Wednesday, July 27, 2011

~blessings~

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kinley had speech therapy on monday and marylou wanted to retest kinley and her speech. she does this after every "cycle" of sounds. we just finished the first cycle so it was time to test. i was nervous and excited. we have put in SOOOO much work in the last 4 months. it has been amazing as we have seen many new words and feel kinley is able to communicate so much more...but i was anxious to see if it actually showed up in her testing. marylou our slp told us at the beginning of this that the first 4 - 6 months you usually see little results, but in the second 6 months we would really start to see progress. she warned us that she might not even test higher in her speech testing for almost a year. so i was prepared to see that kinley was still WELL below the 1%. my mom was with us on monday so she was able to see and help us test kinley. it was so fun to see kinley be able to know new words as we went through. i was amazed at how well she did, but wondered how the numbers would end up. marylou graded the score sheets and we couldn't have been happier!! 4 months ago kinley was about 7 spots BELOW the 1% for age.....as of monday she was 1 spot below the 2% for her age!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when marylou was going over the results my mom and i just sat there with tears of joy pouring out of our eyes!! WHAT AN ANSWER TO PRAYER! marylou too was so shocked at her progress!
there have been MANY days i have wanted to give up. to just give in to her apraxia and say the mountain is just to high to climb. we have had MANY days of tears, frustration, sadness...but all those days helped us get where we are today! the days that i feel completely defeated...God gives us the strength to keep going!
the last 4 months in a lot of ways have been the most amazing months of my life. it has been such a gift to see God's hand active in our lives. mark and i knew at the beginning of this journey it was only going to be through God's doing that we could walk this road. we had no idea where we would find the strength, time, energy, money & patience to go up against this severe apraxia. within days of kinley diagnosis he was WORKING HARD on all of these areas for us! he has PROVIDED AND EXCEEDED everything! he has sent many "angels" into our lives to walk along side of us and to encourage us. he as also sent a herd of angels who have sooo graciously given financially to the "help kinley find her voice" fund! we now have a fund started at wells fargo that is there to help with all the costs of kinley's therapy. he has given mark and i EVERYTHING we prayed for. i would never ask for such a diagnosis for my child, but i am thankful for it! seeing the POWER of God ACTIVE in our lives is life changing. i have the gift of not just talking to my children about the love of God and the power of prayer but for them to be LIVING in the middle of it day after day .
we have a LONG road still ahead. i am sure there will be MANY more difficult days & tears. but i am confidant that many years from now we will look back at this time as one of our greatest gifts. the song blessing by lauras story has so touched my heart on this journey. this video always bring tears to my eyes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ
thank you all for your amazing love and support on our family! we are so excited to see how much progress kinley is making! you all are blessings to us!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

~ a week full of sadness and joy ~

we have had a week full of ups and downs. this monday morning wilson took a bite at my mom and did some pretty good damage to her hand :( we have NO IDEA what has all the sudden caused him to become so aggressive. we have noticed the last couple months that he is very possessive of his food and have tried some different things to help with this..we have been working on his growling but would have never thought he would have actually bite someone. we where shocked. we really felt we had no choice. wilson is a BIG dog and we would never forgive ourselves if he bit one of our girls or any other child that visits our home. so....we had to find wilson a new home. it was a TOUGH decision! we LOVE wilson...but CAN NOT have that risk around or precious girls. when kya got home from school wilson was already gone so we took her out and told her what we decided. she was HEARTBROKEN!!! she LOVES her wilson, but we told her he needed to go to a home that had more room for him to run and with a family with no kids. we all had a day FULL of tears. it is so hard to let go of a pet that you have had in your family for 5 years. as we were sitting in Starbucks talking to kya...one of the first things she said was ..."mom we HAVE to have a dog as part of our family...can we get another dog"..........


the LOADED QUESTION!!!


logically my brain says no~


~they are expensive


~i don't want to potty train another dog


~ i don't want to do puppy class


~i am busy with kinley doing all her speech


~i dont want to make a rush decision


but when your daughter looks at your with those sad little eyes, your husband is a TOTAL DOG LOVER and your little 3 year old keeps wandering the house asking where is wilson...i caved :)


i spend HOURS online talking to breeders and other families about good small breed dogs. a friend recommended a shih chon breed. they are small but not fragile dogs who don't shed, are hypoallergenic ( important for mark's sarcoid), non aggressive, and do no bark as much as typical little dogs. we found a breeder about 25 min from our house and she was so amazing. we spent alot of time on the phone talking about her dogs and we set up a time to just come visit her puppies to see what we thought.


so we loaded up in the car and pulled up to fuzzy pups. it is a BEAUTIFUL place where they rescue puppies, board puppies and also breed shih chon puppies. we went in and visited with a couple of the puppies and guess who fell in love....we ALL DID!!!


kya immediately was drawn to this bundle of sweetness...



we had a family meeting when we left discussing what it means to get a puppy...what everyone responsibility would be..and we all agreed...


this is "belle" the newest member of our family! the breeder wants to keep her a couple more weeks till she gets a little bigger.





we are all SOOO excited....while the house feels EXTRA empty and quiet without wilson. we are excited about bringing her home!

Monday, July 11, 2011

kinley singing happy birthday to kya

i am so glad i got this on video. it is so amazing to look at kinley's progress!! at times it is hard to see progress when you are working at it everyday....but when i look back at old videos this brings tears to my eyes!! i am sooo thankful to hear these sweet words! what a special treat for kya...it was only 3 months ago kinley could not even say kya and now she is singing happy birthday to her! so awesome!



Thursday, July 7, 2011

kya's 6th bday!


happy birthday kya! i cannot believe you are 6 years old today! being your mommy has been one of the greatest joys in my life! i feel soo blessed that God trusted me to be your mama! what a PURE JOY you have been in my life the last 6 years! you are such a special girl who DESIRES to do what is right. i love how you are a COMMITTED prayer warrior...if you say you will pray for someone you do it...and NEVER forget! i love how you love to help others ...you truly have a servants heart! i love watching you with your sister and how you CARE so deeply for her. it touches my heart so when i see you get so excited with each new word kinley learns. i love how you love to learn! you have AMAZED me in school and i LOVE hearing you read! i love watching you dance ...the pure JOY that comes across your face is beautiful. it was so fun to see you play soccer and see your competitive side come out :) i love how you love to clean...you are your mama's daughter :) it has been so fun to see you turn into such a sweet, smart, happy, caring little girl who LOVES JESUS! i am soo proud of you and who you are! happy birthday sweet girl! i love you so much!




















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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

1st grade!!

wow...i just walked my baby to her 1st day of first grade!! it is so crazy how i have spent the majority of my days the last 6 years with that sweet girl and now she is gone all day at school! i am going to miss that girl like CRAZY! i know she is going to do AMAZING! kya LOVES school and thrives in school! i feel sooo blessed that she has a thirst for knowledge! she makes school so fun to see her excitement for learning! i am sooo proud of her! i can't wait to hear all about it when she comes home this afternoon! me and kinley will both be SOOOOO excited to see her sweet face at 330 :) i love you kya payton and am so proud of you! happy 1st day of first grade sweet girl! you have a heart of gold and such are such a smart girl!! i am so excited to see what God has in store for you this year in first grade!!




















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4th of july night celebration!

we decided to stay home and have our own fireworks :) mark was very excited about the big pack of fireworks he got with his groupon! we had such a fun night pulling out lawn chairs out on the drive way and having our own firework display and then sitting and watching the neighbors let off some BIG fireworks! what a fun night!
















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