel, it wasn't me, and it certainly wasn't Kate, so it had to be Grant!


So...this is how it went in about 2 minutes, all while Joel and I were talking in our room (this was shortly after Joel got home from work and the kids were playing, or so we thought) Grant - on his own - got the CD from my car, brought it in the house, and put it in the CD player and turned it on. Now, the CD in the car was actually in the CD player so he new the right button to push to get it out. Once I figured out what was going on, I looked at Grant, who was smiling at me while clapping his hands to the music like "haha, I'm so smart, I got my own music". Joel and I just looked at each other and shook our heads.

So I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. It's good that he knows what he is doing, I guess. But not so good that he is getting in my car and playing with CD's!

The story finishes this morning when right before we left for school, Grant and I are in the kitchen drinking water and getting vitamins when he pointed to the radio and asked, "Na Na?" (That's how he asks for Every Move I Make. It starts with 'Na na na na na na, Na na na na na na na.') I just looked at him and said, "Ok." And got the CD out and brought it back to the car. He remembered exactly where the CD was. Of course, he asked for it again as I'm buckling him into his carseat. He is a toot!

As I'm writing this, I'm remembering several times Grant has asked to listen to that CD when we are at home and I have told him no because it's in the car. We listen to it so much already that sometimes I get tired of it. I know, it's hard to imagine, right? ;-) I figure we can just broaden our horizons and listen to something different, right? So now I'm wondering if all along he was thinking to himself, "Well, I can just go get it from the car" and yesterday without even asking to listen to the CD (maybe because he knew I would say 'no') just helped himself.

The part about this story that gets me rolling my eyes and saying "Oh brother" is when I looked at him as happy as could be, clappin' his hands, and laughing with that "haha, I'm so smart and cool to get my own music" kind of laugh. What a stinker!

Birthday Fun!

For Grant's birthday Aunt Jenni and Uncle Shawn got him a cool Transformers pop up tent. We set it up after the Christmas stuff was put away and he thought it was the coolest thing. Kate thought it was fun, too.

Here's an 'inside' view. And in case you are wondering what that thing is next to Grant's face, it is the tail of his dog that he got from Nana for his birthday! When Grant got the idea in his head to bring his dog into the tent with him, he just laughed and you could tell he thought it was the best thing ever. He loves his dog.

Grant says: Thanks, Aunt Jenni and Uncle Shawn, for my cool tent! It's so much fun!
And Thanks, Nana, for my D-O-G! It's the best present ever!

Look Mama!

This past couple of weeks Kate has been working very hard at trying to get her shoes on. She loves trying on mine and this past week she put Grant's on. She thinks it's so fun now to wear Grant's shoes! Yesterday, she was wearing them around the house for over an hour and then we went to Wal-Mart. She wore them the whole time to the store. I was too tired to deal with shoes...

Here she is showing me her new socks that she loves to wear, too.

Now this was totally unexpected to say the least. One day I found Grant wearing Kate's pants! They were laying around on the floor somewhere and I guess he got an idea in his head that it would be fun to try them on. The funny thing is that they were her hot pink pants of all things and it just cracked me up. Most of the time she wears blue jeans. While I'm not encouraging my son to cross-dress, I was very excited inside that he got both legs in the right hole and that he put them on the right way and he had them pulled up over his bottom. These things are such a struggle for him so to see him get it right warms my heart and in this case gave me a good laugh at the same time. :-)

Road Trip!

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to take my brother David to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls. He is in the army reserves and is now active duty and going to school there to become a bio-med tech. It's for the next 10 months and will be very intense. Christina and Kate went with us and the four of us had a great time. I love short road trips like these. Wichita Falls is a little more than 2 hours northwest of Dallas. Afterward we headed south towards Aledo, about 20 west of Fort Worth to pick up wheat. I had been out for a month and was very excited to drive home with 300 pounds of wheat! That's only 6 50pound bags but 300pounds sounds like a lot, huh?

