Last Day of School 2011

Chase and Julianna had their school program and last day of school on May 12th. They both did great on stage and were able to spot us out in the audience.
Chase with his two teachers, Ms. Heather and Ms. Susan. Bye-Bye Pre-K. Hello Kindergarten! I can't believe it!
Julianna refused to take a picture with her teachers, which is not a surprise. So she's posing with the fish she made.

Wow! I now have a 3 yr old and a Kindergartener!! Parkie will go there this year also. One or two days a week. I haven't decided yet.

Let the summer begin!

Some Last Minute Christmas Celebration Pics

I'm still trying to catch up to Christmas. :)

The kids had their preschool program and last day of school on my birthday. Phil was on a trip, but my mom had already planned to take off work and go to their program with me. I'm so glad she did because I don't know how I would have done all of that, with Parker too.

I wish I would have thought to get a picture of her with the kids! Or me!



They sang on stage and then had cookies and punch in the gym.

I'm not sure why he has that look on his face. I was way up in the balcony. I'm surprised he found me.

Each class had a Christmas tree with hand-made ornaments from the kids in that class.

The night before the program we made Christmas, and then I made some other Christmas goodies after they went to bed, to give to their teachers that day.

These are Chase's cookies.

And these are JuJu's. Boy did they have fun with the sprinkles!

So of course they got to eat them for dessert for a few nights. Just one or two each night.

Having a Girl

One of the things that I love about having a little girl- the need for a cute nap mat cover. :) I had seen these on etsy, for a lot of money, and I even have a friend, who shall remain nameless, who bought one of these for her little girl off etsy. I just couldn't bring it to myself to fork out that much money.



So I called up my sewing friend who makes things for me, and sure enough she could do it. She even did the same thing for her little girl last year. So Julianna started off the school year in style!

And I love that it has a pillow- attached! So if anyone around here needs one of these, I know just the girl for you.

Julianna and School and Bike Riding

Phil pointed out that Julianna started riding a bike and totally got looked over because Chase started riding his bike without training wheels at the same time. So here ya go baby girl! Mommy was feeling guilty, so here's your post about you learning to ride a bike!

Julianna has been wanting to ride this bike all summer, but then Chase wouldn't have a bike to ride. So she never got a chance to. Well, once we realized that Chase could ride without training wheels, we gave him the girl bike that we bought for Julianna at a yard sale 2 yrs ago, b/c it doesn't have training wheels, so she can't ride it. So then she got Chase's old bike. So now she's riding a boy bike and he's riding a girl bike. :)

She does such a good job of pedaling and is so cautious and meticulous. Phil and I are both very surprised by this, because her personality is much more adventurous than her bike riding. Now on our nightly family walks, she and Chase both ride their bikes while Phil and I walk and push Parker in the stroller. We've even attempted a family bike ride.

Now for Julianna's school update. She's doing great with school, although she still tells us from time to time that she wants to go back to her school with Kandis (her teacher at Special Kids) and that she doesn't want to go to Bubba's school anymore.

I got to go to the pumpkin patch with her last week, which was so much fun! I have never gotten to go with Chase before because of work, so this was my first time there too! Chase's class also went this day, so I would have gone with him, but he was a little sick, so he stayed home with Phil.

She loved having me there and lit up when she first saw me. She just held my hand and wanted me to do everything she was doing- including go through this hay maze.

It is not often that I can catch her in a picture taking mood, so I have to take as many as I can when she's in the mood. We're definitely in the 'raise your chin and squint your eyes' phase of smiling for the camera.




The dad of the little boy she's sitting beside was also there. When I told him that Julianna was my daughter, he said that "JuJu" is all his son talks about. (I'm seeing a pattern here.) Phil's gonna have to keep his eye on that boy! :)


It was so cute to watch her run right over and join her friends in singing a song after her teacher was finished taking pictures of her. She just found an empty spot on that tarp, sat right down and started doing the hand motions to the song.


