IEP Meeting, Valentine's Day, Secret Admirers, Red Dinner, Smoking

We have had a bit of a busy week.  With Preference for Matthew coming up we needed to get him some nice clothes to wear to the dance.  However, I am a bit nervous because one of the girls that is taking the special needs group called me last week and talked to me a bit about the plans, however, things weren't finalized.  She said she would call me later with more information and I haven't heard back from her yet and the dance is supposed to be Saturday....I am keeping my fingers crossed things work out ok.  Anyway, to stay on the positive side of things we did go out and pick up some nice clothes for Matthew to wear to the dance.  The theme is black and white and Matthew had grown out of his black pants so we needed to get some new ones anyway.  They happened to have suits on sale for pretty cheap and I also had a coupon so we decided to pick him up a suit.  When we got it home Aaron thought he'd be funny and try it on and sing his best rendition of 'Fat Guy in a Little Coat' from the Tommy Boy movie.  

 Thankfully he didn't rip it like Tommy Boy ended up doing in the movie!  He thought he was pretty hilarious and so did the kids.

Anyway, Matthew is all set for the dance.  Hopefully, I hear from one of the girls that are taking them soon--seeing as the dance is Saturday.  

In other things I was doing a bit of spring cleaning and decided my oven needed to be cleaned.  It had been a while since it had been cleaned so it was past due.  I turned the self cleaning feature on the top oven.  It automatically locked and put up the 4 hour time count down until it would be finished.  However, I forgot to actually check the oven before I turned on the self cleaning option which was a mistake.  I had forgotten to take out the last batch of cookies Josh had baked the day before.  Whoops!  There was so much smoke pouring out of the oven.  I just figured the oven was pretty dirty--I didn't realize that there was something actually burning inside it until I opened the oven after it was done self cleaning and found the burned remains of the last pan of cookies with the melted silicone baking sheet, too.   All that white stuff is ash baked on to the entire inside of the oven.  

It was so bad I had to do another oven clean the next morning to try and burn off all the ash because I couldn't scrub it off.  The inside of the oven is supposed to be blue if you can't tell.  It was bad!!

 After that self clean cycle my whole house smells of burning smoke.  It has been a week and my house still stinks of smoke.  It is bad.  I have left all the windows open during the day and bought a ton of Febreeze, but it still smells like we smoke 10 packs a day.  Ugh!!  Needless to say I have learned my lesson to check the oven before I do another oven clean again.  I am hoping I don't get any anonymous Nicorette gum packs left on my front porch--haha!

The kids have been doing a fun fundraiser celebrating Valentine's for a few weeks.  For a quarter you can buy a Valentine-gram with a pencil and send it to whomever you want at the elementary school.  Sarah came home the other day with one that was sent to her from a Secret Admirer.  Hubba Hubba!  She was pretty excited.  She had an idea of who it came from, but wouldn't tell us :).

 I still think she is too young to have a secret admirer!!  She doesn't agree, though.

Noah is learning a bit about money at school.  They let the kids design their own person for the $100 bill.  Noah did his best self portrait.  I would love to have that awesome $100 bill!!

 Daniel got his basketball pictures back.  It is fun to see how they turn out.  Noah was supposed to get his done, but we spaced it that day and he didn't get there in time for the pictures :(.  We will make sure to get them next time!!

 Valentine's was yesterday.  Aaron loves making sure that Sarah gets a Valentine from him every year.  He gave her a pretty rose in a vase with a cute note asking her to be his Valentine.  He left it out for her to find when she woke up the next morning for breakfast.  What a sweet Dad!

Sarah had to get all Valentine-y for school.  We found a heart shirt and then did a heart hairdo for her to wear to school.

 Here's her heart bun that she wore.

 I braided the two sides of her hair back into the heart bun:

 I used enough hairspray that it still looked good this morning so she wore it again to school like that today, too.  Wahoo--double win!!

