Another Mini Cheer Clinic

Oh how I LOVE mini cheer clinic! It's the absolute best! The girls really enjoy it too. Maybe even almost as much as me! The mini cheerleaders stay after school with the 'big' (high school) cheerleaders and practice for a week and then they get to cheer and perform at one of the high school games. However, due to weather issues and scheduling conflicts, they did not get to cheer at one of the games this year. So they put on a show for all of the parents about 3 weeks after they originally practiced. They stayed after school for a refresher practice and then did the show.

Sierra had been out of school all that week due to H1N1 and this was her first day back (Friday). She did an awesome job and hit all of her moves but some of her zest wasn't there this time. She did a fantastically amazing job and then when you consider that she was still recovering from the flu, it's even more amazing. Sienna is so cute. She's at that age. And she's really good, especially considering she's only 5 years old.

The pictures didn't turn out so great. Something about the lighting in the gym forces you to use a night setting on your camera and then you have to be super still for the focus to turn out okay. So I'm just going to post a couple of videos. Sienna is in the front wearing pink shoes and Sierra is in the very back right in the middle, in front of a brown door. I'll leave you with a quick life lesson I have learned: the person recording video should probably not talk during filming. Enjoy!

Our Secret Language

Levi celebrated his 3rd birthday in August. It's hard to believe he's 3 already! I started him in preschool this year. It's a year earlier than I wanted to start him but his speech delay is so severe that everyone (therapists, case workers, etc) thought it would be a good idea. I was hesitant but went ahead and did it anyway. Surprisingly, he is doing really well at school. He transitions easily and has no behavior issues at school. His only issue now is his speech. He has come really far and is doing sooooo much better than 6 months ago. He does talk and attempt to express his thoughts with words. But at this point, it comes out like a secret language that only him and I speak. It's actually kind of cute (and a little frustrating for us both). He will get a word or two (3 on a really good day) and the rest is sounds (his attempt at words that won't form yet) and lots of hand motions and actions. It's actually pretty amazing, for a boy that can't speak well at all, he expresses himself very well. He's discovering new words everyday. He said brownie (his favorite food) the other day and I just about came undone. That's the first two syllable word (mama and dada don't count) he's said! He says his name now even though it sounds like Wewi. Sienna is YaYa and Sierra is DD. I think he calls Sierra DD because he is attempting to say Sissy and as for YaYa, I think that comes from the last sound in Sienna's name. He is talking but it is our secret language (which is better than none)!

Hello Again

Hello! Is anyone there? It's been such a long time since I've blogged. But I'm back online now and so thankful to be. So there's lots of catching up to do but I don't have time right now for a long post. So I'll just give you a couple quick updates on what's been going on with my family. This is a picture of the girls walking home today from their new bus stop. We bought a house! We just moved last Saturday so we're still getting settled in but we absolutely love it. It's not far from where we were before so the kids didn't have to change schools, thankfully.

The girls did a mini cheer clinic recently so I'll have some pictures and videos of that to post soon. Levi is doing fabulous at preschool, surprisingly so. His speech is still slow but it is finally starting to come. Sienna is loving kindergarten, naturally. And Sierra is having a good start to the fifth grade. She joined the band this year and is playing the flute.

I'll leave you with a quick video of Sienna and Levi doing an impromptu performance for me. I'll post more soon!