Time for the....*SUMMER SWIMSUIT ISSUE*!!

brought to you by......

Our cutie-pa-tootie, Maylin!! =)

(What did you think you would see ME in a bathing suit on my blog?? Get real!)

So we are officially in swimsuit season, and today is Maylin's 1st pool adventure at Mamaw and Papa's!!

She wanted to show you all 3 of her cutie swimmies for the season....

Here we go!

Swimsuit #1:

Her itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini!!

(I'm a sucker for cutie babies in bikinis:)) I think she liked it too!
(And she liked the tags to chew on....we have a teether so we'll deal with it!)

Can't forget the backview! Love the ruffles!

Swimsuit #2

A fashionable floral one-piece with shoulder bows....

A 6-month garage sale buy that I'm hoping she can just wear first before she grows more=/
We will see....:)

And here's the back...super cute!

And last but not least,

Swim suit #3....the floral halter top!

This is a 6-12 month suit that she got last summer as a gift from the Holsopple's! I was hoping she would be big enough to wear it and I think she can!!
She was SO over the swim suite modeling by the time we got to #3...I don't think she has a future in being a swimwear model=/ ha!

...and I love the back!

Cast your vote NOW! Which is your fav?? #1, 2 or 3??=)

Happy swim season;)

Ch...ch...ch....ch...ch....CHANGES.

So. Yesterday marked an official day of change for our family. After sharing the news with our principal and the kids' daycare teachers, I submitted my resignation letter to my high-up boss lady through the corporation I work for in the area for Emotional Disorders. I have worked 2 1/2 years as a Para at FHS and am looking at 7 more days of full time work in a school.

My new job?

A FULL TIME stay-at-home wife and mom:)

Why the change?

Ever since we have gotten Isaac's official diagnosis, I have been wracking my brain with knowledge on what we can do to make our son better. Through many different resources I hope to use it to my advantage and put Isaac on a gluten-free, casein-free diet (as many of you already know about). This in itself will be a whole new full time job to me! I am NOT a domestic mother (and I've come to accept and be ok with it! ha ha!), so this will also be a huge challenge and adjustment for all of us.

Most of all, my kids are growing up...way.too.fast. I don't want to miss any more fun moments with them. I love the fact that they were in daycares with other kids, and that Maylin had great caretakers while I was working too. I just don't want to miss anymore. Today Isaac celebrated his birthday at daycare and preschool. He came home with an adorable paper crown that he wore at his parties. I would have LOVED to have seen that! (I did get a picture of it at least...thanks Wendy!)

We are praying the expenses of me not working will fall in place. This will be tough. As much as this new diet will be a change, so will the cost of everything for it. We can do nothing but crack down even more to make it work. Like I said, it will be tough!

My Goals?

*Get some long awaited projects done around the house.

*Keep my house a little more manageable and *maybe* more caught up on laundry! ha!

*Cook some really kick-butt meals for my family.

*Start planting a garden

*Have play dates with mommy friends

*Not drive all over the county every day...save on gas $$

*Finally do a garage sale

*Get to attend Mottt's again

*Later down the road....I may even pick up some part time fun jobs when the opportunities present themselves. Like working at the vet, or at my mom's candy store....and even substitute teaching in both Goshen and Fairfield schools. I love being around high school kids, and don't want to miss those connections too.

....Just some things off the top of my head...there are so many more.

Bottom line: the pros are really starting to outweigh the cons. And we're excited:)

Wish us luck on our new journey!=)

4 Years....

In honor of my 4 yr old, here is a mini photo timeline of our Isaac....

            May 16th, 2007 I gave birth to a not-so-tiny baby boy:) After 11 hours of labor and 2 1/2 hours of pushing, our 9 lb. 3 0z. Isaac Anthony entered the world...


Pretty sure out of ALL the baby pictures we took of you, this has always been my favorite. Just napping on daddy's chest and you look like you're snuggled in a cloud:)

You were always a smiley happy baby!

 

3 months old...in your 1st pair of Nike's:)

Fast-forward to 11 months...I started falling in love with those pretty eyes....and that one brown stripe:)

1 year old!



 15 months....



The day you became a big brother.....(16 months)

2 year birthday!

3 years old....

4 YEARS OLD!

And what a handsome boy you have turned out to be!

We love you to the moon and back! Happy 4th birthday Isaac Anthony!

