Easter Weekend

We had an awesome Easter weekend. I didn't get to do everything I had planned on with the kids. But things were a little crazy (well, certain little boys were a little crazy).

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. The Friday before it had snowed, so we were happy it was nice out for Easter! When Dave got home from work, we had the boys do a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard. Jett had just woken up and was grumpy, so he refused to look for Easter eggs. Luckily the boys' little friend was there to help him out. Cruise was really into it and had been waiting all day to hunt for candy-filled eggs!

After the hunt, we dyed eggs with Kool-Aid (thank you Pinterest). They didn't come out super beautiful, but it definitely smelled better than vinegar. Because of Jett's olfactory sensitivities, I think it was much better to do the Kool-Aid. The boys loved it. While we waited for the eggs to color, we had a few games of Hide and Go Seek (which is hilarious with two boys who 1. hide in the same place over and over, and 2. don't realize sound travels).

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That evening, we just hung out, the boys worked on the lawn mower with Daddy, drove the RC car, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

I brought them inside for baths while Dave ran to the store to get a few things to work on the lawn mower. Cruise was the first to get out of the bath. I dried him of and he ran off to do who knows what. As I got Jett out about 5 minutes later, I realized I hadn't heard Cruise in a bit. I knew he hadn't left the house (thanks to our awesome kid locks) so I went looking for him. I opened the door to the master bathroom to find him with scissors in hand, hair all over the floor, and Cruise telling me, "Look Mommy! Cruise cut hair!" It seemed like ten minutes before I said anything. All I could do was stare wide-eyed and jaw dropped. Finally I said, "Okay Cruise, let's go." I grabbed the clippers and headed to the kitchen where I had to do what I never wanted to do: buzz the boy's hair. It was sad. But honestly, as sad as I was, Cruise was even more broken up about it once he saw his reflection. He was so upset, he wore a bini to bed that night.

I was able to get his mind off of it when I told him about the Easter Bunny coming. So without a fuss, he went to bed. The next morning he woke up, wandered around the house, and woke me saying, "Mommy, where'd the chocolate bunny go?" I got up, grabbed my camera and helped him look for his Easter basket, sitting in the living room.

We bought the boys each a Dove chocolate bunny, a book, a frame with pictures of Christ and the Salt Lake Temple (or "castle" as Cruise calls them). And they each got an apple Chapstick since they always have dry lips, the poor kids. We were able to get the boys to eat real food before they attacked the chocolate bunnies, and then we all got ready for church.

Because of Cruise's self-barber experience, I was so relieved to remember that I bought the boys special Easter hats. I just couldn't pass them up and I am glad that I didn't. Otherwise, Cruise would've worn his "bird hat" to church (the "bird hat" is the Baltimore Orioles baseball cap he wears all day, every day). The boys were so adorable, even Dave wore Easter colors (even though he thought I was nuts to buy the boys Easter outfits). Cruise was not excited about going to church. He wanted to stay home and he also wanted to go to the "castle" aka temple. So we used that to get him through all three hours of church. It was torturous, but he did it and he and Dave went to the Timanogos temple after church while Jett and I went home and got our Easter dinner assignment done: loaded sweet potatoes. Always my specialty. 

We met up and headed to my parents' house and had a wonderful Easter feast of honey ham, loaded sweet potatoes, asparagus, and an amazing spinach and strawberry salad. My sister made an excellent apple crisp for dessert that we ate with ice cream. And of course, my parents got us each a chocolate Easter egg from Sees. It was an awesome dinner. 

Jett wasn't interested in eating dinner. He wanted his chocolate bunny (yes, another chocolate bunny from the Grandparents). So we told him if he ate his dinner, he could have his bunny. He spent the next four hours saying "NO!" and we stuck to our guns and refused to let him have the chocolate. Meanwhile, Cruise wandered around with a big smile on his face, as he devoured his chocolate bunny (because he ate his dinner). Jett was not happy. Finally, my mom was able to get Jett to eat a hot dog and voila! He got his chocolate bunny. Unfortunately, he is sure to continue the barrage of "NO"s in order to get his way...probably for the next year or so. Maybe one day he'll figure it out, but I don't think that day was today.   

Conference Weekend & Autism Awareness

I love the months of March and April. So many great things going on! It all comes with beautiful weather. I think it may be my favorite time of year.

General Conference was AWESOME. The older the boys get, the more we are able to listen to all of the talks. We really enjoyed all the talks. I think every time Conference comes around, it gives me the boost I need to get up and do things I've been putting off. I especially took heart to hearing "teach your children how to work". I've been wanting to make a chore chart for a long time and thanks to Pinterest, I found some great ideas. I'm still in the process of laminating everything, so once that's finished I'll post it. But in preparation for that, I did this:

Cruise's dresser

Jett's dresser

The boys have a tendency to pull all their clothes out of their dressers on a regular basis. And so from being tired of reorganizing their dressers on a regular basis, I thought I'd make them do it. That will definitely be on their chore chart. 

