Cambria's last day of Preschool 2011

Cambria's first year of preschool began at the age of 2 and a half! We knew she needed the extra help and early start, we didn't realize what a blessing school would be for her and how much she would LOVE it!

Every Tues. and Fri. morning after she was dressed and fed we'd wait by the door with great excitement for the van that was coming! "Good-morning van" "where's the van" and "I love the van" were just a few of the phrases she liked to repeat while waiting. The van was a blessing and she thought it was so much fun! School was great! Her class was a combination of early-childhood kids and normal kids (ages 3-4) and Cambria on the 2 days she joined them. She had to have her own special teacher to help her navigate her morning at school, different specialist rotating days. Her teachers worked hard to get her involved and help her learn and develop. She spent several months screaming and fighting at the thought of washing her hands in the sink or giving up the little toy animal she took on the van, but eventually learned and would (with help) wash her hands and put the toy away like she was told. With the help of her teachers she'd have a little role each day. They worked hard at snack time and actually reached the goal of touching the food to her lips. At story time they would pause a minute and hold the book close to Cambria's face so she had the chance to see the pictures. She went from sitting at story time in a special chair to sometimes joining the group on the floor. Her speech has improved greatly and she has begun to ask for food when she's hungry. God has truly blessed us and Cambria at Golden Hills and we will miss them all so much (wish we could take them all to TX).

During story and song time!

The good-bye song:(

Her 2011 super-star Award- not that she noticed, but it was sweet!

My camera wasn't ready for the class shot- but I tried.


Outside for special last-day fun! Cambria LOVED her blue balloon!

 

Trying to teach her how to blow bubbles. She was excited about bubbles, but I think she was having a hard time seeing them in the bright sun, she didn't notice them at all.

 

Cambria and her 3 teachers- the specialist weren't there for the last day party (it wasn't on one of Cambria's normal school days). These are 3 absolutely wonderful teachers!

Avalyn's cheer!

I found a local cheer club for little girls and decided to let Avalyn try. It was inexpensive and flexible on how involved you wanted to be. You pay by the week, buy pom-poms, but everything else was optional- like the uniform and little competition. Avalyn's recital was the same week as the competition, so I didn't buy the uniform. I did buy a cheer shirt, bow and of course she LOVED her pom-poms, actually she LOVED it ALL! It was a great little intro to cheerleader. She still can't decide what she likes best, dance, cheer or gymnastics, so we will have to wait and see what we decide to do next year.

So excited to perform!

 

Good job Avalyn!

 

The whole family went to watch the show! The babies enjoyed the music and clapping!

I LOVE this picture!

Offutt gymnastics

Avalyn has become quite the little gymnast over the past couple of years. She loves the challenge and is improving all the time. She is constantly practicing her skills at home and we are very proud of her!

Mother's Day!

We didn't do much for mother's day, but that was just fine with me. Went to church and out to lunch with some great friends. After we had been home for a bit, I decide what I wanted for Mother's Day- a picture of ALL 4 kids together. If you are a mother of 4 young one's you know how difficult this can be. I got my camera out and told the kids I wanted a picture of all of them. Daddy help and we did our best and it was a success- for this non-photographer mommy!

We started on the big chair, but they quickly wanted to go to our "photo-shoot" spot in the house. For some reason we have had several photo-shoots (with by photographer friends) in the master bedroom on the king bed, so the kids thought that's where it should be. Whatever makes them happy- they LOVE jumping on the bed (and for some reason we've always let them do that).

Gavin and Avalyn have no problems these days posing for pictures- in fact they kind of like it!

We finally got them to stop dancing and jumping for a minute and this is what I got:

Happy Mother's Day to Me, Thank you my beautiful babies- I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

So special!

Cambria is growing and changing so much these days. She has had a wonderful year at school and is slowly continuing to develop. Every little progress she makes is so sweet and so precious and we are praying that God continues to bless her through school in TX. Her end of the year evaluation went well and there has definitely been great progress in speech, she loves repeating words and phrases. Her receptive language is coming along slowly. There is now the concern of autism, it isn't a diagnosis and it is difficult to determine if her delays and actions are due to vision or something else. We are hoping by taking the concern of autism seriously, she will be able to receive the services she needs. She remains as happy as ever! Thank you so much for all your prayers!

 

Along with all her special needs, God has blessed her with a crazy amount of strength! We caught her like this completely on her own and she stayed there for a bit- looks like someone got Daddy's strength!

She has given up naps for the most part, but a couple times a week she does fall asleep. This was a rare moment where I found her on the couch!

No, we aren't potty training, not even close. I got it out for Ainsley, she is more curious. Cambria kicked her off and I let her give it a try. She sat there looking at a book for a while, but nothing. She didn't get it at all, but she did like pulling the stickers off the potty and at least she wasn't scared to sit there without a diaper! Someday we'll be there!

My sister sent Cambria these painted tennis shoes that Cambria loves! They have duckies on them and on this day she brought them to Daddy and asked for "ducky shoes".

 

She likes to escape outside, if the door is unlocked. She is content exploring in our yard for a bit before running as fast and far as she can- this makes play time in the back yard very short (can't wait to have a fence).

"apple on tree" She was picking up rocks and trying to put them on the tree!