Sean left today to head to Tampa with Juan because they are running the Gasperella 1/2 marathon tomorrow. The boys and I didn't do much of anything today but just hang out at the house and play outside a lot. We did go up to get a movie to watch tonight. They picked Hot Wheels the movie. Then we went to Planet Smootie and got smoothies. We had a great time watching the movie together. Boston came and joined me in the bed and snored softly and it made me feel like Sean was there with me.

Big house, Small House

Last night Sean helped my brother and Suzanne move into their new house, a huge house! We are so happy for them. Of course it makes me look at my little house, all 1689 square feet of it and wonder what it would be like to live in a big house with a big pantry and big closets. Room for everything. I'm working very hard at being content with what God has blessed us with. Of course whenever I go to someone else's house that's big and decorated with the finest of furnishings I start to be not happy with my house and the used furnishings we have. But when I'm in my home I love it! Its been such a great place to bring up the boys and a great neighborhood with an awesome backyard area. So today I battled in my head with God but realized we have three beautiful boys and that's why we still live in this house. And I would much rather have my boys and stay at home with them then a have a big house. So for now I will continue being happy and taking care of what God has given me.

(the picture is of our front door with my Valentine's wreath)

Tonight Sean and I went over to their house and it was amazing! Sean and I are already dreaming about when we can also buy a house in the same neighborhood and both live in the there.

Dr Seuss Day

Boston in his Dr Seuss hat

Today was Dr Seuss Day at Boston's school and I volunteered to come up and help out. Each class rotated around to the other kindergarten class to do an activity and hear a Dr Seuss book being read. As I walked in another mom, Hi, said "Ya Cricket's here. She can read the book!" Right away Boston class left on the rotation and my first class came in. She handed me the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish." We have many Dr Seuss books in our house but for some reason this is not one of them and I can't remember ever having read this book. First off let me say it was the LONGEST book. As I'm reading I'm thinking, "this book is never going to end!" But I put my theatre skills to use and animated the book and used funny sounds for the characters.

The best was when Boston's class finally returned and I got to read it to his class. The smile on his face showing how proud he was that I was his mom was the BEST THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD! I've performed in front of hundreds and even on tv, but this was THE best audience I could ever had, the audience with my proud child in it. Nothing could top this!

Truck riding at Walmart and the random kindness

Today we ventured to Walmart. The boys love riding in this truck and it's a hit or miss if I actually have 50cents to make it work. Today as I was searching through my purse for money (coming up empty handed) the greeter at the front came over and gave me 50cents. I couldn't believe her random act of kindness. It impressed me so much! Then we realized that it wasn't plugged in and wouldn't give us the money back. She plugged it in and gave me 50 more cents! Wow. The boys were beaming with joy riding it. Then as it was finishing and I was getting ready to get them out a Walmart truck driver came over and gave me 50 more cents to ride it again! I wanted to cry because I was so touched by these complete strangers and their generosity to give me 50cents to let me children enjoy riding the truck! He even said he would give them a ride in the REAL truck if he didn't have a delivery to do. The joy in 50cents was abounding today!

Asher coloring

This is where I found Asher today. Boston and Dallas had been coloring at the table and they left and Asher climbed up all by himself and began coloring. He's been obessed with coloring for several months now. He loves it! Unfortunetly he probably doesn't get to color as much as he would probably like but I'm going to work on letting him do it more often.

Dallas riding without training wheels

Today we while we were playing in the backyard I was thinking about the fact that we are getting Boston a new, bigger bike for his birthday and Dallas will be inheriting Boston's bike but that he would need training wheels. Then I thought, why not give him a chance to learn now. So I said, "Hey Dallas, you want to try and ride Boston's bike without training wheels." Dallas is always game to try things like this, so he enthusiastically replied, "Yes!" On the bike he went and I held on to him as we went around for a little bit and then started to let go a little big here and there. Eventually after just about 10-15 minutes he was riding all by himself!! It was truely amazing. And I have to brag on his determination. No matter how hard it was, and how many times he crashed and fell, he got RIGHT BACK up and tried again. He's always had such determination in disobeying and I always said it would come in handy one of these days! Well now I'm seeing the fruit of it!

