Heat Wave

It has been in the hundreds all week here. This summer it has been in the high 80s and 90s most of the time but yesterday it was 104. When I went running this morning it was still over 80 outside at 7:30am! This is crazy. Poor Peter just keeps working though. I really don't know how he does it in this heat. Maybe serving a mission that was really hot got him used to this stuff. Last night Peter's brother Mark got here. He is going to sell with Peter for a couple of months. We gave up our toy room so he can have his own room. I am just really glad that Peter will not have to work alone all the time anymore. Dallin is so into making tunnels for his trains lately. He usually uses the giant lego blocks, but now he has discovered books. Quite creative I think. My kids are so hard on their books. I frequently have to toss the "extra loved" ones that have been destroyed. I never really spend more than a dollar for a book so it works.
I think I mentioned before, Dallin does puzzles all the time too. We have a few of these 25 piece puzzles and he does enjoy them, but the other day when I brought this monster truck one home, it was just the best thing he had ever seen. He sat down, did it all by himself and now he does it 2 or 3 times a day. I guess with high enough motivation and interest kids are capable of a lot. He had never done one without help before and now he is doing all of them without help. With Dallin out of school for a few weeks, we are going overtime with puzzles, play doh, coloring, games, and such. I am really trying to teach the kids their letters in fun ways, but it is a slow process. Dallin can recognize letters but he gets confused about what they are called. He thinks a W is called wagon. He thinks that the letter Q is called train for some reason. I think it looks like a train track to him or something. I am glad he is having some recognition at least. He is very polite lately too. He says "clease" and "pank you" all the time. It is so cute.
Here is an example of what happens when I don't give the kids something to do. They usually find something naughty and extra fun to do on their own. Eden is now my grocery shopping buddy. I usually go by myself early in the morning, but now it is a way to have some girl time with just the two of us. She enjoys it and is really good so it works well. She names all of the fruits and vegetables as I put them in the cart and asks about things she is not sure about. It is quite a good conversation and she even helps me decide on some purchases. She is definately my little shadow. I love it!
Tanner is always making this face. He always smiles and squints his eyes and shows his goofy teeth to me. Sometimes I think he looks like a little old man. When he is in his high chair he is even more happy. It sure makes my job easier to see such a happy guy all the time. Tanner can say some words like dada, mama, ball, and da(dallin). He is also starting to sign milk. What a little smarty.

Summer Scrapbook

I found this fun site for scrapbook challenged people such as myself.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

A Place for Deep Thoughts

I am inspired by my Grandma Arave who passed away recently, who kept a book of quotes and poems that she liked. Reading some of them really showed her personality and who she was. It is a great treasure to remember her by and I would really like to keep a similar record of meaningful things to me. So in Grandma's honor my first quote is from her Life Sketch given at her funeral. This was regarding a particularly hard year for the family of death and sickness, and she had just given birth to her 6th child. I just love it.

"There was nothing wrong in the world, if you could just hold a baby."
Byrle Arave

Monster House Girl

Eden ALWAYS rides her bike singing like the girl from the movie Monster House. She hadn't even seen the movie in 6 months but I guess thats just how she thinks its done. It is pretty cute, she even squints her eyes and opens her mouth really wide. As you can tell from this vidoe she is still not very good at steering, or dodging babies.

Twins!!!

My sister Elizabeth had her baby girl twins tonight. She has been in the hospital for a couple of weeks as they were trying to stop the labor from starting. This afternoon, it could no longer be stopped and because one of the babies was breech they began preparing for a c-section. At 8:45 tonight the two girls were born and both weighed exactly 4 lb 13 oz. One has dark hair like Maurice and one is more blond like Beth(they are fraternal). No one in our family has ever had a cesarean before so I was really really nervous all night, especially because she was only 32 weeks out of 37 (full term for twins). I guess there were no complications to speak of but the babies are in the NICU of course because they are so little. The mommy is doing fine and is in recovery and the three big brothers are very anxiously waiting to be introduced to their little sisters. They are grand babies 12 and 13 for our fam. I wish so much to be there now. I hate not being there, but hopefully we will be able to make a trip up to Oregon this weekend.

