Wow it has been a bit crazy around here so I am quite a bit behind. To try and catch up I will have to break this post into two different ones to try to catch up. December is so crazy. Every year as the kids get bigger it seems to increase the craziness, too. Anyway, here's part one on my catch up. As the kids get bigger snuggling with them gets less and less. The other day Noah curled up with Aaron and fell asleep. Aaron was loving it. This is the biggest thing I miss about having little kids so I will take snuggles when I can get them!
Daniel had his first concert with his baritone saxophone. They had their first concert in October, but we were gone on our cruise so we missed it. It was cool to see Daniel play, and hear him since he is the only baritone sax player, during the concert. Here he is as they were getting set up for their performance:
The baritone sax is almost as big as he is:
We also got to hear him play in the Jazz Band as well. Since there is no room during the school day for that class everyone in Jazz Band goes twice a week before school starts (7 AM) for their class. It is fun to finally hear the Jazz band play.
Noah---what to say about Noah. He has a hard time sitting still which poses a bit of a problem during school. Luckily, he has a pretty chill teacher, but she finally had to put a behavior plan in place to try and keep his chatty 'ants in his pants' behavior toned down. I set up a reward system. His teacher marks his behavior plan paper anywhere from a 5 up to a 15 according to his daily behavior. A '5' rating is the best meaning there were no problems that day and a '15' is the worst. If he comes home with a 5 or a 6 he can get some screen time on the computer. I also told him if he could go 10 days without anything higher than a 6 I would take him out for a treat just me and him. He did that within the first 2 weeks. I then made him a deal that if he could go a whole month with nothing higher than a 6 I would take him out to eat anywhere he wanted to go just me and him. He is getting really close to achieving the going out to eat within the next week. Wahoo! He is doing great. It is hard for Noah because he already knows everything they are being taught at school so he gets really bored and tries to liven things up by goofing off with friends. That is not the best solution so I am glad he is channeling his energy into other things. He is super smart in all things math so when the kids have problems and the teacher doesn't have time to to help them she sends them over to Noah to have him help. Anyway, he has been doing awesome the last month so he is starting to figure out where he wants to go for dinner. Here he is enjoying his hard earned shake after doing great on his behavior plan:
Josh is taking a few concurrent enrollment college classes this semester. He got his first taste at having a group project last month and was irritated that not everyone took care of their own part of the group assignment. I have always HATED group assignments just for that reason, but it is a good way to learn how to compromise and delegate as well as the responsibility to get the job done no matter what even if you have to do someone else's part in addition to your own. He also got to learn how to finish up other people's parts last minute because it effects his grade, too. He came home last week and said they were doing another group project and he is not as excited about it, either. I found this meme and sent it to him because I can understand his lack of excitement for such an opportunity--haha!
We have a few Christmas traditions we like to do every year. After one family home evening we went for a drive to see the Christmas lights. We did stop by the Layton Commons Park because they do such a great job setting up all the lights to see. Another great bonus is that it is FREE which makes it that much more awesome!
Sarah has been helping out with student council at school. The Student Council finally got their shirts, sweatshirts and bags a few weeks ago. Sarah was excited and has worn her sweatshirt a lot the last few weeks. I am glad she likes it!
I still have been working, but in December and January there aren't too many clinics. I am still doing both jobs--immunizations and the clinical instructing for CNA students. Anyway, during one immunization clinic I looked up my vaccination history and there was nothing listed. I know I am fully vaccinated, but I don't have any proof of anything. So to just stay on the safe side of things I decided to get my vaccines again so I can have proof that I am fully vaccinated. It doesn't hurt to get extra vaccines so I decided to go for it. I got 4 shots--two in each arm. I got my MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella), TDAP (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis), Hepatitis A and my Hepatitis B. My arms were a bit tender for a few days, but I am good now. The MMR, Hep A and Hep B are two shot series so I have to get the second round in 6 months. No biggie since I can get them done at most any clinic I will be working--haha!
A few weeks ago everyone was gone in the house except for Noah and me. It was so weird. Matthew was at his special needs mutual, Josh and Daniel were at a city youth council activity, Aaron had taken Sarah to a dance thing so it was just me and Noah at home. We had some ice cream and watched some AFV (America's Funniest Home Videos) since Noah LOVES that show. It was fun just to have some time with Noah alone. That hardly ever happens so Noah was pretty excited about it, too.