Kate, ready to go

Excited David

Kate slept almost the entire trip up to Wichita Falls just like this - so sweet!

When we got the base we had to wait awhile for David to get paperwork processed and to get his room. So Christina and I hung out in the car with Kate. She was such a good girl the whole trip and it was so great to just be able to love on her without Grant taking most of my attention. I'm so thankful we brought her with us!

David, hang in there! We are praying for you during this time and are excited with you for this opportunity you have before you! Love you!

Happy New Year!

We totally had our own party goin' on!!!
( especially Joel ;-) )

Super Easy & Super Yummy Pasta Bake!

Tonight we had a super yummy dinner and it was so easy that I have to share it with you! If you're like me, I'm always on the look out for recipes that are easy, yummy, little mess, little prep, you get the idea, and this one fits all of the above. I got it from my friend Tammy.

Pasta Bake

Throw some pasta in a 9x13 pan. (I used a large box of elbow macaroni.) Cover with a jar of spaghetti sauce. (I used some from the freezer which was about 3 cups worth.) Add some water. Cover and bake in preheated oven at 350. Top w/ 1 cup or so of mozzarella cheese and bake 10-15 minutes more uncovered. (I had to add more water after 30 minutes.)

OMG! So easy and fast and no mess and little clean-up, a definite winner in our house. Oh, and both kids gobbled it up. We had to tell Kate at some point "no more" because she had ate so much and I was seriously afraid she would get sick. She has done than before with pasta, tmi I know but it's true.

One more thing, I added some meatballs to it from the freezer and that added a little extra yumminess. You could do pepperoni, too. It made two meals worth so leftovers will be Sunday's lunch when we come home from church. Can't wait!

Kate's Kitchen!

Kate says, "Thank you, Aunt Jenni & Uncle Shawn for my new kitchen! It fits perfect in my room after Mommy finally figured it out. (I think she moved my bed around 7 times. Whew...that was rough for me.) I love it and play with it everyday. Grant likes it, too, and helps me cook lots of yummy food. I'm trying to be a good girl and not climb on it like Grant does. He gets in big trouble when he does that but it sure looks fun. Sometimes I do, too, and then I get a spankin'. When you come over I'll make you something yummy to eat!"

Christmas Morning

I know January is almost half over but here are some pics from Christmas morning. For the 2nd year now, we spent Christmas morning with just the four of us. It was very relaxing and rather slow. Both of the kids are at the age where they like to play with everything as they open it.
Kate got a cozy coupe car!

And Grant got a new bike!

Eating yummy Christmas breakfast made in the crockpot all night long, thanks to one of my fav. blogs here.

Grant, trying out his new bike and Kate enjoying the ride.

For some reason Christmas felt different this year. This is the 2nd year in a row that we have specifically done our own family thing and it feels good. Christmas was always a special time growing up and honestly, it hasn't been the same since being married. But I think this year was a year of closure and a year of new traditions. I guess you could say that I feel 'grown up'. You wouldn't think it would take this long but... :-) The kids really had fun with their presents and it was great being able to kick back and have fun with them. I think a lot of the reason for Christmas being different this year is that both kids were a lot more into Christmas. We talked a lot about baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. On Sundays driving home from church I would ask him what the story was about and he would say, "MaerMaer" and I said, "Mary?" and he would nod. He said something else which sounded like 'angel' and so I asked him if the story was about the angel who talked to Mary. He nodded. Sometimes I wonder what he understands and what he doesn't. At times like that he makes me think that he understands more than I give him credit for. Oh, for the day that words will flow out of his mouth...