6 YEARS

Well, I am so glad that we actually remembered our anniversary this year! I can't say that much for last year. We celebrated this year with much love and thoughtfulness of our life together. Peter started it off by bringing home 2 dozen roses the night before. They are gorgeous. Then the next morning, he let me take the morning off to go get a haircut. Yikes! There was a little language barrier and I think the hair dresser got a little carried away (see below). Oh well, I think it will be just right in a few months, but it is kind of fun and different. Peter got a new cell phone and bluetooth headset. Because Peter had to work late as usual, instead of finding a sitter, we got a little creative. I set up our patio furniture with a white table cloth, my flowers and candles for the centerpiece and Peter brought home some yummy Chilis fajitas! I also put on some romantic music in the background. It actually turned out to be one of our best dates. It was so quiet and peaceful, and we just enjoyed visiting with no one else around. I think it was even better than going out to eat, and I still didn't have to cook. It was so much fun, that I think we will do it more often.
Here are a couple of wedding pictures just for fun. We look exactly the same right? Ha! Being married to Peter has really made all of my dreams come true. I am so happy that we chose each other. I think being married to someone with the same dreams and goals in life has made us a good team. I am so grateful for eternal marriage and for our three children. I feel like I was born to be with Peter and raise a family with him.
I remember when I was about 14, I went to a stake EFY. One of the speakers told a story about how he met his wife when he was 14 years old. I remember sitting there thinking how lucky that was and how neat it would be. I thought, well that could never happen to me. Actually, I had no idea at the time, but that exact thing happened to me and now I have a wonderful memories of my sweetheart that go way back 13 years. So 6 years is really only part of our story, and I look forward to every minute that we will share in this life and the next.

Ebay's Funniest

My friend Julia put this on her blog and I just have to echo this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675

I love this.

Dallin's IEP Meeting

Well, we have finally had the meeting for Dallin and we are a little closer to finalizing services. I thought yesterday would be the best day of my life, but it was one of the most difficult. The meeting consisted of Peter and I, Dallin's teacher, a School board director, and our Regional Center case worker. Basically, the school board concluded that Dallin's current placement in his preschool is appropriate because he is progressing there. The offer is to keep him in his autism school program 20 hours a week and have about 20 hours of in home ABA therapy a week.

That is so much help, but we have some big hang ups. Mainly, my goal for Dallin is to be in a typical environment because I believe that he learns as much from other children as he does with anything else. So we were asking the he do full time at home therapy and quickly move him into a typical preschool with his therapist going with him to help him function with typical children. That idea was completely shot down. Because we did not agree we did not sign his IEP which means that we will be having another meeting and we will be hiring an advocate to represent us who knows how to work the legal system. I did get the feeling that we would be able to fight for this option if we really want it, even if we need to go to due process.

So then our next dilemma is about the first option. Maybe it is a good placement for him. He has made amazing improvements in the last couple of months behaviorally, academically, and with language. He is also a very happy child right now and loves school, which I think there is a lot to be said for that. I like how successful he is there. So now we are starting to feel that what the school is offering might be a good placement. I am so back and forth.

The meeting was very confrontational and the board representative made some judgements about Dallin that were very wrong and I am very angry about a couple of things she said. First of all she has never even looked at his file and decided that his language development is in a normal range right now. I was in complete shock that she would come to that conclusion. His IQ test that was done a month ago showed that his language IQ is very very low and she wouldn't even listen to his me, his mother telling her that he she was wrong. I waited almost three and a half years just to hear him call me Mommy for goodness sake! I am furious about this. Also when we presented a list of our concerns for Dallin, she just kept saying that our concerns were all normal concerns for parents with autistic children. It was very discrediting and I am not interested in comparing Dallin to other autistic children, I am interested in where he should be compared to typical development and getting him what he needs to be at that level. The only data she has about Dallin was about 10 minutes of his teacher talking about his progress in her class. Sorry, but that is just not acceptable when I have tons of data that needs to be considered in order to make and educated decision.

