the guikema family

kinley is 4!

2012-02-15T10:05:00.001-08:00

it is sooo hard to believe my baby girl is 4!! time is flying by and it is amazing to see how these once little helpless babies and growing into amazing little girls! i am constantly blessed by their sweet spirits.

if any of you spend even 5 minutes with kinley one word that comes to many peoples minds is JOY. this little girl can brighten a room quicker then anyone i have ever met. it is often hard to find her without a smile on her sweet face and every direction she moves she does with a happy spring to her step.

what amazing me more is life is not easy for kinley. EVERYTHING she does is hard...with her delays, motor planning for movement and speech takes sooooo much work. but that doesn't not let this girl down she is a fighter....she will not let it be a joy stealer for her. i have been SOO BLESSED to be her mama! it is amazing what you can learn from you kids and how they approach life and difficulties. she blows we away every day with how she has such a positive attitude even when things are hard...ya know what i have learned.... the result is a SWEET celebration when the road there was long and rocky :) what an awesome lesson i have learned from her!

kinley hudson guikema....oh how you have my heart! everyday is a happy one with you in my life! i KNOW God has HUGE plans for you and i am sooo excited to have a front row seat! i am soooo proud of how HARD you have worked for each work you have learned!!! what a year you have had! just one year ago you had a HANDFUL of words coming from that sweet mouth of yours...and today you have over a 100!!!!!! i cannot put into words how PROUD i am. i promise to be your greatest cheerleader and encourager...i promise to be your prayer warrior... and to be your arms you can run to when things are hard!

oh sweet girl happy 4th bday! i can't wait to see what God has in store for this year! you are the JOY of my life!

a big snowstorm!

2012-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

last week we had an awesome snow storm! it dumped almost 2 feet of snow at our house from friday night to sunday morning! we had a great time as a family playing in the snow, baking, crafting, playing games, watching movies and just enjoying each other! here are some pictures for our fun weekend of snow!

~our year with apraxia~

2012-01-09T08:35:00.001-08:00

as i look back at 2011 i am amazed at what the Lord has brought us through. i spend some time reading back at blog posts of our year! it was such a blessing to see God take care of us. each hurdle that came our way God lifted us over. there were times it was difficult but we are progressing. this year of challenge that apraxia brought to our family has indeed been a blessing. it truly has brought our family closer, it has strengthened our faith, it has drawn us closer to God, it has touch so many peoples lives....God does use all things for his good.

Kinley is talking...maybe not were a "typical" almost 4 year old should be..but she is TALKING! we were told in march that there was a possibility that would never happen! each and every day she makes steps in the right direction. little things like telling people she is thirsty, hungry, sad, scared, happy...and so many more she could not do but now she CAN :)we also are soooo thankful that we were lead to leave childrens and seek out private therapy at home. we now have an AMAZING home therapist that specializes in apraxia who comes 2 times a week. Kinley LOVES joan and gets so excited to do therapy every time! this is such a HUGE answer to prayer. kinley was having a very hard time at childrens and would cry and beg to not go. so to now have therapy that not only is helping her but also that she enjoys is wonderful.

i want to thank everyone who has supported our family this last year. we COULD NOT have made it without you! you truly touched our lives! please continue to pray for kinley. she has a LONG road ahead with i am sure many difficult times. pray that her JOYFUL spirit does not get injured though this hard journey to finding her voice!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2012-01-09T08:12:00.001-08:00

this year we decided to celebrate the new year with all the kids! we booked rooms at embassy suites in loveland and all headed up there! it was the perfect spot for all of us to be. happy hour. pool, breakfast, and the best part was we didn't have to clean up the mess :) the kids had a blast and we all said we can't wait to do it again next year!

the dads guarding the hallway :)

\

there was a lot of dance parties!

a lot of horn blowing :)

alot of parades around the floor

a lot of treats in the hallway :)

and over all just a GREAT time!

we feel soo thankful to have such a great group of friends to celebrate with! here is to a GREAT 2012~

zoo with family

2012-01-09T08:06:00.001-08:00

we love the zoo! one of the great things about colorado is that you get to enjoy it all year! every time we have a break from school we head there to check out all the animals. i love that they get just as excited to go each time! dylan and kendal headed to dave and busters while the rest of us headed to the zoo. after a fun day we met all the rest of the family at buffalo wild wings ...yum! such a good day with family!

christmas day #2 at gaga and papas

2012-01-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

christmas day

2012-01-03T20:45:00.000-08:00

christmas day!!! i think mark and i were as excited as the girls. we had a great christmas day at home. santa had some very special gifts for the girls and we all had a blast the the xbox 360 that day! my parents and auntie dana came right away in the morning to be a part of the christmas morning fun! we had so much fun i didn't even take many pictures! what a special day celebrating christs birth!

christmas eve

2012-01-03T20:29:00.000-08:00

we had a wonderful christmas eve. we started the day heading to a breakfast and a flick with all of my family. then we headed home and spent the day baking....playing games and hanging out! it was such a great day just being with family. i was supposed to work christmas eve night, but i got overstaffed!! it was great being able to spend the night with my family. the girls could not wait to go to bed and put our the cookies for santa and spread the reindeer food! so fun!

christmas eve service

2012-01-03T20:12:00.001-08:00

this year kinley was able to join in on the christmas eve family service. i was unsure how it would go...but it was amazing. this mama had tears of joy running down her face watching kinley sing with her friends her age. this time last year kinley could not even say daddy....and this year she was able to sing along and participate in the service. i can not tell you what a gift this is. God has been soooo faithful this year and kinley has come sooo far! we were told last year there was a possibility she would be completely non verbal and she each and every week she learns another word! kinley has a joy about her that is so obvious to everyone around her...God blessed this sweet girl with the perfect personality for her challenges...she hardly gets frustrated and is just soo joyful. as you can see in this video she had a blast as well!!

kya and her cousins did an awesome job as well singing songs. it was a GREAT family service that we all enjoyed. it was the perfect start to our wonderful christmas weekend!

georgetown santa train

2012-01-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

we were so excited to head to the santa train again this year in georgetown. this has become one of our favorite family traditions. the girls get a new pair of matching pjs and we head up to the beautiful snow covered mountains to ride the santa train. we again had the BEST time. santa and mrs claus sat at our table for the longest time and visited with the girls. we sang christmas carols and ate cookies and sipped on hot cocoa all while taking in the beautiful views. here are some pictures of our wonderful time!

visiting santa

2011-12-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

LOVE this! the girls were so excited to see santa. the BEST part was kinley was able to actually TELL santa what she wanted for christmas! she CLEARLY told santa she wanted a baby bed and a horsey. it was a pretty awesome moment! this picture is a treasured one....

kya lost her 1st tooth!

2011-12-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

this sweet girl is now missing something! we have waited a LONG time for this tooth to fall out! it has been wiggling for a couple months now and FINALLY it is OUT! kya was beyond excited to have the tooth fairy come! my baby is growing up too fast!

