Auntie Again

Well, I am going to be an Auntie again, my brother and his girlfriend Alicia expecting a baby in April of 2008. We got to see an ultrasound last weekend and found out they are having a girl. We are all so excited. Evan was the last grandbaby born into the family. My brother has found his equal in Alicia, she loves to fish as much as he does and keeps him on his toes because she can dish it out as well as he can. So we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest little one. I am so happy that my brother has found a great person to start his family and new life with . So keep checking in April for pics of the baby.

A cat has adopted us

Over the weekend this cat found it's way into our backyard. After about a day and a half I felt sorry for the cat and fed it some tuna. I know what you are thinking big mistake. Well, it has made itself at home and comes in the house to eat (to reduce flies and ants) and plays with the kids and cuddles with whoever will let it. But the cat goes outside at night and most of the day. Evan loves the cat he follows it everywhere.(i am not sure of the sex of the cat) The cat is pretty tolerable of Evan. Gabriel and Cynthia are excited to have a cat also. We are going to put flyers up because the cat does have a collar but in the meantime we will make sure it is fed and gets some love from a family. The funny thing is this cat reminds me of a cat I had as a child, her name was Bud and she was not always the nicest cat, but my parents got her before I was born and thought she was a boy until she had kittens, they had already named her bud so we just say her name was Rosebud and called her Bud for short. We are enjoying having a cat.

Riding the Bus to school

Well, now that Evan is in his special ed preschool he is eligible to ride the bus to school. I was very nervous about this because of the restraint system. He is strapped in a 5 pt harness in the morning but the afternoon bus does not always have this so he is in a vest system. I still might have him ride in his wheelchair but we will see how it goes. He is so excited to ride the bus and I imagine he thinks he is a big boy getting to ride with the other kids. Mommy on the other hand cried the first day. I guess it is the whole label the "short bus" gets and what it was called when I was younger, it could be the fact that he is in special education that makes it hard and the fact that he has only been in school two weeks and I am already having to fight to make sure he is getting the services he needs. Oh, well that is the life with the school district and having a special needs child. But all in all Evan is loving school and having a great time. He is even taking naps a couple days a week.

Today was Evan's first day of preschool at Elitha Donner Elementary in the special ed communication based classroom. He loves school but he did cry on Wednesday and Thursday when I left him. He may be riding the bus starting on Monday if they have a good restraint system.


Evan is playing at the beginning of his class

Evan is wiped out after a long day at school

Update on Evan

Well, Evan had his IEP on Friday October 19, 2007 and it went a lot better than I was expecting. Of course once he starts school we will see how it goes. Anyway, he will be starting school on October 30th at a special education preschool that is a communication based program. His class will have no more than 12 kids in attendance. He will get group speech therapy and OT, as well as individualized services as well. He is going to get a adaptive PE evaluation which hopefully, they will recommend that he still gets Physical therapy as well. Another big concern is feeding therapy. I am hopeful that the speech therapist knows enough to work on that but if not then we can contract out with our past feeding therapist. Basically it is a wait and see game right now, I have to wait and see how things go at the school and with the therapists and then if it is not to my liking and Evan's benefit then I will have to do what I can do to get it changed. I will post pics of Evan's first day of school soon. I am so excited for him to start school I think he will do very well.

Happy Birthday Evan

Evan had fun playing in the playhouse outside

Evan and Mia are buddies, here they are sitting on Evan's new Thomas the Tank Engine couch that Grandma Barbara and Grandpa Steve got him.

Auntie Donna got Evan this cool horse and he sat on it right away and pretended he was riding it. He thought it was so cool
Check out Evan in this last picture. He is trying to blow out his candles but he does not have the skills to actually blow, he has a hard time getting his lips together in the right position. Anyway, I think it is so cute how he tries to blow his candles out. He does the same thing when we are blowing on hot food.

The Boys

Here are some pics we took at Picture People in June. I bought Gabriel and Evan these jerseys just so we could take a picture in them. These pictures really show their personalities.


Our friends Nicholas and Connor Kiesel got these cool ride on toys, Gabriel and Evan had fun trying out the motorcycle