On Saturday during Conference, I did the dishes while the "men" went outside to do more manly things:

After they finished the oil change, we headed for UVU's ballpark in Orem for the UPlifting Celebration for Autism. Unfortunately this is when my camera died. But we all got a blue t-shirt, free lunch, the boys got to play games, and then everyone let off a ton of balloons all at once. It was really a sight to see. I was wishing my camera worked. We didn't go last year for fear that the crowd would overwhelm Cruise, but it was surprisingly laid back and there was a lot of room to run around and play. The boys did great and we had an awesome time! We'll have to go again next year and remember to recharge the camera's batteries. 

Speaking of Autism, the month of April is Autism Awareness Month, and April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. Each year on this day, you wear blue and are encouraged to "Light it Up Blue". I was excited to buy my blue light bulbs. The picture doesn't really show just how bright the blue lights were, but they were AWESOME! So awesome, in fact, that I think I'll leave them up all month.

My AWEtistic Super Hero: Cruiser-Man!

A Not-So-Fun Event

Pre-Surgery

Jett got his tonsils and adenoids removed last Thursday. They also put tubes in his ears while they were at it. It was the first time we have ever had to put one of the kids under anesthesia and it was a little nerve wracking. But since we had two really good reasons, we decided to go for it. Jett has spent half of his life sick, so the removal of his tonsils were a very good option, especially since they were huge. Apparently, however, his adenoids were "enormous" to quote the doctor. The second reason was because of his speech delay. He's been in Early Intervention the past couple of months and has not made much improvement, so we have high hopes that this operation will help him form the sounds that he struggled with before.

We had to be at the surgical center in the Riverwoods at 7:45 am. Jett was in a good mood, unaware of the certain fate that awaited him. I tried to talk to him about it, but I'm sure it didn't sink in. We checked in and he and I were given matching wrist bands, which he was stoked about. Dave was meeting us there since he had to take Cruise to school first. They called us back where they gave Jett a really soft blanket and a t-shirt to wear during the surgery. While we waited, Dave was able to give Jett a blessing, which calmed my nerves a lot.

The surgeon/doctor, Dr. Heidi Heras, came in and talked about the procedure and asked if we had any questions, and then we spoke with the anesthesiologist about what he would be doing. Then they came in with a little wagon and we said goodbye. Jett seemed a little confused about why he was leaving us with a team of people in scrubs, and I felt really bad. I thought I was going to be able to be there when they put him out, so I felt even worse for the poor kid. Luckily they put the IV into his hand after they gave him the gas, so at least that spared him the pain of it.

The nurse took us to the room and there Dave and I waited. We realized that we didn't have a few things like popsicles and ramen for the boy, and of course the "I'm sorry we put you through this, please accept our offering of this Superhero" toy. So Dave left to get the items. He wasn't gone 10 minutes when I heard a familiar cry. Jett was already out of surgery after only a half hour. But I was so glad that everything went well. I wanted to run to him, but I wasn't allowed in the back, so I had to stand there and wait while I heard the poor kiddo cry as he came out of the anesthesia.

They finally brought him in and he was not happy. He was super confused and I'm sure felt awful. Dave came back soon after and we spent the next two hours trying to calm Jett down and get him to nap. Probably the biggest deterrent of this effort was the annoying IV in his hand. But he had to keep it in until he was released. He walked around the center trying to find someone to remove it, and was very upset that no one would.

Finally he fell asleep and my dad brought us some lunch from In-N-Out. Jett woke to find Grandpa sitting by the bed and was very happy to see him. After he left, we watched some Lion King and played with his new Captain America action figure. He then wanted to walk around the halls again, so we put on his shoes and he got to explore. He refused to return to his room, so we just walked around and played in the halls. I had to leave to pick Cruise up from school and not long after, Jett was finally released around 2:00pm.

He wanted a picture of his shoes.

When he got home, he acted like he was fine and went outside and played, but day 2-4, he refused to eat anything and hardly drank. By evening of day 4, he finally started eating and chose noodles, scrambled eggs and brownies as his favorite things to eat and apple juice to drink. He has his ups and downs and as long as he lets us give him his medicine, he does pretty well. Mostly though he just wants to be held...all day.

My little Gnomes

Dave's 27th Birthday

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Since we just bought a house, I couldn't really splurge on Dave's present this year. I took him out to Rodizio Grill for lunch and then the boys and I made him a lemon cake with chocolate frosting in the evening. The boys got him some new pens for his work and some Hostess cupcakes, wrapped in paper that they had painted. My parents also celebrated his birthday and got him a birthday pumpkin pie and some money to go towards that lawn mower we'll be needing in a couple of months. My sister and her husband gave him a gift card to Amazon.com and Dave's parents sent him a really neat stove for camping and for emergency use. He was really excited about it when it showed up on the doorstep.

Dave's Birthday Pumpkin Pie (16+11)

Pens & Painted Paper from the boys

The Boys' Card (yes, they did in fact pick it out)

Cupcakes from the boys

The Boys and the Birthday Cake

Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate David with your gifts, phone calls and thoughts!

I'm Back!

I have been a major blog slacker lately. But things have been absolutely crazy!

