Graduations and Birthday Parties!!

Hope you enjoyed the video of my Park Birthday Party. Mom and Dad decided this year that we would celebrate my birthday with a few of my favorite things: A park, ice cream, friends, and cake! I had such a blast - I could've partied all night. I also had an early party in Iowa with my Max cousins (my Aunt Jenness and Uncle Andrew named all of my cousins with "M's" so I just call all of them Max) at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Shop in LeMars, IA (Ice Cream Capital of the World - who knew)! It's really not a surprise that I'm an ice cream fan... Mom and Dad are quite fond of it as well.

Since Easter, time has flown by and all of the sudden it was time for me to graduate from preschool and for my last year of preschool to come to an end. I had a great time in preschool, but now I'm ready to take on Kindergarten (at least that's what they all tell me). I'll be attending a school kinda far from home, so I'll get to ride the bus... Mom and Dad are kinda nervous about that, but I think it's gonna be my favorite part of the day. The school will give me access to lots of great resources and the teachers will sign and speak all of the lessons - I love signing.

Anyway, here's the photo tour through the last couple of months:

On Mother's Day, Grandma and Grandpa Glasses came for a visit and we had a nice time playing in the backyard - Grandma always keeps me entertained when she's around.

When you get a ball out with Boscoe, he becomes a puppy again... we just have to make sure he doesn't pop the ball!

Here I am on Preschool graduation day... I didn't want to show off in front of my friends, so I waited until everyone else left to pose for this picture.

This picture signifies me moving onto "higher education"

We go from the playground at school to the park in Orange City, IA. We left the day after my graduation for Iowa to celebrate two of my cousins' graduations. Here I'm just hangin' around waiting for the festivities to begin.

We missed Orange City's Tulip Festival by a week, but we still got to enjoy some of the Tulip Festival scenery.

Here I am posing for the Orange City Tourism Guide - just kidding, but this is one of my better picture poses.

The first of the cousin graduations: Good job Max, you did it, you graduated from 8th grade... Look out high school, here he comes!!

You wouldn't believe how much fun I had with all of my cousins while I was in Iowa... on this day, they were all there and we had a blast enjoying Grandma and Grandpa Mustaches' backyard. Those pictured here are: Uncle Barry, Maggie, Dad, Me, Erin, and Max

Playing constantly with the cousins wore me out... good thing Max is such a good sport!

Here's the other grad: Marty graduated from MOC/FV High School and is now preparing to be an IA Hawkeye!!

After the graduation, it was time to update my look. Mom's friend from high school, Gina, gave me and Mom a fresh new hair do.

The finished look!

Mom, Dad and I kept busy visiting parks while in OC. I'm usually happiest while playing!

A photo of us at my ice cream shop birthday party!

Dad and I practice our mischievous look.

Here I am with the Maxs' after my party: Marty, Maddie, Maggie (and me), Max, and Michael.

Now we are back in CO and this is at my Park Party.

Here I am with a few of the attendees of my party... I think everyone enjoyed themselves at the park!

No elaborate cake this year, just cupcakes! Look at that, Five candles... can you believe it?!

I think I have all the best cousins... I only have one in CO, but she's pretty awesome - this is Liv! Uncle Dave and his mom watch us to make sure I don't eat too much of the bubble solution.

I said, "no gifts" in the invitation to my party, but people didn't listen! That's ok, I got some wonderful gifts... Thanks, Liv, for helping with the gifts!

I got several more gifts at home, following the party, from Grandma and Grandpa Glasses... what a great day I had!!

Now we're winding down from all the fun. I've started going to school two days a week for the summer and doing some more gymnastics for the summer. I will also be doing a speech therapy group class which starts tomorrow.

We will be busy this summer, both before my brother/sister comes and after... I'm getting pretty excited about being a big sister... only 6 weeks to go!!

I know this was a lot, as usual, but thanks for reading and looking at my pictures... oh, my mom picked up that dress for my graduation, and now it seems that it's all that I wear!! I guess I just always wear it for special occasions.

Love you all,
Lydia

March & Easter Fun 2013

Hi friends and family,

March flew by. I was busy with school, gymnastics and growing up!

Mom and Dad are busy trying to decide where I will attend school next fall and I'm busy trying to get my way all the time... my way is usually going to the park as many hours out of the day as possible, I also really like gymnastics (it's like going to a park indoors)!

I went to gymnastics today (thanks to Leah for taking me) while Mom and Dad visited a school that so far looks like it will be the best fit for me for Kindergarten. It's a classroom which would probably only have around 6 kids in it and all the teachers use sign language as well as speaking - I love signing, sometimes I understand better when I'm shown a sign as well as being spoken to - so that would be a big bonus for me. I would get to ride the bus to this school (I'm really excited about that, but Mom is especially nervous about sending me on a bus everyday). My parents have one more school to visit before making a final decision on kindergarten, so we should know sometime this month.

