Life with Lemonade and Peach Tea..........

Well those are my new nick names for them. =) As they were playing the other day outside -Austin truly has the best spring time weather- I got the craving for old fashioned lemonade or ice cold peach tea. Looking at my two giggle boxes I thought, well there you have it- Refreshing Lemonade and Peach Tea! - totally different yet equally fantastic!

A quick update on my lovely ladies. Both are completely chatter boxes. In the last 4 weeks they have totally expanded their vocabulary, but mainly we can actually hold a conversation with them and know they understand. I love it! As I get ready in the morning they sit on the bathroom mat, eating Dora cereal chatting with me about the days events. Granted there are still moments of fighting over where to sit, who can touch Heidi, quick checks to make sure their cereal cups are equally full and the list can continue, but all of that quickly vanishes back to giggles and chats about what to do.

Mallory and Kelby are both still being seen by ECI. We continue to be blessed with wonderful therapist that are truly knowledgeable in their field of expertise. They girls will remain in that program until they turn 3. (sniff, sniff, don't want to think about how fast the next 7 mths will go!) At that time, if developmental services are still needed they will be seen by the school district. With all of that said though, they are developing so well. The girls annual evaluation was at the beginning of this month and in every area they are with in 4mths of their age group or above in some cases.

As far as potty training goes, I had huge hopes of Mallory catching on quickly and diapers going away. Granted thinking that our trips down the baby isle at HEB would be coming to an end was sad for this Momma, yet I still encouraged Mallory to wear her Dora panties proudly. ;) In the midst of praising Kelby for being Momma's big girl that could go all by herself, and still working with Mallory, Kelby began to really act out, bite aggressively and chew her nails at the cuticle. So as we pieced this puzzle together the thought crossed our minds that Kelby was not seeing being a big girl as a good thing, but more of as a punishment. Reluctantly we went back to diapers for her. This was seriously an adjustment in parenting for us, but as soon as we did her over aggressive behavior stopped, she began minding more, and her nails began to heal. In the whole process of figuring out the problem, we have redone sensory evaluations on both of the girls. Kelby has shown to have a very mild version of Sensory Integration Disorder. Both her occupational therapist and physical therapist feel that with catching it so early we can give her (and us) tools to use to help Kelby transition easier to new life stages. As we have slowly added new activities and techniques for bed time etc, we can already see a difference in her.

We continue to thank God for the miracle that the girls are. This is a teeny tiny drop in the big bucket of possible outcomes that they doctors gave us for Kelby. (you may remember that she was born with a grade 3 and 4 brain bleeds) If this is all we have to deal with, then bring it! Praise God for blessing our girls with the outstanding physicians, and therapist that work with them. Do not ever think a day goes by that we are not grateful and humbled for the care they have received!

Well I am off to clean house during what is supposed to be nap time, however maybe that should be renamed giggle time as I am not hearing snoring!

Springtime Playtime

Mallory has a new 'purse' that she has to carry around at all times... it's more like a big bracelet.

Thinking of our sweet Evan Reese today......

Won't you join us in walking in this years March for Babies on May 8th, and if you are able donate to the March of Dimes? God uses this amazing organization in so many ways. We are grateful for them and their dedication to preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

Glory Baby, by Watermark

Glory baby you slipped away as fast as we could say baby…baby..
You were growing, what happened dear?
You disappeared on us baby…baby..
Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe until we’re home with you…
Until we’re home with you…

Miss you everyday
Miss you in every way
But we know there’s a
day when we will hold you
We will hold you
You’ll kiss our tears away
When we’re home to stay
Can’t wait for the day when we will see you
We will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you
‘till mom and dad can hold you…
You’ll just have heaven before we do
You’ll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little babies, it’s hard to
understand it ‘cause we’re hurting
We are hurting
But there is healing
And we know we’re stronger people through the growing
And in knowing-
That all things work together for our good
And God works His purposes just like He said He would…
Just like He said He would…

BRIDGE:
I can’t imagine heaven’s lullabies
and what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing, heaven is your home
And it’s all you’ll ever know…all you’ll ever know…

_________________________________________

Sweet precious little girl. Momma and Daddy miss you so much. Your time with us was a blessing and a miracle in an of itself. We are so thankful for you. Praise God for letting us hold you and meet you. We look forward to the day when you can show us around heaven and take us to meet Jesus face to face. We love you~

Pig- Tails!

Mallory's hair is now long enough to actually fix. From day one neither Mallory nor Kelby have wanted anything on their head or in their hair. Friends, family and strangers are always asking "Won't they wear bows?" To which we always sigh and say "We try, but they yank them out." The girls ask for bows all the time, but once we get them in their hair, you can almost count down the seconds before they pull them out. However, yesterday Mallory let me put her hair in pig tails. I took tons of pictures on our camera and drove her nuts talking about how cute she looked. Surprisingly today, she let me fix her hair again AND she asked for bows!! If this trend continues, I will have to get busy making hair bows. (now if her bangs will just grown out long enough to pull back.)

Pictures!

Kelby and her "Big girl panties"
- also giving Mallory the look of "I drawn the line at sharing underwear. I'm not joking."


If you are going to clean out your closet, you must try everything on one more time.


The girls "proofing" everything I am pulling out that doesn't fit.


Hat- check, Shoes- check, Pj's- check. Hmm what am I missing??


Oh yes! Mittens!

Easter Pics.- or attempt at.

Mallory trying to act interested in a ball. - AKA ignoring Momma


What? Stand where?? Really Momma, we have to take pictures now?



IF you can catch me, I might sit for a picture.


Kelby : I said might! Gave you 5 seconds, not my fault the camera is slow.
Mallory: You just said sit here, you never said smile.


The neighbor kids get to play, why do we have to pose for pics?


Trying one last time. Looks like the adorable smiles will only be in our minds. Best place actually!

Will try to add more later. We didn't get very many on Easter, both camera batteries were dead and refusing to hold charge. Jeremy tried to get a few with the video camera, not sure how well those will turn out. We had a great Easter weekend!! Friday we attended our church's Good Friday service, Saturday we hunted eggs with some friends from church -it was gorgeous outside- and Sunday we went to church then came home to spend the rest of the day with our neighbors. Most of their family lives here in the Austin area and they had some family in town for the weekend. Together there were eight kids ranging from 7mths to 7 years old. We rented a bounce house and had an egg hunt. The kids LOVED it!! They ran, played and jumped til they could hardly speak a complete sentence. Made for two very tired girlies come Sunday evening!! We are so blessed to have such wonderful neighbors that graciously included us in their family gathering. They are also from the west Texas area, so we share the appreciation of trees and "no dirt days"!