So here are a few snow caving pictures that we got from Peter's dad. I like this one with the amazing background.
Lucy, Peter's youngest sibling got to come up and stay the night. What a brave little girl. If a nine year old girl can do it...
Larry, Peter's oldest sibling is on the left.
This is the ginormous cave that Peter helped dig.

Poor Dallin got a black eye this week. He is always climbing on things and I don't worry too much because he is so sure footed. He was playing in the basement and came up crying so I didn't see it but could guess that he was climbing on something down there (parking structure or toy kitchen perhaps). He cried quite a bit. It must have really hurt because he has a really high pain tolerance. It got pretty purple as the day went on. It broke my heart.
We went for a walk to see the ducks. I love the sibling togetherness. Dallin always insists on pulling the wagon. I am glad to see his leadership skills developing.
Tanner is really starting to notice Dallin and Eden. He lights up when he watches them play. I can just tell that he can't wait to be one of them.
Tanner really liked the ducks. It was hard to even get him to look away. He also liked eating the wood fence. This was quite a week for us. We have been dealing with a lot of decisions for our family. We have come to the conclusion that this therapy that we are doing for Dallin is too expensive and not enough. In other words we want more, and can't afford it. We found out that Sacramento has this type of therapy much more readily available and it is much easier to get it provided. Looks like Peter is going to come out of "retirement" in the Pest Control business. We are planning to go down there for the summer and see if we can get better services for our sweet little boy. If it turns out to be what we hope, we may just have to make a semi-permanent change. Dallin's speech therapy that we started a couple weeks ago is already making a difference in his speech development. Today he asked for "more cookie please." I was so happy to hear him say please without being prompted. Then he came up to me and said "What ya doin?" I wasn't sure if he knew what that meant but I was so happy to hear it. Eden has more attitude than ever. She keeps saying "eh!" (sort of like hey) whenever anyone upsets her. I think she got that from me. I also noticed that if I yell at Dallin she starts yelling at him too. I must be more careful.

This was a pretty busy week for us. All of the typical Butterfly life, Scouts, Peter school stuff. Dallin is really liking his school and I think going from 2 days a week to 4 has really benefited him. I think his ear infections are finally better because all of the sudden he is acting so much happier. I think he just feels better. I feel so bad for his little ears. They have been through so much in the last couple of years. We started some extra speech therapy for him this week. I am exited because it helped him so much in the past when we did it. He is really starting to talk more. A lot of 2 and 3 word sentences. This week was also full of research for more therapy for him. I have learned about a therapy called ABA (applied behavioral analysis) that is proven to be very effective for people with autism. It is expensive so it is hard to find. I found the only place in this area and took Dallin there to check it out. Peter and I were very impressed so he will be starting that a little bit next week with a social skills group and in April he will do several hours a week of one on one therapy. To explain a little bit, this therapy is supposed to help him create neuropathways in his brain that naturally come to most children but not those with autism. Dallin's GFCF diet is going much better. Hopefully that is helping him too. I made special bread for him this week and some banana muffins. He loved the muffins. I will have to work on making the bread, it was kind of doughy. We feel very urgent about doing a lot for Dallin than just being patient. It is so important to do a lot of intervention before the age of 5 and we want to take advantage of that window of opportunity. Dallin still likes to "go run run run" with Daddy too. Eden loves her cousin Thomas who comes over to play sometimes. Yesterday we went to a birthday party at a park for him. The kids had a great time. I love spring. There was an old school metal slide with stairs that go straight up really high and the slide twists all the way down. I was amazed (but not really surprised) that Dallin just went over and did it all by himself. That really kept him occupied. Watching Eden and Dallin play at a park without strict supervision and standing right there with them, I realized that life does get easier a little at a time. I remember days when Dallin would just run off or was more interested in eating sand and dirt. Now Eden is brave enough to do things without us doing it with her.
Eden is talking even more now and her cute little personality manifests itself more too. She is starting to "mother" Tanner a little. When he is on the floor she will give him things she thinks he will like. She will also take things she doesn't think he should have and says "no no no" in her cute little tiny voice. When Eden thinks anything is funny she says "Thats swunny!". Tanner is doing the army crawl all over the place. That means that he picks up any dirt on the floor with his body like a human mop. This stage is really hard on clothes. Tanner is becoming more independent every day.

This weekend Peter's troop along with his dad's troop and a cousin's troop went snow caving up at Mt. Hood. I guess it was really nice and sunny the whole time. They all got there on Friday morning and got the caves dug well before dark. They had a spiritual devotional and ate a lot of chili and hot dogs. Peter and his brother and cousins dug a huge awesome cave that he was very proud of. He claims it was about 10 foot by 10 foot and 7 feet tall. Other than some pretty severe sun burns, the activity was a great success. There were 16 caves all together and only a couple of people were cold enough to sleep in the car. Peter and his dad really believe that these types of high adventure activities are important character building experiences. Everyone came away exited to do it again next year. Way to go Peter and Aaron! So while the hubbies were away, Sarah and I partied at home. We had a good time eating to go food and talking which is what we do best. I always hate sleeping without Peter at home. I never sleep well. Dallin kept me company and I am kind of getting used to it since it happens once a month so all is well.

Well we have not had much to report the last couple of weeks except that we have been sick and then sick again. Peter seems to be the only one with a super immune system. I am the last one now that is still sick. I am hoping that we will not have anything else this winter. We did break away one day to go to the beach. I was going crazy being home all day with a sick family and it seemed like something we could handle.

Eden didn't feel too well so she wanted mommy to hold her the whole tim.
One day Eden decided to give all of her baby dolls to Tanner to play with. I thought he blended in nicely.
Dallin loved the ocean. He was so exited to be there. It was windy which did not help his ear infection (we didn't know about it yet). That night he woke up and cried for about 2 hours. Poor guy. We never know he is sick until it gets really bad.


Dallin explored the coast and found a cool cave. The waves would come up and he would run away.