Vintage, Teacher, Puppy Dog Eyes, Help

Since Sarah has started school Noah has been lost without his partner in crime.  A lot of times he follows me around the house with his blanky and pillow pet asking for lubs.  How can you resist a face like that?!  No wonder more things don't get done around here!!  I would rather get loves any day than clean up!!



The other day Josh and Daniel got prizes from school.  They both chose those sticky hand toys, but they couldn't play with them at school.  When they got home they quickly took them out of the packages and started playing with them.  Within five minutes of being at home both sticky hands were stuck on the ceiling.  Daniel gave up immediately and moved on to play with something else.

Josh was a little more determined to get them down.  He got a fly swatter and with Sarah's support he tried to get them down.  It was not successful but at least he tried.  They did end up falling off the ceiling the next day, but it only took five more minutes of playing with them to get them stuck back up there--again!

Noah stopped taking afternoon naps a long time ago.  However, the other day he crawled up into my lap and fell asleep.  I loved it!!  He is getting so big that I don't know how many more times this will happen so I have to enjoy it, right?!  His nap lasted until the boys got home from school because things turn into mass pandemonium at our house about that time.  All three boys get home from school within 20 minutes of each other and everyone needs my attention at the same time.  It gets pretty chaotic to say the least!!

 Last week I was able to put my three bushels of tomatoes to good use by turning them into 42 quarts of spaghetti sauce.  By the end of the day I was pretty exhausted, but happy it was done!

 Noah has gotten pretty good at the puppy dog pouty look whenever you tell him no since he doesn't hear the word 'no' as often as he should. 

 See here he is surprised I would have the audacity to tell him no, but it does happen on occasion.

 Sarah has figured out the ear buds.  She saw Aaron listening to something the other day and pulled out an ear bud out of Aaron's ear and put it in hers so she could listen, too.

 I am part of the Utah Parent Center which is an organization for parents with special needs kids.  They occasionally offer free classes for parents to attend.  This last class they offered I couldn't pass up so I signed up.  It is a six week course that teaches how to best work with autistic kids and their behaviors to get better compliance.  See how I couldn't pass it up?!  Anyway my second class was last night down in Salt Lake.  When I got back home four hours later I had the best surprise.  While I was gone Aaron had cleaned all the bathrooms for me without being asked.  I was so happy!  He even showed me how he had some really good help:

 Noah saw what he has doing and begged to help daddy.  Aaron put him to work by cleaning the bathroom mirror.  He was so excited!

Noah loves books.  He has picked out this one picture book that he absolutely loves.  When we first got it I would ask, "Where is the picture of the apple?"  and have him point to the apple.  We have read it so many times that he now likes to 'read' it to me.  He is so cute--and, yes, I am a little biased!

We had another orthodontic emergency last week.  Matthew unscrewed part of his appliance and then lost the screw.  He said it was an accident, but....I will be glad when he is done with braces and I think the orthodontist will be, too!

Our ward's primary program was this last Sunday.  To prepare they had a practice Saturday morning.  Since we were practicing in the chapel they asked all the kids to come in Sunday dress.  After over two hours of practicing they then had a pizza party.  Unfortunately my kids can't eat pizza without getting it all over their clothes.  We had to come home and wash Josh's white dress shirt and suit pants so he could wear them again the next day.  The primary president was nice enough to even stop by McDonalds and pick up a hamburger so Daniel could enjoy some food along with everyone else since he is allergic to pizza.  I had told her not to worry about it and that I could do it, but she insisted.  It was so nice!!  She triple checked the hamburger order with me to make sure she wouldn't get the wrong thing.  I am so thankful when people really try to help!!