Of course after this, I was very upset all day. During the night I woke up and just lied awake for hours fuming about how things went. I was totally bullied because I did not know the right legal language to use. I finally could not go back to sleep so I just watched infomercials the rest of the night. Did you know that you can totally make over your body in just six weeks for just two payments of 29.99? Also, you can get rich off of having online businesses and you don't even have to do any work, just one payment of 49.99! And don't forget that you can solve all of your kitchen appliance needs with the Magic Bullet!

Anyway, I am really trying to separate my anger from the situation and just try to figure out what is going to help Dallin more. I must say that things are going really well for Dallin and that we are getting tons of help for him. No question about that. Moving here has been nothing but a blessing for our family.

So when we have our next meeting we will have an advocate there helping so it should go better. We will either ask for the in home program with a typical preschool with the aid, or go with what has been offered and ask for additional speech therapy and occupational therapy in addition and maybe horseback riding therapy which is supposed to be really helpful. I just don't know what to do yet.

The good news is that we found an opening with and ABA service and will be able to start the 20 hours of in home behavior therapy in the next few weeks.

So his breakdown of services is this:

From the school district-
20 hours of autism preschool/wk

From the regional center-
15-20 hours of in home ABA/wk
Diapers provided because he is 4 and still not toilet trained
93 hours per quarter (every 3 months) of respite care(we get money to pay babysitters)
Almost free ($20/year) PE type programs, although I am not sure what sports he will be involved in
Parent training classes

I should also mention that he is getting wonderful help at church, which is a really big deal too.

I am so pleased that he is being offered so much, this is dream come true, I just want to figure out if he would be better off in a typical preschool. I feel that this is a crucial year for Dallin and we need to get it right. I also want to tell off the district lady, but I guess I will have to let that go.

A Week of Family Fun

With my brother's kids Scott and Hanna here for the week we had a great time. My kids loved having cousins around to play with and they played hard every day. There was lots of trampoline jumping and board games going on at our house. We also had some fun adventures and lived it up here in the California sun. Puzzles are all the rage at our house right now. The kids can't get enough. Dallin can almost do a 25 piece without any prompting. He has also been doing them at the thomas the train website which has sound effects. So now he makes the sound effects when he does these too. It is really cute.

This just proves that Tanner does have hair. Look close there is a good inch standing straight up.
This was at a stake activity. We enjoyed cotton candy, shaved ice, dunk tank, face painting, etc. This bounce house was the biggest hit though.

Cami and her husband visited for a couple of days too. It was fun to hang out with them and see Clare. These babies are quite a pair.
One day Cami babysat and the big kids and I went to a waterpark for the day. We rode all of the scariest rides. It was a blast and I enjoyed the R&R.
Eden really loves Hanna.
Our last BIG adventure was six flags. It was really hot but we saw many animals and the kids rode lots of great rides(Dallin even got to ride on Thomas the Train).
Shouka the whale was a big hit with our crowd.

Dallin loved these penguins because they were attracted to his hands and they would follow him around.
This was a water play land that was actually really refreshing. Even Tanner and I cooled off in it.
The kids loved the submarine ride and even Tanner got to go and he was so exited he was clapping for joy. I wish I had gotten a good pic of it. To my suprise, Eden was really brave and went on all the rides that Dallin did this time.
Dallin was the spinning crazy boy.