We closed on our house on the 9th of February and since then have been working until the wee hours of the morning every day. We absolutely love our new house and just being able to have a home of our own is such a dream come true.

Our goal is to paint pretty much every wall in the house. But it takes a lot of time and money, so we are doing it all bit by bit. We started with the living room and then did the boys’ rooms. Once those were done we were able to start sleeping at the house so we could get more done. I will definitely be posting before and after pictures very soon.

Our neighborhood is wonderful and has a great rural feel to it. There is a huge field surrounding the neighborhood where about six horses feed all day. Across from there is the elementary school, which we can see from our house. The neighbors all have little kids and the neighbors across from us have two little boys both Cruise and Jett’s ages. They were instant friends and have a lot of fun together. It amazes me how easily little kids make friends.

The boys have done surprisingly well with the move. We spent a week or so bringing them to the house in the afternoons and at first Cruise was not a big fan of the idea, but now he is settled at “Cruise’s new house”. He loves to ride his bike around and I love not worrying about traffic. But my new worry is him getting into trouble. It is sure hard trying to unpack, paint, clean, etc. when both the boys are running around the neighborhood. I caught them playing in someone’s house when they weren’t home the other day. Needless to say, I don’t get a lot done when Dave is at work. We have a nice big yard but the fence is missing the gate, so until we can get that fixed, the boys cannot be contained.

My last post was about Jett, so I thought I’d do a little bragging about Cruise this time.

Cruise has been doing awesome at school. At his last parent teacher conferences, his teacher said that he has made so much progress and is doing so well. I often get notes home telling us that he is playing well with his classmates and complimenting them. I love getting compliments from Cruise. I’ll be cleaning and he’ll say, “Good cleaning Mommy! Good job!” It always makes me smile and feel appreciated.

Cruise is learning his colors, numbers and letters so well and can identify them really easily. At church during sacrament, I’ll whisper a letter to him and he’ll write it for me. I am just so grateful for being able to witness miracles every day.

Cruise’s speech has improved so much over the past couple of months. His babble has decreased so much and he is making more sense when speaking. His receptive language is still sometimes a challenge, but he can follow two step directions pretty well these days. He tries really hard to describe things if he doesn’t know what they are called. His conversational speech is really picking up and it is so much fun to talk with him rather than to him. Some of the things he says are so awesome and priceless! And Dave and I get a kick out of his wonderful imagination. Just this past week Cruise has started asking "why?" and it's been awesome! I know most parents get sick of that, but I've been waiting so long to hear it.

The other day he dressed up as a knight and called me princess. He took his helmet off, bowed, and said, “You’re majesty”. Randomly, last week, he walked up to me while I was sanding a wall, gave me a kiss and said, “I love you Mommy,” and ran off. His kindness and concern for others is such an example to me and to everyone around him. We were in the car and his dog Lucy was in the back. Cruise turned to Lucy and said, “You okay Lucy? It’s ok, do not be scared,” and patted her paw. His meltdowns are rare and far between and he is able to calm himself so much quicker these days.

Cruise has also been growing more and more independent. His self-help skills are amazing and I am so proud of him, even if sometimes I’m not a big fan of his independence. Like when he has to pour himself a glass of juice or milk, when he has to make his own chocolate milk, or when he has to dress himself and always forgets his underwear. But it is so nice to be woken up by him and he is already dressed for school and has brushed his teeth. What a stud!

A couple of weeks ago, Cruise asked Dave to remove his training wheels. So Dave removed them and then prepped him for the “inevitable” falling and frustration. When Dave started running alongside Cruise, keeping his bike up, Cruise kept yelling, “No Dad! Let go!” So he let go and Cruise just kept riding down the street, as if his training wheels were still there. We were both shocked and stunned. Not really being parents used to typical development, we were both asking each other if that was normal. Whether it is or is not, we are constantly amazed by this kid.

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Obviously Cruise has his moments where we see a whole other side to him. When he’s very angry, he can yell and get aggressive, but luckily those moments are few and don’t last too long. But even I have those moments, so I can’t really hold that against him.

His favorite books right now are Green Wilma Frog In Space (which he picked out and won at the school Book Fair a couple weeks ago) and Zoomer’s Summer Snowstorm. His favorite shows on Netflix are Curious George, Kipper, and Garfield. His favorite games are Zingo (kind of like bingo but you match pictures) and Don’t Spill the Beans. His favorite foods are pizza, pancakes, and hot dogs.

Right now his bedtime routine consists of the following:

8:00

-Give Cruise his melatonin and brush teeth
-Read 3 books
-Say prayers
-Turn off lights (except his Moon in my Room)
-Sing “Six Little Ducks” and the Elephant song.

He only lets me do his routine. However, for the first time in three years, he let Dave do it one evening when it was my turn to stay at the new house and paint. Dave was pretty excited about that and I thought that was pretty cool.

Just this last week, Cruise has refused to wear any other shirt than his yellow one. I had to special order a bunch of shirts from Target, and luckily they were all on clearance. He calls himself the "man in the yellow shirt". I think he's been watching too much Curious George lately. Who know how long this will last, but until then, the boy will only wear the same six shirts; all yellow.