RobertsFamilyBlog

A Great picture of David and Brendon at my sister Julie's wedding this summer! Beautiful wedding, and a chance to get some photos of our family getting all dressed up! :-)

My sister Julie on her wedding day with her 2 neices, Aspen and our Makenna! :-)

The four sisters this summer - Jenny (due in just over a month with her first child!), myself, Christina, and Julie.

Brendon with his baseball Allstar team's trophy after a great tournament this summer. He had SO much fun!! :-)


It's been 5 months since I last posted here. Life tends to get in the way, but it doesn't mean that it's been boring around the Roberts household!!! :-) Soon after our appt. at Seattle Children's - Kahlia and Scott met with a very good cleft palate specialist up in Portland to get a second opinion about what to do next about Kahlia's failed cleft palate surgery. Again, we did not get the news we wanted to hear. He said that yes, her surgeon did not do the correct surgery, and because of a lot of different reasons, she cannot have a second repair done until she is 5 years old. We still have another 2 years before she can be completely repaired, and she literally has no speech. We don't know if it is entirely because of the small hole still left in her palate, or if there are other factors contributing to it as well (minor hearing loss, developmental delays, low muscle tone, etc.). In any case, it is very discouraging to see Kahlia developing so well in so many areas, and yet unable to communicate to us with her words. She continues to learn and develop her sign language, though none of us are fluent. What we learn, we teach her, and she often remembers the signs better then I do! :-) It is actually quite amazing how much a personality comes out even with out talking! She is quite the character. She is fun, mischieveous, entertaining, loud, happy, absolutely full of, but what a joy to have her around!! :-) In all other areas of her development she is improving by leaps and bounds. As of her ENT appointment today, she is now 24.6 pounds. Still quite small, but she's definitely growing taller! Now wearing a size 2T makes me very happy. :-)

As of this summer, she has gone potty on the big toilet probably a total of 5 or 6 times. That tells me she knows the "how", now we have to work on the "want". That's ok, definitely not pushing it at this point!

Kahlia has hearing aids that she seldom wears, but we try to bring them to her ESD preschool twice a week, and to her private speech therapy appts. twice a week as well. She keeps us busy with those 4 things each week, plus her physical therapist comes to our house twice a month and a hearing impaired specialist comes here twice a month as well. I wish I could sign her up for a gymnastics class or something, but w/ all these places and people to see, she doesn't give me a lot of extra time!

We made a family decision this summer to homeschool the 3 older kids this fall. It was "inspired" by the fact that we would be taking a 2 week vacation this fall, and if we homeschooled, they wouldn't have to take homework on the trip. The kids were all about that! I told them that they could go back to school second term, or stay homeschooled if they wanted. As of now, I think all 3 kids plan to stay home for the rest of the year. It's a tough job - but very rewarding. Yes, I get frustrated, and my patience gets a little thin sometimes, but over all, I have really enjoyed having the kids home this year. Brendon and Makenna are almost completely independent in their school work. I have to occassionally help with math here and there, I correct their writing, and I quiz them on their AWANA verses and the occasional vocab words, but other then that, they are on their own! Brendon reads for 2 hours every day as part of his school day, and at night he reads more - only then he can read what ever he wants! Makenna reads for an hour and 40 minutes during the school day, and does her very best not to read an extra word, minute, or second after that! :-) We are working on the "joy" of reading, but we're not there yet! That's ok, I'm sure it will come, she is only 8! David is not so independent. We are hammering out hard the phonics and being able to read independently. We are not there yet, but we're working hard at that - so by the end of the school year, he CAN read independently. It's going a little slower then the other kids, but I know one of these days everything is just going to "click", and all will be good. He's doing well in math, and is doing a GREAT job memorizing lots of AWANA verses. Though it does make it not so relaxing during the day, I absolutely LOVE not packing lunches in the morning, and having NO homework in the evening - so much more relaxing after an evening of sports, boy scouts, AWANA, what ever the night might bring! But, they all say they want to go back to school next year - we'll see how it goes. God has given me at least this one year to hold my children close to my heart and hands, and I want to take full advantage of this time. We only have a few short years with our kids before they are grown and gone, and I want my kids to be exactly where God wants them to be - whether that be in school or at home. I plan to be more diligent with my posts from now on. I've gotten out of the habit, and would like to stay updated on our lives and home. :-)