Speech

Hailee started speech therapy this fall.  She easily qualified.  There's just a whole lot of sounds she doesn't say, and lots of sounds she can say, but leaves them out of certain words...

I can make sense of her garbled speech for the most part, but it's difficult...  just because she is hard to understand however, doesn't mean she doesn't have a lot to say.  While she used to be very quiet and mellow, that is certainly not the case anymore... Her speech therapist was the same teacher for Eli last year, so maybe that's why Hailee is so comfortable with her- regardless, Mrs. Michaelynn is wonderful!  Sometimes, we just laugh out loud because this little girl has so much to say!

From the very first session, Hailee took charge- her teacher would show her pictures of common items to evaluate how she said certain sounds in different positions of the word- and for every picture, Hailee had a story!  She'd say the word and then put her pointer finger up in the air and make a comment about that picture:
Mrs. Michaelynn (showing a picture of a bed): Hailee, what is this?
Hailee: beh.  [pointing up in the air] we ah uh beh a au 'ouse! {we have a bed at our house!}
Mrs. Michaelynn (showing a picture of a hat):  Hailee, what is this?
Hailee: ha.  [pointing up in the air] we ah uh ha a au 'ouse! {we have a hat at our house!}

And on and on- most every picture she just had to let Mrs. Michaelynn know that we not only had one, but that it was at our house *grin*  But then things got a little more complicated...

Mrs. Michaelynn (showing a picture of a boat):  Hailee, what is this?
Hailee: bo... [pausing.... then the finger pointing!]  An Timi ha uh bo a er 'ouse!  {Aunt Kimi has a boat at her house!}
Mrs. Michaelynn (showing a picture of a brightly colored parrot):  Hailee, what is this?
Hailee: ticken! {chicken}
Mrs. Michaelynn: well, actually, this is a parrot, can you say parrot?
Hailee: no, ticken! {chicken}
Mrs. Michaelynn: no, it kinda might look like a chicken, but it's a parrot, can you say parrot?
Hailee: ticken. [cue the pointing finger] An Timi ha uh ticken a er 'ouse! {Aunt Kimi has a chicken at her house!}

At that, we pretty much called it a day- Mrs. Michaelynn was laughing so hard as Hailee just babbled on and on about all the things that we AND Kim have at our houses-

When I told Nathan that story at the dinner table, the boys thought it was hilarious... so now, they frequently ask Hailee to say 'parrot' to which she replies, 'no, ticken!'

Just Happy

Vale

We took a quick trip down to Vale for Walker's baptism.  The kids had a blast of course- the weather was chilly, but a little warmer than home, so the kids played outside quite a bit- they sure love their cousins- it really helps that they have such FUN cousins too!

And the real reason for this post... just to show exactly how messy a fruit roll up can be:

Carver Farms

Grandma and Papa from Kentucky made their rounds out west for Walkers baptism, so we got to have them here for a few days- we were sad that they couldn't stay longer, but they were on a tight schedule *sigh*  While they were here they got to go on Hailee's preschool field trip to the farm!  It was a beautiful sunny day, which made the cold a lot more bearable...  Hailee was thrilled beyond her wildest dreams when her schools shirts for field trips this year were "yie-boo" {light blue}- her fav color still.  I think she was most excited about finally getting to wear that shirt!

We picked popcorn-

and a pumpkin "as big as your head"

that's the exact way they described how to pick the pumpkins 6 years ago when we went with Bryson for the first time!

A stroll in the corn maze:

Jace too!

And as usual, I was a terrible photographer and didn't get any other pictures of Grandma and Papa whilst here... I've really got to work on that!

I was so unprepared for the sudden cold snap, that I was rushing trying to find a hat for Jace to wear that morning... obviously his head is bigger than I had guessed, ha ha!

He could have cared less about the cold- he was just happy to run free- he sure loves the outdoors!

We also picked some green peppers, some non-spicy jalapeno peppers, assorted ornamental squash and mini pumpkins and some eggplant- I ended up making some eggplant parmesan, which was a first for me both making and eating... it was ok... but not something I'm excited to make again...

Last Baby Tooth!

Officially done with the tooth fairy... he's definitely ahead of the norm- not even 9 1/2 and he's lost all of his baby teeth- and already has his 12 year molars in too!