Mini Laps!

It's MiniLaps time again! The last year has seen some amazing improvements in Addison’s development. She has gone from very little verbal communication to using words to express her thoughts and get what she needs; from barely walking to running, jumping and keeping up with her brother. She has learned her alphabet, colors, counts from 1-13 and recognizes not only her first and last name, but all the names of her friends in class as well.

Even more importantly, her self-confidence has grown immensely. She is a trendsetter in her class and even has one friend from whom she has to be separated during class because they get in trouble for talking together.

We have the Little Light House to thank for these incredible accomplishments. This amazing school provides individualized education plans for each child, including Physical, Occupational, Speech and Vision Therapies. They use a Bible-based curriculum to teach students not only basics such as the alphabet and numbers, but also skills they will need to transition into schools. They even have parent meetings to guide parents in dealing with difficult behaviors or challenges at home (not that we’ve needed that!) And, it gets better. It is completely tuition-free! The school chooses to receive no government funding or United Way support so that they can continue to be a Christian school. It is supported entirely through private donations and corporate donors. As you can imagine, this kind of education can cost quite a bit. TLLH will spend roughly $17,000 this year to educate Addison alone. MiniLaps is our chance to help TLLH raise some of that money. Each child will make one lap around the TLLH track to celebrate the accomplishments they’ve made over the last year. Our job is to get sponsors for Addison’s lap to support this invaluable school.

A lot or a little, your money is going to a good cause for a very special girl. TLLH is a 501(C)(3) organization, so all contributions are tax deductible. Simply click on Addison's sassy picture on the right and you will be redirected to her MiniLaps page. Thank you for supporting our little girl and her friends at this incredible school.

If you’d like to know more about the impact The Little Light House has, you can watch a video that features Addison. Go to www.littlelighthouse.org and click the link to “Haven of Hope.”

Crazy Kids

So, I guess I’ve got some catching up to do. The kids have been CRAZY lately! I’m realizing I’m going to have a double dose of the “terrible twos” at the same time. Just a few of the things the kids have been up to lately:

I let them play upstairs by themselves for a little while, thinking everything was childproofed. Didn’t realize they could get into the bathroom. They stuffed everything they could from the drawers and cabinets into the toilet. I can’t believe they didn’t flush it, but am oh so thankful they didn’t. We’ve already been down that road once & had to take the toilet off the floor to retrieve the ball Austin stuffed under the locked toilet seat.

They also found the permanent marker I use to mark their diapers. Once again, didn’t realize they could reach the drawer. They colored diapers, hands and a baby doll’s head- no clothes, no furniture, no carpet. I can’t believe I got so lucky!

We went to Waco last week & hung out with Grans while Wes went camping & fishing with my dad & brother. It was a crazy week. Being away from home is always hard with little ones, but I think the kids were actually a little over-stimulated by all the stuff we planned to do. We braved the heat and went to the zoo, a children’s museum...

painted outside...



rode a train...
& did lots of swimming.

And to top it all off, when we got home, Addison started sleeping in a big bed! She did great the last 2 nights, but chose to exercise her new freedom tonight. I felt like we were doing the newborn thing all over again. “Do we let her cry or do we go in and put her back in her bed?”