Today's accomplishment!

I just tried blogging this so if it repeats sorry. We worked on the boys bathroom/laundry room today. The first two pictures are now and the last one is when we bought the house in May.

The "Ice Age"

We decided to take a walk today to Bostwick Lake. We had to walk over "hill and dale", through trails, over a river and an icy bridge, and along very icy roads to get to it. Once there we slid down a set of stairs to the icy lake. The boys were absolutely amazed at the lake. We walked out to near the middle of the lake. There were a few ice shanties to be seen and previous ice fishing holes to look through. Though they had frozen over again, we could see through the clear as crystal ice. It was a great learning experience for the kids, though next time we might drive instead of walking there.

We were only on the ice about 20 minutes when Veronica informed us all that she had to poop, so we gathered up. I threw Veronica into the backpack and carried Pickle and we all ran, yes ran, the 2 + miles back to the house. Of course once home she no longer had to go poop, so instead we savored a nice cup of homemade cocoa. MMMMMmmm

So to caption the pictures: The first one is of Pickle and me just after we got on the ice.

The second Picture is of Patrick and Sean wondering whether or not they could go even further out.

The third picture is Sean and Veronica "ice skating".

The fourth picture is the kids all pooped out from the long walk, and investigating a fish hole.

If there is anyone out there that likes to ice fish and is looking for a place to go and some company let me know, we'd love to fish on this lake and see how it is done :).

More of the winter thaw....

I don't know if you can add more than 4 pictures or not to a blog, but here are the ice skating in the tunnel pictures. It is amazing that they were able to hold their balance like they did. Sean can barely walk without falling over, but on the ice he held steady. Pickle was just happy as can be being in the backpack...

So some of you have asked what has been going on here....so here it is:

Patrick is borderline autistic with ADHD. We will be starting him on meds sometime in the next few months as well as therapy for the autism. We also will begin meetings with the school to get an IEP going. Finally with this diagnosis we are able to get the necessary help that he needs to succeed. The good news is that Patrick is beginning to sound out and spell words. Amazing given that last year we struggled the whole year just to get him to write his name. He had trouble just learning the letters necessary to spell Patrick. He now is able to spell words like cat, hat, pickle, mom, dad and write the word love.

Sean is flying through school. He is learning all his letters, beginning to read and write. He loves socializing with the other kids and learning. His favorite part of the day is being line leader for the bus in the morning and lunch. He has really taken to bologna sandwiches and fruit by the foot. Oh the corruption of youth in school. HAHA. The boys love playing Wii and their leapster.

Veronica is finally potty trained. She has so many words as of late that we are constantly amazed at what she is communicating to us.
She will tell us exactly what she is thinking and will even use her words instead of pushing her brothers around about 15% of the time. She is really into babydolls right now. Her other favorite activity is reading books and coloring. She can't get enough of either of these.

Pickle is healed from his surgery. We have another drs appt on the 22nd, I think, to see what the dr thinks he can do with the scar tissue from the surgery. Another surgery may be necessary, we of course are really hoping it doesnt happen. Nicholas thankfully isnt much of a climber, but he finally mastered the stairs yesterday. Up and down all day long...what a fun game. He has quite a few words like mama, daddy, fish, nigh nigh, up down, all done, book, baby, ball, etc. It is exciting to see him grow.

Other than the colds and flus that have come through we are all doing well. Tom has been busy with work, but has been able to take off a few days around the holidays. That has been nice. I have been busy with painting, organizing the house, and taking care of me. I am still trying to get in at least 45 mins of exercise in a day...the treadmill is my best friend.

The winter thaw...

Today we thought we'd take advantage of the warmer temperatures before winter returns tomorrow. We have a trail that runs the outside of the neighborhood that offers many examples of nature and a moment of quietness, that is if you can truely find that with four children ages 17 months-almost 7 years. Here are some pictures from today. I am hoping to add some pictures later to another post of our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in South Lyon, Mi the weekend before Christmas.

This first picture is walking up the first incline of the trail. Patrick is in the front, Sean in the middle and Veronica taking up the rear. Nicholas was on my back in the backpack.

The second picture is of the kids in the woods looking out over the pond. Patrick asks where do the fish and frogs go when the water is ice? Good question so we will look that up later tonight.

Sean took this picture of the sky and the trees. If you look closelythe tree branches look like a spiderweb.
Nicholas peeking over my shoulder. For the most part he tried to hide from the cold wind that seemed to be swirling about. There are other pictures of the kids "ice skating" through the tunnel in Tillicum Farms subdivision.

Christmas 2008

Christmas was fantastic this year. Santa left a great note for all and a tree full of presents. The kids fed Santa's reindeer some magical oatmeal and glitter. Santa played tricks by taking a picture of himself, eating the reindeers food, and putting presents in the tree.

The kids woke up after 8 am to open presents...that really doesnt take into effect that Patrick was up at 10:30 pm Christmas Eve telling us that he slept enough...

Thank you to everyone for all the great gifts, thoughts and blessings for us on Christmas. We hope the same for you and your family through the next year.

Christmas in South Lyon, MI

A few weekends ago we went to South Lyon to visit Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. Uncle Mark, Noah and Nora were up visiting from South Carolina. Just in time for their arrival we got nearly 2 feet of snow. The first picture is of Tom pushing Veronica down the hill.


Next is Mark and Nora going down the hill...please note that steep first 4 feet...nearly a straight dropoff .
Finally here is Pickle going down the hill....no we didnt just push him. Patrick helped him slide controlled down the hill. We had a great time with the cousins, despite the fact that Noah had the flu, and Grandpa was down for the count with the flu too the day that we were there.

Snow day...

What do you get when you have 14 inches of snow fall in just a few hours?????

A snow day home from school and an early start to Christmas vacation.

Sean in a snow cave.

Veronica is the smart one....she stayed inside the whole day.