Thankful tree

2011-12-10T15:14:00.000-08:00

this year we started doing a "thankful tree". each night we would sit and share something we were thankful for and then add it to the tree. it was such a special time to take as a family to share the blessing in our lives. i loved hearing what the girls came up with that they were thankful for..i can't wait to do this every year together.

some of my favorites that were shared

~new words from kinley's sweet mouth

~daddy not having the bugs in his lungs anymore

~how God is always there for use even when i make bad choices

~belly laughs when we get tickled

~family date nights

halloween!

2011-11-20T20:37:00.001-08:00

the house mess...

2011-11-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

while we were enjoying the zoo one day...i had noticed our wood floors were starting to warp a little. i had put a fan on it while we were gone for the day. when we got home is was much worse. i pulled the fridge out..and starting looking everywhere to figure out where this water was coming from. it ended up being a slow leak from our ice machine that has been SLOWLY leaking for probably a couple months. i started pulling baseboards off and seeing if anything was wet..and found MOLD growing behind our baseboards in the kitchen area! we had to call a home restoration company and we moved to a hotel for about 5-6 days while they started to dry up all the mess and control the mold. luckily it was during fall break to it was actually kind up fun. the girls had a blast swimming and relaxing in the hotel!

once it was all dried and cleaned up we moved home and started the process of working with the insurance to see what needed to be replaced. it was quite the process but after about another week of figuring it all out...we moved out again while we got the entire main wood floors done, painting ..drywall and we also knocked down the little half wall between the kitchen and family room since this was the perfect time for them to do that with doing all the floors.

we were so glad to be able to move back home and enjoy the new floors..paint and new layout! it was quite the process but we are so happy with how it all turned out!

it has been kind of fun getting some new stuff for the main floor to complete the look! i am excited for the new open space for the holidays!

snow day!

2011-11-20T20:24:00.000-08:00

the week after our beautiful day at the zoo we had a snow day! it was so fun to be home baking and playing in the snow! belle LOVED the snow! the girls had a blast playing with her!

fall break zoo day!

2011-11-20T20:16:00.000-08:00

we had a great fall break hanging out and spending time together! kya had made a list of things she wanted to do over break and we tried our best to cross them off! one was a zoo day! we had a great day ....the weather was wonderful and the animals were so active and fun to watch! but the best part was getting some quality time with my 2 girls!

what a month

2011-11-20T20:08:00.001-08:00

it has been a while since i have blogged. we have had quite that last month or so! but i am excited to say that life is starting to feel in order again! here are some things that have been going on
~we quit therapy at children's hospital for kinley
~ we have a WONDERFUL new slp for kinley
~we had a water leak caused by our ice machine
~we had to move out 2 different times for about a week to clean up and fix the mess
~ i am going back part time at work starting in dec
~we had track off of school/fall break
~ halloween was so fun...we had 2 super girls in our family

so as you can see we have been busy but we are back home... our house looks great...kinley is LOVING speech therapy...and now we are getting ready for the thanksgiving /christmas season!

challenged

2011-10-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

this last week has been hard....apraxia and sensory integration disorder have given us a run for our money. kinley is currently working on the sound "f". it is hard... it is VERY hard. with kinley's apraxia the motor planning it takes to move her teeth out..her lip in.... and then blow all while holding her lip in place. let me tell you is not easy! but we are trying...VERY hard to beat this sound. i know it will come..but some days it really just stinks. we also had a rough day at dance class...her teacher was less then kind when i tried to explain kinley's disability and why she was struggling. the response " yeah i figured something was wrong with her"....was hurtful. this week satan used this to FLOOD worry...fear...doubt into our world. the questions about education, kinley's future and much more took over my world and i felt sad, angry and alone..

my amazing husband came home with some verses for us to find TRUTH in this.

"For I know the plans I have for you , declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." jeremiah 29:11
"do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation,by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,present your requests to God" philippians 4:6

mark and i sat...prayed and talked...we decided that instead of being anxious and letting the fear of kinley's future weigh us down ...we would let it challenge us. we will turn to God first when we start to feel overwhelmed and make God a center part of this journey. we also will continue to research, invest, and participate in ANYTHING we can do to help kinley.

i spent alot of time online looking into new ideas on kids with apraxia and sensory integration disorder. we heard over and over how an i pad is amazing for kids with these disorders. my amazing husband who had been saving a stash of money for something else decided that he wanted to use it for kinley. he took kinley to the apple store last night and got her an i pad. i love how gracious and loving that guy is! today we started using it in our daily speech exercises...let me tell ya kinley LOVES IT!

i am hoping to be part of a pilot program for kids with apraxia to stay up on current applications on what would be best for her.

kinley has been using these flash cards and her "functional word book", but to be honest she is starting to get bored with it.

so i am going to start working on a "virtual " word book that i hope she will be more excited about!

please continue to pray for kinley. the older she gets the harder this disability gets. she is doing GREAT she has learned SOO MANY WORDS and is communicating a lot more! we are SO THANKFUL for this! pray for protection for her as this world is often not a nice place or very accommodating for kids with disabilities.

this sweet joyful girl is an amazing gift mark and i have been given and we feel so blessed that God chose us to be her parents!

evening in estes

2011-10-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

what a PERFECT ending to a GREAT weekend! we saw some amazing views and saw a lot of elk! we were sooo thankful to have such a WONDERFUL weekend with grandpa and grandma guikema! we all LOVE when they come for a visit!

estes and elk encounter :)

2011-10-05T11:10:00.000-07:00

we arrived in estes to beautiful blue sky and amazing colors. we did a quick trip to the slides then headed to the golf course as we often find large bull moose wandering around. well it ended up being WAY more then we had expected. we were walking down a bike bath and stumbled into a herd of elk with couple of pretty excited bull elk. it was pretty amazing to see these animals so up close...but it was a little too close. we ended up have to dive behind a fence for cover. the LARGE elk actually charged the fence we were behind hitting his antlers against the fence.....it was CRAZY! yet another memory we won't forget :)

trailridge pass and picnic

2011-10-05T11:05:00.000-07:00

we headed over trailridge to estes and stopped at the top of trailridge road for a picnic. it was the MOST AMAZING picnic we have ever had! what breathtaking views!

campfire!

2011-10-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

so much fun to snuggle up by a fire :)

lunch by the lake

2011-10-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

we brought lunch down to a picnic table by the lake. the girls had a BLAST splashing in the water!

horse back riding

2011-10-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

we had a surprise for the girls and took them over to go horse back riding and to visit the little baby farm animals at a near by campground. we were not sure if kinley would be okay with riding a horse alone...but she LOVED IT!and kya was in her glory as well! it was so fun to walk around taking in the mountains views while leading the horses. what a great memory!

second night in the elk meadows

2011-10-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

we headed into the park again to hear the elk....what a beautiful night it was!

fishing

2011-10-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

we then headed back to columbine lake for a little fishing and minnow catching :) we were successful at both! so fun!

adams falls hike

2011-10-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

we went on one of our favorite little hikes to adams falls. it was just beautiful and we kept going down the trail and found a beautiful stretch of the trail we had never seen!.

day #1 in grand lake

2011-10-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

dad and jan came to visit last week. we headed up to grand lake for a long weekend to take in the beautiful fall colors and to see the elk bugle. here is a taste from day #1. we had a WONDERFUL weekend together and made MANY GREAT memories!

kinley started preschool!!!