I'm oh so proud of you Dallas! Way to go!!!

National Pancake Day

In honor of pancake day we had pancakes for dinner. I even made some in the shape of the gingerbread man, or I guess we should call him Pancake Man! The boys loved having pancakes for dinner and mommy enjoyed the easy, breezy dinner.

Storytime at the Library with Asher

My girlfriend Rebecca and I have been meeting on Mondays at the library with our littlest ones while our big kids are in school. It's been really nice taking Asher to something all his own and with other kids his age. And especially nice for him to get to play with Lucas. Today the lady was all dressed up as Mother Goose and my goodness did she have a list of rules. I thought I was going to get in trouble (no talking, no kids wandering around, etc etc) I do look forward to my Mondays with Asher!

Asher with Mother Goose

Lucas putting the pacifier in Ashers mouth. I had to give it to him because he wasn't being quiet...LOL

Brain Integration Therapy

I've heard Dianne Craft speak at the homeschool conference the last two years and each time was completely in awe of the information she presented! I have her Biology of Behavior cds and have listened to them several times. Amazing! We also have her right Right Brain Phonics cards and Sight Words flashcards. My most recent purchase (one I wish I had purchases a year ago at the conference but I just wasn't willing to fork up $26 for this small book. I figured I could find information online. But after much looking online I couldn't find any anywhere. With Boston having a hard time blending words I figured this might be a good step to help him connect his right and left brain and cross the midline. Wow! That is all I can say. The information presented in this book is awesome and her exercises are interesting. I can't wait to start them!

I'm also starting us back on the Biology of Behavior supplements. A great article you can read on her website is
http://diannecraft.com/article-009.htm
There are several other articles you should also check out on here. The most interesting thing in this article is how she talks about how important Essential Fatty Acids are to brain function, behavior and attention problems:

They have highlighted the relationship between learning, behavior, and attention disorders and essential fatty acid deficiency in children. The more recent studies corroborate the older ones. In a 1981 study, reported in the journal, Medical Hypotheses, a large number of hyperactive children showed deficiencies in essential fatty acids. That particular study revealed that boys have a three times higher need for essential fatty acids than girls. This might be one explanation for the larger number of boys experiencing difficulties in various areas of learning and behavior.

So check her out, you won't regret it!

Missionfest

Tonight we had Missionfest at our church. Boston is in the Kindergarten choir and they performed some cute songs to start the festival off. He was adorable all dressed as a cowboy up there. He sang his little heart out, my little singer. I get much joy out of watching him perform!
(He's in the back row, second person to the right of the big mexican hat wearing boy)

After he sang we got to eat dinner here for free! Amazing isn't it. And the food was great. A plate piled high of all kinds of food from around the world: pizza, egg rolls, corn dogs, and a bunch of other stuff. The boys really like the corn dogs and pizza. My brother joined us to hear Bosont sing and eat as we all ate out on the lawn.

Then we headed back inside and the boys got passports and we went around to all the different tables checking out the missionary work going on all over the world. We all got chop sticks and a bookmark with each of our names on it in Chinese. Of course we hung around China the most, since it the country we feel so called to. Hopefully one day we will have some even deeper connection to it....maybe a little girl....we can only hope. There really is a place in my heart for a sweet little China girl. Sean and I both have the deepest desire to adopt there but God would have to move mountains for it to happen. Right now the wait time is several years, some say 4-6 years, and the financal costs and things you have to have in order to even quality are way beyond our means But I know if that is what God's wishes for our family He will make it happen and I have all the faith in the world in that.

Race Car

On our way to Jori's birthday party we passed by Ace hardware and Boston spotted this car out front. I turned in and he beamed as we took a look at it. So cute. He sure is into race cars lately. He very much looking forward to his Speedracer birthday party in a few weeks.

