Lots and Lots of Pictures!

The biggest news of the last couple months is of course that we now have a four year old running around the house. She loved her birthday this year and is already talking about next September when she turns 5. I brought cupcakes to school on her birthday and we finished off the day with spaghetti and presents. She had her birthday party that weekend. Had her three little girl cousins over and they all made a strawberry necklace and got their hair and make up done. Then we all headed to Pizza Hut to have pizza, cake and presents with family. Jeff, Kathy, Megan and Bill were able to come for the weekend and Maddy loved spending some time with them. She loved the bike they got her too, I don't have any pictures of her getting the bike. I need to remember to take pictures of her when she goes out for her rides. Maddy is also in soccer this year and I'm helping to coach. It's been fun and challenging at the same time. She's doing a lot better at practice and loves the games. She just chases the group of kids around and smiles the whole time.

Maddy has also started preschool and she LOVES it! She loves getting to ride the bus to and from school especially. She's getting speech therapy one day a week (mondays) and she's liking that a lot too. She even has homework!

You should be able to click on these links and see the pictures I've posted on Facebook.
Fourth Of July
Visit from Jeff and Kathy
Pictures on the front porch
Pre-School Pictures
Soccer '09
Birthday '09
Random Cell Phone Pictures

I also got a job cashiering at Home Depot. Don't know how many hours yet but I start this Sunday. They said they are going to get me into the customer service booth as soon as there is extra hours there, that would give me some experience hopefully to help me get a better job later. On top of that I'm helping a friend out with her blog as a contributing writer. It's a lot of fun.

So that's about it. With school 4 days a week and soccer 3 days a week things have been a bit hectic here.

Summer time fun.

What is summer without a little Bible School, swimming and outside play? The girls are loving their new sandbox and we've got a swimming pool now too. We have a lot of meals outside and they love that. Tomorrow is the 4th and we've got some fun planned. Watching the parade at noon and then have some family over to hang out in the backyard. Home made ice cream in the afternoon, dinner and then the village fireworks at dusk. The girls are really looking forward to the fireworks. Maddy loved them last year.

Jon has been busy with hockey and work. I had surgery a week ago and I'm healing well. Jon and I are planning on going with a couple friends to Columbus to watch the first showing of the new Harry Potter movie at midnight. We are going to be staying the night at a hotel (thanks Becki!) so we don't have to drive home after. Not much else going on this month.

I have put together an album on facebook with pictures from the last month or so. I have it set so everyone can view it. Click here to view it!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe weekend!

Florida pictures and a small update

Jon, Maddy and I had a great time in Florida visiting the family. Thank You to Jeff and Kathy especially for making it so nice and to everyone for helping to keep an eye on Maddy. I'm going to add a link for pictures. I know everyone is busy right now but I can't wait to see the everyone's pictures. Megan Jon told me yesterday about your new job! Congrats!

I had an interview a week ago and they said it could be a few weeks before I hear anything. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed but continuing to look for more opportunities. I am headed to Chicago next weekend to hang out with a few girlfriends. We did this last year and had a blast so I'm anticipating the same for this year. Also on the 25th of June I will be having surgery to remove my gallbladder. I have been feeling a little off lately but had my first attack in Florida. Didn't realize what it was then but had another when I got home and went to the doctor. Got blood work and an ultrasound that showed I had a lot of little gallstones.

I also met with the therapists at the Discovery Center and they will be sending me a packet of papers to fill out for Maddy going to preschool this coming fall. I am so excited for her because I know she'll love it. They went over all her test results with me and we talked about her goals for the year in her speech and safety issues. She did test in the severe range for her speech development and that is why she qualifies. She is doing some very normal things with her sounds that are found in a lot of kids that are difficult to understand but she is also doing a few things that are rare. Therapist thinks that with about 18-24months of therapy she will be talking just fine. She gave me a few pointers for the summer and starting in August she will go to preschool 4 mornings a week and have one session with the speech therapist a week. It is also very neat because she will send home "homework" for us to work on for the week and she tapes every session and sends it home for the parents to listen too. She also said that some of the kids love to play the tape over and over which of course helps them even more. I also found out for sure that when we move out of the county to Marysville I will just have to fill out some paperwork and this will all transfer to that county also. And since I will hopefully be working soon and we never know about Jon's schedule it is nice that she can be picked up and dropped off at our house or a babysitters by a bus that has seats for young kids and not only a bus driver but an aid too.

So that's about it. Click here to see pictures from Florida.

A Few Random Photos

This is what Maddy LOOOOVES to do. Build with blocks. She probably does this more than anything else. She's pretty good at it too. Here are two that she did one day all by herself.




I took these because I thought the pajamas were cute. The first one she gave some crazy eyes and I thought it was funny.




Here she is with her cousin "Wydit" as she still calls him.


Here is cousins Alex, Wyatt and Bridgette.


Today with Bridgette.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of you have a great day! Maddy recorded a little message for you.
It should be a clickable link.
CLICK HERE FOR MADDY'S VIDEO

Here are a couple pictures I took right after.



Jon is sleeping today and the girls and I have pretty much just hung out. They are napping now. We played in sand for about an hour outside and I managed to get the dirtiest. Probably because of Bridgette losing control of her shovel every couple of minutes and pelting me in the face with sand. Tonight hopefully Jon and I can catch a movie.

-Marlena

Ballerina Polka Dot Shoes.

I found these shoes on clearance and picked them up for Maddy. She likes them a lot and likes to pretend to be a ballerina while wearing them. I took these pictures a couple weeks ago before we left to have her tested at the Discover Center. They called me and had me bring her in again to meet with the speech therapist and she definitely has an issue with her sounds. The therapist told me a few things about mixing up her front and end sounds and told me she's pretty sure Maddy will qualify for the program. She just has to finish doing the actual scoring of the assessment and then get together again with the other therapists and they will give me a call to go in and have a meeting with them. She scored borderline on most of the different sections but the one where she has a real issue is her speech. They talked about giving her help for her behavior and safety issues too. What I mean by safety issues is her tendency to run away from me while in public and take off running towards the street if I am not holding onto her.





I asked her to stand on her tippy toes.



Here is a picture I took of Maddy, Bridgette and Myself before leaving to go to an Easter Egg Hunt.

Easter!

We had a very exciting Easter! Three egg hunts, two egg colorings, cookie decorating and tons of food. Instead of waiting forever on me to upload pictures to photobucket, resize them and then post them here I thought I'd give a link to the pictures on my facebook. You should be able to see these even if you do not have a facebook account. This probably won't be a normal thing but I wanted to share.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022457&id=214000263&l=0473a4be69

Just copy and paste the link into the address bar.