2011-08-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

kinley started preschool last week weds at canyon creek. we were so excited when she got her placement for her IEP for speech there since her cousins go to that school. it is so nice to not have to drive all the way across town like we had to last year. kinley is on a IEP ( individual education plan) for speech and occupational therapy. since she has both apraxia of speech and sensory integration disorder we feel so blessed to life in a state that supports kids with disabilities and provides schooling and therapy! we met kinley's speech therapist and occupational therapist at her new school and LOVE them both! they are so great with kinely and have a huge heart for kids with disabilities. i of course get nervous being at a new school and a new environment...wondering how kinley will react and do. i am so happy to say that we are on day #4 of school today and when i dropped her off she just gave me a kiss and said "bye mom" and ran to sit and color with some new friends! it feels sooooo good to see her excited and adjusting so well!

when i think back to last january when she first got placed in school for her IEP she could not say but maybe 5-10 words...and here we are 6-7 months later and she is talking SOOO much more. she is able to communicate a lot of her needs and what she is feeling! it brings tears to my eyes thinking of all the answers to the many prayers we had for kinley! we have a LONG road ahead and i know kinley will always struggle but she is doing amazing!

here are some pictures of kinley before her first day at canyon creek :) she is all the sudden looking so much older!

I love you kinley hudson! you are a LIGHT in in life! i feel soooooo BLESSED to be your mommy! your SMILE and JOY for life touches everyone around you! God made you SOOO SPECIAL and i can't wait to see how He is going to use you ! i am SOOO PROUD OF YOU!!!

grand lake getaway

2011-08-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

we were lucky enough to go away for a weekend with the jon and maggie to grand lake. my aunt and uncle have a BEAUTIFUL cabin overlooking the lake..it is amazing! we all left the kiddos at home in the care of gracious grandparents and had an adult only weekend! it was such a treat to get quality time with mark and our dear friends. we made SOOO many fun memories! we had great night talks out on the deck snuggled in blankets, campfires, games night, meals enjoying beautiful views, hike to the falls, moose sightings, a boat ride on the pontoon where the guys were brave enough to dive in the FREEZING water...and so much more! it is amazing what a weekend away surrounded by God's beautiful creation can do for you soul! on the drive home mark and i talked about how blessed we are and how it is great to take the time to just sit back and thank God for all his gifts! here are some pictures from our fun weekend away!

fun during track off ~

2011-08-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

kya is in year around school so even though she started july 6th she only had 3 weeks of school and they tracked off for 3 1/2 weeks. we LOVE this schedule, it gives her a little taste of what 1st grade will be like and then she gets to go back and have a couple more weeks of summer fun. since we got belle during track off we were mostly home just playing with her, but we also had fun taking her along on some park picnics. this park the girls had so much fun at! there is a little creek that runs along it so they could look for tadpoles and frogs

zac brown~

2011-08-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

we were so excited to head to Cheyenne frontier days to hear zac brown! nothing like spending the day with great friends and family, wearing some country gear, and wandering the fair grounds. it was such a fun time!

cute girls!

these machines said standing on them for 15 min was equal to a 1hr workout....oh my goodness it was soo funny watching everyone get on them and see every part of their body jiggle!

love this guy!!

my sweet friends!

mark with the "young girls" :)

bringing belle home

2011-08-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

the long awaited day came for us to pick up belle! the girls were so excited!!! our house has been extra quiet since wilson went to a new home...so belle coming home was a big deal :) belle has done AWESOME at home! she is sleeping great, she loves to play and she loves to cuddle! we have not even had an accident in the house yet! here are some pictures of her first day home!

~blessings~

2011-07-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

~ a week full of sadness and joy ~

2011-07-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

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!

kinley singing happy birthday to kya

2011-07-11T08:40:00.000-07:00

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!

kya's 6th bday!

2011-07-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

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!

1st grade!!

2011-07-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

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!!

4th of july night celebration!

2011-07-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

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!

4th of july day celebrations!

2011-07-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

we had a great day celebrating the 4th of july and also having a little birthday celebration with aunt kerry, aunt dana and gaga and papa! we went to the hommes family pancake breakfast and parade in the morning and then headed home to play in the back yard, grill and have kya's bday celebration. she got a new ken barbie and a new glider for the swing set!!!

estes park

2011-07-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

we headed up to estes park for the day last friday with kerry, dana and gaga! it was such a fun day! we had a picnic in rocky mountain national park, we went on a nature hike around bear lake, we went down the giant slides, walked around town and got some yummy treats at lauras fudge shop!

i love summer nights!

2011-06-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

we had a great night tonight just enjoying being together and soaking in the summer nights!

kinley's speech therapy update

2011-06-27T14:49:00.001-07:00

life has been crazy. with the end of the year activities for both the girls i have not taken the time to sit and write how things are going with kinley. we have been SUPER blessed this summer to have been able to start kinley's "speech fund". we cannot express how amazing is has been to see so many people give so graciously to help toward kinley's costs of therapy! we have had many "angels" come into our life and bless our socks off! God is so good! it feel so amazing to have an account that is now just for kinley and her future with helping with this speech journey.!! thank you to everyone for all you have done! you are a TRUE answer to prayer!

kinley is doing SOO well! she is talking so much! a lot of it is babble, as she is in the phase most 12-18 month olds are in of experimenting with her voice. but the best part is she is really imitating A LOT! it is so fun to hear her TRY to repeat what we say! her list of words she uses has gone from about 10 words about 3 months ago to probably40- 50 words she uses on a regular basis. it is amazing! we have had A LOT of hurdles figuring out what works for kinley and i am not going to lie it takes A LOT OF HARD WORK! there are many days i want to quit but we keep pushing through and God is faithful! he gives us just what we need to keep going even when it is hard! it has been so fun to see kinley be able to communicate with others. she LOVES to try to be a part of a conversation ! we have a LONG road still ahead..but words cannot express how amazing it is to hear kinley say new words! when i think back to where we were only 3 months ago when she could not even say daddy....wow...it still brings tears to my eyes!

thank you all for your continued prayers and support! they mean so much! i am hoping to post a couple videos soon of kinley's progress!

kya's graduation!

