The many expressions of my passionate girly...

The sun has been beaming through the frosty windows for the past week so I figured I would take advantage of it for our christmas pictures.  I love the photo shoots I have these days.... I trained the kids well and both Luke and Ava are very cooperative for me!  Ava models away and I eat it right up!  Sydney, on the other hand.... it is hit or miss.  Huge smile, then a second later, screaming at me.  She cracks me up.  I happened to get some funny pics of her!  

Happy 14th Anniversary to us!

How blessed are we to still love each other and have 3 beautiful children as a result of our love?  It isn't always peaches and cream but we have grown up together and we are growing in the same direction.  We have been through all of it together and we treasure every moment!  I love you Steve! Thank you for being the amazing person you are!  My wish for m kids is that they too can be happy in love someday!

Our visit to Mississippi 2014

I am still sad to think about leaving Mississippi a couple weeks ago.  We had such a great time visiting our cousins, Nana and the Uncle's and Aunts.  It was really hard leaving :(. 

We helped Abbey get ready for homecoming!  What a beautiful girl and a personality to match!  

Love love love! I miss my nieces! 

We had a great time playing on the playground together!

Chris's wedding at the Royal Sonesta

What a great mini reunion for my family!  My Aunts, Uncles and cousins finally met the kids!  We had such a blast at the wedding!  

New Orleans

What a great time we had at my cousin's wedding in New Orleans!  The kids were able to see the culture on Bourbon Street as we arrived at 11pm at night.  Our most interesting sight... A red guy in a red kilt holding a chicken and roaming the street like that is what he does every day! And a naked  lady painted silver.  We let them choose some beads and Sydney wanted the "booby" beads.  She was sad we made her get the pink flamingo beads! 

Doodling!

Sydney is the doodler in the family, I love it.  She has been doodling on every paper in site since she could hold a pencil.  She drew this picture in the kids club today.  I love the detail! Eyelashes, eyebrows, and earrings.  Even a side part!

Ballet, Tap and other things...

The girls have been enrolled in ballet and tap for the past month.  They are in the same class at the Washington school of dance.  They love it!  Sydney really enjoys dancing and gymnastics  more than anything right now.  It is very hard for her to put up with the seams on her tights and having her hair in a bun due to her sensory processing disorder.  Today, she has had an exceptional day with no emotional outbursts or tantrums.  I have been working so hard with her on controlling her emotions by letting her now that she has the decision to choose if she wants to be happy or sad.  Empowering her with the ability to make the decision has worked for us.  I have been megadosing her, Luke and Ava on vitamin C.  Her immunoglobulin IgM is deficient and she was getting recurrent thrush infections and cankersores daily in her mouth.  We have been megadosing about 3000 or 4000 my of vitamin C for 6 weeks now and it has all disappeared!  I also have them on a multivitamin 3 times a day, calcium, extra vitamin d, probiotics, and DHA.  The idea is that her and Luke's neurological disorders (high functioning Autism) are made worse from the toxins in their body... Hence all of the immune problems (HSP, asthma, thrush, constipation.) Their diet has no dyes and I limit foods in the pantry and as many GMO ingredients or products with preservatives.  They are eating gluten and dairy and doing fine.  We work on behaviors and impulse control all day everyday.  I eliminate as many sources of anxiety I can. So far, this is working better than anything else I have tried!

Anyway, the girls are at tap/ballet and they are enjoying it!  

P.S. I have not had any asthma or allergy problems since I started taking a lot of vitamin c as well.  Luke's asthma has disappeared as well and no more inhalers for him.  No more asthma coughs either!  

Blast from the past

Taking a trip down memory lane tonight.  Here are some old photos of my beloved grandparents and Jen!

Nakeybuns!

Cheerleading Camp

Ava was apprehensive about going to cheerleading camp but after I explained "the unknown" she showed no hesitation.  She went with Lexi and Pea and had a good time!  She was teaching her moves to Sydney at night.  So proud of our little girl for cheering with the big girls in front of all of the parents! 

Favorite quotes

The real world is what you make it. 

Autism Speaks Walk!

We had our first annual Autism Speaks walk at the Seattle Center!  The kids did great and we will be supporting this event every year!  

Sydney's School Pictures- Fall 2014

My sweet and TALL little girl!

Picnic at Chateau

We had a beautiful early Fall weekend!  I decided to bring my camera with me to Chateau so I could get some much needed pictures of the kids.  It has been too long since my last mini photo shoot.  I have been so busy on many other creative projects with them that I have forgotten about my love of photography of my favorite subjects!

Unschooling

We are now in week 3 of homeschool.  I think that I felt every human emotion the first 2 weeks trying to find my way.  This is something I have been planning and thinking about endlessly the 3 months leading up to it.  Here is what I have learned:

1.I need to trust myself.  Doing something like deciding to take your child's learning into your own hands can be overwhelming.  I am constantly reminding myself that children learn best when they are ready.  I need to stop comparing them to the other kids and what they know. That is an ego based way to live life and I don't want to live in those confines.  Through my actions, the kids will hopefully learn that too. 

2.  I have learned a great deal about myself. I need to be more open to the kids individual interests.  When I started a couple weeks ago, I was following the Waldorf cirriculum to the T.  That did not work for us.  Until I learned to let go of that, we were all unhappy.  I was bossy and felt sad that the kids didn't want to do the fun waldorf things that I wanted to.  So now, I use the stories, the lessons, the basic ideas of waldorf because they are so wonderful and we do it our way.  This week we are all happy!

I am teaching the kids the how to communicate in the world that we live in. I am teaching them to read through their interests... Pokemon games, dog breeds, and games. We read Aesop's fables, Grimm fairy tales and make plays with our favorite toys to act out the parts.  We are Christians but have learned that nature has many of the many answers to our questions too.  I am teaching gratitude by exposing them to the unfortunate circumstances of life, like sick kids at a hospital, YouTube videos of starving children, conjoined twins, etc.  it may be harsh and scary but it gives them and me  a sure dose of gratitude.  I am teaching them to use their creative talents so they can give to others.  I am learning so much about myself through this process.  How I can be better.  How to live in a new paradigm.  It's amazing how much growth can be had when we drop the "rules and construct" that have shaped who we are.  There is so much more out there when we ditch the rigidity of minds. 

Life is good and it is our individual choices that can make a huge difference in life.