Keeping PACE with the WRIGHT's

Finn's Blessing

2011-01-24T03:16:00.000-08:00

Blessing Finn

Our (formerly blogged) trip to Utah was for us all to attend the blessing of Mike & Melissa's newest addition, Finn Burke Pace. What a special day for such a special little guy! He was adorable and the blessing was beautiful I felt the spirit very strongly in my heart that day.Welcome to the world little Finn! We love you so much!

Aunt Mandy holding Finn

What a proud Auntie!

Big Brother Beckham hiding under a table

Sweet Baby Finn

Proud Papa

Beckham & Grandpa

Nathan & Meagan loving on Finn

The Pace Family

Meagan, Grandpa Pace, Tiffany & Amanda

Melissa, Beckham, Michael & Finn

Winter Adventures in Utah

2011-01-24T02:51:00.000-08:00

A family trip to Utah in March for the blessing of Mike & Melissa's newest addition, Finn, (to be blogged later) was and adventure in so many ways. Here are just a few or our many adventures...

A Snowy Traffic Jam (Only in Utah...)

Good Ole King Henry Apts.


Visiting My First EVER Home Away From Home


Me, Amanda & Jason Battling Some Serious Wind & Snow (the wind almost took the car door off when we opened it!)

Nathan's 8th birthday

2011-01-24T02:39:00.000-08:00

Well I thought i already blogged about Nathan's birthday but apparently I've been slacking on the blogging so here it is...

Happy Birthday Nathan!

When I look at you, I am amazed at the incredible person you are becoming. Each day you are growing and learning so much! You are so loving and compassionate to your brothers and to all those around you. You love animals and you continue to lecture your cat, Tony, about him killing other animals and bringing them to you as "presents" because this makes you sad and you tell him he shouldn't do it anymore. Of course, Tony continues to do this because he loves you more than anyone and this is how kitties show their boys their love. You always forgive him but you have even tried to keep him from going outside anymore to keep him from hunting anymore. He always finds a way to sneak out. He sleeps in your bed with you every night, cuddled in your arms. You and Tony truly belong together as friends and companions.

Your favorite color is RED.

You love to play outside, riding your bike, rollerblading, or simply exploring the neighborhood and the orchards behind us.

Hamming it up for the camera

Nathan with David C. at Adventure Park party

David, Aunt Mandy, and Nathan at Adventure Park

Aunt Mandy's Puzzle Present (a gift certificate to visit her in Huntington Beach)

Happy with his new Wheels!

Bakugan cake (cheesecake!)

Such a handsome birthday boy!

Mardi Gras 2010

2011-01-24T01:21:00.000-08:00

Mardi Gras 2010

I had the privaledge of attending the Mardi Gras event sponsored by The Creative Center last spring. I had a great time with Mom & Dad, Dave & Kim and my good friend Stephanie. It was so much fun to look at all the great art that was on display (and for sale) that had been created by such incredibly special people in our community. This event was especially close to my heart since I anticipate the one day I may have children who are participating in activities at the Creative Center. The food was great, the entertainment was great and the company was even better! Enjoy some pics!

The Entrance

The Photo Op

The Ceiling Lighting (the pictures done do it justice, it was amazing)

The Gambling (for charity of course)

Mom & Dad - Thanks for taking us with you to the party!

Uncle Dave & Auntie Kim - Love them!

Steph and Me having a blast

The Famous Chef Steph!!!

ME! (Duh!)

The Art Display

Nathan IS Michael Jackson!

2010-05-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

Nathan's school announced a few weeks ago that they were going to have a lip sync. Songs had to be 25 years old or older so Nathan and I got on YouTube and started looking at some classics...Elvis, Michael Jackson, etc. He decided he wanted to do Thriller by Michael Jackson. Sounded like a good choice to me! We went and bought a CD with the song on it. They were only allowed to do 60 seconds of a song so we chose the first 1:02 which included the intro music and the first verse and chorus. Nathan was really excited about it and practiced lots at school and recruited 2 friends to perform it with him. They were his "zombies"! They did such a great job and were so cute. I used an old long sleeved red t-shirt of Nathan's and black duct tape to create the signature red jacket that Michael Jackson wore in the Thriller video. Here are some great pictures and a video of Nathan's performance. Enjoy!

Sweet and Funny Jonathan

2010-04-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Sweet Jonathan

Funny Jonathan

Jonathan's 1st Day of Preschool

2010-04-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

We went to the school a few days before he started to get his paperwork turned in and such. There's a few pics from that day and a bunch from his first day of preschool. He walked right in the classroom on his first day and wanted to jump right into the middle of everything! His teacher said he did great and was happy as could be, for a boy who had to be there in the middle what is usually nap time! He LOVES preschool and we are so excited to see how much progress he is making all the time now!

A few days before...

First Day of Preschool

Road Trip!!!!

2010-04-24T21:39:00.000-07:00

In February, we took a road trip to Arizona to see cousin Jacob get baptized. The drive was uneventful and the weekend was fun. Didn't get a lot of pics but here's a few!

Jonathan's 3rd Birthday!!!

2010-04-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

On February 8, Jonathan turned 3 years old! What a big boy! We had a great little party with cake and presents and lots of fun! Jonathan got a big boy bed with big boy dinosaur decorations, a sand and water table and lots of fun toys! He had a great time celebrating and we had fun watching him enjoy it!

