Thursday

I'm still getting used to the new schedule. I'm not sure how long it will take. I never would have thought that I would miss the kids as much as I do. REALLY WEIRD!!

As soon as the kids got home from school the tinkling that I dread was heard. Tori asked if she could go meet the Ice Cream Man. I had no cash, but she had done some babysitting for Kristen this summer so she had some money. I told her this might cause some issues with her brother and sister so hurry up and get her ice cream. Immediately Samantha was out asking if she could have some ice cream. I told her I didn't have any cash, but she saw Tori outside. She ran out and asked Tori if she could buy her some ice cream too. My sweet Tori didn't hesitate, and got her little sister a treat. What a sweet girl I have!!

We went to back to school night and met all the kids teachers. I'm excited for the new year. I think the kids have some pretty good teachers. Brett went in to Duncan's class room so I can't tell you exactly what his class will be like but Brett seems very pleased with his teacher. Tori's teacher already loves her. She says she is well liked by everyone, and she is very helpful. She told the teacher she knows the state capitols from an Animaniacs song and her teacher wants her to teach the class. She will also be teaching her class about Braille again this year. Samantha has the same teacher that Tori had in 2nd grade. She is the loviest teacher I've ever seen. Samantha comes home everyday with something new to tell me. She will have a good year.

I have volunteered to walk with the Duncan and Tori's classes. They don't have a first recess so the teachers have the class go walk the track everyday. I figure I can strap Jason in a stroller and walk with the kids, volunteering to help in the classroom won't be easy with him. I don't want to use all my pre-school time volunteering, but if I need to do it once a week with Samantha's class I will.

I went and picked up some dinner for Brett and I after the kids went to bed. (Yes we did feed them, but they wanted McDonalds). I saw the temple in all it's glory and wanted to get a picture of it. My small camera doesn't do it justice. It was such a beautiful sight!
I got home and was looking at the night sky, and saw my first shooting star! It was amazing! I was in shock, I looked around wondering if anyone else was around to spot it. I of course was alone, so it was just me. It was so cool! It almost brought me to tears. It was beautiful, and so unexpected.

I went inside the house to my sweet boys. I thought they were both so cute, so I had to take a picture.

Wednesday

Yesterday was pretty busy. Of course, I had Jason's Assessment in the morning. That took a good 2 hours.

Then I got home and had to start dinner because we were having the Sister Missionaries over for dinner. One of my friends had signed up to feed them and she has been ill all week. So she called me to ask if we could take it over. The sisters were quite sweet. They always bring such a spirit into our home.

As soon as dinner was done, we had to send Duncan out the door to Scouts. It was Court of Honor night, and they needed to help set up.

Duncan had to lead the troop in the Scout Law. Let me tell you, he looks so tiny surrounded by all those big boys.



Duncan was awarded with his first Merit Badge. He received the Pathfinder Merit Badge, which is one they just brought out of retirement.
This is what the Merit Badge looks like. I will need to get him a sash to sew it on.
Then they got to experience something that doesn't happen very often. They got to retire some flags. Our Scout Troop does a fund raiser where they put up flags in front of homes for Holidays. Some of them had become very worn. There was even one that had been flying above our church, and it was quite faded. The boys each got to take a flag and reverently place it on the fire. They were all quite solemn and humbled by this experience. They were able to keep the grommets from the flags, so they had a remembrance of the event.

Assessments

Jason and I had an appointment yesterday with the people at the Early Learning Center for his assessment into preschool. We hung out and Jason played in their waiting room for a minute. Karen, who was in charge of the meeting, came into introduce herself. She of course had a lot of paper work on Jason already, but she watched him for a few minutes and wanted to talk to me about some different options to assess him with. She wanted to know if we had an official diagnosis of Autism yet. We haven't gotten one at this point, because we just want to do whats best for Jason. She said, it really didn't matter as far as the assistance he would get with the district, but there are some state benefits that we, as a family, would be able to get with that official diagnosis. Something to think about for sure.

