Info to share with parents

I get to go to some great professional development conferences. I went to one a couple of months ago (yes....I've been meaning to post this for a while!), and wanted to share some resources and reinforce some important points!

- Marty Burns is a speech pathologist that spoke about the neuroscience section of the conference. She has a great blog called Parent Smart…http://burnsparentsmart.blogspot.com/. If you go to her very first Welcome post, it will explain the purpose of her blog. But her philosophy is that talking and playing are the 2 most important things for children. She emphasized the importance of teaching parents to intervene and PLAY with children to help develop and possibly even help deter certain disabilities. She made the point that we live in a society where parents fall into wanting to please their children and make them happy (I can definitely testify to being guilty of this at times!). So in a society where “child directed” is a really popular term (and one that I personally think does have its place), the parent needs to learn to direct many of the activities.

She also discusses the importance of "brain foods" and what that is on her blog.

- The importance of reading!!! Fluent readers are usually fluent speakers. It’s proven that people with higher IQs are readers. Reading and language development are closely intertwined. Language is the bases for phonological awareness and literacy.

- In regards to diet, nutritian, research, vaccines, etc. and making decisions, make sure you access peer reviewed articles and information. · Kovacks – Journal of Science was her highest recommendation. It's one of the highest levels of review before an article can become published.

30 really doesn't suck!

My 3oth birthday was great thanks to all my wonderful friends and family. I felt like I had a week long of celebrating with friends, family, and coworkers. I couldn't have asked for anything better!



I had my Texas Speech and Hearing Convention in Houston for 3 days, and we left Wednesday afternoon (my actual birthday). That morning, Levi and I took Noah to have donuts and spend the morning with him before he went to school. At work I had great treats and surprises from my coworkers and kiddos! After lunch, I headed down to Houston with 11 other speech paths for the convention. That night, we went to Cyclone Anaya's to celebrate. Some of my college friends (Jill, Kile Christina and Tim) met us for dinner. Christina brought a yummy cookie cake and Kile brought cupcakes from Sprinkles!! I was so happy they could meet up with us!


Friday night I headed back home. Saturday morning I went and got breakfast and pedicures with Rachel while Levi took an exam. I had been searching for cowboy boots for a while and could not find exactly what I had been looking for. He came home from Ft. Worth with the perfect pair and I LOVE them. That night we met some friends out at Tolbert's in Grapevine for dinner and some live music. Kelly and her creativeness made some fun "thirties" stuff! Sunday I met my family and Levi's mom and sister and the kids in Ft. Worth at Chuy's for one last celebration! Whew!!! Some great memories!!

This boy LOVES some donuts! And he

got to wear his pajamas to school for Dr.

Seuss' bday. He thought that was so cool!

Kelly's "30 sucks" decor!

each cupcake had a fact from 1981
Tolbert's: Brynn, Rachel, me and Shelley

me and Lisa

who knew.....everone still loves blowpops!!

Nicole, Niki and Kelly

Niki, me, Rachel and Shelley

me and Marcy

Nicole, me, Lisa, Katie and Marcy

me and Kelly

me and Levi

me, Kelly and Lane

Opening presents at Chuy's

another one of Kelly's creations! Each box contained a

$30 gift card to one of my favorite places. From my family
so fun!

mini pound cakes my mom made

Cowtown

Ever since I started back to work after Noah, one of the biggest challenges I have had has been figuring out when I can fit a workout in. I don't want to put Noah in childcare at a gym right after I pick him up from daycare, and the jogging stoller worked until he became old enough to tell me he would rather ride his bike or play soccer outside than sit in a stroller for 45 minutes! So....another mom at my school and I decided we would start running right after school got out (3:15) so our workout would be done and over with when we picked up the kids. That turned into "hey, let's run a half." Tessa has run several, and Jennifer and I decided it would be a fun goal. We trained exactly how our schedule told us to, and I really think that's the only reason I was able to do it. We also started talking while we were running and it's amazing how well you get to know someone when you are running together for that long! Several other girls from work would join us at times and our principal even started scheduling in "running group meets at 3:15" on our weekly bulletin. It was a really great experience and I'm so glad I did it. The day of the race my brother joined us for the run. It was SO humid and the hills were pretty hard, but overall it was okay. My final time was 2 hours and 28 minutes.

Jennifer, Tessa and Me

before the race

Lane's second time to do Cowtown

Lately.....

We have definitely been back to the grind of work and school, staying busy and trying to stay well!! Here are a few pics from the last month:

First Snow day

Second Snow day (today, Feb. 1)

Ft. Worth Stock Show

Exploring his artistic side

restaurant entertainment