Easter/Conference Weekend

Kind of strange that Easter not only landed on Conference weekend, but Spring Break as well. Unfortunately for us, most of us were sick. Miles has been sick for the past few days with the crud which usually is accompanied by fevers and vomiting. So that's been fun. I started to feel kind of sick about a week ago but today I got a fever around lunch time. Jett has a bad cough and Dave has a sore throat. Cruise I guess is waiting to get sick later this week.

Luckily last Sunday I had everyone dress up in their Easter best!

On Saturday, we all rolled out of bed and went to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt & breakfast. They boys always like that and it gets me off the hook. All I have to do is drop off 30 filled Easter eggs at our neighbor's house the day before and it's all taken care of. We also do a breakfast potluck but it's pretty much a muffin potluck. Lots of muffins.

Despite being sick, Easter turned out pretty well. For Easter baskets this year, I bought sand pails off of Oriental Trading. The baskets from years past got ruined so I had to find something else, but the baskets at Target were stupidly expensive, so I found these pails online for $3 each, and they are surprisingly very sturdy! Go me!

The boys left the Easter Bunny some carrots on the floor the night before and even helped clean the house because Mom says, "The Easter Bunny only comes to clean houses!".

Cruise and Jett each got a package of chocolate dipped Peeps, 2 caramel Cadbury eggs, Lindt chocolates, a tithing bank, a CTR tie pin, a missionary action figure (yes, they're a real thing), a shovel & rake set, sidewalk chalk, crayons & a pad of paper, and they each got a book. Cruise got Click, Clack, Peep and Jett got Happy Easter Curious George. Miles got Lindt chocolates, Goldfish Crackers, shovel & rake set, sidewalk chalk, triangle crayons, a small bubble machine, and a board book: Happy Easter, Mouse!

 We had our big meal between General Conference sessions. We had a glazed ham, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, sauteed garlic asparagus, rolls, and sparkling cider. For dessert we had a banana cream pie.

It was so nice to spend Easter at home, listening to General Conference. So many talks that I felt I really needed. 

Hopefully we will all get better to enjoy Spring Break this week!

LIUB 2015

Light It Up Blue!!!

Once again it's April, which means Autism Awareness Month! And April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day, where all over the world you will find things like the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids in Egypt, The Sydney Opera House, and the Empire State Building going blue for the day all to raise awareness for autism!

We always put up our blue lights on our porch and try to wear blue. Cruise, of course, never wears blue. The only exception is if he is wearing pajamas. Then he'll practically wear any color.

I once again got to attend the annual Autism Conference at UVU last week and learned some new things that would help Cruise, particularly Social Skills. I was a little disappointed this year by a few of the classes, but I still was able to leave there with some good info and new goals. The main speakers were wonderful and the lunch was much better this year than years past. So it balanced out and I enjoyed a day of uninterrupted learning! 

Fish N Ships

I'm finally getting to this...

Birthday Fly Fishing Trip

Dave finally got to redeem his fly fishing trip I gave him for his birthday on the 13th of March. He learned what he had been doing wrong and got a lot of good pointers. He fished for about 4 hours on the Provo River and brought home a nice brown trout since we've never eaten brown before.

He had a lot of fun.

Fishing With Jett
Dave took Jett out fishing not too long after his fly fishing trip. And they had a lot of success! Here is Dave's account:

First we went to Vivian Park and I asked Jett what lure he wanted to use and he picked out a spinner I had never caught a fish on before. I had to ask him a couple of times if he was sure that was the one he wanted because I never had success with that one. He was sure. So then he asked me to cast it for him, so I cast it out and handed the pole back to him. On the second cast, we caught a fish. It was a little rainbow trout and Jett reeled it in. I couldn't believe we had caught a fish on that lure! We tried it a few more times but didn't catch anything. So then I asked him if he wanted to try a different lure, so he picked out a new one. It was another lure I had never caught anything on, and we cast it out a couple of times but didn't catch anything.

He said he wanted to go to the Provo river and fish there. so we walked over there and found a drainage pipe that was out into the river that we could walk on. We stood on the drainage pipe and he wanted to stick with the lure he had on his pole. So i had him drop his line in and on the first cast, he caught a 15 inch brown trout! We reeled it in and tried casting the same lure again in the same spot, but after 4-5 casts, Jett got bored and decided he didn't want to fish there anymore.

So we headed to Deer Creek and the wind was blowing too hard to launch the boat, so I told him we should go back to the river. We went to just below the dam and i put on my waders, got my fly fishing reel set up, and i asked him if he wanted to change lures. He picked out a double jointed rapella, which i've had a lot of success with in the past. So I put him on my shoulders with his fishing pole, I cast my line and he threw in his lure, and after about 10 minutes of waiting, Jett said, "Dad, should I reel it in?" and I said, "Yeah, go ahead." So he reels it in and there is a 17 inch brown trout on the end of it!"

The Boat
Dave got this boat for free. He has been working on it day and night for weeks now and today he said he feels like we can take it out for a test run. He painted the trailer, re-carpeted the whole thing, put in the seats, and has rebuilt the engine. If that's not talent, I don't know what is!

He's the mayor of Awesomeville.

Miles is 18 Months!

