It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

There has been plenty of snow the last few days and my husband and oldest son spent much of the weekend hanging all these lights. 

I was busy inside with the tree.  I decided to play it safe and leave a number of  fragile ornaments in the basement  this year with little Taylor around but it still looks like our tree.  James wanted to know why it didn't look like anything he saw in the Canadian Tire flyer with all the co-ordinating decorations.  Well it's nothing like Martha Stewart but I still love it especially the decorations made by my kids. I can't wait for Santa.

A good friend of mine MightyMum  wanted to know more about Ashley's Agreement Award.   The school has a tribes program which works to promote Inclusion a sense of belonging, Influence - valuing differences and Community - working together.  Students that demonstrated they treated each other in these manners are recognized monthly from each classroom at a school assembly.  It's really nice way to promote respect and social skills amongst the students.  We treat this as a big deal at home too and usually make a cake to celebrate the award.  

Ashley received her award in November  for these reasons in particular.

1. She participates in EVERYTHING!  That's a big deal for my girl and it says a lot for Ashley and her teachers.  She's so blessed to be in this class.   She has really grown from last year where she barely made it through the morning without nodding off  or needing a break and now she's eating lunch with her peers and staying until the end of the day not evening needing breaks.  This is totally amazing progress.
2. She also received it for being KIND to everyone. 
3. And for fabulous listening! 

She's doing great!  MightlyMum thanks for asking!

Today I was feeling even more festive after mailing off a couple of  Baby's 1st Christmas Stockings to BusyLizzyMom's.  Take a minute to read her post about how she plans to lift the spirits of new Moms and Dads at the NICU this Christmas.  I just had to help her out with this one. 

An Award and a few other sweet mentions

It's been busy but here's a few things I had to share. My sweet girl received an agreement award from school this week.  Her brothers heard her name announced at the assembly and were proud. She was pretty pleased with it too.

 I've raised the scale now for future years with these. 

Our local supermarket only had Tinkerbell advent calendars which only worked for Ashley.   I hit Longos and found Kindersurprise and Lindt version for her brothers. Too good to be true. Yum!

Damon was impressed

No smile he tells me it's the formal look but note the thumbs up which means he likes the Lindt goodies!

My dad wasn't so well last week so I traveled to Ottawa for a few days to give him and Grammy some hugs.

I was brave and drove with the younger ones by myself and a day later the rest joined us traveling by train.  Here's my boys at the Ottawa train station.

Augmentative Communication and Homework  - having fun with it all.
Ashley homework this past weekend was fill in the blank on the 5 senses.  I had to figure out how to fill in the blanks with my non-verbal girl but with the help of Mr Potato Head and picture communication.  she did a great job.

This was taken when we where part way through.

 Ashley working on her senses with Sarah.

I couldn't leave out this pictures of my little guy looking too cute at physio.

and Sarah the best nurse