Jori's birthday party

I took Boston to his friend Jori's birthday party today at the bowling alley. Jori and Boston has known each other since they were born through church and now they are in the same kindergarten class. Boston loves Jori but he is also very careful not to seem to close to her because the boys in class seem to tease him that she's his girlfriend and as he's told me many times, "he DOESN'T want a girlfriend!" I assured him he didn't need one until he's at least 21! Ha Ha

Boston and Jori

Jori, Ashton (yes a kid in his class is names Ashton), Nicolas, and BostonJori -it was a Cosmic Bowl, they turn off the lights and have black lights with everything glowing Boston had the time of his life. It was ever so cute to watch them cheer each other on and jump up and down when they knocked a lot of pins down. Boston was very proud that he won on his lane of 6 kids with a score of 75 (and the rest of the kids in the 50's) Daddy was so proudJori, Boston and Nicolas

Saturday morning

I started the morning off with lots of baking. Homeade healthy waffles, orange bran muffins, and breakfast cookies. The muffins are not a repeat, yuk. But I'm trying several healthy recipes trying to find some staples to batch make each week.

Sean came home from his Saturday morning run and we played soccer with the boys in the backyard for a little while. It was absolutely gorgeous day!

Here's Asher and Dillard looking at the ducks in the pond in our backyard. Asher LOVES ducks. It's the first animal noise he made and he still loves to "QUACK QUACK!"

Daddy kicking the ball far in the air for the boys to chase after. They love this game Mommy and Asher

A new do

Today I cut all my hair off! I've been tired of the upkeep of long, curly hair for sometime now. I just don't have time to wash and dry it with three young boys. I decided if I was going to cut it I might as well cut enough to donate and help someone else out. I did this a few years ago and cut 10 inches off to donate to Locks of Love for young girls who lose their hair due to illness. This time I didn't have 10 inches, their minimum. I found another place Beautiful Lengths that uses the hair for cancer patients and their minimum is 8 inches. So off I went to see Jane, who has cut my hair for 20 years, with a picture of Meg Ryan with very short curly hair. For a week I labored over whether I had enough nerve to cut it that short. I've never had it so short I couldn't put it in some sort of ponytail. But I decided to just go for it! At first as I saw her cutting it shorter and shorter I went into shock. I thought, my gosh I'm going to look like a boy!!! And even after she dryed it I was still in shock. When I walked out immediatly two ladies commented on how much they LOVED my hair (as I'm thinking, "are you crazy!") When I walked by the mirror it just didn't look like me. But now that I have washed and styled it myself and looked at myself in the mirror a thousand times, I'm getting used to it and LOVING IT! Especially the fact that it's not hot and doesn't give me a headache when I put it in a ponytail! So here's to short hair....and the EASE of it!

BEFORE

AFTER

Wes and Suzanne came over tonight to play cards but after just hanging out for a while we opted to watch the movie A American Carol. What a funny movie it was. But we were so tired that Sean and Suzanne fell asleep half way through and I fell asleep toward the end. What a lively bunch we were

Daryl's birthday

Tonight after dinner we headed over to our friends Daryl and Val's house to celebrate Daryl's birthday with a cookie cake. The kids had a blast and it was fun to have some adult conversation. And who can resist some cookie cake!!!!

Dallas OT, PT and ST Evaluations

Today was a big day with Dallas. Him and I went to have him evaluated by a Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist and a Speech Therapist.

First off we had the OT evaluation. Things went well up until the end when he had one of his "moments" I might call. We were sitting with the lady doing the eval and at the end of it and he stood up while she was talking to me and went over to my bag and got the Leapster game out and started playing. I told him he couldn't play right now we had to finish and he ignored me. So I took it away and put it up. He had a huge tantrum, screaming and yelling and kicking and what not. The OT lady looked at me and said, "I know you aren't enjoying this but it's really good for me to see." I knew that. I knew how good it was that I was thanking God that someone else was finally witness to it and I had tears in my eyes. These tantrums can be so exhausting and hopefully someone can point me in a direction that will help me to get through to him and help him calm down when he gets so worked up like this. Finally we got him calmed down, after about 15 minutes. She went ahead and ended the session and I prayed that while I took him for lunch he would come back and corporate for the PT and ST ladies.

