Happy Thanksgiving!!

I know we are a few days late but I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!   “ Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever” psalm 118: 29  There is so much to be thankful  and I thank the Lord for everything he has blessed my family and yours with…
We had a great day celebrating Thanksgiving with my husbands family..We ate turkey and played games and then ate some more and then some took a nap and played more games..a nice relaxing day with our family!!

The girls with some of there cousins

My SIL did a piñata for the kids and they all loved it..especially Avery we really had to pull the bat away from her…what a great idea!!!!


These hats have been on my To Do list for the longest time and I finally did them…YIPPPEEE!!!!  I really should of done Avery’s in black but I ran out of black fabric from old t-shirts.. What do you think?? Cute!!! huh??? They were actually pretty easy!!

The sleep study itself went as good as to be expected i guess:)  Avery did not want the oxygen thing on her toe at all!!!  So she woke up many times through out the night to try to take it off and finally the nurse just ended up taping her whole foot..she is one determined little girl and she hates that thing..i don't know if its the red light or what but she tried so hard to take it off when she was in the hospital with her tonsils and also when she was in the ER from her accident she had.. This last week though we went back to the doctor to get the results of Avery’s sleep study and we really didn't get the news we wanted to hear..Her sleep apnea didn't change one bit..I couldn't believe it….I had this feeling that she still had some episodes but I thought it would of changed at least a little bit after taking her tonsils/adenoids out but nope it didn't.. So we have to go back to the hospital for yet another night and this time it will be to fit her for a cpap machine(controlled oxygen) and to teach me how to use it:(  and then we will have to use it every time she sleeps..I'm really not looking forward to having to deal with this..we are going to wait until after the holidays to start this bc why stress us and Avery out during the holidays..I figure what is one more month.. the nurse at the doctors office agreed with me too!!!  I'm not sure how Avery will handle it..please say a prayer for lil miss Avery and me:)  Here are a few pictures from the sleep study..I don't know h0w they expect her or anyone for that matter to sleep with all the wires connected to them but that's part of the study…
 
And Ill leave you all with a few pictures of my babies since we all know how current I am on there month pictures I am…Its already time to take there eleven month picture and I'm just posting there ten month one..:)   I also got around to doing there nine ten month pictures but you all have to wait til i post them bc some of them will be on my Christmas card:)  Taking all of the girls pictures for our Christmas card was somewhat of a success to this year so I'm pretty happy about that but I'm not going to be posting anytime soon on here bc then you wouldn't be excited to get the Christmas card to see the pictures..hehe!!!
Jayla, Jianna

The babies wanting out very badly!!!! 

Jayla is the little stinker of the two..She will get on top of Jianna kind of like this and then go for a ride while Jianna is crawling and Jayla just smiles away while doing it too.. They have been such fighters lately  I think I may have them on video Ill have to post it if I do..it is so funny bc they literally duke it out until the one baby  has the thing/toy  that the other baby wants then then she will crawl away pretty fast from the other baby..this was Jianna crawling away from Jayla and she went after her and Jayla caught her and climbed up on her..lol!!!

HEHE!!!!  Jayla’s  going to get that toy that Jianna has

Jayla, Jianna

Making some flash cards

This past week I have been working on making Avery some flash cards. I had actually made her some before just out of post cards and then clear taped them thinking they would hold out..HAHA!!! I should of known better with two crawling babies and Avery who mouths everything…so I had to come up with another solution…and I had this idea floating around in my head for awhile now. I started with just the colors and the shapes then I had seen this tutorial over here…and thought why not do the numbers too..but she made two sets to play matching game.. great idea but I think I will consider myself lucky just to get these done;)  I want to try to do the ABC’s but I might use there advice or it might of been somewhere else and instead of using felt numbers try fabric paint and freezer paper stencils..might go faster…bc it takes alot of time to sew around the numbers especially if you are a very early beginner sewer like me;) One day I might be Martha Stewart at sewing..right:)  So anyways we have been working on the shapes with the other flash cards that i had made and she pretty much has them down..but in case any one is curious on what/how we have been doing them..Ill tell you bc someone had passed on the information to me awhile ago and a down syndrome lunch meet up..Children with down syndrome learn a lot by memorization…So she said that she would make lots of flash cards for her son and then pick about 5 and go through them with her son many, many times a day..for a couple minutes at a time..She would only take about a few seconds on each card..Dont pause and talk about them I guess.and then after about a week move on to different one..granted they know the flash cards that you have been working with..she did this with everything..letters, numbers, shapes, pictures, colors, sight words, she even did this when he started to read..and anyways so I thought i would give it a try when I got home..and well i wasn't as consistent as she was..so it has taken us alot longer..but Avery knows most of her shapes now..and we are working on colors now;) So I think it works for the most part!!  So that is what we are starting on to get her ready for school next year!!! 


Writing on felt can be a little tricky..I used fabric paint on the back of the color ones..so we can work on the words too..


So I made a few videos of us going through the colors and shapes flash cards..don't mind me at all:)  but Avery is trying to copy me after I say the color and shape..I kind of lose her after orange in the color one..(she loves to say Purple…It must be a fun word to say..she goes around just saying purple a lot..so u catch her saying purple a lot after we hit orange..)  At the end don't you just love how I get referred to….mooooooom as she yells it..this is how she says mom..isnt it nice..it does get my attention though:)  In the color one she is trying to do the sign language for each color as we are going through them.
Ps. Just thought I would let you all know that we don't really know anything from her sleep study yet..only that the nurse told me she did have episodes whether it be enough to have to have a cpap well we don't know..We have an appointment next Thursday..Also the book that i made for Avery was a HUGE hit..she carries that thing around all day and we have to read it at least twenty times a day!!!  There will def be many more in the future!!  It works too  it gets her to say the words so she is talking!! She brought me the book one day and showed me the picture of her with her cup and I asked her if she wanted her cup and she said yes..:) 