Then we went into a room with a "Team" of women who assessed Jason. There was an O.T., Audiologist, Speech therapist, and Karen. The O.T. played with Jason, to see his motor skills as well as his sensory needs. The Audiologist asked about his previous testing, and what we feel his needs will be in the future for his hearing loss. Karen ask a slew of questions, about Jason's behavior, and the speech therapist ask a slew of questions about his communication. The "Team" has decided the best place for Jason will be Bountiful Elementary in a closed classroom it will be 2 1/2 hours a day, 4 days a week. There are more adults per child in this class then in any other. Which with Jason is a MUST! More is better, and Jason will do better with the structure of 4 days a week, rather then just 2. His official IEP will be on September 15th, so we will know more at that point.

Tuesday

Tuesday was therapy day.

Jean, Jason's speech therapist, came over in the afternoon. She wrote on his paperwork, "Jason's pointing & vocalizing with intent. Making more sound & word attempts." The goals that we need to work on are to Increase his understanding & use of language, and Increase play skills. Her suggestions were, "Now that he's listening to speech more, work on him answering some simple requests. ex: puzzles-put out a few pieces (2-3) & ask him to find the _ or get the _ . This helps his understanding of language. ex: Meals-where's your spoon? cup? cheese? milk?, etc. Bathtime-where's your (body part)? Nap/Bedtime -get a book. I think we see Jean one more time before his IEP.

Paula also came and we discussed what we wanted on his transition report for his IEP. She showed us an online source for free books, that can be read to you. Brett found an IPod app that you can customize with pictures and your own voice. It's pretty cool. We are going to try and use it more with Jason when we are going places, or doing things.

I can't believe he's already 3 years old. Paula has been coming to our house ever other week since he was about 8 months old. Change is hard, but it will be good for Jason.

Samanthaism

Sam: I know my crushes name, he's so Pretty!

later on during dinner.

Sam: He has blond hair, and blue eyes I think. And when he smiles, he's pretty Pretty......

Oh MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday

Weird!!! I miss my kids!!!

I thought I would be the happiest Mom, enjoying the quiet, loving time to myself.

Weird!! I miss someone who can carry on an intelligent conversation. Oh well, got to get used to it! Schools in!!!

First day of school

We walked the kids to school this morning. They were all up pretty early, showered and ready before 8:00am. I finally told them they needed to go watch T.V. just to get out of my hair until 8:30am.


When we got to school there was extreme chaos. All the kids and parents were out in front of the building. The teachers finally stepped outside and held up signs with their names on them. I got the kids to where they were supposed to be and gave kisses and left. Happy sigh......school!!!!

Sunday

Sunday I got up at a normal hour, got ready for church, and tried to catch up on a little work. The kids did well and got themselves ready for the most part.

Our lesson in Relief Society was on the Conference Talk The Power of the Priesthood by Pres. Boyd K. Packer. Kathy always does such an amazing job, it was a lovely lesson.

The kids were pretty good in Sacrament meeting. Jason was himself, but for fifteen minutes or so he read books. It was the most relaxing meeting I've had for a long time unless Jason wasn't there of he was asleep.

We came home and had dinner, and then went up to my folks house for a bit. Then we came home early and Brett gave the kids a Father's Blessing for the first day of school! He went in order, and Samantha said Jason would be last. So when Jason was sitting still after Sam's turn, Brett gave him a blessing too. My sweet Duncan was trying to hold back the tears as his Dad bless his brother. He really does like his little brother.

The kids went to bed and I hemmed Duncan's pants by hand. My fingers are still sore. But I think I had a pretty even stitch. So much that I took pictures. =)

Outside
Inside.

Saturday

Today was a bit of relaxation. We needed a vacation from our vacation.

The momentous event of the day, was getting Tori ready for the first day of school. She has been telling me how scared she is for school to start, so I'm hoping I can boost her confidence some how.

I taught her how to shave her legs, and we waxed her eye brows. Wow. What a weird experience that was.

Well, hopefully I can help Tori figure out how to be happy. At the very least, I hope to convince her that she generally only gets really upset when she's tired. Which means, it's time to go to bed!!!

Waxing! Grandma Siddoway would have done a better job I'm sure.
Before

After. Not much different but she can tell, and she likes it.