Big Boy Bed & Big Boy Room

The Presents

The Cake

Happy Birthday Jonathan

Last day at Bright Start

2010-04-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

Jonathan had his last day of therapy at Bright Start. It was bittersweet. We miss Jamie and Christine (and Loreen and everyone else) so much but we are so thankful to all who were a part of Jonathan's huge progress in his first 3 years of life! Here's some pics from his last day of OT and Speech therapy at Bright Start with Jamie and Christine!

Things Jonathan learned at Bright Start...

SWINGING!!!
(He used to hate it! Found every possible way to avoid it! Now he LOVES it!!!)

BLOWING!!!

HIGH FIVE!!!

PUSHING & PULLING!!! (sometimes at the same time!)

HITTING!!! (appropriately of course!)

Christine, Jonathan, Jamie

Exhausted at the end of Therapy but not too exhausted to POSE!!!

Thank you to everyone at Bright Start who made my little guy work so hard and gave him such a great jump on life!
He wouldn't be where he is without any one of you!

Jonathan's First Haircut!

2010-04-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

We all love Jonathan's blond, curly hair but it did finally get a bit too wild and crazy! On December 28, 2009, Jonathan had his first haircut. It was not the best experience ever, but not the worst either! (Worst for me would have to be David's first haircut!) I told the girl that I wanted him to still have a bit of curl left so to just trim it a bit but leave it a little longer. She did a great job considering he was squirming excessively, biting, hitting, crying and screaming! I sat in the chair and held him on my lap while he got his hair cut and therefore I was the recipient of most of his bites and hits and NOT the girl who was cutting his hair! Enjoy the pictures!

BEFORE (about 8 days before)

DURING

AFTER

THE REWARD

Christmas

2010-04-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

Decorating our Christmas Tree!

Christmas was a little different this year because we've had a lot of changes in our family. I got to have the kids with me for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and then they went to Doug's house at noon on Christmas day for more Christmas gifts and a weekend with Dad.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's house, eating dinner, playing, reading Christmas stories and opening presents (pajamas for everyone). We had a great time. Then we went home to bed to wait for Santa to come!

Christmas morning was lots of fun. Everyone got lots of fun new toys and gadgets to play with. All the kids got some ZhuZhu Pets hamsters to share with each other, books, and clothes.

David got a camera of his very own, a Nintendo DS and The Force (a cool Star Wars Jedi mind game that he was incredibly good at!).

Nathan got a new bike and helmet, and a Nintendo DS.

Jonathan got a play kitchen and pretend cleaning tools (broom, dustpan, iron, mini vacuum), and some dinosaurs that really roar!

We had a great time and everyone loved their gifts. After the kids left, I went to lunch at Dave & Kim's and then spent the rest of the day and weekend relaxing with my family, spending the night at Mom & Dad's (AKA Grandma & Grandpa's) and enjoying my family.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

2010-04-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

For Thanksgiving this year, we got to go to Hawaii with the Pace family! What a great time we had! Jonathan's first visit to a beach was at Huntington Beach, CA near Amanda's house and he loved it! He and Grandma got soaked by a wave which was a bit of a shock but amusing.

In Hawaii, the humidity made Jonathan's hair curl up so cutely and he loved playing with the sand on the beach. I was really worried he would be running toward the water all the time but instead, he ran after all the dogs that people had on the beach. So funny!

David spent his first day on the beach carrying a boogie board around under his arm but never actually getting in the water. After that, he got braver and did start playing in the water on other days.

Nathan boogie boarded, played in the sand, ran around and had a great time too!

We visited Pearl Harbor and the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We also celebrated Grandpa's birthday AND Thanksgiving! What a great trip!

Our newest family member

2009-11-03T00:35:00.000-08:00

So most of you already know this but we were adopted by a kitten when we moved to this house a little over a year ago. We named her Gabby because she is very "vocal". Nathan wanted to name her "Meow" because she "meows a lot" but I talked him into something that could mean the same thing but was a little more "normal". Anyway, due to our very hectic life, I neglected to get Gabby spayed and this spring I realized she was pregnant.

She had 3 kittens on June 10, the same day we were out of town for our Pace Family Reunion in Utah. The runt of the litter didn't make it but I named her anyway. In the second picture, you can see how tiny little Penelope was compared to her brother and sister.

Then we were left with a boy and a girl, who we named Tony and Cleo. Tony is the black and white one and Cleo is the orange one. They were inseparable for the first 10 weeks of their life. They slept curled up together one way or another all the time and they played with each other constantly.

Cleo was not meant to be a member of our family forever. She was just a bit too skittish and afraid of her own shadow to be comfortable in the house full of rambunctious boys so we gave her to a family who was more suited to her personality and she has been very happy there. (In these pictures she is running away from a ribbon that was laying on the ground!)

Nathan became very attached to Tony though and I just didn't have the heart to make him give him up. He insists on taking Tony to bed with him every night although in this pictures they fell asleep together watching tv on our giant ottoman! Tony has made himself completely at home, even sleeping in Jonathan toys and high chair! So Tony is our newest member of the family. He's a cute little guy and just as "vocal" as his momma! Tony is also very fond of curling up with and playing with Aden which is quite a site to see this little kitten playing and sleeping with a 100lb golden retriever!

It's Pumpkin Patch Time Again!

2009-10-31T13:02:00.000-07:00

We got to go to the pumpkin patch and corn maze here in town last weekend with Grandma & Grandpa and the kids had a blast! Look how much they've grown!!!!

Jonathan loved the corn maze cause he got to just run and run and no one was telling him to stop or which way to go or anything.

