Lizzie:
Lizzie is a wonderful, hilarious, little lady! We sure love having her in our family. Currently she spends her days singing "baa baa Black Sheep" and Daniel Tiger songs. She loves to eat scrambled eggs, sausage with sugar sprinkled on it, oatmeal, apple sauce, fruit leather, and all kinds of chocolate and chocolate peanut butter candies. Oreos with milk are also a favorite! She loves to talk and will go on and on for ever and she dances wherever she goes. The girls recently changed their beds into bunkbeds and Lizzie thinks her new little bed cave is pretty cool. She loves pink and yellow. She loves to put on makeup and and nail polish. She loves princesses and stuffed animals and building with magna tiles. She loves to read books! She also loves Minnie's Bowtique, all the nursery rhymes she can find, and anything else her siblings pick. She follows Alana around all day and screams at her to "play with me Nana!!!!" Alana is a good sport and will often play with her. She loves kinetic sand, playdoh and sensory bins. Baths with her mermaid and bath bombs are always a favorite. She is bossy and feisty and sweet and so beautiful! She loves to wear her hat too!
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| Looking through Grandma's jewelry |
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| Lizzie gave herself a pedicure =) |
Alana:
Alana is doing so well right now! She was really struggling this past fall but seems to be blossoming now! We did a few weeks of therapy and saw a pediatrician and they both recommended we do some occupational therapy. She has had 2 official sessions now and she LOVES them. Our therapist is the sweetest lady and Alana loves playing with her. She has diagnosed Alana with tactile defensiveness and also hyper sensitivity. I have learned that there is a 6th sense in addition to the standard sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. I think its called proprioception and it has to do with the way we handle the things we are feeling. Deep pressure touch and pushing/pulling movements help to calm our body. Jumping, swinging, lifting, shoveling, and all "hard" work calms the body and helps us to feel better and more in control. Alana and I have been learning all kinds of tools to help calm her body and give her strategies for when her clothes feel too tight. We have a special brush to brush her skin with, we do joint compressions, swinging, jumping, pushing and kicking are all really helpful too. Last week we walked like animals to help move our bodies. She also got to swing over a ball pit and jump in =) I also purchased a bunch of sensory stuff to play with (beans, noodles, water beads, split peas, etc). Describing the way things feel and what we like/don't like about them is really helpful. I have been noticing a huge difference in her. She just seems more confident and calm about most things. She knows that she has strategies she can use if she gets uncomfortable. She has worn clothes I haven't see her wear in months and worn her jacket more and even buckles her shoes now! She even wore an elastic with a bow in her hair on Friday!! I showed her where the new school is being built and she is very excited for kindergarten. My parents moved in last weekend and Alana had been so thrilled to have them here. Her art skills still astound me and she is acting more grown up each day. She gets dressed without being asked and listens very quickly when asked to do something! Alana also came home from preschool on Friday telling me that she had been kissed on the lips by Asher. She said Asher has a really big crush on her and that she likes him too and that they are going to get married. Last week, I backed out of the garage and hit the passenger sideview mirror and broke the glass. When I told Sean he just hugged me and told me we needed a better car =) I felt so grateful for his kind response to my dumb mistake so I climbed back into the car and told the girls that they should marry a man like their daddy. Alana told me she had already chosen a boy named Asher and that he was a good guy =)
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| Alana and Sean built a snowman this morning |
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| When Brett was sick last week we had a sewing morning. Brett and Alana hand-sewed some pillows while I did some Minky blankets |
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Brett:
Brett is becoming so big and mature! He is learning hard lessons and we are learning them with him. A couple weekends ago he was just an emotional wreck! We couldn't really figure out what was going on with him and just got through it. The next week I was talking with his teacher as we were planning the Valentines party and she told me that he had gotten into really big trouble at school. Apparently he and most of the class are part of the "puppy club" and they pretend to be puppies all the time. They were playing their game during PE and Library and even made the librarian cry. They all got in trouble and Brett had to do a Stop and Think paper which is a really big punishment apparently. He was devastated because he never gets in trouble. He didn't tell us about any of it because he was afraid he would get in trouble. We had a really good conversation about how we are his family and we love him and that he can tell us anything. I told him it sounds like he got in enough trouble at school and didn't need us to get mad too. Poor guy! Its so hard to be getting older and having more expectations. He is struggling with church right now too and Stake Conference a few weeks ago was an absolute disaster!! We are working on it though and trying to understand why church is so anxiety producing for him. I have been a little more concerned about his moods lately, because when he does make mistakes he gets really down on himself. He even expressed some desire to not exist and wished he was dead the other day. I would say 95% of the time he is doing great and handling things like a champ, but that other 5% is really hard! Brett was in the spelling bee at school and did a great job! He spelled present and pudding and then got out on shriek. We were so proud of him and made him a spelling bee cake to celebrate his hard work! Brett still loves playing with legos and stuffed animals. He had a playdate with his best friend from school this past week and they had so much fun! He is worried about switching to the new school next year, but I think he is going to do great! It will be an adjustment, but a lot of his friends will be there. He was sick this past week and missed two days of school, but he is feeling much better now!
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| snuggling with Grandma while he had a fever |
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| making crowns for their stuffed animals while Brett was home sick |
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| spelling bee cake |
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