Picture of the YEAR

Today's gift is picture of the year (2012).

As you may recall from previous posts, I LOVE where my daughter goes for physical therapy.  The name alone, tells the story...HOPE.

Late this summer they had pictures taken of their facility along with pictures of their patients working with the therapists.  They captured an amazing (if I do say so myself!) picture of my daughter with her therapist.

My daughter loves the swing activity she does at the end of therapy as it makes her so happy.  But while she is swinging she is working my pulling herself back and forth....she has quite the arm muscles!  Her smile says it all!

The picture the photographer captured they used at a fundraiser they held in September.  I was bummed I was unable to go as I had my duties with Girl Power 2 Cure at a board meeting!

In December this same picture was on the cover of the employee newsletter for the hospital system Hope Therapy is a part of!

Then today I found out at therapy that this same picture is one of five pictures up for PICTURE OF THE YEAR!  Only employees of the health system can vote, otherwise I would have everyone I know voting for this team.

Every time I look at the picture it just speaks volumes.  It shows a child receiving physical therapy having fun while she is working and the therapist has a smile on her face too.  It shows a young child who "looks" typical, but for some reason requires PT.  It shows how therapy is a team effort and how one person can make a difference.  It shows that even though I wish my daughter did not have to have physical therapy twice a week, I know she is happy when she is there working and giving it her all!

This picture was not staged...trust me!  Anytime you go into therapy and you see my daughter working with any of the therapists or techs, they are always smiling.  My daughter may not be...if you are working her too hard, but they are!  And for the most part, my daughter almost always has a smile on her face too!

Different therapists smiling and she has a smile still too!

Now we just have to wait and pray all the employees voting think her determination, hard work and contagious smile are worth the title, PICTURE OF THE YEAR!  Even if she doesn't win by the votes, she is a winner in my book...every day!


Here is a quote for today...

I love photos because the best thing about it is, that it never changes, even when the person in it does- Author Unknown

Good ole' Family Fun

Today's gift is good ole' family fun.

Fall is my favorite time of year!  I love the cool crisp air, the apples and pumpkins, pumpkin spice lattes, sweater weather, the leaves changing colors, fire pits....everything Fall related!

Today was the perfect fall day.

It was warm, but "fall" warm, where there is still a little chill in the air, the sky was a perfect shade of blue and the leaves are still colorful.

Two weeks ago I planned for us to get family pictures taken today and when I woke up and saw what an incredible day it was I was so happy!  The weather had cooperated...now I just had to keep praying my kids would do the same.

I wanted our pictures to be fun and different...different as in someplace we as a family have never taken pictures before...a farm.  I love the country....and after today I learned my kids do too!

We had to drive about 45 minutes to meet our friend (and the photographer) at the farm where she was going to take our pictures.  Of course someone in the car asked three times if we were there yet.  My middle daughter does not like getting her picture taken.   Luckily a nap cured the questions!

As soon as we turned into the driveway all the kids were looking at the long, windy driveway wondering what farm animals they would get to see.  Cows....lots of cows!  They were all over the place and we were driving RIGHT past them...if the window was down, we could touch them.  Once we got to the top of the hill by the house, the view was stunning.  Nature at its finest...rolling hills, cows, colorful trees, a perfect blue sky....and we even saw TWO rainbows!

I think the rainbows were a good sign it was going to be a great photo shoot and cooperation from everyone!

I am always a little nervous when it is time to get our picture taken...especially with my oldest.  If we are not in the picture we can get her to laugh....but when we are in the picture...we are smiling too...so it makes it a little more difficult.

Time was on our side when we first got there as we were a little early and the sun was not in the correct spot yet.  So the kids were able to run around and get their sillies out before I needed them to cooperate.   They loved having so much open space to run around and explore.  All of my children loved being able to roam and play in the leaves crunching under their feet!  Of course they wanted to get a closer look at the cows so my husband walked them down to the edge of the driveway which has the grates so the cows can not walk across.  As soon as they hit this spot...the cows started moo-ing...loudly!  The kids thought this was hilarious.  My daughter with Rett Syndrome was laughing and saying "cow" over and over again.

Not only were they moo-ing, they were all walking towards them....at least 40 cows!  I am not exaggerating!!!  When they got close to them all the cows stopped, but kept moo-ing.  I am wondering if they thought we were going to feed them or something.

It was really special to experience something like this with our whole family together...for the first time. Usually when we drive past cows my daughter will not say "cow"...even though we know she can say it.  So to hear her say "cow" while she is only feet away from them was really wonderful to hear.  She was really intrigued by them and if we didn't hold her back she would have been out in the pasture with them!

Having this fun "cow" experience today before our pictures made our pictures even more memorable!  A couple of them have the cows in the background as we really wanted the old barn in our pictures.  Now when we look at our pictures we took today...we will have a story to go along with the memory.

Even my daughter who complained while we were driving there said on the way home...."that was a lot of fun"!

It was fun and everyone smiled at least once a picture perfect smile for me!

Instead of a quote I will share this sneak peek of our photo shoot today....with our new friends in the background!