Joys of Christmas Break

-Andrew FINALLY lost his front tooth!  This thing has seriously been loose for about 3 months and we have all given our very best effort to get it out, but to no avail, until the day that he left for Winterfest and I was finally able to yank it out.  The timing was perfect because it gave the tooth fairy an extra couple days to get her act together...  too bad he's been home for 3 nights and the tooth fairy still doesn't have her act together :-/.  Lucky for me, Andrew has forgotten about it entirely and he knows and loves the tooth fairy, so he and Abigail both are good about extending the tooth fairy grace when she drops the ball :-).

-We had our mid year meeting with Grace's teacher and therapists to discuss her progress and set new goals.  We are so grateful for all of the goals that Grace has nailed, we continue to be blessed by the encouragement and hope we receive from her team at the Rise School.  I'm sure it comes as no surprise but the area that she continues to score the highest in is her social skills.  It's been so fun to watch her speech explode too, in fact my new favorite thing that Grace says when thinking about something is "how about..."  This may not sound like a big deal to most, but to hear Grace's little personality come out in the words she chooses to use is such a treat.  We were playing a game where we were naming animals and as she was thinking of another animal she put her hand on her chin and said "howwww abouuut..." and then said another animal.  The thing making it so special is that it is outside of just communicating a need or observation.  She has also been saying "NO MA'M" when someone does something she doesn't like; it's hard not to crack when we hear her say it. I wonder where she got that from :-/.

Jingle, the class elf, had all sorts of tricks up his sleeve, but this is the one Grace is still talking about...  when the kids woke up from a nap, Jingle had given them all a red nose like Rudolph!

She loved their Christmas party breakfast...

Grace practicing her reindeer skills...

They were visited by the Texas Medical Center Police Department, who dressed up as Blue Santa...

Grace got to bring home Scout the class pet over the Christmas break, so she has enjoyed playing with him, reading to him, etc...

-Grace had another round of hematology labs and...  they all came back normal!  PRAISE THE LORD!!!  What a wonderful Christmas present!

-The big kids had Christmas parties at school!

-The kids went to Pine Cove Winterfest this weekend!  They had a great time and we survived (Grace barely) them being away for two nights at camp :-).

Abby and her counselor OG

Andrew and his counselor Thinkster

Dropping Sissy off...

Grace really thought that she should stay with them...

A and A and their buddy, Christian (a friend and neighbor)

One of the counselors texted me this picture of Andrew, I knew he was having a blast when I saw him wearing his counselors sweatshirt.

The reunion between the three amigo's when camp was over was pretty awesome!

-We celebrated Christmas with my Dad and Step Mom...

-LuLu is in town, which is always a treat! She watched the kids while David and I got to celebrate the birthday of two dear friends, who had an 80's roller skating party!  I forgot how fun roller skating is and how competitive David and I can be when it comes to skating races!

**Anybody who knows us knows that David and I are terrible at keeping surprises a secret, so despite busting at the seems, we are doing our best to keep a huge Christmas surprise for the kids a secret until Christmas day...  It's a last minute vacation we are taking that in their minds is way better than Disney World, etc.  I will post the video of them opening the gift :-).

***We are loving getting your Christmas cards!  I feel terrible that I didn't get my act together in time  to get Christmas cards out this year, so please know that you weren't kicked off our list or something crazy like that.  I hope to get back on my game next year :-).

We hope that y'all have a blessed Christmas and experience the joy of Jesus!