Jordan Saves Christmas

We had a nice Christmas Day celebration at our house this year. We anticipated everyone being able to make it to our house as all major roads were finally cleared. Our street however was still a couple feet deep in hard snow and ice. No regular cars could make it across the blockage created by the highway snow plows at the end of the street. Jordan's lifted jeep however could handle the terrain. He made many trips back and forth to the Safeway parking lot to deliver our family to the house. (Pictures courtesy of DeAnna)

DeAnna was very thrilled with her Santa gifts. She wanted a guitar and that was what she got. She also received a beautiful baby doll, a toy

camera, and lots of clothes.

Winter Storm Postpones Christmas Eve

Our back yard.

Our street.

Making a snowman before the big snowstorm.

This year we have been having a record breaking snow storm. While it may be fun for a short time, this region is not equipped to handle anything like this so getting around the metro area has been next to impossible. Fortunately I have had time off work so I have only had to trek across town and up "the hill" a couple of times. Jon of course must make it to work every day no matter what.

We have had no US mail, UPS, garbage service, or newspaper delivery for over a week!

Jeremy made it home before the second storm hit and his Mustang has been snowed in ever since.

The week before Christmas all parties and activities were cancelled, including the preschool Christmas program. Even our family Christmas Eve gathering was cancelled due to lingering poor road conditions.

We have had some nice family time at home though. The boys built a snowboarding jump in the field and DeAnna has enjoyed going outside with them.

We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home and opened presents from each other. DeAnna was of course thrilled with everything she received, and excited for "HO HO HO" to come.

Santa

DeAnna was able to visit Santa for the first time. She has been very excited about Santa, whom she refers to as "HO HO HO". We had practiced saying what she would like for Christmas (her main request is a guitar!) but when she finally got to see him she was too excited to ask for anything. However, in true DeAnna fashion, she charmed him out of his glasses in about a minute (see picture). The poor guy is lucky he didn't have a cell phone or a camera!

Winter Weather

We have been experiencing our first winter weather this year. Snow and very cold. We haven't had our winter clothes out since we returned from Ukraine in March. DeAnna was very excited to see the snow, but interestingly enough when I came downstairs wearing my Ukrainian fur hat she looked at me like I had lost my mind and said, "MAMAAAAA NO NO NO!!"

DeAnna has had lots of time to play at home because as is customary in our region, when there is snow there is no school (or daycare). Of course we still have work so Jordan has been kind enough to entertain his sister for us.

Christmas Tree

Today we went to find our Christmas Tree. DeAnna is very excited about seeing Christmas trees so we were anxious to get one. It was a georgeous day and we are lucky to have a fantastic tree farm about 1/2 mile from our house! DeAnna didn't care which tree we selected so I made sure we hiked around and saw every last one before making a final decision. The good ones are never close to the car!

9 Months Home

Nine months have passed already, I can hardly keep track. DeAnna is happy and energetic as usual!
We are continually working hard at her speaking skills. She can repeat almost all sounds and words now but has trouble putting them together in sentences. Her speech therapy through Early Childhood Intervention has proven to be disappointing. They only offer her one group session a week and I can not see any progress gained from there. Her private therapist is better, and offers some ideas, but I can get her to more for me working 1:1 at home.
However, this does not stop her from having conversations with complete strangers.
What she lacks in verbal skills she more than makes up for in drama. When shopping at the store she can often be seen practicing some dramatic performance, or character imitation. She's actually quite entertaining and requires no encouragement!

Thanksgiving

I guess everyone can guess what we're thankful for this year!

I had the pleasure of attending the preschool Thanksgiving program where all the kids wore costumes they made and sang songs. This was followed by a lovely "feast". I forgot my camera so I don't have pictures of the actual performance.

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving with our family and Mimi and Grampa. Jeremy managed to come home for 2 days and we were glad to see him if only briefly. Deanna was glad to see him, but worried that he would eat her ice cream (i peam as she says). So we went out and bought him his own carton, she was very relieved. She's really not greedy he just teases her unmercifully about eating ALL the ice cream.

After Thanksgiving dinner we all went over to see Mimi and Grampa's new condo. It is vacant now and the boys hadn't seen it. It is close to downtown Portland and has spectacular views. Deanna was very excited and was sprinting up and down the hallway. She turned her head and ran right into a wall at full speed. She recovered quickly but is now sporting a black eye.

December is here and will be full of many "firsts" for our girl. Stay tuned for the highlights.

8 Months Home

We have been home 7 months now! Here is Deanna's preschool picture, I think it came out pretty nice. Here's a quick update:

She loves preschool and is eager to go every day. She verbal skills are coming along, but continue to require lots of reinforcement. I've found she gets lazy and she will use her "signs" or her own version of words that she can say correctly. At this point we discourage signs and make her repeat things. She is able to say "I want to watch a movie please" but usually says just 2 or 3 words together. She is an excellent communicator and can get her point across to anyone.

She thinks she owns all the ice cream in the house and goes into a little tirade if the boys eat any. She can really tell them off with her limited vocabulary!

Halloween!

Posing in her kitty costume.

She loves her brother "O"

Extremely excited on the way to trick-or-treating

Krista giving Deanna a break trick or treating
Krista's and her group of very nice friends!

Deanna had a very fun filled Halloween this year. She picked out her costume (kitty if you can't tell) and was quite excited to wear it. The day started out with a preschool party with games and prized. Fortunately not too many treats.

Later on she was thrilled to be able to trick or treat with Krista and her friends. The girls had a great time and Deanna kept up pretty well.

We later met up with some of our grown up friends and Deanna busied herself with TV and learned to play some pool.

Thankfully Deanna is very generous with her halloween candy and she was quite excited to share it with Jordan. This is amazing considering this girl LOVES candy and we usually restrict it!

Busy with Fall

Deanna was happy to dress up to go out to dinner for her Grandma's birthday. She is always happy to go to a restaurant, even though she doesn't eat very much.

The Pumpkin Patch!!

We had a great time on the Preschool Pumpkin Patch field trip. We have been enjoying great weather this fall, and this morning was one of the best. This particular pumpkin patch had hay rides, crafts, a hay maze that you crawl-through with flashlights, and animals to pet.

Deanna had a great time and it was fun for me to watch her interact with her preschool friends. She really fits in like she has always been here!

Deanna was so happy to be invited to a pumpkin carving party. We really had a lot of fun and appreciate being included!

Kitty Rescue

Today we were wondering where the little kitty was when Jon heard a faint cry coming from the trees. We spotted our little Lucy way up in a fir tree. The base of these trees is surrounded by blackberries so I imagine she was chased up there, possibly by a coyote which are often invading our property. If you look hard you can see the little black and white spots up in the tree. Jon tried to coax her down but she was too terrified to descend on her own. He had to resort to a ladder rescue. She was spooked but otherwise unhurt. Jon unfortunately suffered several third degree bleeding cat scratches! Below is Deanna doing a victory dance. (She has her bathing suit on, hoping for a hot tub) Thats our excitement for the day!!

Home 7 Months

Deanna has now been home for 7 months. Doesn't she look grown up!! She looks big, but she is actually on the small side for her age.

These pictures were the first day she rode the bus to speech therapy. She was very excited about it, but I was a nervous wreck. Everything went very smoothly and she was home safely in a short amount of time. We both like her new speech teacher very much!

Everything is going well at home and Deanna's new favorite thing to do is watch movies. At first she was not interested in TV at all (not a bad thing) but I was a little concerned about her attention span. Now she watches all kinds of movies and especially enjoys musicals and stories about animals. I do think its good for her english comprehension. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" here we come!