Family Photos 2016

Christine, Mom & Dad's Visit

Boy did we get lucky, Christine and the boys got to come for a WHOLE WEEK!!! Mom and Dad also joined us for two days after some Kinetico meetings in Seattle. We had so much fun, here are the adventures we had.

Chinese Lantern Festival

We hit up a few farms/orchards in Green Bluff. We stopped for lunch and ice cream at the Harvest House and then went to Walter's. Cora experienced her first ice cream cone - yum! (Technically it was sherbet).

  We went to the Mobius Children's Museum for lots of exploratory fun.

Spent the day in Coeur d'Alene browsing shops, having lunch, got some fantastic candy at Shenanigans, and stopped by the lake for some sand and water fun.

 Ice cream at the park!

 Had a great evening at the fair!

 

 

Cora's Update

Cora has finally decided to talk!!!!!!! I cannot put enough exclamation points behind that statement, our lack of communication is VERY frustrating! Her and I only know a handful of signs and when signing isn't adequate and the "show me" isn't working, she gets frustrated and whines or drops to the floor and throws a major fit. I'm sure in her eyes that I do the same, haha.

The words she does say she uses them consistently and in the correct context every time. She also will say them on command. It's SO lovely!!! We still use sign language and I make her attempt to speak words that she doesn't know but she's picking up two or three new words every day. Right now she's up to about 20 words!!! My favorite is the way she says Daddy, it's so dainty and cute and melts my heart every time.

Just one more thing that she's defying the odds on and proving that miracles happen. She's a living testament everyday and I'm so grateful that she's mine.

Cora saw the allergist who was thrilled to hear of a successful reintroduction of wheat into her diet. I especially am grateful for that! Although eggs cooked by themselves like scrambled or fried she's still intolerant to, I can bake with eggs and milk. I still can't cook with sour cream or cheese or milk but I can bake with it. The difference is that baking changes the protein differently than cooking, it also has to do with temperature. But, I am so thrilled that she can eat wheat and I can bake usual stuff. No change in the beef so we still avoid that. And she's still drinking the Elecare formula ("medical food" as it's called on the label) and thickened liquids due to aspirating.

Dress Up

See why I'm doing dress up stuff for Christmas? They love getting into our clothes!

More Projects

These are a few more projects I've been working on for the kids' dress up stuff for Christmas and for Cora's birthday. These aprons aren't very girly or manly but it's the best that the dollar store had and they'll work out perfectly.

I made these two skirts with scrap material, the house/tree one is from my dining room chairs, and the pink silk is left from the capes. The pink one has a sparkly tulle overlay and both of those fabrics were hard to sew together, I'm never doing that again. But it's nice to make something with supplies already on hand. I really liked the tutorial I used, it's super easy and takes about 15 minutes.

I also bought some blush and eye shadow at the dollar store, emptied out the powdered colors, and poured fingernail polish into the compacts for play make up. And then of course I had to make her a few dress up bracelets.

Cora's Summer Break

The last two weeks Cora's had therapy off for summer break since the school is open year round. I decided to plan one thing every day that we don't normally do to make it a fun, extraordinary break. We went on a hike, went swimming as a family, went to a minor league baseball game, took family pictures, and had a few doctor appointments thrown into the mix as well.

I had planned to go to Mobius, Riverfront Park, Green Bluff, the Jumping House, etc. but next week Christine is coming to visit and I wanted to save some adventures for when she's here too.

We had such a great time and I loved doing things that weren't normal for us, something other than a park or picnic. 90% of the touristy things there are to do here in Spokane are all outdoor: hiking, snowboarding, skiing, camping, mountain biking, fishing, boating, etc. and I haven't done much of that at all. I hope next year to go on more hikes with the kids, I really enjoyed doing it. At this particular one we saw snakes, rabbits, turtles, ducks, and waterfalls.

 

Christmas Projects

I just finished one of the kids' Christmas projects, I made them their own superhero capes and masks! The shield and letters I just printed from a clip art and there was a free pattern for the cape and mask. I was going to do a draw-string type of closure on the cape but then I realized I'd be tying capes all day long and I wanted the kids to be able to do it themselves. So I cut it to go around the neck instead and sewed velcro on. It was super easy, surprisingly. For Cora's birthday I'm going to make some tutus for dress up clothes so I need to start that project next.