Prizes, Tantrums, Gardening,Mother's Day

Yep, as you can tell I uploaded photos from my phone… 

the random times I took photos… to capture these precious moments!

 Sami was recently diagnosed as High Functioning Autism, and ADHD

I will devote a whole post to this soon…. but she seems to be doing really well in school lately. 

She gets to pick prizes and that particular day she  picked this adorable frog that someone made…. 

she loved it and I was surprised she chose it… she's not a frog kind of girl! 

 Ezra turns 2 on the 30 and the temper tantrums have been in full force the last couple of weeks. 

It seems he started walking and than it was time to turn naughty… 

I will video him walking some time but it's cute and I am proud he is finally doing it… 

We are already preparing ourselves for Autistic kid #2, he mirrors his sister… 

But it's so sad… this day he wanted M & M's and we gave him a few but he wanted more and the world was over… hands over eyes and sobbing… 

I would pick him up cuddle him but than he would get down and lean over on the table and cry… so Pathetic and sad… Gee so grateful for these milestones… "NOT"

 Cheney is a fun little town, and sometimes they do fun stuff… 

last Saturday they had passed out in the elementary schools, a flyer for a free planting Event, at the Local Ace Hardware. So I took these two beauties over and they picked out a pot, a plant and than planted it and than also got a free garden apron, and balsa flying plane… which they brother had fun tearing to tiny pieces over the course of the day… 

 Sami said it was the best day ever… we also went shopping and got mom's mother's Day Gift… so yeah it was a pretty good day! 

 (yep, that's pinkie pie, making a cameo appearance)

So as I have gotten older there has been less mystery to what my gifts were going to be, I guess it more or less has been… what do you want… ok, than go buy it, or ok, I'll order it… it's more of what we want and need, not spending money on stuff we don't want… Mostly because I always get Dave stuff he doesn't want and vice versa… but I always encourage a little surprise because it makes him think… 

I let him off the hook this year and I got my piano… and I bought myself a new outfit for church… I figured I was good to go… I woke up Sunday morning and I wandered into the kitchen and everyone was pointing at the kitchen table… I looked over and found this waiting for me with a card… 

Super sweet… 

Dave works on the air force base and in this little mini mall… meaning 4 stores… maybe

well there is always random people selling stuff at booths and a lady was back selling mother's Day baskets… my sweet husband thought of me… 

It's a gardening package… It had some fruit flavored chocolate which Dave ate for me, some Lindor Truffles which I love and ate, and some gloves, cookies, lotion… and the container is a planter… 

I love the surprise… and will probably always have the planter to remind me of my sweet husband! 

Other than that I had a great day and spent Sunday and Monday stuffing my face with a cheesecake plater I got at Safeway… 4 different kinds… It was great… no regrets… kind of! The best part of the day was Dave didn't have morning church meetings so I got to get ready for church with help! and When Ezra filled his pants at church Dave was the one to run home to change him… since we never seem to have the sense to pack diapers and wipes! 

Well I hope you all had a Happy mother's Day! I sure did and I get to see my Mommy and Daddy on Friday and get to go to MayFest with them so that is even better!

 Nothings better than getting visitors in Cheney! 

(Hint Hint)

Sami's first day of 1st Grade!

Well it finally came... September 4, Sami started 1st Grade! 

 This year she will go all day, every day Monday thru Friday, she is still confused, and there has been a day or two she didn't want to go but so far so good. She has her 1st Spelling Test this Friday and wow... I am so happy for her.. I have tested her and she has them down...and we still have 3 days left to practice... I was a speller and so I hope I passed that down to her! 

 Daphne was a bit sad to be parted from her best friend and that she wasn't starting school yet, but she was happy that mom let her wear her new clothes before school started. 

 I usually pick up Sami from school and last year I went with her on her first day and so i let Dave go with her on her first day this year. Her teacher is Mrs. Smedley and she is brand new this year... basically got hired a few weeks ago... she seems cool so far and Sami seems to like her! 

Well... I hope we can keep up with the homework she is given this year and I hope Sami can gain a thirst for reading... I fear she might not since I cared less about it until i was an adult... Her's to a new year! 

Kennewick!

So School ended on Thursday, Sami's party was Monday and Tuesday we headed to Kennewick for the week. The girls had a great time picking grandma's raspberries it's one of Sami's favorite things to do. 

We had a huge family barbeque and I made felt masks for all the kids. I forgot to give my sisters boys theres... 