Nathan loved the maze and the hay ride and the giant pumpkins! David enjoyed the hay ride the most I think.

What a fun time! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Gooooooooooal!

2009-10-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

Well...not too many goals this season actually but Nathan has really enjoyed playing soccer this fall and he's pretty darn good! I've gotten some decent shots of him in action and of his brothers and their antics during the games.

They all certainly are keeping us all on our toes!

Nathan's last game is next Saturday but I hope he will decide to play again next year because we've really enjoyed watching him get out there and grow as a player!

He does really well at getting out there and going after the ball. It's so fun to watch your child learn a new skill and then develop it over time! Go Nathan!!!!

Christmas Merriment

2009-01-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas was fun with the kids this year. David and Nathan enjoyed their presents. Jonathan really had no interest in opening any of his presents but he was happy anyway. He just enjoyed practicing his walking skills, walking around in circles, drinking his bottle while the rest of us explored our gifts! Once his gifts were opened, he enjoyed playing with them. Here's our Christmas pictures...

Thanksgiving with the Wright's

2009-01-13T17:59:00.000-08:00

We decided to travel to Arizona for Thanksgiving this year and spend the holiday with Doug's family. It was so much fun to see all of them and to watch the kids playing together and having such a good time. We had a great Thanksgiving feast, shared with the Wright's (sadly, minus Jared, Laurie and co.) and the Cluff's. There was basketball and ping pong. Then we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying our short time together. Girls' only time was spent making clocks and seeing Twilight. The guys enjoyed video games and basketball. We even got an adults ONLY night out! Imagine the luxury of THAT!!!

OUR FEAST

COUSINS...

AND JONATHAN'S FIRST BLACK EYE

FPOA Football Tournament

2009-01-13T17:41:00.000-08:00

FPOA = Fresno Police Officers' Association

FPOA puts on various sports tournaments for the officers during the year. Soccer, Softball, Football, etc. So Doug played in this "flag" football tournament a week or two before Thanksgiving. It might as well have been tackle football for how much these guys spent on the ground! He had fun even if they didn't win. Too bad I didn't get any good pictures of him actually playing. It was fun for me to go watch Doug play with his motors team and I also got to meet some of the wives of the other officers which is always nice.

David and Nathan had a good time playing on the playground. Then David came and watched the game with me and took some pictures. Jonathan enjoyed pushing the stroller around, especially when he was trying to sneak onto the field! He was also fascinated by the P.A.L. PT Cruiser.

OH!And don't for get the between-game-father-son bonding!

A Day at the Park

2009-01-13T16:33:00.000-08:00

I decided to take the kids to the park a while back to get them out of the house. We had an abundance of stale bread so we took that to feed to the ducks and we invited Aunt Mandy along. The ducks were happy to eat our stale bread and we had a good time.

David engaged in his favorite pastime, swinging, swinging and more swinging! He was in heaven!

Nathan, our little daredevil, climbed the jungle gym dinosaur, then climbed the jungle gym but not the part your SUPPOSED to climb, nooooo, he climbed on top of the beam ABOVE the monkey bars and then jumped OFF!!! He also climbed some trees and generally just ran around like a typical boy!

Jonathan just enjoyed pushing the stroller all over the park and Aunt Mandy and I followed him wherever he went. Such a cute little thing! He couldn't see anything but he didn't care! He was pushing that stroller as fast as he could make it go!

Therapeudic fun!

2008-11-07T19:39:00.000-08:00

Jonathan has speech therapy and occupational therapy, combined, every Monday morning. He has spent some time warming up to his therapists and the therapy room, sizing things up and trying to decide what he thinks. Well, I think he's decided therapy is fun, at least sometimes. He works so hard for Jamie(speech) and Christine(occupational) and his hard work is paying off these days! He continues to scream at all of us on a regular basis but seems to enjoy challenging his therapists on a regular basis. He's such a problem solver that they are having to get creative in order to get him to do the things they want him to do. I think he enjoys this little game he plays with them.

He loves to play with the balls from the ball pit both in and out of the ball pit!

Recently they've been trying to get him to try some new things, like the giant lumpy pillows and the platform swing. This week he eventually gave in and took a chance on both things. He got to be pretty comfortable with the pillows but he's not so sure about that swing yet. It just keeps moving every time he touches it! He does like to spin it around to get the toys they've put on the far side of it.

The goal was to get him to get on the swing to get the toys but he's too clever to fall for their little tricks! Heeheehee! What a cutiepie! It's so exciting to see all the new things he's trying lately! Here's a few pics of Jonathan at therapy! I'm also adding a little video of him playing with Jamie with the ball pit balls. He was so excited that I just HAD to catch it on camera! Enjoy!

The End of the Season

2008-11-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

The time has come once again for David's last Miracle League baseball game of the season. The Fall 2008 season was a great success! David really enjoyed playing and spending all that time with Doug and I think Doug enjoyed it too! They seemed to have a great time bonding together.

Waiting patiently for his turn at bat...

He has also started to interact more with some of his teammates and Coach Hannah, which is so fun to watch. Coach Hannah is the reason we return to the Dodgers team each season! She has been so great for David! She obviously loves the time she spends with all of her kids and David adores her!

THREE CHEERS FOR COACH HANNAH!

And the entire experience wouldn't be complete without an injury, right?!

He's also started to really enjoy posing for pictures which is quite funny actually and super cute especially from the kid who has always HATED pictures! All in all, he had a great season!

