Peace on Earth

Wow.

What a wonderful couple of weeks it has been!
I hope you have had just as much fun.

The 21st was our Christopher's 5th birthday.
5!
I can't believe it.
Time really does fly.

He had a great time.
We made him a Timmy Time birthday cake (a show on the disney channel),


gave him some scooby doo presents (his greatest love),


and he got lots of spoiling from his grandparents, great grandparents, and aunts and uncles.
Thank you everybody!


He got two movies for his birthday so we had two movie parties.

I loved it.
It's so fun when your kids finally get to the age that they will sit through movies with you.
I loved hearing their little giggles and exclamations throughout the show.


Our Christmas was so so so so wonderful.
Santa Claus came.


Andy was the first one up this year.
He went and woke his brother up and then continued to beat him with a plastic golf club until he was fully awake.


People wonder why I say "This kid is going to murder me in my sleep!"
Now I have photographic evidence!
Let me zoom in.
Look at that face!


Pure evil ;)


After Christopher's beating ;) they raced down the stairs


to look in their stockings, open presents,


and just have fun playing together.



Our big present to all of us was a Wii.


It is really good for developing Christopher's motor skills and hand eye coordination which he needs badly.
Buuuuut, let's be truthful, I think WE (Mommy and Daddy) were the real ones who wanted one.
We've had fun.


We then headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house where we had a fabulous time with them and all the aunts and uncles.
We got footy pajamas on Christmas Eve (thanks Mom for modeling :) ) and I actually got IN a picture.


It's a Christmas miracle!


We had lots to celebrate this Christmas.
An engagement!


My little brother is getting married to a fabulous girl.


And, a new baby on the way!


Congrats to my little brother and his adorable wife.


It was truly a wonderful Christmas.
One of those days where you literally get to sit back, take a deep breath, and actually feel like there is true peace on Earth.
Hope you all had a little peace on Earth this Christmas season.

We are headed to Grandma Eva's and Grandpa Barry's for New Years!
Can't wait!
Happy New Year everyone!

The little things . . . .

Yesterday was my birthday.

It happened to be a WONDERFUL birthday.
I got THE best present I could have asked for -

My boy was in a school program.



All parents think it is a treasure to see their children acting cute and singing songs, but this was beyond a treasure for me.



The last program he was in resulted in him running off the stage screaming and then trembling in my arms for the next 15 minutes.
The noise, the people staring at him, the "unknown" of everything was too much.

This program was different.
He went up there with a huge smile on his face.


He performed every song. Did the dances and hand gestures perfectly.


The only word I can use to describe it is beautiful.
It was beautiful to see my son beaming, feeling like he is a part of something special.

The teacher did a spotlight on each child.
When the teacher got to Christopher she looked at me and we both started crying.


She knew what I knew.
She knew that this was more than just a program for us and for Christopher.
This was hope.
Hope that he can do great things.
If there is one thing autism has given me it is the ability to relish in the little things.
The little things are important.

She talked about how special he is, the zest he has for life, and that she loves that every day after preschool he says "Bye teacher! Have a good day today."

Christopher was so proud.


So were we.

Things We Love Lately

I love Andy's tree decorating technique.

It took him maybe 30 seconds.

He threw the ornaments on in large clumps, stood back to admire his work, said "Dare (there). All done!", and left to play.

Efficiency.

I love that my kids are asking for toys that I have no idea what they really ARE.

No, seriously.

I was waiting for that day.

Christopher wants a zhu zhu pet.

It has been so funny looking at the stuff in the store.

Talking to fellow customers, complete strangers.
It's like learning a new language.
Parent language.
"Does this guy have to have this outfit?" "Does this part go with this thingy?"
I honestly saw a lady walk away in tears after trying to figure out what to get.

Seriously, it makes for some interesting Christmas shopping and I kinda like it.
(Is that weird?)


What do these things DO???


I loved this sunset the other night outside our back door.


Nothing makes me happier.


I love my tacky, Christmasy house.


I love providing my kids with that tackiness :)
Can you imagine growing up in a house that looked like this at Christmas? (Oh wait, maybe you did. Did you love it? I wanna know.)


BEAUTIFUL, but NOT fun.


We love Auntie JJ (Jamie).

They love her.
They love that she will play toys with them.
Play games with them.
And, just love THEM.
We love you Auntie JJ!

We are loving these last couple weeks with our Daddy.
He leaves us soon for busy season.
At his work Christmas party they gave the wives these papers to hang on our fridge that said :
"We interrupt this marriage for tax season."
It's coming.
We are so grateful for our Daddy and all his hard work.

What are you loving lately?

Coal in his stocking . . . .

I asked the Christmas question today.

Me: "Christopher, have you been naughty or nice this year?"

Chris: (without hesitation) "Nice. I'm a good boy, Mommy."

Me: "Christopher, do you think Andy has been naughty or nice this year?"

Chris: (without a teeny tiny ounce of hesitation) "Naughty. He's been naughty, Mommy."

So much for the season of brotherly love!