2011-06-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe she is done with kindergarten! this year went soo fast! we were so blessed to have the world's greatest teacher. Mrs Crum was such a blessing for kya...we could have not have asked for a better teacher! kya and mrs crum had a special bond and there were tears from them both saying goodbye to each other. kya had a GREAT year and learned SOO much! kya blew us away with what she learned in kindie. she got pulled for the gifted math and reading and is now reading chapter books. it has been sooo fun to see her grow is other ways too. i love her heart and how she loves others DEEPLY. she will be the first to help or encourage her classmates. i am so proud her academics, but more importantly i am proud of her heart!! we love you kya payton

kya's dance recital

2011-06-21T19:02:00.001-07:00

kya had her dance recital. it was sooooo cute to see the girls all dressed up! they did such a good job! kya LOVES to dance and is quite a little performer! she knew all the steps perfectly and had a HUGE smile on her face during all her numbers! when i look back at these pictures i cannot believe how grown up she is!

josie's bday party!

2011-06-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

kya's dear friend josie had the most ADORABLE birthday party a little while back. her mom did an AMAZING job decorating and she got each of the girls these cute bonnets and the boys cowboy hats. the bday party was a "old time farm". the kids absolutely LOVED it and had a great time. i had a great time taking pictures of all the cute kids!

field day

2011-06-21T18:31:00.000-07:00

kya had her first field day a couple weeks ago. it was such a fun day watching her classmates have a great time together. they had organized some fun games for the kindie's.

blessings upon blessings

2011-06-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

it has been an amazing couple months. even though it has been so hard finding out about kinley's severe apraxia..it has been AMAZING to see God first hand take care of her! each and every hurdle we have been faced with he has taken care of!! from therapists...to finances...to schedules...everything has been an answered prayer. God has brought so many amazing people into our lives who have GRACIOUSLY given to kinley from support, love, kind words and prayers... to giving of their money. we have been BLOWN away with people's gracious hearts. there have been moments that are hard...but it is in those times i force myself to stop and think of all the blessings!i honestly feel blessed.. i wish i could hug and thank every person who has given in some way to our family. From the bottom of my heart i want to say THANK YOU!!!

helping kinley find her voice

2011-06-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

last Saturday a dear friend jaime savage organized a benefit for kinley. jaime truly has a heart of gold and her and kinley have always had a special bond. when kinley was diagnosed with apraxia jaime dreamed up doing a benefit for kinley to help with all the speech therapy costs kinley will have over the next 10+?? years. she recruited the help from some other AMAZING ladies at our women's bible study who were so wonderful to donate to the sale, to bake some yummy treats, get gift cards donated,tag items, make signs, and just help jaime make this sale happen. jaime made posters of kinley and her story and posted them all over aurora to advertise for her sale. i have never met a more amazing group of ladies! their love on kinley and our family was overwhelming!!!! Jaime, Maggie, Brenda J., Brenda V, Kristy, Tisha, Lorrie and many more amazing ladies who baked and helped...THANK YOU!!!!! you ladies are a TRUE GIFT FROM GOD!!!

when kinley was first diagnosed with severe apraxia we knew that we could not get through this alone. we knew God would provide the strength, patience and financial needs to help kinley find her voice. And then when we found out that kinley's therapy was going to be around $325 an hour we HAD to trust God would provide. within days we got a $1000 donation from some of my parents friends we had never met, we applied for and got an AMAZING grant for kinley for the next 2 years from the shriner rite foundation....and we were blessed with dear friends who wanted to do this benefit! it has been the most amazing experience to see FIRST HAND the power of prayer!!! GOD HAS PROVIDED !!! the benefit sale raised $3000.00!!!!!! we opened an account yesterday for all of kinley's "finding her voice" fund.... i started crying when the banker asked how we raised this money the poor banker even got some tears in his eyes when i told him about all the amazing people in our lives!!!

i wish i had the perfect words to explain how much you all have blessed our hearts! you all have angels to us! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts! i can not wait for the day to come to kinley to be able to come to you all and SAY thank you for all you have done to help her find her voice !

one of the most amazing parts of my day was when a mom showed up to the sale and asked if i was there that she could talk to me. she has seen kinley's poster at southlands mall and said she had to come talk to me. she too has a daughter with SEVERE apraxia who is now 10 years old. her daughter was diagnosed too around 2-3 years old. she came to encourage me and to give me the name of a home therapist she has been using for 7 years! her daughter is still in therapy but is now talking in sentences!! i could not stop the tears from flowing...this dear women drove just to see me and to help. she gave me a big hug and gave me her personal home phone number to call anytime! what an angel! yet another HUGE ANSWER to prayer!

here are some pictures from the day! kinley thought it was awesome to just sit and play with all the stuff that was for sale :)

my mom made a big poster board sign and stood in the middle of smoky hill road to get people attention to come to the sale! love you mom!! Rob J took the afternoon shift and waved the sign ...thanks Rob you rock!

kinley saying THANK YOU!!!

memorial day 2011

2011-06-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

we had some friends and family over on monday for a little memorial day bbq. you know me if given the chance to have some people over and get to decorate a little...i am always on board! we were a little worried about the weather but were so excited to wake up to blue skies and sun! we got everything set up and then the wind started kicking in...well about 30 min into the bbq...i guess i will call it a micro burst wind gust came and blew down 4 sections of our fence. it snapped the posts right off! it was so scary seeing these huge sections of fence fly. thank goodness we have a little decorative fence inside the other fence that kept it from flying down at hurting the kids! the decorations and lawn stuff kind of took a beating, but we had an awesome group who helped clean up and we went right back to the fun! the rest of the day was wonderful and such a great time! the best part is the management company from the hoa came and said the back fence is their responsibility since it backs up to a road....YEA!! wish they would have said that last time we lost the fence in the tornado a couple years back! but i guess one of the home owners took them to court and now how they are covering it! nice!

here are some fun pictures from our day !

it was all fun...until the wind hit.!!

adding a little dish soap to make it more fun!

dylan all lathered up to get some speed!

10 year anniversary

2011-05-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

last week was mark's moms 10 year "heaven anniversary". we try to make that day a day of celebration about her and her life! she obliviously was such an amazing women to have raised such an amazing son! it is our desire to have the girls get to know and still have mark's mom a part of their life even though she is no longer here. we make some of her recipes and have a family dinner where mark tells us stories and we get to ask questions. we have done this every year and i love how each year i learn something new about her! we also for the last 7 years have planted a flower in the yard to remember her! she loved to garden and passed that down to mark as well. it is fun to walk around the yard and see all the plants we have done in her memory. and one of our favorite things is we buy a bunch of balloons and have the girls write notes to grandma and then we fly them to the sky. it is such a fun way for the girls to take part in this day!

happy 10 year heaven day!!

we LOVE YOU!

i do talk to you too......

2011-05-24T08:23:00.001-07:00

I found this on a blog a couple weeks ago...it really touched me..

I know you can't hear me...but I do talk to you.

And I hear everything you say to me too.

I hear you laugh when I do something funny.

I hear you yell "Hooray" when I try so hard.

I hear you tell others you would not trade me for the world

even with all the trials I came with.

I hear you thank God for what a blessing you have been given.

I hear you encourage me when I can almost do it.

I hear when you cry too, when it gets a little harder,

and when you ask God "why!?!?! your baby"

I know you know I understand somehow

And you know I listen when you talk to me too.