Airport Nightmare

I am so blessed to have my niece and nephew here to visit for a week. That being said, you would not have wanted to be in my shoes on Wednesday night. That was when I drove to the Sacramento airport to pick them up. I arrived about an hour early, which was good because I had to get permission to meet the kids at their gate. Still, with my three kids and no help, I waited in the car for a few minutes, then loaded up the triple stroller and off we went. I got permission to get to the gate and then off to security. Yes, everyone had to come out of the stroller and walk through the security gate and such. That alone was a pretty difficult task because Dallin always likes to run away and Tanner is getting really good at walking and also walked away. No one offered to help of course! Okay, so when that crisis was over we got everyone buckled back in (I don't like the buckles on the new stroller, they are a little old school and take longer then the double did. Once we were through we walked down a short terminal to the gate. My stomach dropped when I looked at the estimated arrival. One hour twenty minutes behind schedule...duh duh DUH! I did not bring anything for the little ones to do and only had a little candy to keep them occupied. So for about 2 hours total, we watched the activity out the window, got drinks at the drinking fountain, sang songs and walked around and around the small little terminal with everyone looking at us like we were a circus act. So the triple stroller was a blessing and a curse. It is fairly easy to push, but turning is a whole other thing. My arms were killing me. On the other hand, I could not have gotten through without it. It just would not have even been possible. Actually, the kids did pretty great, only a little crying. As long as I was keeping them occupied, they were okay, but it was very exhausting. Finally the airplane arrived and we were headed home. Needless to say, I slept very well that night. Now we are having fun spending time with these sweet kiddos.

This is what happens when you neglect your kids while you blog! Luckily the water did not get turned on.

On another note: We are having the big meeting with the school district for Dallin today. We are going to request a lot more services so I am having a lot of anxiety. Monday we meet with the regional center to do the same thing (they provide the other part of funding). I am so exited to get to this step after 3 months of phone calls, and wading through all of the processes. This is it! Then hopefully we can get ABA, speech and occupational therapy moving (which may take even more time but at least we will know if we are going to get it).

I hope you enjoy the little moments that we put on. I have been taking a lot more little clips lately, another benefit of blogging. If a picture says a thousand words, this is even better. This was the entertainment while we waited for some food at Denny's.

Arrested Development

One of my most favorite TV shows is The Office. Since the season ended I miss those funny Thursday nights. Then a friend told me about the show Arrested Development. It is kind of a similar type of show with quirky personalities except it is about a family, not an office. It ran for three seasons but I never really noticed it when it was on TV. So I rented the first season from the library last week and it was pretty funny. My favorite character is the magician brother Gob (like Job). I wouldn't say it was as good as the office but it does have some good characters in it and it comes in at a close second. Definitely worth checking out if you are into this type of show. I am waiting for the next two seasons from the library now.

My Turn, Your Turn

Dallin had a nice breakthrough this week. I went to the craft store and bought a whole bunch of "treasures". I got little gems, and all kinds of little bead type things that looked like little buses, food, animals etc. I found some more little things around the house and put them in our little treasure box. There were probably a couple hundred items. So for a game I gave dallin and empty box and one at a time we would pull a treasure out of the treasure box and study each item. Then he would put it in his empty box and we would move on. I decided that we would work on turn taking so after about 20 minutes I had Dallin saying "my turn" and "your turn". Not only was he playing fair but the Me You concept seems to be getting there. That is big. It was so awesome to see him figure it out. He is growing up and he loves to play with the "treasures". I can really use this as a learning tool because he really has to be engaged in an activity to learn. Last week I also went a little dollar store happy. I am always trying to find toys and activities to keep the kids entertained. So we stocked up on puzzles, color books, toys and more. Eden got some new play purses. She is always packing purses full of things. Especially when it is time to go somewhere. She is always prepared.
Dallin got a bunch of new boats. When he came home from school and saw them he went crazy for them. He was outside playing with them for hours that afternoon.
Our final exitement of the week was that we went triple. I felt bad that Dallin always wanted to ride in the double stroller so I found a cheap one on craigslist. I am hoping I will be able to go places a little easier because he is always running away. Now I can buckle him in nice and tight! The kids really like it but I will definitely have to get used to turning such a long boat.



Video of the week: I was trying to get the kids playing but of course they were just being gross.

Thoughts on Motherhood

I have been thinking about my life a lot lately and reflecting on motherhood. I have been a wife for almost 6 years and a mother for over 4 years. I think that becoming a mother at the age of 23 was a difficult transition for me but I have slowly learned and grown so much from my experiences. Here are a few things that I have learned (you really don't have to spend your time reading this, I just couldn't sleep and felt like writing my thoughts, its a pretty long list).