Friday

Samantha got her new glasses today. Butterflies on the side. She was quite excited!!!
They are bi-focals. I asked her to read for me. She is also excited about this feature!!
My cute kids helping Jason to the car.
We went to lunch after getting Sam's glasses and Jason said Bye-bye in the restaurant. He said it again for the camera!!!!! I've tried to get him to say bye-bye all day long, and he hasn't done it again, but I'm hoping this is a new word for him!!!

Bear Lake 2010 (post number 2)

Once again, Brett was so selfless!! He followed the boat and waited for someone to be ready to be shuttled to shore.
More jumping out of the boat.
I think Tori would be in the water all day!

Samantha was so excited to go Wake Surfing with Uncle Chad.

Kacie fell asleep sitting all by herself, so Duncan was my sweet boy and put his arm around her so she had someone to lean on.
Leslie brought her camera and her tripod so we could get a family picture taken. Curtis got to take the picture. My Dad picked out this lovely swampy area to have the picture taken, so in order to get Jason to the location Brett put Jason on his shoulders. As soon as he was up there, he flipped upside down. I am convinced he thinks this is the right way to be carried on someones shoulders.
This was the only picture I wasn't in. Let me tell you there is nothing more difficult then to get this group of boys to cooperate. It took the longest to get a good picture, because the boys wouldn't behave! They are all kind of cute though.
We went to The Bear Cave to get ice cream after the pictures. They were closing but saw the size of our group and decided to stay open just for a minute longer. Ice cream is always a good thing!!
Tori is a cheese monkey for the camera.


Wednesday

We made T-shirts with tape and bleach. You could use vinyl lettering or pictures, but we were being cheep. The men got more into this craft then I'd have ever thought possible. They spent so long on the t-shirts they got to make, I thought the craft time would never end.




I ran to get something out of our Hut, and Traci had Jason on their 4-wheeler. He really likes those machines.
This isn't quite as dangerous as it looks. =)
We hiked to Bloomington Lake. All the kids did really well!!
Even Jason! He enjoys following trails. We didn't have to carry him once!!!!
Tori found some pretty wild flowers.
Hiking....
More hiking.....
More hiking.....
Beautiful though!!!
The water was cold, but on our sunburned skin, it was lovely!!


Curtis was probably the only smart one in the bunch. He just watched all the crazy people.








Love my girls!!!
This was the entrance to our Hut! It's a shed in the backyard. It was quite cozy, and we could lock the door so Jason didn't wander off.
Playing with the cousins.
Chad let Brett ride his motorcycle. I could see his blood pumping from across the field.
Trouble

Playing with Daddy
Trampoline warfare.
Jason figured out how to open the Hut, and would go into it for some alone time!
Samantha loved Max and Olivia's puppy. Isn't he a doll!!
Beautiful sunset. I found a feature on my camera marked as sunset. It really works. =)
We tried to sneak the kids into Grandma and Grandpas trailer for a sleep over. The caught us. =(


Thursday

This is our nice little hut.

Samantha wasn't ready to leave. Just too much fun!!
Mitch is so sweet with Jason. He tries to get him to play with him, all the time. Hopefully he doesn't give up too soon.
Cleaning the boat.
Grandpa was a bit out of control with the hose.
My good boys clean the Jet skis. They helped out quite a bit this trip!!
Playing pirate in the tree house.
I can't tell you how much time Brett spent pushing Jason. He's such a sweat guy.

If we couldn't find the boys, they were upstairs playing on the X-box. What's new?
Brett brought his hand gun up with him, and we went up to the Lowrance/Child property to do some shooting.





This was our target. Duncan was most impressed when his Dad shot of the cap.
Grandpa took Duncan up to the top of the ridge so he could get a picture of the lake.
Watching Blue's Clues in the car. Aren't they stinking cute?
The Annual cry fest. I think Curtis even shed a little tear.
Stopping at La Beau's for raspberry shakes before we head on home.

Ya he is a bit weird sometimes.
The crowd waiting for their food.
Logan Temple from the car on the way home.
Jason was VERY glad to get home and get back in his own swing.