While I was getting Sarah ready for school Noah wrote her this sweet note that says, "You are the best sister in my life.  Will you be my Valentine,  Sarah 💓💓💓"

As we were getting everyone ready that morning I noticed Sarah asking for a shoe box.  I asked her why and she said she wanted to make one to put her Valentines in.  What?!  Her teacher said that Valentines were optional so I assumed they weren't going to make a big deal of them.  I knew they were going to have a party, but I didn't know she wanted to make her own Valentine's box.  We scrambled around and found an old shoe box and she started to decorate it.  Too bad Matthew's IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting with the special education teacher, regular education teacher, speech teacher, vice principal, us and Matthew was that morning and I ran out of time to help her with her box before I had to leave for the IEP meeting.  Had she mentioned that she wanted to make her own box the day before I would have been all over that, but seeing as I had no idea about the box she was on her own to decorate it.  This is what she came up with:

 Pretty good for 15 minutes of work the morning of Valentine's Day!!

I knew Daniel's class was having a Valentine's party, too, but there was no word about Valentine boxes so I assumed they would have a holder for everyone at school.  That was not the case so Daniel just unzipped his backpack and laid it out over his desk for people to put the Valentines in.  I asked Daniel afterward why he didn't make a box and he told me because he wanted to use his backpack so he wouldn't have to share his treats.  What a stinker!!  That's parent tax evasion ;)!!

As for Noah they made their own Valentine holders at school so at least he had something to put his Valentine's in:

That morning was pretty crazy.  Since we did have the IEP meeting that morning Aaron stayed home from work and was able to help me get everyone ready for school before we had to leave.  It was so nice to have the help!!  After making sure everyone was ready for school and had their Valentine's we left for the IEP meeting.  When we got to the high school we had to find the classroom and then we met with Matthew's IEP team.  Before the meeting started they all took a turn to tell us how much they loved Matthew and what a special kid he is.  Matthew was there and when he gets embarrassed he doesn't quite know what to do so he started yelling out freeway exit numbers and city names.  We had to get him calmed down before we could proceed with the meeting.  Side note is Matthew LOVES getting on to Google maps and memorizing roads, exit numbers, cities, etc. That is what they let him do as a reward for good behavior in school.  He likes everyone to refer to him as the human GPS and to give the kid credit he really does know a lot of road numbers, exit numbers, city names, etc.  If I am driving around and trying to get somewhere Matthew will tell me the directions whether I want to hear them or not.  Seeing as he wants to be the human GPS, he likes to give anyone directions if he hears they are driving anywhere.  When he found out that they young men and young women in our ward were going to go to Snow College for youth conference he had their route mapped out for them despite them not going for another 4 months.  To make sure they were going to know the way he waited until Aaron and I were busy getting kids/lessons ready and not paying attention Sunday Morning to sneak onto Google maps and print out the directions to Snow College to give to the leaders at church.  Luckily, Aaron saw him carrying around some papers before we got in the car to go to church and asked what they were.  Matthew sheepishly told him they were driving directions for Snow College.  We made him leave the papers home because they don't need the driving directions yet.  I guess Aaron and I will be needing to check Matthew for map contraband before leaving for church or any youth activity until June.  We don't know what to do with that kid!!

Anyway, back to Matthew's IEP meeting after introductions were made all the participants went around and told us how they all loved Matthew.  Now I usually dread going to the IEP meetings because it mostly involves talking about behavior problems and possible solutions as well as how far behind Matthew is compared to his peers, basically focuses on the differences Matthew has compared to a typical person his age, etc.  It is hard to listen to, however, after hearing how much these people actually love Matthew it was reassuring to know they really want to help Matthew succeed.  Before it the IEP meeting started and Matthew was wound up yelling out driving directions the Spanish teacher was trying to calm Matthew down and speaking Spanish to Matthew.  Matthew actually could understand what the teacher was saying and in between yelling out driving directions would answer the teacher in Spanish.  Aaron and I don't speak Spanish so we don't know what was said, but we do know that Matthew understood and could respond in Spanish to his teacher.  That was pretty cool to see.  The teacher even mentioned that their next unit in Spanish was going to be about directions.  I am excited for Matthew because he will really love that, however, I am sure everyone else will probably groan because driving directions in Spanish won't be very helpful to very many people from our very own human GPS--haha!  Oh well, what can you do?!

