Love Day 2011

Valentine's Day was great this year, full of our favorite traditions.

My hutch was my favorite ever this month.  I love the pink in there.

The kids valentines.
We ordered 50 ( just enough for both classes) Valentine silly bandz from Oriental Trading Co. for $4.99.
Each pouch had a Silly band, Mini Chocolate Bar and a sticker.  

That evening we had a yummy family dinner, read our love notes, and revealed our secret pals to each other.  Do you want to know what I love about Secret pals?  It gets my 5 & 7 year old to think of someone else other than themselves.  The whispering, the planning and the anticipation of waiting for your pal to discover what you left them.

During the week, Cole had an incident with a ball and my glass lamp.  Shattered all over the floor.  I tried my best to keep my cool and remind myself that yes, it's just a lamp but I must have let my disappointment show too much.  While I was out that evening,  I came home to a replacement lamp (from the garage) in place of the broken one with a cute note from my secret pal (Sadie).  She thought of it on her own to do that for me.  My heart was so warmed by her thoughtfulness and I was beaming with pride for what this secret pal tradition has created.

Following dinner, we had yummy

"Fundue!"

(as the kids like to call it)

We look forward to this evening all year.  We need to do it more often!

We always spend Valentine's Day together as a family.  I can't think of a more perfect way to spend the day with the ones you love.  

I also love the fact that we avoid all crowded restaurant craziness.  

Our Anniversary is in March, we celebrate alone then.

I asked Cole what he was doing when I found him like this and his reply was,
 "I'm trying to close my eyes so I can really taste it."

Great suggestion Cole!  We all gave it a try and you're right.  It tasted much better!

.

Not bad for being taken by a 5 year old.  

I have to laugh because I look so tired here.  The truth is, I was really tired here.  

It was a great 14 days of celebrating Love.

Blog header 2011:

Valentine Cookie Party 2011

Look at all these darling little girls wearing their Valentine colors and cute gum ball necklaces.

What a fun group these girls are!  MaryJane loved to put herself right in the middle of all of it too.

Sadie so badly wanted to invite her kindergarten friends this year.  

I love kindergarten!  I loved hearing them sing all their fun kindergarten songs.  

"Bubble gum Bubble gum in a dish..."

So cute.

I love to see their personalities come out in their decorating.

Some are creative or delicate and some just pour on the toppings.  It's quite entertaining to watch.

 Cookies-To-Go all in a decorated box.

This year I did the girl party separate from the boys.  And what I'd forgotten from last year is that Cole has out grown this Valentines party :(.  You'd think he'd be fine for a one hour cookie party and games.  His friends had fun but Cole was just to excited and rushed through everything. 

I kept this group small.  It's not a birthday party.  

 Maybe Cole was so excited because I let him invite a girl.  Elle.  Which Jack informed me that she is Cole's girl friend.  Wow!  This second grade is serious stuff.  Cole has been interested in girls since he could talk and there is no slowing him down!  Thankfully he is 7 and this girl stuff is pretty innocent.

  

One year...

 ago today, I received a phone call that would change my life.

The test results of my amniocentesis.

I remember this day so clearly. 

 

"...the test results came back positive for Trisomy 21, Down syndrome"

  Suddenly new words entered my soon to be regular vocabulary and I scribbled them across my note book as the Doctor spoke to me.  Trisomy 21, Down syndrome, Fetal Echocardiogram,  Pediatric Geneticist,  Utah Down syndrome Foundation.   

 The shock, the pain, the devastation, the tears, the mourning.    I remember it so clearly that if I think about the details of that day, it brings me to tears.  It's a kind of pain you wish you never had to feel.  I'm certain I will have moments of that pain for the rest of Frankie's life as I will be faced with the reality of his condition.  The intense love I have for him just increases that pain to a whole new level.  Wanting so much more for him.  But holding his soft body in my arms and kissing his rosy checks, the pain fades and is buried deep within me. 

I had no idea how much love I could have for him or for Down syndrome.  

 I don't know if I'll ever be able to really explain how I feel.  I love it and hate it.  But love it a little bit more.   

So far, Down syndrome in a baby is the best thing in the whole wide world!  

 At 8 months old his body just snuggles up to mine so willingly.

