Posting a little early

I wanted to post today because all of our company is gone and we have lots of pictures to share! I may divide them into two posts - we will see. Do some today and some tomorrow! But we had a nice time.

Mat's parents arrived the day after Christmas to spend the day with us and their grandchildren. We opened presents with them and went out to dinner! It was a great evening.

Then on Thursday Mat's brother and sisters and all of their significant others and kids, and Mat's grandma and aunt came to the house to make us a total of 18! It was so much fun having all of those people here. We had food waiting for them when they arrive and the snacking began! Then we had a nice, simple dinner together and afterwards opened presents and played games. It was the first time Mat's youngest sister and her husband, Mat's brother, and Mat's grandma had been to our house so that was nice to have them here. We love being together and Mat's family is really large so it is loud and crazy and just a blast. Mat's mom loves having all of her kids together and since we all spread out, it doesn't happen very often. We took a lot of pictures to capture the day. And everyone slept at our house. We had plenty of room for all and enjoyed the large slumber party.

Everyone left today. It was a short visit, but a fun one. We wished everyone could stay longer, but understand the need to get back to their everyday lives. Mat's parents stayed the longest and just left this evening.

So overall, it was a very successful and fun week. We are a little tired, but it was a good payoff for having everyone together like that. Now we have our New Years Eve party to look forward too!

Arlington got two gifts she really liked these last two days. Aunt Betty got her a very fancy Sleeping Beauty costume. We are going to a Princess party at Disney in Feb. as part of her birthday, and Sleeping Beauty is who she is going as, because she is her favorite. And she also got the "Bitty Twins" from American Girl. She is a little young for American Girl, but saw these twins and thought of Finley and Cainan. So Mat's mom got them for her as part of her gift. They are really cute. The girl has blonde hair like Finleand the little boy has black hair like Cainan!

Here are some pictures to enjoy! There are lots so bare with me! I added them all!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We cannot believe the day is already over. We had a full and fun day at our house. Santa was very good to us this year. The morning started with......a bath. Ha! Arlington was up first, so since her brother and sister were still sleeping, I gave her a Aath to pass the time! She really wanted to go and see her presents, but I wanted us all to go downstairs together, so she had to wait. She was fine, and about 1/2 hour later, the babies were up and ready to go! They were very excited to come downstairs and see all the presents from Santa, etc. Arlington wanted to charge through the presents, and the babies were just content walking around. Finley spent half the morning just carrying a banana around that she got in her stocking! She is funny. Cainan would take a small piece of wrapping paper off a present, clap for himself, and walk away. He wasn't about to do too much work for his presents! Once everything was opened, the we cleaned up and the kids really got a chance to play with their new goodies. Finley's favorite present was a cradle from her GiGi (Great Grandma). Arlington loved everything, but played the most with a Cinderella castle from Santa. Cainan seemed to really like some of the toys Arlington got (like a batmobile) and anything that had cars and little people. He is definitely all boy!

While the babies took a nap, Arlington got a chance to play without interruption and then we played Uno with her, which she loved. It was a nice chance for her to have alone time with her parents, which is rare these days. And this evening, we are just continuing to play with all the goodies! Finley got a small bounce house from Santa, and we moved that to the back yard and the kids played out there in that for awhile. Now we are winding down and bedtime is quickly approaching.

But Christmas is far from over! Tomorrow Mat's parents arrive, and then on Thursday we will have a total of.....drumroll.....18 people staying at our house for 24 hours. It will be so much fun! I have room for all, and it will be great. We are expecting all of Mat's brothers and sisters and their significant others and children, and Mat's grandma and aunt. It will be SOOOO fun! So we have many fun filled days ahead, and we can't wait. Saturday's post will be full of photos!

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas and felt as blessed as we did for our family. Here are some pictures! (well, a lot actually)

Family Fun Yard Day

This is what Mat has nicknamed the day (or in this case, the weekend) before Christmas each year where we are outside all day (or again, this year - ALL weekend). We are getting our yard all ready by trimming and planting and fixing it up nice. It is a lot of work, but fun too. The kids enjoy just playing outside and running around, and this year, Arlington even helped us with some of the work! We did it all day yesterday and I forgot to post, so I appologize! We will be working on the yard again today and tomorrow will be reserved for getting the inside of the house all picked up!