Nathan enjoyed the playground at every game this season. However, he managed to escape the camera lens so I have no pictures of him playing! Jonathan enjoyed pushing his stroller around all over the place which meant that I had very little opportunity to actually watch David's games since I was chasing Jonathan everywhere! He's become quite the little adventurer though. He even took his stroller off-road many times!

You've gotta love this face!!!

Jonathan's Latest Antics

2008-10-18T14:10:00.001-07:00

So I had Doug put latches on all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen to keep Jonathan out of everything. We have one drawer that is the kids' snack drawer. It's full of snacks that are easy for the kids to get to. Well Jonathan managed to removed the latch from the drawer somehow and this is what I found after that! I have now attached a new latch and hopefully it will last longer than the previous one! He's a cute little stinker isn't he?!

Pumpkin Patch with FACESS from Bright Start!

2008-10-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

So Jonathan gets all his early intervention services through Bright Start birth to 3 program. Within Bright Start there is a group called FACESS. Don't ask me what it stands for but it's for kids who have autistic spectrum disorders or are at risk for them, including autism. So they had a group outing to the pumpkin patch this week and Jonathan and I went. Sadly they were quite low on pumpkins that day so we didn't get any. They had several big school groups there that morning and each of those kids got a pumpkin so they might have just been running low. I suspect that ALL their pumpkins aren't grown on that particular piece of land and thatn they bring more over periodically from other farm locations. Just a guess though. Anyway, we played in the "corn"box and took a ride in a wagon through the pumpkin patch, in search of a good pumpkin, and through the kiddie corn maze. We had a good time but Jonathan wasn't too thrilled with the corn maze and all that. It was pretty bumpy. I did get a few pictures there so here they are. Jonathan enjoyed playing with all the dried corn in the "corn"box. He also loved the sound of it when we picked it up and let it fall back down.

Jonathan and Susan playing with the corn

First Day of School Fall 2008

2008-10-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a long time ago but I wanted to post some pictures of the boys on their first day of school this year. David is in the same class with the same teacher and one-on-one aide as he had last year so he's happy there. Next year is probably going to be a difficult transition year for him, going to a new school, new teacher, new grade and all. Right now I'll just deal with this year. Nathan started 1st grade at a new school this year because we moved at the end of last school year. He loves his teacher. She is very creative and does lots of fun things with the kids. He is doing very well and getting to be a pretty good reader. Here are some pictures from their first day this year.

It's a blog party!!!

2008-10-15T23:35:00.000-07:00

Jenna at For the Love of Baby! is hosting a great party right now and she knows how much Mom needs to relax! So head on over and check out an awesome giveaway from Fraiche that will make sure Mom MAKES TIME to Relax!

Woohoo! I know I could use to good relaxation and this stuff sounds like it could really help!

Jenna is one of my February LuvBug mommies so she has a little girl the same age as Jonathan and also just had a new baby girl! Go check out her blog and enter to win some great prizes. She'll be adding tons of new contests all the time during her blog party to keep checking back for more chances to win!

Swim Swim Swim!

2008-09-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

Nathan took 2 swim classes this summer. The first one was before our vacation and the second one was after we got back. Initially, they wanted him to take the first class over again because he wasn't quite ready to move on but then on the first day of the second session he passes all the requirements for that level so they went ahead and moved him up. He passed that one too! He did a great job and turned into quite a little fish this summer! He gave up his beloved Spiderman floaty suit and his arm floats and took to the water solo! He improved throughout the summer and really showed us what he can do! We are so proud of how great he did in his swim classes and also in learning to do so many new things in the water all on his own! Great job!

David also made progress this summer in the pool. He was brave and ventured away from the safety and comfort of his step in Grandma's and Grandpa's pool and learned that he can touch the bottom in the shallow end. He also loved to put his face in the water and kinda snorkel around with his goggles on. He did so great and we are super proud of him too! He would let us hold him and he would kick his legs. We even got him to try to do some arm strokes. As long as we held onto him, he did great! He has really overcome some of his fears in the pool this summer and we are looking forward to all the progress he will continue to make as time passes.

Jonathan wasn't sure about the water at first but eventually he grew to love being in the pool. It seemed to relax him at times and then other times he was just excited and was splashing and kicking all over the place! He much preferred to be held than to ride in a baby float. I think it was easier to splash and kick in someone's arms than in the little boat float! What a cutie!

Nathan's Kindergarten Graduation

2008-09-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

I know this is not exactly in the right order of things but I realized that I never blogged about Nathan's kindergarten graduation!

He did a really great job all year and the kindergarten teachers put together a cute little ceremony/program for their kindergarten graduation. They sang songs together. We got to watch a cute video/slideshow of the kids participating in various activities throughout the year. It was so cute and they even made little caps to wear! Congratulations on a great year Nathan!

On to Idaho and Yellowstone

2008-09-10T12:16:00.000-07:00

The Pace family took a trip to Idaho and Yellowstone this year together. We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery and all the fun outdoors activities!

We left Texas and drove north toward Idaho. We stopped at some point in the middle of the night and got a hotel room but I can't even remember where we stopped! We slept for only about 4 or 5 hours and then got back on the road again so we could get to Idaho and meet the rest of the Pace's at the cabin that we would be staying at. We got there before everyone else and we couldn't get into the cabin yet because it was still being cleaned for us so we just drove around and looked at all the other ginormous "cabins" around the area. It was beautiful and very close to the water. Eventually we all got into the cabin and got ourselves situated in separate rooms.

