GREAT awareness video

this is exactly what we hope for Whitney's future - this mommy and her daughter Maddox say it perfectly!!!

Happy 2012!!!

SNOW!

Well... we did not have snow on Christmas... but 2 days after Christmas Day is still fun! It is also my Dad's birthday (happy birthday Dad!) We were able to go outside and play today. This is the first year that Whitney has been able to walk around and play in the snow. The last couple of years she has tolerated being out in the snow for a little bit then was not too happy about being bundled up and getting wet and cold from the snow. This year she had a great time sledding down the little hill behind our house, walking in the snow and eating the snow. Anne had a GREAT time playing, making snow angels, snow balls, sledding and eating the snow. Here are some fun pictures from playing outside today:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Angel Tree 2011

Reece's Rainbow is a Down syndrome adoption ministry and they have a fundraiser called Angel Tree during the Christmas season to raise money for the adoption funds of some of the children who are available for adoption. If you make a donation of $35 or more to one of the children featured in the Angel Tree fundraiser you will receive an ornament with that child's picture to have as a reminder of the angel you helped to find a family of their own. We can't wait to receive our ornament with Emily's picture.

http://reecesrainbow.org/25299/emily-15h

http://static.reecesrainbow.org/angeltreekids/

happy heart day Whitney!!!

We are still alive! I have been terrible about uploading pictures for the past couple of months and our computer has been running very slowly and I just haven't wanted to deal with it - so I apologize for the complete lack of updates. Anne and Whitney are both doing very well and are healthy!

We are celebrating Whitney's 3rd heart day today - this is like a birthday for us because without her miraculous open-heart surgery on December 1, 2008 we truly believe we would not have Whitney with us today! If you saw her 3 years ago today you would never believe she would be as healthy and full of life as she is today! We are so lucky!!!

She’s perfected her technique

Whenever I put Whitney in her chair at the kitchen table and forget to buckle her she has taken the opportunity to climb over the side and get down all on her own.  At first it wasn’t pretty and luckily I have been at the table and able to stop her or help her down.  She has used this method (going over the side of her chair) to work on getting down by herself and has perfected her technique.  She did it this morning and I was able to capture it on video… it is funny to see her just hanging there from the side of the chair.  At first she would hang until I came to get her down… now she waits a little bit and then drops to the ground all on her own  

first day of school

today was the first day of preschool for anne and whitney. this is anne's last year of preschool - it truly seems like each day is going by more quickly than the one before and i know she will be having her first day of kindergarten in just the blink of an eye. whitney is in her second year of preschool. she made the cut-off for the 2 year old class last year by 6 days. she was by far the youngest and on top of it did not even walk until february... this year is a different story. we are so excited to have her in class with the same teacher again this year! she went just one day a week last year from 9-11:30 a.m. and this year will be going 2 days a week. both girls had a great first day! the director even found me in the hallway and said what a difference the summer had made for whitney. she knew just what to do, was listening and following directions. we are also working on potty training, so keep your fingers crossed that she will continue to do well and that i will have the courage to make the gigantic leap to underwear soon. i learned about the foxx-azrin toilet training method at the July parent meeting sponsored by Down syndrome Indiana. we had already been working with whitney on going on the toilet and trying to get her to recognize when she needed to go to the bathroom. we have been saying "go toilet" and she now says "go toilet" and signs "toilet" at the same time. this has been a "slowly but surely" type of training so far... but after learning about the Foxx-Azrin method I think to put us over the edge and make the leap to underwear we are going to need to dedicate 2-3 days of staying home and wearing underwear and trying to get whitney to drink drink drink! hopefully soon.... yeah and agh! at the same time!

here are a few pics of the girls from just before school this morning:

Sassypants

In the words of Whitney's pre-school teacher - Whitney is a "sassypants" and this is her latest "sassypants look":