But I want you to know Mom....

I do talk to you.

kya's family tradition project

2011-05-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

this week kya had to give a presentation on family traditions to her class! she choose to present how we go to see the elk bugle every year! it has been a fun thing we look forward to doing every fall! she was so excited to put together her poster of pictures from each year! she did a great job! we love you kya!!!

mothers day!

2011-05-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

it was a wonderful mothers day this last week! mark and the girls made me breakfast in bed and gave me some awesome thoughtful gifts! we then went to brunch with my family! the weather was BEAUTIFUL! we spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the backyard and just enjoying each other! i feel soooo blessed to be a mom! i have 2 amazing girls, who love each other dearly and are just soo much fun! i am sooo blessed !!!

i also loved to celebrate my amazing mom and also how she is a wonderful gaga for my girls! she is always there to support, love, talk with, cry with, laugh with, whatever ! she is the perfect role model of being selfless for her kids! i don't know what i would do without my mom! we love you mom!

we also feel sooo blessed to have a wonderful mother in law! jan loves us and loves our girls so much! we are so thankful God brought her into our life! she is such a blessing! we love you so much jan!! you mean so much to us!

here are some fun pictures from our day!

kinley says kya!

2011-05-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

today kinley said KYA!!! we have been waiting sooooo long to hear kinley say kya's name! kya was BEYOND excited to have her sissy say her name!!! it was one of those moment i never want to forget! i keep getting tears in my eyes feeling soooo thankful for God opening all the doors to help us kinley with her apraxia!

kinley says BUBBLE!!!

2011-05-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

our sound of the week this week in therapy is "B". kinley has been doing soo well. this week we had bought some new bubbles and she brought them to me in the kitch and said "BUBBLE"!! i was SHOCKED! it was a word we had not even been working on! for her to TEACH HERSELF that word is AMAZING for her! with her apraxia this is amazing! i had to catch it on video! a moment i never want to forget! kya almost started crying when she was saying her prayers that night...it was amazing to see her heart so touched for her sister! such a good day!

happy birthday mark!

2011-05-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

mark's birthday was the 28th of april. here is the video we posted for daddy from his sweet girls!

happy birthday to the best husband and daddy in the entire world! God sure had a good day when he made you babe! i could not have dreamed up a better person to share my life with! you are everything i ever wanted are SOOO MUCH MORE! you are my best friend and i can't wait to continue to walk this journey of life with you!

way to go kinley!!

2011-05-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

kinley has been doing so well! last week i got a video we took after dinner of kinley doing her new words! we are sooo proud of her ! it is such an answer to prayer! here is a taste of some of the words we are working on!

an end to a WONDERFUL vacation!

2011-05-08T18:44:00.001-07:00

we headed to the beach on last day to make our last memories of a wonderful trip! that night we headed to a restaurant in fort pierce. our table was 5 feet from the water! it was the perfect way to end an amazing vacation! we could not have dreamed for a better week together! there was not one thing we would have changed! thank you sooo much dad and jan for an amazing week! we are soooo excited to come back soon to to it all over again!

dolphins and more fun in the suN!

2011-05-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

on our way to breakfast we saw dolphins right by the house. it was so awesome that dolphins were right there!! the girls thought it was soo amazing! we went to breakfast at a fun restaurant right on the beach and then headed back to the beach !

another day at our favorite beach!

2011-05-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

we were so excited to head back to our new found favorite beach the next day! we had yet another WONDERFUL day playing in the sun and shore together! it was so amazing to just spend all this quality time together as a family! such a blessing!

that evening we got the treat of going to an awesome ocean side restaurant to celebrate our birthdays! it was such a fun night! on our way to be seated the hostess let each of the girls pick out a stuffed animal to keep! the girls thought this was amazing! it kept them soo entertained the entire dinner! we got treated to some amazing seafood sitting right next to the ocean! it was an amazing way to celebrate our birthdays! thank you so much dad and jan!!!!

another day in paradise :)

2011-05-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

we headed back to the beach after a day break...and we were all so excited to go back again. in the morning we loaded up the golfcart and headed to the beach across the street. the girls had a blast making a sea turtle out of sand, and looking for shells. kya was loving doing her boogie boarding that morning and caught quite a few good waves. yet again it was a wonderful day!

that afternoon we went to another beach blind creek about 5 min away. we went there looking for more shells and sea glass. we FELL IN LOVE with this beach. it was like we had the entire beach to ourselves! it was BEAUTIFUL! we had found what was our favorite spot...we played, and played in the shallow waters. it was a perfect spot for the girls.

as we were walking along the beach we saw an injured "bluefish" coming up with the waves. dad kind of pushed the fish with his foot back into deeper water and all of the sudden i saw a FIN coming out of the water about 25 feet from us! it was a SHARK! we watched the shark tumble with the fish and finally catch it. i grabbed my camera and caught on of the fins of the shark as it chased the fish...kind of cool and kind of scary.

all cleaned up after another AMAZING day...

day #3 in florida- oceanographic

2011-05-02T17:25:00.001-07:00

we took a day away from the sun and went to oceanographic a awesome little educational place. the girls loved all the hands on exhibits they had! what a fun place it was! we went on a 1 mile walk through the grounds and saw some beautiful plants and birds! petting the rays going on a walk kinley LOVED to jiggle fish food out and throw it to the fish

day #2

2011-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-04-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-25T18:58:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2011-04-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

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!

stach contest for hungtington's disease

2011-03-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

my dear friend maggie's family has a history of Huntington's disease. maggie has a chance of having the disease herself. for the last couple years her family has done a fundraiser to raise money and awareness for this disease! it is time to find a cure!!! they have a stach contest every year. they guys have be be clean shaved feb 14th and they have about 4 weeks to grow the best stach they can. they then have to dress to match the stach . mark and i went for the american chopper look. mark can grow some MAD facial hair so we had fun with it! he ended up winning the largest stach :) it was a fun night with friends raising money for a good cause. with the sponsors all the guys got they ended up raising about $4000!

we are already looking forward to next year!

we love you maggie and pray everyday that this disease will not touch you!

perfect

2011-03-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

today i had an early start....i am NOT a morning person but today it did not matter that my alarm went off at 530am...i was awake anyway :) i spent a lot of the night awake thinking and praying about kinley's day today. i know i should not doubt that God would work today out perfectly, but i had some moments of worry. would we "click" with our new therapist, would kinley be responsive to therapy, would it work...would kinley talk..... but as i drove to therapy this morning i felt excited and peaceful.

