Friday Flashback - Many Faces

When the girls were babies, I liked to take pictures of all their different facial expressions. I remember laughing about "the many faces of Sarah Bay." Here's a little montage for your weekly walk down memory lane.

Puppies

Our neighbor's dog had puppies and we got to see them yesterday, when they were only 2 days old. They're so little and pink, and their eyes aren't open yet. The girls loved them, and Abby just wanted to stay and watch them "FOREVER". We loved their little squeaks, and watching them root around to find their mommy. Three boys and two girls. I'm SHOCKED that S&A haven't started begging for us to take one home; maybe it just hasn't occurred to them yet. But the answer is no. The memory of Bailey's puppy days still lingers...
(Click on the picture to see one of their sweet little faces)

Obviously I was very excited about the visit:

Introducing...

Abigail and Sarah Catherine.
Yesterday we had the day off, so I took the girls to get haircuts, (note their new cutie-girl cuts in the pictures) and then we ran errands. While we were eating lunch, Abby told me that her teacher's daughter's name is Abigail, which is almost the same as her name. I told her that it's actually exactly the same, because her real name is Abigail. Of course she knew this, or at least I think she should, since I call her "Abigail Grace" whenever she's in trouble, but I guess she hadn't put it all together. Anyway, she was VERY excited to find out that her REAL name is Abigail, and she decided that she would be Abigail from now on. Sarah of course then wanted to know what her real name is. I was tempted to tell her "Sarahgail," since that's what she used to think (I'll explain that in a minute), but I just said "Sarah Catherine." So she decided that she would go by Sarah Catherine from now on. They asked me to write out their names and put them in their folders for school so they could learn how to spell them. I figure it will only take a day before they realize that it's much easier to be just "Abby" and "Sarah". But, I was up at school this morning for computer lab, and Abby had already told her whole class that her real name is Abigail. We'll see.
And about "Sarahgail"...when the girls were 3 or 4, Abby got into trouble much more often than Sarah. It seems like I was using my stern mommy voice a lot, calling "Abigail Grace" whenever she was being defiant. One day Sarah asked, "Is my name Sarahgail Grace?" I don't think she'd ever heard me yell "Sarah Catherine", so she didn't know what her name was!
These pictures are from 6am this morning, when they decided to "rock out" in the kitchen.

Happy Veteran's Day!

10 Days to LaLa Land!

We're going to LA in 10 days, and I'm feeling totally unprepared. Normally by now I would have thought about what to take on the plane and made a list of what I need to buy, made a packing list, planned each day of our trip, created a touring plan for Disneyland, etc. But as of today I have done NONE of that. I haven't even booked a rental car. I'm not sure what's going on with me; I've been busy, sure, and Perry's been traveling a lot so that has limited my free time, but I can't believe how little thought I've given to such a big trip. I'm not worried about it, though. Going to LA feels like going home, and I know that we will be showered with love and well taken-care of, so really all I need to worry about is surviving the flights. That's such a great feeling. I love my LA friends.


Here's a pic of the "gang" last year at Disneyland. Heidi and her kids won't be able to go this year, because of school, but I'll try to get all 6 of them lined up for a pic again while we're out there. I'm excited about seeing how they all get along this year. Last year they all played great together (well, Abby and Kaylee had some issues because they both like to be the boss, but nothing major), and Sarah had a little crush on Ronnie. I wonder what it will be like this year, and we all wonder how it will be when they're teenagers!!

The Tallest Tree in the World

For a long time now, Abby has talked about the "tallest tree in the world." She's pointed it out before, but I didn't pay much attention. She told me where it was (behind the big parking lot down the street), but I didn't pay much attention. Once we had a conversation about the Redwoods in California, and how big they are. But then, one day, I saw THE TREE - the one she thinks is the tallest tree in the world. It's behind the shopping center on the corner of 31 and 150. And it's NOT REAL!!!! I find this so bizarre - this is a cell phone tower, I guess, disguised as a tree. Do they do this in an effort to be "green," responsible corporate citizens? Do they think they're fooling anyone (other than 5-year-olds)? So strange.

Crafty Saturday

Every year we create Thankful Trees during the month of November. I trace arms and hands to create the tree and branches, and then each day we add a new leaf to the tree that says something we're thankful for. This is our third year to do this, and I love looking back at their old trees. Of course they're always thankful for the standard "mom, dad, sister, family, God, etc., but they always come up with some interesting things too. This week Abby wrote "the things that I have" and "earth, " while Sarah wrote "water" and "bed."

The girls have really been enjoying the fall colors - the trees are gorgeous right now. This morning they went out back and collected pretty leaves, then came in and made "leaf turkeys." I love it when they come up with the craft idea and can do it all by themselves, and I was very impressed with their creations. (Abby's is on the left, and Sarah's is on the right.)

We also started our Christmas crafts today. I have a bunch of ideas this year, so I thought we should do a little each weekend so we won't get overloaded. Today we started painting ornaments for their friends.

Friday Flashback

I created a slideshow for today's flashback. I call it, simply, "Hair." Enjoy!

A Sweet Email

I just got this email from Sarah's teacher. The subject is "from sarah":

Hi mom iam god at sgioll ihop u hav a wudfl day love sarah

How sweet is that?!!! I can just imagine her sitting at the computer, sending me a letter. Awesome.

A Lateral "S"

Today I had a meeting at school with the Speech Therapist, to discuss Abby. Both Perry and Abby's teacher have noticed a speech issue, called a lateral s, that makes her "s" sound more like a "sh". I really don't notice it, but I had a lisp as a child and still struggle with my "s" sound sometimes, so my ear probably isn't the best. But anyway, she was screened for speech, and she "failed", which just means that now she'll be formally evaluated for possible speech therapy. It's evidently very hard to get speech services through the school system these days; the problem can't be "developmental" and it has to interfere with the child's learning - very tough criteria. But just the process of evaluating her, which could be stretched out over many sessions in a 60-day window, could help her self-correct. The other great thing that came out of this meeting was a decision to get the Occupational Therapist to evaluate her, too, because she has poor fine motor skills and is falling behind her peers in writing. She struggles to hold a pencil correctly and gets frustrated when we try to help her. I'm trying lots of new exercises with her at home, and her teacher is working on it too, but it will be great to hear an expert's opinion about it.
I'll update more on this when I get the results of her evaluation, but that might take awhile.