The first day was spent on the beach, playing in the water, riding jet skis and fishing. Jonathan slept most of the morning so I stayed there until he woke up and then we went down to the lake to join everyone else. The kids were all fishing and David got a hook caught in his leg but it wasn't bad and he pulled it out before any of the adults could get to it! He cried a bit but then he was fine. Doug and I went out on the jet ski for a while and then came back and took the kids back to the cabin. The water was cold but the area was gorgeous!

We also spent a day riding ATVs and other days were spent just relaxing around the cabin and enjoying being together. Doug and Nathan went white water rafting with almost everyone else except the youngest kids, me, Mom and David. We played games, watched movies, sat in the hot tub, roasted marshmallows, played pool and ate yummy food.

After church on Sunday, we took a ride into Yellowstone to visit the hot pots. We had a close encounter with a bison who decided to take a stroll down the middle of the road! The picture I got is not zoomed in at all! He was THAT close to our car! It was kinda crazy! The hot pots were cool to look at but it was very hot out there! Obviously! LOL! Jonathan enjoyed riding in the backpack on Doug's back and David and Nathan just loved following their daddy around everywhere!

On our last day, we went to see Old Faithful before we had to hit the road again and head home. It was pretty amazing to see that. The boys picked out some volcano making kits in the gift store and then we had to leave the Pace's for home. We drove to Alpine, UT that night and stayed with Lana, Jared and Laurie for the night and then headed home the next morning. On our way out of town though, we stopped at Cabella's and let the kids see all the animals they have on display and also try out the shooting game inside. We got home late and we were exhausted. We had a great trip but we were all happy to be home and sleep in our own beds finally! I think Jonathan was the happiest of all of us though!

Texas and the Family Reunion

2008-09-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

After we left the MIND Institute, we went straight to Texas for a family reunion with Doug's family. The drive was long but the kids were amazingly well behaved for the trip and we had a good time visiting Doug's home state!

The first thing that happened after we left Sacramento was that the kids all got settled in the car for the long trip. David and Nathan watched movies and Jonathan watched David and Nathan and sometimes the movies. Mostly he just sat and looked out the window.

David made himself a bed on the floor and Nathan made himself a bed on the seat and they stayed in those spots for most of the drive. David slept and watched movies mostly. He also got very clever about sneaking snacks without us knowing it! Nathan spent most of his time playing PSP , watching movies and coloring. Mostly PSP though. He got a Ben 10 game and he was obsessed the whole trip!

Jonathan surprised me by how good he was in the car. He also made some great progress on some things while we were driving. He was quiet and didn't really fuss much at all except when he was hungry or tired. He has never been good about sleeping in the car so I was really worried about how he'd do on this trip but 5 minutes on the road from Sacramento, I looked back at him and he was sound asleep! I was amazed! Then later I was amazed to see him holding his own bottle up and drinking from it while he was sitting in his carseat, sitting up. He had not been able to do that yet so I was glad that he mastered this on our trip, even if he did use his feet half the time! It was cute!

We stopped in Albequerque for the night and were joined at the hotel by Jared, Laurie, Ethan, Rachel, Luke and Brady from Utah and Geoff, Natalie, Jacob, Anna, Bente, Isaac, Keaton and Lola from Arizona! The kids all went straight to the pool to swim before it closed for the night and had a great time! I don't know about anyone else but we had a hard time getting our kids to go to sleep that night cause they were so excited! The next morning, we all had breakfast and got on the road in a caravan. Doug and I provided the walkie talkies and most everyone seemed to enjoy using those to talk between the cars and tell jokes and play games. It definitely made the drive go faster! We made a quick stop at the border to take pictures by the Welcome to Texas sign then we continued on.

While in Texas we spent lots of time with siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and Meemaw of course! WE had a great time. It was wonderful to see Meemaw and everyone else and get to know some of the relatives that I had never met before. We had a family reunion with Meemaw's family. We ate some good BBQ and took some pictures and then we went to a community pool and played in the water. It was a fun time!

We also paid a visit to the cemetary to visit David's (Doug's dad) grave. The kids were a little freaked out to see Nana's name on the headstone next to his but we explained what that was all about. Then we also visited Grandmom & Grandad's grave and Papaw's grave among other relatives. It was hot and dry so we enjoyed some yummy ice cream after we left the cemetary.

We got to go to Chuck E. Cheese with the Black family (Wright family friends) including our friend John who we hadn't seen in years. It was lots of fun to see them and the kids had a fun time playing games and eating pizza. We ate some more BBQ the next day and the next day I think. LOL! There was a lot of BBQ to eat but it's the best! We had a good time all together and were so glad we all got to make it down there! We even got a chance to get a video record of some family history, stories and such from Meemaw and her sisters! This is something we will all cherish and pass on for generations to come. We hope to make it back to Texas again before too long!

We also got a visit from Jim and Mary while we were there and that was a treat too, as always! (Jim is one of Doug's uncles on his dad's side) They came to our hotel to visit us before we left and the kids ran all over the place while the grown ups talked and laughed together. Thankfully we were able to contain the children in one big room with us so they were at least a little under control! At one point, Natalie took them all for a walk and they all found a big tarantula on the ground by the hotel. They thought it was the greatest thing and insisted that someone take a picture! Yuck! Then the next morning Jim and Mary came back and brought cookies and watched all the kids swim one last time before we had to get on the road again! The grown ups and older kids also had a fun game of Uno Splash that morning! We were so glad to see them again too!

All in all it was a wonderful visit with family and friends and was actually somewhat relaxing if you can believe it! We all just kinda took each other's kids in and took care of everyone together! That's what family's for right! Live, laugh, love and play together!

