Jacob van Gogh

Jacob took art last semester at school and has really enjoyed it(He wishes it was a full semester elective). He was assigned to carve a rubber stamp(This is called Printing) out of anything relating to an animal. He chose to carve his into an Eagle with the background of the American flag. His teacher really was impressed with the results. She entered it into the school district art fair and his was chosen to be displayed at the school district headquarters. He received a congratulation's letter requesting him at an Artist's reception on the 25th of this month. Way to go Jacob!!!

Madisyn is so brave!!!

I took Madisyn to the mall and she got her ears pierced. She was so brave. She sat there so patiently and didn't even move. I think I was more nervous than her. She was really excited about getting it done. I was planning on waiting until she was a little older, but I was the same age she was when I got mine done and she always is taking out my earrings and putting them in without a problem. The whole day you would of thought she was the Belle of the Ball. She would look at her reflection, walk around flipping her hair back away from her face to expose her earrings. She would continually ask questions like, "Am I going to keep these in when I go to sleep? How long will I have these earrings? When I go to Disneyland will I have my earrings? Do I really have real earrings in my ears?" At the end of the day when we were getting ready for bed she looks at herself in the mirror and then looked at me and said, "Mom, I can't believe that you have a daughter with earrings!" She definitely was excited about the earrings!

Happy 14th Kaleb!!!!

I can hardly believe that I have a child that is 14!!! He has really grown up so fast. I really mean grown up figuratively too! He is 5'8 and growing each minute! Kaleb has really been a joy in our lives. Not a day goes by that we are not being entertained by his quick sense of humor! We are really proud of all that he has been able to handle in his 14 years.

Kaleb we love you and want you to know how important you are to our family. We wouldn't be the same without you. You have had to go through a lot of changes in your life last six months and have handled it so great! We hope you have a wonderful birthday and know that WE LOVE YOU and will always be here for you!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KB!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Madisyn

I cannot believe that Madisyn is now 5!! It seems like yesterday that I was preparing myself to have a DAUGHTER!! She has been a wonderful blessing in our lives! It is hard to imagine that in just a few months(July!!) my baby will be starting kindergarten. She is so ready(More than her mom is!!) Because you are turning 5 today I wanted to say five things we all love about you!!


1. You are such a helper.


2. You have a big heart.


3. You are so funny.


4. You are a beautiful girl inside and out!!


5. Most importantly you are part of our forever family and we wouldn't be the same without you!!


WE ALL LOVE YOU MADISYN AND WISH THE BEST 5TH BIRTHDAY EVER!!!
(In case you are wondering Maddie, you have 365 sleeps until you turn 6 :) )

Trial #1

Well I met with the AT Team at Braydon's school and they brought in three different communicators. We narrowed it down to 2 different ones and will be trying them both out over the next little while. Braydon chose the first one to try and it is called an Advantage Light. I really like this one because of the key grid it has on it. I think Braydon did too! He is able to move his fingers over the keys by holding his other fingers onto the grid. He moves them everywhere and anywhere he wants to. It was a real neat experience to see him so excited. It felt like hearing your baby say his first word for the first time. I hope as time goes on that the overwhelming need to hit as many buttons as he can will die off! Knowing him he is just doing it to annoy his mother! We are trying to use it as much as possible, but it is a little difficult because they won't attach it to his wheelchair until they get him his own. This is similiar in key pictures to the Dynavox he had in Vegas. The differences in this one are that you can see the screen a lot better and the key grid is a lot better and workable for him. We will see how it goes. Soon enough I am sure he will find a way to tell us that he wants a soda and cookie :)

Cherry Creek Reservoir

This State park/reservoir is about 5 minutes from our house. We took the kids yesterday to check it out. There is year round fun to be had here. In the winter you can ice fish, ride bikes, walk, fly an RC Plane and go to the shooting range. In the summer you can rent jet skis, go out on a boat, swim at the beach, fish, picnic, camp etc. It is really quite large and can't wait to see what Spring will do to the many trees and plants.
The kids had fun walking out on the ice and watching some people Ice Sail? Of course what else did I expect but some picture taking opportunities. I didn't bring the big camera so I apologize for the far away pictures of the ice fishing and the bright sun exposure pics. We really enjoyed the day.