The boys got Batman for Ezra's side of the party and the girls got Pony... There are other pictures from this party but where they are I have no clue! 

Sami's Party

Well, since I love to have fun for birthday's because hey why not... we had Sami's 6 party the day before we left for Tri-Cities the day before her actual birthday! 

 Here we are playing pin the tail on Princess Celestia... 

Dave drew the picture and Sami colored it! We used yarn for the tails

 We used Daphne's Ear Bandit as the blindfold because it was handy and it worked pretty well! 

 Than we played water balloon toss... it was fun! 

 I made Sami's cake with a rainbow made out of skittles on it and marshmellows for he clouds... and she had a pony that was standing on it as well... Pinterest! 

 We invited 4 girls to the party, April (in purple), Wynter (in green), Amelia and Alanna but seeing how it was summer it was hard. 

Sami had a great time and it was a good chance to have her friends over! 

Just One of Those Days!

Disclaimer: I am having a rough day so this post reflects that, kinda depressing it will be, if you for any reason would like to make a comment on this page, don't lecture me, don't criticize, you can sympathize, that's about it! 

You ever have one of those days, where it starts out great, but somewhere in the middle it just sucks and it drops you so low that it has the strength to ruin the rest of your day and maybe even your week with depressive woe is me thoughts? Well that was me, today about an hour ago.

We had a great morning, we got up drove into Spokane and went to the Farmer's Market to redeem our WIC Farmers Market vouchers, there was some good produce and so I spent all my $20 before heading home. Cherries, cucumbers, corn, and peaches.

When I start a day or even a week I don't try and dwell on the negative because i know there will come moments, I try and think about the positive. When I set out this morning my thoughts were;

it's 9 am we will stop and get apple pies at McD's and me a pop, than head to Spokane, kinda a long drive 15-20 min give or take, than we will get to get some yummy food, and try out Ezra's new stroller, because my motto "It's the Little Things in LIfe"

So that went great as planned... than we stopped off the at the grocery store and got food, another happy moment, than had lunch etc. You see my pattern, things I can control. 

Than we did what we have been doing a lot in the afternoon and went to the wadding pool, this is where it gets hard. 

I never know what to expect and that drops my guard down a lot. One day there was this down syndrome kid who's mom never watches him and he is constantly asking you questions and splashing your kids while they cry, and all while your trying to watch your own kids. Than there's the family who don't invest in swim diapers and have two children in the pool under 2 and they have huge bubble butts because they are in regular diapers and your thinking, man when are those going to explode and than gross. Than there is the other thing, people I know from church, my kids playing with there's. So far this summer it's been pretty basic the same people people I can have good conversation... (ok let me explain my bad day isn't from a person in our ward, I'm not that rude on line) and well today was different, There was a new lady in our ward there with her daughter who is a day older than Ezra, and the little 1 year old was walking around the pool all on her own. If you know me you know where this is headed... 

Ezra doesn't crawl normal and certainly does not walk. I love my little boy so much and I know in time he will walk and stuff and I will be grateful it took him so long... but at this moment I am starting to downward spiral. All these negative thoughts going through my head, and in the mean time I am watching Sami spazz out in the pool being Sami loud, and spastic, and than there's Daphne who doesn't listen and is naughty with her ear bandit on so her ears don't get wet... and than I am spiraling more... feeling sorry for myself in so many ways... 

Ezra doesn't crawl normal, he gets around and it's not as if he can't move and can't talk or anything else a 1 year old can't do, just his motion is all off. We are getting him into a orthopedic surgeon to get checked out they suspect he has some problems with his feet. So yes problem solved... 

Daphne... has tubes and because she couldn't hear for so long she is naughty but daring... she is almost potty trained, hopefully before preschool starts in September she will be ready. 