This week was busy with the kids Christmas parties and finishing up with work and getting last minute presents. We are so close to Christmas! We are all excited and can't wait! We never would have thought we would have had our little boy by this Christmas, and are very blessed that he is here with us. Now our family is complete.

Arlington had her Christmas party this week and is really getting excited for Christmas. Mat is taking her to another Christmas party this afternoon just to help get rid of some of her energy! She REALLY wants to open some presents. And this week, Arlington finally started asking questions about Santa. The newest one, "How does Santa get to all the houses in just one night?" Hmmm... I knew this day would come. She is starting to wonder about how he does it all and what is real and what isn't. She still VERY much believes in Santa, but knows that Frosty and the "snowmeiser" are not real. But she knows elves are real because they MAKE the toys! She is funny.

Finley has some new words. She says book, up, down, and she says "no, no" all the time! Everything is "no". Great.

Cainan has really gotten happier this week. He is getting a little less sensitive, which is nice. He seems more playful. We are starting to figure him out. When he is really tired or hungry, EVERYTHING bothers him. Otherwise, he is pretty good. He is doing the sign for "up" and he tries to say "down". And he is working on "ball". He is getting pretty good!

I will probably not post on Christmas day, but I might Christmas night after the kids are in bed.

To all of our family and friends have a very merry Christmas and know that we are thinking about you and we love you! Remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Here are some pictures:

I forgot

I forgot to add last night that on Saturday I was bit by a ton of red fire ants! Yeah, I was in the yard (with sandals on) putting up Christmas lights along our fence when all of the sudden, my feet felt like they were on FIRE! I looked down, and sure, enough - fire ants! I brushed them off and ran inside and put cool water on them. They hurt for about 1 hour and then started to itch and swell. By Sunday morning, my feet were so swollen, I couldn't put shoes on! I kept ice on them all day and tried to keep them elevated. By Monday they were slightly better - I was able to put a gym shoe on. Today (Wed.) the right foot is still swollen, but not as bad, and almost back to normal. Now I am just left with itching. I am trying not to scratch, but it is hard!

Once again - I HATE FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!

Visit with Santa

Well, we finally braved it and went to see Santa with the kids. We decided to go on a weekday during the day so there wouldn't be a very big line. We just happened to time it wrong and got behind an ENTIRE preschool class going to see Santa. Now, it wasn't that bad - all the kids just sat on his lap for a second and took a quick picture. So it went fairly quickly. I did feel bad for them - they were 4 year olds, and didn't get to talk to Santa at all. Poor kids. But, it was a nice idea.

Anyway, we were in line about 45 minutes which wasn't that bad. Arlington went up first while the babies just kind of checked Santa out from afar. Arlington showed Santa her list and Santa told her that he could bring everything on the list. Good thing mommy and daddy are on the ball after that statement! She was very excited to see him. We took a picture of her alone with Santa and then decided to put the babies on his lap. Finley was okay at first - checking him out. But when I stepped back to get Cainan she started crying. I put Cainan on his lap but before he even got all the way down he was having a fit! Cainan is not great getting handed over to strangers as it is, so I knew it would go badly! But we took the picture anyway (as you will see below) because we are in to torturing our kids.

But this week has not been a lot of fun. Starting Monday afternoon, Arlington has had a fever. It lasted all day Monday and she stayed home today and still has the fever tonight. So she isn't going to school tomorrow, either. I feel bad because tomorrow is their Christmas party at school, but she just isn't feeling well enough to go. Poor kid. She will be sad she missed it. Finley is also sick. She has had diarrhea for a few days and will be missing school again tomorrow. Cainan is okay, but has a terrible congested cough that he has had for awhile. I still have a cough, but Mat seems to be okay. Mat stayed home with the kids today because Cainan had a lot of appointments that I needed to take him too. Unfortunately I am going to have to miss work tomorrow so that he can go back. Hopefully everyone will be well enough to return to school on Thursday. Cainan is going to school tomorrow. I think he has a better chance of not getting what the girls have by not being home with them!

