What The Heck?

Alex came to me last week with some ripped up crepe paper and said, "What the heck?" I laughed and wondered who was using that phrase around the house. It also warmed my heart-not that my goal is to teach my children slang--but that he learned from overhearing. We were warned when he was an infant that deaf children have language delays because they are not able to learn from overhearing. Well, it seems that Alex overhears quite a lot, especially if someone says the magic "treat" word. I also caught him singing Jingle Bells two days ago. Aren't cochlear implants great?

Thanksgiving

I convinced the family that Moab at the end of November would be THE PERFECT TIME to visit. We had tried a brief stop in July on our way back from Texas, but we all thought we were going to die from the heat when we got out at Hole 'n the Rock. So, this Thanksgiving we packed bikes, fruit roll-ups, and coats and headed to the picture-perfect Arches National Park. It turns out that this was very brave of our family because there was a man-hunt and record cold temperatures. We bundled up and never ran into a guy with a bullet hole in his leg. We had a great time. The weather, of course, warmed up right after our trip. In fact, if this keeps up, we're going to have to do some yard work!

Texas Trip

Our Texas adventure is over--the laundry is done, the chigger bites are disappearing and now we just need to remember to develop our photos! We took 12 days on our road trip which included Carlsbad Caverns, a family reunion, the American Girl Doll store, visits with two sets of grandparents and a visit to our old ward in Bryan. We had a wonderful visit and we were actually not in a hurry to get home (usually I get homesick after a week or so.) Here are a few photos from our trip.
1) Carlsbad Caverns--nice to feel a little cool in July! Very exciting to see all of the stalactites, stalagmites, popcorn, columns, etc.
2)Mile High Strawberry Pie with Sandi!
3) Wilson Arch --a quick hike off the highway to a beautiful arch. Note--flip flops not recommended!
4) American Girl Doll Store--Note how nice Kaya looks after her $20 hair do! The girls saved and saved for this event. We topped it off with dessert at the bistro. Very fun day--too expensive to do again anytime soon!

My dear friend

About 3 years ago, I found out that one of my best friends, Karen, had cancer. It was scary and we just hoped and prayed that the worst would not happen, but it did. She died June 18, 2010. I've been missing her this past month, and I know that will continue. I have found that it's easy to make casual friends, but true bosom friends are harder to come by. Karen and I met in Texas at church. We quickly hit it off and shared a lot of late nights laughing as we worked on projects for church. After we moved, she and I called each other every few weeks--mostly on Sundays --to catch up. I miss her a lot on Sunday afternoons now, and I'm missing her tonight. Karen loved me and my family and we all loved her back. Here's a photo of me and my buddy from last summer. Love you Karen!

The tonsil pictures you've been dying to see!

Warning: These pictures are a little gross!
We have learned that getting tonsils out is PAINFUL! Anna is very brave, but earaches that last for 10 days are hard to deal with!
Note the before and after pictures!

Recent Photos

Here's some photos from February through April--


--Spencer and kids on his birthday

--Leah with her Science Fair project--tested to see if the movie UP was really possible


























--Adam explaining everything you need to know about earthquakes for his Great Brain Project
--Anna receiving her Award of Merit for Literature at State Reflections Contest
--Alex in front of our beautiful tree today. It would be hard to top this beautiful spring day!
Missing: Leah winning school spelling bee--did I not remember a camera?

A little catch-up!

So, I guess it's been awhile since I've posted. I actually think quite often, "Oh--I should blog that." However, I guess I haven't followed through on those thoughts since January! So, what have we been doing? Here's a quick list:
1--Anna and Leah learned tons of HARD words for the school spelling bee. Leah won-- Yeah, Leah!
2--Anna's Reflections poem went on to the state competition and she received an Award of Merit at the state level.
3--Hosted Spencer's family for a few days. Fun with cousins. Nice to get the office finally cleaned up before their visit.
4--Planted flower seeds to save me TONS of money in May.
5--Replanted flower seeds--please come up little seeds!
6--Spring Break: Laser Tag, Power Tumbling, Library, Park, Shopping, Shooting Range at Cabella's
7--Made two of the four hula dresses that need to be done by April 30th
8--TAXES--not done yet
9--Easter eggs
10--General Conference
11--Two Great Brains completed--one to go (Research reports the kids do at school)
12--Read a couple of books Anna handed me. Can't remember titles, but they were good.
13--Participated in a Chicago conference via teleconferencing focused on using tele-intervention to provide services for deaf and hard of hearing kids.
14--Beamed as Alex sings Row Row Row Your Boat--I'd document it, but he's very particular as to who can hear him sing
15--Counted up 80 words that Alex uses
16--Lost part of Alex's processor at Wal-Mart-- and found it (after a quick prayer)!
17--Watched the Olympics as much as we could--Yeah Lycacek!
18--Bought a Wii
19--Listen peacefully to kids practicing the piano before they can play the Wii
20--Played a piano/organ duet in church--boy, did I work hard on that!

One of the therapists that works with Alex emailed me to ask me to explain what I did in a typical day so that she could come up with a session for Alex related to our regular routine. That was an interesting exercise for me. What do I do? Usually I think in terms of --What Didn't I Do? Those things always seem so obvious. It seemed so hard to type out what I actually do in a day--because the days pass by so quickly and always feel so jam-packed. Yet, what did I do? I'm not sure! At least I can review the above list and know that several things did happen in the last few months.

We Believe in Miracles

An update on Alex:

Alex is doing super duper with his 2nd implant. I decided that I should start writing down all of his words that he uses. I was surprised that it is about 30. I realize that some of his words are only intelligible to our family, but they have meaning for him. His speech development seems to be right on track with what I remember from my other 4 children, if not slightly ahead of some of them. He also speaks with a natural-sounding voice. I am also pleased to see him now being able to localize sound. This has been a nice improvement since he had his second implant activated. One note about activation...it was not the happy experience I envisioned. I had thought the second one would go smoothly, since he was already doing well with the first. However, it was not a happy hour for him. That being said, he did great with it as soon as we left the office. I am very grateful to the people with the insight and imagination to develop cochlear implants. I consider them to be a miracle. I realize they are not a perfect miracle, but Alex enjoys hearing birds, laughing with his family, figuring out where someone is in the house by listening, and knowing when to come help unload the dishwasher because he heard me open it up. I'm a happy Mom!

Christmas!

Christmas has long since passed, but it was very enjoyable. The kids had fun with the games they received, and I had fun knowing I got them for a great deal on Amazon! Here's some pictures from our big day.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever

We had the best, best, best Primary Activity--thanks to help from a large portion of our ward (church congregation.) The kids all came dressed in shepherds and then we had several adults and youth act out parts of the story of Christ's birth. We had part of the room decorated as a Judean plain, and then we walked into another room with a starry night sky (where the angels came to tell the Good News). Then, we knocked on the innkeeper's door and heard the stories of the Wise Men, Anna, Simeon and King Herod. Finally, the innkeepers opened their door and we saw the Holy Family. We ended with everyone singing Christmas Carols accompanited by a guitar. The kids loved it! They all wanted to get right in there and see Baby Jesus. It was definitely Christmas!