dinosaur world 2012

 On the 22nd of September, we went to Dinosaur World in Cave City, Ky.  It was $1 for Warren Co. residents and we took advantage!!  Here is Aunt Ellen and Lewis hanging out with the Wooly Mammoths. 

 Here's Aunt Ellen and Aunt Beth on the foot of the big dinosaur visible from I-65.  There was no way to get the kids to all look at once (or at all!).

 Me & the kids.

 The big dino, the boys and Aunt Beth.

 Lewis in front of some dinosaurs (I'm so bad at recalling all of their names).

 The playground is always a big hit.  Owen enjoyed climbing the fake trees.

 Posed shot of Lewis.

 Posed shot of Owen.

The scary moment of the day was when we "lost" Lewis and he was actually stuck inside this dinosaur mouth.  He couldn't figure out how to get out of there.  Thankfully some friends from church had seen him and pointed me in his direction.  He ran off one other time.....but otherwise it was a relatively easy day. 

early September

September was a whirlwind.  It seems like once the heat breaks, we are sprung into a snowball of ever increasing speed until we hit Christmas.  September began with a party for our dear friend Adam Moore.  Rebecca threw another epic party involving a carnival theme.  We had a bubble blowing contest, juggling etc.  Here's that happy couple!

 Foxhole reunited!

 Owen got to participate in a "super" library story time.

 We were supposed to attend a family reunion of the all the Shepherds in Shepherdsville on September 8th, but instead sat on I-65 for over an hour and went less than 2 miles due to a horrendously fatal accident.  We finally made an illegal u-turn and returned home.  Thankfully, we had food for the kids and the DVD player going so it was kind of a party atmosphere.  We took a couple pics to commemorate this weird time.

 Me & Owen on the interstate.

 Lewis and "Belle" at Jackson's Orchard later that day.  He was quite taken with her!!

 Phoebe sporting new P.J.'s c/o 'Lil Angels' Attic consignment sale.  I made close to $300 this sale!

 Lewis was named Student of the Week and got a cupcake sometime in early September!

 We celebrated Grandpa Norm's birthday.

 We had an Autism Support Group day at the park.  Owen got to meet a new friend.

 Lewis got to play with an old friend, Jack Sternberg.

 We played a lot of baseball in September.

 We spent some time at the WKU track.

 Lewis got to climb at the park.

 Lewis enjoyed walking over the stream on rocks at Preston Miller Park.

 More time at the track pretending to be Usain Bolt.

And Phoebe enjoyed doing the sign for "ice cream" at random and saying, "Yummy!"

Phoebe's 18 month update

On October 20th, Phoebe turned 18 months old!  She's doing great and has fun all the time.  18 month stats are--

Height: 32.75" (70th percentile)
Weight: 26 lbs., 3 oz. (80th percentile)

She's a big girl!  Phoebe has developed a love for her 'baby' and carries her around a TON of the time, even insisting on taking her places at times.  She has one baby she loves the best (thanks to the Morozov family for that one!), but does give the others attention at times.  She must have her favorite to sleep with at night, but is willing to play with the others, feeding them and pushing them in her little stroller some.  We love to see her pretending like this.  It has been something the boys have been missing and we have had to teach them.  Phoebe naturally imitates me vacuuming or sweeping the floor.  She's very independent and wants to do it all on her own! She's talking a lot and even says "Oh man!" when Swiper appears on an episode of Dora the Explorer.

We have her in an Early Detection Study through the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center.  She had her first eval in October and her results were "little to no concern" after her ADOS assessment which is the gold standard for Autism diagnosis.  Her receptive language fell in the 24 month range and her expressive, fine motor and gross motor were all average (and that was with her being shy and less expressive than usual!).  They will assess her again at 36 months to make sure she is on target. Very grateful for the folks at Vanderbilt and being able to do evaluations free of charge with some of our areas experts!

Stay tuned for more photos from the last couple of months.

the rest of August

 August was filled with school and some other random activities like swimming and painting ducks at the Kentucky Museum.

 Lewis and his duck.

 Lewis at Chick-fil-A.

 A Sixpence None the Richer cd release show! Their new album finally came out.  Funny thing is we have all been listening to it, and Lewis has been figuring out some of the songs on piano. 

More walking around the square.

 A ton of Olympics watching and pretending to be swimmers. Owen LOVED so much about the Olympics.

 Coffee drinking.

 Rare photo opps.

And Family Fest at Chaney's.  Man, we packed it in!

more big girl Phoebe

 So in August, Phoebe seemed to get feeding herself down.  She is not totally neat or independent, but she can get some bites on her own, which is great! Here is a video of her eating watermelon with a fork.

 We enjoyed the boys being back in school to get out by ourselves.

Here's another video of her walking and trying to jump in downtown Bowling Green.

 She got into brushing her teeth, which also seems to soothe her big molars coming in.

She also likes watering the flowers.

Phoebe mastered climbing up and going down our little slide all by herself at 16 months which really surprised us.  She also does slides at the park now too.  She is quite the overachiever compared to her brothers in this regard.  She is climbing on EVERYTHING she can these days which can be scary for us, but so far no major injuries have occurred. Here 's another video:

A couple more of our cute girl climbing into this chair by herself.  So silly!

Cahoons depart

In August, our friends Courtney & Jonathan Cahoon moved to Rochester, NY so that Jonathan could pursue a Master's in Architecture.  You may be noticing a them that we said a lot of goodbyes this summer!  In fact, in this photo from Courtney's birthday party, the friend next to her, Kaycee, also moved in September. 

 We got to play with their many children one day while they packed. Here are four of them swinging at the park (in age order, oddly enough!).

 Our friend, Shawna, helped that day. 

 I failed to take many pictures from their 'going away' party, but got one of the cake. 

And one of Judith with her dog (that every child loves).  It was terribly sad seeing them go, as we greatly enjoy their company, but we hope they will come back someday!!

Mandy's visit

At the end of July and into August, we had a visit from our great friend, Mandy Guss.  Mandy was preparing to leave for a STINT in Central Asia.  She was wrapping up support, connecting with friends and tying up loose ends.  It was great to see her! We enjoyed some good time ushering her out of the country.

 She got to read some books to Phoebe (over + over + over!).

Lewis took the opportunity to dress up like "imposter Mandy" after we ran in the Race 4 Kids.  He got into costume: glasses and all.

We love Mandy and are excited about her time abroad.  To keep up with her, check her blog HERE.