Vacation Cereal

Oh my cuteness….

jlchupp — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:43:38 +0000

So, Trey wanted to make something special for Doc for Christmas and what he ended up doing turned out amazing. It’s so adorable I get a little giddy just thinking about it! Last summer, Trey started trying to teach Doc how to play Angry Birds and my poor daddy just couldn’t catch on. On the drive down to the beach he had been working on it for a while and finally exclaimed, “I have never failed so much at anything in my life!” For such a smart, successful man I guess I could see why it would be a little frustrating to fail so miserably at a silly game. Thanks to that comment and a suggestion from Coco (Jeffrey’s mom), an idea was born. Trey worked so hard finding just the right coloring pages, coloring them and coming up with the information he thought was most important for Doc to know.

Sadly, try as I might (and my sweet husband too), we couldn’t get it to embed. Darn you WordPress! Anywho, here’s a link to Trey’s Guide to Angry Bird Success. You really should take a minute to check it out. It is precious!

Update on my Dad….

jlchupp — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:13:46 +0000

I know I’ve asked you all to be praying but haven’t done a very good job of keeping you updated! Sorry about that. There really hasn’t been too much to tell the past few months thankfully. From mid-September until December 21, my parents were in Sarasota, Florida for his treatment. We were so thankful that his treatments and surgery stayed on schedule and they were able to make it back home in time for Christmas.

I think that despite the reason for their stay, they enjoyed a lot of their time in Florida. Who can complain about 70 degree weather in November and December?! They bought kayaks and bikes, made lots of friends and even found a church to attend while there.

We are in a kind-of wait-and-see period now where we just have to give his implants time to work and check back later to see where things are….So, keep those prayers coming! They have definitely been felt!

Here are a few pics from Christmas at their house! My little guy was so excited to see all of his grandparents and I’m pretty sure they were glad to see him!

Okay, this is horrible of me but it’s a picture of my daddy on me on Christmas!

Wonderful Wintertime….

jlchupp — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:57:07 +0000

Winter up here is Boston has been amazing so far. I’m hoping that doesn’t change, especially after I saw last year how brutal it can be! We are getting ready for some snow in the next few days though…..We went out for a walk earlier and there was sand and salt all over the sidewalks.

We kicked off winter with our trip down to Alabama for Christmas with our families. What a wonderful time! We managed to stay incredibly busy but were thankful that we got to see tons of family….which will be growing over the next several months due to three pregnancies! Wow, our family sure is blessed. One was actually due last Sunday but we’re still waiting….I guess baby Patrick isn’t in too much of a hurry.

Believe it or not, I managed to make it through Christmas time with only 15 pictures. I’m not sure how that happened! I think Jeffrey is proud of that since he’s always telling me to put down the camera and enjoy the moment. There was plenty to enjoy too!

Hodgepodge of Homeschooling

jlchupp — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:26:23 +0000

What we’ve been up to…

Studying and searching for nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns!

Thankfully our library is absolutely AMAZING. They have yet to have a book that I’ve wanted and I check out a lot of books! At any given time I usually have between fifteen to twenty-five books checked out. We have a book basket that I fill each week with books on the topics that we are covering that week. Last week it was Italy, boats, bridges and cats. This week it’s been things like Canada, Inuit, simple machines and auroras. Every day Trey has a quiet reading time where he picks a book from the basket and reads. He reads a lot on his own anyways, but I like this because it reinforces what we’ve been talking about already. I love it when he’s doing his reading time and says, “Oh mom, listen to this…..”

Doing some quiet reading….he was really into this book on bridges.

Trey decided he wanted to go ahead and do some school over the weekend so we would have more time to spend with our families next week. I thought it was a great idea since we were discussing simple machines (particularly the lever) and I knew Jeffrey would love to work with him on that. So, on Saturday morning, the boys got to work learning about levers. They were pretty cute together….

The past few weeks we’ve been having a good time doing our Christmas Around the World unit. We’ve learned about 6 six different countries and how they celebrate Christmas and did a craft for each to help us remember how they celebrate. I learned a lot and thankfully so did Trey!

Here’s our Christmas in Germany craft. I figured since I always end up doing all of the never-ending

work on a real gingerbread house a paper one might work better this year and I was so right!

For Christmas in Mexico we read The Legend of the Poinsettia (which we both enjoyed!) and did a poinsettia craft.

I always seem to forget how much he dislikes getting messy until it’s too late but he was proud of his work in the end!

That’s all from us for now! I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas season!