The IEP went on and we made goals, saw Matthew's progress on his past goals and made a few decisions about Matthew's future.  The Spanish teacher did his part first and then it was the speech teacher's turn.  She started off by telling us about Matthew's strengths and how she loves having him in her social skills class.  We set a few goals then it was the special education teacher's turn.  Before she started she got teary eyed telling us about how special Matthew is and how much she enjoys having him in her class.  We set a few goals and then the Vice Principal chimed in telling us about a few experiences she has had with Matthew.  Now Matthew likes to get to know the people in charge at the school--the resource officer, the principal, the vice principals, the secretaries, etc.  so they all know who Matthew is.  The Vice Principal said she likes talking with Matthew when she sees him in the hallway.  She then shared two experiences she had with Matthew.  Just to let you know Matthew is an avid rule follower (most times).  Matthew was walking to class chatting with the Vice Principal when the Vice Principal saw a kid wearing a hat and told him to take it off because it not allowed.  The kid completely ignored the vice principal after two requests.  After that Matthew went over and told the kid to take off his hat because it was against the rules.  The kid just looked at Matthew, took off his hat while muttering and walked away.  Another experience is they were having a school wide assembly and Matthew couldn't find his friend to sit with.  He was really upset and had a hard time calming down.  The Vice Principal found two seats and said that she would be his friend and to sit by her for the assembly.  As they were sitting down one of the school body officers moved chairs so she could sit by Matthew.  That calmed Matthew down enough where the Vice Principal could leave, but she kept coming back to check on Matthew to make sure he was ok.  The student body officer was able to calm him down and he was happy sitting by her.  When the Vice Principal came to check on him a few times Matthew just waved her away because he was too interested in watching the assembly sitting by his student body officer friend.  It was reassuring to know that Matthew has a bunch of people that look out for him at school.  I always worry about that because kids that age can be mean, so it was nice to hear good stories about people watching out for him.  Don't get me wrong, Matthew does have his trying times even at school, but overall the whole IEP meeting went really well.  I actually walked out of there with tears in my eyes because it turned out to be an uplifting meeting.  It was great to have an uplifting IEP meeting and to also have that stressing task checked off my list.

After the IEP meeting I picked up a FiiZ drink to congratulate myself for getting through that hurdle and to sustain me through the next hurdle which was helping with Daniel's class Valentine's Party.  No rest for the weary--haha!  Since I wasn't going to be home when Matthew got home from school I left him a note saying that I was helping in Daniel's class and for him to go on to his after school program.  He gets upset if I am not home when he gets home from school and even more upset if I am gone and haven't left a note telling him where I am.  I didn't want him to get upset so I left a note saying I was helping out for Daniel's class party at the elementary school hoping he would be ok with that.  Anyway, as for Daniel's class party I didn't sign up to help for the party, but the teacher (who happens to be a neighbor) asked me to help with the food because of Daniel's allergies.   I didn't mind helping.  The teacher wanted to pick up pizza for the students so the day before she dropped off some money so I could go pick up the pizzas.  I also picked up some Daniel safe cookies and called a few other parents and had them bring Daniel safe foods, too.  We all got to the classroom before the party started to set up.  The kids were so excited to see the pizza!  After getting them all situated with their food and drink, they started in with playing the Valentine games another mom had prepared.  As I was watching the games I was surprised to get summoned over to the teachers desk because the office wanted to talk to me.  I was confused until I picked up the phone and the secretary told me my son was calling.  I guess my note to Matthew wasn't enough and he still needed to see where I was at.  I didn't even know he knew the phone number to the elementary school.  Luckily, I just told the secretary to tell Matthew to go on ahead to his after school program and that was all he needed to hear to make things ok.  That crazy kid!!  Anyway, back to Daniel's party during the games the teacher told me about Daniel's Valentine.  Daniel had mentioned he wanted to ask a girl to be his Valentine, but after mentioning it to his friend, his friend asked the girl to be his Valentine instead.  Daniel wasn't too pleased about that, but what can you do?!  Daniel wouldn't tell me the name of his Valentine, but in talking to the teacher she told me who she thought it was.  It was nice to get some insider information from the teacher--haha!  The party was fun and Daniel's backpack worked out great for a Valentine's drop box so we dodged a bullet there--haha!  Next year I will be sure to double check with the kids about Valentine boxes before their parties!!

