To the extent that our mortal powers permit, we should make every effort to become like Christ.

-Howard W. Hunter

This helps me understand that I don't have to be perfect, just the best that my mortal powers can.

It's HERE!!!

Just as we were leaving for our trip to Oregon, to my surprise, my new laptop came! I am so exited so I just have to express my nerdy exitement. It is an HP with an Intel duo core processor, 160GB hard drive, 2GB RAM, Windows Vista, built in web cam and microphone, long life battery, bluetooth capability, and a double layer DVD with light scribe for labeling.

I have big plans for this thing. I will be doing a lot more with video editing, picture projects, writing, and of course the everyday stuff.

Oregon Trip/Birthday

We had a great time visiting home this weekend. We drove on friday and got there in the early evening. Of course I HAD to stop at my sister's house to meet the babies first thing. they are so cute! Then we drove to Peter's parents to stay the night. The kids love it there. Dallin was so exited that he stayed awake even though he was tired by the time we got there and he even pointed out which house was grandma and grandpas. Saturday morning we went out on Grandpa D's boat. Of course Dallin was completely ecstatic about that. Boating is always a hit with our group. Peter took the kids out on the tube. Then he and Lucy went and Larry whipped them around so much that they flipped. It was hilarious. Saturday night Peter's mom hosted a birthday party for me! All the Dickinsons came, Grandpa H., Peter's Aunts, the Nielsons, and my friends Angie and Amy. That was very awesome to see everyone. It was so fun just to visit with everyone. Then on Sunday we went back to my sister's house and spent the day with my family. Everyone was there and my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle where visiting. Then we had another birthday party for my grandma and I. I didn't know about that one beforehand. I felt very loved by everyone this weekend, and we saw everyone in such a short time. I would say it was a perfect trip. I can't wait to visit again. The kids did great traveling even though Eden had a fever all day on the way home. They are good travelers thanks to the trusty DVD.

Yesterday, on my real birthday Peter brought me flowers and took me on a date to the Olive Garden. We had a nice time. I am happy to be 28 because I think that life gets better and better as i get older. I love my life and I have so many blessings. There really isn't much I would change if I could.

The kids loved playing with Lucy.
Tanner hated this life jacket and this was one of the few times he was smiling on the boat.
Dallin could hardly contain himself and he was very talkative the whole time.

Captain Tanner. This helped him get over the life jacket thing a little bit.
The kids loved the tube of course. I can't believe how brave Eden is compared to last summer. Tanner was freaking out at first because he wasn't going to go out so finally we let him be one of the kids. The tube was moving at a snails pace so it wasn't too scary.
Eden found one of Grandma Josephine's old hats and wore it around Grandpa's house.
Grandpa D and Tanner.
Birthday party at the Dickinson's. Dallin helped me blow out the candles of course.

The kids also enjoyed a hot tub party.
My best childhood friends Amy(left) and Angie(right).
This is my dad having a nap with Eden. This is so very typical.
My Grandma and Grandpa McCurdy from Idaho Falls.
Cute little girls. My sister and I had fun taking lots of pictures of them. They are 6 1/2 pounds now. I can't believe they were 2 pounds less than that to start.

Scary World!

UPDATE: I looked this up on the police website and found the notes about it. 3 people were observed stealing our neighbors car and the police were called. They had taken apart the stearing column and everything. When they arrived the suspects ran. They caught one right away, one in the back yard (which we heard) and the other one a couple of miles away.


Last night at 2 in the morning we were sound asleep of course and had our window open. I was jolted awake by a man screaming near our house. It sounded like someone getting beat up and several people yelling for about 15 seconds. Then it just stopped, so I am looking out the window, but can't see what it was. Peter's still half asleep and I am thinking someone just got killed or something. Just as I am about to call 911, I see 2 policeman walk across our neighbors back yard with flashlights. I guess they were looking for someone and they found him. Then I noticed all of the flashing police lights coming from the streets. There must have been more than one person on the loose though because they kept looking for someone else. Of course there were dogs all over the neighborhood barking like crazy the whole time. I made Peter get up with me to make sure all the doors were locked and as we were checking the back slider, the police started searching our yard! Freaky. Of course I was wide awake now so I watched for the next hour as they searched every yard meticulously. I could see police cars all the way around the block. I don't know exactly what was going on, but this isn't supposed to happen in the suburbs. Not in OUR neighborhood anyway. We don't know what was going on still but it was definately a night to have our doors locked tight. As I finally fell asleep my final thoughts were of what a scary world we are bringing our children into.