1. Even though life is filled with more and more tasks all the time, it seems like less and less work and more and more fulfilling as I watch our children grow.
2. Taking care of others needs feels really good because I know I am teaching and improving lives.
3. I always thought I was a patient person, but now I know that is something that is developed over time and is necessary to be happy.
4. The saying that something will be funny in a couple of years that isn't now should really be funny now.
5. It is better to pretend that germs don't exist sometimes because kids can do really really gross things.
6. I have learned to have a more even temperament because a happy mom means that there is a happy family.
7. I have gotten much more than anything I gave up to be a mommy.
8. I miss the ease of life that I had before children less and less all the time.
9. A clean house is a peaceful house...still working on that one but it is so true.
10. On the other hand, it is more important to spend time with my kids than make the house look perfect.
11. Recreational activities have become more about seeing our children experience things than for my personal thrills.
12. Kids movies have become less of a crutch as I have learned how to keep their senses stimulated in other ways.
13. I have learned that I really want to live in the present because when I don't have small children I will probably miss it.
14. My stress tolerance has at least tripled since becoming a mother.
15. Not everything I do is just motherly instinct, I have had to learn a lot from study and from others about parenting.
16. I have learned to pick my battles and not freak out about little things.
17. I feel blessed to have Dallin because I have had to really learn and experience parenting in a heightened sense, which I think will help me be a better mother to all our kids.
18. I have learned that I still have a long way to go and in a way I am growing up with my kids.
19. Being a parent causes me to aspire to become a better person because it really matters.
20. Gospel perspective has increased particularly of the atonement and the plan of salvation.
21. I have learned that nothing is as important than doing what is best for my children, even if I have to move.
22. I have learned to feel peace and inspiration from the Holy Ghost much more.
23. Going through the difficulties of pregnancy, infant care, and toddler hood have made me a much stronger person and have made me love my children even more.
24. People will never stop telling me that I have my hands full whenever I go out.
25. I finally understand that going to church is more for teaching my children than for myself right now. I don't mind walking the halls so much, but I still really appreciate when they become nursery aged. I do still benefit from the peace of the spirit and the sacrament there though.
26. Positive reinforcement is the most important parenting tool and implements growth, and negative reinforcement is a terrible rut that is hard to get out of.
27. I have learned how important it is to keep my marriage strong and work together as a team because I cannot hold down the fort alone.
28. I think I have become better at being a better wife even during the really stressful times when it is harder to patient and kind.
29. I want my parenting to be intentional, not reactive.
30. Hard things are always worth it.
31. I feel more and more that life is very rich and full, which helps me to be content.
32. I am eager to see what else raising a family will bring as I have only just begun the journey and growth to come.
33. I am so grateful for this earthly experience and that we can learn to be more like Heavenly Father (I am not even close, but I understand why we are commanded to have children).
34. Having three kids in diapers gives me a sense of pride for some odd reason. Maybe it makes me feel cool that I can handle a lot.
35. Even after these last years, I still look at their little faces and feel the same awe and amazement that they are actually my children that I did in the beginning.
36. I have gone through phases where I think I can't possibly handle more children(like when I am 9 months pregnant), but other times, I feel like I could do this forever.
37. Some things that used to be so important to me, are my lowest priority now and I don't miss it. Perspectives really change.
38. I have learned to take advice with a gain of salt. I appreciate others wisdom, but I use my own discretion and take it or leave it.
39. There really is something called survival mode when life feels impossibly hard. Then I look back and think, how in the world did I get through that?
40. On being a wife, I have learned to be more permissive of things that really don't have to be done my way to be right. I have also learned to try to see things from other peoples perspectives more which directly affects the way that I act.
41. From the rate that life has changed in the last 4 years, I am sure that in 4 more years I will look back on this list and think that this time of life was nothing compared to days to come and I will have learned many deeper lessons and insights about life.
42. Each time I have another child I don't have to spread my love out between each family member, It multiplies. I did not know that before.
43. The saying that you cannot put the love you have for your children in words is true, it is indescribable.

Well, I write this on a good day. Perhaps on a particularly hard day I will read this again to remind myself that this is how I feel.

