End of Year

  I wanted to write a kind of end of the school year post updating what all the kids have been up to lately.  They have all grown so much over the course of the school year.  It's amazing what a difference 9 months makes.    It has truly been the most rewarding experience of my life to watch my children learn and grow and develop into such unique human beings.  There is not a day that goes by that my children don't make me laugh and feel so blessed to have each of them in my life.  Joey and I are very lucky parents!!!!

Beautiful girl

Silly girl

   Ashlyn:  Ashlyn just finished 1st grade and will be heading to the 2nd grade in the fall.  She has grown so much over the course of this year.  She is such a smart little girl.  She continues to excel in school.  Her final report card was wonderful and she received high marks in every subject area.  She continues to be a phenomenal reader.  She is just like her mother and is constantly reading.  When you go into her room, all you see is books piled everywhere.  She just loves to read.  Her school gives an end of the year reading test to see where kids are with their reading.  Ashlyn read 178 words correctly in one minute!!!  As a reading tutor, I am blown away by her score.  Most of my 5th graders don't even read that well.  The goal for the end of first grade is 47 words.  She was in gifted and talented this year and really enjoyed the extra enrichment and challenge.  I continue to try to challenge her at home to push her even further.  This summer we will be spending a lot of time really working on some advanced skills.  She will also be going to a multiplication day camp where she will work on mastering her multiplication facts.  She works hard and will definitely be going places in life!
     Ashlyn continues to take gymnastics and piano and really enjoys both.  She also loves to draw and make things.  She is a very creative child.  She loves her little sister and is a big help with her.  She is a very active girl and loves to play and run around.  She has mastered her scooter and is a real whiz on it.  She loves her American Girl dolls and Littlest Pet Shop toys.  She loves to laugh and is often a very silly girl.  We love our sweet Ashlyn to pieces.

Dawson:  Oh Dawson, sweet, sweet Dawson.  Dawson is definitely the most laid back out of all three of our children.  He is very mellow and so well behaved.  The only time he can be a handful, is when he is tired.  Other than that, he is literally a dream child.  He is truly one of the neatest kids I have ever been around.  He says the funniest things that constantly make Joey and I laugh.  He is such a funny boy.
     Dawson went to preschool/daycare two days a week this year.  Fortunately, I still have one more year with my sweet boy before he goes to kindergarten.  We plan to put him in preschool three days next year to get him more ready for kindergarten.  He does very well at preschool and his teacher is always impressed with what he knows.  Dawson is also one smart boy.  During Gracie's afternoon nap everyday, Dawson and I spend quite a bit of time working on different skills.  He is such a good student and is so excited to learn and do another page from his workbook.  He just loves to learn.  We have really been working on his reading skills.  He knows all of his letters and all of their sounds.  This past week, he read his very first story!  I know it won't be long before he really takes off and is reading like a pro like his big sister.  I am so proud of him that he is already reading.  He has worked very hard!
    Dawson loves to build things and he could honestly entertain himself all day with just some Legos or some blocks.  He is so good at constructing things.  He will take his Legos and say, "Look Mom I built a robot" or "Look Mom I built a bridge".  His construction is so spot on and I am always impressed he can build this stuff without any pictures to look at.  I think he will be very mathematically minded as he is really good with numbers.  He recently started telling us out of the blue, "If you take 5 and add 5 you will have 10".  He loves to add numbers and count.
   Dawson continues to be obsessed with all things Transformers.  He also still loves Thomas the Train.  He is so good at playing by himself and creating such scenes to play with.  He loves his toy and is always playing.  I love to foster his creative side and see what he can do.  We love our Dawson so very much.

    Graceyn:  Our sweet Gracie is growing so very quickly.  She is such a toddler these days.  She is getting really good at throwing tantrums already.  I told Joey today, it's like she went straight to a two year old.  I refer to her as my little diva, because she is totally one.  She knows exactly what she wants and if you don't give it to her she will let you know she isn't happy.  I'm working on trying not to always give into her, but it's very hard to reason with a 14 month old!
   Gracie is such a verbal little girl.  We all have so much fun making out different words all the time.  Dawson was not verbal at all at this age, so it's been a neat to see Gracie talk up a storm.  There are so many words she says now I can't even list them all.  Her favorite is still "Mama".  She says that one all day everyday.  Her favorite game to play in the car is "Mama".  She basically says "Mama" and I call back, "Gracie".  We do that over and over until we reach our destination.  She is a silly one.  She has recently started to put words together.  Joey heard her say "Thank you" the other day.  She also says "Hi Mama".  She loves to greet everyone she sees with a "hi".  She basically just loves to talk.  I just know she is going to be a talker like her big sister.
     Gracie is also very smart.  She already knows several body parts.  She can point to her nose, belly button and mouth.  She also will say "belly button" which Joey loves having her do.  She recently also mastered giving kisses and saying "muah" as she does it.  It is seriously the cutest thing in the world!  Her receptive language is also getting very good.  I can ask her to bring me something across the room and she will go over and get it and hand it to me.
    Gracie continues to love to eat and is such a healthy eater.  She really loves fruit.  I am absolutely convinced she could eat her weight in blackberries or watermelon.  She gobbles it up faster than we can give it to her.  She is also a huge fan of hummus, meat, cheese, and egg yolks.  She is such a good eater and it's wonderful to have a non-picky child!
   Graceyn is a real spit fire and definitely exhausts me at times, but we are so lucky to have this spunky and sweet girl in our lives.  She is such an amazing little girl.

     I did my best to give a short update on all 3 kids for those that aren't around them often.  It is so difficult to summarize a person in a few short paragraphs.  I am not a good writer at all, and I really struggle writing these posts.  Hopefully I conveyed at least a little bit how unique and special Ashlyn, Dawson, and Graceyn are.  God has blessed us!