Wrapping Up 2015

Since I have been delinquent in my posts (shocking), I decided to wrap up 2015 in one post.

- Since August, Sadie has gotten her ears pierced.They got infected and we found out that she can only wear 14k gold or higher.  That shouldn't surprise me, as nothing about that girls' ears is cheap!

- Sadie got to be in my cousin's wedding as a flower girl.

- For Halloween, Sadie decided to dress up as Aurora (ie-Sleeping Beauty). She loved her long blonde wig and going trick-or-treating.  She actually surprised me when people told her she could take more candy, she said "No Thank You."  Whose kid is this?!?!

- Sadie had her first dance recital (winter showcase) which was the CUTEST thing ever!

- Christmas was spent with lots of relatives. We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family, Christmas Morning with Troy's side, and Christmas afternoon back with my side.  We decided to tell Santa that Sadie only needed 4 gifts this year.  Something she wants, something she needs, something to wear and something to read.  So she got what she wanted (Adagio Dazzle My Little Pony), something to wear (Sketchers shoes), something to wear (belts), and something to Read (Lots of Fancy Nancy Books).  She was thrilled and didn't even mind not having a ton of presents under the tree.  Don't get me wrong, she still had a lot of gifts from other family members, but she was happy.  We also decided to Adopt a Family, so that was fun taking Sadie shopping to buy stuff for a family in need.  I hope to continue that tradition.  And finally, we surprised Sadie and her cousins with ANOTHER trip to Disney World in February.  We will be going with Troy's side of the family. I am not going to lie, I think I am as excited as Sadie is :)

- New Years Eve Sadie spent with her grandparents so Troy & I could host our annual party.  Sadie left this note, which totally made my day.

In other news, Sadie is reading up a storm and can't wait to do Kindergarten work at pre-school.  She had another hearing test, which showed stable hearing (Hallelujah!), and she has continued to hone her artistic skills.

Princess Mulan (drawn free handed)

We hope everyone had a great 2015 and we are excited to see what 2016 holds!

Birthday

Happy 5th Birthday Sadie Rose!

We rented out the kid area of our local water park for her birthday party.  She had a blast!

Sadie's Surprise Trip

For one year we have been secretly planning a trip to Disney World for Sadie. We kept telling her that she had to be 7 or 8 years old before she could go. She was in for the surprise of a lifetime. Her reaction was...interesting.  We sent the Disney Princesses a letter about 3 months earlier, and luckily they wrote back about a week before we left. I save the letter until the day we left for vacation and put at the end of the letter that there was a surprise from them in the basement.

This is what Sadie walked down to in the basement.

Video of Sadie's Surprise

We left a few hours later, and my whole family surprised her and joined us. We had the absolute best time. We stayed in a Princess themed room and Sadie actually thought that it was Princess Tiana's room and she was loaning it to use. She kept saying "it is so nice of Princess Tiana to let us use her room. It is so clean."  What a magical age to take a child to Disney :)

Sadie got her hair and makeup done at the Bippity boppity boutique.  (She chose the fake hairstyle, not me!)

All dolled up!

Our first ride was Ariel'S Grotto

This sums up her expression for the entire trip. My absolute favorite picture.

While we were there, we made a point of seeing all 13 princesses. It was quite the adventure and mom and dad were exhausted by the time we were done. We ended up in Epcot having a couple cocktails to celebrate :)

Sadie & Anna

Sadie & Ariel

Sadie & Aurora

Sadie & Belle

Sadie & Cinderella

\\

Sadie & Elsa

Sadie & Jasmie

Sadie & Merida

Sadie & Mulan

]

Sadie & Pocahontas

Sadie & Rapunzel

Sadie & Snow White

Sadie & Tiana

Family Selfie

Dinner at California Grille before watching the Fireworks at Disney

BEST.VACATION.EVER.