we waited in the waiting room and mary lou our therapist walked out i just knew it was okay. during the next hour we had a GREAT time. mary lou was awesome! she was kind, authentic, FULL of knowledge and a PERFECT FIT :)

i left with A LOT of information and "homework" for kinley and our family...and it was WONDERFUL! as a mother it felt amazing to be empowered with things i can "DO" to help kinley. i am excited about the tools and plan mary lou explained. she warned me that therapy will kind of go in 12 sessions. she told me that i might not see a lot of progress in the first 12 weeks, but she said she is confident that by the end of the 2nd 12 weeks that i will start to really notice some change. i know 6 months seems like a long time to see some little changes, but to hear that we will see something is encouraging. i had a "moment" today with mary lou and with tears had a mommy moment asking if she thought kinley would ever talk. i LOVED her response...she looked at me and just smiled and said "brooke, kinley is already talking...listen to her...we just don't understand what she is saying :) " this statement is so true! kinley may not be able to articulate her words well but boy that sweet girl of ours can communicate in a way all of her own :) kinley has the best personality and it shines !! i love this girl!

it has been another amazing day showing us once again God has the perfect plan for us!

thank you all for your prayers and support!!! i can't wait to video kinley post some videos of her progress!!

excited and nervous :)

2011-03-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

so tomorrow is kinley's first therapy session with the specialist at childrens. this speech language pathologist came HIGHLY recommended from the head of childrens speech department as the best therapist for apraxia. it has been such an answer to prayer to be starting this journey tomorrow. i am both excited and nervous to start. i can't wait to get more tools to help kinley, but i am nervous of how it will go. our appointment is at 8 am in littleton ( about 40 min away). i am so thankful for one of my mom's friends, jane, who has GRACIOUSLY offered to come to my house at 715 am to help get kya ready and bring her to school, since me and kinley will be leaving then to drive to her therapy. thank you jane ! it has been amazing having people totally selflessly offering to help us out ! for now we are scheduled every other tues at 8 am and every other thurs at 1100. i have already had NUMEROUS offers to pick kya up from school those thurs...once again THANK YOU ! every hurdle i seem faced with, God just knocks down as almost to say "there you go, i will take care of that :)". it has been amazing !

we made it to church this weekend..for some reason we have not been able to bring ourselves to go the last couple weeks. it is so crazy how the place where your soul gets nourished and taken care of.... we avoided. i think it was due to the fear of emotions. mark and i both said how we were doing so well to "hold it together" that we didn't want to fall apart at church. now that is actually wrote and read this....it is so obviously crazy. that is EXACTLY where we should have RUN to ! who cares if people see your tears streaming down during the service..or how you walked into the service with your makeup done nicely but when i leave there is hardly a trace of any ! this weekend was just that...mark and i think made it about 30 seconds into worship before the tears started flowing. it was not all sad tears, but tears showing our emotional humble faith that God is there...taking care of us. it was almost cleansing to our souls it felt amazing, it was just what our hearts, souls and minds needed. i walked out of church and all i felt was PEACE! i hope that we don't make that mistake again and worry more about showing our "humanness" then spending time with God.

i will update you all tomorrow after our therapy session and let you know how it went. prayers that we "click" with our therapist would be awesome! we will be spending a lot of time with her and it is my prayer that she would too feel like we are a good fit. thank you all again for your notes, prayers, emails etc. it is amazing to be so loved and supported!

a great afternoon!

2011-03-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

this afternoon it was so nice to just hang out with my girls. we laughed, we sang. we blew bubbles, we had "girls club" in the top club house of our playset, we read books...we just had fun! it felt so good to just be outside and soak in some "normal" time with my girls. life has been kind of crazy the last couple weeks, so taking the afternoon to just have fun with them, was a gift to my soul.

i felt like i was smiling all afternoon...it is amazing to me how even though kinley can not say alot of words...she finds her own way to communicate. God blessed her with this AMAZING personality and she is so EXPRESSIVE in all she does. she also is loving using the sign language we have been learning. i just feel every hour i see God blessing our lives through this current situation.

a favorite moment today happened when we were sitting on on the grass laughing at wilson trying to eat the bubbles we were blowing and kya said " mommy did you just hear kinley...she just said ilon op (wilson pop)! see mom jesus hears our prayers and he is already answering them...he is so awesome huh". i got tears in my eyes..."yes kya he is awesome! " but also what is awesome is how my girls are getting to live in the middle of his blessings right now...it makes all this struggle worth it!

wow!

2011-03-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

amazing! thank you LORD! we just opened the mail a little while ago and received the letter from the scottish rite foundation. we had applied to this foundation ( which is funded by the shriner hospital) for a scholarship for kinley. we wrote a letter and included a picture asking them to please join us in helping kinley learn to speak! it was yet another answer to prayer that we were even able to be considered this month due to that the registration deadline was before we had even met with childrens. but we wrote a letter and turned it in last thurs praying that this could be a way to help us! i got a phone call from the coordinator that day that said she opened our application that we had dropped off and kinley's picture fell out...she said "i just could not say no to that face" and she pushed us through to the board meeting that was the next day rather then having to wait till the next month's meeting! another answered prayer!

we have been in constant prayer since then...praying that kinley's story touched the board members hearts. i was not expecting to hear back so soon and the letter even had our address WRONG 19010 instead of 19101...and it was delivered no problems. thank you God :) mark and i said a quick prayer and we opened the letter...the tears started flowing....we got an amazing scholarship to aid with kinley's therapy. they are willing to cover 1 time week therapy through childrens and our part will only by $300 a month!! they are covering the additional $1100 a month for the next 2 years!! i could not stop crying tears of joy that ONCE AGAIN GOD IS PROVIDING!!! after talking to kinley's current speech therapist from school..we are sure she will need some additional speech therapy in order to learn to talk. most specialists recommend 3 times a week. we are sooo thankful to have 1 time a week covered at a much reduced cost for us. we are still praying that God opens doors for some other private therapy that kinley can do in addition. we have faith God too has a plan for this...

THANK YOU for your prayers! they are WORKING!

God is in control

2011-03-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

wow~what a week! i kind of don't know where to start...my heart has been in darkest depths i have ever been but also has been at highest heights. we went to childrens last tues for kinley's formal evaluation for her speech. it was confirmed that kinley does have moderate to severe developmental apraxia. there is a 25-30% chance she will never be able to talk. they did test her receptive language and she was at the level of a 4 year old. so we have a very smart little girl on our hands that has ALL the words her sweet brain...but just does not have the motor planning to say those words. it was heartbreaking to hear.....

walking out of the evaluation i was trying to hold it all in. i knew if i let myself go to the place that this is all really happening i would not be able to drive. i had about 10 min to calm down and get to kya's parent teacher conference. by the grace of God i was able to walk into kya's conference and focus on her. i had to be a mom for kya too...i had to be present and excited for all the things God is doing in kya's life. i made it through and listened as kya's teacher sung kya's praises. kya is an amazing 5 year old...has a heart of gold and is such a bright little girl! it was so crazy feeling to proud of kya and at the same time feeling so broken for kinley.

