Invitation

My friend, Theresa, called me today to invite us to her son's birthday dinner. I was thrilled to have a chance to actually have a night out on the town, so I dressed up the girls in cute outfits.

As you can see, they were thrilled about it. They look like they are being tortured.

Victoria has a new favorite food - ice cream!!!

I sure hope the restaurant has an industrial vacumn.

Christian, Theresa's husband, invented a tasty treat. Chocolate covered brussel sprouts!

Francesca favored the.....cauliflower? Of course, she probably would have liked the chocolate brussel sprouts too.

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Smarty Pants

My children really showed off their talents this weekend.


Apparently, Victoria is tired of not being able to walk, so she took matters into her own hands and borrowed Great's walker!

She was so proud! She walked back and forth across the kitchen five times!
I wonder where I can get one in her size?

Not to be outdone, Francesca decided to learn to read on her own.

Isabella and Anastasia (with their friend, Logan) started a leaf raking business to make money for the homeless! They have made $5 so far!

Catherine is writing my name!

Hmmmm.......well, he is quite creative at clearing the table.

Thankful

Thanksgiving is not my least favorite holiday. Not because I am not thankful; I am very, very thankful for many things. But really, do we really have to celebrate it by cooking all day?! How about a Thanksgiving pizza!

Here is the evidence that I do actually cook, when totally forced.

I had a few casualties though. Who knew that sweet potatoes get like glue when you try to mix them?

The Ninja potato peeler attempts to help.

The girls put on a very creative play about the turkey getting dropped in the dirt.

Sibling love.

Victoria hid out under the table. Wish I could have joined her!

Francesca waited very patiently for the food.

But everyone started to get a little restless.

At least there weren't lots of dishes to do! I like to keep it classy!

Francesca got a ride in Great's cool transporter.

Anastasia got a ride from Milo.

I'm really thankful that I have a digital camera, because it took me 20 tries just to get this photo. Isabella's look ready to pop out. And Catherine, jeez! And this is the best picture I got!

I'm super thankful that I don't have to cook for another year. Next year I'm going to make it a tradition that we have Thanksgiving sandwiches.

To Grandmother's House We Go...my version

Over the speed bump and through the streets to the grocery store we go.

The car knows the way, cause we go everyday, so I am filled with woe, ooh

Over the parking lot and through the aisles, oh how the kids do whine,

it stings my brain and

drives me insane

as over the cart does go

ohhhhh!

Over the lawn and into the garage

to Grandma's house we go,

hear the cell phone ring, ting-a-ling

"gotta go back and buy another thing!"


Over to Kroger and through Target,

Trot fast my dapple gray or

I may run away - hey!

No, I don't want to carol, though

I really wish we'd gone to Cracker Barrel!


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Only 31 days until Christmas!!

Just a Girl and her Toys

Victoria definitely has her favorite things to play with.

She spots something fascinating in the distance....

Oh joy! An acorn!

Hmmmm....I have a feeling there is something interesting behind me!

Oh yeah! Party time!

Life is good!

(Do these pictures look better than usual? My husband gave me a fabulous new lens for my camera! Now I can attempt to be a good photographer!)

Progress

Sometimes I need to stop in the midst of all the busyness and realize all the amazing progress the girls are making.

Today, I told the kids to say good-bye to a friend and Victoria started waving "bye bye".


She is eating Cheerios, sort of. She puts them in her mouth, one at a time, and kind of sucks on them. I remember when she didn't even know how to pick up a Cheerio!

My grandma asked Victoria to tell her she wanted more cake and Victoria promptly signed "more", "more", "more"! She loves sweets, just like me!


She could be the next Picasso.

She isn't afraid to touch things now.

Francesca said "Dad" the other day and thrilled Travis. Now, she says it constantly. She is a people pleaser, so she will say it for everything now!

Her second favorite word is "hot". Here she is telling me the paint is very "hot".

Victoria and I will be going to Philadelphia January 9th for a consultation with a doctor at Shriner's who specializes in casting the legs of kids with Arthrogryposis. We will also see a hand doctor while we are there. We may end up having both Victoria and Francesca in casts at the same time - fun, fun!!!

I am excited about having a plan to help her walk. The doctor told me casting of the knees is very tricky. He told me about another child with Arthrogryposis, with legs like Victoria, who was casted by a pediatric orthopedist, but it was done in such a way to cause both knees to come out of joint! I whipped off her casts as fast I could! We will still go to PT and OT to help her get stronger and strengthen her muscles. I would really love for her to get strong enough to pull herself up from a laying down position to a sitting position.


It's hard to believe they haven't even been home 5 months yet!

The 3 M's

I may have mentioned that I do not like early mornings.

First thing this morning, I had to drop off more of Victoria's poop samples because the doctor in the hospital, way back in June, didn't do her parasite test correctly. I sure hope they find something in there because something is not right!!

I decided to treat myself after the poop drop, being as I had lost my favorite measuring cups (ok, I really don't use the measuring cups, but still!!!) to the poop collection yesterday as well as my will to eat for the rest of the day. Collecting poop would make a great diet.

So, we went to Dunkin Doughnuts for all our favorites - muffins (pumpkin, of course!), Munchkins, and milk (chocolate, naturally).

I was so excited about going there, I may have knocked down several orange cones in a construction site on the way. Maybe some construction workers had to dodge out of the way too, but I like to think that I brought a little excitement to their day..


Because of the scary, leaking poops, I figured out a clever, if not weird, solution to keep Victoria's casts clean and dry.

Like we don't get stared at enough already.

So, that is my day so far. Please everyone, tell me about your day! I can't be the only one that has mornings like this!

Sharing

My day was filled with the oozing of orifices and no one wants to hear about that, so I thought I would talk about some great familes who are doing some fundraising for their adoptions. I can not seem to figure out how to put the links to their blogs on here, but you can cut and paste! Sorry! I tried and tried, but apparently I am only functioning at half a brain, actually, since it is almost 9:00 pm, it may be less than that!


My friend, Brooke and her husband are adopting sweet Adelyn from Taiwan. She will be their first child! They are having some really cool give-a-ways!

www.theannessafamily.blogspot.com

My friend, Shelly, is adopting two sweet boys named Teagon and Kelton. One little guy is 4 and weighs only 14 lbs and the other boy is 12 years old and is only 26 lbs.

www.atorchforteagan.blogspot.com

My friend, Rebecca is adopting sweet Sydney! Isn't she an angel! They are really having a tough time fundraising, please help if you can! They have only raised $233.10 and they need so much more to save her. Sydney needs to come home soon!

http://becauseyouareloved.blogspot.com/

And last, but certainly not least, my friend, Amanda, is adopting Andriy. Because people donated to her fundraiser, I have to take a pie in the face!!! I know you all want to see that!!!

http://justonemore4us.blogspot.com