After the practice was over it was Grandma T's birthday so we headed down to her party.  It was a nice day and the kids all had fun playing with their cousins.  Grandma enjoyed turning 29 again.  It was too windy to light the candles so she got out of blowing out her bonfire this year.  We will see about next year :).  When we got home from the party Aaron wasn't feeling very well.  I took his temperature and he had a fever.  The next day was the primary program and he didn't want to miss it.  He popped some ibuprofen and went to watch the kids.  Sarah, Josh and Daniel did great.  Daniel even had a little talk to give during it and he did great.  Josh had his part memorized, but got stage fright and had to read it instead.  Since I was the sunbeam teacher I got to sit on the stand, too.  It was only Aaron, Noah, Matthew and G&G T sitting in the audience from our family.  Aaron ended up going home afterward with Noah and Matthew.  By Monday afternoon he did start feeling better.  I guess it was just some random weird cold bug. 

I HATE getting calls from the school!  So when I saw the school was calling me Friday afternoon I reluctantly picked up the phone.  It was Matthew's teacher.  She could tell by the way I answered that I was dreading what she had to say.  However, it wasn't anything bad.  She was just calling to tell me that she didn't know where Matthew's bus drivers were and if I could come pick him up.  I was relieved it was only that.  I quickly said I would be there.  I got to the school about the same time his bus driver did.  I guess his bus driver took a nap and didn't set an alarm.  He was only about 30 minutes late picking up a bunch of special needs kids from Jr. High.  Matthew's teacher was MAD!!!  I can't say as I blame her since she had to sit outside with the kids for over 30 minutes so the bus driver could take an unscheduled nap.  Oh well, things happen I guess.  Hopefully it won't happen again because I HATE getting calls from the school!

Yesterday I made myself a sandwich.  Now I HATE dry sandwiches so I made sure I put lots of mayo on it.  When I took a bite, however, fire came out my nose, ears and mouth.  I accidentally grabbed the horseradish squirt bottle instead of the mayo squirt bottle and put a ton of horseradish on my sandwich.  I could only take one bite because I couldn't handle anymore than that.  It was pretty spicy!!  Aaron laughed at me when I told him what happened.  I am glad I can entertain him with my hardships ;).

Yesterday Sarah came home from school and told me she wanted to be a teacher.  I asked her what she wanted to teach and she said, "I want to teach recess and about playgrounds.  I also want to watch movies in my class."  I think she would be any kids most favorite teacher if she could!  However, I don't know how much anyone would learn in that class, though....

It was time to register the truck.  However, we were lucky enough to be able to register it at a vintage vehicle.  Any vehicle 30 years old or older can be registered as a vintage vehicle which means no more emissions checks!! WAHOO!!  We only have to do safety checks and pay the registration fee yearly now.  That is awesome!!

Napkin Head, Lists, Lubs, Trains



This past week Noah has decided to use his hair as a napkin for dinner.  It gets really bad if we have spaghetti and meatballs.  He usually gets a shower after dinner every day :/.  I am still wondering why he thinks it is a good idea to do that....At least it keeps some of it off his shirts and shorts.

 

Matthew passed the sacrament again this week.  Other than trying to wave at us as he went by with his shadow (someone in the Deacon's Quorum presidency) he did really well.  I stress out every time, but so far so good.  Hopefully it will stay that way!!

 

We finally have found another piano teacher for the boys.  Our last one we really loved, but he had to move.  I am really excited about our new one.  She is really nice and loves teaching.  Hopefully the boys will get back into learning the piano again after taking the summer off.

 

Sarah has started dance up again.  She takes from a lady who teaches out of her home which is about four houses down from us.  When it is time to pick her up from dance Matthew happens to be home from school.  Matthew likes to come along with me, but only as a train conductor.  He puts on his safety vest and Union Pacific hat.  Then he puts Noah inside the train and walks (or drives the train which is his wagon) down to pick Sarah up.  Now when Sarah gets done there is another class that is getting ready to start.  When we get to the house against my protests Matthew walks up to all the girls waiting to start class and asks them if they would like a train ride.  The girls don't know quite what to do, so Matthew will start asking the moms if he can give them a train ride.  He is pretty funny.  Luckily most of them are figuring out that he is autistic so they are nice to him and politely decline.  However, some of the moms are nice enough and let him take their younger kids on a train ride around the drive way.  Matthew keeps things interesting that's for sure! 

