The Construction Continues

They are making great progress ripping up our entire front yard and replacing the sewer pipe. The boys have loved all of the action and huge equipment live in person :)


Taking out part of our driveway.


Dumping dirt into the 15+ foot hole now that the new pipe is in place.

More digging.

More dirt :)

Happy Birthday, PaPa!!

Tonight we celebrated PaPa's birthday with a delicious fried turkey dinner followed by birthday cake and ice cream. All of the grand kids had a great time celebrating with their PaPa :)


Papa, Nathan and Andrew.


Andrew helping open presents.

Singing "Happy Birthday!!"

Andrew being silly with a big bag over his head :)

WOW...

...I am FINALLY up-to-date with our family blog!! There are lots of posts that I have caught up on since October. You may have to click "Older Posts" a couple of times to catch up :) Keeping our blog current is one of my new year resolutions - lets see how well I do!!

More Construction

Well, since last Monday when I first posted a pic of the construction in our front yard, nothing more has happened until today. Now that they have all of the correct utility lines marked, game on. The pictures really don't do it justice, but they have dug at least 10-15 feet below ground level to reach the sewer line. And they have to continue that all the way across our front yard, including ripping up part of our driveway. Andrew just can't get enough!!

Watching with a close eye.


Back hoe in action - got to love the other worker on his cell phone - ha!!

The aftermath of today's work.

The hole all covered up.

My Birthday

THANKS to my boys for making my birthday so special. It was a relaxing day and just what I needed. I love you all more than anything!!


Me with my party hat and boys :)


Who could ask for anything more?!?!

SNOW!!

We FINALLY got some SNOW!! Andrew has been talking about snow forever now and is so excited to go sledding. We headed outside for a bit this afternoon while Nathan was down for his nap. Daddy and Andrew had a blast!!


All bundled up and ready to go.


Climbing up to go down his slide with all of the snow on it.

Made it :)

Whee!!

Ready for some sledding.

Getting a ride up the hill.

At the top...

Go!!

Again!!

Snowball time!!

Discussing hot chocolate and marshmallows.

Yum!!

Last Day of Work

This afternoon I went into the office for the last time. I had to turn in all of my work assets and close this chapter of my life. It is ironic that the building I first started in ten years ago was the same building I ended in. Nothing is permanent and hopefully sometime in the future I will be able to return if presented with the opportunity.

The support everyone at Boeing has given both myself and Steve is just tremendous. I cannot begin to express my sincere thanks for everything - especially all of the thoughts, prayers and more than kind words so many have given to our family. We are blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives who do so much to help us.

Construction in our front yard

MSD has to replace the main sewer line that runs the width of our property. Our neighbors' basement flooded back in October and we found out that the sewer pipe had collapsed and needs to be completely replaced. Well, today marks the first day of construction. Andrew is in heaven with all of the big trucks and equipment. Lets hope this goes by quickly!!



Starting to dig on one side of our front yard.

Resignation

This afternoon I put my resignation notice into work. As difficult as it is to end my career at Boeing, it was a no-brainer that I needed to now focus 100% on our family with everything we are currently facing. Steve and I came to this decision over Christmas break as we were preparing for everything the new year would bring. My last day isn't until next week as I need to wrap up some things, but this decision has already lifted some weight off all of our shoulders. We are thankful we were able to come to this decision!!

Nathan's IEP

Today is the day for meeting with Parkway and Special School Districts to put Nathan's Individual Education Plan (IEP) in place. This is the beginning of Nathan's preschool years and we have to document EVERYTHING for and about Nathan - medical diagnoses, likes, dislikes, working with Nathan, equipment, routine, strengths, goals, concerns...the list goes on and on.

We met with a whole new team of therapists, administrative staff, teachers and nurses as well as had some of Nathan's current therapists attend this meeting to make sure we didn't miss anything. Nathan has many areas to cover and it's very easy to get overwhelmed.

To keep it short, after three and a half hours of discussing Nathan, we had finally documented everything for his IEP. Nathan will be starting school at Parkway Early Childhood Center in an Early Childhood Special Education classroom after his third birthday which is in a couple of weeks. Our main goal is for Nathan to continue to make progress and then possibly start the Fall at Ladue Early Childhood Center in their Deaf Education Program.

We are both anxious and nervous for this transition. Change is good, but also difficult. We look forward to this next journey and the progress Nathan will bring.