Catching up

So since I'm forcing myself to be better at this blogging stuff, I figured tonight it would be appropriate to kind of "catch up" so to speak on whats going on with us since I posted last.

I last posted in August!! Wow!

Since I posted school began and we started about our "New" normal and getting into a routine once again with Daddy gone. Emmalie and Thomas went back to school and the twins continued meeting with our AEA 2 times a month.

I have to admit this go around for deployment was much easier for the kids to adjust. But if most of you remember we were still pretty fresh off the last deployment.

We got settled into our new school and activities routines, Emmalie mostly activities wise. This year I chose to enroll her at InMotion Dance studio, We enjoyed dancing at the Y but I continued to feel as if she wasn't learning up to her potential, As uncoordinated as my daughter is she can definitely dance. (Which some how amazes me since I swear some days she can barely walk :) lol) Also my concern with her at the Y, I always felt as if I needed to stay, I hated to leave her unattended to wait for me to come pick her up (yes the Ymca is a save place for kids) but somehow I just didn't feel comfortable doing that. So I looked through information and class prices on each of the studios near us.

I chose InMotion, and I LOVE IT THERE! and we will definitely be returning for years to come. I feel comfortable there, my kids feel comfortable. I have no worries if I have to drop her off and leave her and the best part is SHE ENJOYS GOING! Every week she enjoys it! She has always enjoyed it in the past but I used to fight her to get around and go. That is no longer an issue. She loves her teaches and the friends she has made there.

This year she is doing Jazz/Tap, Ballet, and Competition Hip Hop (or Mini Company) We have been to two competitions so far the girls have done awesome.

Bravo was there first competition and the girls came home with a 3rd place trophy.

Our next competition was Celebrity competition, The girls got a 1st place (gold) for there routine they were 8 points away from a High gold! They also got a 3rd place overall trophy for Junior division!

We have 2 more competitions one in April and one in May. Looking forward to watching them dance some more!

Gracie (and mommy) are participating in Parent and Me Tumbling. She so enjoys going and playing, and all the attention the BIG girls give her while we are there. Gracie is there own personal baby doll. lol

We are looking forward to recital coming up in May.

The kids are doing well in school, We just had conferences and I had relatively good reports for both of them. We have alot of big changes to plan for NEXT year coming up with School. Emmalie will be a 2nd Grader! Wow! Thomas will be a kinder-gardener :( and Grace and Logan will get to attend preschool half days! What will I do with myself for half a day!!!

We have up coming meetings for both Thomas and Grace regarding school. I get to go with Thomas' teacher next week to check out the special eduction area. We have discussed here and there the "plan" for him. Right now he is in a integrated class for preschool. We are thinking that will not work for next year. As right now his special education teacher is his regular teacher too. So they are looking at what they call "level 2" Which basically means He will be in a special education class to focus on his needs but will participate with a regular class for all specials or events, snack, reading time and so on. I'm OK with that I want the best environment possible for Thomas at school. He loves school and does so well. So we are hoping the transition to kinder garden goes well.

Grace and Logan will get to attend the preschool Thomas currently goes to. Which isn't near as scary for (me as a mom) being we are very familiar with the programs and processes. Grace will be on an IEP (individualized education plan) for sure, for speech and general special education as you can tell she is lagging behind Logan in those areas.

All in all we are excited at the progress everyone is making in school areas and are looking forward to whats to come.

Now to rewind slightly (getting ahead of myself) We enjoyed a small vacation in November to visit Aaron before they actually left to go in country. Catch was we had to make it to him :( The trip was a long drive but the kids handled it well. Grandma Joyce came with us so I didn't have to drive alone.

We all had a blast! We celebrated Thomas' Birthday while we were there he turned the big 5! We hung out around the cabin we stayed at, went to the zoo, and down to Gulf port to the beach. We had a great time and was super hard to say goodbye again.

Holidays were super hard for me mostly I don't think the kids noticed all that much. We spent it with family and had a good time but just wasn't the same as always. We were super blessed with support tho. At thanksgiving we received a bunch of boxes of groceries from DMACC.

At Christmas DMACC took family photos for us to send to Aaron, they paid for all of us to get haircuts, and me and Emmalie to be styled as well to look our best for our pictures. They also Brought us Christmas presents clothes and toys for the kids, Gift cards and a few fun things for me. We were also chosen to receive presents from the National Guard. In which they got to much stuff to name! We were truly blessed this Holiday season.

Even yet it was still hard. We did get web cam with Aaron on Christmas Morning. The kids really enjoyed having daddy watch and showing him everything they opened.

So since then we have been trucking along passing the time with school and dance.

We are looking forward to MAY, Aaron will be home for his 15 Day leave. It will be a super busy time with school not out yet, and Dance recital. We are looking forward to having him home for a bit. Getting our Daddy fix, and hoping it holds us over through the summer til he arrives home to us save and sound.