Avery update

It has been a really long time since I have did an update on Avery so I decided it was time for one:)  First off she has pretty much healed from her accident..I don't really ever see it bothering her anymore..so that’s good!!!:) The whole school issue that i was having well I decided to just do the speech therapy this year and really just work with her to get her ready for school next year..So she is now getting speech twice a week once in home and then the other I take her to the school for an hour. Both the speech therapist have talked to each other and are both on the same page so that is really nice…and I have seen a bigger difference since she has started both..she has been in full swing for about a month now. She loves the school the speech therapist said that every time they walk by the lunch room she just starts signing  eat as fast as she can..haha!!!! Also they had her tested at the end of August its a psycho educational evaluation report and she actually did really good..she didn't really want to cooperate with the people that were giving her the test so i was figuring her numbers were going to be really low..She didn't want to point to pictures for them which i know she can point to objects like if she was shown to cards a picture of a doll and a picture of a ball and was asked to point to the ball..she wouldnt do it..Little stinker..back to the whole she will only do it if SHE wants too!! She's my little spitfire that is for sure!!   So anyways her results were verbal IQ 58 (out of 100) performance IQ 57 (out of 100) she wouldn't do anything with the blocks which she can stack many and copy patterns but she just wouldn't do it or do anything with puzzles which she usually does awesome at..Full scale IQ 50 (out of 100) which put her at a 75 for standard score which age equivalent is 2 yrs 10 months..Her adaptive behavior puts her at 72 which is borderline..3rd percentile..I'm hoping that next year when it comes time to testing again that she will do much better bc she will know the speech therapist in there bc she will have been with her all year..
Avery still is continuing OT too at home..once a week.. We are focusing on getting her ready for school..she is doing really well. She has the pincher grasp down which is really good and we have been working on scissors using the loop scissors..she doesn't do well with the regular ones at all so I ordered her some loop ones and does a lot better with them..

They are working on other things too that she needs help on too..but so far the in home OT is going really good for us!! I'm pretty pleased!
Avery has had a check up with her ENT dr this month too..and we are repeating the sleep study tonight actually to see if she still has her sleep apnea. We took her tonsils out in hopes that it would help with the sleep apnea so we are praying that it worked bc I really don't want to monkey with a cpap machine every night. bc if she still has it then that is what its going to be:(  So we will see..I'm not really looking forward to the sleep study the last one I didn't get any sleep at all but Im just thankful that the girls don’t have school tomorrow so I don't have to deal with all of that in the morning..   Just the thought of someone watching me while I sleep well how is anyone suppose to sleep in those conditions..hehe!!!  Ill keep you all posted when I know something:) 
Avery also went back to Dr. Dy-Go the special needs Dr./nutritionist.. and she figured she was doing pretty good..but might be slowly approaching the overweight side on the chart..Do I think Avery is overweight??? NO  but its just something to keep an eye on..so she doesn't get to that point bc its easier to manage now then when she gets to be overweight!!!  Dr Dy-Go has been really awesome to us..and I was really sad to hear that they might be cutting her funds and her program bc there is no funds..just one more thing to cut from us!!  She has helped us out a lot and I hope that they can get it figured out so she dont have to quit helping so many families!!! 
Avery is still now where close to potty training:(  Insert a BIG sad face!!!! But we will keep trying!!!  She is signing so much more..I would say that she signs at least 50 –75 signs..She is picking up more and more everyday..she is really good at that..just the other day she was sitting at the counter and her signing times DVD was playing in the living room and they were going over the letters..and she just started randomingly doing the letters and she was right on all of them..she didn't do them all but the ones that she did do I was so shocked..we have been working on counting too and she is doing really well with that too..she tries to copy you..we count every time we walk up and down the stairs.. I also made her a picture book this past weekend (Vistaprint had 4x6 books for free up to 20 pages) so  I took advantage of that;)  and here are a few samples of what I did..It should help with her speech..she loves to look at books so I figured why not make her a book of familiar things to get her to verbally say them..Anyways it was alot of fun so  I think I see lots more picture books in my future..I want to do a ABC one and 123 at least..so we will see!!!
 


I will stop!!!  I know you get the picture right:)) 
I think that pretty much sums it up..lol!!!!  Writing it all out like this helps me remember too.. I use this as my journal too;) so if I need to look back on something I can too!!!   Wish me luck at the sleep study tonight..

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!  We sure did..as usual the kids got lots of candy..Avery was so into it..I was so surprised..I asked her many times if she was all done and she kept saying more..haha!!! She was all about the candy too!!  She signed thank you and many people thought she was blowing them kisses..but at the end she did eventually say thank you i was very impressed!!  She's all about what she wants if she wants something then she will say it but if she doesn't care well good luck getting her to try to copy you.:) Avery was Tinkerbelle, Destiny was Dorothy from the wizard of oz (i might add that i had to make her apron bc i was to tight to spend 30-40 dollars on a Dorothy costume and that's what she wanted to be) but I think I did a good job  who knows there might be more homemade costumes in the future;) and Brielle was the wicked witch of the west (from the wizard of oz too)  Why didn't I plan better and Avery could of been something from there too..lol oh well..She made a cute Tinkerbelle!!



Jianna, Jayla

Jianna, then Jayla

Friday the girls had a fall festival for school and they wanted a halloween shirt so I made this up for them..and best of all it only cost me a dollar per shirt ( got them at the dollar store again:)  Cant beat that !!!  They loved them!!

Carving pumpkins..I was so surprised Avery got right in there and did it right along with her big sissy’s!!! 



 
The girls with some of there cousins right before we went trick or treating!!

Mycute little niece and nephew(who are twins)