Is nothing sacred?

We had a pretty slow weekend to go along with our week. We saw The Bourne movie on Thursday night, but we really didn't go anywhere else. Even our Sunday was slow, to church and back, no visitors(probably a first since we moved here). I think I am getting very burned out from the pest control thing just from not having Peter around very much. I got home from church and my sweet husband let me take a nice long afternoon nap! He even brought me lunch in bed before I fell asleep. These kiddies wear me out sometimes. Peter and Dallin put the safety net on our trampoline while I was asleep. It was nice to have Peter home for a day just to take care of everyones needs. He is a good guy. I went to play a movie for the kids the other day and the VCR didn't work. I looked inside and found a piece of paper. It still wouldn't work. Then I found the game piece and so on and so on until I had a handful of treasures. Peter had pulled a couple of things out besides these as well. Well, I think I found Tanners safe hiding place, and luckily the VCR started working again once all of the obstructions were gone. I can't believe how much damage these little people can do sometimes.
This was at my sisters house a few weeks ago but I just think pictures of babies together are so cute. It must seem like my kids never have pants on. In my defense, this is only partly true. I promise they start out fully dressed each day! Someone usually gets their clothes messy, wet or just decides not to wear them. Tanner's usually fall off because he has a tiny little bum.

Attack of the Slime Monster

This week has been pretty relaxing. We have been so busy the last few weeks that I was very happy to just stay home with the kids and be completely boring. I did manage to take pictures of all the humorous and cute things that happen when you have kids. A little update on Dallin: We did have his official evaluation done and he got the autism diagnosis (no big surprise), which mean he is eligible for the services that we are trying so hard to get for him. We are still jumping through hoops (it has been 3 months now), and the process is so painstakingly long. Now that we have eligibility I am hoping to be on the homestretch but I can't even guess how long it will be anymore. For now he is back in school and we are glad for that. I went and observed today. It is very academic so that is good but I really think we need help with behavior, sensory, and language development. I know he will have plenty of time for the academic stuff, but I feel like we need to get some ground work done first. His teacher told me he is probably the most hyperactive kid in the class, but also one of the more social ones, so that is good. He even has a best friend names Austin. I watched at recess and they really stick together. So cute! The bad news is that he has 2 more weeks of class and then another 4 off. I am just praying that we will get some other stuff started by then.

In other news, my older sister Elizabeth who is 29 weeks pregnant with twin girls was admitted into the hospital yesterday because she is at risk for early term labor and the doc wants to mature the lungs with steroid shots just in case. She will probably get to go home tomorrow, but will be on bed rest until she delivers. We are hoping she will get to 35 weeks. She has 3 boys to take care of which will call for the family really pulling together. I hate not being there to help!!!! Peter came home from work the other night, went to use the restroom and when he opened the lid, got a little surprise. Pretty freaky...thanks Tanner!
Daddy is the official bus stop pal for Dallin in the morning. This is usually the only time they get all day. They talk about all kinds of things and it is good one on one time for them.
I am the behind the scenes mommy that gets up at six to make his lunch and get him dressed before Peter wakes up.
Dallin was playing outside and brought me a lady bug the other day. He was very exited about it. The bug did not survive his manhandling but I don't think he knows.

This is the reason I love to blog. Kids do funny cute things and now I always think to take a picture. This bowl was great entertainment for Dallin as he stuck his face in it and looked at his reflection and yelled to hear the funny echo sound. Kids are so crazy sometimes. This is one of Dallin's best multi level train tracks. Notice how it wraps around and connects to the lower level. He did this all on his own, I just found it later. He plays with his trains every day.

Eden had some fun with Daddy's hair gel today. She probably used about a cup worth, but it is a little hard to tell in the pictures. I tried to give her a bath, but it there was so much I finally just stuck her in the shower to get it all off.
Where was I? I was out sweeping the garage and thought she was watching Mickey Mouse. Nope. At first I thought it was hand sanitizer but thankfully not, that would really burn the eyes.
So even though this was a slow week, there is always a lot going on for us. It is very entertaining, and messy but I love it.