Since Emily was about 10 months old, we have noticed her left eye will cross from time to time. We brought this to the attention of our pediatrician and he said that it is something she may outgrow and not to worry about it until she turns 3. When she turned 2 we really stopped noticing it. Not sure if we were not as observant or if we were just not seeing things or what, but then when she turned 3 we started noticing it again. In bringing it to the attention of our pediatrician again, he referred us to a pediatric eye doctor in Charlottesville. Our appointment was yesterday. Dr. Carter was really great with her! Though I have been fortunate enough to never have visited an eye doctor he really seemed like he did a lot of different things since she is a small child. He showed her pictures, lights, animals . . . had her look though the eye machine, but while holding the "handle bars" of the "bike." She would not actually talk to him (a little shy), but answered his questions by nodding her head or pointing. She did a great job! He dilated her eyes and determined that she does have a small problem.
Now that I figured out how to remove the pictures from my phone, I am able to blog about some of the pictures that have been on the phone since before Christmas. Before Christmas Mike, the kids and I went over to Paul and Allison's place in Charlottesville to watch Adella while Paul and Allison went house shopping. We took the kids to the "madhouse" pre-christmas shopping at Toys R Us where we ran into Jeffery the Giraffe. As he was coming up the aisle, the kids were all quite excited about seeing him, but as soon as they were faced with actually having to talk to him, they all began to freak out. Lydia was brave enough to actually walk over to talk to him, but at the last minute began to cry so we quickly removed her. (in the picture she and Mike are off to the left--the next picture we took she was starting to cry).
Grill. The Wood Grill is a good place for us to go for the money. Ryan costs only $2.00 and Lydia, Emily and Adella were free. Get everyone some water and we can all eat pretty cheap. Because Paul and Allison are a little more conscious about their child eating healthy foods--and not too much of it--this was Adella's first visit to the Wood Grill. She REALLY enjoyed herself and ate a pile of food!! We had such a good time with her!
Ryan is learning so much in Kindergarten! He loves going to school and could not wait to go back after winter break. Last semester Ms. Clark, Ryan's teacher, did a unit on nursery rhymes and what lessons they teach. On Thursday Ms. Clark invited all the parents to a nursery rhyme recital and lunch with our kids. Mike and I were able to eat lunch with Ryan and then head to his class for the recital. All of the children were assigned a nursery rhyme and a nursery rhyme fact. They stood up in front of all the parents and recited their fact and nursery rhyme. 
Ryan's assigned nursery rhyme was Humpty Dumpty. His fact was "Nursery Rhymes are silly." All the kids did such a great job! Out of the 18 children in Ms. Clarks class, only two of them had an issue when they came up to recite their part--and Ryan was NOT one of them!!! In addition, as a class, they sang some songs and did a couple little skits.
Getting up in front of people he does not know is not his idea of fun:). We are very proud of him! 
Originally scheduled to leave on Sunday, January 25; his leave date was bumped up to tomorrow--Sunday, January 11--he is leaving for boot camp. After catching my sister-in-law and brother-in-law off guard, they had a little going away party for Cory tonight at their house. Friends and family came to wish Cory farewell and the best of luck becoming a Marine. Cory is our nephew--the oldest son of Mike's older sister, Debbie. Cory just turned 20 in December. Mike spent much of the evening answering questions and sharing stories from his experience as a Marine. The five of us took pictures with Cory before we left. It was a fun time.