He definitely knows I'm his mama and is beginning to show emotion towards my comings and going.  

He loves me 

and the fact that I can see it and feel it in our interaction makes me feel like the luckiest mama in the world!

The words of one of my favorite nursery songs (by Allison Krauss) beautifully sums up how I feel about him

 Baby Mine - 

(Disney Movie Dumbo)

Baby mine, don't you cry.
Baby mine, dry your eyes.
Rest your head close to my heart,
never to part, baby of mine.

Little one, when you play,
pay no heed what they say.
Let your eyes sparkle and shine,
never a tear, baby of mine.

If they knew all about you,
they'd end up loving you, too.
All those same people who scold you,
what they'd give just for the right to hold you.

From your hair down to your toes,
you're not much, goodness knows.
But, you're so precious to me,
sweet as can be, baby of mine.

Happy Love Day!

Love is in the air at our house today!

I'm so excited for our family dinner tonight to read our Love Notes to each other, reveal who our Secret Pal has been all week,  and my very favorite  "fundue".

  I hope you get to spend the day with the ones you love!

Happy Valentine's Day!

8 months

I mean, really.  

Is he just not the cutest?  I'm biased I know.  

Frankie is now 8 months old and I almost can't believe it.  

Although, developmentally I would say he is between 5 & 6 months old. 

He is more aware of his surroundings.  I love to hear the music play from him patting on the buttons.
Smart boy.

He is so cute making sounds and noises.  Waking us up every morning with DaDaDaDa and motor lips. 

Two weeks ago, Frankie got tubes in his ears.  

This will help him with hearing and speech development and will also allow his ears to drain properly so he won't be prone to ear infections.  Babies with Down syndrome have really small ear canals.

Frankie's right ear was so small that the Dr. had a really hard time even putting the smallest tube in.  Which is the circumference of this o.

Back in December Frankie saw his Hand Ortho Doc and had an X-ray on his hand.  All his bones in his fingers are not fused together (which is good news).  However his fingers are a bit shorter and are not "normal" in size.  He will have his pinkie separated in June and the other one separated a few months after that.

Here is what we are doing everyday with Frankie for Physical Therapy:

Tummy time- work on keeping those hips anchored down and pushing up on arms

Feet- play with feet like hands, bicycle legs bring feet to hands, promote leg activity-kicking

Exercises ball- Tummy time on ball, pushing up on arms, partial standing on feet, balance as ball tips

Playtime- reaching and playing with toys, laying on side reaching and playing with toys

Sitting- with light assistance, reaching for toys, visual tracking

Frankie is doing so well with these exercises!  I can see his strength improving well.  

I love that his favorite toy is the wrinkly and loud baby wipe package.  

I even have two blankets/toys with that stuff in them which he loves as well.

Thankfully his siblings are great helpers and Frankie gets plenty of activity with each one of them.  

We all just love him so!

Name Your Own Price

Hue and Hum are my hip and humble friends Caitlin and Robbie who make being cool look easy.  Check out their rockn' blog with today’s featured art by Caitlin and the best part is you get to choose the price you want to pay (click here to see all of Catlin’s “pay what you want prints”).  While you are there, make sure to download (free) and listen to some original tunes by the very talented Robbie and watch for the release of one of his songs on Valentine’s Day. 

Love to you Hue and Hum!

Valentine Invites

The invites have been delivered for our annual Valentine cookie party!

I saw this darling Bubble gum necklace idea from One Charming Party and had to incorporate it into the invite.  So cute!

I'm so excited this week is here, I love to celebrate this holiday!

It all begins tonight after dinner, first we'll draw the names of our Seceret Pal for the week and then begin our chocolate/love note tradition.  

Bring on the love!

Young Women

For the last year I have being serving in the Young Womens organization of my church.  I have been really busy with it (my reason for slowing down on crafts and sewing) but I love it!

We have done a lot of fun things and it seems like I am using Young Womens for my creative outlet lately.  

I've decided that it would be fun to keep all those ideas in one spot so I created an Our Scoop Church type blog.  Recently I have shared some fundraising ideas on Sugardoodle.  Since then, I have been receiving a lot of emails about the details so why not start a blog to share more fun ideas? 

 So stop by, say Hi, and check out my first post.