Our trip to the MIND Institute!!!

2008-09-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful experience but it was very busy. We arrived on Sunday night, June 29 and checked into the Ronald McDonald House at UC Davis. We have stayed there a few times before and it is always wonderful. They always make us feel welcome and comfortable. Usually, at check in, each of the kids gets to choose a toy, book and blanket to keep. This time, they got to choose a toy and a blanket. I was so pleased with David and Nathan! They politely turned down the blanket offer because they decided they have enough blankets and they didn't need a new one! How great is that! They each chose a toy and then they were able to choose a few movies and video games to "rent" while we were there. They thought that was the best thing ever!

Our Schedule:

Monday June 30
TIME APPOINTMENT FOR

9-10am Welcome and Consent Wright Family
9:15-11:15am NTRI-TS: Cognitive Testing David
10-11am Clinical History Update Mr & Mrs Wright
12:15 Check-in to walk to IRC Wright Family
12:30-1:30pm NTRI-TS: Mock MRI David
1:30-3:30pm NTRI-TS: MRI Scan David
4-5pm Parent Interview (Vineland) Tiffany
re:David & Jonathan

Tuesday July 1

9-10am NTRI-TS: Neuropsychological Tiffany
Evaluation
10-11am Medical History Tiffany
11-11:30am CATSYS Balance & Tremor Tiffany
scale
11-11:30am Eyetracking David
12:45pm Check-in Tiffany
1-3pm NTRI-TS: Cognitive Testing Tiffany
3:15-4pm NTRI-TS: Mock MRI Tiffany
4-6pm NTRI-TS: MRI Scan Tiffany

Wednesday July 2

9am-12pm Baby Developmental Testing Jonathan
and Eyetracking
1-3pm Clinical Medical Evaluation Tiffany, David & Jonathan
3-3:20pm Blood Draw Tiffany, David & Jonathan

So... David's MRI was cancelled because Louise, the geneticist, was doing the clinical history update with Doug and I and she realized he was scheduled for an MRI and was adamant that they shouldn't even try it with him because she felt it would taint his whole visit as this was scheduled on the first day. So she went across to talk to the guy who was heading that research study and informed him that David would not be doing the MRI per her decision. Whatever. That was fine with us. He would never had done it anyway but I figured there wasn't any harm in trying. So that left a huge chunk of our day blank. Then I went for the parent interview and was so tired cuase I didn't get a nap that I started falling asleep during that so we decided to finish it the next day. David's cognitive testing went ok but he got bored about halfway through and wouldn't finish it which they said was fine. It's research and they just take whatever they can get. They said he did good up to that point so that was good. Then he and Nathan just got to go play while we finished up what we had to do. They have volunteers and interns who take the kids and play on the playground or let them watch movies or whatever. They have so much for them to do there and of course it didn't even occur to me to take pics of things! Sorry! So Day 1 was pretty uneventful, not a whole lot of anything to report.

Day 2: David's only thing was the eyetracking thing and Doug said he finished that in about 10 minutes. As you can see from the schedule, the rest of the day was all me so Doug took all 3 kids to the zoo in Sacramento which he said was a major disappointment. Thank goodness it was cheap! LOL! He did get some good pics and videos so that was cool.

My stuff wasn't too bad. The neuropsych testing wasn't bad and I've watched David do all the same stuff before. I had to take Jonathan with me though for something. I can't remember. OH! I know what happened! They cancelled my 9am appt that morning for the neurpsych testing and moved it to 8am on Wednesday and we had to check out of Ronald McDonald house between 8am-11am and I was in appts that whole morning so Doug had to do that and I had to take JJ cause he had an appt. Well they didn't have anyone to take him for that first hour before his testing started so I had him with me while we were doing it. She said I was doing very well considering I had a baby to deal with and stuff. I'm interested to see how all that turns out. Lol. So on Tuesday, they changed my morning stuff and we finished the parent interview from Monday and then I had all my other stuff to do. I only saw Doug and the kids for about 5 minutes before they left. The balance and tremor scale was interesting for me because I know my dad has done a lot of stuff with regard to the related disorder FXTAS (Fragile X-related Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome) which they see in mostly adult male carriers 50+ but they do see it in some females carriers as well.

The MRI was not bad. They did the cognitive testing first and it was no big deal and then they did the same tests while I was in the MRI and then they did some MRI images while I was just laying there. They had me pick out a movie that I could watch but I fell asleep. I kept falling asleep during the "games" that they had me play for the cognitive part too and I felt really bad but they said they got some good images and it was all good. It was the end of the day and I had not had much of a break at all so they said it was fine and they take what they can get. They gave me a disc with my MRI images too.

Wednesday, I went in at 8am with JJ and started the cognitive testing. At 9am, we took JJ out and gave him over to the two ladies who were doing the eyetracking study then when I finished with my thing, I met them out in the hall and we moved on to JJ's developmental testing. He did great, especially cause he was so tired! They said he did perfect on the eyetracking. They said he was probably the best they've ever done it with and that they wished they all were as good and easy and Jonathan! Then we met with Dr. Hagerman.

She started with me. We talked about my weight gain, emotional issues, medications, Fibromyalgia, stress fracture, etc. She checked my reflexes and lungs and weight and height and blood pressure then checked a few other things. Doug stood there laughing because he said it was jsut like a field sobriety test! She had me stand in front of her and touch my finger to her finger then to my nose and then to her other finger and then my nose and so on. Then I had to try to walk heel to toe in a straight line. I apparently would not have passed THAT FST according to Doug! LOL! I couldn't walk a straight line like that to save my life! LOL! We talked about goals for me for losing weight to help with pain management. She definitely thinks that if I can lose the extra 100 lbs or so that I'm carrying around right now that it would go a long way to help me feel better pain-wise.