Than there's Sami, we don't exactly know what's going on with her, but until the Spring, I thought nothing, i just thought her and Daphne were from a different mold... but no it's far worse than that... She's getting 2's in school instead of 4's like everyone else, she see's a Occupational Therapist, a Speech Therapist and a Physical Therapist at school, and will most likely be meeting in the Resource room this fall to get help with her school work. Everything is too hard, and so we bribe a lot, and she has to have a schedule. We were lax and let her sleep on the couch falling asleep to a movie for a couple weeks for bed, and that just was wrong, she has never wet her pants and she wet her pants every day a couple times for a week... we went back to the bed time at 8 pushing it back a half hour so it would be dark when she went to bed, and making her sleep in her bed, and the wetting the bed has stopped. She hits a lot... not hard, but when she gets annoyed, and screams, a lot, and has a hard time whispering. She has an amazing memory or else it would be a lot worse. She doesn't understand things like times of day. Tomorrow, yesterday, later, today it's all foreign and confused in her mind, it makes it really hard... we can't tell her where we are going until we are actually on our way or she will freak out if we don't end up going or pester us about it for weeks on end. We told her about going to Disneyland in March, with the family, and we told her in February and so she told everyone at school and they all know, there question for me, is when are you actually going? She fixates on things like Little Mermaid, and My Little pony. If Dave draws her a picture of a pony and lets say the cutie mark is missing a ray from the sun, or a star or something so small she notices and it's the end of the world. Forget Daphne trying to draw a pony with extra legs... all her homework pages come home with drawings of ponies on the back of them, and most the time plays on her own, away from everyone else, and thinks everyone is her best friend... well... to chalk this all up they believe she has Aspergers. Now this is the hard part... the school diagnosed her as that, but we need to get medically diagnosed and so maybe in October that will happen, there's a waiting list of 6 months... bull crap huh! We are seeing her doctor tomorrow we shall see if there is another route... I would surely like to know! 

So there we have it... 3 kids with problems... so when I am surrounded by kids that have no problems, who walk on time and crawl on time, and talk and can get potty trained and play with others... my self esteem drops... me and Dave find our selves wondering, are we doing something wrong? Should we not breed anymore... is a baby #4 out of the question... and just when I start to think really bad thoughts I get on line and learn about women who can't have kids, or women who's kids are in the hospital a lot, or women who are in the hospital a lot... I had great pregnancies ... for the most part and my babies were all late and healthy... they left the hospital when I did within 48 hours... 

Heavenly Father in trusted me with these kids, they are mine but only if I am worthy of them and keep my covenants.. I love these kids with all my heart and yes I want baby #4 problems and all...

So when I am forced with these hard moments in life I pack up my kids and make an excuse and head on home... it's time to hunker down, turn on a good movie for rest time, and find a project to keep myself busy with... 

And remember that everyone has problems and trials whether you can see it or not... 

I am a good mom... I am figuring my kids out and once Ezra walks I have to chase him... 

So here's to a better tomorrow!  

Pumpkin Painting!

I decided this year instead of carving 3 pumpkins I would just keep the girls busy by letting them paint pumpkins. You see most of you sit around the house when you get time to have a breather, I sit around the house a lot of the time dreaming of the days that I am a bit busier. Daphne can keep herself pretty contented playing all day, but Sami plays for maybe 10-15 min 30 min max but than she gets annoying to everyone around her and needs an ACTIVITY, it's a good thing this girl is in school, so I try and think of things they can do together but that I can still recover from, most of this things require a lot of clean up, and don't last more than 20 min, if I am lucky! 

 I had planned to give the kitchen a deep cleaning while Ezra was napping and while they were painting but... this activity lasted maybe 15 min. Thank goodness after this was probably a nap... for at least Daphne.. Sami doesn't nap anymore. She wakes up at 5:30-6:30 and goes until 8 when she is out with in 10 min... 

 Since she is a kindergartner, she gets homework (YEAH) something to keep her busy and she loves to do the things I just wish more of them didn't require my help (I'm sorry I feel that way but I try and make my kids as independent as possible they still come to me when they need things and we always have wrestle, tickle, movie and out on the time together).... this assignment she was supposed to spell her name out in toothpicks... she did that and than proceeded to do the alphabet... I helped her on the circles and that was it... (I still can't believe she has to be in a special group because she needs work on her motor skills... ) 

 I love taking her picture because she sits still and smiles and smiles pretty! I love when I get these angled shots because they make her look cuter, if that is possible! 

 With her awesome mom! 

 Ezra has begun that fun stage of teething (4 plus at once), and not napping near as much it's basically a morning, afternoon, and a early bed time at 6:30 or so where he wakes up periodically after that through the night... (more on Ezra later) 

 I love Mary Engelbriet and I checked out a cross stitch book of hers at the library, I wish I would have discovered how wonderful the library is a long time ago, I wouldn't have two book shelves full of books that I will never read again taking up space... 

This cross stitch took me a month to complete and I finished it a couple days before Halloween... I think it's super cute! 

 I love my Daphne but when she is inconsolable it's pretty tough... 