 

Now it is no secret that Matthew loves trains.  He likes to offer train rides to everyone.  He even asked one of his fellow young men who is 12 years old as well if he would like a train ride.  He politely declined, but one time he did let Matthew pull him around in the wagon.  The poor kid could barely fit, but it was really nice for him to let Matthew give him a train ride.  This same kid brought Matthew a present the other day.  The boy was at his grandma's house while she was cleaning out her closet and saw a train game.  He immediately thought of Matthew and asked if he could give the train game to Matthew.  His grandma and mom said yes so he brought it down to Matthew.  Wow, Matthew was so excited.  It was so nice!  I really have to say that although Matthew can be hard to deal with sometimes, we really have run into a lot of really awesome people who love Matthew and try to help.  That is awesome!!

 

Well we have started back into a routine of sorts.  It only took two weeks to get there, but it is nice to have structure again in my house again.  Matthew rides the bus in the mornings since he goes to Jr. High as for the rest of the kids I am thankful we live close enough to the school that Josh, Daniel and Sarah can walk. In the mornings Josh and Daniel like to go to school early to play with their friends so that leaves me, Noah and Sarah to walk 20 minutes later to drop Sarah off for kindergarten.  Sarah and Noah play so well together that Noah really misses her when she is gone.  Mom is no replacement for Sarah!  Occasionally they will hold hands while we walk to school.  I think it is cute.  Sarah seems to be enjoying kindergarten. 

 I love fall harvest time.  I was able to bottle 11 more quarts of tomato soup.  This time Daniel, Sarah and Noah were all interested in what I was doing and came over to the sink to watch.  When they all saw how much fun it was to peel the scalded tomatoes they jumped in to help.  When you boil a tomato for a minute the skin just pops right off.  I, myself, think it's fun to peel scalded tomatoes.  There was an even bigger mess with all the extra 'help' I got in the kitchen, but the kids had fun.  Daniel thought it was especially funny when a tomato exploded all over my clothes, he couldn't stop laughing at me.

 Speaking of harvest time we did an experiment in our garden this year--we planted okra from seeds.  Now growing up in Utah I had never even heard of okra until I visited Texas for the first time after meeting Aaron so it really was an experiment for me.  We got our first batch of okra this past week from the garden.  We only got a few, but we still got some.  Aaron was telling the guys at work about it and one of his friends gave him some more okra from his garden so I had enough to try making gumbo.  I had never made it before so I took a stab at it with Aaron's Grandma's old recipe.  I made it in the crock pot so when Aaron got home from work he could smell it.  He said it brought back all kinds of memories from family get-togethers at his Grandma's house.  The kids all loved it as well.  We only had a little bit left over after dinner which is great since my kids can sometimes turn their noses up at anything new.  Josh ended up having three big bowl fulls.  How that kid can eat like that and still remain rail thin is a complete wonder to me.  Anyway, we might have to plant some more okra next year :).  Since the kids had never heard of Gumbo, they kept calling it Jumbo.  It was pretty funny.

Since we have started back to school, mornings are pretty hectic.  I have to get five kids and myself up and ready for the day, pack lunches, find shoes, do hair, find homework, do breakfast, walk Sarah to school, etc.  Things can get pretty crazy.  I was pretty frazzled by 9 am to say the least.  Josh saw how crazy it was and for the first two weeks of school, he woke up extra early and packed everyone's lunches for me, started a load of laundry and cleaned out the dishwasher all just to be nice and helpful all without even being asked.  Oh.  My.  Goodness!!  I was so thankful for the extra help it was so sweet!  However, when I got up this morning Josh informed me that he needed a break and was not going to do all that for me for awhile.  I was fine with that.  I am just thankful he was thoughtful enough to even start doing that on his own in the first place!!!  It was pretty awesome! 

 

In the mornings in trying to speed everyone along with their routine, I kept asking the boys the same questions over and over and over again every morning.  I finally got sick and tired of being a broken record and came up with a checklist at the top of the boys' stairs.  They have to complete all the items on the check list before they can come upstairs for breakfast.



 It says: make your bed, clean up your bedroom, shower using soap, change underwear and put on clean socks, brush teeth, put on deodorant, clean up bathroom, turn out all the lights.  Yes we have had some problems forgetting a few of these daily rules.  One example would be that Daniel does not like finding clean socks every day.  To avoid getting clean socks he would just tuck his old socks inside his school shoes only to put them back on the next day.  I had no idea he was doing this until he took his shoes off by me one afternoon.  Holy cow I thought I would pass out from the stench of very stinky one and a half week old worn every day without being washed smelly, dirty socks.  Just take my word for it, it was BAD!!!  Also Josh has come to a point in his life that he needs to wear deodorant every day.  He came home from school the other day and I could immediately tell (or smell) as soon as he walked through the door that he had forgotten his deodorant that day.  Also if I wasn't following up on the kids they would conveniently forget to brush their teeth in the mornings.  YUCK!!  Now the list has helped me.  If they are upstairs I can rattle off the list and they know what they need to get done in the mornings.  I am hoping that all this will just become part of their daily routines....Matthew has the routines down already, but only because he is Mr. Routine anyway.  I don't want my kids to be the stinky kids at school.  I am keeping my fingers crossed this will work!

Aaron and I don't fight or argue very often which is great.  I am glad we get along so well most times.  However, Saturday was not a good day.  We had a rough morning.  Afterward, however,  Aaron brought me some flowers and chocolate so I think all is forgiven.  They are some pretty flowers, too.  I even got to have a nice bath later that day with my chocolate while he put the kids to bed by himself.

Friday night was movie night so we were watching a movie with everyone's pillow pets and blankies.  Unfortunately, someone was playing with an unopened soda when they dropped it and it exploded all over Sarah and Noah's lovies.  Noah is quite attached to his pillow pet and blanky so he made sure he kept an eye on it while it was being washed and dried.  However, watching it made it seem like it took that much longer to get done for him.  He was so giddy when it was finally done.  What a funny boy!

As for potty training, I think we have it down.  Not to jinx myself, but Noah has been the easiest kid yet to train.  We are still working on getting #2 down, but he has gone #2 in the toilet twice and once in his pull up.  However, I am excited to be diaper free.  He has also stayed dry at night every night except one in the last two weeks.  He even takes care of everything himself--I don't have to remind him to go, he will just get up and run to the potty and take care of it himself.  What a big boy.  However, we were at the park last week and he didn't want to tell me he had to go.  He just wandered over to the park bathrooms and went inside without telling me.  Luckily, I had seen him go in so I just ran over and he was trying to take care of it without telling me.  I couldn't get mad at that.  The other day he brought in some entertainment while he needed to go--his light spinny thing.  He wasn't happy I was taking a picture of him being 'otherwise disposed', though.  Notice how we are out of toilet paper?  If I don't let him take a toy in, he plays with the toilet paper roll and I don't really like trying to unclog a toilet full of a whole roll of toilet paper that he has decided to stuff in the toilet.  We only dispense the toilet paper on an as needed basis, but we make exceptions for guests ;).

Sarah got to have her "All About Me" week this week.  The teacher tries to get their special week during their birthday, but Sarah has a summer birthday so that didn't quite work.  However, Sarah was still excited to celebrate her birthday again even if it was a month late.  Aaron and I were able to attend her class on Monday and tell them all about Sarah.  Sarah then got to pass out her birthday treats to the class and wear her birthday crown.

