Oh boy, we have had our ups and downs this week.

Here Quinn is, we are at Chuck E Cheese, as we had a birthday in our house, and that was the chosen restaurant.  She loved it!  

This last week, we got the opportunity to educate a few more people on how to act around Quinn, and I'm hoping the lesson will help them.  I am still surprised how some adults are not very smart!  So here is hoping that I can educate others.  I hate hearing about how an adult can be so rude and unprofessional, and I'll try to be the professional I am hoping they should be by not going on and on about it, except to say that I wish I could post more picts on here, cause our two new members of our family are so good with Quinn, we could not be more tickled with how things are going, they are so loving with Quinn and I could not be a prouder momma!    Oh actually we did have the talk about what other people should call John and I.  As we had a friend calling me their mom.  So we talked about it with all three kids in the car, and I asked them, are you ok with other people calling me your mom?  I am your foster mom, and I love you very much, but we all know you have a biological mom too, and she loves you too, so what would you like me to say when someone calls me your mom?  Is that ok, or should I say I'm your foster mom, or what would make you feel the best?  It was quiet in the backseat for a bit, as they thought about it, and all three of them decided that we are a family, and having folks call me their mom is fine with them!  So that was a fun story.  Oh the conversations we have had about life, Taylor Swift, Garfield, food, their grandparents, and I could go on and on, no wonder Quinn is giggling all the time, we have such a happy house right now.

In fact today was a snow day, and we got to play, actually I had a funeral for the afternoon, and Chrissy got to play with all three kids, and did she ever get some wonderful pictures!  Wish you could all come over and see them, as they are precious!  They baked cookies, played games, and had a fun afternoon!  We are so fortunate!  In turn, we are praying for a few friends and families who are hurting right now.  I am reminded so often how Life is hard, there is nothing we can do to change that, except have faith and do our best to be good to each other in the good times and not so good times, so we are praying for a bunch of you, and counting our blessings!

Now that Quinn has a brother and sister, her giggling has gone from once in awhile, to so much more.  She is giggling at home, in the car, at therapy, at school, and that is such a joy to hear.  She is loving having another Kindergartner and a first grader in our house.  They are loving on her just as much.  They are understanding how to communicate with her as well.

We have been appointment central.  All three kids had dentist appointments, and Quinn did great!  She did not want to open her mouth very wide and tried to bit the girls once, until she figured out what was going on.  Over all, it was a great trip and I can't begin to say how great the staff is.  If you need a dentist, I would suggest Dr. Scott to everyone, if anyone needs a kids dentist!

We had a fun late family Christmas celebration this weekend.

We met our newest cousin, Strace.

We had birthday cake, for one of our new kids, and I have to say, being selective with pictures is harder then you think it would be, making sure our kids are not in the pictures we put on here.

We had lots of fun, and good family time.

Finally a few of us, Quinn, and John, and Grandpa Steve, needed a nap, part way through the day!

Our family is figuring out how to make a family of 5 work, and we are starting to get into a swing of things.  So things are going well!

Things have changed.  We have two more full time kids with us.

I think my favorite words have been, why does Quinn have a sign in front of the house,

I said, because there are a lot of people that love her that helped build this house, and one of our new kids, said, so they love her like we do.

Oh, life is good.  

We have had a few conversations that have not been very easy on me, explaining what is going on with Quinn, but with us ending up with everyone agreeing we love Quinn, and she is pretty amazing, and everyone wanting to learn more about her and all her machines, I feel blessed, tired tonight, but blessed!  

Susan

We were at Children's Hospital yesterday, at the Children's Developmental Clinic.  Where we hang out in a room all day and lots of folks come to us.  We saw a pediatric doctor, her breathing doctor, a bone doctor, and got scans done, a Physical therapist, Occupational therapist, speech therapist, Neurologist, and we are changing up a med, a social worker, and a few other folks.

