Friday, June 14, 2013

Potty Training #4

My original goal was to potty train Nathan in April.  But April came and went.  May came and went.  I was down to the wire.  I had 1 week left in June to potty train before the kids were out of school and I wouldn't be able to give Nathan the attention he needed to potty train.  So I cleared my calendar the last week of school to pass out juice boxes, pee pee treats and poop treats.  I know . . .  you're all jealous.  Potty training has got to be just about the least favorite job of every mother I've ever talked to.  Giving birth is up there too with the least favorites, but at least it's over faster!

I have to say, the 1st four days were awesome.  On night #2 Nathan was already dry all night long and for naps.  He was doing everything right!  I couldn't help but think that I was pretty dang good at potty training (reminder to self:  never get too prideful).

Well, then day #5 hit and it was ALL downhill.  He had something like SEVEN accidents!  I was floored, grossed out, and ready to pull my hair out!  Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to Nathan. Maybe staying up late at that neighborhood party the night before made him too tired to care.  What had happened?  So on day #6, Sunday, I was determined to stay on top of things.  It was our regular crazy morning of trying to get to church on time.  Brandon was gone to meetings before anyone else even woke up.  We had breakfast and I knew Nathan would need to pee soon.  I put him on the potty, but he was having a hard time going.  Jonah called me for whatever "crisis" he was momentarily experiencing.  I left Nathan.  And then . . . he committed the ultimate potty training sin.  He left the potty.  He crawled into the very back of my closet.  While I'm not a very sentimental person, there is one item that all women tend to cherish, put in an unreachable place, out of sight from children, and protect.  That's right.  You guessed it.  Nathan crawled into the back of my closet and PEED ON MY WEDDING DRESS!!!  Oh boy!  I completely lost it!  I think I scarred all of my children, especially Nathan, for life.  I'm pretty sure Brandon could hear the yelling all the way from the church.  I could hardly stand to look at Nathan but somehow I pulled myself together enough to dress Nathan, round up the kids and get to church where I quickly handed Nathan off to Brandon and instructed him to keep that kid away from me.  Apparently, a couple of my kids had run ahead of me into the chapel and announced to anyone within earshot that Nathan had peed on my wedding dress and Mom was REALLY mad.  There's nothing like sharing family drama with the whole ward.

Oops!  I forgot to mention.  When I got into the car to take the kids to church Jacob had left me this note on my seat:
"Dear Mom,
Heavenly Father gives us challenges.  Nathan is one of those challenges.  Please think and ponder this.
Love, Jacob"

Yep!  I'm being chastised by my 9 year old son for losing my temper and naughty behavior.  How humbling is that.  I knew it would take me a couple of days to cool off enough to laugh about this.  After all, wedding dresses can be cleaned.  It's expensive, but they can be cleaned.  And little boys are only little for a brief moment.  The sweet kisses and snuggles that Nathan gives me are a package deal with mischievous and sometimes naughty boyish moments.  I love my sweet Nathan more than a silly wedding dress.  But I have to say, I sure am glad to be forever done with potty training!
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Friday, May 17, 2013

Another Year at Hardware Ranch

We made our annual trek up to Hardware Ranch before the ranch closed for the year.  We missed having Nanny and Papa with us this year!  Brett's family joined us, which always makes things a little more fun.  We thought there would be tons of elk due to the hard winter, but there weren't!  Apparently we got a lot of snow in the valleys but the mountains didn't get that much!  It was probably the most disappointing year we've had there, but it's always fun to go!
 
I wonder if Jacob will EVER get tired of seeing these big animals.  Probably not!

Here's our family in front of the big horses that pull the sleigh.  At least this year Nathan didn't drop his glove out of the sleigh!

We love the little museum where everything is hands-on.  Sarah liked this moose antler.

Then it's to Frederico's for lunch!  YUM!  I bet you're really missing this trip now, Nanny!  Jacob, Samuel, Emma, Sarah and Annie ate a lot of pizza!  This crew is definitely getting more expensive to feed.

Jonah enjoyed the pizza too!  After lunch we split off from Brett's family and went to visit my Grandpa.  Too bad I didn't get pictures of that!  Grandpa, of course, had Creamies ready and waiting for us!  The kids also managed to find a few other treats at Grandpa's house too.  There's definitely not a shortage of sugar at Grandpas' house!
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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day with my kids.  I love it with my husband too, but buying stuff for my kids is just so darn fun!  I loving choosing a special book for each child.  Here's what I got this year!
 
 Jacob got the Guinness World Book of Records.  He was so excited!  He said this book is at their school library and has a HUGE waiting list to be checked out.  He couldn't wait to tell his friends and bring it to school to check out all the world records with them.  So cute! 
 
I know Sarah is old enough for chapter books and she reads them daily, but she still loves beautiful illustrations about princesses.  My mom found this beautiful Snow White book in a little book store in Illinois for me.  Thanks, Mom. 
 
Jonah is way into Legos.  He loves this sticker book and finding the right sticker for the right spot. 
 
