Thanksgiving Stockton Side

Not sure Kelly is taking my "sisterly advice" very well.....

The boys frying a turkey

My Dad telling the guys they need to stop "cutting up"

so much around such a dangerous activity! ;)

That made them laugh even harder, especially

since Tyler is a fireman....!

The fire extinguisher on site if needed ;)

watching the guys fishing

running to find Uncle Lane There he is!

wanting to be just like Dad

Thankgiving Dillon Side

I don't know why we didn't take pictures during the day, but we got some ones of Noah and Hudson having a great time in the bath! Riley was with them, but they got a little wild for her and she wanted out!

Children's Museum over Thanksgiving Break

I love this picture for some reason

Brooke and Madison

They actually all sat down and looked!

Briggs, Anderson, Noah, Brooks, Madison and Brooke

Precious!!

Shayan

This is Shayan, he is 13 years old (and obviously not too thrilled I am touching him!). He's a big kid now, but when I met him......

he was just a little guy!!! Three years old! He and his family are one of the main reasons I am a speech pathologist and how my passion for working with kids on the Autism Spectrum began.

I was looking for a part-time job my sophmore year at A&M. Levi found this post online for a job about some sort of childcare for several hours a week (or so that's how I read it ;)). Anyways, I went for the interview and met both Shayan and his younger brother (Darian) and Arzu (their mom). She explained to me exactly what Autism was and if I wanted to be part of her home team that did therapy with Shayan (specifically Applied Behavior Analysis). I still had no idea what was really going on, but why not, right? Little did I know, I was getting myself into what would be learning about the world of Autism, the beginning of trainings and workshops on ABA, and basically what would lead to what I chose as my career.

I worked with their family for 2 years, doing therapy with Shayan after school, shadowing him at his own preschool, and becoming very good family friends. Arzu encouraged me to go into the speech therapy field, ensuring me I would be able to use the skills in ABA in that field. And she was exactly right. When I was hired on at Coppell, I was specifically hired for having ABA experience as a speech therapist and was placed for working with the students in those specialized programs in Coppell.

Although Shayan and his family moved to Seattle after I graduated, I have kept in touch with Arzu and she has definitely been a mentor for me. The last time I saw them was when they were at my wedding. Several weekends ago, they came to Texas to visit old friends and came over. It was SO great to see them, and Shayan knocked on my door and said "Hi Ms. Kim!" He was not talking at all when I met him, and he is now doing great in a private school in Seattle, talking in complete sentences, and learning to advocate for himself.

I am blessed to have met this family and they are very dear to me. Here are some pictures of the two years Shayan and I worked together at A&M.

one of shayan's interests was Toyota, so he loved me

for my 4-runner and my awesome 3 disc CD changer ;)

a school field trip

therapy at his house

another field trip to the Christmas tree farm

school

love this kiddo!!

Reza, me and Arzu

Good stuff

Here is the latest video blog Matt did, it's about 3 min. long. His last MRI done of Friday showed absolutely no signs of cancer or areas where cancer would start to grow.

http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/?p=744

And here is the link to the news story that was on last week:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/health/Pastor_s_Faith_Endures_After_Cancerous_Brain_Tumor_Dallas-Fort_Worth-107012898.html

God is pretty amazing!!

Halloween Festivities

Halloween was busy this year, and a lot of fun. Although I really had wanted Noah to be a cute cowboy for Halloween and put together his costume, he was VERY persistant on being Tigger. I tried and tried for about a month trying to change his mind, but finally Tigger won. And I'm so glad because he had a blast "bouncing" and playing the part. He started off a little grumpy on Saturday for the Monster Mile and really didn't even want to wear his costume. But as soon as he saw Winnie the Pooh and then Tigger, he was SOOOO excited.

Noah helping Levi carve a pumpkin

Brooke and Madison

Briggs and Brooks

Walking the Monster Mile

Getting some candy

Noah is still unsure of the big characters. Here is

Brooks giving Barney a high five!

When Noah saw Pooh up ahead (I think Brooks
actually pointed him out), he took of running

and yelled "I'm coming Pooh!!"

I love his little hand up to his face in this

picture, and Brooks' face

Checking out their goods

This is my favorite picture of the whole weekend!

Noah running up to Tigger as he is saying "I'm Tigger, too!!!"
Bouncing for Tigger

My parents and Kelly came up

On Sunday evening before we went around

our neighborhood we went to see Riley and Hudson

at a party. Here is Hudson as Buz!

Ladybug Riley

Then we headed to our neighborhood to hand out

candy and stop by a few houses.

We went around to about 6 houses and then

he was ready to head back home. What a fun weekend!