Monday, October 28, 2013

Lately....

Here's what we've been doing lately....

The kids have been busy doing schoolwork


and homework.


Alex's teacher had a birthday & he made her this necklace. All by himself!

Addy lost another tooth. That makes 4 total.

The kids have been going to karate class every week. They're both doing great & learning lots of new skills.

We've been to lots of birthday parties lately...
a swimming party

a party at the playground 

one at painting with a twist

and one at an indoor playground.

Nick & I continue to do crossfit in the mornings. 
Alex often goes with us & enjoys working out too.

I spend a lot of my free time volunteering at both Addy & Alex's schools. So much so that I was VIPS (Volunteers in Public Schools) of the month for August! 

Addy had her overnight sleep study last week. The nurse was able to get all 6 required hours of monitoring, even though Addy was not asleep the whole time. We should have the results next week or the week after. We're hoping that the doctor is able to find what is waking Addy up in the middle of the night & that he does not require her to do another one. (It wasn't the most pleasant experience.)

We've been busy with several Girl Scout events. 

We had another meeting.

We went letterboxing at Camp Sienna.

And on a field trip to Brazos Bend State Park.


Since the weather's been cooler, the kids have been able to play outside a little more. 

Alex has been riding around in his car

and we've been going to the playground

where Addy makes awesome shadow puppets.

Oh & Addy is teaching herself to play the piano. So far she can play Mary Had a Little Lamb & Old McDonald Had a Farm. It's pretty impressive!

We've also been getting ready for Halloween by going to zoo boo, booing our friends, going to the pumpkin patch & a Halloween party & more... Look for a post on all that fun stuff soon.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Fort Bend Rodeo Field Trip

Friday, October 4th, Addy & Alex both had field trips to the Ft. Bend County Fair & Rodeo.

Since they were on the same day, Nick took the day off from work so that he could stay with Alex & I could go with Addy.

Alex's class visited the Ag-tivity Barn & the petting zoo. His school does not have buses, so he rode with Nick & me in the car. We arrived about 10 or 15 minutes before Addy's school bus did. So I was able to spend the first few minutes with Alex on his field trip. But when Addy's class arrived, I headed over to the arena & left Nick with Alex. (Which means I have very few pictures because Nick took a total of ZERO!)

But here are the 2 pictures that I took & 2 that another parent posted on his class webpage that I stole.




I have lots of pictures from Addy's field trip. (I took 192!)

OMG her field trip was the cutest thing!
They gave all the kids a cowboy hat 

and a bandana & a stick horse.

Then they paired them up with a high school volunteer & let them participate in rodeo activities.

They started with a parade & opening ceremonies.

Then Addy took a picture with Ms. Fort Bend County (or the Queen of the Rodeo or something like that)

Next she practiced her cattle roping skills.

And her barrel racing.

She met a clown


who gave her a red nose.


And then she got to ride a horse.

Twice! 
She was in heaven (bc you all know she LOVES LOVES LOVES animals!)

She did a little fake bull riding.

And then it was time to end the rodeo with a group picture & a trophy for each kid!

By this time, Alex's field trip was finished so Nick 

and Alex came to the rodeo arena 

and watched the clowns & stunt horse rider performance with us while we ate lunch.

Addy had to ride the bus back to school, so we told her goodbye & Alex told her he would keep her hat, bandana & stick horse safe until she got home. What a great brother, lol!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Walk Now for Autism Speaks 2013

Saturday, September 28th we participated in the Walk Now for Autism Speaks autism awareness walk at Reliant Park.

This was the 3rd year that Nick, the kids & I have participated in this walk. The first year it was just the 4 of us. I heard about it somewhere & we decided to go & check it out. It was a great experience to see so much love and support for so many precious kiddos. I wanted that for Addy. So last year I helped start a team at her school. We had about 15 people who walked with us. And this year..well our team grew! We had almost 30 people who walked in support of Addy & the other children with autism at SOE (Addy's school.)

Here is team 'Sienna Superheroes' which includes family, friends & teachers from SOE. I have to say that Addy is one lucky girl to have this amazing group of people in her life!

A few members of our Girl Scout troop 

and their mommas even came to walk in support of Addy!

Here is my sweet family (Alex is 'camera shy' as he says)

And here are a few pictures from the course...

Here's Addy rolling down the hill at the beginning of the walk.

And here she is pretending to walk on a balance beam. (Which she is great at thanks to gymnastics class!)

Here's Mr. Cool Alex in his sunglasses!

And here is Addy giving high fives to the volunteers. She thought that was so fun!

And here we are towards the end of the walk, right before we got rained on!

Yes, that's right, we got rained on! For about the whole last mile. And then it stopped for a little bit. And then it rained even harder while we were walking to the car. Addy loved it though! She ran in the rain & stomped in the 'muddy puddles.' She had a such a great time & there was no way that she was going to let the rain put a damper on her day!

A big thank you to everyone that came out & walked with us, to everyone that made a donation to Autism Speaks in honor of Addy & to everyone who bought a Sienna Superheroes fundraiser t shirt. You all helped our team raise $1500 for Autism Speaks! Way to go Sienna Superheroes!