Kaeden is 11!

I can't believe that my little boy is 11 years old today! The time has flown by. Kaeden has been such a joy in my life. He is such a good boy. I do feel sad that he getting too big to snuggle. He has started the phase where he needs to be cool - he no longer runs up to me when I show up at his school.

Kaeden wanted to share glazed donuts with his 5th grade class today. He has outgrown cupcakes. His birthday dinner is Homemade Martha Stewart Macaroni and Cheese, Spicy Buffalo Wings and Edamame with a Pistachio Cake. He will have a cousin sleep over too. (We only do a friends birthday party every other year.)

Here are 11 things I love about Kaeden.

1. He makes me laugh! He is one funny kid!
2. He is so kind and loving to Blake.
3. He is very loyal. He has liked the same girl since Kindergarten.
4. He tries very hard to choose the right.
5. He is very sensitive to the underdogs and tries to be their friends.
6. He has very good thoughts and is willing to share them during FHE and Scripture study.
7. He loves to read!
8. He loves BYU football!
9. He is very grateful and thanks me for doing things for him.
10.He offers to be my taste tester as I make dinner or try a new recipe.
11.He likes to watch Downton Abbey and Duck Dynasty with me.
We sure are blessed to have Kaeden in our lives. We waited for him for 6 years and boy was he worth the wait. I love you Kaeden!

My Love/Hate Relationship with Blogging

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with blogging. I want to journal our life but I am not sure I want our life on the world wide web for all to see. I love reading blogs and I learn so much for them but I am not sure I want the whole world to know how imperfect my life is. I like to come across as a strong person and I don't like to people see me when I am struggling - I feel like it makes me look weak. It has been a year and a half since I posted, so I decided to do an update. Zach is 18. He graduated from High School and he is waiting for his mission call. During the Christmas season, he worked at the Dollar Tree. He hated it but stayed with it. I am proud of him staying with it and doing a hard thing. He especially didn't like the bad music the listened to before the store opened over the store intercom. He spoke to his manager about listening to his own music with his ear buds. The manager was fine with it, so that made things better for him. Zach works for me as a respite worker, taking care of Blake in the morning. He bathes Blake, administers Blake's meds(there are 6 meds in the morning), makes Blake's lunch and gets him on the bus. This is a huge help to me so I can get to work by 6:30 am, then I get home by 1:00 pm and I am able to have a little time to myself before I have to do my carpool. Kassi will be 17 at the end of February. She is a Junior. She made the cheerleading team, which was quite amazing since she has only taken a couple dancing classes during her life. She loved cheerleading but didn't care for the politics that went along with it. Anthony and I pulled her out of cheerleading the beginning of November because we didn't want to subject our daughter to such a lack of morals. Kassi just started her CNA at Salt Lake Community College. She just started her clinicals at Copper Ridge Rest Home. She is really enjoying it. She wants to be a Pediatric NICU nurse and work with newborns. Kaeden will be 11 next week. He played tackle football this past fall and loved it! His dream is to play for BYU football and I an cool with that. Kaeden also played for Junior Jazz and learned to play basketball. He liked basketball but his first love is football. Kaeden is in fifth grade. He does well in school, he is especially good at math and reading. Kaeden just completed his Weebelos and will get his Arrow of Light at the end of the month. Blake is 9. He is in 4th grade and goes to Kauri Sue Hamilton School. He has made such progress this last year. He is now saying his ABC,can count to 3 and can count backwards from 20. That is quite an accomplishment for a non-verbal child. He also likes to type. He typed on his Dad's phone "Lion King." He is a good speller. Blake's school gave him an IPAD at Christmas time. Blake loves it! Blake is very mechanically minded. He can work the satellite remote, the TV and the DVR. He even can remove the DVR and put upstairs in our bedroom, plugs and everything much to his Dad's dislike. Anthony put the DVR back downstairs in the playroom, so Blake took scissors and cut the TV cord. That didn't make us too happy. Anthony is working at Coventry as a Server Support Specialist. I still work part-time at Discover as a Report Analyst. Life is busy, busy, busy.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

I was sad to let summer be over this year - just because I love the unstructured time. I am all for schedules but after 9 months of grueling school schedules, homework and then more homework and 3 carpools, summer is a welcome break.

