Words of Love

I wanted to emphasize loving the people in our families this year for Valentine's day so we spent some time brainstorming words that describe why we love our family members and then wrote them on hearts on their doors.  And then we sent some "heart attacks" to some of their relatives they wanted to send extra love to this year.  In that same vein, I decided to wrap the kids' valentines presents in words of love.  This is how they turned out:

I just hope the kids take the time to read what I wrote rather than just tear into the gifts.  Especially since the gifts are just simple things I got on clearance and the words are from my heart.  

Valentine's day

I'm working on getting all my kids Valentine's done early this year since I won't be feeling great after my chemo on Wednesday.  Here's what I came up with so far:

 

I  printed them and sent them to some family out of town and then I printed them 9 to a page and we stapled them to candy for their classmates.  Done!

And life keeps rolling along...

 2013 was a busy year for our family.  Let me give you some updates.

Carter: After we started that Onfi in May he stopped having drop attacks all together!  So while he still has seizures, a couple each month, they are almost always in his sleep and not affecting his every-day life.  Unfortunately the seizures have caused some developmental delays (pretty common in seizure kids) and the hope is that as they are controlled and (hopefully) outgrown he will catch right up to where he should be.  So, this last fall he enrolled in the same Special Ed preschool Mikayla went to and we are happy to know the system and the teachers already.  He gets overwhelmed sometimes and wishes he could stay home with mommy more but for the most part he loves school.  In other news, he loves trains, dinosaurs and robots.  And he loves to play ball, doesn't matter the sport, anything with a ball will do.

  

Alyssa is in 2nd grade and smart as a whip.  Raising a child that is gifted can be exhausting so thank heavens I have a really smart husband!  Alyssa reads independently but mostly enjoys writing and illustrating her own stories now.  She has an imagination that would put nearly anyone to shame!  She still loves all things to do with space and plans to be an astrophysicist when she grows up. She is currently practicing for the school play, A Hysterical History of the Trojan War.  She also is excited about turning 8 and being baptized!

 Mikayla is in a small-group kindergarten so that she can get the personal attention she needs with occupational and physical therapy.  She is very good with computers and can lock me out of my phone!  Its crazy to me how tech-savvy these kids can be!  Mikayla is loving and kind and quite the chatterbox, always talking about the people in her life.  People are very important to Mikayla.
The biggest adjustment our family has been undergoing treatment for Rebecca's diagnosis of Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  We've had 7 successful treatments of chemotherapy and we are hopeful that after 5 more we will be able to put this whole thing behind us.  We have the most amazing family and friends who have been there through every step of this battle and we are both humbled and grateful for every blessing we have enjoyed.
Here's to a new year, (hopefully) good health, and much love!