Cainan had occupational therapy on Monday. He did fine, there. He is very stubborn and not very good at following directions, so it is challenging for him. But he is getting better. He is strengthening his hands and his thumbs, and also trying to get over his "sensory" issues. He didn't have a lot of sensory stimulation in the orphanage, so some things are overwhelming to him. So we are working on getting him over that, and the OT seems to think that will decrease his anxiety and how emotional he gets. Let's hope so!

Today Cainan had speech therapy, an ear nose and throat (ENT) appointment and a helmet appointment. Speech Therapy went fine. He still isn't saying much while he is there, but I continue to get a lot of pointers to use at home which is helpful. The ENT said his tubes looked good. She cleaned out his nose (which he hated) and listened to his lungs (since she heard his congestion and cough). His lungs are clear and his ears looked good. So it just seems to be a cold. Let's hope it stays that way.

Then we went to our helmet appointment. I was hoping we were getting the helmet off today, but the helmet lady said another month - possibly two. What????? She is trying to kill me. But she did say I could keep it off of him during the day and just put it on for sleep and car rides. That will help. I don't see much change, but she still believes that his head can mold a little more. So we will see. We see her again at the end of January, and then will make the decision to do one more month or call it quits. I am voting for stopping - especially if there hasn't been any change over the next month. So we will continue to drive to Fort Lauderdale a little longer.

So that is our week so far. Today was by far the longest. Cainan and I left the house at 8:15 and didn't return until 6pm. Long day. But Cainan is a good boy and did well with the long day and was very happy tonight playing with his sisters.

Updates and funny things:

Arlington said something funny. She was doing something she shouldn't the other day and I told her "Santa is watching, you better be good". She said, "well, he can't be watching me right now because he is at the mall taking pictures". Nice.

For any of you that have seen the movie "Elf" do NOT watch it with a very inquisitive 4 1/2 year old. She asked about a million questions - "why is Buddy so big?" "where are his parents?" "Why is his house so small?" "Why does he have to walk - where is his car?" "Why isn't the real Santa in the movie?" "Why is Buddy's dad on the naughty list?" on and on and on. I think I saw about 2 seconds of the movie.

Finley learned to say "hat". She says it really well and knows what it is. It is cute. Cainan has learned to say something that sounds like "I want". He says " I wa" and does the sign for "I want".

So we are one week from Christmas - our first Christmas with Cainan! We can't wait! He did get a present in the mail this week from our wonderful family friends, the Hornicks. So he got to open his VERY FIRST Christmas present! It was wonderful and we thank the Hornicks for giving him his first gift!

Here are a few pictures:

Decorating the tree

Well today we finally decorated the tree. We have had the tree for a few days, but haven't had the chance to get to it! Arlington was very excited to get to help. We set aside a lot of "unbreakable" ornaments for her to hang any where she wanted and we did the rest. The babies did pretty good not touching the tree. We had to put a few ornaments back on the tree after Cainan took a few off, but after awhile, they went back to playing and forgot about the tree. We will see what happens over the next couple of days! Each year we usually lose one ornament due to it falling to being taken off the tree. :)

This was a busy work week and we were glad for the weekend day. We are all still kind of sick. Cainan and I have a lingering cough, Mat is congested, Arlington has a sore throat, and today, Finley threw up everywhere at dinner time. Poor baby! She has been acting okay, but she has a sour stomach. So she won't be joining us for church tomorrow! She doesn't go back to school until Tuesday, so hopefully by then, she is back to normal. She hasn't wanted to eat all day - now I know why!

Today Arlington and Mat went to a birthday party for Arlington's best friend. IT is hard to believe the girls are 5! These are friends of ours from when we lived in California, so the girls have been friends almost their whole lives. They had a nice afternoon. The babies and I stayed at the house because the party was during their nap time. Arlington had a great time at the party, and it was a good outlet for her energy. She should sleep well tonight!

Most of you know, but Finley learned her first two word sentence - "bad baby". Great! She says it all the time. Now, yes, we do say this to her - ALOT. She is always causing mischief, and one day she repeated us! Now she says it all the time. She says it to her baby dolls. She can also say "mouse", and when her stuffed minnie mouse falls on the floor, she says "bad mouse". She also says "night night" and is trying to finish words. For example, she says "bath" pretty well, and is now trying to figure out the "th" sound, so she says "bap". Goofball.

Cainan learned to shrug his shoulders. He goes around shrugging them all the time. He is also getting better with stepping down steps. He is kind of afraid, and will just stand and wait for someone to help him, but he is trying to do it on his own. Big step!

We have just about wrapped up the Christmas shopping. Mat is making one last run tomorrow for some last minute things, and then we are done! Yeah! I can't wait to have the kids open all of their gifts - that is so fun to watch their faces. Now with the tree up and the outside lights done, it really feels like Christmas at our house!

Here are a few pictures from today. Sorry Finley is in a diaper for most of them! She threw up all over her clothes after dinner, so we just left her in her diaper after that! I promise to take some cute pictures of them in front of the tree later!

Home from Disney World

Hello there! We are back from our Disney trip! We had a really great weekend, and I will try to recap it here in a short version! All I can say is that if you ever have a chance to go to Disney at Christmas time - do it!! It is WONDERFUL! Now, I don't recommend going the week of Christmas or New Years because it is really busy, but right about now is PERFECT! Here is our weekend recap:

Friday - left the house at 9am. We wanted to leave around 7, but everyone kind of slept in, and since we knew it was going to be a long day, we decided to leave a little later. We got to the park around 11:30. We went to the Magic Kingdom on this day because we had tickets for the Christmas party there that evening. We had a really good time. Cainan seemed to enjoy himself. He didn't seem overwhelmed. He loved the music and the lights and the attention of all the Disney people. He LOVED the parade. I thought he was going to jump out of his skin when he saw Mickey Mouse and the other characters. We didn't take him up close, but he loved to watch them move around. Finley did pretty well, too. She kind of buried her face while we were on the rides, but loved to ride around looking at everything, and eating! Arlington, of course, LOVED every minute. Now that she is 41 inches tall, she is big enough to ride every ride in the park besides Space Mountain. For those of you that aren't familiar with Disney - that is their big roller coaster. Anyway, she got a chance to ride two new rides at this park - both roller coasters, one a water coaster. She couldn't get enough of either! She is such a little dare devil. She barely makes the cut off for these rides, but she was ready LAST year! :) The babies did really well and took a long afternoon nap, so that Mat and I could take turns taking Arlington on her favorite rides.

In the evening was the Christmas party. This is a must if you travel this time of year. The park closes at 7pm, but you can buy these tickets to the Christmas party that is from 7:30pm-12:00am. We would never make it to midnight, but we made it until 10pm! Which is good for a 4 1/2 year old! But you get a special bracelet that allows you to stay. The park pretty much empties out, and the characters all come out and dance with the kids in certain areas of the park. They don't stand around so you can stand in line to get pictures taken. They talk and play and dance with the kids. It is SO great. Arlington got a chance to dance with the stepsisters and stepmother from Cinderella and she loved that! They kept coming up and dancing and talking to her, and she was having a blast. They also give away free cookies and hot chocolate all night long. There are Christmas stories and music going on all over the park, and then they do a big special Christmas parade. It is really nice. Before the parade starts, while you are waiting around, the Disney people come out and play games with the kids - jump rope, hop scotch, limbo, etc. Right in the street. That is fun. AND all the rides are open, so you can continue to ride while the park is pretty empty. Which we did! It is a lot of fun. The babies just slept in the stroller, and that made it so easy. It was a great day.

