We couldn’t have asked for a better day. We hope yours was great too!
We are so thankful for the atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that He lives and and loves each of us with a perfect love. We are thankful that, because of Him, we can return to live with God and that we can be together as a family forever.
And now…some pictures from our day.
Introducing the William Boeing you never knew!
Doesn’t he look cute in his felt mustache and Dollar Tree reading glasses (sans lenses)?!?!
The 5th graders at our school held their yearly biography fair the other night. Each student is assigned a person of historical significance and then they learn as much about their person as they can. They come to the fair dressed like that person and display a poster with facts they have learned, as well as a picture of who they are. The parents and others who come to the fair get to try to guess each person, and can only ask three yes/no questions. I missed this event when Emily participated, so it was fun to see how it all worked. I sure need to brush up on my important-people history!!
Here’s what William Boeing really looked like:
(Image courtesy of Investors.com)
As you can probably surmise from his name, he was an important man in the airline industry. If you want to know more, just ask this guy…he’s the expert!
Happy World Down Syndrome Day!! I’m letting Daniel author today’s post, because he is the one we’re celebrating. Without further ado…
I am Daniel.
I am a brother who is adored by his siblings.
I am a daddy’s boy.
I am a cousin. (I have 16 cousins, with 4 on the way, and 8 soon-to-be step-cousins.)
I am an adored grandson.
I am silly and smiley.
I have feelings and emotions.
I am adventurous.
I am curious.
I am a survivor.
I am social.
I am Daniel. I have Down syndrome. I am loved. I am wanted. I will do great things.
We are so lucky cursed!! We can’t seem to get rid of those pesky Leprechauns – even in a new house!!! They made their annual visit of mischief while we slept, and as usual, left a mess everywhere!
They peed in the toilet again. Of course they forgot to flush!
They spilled the books out of the basket and left them scattered all over the place! (It looks like they chose some of the best ones for reading, though.)
This was reeeeally weird. They lined up all the shoes around the front door! Were they trying to trap us? Or just having fun playing with all the big shoes?
They were obviously trying to find good stuff in the kitchen, as they left cupboard doors open and drawers pulled out.
And they tipped over chairs at the table.
This year they were extra nice and left us a “pot” of gold!!
I love this silly little tradition. It gives me a giant smile to see the kids having fun with this, and to hear what they have to say about the mayhem. My favorite this year was from Rachel (who has been counting down the days until “Leprechaun Day” all month): “How could such little people do such big people things???”
I got brave this year and tried corned beef and cabbage, along with red potatoes and carrots, in the crock pot for dinner. (We also had lime jello with cottage cheese and mandarin oranges…an old favorite of everyone here.) I was crossing my fingers that the corned beef wasn’t going to be a gigantic mistake. It was absolutely delicious (aside from being more greasy/fatty than regular beef) and definitely a keeper.
And for dessert, we had Irish Mud Cups, of the non-minty variety. Delicious, and very rich. But also a keeper.
I don’t know about luck, but we sure are blessed!! We hope you had a blessed day as well!
All this (and more!) happened this week. Sooooo glad it’s Friday!
This is courtesy of Daniel. His love of watching things fall is getting ridiculous! (The lamp and shade are broken. I don’t think they are repairable either.)
His love of eating is getting ridiculous too! It has certainly gone too far when you’re ingesting dirt clods that have fallen off of shoes. And on more than one occasion, too!
Courtesy of Caleb. They’re still there, by the way.
We also signed Josh up for baseball and Emily for softball, took Daniel to the ophthalmologist for his yearly exam, cleaned lots of dirt off the front porch, and Emily attended the Young Writers’ and Artists’ Fest.
I’d say it’s SPRING!!!!
When tax season rolls around, our lives tend to slow down quite a bit. Which means any projects – whether planned or already started – slow to nearly a stand-still. I was hoping with everything I had that we’d have the garage cleared out enough to park our vehicles inside by the end of February. Didn’t happen. Sigh. BUT…we did manage to get the shelving in the storage rooms all finished up, and we loaded them up with most of what will occupy their space.
