hApPy HaLlOwEeN!

Happy Birthday Miranda!

Today is my friend, Mir's BIRTHDAY!
I believe that we've been friends now for six years and I'm so thankful we are! We've had some great times! You're the best Miranda! Have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Love you!

Halloween decorations

I made this wreath the other day. I had plans to add to it, but you can see I haven't!My spider...had plans for him to hang on the brick wall with some spider webbs. You can see that I haven't done that either!My skeleton is glittery, but you can't tell that in the picture.This is as spooky as I get. I did promise the kids next year that I will do better!

Halloween past

I love looking back at old pictures of the kids. Especially at the costumes they wore on Halloween. The boys being 15 and 11 have had many many years of Halloween dressing up. My ALL TIME FAVORITE was 1999! Austin was 5 and was obsessed with Toy Story, so he went as Woody! He'd say, "There's a snake in my boot!" UH, SO CUTE! My wittle Tyler was 17 months old and he loved to watch Teletubies, so he went as Poe! He'd say,"Me POE!" Awww...The boys FIRST Halloween, Austin was a clown, Tyler was a M&M. MISS CARLI was a...
Lil' Ladybug! It was 2006, she was 5 months old! Special costume because it was Annsley's when she was a couple of weeks old. Oh where does the time go???

Weekend trip

This past weekend, we loaded up and headed to Bryan. It was due time to see Mimi, Grandma, Great Grandma and Grandpa. Along with them, we saw Uncle Abel and Uncle Chris, Aunt Rachel, and cousins Melissa, Philip, Rachel, and Gabby! We also went downtown to the Children's Museum's Fall Festival. Our best friend's company was the main sponsor, so we were able to see the Ely's too!! This turtle was huge! Everyone got a big kick out of seeing him walk around.
There were also about six different kinds of snakes and I believe Austin touched and held all of them! He was very interested in them!

He also played several games too. Not Carli... She was not feelin' the whole festival!She preferred to stay in the stroller, drinking a coke and eating a pickle! Not sure what her deal was?!

Tyler? Now, you know him...do you think he was with us? Ummm no! As soon as we got there, he saw his friends and took off! I guess he's too "old" to hang around with us!We did see them once and I went to sneak a picture, but as soon as I did, they saw me.

Yes, I embarrassed them...oh well! :)

We had a really nice visit in good ol' BCS, as always, not enough time to see everyone and I wish I had more pictures. Maybe next time.

Teacher Halloween Treats!

On Tuesday, Carli helped me make some candy corn bark (like peppermint bark, but candy corn instead) and she asked if she could give some to her teachers. So we packaged them up for her to take to them. She was all ready for school and was so excited to take them their halloween treats, UNTIL...

I told her that the "Cowgirl Carli hat" and "Nana, the horse" could not go to school. WATER WORKS, let me tell ya! I ended up being the one to give her teachers their treats and she even stayed moody/whiney at school the first part of the day! Oh well, the treats were good though!

Good Byes

Last week, we went to say our good byes to our good friends. They've lived here for about 15 months and we've all developed good friendships! They're moving back to the state where they're from.FUN TIMES!
We'll miss y'all! BUT, see you soon!

Weekend wrap up

Friday,being a great day, turned into a great weekend! Gorgeous weather and family fun!
You know, my guys are are movie fanatics. They love to go to the movies! So, Friday night they went to see Saturday, we went to get Austin's Halloween costume, since Tyler and Carli got their's last weekend.
Then we went to the Pumpkin Patch. I would've like to get great pictures of my children...not happening! Austin was too busy picking the perfect pumpkin, Tyler was too busy being too cool to be bothered by such, and Carli was too busy lovin' on all the pumpkins! She was in love with them and even cried the whole walk back to the car because she wanted to bring all of them home!

This is how Tyler acts when I try to get a picture!!

Afterwards we went out to eat dinner at Casa Ole'. It's the kids' favorite place to eat! Since starting Austin on his new eating, we only go out about once or twice on the weekend. Usually a Saturday night and Sunday after church.

Sunday, Austin was still sleeping come 10am, so we figured to leave him alone, that he obviously needed the sleep. We didn't want to try and wake him. No need to trigger a seizure by being overly tired. So, I stayed here while Anthony and Tyler went to church. The rest of our day was spent playing around, grocery store, getting ready for the week, and confirmation for Tyler.

Hope you had a glorious weekend!

REWARD!

Friday turned out to be a great day! I felt like every email, text, facebook status, and call I saw/heard was great news, not to mention the fall weather! I feel like God was really speaking to me. One of the emails I got was from Austin's Life Skill's teacher. You see, in his class, they have a behavior/goals incentives chart for each child. Their rewards are all different and sitting right there for them to see. I guess it's like a "keep your eye on the prize" kind of thing. Austin's rewards all have to do with what else, Sponge Bob. He's gotten figurines, coloring poster,etc. There's always been one BIG reward he's talked about forever...a pinata! See where I'm goin' with this? He has a practice shoe that he had to tie ten times in a row, along with his own shoes twice. The teacher said that,"after two and a half years of working on tying his shoe, he finally did it, he earned the Sponge Bob pinata!!!!!!". He went on to say how proud of him he was and how Austin went around to the office staff, nurse, librarian, police officer, and showed them he could tie! He told him that he could call us and tell us but Austin said, "No, I want it to be a surprise!". So, of course I acted surprised, but had my camera there for when he stepped off the bus...Now, with Austin's morning chores at school, tying the practice shoe and his own, is a part of that routine. He even brought the practice shoe home for "homework".
We're still beaming!

A special moment

Our heart is bursting with pride!
Austin came home from school yesterday and told me he can tie his shoe!
The schools and us have worked for years with him to do this and he just couldn't do it. TODAY, HE DID!

This is a very special moment for us that we really wanted to share. Having a child with special needs, you don't know what they'll be able to do. It's absolutely joyful to see him accomplish this!

Preschool days

Last Friday was Picture Day at Carli's school. I didn't get any pictures of her that morning before we left, but boy do I wish I had! She was lookin' real cute and she DID NOT take her individual school picture! WHY? Because she WOULD NOT take it! Nope, wouldn't do it! They tried everything imaginable to get her to and I was even in there with my class and tried. NOPE. WOULDN'T! UGH! So, after school I tried to take a picture of her. Even though her bow was falling out, sleeves stretched, and shirt un tucked. I still had no luck! Can you say stubborn? Strong willed? A TOOT?!A couple of weeks ago at school, the firefighters came to visit with puppets and brought their fire truck. Here is a picture that my co teacher took of Carli during the presentation. I think it was when we were waiting on them to start.This day we ended up playing on the playground at the same time. SO SWEET! She was twirling around (dancing)!
As I've said before, I love to see her during the day at school! She really enjoys it!

Church Fall Festival

This past weekend was pretty low key for us. Austin had a pretty bad weekend with his seizures. Not sure why? Anthony stayed home with him while I took Carli on Saturday to our church's fall festival. She had a really fun time! The festival was for 4th graders and under, so the older youth worked the booths. That means Tyler was in charge of working the "scooter races" booth. She loved these scarecrows!

She also loved her sucker and the hayride!Tyler having lots of fun while "working"!But he did take his job seriously too! ;)

Sunday, Anthony stayed home with Austin, again, and I took Tyler and Carli to church and then to buy their Halloween costumes!! I'll keep the costumes a secret for now, you've gotta wait till Halloween to see!

Monday was Columbus day which meant Anthony and the boys were off and home with us! Austin was much better! The weather was so gloomy, it rained the whole day and we ALL stayed in our jammies, lounging around. Love days like that!
So, we start our week today...