Hello!

Just a quick note to let you know Izzy is doing great this week!
She enjoyed Christmas, but is ready for school and her friends. I explained to her (again) today that she is out of school for two whole weeks, I got a growl in return!
She is healthy and happy.
Izzy mostly got cute clothes from Gymboree for Christmas, along with some toys, bracelets, movies, and a snow globe that is musical. She will have lots of choices when it's time to go back to school... what to wear, what to wear? :o)
As always Isabelle was a trooper over all the days of Christmas celebrations. She is such a good sport about being lugged around here and there.
I re-did her blog design today, it was just too Christmas-y... now that Christmas is over!
My goal is to take a pic of the kids and mail out New Years cards with their pic since I didn't get it done for Christmas... but hey, maybe picture valentines?
Izzy made the cutest calendar and book in school for Christmas. I love them. She has the best and most creative teachers ever! They insisted she come for the party last Friday, she did... she wore the snowman dress in the picture below. She was so cute!
Thanks for continuing to pray & believe!

merry christmas!

a couple of pics...

Here are two more pics of Izzy at school!

Izzy at Pre-K

update

It's been so long since I have updated this blog... so much is the same, and yet things are continuing to change and progress continues to be made. I am so proud of how well Izzy is doing in school this year. It really makes me happy to hear all the good reports when I pick her up. I believe that even if the reports are less than positive, I know she is still improving... but hearing good things is always a good thing. Some happy things going on with Izzy lately ....
... she loves pre-k and continues to really respond to her pre-k friends. Kathy went to class with her Thursday and said she was amazed at how much Izzy has improved since last year. She also said Izzy reached out to take a toy house. That's new!
... Izzy loves letters. She pays close attention when looking at letters! She (with Niecie's help) wrote an E last week. She took the marker in her hand and held on to write. She wanted to do it.
... She has been very vocal and communicative, more all the time.
... She had some stuffiness again over last weekend and first part of the week, but is all better now!
... Bear is still doing great with her. He said Friday he could see improvements since our last visit.
... Jana, Brook, and baby Nikki visited tonight. Nikki (10 months old) was climbing on Izzy and she pushed her away.
There are so many little things but that's all I can think to write tonight.
I can't close without thanking you again for keeping Izzy in your prayers.

I had to take a picture of Izzy today when she finished her bath.
Then I had to share it with you.

orlando - final post

We started our morning (Monday) visiting with Pluto and Mary Poppins.

Pluto was a sweetie!
The girls with Goofy.

We left the village and headed to Universal Studios!

Our first ride was the Dr. Seuss ride.

Izzy really did like this ride! After the first spin she was really holding on though.

We stopped in the I Love Lucy shop

Not long after we came out we saw the actress playing Lucille Ball.
She was so sweet. The girls were up on the sidewalk taking her picture and she stepped down into the 'street' and knelt down to visit with Isabelle and told her how beautiful she is. Very sweet. I didn't spend a lot of time visiting the characters, but found her attention to Izzy to be very endearing and genuine.


Another ride that we all loved including Izzy was the E.T. ride!

Here's Izzy on the E.T. ride!


Well, that almost concludes our trip.... We spent our last evening at the Villa, had dinner and packed. It was a wonderful wonderful week! Thanks for sharing it with us.

day five ~ seaworld

First we saw the flamingos.
I was showing Isabelle this adorable Rosita puppet and we found a really cute seaworld t-shirt for her here!

The kids all got temporary tatoos. Here is Emelia's.

Bailey is pretending it hurts :o)!

The group...

Feeding the dolphins

In the manitobe building

Waiting for the show to start.


The Seaworld outing was really fun. Shamu was great and I loved the "Believe" show! We headed back to the villa and had dinner.

day four

We got up Saturday morning and drove an hour and a half to Melbourne Beach.
It was beautiful. The water was so powerful and I could feel the power and presence of God there. I sat on the beach, holding Isabelle and a devo song came into my mind...
"have you ever stood at the ocean,
felt the white foam at your feet
heard the endless thundering motion,
then I'll say you've seen Jesus my Lord."
I got a little teary eyes singing the song to myself and enjoying the view.

The kids loved playing in the sand and water.

Here we are letting Izzy feel the white foam and waves on her feet.


Here's mom & izzy sitting on the beach!
Emelia building a sand castle.
Amanda
Emelia & Bailey just enjoying the water
I couldn't resist writing Izzy in the sand...
So, we left after we all got really sandy and wet and headed back to the villa to change and eat lunch. We had plans to go to Disney MGM for the afternoon. It was a perfect afternoon, no rain!

The kids posing at the Chronicles of Narnia display.
I love the shrub of Snow White behind the kids...
We ended our MGM tour with a ride!
The Tower of Terror!!!
It was very scary!
I barely opened my eyes.
That was the end of Saturday, day four of our trip.
We went back to the villa and then went to dinner.
They had a princess and pirate party there so we walked around a little and then headed to bed.
We had to rest up for Sunday (Seaworld)...

disney ~ day three

Here we are first thing Friday morning, meeting Barney!
(and baby bop and TJ)
Just meeting the group...

We headed over to the pillow maker to get a special pillow!

Here's Izzy with her pillow.

We were then given a star to write Izzy's name on...

This is the ceiling of the castle of miracles. Izzy's star is in this section.
There are 36,000 stars in the castle!

All this before breakfast! Here we are sitting at the breakfast table!
Izzy is happy, it's been a great morning.

Izzy with Amanda

Change of clothes and ready to go to Epcot!

Happy in the car as we're pulling out of the drive.

Epcot!!!
We got very very wet! It came a downpour as we were walking to get into epcot.
You can tell I am saying, "I'm soaking wet!"
Here's little soaking wet Izzy!

This was Izzy's favorite ride at Epcot. It was all about Nemo.

That pretty much concluded day three. We went back to the villa and got dry... ate dinner and headed to bed. I'll be back soon with day four.