Mother-Daughter Christmas Tea

We visited the Caswell house to have tea while it was decorated for Christmas.  Sadie loved getting dressed up and acting "fancy."

Christmas Lights

We took a LONG road trip to see some Christmas Lights in Belton while Dana and Ian were visiting.  Ian got to see a real small town Texas Christmas.

Thanksgiving with the fam

 The two newest additions to the Tingley clan...Silas with Grandpa Dick and Gray with Grandpa Terry

 The kids table...Jack, Cashion and Sadie

 Dana and Ian came to Austin to celebrate her birthday and spend the holiday with us

 Sadie thinks she is ready to babysit Silas

Granny will all of her great grandchildren

Halloween 2012

The kids really got into Halloween this year.  Sadie was a fairy and Cashion was a pirate.  He learned all of the things that pirates say, or what he thought they said..."Aaargh, Ladies!"

It was a fun night until Sadie sat in a fire ant bed, but she recovered quickly.  We changed her costume, which was covered in ants and her only concern was that she would get to keep trick-or-treating.  Of course, we got back out there and she was fine.  Thankfully she is not as allergic as I am.

Go Horns!

Sadie got to go to her first UT football game with Daddy and Papa.  She was very excited!  She loved the Longhorn Band and gigantic bag of Skittles.

Cashion started at a new school too this year.  He is going to a preschool where I am also working as a physical therapist for kids with special needs.  It is so convenient, not only for the schedule but also because it is right around the corner from Sadie's Elementary School.  As my mom said, "This is just too good to pass up."  It has been great and Cashion is adapting to his new setting.  His has a male teacher, Mr. D, which I think he really likes.  They have music therapy everyday and he seems to be learning a lot.  The first week he came home and sang the "ABC song", which he had never done before.  His speech has really taken off recently.  When you ask him a question, he often times says, "I sink (think) so".  

He had a little bit of a hard time seeing me around school on the days that I work there at first.  He was really confused because seeing me used to mean that it was time to go home.  He would cry and say, "We go home?  We go get Sissy?"  The teachers were great at helping him work through it.  They made him a little picture book that we could read before school and during the day if he needed it.  It goes like this:

"My name is Cashion.  I go to the Rise School.  My mommy works at my school.  She helps my friends with their bodies.  My Mommy likes it when I use my helping hands, too.  She will come and get me at the end of the day."  Sometimes he asks to read it before I leave at drop-off, but that is happening less and less.  Last week Cashion saw me in the hallway and asked, "Mommy, you help my friends?  You come get me after my nap?"  Yes, buddy, I will always come get you.

Kindergarten

Sadie started Kindergarten today.  We have been talking to her about it for so long, I am pretty sure she thought this day would never come.  We took her backpack to church for the "Blessing of the Backpacks", which is the first picture at the top.  I went to wake her up this morning and she said one single, sleepy word: "Ready."  That pretty much sums up her attitude about school.  She couldn't wait to get there.  When we dropped her off at her room, she asked the teacher where to put her backpack, gave us a kiss and never looked back.  She was smiling when I picked her up and started telling me about her day before we even made it to the car.  In her words, "We read 3 books, made a Coconut Tree for the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, did some art and music and played some games."  Her Dad and I couldn't be more proud of our big girl!  She is going to ROCK Kindergarten.