Saturday - Epcot. This park Arlington found a new ride as well. Finally tall enough, so that made it exciting! We rode a few rides, ate some really good food, and headed to the countries area. Again, if you are not familiar with Epcot, they have a section with 12 countries that replicate a lot of the buildings, food, etc. Very cool. At Christmas time each country tells the Christmas story of their country (example - the Christmas witch in Italy - nice). They are cool stories. They also have Kid Stops where the kids can get a mask, then get a decoration to attach to the mask, and a stamp from that country. They color the mask as they go. We made it around 7 countries, so not bad! It is a long walk, and Arlington was a trooper. The babies slept for a good while when we were in the countries, so that helped a lot. Arlington enjoyed going to the countries and getting the stamps and coloring.

Epcot is decorated for Christmas as well, and each night someone famous reads the Christmas story. The night we were there was Steven Curtis Chapman (Christian singer). We stayed until we got tired for walking - which was around 8:30pm.

Sunday - Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios. AND today is 4 months since "Gotcha Day" with Cainan. We can't believe he has been with us that long already! Now our plan wasn't to do two parks today, but it worked out that way! We started with the Animal Kingdom. We had never been to this park before, and it was nice. There is a lot to do there, but I thought it was a lot like the zoo. There were a few fun rides, but mostly animal stuff, which was fine. Arlington got to ride a ride called "Dinosaur" (again because of her new height!). Now this ride was SCARY! But she loved it and rode it a couple of times. It was dark, but she knows it is pretend. From the first time we started going to Disney, we have explained to her that it is all pretend and just for fun and that nothing will hurt her. She has always been on the brave side, and since she knows there isn't anything real with the rides, she is free to just have fun. So on every new ride we start with "We know this is going to be fine because it is...." and she says "pretend!". And we say, "and nothing will hurt us because it is...." and she says "pretend!". It is cute, and it works. I don't want her to be a scardy cat like me. :) We took the safari ride there, and that was a nice. Arlington and Cainan loved seeing the animals. Finley fell asleep. The babies were both kind of tired early, but not cranky. Luckily they are little troopers. They both took another long nap at the park while Arlington rode and when they woke up we decided to go to MGM studios. There were a few rides we wanted to see if she was big enough for over there, and MGM has a great Christmas light show at night, so we went there about 4pm. MGM was open until 8pm, so that was perfect.

MGM- Arlington rode....the Tower of Terror. Now, for those of you that don't know, the name says it all. I would never ride this ride. It is dark, and in the end, the ride drops you straight down and then springs you back up. NO WAY. Arlington LOVED it!!! I can't believe she was big enough. Mat took her a couple of times. Yikes. We are in trouble with her! There is also another ride called Test Track which is a roller coaster type ride. She loved that as well. That was another new one! That was the best part of this year's trip - she was big enough for all these new rides. It kept it exciting for her! The Christmas light show at night is always very cool Every building on their "back lot" is completely decorated from top to bottom with rows and rows of lights. They set the lights to music and every couple of minutes a show starts. Then in the end, it snows which Arlington LOVES. Even the babies thought that was cool. For us, we don't get to see snow fall at Christmas, so that is always fun. The lights were donated by the Osmond family. They used to be at their home, and now they are at Disney. You can't imagine how many their are! After the show, we left for the night.

Monday - our last day! Everyone was being so good! Everyone slept well at night and the babies took great naps during the day. We were very very blessed with that! It gave us a chance to give Arlington some one on one attention which she really deserved. Anyway, we were back at the Magic Kingdom today. This is Arlington's favorite park so we always do this park twice. She LOVES to ride, and this is were most of the rides are! Today was spent most of our day with our good friend Julie, her parents and her kids. Her oldest daughter is Arlington's best friend, so that was fun for both the girls. Julie also has a set of boy/girl twins that are 5 months younger than our babies, so we were a large pack running around! Julie had never been to Disney before, so that was fun! The girls rode rides all day until about 3pm, and then we separated. Arlington was ready to ride some roller coasters, but her little friend isn't big enough. So after we said goodbye, Arlington was off! We stayed until about 7:30pm, and then decided to head out for home. It is only a 2 1/2 hour trip, and Arlington had school today, so we wanted to get home. We let Arlington pick a small gift (she chose a tinker bell polly pocket that she could dress) and got some things for the babies - Minnie mouse for Finley because she can say "mouse" and loves stuffed animals, and a Donald duck car for Cainan because he can make the "vroom" noise and wants nothing to do with stuffed animals!

