What an amazing night!  The girls worked so hard at their dance rehearsal.  It's always nice to have an audience as well, thanks to everyone who made it out, and thanks to those of you who were planning on it, but could not make it!  There will be a few more so you have lots of time to make it to one.

Good luck to the girls for their big show this Thursday.  I can't wait for my kids to meet a few of the girls who are competing in the pageant.

I get so much out of going to church, our pastor David Lux is amazing and shares stories that touch my heart.

Today he was talking about how all our lives finish in loss, and how he was reading a book and a quote hit him  -

If you are going to loose, loose big!

We try to live that every day!  We know that having Quinn is a gift, and we are hoping and praying that we have her a long time, but we do live in the moment, and don't take any day  for granted.

That goes for our two foster kids as well, we tried going in with guarded hearts, but that only lasted moments, and we were in 100% there as well.

We try to plan for the future, but also put everything into the present as well!

We celebrated Grandpa Harold's birthday today, it was technically yesterday, and it's wonderful to see him love our three kids and just watch them love him!  Watching him get pulled hand in hand out of the restaurant by little D, or the look he gets when he makes Quinn giggle, or the pride when he hears how great our little guy did so well on his spelling test.

Life is good and we are so lucky to have so much to loose, and we are not taking it for granted!  Celebrate!

School is exhausting!  

Quinn has been sleeping very good lately!  With all the excitement at school, she is ready to crash at home.  She is going to bed early and opting to cuddle with me rather then go outside and play, which is not the norm.

She has also been getting in trouble at school for talking.  Here we have worked so hard at getting her to talk using her Dynovox, and now we have created a monster talker.  Her nurse Nadean was telling her to stop talking, and she looked at her like what ever, then the big guns came out, and her teacher came over to Quinn and told her she needed to listen and stop talking, and wow, Quinn was quiet then, and looked back at Nadean with the oh no, I got in trouble look.

Oh, part of me says put her in the safe seat and keep her accountable, the other part says, YEAH Quinn, you finally have your voice!

I also love  it when she throws all her stuffies on the floor and uses her hands to cuddle her humidity machine!  Oh she is just beautiful to me!

Her big dance program is this next week so I will get pictures from the dress rehearsal and the program, we are so excited!

We hit our first baseball game.  The kids were not sure if they liked it or not.  It was hot and they had to sit still, they had fun some of the time they decided.

Quinn and our other little gal, playing on the Ipad together and Quinn was belling laughing so hard.  Oh I love my girls!  I love how much they love each other as well!

Quinn and her dance friends are dancing in the Miss Amazing Nation Pageant!

http://missamazingpageant.com/

The girls are dancing in it, as a fun event, they are not actually in it competing.  It's just for fun!  I think I can safely say that Quinn will be the youngest one on the stage that night!  The girls are looking forward to it, the mom's are too, we have been working on what the girls will wear, they are all wearing jeweled crowns, and have gold glitter stars on their chairs, with tool skirts.  What a great experience for them!

I think, Quinn has been in dance class for over 3 years, and yet I still watch those girls dance and giggle and love that hour so much, and it still brings tears of joy to my eyes!  Oh I am so very thankful for that class!

 My excitement for today, cutting, painting and glittering stars, for the girls performance.

Our first day of school today!

 The girls wanted matching hair do's!  To cute, if you look you can see our 3rd kiddo's foot in the picture.

I love this picture!  Quinn was so excited for school!

Getting on the bus, and we are so thankful to have nurse Nadean back!  She is amazing!

What an exciting day!  Maybe that is why Quinn was up at three this morning, singing at the top of her lungs, was it being so excited about school?  Maybe?

Quinn is finishing out her summer working hard on standing and walking.  Here are her new shoes and braces.  Her right shoe now has a lift in it, and she is figuring out how to walk with her lift, and is doing great.

 The kids went to open house with Chrissy and Grandma Martha, as I had to work at my school's open house and John was working late.  Quinn got to fill out a survey, questions like where the bathroom is, finding her cubby, her work space, and such.  It sounds like it took close to an hour to get through everything, as she continued to get stopped in the hall every few feet by someone who wanted to tell her hello and see how her summer was.  I have said it before and say it again, I love Maxey staff and students, and how they embrace Quinn and love her for how wonderful she is.

Here are Quinn and her first grade teacher, Ms. Meyer.  How can she be in 1st grade already?

The summer is coming to an end, where did it go?  We have been busy cleaning the house, a good deep clean, and ironically after cleaning so well, three of the 5 of us were sick enough to go to the doctor's and get antibiotics!  All three of us girls!  Lysol has been a big thing in our house lately, but it is clean.

Decluttered is a better word.  Things seem to get put in a place and stay there rather then get put away, and now things are put away and looking so good.

We have been in our house over a year now, and we still have some boxes of stuff at my mom's, and we keep getting a few boxes every once in awhile, and this frame came back, and how I love it, little Quinn in three poses, and how I love the one of her singing.  I also love our "You are my Miracle" book.  She is!

Finally thank goodness for therapies this week, I have been exhausted with my flu bug, that if it were not for therapy, Quinn would not have been up and about very much, and I can be as frustrated as I want, but when I am sick, I can not be picking Quinn up and doing lots with her, I just don't have the energy, and I don't want to be breathing all over her.  She had the least bad cold, but it was bad enough for antibiotics, so I did not want to make it worse, and getting her to the bathroom and a few repositions is about all I could do.  Thank goodness for our little D, who is so good with Quinn, that she is always helping move her around, not picking up, but helping her roll or repositioning Quinn's head if she needs it.  With little D not feeling great either, we had quite a week, but being together and out of the hospital.  Willing to hang out and watch a little tv, which does not happen very often, it was low key, but wow we did have some interesting conversations!
Well I am going to rest, as I start school this next week, and so I better rest up now, and get better, because the crazy part of my year is going to start soon!  Oh the excitement of a new school year, fresh and new.  All these art projects running around in my head, and getting back to a very structured schedule, will be good for us.
How grateful I am for this summer having two girls going into 1st grade and our little guy going into 2nd grade, this has been such a fun summer, we have checked so many things off of our list, and have been so busy, it has been a wonderful summer, but getting back into a structured schedule will be good for us as well.
Blessings
Susan