Reading Sadie

On February 25th, one day just shy of Sadie being 4 1/2, she read her first book all by herself.  We have been working on site words for a while, but Sadie isn't that interested in them.  I got her a set of the "Bob" books while shopping at Costco one day thinking they would be a good starting point.  We read the first one together,and she displayed minimal interest.  I finally dropped the subject of reading for a few weeks, thinking she just wasn't ready or interested.  On the evening of the 25th, I decided to pull out a Bob book, "Hop," that she had not seen yet (I know her tricks of memorizing books).  And to my amazement, she sounded out all the words and read that entire book.  38 words!  I was so excited.  Naturally, I called my mom who then insisted that Sadie read it to her over the phone. Then she had to do the same for my dad.  I got her on video reading part of it.

This is her after she read the book :)

Flash forward 5 weeks and she is on Bob book number 15 and reading faster every day.  So proud of my girl!

440 - My New Favorite Number

As many might have read from previous blog posts, Sadie has gone through several pairs of hearing aids in her 4.3 years.  If you haven't seen the previous blog posts, let me refresh your memory:

1st Pair: Starkey Pedatric Aid (3 months of use)
2nd Pair: Oticon Safari (1 month of use)
3rd Pair: Widex Baby 440 (2.5 years of use)
4th Pair: Clear Fusion 440 (1 year of use)

We currently have the Clear Fusion 440's and love them, but Widex has a newer aid out called the Dream 440. In order to stay up to date with technology, we are getting the opportunity to try out these new aids.

We started out with getting new ear molds. In case anyone is interested in how this works, here is a short video (ignore my talking in the background!)

Putting the goo (not sure the technical term!) into her ear.

The final result!

The Widex Dream 440 comes in a several colors, so before we ordered the new aids, I showed Sadie all the various color choices online. She made me click through every single one (even the ones I knew she wouldn't like). After much deliberation (not really) she ended up choosing "shocking pink." SHOCKING....I know. HA!

2 weeks after getting her ear molds made Sadie got fitted for her new hearing aids. She was so excited.  At school Sadie's teacher asked if she was getting her new pink hearing aids soon, and Sadie said "No, I am getting my 'Shocking Pink' hearing aids!".

Getting new hearing aids isn't a quick and easy process.  It takes some time to actually set up and "tune" the aids to make sure they are at exactly the right volume levels for her hearing loss. Sadie's audiologist had to hook some cords up to her aids, and then a computer program did....something. I actually have no idea what it did, but it worked!

 All Hooked Up!

Above is a video of what it looks/sounds like.  Sadie is funny because she will walk around the house randomly making the beeping, trill sounds that happens during this process.  

Many people who read this blog have never really heard Sadie talk, so we decided to "interview" her about her new aids.  Her last sentence she is rushing so she slurred a bit, but it is 100% true. She says "I never stop talking!"

Overall, we couldn't be more pleased with her Widex Dream 440's.  We are in week 2 of using them, and Sadie loves them. They sound great, she hears great, and they are pretty darn cute.  I'm already excited to see what the next Widex 440 generation will be!

Halloween 2014

2014 was a fun year for Halloween for Sadie. She really enjoyed going out and trick-or-treating.  As were most 3-8 year old children, Sadie was Elsa for Halloween.

Poor girl. The first wig we bought was too small and the next one was a little big and had a crazy hair style. Oh well, she didn't seem to notice.  We went around our neighborhood (about 15 houses) and that was about all Sadie could handle. Too bad the weather was so crummy!

4 Year's Old!!!

I'm a little late in posting this, so let's pretend it is August 26th, 2014.

I honestly cannot believe that my baby girl is 4 years old.  It feels like just yesterday she was born.  She has had such an incredible journey over these 4 short years, and I am beyond blessed to be her mom.  Here are a few pictures from her school birthday party and her family birthday party.  As with any other toddler girl, Frozen was the theme :)

Birthday Girl!!!

 Celebration of Life at school

 Picking a friend to sit by her at snack time.

 CUPCAKES!

Family Birthday at Waldo Pizza. Someone wasn't happy we were 

going to eat first instead of opening presents.

There's a smile after she got to open a present!

Elsa Cake

Blowing out the candles!

 At home in her new Elsa Costume

She also got a Doc McStuffins Costume!

And Aunt Veronica surprised her with a life size wall cling on of Elsa. 

Go big or go home!

And finally, Sadie singing "Let it Go" (a little shy being on camera so she slurs some of her words).