Meet Annie

When I was in third grade I had high hopes of getting the newest Mattel baby doll that had recently came out, The "Magic" Nursery Doll. I went to the store with what little money I had saved from my allowance and put the doll on Layaway. For over a month I continued to make payments until the doll was finally mine. It was the biggest purchase I had ever made in my short nine or ten years of life and I was so excited to finally be bringing him or her home with me. 

For those of you who don't remember this doll was unique and n my biased opinion, far better than any other ever made. They all looked slightly different in the face, mainly because of the hair but they were all dressed alike when in the box. You had a chance of getting a boy, a girl or even better.., Twins! I thought mine was a boy and i'm pretty for sure that it was but my mind is stuck on the ultimate part of this story and I a having a hard time remembering some of the smaller details clearly. Anyway, to find out what your baby was you had to open the box and check in the diaper. HA! Just kidding! You had to stick the diaper in a bowl of water and the paper would dissolve. Mine turned out to be twins, which meant that I got another doll, for free! Now for a young child this was serious business! 

Paperwork had to be filled out and It felt like months and months before my package arrived from Mattel. However, when my package finally did arrive, the wait was well worth it because in the box was not one brand new doll but two. brand. new. dolls! I had thought that twins meant that I would get one extra doll to be the twin to the one I had already had but boy was I was wrong! Now I had three beautiful baby dolls and I was the happiest kid on the bock. Clearly the memory of this time in my life even brings a smile to my face. It was a really great experience! Anyway, Your probably wondering where in the heck am I going with all of this... Well, not only were these dolls my favorite's (next to my Cabbage Patch and Rainbow Brite dolls) they have been the only thing that I can think of that I have actually ever won on. I may be wrong here because things slip through my mind so easily these days, so please don't quote me on this but I am pretty for sure that I am right on this one..?

Again, where am I going with all of this? Well, about a month ago I was looking through the latest posts from  bogs that I follow and I saw that Down Syndrome New Mama was having a giveaway for a new book called Meet Annie, a book about a little girl named Annie who happens to have Down syndrome. Lately I haven't been doing the greatest at keeping up to date on everyone and their bogs and I have been doing even worse on leaving comments when I do stop by but when I saw this give away I had to leave a message because books like this one are hard to come by and having a chance to win it is even harder to pass up.

 I left my message... Twilson9608April 10, 2012 3:03 PM  "I would LOVE to have this book for our family. My youngest daughter Vada has Down syndrome and we always get excited to find good books for children about Down syndrome." and through the business of being a mom and wife, I kind of forgot about the giveaway.
On May 10th, one month after leaving my message I received an email stating that I had in fact won the book and a couple of weeks later it arrived in the mail!

Meet Annie is a easy to read book that simply brings up the fact that Annie has Down syndrome and then moves on and continues to touch base on all of the other things about Annie that are just like other children who happen to not be blessed with an extra chromosome. The author doesn't make a big deal about Annie having Down syndrome and doesn't talk about what Down syndrome means or how it may affect a person who is diagnosed with it what she does is teach that Annie is just like you and me. This book is great to have and I feel honored to have been the winner of it. I think that it should be read to all children, especially in the classroom or to the parents who think that children who need extra help shouldn't be in typical classrooms.(!) I would like to buy it in bulk and gift some copies to our doctors office, the library and even our church (although our church family is already excepting.)

I have high hopes that Vada will one day be able to be mainstreamed in her schooling and I plan on giving this book as a gift to her teachers or maybe Vada and I could read it out loud to her class. Hopefully by the time Vada is in grade school everyone will be more educated on Down syndrome and more accepting of individuals who have it. Regardless of the situation this book will be following us through our journey!

Signing with Manners

Vocally she may not have many words but this girl is piking up tons of signs and she knows when and how to use them!

V Kissing MaMa

It's a little choppy but I smile every time I watch it! I love this girl!

Following in Their Footsteps

After our trip to Fossil Rim we headed over to Dinosaur Valley State Park. I loved feeding the giraffes at the zoo and the fact that I was comfortably surrounded by the cool air of the air conditioning that our van was circulating around us but if I had to choose one over the other, then I would choose Dinosaur Valley. The weather was perfect -overcast and warm but not hot and little to no humidity. So being outdoors was comfortable and inviting. I am an outdoors type of person, if the weather permits me to be. Unfortunately, I don't appreciate being overly hot (unless there is a pool or a lake that I can get into) or overly cold. Therefore, I have limited my outdoor activities to days that are like this day. 

Dinosaur Valley was fun. We had to climb and do some searching to find what we were looking for. I love exploring nature and all of its glories. God has created so much that we are unaware of and I am always thrilled when I get an invitation to discover more of his creations. 

Dinosaur Valley is just as it sounds. Its an area where fossilized dinosaur footprints have been discovered and more importantly, they have been scientifically proved to be authentic! I cant help but be awed in amazement! There was so much before us. We are very small, yet very big in His grand plan. 

I strapped on Vada and together her and I followed the rest of the family in our hunt for dinosaur tracks. I love wearing Vada. She is safe and sound comfortable nestled next to me and I an comfortable  having her near. Together we journeyed up steep hills and through streams of water. And together we all discovered traces of dinosaurs.

There were certain area's that my parents opt'ed to not venture through but they always observed and I think that they too enjoyed (through us) our amazing discoveries.

Nice facial expression, huh?!

This was a pretty cool spot. All of those dips in the water are actually tracks. That long line that you can see in the middle of the picture is actually thought to be a tail track made from a dinosaur dragging its tail. The area looks muddy but over all its not, its mainly stone covered in a thin layer of dirt.

I was highly impressed with both Jasmine and Kiliegh duing our hunt for dinosaur tracks. They both have the tendency to be "girly girls" (more Kiliegh than Jasmine), which by my own personal definition means whining about anything that possibly could get them dirty or carry bugs. However, I heard no complaining and only saw andventurous girls who didnt care what they had to go through to walk where dinosaurs once were.

We went to Dinosaur Valley on June 6, 2012. However, I have been doing a lot catching up at home and it has been a task to update here on the blog as well. There is more to come! We had such a great time and everyday we had a new place to see and explore! I cant wait to share it all with you!