When we got home from school I was looking through Sarah's valentines I found a few interesting ones.  There was this one that said, "I like you, so long as the ocean is blue".  There wasn't a name signed to it, either.  What a suave, debonair kid!

 Then there was this one that Sarah let slip was her real Valentine.  I covered his name for Sarah's privacy, but he signed his name along with 'your love'.  Hubba hubba, Sarah!!  Even as young as she is she is a heart smasher--haha!  I volunteer in her class so now that I know who it is, I will really have to check him out--haha!

 Noah had a sweet Valentine for Aaron and me.  It was a cut out of his hand.

On the inside it said, "I love you Mom and Dad".  I LOVED it!!

In Matthew's after school program they had a Valentine's party, too.  They made their own Valentine holders (I was glad I didn't mess up on that Valentine holder, too).  Anyway, he got lots of fun stuff from the other clients and staff at the program.  They also played some fun Valentine games, too.

 With 4 of my 5 kids doing Valentine stuff at school or after school Josh felt a little left out.  Poor guy!  It is hard to get older and miss out on the fun Valentine parties!

For dinner I thought we could have a fun 'Red' dinner.  I dyed the spaghetti noodles red.  We also had red sauce, garlic bread with red Salad Supreme seasoning and a red strawberry smoothie to drink.  

 For dessert I decorated sugar cookies for each kid.  Who knew that working in a bakery as a teenager would help me out later in life--haha!

 Saturday Aaron and I tried out a new recipe we found.  It is a pierogi casserole.  Here's the recipe.  Aaron served his mission in Canada with a lot of Ukranian people that served these so he learned to love them.  A pierogi is like a ravioli only instead of stuffed with cheese it is stuffed with mashed potatoes and onions.  Surprisingly enough the kids didn't really like it.  Aaron loved it, but it was a bit too rich for me.  He made a ton of pans so when we found out the kids didn't care for it we gave some away to the neighbors.  Their kids liked it a lot so it turned out good in the end.  Here's what ours looked like:

We love trying out new and interesting recipes.  We will have to see what we try out next weekend.

Noah is the master of sneaking out of bed after being tucked in.  However, I don't get too upset because I get to have lubs in the evening.  Aaron just tells me I spoil him, but I still don't care.  I love my baby lubs!

 Even though I drive everywhere I still make Aaron nervous.  This meme basically sums up Aaron watching me park--haha!

Spit Test, Cars, Hitler Car, Dentist, Sleepy, Sick Dog

This past week went by fast!  Last week Aaron was in New Mexico on a business trip.  It always makes for a long week when he is gone.  Anyway, he got a Mustang as a car rental and he and his work buddy took it out for some fun on Route 66 after they first got it.  Here is Aaron posing in front of the car:

 I guess the car had a Mustang emblem that would show up at night which was pretty cool:

 While Aaron was gone I got to take the kids to the dentist.  Amazingly enough no one had any cavities.  Wahoo!  Here is Noah getting sealants put on his back molars:

 Here's Josh waiting for his turn with the hygienist.  Doesn't he look excited--haha?!:

 I like to keep up on autism research and last week I found a world wide DNA study a company is doing.  I went ahead and signed our family up.  A few days later our DNA kit came in.  We had to spit in a test tube and they actually needed quite a bit of saliva.  It took a good 2-3 minutes to fill up.  It was kind of gross, but we did it anyway.  They wanted the autistic child, one full blooded sibling, and both biological parents to submit samples.  Josh was the sibling that got to participate.  Josh was quite the overachiever when it came to filling up the test tube.  He filled his within a minute.  I wonder if he could use that on any talent shows because it was pretty impressive--haha!  Anyway, Matthew really didn't like filling his tube, but he was a trooper and did it anyway.

 We should find out our results in a month or two.  They are also testing for other genetic weird things, too, but mostly autism.  They are looking to isolate the autism genes so that is why they are looking at families of autistic individuals.  The last autism study we participated in was 11 years ago down at the University of Utah and it was pretty interesting.  The not only took DNA samples from Matthew, Josh, Aaron and me, but they also did IQ tests on all of us, too.  It was an interesting experience.  I figure if we can help figure out anything about autism we should do our part.  Besides what could be more fun than spitting in a bottle for science--haha?!

Noah fights going to bed every night.  As soon as I tuck him in he pops right out of bed and says he needs lubs with his pillow and curls up with me on the couch.  How can I resist?  I know he is tired because he usually falls asleep within a few minutes of getting lubs, but I don't mind.  I am trying to enjoy my last baby.  I know there won't be too many more times that he wants lubs with his pillow so I am enjoying it.  Aaron says I am spoiling him, but I don't care.  I love it.

 Our whole car situation change this last week.  We have had the Suburban and the Hyundai up for sale.  I HATE being the one responsible to show the cars to people so I would set up times for people to come and see the cars while Aaron was home so he could take care of it.  However, wouldn't you know it, a family we had been texting back and forth who lived in Jensen, Utah (out by Vernal) decided to come up while Aaron was out of town which meant I had to be the one to show them the car--boo!  I hated that because they would ask me technical questions about the car and I would look like a deer in the headlights.  I must have not been a very good salesmen because the people didn't buy it.  However, the next day after Aaron was back in town another couple came too look at the Suburban and they bought it.  Aaron must be a better salesman than I am which isn't hard to do by the way--haha!  We followed the people to the bank so they could finalize the loan and we could get the money.  It was sad to see the Suburban parked in the parking lot knowing this would be the last time we would see/drive it.

 We had lots of trips and good memories in that car.  Happy trails!

Anyway, we had Aaron's car up for sale at the same time.  The crazy thing is Aaron got a couple calls to see the Hyundai while we were waiting at the bank to finalize the title transfer to the couple about the Suburban.  As soon as we got home from the bank a guy came by and bought the Hyundai.  So we sold both cars within an hour of each other even though they had both been up for sale for 2 1/2 weeks.  Crazy how things work out.  Aaron was a bit sad to see the Hyundai go, too.  He had had this car before he had met me so it was the last piece of his bachelorhood he was hanging on to.

It was so weird to be down to just two cars--the van and the old blue truck.  Our garage looked empty!

The next day was a Saturday and it was a BUSY day.  We had to go to the bank first thing in the morning to deposit the check from the sale of the Suburban.  Then we had a friend's baptism to go to, Beth Einzinger.  The kids think it is fun to see their friends get baptized.  I got to hold baby Drew throughout the baptism and I didn't mind.  I miss having a baby, but that chapter in my life has passed so I will just enjoy someone elses baby.

After the baptism luncheon Aaron and I got to go car shopping.  We had been passively looking online to see what was available on the off chance our cars would sell.  It was a good thing because they both sold at the same time.  I wanted a reliable car so we were looking at Toyotas.  We ended up getting a used Camry for Aaron to mostly drive.  On the times that I have to work I will be taking it, but Aaron will drive it most of the time.  Aaron didn't want a white car because he is not a fan of the color white, but we found a good deal and we compromised.  I didn't like the front black grill, but the car was the right price so that's what we got.

 It is fun to drive.  I nicknamed it the Hitler car because the front grill looks like a Hitler mustache.  Oh well, what can you do?!  I am just glad to have reliable transportation!  The kids overheard me and now call it the Hitler car, too.  Hopefully no one will get offended by that...

 That Saturday was so long!  We didn't get back home until 8 pm.  It was a crazy day, but pretty productive!  Later that night after the kids were in bed Aaron and I were watching some TV when I noticed Aaron had fallen asleep in my lap.  I was going to finish the TV show we were watching before we went to bed.  A few minutes later I noticed Sophie start dry heaving on my blanket.  Nasty.  I jumped up to move her to somewhere else and in the process of me jumping up Aaron got jerked awake and almost knocked the floor--the poor guy.  Luckily, Sophie ran off the blanket and was on the laminate before she barfed so it made it easier to clean up.  Gross!  It made me dry heave as I was trying to clean it up, too.  Ick!  I had no idea why she was sick until I walked into my closet and saw a chewed open bag of chocolate Cadbury eggs Sophie had dug out of my closet and gone to town on.  Judging by the leftover eggs she had eaten quite a few chocolate eggs which obviously didn't agree with her.  Luckily, she only barfed one more time and then was good as new.  I am a bit frustrated because she still needs supervision when she is loose in the house.  Since Aaron and I were out car shopping the kids were supposed to be watching her.  Well you can see how well they 'watched' her.  Ugh!  Oh well, what can you do?!  Luckily, milk chocolate isn't as bad for dogs since it has so many other ingredients in it besides chocolate.  Don't get me wrong it still isn't good for dogs to ingest, but better than dark chocolate which is really bad for dogs.  I am glad she was ok after eating so many chocolate eggs--the stinker!  She's not as innocent as she looks--trust me:

The next day, Sunday, we went to church.  Noah had a bit of some ants in his pants during Sacrament meeting.  It got bad enough Aaron tried to take Noah out.  When Noah figured out what was happening he didn't want to leave because sitting in the foyer with Dad is not fun.  He laid down on the floor in front of Matthew and Josh's feet to try to make it too hard to be picked up to be taken out--the stinker!  Luckily, Aaron is a pro when it comes to these types of kid tactics so Aaron was still able to pick him up and get him out to the foyer without too much of a scene.  Wouldn't you know it a few minutes after getting out to the foyer Noah fell fast asleep on Aaron. No wonder he was being so naughty--he was tired!

During Relief Society a sister who had just had twin babies came and sat down a few seats away from me.  I scooted down and asked if she would like some help during the lesson and she said yes.  I was pretty excited.  I got to hold a sweet 3 month old baby during Relief Society.  He was so sweet.  She held the other twin.  They were really good and didn't cry thank goodness!  I was glad to be able to help and even more glad to be able to snuggle a sweet baby!  I have to get my baby fix from somewhere, right?!

As soon as we got home from church we had a Superbowl party at our house with the Einzingers.  We had lots of yummy food and watched the game.  I am not much of a football person, but it was an interesting game to watch.  The commercials were ok to watch, too.  Aaron is sad that the football season is over, though.

Daniel, Josh and Matthew all got FitBits for Christmas.  A FitBit is a cool pedometer that you can sync up with a computer so you can network with different people.  I have loved mine and had it for about 4 years.  The kids were excited to now be able to compete with me in getting the most steps in.   Now with the FitBit you can do challenges with people to see who can get the most steps over the week or weekend.  We have done a few challenges the last couple weeks.  I lost every single one.  I don't mind, though.  Daniel takes these competitions pretty seriously--he is quite competitive.  He won one and it was because he kept doing stuff like this comic:

 Matthew won one because he is a bit competitive, too.  Poor Sophie sure got walked a lot during that competition.  It got to the point that as soon as Matthew would grab the leash she would hide.  Poor girl!  It has been fun competing with them.  Maybe someday I might actually win a challenge--how's that for wishful thinking?!

Happy Tears, Pancake Guy, Klondike, Stinky Socks, Armor, Quesadilla Party, Parent Teachers

We have had a slow week and I am ok with that!  Here's a catch up of our happenings.  Noah continues to have basketball and he continues to lose interest in it really fast.  By the end of the last practice he was sitting on the floor, trying to do the splits like Sarah does, messing with his shorts, etc.  I think I am safe to say that basketball is not his thing.  What a funny kid!  He's the one sitting with his knees up in the picture:

Josh is the spokesman for the Lumberjack Club (pancake club) at school.  That means he gets to make the morning video announcements for the whole school to see every other week when it is time for Lumberjack Club.  He gets his creative juices flowing for the announcements.  For example this past week they were going to have banana chocolate chip pancakes so to announce that Josh used his cheesy sense of humor and pretended to slip on a banana peel and fall while he was announcing the Lumberjack Club.  After getting up he said something like, "Well I just slipped on a banana peel so that must mean we will be having banana pancakes Friday morning for Lumberjack Club.  Hope to see you all there!"  I guess he gets pretty creative with the different flavors of pancakes they have every other week.  I had to take Josh to get allergy shots Friday morning after Lumberjack Club, of course!  When he got done I went to check him back in school and the secretary told me multiple times all about Josh's funny announcements.  She said I should come watch the announcements one of these times because he is funny.  Because of these announcements he is now getting to be known as 'The Pancake Guy' at school--haha!  I am glad he loves the Lumberjack Club so much!

