Christmas is Coming

Well, things are going well around our house. The business keeps the boys busy. They are doing fairly well for this being their 3rd month of being open. Life is busy as usual around our house. Dylan keeps us all on our toes. We started speech therapy a little over a month ago. He was not as far behind as I suspected he would be. His evaluation showed that he was about 1/2 year to 8 mos behind. Right now we are just trying to get him to communicate in some form with us. We started doing signs (sign language). He has responded fairly well, and even tries to say words, they just aren't clear. Although we pretty much know what he means. But we go once a week for an hour. I think it has been helpful.

Earlier in the month, we got together with Dylan's buddies Zak and Cole. We all met down in Bricktown and ate at Zios. It was a nice dinner. The boys really enjoyed feeding the ducks in the canal. Dylan was jumping up and down screaming. We had to hold onto him real tight so he didn't jump into the canal with the ducks! The ducks would grab the bread so fast, it made him squeal. Which is so funny because normally, animals pretty much freak him out!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents at their house. My aunt, uncle and second cousin came as well. We had a nice day, just eating and watching football. After Thanksgiving, I can't believe it, but I skipped the whole Black Friday. With Mark working, I didn't have anyone to stay with Dylan and I was not about to drag him out into the madness. Although it sounds like I made the right choice. It is the first time in a really LONG time that I did not get out in the mess. But to be honest, I really didn't see anything I just HAD to have. So, oh well, maybe next year. So, Friday, Dylan and I just hung around the house and decorated for Christmas. I even bought a little 4 ft tree that he was able to help me decorate and play with for a while. Of course that hasn't kept his hands off the Christmas Balls. He walks up to the tree, says ball, grabs one off and throws it. Oh well, at least people that visit will understand why the bottom of our tree is bare!

We had our family Christmas pictures taken. I really think they turned out well! We even did a WHOLE family picture for my mom. She hasn't had one of those in probably 15 years. So, this was a nice Christmas present for her.

We also did several of Dylan, of course, and some of the 3 of us. They all turned out pretty good. So, today I have been working on my first ever Christmas letter. Figured it was time to be like everyone else and share what is going on in our world...seeing as I am terrible at keeping up with this blog.

Last night, we got together with Zak and Cole's families, went to dinner and came to our house to open presents and have dessert. I made the most amazing brownies (if I do say so myself). Everyone seemed to enjoy them. They are called Philly Marble Brownies. They are very good and very rich! The boys had a good time taking toys away from each other and playing with all the toys that Dylan hasn't seen in forever. They are so funny! Everytime we are together we take the "3 boys picture". So we set them all on a bench in front of the tree, and took several pictures. This is one of my favorites. They are all saying cheese, it totally cracks me up! Getting the 3 of them to all look at the camera at the same time is quite a chore! We had them saying all sorts of things like cookies, cheese, etc, but it made them have the funniest faces! I think our yearly Tet picture will be quite interesting this year. Well, I think I will leave you with a little slide show of some of my favorite pictures. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Who knows, maybe I will post before then...if not...Merry Christmas to you and yours. May God Bless you and richly as he has blessed us.