day #2

we were so excited to head to the beach again! the girls had such a fun day the first day that we new we had another day of fun ahead of us! and it was! we spent the day at the beach, had a nice dinner at dad and jan's and then went on a drive by the coast where dad and jan showed us some amazing trees! it was another awesome day!!

our 1st day in florida!!

we all woke up happy and excited to explore the island! the girls thought the golf cart was such a fun way to get around! we went on a tour on the cart of the island and kinley got to see the ocean for the first time! it was PRICELESS to see them running and splashing in the water! we quickly headed back to get on our swimsuits and spend the day at the BEACH! it was so fun! kinley was so exhausted that she fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner at 530! she ended up sleeping in the booth all the way through dinner. when we got home we hopped on the golf cart for a ride and she woke up and ate her dinner as we explored more of the island! we tucked the girls in and played some sequence with dad and jan! it was a perfect day #1!!

family vacation to FLORIDA

last friday we took our first family vacation with the 4 of us! the last time we flew together was to michigan for 3 days when kinley was just a few months old. so let me tell you how excited we all were for this adventure. we booked our tickets over 8 months ago to head to florida to nettles island to visit mark's parents. finally the day came for us to head there and you could say we were a little excited...we arrived early at the airport, and thank goodness! our connection was through dallas and they were having some nasty weather so our flight was majorly delayed. but since we got to the airport early they got us on a earlier flight so we could make our connection! it was so fun to see the girls excitement to fly! they were both ANGLES on both flights! we got to florida a couple hrs later then planned due to the weather in dallas...but they both went running with smiles on their faces to greet grandpa and grandma! nettles is about an hour away and both girls were OUT when we arrived to the island. by the time we got in bed it was almost 3 am...but we didn't care it...we MADE it and had a wonderful vacation ahead of us!

3 steps forward 1 step back

today was hard..... i think we got kind of confident in ourselves and God wanted to remind us who was really in control :) this morning kinley forgot how to say "dada"....she kept calling mark "gaga" or "mama". it is so hard to get soooo excited about kinley FINALLY saying "dada" and then a week later loosing it. i am sure there will be a lot of days like this ahead...but it is hard. it is also a time to take a step back and look at how AMAZING she has done and not just focus on the one negative. after A TON of working on it today...she was able to say "dada" a number of times...but it remains inconsistent.

another item that God is having me have faith in is work....i have not worked in 2 weeks!!! it has been slow at work and since i am "prn" i am the first to be cut for staffing....so it looks like another week without pay...yikes! it times like this when i am trying to plan for costs of therapy it is scary. but i know God will provide and take care of us! he always does!!

so today was a hard one...but we are confident in his plan!!! just hoping tomorrow is better :)

soo proud!

kinley had speech again on thurs. she still is resisting participating in therapy but by the end of the session she was doing great! we came home and worked on more of her words! she also figured out how to say "papa". with apraxia it is not that she can do it 100% of the time, but she is getting better and better with it. we are so proud of her and how hard she is working!

way to go kinley!

wow...what a day! kinley went back to school after being on spring break last week and then we headed straight to childrens for her speech therapy. it made for a busy day for kinley! therapy went okay. i knew it was going to be difficult, but i guess i didn't really grasp how hard it was going to be. i am hopeful that with time we will get into a routine and hopefully kinley will enjoy it more. right now she is just frustrated that the words are not coming out and she just resists. mary lou our therapist is amazing and was great at working with kinley and keeping her interested. for only being 3 years old and having been at school all morning and then going right to speech she really did amazing!

we started the session making kinley's "functional word book" i brought pictures of some people we wanted kinley to learn to say. so we had a picture of daddy, mommy, kya , kinley, wilson, gaga and papa. we have more pictures to put in but today we just started with these. mary lou then did some color coding in the letters below the words and added pictures about each letter helping kinley to know lip placement, voice on or off ,& breath on or off. it is great to learn the concepts behind it all. we then worked on some more articulation testing and then moved on to the "sound of the week notecards". this week we are working on the sound "h", so we made 5 notecards with pictures for kinley to work on. marylou also worked with me on how to help kinley with her tongue to make the sounds "k" and "g". kinley is having trouble keeping her tongue down. it was amazing how just helping kinley with her tongue and she was able to say those sounds! it was such a blessing hearing kinley say "k" for the first time ever!

the lows of therapy is mary lou confirmed that kinley's apraxia is severe... but she also said she sees so many things promising about kinley that will help her. she said her personality , her spirit, and her intelligence is going to help alot! she said we have a very long road ahead but to keep positive! we got home and we probably worked for another couple hrs on and off on kinley's book and her notecards. there were moments i think we both just wanted to throw it out and run! i had moments i had tears of sadness watching my baby struggle so much, moments of joy, moments of frustration, moments of being scared, moments of surprise, moments of defeat and in the end we fought hard and it was a WIN!!!

here is a peak from some of our HARD WORK TODAY!! i am so proud of kinley and how hard she is working! way to go kinley !

kya's playing soccer!

kya had her first soccer game this past weekend! she is playing through southeast christian and the upward program. it is an awesome program that also teaches kids more about God. they do memory verses, pray together and learn about how to be more christ like on the field! it is awesome! kya is on the same team with her cousin maci and her friends kendall and josie! it is soooo cute to watch the 4 of them playing together! we were sooo proud of kya! she did awesome! way to go kya! we LOVE YOU!!!

kinley said dada!!!!

it was an amazing weekend! kinley has really struggled to say dada...so mark has been so patient and has been called mama by kinley :) we have been working on it for over a year and it has just not come...the message was just not coming through. a couple weeks ago we taught kinley the sign language for dada and for mama. it was then that she started to attempt to say dada. this past week we have been putting into practice some of the new techniques from kinley's new therapist and it WORKED! with apraxia it is not that kinley does not know how to say dada in her sweet head...but for some reason the message is just not carried into motor planning in her mouth. the great thing about kids is their brain has something called "plasticity" (a term we learned about this week). that means they are changeable and respond to incoming stimulation. Neural pathways can actually be created as a result of stimulation!!! AND praise the LORD for this ...cause look what kinley learned to say this weekend!!!

let me just tell ya how many tears were falling when these sweet words came out LOUD AND CLEAR! her daddy was feeling on the top of the world!!!

on sat at kya's soccer games...some of our dearest friends and family were there..and we said..."kinley tell them what new word you learned" and she said dada...over and over! it was so cute all our friends and family started cheering and again more tears shed!! it was soooo amazing to share this moment with some of our amazing support system! through the prayers of many of these people....our prayers were answered! thank you all..keep the prayers coming they are WORKING!! i can't wait for LOTS of more videos to share!