Then we did Jonathan and he was so funny cause he did not want to have her touch him at all. She checked his ears, eyes, nose, throat, lungs, and measured the size of his ears (length and width) and how much they "cupped" and then measured the size of his testicles. (males tent to have enlarged testicles. Let's just say that David's are barely bigger now than they were when he was born!!!! Not joke!) She said Jonathan was healthy and that she was really impressed with how well he is doing. We talked about where he is developmentally and then we talked about some of our concerns. I expressed concern that we are starting to see some signs of anxiety in him so we talked about that a lot. One of the medications they put David on a while back is called Minocycline. It's an antibiotic but they have seen some really good results with it in boys as a targetted med for anxiety and adhd so if it works the way they hope it will then we could possibly cut out two meds and replace both with this one. She said they have also had some good results in baby mice with fragile x with it. She said that with Fragile X, a big part of the problem is that the brain synapses are misfiring and not connecting with each other properly and when the baby mice were treated with this medication, it repaired the brain synapses completely and reversed all signs of fragile x so she said it is something we might consider trying as Jonathan gets a little closer to 2 or 3 years old and if his anxiety gets bad enough to try it. She said the only negative side effect they've seen is yellowing of the adult teeth but she said that if it repairs the whole problem of fragile x then you can just cap the adult teeth and no one would ever know any different! I'm interested to see how this research pans out in the future.

David. What can I say. He let her check his ears and eyes and nose and chest and stuff. She was even able to get a somewhat decent measure of his ears but then came the testicles. You try telling a 9 year old with Fragile X who is just learning about privacy and keeping private parts covered that he needs to drop his drawers and let the lady dr take a look at his privates! LOL! He was not having that at all! She was able to get a slight peek but not a very good look at all. She said based on what she could tell that he's not in puberty yet because the testicles will get larger when he starts purberty and they haven't done that yet. Then we talked about a lot of issues. The possible seizures he may have had or may still be having. She ordered and EEG which was already scheduled. I came home from vacation to a letter with his appointment and everything for August 14 up at UC Davis medical center. I had to change the date cause the 14th is the first day of school so he is going up for that on August 28th. Not sure how that will go but we'll see. So then we talked medications, Dr Barnett, anxiety, and other issues such as his apparent rage that has emerged more recently. They have 2 new medication trials beginning in the fall so we will be heading back there in October probably to start him in on those studies and see if either of those meds helps him at all. Both are for anxiety and adhd symptoms which are his two major issues. If his anxiety is in control then he is pretty well under control. I'm interested and excited for those. We'll see from there.

After that we discussed what bloodwork was going to be done for each of us. Jonathan, they are just finishing the fragile x testing from last year because he was so small, they couldn't take all the blood they needed for all the tests necessary so they had to do it in two phases. They tested David for a number of things including diabetes, and some other stuff. I can't remember. They are testing my thyroid, and various other hormone levels and such. We'll see what they come back with. They want to see if I am starting to have early menopause which she doesn't think so but just wants to be sure. So that was that. We went for the blood draw. I went first, then Jonathan and then David. Jonathan bled well for once and they got it on the first poke. Then I took him out to comfort him and Doug went in with David. David apparently yelled during the blood draw, "I don't wanna die!!!" LOL! Poor guy!

So that's the gist of our trip to the MIND. We'll be going back in August and then again in October or around there.

It's been a long time!

2008-09-10T09:46:00.001-07:00

I know it's been forever since I've blogged. I'm so sorry. The summer was just crazy and busy and it all flew by so fast and the blogging got away from me. Then I knew how far behind I was and how much I needed to blog about and then I go overwhelmed and began the denial phase of just ignoring it because I could deal with how behind i was! Silly me! I have moved beyond the denial phase now and I promise to catch up as fast as I can so you can all see all the fun things we did this summer! I also need to fill you all in on how the kids are doing and the grown ups too!!!

I've also had various computer issues and am continuing to have them so I don't know how long it will take me to get pictures and everything going but I will get them on here as soon as I can. My computer keeps freezing on me and then I have to reboot and I never know how much I'll lose when I reboot. I just lost about half of this post so we'll see. Please bear with me as I try to get things updates. I have a list of things that I need to blog about so I will do my best to go in order by date and get it done quickly! Hugs to you all!

I know. I know. More LOLcats! I just can't resist them!

2008-06-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

These are just too funny! And I KNOW I'm not the only one who finds these amusing, I'm just the only one admitting it! LOL!!! That's ok. I'm fine with my addiction to silly kitty humor! Here's a bunch to keep you all amused while I am away on vacation for the next few weeks! Here goes...

I'm dedicating this one to my favorite crazy cat girl! Love you!

I know you all think I'm nuts with these things but you know you're laughing too! Hugs to all! I shall return with many pictures and tales to tell from our family vacation road trip extravaganza!

Autistic boy and mother kicked off flight!!!!

2008-06-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to the story...
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6223045

I am not sure why this particular incident has me so upset but I imagine its because I know that could have been me and David so many times! I know how hard it is for everyone on the plane when there is a child who is not behaving well but that has never been an issue until the last year or two when suddenly some flight crews feel that they have the right to judge and punish those who are not behaving perfectly.