Argh…

jlchupp — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:03:37 +0000

So, we had our meeting at Trey’s old school on Tuesday. I have to say I’m pretty frustrated and then some. He went through testing to see if he qualified for any services that might help him work through some of the issues he has been having. The gist of the meeting……..he’s an extremely bright boy (thanks and we were already aware of that!), he is easily frustrated and clearly in emotional distress, but since he hasn’t been that way for at least six months he doesn’t qualify for services but we really want him to return to school. Couldn’t they have told us that two months ago when we started this whole process? Here we were thinking he would qualify for services (because it is clear to everyone that he needs them) and could start with that after the holidays. The part that makes the least sense to me is that everyone agrees he is in emotional distress but we have to wait until he’s been that way for six whole months before they’ll do anything! Really!!!

I will give them credit where credit is due though. The team is incredibly kind and have been nothing but nice to all of us. They have been very patient with Trey and that can be difficult sometimes! Their goal is to get Trey back into school and have even offered to hire an aide to be with him throughout the day at least on a short-term basis. We discussed how we would have to meet again several times to plan his return, a new classroom, maybe only short days or a few days a week, the kind of language we would all use with him, etc. The problem with this is that nothing else has changed…..we haven’t figured anything out. He would have a designated person to be with him so the teacher could go on with the other students if he got upset and a behavioral specialist would observe once a week. So, basically we would be sending him back into an environment where he previously felt like he was a failure when nothing has changed….to be researched? I’m just extremely uncomfortable with that. I just cannot even come up with the right words to explain it.

I’ve been thinking and praying on all of this for almost a week now and still feel pretty much the same. I feel that with all of the things going on in our lives right now, this is what God wants for our family at the moment. As much as I’ve been praying for so long for another little one to come along, I’m beginning to see how God is and has been working in our situation. I am blessed to be able to stay at home and, with no other children, am able to focus on being a mom and teacher to my precious little boy who needs all of me right now. How long this season will last, I have no idea but I do know that God has provided and will continue to provide for my little family. I continue to pray for wisdom and guidance through this all and thank you all again for your prayers as well.

“Yet the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and set you on a firm foundation….” 2 Thessalonians 3:3

“It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is You stability and faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

A little bit of homeschooling….

jlchupp — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:00:26 +0000

First of all I have to say thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. We really appreciate all of the support and encouragement we have gotten from all of you. It is wonderful to know that we have people out there praying for our precious child!

I am really loving homeschooling. Some days are more trying for sure, but overall I’m having a blast with my little man. The last week has been a great one for Trey. He’s had a few minor upsets but was able to overcome them fairly quickly. I’m still having some trouble figuring out why something will upset him one day but not the next and even why he’s been able to calm himself down more quickly the past week…but I sure am thankful for it!

We have a meeting at the school he was attending next Tuesday to discuss the results of all the testing he has done. I’m not sure if I mentioned that, although we are homeschooling, the school system is still required (if we want them to) to do testing and provide services to children if they qualify. I am interested in what they have to say but anxious as well. I guess we’ll see…

I’ve discovered the website Teachers Pay Teachers and it has become a dangerous place for me! Thankfully there are tons of great freebies and I have found so many resources out there. We are starting a “Holidays Around the World Unit” this week that I’m really looking forward to and so is Trey! I’ll try to snap a few pics of all of that fun. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from before Thanksgiving.

From “The Ugly Pumpkin” Literacy Unit. We already had the book so I was so excited to find this unit. It was also a great way to get Trey to talk about his feeling through text-to-self connections.

Mayflower cause and effect center.

This was super fun and went great with this book that I adore. Trey was begging for me to read it to him!

Oh and I love the fact that we can wear our pajamas all day if we choose to. And, apparently Darth Vader toboggans as well… Here he’s watching a BrainPopJr. video. Such a neat site!

And in the time since I started writing this post a few hours ago, it’s gone from a few minor upsets and quick recoveries to…. sigh. Lord, give my child peace and me patience!

I hope everyone has a blessed day!

Family Fun….

jlchupp — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:39:41 +0000

I know Thanksgiving is over, but Jeffrey’s family was with us last week and I wanted to share some of our fun! We are so thankful that, once again, we were able to see family on Thanksgiving.

Of course we made a trip out to Marblehead to climb on the rocks and admire God’s beautiful creations. This is one of my mother-in-law’s favorite places in the world. It’s right on up there for my little family as well, which you probably could have guessed since I post pictures from there every few months.

I love this picture of my boys….

Then we went down the coast a little and grabbed some fresh seafood for lunch but Trey just couldn’t stay inside for long….

Isn’t he the cutest?

We also did tons of other funs stuff like a trip to the aquarium, Quincy Market and the South End to see the Old North Church. Trey also really racked up on goodies while Ace and Coco were in town. He was at a toy store with them and Coco asked if he wanted something and he cuddled up against her leg and said, “my mommy says you spoil me.” lol. It seems we have started a Thanksgiving tradition with the Build-a-Bear at Quincy Market. We had a great time making our bears, visiting with an old friend and coming up with creative names for our new friends….