There are very lovely things about Holland . . .

My boys are rough housing.
They've discovered that their plastic golf clubs make excellent swords.
Swords that they can whack each other with, cry, and then continue pummeling each other with while laughing.
Before we started having some issues with our Christopher, I probably would have laughed and grabbed them away.
Now I just can't bear to do it.
I see my Christopher playing with his brother and my heart soars.
They have been "Buddies" for a couple days now.
"Normalcy" can be so so so so refreshing.

I found this story and I am in love with it.
It is about how a mother feels when she finds out her child has a disability.
However, I think it can be for anyone who has had something happen in their life that they were not planning on.
Isn't that EVERYONE!?
Enjoy.

Welcome To Holland
by
Emily Perl Kingsley


I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Over the river and through the woods . . . . .

This is what awaited us the morning of our departure to Grandma's.

Yikes.
We braved the weather and the roads and after a long journey we made it for the Thanksgiving holiday.

We had so much fun eating good food, playing games, and catching up.



Christopher says that his favorite part was dancing to Christmas music with Grandma and Grandpa.
I have to agree ;)


It was a blur of fun and crazy moves.
We made some great memories.

We have so much to be thankful for.

Did you make some new memories this Thanksgiving?

Things We Love Lately

We love sweet potato fries.

CANNOT get enough of these things.

They have the most beautiful color.


I love cutting into them.

They also seem to be the same color as a wall in my family room.


Who knew.
(Thank you Grandma Eva for supplying us with a box of these beautiful sweet potatoes.)


I love this little man


and his has me rolling on the ground laughing personality


I love how brave my Andy was at the doctor the other day when they had to poke his little arms 3 times to draw blood.


This boy did not utter a peep. Amazing!


Both boys also got flu shots so it meant going to the Dollar Store for a prize.

I love that Christopher picked out the most girly thing in the store and was not ashamed.


Pink and purple dollhouse furniture for his manly, terrifying dragon castle.


Awesome.


And, something I DON'T love.
Can I do that?
I am not loving Facebook.

Apparently, right now they think that I am

A. Not a real person



and

B. Highly suspicious



Soooo, they decided to terminate my account. WHAT????!!!
Okay, so maybe I am hardly EVER on there.
I haven't posted a status in a year.
HOWEVER, I do communicate with a lot of people through it.
So, I am petitioning at this moment and I will keep you updated on my non-creepy, non-suspicious Facebook happenings.



What are you loving or hating (hem hem FACEBOOK) lately??

I didn't understand

I feel bad.
I feel bad that I hadn't understood before now.

I was waiting at the doctor the other day with my boys.
There were a few other people in the waiting room that morning.


My Christopher is a good good boy.
If you know him, you know that he tries so hard to be good.
Even to a fault.
He was getting anxious and excited about seeing the doctor.
He was wondering what kind of toys she would have this time.
He was wondering if she would give him a treat, or a sticker.
He was excited to talk to her and tell her about Scooby Doo or some other silly thing he was fixated on at the moment.
His arms began flapping a little and he got squirmy.
It's just something he can't help.
His little body is just trying to deal with all that stimulus.

A man and his wife were sitting near us.
He leaned over to his wife and said "I have a great idea how to make money. For 100 bucks we will spank parent's children for them when they can't behave in public places."
My mouth dropped.
I was shocked.
I felt my body standing involuntarily - ready to defend my little one.
Just then, the nurse called us back.
A saving moment for that gentleman.

I never understood before.
I never understood what it was like for parent's with a special needs child.
While I always felt sympathetic towards them, I never truly understood the pain they feel in a "normal" driven world.
While, with my Christopher, I only get a taste of what those parent's feel - I now feel I have a better understanding.

I am having more and more of these experiences every day.
I guess I have to look over these little incidents and chalk it up to ignorance.
I now offer my forgiveness to any parents who I may have misjudged.
I didn't understand.

Snow

We are home.

We had such a fun time in Utah.
Sorry to all you Utah friends and family we didn't get a chance to visit.
We had just a few days and lots to do.
Okay, maybe not LOTS, but when you have kids with you it FEELS like a lot.
Ya know what I mean?

We finally got our annual BYU game photo.


It was so incredibly warm and sunny that Mr. Sun was invading our shot.
We won't complain.


We took the boys to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.


They had a fun time looking at the dinosaurs, digging for bones, and trying all the fun displays.
I love museums. LOVE them.
If I had the option of going to the Smithsonian or the Bahamas on vacation . . . . I would pick the Smithsonian.
That's how much I love museums.


Although, the Bahamas sound nice right about now.
When we returned home from our sunny weekend in Utah it began to snow.
Goodbye Fall.
It was lovely to have you around for awhile.

Isn't the first snowfall one of the most magical days of the year, though!!!?
The anticipation.



The snowflakes tickling your eyelashes.



Trying to catch them on your fingers.



Or your tongue.




That first taste of snow.



Definitely a magical day.




What day is magical to you?? And, how do you feel about museums?