Nathan grew to love Mickey Mouse on our trip to Disney World.  I knew he would love this Mickey book with lots of flaps to look under.  So fun!
 
And here's my darling Jonah who's developing quite a sweet tooth!  He couldn't wait to eat his chocolates, and have his preschool party so he could have his own treats.  I love that boy!
 
I know this is a boring post.  Sorry!  I'm just really trying to catch up.  I do remember that Brandon gave me chocolates and we went out.  That's all I remember.  Hopefully there will be more interesting things to come!
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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Jonah turns 5!!!

 I can't believe it's already been 5 years since that eventful car delivery one cold January morning!  Jonah has been so excited for his birthday.  He hasn't stopped talking about it since his 4th birthday.  Jonah got a friend party this year.  He could hardly wait.  But 1st we had our own little family celebration.  Store bough cupcakes worked great with the craziness of life at the moment.  Jonah wanted chocolate everything!
 
 Jonah got some super hero stuff from Grandma & Grandpa, Legos from Mom & Dad, and a new Rescue Bot from his siblings.
 
 Jonah wanted a super hero party!  Can you tell that's a green "J" for Jonah made out of M&M's?  One of the easiest cakes I've ever made!
 
 I really debated how to do this party so that it wouldn't be overwhelming for Jonah.  I could have invited a whole bunch of kids, but I knew that wouldn't go well.  So I kept it to a very small group of boys.  Jonah didn't care how many kids there were or weren't.  He was just excited to have a party with friends!  We started by coloring giant pictures of super heroes while the boys arrived.
 
 After completing super hero training, the boys all received capes and masks.  These were so easy and required no sewing.  I just cut them out of felt.  The masks weren't great.  Oh well.  We also played fun games like the kryptonite game (hot potato), x-ray vision (penny, penny), Follow the Super Hero (Simon says), and Freeze (musical statues) to super hero music.  Don't you love putting a theme spin on old classic games that never fail.  They work for everything!
 
 Then we had cake and ice cream.  There was a lot of green since that's Jonah's favorite color!
 
 Jonah got some fun presents from his friends.
 
My darling niece, Hannah, was my super helper!  I knew there would be moments with Jonah when I would need to turn the party over to someone else while I helped him calm down . . . and there were those moments.  I was grateful Hannah could come help so things didn't get out of control.
 
Jonah loves green, Transformer Rescue Bots, building GeoTrax, Legos, cars, listening to music, playing with Sarah, and doing just about anything with his dad.  We sure do love you, Jonah!  You make our home an exciting place to be.  It's been a hard year.  I keep hoping it'll get easier, and in some ways it has I guess.  Sometimes it's just hard for me to wrap my mind around this autism thing.  I struggle to know where the line is between having high expectations that you'll live up to, and what's just too much to expect of you.  I find I mourn frequently the "normal" life everyone else seems to lead when ours is often so stressful.  And yet, I can see remarkable growth in all of us in our family because we have you with us.  I love your little quirks and funny ways.  They've become endearing to me.  I truly hope for you a successful life and that somehow I will be able to help you function as normally as possible, not because it's bad to be different but because I hope for you all the blessings that come with the gospel and family.
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Universal Studios

We wanted to take Jacob to Universal Studios to see all the Harry Potter stuff, but knew it wouldn't be a good fit for all of the family.  Why spend the extra money when it wouldn't be enjoyed?  So I spent an extra day with Sarah, Jonah and Nathan in the Magic Kingdom (with A LOT of extra help from Grandma and Grandpa) while Brandon took Jacob to Universal along with Rick and his boys, and Justin & Amy.
 
 But first I have to sneak in this picture of Nathan in his swim diaper.  There was a pool right outside our door and Nathan couldn't wait to swim!  I love those curls!  Due to the humidity his hair was exceptionally curly, and mine was completely hopeless.  Oh well.  I wasn't there to look good.
 
 Jacob & Daddy in front of the Hogwarts Express.  I have to admit, I WAS pretty jealous to miss the Harry Potter stuff and spend a day having fun without the 2 little busy body boys.  Brandon and I couldn't make up our minds until we were practically walking out the door as to who would do what.  But I really enjoyed the extra time with my parents and sisters, so it was worth it.
 
 Jacob in front of Hogwarts
 
 Brandon getting a little butter beer in Hogsmead
 
 Brandon trying to feed Jacob to a dinosaur, but the dinosaur spit him back out.  Bummer!  Just kidding, Jacob!  We love you!
 
 Jacob wasn't big enough to go on The Hulk ride, but that's okay because Brandon said it was probably the most intense ride he's ever been on.
 
At least Brandon brought me back some souvenir treats from Hogsmead.  The packaging was so fancy it was almost a shame to open them!  I'm glad you had fun, boys!  One day it'll be my turn to go!
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Disney World: The Magic Kingdom


Ahh!  We finally made it to the Magic Kingdom where all dreams come true!  We had SO much fun there!
 
