Here's what we had to work with though and while the kids loved playing in it, Rei and I weren't so happy with it since many around our area seem to not shovel their sidewalks, making Mini training really difficult. :(
But YES we did put our child labor to work in shovelling our walks and such- here is AC and MD bundled up with snow shovels and working on the driveway and sidewalks:
MD packing a snowball to fling at her sister:
God's Mysterious ways....
Rei and I had went up to the Roseland Good News Daycare up in south Chicago, on a day mission trip with several other church friends. While up there, Ms. Pearl,the WONDERFUL lady who runs this daycare with all of her heart for the teen moms in the area, had said that she needed bibs really badly. She said that the toddlers were going through the bibs so fast since they didn't have any sort of plastic backing on them and they were pulling them off quickly with no longer having strings on them.
I asked her if she'd like for me to make her some bibs and I could put double snaps on them to keep them on as well as they would be backed with PUL- Poly Urethane Laminated fabric, making them nearly waterproof. She said she'd like that and so I set to work after the first of the year and made up 25 bibs to send up to her.
While finances have been really tight with AC in daycare and needing to pick up the cost for that, I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the rest of the fabric I needed to make the bibs. I had "pretty" flannel fabric to put on the outer part that is seen, but usually I use 2 more layers of flannel on the inside of the bib between the outer layer and the PUL fabric on the back for absorbency. So I didn't have this fabric and quite honestly, wasn't able to go out and buy flannel for this. So I said a prayer about it and mentioned it to Hubby and we went to bed that night.
The next morning, Hubby informs me that somehow- there is a HUGE hole in the flannel sheets that we have on our king sized bed. So I pull the sheets off and it's obvious that it's not repairable. Wouldn't you know it, I have flannel to make this bunch of bibs now. LOL! I just said a prayer of thanks and got right to work.
Here are the bibs that I made for her, 26 of them in all:
A picture of the PUL backing and the double snaps:
So we sent them up to Ms. Pearl and I was elated to receive a note from her that they were the blessing of an answered prayer, that they were big enough for their kiddos, they didn't come off and they kept their babies clothes dry! She has asked me to make more for her over the next year as they are working to expand the daycare to a larger building this fall and I'm soooooo excited to do this for her! Praise the Lord!
Why don't you wear your Genes!
Over the years we have tried to explain to the kids what was causing the loss of vision and hearing and while it's very hard to explain to little ones, we did our best in explaining that I received the genes from both of my parents and by God's will, I received the genes for Usher Syndrome and a mutation occurred, thus I have Usher Syndrome.
So MD and I are talking one say and while I can't remember what got us on the topic, she asked me again why I couldn't see very well. I mentioned again that it was the way I was made by God and while it wasn't easy sometimes, that God has blessed us in many ways with being able to use my deaf blindness for good things. MD got really quiet and I could see that she was thinking intently. After a couple of minutes she looked at me and said, " Mommy, you know, you said your mommy and daddy gave you your genes (jeans), but I don't understand why you don't ever where them!?" LOL!!!!!
So after I was able to re-gain my composure and called Hubby in to help me out, we explained that my genes were not jeans to wear. LOL!
Martin Luther King Day- Trip to the Indianapolis 500 Speedway Hall of Fame Museum:
Hubby was off work for the day so we decided to do a family thing and the kids had never been to the Speedway Museum. As we saw from the auto show and the Children's Museum, they are very intrigued by the Indy race cars, and it doesn't cost much to get into the museum, so we decided to give it a try. The X's went along with us with their little boy, Little N and we had a pretty good time!
The kids enjoyed it as they liked seeing all the different cars and best of all getting to sit in race car too. :)
Hubby, KT, and MD looking over several cars that are in the Indy Legends Wii game that we have:
The girls in front of the trophy:
AC with little N in his stroller in front of the trophy:
A really good picture of the X family. :)
Mr. X and Little N with Tony Stewart's car:
A picture of all the older cars from the early 1900's:
The kids were fascinated with this really old patent car from 1886:
Then the highlight of the day- the Indy car they got to sit in! Daddy and AC in the driver's seat and KT being pit crew changing the right front tire!
The car was so deep that MD and AC had to sit on Daddy's lap to even see over the steering wheel, so here is MD on Daddy's lap and AC on the side panel:
KT was just barely able to see out:
And then here is KT and Little N in the Driver's Seat:
Here is Ms. Rei sitting prettily in front of a trophy, a painting of the race course and in front of several other cars:
Then we took some group photos in front of the car and flags in the center of the museum- here is our family all together:
Hubby, Rei, and I:
All of the kids together:
So we wrapped things up and everyone headed back to our house for lunch and the guys went and picked up food. We all ate and had fun together for the afternoon and it was a fun day!
