Sledding 2012

We took the kids sledding just the other day.  I remember going almost daily as a kid.  Well, here it is a bit different, it's not as easy, you also have to find somewhere to go.  We went up to where Jared's parents live, which is on top of a mountain, we went there and it was quite deep know and a lot of the hills were a bit much for my kids, to go down.  We also borrowed sleds that fit my sister's kids (they are little), so I think doing this again, we will go to a different spot, were the hill isn't as steep and have bigger sleds.  They seemed to like it.  Connor HATED it, but I think that was mostly due, to him having just woken up and did NOT want to go outside for any reason!  I think he would have had more fun, if he was in a better mood.

Connor's Big Boy Bed 2012

We officially moved Connor from his crib to a new bed!  We have been meaning to do it for a while, but just haven't gotten around to it.  We had a toddler bed in the basement that we brought up for now and he LOVES it!!  He thought he was such a big boy in his bed!  He is almost too big for it though, so this bed will be short lived and he will have to graduate to a twin bed this year, I guess that means we get to pick out more room decor!

Merry Christmas 2012!!!!

We got to get our pictures taken with the annual new Christmas clothes on!  They love getting new clothes (well the girl's do anyway, Connor couldn't care less).  I loved all their outfits this year, they turned out so cute!!

 Every year on Christmas eve we get together with a bunch of my friends and the kids all get to decorate cookies for themselves and for Santa.  We also make "reindeer food" that we sprinkle on the lawn every year for the reindeer to have.  It's a great tradition and we love it!

We went to our Ward Christmas Breakfast and Santa came with Mrs. Claus.  The kids were so excited to see Santa!  Jayda couldn't stop hugging them both.  I wondered how Connor would be because he is at that age, where kids are typically weary or scared of Santa.  Well, not him apparently.  Santa came in and he was up on a stage and Connor goes running over to him and holds his hands up to be picked up.  So Santa, reached down and picked him up off the floor and up onto the stage and Connor was a happy camper, it was so cute!!

We spent Christmas eve with my fam.  We all opened up our Christmas eve pj's.  Even Jared got some and we even got him to wear them, ha ha!  Jayda was sad, that I apparently didn't know to get her "footie" pj's, but she does like hers.  I just figured she would like a nightgown because she LOVES dresses and wants to wear them every day.  Funny kid!  We had fun hanging out with my fam, we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" (which I had never seen before, it was AWESOME)!!  We ate Christmas dinner, then we did a Twas the Night Before Christmas mad lib, which had us rolling with laughter.

Well, Santa made it all the way to our house and he did NOT disappoint!  The kids got lots of new, fun things.  All there things this year from Santa were rather large though, it was hard fitting them all into our cozy front room.  We may have to move the big Christmas "shin dig" down stairs in the family room for next year.  Connor had fun "helping" his daddy put some of the toys together, he went and got his own little toy drill, it was so cute!  I believe they got everything they wanted and then some, it was a great day!

Jayda's Dance Recital 2012

Jayda got to have her very first dance recital in December.  It was so adorable!  She did awesome!!  We love her teacher Ms. Addee, she is so cute with the girls and they all just love her!  For the new year, with my sister, Karri living here now, her daughter, Kaija is going to be doing dance with her, so that will make it even more fun!

Happy Halloween 2012

Oh, the fun that is Halloween!!  I love helping the kids to come up with their costumes every year.  This year, Connor got to be a pirate (we could not get him to stand still for a decent picture), Nyah wanted to be a "cute" witch, Jayda was a mermaid and Keira was an Orca.  They had a ton of fun going trick-or-treating and getting loads of candy.

Happy Birthday Jayda 2012

Jayda turned 5 this year!!  She wanted a cake with a mermaid, then it was Minnie Mouse and it went back and forth, so I decided to get a little creative and had them make a cake and turn Minnie into a mermaid!  Best of both worlds!  She had a great time and got everything she wanted.  I blew up a bunch of balloons and then taped a plastic table cloth to her room door, then in between the door and the table cover, I loaded it full of balloons, so then when she opened her door in the morning it was like a balloon avalanche!  They thought that was great!

Family Pictures 2012

We went and got our pictures taken (just with my camera by my friend).  We figured it was about time since the most current family picture we have on our wall, Connor is not even in!  The funny thing is, we got them taken and yep, they are still on the computer and I have yet to print them.  Ugh!  I will be doing that within the next month though.  They REALLY need to be updated!

Keira's Horse Riding 2012

After, trying many, MANY different activities for this kid and to have all of them turn out to not go well.  Let's recap, shall we... we have tried gymnastics (she hated being touched/spotted by the instructors, so she did a lot of screaming), there was dance (that worked for a bit, then she got sick of it, not to mention, this kid does NOT perform, she is the kid that everyone is laughing at, because she is doing her own thing), there was Soccer (wow, this one was the most exhausting!  She wouldn't stay out on the field for more then 30 seconds at a time, she would sit down in the middle of the field, scream when other kids had the ball, etc.)  There was also the time we let her do the play with Nyah, (oh my gosh, I have not laughed that hard in such a long time, do you remember me saying she does NOT perform, yep she was doing all sorts of things to attract attention to herself, the whole audience was laughing at her, and we heard people talking about her "special performance" afterwards and how funny it was, the even funnier part is, she doesn't even realize the attention she draws to herself.  In the car on the way home as we were laughing about it, she looked at us and said, "why are you laughing at me?")  So, after several tries and fails, I think we have finally found something that works out great!  Horse riding!  She loves it!  They have other animals at the barn were she goes and she can tell you the names of all the different animals, she still can't remember the name of her trainer though.  She is doing really well, and that makes me happy!

