January Highlights

I have been very sad and upset over the unrest in Ukraine.  Having spent a lot of time in this country, and of course having a Ukrainian daughter, I do love this country and its people.  Exactly six years ago we were in this city.

 

Our own winter has been cold, but beautiful.  We even had a snow day with no school!

At the end of the day, its nice to be warm at home.

Christmas 2013

 We had some snow this year, and saw some beautiful lights.

We were all together for Christmas Eve with Jon's family.

Christmas day with my family.  Deiana loves to play with her little cousin Ceci.

 

We had a very nice holiday season, now on to a New Year!

State Champion!!!

We had the great pleasure of attending the State Gymnastics Meet, where Deiana earned the privilege of competing.  Deiana, Aunt Susie, and I made the trip.  It was nice to have another adult along for moral support.  What should have been a four hour drive at the most, was a 9 hour nightmare!  A big storm with snow and ice made the mountain roads horrible.  Stop and go traffic with many semi trucks and trailers off the road.  We took the truck (which I hate to drive on a nice day) so we really had no problems, but is was very stressful.  Deiana was in the last group to compete so the return trip the text day was totally in the dark and took "just" 7 hours to complete. 

Now for the good part....Deiana did great.  Her floor routine was her best this year, and she got first place, and a state champion title!  She said it was the best moment of her life.  That made the whole trip worth it.  Here are all the pictures from the award winning routine.  Way to go Deiana!  We are so proud of you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Card

I took many pictures trying to get a good one for our Christmas Card.  They turned out okay.  I didn't have access to the boys to get them in one, so I kept holding out.

 

 

 

 

I gave up and did a collage, since so new pictures of the boys.  Next year I will start earlier!

Getting ready for Christmas

Part of our Christmas fun is cutting down the tree.  (Honestly if we didn't have a young one I might get an artificial tree)  Living in the "country" there are many tree farms nearby.  This year Jordan gave us a coupon for a free tree courtesy of his employer, so it was even better.
We have had very nice, but cold weather.  See, Deiana actually does own a coat, even though she seldom wears one.  I think it is rebellion for all those years of being over-bundled as a toddler!

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

Deiana and two of her dog sisters

We had perfect weather for our Thanksgiving at the beach.  It was sunny and in the 60's.  Deiana and I had a great time walking around town.  Jon, Jeremy, Jordan and Grandpa joined us for the holiday.  Of course the 4 dogs were there as well to make a full house.

The path to the beach

Hanging around town waiting for her brothers to arrive

I tried to keep the meal simple this year.  With just me, four men and a little girl there is limited help with the cooking.  I bought all the groceries at home and made as many things ahead of time.  It worked great.  It is very relaxing to have Thanksgiving at the beach, and we can spend more time together!

4th Grade

So how is school going this year?  Great.  Deiana has a "strict" teacher this year and she looooves her!  Her teacher told me she "adores" Deiana so it is a perfect match.  She is learning more than she ever has and comes home with tons of papers completed in class.  Her teacher got her extra reading help right off the bat, something no one else has bothered to do.  Reading is her weakest area due to her language delay and honestly, lack of interest.  She has greatly improved in this area and is now at grade level.  Her teacher is fighting to retain the extra assistance to continue her progress.
If only speech therapy could be as productive.  I do believe she has never had any benefit from the school speech therapy services. 
She loves school (probably for social reasons) and is in her fourth year of perfect attendance, even with surgeries, doctor, dentist, and orthodontic appointments!

Halloween

Deiana had a couple different costumes this year for extracurricular activities.  For a Halloween gymnastics meet the girls dressed as minions.  For her girl scout party she was a "cat".  The girls had gymnastics practice on Halloween, but cut it short and went trick or treating together. Jon had Halloween off this year and was able to trick or treat with us, in a fun neighborhood!  It was lots of fun, and lots of candy.

The team girls, Deiana is the minion on another girl's shoulders

 

Cute Kitty

 

Fall Gymnastics

I know I post a lot about gymnastics, but that is what we do!  Deiana has so much energy she needs to channel it into something productive, and she loves gymnastics.  She works out four days a week from 4:00 to 7:30, but its more like 8:00 because the girls don't want to leave!  With meets on the weekends its a huge block of time. The team she is on is very close and their young coach is very dedicated and enthusiastic.  This is great for a girl that has no siblings or neighbor girls to hang out with.

 

 

 

 

 

Deiana is the third one in line.

We are well into the meet season, and the girls look really good.  Deiana has won medals at all the meets but not the first place sweeps we got use to last year.  She is in a higher level and the competition is a little tougher. There are several girls on her team that are her biggest competition.  I actually think she is having more fun and feels less pressure to be perfect all the time.  I will post more pictures when I have them all on my computer.  I am having trouble getting good action shots with my camera!  I'm too far away and they move too quickly.