Watching the Snow

Oh, how my boys love to watch the snow!  When we got some of our first snowfall this year they kept going to the back door and watching in awe.  Cameron would look at me with wide eyes and say, "Snow! Snow!" 

It's moments like these that no matter how hard you try, you just can't truly capture on film.

Thanksgiving and a Little Father/Son Bonding

It just occurred to me that I never posted Thanksgiving pictures!  Although, there aren't too many photos to speak of.  I guess I was too busy either cooking, eating, or sleeping to take any pictures!  Making an entire Thanksgiving meal by yourself can really wear a girl out!  In any case, here are the few that we got...

On Saturday, Cody and his dad made their way up to Minnesota for their Annual Bears/Vikings game.  Cody has been organizing this for the last couple of years and had a crowd of over 30 go this year.  They had a great time, but, unfortunately, the Bears suffered a loss.

This canopy was Cody's early Christmas present.  He was thrilled to get it and I was thrilled I didn't have to find a way to haul it to Murphysboro!

When you go to a game with both Vikings and Bears fans, the one thing you can agree on is that you all hate the Packers.

Father and son sporting their Bears attire

My apologies to Cameron and Grandma for not getting any photos of them!  Here's to next year!

It's Sleddin' Time!

A few weeks ago Owen and Cody went out for their first sled of the season.  I have been trying since then to upload the videos that went along with these pictures, but for some reason it's not working.  So, you'll have to settle for a couple of pictures.

They went to a great hill in town that is popular for sledding, as is evident by the statue in the above picture.  They were gone the entire afternoon and Owen had a ball.  You wouldn't believe the hill he went down all by himself!  He even met a couple of girls who were about 13 and were quite smitten with him.  Now every time we see a hill he says, "That would be a great hill for sledding!"


*Lots of posts to come soon.  I have so many Christmas photos to go through!  And I've been sick ever since we got home on Sunday. :(  Stay tuned!

Cousins and Girlfriends

Last month we attented the wedding of our close friends, Alyssa & Billy.  Alyssa is the sister of Cody's best friend, Matt, and Billy is Susie's (Matt's wife) brother.  Yes, it's confusing, but I can assure that the bride and groom are not blood related! LOL  Anyway, this was the first wedding that Owen has been to that he really remembers and he had a ball!  He spent the entire night running around and dancing with all the kids.  I, unfortunately, had to leave with Cameron because he was overtired but I heard lots of good stories about Owen.

Here he is with his cousin, Luca, and Matt & Susie's daughter, Gianna.

I'm told that Gianna and Luca became fast friends and it wasn't long before Luca told Owen, "Go get your own girlfriend!"  Owen obliged, and found Grace.  Grace is the daughter of Matt's brother, Dave, and is a year older than Owen.  They had a lovely time together and danced the night away.  Owen is still talking about her to this day.  Grace was also apparently pretty smitten with Owen and was talking about him with Gianna and Susie the day after the wedding.  Gianna was very concerned that Owen was their "real" cousin and Grace wouldn't be able to marry him!

And yet another change...

The past few weeks have brought even more changes with Cameron's therapies. You might remember when I detailed the different things his therapists suggested we do to help further his speech.  I thought long and hard about their suggestions and Cody and I discussed them at length.  We came to the conclusion that we were going to take some of their ideas and put them to use, while foregoing the ones we didn't think were a good fit for Cameron. 

Then his intervention teacher came for a visit.  I won't bore you with all the details, but she basically did a few things that I did not agree with at all.  I was frustrated with her the entire visit, but the straw that broke the camel's back happened when we were dicussing whether Cameron is on the autism spectrum and she went as far as tellling me that Owen is probably on the spectrum.  Owen, my bubbly, outgoing, 4-year-old whom she is not even here to evaluate and has spent only a handful of moments with.  Why does she think this?  Because he can read and he can be very particular about certain things.  It was at that point that I decided I didn't want her treating my child anymore.

It's not that I don't think there's a possiblity that Cameron could be on the autism spectrum, because I have thought that for the last 6+ months.  It was the fact that she said in the same breath that she is not even qualified to make a diagnosis like that about Cameron.  If she is not even supposed to make such assumptions about Cameron, she really shouldn't be making them about Owen.  Even though I don't think Owen is, if he were, it was most definitely not her place to say that.  So I started to feel like, if she's saying things like this about Owen, why should I believe what she says about Cameron?  Why should I believe that she knows what she's talking about?  Not to mention the fact that Cameron really doesn't like her.  She doesn't relate to him well and the last few times she was here it was basically the two of us talking because Cameron didn't want to be around her.

I also felt that she kept changing each week what our goals for Cameron were.  She would work on something for a couple of weeks, then decided it wasn't right and we needed to change it again.  How is he supposed to reach a specified goal when she keeps changing the therapy on him?

So we decided it would be best for Cameron to just take a break for a while.  We have cancelled all  visits with the intervention teacher as well as the speech therapist.  We will continue to work with him at home and re-evaluate things sometime early next year and see where we go from there.  Part of me feels like it's just going to be a time issue for Cameron.  He's proven time and time again that he will get there, he's just going to do it on his time schedule.  I've spoken at length about this with Cody's mom and she says that Cody was exactly the same way at this age.  She sees so many similarities between Cameron and Cody.

Of course, there is another part of me that worries everyday that we've made the wrong decision in pulling him out of therapy.  But I try to remember that there really is no right or wrong answer in this.  It's really what is best for Cameron at any given time.  And at this time, we think this is best for him.  Maybe in a month or two, it won't be the best thing and we will get back into therapy.  Or maybe we'll even try private therapists.  I don't know what the future holds, but right now I'm just trying to focus on the present.  And right now, all I know is that I have the cutest little almost-2-year-old I know who is happy, healthy, and makes me smile everyday.  I don't really think life can get much better than that.


*I promise to get more pictures up soon!  We are just having a crazy, fun-filled holiday season in the Muhs household and my blogging has taken a back seat!  Merry Christmas!

The Storm of the Century

That's what the meteorologist called it last night on the news.  He said we only see a storm like this about every 100 years.  After snowing all day yesterday and most of the night last night, we ended up with at least a foot of snow, maybe more.  Everything from schools, doctor's offices, places of business, churches, malls, and even universities have closed.  Iowa State is closed and I don't think that's happened in the 9 winters we've spent here.  And I think it is even their finals week!

Cody stayed home from work today, thankfully.  Even if he'd wanted to go, I don't think he would have even made it out of our garage!  I'm guessing it's so cold that the door won't even open!  Not to mention the fact that our driveway and road haven't been plowed.

I opened the front door this morning to take some pictures and snow fell in the house!

This is a planter I have on the front porch.  It is pretty tall and you can only see the top of it!

The bushes outside our front door.

This is where our driveway should be!

There was snow piled up against the back door as well, but when I opened it, it all stayed standing!

The grill

The deck stairs piled high with snow.  Poor Murphy has to find his way down them to go out!

The temps are supposed to get even colder, so I don't see this stuff melting anytime soon.  I wish it would though because I hate having to beg my husband not to go out in it!