Curls and Cream

Earlier this week Lance was gone to Portland for work so I got a babysitter and escaped the house for a few hours. I picked up a few groceries and chopped off my hair. I cut off about 6" and it was the longest I'd ever had it, I felt so good after wards having it gone! I've come to realize certain things about my hair: I really like long hair, but on other people. I like the idea of it being long but just can't pull it off because it's always in my face so I always pulled it back into a messy bun. I guess I just prefer short hair on myself. It has been 9 years since I've worn my hair curly and down so this picture is a first in a long time. I'm just so self conscious about my hair, maybe because I'm not used to it. So today I embraced the curls and I'm going to try to do that from now on. Oh and I bought my first anti-wrinkle cream today.....so there's that.

This was the last time I wore my hair curly and down, in 2008. Boy, we were skinny back then, haha!

Ezra's Newborn Photo

I finally got Ezra's newborn photo touched up a bit, thanks Natalie! And I look at it and I have no idea where my baby has gone?!?! He's so big and has changed so much, he's lost his newborn features and never sits still anymore. Slow down, time!

Kindermusik

For the last several months Cora's therapy schedule has changed around a lot and at one point it really slowed down. I wanted to keep her engaged and challenged so she didn't lose momentum with her progress and development so I enrolled her in Kindermusik. Julie's mom owns/teaches it and she's so wonderful! It's a music class divided into age groups ranging from 0-7 years old. They have a curriculum that's followed but everything is active in this class. Cora's able to practice her social skills since she's not in a preschool class, speech, gross and fine motor, cognitive, etc. It's been really, really good for her and I wish I'd had her and Kimball in it a long time ago. On this particular day they were supposed to bring something that they could dress up in and pretend to be birds flying. I love her teacher's accessories, especially the yellow gloves on her shoes for the duck feet.

I've also had Cora evaluated for Sensory Processing Disorder and the results were pretty borderline. She has a lot of things about her that are just preferences and not necessarily problems but some as her feeding therapist called it, are quirks but still not problems. So she's going to be seen again by an occupational therapist. I also filled out a questionnaire about autism and she's definitely not autistic. It's so easy for me to look at her "preferences" and "quirks" and especially her speech and see how far she has to go. I can still see quite a big difference in her versus other kids her age. But then we run into therapists from the Guild School and they tell me how remarkable she's doing and remind me of how far she's come. I'm so proud of Cora! I thought by now I'd have a clearer image of how she'll be the rest of her life but I'm still very unsure of that. Most of her biggest setbacks have to do with speech so I'm anxious to see what the big picture looks like in a year or two from now and see how much she's progressed. 

She's still so perfect in my eyes. I love the way she calls Kimball "Gobble" and when I ask her to do something she'll salute me and say "my pwesure" (pleasure). She's very friendly and says hi (or currently Merry Christmas with the season) to everybody we pass. She's certainly strong willed and has a mind of her own. I'm so anxious to see where life takes her and can only hope that she'll love herself and find happiness in the little things as she currently does.

Birthday Dinner

It has been a VERY long time since we've had a date and I decided it was time to cash in my birthday present from Lance: dinner and a show. We had the always scrumptious steak at Churchill's and went to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert. So good! We definitely need to get out more.

Christmas Nails

This fall has already proven to be tricky for Cora. She's already had pneumonia, pink eye, really bad cold, and the stomach flu. So we've been pretty cooped up for the last 60 days! We needed a break so we decided to paint Christmas nails and Cora insisted on painting mine. When Kimball saw mine he called it zombie toes because they look cut up but you have to have red for Christmas!

Happy 4th Birthday, Cora!

This butterfly cake gave me lots of grief but Cora loved it and that's all I cared about.

 We also didn't have candles so we used matches instead. Oops

We are so grateful for her in our family and are reminded daily of the blessings and miracles we've received on her behalf. Happy birthday, darling girl!!

Random Ezra Pictures

On November 13 Ezra had his 6 month check up. He was 16.5 pounds in 32%, 26" long in 26% and 16.2" for his head in 5%. So he's on the small side but still not as small as Kimball, at least that I can remember. It is now December 8 and he's 7 months old tomorrow. He can go from laying to sitting on his own and is scooting all over the place. I think he'd be crawling if his socks didn't slip so much on the wood floors, he's trying pretty hard to keep up with Kimball and Cora! He makes you work for his smiles and laughs, loves the water, loves any attention and his pacifier, and is a pretty mellow little guy. Much to my surprise he cut his two bottom teeth at 4.5 months old so he's been on baby cereal/purees since then. We sure love him!

Family Jam Session

Very Expressive Eyebrows

Kindergarten Pictures

Vacation to UT & Scott's Wedding

I was unable to spend my birthday gift last year (24 hours away in a hotel plus spending money for shopping) because I was pregnant and very sick so Lance let me take Ezra and go to UT for five days to visit Christine! I coordinated the date so my vacation lined up with Scott's wedding, certainly didn't want to miss that, so I got to see the whole family, it was awesome!

Ezra did great on the airplane, not a peep out of him and no major spit up episodes so I was thankful and relived for that. Mom came to UT two days early to spend time with Christine and I! We had a fun time together shopping, eating, visiting, decorating Christine's house for fall, and catching up on a few things she needed done (various things sewn up, books taped together, etc). I got to meet little Hannah and play with Christine's boys, they sure are characters and there's never a dull moment in their house.

Scott and Sydney's wedding was beautiful and very....calm. Some weddings are very stressful and high strung and this one wasn't like that at all which was refreshing. They look so happy together and Adam even made the comment, "You know why they're going to last? Because I've never seen a sparkle in his eye like that before." After pictures there was a break so everybody danced and played musical chairs, it was so fun! After the wedding everybody except Tim and Mom and Dad stayed at Christine's house and had a slumber party and the following day everyone got back together for some family fun and games. It was such a good break for me and I loved seeing all the family!!