 Every night when it's bedtime we get the same response from Noah, "I need lubs (loves) for two minutes."  So I will set the timer and when it goes off he is supposed to go to bed.  However, it isn't quite that easy.  As soon as the alarm goes off he will repeat, "But I need lubs for two minutes!!"  How can you resist that?!  Most times I will give in--and yes he is quite spoiled, but what can you do?!  He's my last baby and I am milking it for all it's worth!!!  Here he is telling me he needs more lubs:

Passing Sacrament, Allergist, Potty Training, Never Nude

Daniel had his semi annual visit with the allergist two weeks ago.  Aaron had to take Daniel since the kindergarten picnic for Sarah was at the exact same time.  I took Sarah to the picnic while Aaron took Daniel to his appointment.  Aaron told the allergist how we have been giving Daniel eggs.  She wasn't concerned with it as long as he didn't get hives or have gastrointestinal issues--which he doesn't.  He does get a runny nose after he eats them, though.  Anyway, this visit is one where he gets his blood drawn instead of the back scratch test.  Aaron said Daniel SCREAMED when they stuck the needle in his arm to draw blood.  He can be a little dramatic at times and I guess this was one of those times.  He did get lots of prizes, though, so the drama seemed to work in his favor.  I called for the results yesterday.  The nurse said, "Keep avoiding all nuts, dairy, milk and eggs."  Hmmmm eggs did you say?!  I asked the nurse what I should do since he still does react to eggs, but not by having hives or GI issues, just by having a runny nose.  She didn't know what to do either.  She basically told me it was my call.  Well I am sure glad I paid for a specialist visit to be told it was my choice to decide whether my still allergic son can eat eggs or not.  Aren't they supposed to be the experts?!  Needless to say Aaron and I are divided on this issue so who knows what will happen.  Poor Daniel...at least some of the other allergens levels have gone down a little even if lower results are still Epi-Pen high if he gets exposed to them like casein, cashews, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, whey, and many more...  They also did a new lung function test on Daniel which shows his asthma affects his lower 1/3 of his lungs.  So when he gets an asthma attack it is the lower third of his lung that gets inflamed.  This doesn't really change how we treat it, it is just one of those tests that is more useful to the doctor than it is for us parents.  Daniel is one kid that helps me keep my nursing skills up to date--that's for sure!!

 

The other evening we told Noah to find his own pajamas.  A few minutes later this is what he came back wearing:

 I am sure his thought process went something like this, "Pajamas--Halloween costume...close enough."

Way back in March for my birthday present Aaron gave me a coupon saying that he would potty train Noah for me.  Wahoo one of the best presents ever!!  However, I didn't want to worry about it during the summer because I didn't think it sounded fun taking a newly potty trained child into public restrooms every five minutes with the other four kids in tow.  So once school started the pressure was on.  Aaron came home from work Friday and decided that was the day to start.  Aaron had figured out that ever since August 6, 2001 we have always had a child in diapers.  Most of the time we have had two kids in diapers and even at one point three kids in diapers.  That's around 4,406 days straight and around 26,436 diapers (guessing around 6 per day give or take).  Needless to say it was time to get over the diaper phase in our family!!  Here's Noah relaxing on mom right after getting his big boy underwear on.  Yes, he did pee on me shortly after.  Good thing I still love him.

Noah had a hard time learning that he had to point his boy part down inside the potty instead of letting it squirt around like a fire hose.  This is one reason why I am so glad we have hard surface floors on the main level!!!  It was a lot easier to clean it up off the hard surface than carpet!!  He had this little I forgot to point it down accident on the floor.

 Aaron came over to clean it up.  He tripped over the top of the potty and flipped it upside down.  He tried to flip the potty back over except it was full and ended up spilling it's contents all over his clothes, legs, feet, etc.  Too bad I was laughing too hard to get a picture of the look of horror on his face.  It still makes me laugh when I think about it.