 Sarah had another performance for dance at an assisted living center.  She is the one on the far left side as the dancers are starting their dance:

 It is fun to watch her perform.  She's the middle dancer:

 Josh had the Klondike camp out this weekend.  If a chilly -7 degrees is your idea of a fun time this past weekend the perfect weekend to go!  I kept thinking about him while I was sitting in front of the nice, warm fireplace.  They went up past Morgan to camp.  However, Josh said he had fun despite being cold.  Here's the group of boys that went:

 I am grateful to the leaders that are willing to go with the boys on these 'fun' camp outs.

 They had spaghetti for dinner and Josh made sure there were no leftovers.  Where that kid puts all the food he consumes I will never know!!

 One of the leaders provided pictures of the whole camp so we could view them from the warmth of our own homes.  Did I mention I am grateful for the leaders who are willing to go camping in -7 degree weather?!  Daniel has mixed feelings about being old enough and able to go next year--haha!  Here's the sled they used:

 Thankfully, Josh didn't get run over with the sled this year like he did last year.

They did different activities through the morning.

 When Josh got home he went straight to take a really long hot shower.  I don't blame the kid.  Thank goodness for indoor plumbing with hot water!

It is crazy how fast my kids are growing up.  Monday afternoon I asked Sarah to prepare the lesson for FHE fully expecting to help her.  She surprised me and she went and prepared most of it by herself.  I had to help her find a scripture to go along with the lesson, but she did the rest.  She found a story in the Friend Magazine and based the lesson off of that.  She did a good job.  I know kids are supposed to get more independent as they get older, but every time they do something independent like that it still catches me off guard!  Anyway, everyone else did their part as in prayers, songs, and an activity in addition to the lesson.  Aaron decided for the activity we would go and get Pace Bars from Paces.  Let me just say I have super sensitive teeth so just the thought of actually biting a Popsicle or ice cream makes me shudder.  Aaron thinks it is funny to tell the kids to stand in front of me and take a big bite of their Popsicles to watch me cringe.  Daniel thought it was a good idea and took a HUGE bite of his Popsicle in front of me, but before he could chew and swallow he got a HUGE brain freeze--haha!

 An interesting side note is a lot of people know who Matthew is.  He is not shy (unlike me) and loves talking to people.  It seems like most of the time I take him to the store or anywhere for that matter there is someone there who knows Matthew and will say hi to him.  Most of the time I have no idea who any of these people are, either.  Going to Paces is no different.  One of the employees said hi to Matthew as soon as we walked in.  The funny thing is Matthew doesn't quite know what to do when that happens so he will look away and start flapping his hands and make weird noises until we tell him he should say hi back.  Despite the different response they get from Matthew I am so glad people do say hi to him, though!

Josh and Sarah didn't do the bite challenge, but just ate their Popsicles normally which I was glad for!  I still think people who can bite their ice cream, Popsicles, etc. are not normal!

 Sophie loves all things that are stinky which is gross.  Her favorite thing is stinky socks.  If you sit down on the couch and take off your shoes she will immediately come over and try to pull your stinky sock off so she can chew on it.  What a weird dog.

 We have to keep the laundry room door closed or she will go to town with all the stinky socks in there.  When the door is accidentally left open she is like a kid in a candy store and doesn't know where to even start with so much stink--7 people in the same household makes for a lot of stinky socks at the end of day!!  What a weirdo!

Last night the youth visited the Ogden Temple and did Baptisms for the Dead.  Here's the young men that went--Josh is the tallest one right in the middle.  He's even taller than all the leaders at this point:

 Matthew didn't go because he has a hard time waiting long periods of time while being reverent.  After a few minutes of hurrying up and waiting (which happens with large groups in the baptistry) he starts getting agitated, impatient and loud so we usually keep him home during these trips.  He does better if he goes one on one with Aaron so that is what he does instead.

This past week Aaron was in charge of Pack Meeting.  A Cub Scout was getting his Arrow of Light award so Aaron wanted to do a lesson on the Stripling Warriors with their Armor of God.  After figuring out what Aaron wanted to do he came to me and asked me to make some Armor of God.  Hmmm whose calling is this ;)?!  Anyway, I was glad to help so I came up with a red helmet, a wooden breastplate, a leather shield, and foam sword, a leather loin cloth and leather strip sandals.