Love Mommy, Daddy, K-bub and May May=)

Always Unique, Totally Interesting, Sometimes Mysterious

These words sum up our oldest child, Isaac quite well these days. I especially love the ribbon with puzzle pieces incorportated into it. That's our Isaac. He is AMAZING at puzzles these days. Give him any puzzle and he'll stick to it until it's complete.

We had an awakening event occur the other day, but has been a topic in our brains for quite some time now. If you've kept up on Isaac the past couple years, or know him at all, you would know there's something different about our soon-to-be 4 year old.

On April 25th, we sat down with Isaac's special needs pre-school teacher, a speech therapist, and Occupational Therapist, and finally the Autistic consultant. Isaac was evaluated by these therapists and consultantants the previous month, along with a long list of questions filled out by Brock and myself. This was the day we were hearing the results of that evaluation.

After a 2 hr. long meeting, to make a long story short, we heard what we already knew, that Isaac has Autism Spectrum Disorder. (ASD)

As far as where on the spectrum, we do not know until he is a little older. What matters now is what steps we're going to take to be proactive and to help Isaac's needs as much as possible.

The good news: Isaac is eligible to attend his special needs preschool another year, only instead of going twice a week, he will be going 5 days a week. We feel it will help Isaac greatly, and hope we're making the right move. Since we know early it will be to his benefit.

The bad news: That word. Autism. It will follow our son on his paper work, his entire educational career. That's tough to swallow. I hate that our son is stuck with a label at such an early age for the rest of his life. I hate the fact that it will affect his social life.

Will people make fun of him because he's not quite right?

Will girls like him or think he's weird when he's in high school?

Will he be that "weird kid" in class?

Will teachers be annoyed or frustrated with him?

(Just a few of many questions that are now in my head when I think about Isaac's future)

What I'm thankful for: I'm so happy Isaac has a little brother so close to him in age. I think...no I know...that fact will get Isaac through tough times. I pray Kahler and Isaac are best friends and that Isaac can get through his obstacles ahead because he has Kahler there to help him through it.

I'm thankful that Brock and I are in education. I still question whether or not my position at school as an Autistic Para is a good thing....because I see first-hand every day how having an emotional disorder can affect the social life of a highschooler, and how that label affects who that person is as an individual. It's tough. But, Brock and I know what our kid will endure when he gets to those stages in his life.

What better thing to do than to start praying about it now?

Our next move, and big questionmark is whether or not to get him medically tested aside from his educational label. IF we do a medical test, he as an individual would be waivered for any medical needs (other bad part: there is a HUGE waiting list to be on this). At this point, I have no clue what medical benefits he will need at this point. Maybe just more therapy? Medications? (I hope not). We'll do what we have to though.

Bottom line: It's our son, we love him no matter what. WE were made to be his parents for reason. THAT is what is getting Brock and I through this. I'm thankful for my friends that reminded me of that very thing the day we found out. Thank you for loving our son!

We are in for a big journey ahead.

P.S. Just the following day after Isaac's meeting, he woke up the next day with a dry diaper! I took him to the potty, he sat on it, nothing happened. A few seconds later he got up, turned around, lifted the 2 toilet seats and started pottying! As he was doing it he just looked at me and smiled:) Silly boy. It's his personality--he'll do things on his OWN agenda! I should know this by now! ha!

2nd thing: Last weekend Mr. anti-eater of anything strange actually ate 2 pieces of pepparoni pizza! Little Ceasar's pizza out of all kinds! THEN the next day he ate a cheese and supreme pizza from another pizzeria! Crazy kid. Guess he's found a fondness for pizza and realized it's good stuff!

"Because".....

My sweet husband sent me this email yesterday...and it totally made my day!

Linz,

I don’t have a lot of free time today, mainly because it is a Monday Schedule and we had meetings this morning until 8:40. I think the hour change has a lot to do with it also. I hate Monday’s. I am writing to take a second and tell you how much I love you.

1. I have been sick for over a week now
2. You have gone above and beyond on everything
3. Dishes
4. Laundry
5. Diaper changes
6. Trash Duty
7. Bills
8. Staying updated on Facebook (I thought it was funny he pointed this out:))
9. Getting me Medicine
10 Track Season is in Full Swing
11. You have never once complained (Really? he really must be sick!)
12. You support by asking questions and listening
13. You continue to remind me of things that need to be done because you know I won’t remember
14. You record our favorite shows so that at night we might have some small bonding time to watch tv together ( my favorite shows: Days of our Lives--my guilty pleasure!....American Idol...and the Bachelor!...funny---these are his favorite shows too?!? ;) )
15. You take care of my Little Girl as if she is the most important thing on the face of the Earth (she is) ...yep he's right about that one!

