I'm Home!!!

After a Loooooonnnnnnnnnngggggggggg 23 hour day I finally arrived in Seattle at 8:57 pm.  My trip began in at the Frankfurt airport where my flight to Washington DC had been cancelled.  I wound up flying eleven hours to San Francisco.  Very annoying since we flew over Spokane on our way there.  The set up in SF was awesome.  After finding my bag, then going through Customs, all I had to do was drop my bag on another turn style about 50 feet away.  No checking in again or anything.  My friends and I immediately got some real American food, stretched our legs for a couple hours before our next flight straight to Seattle.  The flight was only 1 hour and 45 minutes.  After a day of fighting to stay awake to adjust to the time difference, I slept through the majority of the flight.  As a matter of fact the tires hitting the tarmac when we landed was my alarm clock.  When I got off the plane Michelle, Chloe, Aidan, and Brenna were all waiting.  Chloe was of course the first to run up and hug me.  Aidan seemed shocked (like he might have been dreaming).  Of course after Chloe confirmed his hopes he also ran up and gave me a hug.  He has also not let me leave his sight since.  Since I knew it would already be pretty late I suggested Michelle reserve a hotel room in advance.  With a pool of course.  All of us played, and I was quickly reindoctrinated on the realities of being a family man.  After a long day all I wanted was to take a shower, but all three children managed to take baths before that could occur.  It is now official.  I AM HOME FOR GOOD!!!!!

Updates

Hello! I don't have any pictures to post right now--we've been too busy trying to get back into the swing of school, schedules, homework and routines. It has been a long week for the kids, although next week will fly by. :-) But I thought I would share with you some of the Webster Family's events over the past few days:

Chloe-is now in private speech for an hour a week and is doing so well. Her Apraxia can cause reading delays (since reading and speech are so closely related). She is also struggling with low self-confidence (which is also common in kids with Apraxia) and often gives up on something before really trying. Failing is a terrifying thought to her. So please pray that she can overcome her self-consciousness. I talked to her speech therapist yesterday and she is very impressed with Chloe's progress. She believes Chloe is right on the verge of learning how to read, Chloe just doesn't realize how much she knows. Which I have seen for quite a while. So hopefully with some more one-on-one attention over the next few months she will take off with her reading.

Aidan-is as mischievous as ever and is having a hard time adjusting to being on our school schedule. Today he started tumbling for the first time. He wasn't too sure at first (his tumbling class is where Chloe takes dance so I think he thought that he wasn't suppose to be in the dance studio) but once he realized that he got to play and have fun he was all for it. He jumped on the trampoline, army crawled, did somersaults and just played. He had a blast! Mommy loved it too because the class used up some of his never-ending energy.

Brenna-is having a very rough week. She refuses to sleep in her crib which has become a huge battle. Everyone in our house is sleep deprived due to her screaming for hours (all because she refuses to sleep in the crib). She is also teething and not feeling great. She could use some prayer for her health and adjustments to life over the next few weeks. She does have her moments when she is laughing, babbling and playing just like normal but than she will scream as soon as I leave her sight and she won't willingly go to anyone but Mom. So as you all can imagine--Mom's exhausted.

Mom- is (besides being absolutely exhausted) hanging in there. Tonight I went to a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator meeting. I had such a great time. I love stamping and truly do enjoy my fellow demonstrators. We made three beautiful cards tonight and had the chance to visit with each other. I left with lots of great ideas for my business which I hope to set into motion this year.

That's all for now from the Webster Clan in Soggy Washington State!

Big Girl Brenna

Here are some pictures of Brenna trying to figure out her sippy cup. Brenna is not a fan of drinking anything other than Mom's milk. She just chews on the cup but doesn't really try to suck anything out of it. She is also not a fan of baby food. She refuses to eat any of the veggies and only wants the fruit. So over the past week or so I have been feeding her mashed spoonfuls of whatever is on my plate. Works like a charm! She loves eating-as long as it is what we are all eating and not baby food. :-) She also loves the Gerber Puff snacks. Unless I am feeding her, she can only manage to get about half in her mouth but she doesn't care, she is so happy to be feeding herself. She has an independent streak, our little princess!