My Birthday 2012

Yes, I do have a birthday and thanks to my awesome friend, our entire neighborhood was well aware of when it was!  This is what I woke up to on our garage and my door.  On the door, are 31 hearts that all have fun inside jokes that we have created over the years.  I will let you figure out why there is 31.  I had a great day, getting lots of presents, going out to eat, and just enjoying time with family and friends.

Jayda Starts Dance 2012

Jayda started doing dance this fall and boy does she just love it!!  She gets to go with her best friend, Tylie.  She is always so excited about it and loves to show us what she has learned.  She is our little girly, girl ballerina!

Keira Gets Baptized 2012

With Keira turning 8, she decided she wanted to get baptized.  It was awesome and went so smoothly.  I worried how she would do, she HATES when people touch her while in the water, let alone if someone were to put her under the water.  Not to mention, you really never know what is going to come out of this kids mouth at any given moment.  In the end, it went very smoothly and without incident.  While changing out of her wet clothes right after, she looked at me and said "mom, do I look different."  I know she felt something, she didn't understand it, but she felt something, she felt different! Of course, my literal child had to look in the mirror and point out that she looked the same and was not different at all, ha ha!  Love my little Squeaky!!

Camping in Star Valley 2012

We love going camping.  Every year we like to go to my good ole home town of Star Valley to camp.  It's great, the kids can just run and play like the wild kids they are.  We can ride 4 wheelers all over the place, get dirty and shoot guns.  What more do you need?

 Grandma had to get a pinata this year, the kids thought that was awesome!  Grandpa had fun teaching the kids about guns.

1st Day of School 2012

Of course with the ending of summer comes the starting of school.  Summer always goes by way to quickly.  This year Nyah started 5th grade, Keira started 2nd grade, and Jayda went into pre-k.  Connor gets to stay home with me still.  I can't believe how fast it goes and how big they get!

Oh BOY!!!!

Oh, we are in trouble with this kid!!!  Let's go over what he has gotten into just this summer shall we... There was of course some food coloring, not the regular kind, but the gel kind, so there was a whole lot to go around!!  There was also the lovely acrylic paint, he got into that with me in the same room!!!  There was also the nail polish on our wood floors.  You would think we just let him run rampant.  We even put this stuff away so he can't find it, well he does find it, he is fast, and he is quiet!!  I figure he is going to be the death of me!!

Keira's Yard Sale for Autism 2012

We had a big yard sale this year to earn money to get Keira officially diagnosed.  It was amazing how much love and support we received for this.  It's frustrating to have our insurance not cover anything to do with it, but it's also humbling to see how much support we got.  We are happy to report that we got the money we needed to get a diagnosis.  As many of you know we thought she had Aspergers (a form of Autism, on the high functioning end).  Her official diagnosis was High Functioning to moderate Autism, so it was a little more severe then we originally thought.  If you go back on the big post I wrote about this, you will see that we had the school do some testing on her and they had someone come in to give her the ADOS test (which is the official Autism test, they give kids on a national level to measure the amount of Autism the evaluator sees in the child).  Anyhow, on her school test her score came back as a 4 (basically the higher the number, the more Autism they see).  That person said she didn't qualify for an Autism diagnosis.  The school and I, however had different opinions on that and she did get on the IEP under the autism umbrella.  Through this process, we went through a place called the Autism Assessment and Treatment Center, I figured if there was any present, they would see it.  They gave her the ADOS and she scored a 16 on that one.  That is a HUGE difference to have one person score her at a 4 and the others at a 16!  She said she had never in all her years seen were the ADOS is given and the child scoring a number to not qualify for Autism and have the school over ride it like our school did for Keira.  She then said, that says something about the school, they are on top of it with this, which is so nice and reassuring to know.  On top of her Autism diagnosis, they also diagnosed her with Anxiety (which wasn't a real surprise) and then Transient Tic Disorder (which was a surprise).  We didn't see the tic disorder diagnosis coming.  Then we had it explained to us, what it's all about and we could see exactly what they were talking about.  Some of the things she does with this are continually popping her Jaw, yawning a lot, coughing a lot, blinking her eyes drastically, etc.  These things can come and go, some days she will do it all throughout the day and some days it's not so much.  With all of this, we at least know where we are at and where to go from here.  We are just taking it one day at a time and learning as we go.

Happy Birthday Keira 2012!!!

Keira turned 8 this year!  It was a year she got to have a "friend" party.  We do friend parties on the years they turn an even number.  This year Keira wanted a stuffed animal party (big surprise there)!  She had a lot of fun and got even more stuffed animals to add to her giant collection.

Cherry Hill July 2012

We went on our annual Cherry Hill "Staycation" with my fam.  Our kids look forward to it every year!!  We have a blast as well.  We have been going since I was 10 years old, so that is a lot of Cherry Hill!