the Life of Olena

We had a lovely Christmas, and according to Olena it was the "most awesome day ever!" She was so cute, and absolutely LOVED her gifts.  We set up a sensory heaven in our basement...aka: a trampoline and a huge ball pit!  and she thinks the ball pit is the coolest thing ever.  Sadly I don't have any pictures since my camera is still out of commission but as soon as it is in working order again, I will definitely put some up for you to see.  She also received the Leapster Explore from my parents, which is a child version of the IPad, she is starting to grow more fond of it everyday but she was a bit disappointed to find out that there was no app for Angry Birds.  Crazy girl.  We spent the morning together just the three of us, but the rest of the day was spent traveling around to see the parents.  Though it was a busy day, it was still wonderful.  This year was one of the first ones in a long time that I can remember that we didn't have any snow.  When you are from th

While I wish I could say that the night we decorated our tree was a beautiful peaceful night of carols and lots of love. But really it was more about 2 exhausted adults and 2 exhausted children, and lots of dropped broken bulbs. After a full day of hard work and play we finally got to the moment we had all been waiting for...tree decorating time. Well we were not quite prepared so it started off with Jason spending 45 minutes trying to fix lights just to realize we didn't have enough so at 8p on a Sunday he went on the hunt. He was gone way too long and the kids were practically falling asleep so I let them go ahead with the decorating, we had some cocoa, and then I put them to bed. It took them about 2 minutes to fall asleep so I then undecorated the tree. When J got home we strung the lights and redecorated until midnight! Thankfully both the kids were excited enough with the final outcome the next morning that they didn't even notice the changes I made :) This year we

My dearest and bestest friend Rickie's Canadian wedding shower. I will have one for her, here in the States in April! This one was held by her fiance's family. Her and Dan will marry (finally after 12 years) on May 19th, 2012.

My grandmother is selling crochet sets; hat, scarf and wristlets. Color and style of your choice. Made to order. $28 per set!

I should be diligently wrapping Christmas presents while I have a few moments to spare but I thought I owed it to everyone to at least try and update once before the Holiday.  Things have been really busy so of course the blogging has taken the back burner.  A-Line (my job) is super busy and I have been working about 10 more hours a week than usual.  And while that doesn't seem like much, it definitely makes a difference to a homeschooling mom.  School has slowed down a bit.  She has been doing a lot of computer work and projects which she is thrilled about.  No writing or arithmetic is her idea of a great school day.  I am hoping to work on a lesson plan for the month of January between Xmas and New Year.  I want to spend the month working on her speech.  She hasn't made a lot of progress over the last 9 months or so and I see some regression in certain areas.  I also have noticed that more and more adults are having difficultly understanding her.  I plan to make it a month