We stayed close to home this year because we are saving for our New York trip. This year we did the following fun activities:

May - Lava Hot Springs and Promitory Point
June - Moab with the Evans Family
July - Lava Hot Springs
August - Evanston, Wyoming (Grandma and Grandpa's ranch)
August - Bear Lake
September - Evanston, Wyoming and Fort Bridger, Wyoming

We kept it cheap but had lot's of fun boating, riding horses, riding the doodle bug (4 wheeler), swimming, climbing a tree and just having some down time. I will say I am thankful that Anthony's mom let's us stay at her home in Lava Hot Springs and at the ranch. It makes real nice, cheap getaways. I also have to mention that every chance we are close to Ogden (Anthony even has made a detour to Ogden on our way to Evanston) we stop at David's Italian Ice and Frozen Custard. It is Italian ice with creamy custard. We always get the Mango. It is called "The David." How ironic is that? (My Dad's name is David and growing up he always reminded us that his name means the beloved.) The "David" is delicious and we do all love it. Even Blake. We also frequent the Burger Bar in Roy. I love their onion rings and fried mushrooms.

I am so excited for Fall! My favorite season is Fall. I love all the changing leaves. I can't wait to go on our annual car ride up in the mountains to see all the beautiful scenery. Nothing compares to Upstate New York's fall scenery - it is breath taking but Utah is not so bad. I love to get pictures of the kids with the beautiful autumn colors.

Football is also in the air and on TV. I have brainwashed Anthony and the kids - we are all True Blue BYU fans. We have enjoyed watching the games except the one where Utah pounded us but we are still true blue. We all love, love, love BYU football! We love to get our BYU football fix and have lots of snacks on hand while we watch. Go Cougars!!!!

The Washer Repair Man

God bless the Washer Repair Man that came to my house last week. Let me explain,
we have had a rough week. Anthony's Honda broke down - we had to have it towed to our house. Anthony called our insurance company after hours to get it towed. With our member #, they couldn't find our policy. (We just received our insurance cards in the mail a couple weeks ago.) We were stressed thinking we didn't have auto insurance that we were paying for monthly. Thank goodness my sister has a truck, so her and her husband we able to tow the car home. Thanks Tricia! The starter went out, so that cost $250. Thank goodness we know a cheap mechanic because the dealership wanted $400. The car had to be repaired so Anthony could go to work.

The washer was leaking and barely getting by but it finally gave out, we received a monstrous phone bill and then I saw the EOB for Kassi's week hospitalization. Needless to say, I was feeling quite stressed.

Anthony called RC Willey to see if we still had a warranty on the washer - of course it had expired. The good news was that we still had a warranty on our fridge. Our ice maker has been broken for several months and we figured it was too expensive to fix, so we did without. Well, our ice maker was fixed - we needed a new one, with no cost to us. It is really nice to have ice again, especially in the summer heat. Anyhow, I got sidetracked, back to the real story.


My mom called some Washer Repair Men to see how much it would cost to get the washer fixed. Just for the service call, it was $79. My mom described what was going on with the washer, and one repair man said it sounded like the pump. He said it would be $250 for the parts and labor besides the $79 service call. He recommended that we go buy a new washer.

My mom called me at work to tell me the news. It was like the final blow. A washing machine is a necessity, especially when you have children. I have washed my clothes by hand - once on my mission in Chile. It is a lot of work! It takes a lot of time! It is not fun and the clothes do not come as clean as a washing machine gets them with very little effort.