Good thing Daniel was a willing model for me so I could get the measurements right!!

The next Pack Meeting is the Blue and Gold Banquet which Aaron has already asked me to help him plan it.  I keep asking whose calling the Cub Master is, but he just smiles and asks me to help him again.  Good thing I love him!!

I got an email from Matthew's teacher this morning and it about made me cry.  Here's what it said:

"Hi!  There's a group of really good kids who are taking kids from our class and the functional skills classes to preference.  The group asked if they could take Matthew.  When they asked him, he was ecstatic!  He gave them your number so they could call you  and talk to you about it.  If you have any questions or comments, please fell free to email or call me.  Thank you!"

Oh my goodness!  I am so excited for Matthew to go to the Preference Dance!!  I am so thankful for such good kids to be inclusive!  If it wasn't too weird I would give them all a huge hug while I cried happy/thankful tears!!  I am sure Matthew is beyond excited!

In speaking about Matthew his favorite gift from Christmas was a quesadilla maker.  Oh my goodness he has eaten so many quesadillas since he got that thing!  He loves it because he can make it all by himself.  He loves it so much he asked his Spanish teacher if he could bring it Friday morning to make quesadillas for the whole class.  The Spanish teacher told him yes and to bring the quesadilla maker Friday morning.  Matthew was excited, but didn't have a cell phone so he had a friend text me to tell me about it.  Who knew a quesadilla maker could be such a perfect gift--haha!  I guess there will be a quesadilla party in Spanish Friday morning--wahoo!

This week was parent teacher conferences for the elementary kids.  We met with Sarah, Daniel and Noah's teachers yesterday and it was all good.  All three kids are doing great and are loving school.  Daniel continues to be Mr. Chatty, but it hasn't gotten in the way of his school work.  She was most impressed with his 100% on the end of term Math test--wahoo Daniel!  Sarah is still quiet, but sweet.  She does great work and is one of the top in her class.  Noah is silly, but gets his work done.  He is one of the best readers in the class, however, we still need to work on comprehension, though.  He did get 100% on a Math pretest which was pretty awesome.  A side note for him, though, is he likes to play with Daniel and Sarah's multiplication table flash cards for fun.  Not something that I would consider fun to do, but whatever floats his boat--haha!  At parent teachers I love to hear what the teachers have to say about each kid.  I also love going through the folders and seeing the examples of work from each of the kids.  All three kids got really great teachers this year which I am glad for!  When we got home Sarah set up her whole example folder of Native American stuff so we could see all of it.  She was pretty proud of all the work she had done:

 She actually could tell us quite a bit about the different Native American tribes which I thought was pretty neat.

Yesterday was the 100th day of school.  Noah's teacher sent home a note saying the kids were supposed to bring 100 edible items to put together to make a trail mix.  I actually remembered (which is a big deal!) and was able to send Noah with 100 chocolate chips.  Noah came home and said they had a fun time doing different 100 number activities.  They also enjoyed their trail mix which consisted of pretzels, M&Ms, chocolate chips, cereal pieces, etc.  It sounded like fun!

Aaron is getting ready to go out of town soon which I hate, but what can you do?!  He went to the store last night to get a few things and surprised me with a 'survival stash'.  He bought me some chocolate Cadbury Mini Eggs and some gummy cinnamon hearts.  It almost makes being a single mom bearable.  It was sweet nonetheless!

We got a surprise yesterday when Matthew got home from his after school program.  Someone had donated hundreds of shoes to the program at RISE which meant every client was able to pick out a new pair of shoes to keep.  Matthew was pretty excited to get a new pair of Velcro shoes!  Wahoo!  I think it was pretty neat for someone to do that!

If you don't know Aaron, Josh and I like to experiment with recipes.  This last weekend we made a French Dip sliders recipe that turned out pretty good.  Here's the recipe for the French Dip Sliders.

Josh ended up making Sunday dinner.  He wanted to make Chicken Parmesan which ended up pretty good!  Here's the recipe for Chicken Parmesan.  However, we baked it instead of fry it, but it still turned out pretty good!