Matthew loves to go for walks with Sophie. He has his set route and he walks it a lot. Since he is a super social kid (definitely did not get that from me!!) he has gotten to know a few people along his route. There is one family that has been super sweet to Matthew. They came to his birthday party and they also came to our sacrament meeting when Matthew played the piano. During one of his walks they gave Matthew a Christmas present. They knew he liked trains so they game him a few treats and a LEGO train set. He was so excited to come home and show us. Although Matthew can be hard to live with some times I am always amazed at the love other people have shown him. I am so grateful!
Speaking of Matthew he has had a busy December, too. He got his Food Handler's Permit at his school and loves to learn how to cook different meals. He had his friend text me a picture of some breakfast casserole he made at school:
He wants to make it at home for us, too. I guess I need to pick up the ingredients so he can cook for us. We also had his IEP meeting at his new school with his new teacher, principal, etc. They changed up his IEP to reflect the things they work on at Vista. Although I was really apprehensive to go to his IEP it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. His new teacher and principal are really nice and we set some really good goals for Matthew to work on. His vocational rehab counselor was there, too.
We are also in the middle of applying for Supplemental Social Security for Matthew. There have been so many hoops to jump through it has been crazy. He had to have a psychological evaluation and a thorough IQ test done by an independent 3rd party. We met with someone December 23 for 2 hours. It was crazy, but hopefully, he will be that much closer to receiving SSI soon.
Matthew had a Court of Honor in his special needs mutual and received a few Merit Badge patches for the ones he had completed. He was pretty excited to show us what he had completed.
Aaron loves to smoke things on his smoker. I actually really enjoy it, too, since that means I have rarely cooked Sunday dinner for a while--wahoo! Anyway, with prepping food to smoke it makes for a lot of dirty prep dishes. I am all for putting EVERYTHING in the dishwasher, however, there are a few sheet pans that don't fit int he dishwasher that have to be washed by hand. Magically these always got washed and put away every time Aaron would smoke something. After awhile I got really tired of cleaning up these pans I didn't use. I tried leaving them in the sink to see if anything would get done with them--it didn't. The dirty daily dishes got stacked around them--ugh! I finally threw a little fit about me being the only to wash the big pans even though I wasn't the one that dirtied them (not my finest moment). Aaron didn't realized how annoyed cleaning those pans made me so after I brought up that issue (in a not nice way) that seemed to do the trick at least for now. I have taught my kids that part of cooking is cleaning up your mess when you are done. I am glad that that issue has been dealt with and I hope it continues as well--haha! I sent Aaron this meme trying to encourage it--haha!
Sophie is a snuggler. Every time someone is sitting or laying on the couch she jumps up and snuggles right in with them. The kids love it, too. She gets excited when the kids get home from school. When they sit or lay down she snuggles right up with them. Here she is with Daniel:
Daniel will be getting his Learner's Permit later this year--which is so scary!! Aaron has let Daniel move the car around a few times just to let Daniel experiment. It is so scary to see him behind the wheel--not that he is a scary driver, just that I still see him as a 5 year old kiddo! The fact that he will be driving soon is crazy to me!! Here he is backing the car out of the driveway:
Aaron wanted to see the new Star Wars movie. He took Daniel and Josh along to a late night viewing and they had fun watching it together. The reclining seats made it that much more fun. Aaron made sure to wear his Chewbacca hoodie, too-haha!
The other day Aaron and I were out running errands. When we got back home Aaron bent over to do something and that's when I noticed a nice hole in his shorts. He had been walking around all day like that and neither one of us realized there was a nice hole in his shorts. Nice. Here's a picture of it in case you didn't see it while we were walking around--haha!
December is the time for Christmas parties. I got to go to my Community Nursing Services (the immunization program) Christmas party which was held down at Gardner Village in Salt Lake. We had lunch together and it was pretty fun. Here's everyone that was there:
We also got to go to a Christmas party with some coworkers of Aaron's. It was potluck and was some of the yummiest food. Since I am not able to get on base I don't ever get to see the people Aaron works with so it was nice to go to this party and meet some people he works with--put some names with some faces that I have heard about. We also had our ward Christmas party as well.
There has been a 10 year challenge where you post a picture of you 10 years ago and then a recent picture to compare. Here's our 10 year challenge of our family:
A LOT has changed in 10 years. Life was busy 10 years ago, but it is super busy now, too with a few more complications thrown in for good measure. We have learned and grown a lot, but at times I feel like I don't know anything, too. It has been a crazy ride, but I wouldn't change it for the world!! I love my family!
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