halloween!

the house mess...

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!

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!

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

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

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

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!