I've been having a lot of fun with my kids lately! I feel like they all are doing new things and it's so fun to watch them learning and take on new adventures. Sure keeps things lively around here, that's for sure!

Baby Girl's First Day

We've done a lot around here to prepare Julianna for her first day of school and have noticed how big she is getting!!

She got new shoes for school, these cool pink Keds, to add to her shoe collection of about 20 pairs of shoes.

She has turned into such a little girl these last couple of months, instead of a toddler. She likes to dress up now and twirl around in her dresses.

Swining in her tutu. Really, there's no place she can go that her tutu can't.

Have I mentioned that this little girl LOVES to swing??!! She liked the swing a lot as a baby too. These days, she can't get enough of it.

A new thing that Julianna can do, which goes along with big girl status, is buckle herself in her car seat. I really can't believe that she can do that, but she does. She is our VERY independent child and INSISTS on doing just about everything by herself.



Okay, so today was Julianna's first day of preschool. She attended Special Kids on WMFs from 9-12 for 10 mos last year due to her speech and language delay, but was discharged in July due to her progress with her language. So this is her first "real" preschool. She will go on the same days as Chase, T/Th from 9:30-2:30, but today was just a half day.

She was very excited to take her picture out in front of our house before we left for school, just like Chase did on Tuesday. She gave me one shot, and then she was struttin' her stuff back to the van.

Holding hands while walking in to school. Don't worry, this part of the parking lot is closed off to cars, so I'm not being a negligent parent by letting them stroll through the school parking lot. :)

Use your imagination for what the top half of my head looks like, lol.

This was as much as she would pose for me once we got in the classroom. She was all about going through her bag and getting her stuff in order and couldn't be bothered by me- that's my girl!

She quickly found a place where she belonged- where the baby dolls were- and she was then deeply involved in playing and didn't even notice that I was trying to tell her bye.

When I picked her up, her teachers said that she had a good day and that she was such a good helper. That when it came time to pick up their toys, she was right there, cleaning up everything. Her teachers at church tell us that too, as well as did her old preschool teachers. Momma needs a good helper around here! They also said that she was very kind and very sweet.

It was so neat in the car after school to hear Chase and Julianna talking about what all she did at school and to hear how Chase knew the things she was speaking of. He asked her what car she rode in in the gym and she said a fire truck. He said that he didn't think they had a fire truck and asked where she was when she rode it. She replied that she was "in that gym". I just love how they have school in common now and that their school building is in common. It's like they now know about stuff together that Phil and I don't. (I never had this with my brother who was 7 yrs in school behind me.)

She got to pick what she wanted to do for her first day of school treat, and she chose to get ice cream (frozen yogurt) too, like her Bubba did. I gotta say though, I think we'll be pushing for them to go to Baskin Robbin next time. This place is pretty pricey and I actually don't think it's that good. Especially not for the money.

They definitely seemed to enjoy it, but neither one of them finished theirs, which probably says something.

Parker makes an appearance!


There was no time for a walk around the square tonight though- Phil is tutoring our friend's daughter in Alegbra, so we had to get home on time for baths and bedtime. But the weather here this week has been divine, so we've been for walks the past 2 nights and Chase and I played outside all morning today while JuJu was in school and Parker was napping. Just wonderful- after Memphis was listed as the second hottest city in the US this summer! I believe it!! Our $400 utility bills also show it!

Now we're gonna spend tomorrow recovering from a week of "first days" (we also had first day of Bible Study on Wednesday). Julianna has a post-op ophthalmologist appt at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning and then we're gonna chill!

21 Months

Julianna has had a big last couple of months! This month she turned 21 months old and is finally starting to talk! We have figured out why she is now a much happier child, it's because she can communicate! Now, she can still give some looks that say it all, but for the most part, she is smiling and giggling and happy! Lots of people who know her have commented on happy she is lately. I just hate that she's been so frustrated and mad at the world it seemed, for this long!

