My Family

My Family

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Christmas Time 2014

Well...it's December already!! And I am so in the Christmas Spirit this year!  The day after Thanksgiving we went to our favorite Christmas tree farm here and found the perfect tree for us! I love doing that..it's so fun and the kids love the experience. All the kids were able to help cut down the tree this year, pretty cute! Cenley found a stump she worked at for a while trying to cut down? :) The Gilroy newspaper took our families picture while we were there, so we will see..we might end up movie stars! Ha Ha
The next day we turned on Christmas music, had hot chocolate and had a lot of fun decorating. I am glad we don't have 10 trees in our house though, it took us a few hours to accomplish the one :).

Loving the memory making and family time together.





Friday, November 28, 2014

Thanksgiving 2014

I can't believe this is our 3rd Thanksgiving here in California.  When we moved here I thought we would possibly be here for 2 years and head back. The time has not come yet for us to leave, but we are really making the most of our time here.  We have not been able to celebrate with all of our family for so long, I really don't think the kids even remember the Holidays back in Alabama. So...I am trying to recreate some of the things (foods) we used to have back home. We are creating some new traditions as well. I just want the kids to have Great memories of all of the Holidays here in California even though we don't have our wonderful family with us.

So, Clay cooked the turkey for us yesterday. While that was baking he took the kids to the park so I could make all of the other stuff :). I pulled out my book of my Mom's recipes and went to town and added some gluten free yummies too to ensure Cohen didn't get the wrong foods.

We had a great day together! Fire going, playing outside and full of thankfulness!!

The dogs filled their bellies as well. I just added a picture of Roxy doing a trick we didn't know she could do! :)


Thursday, September 18, 2014

Back to School

Well school is officially back in full swing! All 3 kiddos are in school now!! :) I would like to say it's going to make my life easier but it's not really. They all go to different schools so I feel like a bus driver! :)  I need to find the pictures of Cohen and Cenley...I have them..


Cohen

I decided to hold off on K-5 for Cohen this year, he has been doing so well in his preschool class we chose to do that one more year and try to mainstream him into regular classes next year. (we hope) So back to school with Mrs.Shew (his happy place)




Cooper

Cooper is in Second grade and has Mrs. Patterson!  He really likes school so far and his teacher. I am proud of him and hoping for a great year!


Cenley is in Soccer

I have wanted for some time now to get Cenley in some activities! She loves to dance, jump, flip and run! So what to choose, what to choose?? We started out with Soccer this time. She said she wanted to play but when the first practice day arrived she said she was too little to play :). Getting nervous I think. I had to take Cooper to his last day of a class he was taking so Daddy got the privilege of taking her to her first practice.  He said the first 10 minutes she wouldn't join in but finally did and LOVED it. She keeps asking me when she can go back to "basketball."   I asked Clay to take pictures and he sure did, he took 200! Love my photographer!!

So here are a few of her first day!









Monday, August 18, 2014

Dreams

A long long time ago Clay and I used to visit this beautiful Lake called Smith Lake.  We were dating and if I was going to be dating him that meant I would have to adjust to spending weekends and every evening on a lake. That's how it was, our off days were on a a boat and Clay was wakeboarding. We camped, roughed it









and enjoyed life with our 2 dogs. :)  Clay had always told me he wanted to one day live on the Lake and slowly his dream became my dream.

But, as life became real we were married, had 3 kids and up and moved to California! We had to sell the boat and do the Baby and mini van thing for the past 7 years. Fun years but no time or money for a boat.

We have continuously talked about our Dreams and Lake Life, and have made part of that a reality. We found the perfect house for us on Smith Lake. Although we will only be able to visit once a year, we have a place now in Alabama we can call home!   So...our first visit as a family was Last month and it was wonderful! We were able to visit with a lot of friends and family. 2 weeks was not nearly enough time to see everyone and we do hope to catch up with more friends next time!

Friday, May 9, 2014

My Cohen

I can't believe Cohen will be 5 years old next month! Sometimes it feels like it and sometimes time just seems to be flying by!  I have so much Love for Cohen it is really indescribable.  Something I have only shared with a few people I am going to share now. I really had such a hard time bonding with him as a baby. I don't know why, I wondered if it was because he was immediately taken from me and in the Nicu for a week or if it was because he was my second and I couldn't completely focus on him. Or was it that I didn't understand him, the way he never looked at me or react like Cooper had. I don't know and I don't care anymore. Our first 2 years were so amazingly hard and I felt like I was doing something wrong because of the tantrums and all that came with his Autism. But, now that Clay and I really "get" him so much more and he is able to express his feelings with us now, my heart just overflows with Love I didn't know I had. He is the most wonderful, smart, loving, funny little boy and I am so proud of who he is and who he is becoming.

We are still doing Lots of therapy. 5 days a week of preschool (3 hours) which he Loves.  9 hours a week of ABA therapy (at our house) and 1 hour a week of occupational therapy.  The ABA therapist have goals set for him that extend for about 3 months and if he reaches them they add new goals.  He has been mastering the goals each time. He is writing his name, learned his Address, asking questions. The hardest part is trying to get him to carry on a conversation but it is slowly coming.

Cohen learned to Swim this past weekend. Wow!!! I have been so nervous about Cohen in water because he is completely fearless at the Beach and around large areas with water. But, now that is conquered.  Cooper is so proud of his brother and is trying to teach him to dive :). Cooper says we now only have Cenley to "train."

Cohen and Cenley are little best friends lately. They dress up EVERY day as Mario and Princess Peach and they call each other by those names when they are in costume. They play pretend tea parties and Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I just love these times.

We continue to do a dairy and gluten free diet for Cohen and we do our best to do the same for ourselves. we know that this has helped speed along some our goals.  Thank you all for loving us and loving him.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Reminiscing

With all of the "winter weather" back home in Alabama! I have been thinking about all of my friends and family so much! I miss everyone back home and am so proud of how everyone has taken care of each other. One of the things I miss so much about the South!  Everyone really comes together to help each other out, if they know you or not!  I do think our friends here would do the same , but there is something about the South that I miss so much!!

The last time we "lived" in Alabama Cooper was 3, Cohen was 2 and Cenley was not quite 1. All were babies!!!  The time has really flown by! I was just looking at pictures we taken not too long before we moved. I actually found one where we had some Snow! :) Thought I would share. And, the top 2 pictures I had to add because they are of Cohen as a baby,  playing trains nonstop at about 7 months and hasn't stopped yet!! :)