New Year

Well, it is official, 2008 blew out of here with a bang and 2009 has slowly crept in. We celebrated a very quiet New Year's Eve. We cooked the roast that we were going to have on Christmas (but were too sick to enjoy) and enjoyed family. We watched movies and the kids played. Brenna has recently started pulling herself up and wants to stand all of the time. We have had to watch her constantly to make sure she doesn't fall.

The kids are finally feeling much better (I am is still sick but on antibiotics so hopefully that will help). They are all eating like crazy, have loads of energy and have a bit of cabin fever. The weather, even though the snow is gone, has been downright cold and blustery. So going outside has been a bit of challenge, not to mention all the mud that the snow has left behind. I think they are ready for Christmas break to be over with so we can get back to our regular routine.

We have not done much over the past few days, just trying to catch up on all the things that were left unattended while we were all so sick--laundry, dishes, cleaning bedrooms, dusting, vacuuming--the list is endless. School starts up again next week so I am busy trying to collect my pile of costumes and props for my theatre class as well. I feel like we are about a week behind in everything, which is understandable.

Bedrooms

These pictures are for Matt, just so he can understand my Saturday a little better! ;-) I love you babe!

Sharing the Spotlight!

Since we didn't get out much this Christmas I dressed the kids up in some of their holiday finery for church. I saw it as the perfect opportunity to take some pictures--the kids didn't necessarily agree with me and weren't very cooperative.

Our Budding Artist

Here is Aidan hiding under Nana and Poppa's desk in the kitchen. It is the perfect place for a little boy to play!


Aidan couldn't wait to break into his new art supplies Christmas day. He painted pages of scribbles and couldn't get enough of his new paint buddies. On a side note, he is finally, completely over the flu!! Thank you, Jesus!

Merry Christmas!!

Well, the kids got a late start opening gifts since Aidan had another rough night but they quickly worked their way through the pile.

The kids loved their presents and got quite a bit. Chloe got lots of Hannah Montana stuff--a calendar and dress-up clothes from Aunt Nicci and Uncle Chris and a Hannah Montana game for her new Nintendo DS. She got a My Little Pony which she loved. Aidan got a GeoTrax train set (the old west version) and a bag full of markers, crayons and paper from Aunt Nicci and Uncle Chris. Brenna got a soft doll and a Pink Horse with wheels that she can ride around on in another month or so. She also got a Baby Leaps TV game and Elephant toys from Aunt Nicci and Uncle Chris.

Nana and Poppa bought us a family gift this year--a Wii. Chloe was so excited when she opened it up. We even got the sports pack so the kids can play tennis and all the sports games it comes with. We should have lots of fun with that. Here are some great pictures of the kids playing.

Thank You so much for all your love, prayers and support this Christmas! We are all feeling much better except for Aidan who is still very sick so please keep him in your prayers!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Santa's Loot

Well Santa has stopped by and loaded our tree...

Now we have to wait until the morning to see what is under all that wrapping paper.

Here is such a cute picture of Felix, who now lives at my parent's house. (In August he escaped the house and was attacked by our neighbors dogs. He was traumatized and for two weeks refused to leave the garage. So we took him to Mom and Dad's so he could heal and we decided to leave him there where the kids couldn't bug him continuously). He sat down on one of the extra gift tags. We did get him right after Christmas four years ago and his adopted name was "Feliz Navidad". So he is a Christmas kitty!

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!! We are all very slowly recovering from this nasty flu bug. It has managed to attack the entire family (from Poppa to Brenna). So Christmas this year will not be a day filled with family and friends, since we don't want to share our misery. This Christmas does not look like anything I had pictured, with all of us being sick. We did not go to Christmas Eve Service like we normally do nor will we be doing our traditional Christmas Desserts with our friends tomorrow night.

Even though it is not the Christmas I would of chosen we are trying! Tonight the kids opened their Christmas Eve presents which are their new pajamas.









Each kid also received a knotted fleece blanket I made for them. Chloe's blanket is a Hannah Montana one (big surprise there), Aidan's has cars all over it and Brenna's has red, orange and pink flowers all over it.

As you can imagine, the kids are very excited about opening gifts even though they don't feel 100% quite yet.