Helloooo

Yes, I know my blog has been neglected this past week... I was a bit busy. See....




We went to Melbourne Beach for a short vacation. Hope everyone is ready for a Happy Halloween tonight. I'll post those pics soon too (o:

Sunday Scrapbook page

my new desktop on my laptop:


Blake's birthday invite:

Blake's speech

Well I haven't talked about Blake's speech in a while so I thought I'd update everyone. Blake is doing a lot better with his articulation. He is gaining more and sounds and now more words that are closer to correct articulation. We are focusing on consonant-vowel and vowel-consonant words and clearing up his long and short vowel sounds.

Over the last few weeks we have come to realize that Blake has some major oral planning issues. His mouth has trouble knowing where the lips, tongue and mouth need to be to form each letter. As an adult you take for granted saying sentences, never mind words and even individual sounds. Blake is having to learn how to move his mouth to form the sounds correctly, and this is not easy.

I get so excited when I hear him saying more words even if they are word approximations. When I can understand what he is trying to say it makes life so much easier.

I recently had a meeting with our school district about Blake. When he turns 3 he falls under the public school umbrella. In November, he will begin receiving speech at our local elementary school twice a week for 30 minutes each session. At this time, we are planning on continuing his speech with his other therapist also. Unfortunately this cost will now be out of pocket for us, but Richard and I feel that this continuity will be beneficial for Blake. It will also mean that he will have speech 3 days a week for 30 minutes a day... and that should be so worth it!

It's crazy to me that in only a few weeks Blake will be turning three. My goal for him is that he will be speaking clearly before he starts pre-K which won't be until 2011. I want him to be able to get the most of out his schooling and be able to shine and not shy away because he isn't understood... I don't think that's too much to ask... is it?

(almost)Wordless Wednesday

(notice there is no picture of Colby with playdough.... it was either on the floor or in his mouth... guess we will wait a bit longer to try that again)

Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love to try out new recipes no matter if they are ones I created in my head, ones I found on-line or in a cookbook. Over the years, I have tried recipes from a lot of chefs, one who seems to match my cooking style is Rachael Ray. As a mother, you've got to appreciate the concept of a 30 Minute Meal! Rachael Ray often says that her recipes are just methods. She encourages her viewers to take her recipes and make them their own. I "Lori-ize" almost everything I cook, tayloring the recipe to my families taste. I decided to combine these two ideas and what you see here is the result. Each week I'll create a meal based on a recipe and let you know what we thought. I will give you the original recipe and let you know how I "Lori-ized" it. Hope you enjoy Tasty Tuesday!

This weekend was crazy, so I decided to make a new cookie recipe to take Tailgating. I decided to make Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've mentioned before that when I bake I never make changes the first time. Baking is a science and when you alter the formula recipe you will totally alter the end product.

These were REALLY good. Picture the texture of a perfect chocolate chip cookie, now substitute the yellow cookie for a chocolate one and you've got this cookie! The mini chocolate chips really made it in my opinion... each bite seemed to have the perfect amount of chips in each bite. We brought them tailgating and people from the truck next to us had one and came back to ask for me... he even asked if he could have the crumbs!

Next time I think I may use mint chocolate pudding or maybe even butterscotch. I wish they made peanut butter or butterscotch chips in the smaller sizes, but they don't. I will certainly be making this again.

another crazy weekend

These weekends wear me out! Friday night Richard ended up working late (which really stinks since he originally thought he'd get home around 1:30). Once he got home we quick had dinner and then he mowed the lawn before the boys went to bed. We then started packing the stuff for tailgating on Saturday, and making sure he had everything to fly out on Sunday.

Saturday morning, Richard had to run to the bike shop to pick my bike up, it was in for routine maintenance. Colby and I stayed home to pack the cooler and everything else so Richard could leave at 11 to go tailgating. I stayed home until 3 and then met up with Richard. My dad came over and watched the boys so we could go to the game. It was so nice to not roast while tailgating.

Richard and I got home a bit after midnight. UCF lost and we froze! (We left our sweatshirts in the car. I was glad I had capri's and a long sleeve shirt on, man the wind whips around the bowl.) Then we stayed up until 1:45ish packing his stuff for his flight.

6:30am on Sunday morning the alarm went off and we were up and going again. Richard had a 10:30 flight out to Kentucky and will be gone until Friday. The boys and I dropped him off at the airport and then drove out to my parents to celebrate my mother's birthday.

The weather here has been crazy. Last weekend we were having record highs in the mid 90s. Sunday we didn't get out of the 60s. Yes I know in other parts of the country you'd be jumping for joy to see the 60s again, but come on a 20+ drop in temp is a bit much. I actually had to turn the heat on in the house for the overnight lows. CRAZY!

Had to share

I just love these two pictures I took of my guys the other day





--I may have to play with the in PSE and pop them even more... if I do I'll share (o:

Back Porch

Some of you have commented about our back porch. So I figured I'd actually show you what it looks like. We extended our porch and added the birdcage to it a few years ago. We originally had the whole section as grass, but converted 1/2 to a sandbox as Blake's 2nd birthday present.

view from sandbox corner


view from grass corner (all three glass sliders slide out of the way so when we don't have the air on, we have a huge opening into our living room)


view from patio table corner (in front of the door to the "pool bath")


view from grill corner (next to slider opening)



The boys and I spend at least 1.5 hours out there every day. I can't wait until it is cool enough to turn off the air conditioner so they can go in and out as they want and the sand won't stick to every sweaty spot on them.

Now if we could only figure out a way to get the grass to live over the summer season, we'd be set (o: