Update on brother and sister's school happenings

 Last night we went to parent teacher conference, my sister came and watched the kids for me. We did Ella's then walked to get an icee and then went to Dereks. Here is what I found out:

Ella is branching out and playing with more children, not just her best friend anymore. She is learning more numbers and letters and her teacher is excited to see if her reading gets better now that she has glasses and can see. She is a good girl in class and is very well behaved.

Derek is his teacher's little helper. The class printer is broken so he runs to another class to get printed things for her. She said he does lots of stuff for her and that if she let him he would probably teach the class! LOL  He now does all his work AND turns it in, he used to hide his work in his desk! He tested on a 7th grade level for reading and 5th for spelling, even though he is in 3rd grade. His teacher said he goes the library almost daily, the librarian told me the same thing, I kind of already figured that. His teacher said he is doing awesome. They take standardized tests in April which will hopefully help place him in Gifted and Talented if he does well, since the gifted and talented test alone does not for some crazy reason. They tested him 2 times a year since he started school and every teacher is shocked he hasn't been accepted to the program yet. So the CRT tests will help with that. He is also well behaved and the teacher really seems to enjoy having him in class.

Emma got to sit with me and talk to the teachers, they both thought she was cute, despite the drool that kept running out of her mouth. She was like a faucet yesterday. She made a promise not to tell brother and sister anything the teacher said that might be "bad" but they had no bad things to say!  

Emma got new hair bows from Nanny and Poppy for Valentines and she wore a red one yesterday. Today is shopping day so not sure what bow she will end up wearing, she looks so pretty in all of them. Every time I take her out now people flock to us to look at her and tell me how cute she is. What can I say, I make cute babies. Oh yea I forgot Emma is a big girl now. We are trying to move away from cute "Baby" type stuff because she is 6 now and getting grown up. 

Thanks for reading, I will keep trying to find things to update about. 

Lost a tooth and pics of Ella's glasses

The tooth fairy came to visit Emma last night, she lost a molar yesterday while I was cleaning her teeth. It just sort of popped out. She was happy to find a dollar under her pillow this morning. Yesterday the Respiratory Therapist came to check her vent and had to switch them out (they do that once a year for maintenance reasons) She told us she would get Emma a backpack for her ventilator that would go on her wheelchair, that will be nice since it will hold all the tubes and such out of the way, I sometimes smash them or roll over them with her chair OOOPS!

As promised here are pictures of Ella in her glasses. My sister took them on her cell phone, and Ella was none to thrilled. She was all sweaty from playing at school, and the pictures make her one eye look really big, while her glasses do make her eye slightly bigger looking, its not near as bad as this picture makes them look. Plus her glasses were a bit crooked looking that day, we have since adjusted them. You get the idea though, they are brown with a tiger print on the inside of them. She is doing well with them, her eye patch should be here later this week.

Church and prayer request

Since losing our internet a lot of changes have happened at our church here in Norman. Our lead pastor and his family left, and we are moving to a new building! They moved on to bigger and better things and we are so happy for them. We ask that you please pray for our lead pastor Justin and his wife Sarah, they moved to Kansas to start a new church, taking with them their 3 small children. We ask that you pray they have great success in their new venture and that God will provide them all they need to begin the new church there.

Next week should be our first week in our new building. There were some financial issues and we could no longer stay in our church building so we are moving to another church which has upgraded to a new building so we get their old one to use until its sold. Its a beautiful location, and we are happy to be staying with Generations church through the move. We also request that prayers be said for our church so it can thrive and get out of its debt issues. Its a great ministry and even though its fallen on some tough money times it has not faltered at all in providing a wonderful spiritual experience for all those who attend. We love our church and our church family so much, its become a big part of our lives and its made us super happy to get to do so. Emma loves it there, and I can't wait to take her to the new building so she will have new things to look at!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the planet

Welcome back readers, sorry we were gone for so long, but in Sept we had to drop our cable service to save money, and we are just now getting back on.

As some of you know, Emma's Daddy lost his job in November of 2009. He spent most of 2010 unemployed with the exception of a few temporary jobs. It was a very hard year and we would have never made it through with out support from our friends, family, and church. Thank you! In December he started a permanent job as a dishwasher at our local hospital, so far he likes it and its been a true blessing that he found it.

Since Sept Emma has been doing well. She got another nasty leg infection in October but quickly got over it. She had a wonderful Christmas. Not a lot of news to share about her, she is just growing and her hair is getting longer.

Her big brother Derek just recently got straight A's on his 3rd grade report card and we are so proud of him. He is almost as tall as Mom now, just a few more inches!

Twin sister Ella received a Kiwanis award at school for being a Terrific Kid because she was inclusive. We were proud of her and Emma had fun going to the school to watch her sister. Ella also just got glasses this week and will be patching her eye too. She has Amblylopia or lazy eye. Hopefully in the next few years it will correct itself and she can go on with her life glasses free after that.

Above are a few recent photos my sister took of the kids, some at the awards for Terrific Kids and Derek at the National Weather Service's festival in Oct sitting in the Dominator from tv's "Storm Chasers", thought you might like them.  I will get some pics of Ella in her new glasses and patch soon. Keep reading for more updates, I will try to do so frequently now that we are back online.