Lots of Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last week or so: Tanner chillin with Daddy

Dallin very carefully built this tower with Edens tea set. I am sure you can guess what happened when tanner found it.
We went to visit my sister last weekend. It was great to see them and test out their pool.


It was very scary for Peter and I to keep track of the three, but we did okay. Eden is a little daredevil in the water lately so that was the main concern.

New jammies! Yay for the gap outlet (only $10 each).

I wish this wasn't blurry, but still so cute.

This is grouchy Tanner. His eye infections are all better, but he is getting a molar and is still pretty moody.

Oprah

I loved the show Oprah did on autism today. I found myself tearing up a lot as Jenny McCarthy described what it is like to go through this journey. I can relate to her 100%. Not the husband part though, I am very blessed with how involved Peter is. Its kinda late to see it now, but I hope some of you saw it.

School Days/ Exitement

I am so happy that Dallin is back in school this week. He LOVES going and is so happy when he comes home. Actually, he mostly gets exited about going to see his friend Austin. I think it is so cute that he has a little best friend. It is a nice break for me too. It is so hard to keep him busy, so now I can take a breath, spend time with Eden and Tanner, run errands, read, or clean house.

Things I am exited about:
1. This weekend going to Oregon:
a. Seeing my grandparents who are visiting from Idaho
b. Seeing my aunt and uncle from texas that I haven't seen in 6 years
c. Seeing the babies and my family. I get to take their newborn photos!
d. Seeing Peter's family
e. Celebrating my birthday

2. My Birthday on the 25th!
a. Present: a new HP laptop (I ordered it last week but it won't get here until the 30th)

3. My new resolution
a. Run/exercise 6 times a week for 60 days
b. Prize: sell my piano and get a newer one with weighted keys(but I can't miss a day or
I have to start over, and I have to pay for it by selling stuff on craigslist)
c. So many great places to go running where we live

4. Only three more months until Tanner can go in the nursery

5. Only 6 more weeks of pest control

6. Vacation after pest control (hopefully a 3 or 4 day Hawaii getaway but we don't know yet)

7. Dallin's in home therapy will start around October 24

8. More new babies: My little sister and John and Sarah in the beginning of October

9. My haircut. Now that I am used to it, I totally love it! It is hard that it won't stay in a pony tail but I think I will keep my new look.

The Secret

I just finished reading the Book The Secret. I mostly wanted to know what all of the hype was about. I think it has a lot of good points and found a lot of parallels with gospel beliefs, but I think it may be a little extreme for me. Basically it is the idea of the law of attraction and if you are always thinking positive thoughts, you can have anything you want. Its like you have to believe that you already have something and it will come to you. I liked the suggestion about losing weight for example. Tape your dream weight over your scale if you have the habit of weighing yourself so that you believe that you already are that size. Peter thinks I should try it so that I don't complain about losing weight anymore. Of course this thinking goes with whatever it is that you want. I tried it on my way to Wal Mart the other day. All the way there I thought about how grateful I was that I got a parking place in the front. It worked! Not only was it in the front, but it was THE BEST spot in the whole parking lot. Crazy. If nothing else, after reading this book I think I will be more grateful and not complain much. Has anyone else read it? What were your opinions?

This and That

Here is a little recap of our week. Dallin's appointment that was for the 25th was bumped up to this Wednesday so his program manager came over and we filled out a bunch of paperwork. She left me with about 15 pages of questionares to fill out afterward too. So Today, Friday, She came back to do her evaluation of Dallin which consisted of a big box of special toys that Dallin got to play with so she could see where he is at, observing him eating lunch, and trying to put his own pants on, etc. With that done, now she needs to go observe him at school next week to finish her evaluation, then write up her report and plan for him, submit it to her boss for review and then we will all have a meeting with the regional center for approval of funding, which is set for October 9th. Once we have done that, the regional center has 15 days to process funding, then it FINALLY starts. That puts us at about October 24th. Yay.



Tanner has decided that he has oppinions. He is tired of the kids always taking things from him and now he lets them know. If there is food he wants he lets us know, and pretty much anything else that he feels the need to communicate, we hear about it. He is very attached to Peter lately and only wants him when he is home. So much for my perfect little happy angel. I guess I knew toddlerhood would set in some time. He still has an overall happy disposition and still as cute as a button, but oh my, the drama. He loves his blanket too and always brings it with him when he gets up from a nap. He has also not been feeling very well this week (some kind of goopy eye infection in both eyes), so maybe I will get my never complaining angel back, but I doubt it.