And through all of that (and I know I missed some things)… You Choose to LOVE me!

(Yep...I do! I'm one lucky girl!)

March Madness!!

Let's start out with some pics that I have yet to share with you all...

My 2 sweet hearts on Valentine's Day (minus Kahler!)

My hunny and I on our way to our belated V-day Dinner @ Olive Garden....
"Hey, are these my new friends?" :)

Squeaky clean!

I couldn't wait til she could wear this onesie...it's a 3-6 month! She's my Surf Chick!!

Isaac being sweet on his baby sis...he's so good with her!

Kahler being sweet on his big bro! They love each other too:)

And now for your "Monthly Maust Update"....=) It's a long one...so sorry for the long post!

HELLO MARCH!...and HELLO spring!! SO excited for spring to officially be here! These couple of warm days are getting me way excited for spring to stay. For good! I'm so looking forward to going on walks while it's still light out, for my tulip bulbs in my flower bed to start sprouting for the first time....and for the kids to finally get to have their daily play outside! Most of all, we're looking forward to busting out the trampoline that the kids got for Christmas. It will make a nice addition to the backyard play! Ready for the windows to be open and for that winter stuffiness to escape! So bring it on!

Life is once again going non-stop, especially with track starting. I'm officially a track widow once again. Brock and the boys started their 1st official practice on Valentine's Day. Nothing like telling the wifey I love you more than his track boys shouting "Happy Valentine's day!!" over Brock's cell phone! (sheesh:)) He tries, right?:) He definitely showed it by sending me flowers to school that day...what a sweetie:)

So, now that that's in full swing, our after-school days consist of me going to get the boys after daycare and waiting for Brock to get home to greet us at 6 pm. It's gotten better, and he's trying to get out of practice no later than 5:30. So it's coming around! He has over 100 kids that tried out this year, so once the numbers dwindle down a little more, hopefully it gets into more of a consistent routine. They had their 1st indoor meet at the Culver Relays and won for the 5th year in a row....great job boys! I'm looking forward to going to a couple of their home meets this season!

As you could see from the above pic of Brock and I, we went on a belated Valentine's Date night to Olive Garden! Nothing like a meal with free gifts cards! (Thanks mom and dad!) I feel like we don't get out much on our own lately on the weekends, so this was a real treat and a nice break from our busy routine!

Winter brought on a couple of new side projects for myself....

Project #1. Trying to get in shape again! I'm really striving to drop a few pounds and just feel better about myself again. I feel like the 3rd baby pounds are not shedding near as fast as the 2nd! So I started a little bit of working out by going to boot camps in October and November, then took a break in Dec. and Jan (which was a no-no!) Then started back up taking Boot Camp again at the women's retreat. I love it when I get to go! I've been going once a week and really enjoy it! On my days off from that I try to fit in P90X Ab Ripper or Jillian's 30 day shred work out. It's just SO hard after school with 3 kids to work it in. I know I can do better! I just can't wait to get outside and start walking/running again when Brock gets home from his practices. I hope that works out in my favor, anyways:)

Project #2. Planning my 10 year class reunion! This is a lot of fun, although a lot of work! I've enjoyed getting in contact with old classmates and planning out our shin-dig, so I hope it's as fun as we're expecting! The meetings have been pretty fun anyways! What did you guys do for your reunions, if you had one? Any advice on what to do/not to do? I would love any unique ideas!!

Kids' Update:

I'll start with Mr. Isaac. He is showing wonderful progress still with pre-school. Even though his school year is coming to an end, he'll still continue to go a couple times this summer and will attend that class again next year. Like I mentioned in my last post, we have his evaluation coming up and yesterday I recieved a form to sign and fill out regarding his upcoming observation with his pre-school teacher, his OT, speech therapist and last the Autistic consultant. Brock and I will both be present at this evaluation, and basically it will overall decide whether Isaac has a "developmental delay" or if he falls on the Autism spectrum. The educational test is a lot like the medical test, so that's why we're choosing this route with the expenses and such.

