Park and Halloween Party

October 21-27, 2013
Almost all of the text is from a letter to Lizzi:

We've had nice weather so the kids and I have been going outside every day, at least once.

Leila is still having lots of specialist doctors' visits but most of them are coming up with great results, meaning, we won't have to go back for a while/ever for some of them! She really is about as blessed as you can get for having this disorder... she doesn't have any of the major health issues and so far, is not too far behind developmentally either. I think that has a lot to do with prayers being answered.

The state's Early Childhood Intervention came to assess her and based on their evaluation, the only thing she's significantly behind in is communication. She's not making the goo-goo-gaga noises or imitating things we do or reaching her arms up to be picked up. Cognitive, motor skills and nutrition she was pretty much right on track. She was ahead in social/emotional interactions though, laughing and stuff. That's probably because she and Caleb play so much! She is a very happy baby!

Allen has his big exam next Tuesday and hasn't had much time to study since he has been spending a lot of time helping me so I don't feel so overwhelmed with life. He says, "Tell her I say hiii."

Look who can sit up all by herself now!

This was taken at Leila's GI doctor's office. I told him about Leila's disorder, showed him the growth charts, and told him that she had had a frenulotomy and therapy and she had been off of the NG tube for almost a month and that I was no longer even considering letting him put a gastric tube in. This was our last visit. We're switching to the Dr. Ng at Texas Children's. 

Caleb is 2 now and very good at it. :) (Tell your companion it's a smiley face with no nose) He was being very tantrum-y but I think it was mostly due to tiredness. I've now adjusted his nap and sleep schedule and things are much better! He loves trains and can name all of the Thomas the Tank trains by name, there are close to 30 of them. He is speaking better and better too. He's a cutie and a handful.

Caleb was shocked and surprised to find train tracks under his bed! (it's the bunk bed ladder)

We had our church Halloween party on Friday night. A chili cook off and costume parade for the kids.

Caleb: Batman, Allen: Robin, Me: Catwoman, Leila: my cat

They rarely stay still so it's hard to get a good picture, but Caleb was Batman and his best bud Luke was Bane. 

Such a loving brother!

Our neighborhood had a Fall Festival party with food, a bounce house, trick-or-treat trail and costume contest. We didn't know about it, we had just gone to play at the park so Caleb didn't have a costume on. 

This is how he folds his arms for prayers.

They really love each other!

Wearing her Halloween costume tights to church just because they're so cute, even if they don't match her dress!

We just had Stake Conference and Allen stayed home with the kids so I could go to the adult session on Saturday night. It was focused on "Hastening the Work of Salvation" and the mission president and his wife gave talks that really inspired me. Sunday night we had one of our neighbors over, Chuck. We've had him over before. We fed him chuck roast :) and I talked a little bit about my mission. He's known lots of Mormons but isn't really interested in religion. I invited him to our ward Halloween party too but he declined, not surprising.

I try to bring the church up in casual conversation with a lot of people to allow them the opportunity to ask more questions without me being too in their face and to make it easier to invite people to FHE with us or to church and activities. I was slacking off on that but now am determined to do better.

Today I invited our neighbor Tracie to come to the Primary Program in a couple of weeks. She said she'll come and asked if I know any single men... she's divorced and on the prowl. :) I want to try to invite more people to the program because it's an easy thing to invite them to, especially since I'm the one who wrote it and I know it will be a great experience for anyone who attends. Perfect for investigators! I told the missionaries that too, and we're going to make some fliers for it for the Primary kids/families in the ward and the missionaries to pass out.