After being here six months, it was definately time to declutter and deep clean the house. I have been very busy this week with my "fall spring cleaning". I was very exited to get a little carpet cleaning machine because our carpet looked so nasty. I was embarrased to even have anyone over it was getting so bad. So now it is clean again. Yay! I also cleaned the couches with it and they are crusty fingerprint free again. Next, are the windows. I re-organized the toy closet with way too many toys to even look organized and put a lock on it so the kids can only have a few things each day. I can't keep up with too many toys going on. Then there was the PILE. We have a very long kitchen counter to which all of the papers and random things with no place had been going to the corner of. The last few weeks the counter seemed to be getting shorter and shorter. It is nice to see the big long counter again.



In other news, my sister's family was glad to finally welcome home their new little girls and it was a joyous reunion. The boys have been shuffled around all over the place the last few weeks and Beth is so glad to be home finally too.

This is Eden being a cute little girly girl. Of course no pants though. She has it figured out, a baby on the hip and a tea party all while wearing heels! What a woman.

Retraction

In reference to a previous entry:

After reviewing many of my entries I have to take back what I said. My kids don't seem to ever be wearing pants and after observing myself I see that it is totally true. Because we are home most all of the time and the weather is hot, I have really let that go. Why bother. They do wear them, but I cannot say that they start out that way every day. Just had to be honest :)

Dallin Update

Yesterday, I went to meet with a well known advocate to talk about Dallin's services. I really needed to get some advice coming from a neutral party so that I did not feel like advice was coming from a hidden agenda. I have been so nervous with trying to decide whether or not Dallin's services are acceptable or if I wanted to fight for different options. I have been leaning toward keeping what we are doing because he is doing so well in preshool and is getting a social aspect. The advocate agreed with me. He said that unless he is no longer learning and growing at that school than it was a good placement and he really emphasized the social thing too. He said we did well in representing him for getting so much offered to us. So I felt like I could really take a deep breath for the first time in months. That was what I really needed to hear. I want so much to get it right this year for Dallin as he will start Kindergarden next year and he needs to be ready. I feel so much better.

We also have our first appointment with the ABA (applied behavior analysis or in home) therapy on the 25th of this month. I am so glad to see things moving with that. Yay! I just dream about everything being finalized (I need to sign the IEP which accepts his services) and all the programs starting. I am so ready for Dallin to go back to school. I love him so much but I really do need the help. It has been such a long 4 months fighting and pushing to make things happen, not to mention all of the searching and finding little help in Oregon for a year.

I will be asking for direct one on one speech therapy for an hour each week. I don't care if it is in school or not, but I can sign the IEP(individualized education plan) anyway and specify if I don't agree with that part. So hopefully asking will be enough for that. I think I see a light and then end of this tunnel!

This is a poem that Dallin brought home from school for Fathers Day. I found it very fitting.

Schedules

Our friends in our ward that have been helping us learn how to help Dallin came over on Sunday and helped me design some schedule charts. They are really detailed so that hopefully we can teach Dallin routines enough that he can become independent. The goal is that he will graduate to charts less detailed and then without any reminders.

This is a daily schedule for each family member. School means I am working with them with play doh, puzzles, alphabet, and behavior training that I have learned. It will change a lot when Dallin starts school again and we have therapy at home after school.
These charts are for his morning and bedtime routines. I will walk him through it and each time he does something he puts one of these Velcro check marks on it.

Eden is getting pretty good at singing her ABCs. I love her tiny little voice.

Tanner likes to climb up onto the kid table but then he gets stuck and can't get down. It is pretty funny. Don't worry about the end, he was okay. Dallin and Eden are playing their favorite game lately in the background. I am not sure why it is so funny but it completely cracks them up.

"Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."
- Henry Ford (1863-1947)

The Ostrich

Yesterday, as we were going about our normal business, our neighbor began some kind of project in his back yard. The kids began to comment on the sounds of saw blades and hammering. They kept saying "I hear it" and "what is it?" They were obviously very curious. Trying to explain it to them didn't work and I couldn't see over the fence to show them. So finally after about a half hour, Dallin declared that he knew what it was. It was an Ostrich. He and Eden proceeded to go on an on about the scary ostrich that was outside of our house. Where do they come up with this stuff? So for the rest of the day, their little imaginations were at work as the "ostrich" was working next door.

Preemies

I got some new pictures of the little babies. They are so small and cute. They will be in the hospital for a couple of more weeks and mommy is home now. They have to be able to keep their own body warm and not have feeding tubes anymore.
This is Daniella(dark hair) and Catherine(blonde). I just love that they look different. It is so fun. We didn't get to go see them yet but now we are hoping the end of September.