Sunday, April 28, 2013

Old MacDonalds Farm

Last weekend (April 20) we visited Old MacDonalds Farm.  Old MacDonalds Farm is a kiddie attraction located close to our home in Humble, Texas.  This was our first visit after living in this area for the past 6 years.  Not sure why we have not gone sooner, but the opportunity arose and we took it.  The girls had a good time.  We rode the train, the girls rode a pony, the girls got to swing (they love this) and play at the park.  We also saw some neat animals.  The weather was perfect.  All around, we had a great time!

Sign at the entrance

The girls love to swing so we had to stop at the swings .

Kayla swinging

View looking up into the trees.  Beautiful weather!
Haley and daddy sliding down the slide.  Love Haley's smile!
Riding on the train
Deer were just walking around
Rachel riding the pony
Haley riding the horse
Kayla was scared to ride the pony, but she did it!
An Emu we saw as we were leaving the Farm

Friday, April 26, 2013

Parks and trains

Thomas found a park that is geared toward children with disabilities in west Houston.  We have a park similar to this one near our home and we have visited it a couple of times, but we enjoy checking out other "new" parks.  My girls love parks and enjoy swinging, climbing and sliding down the slides.  I am so thankful there are parks like this available for children.
This park in west houston had a "train" theme.  On our way home from the park we found a train just sitting quietly on the tracks.  I took some pictures of it as well as my girls next to it.  My dad loves trains and I know he will like these pictures.

Rachel on the big swing

Haley

Kayla

Thomas with the girls

Rachel

Haley
Kayla








Thursday, April 18, 2013

Rachel's getting closer...

Rachel is getting closer to getting the cochlear implant (hopefully)!  We are having to go through an evaluation process at The Center for Hearing and Speech here in Houston.  We have already met with the Audiologist.  We met with the social worker today and then in a couple of weeks we will meet with a speech therapist.  After that, the cochlear implant team will meet together the end of May and decide if Rachel is a candidate or not.  I don't see why she wouldn't be a candidate.  I'm hoping and praying they will decide Rachel is a candidate.  In the mean time, they did give us some informational brochures on two cochlear implants should they decide she is a candidate.  We have to choose either the Cochlear Nucleus system or the Advanced Bionics.  Has anyone had experience with either of these?  Which one is better or preferred?  If you would like to email us you can at stanseljourney@gmail.com.  Thanks in advance!



 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Kayla is 16 months old

I am late about a week on getting Kayla's 16 month update posted.  Things have been busy lately at our house and I have been so exhausted that I have neglected my blog a little.  Time doesn't stop and Kayla is now 16 months old.


At 16 months (April 9th) she weighed 19 pounds, 14 oz.  She most likely is 20 pounds now.  She is wearing 12 month clothing now.  Yeah!  She is growing, but will be petite.


At 15 months old, she was still getting one bottle a day (before bed), but at 15 1/2 months, I stopped giving it to her and she has done so well.  She is growing up so fast!  She loves her sippy cup and is doing well with it.  She loves her milk!  She continues to sleep well at night (12 hours).  As for her eating, she is doing good.  She usually tries whatever I give her, but she has her favorite foods for sure.

Trying out black and white with this look from Kayla
Kayla has a lot of personality.  She is fun-loving, happy and full of spunk.  She is definitely out going and likes to go up to people at church and sit with them.


Kayla continues to work on her talking.  She says "dog", "ball", "ma ma", "da da", "bye, bye".  I have been teaching her sign language and she recently started signing "more".  She sees the therapists teaching sign language to her sisters so she is starting to catch on to it.


Kayla loves her baths, looking at books, going outside, swinging on a swing, playing with her toys and getting into everything.  She continues to love playing with her big sisters.  She has a blast playing with them.  It melts my heart to see them all play together laughing.  Love my girls!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Texas Bluebonnets Galore!

Here is the other set of pictures I took of my girls in the Texas bluebonnets.  These pictures were taken March 30.  There were so many bluebonnets at this area in Splendora, Texas.  Bluebonnets are such a beautiful wildflower native to Texas and I love all the blue color.  I enjoy getting pictures of the bluebonnets each year.  My girls didn't want to cooperate for too many of these pictures, but I take what I can get.  Even if they don't cooperate, I have these precious memories captured. 

Haley wasn't too happy here, but a cute picture anyway
Kayla, Rachel, Haley
Haley
Haley
Rachel
Rachel
Kayla
Kayla
My girls and I
Daddy and his girls