She's had a teacher coming out to our house for a hr, one day week, to give her special instruction (she's a Special Ed teacher), in addition to her going for individual speech therapy 2 times a week. We got a call 2 weeks ago saying that she's been accepted into a special needs preschool, called Special Kids, 3 days a week. So with that, comes an end to her weekly teacher appointments. These pictures are from her last day of instruction at home.

They worked on all kinds developmental things, like stringing beads, stacking blocks, working puzzles, sorting shapes, pretend play, etc. while incorporating language into each task.

Here Julianna blew bubbles for the first time! She loved the bubbles!!

Chase woke up from his nap in time to join in on the fun. When he came downstairs, her teacher said, "Who's that?" to Julianna and Julianna responded back, "Bubba." That's the first time she's ever responded to a question with someone's name before.

This past Monday was her first day of preschool and she loved it! She just walked right in and started playing. She didn't even cry when I left her. She's definitely my independent child! Picture here is of her before leaving for school. Of course, Chase wanted to be in the picture too.

Big girl, reading her book before school.

At school, she's in a classroom with up to 12 other children her age. Right now there are only 11. There are 4 teachers in the classroom. Either they all are Special Ed teachers, or just the lead teacher, I'm not sure. The classroom consists of children with all kinds of special needs, from Cerebral Palsy, to just a language delay like Julianna, to typically developing children who can provide a good model for the others. These children receive therapies such as Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and Physical Therapy while they are there. There is even a feeding class for those with feeding issues, such as taste and tactile aversions, to chewing and swallowing difficulty. Julianna isn't receiving any therapy at the school at this time. She still attends individual speech therapy through another program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are on the waiting list for individual therapy at her preschool though, for nothing else- to cut down on my driving. Right now, her preschool is a 80 mi trek each day, times 3 days a week. Then probably another 80 mi each week for her individual therapy. I just know that when the baby comes, things are gonna get a little crazy with that kind of a schedule.

Anyway, she will go to this preschool 3 days a week, year round, until she turns 3 (Feb. 2011), unless at her yearly review (Sept. 2010) she tests at age appropriate. Hopefully she'll be caught up by then. This preschool is free and is a program of the Tennessee Early Intervention System. If she still needs therapy once she's 3, she will transition into the public school system for therapy.

Her vocabulary has increased so much in the 2 months of her starting speech therapy that it is amazing! Here are the words that I know she uses- Momma (ALL the time,lol), Dadda, Bubba, JuJu, arf arf (for Sadler), bye-bye (only once at this point), all done, hot, uh-oh, off, yeah, thank you, choo-choo and boo-boo. I know that there are many others, many of which I probably just can't understand. She also has about 10 signs that she uses all the time. My mom is always glad to have Chase around when we're not there to interpret for her. :)

I had an appointment for her for last Monday for a 21 mo old check-up, which doesn't really exist, but her Dr. wanted to do that so that he could re-check her language (b/c at her 18 mo check-up she was mute) and she needs to catch up on some vaccines since he had delayed some due to her being non-verbal, but I totally forgot to take her! I'm blaming that one on pregnancy brain!

She's going through an eating phase right now, so I know there will be a sleeping phase to follow and then she'll probably out grow all the clothes that I just bought her! Isn't that how it goes? :) We're always glad to see her grow though. We never thought anything about Chase growing, but we really are so thankful for each of her growth spurts! She weighs about 23 lbs right now and is wearing size 18-24 month clothes comfortably. She's still in a size 5 shoe.

She's still napping twice a day for about 2-3 hrs each time, but with preschool 3 days a week now, she's gonna start missing that morning nap. I was really trying to hang on to that for when the baby comes, but having her in school might get rid of that morning nap for us.

We love our new bright, smiley little girl and I can't wait to see how much she loves the holidays and the new baby!!