Pre-school screening.

I took Jackson to a school yesterday for a preschool screening. I brought him in because in order to get approved for speech therapy, you have to go through that screening. I really liked the woman who did the assessment. She was very thorough and she explained every single question on the test and Jackson's answers because I wasn't in the room. Afterwards we talked for about half an hour about behavior and kindergarten. It was reassuring for me to hear that she thinks Jackson will do fine and that his "impulsiveness" is normal and expected. She said that boys don't grow out of that until 3rd grade and not to worry until that point. (Jackson turned 4 in November) So, the good news... she could score on each question based on age appropriate responses. She was scoring from the 2 year old range to 6 year old range. The tests for colors, shapes and letters (including phonics) she scored him at the 6 year old range... she told me that if the test allowed her to score him even higher she would have :) She was very impressed with him in those areas. I am too! Numbers he only counted to 12... so it was 4 year old range... I told her he can count up to 30 and up to 100 in 10s but since he didn't do it for her she can't count it! He dropped the ball on that one! His speech was between the 4-5 year old range... which surprised me. I guess I compare him too much to other kids but I just think he doesn't speak as well as them. She said that in order to refer him to speech therapy he would have to score in the bottom 20th percentile... and he definitely didn't. So We are going to reevaluate in September and make sure he has made the progress she hopes for. The only thing he messed up on is saying an w for a r in ring and leaving a t sound off of "nest". He did poorly on the scissor portion... probably because he has never used scissors in his life! She said that he was concentrating so hard trying to cut on the line and he kept getting frustrated! I guess I know what we need to practice. On another test she said a phrase and Jax had to tell her how you would respond in that situation. She said "Breaking something that isn't yours". His response was "The car". She was a little baffled by that and when we talked I just had to laugh. I pulled out of my purse Brynnan and Jonas' car that they had brought and Jackson broke the wheels off! I think he was trying to tell her that he had just broken something that wasn't his... the car! I thought that was pretty funny. Jackson is really good at tracing letters and shapes, but the test had blank lines, nothing to trace, so he didn't do too well on the writing portion. Overall she thinks his skills are age appropriate, if not a little advanced... so that makes me feel really good. I am proud of his smarts! :) Now if only he would pronounce his words a little better :)

Progress on my throw...

I have been making a throw quilt to keep for my own couch... if I ever get it back :) I made some good progress tonight. I still have to sew my rows together, but they are for the most part pieced together. This is the quilt with color drama... where I had to change from red to blue... I am loving the way it is turning out. I am planning on adding a 6.5 inch brown border to finish it off and then bind it in the light blue! Can't wait to show everyone the final product!

Brynnan fell asleep on the couch during a movie and Jackson apparently had a pen. We found a little design on Brynnan's face :) Jackson had drawn on him in his sleep! It was too funny!




I made cinnamon rolls the other day and this is Brynnan "keeping his eye on it" while the dough was rising... it was cute because he kept saying that line... "Rachelle, I'm keeping my eye on it!"

Jackson's Quilt!!!

I finished Jackson's quilt. It was really fun to do. I quilted it with a wavy stitch which I was kind of unsure about, but I think it turned out great. What do you think?

Lack of blogging!

Sorry it's been a while since I posted... we have been very busy with 5 active kids in one house! How do some mom's do it??? We have tons of pictures but most of them are on my mom and sister's camera! I will post some soon. For now, visit my sister's blog to see some... she has been better about blogging lately!

http://welchwolves.wordpress.com

Cousins!!!

First of all, Jackson's new glasses came in! Finally! So the duct tape glasses are now a backup pair. I think the new pair is much better. He looks a lot older, but Ethan told me that with his new glasses Jackson has lost some of his "swag"... so take that as you will :)

On Wednesday Megan and her boys, Jonas (7) Brynnan (5) and Tinian (1), came to visit! They will be here for about 3 weeks. Our house is a zoo now, but in a good way. They boys are getting along great and it is so fun to see them playing. They love to run around the house and yell and scream. So needless to say, the adults in the house are exhausted :) We have some fun things planned including a trip to the zoo and the parks and more! Church should be fun tomorrow! Meg and I are going workout shoe shopping for her and then we are going to do the Y a lot next week! She is going to introduce me to Zumba, where I'm sure I will make a complete fool of myself! :) We all have a lot of sewing projects to do while she is here so I anticipate some late nights of that. I will update with more pictures later!

Haircuts

Once again, I tried to do a cute cut but failed, so the boys ended up getting a buzz cut. Good thing they are cute no matter how their hair is cut!

Happy Birthday Luis!

Luis can't take a serious picture to save his life... so just keep that in mind. Luis turned 29 on Feb 28th. It wasn't the best day, so we did a birthday do-over yesterday. We got Pizza and did more of the things he wanted to. But it was overall a good week for him! I gave him a late valentine's/early bday gift when I made him cinnamon rolls (yes, some of them had pecans!!!). They turned out way better than expected :) We also went on a birthday shopping spree with our kohls cash... we got 3 sweaters and 1 jacket for under $40. We saved over $300. (Do you like the superman pose...? that was my favorite!) Luis looks great in his new jacket. We were going to go spend the morning of his bday at the temple but he got called into work, which is part of why it wasn't a good day, so maybe we will try for next Tuesday. He also got his MBA diploma in the mail, I am very proud of him. What a great surprise to get on his bday!!! Also, he called into Sprint and negotiated early upgrades for both our phones! It really works to tell people it's your bday! I made snowball cake for him... he has the same cake every year. It's a lot of white and creamy stuff, so u know it's not my favorite, but I'm glad he enjoyed it! Luis and I have been through a lot of ups and downs in almost 6 years of marriage. I am so happy to have him with me though! Luis, you are an amazing husband and a great support! Let's keep working hard and things will definitely look up! Happy Birthday! LOVE YOU!!!