2016 will be great!

This year has been really great for our family. Of course we are only 3 weeks in but so far it's been great! Matthew is now the Facilities Manager at Music Royale. Every time he goes there (for Jenna's lessons) he points out all the broken lights. They got new light bulbs for him to change and made business cards with his name on it. WOW! They really went above and beyond. I love Music Royale. Jenna can take saxophone lessons there forever.

Matthew now works at Music Royale

 We have had a little bit of controversy in my area recently. Twinkles is an outside cat (this is not a terribly unusual thing). Anyway, several people in my neighborhood have posted pictures of her - LOST CAT! etc. One person posted that she was going to box her up and take her to a cat shelter. YIKES! I posted on my local site that she is an outside cat and just let her out - she'll come home. Well then people started posting about coyotes, etc. Really? She is a tough cookie. She brings us mice all the time  - some of those mice are pretty big too. Why don't you put a collar on her? She won't wear one! We've tried! Anyway, she loves Erik so I had to take this picture of her resting on Erik. Outside cats have rights too!

Erik and Twinkles

 On Monday Jenna and Sarah had a combined birthday party with 56 kids! Wow! I invited friends, and both girl scout troops with siblings invited also. It was held at the church, and we hired a magician: Magic Nate who was really good. I loved his show! He was so classy. He didn't talk but rather played music while he did his tricks.  The kids really enjoyed it too. I was so engrossed that I forgot to take a lot of pictures so I only have two.

We ordered 13 pizzas (had 2 left over) and I made 78 cupcakes (we had 4 left over). It was a great party and the kids really had fun. Now to write thank you notes....

Magic Nate

Magic Nate dazzling

Happy Birthday Sarah and Jenna

Lots of kids at the party!

This is what I call killing two birds with one stone: Sarah reading to Matthew

 Jenna and Grandpa had a family birthday party. Jenna requested raspberry cake with lemon frosting. It was delicious. She loves berry and lemon so it was perfect for her!  We also had a "make your own pizza" bar.

Happy Birthday Jenna and Grandpa

 For motivation for me to lose these excess pounds I gained, I want to buy this dress. Erik's favorite color is green and I thought this would be my reward when I lose the weight. I have no idea where I will wear it (maybe around the house) but I love it!

this. 

Sarah and Matthew are no longer doing gymnastics. Actually we are doing family tae kwon do! Sarah and Matthew are taking the younger kids class and Erik, Jenna, and I are in the adult class. The teacher said Jenna could be with us. It's fun to do as a family and fun we can earn belts together. Of course Sarah is already an orange belt. We have to catch up to her. On Saturdays the Y has family yoga. We have been doing that together as well. These body awareness type exercises are good for Matthew. Hopefully it will help him read and write! So that's why I said it has been good for our family. We are doing yoga and tae kwon do together!

Erik and I may make an offer on a house soon. We found one we really like. It needs work - but Erik is so handy and we want another rental. We will see. The market is pretty empty right now.

So now I'm saving the best for last. I got Matthew's test scores from his teacher. He doesn't qualify for speech or OT. WHAT? He will most likely be in regular kindergarten. The only IEP he needs is monitoring his progress. He has come so far and is doing so well. I could not have asked for a better outcome. Praise God Hallelujah!