A couple hours later, my mom called me again. She said, "You won't believe what happened?" Apparently, one of the washer repair men had called back to the house. He said he was outside our home and wanted to look at the washer. My mother told him that we didn't have $ to pay him. He said that she would have to shoot him to get him not to work on the washer. This man (an angel sent from God) proceeded to work on my washer for 2 1/2 hours. He refused to give my mother his name and he refused payment. He said he felt like he was suppose to come to our home and help us.

I was stunned! I called Anthony and he was stunned! Just when we were feeling really discouraged and abandoned, Heavenly Father, through another person, let us know he was aware of what was going on with us. This strengthened my testimony to know we are not alone. I am so grateful that this man was in tune to listen to the spirit and then follow the prompting. I want to be this type of person.

It is a M&M Day

I love peanut m&ms! They are my favorite. I have been trying not to eat them often because they make my hips bigger. Yesterday, I found a Wal-mart bag with 3 small bags of m&ms in it. They were the $1 size packages. I was able to resist the m&ms yesterday - no problem. I put them away for safe keeping.

Today, was an m&m day like no other. Blake ran away not once, not twice but FIVE times! One run away was jumping out of the van as I was backing up. The last run away was into the neighbor's house. He never knocks, he just lets himself in. I guess I should be grateful that he wasn't naked on any of his runaways today.

I was able to resist the m&ms until the 5th time. I put Blake in his room for timeout. He looked right into my eyes (which is rare) and smiled from ear to ear. He was pretty proud of himself. I had to put him timeout so I wouldn't hurt him. Then I marched directly to my hiding spot. As I type, I am indulging in my peanut m&ms and savoring every bite.

Now, I know I am an emotional eater. I also know I am going to have to subtract two points from my total healthy living challenge that I have been working on, yet none of that matters right now. I have to keep my sanity. Pure heaven would be a bubble bath and eating the peanut m&ms but the dang bubble baths tend to give me urinary track infections. (There are very few things worse than an urinary track infection.) So, I will console myself with my peanut m&ms.

God please give me the strength and patience to deal with this severley autistic son of mine.

Our Life

Our life has been crazy lately. I wanted to give a quick update so I don't forgot what is going on.

Anthony got a new job last summer. He likes his job but it has been quite the learning curve. He is beginning to feel more confident and not so anxious, which is good. I am grateful that he has a job and is willing to work so hard for our family - especially in these hard economic times. Anthony is still serving as the Elders Quorum President. He loves his calling, he is good with people, so it works out well.

I am still working part-time at discover. I work with the Activity Day Girls at church - which I love. I have been struggling with my hypoglycemia - mainly passing out. It was been a real struggle, first figuring out what was wrong with me - I had to wear a heart monitor for 3 weeks, have all kinds of tests and blood work done, etc. Anthony and the two older kids have learned how to monitor my blood sugar and get me juice when it goes to low - it usually ends up around 26 or 27. Still trying to learn how to eat to avoid this.

Zach is a junior. I can't believe that he will be 17 years old next week. He attends Paradigm High School which is a Charter School. It has has about 500 students in 9th - 12th grade. This is a much better setting for Zach as he struggles in big crowds. He is a part of the Salt Lake Explorer Program which are youth 14-19 years old that work with a police detective once a week - on Tuesday nights. The class is 6-8 pm. They learn all about police work, traffic control, the K-9 Unit, the DEA, etc. Zach loves it - he gets to wear a uniform, which he absolutely just loves. Zach wants to be a police officer so we make the drive to downtown Salt Lake each week for him to attend his meeting. Zach was able to do Traffic Control at the April General Conference for the Saturday session. He worked right in front of the Conference Center. He also did traffic control for the Salt Lake Marathon last week. Police work is his passion, so we try to encourage him in this endeavor.

Zach gave us a scare a couple of weeks ago. He yelled in a terrified voice at 6 am, "Mom, I can't move." What he meant was that he couldn't move his neck. He had torticollis, which is where is chin was resting on his shoulder, his neck bent over to the side. It was scary but with daily appointments for a week at the Chiropractor where adjustments and therapy were performed, he is back to normal.

