Matthew got tubes!

Matthew has been slow to talk. It just seems like he does not form the sounds as well as he should at this point (2 years old). I finally decided to have his hearing checked and wouldn't you know his hearing has been affected by constant ear infections. Despite several doses of antibiotics this winter, he never has cleared the infections. Dr. Zapata had a hearing evaluation performed, and yep, his hearing is not where it should be. Poor guy. We saw Dr. Dawson soon afterwards and he felt like his infections were so severe that we should try to move up the surgery (as we started ANOTHER round of antibiotics!) Thankfully I was able to move it up a few days. The surgery went perfectly and I am so thankful we live in the US with advanced medical care. The surgery literally took 10 minutes. He was a charmer to all the nurses the whole time.

Here we are in the waiting room before surgery - we were the only ones there and he was running around like a wild man!

Dinner out with the Adults

One of my favorite things to do is go out with just the adults in our family. Mom and Dad had a gift certificate to La Traviata and treated all of us too a good Italian meal. It is such a nice way to actually have an unbroken conversation with one another. I feel blessed that we all enjoy spending time together as a family.

Matthew's 2nd Birthday Celebration - The Finale

Our Fellowship group is a special group of 6 families that all live in Balcones Woods. We get together every other Friday for food and fellowship. It is a great way to connect with others. We have been going through the book, "The Treasure Principle" which has led to some good discussions. So it only made sense that we would have one final celebration with this group for Matthew's birthday. The kids were thrilled to have cupcakes one more time!

Micah and baby Augie

The Dugans

The hosts getttin' some grub

The birthday boy

Julia Dugan

Beau Knox

Celebration time!

Katherine and Alivia

Matthew's 2nd Birthday (cont.)

I am sure I have mentioned how much I love Matthew's preschool - Covenant United Methodist Preschool. It is just so sweet. There are only 4 kids total in Matthew's little class and they celebrate each child's birthday with gusto. All the kids and I were able to come to the class to share some Blue Bell ice cream. Miss Kelly puts a cute birthday "cake" puzzle in front of each child to make them feel special. Matthew seemed to really like it all.

The puzzle cake

Love this shot with my precious boy!

If only John had been looking. . .grrrr. . . .

Blair Mezger is in Matthew's class

Matthew's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Matthew's birthday over several days since we never could manage getting everyone together. Matthew seemed to relish the attention. The first celebration was at family dinner at Mimi and Grandpa's house. My mom got him a cute cake and all the cousins had a fun time celebrating him.

The funniest gift was a little horn that Mimi gave him. It makes the funniest sound - like a duck all - and he LOVED it. He would not let anyone take it out of his hand from the moment he opened it. So funny. So every shot afterwards has him clutching that toy.

His favorite gift

We tried to take the bugle away for the shot and he was having no part of that!

Sunday Dinners at Mimi and Grandpa's

To my Precious Daughter on her 8th Birthday

My sweet Alivia:

You make my heart melt. I just cannot believe the kindness and loving spirit that God has given you. You bring a sense of peace and calm to our family and handle your younger brothers with grace (most of the time!) You easily share your things, and often can read what others need without being asked. You are a wonderful Mother's helper.

You have amazing perseverance. You try so hard in school and put forth your best effort and stay on task. Your teacher, Mrs. Williams, sends me emails about what a joy you are to teach at ACS. Being diagnosed with dyslexia has not dampened your positive attitude and you have handled going to therapy three times a week with grace. You never complain about the extra work.

Here is an e-mail I got from Mrs. Williams just a few weeks ago:
You will be happy to know that Alivia scored a 100 on her history test and a 92 on her math test!  I also want to let you know how impressed I am with the paragraphs she has been writing.  The effort she gives is amazing!  I am so proud of your sweet little girl!

Thanks for sharing her with me,

Dana

You love listening to audio books and would spend hours in your room working on your rainbow loom listening to audio books. Right now you love the "Magic Tree House" series. You struggle most with Math, but have an amazing ability to memorize and understand text that is read to you. Your cursive handwriting is beautiful. Your reading has come so far and you are on grade level, if not above right now. Spelling will always be a challenge, but I look at your Dad, and see how he struggles with spelling and how little it has gotten in his way. There will always be spell check!

I am so proud of you. Your quiet, gentle spirit blesses others around you. I am blessed to be your mother and am so glad we get to spend special time together during the week while we homeschool. I will forever be grateful for that shared experience.

I love you sweet girl,
Mommy

I just love this picture 

Your sweet smile and beautiful eyes light up the room!

She got a birthday haircut with this adorable silver hairpiece. It was so cute! Sadly it only stayed in about 2 days.