by the time i got home all that emotion came CRASHING down. i have never in my life experienced a panic attack but i knew that is what was happening. all these doubts about my ability to be strong enough to be the mother kinley needed, questions about how we were going to get through this, if kinley was EVER going to actually be able to talk, questioning if i had done something to deserve this or cause this, questions of why God did this to kinley...and so much more filled my mind and i just could not catch my breath. praise the lord. mark, my mom and my dad all were at my house within an hour to support us through this. i was able to take some medicine and sleep for a couple hrs. i woke up knowing that it was not by my strength alone we were going to get through this...it was OBVIOUS i was weak...and that only through the strength of God could we make it thought this journey.

by the next day the pressure in my chest had lifted and i just had this peace that i knew only could come from God. my dear daughter kya had the most profound and mature things to say while we had breakfast. she just looked me in the eye and said "mommy, God is going to take care of us. we all have things that make us different...i have a birthmark, and i know it makes me special. kinley might not be able to talk...but that makes her special too. God loves us JUST AS WE ARE right mom"?? wow...it soon became so clear that this indeed was a blessing...that God chose kinley to be a light to others through her struggle. i was amazed that God used my sweet 5 year old girl to change my entire outlook on apraxia.

we prayed that night as a family for God to be our guide. we prayed that God would have to open doors wide for us so we would follow the path he had planned for kinley. on weds we had received a lot of information about therapy for apraxia and received numbers of $350 a session for speech that was not going to be covered by our insurance. we knew that God was going to have to provide the means for that. $1400 was not a amount we knew we could cover without God's great provision.

thurs morning i woke up and spent some time with the Lord again praying for doors to SWING WIDE OPEN for us. about 20 min later i got a phone call from my mom that a couple from our church, whom i have never met, came into my dad's office with a envelope with kinley's name on it...inside was $1000 towards kinley's first therapy sessions. i was amazed seeing God's provision and it was almost as him saying to me " brooke i am in control...trust me". throughout that day it was phone call after phone call of answers to prayers.

we were told of an amazing speech pathologist that specializes in apraxia but were told she had a wait list that we would have to go on. i got a phone call about 5 min later from the coordinator that she spoke with this therapist and she was going to hold a spot for kinley in her schedule ! yet another answer to prayer. and those are just some of them...it was an amazing day seeing answered prayer after answered prayer.

i know this is going to be a long hard road. but i TRULY trust God is going to carry kinley through this. i believe he is going to give her words that go along with that amazing personality he blessed her with. i know he must have a VERY SPECIAL plan for our sweet girl! i feel blessed to be her mom and to get a first had view of all the amazing things he is going to do in her life!

thank you all for your prayers, notes, calls, texts, emails etc supporting us through this ! it means more then you will ever know!

what we have been up to....

2011-03-11T20:42:00.000-08:00

so i am aware it has been a month since i have blogged. i am hoping to have a lot more information next tues, but recently we have found out that kinley most likely has developmental apraxia. it is a neurological issue where they have all the words in there heads but do not have the motor planning to actually get the words formed. we have spent A LOT of time, praying, educating ourselves, talking to insurance companies, therapists, and just processing what this means for us as a family. there is a chance kinley may never be able to verbally communicate, but most kids with INTENSIVE therapy can get to a level of communication and some even get to a point that most would never know the person even had apraxia. at this time we have no idea the severity of kinley's apraxia. we go into children's for our formal evaluation and will hopefully get a lot more clarity and information. kinley also has sensory integration disorder which can complicate her apraxia. please keep kinley and our family in your prayers. we trust God has a plan for our sweet girl! she brings so much joy to our lives! thank you for all your care and concern for our family during this process!

happy valentines

2011-02-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

happy valentines day!

we decided to celebrate valentines at home this year. me and kya planned a special night for daddy :) we got some of his favorite foods and decorated the table special. kya LOVES doing special things for people so she had a blast helping plan for our night. she said she would be our entertainment for the night and got dressed up to perform some dances for us.

before daddy got home she found some fake flowers in her playroom and waited patiently by the front door waiting for her daddy to come home. when he walked in the door she so sweetly gave her daddy a big hug and kiss and asked him if he would be her valentine :)

we had a great night, listening to great music and just being together. we had cheese fondue while kya did some "performances" for us, and then went on the main course of cauliflower au gratin, baby gold parmesan potatoes, and rib eye steak. mark was in heaven :) i feel so blessed to share my valentines with my 3 valentines! i am so lucky to be married to the man of my dreams and to have 2 beautiful daughters that could not bring me more joy!

happy valentines day!!

kinley's 3 !

2011-02-15T08:38:00.000-08:00

kinley turned three last week! it is still amazing to me that my little baby is 3. it really hit me that she is now a big girl! she is potty trained, sleeps in a big girl bed & is now going to school!! she goes to school 4 days a week and is LOVING it! she loves her teachers and loves all the new friends she is making. it feels so good to have her in a place that she not only LOVES, but she also is working daily with therapists on her speech and gross motor skills. i feel i see a difference already in her speech and in her confidence in trying new words. we feel so blessed to have her where she is right now.

for kinley's birthday party we had the perfect theme. if anyone has hung out with kinley at all knows of her LOVE for dogs. actually kinley thinks she is part dog :) it is not uncommon to find kinley crawling on the floor and yes...quite often barking!! so the pink poodle party was PERFECT! we invited the family over to celebrate our sweet girl!

on her actual birthday we headed to monkey bizness! she loves this place! gaga, miss jaime and shelby joined us for a morning of fun celebrating kins.

we then grabbed some lunch and headed home for naps before our family fun night at chuck e cheese :)

happy 3rd birthday sweet girl!!! we sure do love you!!

days i always want to remember

2011-02-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

last week we had some BEAUTIFUL days, so we took full advantage and headed to the park! the girls LOVE to be outside and i love it almost as much! i grabbed the camera and had a blast just taking pictures. it is days like this i always want to remember. when life seemed simple and a morning spent at the park made life seem perfect. i don't know why but there seems to be soo much tragedy around these days. sickness, marriages falling apart...etc.. It makes me really stop and take each day for the treasure it is. thankful i have 2 healthy girls, a loving devoted husband, and so much more. please keep this sweet family in your prayers. she is a young mother of 2 girls ages (12,10). my heart breaks for them! www.thesimplewife.typepad.com

so when life seems to get crazy and we find ourselves complaining, loosing our patience...etc. take a deep breath and truly thank God for all the blessing we do have and treasure each moment......

kinley started school!!!