We definitely need to re-stock our food storage! But we still have enough that it took Jared and me (and some help from Em & Josh) several hours of hefting and moving boxes and totes. In all honesty, I’m GLAD we didn’t have any more than what’s there right now!
Here are a few shots of the main storage room. The door on the right side is where you come into the room. That little arm of shelves sticking out in the middle (where the Home Depot box is) was quite the beast to work with.
Now the door is on the left of the picture. On the right side of this picture (you can’t really see it) is the door that goes into the cold storage room, which is below the front porch of the house. These shelves sit behind the two doors when they’re open.
And these are shots of the cold storage room (AKA: the freezer)…
(Looking at these pictures, it looks like some of the boards are quite crooked. I promise they are all quite straight!!)
All the boxes are filled with #10 cans of varying items. Our most used is probably oatmeal, followed closely by pinto beans, black beans and wheat. When we bought the water barrels, it was enough water to take care of everyone for 2 weeks. I think we’ve added 2 kids since then, so we definitely need to increase our supply.
I hope we get a chance to plant a good garden this year so we can stock back up on bottled tomatoes. And my beans and corn from the year Daniel was born are almost gone! The freezer is looking very bare! We can’t wait for more peaches (and possibly pears) to bottle as well. I’m getting a little trunky for warmer weather!!
Signing is Daniel’s preferred method of communication (along with yelling 
Our goal is for Daniel to learn up to three signs each week. That seems like a big goal, but if you think about kids learning language, it’s actually pretty small. I know this is pretty obvious, but I’m gonna say it anyway: We have to know the signs before we can teach him. I did take a semester of ASL in my undergrad days, but that was darn near close to a million years ago. My memory sure isn’t what it used to be!
When I want to learn a new sign (or three or four), I go to the dictionary at Baby Sign Language. The kids love to watch Signing Time movies as well – and Daniel is starting to enjoy them more – but I don’t usually have time to sit through an entire episode. So I look up what I need in the BSL dictionary, practice it a couple of times, and then try to use it as much with Daniel as I possibly can. The other kids catch on to this really fast, and they looooove helping him with new words. Obviously, we try to use signs that are common in everyday life. Not much use for “ocean” at this point, but “help” and “again” are right up at the top of the list.
Daniel is just starting to imitate what we do, so he is learning the signs much faster than when we started over a year ago. Sometimes he’ll imitate the sign completely on his own. Sometimes I have to manipulate his hands for him. His signs can be somewhat sloppy, which is much the same as a child saying “wa-wa” for water or “eph-a-lant” for elephant. It’s all part of the learning process – and it is so much fun to watch!
Daniel’s current signs are (I have linked to the BSL dictionary if you want to see the sign for each word):
These signs are emerging (meaning he’s starting to use them, but not consistently):
I would love for him to learn and use these signs:
We challenge all of you who are close to us to learn along with us and use Daniel’s signs when you interact with him. He LOVES when people speak his language, and it’s a great way to generalize his communication skills to situations outside our home and family life. I guarantee you will enjoy every second of his attempts to communicate with you!!
Rachel was sooooo excited for her first Valentine’s Tea at school. (No, they don’t serve tea. The kids get a cookie and drink while they’re learning about etiquette and manners.) But she was a tiny bit concerned about wearing her “Sunday best” to school. It might get dirty! So I told her I’d make her a skirt. Gosh, she’s cute!
And this little dude is taking some steps!! REALLY!! He took five last night – to get to his reward of a chocolate chip. Here’s a shot of a couple steps this morning.
Yes, it’s confession time here on the ol’ blog. I have a problem. It’s not a HUGE problem, and it doesn’t happen very often. But, it is a problem.
Big breath.
I leave stuff on the car and then drive away.
There. I said it. Now I can sleep at night.
It’s not big stuff. I’ve never driven away with a child on my car – thankfully! Nor have I ever driven away with a bag of groceries waiting to spill its contents at the first jolt. No, it’s other stuff.