 I do have to say that one of my most favorite quotes is from Marjorie Pay Hinckley when she said, “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”   After Aaron had a nice long shower with lots of scrubbing, a sanitary load in the laundry of his 'wet' clothes, and after I mopped the floor Aaron eventually saw the humor in it as well.  With five crazy kids you have to learn how to laugh at things--that's for sure!!

I must say that potty training is going pretty well.  We are on day three with no accidents and that has included two trips to the store and walking Sarah to and from school every day.  He has also stayed dry over two nights--not consistently, but that's still pretty good.  So far he's doing great!!  However, he has yet to go poop.  Right now he is a ticking time bomb--Whatever goes in HAS to come out at some point and we are on day four of no poop.  I know it can be any time that he will end up exploding from not being able to hold it anymore.  We are anxiously watching and waiting which isn't a very fun game knowing what we are waiting for :(.  Here's Noah modeling his awesome undies.  I must admit, though, I do miss feeling that cute padded diaper bum when I pick him up. 

Seeing as we have been stuck at home with potty training boy we haven't done too much this weekend.  We did have a family pizza, hamburger (for Daniel), and movie party on Monday afternoon.  Josh has been reading the Percy Jackson book series and really wanted to see the Lightning Thief movie.  He was so excited to watch it even though it was a lot different from the book.  That was our excitement for the weekend.

Matthew did get to collect Fast Offerings on Sunday morning.  Aaron was one of the drivers who took Matthew and another boy around to collect them.  I was hoping they would have the route that has our house on it, but they got a different route instead.  As far as I know things went ok for Fast Offering collection which is good.   Matthew was pretty excited to start using his priesthood.  He also got to pass the sacrament for the first time Sunday during Sacrament Meeting.  Aaron and I have been stressing about that for a long time.  Matthew has a hard time controlling impulses including, but not limited to, running over and saying hi to everyone in the crowd that he knows or thinks he knows.  He is also quite particular in how he likes to do things and is very vocal about his opinion as well.  Needless to say we were nervous about how things were going to happen.  Aaron volunteered to shadow Matthew while he passed, but they decided just to have the 12 year old Deacon's Quorum president shadow him.  Before church started I talked to Matthew and told him he HAD to be quiet and reverent.  Aaron also bribed him with a soda as well, but you never know with Matthew.  He has a mind of his own!!  Anyway, I was sweating bullets as time for the sacrament drew near.  We had a FULL meeting, too, because there were three baby blessings.  However, Matthew did AWESOME!!  The Deacon's Quorum president put his arm around Matthew and gently guided him around to where he needed to go.  The president would quietly whisper instructions and Matthew followed and was very quiet during the whole time.  The president was so sweet and patient with Matthew.  Things were great!  Afterward Matthew came to sit back down with us and was excited.  He has been looking forward to that for a LONG time.  When the meeting was over he started  asking the people around us, "Hey did I do a good job passing the sacrament?"  When we got to the foyer my primary teaching partner came over to talk to us.  She has a 24 year old son with autism so she has gone through everything we are now starting to go through.  She came over with tears running down her face saying she was so excited for Matthew and that he did such a great job!!  I start getting teary eyed just thinking about it.  It was a great experience.  Hopefully each Sacrament passing will be that good.  As Aaron said, "It was neat to watch the priesthood in action through one of my sons.  Also, equally impressive was the priesthood in action from one of Matthew's fellow deacons.  He shadowed Matthew around the chapel helping him pass the sacrament.  This is the purest act of the priesthood that I saw today, showing charity and love to one who needed it."

One last funny thing...Sarah refuses to wear a dress without wearing shorts underneath it.  If you are familiar with the TV series Arrested Development we have nicknamed her 'Never Nude'.   The other day I couldn't find her shorts for her to wear under her dress.  When it was time to go I was helping her get her seatbelt on when I saw she had found her own shorts--which happened to be denim.  What a funny girl.  So if you ever see her wearing a skirt or dress just know that there are shorts on underneath because my daughter is a 'Never Nude!'  What a funny girl!!