We ate lunch in the car and I let him watch the new movie Nena gave him this morning, Space Buddies. We watched for about 30 minutes and he also got to play on the playground at McDonalds. We headed back and he ran in the door greeting everyone and wanting to go play in their ball pit and climb the rock climbing wall.

The PT eval was great! We had this because of the constant toe walking. She said his heel cords were tight but not so bad it would require surgery, but she wouldn't want them to get any worse. She did a bunch of stuff with him to evaluate him and he was great working with her. She put 2 lb weights around his ankles and I couldn't believe what a difference it made. He walked all around not on his tip toes. She gave me a list of things to work with him one, like walking backwards, crouching like a frog and walking like a duck, some massages and stretches to do and suggestion to buy 3 lb weights to work with on his feet. She said he wouldn't need regular PT. Yah!!

The ST lady was also wonderful! I haven't seen anything wrong at all with his speech. He's always been great in this area I thought, even having a huge vocabulary at 18 months! But the neurologist suggested getting him checked and I figured why not since I was already there. He did good and she said he was just fine and didn't need any ST Yah!

I'm will have to wait on the OT evaluation to see what she says. I know already that he's already behind in fine motor some but that's about all I know. I'm so excited to start the OT! What great resources we have now to correct problems that could have just gotten bigger the older he got and now can be completely eliminated!

Getting mail

Today the boys got my parents Valentine's Day cards in the mail. All three of the boys LOVE getting the mail. Boston and Dallas know how to use the key and get the mail out themselves. Asher knows which key it is but can't quite reach out box. The picture is of all three of them reading their cards, which all sang a song when you opened it. Boston and Dallas cards were Kung Fu Panda cards that sang, "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!" Boston is doing a kung fu move.

Boston riding his bike again

About a week or so ago Boston decided he wanted to try riding his bike again. He hasn't road it since his fateful accident on Dec 6, resulting in surgery and a cast for 4 weeks. I told him we should try riding it in the back yard first on the grass. He got right back on it and road it like he had never stopped. Soon he was riding up and down the hills and mountain biking like a pro. I'm so proud of him for finally getting back on it and riding again. I haven't pushed the subject and haven't even talked about it. I'm glad he made the choice himself and he's so proud of it that when asked for his student of the week poster what his greatest accomplishment was he said, "riding my bike without training wheels!"

Rollerskating 80's party

Tonight we went to a rollerskating 80's birthday party for our friends Christie and Jill. What a great time we had! It was way out in Kissimmee but what a great facility! They even had a huge indoor playground for the kids. Only thing missing was the lightup dance floor. I was a little apprehensive about getting on the old school skates but it didn't take long to remember how to do it. It has been about 20 years!!

Boston trying out his skates

Dallas in skates for the first time

The boys didn't last too long after falling on their bottoms a few times. They were much more interested in playing on the huge indoor playground with their friends. Dallas did come back and try the skates on again and skate around the kiddy rink with me for a little while and then try the big rink out for a few seconds before deciding against it.

Here is Sean skating away!Limbo time! Sean sitting on his butt after not making itSean and I after a night of fun skating! We even got to couples skate and hold hands. Ahhh Of course there was lots of 80's music and my favorite, Bon Jovi!Then we drove the boys home and dropped them off with grandma and grandpa and had dinner at Olive Garden with Daryl and Val. It was a busy and fun Sunday!

Animal Kingdom for Valentine's Day

We headed out to Animal Kingdom after Sean finished his long run today. What a great time! We went to the Dinosaur part first today and let the boys run off some energy in the playground there. We haven't been to this part of the park in several years because they just weren't old enough. But now they love it! They were running all over the place. Sean and I had a hard time keeping up with where they were. Asher especially loved hanging out with Sean in the dirt/rock area pictured below where you uncover dinasour fossils.

Climbing up together

I LOVE THIS MOM!

Sean with is boys checking out the deer

Up close and personal with some tigers Asher looking at the tiger. I think he could have stayed here all day. He kept calling him a "dog dog!"
Monkeys hanging out....literally!
The boys getting to learn about parrots more

Bats sleeping

Sean and Asher looking at the deer. Asher LOVED all the animals and would get so excited seeing them