A picnic

After a really yucky stormy day on Friday I decided to take the kids to the park to get some of their wiggles out and have a picnic on Saturday while we waited for their dad to finish up some work. When we arrived at the park there was some event going on so all the parking spaces were full except for the small parking lot on the furthest end of the park. That meant a long walk to the play area (especially for a pregnant lady), but we made it. Katelyn had just climbed her very first slide when she said "Help. Help! I need to go pee pee!" Long story short, we had to walk all the way back to the car to change her only to realize I only had a pair of shorts for her and it would be too chilly to play outside in that so we had no choice but to go back home. Landon was bummed not to have a picnic at the park but daddy suggested he and Katelyn have their own picnic on the balcony--that sure made them happy. We sure love these two kiddos of ours!

Future photographers

A mother's love means posting pictures of yourself without makeup or your hair done because your kids are so proud of the pictures they took:) I told Landon I was updating the blog with our photos and he said he wanted to take a picture to show his grandparents--so here you go

Very successful photo by Landon

(I had to hold onto the camera when it was Katelyn's turn to keep it from shaking, but she pushed the button).

He got his choo choo back!

What puts a big old grin on this little boy?You guessed it. TRAIN TRACKS!
We had put a lot of the kids toys in bins trying to clean up some of their clutter a couple months ago and meant to get back to them to "match" up all the miscellaneous toys. Needless to say, we never did so Landon took it upon himself to dig out his own train tracks. He played with them for days. There have been lots of "choo choo" and "all aboards" coming from our home. Now to find the one or two remaining train engines still missing in the bins...

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We tried to make it fun for the kids. The day started off with a preschool party where they got to do a craft, make a valentine, play musical hearts and eat cupcakes. That evening for dinner we had yummy strawberry crepes.

Landon enjoying Grandma Davis's sugar cookies.

Katelyn eating a cookie and showing off her hat Grandma D made her. She kept it on the whole night.

The kids also got to enjoy some yummy candies Grandma Anderson sent.

Ben and I joked about how we don't do really romantic things anymore now that we've almost been married 6 years:) I bought him some caramels that had 14 reasons why I love him as well as 5 (one for each year old the children are) why the kids love their Daddy. And Ben bought me some yummy Girl Scout Cookies, which I haven't had in forever--gotta love those Thin Mints! But I have to say having kids really does add a whole different perspective to the romantic holiday. It's just so fun to make THEIR day fun. I absolutely love my little family.

Puppet Show

Presenting Landon and Katelyn's puppet show:)

Speech Disorder

Well, we had Landon tested by the school district's speech language pathologist and we got his results today. He has Phonological Disorder, which is a type of speech disorder known as an articulation disorder. Children with this disorder do not use some or all of the speech sounds expected of their age groups. We knew Landon was having difficulty with some sounds because some people have a hard time understanding, especially when he talks for an extended amount of time, like when he is telling a story. Landon had ear tubes inserted in the summer to drain fluid that had been retained in his ear and we are told that he may have "learned" an easier way for him to pronounce things since he couldn't actually make out the distinct sound differences between some letters. Now he will start going to speech therapy two times a week to try and "unlearn" it and learn it correctly. He has a moderate form of the disorder. He is very excited though because he gets to go to an elementary school and he says "I go to big kid school!" He loves Mrs. Leslie too. She's a sweet and is also expecting a child (her first) the beginning of June so we get to be "growing belly buddies" as she said:) Katelyn and I get to wait in the front lobby, which Katelyn thinks is great because she gets to watch all the school kids walk by. I've decided we will work on Katelyn's "schooling" that half hour. The other curve ball we were given is that because he is receiving special education services he automatically becomes eligible for their Pre-K program next year which is 5 days a week from 8 to 1. We didn't qualify for it before since we were over income so we had gone and signed he up for a two day a week (9-2) pre-school through a local church but it would cost us $1200 and the pre-k is free. Ugh, decisions. I personally don't know if I am ready to part with my "big" boy all week long though. Mrs. Leslie recommends the pre-k program because unlike the church preschool, at the pre-k one the teachers are made aware of his speech disorder and work it into their daily routine. For example, they have a chart they keep track of throughout the day on how he uses his speech and then they report it to the therapist who sees Landon three days a week. I think Katelyn might have a hard time parting with Landon that long, then again, we will have baby girl here by then so it might be easier over all. So what do you think? Is a 5 day a week program too much for a four year old? Or is it worth it because he gets that extra attention on a daily basis? Feed back please.

Circus

Since we didn't go anywhere for Christmas we decided we wanted to do something "big" for the kids that we usually wouldn't budget for and as luck would have it the circus came to town. The kids have been excited for weeks and counted down the "night-nights" until the big day arrived. Landon and Katelyn both intently watched the show. Landon never took his eyes off what was going on, but he never cracked a smile either! He was just too engrossed in watching. Katelyn on the other hand was bopping and clapping along to the music-she was all smiles.

Quick picture taken during the "half-time."

Katelyn called the "Kiger's scary" but she liked them.

We left 15 minutes early since Landon was pretty "circused out." And snapped a photo of one of the many trailers out front. You can tell from the kids expression that stopping for the photo was not their idea of fun.

And then we went out to Burker King.

Here is a clip of the tight rope act which was probably one of the best acts.