Grandpa & Grandma were SO excited to be in Disney World with their adorable 12 grandchildren.  Now that 2 more babies have since joined the group we'll have to go back!  Jacob, at 9 years old, was the oldest kid there.  CRAZY!

Here's our family in front of Cinderella's castle ready to start a new day!
 
 Daddy, Nathan & Jonah on the carousel!

You can't always tell from the pictures but this was a hard trip for Jonah.  The minute we arrived at the airport he had a melt down.  He knew there would be a lot of new, unknown things on this trip and it was more than he could cope with.  While we had a great time, it took A LOT, and I mean A LOT, of energy focused on Jonah to keep him functioning.  It was pretty exhausting.  Luckily, Disney is wonderful and they gave us a disability pass.  We tried really hard not to abuse it.  If a line was 15 minutes or less we waited in line with everybody else.  Much longer than that the anticipation of a ride could kill it for Jonah.  We're talking about a kid who won't even go down the slide in his own backyard or sit to swing on swings.  My ultimate goal was to get him on Dumbo.  That was hard since his criteria for going on rides included NO flying, NO water, NO darkness, No scary things (Ursala in the Little Mermaid totally wigged him out), and NO fast anything.  Dumbo flies, so it was a tricky one.  But I showed him how to work the stick so he could keep his Dumbo low and that convinced him to give it a try.  I was amazed at all the new things he tried!  I'm so proud of him!  Even It's a Small World was hard because we were in boats.  He could barely relax and enjoy it because he was so focused on finding the way out during the entire ride.  It took 6 or 7 times on the carousel for Jonah to graduate from the stationary chariot to a horse that went up and down.  I didn't know if he'd go on ANY rides at all.  But he did!  Good job, Jonah!  Trying new things CAN be fun!
 
 Jonah's 2 favorites were the Race Car Speedway and the Toy Story ride where he got to shoot at Zurg.  We probably did abuse the disability pass on those 2 rides, but considering all the rides he didn't go on I'd say it was okay.  None of the workers ever said a word or gave us dirty looks no matter how many times we got back on the rides.
 
We also had a girls' lunch with the princesses.  To save a little money we had our own boutique instead of going to the one at Disney World.  Since Ashley has all girls anyway, we set up in her condo where the girls all had their hair (complete with glitter), make up and nails (thanks, Amy) done.  I love these opportunities to spend some girly time with Sarah.  She often feels overrun by the boys and these moments are her pay day!
 
 Mommy & Sarah at Cinderella's castle having lunch!
 
 Sarah and her girl cousins with Cinderella.
 
Grandma with all of her granddaughters!
 
Sarah, Jonah, Mommy & Nathan with Mickey Mouse


During our trip Nathan developed a fascination with Mickey!  It was so cute!  I have to say, at first he was a little scared of Mickey but Mickey was so sweet and cute with him that Nathan quickly warmed up.  Mickey shooed me away so we could get some cute shots!
 
 I wanted this picture by these totem poles because I remember as a girl my parents making me stand by these for a picture (where is that, Mom?) and being absolutely TERRIFIED of the sounds they made.  I was certain little savages were going to come out and get me.  I couldn't believe my parents would put me in such danger!  Luckily my kids didn't have the same fear I did!

 This was the highlight of Jonah's trip:  seeing Buzz Lightyear!  He could hardly wait.  I think we saw him multiple times.

 Sarah loves Rapunzel!
 
 The princesses only kiss the cutest of the boys!
 
For our last night my parents took us out to the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue!  It was a yummy family style dinner with an old time play.  It was really fun.  Jacob felt sick through all of dinner and then perked up once we got home, which was a bummer.  We really had a wonderful time together.  I don't get to see my sisters and their families very often so it felt SO good to be together!  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for a truly memorable and wonderful experience!
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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Disney World: Hollywood Studios

At Hollywood Studios we saw a lot of shows!  We had a great day!
 
 Here we all are!  Get ready for fun!
 
 We saw Minnie right away!  Sarah was in heaven!
 
 Ashley, Me, Minnie, Grandma, Brittany & Amy
 
 Jacob was super excited for Star Tours!
 
 Jonah wanted to see Buzz more than any of the other characters!  He was SO excited!
 
 It was fun to see Lightening McQueen and Mater too!
 
 This was a common sight.  All the girls practically mauled little Caleb on a daily basis!  He is pretty cute!
 
 Here we are watching the Cars Stunt Show.  It was pretty amazing, but loud!
 
 I don't know where Jacob and Grandpa took this picture but I thought it was cute!
 
 AAHHH!!!  We're trapped in a Buzz Lightyear box!
 
 Jonah & Grandpa were ready to defeat the evil Zurg!
 
 Jonah strapped to dynamite and ready to blast off!
 
After a fun day, the guys all gathered to watch some big football game that was so important I can't even remember which game it was.  But it's always good to do some manly bonding.  I'm pretty sure there were buffalo wings and lots of M&M's involved.
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