Kassi is 15 years old and a freshman. Kassi had an unfortunate situation at school where a boy continually inappropriately slapped her on the butt. She asked him several times to stop but he just did it more. She told a teacher who advised her to report it to the office. The school suspended the boy. This caused all kinds of backlash for Kassi at school, on FB and even our home was toliet papered. It was so hard to watch her go through this. She would call from school crying asking me to pick her up. It is a shame that she did the right thing and then she was verbally tormented for it. It really shook her to the core and affected her self-esteem. Thank goodness things have calmed down.

Kassi tried out for the Dance Company at Copper Hills. She has only had one dance class for about a year when she was younger. She did her best and got 4 call back but didn't make the team. I was so proud of her for giving it her best. She was competing against girls that have been dancing since they were three years old. She took the news well and said she was glad that at least she tried.

Kaeden is in 3rd grade and is 9 years old. Kaeden really gave us a scare these last 3 months. I have taken him to the Dr. six times. He had strep throat, bronchitis, gastritis and then a terrible, hacking cough. I was really starting to think something was really wrong with him. He missed 3 weeks of school. The cough just would not go away. Finally, the Dr. suggested we give him Zurtec. Within 48 hours his cough was gone. I am so grateful that he is back to himself.

Kaeden loves legos. He loves building them and displaying them. He is so cute about it. He loves to go surf the internet to look for legos or go to the store and look at legos. He is out lego maniac.

Blake will be 8 years old next month. He is in 2nd grade at Carmen B. Pingree School for Children With Autism. He has been doing real well. He shocked me a couple months ago by typing the alphabet out on the lab top. I had no idea he knew his alphabet. He did it three times! I looked at him and said, "We don't give you enough credit for what you know, do we?" He just grinned at me. He has been signing mom and dad. It just melts my heart every time I seem him do that. Blake is doing so much better with eating. He has a lot of sensory issues - he won't eat any fruits or vegetables. He will eat orange ice cubes. He loves when I juice the oranges. It is all texture issues. His new love, which shocked me is hummus. That is pretty nutritional.

Carl Block Exhibit

The 2n Saturday of each month is CTA day from 9:00 pm - 3:00 pm. Blake goes to CTA and we have a fun family day. I really like to do things as a family that are difficult to do when Blake is with us. We go to the movies, gone to Snowbird, shopping at the mall, bowling, eating at restaurants, 25th Street in Ogden, etc. I really try to plan fun activities.

(It has taken me a long time to realize it is okay to do these family activities without Blake. Anthony tried to convince me of this for a long time.) Blake loves the CTA. The CTA is a place that cares for severely autistic kids and takes them out in the public. Blake often runs inside the CTA building because he is so excited to be there. Blake has a lot of sensory issues because of his autism and he is not able to do many of our Saturday activities and enjoy them. At the same time, I don't want my other kids to miss out on these activities.)

For January, we went to the Carl Bloch Art Exhibit at BYU. Carl Block was a painter from Denmark. Many of his paintings are religious and used in church buildings and in church manuals. We all loved the exhibit! We rented a couple IPADs so we could listen to the additional information. We spent 2 1/2 hours there. The time flew by and it didn't seem like we were there that long. This is something that Blake definately would not have enjoyed nor been able to handle.

After the exhibit, we went to eat at Sensuous Sandwiches (a favorite college hangout) and for dessert we went to Earth Fruits Yogurt. They have all different type of frozen yogurt with toppings galore. We were introduced to popping bobas. Kassi and I feel in love with them.It is a little translucent gummy ball with flavored fruit juice (mango, strawberry, orange, etc.) in the center. When you bite it, it pops and oozes in your mouth. It is like a gusher on steroids but so much better! I really liked the mango flavor. Apparently it is a new trend.

All in all, we had a great day! I hope the kids remember all the fun times we have had as a family. I know our life is hard with Blake and his severe disability. Blake has so many needs and we spend a lot of time and energy trying to help him. I hope my kids realize how much I love them and how I enjoy our 2nd Saturdays each month.