Denver in December

Last week we went to Denver to visit my family.  The kids did well travelling on the plane both ways and slept better than our Thanksgiving trip (except for the first night when I accidentally set the alarm in their room to go off at midnight – oops!).  Here are some of the photo highlights:

Playing with the jeep.  Keira had a turn this time and loved it!

Ari played with some left-over snow in the yard.

Opening Hannukah gifts

Ari received an electric guitar and a Cars towel!

Keira got a towel too!

More presents…

 

Playing with the tissue paper is way more fun!

But then again, so is Play Dough.  Ari played with it for two hours straight one day!

  

We hope your holidays are rockin’! :)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Truth

In reverse order:

The Ugly Truth - the results are in and I failed the PE exam yet again. I'm mad, disappointed and upset. I really don't want to do this again. I have a million and one excuses I could pull out right now, but I won't. It's black and white, or rather, pass or fail. I failed.

The Bad - the next time I'm eligible to take the test it will be in a new format over two, yes two, eight hour days (components). Ugh.

The Good - with the new format I have the option to take one component (day) at a time and pass each separately. Day 1 is gravity/vertical loads and day 2 is wind/seismic/horizontal loads. The afternoon section will have a building or bridge option - hallelujah! I really feel like bridges are my downfall. I just do not understand that code book. The morning sections will remain multiple choice while the afternoon sections will be essay. While I'm not super excited about an essay test, at least there's more of an opportunity for partial credit.

So there it is. I wasn't expecting to pass, but it would have been nice to put this behind me. I'm trying to stay positive and figure out what this means for me and our family.

"Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. " [I Chronicles 28:20]

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." [Jeremiah 29:11]

Finally!

It's the moment I've been waiting for for months. No, unfortunately not my test results. Something much more fun. Keira's officially walking! She's been taking steps here and there the past few weeks. Last week at Papa and Yia Yia's house she started taking 4 and 5 steps at a time. However, once we got home she reverted back to her ways of crawling and just showed no interest in walking.

Yesterday we were able to meet up with a friend of ours who's a physical therapist. After observing her for a while our friend concluded there's nothing physically or mentally wrong with her - she just isn't motivated to walk. She advised us to keep trying - have her walk a few steps between Keenan and me whenever possible.

Today I held her hand and had her walk as we browsed through a store and she actaully seemed interested! Tonight after dinner Keenan went outside to collect more firewood and she walked to the door to "chase" after him. The rest of the evening she walked quite a bit and would even stand back up in the middle of the floor (until tonight she would crawl to a piece of furniture to pull back up)!

Now she's offically a toddler. Sigh.