Joanna's Graduation from the Auditory-Verbal Center

Joanna and Stacey at their last session together.
Joanna brought her lady bug costume to show Stacey.

Joanna made a crafty witch project her last session,
she had to show it off!

Well, this past Sunday 12/14 Joanna completed her Auditory-Verbal program. She has actually been done for about a month now, but she offically graduated on Sunday. After a complete evaluation of her listening and speaking skills, she is now age appropriate if not ahead of where she should be for her age!

Joanna started the program 3 years ago this past October. Guy was in training in California, getting ready to leave for Iraq when we found out about her hearing impairment. Thankfully, we had one more opportunity together, before he left, as a family in Jacksonville, NC. We spent the week before he flew out together and were able to discuss and decided what we wanted for Joanna. We decided that since her hearing was able to be brought up to within normal limits, we were going to give her the chance to hear like everyone else. So we, after looking over all our communication options, decided that Auditory-Verbal therapy was the best, so we moved forward.....and Guy moved away for 6+ months.

I can look back and am so thankful for the support given our family by so many friends and relatives. And everyone at the Auditory-Verbal center treated us as family and were so helpful. Joanna's therapist was Stacey Smith back when we started therapy and during the three years we got to enjoy her engagement, marriage and just two weeks before Joanna's graduation, the birth of her first child. She will always be apart of our lives. Stacey Vincent, her married name, is a great therapist, she knows how to play! She has always been straight forward and helpful to me, and just plain FUN for Joanna. Joanna had a hard time not going to see Stacey on Tuesdays anymore, but since little brother Emmett is still at AVC, she knows she can go a back anytime and visit.

Well, I am going to post some photos of Joanna's last session (above) and some from her graduation Christmas party (below.) Thanks for celebrating with us! Joanna is now five and enjoying some pre-school/Kindergarten activites at home....and doing a darn good job of it! We thank God for his many blessings......for he gives so many!

Joanna and her cousin Elena enjoying the fancy Christmas party.

Guy and I with our Joanna

Joanna's gradution recognition with Stacey and the family.
She got a special gift and a certificate of completion.

Joanna getting a hug from Grace,
a good friend who came to celebrate with us!

Joanna doing a craft picture frame at the party.

Joanna and Mommy

Upward Basketball and Fun at Home!

To end out our February update, I will send some pictures of Caleb's first experience playing basketball. We signed him up to play Upward Basketball in Nov.-Dec. of 2007, his first game was in the beginning of January and the season played through to the end of February. He had a blast and we enjoyed our early mornings as a family watching from the side lines.

Caleb taking a shot
Caleb with some teammates

Caleb mid game, running for the ball

Emmett cheering from the side lines

Daddy and the Boo

Joanna

Mommy, Joanna and Aidan

Ok, here are some silly shots, or just random fun. Guy and the Boober taking a nap, Emmett loves to take over the bed! And below is the three older ones playing a game in the living room....and saying cheese for Mommy.

Enjoy and I should have some March posting on the way come tomorrow evening! Love you all!

Post Birthday Celebration in Georgia

Upon returning from Wisconsin in February, we decided to have a little friend and family party for Caleb and Emmett. We had a pirate theme that Caleb picked out.

Below are some pictures of our little birthday party for the February boys. Now we had set the date for the party and everyone in the Blaedow family ended up with the Flu, so we postponed the celebration....that is why there are two cakes.....

The first Birthday cake that was made
but only enjoyed by our family (we were recovering.)

The friends we had over for
the little celebration....everyone waiting for cake!

Emmett and his pirate hat

The birthday "party" cake,
made for when the friends were able to come!

Papa Thomas and Joanna sporting a pirate hat

Chad and Becky White with their son Ethan
and our Aidan in the background

Arg!

Ethan and Aidan, best buds!

Micah and Caleb, happy to party together!

The mighty blow...

And last but not least,
the one year old Emmett's cake shots!

(We think he enjoyed the plate more than the cake!;-)

I hope you enjoyed some pictures....there are more to come! I hope to keep this posting going for the next couple of days until we catch up with current times! Then hopefully I can do current posting.......you are in the presence of a procrastinator? I think so! Love you all!

A Picture Review: From Valentines to Memorial Day!

Hi! Well, finally I have sat down long enough compile a new post. It will be cumulative up to this point since I am so far behind. I hope to improve on my communicating. To be honest, I have been distracted with life, and that new fancy form of social interaction called Facebook. I have some close friends who use it as their "blog" so to speak, so I have hung out there from time to time when I could be putting effort into our family blog. My goal is to back away from that form of communication, back to this...our original "family" blog....not just MY Facebook.

Well, we are going to do this picture review here to let you know some fun stuff we have been up to! God has been good to us, we have no complaints, nor should we even if tough times were upon us. God is good all the time and those challenges in the past have shown themselves to be blessings in disguise. I will write captions showing what "event" we took part in or who that kid is in that goofy picture. We hope you enjoy this glimpse of of Blaedow Life!

Blue and Gold Banquet
(We attend this event the same evening we got home for our trip to Wisconsin, it was a Scouting celebration in which the boys received awards.)

Caleb receives an award

Aidan receives an award

Aidan with his fellow Bobcats

Emmett having fun running around the gym

Joanna, close-up

At this point I have decided that doing these events in individual post may make for a smoother read (and my drafts are less likely to sit unfinished.) So I will post this event and then work on posting the next either this evening or tomorrow. We'll see if it happens.....life may win out in the end :-).

Doing this for you Grandpa and Nannie, sorry I have been so bad at posting these pics and giving you the opportunity to see what goes on between phone calls. We love you!

A visit to the Northwoods....Wisconsin!

It's cold out there!!




Joanna with her prizes from the Mineshaft

Guy, Emmett and Aidan playing games at the Mineshaft

Nannie and Joanna cow tipping

Spades and a sleeping Bo

A little northern polka, eh!

No, the kids really aren't on top of the car, that snow the plow push up from the driveway.

Hi, we southern folk are SO excited to be here
(do you notice that Guy is tucked warmly inside,
he had to remind me that he moved to the south for a reason!)

Playing Guitar Hero with the kids and Guy's nephew Micah

Hilary's hilarious attempt

Caleb out in the snow!

Joanna and one of her many visits to the table for Hot Chocolate

Coming in to get warm!

Emmett's 1st and Caleb's 8th Birthday Celebration

A napkin, please!

Micah, Emmett, Nannie and Caleb

Emmett opening gifts after a wipe down

Caleb's gifts

And there are more to come, but posting seems to take more time than I'd like. A family update will be coming soon. Love you all!