Like the phone. That one happened about five years ago. I set the phone on the back bumper of our van while I was out working in the front yard. Totally forgot about it. Drove off somewhere later in the day, and still didn’t even remember it. It wasn’t until that evening, when we were trying to find the phone, that it dawned on me. Yeah. I drove off with a phone on my bumper. I thought surely it would have fallen off at the end of the driveway. I retraced my path a time or two looking for it. We never did find that phone. (I have always wondered what someone would think if they were behind me in traffic and saw a phone sitting on my bumper!)
Most recently (Saturday night), it was the snow scraper. I went out to get groceries around 8:30 p.m., only to find the Suburban covered in snow and two or three inches on the ground. I got the scraper out to take care of the windows, which I did, and then decided to scrape the driveway. So I set the scraper on the hood, thinking I would grab it when I hopped in the Suburban. It wasn’t until I was several blocks from home that I remembered I had not grabbed the scraper on my way in. It was on the hood, for pete’s sake!! You would think I would have seen it! And now, the scraper has gone the way of all the earth. And I got an eye roll and the cutest smile from Jared when I disclosed what happened on the way to church yesterday. His response: “You have a problem.”
Yes indeed. I have a problem.
We finally got the rest of the kitchen cabinetry installed yesterday. The cabinet for the range hood was the last thing to go in. It had to be remade because the first attempt wasn’t quite right. Thus, the reason for the month-long delay. So glad to have it done! Oh, and I happen to really like it. A lot!
There is a shelf up there (the slightly lighter strip about 1/3 of the way up) that is probably 6-8” deep. I have a few ideas for some decorative potential. Some day when I can find all my stuff and I have the time and the money to get everything looking cute…oh wait, that’ll be, like NEVER!!
We also got the fireplace mantel yesterday. Love it, love it, love it!! (Please ignore all the junk on the shelves. They have become the dumping area because we mostly use the front door for now. A convenient place to drop everything. I can’t wait until the garage gets cleared out!!!) The wood is the exact same as what is in the kitchen picture above. (Amazing how the lighting changes everything!)
The shelf on top is around 15” deep! I can have lots of fun with that…once I get around to it. Someday!
On to the master bathroom. Please be advised that there is nothing cutesy whatsoever in there yet. I’m STILL filling nail holes and caulking and emptying boxes…and we’re still getting shelving in closets…all while trying to stay on top of the messes the kids make. Decorating will have to wait! (And I am taking suggestions, so feel free to comment!)
We love our bathroom! I was a little hesitant about the plan, but I think it turned out great. The shower is loved by all! We love the cultured granite from Immaculate Cultured Marble and Granite. They did a fabulous job!
This is looking in from the doorway. The toilet is between that short wall and the wall where the window is. Nice and secluded!
A view from the opposite end, with the lovely UN-jetted soaker tub (which will probably get used two or three times a year).
And the vanity area. I was standing in the tub to get these pictures. Had to chop it into two segments because I couldn’t get any further away. Notice the lack of a permanent mirror. Yet another project that still needs to be taken care of! (Jared was unshaven for the first week we lived here because we couldn’t find that small mirror anywhere. We’re all glad to have it!)
The other bathrooms have the same sinks, cabinetry and tile and fixtures, so I won’t share any pictures. You get the gist, though, I’m sure.
We’ve finished the shelving in the cold storage under the front porch, and we hope to have the shelving in the main storage room finished by the end of this week. Which means…we could actually be parking in the garage in the very near future!!! Can I get a “hallelujah” and an “amen!” Hopefully by the end of tax season we can have the shelving for the rest of the closets finished. That might be a tad bit optimistic, though, considering how much there is to do still and the fact that Jared will be spending 75+ hours at work every week for the next 10 weeks. We shall see.
We are just so happy to be here and finished moving (mostly)! There is still so much to do, but now it can wait as long as I feel like making it wait.