2011-01-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

kinley started preschool this past week. she is going to heritage elementary school in the "young 3's" classroom. kinley has been evaluated through early childhood intervention through the school district and she qualified for special needs or an "iep" which is a individualized education plan. this has been such a blessing, but at the very same time has been a hard process. it is never easy hearing your child has delays and is behind from where she should be for her age. they tell us most of her delays they believe are highly correlated to her chronic ear infections her first 2 years of life. she did not have a normal hearing screen till her second set of tubes was placed last december. we are just going on 1 year of her hearing normal, so of course her speech would be delayed. but they also stated she continues to be delayed in her gross motor skills, and motor planning. after her "iep" meeting last week, i could not stop crying on the way home. my heart just hurt for her..they said the noticed in her evaluation that she is very smart, and is very aware that she is is behind her peers in her speech. i also have noticed in the last couple months her withdrawing and going to do her own thing because she feels insecure that she can not communicate like her peers. the team feels very confident that with her coming to school and being with kids her age , and working daily with ot, pt, and speech specialists they will get her to where she needs to be for kindergarten. the team we are working with are AMAZING! they LOVE kinley and are always saying what a great personality she has and what a joy she is to be around. we love her teacher at her new school and they have welcomed kinley with open arms. i am so excited for this for kinley and i pray that this helps her so that she can communicate better. please keep kinley in your prayers that she would thrive in this environment! and prayers for her mama who is missing her baby girl at home 4 mornings a week :)

here are some pictures of our sweet kinley her first couple days of school. she is too cute putting on her backpack and walking into school! we love you kinley hudson! we know God has a VERY SPECIAL plan for your life! your joy of life and amazing smile have and will continue to touch so many people! we love you soo much and are so proud of you!

vegas :)

2011-01-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

mark had a conference in vegas last week and i got to tag along! it was so nice to get some quality one on one time with mark in the evenings..as well for me to get to nice relaxation time during the day! it was BEAUTIFUL weather and i got to spend a lot of time by the pool soaking in the sunshine! it was AWESOME! when mark would finish a the conference we got to enjoy nice long dinners just chatting and catching up and then spend the nights watching the fun "shows" on the strip and did some slots :) mark even won $50 on a penny slot! kind of fun! we stayed at the trump hotel...which was so nice and even got upgraded to a penthouse suite...it was amazing! it had an amazing view of the entire strip! over all was such a great time just reconnecting with my AMAZING husband!

christmas 2010

2011-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

we had a great christmas day this year. i think mommy and daddy were as excited for the kids to celebrate! the girl were so fun this year to watch open presents and enjoy the day celebrating the birth of jesus! mark made an amazing birthday cake for christmas eve for jesus. the girls thought that was pretty awesome. they LOVED singing happy birthday to jesus! the girls got their wishes from santa...kya got a netbook computer and kinley a new doll stroller, and they both got american dolls/clothes/ beds from their grandparents and family. they were soo excited. kya got lanie and kinley got a doll she named hudson :) both lanie and hudson have become a part of our family :) here are some highlights from the day. mommy's camera broke midway though christmas morning, so we had to make due with mommy's old camera :) we are hoping they can fix my camera..i have been in withdrawal not being able to take pictures since christmas morning :)

santa train :)

2011-01-11T08:53:00.001-08:00

we took the girls on the georgetown santa train a couple days before christmas. they girls were so excited to get on the "polar express" in their new pj's.we got a lot of time with santa, had hot cocoa and cookie, we sang christmas carols. and got to enjoy the falling snow as we rode the train through the beautiful mountains we had a WONDERFUL family day together. we are planning of making this an annual tradition with the girls!

christmas

2011-01-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

we had a lot of christmas parties this year. these are a couple from the van eps family get together.

wild lights

2011-01-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

we went to the wild lights with the sola and savage families before chritmas. it was such a fun night! we feel so blessed to have such amazing friends!

my crazy baby

2011-01-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

i love when i have some one on one time with kinley..she is such a funny girl! it has been awesome to have our mornings together while big sissy is off at school. she is always happy and entertaining. she LOVES to laugh and her best buddy is wilson our dog. she loves him so much she actually acts like a dog...a lot of her days i find her barking, crawling, and licking like wilson. i think it is kind of funny and hope this is not something that continues forever :) she is learning more and more words which is awesome. kinley has been working with a speech therapist since she was 2 and we have seen some HUGE strides. recently we had her evaluation with the school district and she got approved for early preschool for her speech. they tell us she has apraxia of speech..which basically means she KNOWS what she wants to say, but just has a hard time having the motor planning to make the sounds. she starts school right after her 3rd birthday which is feb 7th. i feel so blessed to live in such a great school district with amazing services at our fingertips and they are all for free! praise God! BUT..... i am having a hard time knowing my baby is starting school 3-4 morning and week next month. i know this is what is best for kinley, and i am trusting God will give me the strength to be strong for her. here are some fun pictures of kinley in a typical morning with mommy and wilson. i get tears in my eyes knowing these are coming to an end :( i love you kinley hudson you are PURE JOY in my life!

kya's christmas dance show and tell :)

2011-01-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

kya is still in ballet and tap at miller's dance studio. she LOVES it and has so much fun! for christmas her teacher taught the class a little christmas tap routine for us parents! kya's takes dance with a couple of her friends she had from preschool. kya's friend josie has twin little brothers grady and carter...and kinley LOVES them. it is a fun time for all as the girls get to dance, the little one play and the mommy's talk :)

kya's africa project

2011-01-03T14:11:00.000-08:00

kya's class has been working on learning all about africa. she had to do a report on an animal of her choice. daddy helped kya and she worked really hard! we were so proud of her ! way to go kya!!

seeing santa and trains :)

2011-01-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

our dear friends the sola's invited us to come along to the train museum to see santa this year. we have never been before, and we loved it! we got to see santa ride and train and enjoy some hot cocoa. what a fun time spending time with great friends!

sweet sisters

2010-12-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

i feel so blessed to have my girls get along so well. i don't know how long it will last before the inevitable sisterly fighting will start...but for now i am just soaking in how much they love just being together! kya asked if she could put kinley to bed, and wow did she do a great job, she read books to her, she rocked her and sang her song, she prayed with her, and then tucked her with with a big hug and kiss and covered her up sweetly with blankets. kinley went to bed without a sound!!

someday when they are fighting and not loving eachother well..i will show them these pictures :)

happy thanksgiving :)

2010-12-03T15:01:00.000-08:00

christmas decorating

2010-11-30T08:20:00.000-08:00

we broke the rules this year and did our christmas decorating the weekend before thanksgiving. i was scheduled to work thanksgiving night so we figured we would do it early when mama was not exhausted from working. it was so fun to decorate this year! kya always has loved it, but i was so cute to see kinley really get into it this year! the girls were so fun helping get everything up. we always kind of go overboard decorating, but we LOVE it! we got kinley a tree for her room too this year, both girls LOVE having decorations in their room. this is really my favorite time of year when we can sit at night with the lights on, christmas music going and spend time together as a family.one of our favorite traditions is sitting around the christmas tree before bedtime and reading christmas stories. here are some pictures from our day decorating together :)

so fun to decorate as a family! we all equally enjoy it!

family room

tree in kitchen

dining room tree and christmas village from mark's mom. it means SOOO much to mark to have this as it is such a great memory that he and his mom had putting it up together every year! we have the rest of the village in our bedroom on our dresser. i still need to take a picture of it :)

dining room decorations

loft playroom tree :)

sitting and reading books by the tree :)

pure joy!

2010-11-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

i love how excited kids get over the simple joys of life!

1st snow!

2010-11-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

we finally got out first snow. they girls were so excited to go play out in it! it was so fun to watch the girls build a snowman together!