First Halloween Treats

Sydney and Ethan got their first taste of Halloween today after school. They made these pumpkin cups in Mother's Day out and their teachers put special treats in them which Sydney and Ethan thoroughly enjoyed. Sydney's teacher also informed me that her walk has gotten a lot faster now (with the help of her braces) and today she got to be line leader for the first time:)

Pumpkin Patch

This evening, we loaded up the kids and headed out to Harmon's Tree farm for a hayride. It was pretty chilly outside, but we all had fun, and we got to bring home a baby pumpkin to play with.

All Smiles After School

Back to the Beach

We went to Hilton Head this weekend and had a blast! The weather was great, there wasn't a crowd at the beach and Sydney and Ethan had tons of fun. I'm beginning to think October is the best month for the beach-all the fun without having to show all the skin:-)

Alabama Here We Come!!

We received some good news today. Sydney was on the schedule with the University of Alabama to start a program called Acquire Therapy in September 2007. The program is designed to help gain function in an arm that isn't working properly due to brain injury, stroke, cerebral palsy, etc. It is a very intensive program involving 6 hours of therapy 6 days a week for 4 weeks. They will place a cast on Sydney's left arm to force her to use her right arm and then hopefully regain much of the function that she lost. Since there aren't any other programs of this kind around, we weren't able to get Sydney in until September 2007.

Well, an occupational therapist with the program contacted us today to let us know that they had a cancellation, and a spot will be available for Sydney this November. YEAH!! The only bad part is the program costs $15,000 and that doesn't include accommodations, food and other living expenses. So, we will be in a tizzy trying to raise the money quickly, but we feel it is really a necessity for Sydney's improvement so we are going to find a way to make it work.

We have high hopes for the function Sydney will gain through this program. If all goes well, she should be able to use two hands to open and play with her Christmas presents...Priceless:-)

feel free to visit the program's website at http://www.circ.uab.edu/cit.htm to find out more information

The Zoo

Sydney and Ethan visited the zoo today with their friends Will and Caroline. It was a great day, and I think they all enjoyed themselves despite their deer-in-headlights expressions in this picture.

Daddy's kids

Sydney and Ethan have been big fans of their daddy lately. They rush to greet him when he comes home from work each day. What a nice way to end such a crummy long commute:)

Alabama

We made a whirlwind trip to Alabama this weekend to see family, and we had a blast. The car ride wasn't the best, but Sydney and Ethan did well. The funniest part of our trip though was when Ethan started clapping when we pulled into our neighborhood Sunday evening.

Mother's Day Out Headbands

Sydney and Ethan made these fancy "tree and leaf headbands" at Mother's Day Out this week. They are going two days a week and they seem to really enjoy it. We actually just hit a big milestone on Monday-neither of them cried when I dropped them off. They are growing up too fast:-(

Busy Weekend

Thanks to the Alzheimer's Association we got to spend Friday night in Myrtle Beach. We arrived too late in the evening to get into swimsuits which was fine by me. Sydney and Ethan had a blast playing in the sand and water in their clothes, and we had not so much of a blast cleaning the sand off of everything and everyone when we got back up to the room.

On Saturday, we left for Rock Hill to attend the Trier wedding. We enjoyed seeing everyone, and after the wedding, we had the pleasure of having the president of Winthrop University back into our car while we were parked at a restaurant and then he drove away. It was quite an ordeal. A reporter from the newspaper in Rock Hill even contacted Andrew today because they are going to run a story on it.

We did make it home safely though so the weekend ended on a high note.

Crazy Busy

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. Sorry. I have a good reason though. Andrew lost my memory card which had all of my most recent pictures on it:-( So, alas you get an update with no cute pictures to go with it.

We have been really busy the past few days. I have been pricing clothing items every day until wee hours in the morning for our big church consignment sale. It is amazing how much stuff we have accumulated for Sydney and Ethan in the few short years that they have been on this planet. We still want more children so I had kept EVERYTHING. We finally decided we needed the space and money. Plus we will no doubt want new things for the next baby. So, out it went:-)

Sydney and Ethan both had GREAT reports from their teachers tonight at church. This is good because I was tired of being the mommy of the two screaming children every Wednesday night. Sydney even participated in their craft and interacted more with the other children. Yeah. Maybe this is the start of something great. They are both going to Mother's Day Out two mornings a week now, and I think that helps.

I'll try to get some more pictures up soon.

Ethan's haircut

Ethan got his first real haircut today. He has had his hair cut quite a few times, but we never had much cut off and most of the time I cut it myself. Today, we took him to great clips. We waited for-e-ver and they did a horrible job. We will not be going back to great clips EVER. Anyway, after our not so great-great clips experience, I had my mom cut Ethan's hair. She did a great job. He looks like a little man:-)

Car Wash In the Rain

We all set out Sunday afternoon to have a little fun in the sun washing the car and playing in the water. About five minutes into the car washing session, the sky opened up and it poured on us. It was actually quite fun. Our neighbors and their children were washing their cars as well. Who knows what people driving by thought of all of us out washing our cars in the pouring rain, but oh well who really cares. Sydney and Ethan had a blast and that is what really matters.

Very First Post

Well, here goes nothing, we are going to attempt to do a bit of a blog to update everyone on the ever changing exciting lives of Sydney and Ethan. We hope you enjoy!