Happy Birthday Autumn!

Today is the day we celebrate Autumn's Birthday. Since she was a rescue dog we don't know when her actual Birthday is and we just can't let the year go by without celebrating her, so the first day of Autumn is her special day! Fitting don't ya think. Jeff picked up her Birthday cake from Treats Unleashed on his way home from work, and it turned out great! Autumn desperately needed a new retractable leash so she got one of those, a couple new toys, and some beggin strips (she really loves those) Here is a picture of the cake and goodies before she got to them, and then one of Autumn enjoying her doggie ice cream and cake!





Happy Birthday Autumn girl, we love you so much.

Speech Evaluation

Today was the day. Jack went to the Early Childhood center for his Speech evaluation. He has been making great progress with his speech and language, but I still needed to have him evaluated to make sure he was on track.

We received wonderful news, no therapy is needed! I got to sit in on the evaluation, and only had to prompt him twice to focus with his teacher. He did amazingly well, and I actually shed a few happy tears..............I was beyond thrilled to hear all these words coming out of his mouth and his articulation is great! She didn't go over everything with me today (I will get the full report in 2 weeks), but she wanted to reassure me that he is doing great and no therapy was needed! She said "keep up the good work Mom, he is making great strides". In my mind I had a huge sigh of relief that I am actually doing something right with this precious little boy, it feels nice to have someone acknowledge that from time to time...........keep up the great work Jack!

My wonderful husband

This past weekend my wonderful hubby rode 80 miles in the Multiple Sclerosis Bike Ride. While the course was hillier than he was expecting he kept on riding. He rode this ride in honor of my Mom who was diagnosed with MS over 10 years ago, she currently takes Avonex once a week to help slow the progression of the disease since there is no cure. She recently had a check up with her neurologist and he proclaimed that she was doing great...........terrific news!

We are all so proud of Jeff's accomplishment with the ride and we loved celebrating at the finish line with him. His Brother also rode in the bike ride and their total fund raising was nearly $1,100! We were so excited for both of them, and my heartfelt thank you, hugs and kisses goes out to these two great guys. Thank you for making my Mom feel so special and so loved, it was a wonderful weekend!

Here is Jeff and Jim getting ready to cross the finish line!

Jeff, my Mom and Jim after the ride! Way to go!

A picture of my Baby and me. I gobbled him up when we got home, I had missed him!

Tongue tied no more!

As most of you know Jack had minor surgery on February 11th to have his lingual frenulum ( the strand of tissue that connects the bottom of your tongue to the floor of your mouth) clipped. Jack's was attached nearly to the tip of his tongue so his ENT Doctor decided to have it snipped before it ended up causing difficulties with his speech. Well last night while we were at Holy Thursday mass, Jack tapped me on the arm and when I turned to see what he needed he was showing me a trick with his tongue. He had the tip of his tongue bent down behind his bottom teeth and he was trying to push his tongue out......hard to explain, but this was something I have never seen him do before and then he stuck his tongue out and was reaching it down to about the middle of chin. I was shocked to see him stretching his tongue in so many different ways. Just in that instant I knew we had made the right decision to have this issue taken care of last month. He is slowly adding more words to his vocabulary and he can even lick an ice cream cone now! What a huge difference, I can only imagine how it must feel for him to be able to move his tongue freely now. He obviously was so surprised by it himself that he felt the need to show me his little trick in the middle of mass. HA! No picture to go along with this post, because I obviously don't bring my camera into church, so I will post a picture of Jack from when we were at the beach in January. (click on the picture if you want to see it bigger)

Saturday fun!

On Saturday we had breakfast with the Easter Bunny, and Jack enjoyed making a few crafts and of course hunting for easter eggs. He wasn't too sure of the Easter Bunny until after the hunt was over and I told him that the Easter Bunny was the one who put all the treats in the eggs for him to find. He ran right over to her and gave her the biggest hug, and said "thank you". He left with his bucket full of goodies and sucker for the ride home.

Saturday evening we celebrated Emilie's 2nd Birthday, one of Jack's second cousins (I think). Jack and Emile are just 9 months apart in age and they are both such sweet natured kiddos, and they play so good together. Emilie is going to be a big sister in August and we found out on Saturday that she will have a little brother! YAY! We are so excited for them, and can't wait for the newest miracle to enter the family! Here are a few pictures from the day!

Jack with his favorite treat of the day!

Jack and Emilie, the Birthday girl!

Spring time is here!

This past week has brought us warmer weather and Jack has enjoyed being able to play outside again finally! He is a master on his trike, and I bet is a few short months he will be ready for an actual bike, with training wheels of course.




We also made a trip to the park this week and Baba (AKA Gramma) was happy to join us. Jack and Claire enjoyed being around all the other kiddos there and they were thrilled to show Baba all that they could do on the playground equipment. I sure hope this warm weather sticks around because it certainly makes the day go by fast when we are outside playing all morning!