March of Dimes

Ladybug was born premature. She was born at 24 weeks. We support the March of Dimes organization for their premature birth campaign focusing on awareness and education.

Gwyneth has been one of the ambassador children in our county. We feel blessed to be apart of this campaign in which the money that is raised, "supports programs in your community that help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies. And it funds research to find answers to the problems that threaten our babies." {March of Dimes}

Our local walk is in Manteo at the Roanoke Island Festival Park on May 7th beginning at 9a.m. It is a wonderful event and walk which helps us raise local support to this wonderful cause. If your a local, we'd love to see you there!

We believe in being an active part of our community, and to give back to the organizations which have affected our family directly. This is why we walk for the March of Dimes, the CF Foundation, and support other local events like the relay for life. I will have on my facebook, opportunities to help our family monetarily support these great causes.

I love this baby teaching us on how the March of Dimes is directly affecting babies and their research.

And it you can help by giving to Team Ladybug to help the research and work being done, please click here.

Thank you so much!!

Cartoon Characters

Little Ladybug has many favorites recently.

These are some of her favorite cartoon characters...



Before laying in bed she insists on placing these on her feet each night.

She snuggles with this dog

and one of her favorite bedtimes stories is called, Super Sweet Dreams!
it makes her heart feel super happy.




When she wakes up, she like to say, "hello" to Kai Lan before her mommy.
and these are just some of the few.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Community

I have recently come across some great resources for parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. I continue to learn so much through other parents who are blogging about their experiences. We have also been learning a lot from Ladybug's educators. I will be excited to share her progress as she is absorbing and progressing so much during this new year.

Here are some of the resources:

*Deaf Village: A great place to access blogs of those in the deaf community.

*Hear the World: A wonderful teaching initiative about hearing loss sponsored by Phonak. Ladybug's hearing aid producers.

*Hands & Voices: Information and networking for those in the deaf/hard of hearing community.

*Raising Deaf Kids: A group at Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia started this network. I love the special needs section.

*The Care Project: Our family has already attended two workshops locally and we love this program! It touches on the emotions associated with hearing loss with the goal of acceptance and advocating on our children's behalf to give them the best life possible.

*Beginnings: A NC program to educate and support parents. This is the first group that contacted our family to educate us and has been a great resource.

*Sign Savvy: Video dictionary of ASL, one of my personal favorites.

*Signing Time: A Favorite DVD learning guide that our whole family loves.



"According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, hearing loss is the number one birth defect in the United States – nearly 33 babies are born every day with permanent hearing loss, 1 in 1,000 have a profound hearing loss and another 2 to 3 in 1,000 have partial hearing loss." {Hear the World}

Read about a common misconception regarding hearing aids. Hearing aids will fix the problem, children can hear normally when they wear them. Our daughter has sensorineural loss and this isn't always the case.

And look at why this famous musician of my era, Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block is advocating for the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Online Hearing Test.

For those of you, like me, who can hear all the many sounds God created. Be thankful. Don't take any of your senses for granted!

St. Patty's Day

It's a Party

These next two friends are sisters and the hostess of the party.

Friends...

We all left the party with some sort of Irish Tatoo.

What did we do after the party?

Had a nice visit to this heavenly place on earth.

Surfing and CF

I have lived on the Outer Banks of NC for about 10 years now. Our coastal culture is heavily influenced by the surfing community. I am not a surfer myself, but have many surfing friends. I enjoyed watching this video. Why? Because of my top favorite things in the world, here are four of them.

*Watching Surfers Surf

*Those living/affected by Cystic Fibrosis

*Hawaii {My two times there with Make-a-Wish & honeymoon}

*Seeing others give back to their community

Thanks to the Mauli Ola Foundation for making this possible!

Explaining Cystic Fibrosis

A friend of mine, told me she appreciated this explanation of Cystic Fibrosis. I think it's brilliant and a great explanation myself, and would like to share the cute British cartoon clip. The United Kingdom's version of the United States CF Foundation produced this. I just love Oli & Nush!

I heart Mondays

Monday mornings are filled with alone time with Mr. Lovebug and I. I adore Mondays. Today, we hung out at the coffee shop, caught up on life {it's been a busy week}, went home and ate lunch with Ladybug. And then took some pictures for the fun of it.

I heart Mondays!

PS I love you

I'd like to think this song was written for me...

Or perhaps it's a coincidence that I was named with the initials, PS

Lately, I have enjoyed listening to the Beatles when I first wake up for a fresh cup of coffee or if I am driving on the road taking my girls here and there.