FALL HAS LEFT AND THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!

So, here we are, already in December!  Where has the time gone???!  It's been a busy 6 weeks or so since my last post!  Right after my last post, we had a great time on Halloween!  The school has a big Halloween festival or carnival every year and that was a lot of fun.  We decided to dress up as a family as "The Incredibles".  We had fun doing that!  Andrew is really into movies, and does like the Incredibles.  Halloween in our neighborhood is a really big deal.  The streets were filled with people.  Since it was our first year, we decided to all go around as a family, so we weren't here too much to pass out candy.  If we were, I think we would have had 300-400 trick or treaters.  It felt like a big street party and we can say it was something we have never seen before.  Andrew had a blast, even though he doesn't get to eat any of the candy.  Kylie was a little cranky and  hungry; probably will enjoy it more next year!

Shortly after that, my mom and her husband, Mike came for their first visit to Austin.  It was also Kylie's 2nd birthday weekend!  We had a great time and it was nice to see more family!  They also were able to join Andrew for lunch at school and see what his therapy was all about, as the therapists worked with him here at the house.

Kylie got her first bike for her birthday!  She fits on it great, but still not quite sure what to do with the pedals.  She prefers to be pushed along. . . .

 After they left, it was time to think about Thanksgiving!  And, with that, we got more visitors!  Kevin, Doug's brother, came for a visit, along with Doug's parents.  It was great spending our first Thanksgiving in Austin with family.  We had a great time for the long weekend and were sad to see them go!

 Uncle Kevin was very good at helping Kylie with her coloring.  That seemed to be a nice past time for both of them.

Wow!  That is some sibling smooching right there!  And yes, Andrew's Indian hat does say "Morning Child"

Then, here we are in December, decorating the house, doing fun activities around Austin, and enjoying the season.  We are looking forward to the activities here in Austin over the next 3 weeks.  It will just be the 4 of us this year.  We will be coming east in June, so we need to save our trip dollars for that trip!  It will be nice, though, and this way, Santa knows where to find us!! :-)

Andrew is doing well with everything.  He seems to have spurts where he is doing outstanding and we are so encouraged by his progressed.  Then, he will have a run of some rough days, probably dependent partly on how is is feeling (runny nose really seems to affect him a lot), the weather and any fronts moving in, lack of sleep, etc.  We just stay the course and know that in the end, things will be much better.  He really gets into ALL holidays, so it's been fun seeing his excitement about the different holidays, starting with Halloween.  We will be increasing his ABA hours over his Christmas break to the recommended 30/week.  Since we aren't going anywhere, we figured we might as well take advantage of that time.  

As we reflect upon the last few months that we have been here, wrapping up 2011, we can't help but be so very thankful for all that God has blessed us with!  Our support network, including YOU, our friends and family.  We are so very thankful for all that we have and for our ability to be in a great place for Andrew and our family.  We have continued to be given reminders of how this was the right decision for our family.  We do miss our friends and family in Knoxville.  We have made some friends, but realize, it's hard to establish deep friendships with families right now; we are at a time of our lives that it is just really busy for all of us, due to our kids.  It will happen, it will just take a little bit.  Luckily, we are busy enough, we don't have much time to think about it much!!  

Thanks again for all your support.

We hope that the holiday season is a special time for you and your family.

Our house all lit up for the season!