Christmas in January, Pictures That Is

December had us...........

decorating........Notice the wonderful help I had putting up the outdoor decorations.  They were no help with the stuff on the ground, but had a fit to get on the roof.  I probably should not have let them up there, but they had the best time just sitting up there.  Well, actually they complained that all I would let them do up there was sit, but they did have a good tme checking out the bird's eye view.  

baking cookies.......it is so nice to have the girls old enough to do them on their own.  They used to want to make them, but quickly lost interest and left me to finish them.  Now we can all all work together, or they can work on the cookies while I move on to something else.  Rachel did not take an interest in the cookies.  She does not even like to eat them, silly girl!

making candy........I tried my hand at making divinity again.  I had tried it once in the past, and it did not work at all.  I had lots of help this time and we actually pulled it off despite dropping my brand new candy thermometer in the boiling syrup and having to use a 40 year old mixture to try to stiffen up the candy.   I think the mixer just about gave it up right there at the end, but we did it!   

eating lots of sweets........The finished product.  

celebrating..........Christmas Eve dinner was shared with Grandpa and our dear friend, Regina.  

unwrapping presents............The big girls could not wait for this part of Christmas.  It is fun to have Rachel old enough to be interested in this after all these years. 

playing with the new toys Santa brought.........Rachel never really seems to pay much attention to what is going on around her, but she was just precious Christmas morning when she walked out of her bedroom and looked downstairs.  Her eyes got big and I asked her what did she see.  With eyes still the size of saucers she said, "Christmas!"  Once downstairs she immediately took to the new Woody doll and played with him most of the day. Who new the doll talked so loud!  Rachel has an older Jessie doll and you can barely hear her talk, but this doll is LOUD!  Did not notice that at the time I got it.  

hanging out with Grandpa..........Grandpa actually came down and spent three days with us.  He usually zooms in and out much too quickly, so we were delighted to have him come down and stay with us for a couple of days. 

Trying To Catch Up

I have gotten so far behind in my blogging.  I am going to try to do better this year.  Below are some pictures of our trip home to Alabama for Thanksgiving. 

The girls love to ride the lawn mowers at Daddy Hawk's.  

Rachel is finally big enough to get in on the fun too. 

It was hard to get her off once she got going.

The cousins love to get together for a couple of days.

The kids' table.  Now I know why my grandmother had a kids' table.

After a while, it just gets plain silly.

After a warm start, the holiday weekend really cooled off.  That did not keep the girls inside, though.

The big girls decided to climb the tree.  If you look closely, you can see Allison near the top, maybe.

Christmas Cards

Merry Christmas Script Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Just finished creating my Christmas cards with Shutterfly.  Wow!  What a selection they have.  It took me about three days to decide which one I wanted.  I actually created four different cards before I settled on one.  They were all so different, I just had to decide which look I wanted to go with.  I love this kind of stuff.  I lets me feel so creative, and take it from me, creative I am not!  It certainly makes me want to get serious about making some photo books for the girls.  If the photo books are as easy to create as the cards, I should be able to do it.  I have done a few photo books with another online company, and they are lots of fun, but Shutterfly seems to offer a lot more options to really make the project your own.  I am excited to try them out!      

She Is Growing Up!

Rachel went in to the dentist on Monday for her check up.  The hygienist found out that Rachel has three new teeth!!  Three!  She has both of her upper six year molars coming through.  I am not surprised I did not know that, because she will never open her mouth for me to look in there, but the third tooth is a lower incisor.  It is coming in behind her baby teeth.  I cannot believe I have not noticed that one.  The dentist told me to start wiggling the baby tooth to try to get it to loosen up and come out.  I have to say I am not looking forward to Rachel losing her baby teeth.  She is my last one and I hate to see her grow up.  I cannot believe all my babies are gone! 

Frustration Was The Word Of The Day

We had Rachel's IEP meeting on Thursday.  It was such a fiasco, that I could not sit down and write about it until today.  As soon as the meeting started, I realized that the IEP team and I were not on the same page.  I immediately told them that I was there to change the IEP to place Rachel in a regular kindergarten classroom full time, as her original VE teacher had informed me I could do.  The teacher stopped me right there and said she had never told me that we could move Rachel into her classroom.  I was flabbergasted.  I had talked with this teacher multiple times regarding this change, and I really don't think I just misunderstood what she was talking about. 

In addition to this, I also found out that Rachel was still not getting into the regular kindergarten classroom from her new VE classroom.  She has not gone into her regular kindergarten class since sometime in September!!  The new self contained teacher did not even know that Rachel was supposed to be pulled out of the VE classroom for certain activities!  I have lost a lot of confidence in Rachel's school in the the last couple of weeks.  I have had several parents tell me what a wonderful school this is, but right now I am not impressed.   

After the meeting, Rachel remains in the VE classroom with the new teacher and will be pulled to a regular classroom for some activities.  I cannot believe that we had to hold a meeting in November to get Rachel back on the schedule that we put in place back at May's IEP meeting!!!  I guess I am going to have to get into the school on a regular basis and make sure the school is carrying this out.  I am not devastated with this placement, as I knew Rachel would not do as well academically in a regular classroom, but I did want her back with her original teacher and I wanted Rachel to get to experience the feeling of "belonging" in a regular classroom. 

Tomorrow Rachel should resume the schedule she had at the beginning of the year and hopefully, she will be comfortable going back into that kindergarten class.  She does not like change and it has been two months since she was last in the class.  Mike is also interested in talking to someone that knows IEP law and discuss this situation with them.  Not carrying out IEP requirements because it is not convenient is not acceptable. I really should have stayed on top of everyone to make sure things were getting done, but I had been so pleased with the staff after last year, that I just assumed that everything was being done like it was supposed to be.   Wrong!