Recently he's been doing very well with new things like finger painting...which he used to HATE...because of the funny texture. (I remember as a kid I never really enjoyed it either!) So he's shown progress with that. He's really back into liking his cars again, and he ALWAYS has to carry them with him. If I let him, all he would run is race his cars back and forth on my countertop the entire day. That's when we've been interrupting his play so he doesn't get in "the zone". He even tries to take the cars to bed with him at night. He's now undertanding that the cars have to go "night night" and I put them in his dresser drawer to sleep. Not 5 minutes after he wakes up in the morning does he go get his cars out of the drawer! They even go on the car ride to day care every morning, but he knows he has to leave them in the car to to go to day care and church. So it's an improvement:)

Isaac is also reciting his ABC's a lot more fluently. He's even knowing the sounds of all the letters now...which is awesome! I'll say "the A says ____" and he'll say "AH!" "The B says ____" "Buh".....and so on. It's like a little song for each letter's sound. He does it right on cue and is showing his true intelligence! It makes me excited!

Saying things on cue is happening a lot more frequently. We love hearing him sweetly say "Hi" to us when he first sees us, and "bye bye" and "c-ya" when we're leaving somewhere. He even repeated "I wuv you" to me a couple of nights ago. Melted my heart:)

Now for Sir Kahler....

The kid continues to crack us up! As a 2 year old, he's still the most up and down emotional character! He's very demanding with what he wants, yet can make us laugh a second later. He's really into showing off his muscles, growling at himself in the mirror and running around like a crazy man in circles all day long. I get really funny reports from his teacher, Kelsey at daycare. I think she laughs at him all day long! So I'm glad he's so entertaining:)

Our struggle with him has been his sleeping arrangements lately, like I also mentioned in my last post. He INSISTS on sleeping on the couch still. It drives me crazy. We constantly fight him on staying in his room with Isaac, but they keep each other up with Kahler throwing a fit if he has to stay in his firetruck bed. The ONLY solution we found a couple nights ago was to let Isaac and Kahler sleep together in Isaac's bed. Since it's a twin, it fits them both easily in it, and the past 2 nights, they sleep all night! I think they both just love to cuddle anyways, so it must help them sleep. Until we get the new mattresses and frames up for their beds, this will probably be his temporary sleeping situation from now on=/

And last but not least....Miss Maylin!

My little lady is going to be 8 months this month! Can you believe it?! As of right now, she's rolling over and loves to be sitting up (with support or assistance )and is holding her own bottle very well! She's 14.1 lbs, which put her on the weight charts a month ago at 3 %, so I'm hoping that made an increase this time!

I'm still nursing her when I can, but she's starting to get a lot of formula now since I can't fill her up. So we're starting the weining process. I can't believe that either. My last time:( It's a good thing though. I'll enjoy the freedom once it's here I think, but just the detachment itself will be a little sad for me.

Maylin continues to be the sweetest, happy baby ever! She's hardly ever upset unless she's hungry or just wants our undivided attention! Even when she was sick with pnemonia a couple of weeks ago, she was still happy. It was hard to know that she was seriously sick until it got to the point where we could see her having a hard time breathing. The chest x-rays confirmed that pnemonia settled in her lungs after her coughing for 2 weeks straights. Luckily we caught it early, so we just had to do a strong antibiotic to rid it. It worked and now she's happy as a clam!

I'm realizing now, and maybe a little too late, that I need to get her on a better sleeping routine. Especially at night. Since I was nursing her before bed, she was doing really well sleeping through the night. This was going very well until she had gotten sick, and hasn't slept through the night since. I started her on rice cereal finally since she was able to sit in the high chair well enough, thinking that would fill her up. But she still manages to wake up around 2 am every morning=/ So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to start putting her down on her own and maybe cry it out. Kinda scares me honestly, but I need to start somewhere and hope she can comfort herself to go back to sleep. So we'll see where that puts us with the sleeping situation! Wish me luck!

Stay tuned for her 8 month pictures with Darcy! I want to do some fun funky ideas for her, but I feel stumped! Any fun girlie ideas any of you have?

"Monthy Maust Update"....once again:)

So this seems to be the new trend lately! Just not enough hours in the day to blog! Sorry! After the holidays were over (which was my last post...) we're back in our school routines and the kids being back in daycare. Since I pick up the boys every day now after school, I don't get home til later and have all 3 kids with me right away after school. It's a bit of a change with out that Mommy/Maylin time like we had before! But it's ok....we're making it work. I'm just feeling extra busy these days!

....Did I mention I'm planning my 10 year reunion this summer?? (As if that's not enough, right??) At least I have some awesome help putting this shin-dig together, so it's something to look forward to!