I'm starting to understand that I'll be a big sister this summer, and I'm really glad that Mom and Dad didn't find out if I'll get a brother or sister because I love surprises! My bedroom has been relocated to what was the toy room (glad I still have a place for my toys downstairs) and I now have a big girl bed.

Just found out that school is cancelled for tomorrow because of "possible" snow tonight... hmmm... we'll see if that pans out.

Here are some pictures of Easter and my big girl bed:

I love my new bed... Big Bear doesn't sleep with me at night, but he sure is fun to cuddle with.

We're expecting snow tonight. Good thing I'm already a pro at snow removal. I'm so good that I can do it in my Sunday dress.

I got to recycle last year's Easter coat, it matched nicely with this year's dress.

Dad had a hard time getting me into the car after the Easter church service... it was a beautiful Easter day!

It was so beautiful that I couldn't look at the camera - it was a bright sun-shiny day!

Just me letting Mom take my picture... but don't ask me to smile about it.

Pretty girl.

On Easter Sunday we went to church and then after a quick lunch we headed toward Boulder and spent a couple hours hiking there. You recognize my hat Grandma Mustache? By the way, Mom says this is about as good of a belly picture as you're gonna get... she calls it her "beer belly."

Daddy, Boscoe and I posing in front of the foothills in Boulder.

We took a pit stop at a nice little spot by a stream.

Following our hike on Easter, we visited a park with lots of slides and swings for me to explore and then headed back home for some more nice family time. We missed hanging out with any other family on Easter, but we thoroughly enjoyed our day of worship and exploring creation... it was a really nice way to spend a beautiful holiday.

Love you all,
Lydia

Fall - Winter 2012

Alright... hope you have some time.  There's a lot to go over and I don't want to overwhelm you all too much.  I'll try to keep it informative as opposed to wordy.  However, keep in mind that I haven't updated you all since the Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk in September.  Bear with me... here it goes.

After the "Big" Weekend I last enlightened you on:  Mom hasn't run once, I got to help with cleaning up the garden, I got into the swing of things at school, I got to be my favorite movie character for Halloween, I carved pumpkins, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Dad's parents, we went to several fun Christmas parties, we celebrated Christmas with Dad's family and then with Mom's family.  This year has started off with a couple of highlights as well... Dad and I attended the Dad and Daughter Valentine Ball in Louisville, CO and we've just been having an all around good time. (Sorry for the extremely long time between posts, Mom was confused a couple of months ago and thought we couldn't post the pictures we wanted to - oh boy)

Scroll through these photos and I'm sure you'll see some that will interest you:

Mom used foam rollers to ready my hair for the final look of my Halloween costume.

This is me as Annie! I'm copying the pose from the front of the dvd case!

Dad and I went Trick or Treating... I wanted to invite myself in to each house for a visit, but Dad reminded me that we needed to keep going for more treats.

This is my school picture... I do things on my timing!

In early December we went to the MHDSA Christmas party... we were getting ready to see Santa. I like Santa from a distance, but don't ask me to sit on his lap!

Daddy and I danced at the Christmas party - I love to spin.

The next week, we went to Colorado Springs to have a Christmas/Daddy's Birthday party with Grandma and Grandpa "Glasses"

My cousin Liv and I enjoying a movie together around naptime.

Then we headed to Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa "Mustache" and the rest of the family in Okoboji, IA... I shared with the cousins!!

It was another COLD Christmas in Iowa... we enjoyed some sledding on the warmest day of the trip.

Enjoying some sled time with Daddy.

I had another sleep study... I was a trooper and slept through the night and was in relatively good spirits despite the annoying wires.

Having a great nurse and the ipad (games as I call it) were key in having a successful sleep study. The result was being able to finally get rid of the oxygen tank that sat in my bedroom for a year following my other sleep study. 

For Mommy's birthday, we had a little party with some of the girls. My friend Ivy, her little sister and mom; And Andrea and Jillian came over for a fun time of cupcakes and playing... it was an unseasonable warm day for early February.

"Really Mom, another picture."

Daddy and I dressed to the nines for the Dad and Daughter Ball.

Daddy gave me a rose from Mom's birthday bouquet to pose with.

"Hustle up Daddy, the carriage is about to leave!"

I just can't wait!

On the dance floor... I cut a rug.

The December ultrasound picture of my baby brother or sister!

The recent ultrasound photo. Mommy is due July 19th!!
 

Okay, so I hope you all feel up to speed! To some of you, the last photos were not a surprise, but maybe to others it was. I am excited to share my home with a sibling - we'll see how I do with it all!

Thanks for not giving up on me and my blog,
Lydia