Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween

This Halloween was the year of the Super Hero.  Both girls decided to be Wonder Woman this year.  And I love making home made costumes, so here is what we came up with.  I think they looked amazing.


Yes, those are hand painted shirts, foam belts and crown and duct tape boots!

And then our Germans agreed to play along.  So we showed them to the dress up trunk and this is what they came out with.

And Chloe went as a hot dog, although I don't think she was very excited about it.







Kind of looks like David Bowie in The Labrinth

And we thought Monica kind of looked like Charro.
And this was Olivia's pumpkin she carved

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Dressing?

Conversation between Liv and I: 
Me - what kind of dressing do you want on your salad. We have ranch or Ceasar
Liv - ooh. No thank you I don't want seizures. I'll take ranch.

EEG

This girl is a trooper.  So it was time to do another EEG, and since school was reporting that she "zones out" they recommended that we do a mobile EEG.  The Pro's of the mobile EEG:
1. You get to sleep in your own bed with your own stuff rather than be in a hospital or facility for 48 hours.
2. You get to see what's going on on a normal typical day.
The cons to a mobile EEG:
1. You have to maintain your regular schedule of school and therapy all while wearing at gauze hat with 1 million little wires coming out of your head.

But Juj didn't mind a bit.  Okay, maybe she minded a bit, but she got through it with her beautiful smile.
And since I'm so behind on the blog we have now long since gotten the results.  And it turns out that yes, some of the times when she "zones out" at school are seizures.  We kind of knew this.  The other interesting thing is that she is not getting quality sleep at night.  So despite the fact that she is in bed with eyes shut and little to no movement, she is not really sleeping.  So we will modify her meds a bit and hope for the best.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Official Six Flaggers

 We decided it was finally time get season passes to Six Flags Over Texas.  Why?
1. Last year we spent a ton going to Sea World, where the only thing they really enjoyed was the one and only roller coaster they could ride.
2.  We live like 8 miles from it.

 So we went on our first Six Flags adventure, wondering if they would like it or love it.  Were they big enough?
 So we started out on the kiddy rides. Liv liked them ok, Juliana not so much.  I mean she is 7 years old for crying out loud.

 So we thought, OK, let's go all out and try the Judge Roy Scream.  Which one do you think she liked better?
 What can I say, they are both dare devils.  We proceeded to ride everything they were tall enough for (which even included that bobsled like ride) and had a blast.  Here's to many more fun days at Six Flags!


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

My Little Author

Olivia has become quite the writer these days.  She's actually obsessed with note pads, note books and sticky notes.  And she leaves us notes - on varying topics but all quite entertaining.

The first one is addressed to God  (Notice she put a return address label in case God doesn't have our address.)
 And in case you don't read Kinder (I love you God.  You are the best.  Thank you God for all the things that you give to us.  Love Olivia and Juju and daddy and mommy.  Love)

Not sure why we got on this topic but we were discussing when she got married to make sure she picks the right man.  And she said, but how do you know he's the "right" man.  I said he has to be someone special like you with a good heart, good morals etc.  So she says, "Mommy, could you just pick a husband for me?" And I choked on whatever was in my mouth and said "Sure, but can I get that in writing?" Certainly she said.  In case you can't read Kinder writing "I will let mommy pick a husband for me - Olivia

Then she decided she would start writing messages on the calendar each month.  This was the first message.  "listen to our bodies"  I asked her what does that mean?  She said, "Well you know, if your body is hurting you might be sick or if your tummy says it's not hungry, then don't eat".  Now that is sage advice.  If only I could master the second one.  Then one night as we are on our way out for a date, which we always refer to as "mommy and daddy have to go to a meeting", Olivia shouts "Mommy look at my new message!"  I tell her I can't "We gotta go Liv, the movie, er umm, I mean the meeting starts in just a few minutes.  So I get home to see the message and it was "Plees let me go to medings!"  Translation "Please let me go to meetings!"  I could kick myself for not taking that picture.
 And the last, and my favorite is one she left in my office on my desk!

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

A Coach in the Making

Olivia has a coach at school (Coach Pittman) who is not your ordinary elementary school coach.  I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this next comment, but you know what I'm talking about.  The coaches I recall were, let's say, not all that involved and really only stuck to P.E.  Coach Pittman goes above and beyond to educate our kiddos about health and fitness.  She is super creative and actually writes raps and choreographs dances that teach kids and the kids LOVE it!  She was also one of Liv's teachers and vacation bible school.  Over all a really great role model for our kids.  So you can imagine I didn't mind one bit when she put on this microphone and said, "I'm Coach Pittman Mommy!"  (For those that are confused, coaches these days have so many kids in a large gym, so in order to save their voices they wear these types of "Britney Spears" microphones to amplify their voices in the gym)  So here's to you Coach Pittman - Thanks for inspiring our kiddos!


Saturday, October 5, 2013

Miracle League

For those of you that haven't heard, Miracle League is a soft ball league for kids with special needs.  It partners them with typical peer to do whatever it takes to help them play soft ball.  We had heard of it for several years but never really looked into it.  Honestly, Roger and I aren't really that big into sports and I had never played soft ball and let's face it, I have two girly girls and never really thought Juliana would be interested in soft ball.  Well, turns out a teacher at her elementary school is a coach for one of the Miracle League teams and she recruited Juliana.  So we thought, ok, let's give this a try.    Let me tell you that we have been so impressed with this organization.  Juliana LOVED playing.  And we LOVED watching her play.  They have a gorgeous field, but on apparently the only day I would take pictures it was raining so we played indoors.  Here is Juliana with her posse of middle school girls that were helping her.  She was so proud to get to hang out with the big girls.  What's funny is that the girls came over and asked if they could take her and I immediately panicked.  She doesn't know them, she will be uncomfortable, she will be scared.  But I let go, and said, sure.  And guess what, Juliana was fine.  In fact, she loved it!


So her partners helped out when she was in her wheel chair, but Juliana decided she wanted to get out of that chair and walk herself!  So I stepped in to help!
Here we are running to first base!
and she's safe!
This is the coach from the opposing team.  As you can see it is a very friendly and nurturing environment

Next time up, Daddy went to bat for her
Again - look at the coach from the opposing team.  She went out of her way to make sure every kid felt special.
Another awesome buddy.
Sliding into home plate
Group picture!



Friday, October 4, 2013

Today Rocked

Today was such a hard day for a million small reasons and I am going to bed exhausted for it. But it was the best day ever for two huge reasons 1. Juliana did not need a cast! Thank you Jesus and 2. Her new Tobii (eye gaze computer) came in today. So all in all I will go to bed thinking today rocked its face off!

Mr. & Mrs. Price

Ashley was the girls nanny from June 2013 through May of 2014 when she moved to Chicago.  The girls were devastated to see her go, but were very excited when asked to be the flower girls in her wedding.  
 Actually, Juliana was not thrilled about it at all.  Not that she doesn't love Ashley, she just hates being the center of attention.  So when it was their turn to walk down the aisle, Liv of course beamed and Juliana had a little melt down, where she ended up losing a shoe:(


 And here is Ash coming in on the arms of her dad and grandpa.
 Apparently Liv was the only one feeling this picture.
 Here are my cuties - as you can see Juliana is still recovering from the trauma of being a flower girl.

 But then it was time to cut loose and dance.  Both my girls were in HEAVEN!!!  The love a party and they love to get down!
 Livi's 1st ever Macarena


 And then Juj broke out on the dance floor and had a BLAST
 She loves to cut a rug!