So let's see, what happened in January?? Well over MLK Day we did a mini road trip to Noblesville to stay at Brock's cousin's house. And we took Maylin with us while the g-parent's kept the boys. It was her 1st long car ride (aside from FW trips). But she did awesome! Slept the whole way there and back!

It was such a great time to hang with Brock's cousin, Davie and his wonderful wife, Jen! They are so sweet and such welcoming host's when we come stay with them. The last time we did this was right after we got married 5 years ago...so it was long overdue! They have 3 boys and they just LOVED on Maylin! It was so sweet!

Here's their youngest, Ben, spoiling Maylin. He's in Kindergarten and I cannot believe how much he's grown! Last we saw him he was sitting in a high chair:)

Ben and Max had a friend over too, so they gave her a TON of attention, as you can tell:) Here's Maylin chillin' with the oldest, Quinn. He's a senior this year and is one big guy! We just found out he's going to Ball State next year so that's pretty awesome. Brock's so proud:) Check out the size difference in their hands!!
That evening Jen offered to keep Maylin (for her baby fix:)) while we met up with our good friends the Loy's in Carmel to go out to dinner. We went to Mesh on Mass restaraunt and it was awesome! Had a great time and good conversation! Wish they lived closer!!

The next day we ventured out to many places around Noblesville. First we stopped at the Adams' household to meet their new little sweetie, Clair! She was only 5 days old! She's such a little beauty! Andrea (below) is one of my besties from high school and we were in each other's weddings, so I LOVE this girl to pieces and so excited to see her as a mommy:) She's one of MANY of my gal-pals that are preggers right now...so bring on the baby fever!

After that we stopped to visit Brandi and the VanPutten family! What a great time to see everyone that lived so close in that area! Maylin found out what it was like to be a social butterfly that weekend:)

Let's see...what else. Update on the kiddos: Maylin turned 6 months old on the 18th! 1/2 a year old already. My baby:( She's doing what a 4-5 mo. old babe would do right now, so she just started rolling over too. So crazy she's starting to do more things now! She's also enjoying sitting up like a big girl in her bumbo seat:) I'm horrible at documenting these things. (Guess it doesn't help that my camera took a crap and we only use our cell phone cameras!) Need to fix that!

She also made it on the weight charts this month too! She's 13.2 pounds which puts her at 3%! Yippee!! She's a whopping 49% on the height chart so she's got her bro's genes in her for sure! Volleyball/bball player in our future??:)

Sleeping-wise, she was doing awesome at sleeping through the night, however I just recently started putting her in her crib at night. Ever since that happened she wakes up around 1-2 AM and is WIDE awake! C'MON! So not really sure what to do there. Any suggestions?? I'm wondering if she's ready to start cereal to keep her fuller for longer so she'll sleep better? I dunno! Hope we fix that scenario soon!

The boys are doing great....they're each other's best friends as you can see.....:)

(Still fighting the sleeping situation=/) Dying to get them their mattresses so they'll like their beds more. Kahler really hates his. He ends up on the couch about every night. So I hope that helps!

They've really enjoyed their daycare once again. This time around they're in separate rooms during the day. I think this is good so they aren't constantly picking and beating each other up:) And I kind of think they like seeing each other at the end of the day, so it's a good move!

Isaac is still going to Pre-school twice a week. Still loves it too! I recently had his conference meeting with his teacher and she's recommending our next move is to get him tested for a classroom evaluation for "Developmental Delay" or Autism. It was a rough week and pretty hard to swallow, but once I told her we were thinking Autism might be what he's showing signs of, it pretty much broke the ice for her to show her concern to me with that too. So we'll be doing the "educational test" instead of the medical test. Good thing about this is it's free to see where he stands, but we'll have to decide after the results if we'll want it on paperwork for good or to wait. It's a tough subject but we're doing what we can to get him the help he needs. We also know now that he'll definitely be attending there next school year instead of a regular preschool, so that's a little sad too. But his help is the most important thing right now!

Back to some lighter sides of January.....:)

January also brought us a lot of SNOW!! Kahler LOVES going out and enjoying some sledding!

We also spent a fun evening at the Clarks! Love this pic of my good friend, Jenny and I ready to go spend Mommy time in the hot tub in the falling snow and hot chocolate! A.m.a.z.i.n.g.!! Totally recommend this for relaxation! (Don't forget your hat:))

Have a Happy February! Hope it's not too long til next time!!