Wrapping up 2011 Nov-Dec

It seems alike alot of nothing has happened the past month.  Jeremy and I went to Mexico to the Mayan Riv for a week, stayed at the Azul Fives.  Great food, I gained at least ten pounds, yikes!  MIL did really well with the kids, they all gained weight while we were gone, but nobody got sick so we were happy! 

Nov 18th-Lucas came to start the basement bathroom and it was totally 110% finished on Dec 12th!  Its beautiful!  We picked some gorgeous tile colors, very nice!  Currently nicest bathroom in the house, lol. 

Dec 4th-had the STARS family Christmas party-kids all got to see Santa again and nobody cried!  It was a great time-gotta post some pics.

Dec 5th-the girls at the College had a joint baby shower for myself and three other instructors, it was nice to see all the new babies!  Joseph and I had a great afternoon together:) 

Dec 9th-Joseph had his four month vaxes, he weighs 14lb5oz and is 24" tall-25th%ile for height and weight, he's my smallest baby yet! 

Dec 11th-Nolan and Elizabeth's last swimming lesson for 2011.  They were sad but are so excited to be doing their next lessons in the new Multiplex in January!
              Today is also the day we went to do a photo shoot with Maj in the park, chilly day but it was quick!

Dec 9th-started 100miles in 100 days on FB with my friends.  So far I've got one mile in but am confident that I can do this!  Lots of interest and support so I'm feeling good about this. 

What else is new? 
This week Theodore started dressing himself with socks, pants and shirt, "All by myself!".  He manages to get both shirts and pants backwards most times, but its cute! 
Nolan has his preschool "Christmas" concert on Wednesday, very cute and lots of fun!  The three middle kids loved it!  They can't wait to hit preschool next year! 

I've been working with Nolan with alphabet cards this week in an attempt to get him familiar with beginning to read.  We've done from A-N both capitals and small letters, and he's writing capital A-H for me in his little workbook.  He wasn't really interested until now, he couldn't even hold a pencil properly until his fifth birthday.  My goal is to introduce two new letters a day until we finish, then start with some sight words.  I really want to help him with reading since I'm aware his speech delay will make that harder.  Theodore is actually recognizing many of the letters without looking at the pictures first, its really cute! 

Arthur has been wearing cowboy boots during the day since Erica the PT was here on Dec 1st to try to lengthen his calf muscles so he won't toe-walk anymore.  He's very agreeable to wearing them all day, and each day I do exercises where he bends his toes back by myself to also help with that.  This toe walking thing needs to be significantly reduced before we see the motion specialist in March again or they're going to give him some sort of brace.  I'm hoping we figure this out quickly for him. 

Otherwise all is well here.  Jeremy is working so much, waiting to see if he's getting a promotion he's applied for.  I'm busy with my Master's, prepping for my students starting in January, and getting wrapped up for Christmas.  Nolan's last day to school was today for the holidays, so that will be a nice break for all of us.

I am so glad I held him back for another year of speech preschool.  He's the tallest and most confident in his class right now and his speech has improved significantly since September.  I still have to get last month's report card, but I'm not anticipating anything too exciting from it if its anything like last year's;)