The boys putting together some of Trey’s new Lego’s. Such good family time….

Last year we went to Sturbridge Village for Thanksgiving day but we let Trey decide what to do this year. He wanted to cook and eat at our place so that’s what we did! There was lots of cooking and chaos in our tiny kitchen but it all came together and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal together. I really enjoyed playing “Table Topics” and hearing everyone share their opinions. :)

Trey and Meriel also always decorate Christmas cookies together at Thanksgiving. They are so sweet together!

Sadly, they had to go back home to Alabama but it was made a little easier by the fact that we will see them and the rest of our family again very soon!

The Greatest Day Ever…

jlchupp — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:15:40 +0000

As many of you have already gathered from Facebook statuses and my last post here, my little guy got baptized last week. Even though you already know, I had to do a post just for it because it was such an incredible, amazing, wonderful day!

Trey told me about six months ago that he wanted to be baptized. I will never forget that day in church when the children’s minister was up front talking about the upcoming baptisms at Easter and what it meant. He tugged on my sleeve and said, “I want that mommy. I want to be baptized.” Our church only does them every six months or so and we decided to wait and talk some things over with Trey. While we have had some struggles the past few months, one thing that hasn’t changed is Trey’s decision on this. He has had such a strong desire for this and I am so thankful to God.

At our church the people who are getting baptized have to get up in front of the church and tell why they want to be baptized. He told me what he wanted to say the night before and I wrote it down for him but he wanted to keep what was written a secret until he got up there. With all that has been going on, I’ll just say that I was a little concerned about this part (and I know I wasn’t the only one!) so there was a lot of prayer for strength and courage! I have never seen my child so confident and my heart was literally overflowing with joy. My little guy marched himself up to that stage all by himself and announced to all who could hear, “I want to be baptized because I love Jesus and to help me remember that God is with my all the time.” What a gift from God and even more proof that God is truly at work! Wow! Then he just looked over at me and grinned the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen as our church community cheered him on. It was just amazing watching him get baptized too. Something none of us will ever forget!

Jeffrey’s parents and sister were able to come for Trey’s baptism and we were so glad to have them there. Sadly, since my dad is still in the middle of his cancer treatment, my parents couldn’t make it….but we sent them the videos! If you haven’t seen the videos on my facebook page you should really check them out but here are a few pictures from this special day.

Don’t you just love the face? I love how our church invites people (especially children) down to the front to watch.

Look at that sweet face. He was SO joyful that day! I remember him skipping down the sidewalk too, so excited!

Loving on Coco afterwards….and look how proud Daddy is!

and now Ace’s turn….

It was a day for celebration and that we did! Afterwards we went to Trey’s favorite place for lunch….

“Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; speak of all His wonders … ” 1 Chronicles 16:9

“Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the nations, and I will sing praises to Your name …” 2 Samuel 22:50

Being Thankful…

jlchupp — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 03:25:12 +0000

I have so very much to be thankful for, God has blessed me so much! But, because everyone else is already in bed I’ll make this quick. Here is one of the many things I am thankful for…….yep, that’s my little man getting baptized last Sunday. It was beyond incredible to watch. :)

Some School and A Zombie…

jlchupp — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:07:53 +0000

The past few weeks we have all been doing a lot of adjusting but overall things are going pretty well on the homeschool front. We definitely have our moments but for the most part we are having a great time together and the great thing is that Trey is learning a lot and loving it! I chose to use Five in a Row as our main curriculum and I cannot say enough wonderful things about it only a few weeks in. There are some really great homeschool blogs out there that use FIAR and have provided me with so many ideas. I supplement with other curriculum as well for math and phonics. I just wanted to share the few pictures I’ve managed to snap so far. Our first week was kinda a hodgepodge of things because it was half a week and my curriculum hadn’t arrived yet so I just let Trey provide the direction.

Here we are on day two and the Pompei exhibit at the Boston Science Museum learning about volcanoes…..(then we came home and made our own!)

The next day we learned about earthworms and went outside and found a few to study….

One of the things we learned about last week was humor in writing using the book “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.” I found this cute activity from the website TeachersPayTeachers and Trey had so much fun making silly sentences and illustrating them that he asked to do it again the next day!

He was hard at work!

I can’t post without sharing some Halloween pictures too! He loves the game Plants vs. Zombies so he decided to be a bucket-head zombie from the game for Halloween this year. The socialite my child is had two parties to go to before we even got around to trick-or-treating so we were all exhausted by the time we got home but we did stick to our tradition of stopping by Panera to warm up and grab some dinner on our way back. So why is he holding a leaf you ask……because it was the most humongous leaf he had ever seen.

Cutest bucket-head zombie ever….

Now I am off to cuddle, eat cookies and watch a zombie show with my hubby. I hope everyone has a blessed week!