We also bought Arlington a big gift, but we will wait and give her that for Christmas. She actually chose it, and talked about it several times during the weekend. We wanted to get her one more thing, so this worked out well!

So that was our weekend. We had a blast. Everyone was well behaved, we ate a lot of good food (even Mickey ears ice cream - yum!), and were sad when it ended. We do go several times through out the year, but there is nothing like the trip at Christmas!

Three stories:

1 - our first day there we saw a guy propose to a girl right in front of Cinderella's castle. That was really neat to see!

2 - In Epcot China section, we saw TONS of families with adopted Chinese children! It was just fun to see. We saw many blended families all weekend, but here we saw the most! We even saw some families with boys! And we saw one family with 4 little Chinese girls! Amazing!

3 - The last day, at the Magic Kingdom, we were watching a little show. One of the cast members came up to Arlington and said, "are you enjoying the show?" Arlington said, "no" and shook her head. The cast member laughed. I said to Arlington, "she didn't ask you to JOIN the show, she wants to know if you LIKE the show". Arlington said, "oh, yes!" She thought the lady was asking her to join them, and she didn't want to! Goof ball.

3 - Cainan learned to shug his shoulders and lift his hands up like "I don't know". It is took funny! He also said "hi" constantly to people all weekend.

Enjoy the pictures! There are lots! Oh, and I made a typo - instead of "hair bows" I wrote "hair boys". Sorry! Too hard to fix. :)

Don't be mad!!!

I am so sorry I forgot to blog yesterday! I am losing it. I thought all day today was Tuesday, so my intentions were to come home and blog. But it is Wednesday! Ugh. I am working some extra days this week because we are going to Disney on Friday, and I am all confused.

Anyway, I don't have any pictures to share either. Again with all the extra working I have been doing, we have basically come home in the evening, got dinner ready and got the kids ready for bed, and that is it! Plus I do a little online shopping and maybe some packing for our weekend trip! Sigh.

This week has been busy. Cainan had his occupational therapy visit on Monday. He did really well. Mat took him this time. He brought home some therapy putty we are to use in the evening to encourage him to stretch his fingers. He is doing well with the splints and his thumbs are getting better, but he still needs therapy. He is learning about following directions, and hopefully will become less stubborn (yeah right!). He did really well, and the therapist was pleased with his progress. She would like to see him once a week, but for right now, she is going to have to settle for every other week.

On Tuesday, Cainan has his 18 month appointment. He is doing pretty well, and the doctor was pleased overall. He wasn't crazy about his weight, which is now at 18 pounds 9 ounces. He lost a 1/2 a pound probably due to the surgery and his limited diet. But he is so small! Finley is well over 20 pounds, and she looks so chunky next to him! He is just a little thin rail. He drinks 3 cans of pediasure a day, yet his weight just isn't getting better. So we are doing a fatty diet, and will probably start to add the half and half to his pediasure like we did for Finley when she needed to gain weight. Whatever works! But he got some shots and now we don't have to go back until he turns two. He is finally caught up with his shots! Yeah!

Also on Tuesday our van wouldn't start when I came out from work. I got into the car, tried to start the engine, and NOTHING. Our van is not that old, and we keep it very well maintenanced, but what the heck??? I thought it was the battery, so I got out the manual and looked up about the battery. From what I read, the battery was fine. I called the dealership, and they thought it could be the battery or the altinator. Okay, so I needed a jump. We have very good friends that Mat works with, and they offered to go get the kids at daycare and then come and give me a jump. That was so great! But I had a co-worker with jumper cables, so Mat and our friends went to the school to get the kids while I took care of the car. The jump worked and I drove it to an Auto-Zone to have it checked. There wasn't anything wrong with anything! The Auto Zone people thought that maybe a light was on somewhere all day, and it drained the battery, and jump starting it is all it needed. And it has worked since - no problem! Stinking car. But we want to thank our friends Mike and Julie for being such wonderful friends, and my co-worker, Manny, for giving me a jump start! :)

So that is our week so far. The girls are doing great. Finley learned to say Santa. Cainan will point to himself when you say, "where's Cainan?". He has learned where his belly is as well.