Christmas Dinner

This year we had Thanksgiving Day AND Christmas Day with Joel's family! It just worked out that way this year and it was nice. We had crockpot lasagna - thank you Tammy! - and all the kids got to play outside since the weather was nice. We had 9 adults and 11 cousins over - and that isn't everyone. Sarah and Lance and Kerry and Lydia, we missed you guys! For dinner we brought in the kids picnic table from the backyard and it fit perfectly in front of our bedroom door, which is off of the dining room and kitchen. They had their own dinner booth. :-)

Cousins from left to right:Michell, Timothy, Asher, Grant, Kate (hiding behind Noel), and Noel

I'm not sure how it happened but this is the only picture I have from dinner. Probably because I was just enjoying time with my sister-n-laws and making sure Grant wasn't getting into trouble!

MRI results and Scottish Rite Follow-up!

Yesterday was Grant's follow up appointment at Scottish Rite hospital. We found out the results of the MRI - everything looks as normal as it should! Yeah and Praise the Lord!

For some reason I thought it was going to be a short appointment but it was about 2 hours long and we saw 4 different people. Dr. Adams was the last person we saw and he didn't say too much except that he wants to do genetic testing to see what we find in that direction since we didn't find anything in the MRI. According to him the testing is less invasive than an MRI and only requires blood to be drawn. I did briefly tell him what happened the first time we went to get an MRI and he said that it shouldn't be anything like that. I am trusting he is right on this!

So...we should hear from the hospital in a couple weeks about the genetic testing and then go from there. At this point, we are just happy to have peace of mind that his brain is "normal" and that we don't have any worry or concern there. This is huge!

These pictures were taken the day of Grant's MRI. Joel and I had just switched cell phone providers and I was trying out the camera on my new phone while we were waiting and waiting and waiting....

We had been waiting over an hour and a half from the time they got him all ready to the time they took him back. He fell asleep for about 30 minutes towards the end in Joel's arms. He really is my sweet boy and I need to look at this picture more often to remind myself of that! 8-)

Christmas Eve!

We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my sister and brother-n-law's home in Allen. It's nice that both of our families live close and we can see most of them around the holidays.

We were comfy cozy in our pj's and so the kids wore their matching snowman pajamas. They looked so cute! It's not too often that they get to match!

These shoes came from Aunt Jenni and Kate wanted to put them on right away. Somehow Joel managed to get both on over her footy pajamas. She was so excited and starting running around.

Showing Mommy her new shoes!

Grant and Kate playing with Kate's new kitchen she got from Aunt Jenni and Uncle Shawn. They are wearing their cute aprons from Daniel and Christina.

Shawn, Dad, Daniel, and little Kate, being such a big girl at the big table

Joel being a punk, Grant, Nana, Christina, and Shawn again. Jen and I didn't get in the picture.

After dinner the kids went to bed and the rest of us played games. It was a lot of fun and I don't think we left until after 11pm. Some of my best memories from growing up are from Christmastime, and Christmas with my family is always special. It was a great day and I'm so thankful for them and for the love they show to us and the kids.

More Birthday Pics

After we went to Chuckecheese we came home and ate cupcakes and Grant opened a few presents. Here's our lovely attempt at a family self shoot:

It look like only 3 candles but there really were 5!

Kate, about to eat her cupcake.

Kate, after eating her cupcake and Grant trying to wipe her face. She had an icing goatee and Grant thought it was so funny to try to clean her up. It was cute!

Bread and Bows

My friend Sara started a blog a few months ago to feature her growing side business. She inspired me to start one myself.

So...I am happy to introduce to you Bread and Bows!

Check it out if you have a chance!

Grant's Birthday!

On Monday, Dec. 22 Grant turned 5 years old! At times I can't believe he is already 5. Other times I think of how these past few years have been so hard. I love Grant to pieces and pray for God to continue to give me love for him and wisdom to Joel and I as we try to figure the right way to go with him.

Here are a couple pics of Grant and his dog from Nana that she got him when we went to see her for lunch at the hospital. He loves his dog so much!

This is pretty much how he was all the way home, holding it very closely and not letting go! You can tell how happy he is.