Ezra getting mad because he can't quite get his fingers around his uvula at the end of his throat... 

Valentine's Day!

What a fun exciting couple weeks we have had...

wow are you thinking... oh fun what did they do... well no worries it wasn't too exciting...

Dave has been thrown full boar into his quarter of school. He is taking the 2nd class of programming the 2nd class of 3D animation and philosophy/Ethics. He has been on the computer every day after school continuous. I can't say that I have been the perfect wife I have had my bouts of insanity wondering how I am going to get through the next 2 years but, I have been shown that school is definitely not easy and to have a 4.0 student as your husband you have to work extra hard at everything else. We have been blessed most definitely when he has been put up against strict deadlines for finishing the impossible he has been able to do it all the while, I have been doing my calling which can be demanding at times, and taking care of all the house hold and girl needs and all my many doctors appointments.

Here are the girls eager to leave the house to go to a play date... I dress them a like when we go somewhere there will be lots of kids. I showed them how you could make a hand puppet with a sock and they were trying it out... they are two of the most adorable wonderful daughters a mom could ever ask for but just as easily as I think that they can be the most infuriating. I have stopped yelling and spanking (for the most part, no I didn't do it that often) but now I just calmly say strike 1. etc. If they get to 3 strikes it is time out in there room for 5 min while the timer is set. If they keep it up I just add time. It is a lot less stressful on me and the baby.

Speaking of the baby... he is growing at a rapid pace, and I am hungry A LOT but I have been trying to keep myself busy and so I made him some ties. they are super simple but adorable and I am going to sell them at our next Ransom Made Event in May. So cute... my favorite one is the Oreo one. I have also made a potato chip, tool, band instrument, and dog. I am constantly on the search for fun fabric. I want to find a guitar fabric, and will be hitting up JoAnn's in the coming week to get Super Hero fabric for his bedroom and of course a tie... I have converted some of Dave's old dress shirts into ties, and saving the rest for pants to match... this kid is going to be well dressed, and styling!

I had a pretty good Valentine's Day. I gave Dave a hard time about never getting me flowers and he has a hard time buying me something that dies in a matter of days and so he doesn't do flower bouquets. He bought me a mini rose plant and I love it... I just hope I don't kill it. I only have one other plant and it is the one that never dies... so I pray that I can keep these roses alive. I transferred them into a bigger pot and put them where when the sun shines it will hit them. Since it is still hard core winter here the sun is very rare and when it does shine... it goes bitter cold a couple days later and the repercussion is everyone gets a cold. That's me.. I have been struggling with having energy, taking care of my girls, myself, and keeping my cool while Dave has been so busy all while having a bad cold. It is just about past me, and so I hope it stays gone. Dang cold. It's not so bad but since I have a kid sitting on my bladder if there is the least bit of anything in my bladder if I sneeze more than once in a row I am running to the bathroom so fast in hopes I can make it before I wet myself... yeah I am 31 and I feel like I am on that SNL commercial... "Ooops I crapped my pants... " but I don't crap I just tinkle.. the things we women go through to bring these beautiful children into the world.

I got Dave some candy (which he has hardly ate any of) and a Batman T-shirt. The girls got Lady and the Tramp, and Wizard of Oz on Blu ray. Dave's birthday is on the 26th and we are going out to dinner just the two of us next week to celebrate that and Valentines a bit more. I did make some delicious chow for us Tuesday, and we had a pre-school party Monday for Sami and her friends and Daphne's friends. It was a hit.

My husband told me the other day that he wouldn't work this hard in school if it wasn't for us. He wants to provide for us and I know he will do just fine. I am so glad that we came to Cheney for him to get this animation degree. He is doing computer programming as well but just doing that would have sold him short he is an amazing student and has such a talent for this animation. Seriously if I can get some pictures off his lap top I will show you just how talented this guy is...

Let me tell you what he just completed. At Eastern they have a visitors center well, there class was asked by the school to create a 3D dimensional walk thru tour of the campus so that visitors could see the campus with out having to walk through it. Well they have like 20 some kids in there class and they all modeled 3 buildings in less than 2 weeks. Dave's buildings look amazing... I am just so impressed by how talented he is.. I don't know how I got to lucky to have such an amazing talented 4.0 student as a husband but I did and I am so glad and I know I will be eternally happy. He told me about how the smart students in his degree get recruited to work for Microsoft in Seattle. This kid went through the program recently and got 4.0 in everything and he got hired right out of school to work for Microsoft. They gave him a $50 thou starting bonus, and he makes about $80 thou a year... I am not thinking that will be us but hey I won't complain... I just want a house with a backyard, and more money to craft and decorate... We have 2 more years of this horror or being poor and Dave been so busy but after it's over it will miss this time and it will all be a distant memory!