We got a new weight, which is 40 lbs, and a new height of 42 inches, last year she was 34 lbs, and 5 cm shorter.  Things are looking good, we have a few new things we are going to try, but over all it was a great appnt, until the blood draw.  Let me simply say that we ended up having 7 different folks come into that room, and Quinn and I both had tears, and we were both exhausted when we left.

We always do something fun after the appnt, but we were exhausted, so rather then going to do something, she got to pick out a stuff animal from the gift shop, and then she took a long nap!  

Lots of changes going on in our house hold right now.

John was sick and home for the first part of the week.

Quinn was sick and home for the second part of the week.

This weekend, we cleaned and organized and changed things up, as things are going to be changing here, most probably!

Oh, I'm exhausted, and excited, and nervous, and tired.  So I better get to bed.  Lots of changes happening soon, so keep checking in on us!

Blessings!
Susan

What a fun Friday Quinn had!  Two of her favorite friends hung out with her.  Chrissy and Amelia.

Amelia said she could not get to sleep because Quinn kept talking!

Finally they both took a nap!

What a fun afternoon!

Quinn's Merry Christmas fingernails!  Thanks for polishing them Melissa!

A fun restaurant we went to that is just a few miles from my grandparents.  Braden Station, I love how it looks, I love all the southern foods, I love all the knick knacks, and hats, and table cloths.  I love how they are handicap accessible, and mostly I love going there with the family!

How cute was Quinn with her scarf and hair bow, and she loved looking all around at all the stuff!

Well, after Christmas, Quinn and I took off to Memphis.  We drove straight through, about 12 hours on the way there and back.  I still love the big bridges, and the huge rock cliffs that we drive through.  Quinn was great on the ride.  I am so lucky she is a good traveler!

After Chrissy was kind enough to loan us her portable ramps, I forgot them at home, but lucky for us, Grandpa Ron built us up some new ramps, as Quinn's power chair is way to heavy to haul up the stairs.  So we could get Quinn's chair in and out of the house.

I think the best story of the week was Quinn and her cousin Knox.  He was always right up in her face talking and learning all about her and her stuff.  She started off by telling him, he was her friend, using her dynovox.  She also played with the boy cousins by telling them to turn off and turn on the lights over and over, and was on the look out to see what those boys were doing any time they were there.  

The other fun story was that we were watching a movie, that was rated PG 13, I think, and there was a scene that was not for kids and Knox and Quinn were watching the movie, and as soon as that happened, I knew I needed to take Quinn into the other room, Aunt Pam had the same thought, and told Knox, he needed to go into the other room, as that movie was not a good movie for kids, and Knox's comment was that was not fair, cause Quinn was watching it.  I love it how he saw Quinn as a kid first and her disabilities as a secondary part of her.  So we all went out and watched some kid movies instead, and it was great!      

Quinn and her Great Aunt Pam.

Quinn with her Grandpa Ron, and Great Grandma Charlotte.

It was a bummer that the majority of folks in Memphis were sick part of the time we were there.

We did not get any pictures with Grandpa Harold, as he had a temp and not feeling good, so we did not get to close.  I heard some great stories from him again.  Granted with his alzheimer's, I heard parts of the story three or four times, that is a crazy disease, as he does so good at times, while at other times he repeats himself.  He sure does have a good attitude about dealing with his disease, and I admire that.

 Then I got to go to Huey Louis and the News.  Again, I was a fill in because Melissa was also sick, and I wish she could have gone, but I had a great time.  We were in the 6th row, and it was a great show.  They have so many familiar songs, and that brass section was great.  Oh, it was a good show.
I have to give a big thanks to Grandma Charlotte, and cousin Kim for hanging out with Quinn, while I was there.

So past all the colds and flu, we had a good time spending time with family.  Time goes by so fast, and it's so easy to get so busy with our routines, that I try hard to get out and visit all our family when we can.  We never know what tomorrow holds, so I'm so thankful for the time we had the last few days.