Which means...NURSERY!!! To quote Dave, "This kid was made for nursery!" I walked ever so carefully to the nursery room where I anticipated there to be crying, protesting, clawing, and fighting, and there was, but not from Miles. There must have been at least three kids screaming their lungs out when we walked in, but it didn't even phase the kid. He immediately spotted a toy he wanted and went for it. I said goodbye, and he barely acknowledged I was leaving.

I checked in every time they made a rotation (from toys, to lesson/coloring, to music, and then to snack), and each time I peered through the window in the door I saw my little baby happily participating. At toys he was ever so focused on the toy he was handling, at the lesson he was coloring happily at the table and not eating the crayons, at music he was up and dancing and clapping along with the music, and at snack he was *gasp* eating the cereal and crackers and drinking from his sippy cup! When I went to pick him up, he looked at me like, "What do you want?" He actually wanted to hang out with his new buddy, one of the male nursery workers. One of his teachers said he did so great and the he was "such a laid back kid!"

He also got his first dental check up this week. Nothing really invasive, just a check up because he takes a bottle in his crib (because it's the ONLY thing that will get him to sleep...sometimes I wonder if dentists remember what it's like to have babies). His teeth looked great and then they quickly put some fluoride on his teeth. Afterwards he got a bouncy ball for being so good.

Miles has grown a lot this past month. He is starting to say more words. He will say shoes, socks, swing, and ball. His receptive language is uncanny and he follows directions pretty well. He is good at pointing at things he wants or recognizes. He has started grabbing my hand and leading me places to communicate that he wants something or to go somewhere (usually outside).

He still loves to be outside! He will spend the morning whining and crying and all I have to say is, "Want to put on your shoes?" And immediately he stops, sits down, and sticks his feet out. He LOVES shoes! Shoes mean OUTSIDE! FUN!

Miles love to imitate and do everything his brothers or Mom and Dad do. He always wants to vacuum when I vacuum. Last week it took me about a half hour to vacuum just the play room because he had to push and pull the vacuum the entire time. So I decided to just get the kid his own vacuum. Who knew I'd find one that looked EXACTLY like mine?! It's actually pretty awesome. The hose actually sucks so you can pick up small pieces of paper or popcorn. The little balls in the canister swirl around as well when you have it on the vacuum setting. It even has the attachments for the hose just like Mommy's!

Miles still is my picky eater but if I can get him to try something, he usually likes it. He'll drink water out of a sippy and he finally learned how to drink out of a straw, which comes in handy from time to time. Lately Miles LOVES balls! Even if they aren't balls (like oranges, avocados, balloons, pretty much anything with a roundish shape). He will get upset if he sees me cooking and finds that I've cut a lemon or something that he could carry around that would pass for a ball. When we are outside he likes to steal the neighbor's basketball even though I bought him his very own.

I'm sure I've told you about Miles' pouty face...it's my favorite:

But he's generally a happy kid. He loves to snuggle and play. He loves to be included when his brothers are doing things, and lights up when Jett comes into the room. In fact, Jett is his best friend these days. When we were bed shopping, Jett would keep an eye on him, hold his hand and walk around, and even pick him up and carry him. We're all big fans of Miles.

It's kind of tragic that time goes so fast. Childhood is the shortest period of time in a human life. With every bigger shoe size, every new pair of pants, and every birthday cake, a little part of my heart breaks. I love to see them grow and learn new things, but I just wish it would go slower.

New Bed!!!

Our bed is a hand-me-down that was already worn out when my parents gave it to us. We've been sleeping on that for the past three years and recently it's gotten to the point where I wake up more tired than when I went to bed, my back hurts and my body aches. I finally told Dave that I was boycotting our bed until we can get a new one. Luck has been on our side since we finally got the restitution money from our neighbor for poisoning Lucy, and RCWilley is moving their store from University Parkway to the University Mall and has all their floor models on clearance. So yesterday we grabbed Jett & Miles (Cruise was at school) and our money jar (the one we throw cash and coins into so we can spend it on something big like a vacation or a bed) and headed to Orem to get us a bed! We had a little over $1,000 in the jar and didn't want to spend too much more on a bed.

We got to RCWilley and found that they only had two King beds left and they were the pricey ones (like $3,000 after 40% off). So we had to go with a Queen. After an hour we finally decided on a Beautyrest that is adjustable (the head and feet go up) and one side is soft and the other is hard (I like soft, Dave likes hard). So we pulled out our cash and paid for the rest of it (plus the mattress protector) with a credit card. So we ended up putting a little over $600 on the credit card for the bed. But boy oh boy was it worth it! The only downside was they don't deliver the floor models, so we had to carry it up the stairs ourselves. The mattress wasn't too bad, but the frame was extremely heavy. The bed doesn't really have a box spring since it's adjustable. So the underside is like a very thin boxspring with the frame built into it with the motor and everything. We got it upstairs and I was thankful we got a comfortable one because my back killed! 

Because we had to move from a King to a Queen we had to buy new sheets and a comforter. And as luck would have it, Target was having a Home sale that very day! So I ran over to Target and was able to get a nice sheet set (600 thread count) and a comforter set that was for a really good price! 

Today I woke up and my body didn't hurt and I actually felt rested! I slept like a log. And I haven't done that in years! I told Dave that it feels like we're on vacation in a nice hotel but we get to keep the bed. Yeah, it's that good!  

I am so grateful to finally have a nice comfortable bed! Thanks Dave!