This weekend Friday through Monday we are going to Disneyworld! We are all very excited about our trip! The weather is going to be in the 80s, but the humidity is down, so it should feel pretty good! We can't wait to go. So I won't be posting this weekend, but will return next Tuesday after our trip with a lot of good pictures.

Busy Sunday

We have been really busy here at our house! Now that we are in the Christmas Season, we are busy decorating, shopping and just enjoying the season. But time is going by quick! And now that Cainan's surgery is over and we are back to school/work time is tight. But that is okay - makes the time until Christmas gets here go that much faster. We did get our family stockings this year. Now that our family is complete, we decided to get our permanent yearly stockings. We ordered them from Pottery Barn, and are very pleased with them.` I took a picture, of course! :)

Let's see what has been going on:

Wednesday was my first day back to work after 2 weeks, and Cainan's first day back to school. Both of us where happy to be back in routine. He loves going to school and playing with the kids, and I really think he will get more language development there listening to the other kids. And I was glad to be back amongst adult conversation!

Thursday and Friday where pretty typical. Nothing to report. Busy working and getting the kids off to school. I don't know if I told you or not, but we had success with getting his occupational therapy and speech therapy covered by our insurance. After many phone calls, getting the state department involved, and having a contact on the inside, we got a phone call that we were indeed approved for both! Thank goodness! The insurance lady was so excited that she had to call me right away and tell me.

Saturday - Mat went to work for a few hours and Arlingon had her best friend over for a playdate. They play so nicely together that having this little girl over is actually a break for me! The babies took a nap while they played and then Mat took her home after dinner. In the morning Finley and I took a trip to the post office to mail a few things and then went to the toy store to do some shopping. Nice when they are little and can't reveal what has been bought! She enjoyed looking and testing all the toys that I put in the cart. we are very close to being done shopping for the kids.

Sunday - today we went to church and then Mat did his shopping for the kids this afternoon while the babies took a nap. I cleaned the house (yuk) and put laundry away (double yuk). Now that everyone is awake, we are all planning on going outside to play for awhile.

New happenings:

Finley says "french fry". Not surprising since it is her favorite food! She says it pretty well too! Also, we put lighted garland on our staircase, and I didn't want the babies to touch it so I told them it was hot. It worked, and now Finley will say "hot" and then blow on the lights to cool them! Too funny! Hope the same works when we put up the tree!
And Finley has a little book that has babies on each page. IT is a "good night" baby book. Well, one of the babies is Asian. Every time we come to that page, Finley touches the baby and says "nice". (This is what we tell her when she touches Cainan!) We kind of think she thinks Cainan's name is "nice" because she hears it in reference to him all the time!

Arlington is counting down the days until our Disney trip next weekend! We went last year at Christmas time as well, and it is so much fun! If you are able, I highly recommend Disney at Christmas! We can't wait to go! We are going for 4 days. Arlington would live there if she could. We are lucky to live so close by.

Cainan is donig well. He says "hi" really clearly now, and "more" is getting better. He has started using the sign for "eat" more appropriately, and even started saying something like "milk". He is also practicing blowing on the lights, which is good to see. With his palate being open, he wasn't able to have air movement like that before, so couldn't make that sound. Daily progress! He still sticks his tongue out from time to time, but even that is getting less and less, and mostly only when he is concentrating!

Cainan also turns 18 months old today! Time is going by fast! We are soon going to celebrate 4 months since Gotcha day - hard to believe!

Here are some pictures!

Tomorrow Tomorrow!

I will post tomorrow! We are busy tonight getting things together for Christmas and making some final decisions, so I don't have time for a post! Tomorrow I will see you!