Ok, enough gloating about my husband... just goes to show college pays off! (or will)

Onto the lighter side of things... Daphne... what am I going to do with this girl, seriously? She is such a pill. At night she usually plays in her room while her sister sleeps before she falls asleep well this night apparently she was reading books and just got tired. She is asleep in the book box... we did move her but after laughing and taking several pictures. Children really are a joy.

I registered Sami for kindergarten yesterday, kindergarten I can't believe it. When did that happen. She turns 5 in June and I am scared to send her off to school. Here they don't just do morning or afternoon unless you pay for it. They do either MW and every other F or TTH and every other F. From 8:20-3:30 and the F are late so 9:20. I am interested to see how it all plays out, she is constantly needing to be pre-occupied at home, I can't keep her busy. If she isn't busy doing something than she is terrorizing Daphne. I am going to miss her help, and her sweet ness when she is at school this fall, but I won't miss her whining... she has mastered that. Maybe they will teach her how to listen at school.

Well I think my post is long enough today!

November

I guess I have been pretty lazy lately where the picture taking is concerned, oh well... we aren't that exciting so your not missing much. This is the pictures we have taken this month...

One Sunday before church I needed a snack since we were out of everything to take to church, and so I popped a bowl of popcorn, Sami gave Daphne the bowl of popcorn and there ya go.... I ended up picking up enough to stuff in two baggies for church, and vacuumed it all up when we got home, this girl is a terror, she gets in to EVERYTHING... last night she broke a plate, and when she is coloring she throws all the crayons on the floor, and when she is doing puzzles she throws all the pieces on the floor, not at all like Sami was at this age, so you can see where I am surprised...

Dave irons his own church shirts, here is the proof!

it snows here now all the time, and it's very cold, my friends from church laugh at me when I show up and am suited up in my coat, hat, gloves, boots and scarf and still complaining about being cold... my temperature is off I am assuming thanks to this baby... I am really not that big of a whimp.

Saturday I decided I needed to go shovel the walks so we didn't get snow in our shoes going to church, Sami came out and played while I shoveled. We haven't invested in snow clothes for her, so she is wearing knit gloves, and two pairs of pants, she didn't want to come inside after the 30 min we were out there and claimed she wasn't cold, i was freezing and I had all the good stuff on.

Daphne, Daphne, Daphne... never lays on her actual pillow and usually doesn't fall asleep in her bed... silly girl. One night she got stuck between the guard rail and the mattress it was super sad.

i made myself this skirt... no one noticed, but I love it... it's so comfy and warm.

Sami posing for the picture... Daphne chewing on a babies feet.

As I told you before we aren't too exciting but since i have a blog and we are stuck over here in Cheney snow land, apparently the highest elevated place in the state of WA, ( I don't believe it) i am making the best of it. The nice day will be when we move into a bigger place and we actually have places to put things... notice all the clutter... it's really fun, it's ok, no one ever comes in my house, except home teachers, I don't have visiting teachers that come, and us, so I am just not worrying about it... I have more important things to worry about.

We are leaving Tuesday to head to Kennewick, for Thanksgiving, we come back on Friday Dave has to work Saturday, we are going back down for Christmas for a week, so that will be fun. I heard the babies heart beat, and it's good the doctor said, the bean was moving a ton and I am thrilled to find out that I have only gained 3 pounds so far, which is nice since I was overweight to begin with and I am told I should only gain 15-25 pounds total... so eating healthy I am, and trying not to get too caught up in my weight.. I will worry about that after this baby comes. Hoping to move into a town house after this, so hopefully going up and down stairs all day will help me loose...

Hearing the heartbeat after Christmas before New Years, or around there so that will be fun, than I can stop dreaming of a boy and just deal with what ever this baby will be either Emma Mae or Daniel Jeffrey... we shall see what comes... my luck it will be a girl but I know several people that have had two sexes in a row and there 3rd is different... so still crossing my fingers, it's not that I don't like girls, of course I love them, I just need something different a change of pace, I am getting bored of princess stuff, and pink clothes, bring on the boy stuff PLEASE!!!

See ya for now!