From what I have read, I don't think the mother disclosed to them that her son was autistic. That MIGHT have made a difference but probably not. The flight crew sounds like they probably wouldn't have cared. This whole situation just has me all worked up. I have been thinking back to all the times I've flown with David that this could have happened to us. We've been blessed with kind or at least tolerant flight crews in our experiences but that doesn't guarantee that will always be the case.

I can think back to the first time David flew... He was 4 1/2 months old and he screamed the entire flight! I tried everything I could think of: bottle, diaper change, pacifier, walking and bouncing, shushing, etc. He would not stop. He wasn't even slightly affected by my attempts. In fact, now that I know he has Fragile X, he probably was just made more agitated by my efforts. Finally a woman on the flight came up and asked if she could take him for a bit. I gladly let her have a go at calming him. Then a woman across the aisle from me told me she would have done the same but she didn't think I'd let her have him since I didn't know her. My response was, "Well, I'm exhausted and besides, where's she gonna go with him? We're on a plane in the air and I can see him from my seat." She agreed that was true and we talked a bit about flying with a fussy baby. We were flying to Utah for Hogi Yogi corporate training. The flight home was mostly uneventful.

The next experience I can remember vividly was when David was 19 months old. We were flying from Fresno to Salt Lake City for Doug's sister, Bente's wedding. It was December so it was cold and snowy in Utah at the time. We were seated in the very last row of the plane, right next to the lavatory. Now most people would think that was the worst seat on the plane but to be completely honest, it was extremely convenient. David was restless on the flight but we had tons of toys and books and snacks to try to keep him occupied. The flight was relatively short at 2 hours but that's a long 2 hours with a fussy toddler! Until just a few years ago, David was always vomitting when he felt anxious or upset. He also did it when he got crying or laughing too hard. We had to really be careful with that but sometimes we couldn't stop him. So the flight attendant was so nice and kept coming back to check on us and him. She brought him extra snacks (cookies) to make him happy (a huge mistake in hindsight) and he seemed to be doing really well until the last 30 minutes or so. He went from fine to total meltdown in about 5 seconds and was crying and screaming so hard that we were just trying to calm him down in fear that he would throw up all over the plane. He was already in his spare outfit after a previous accident before the flight so we had nothing else to put on him if his clothes got dirty. Well, he eventually did vomit all over himself and the seat and his booster seat and everything. It was horrible! I felt so embarrassed! The flight attendant was right there with large garbage sacks for us to put his clothes in and his booster seat in. She helped me clean up the seats and everything while Doug cleaned up David and stripped him down to his diaper. We changed his diaper and then wrapped him in a blanket, which did not escape the vomit completely but enough to be wiped off and used to keep him warm until we could get our suitcases and dress him again. I was amazed at the compassion from the flight crew and also the other passengers. They could all have easily looked at us with scorn because of what had happened. Let me assure you, the smell spread all the way to the very front of the plane. It was that bad! But everyone was so kind and helpful. We were blessed that way. We did get some odd looks from other patrons once inside the airport. Afterall, we had an 18month old baby wearing only a diaper and a blanket wrapped around him in December in Salt Lake City!

I know that we've had some people give us nasty looks or make rude comments over the years, not just on flights but also just out in public together but for the most part we've experienced a lot of kindness too. I really feel for the mother of that autistic boy. They should not have been treated the way they were. They flight crew is supposed to "ATTEND" to their guests on the flight and HELP them, not yell at them and humiliate them and kick them off the plane! There's just no excuse for the behavior of that flight crew and I hope that they realize just how wrong they were. I understand that it's important to try to control your children and keep them quiet out of respect for other passengers on the flight but that is not always withing a parent's control, not completely at least. You just do your best. I hope that people will learn from this incident and that they can learn to be more caring in the future.

I WON! I WON! I WON!

2008-06-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

I won the contest on Jenna's blog For the Love of Baby! I'm so excited to receive my prize!!! Thanks Jenna!!!!! Big fat cyber hugs to you!!!!!

Avon "Berry Nice" Feet Giveaway!!!!

2008-06-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

You can go to my friend Jenna's blog at http://kelsiesmommy.blogspot.com/2008/06/berry-nice-feet-giveaway.html and enter her giveaway to receive this awesome foot pampering giveaway! There are several ways to enter! Good luck to all!

The time has come for more LOLcats!

2008-06-07T15:55:00.001-07:00

I know my addiction to these is somewhat disturbing but I can't help it! They are so cute and funny!!!! Enjoy! If you want to see more go to http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/!

Speaking of first born...David's 9th Birthday!!!!

2008-06-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday David!

He's getting to be so big and grown up! How much progress we've made! We had two celebrations with him this year plus he got a party at school too! Thursday afternoon, the day before his real birthday, grandma and grandpa, Meagan and Nathan, and Mandy all came over to give him their presents for him and to have birthday cake. He loves his presents! He got a brand new bike which he is excited about, we just have to see if his special extra heavy duty training wheels will fit on it! He also got a couple of new outfits and Spiderman & Wolverine walkie talkies from Grandma & Grandpa! He and Nathan have been running aroung with those ever since although they haven't figured out that they have to push the button if they want to talk to each other and they have to let go of the button if they want to hear each other talking! LOL! We had ice cream cake and he even let us sing happy birthday to him! We asked him if it was ok if we sang quietly and he said sure so we did and he handled it great! He didn't cover his ears or cry or anything! He did so great! Here's pics from Thursday!

Then on Friday, May 30, we had a family celebration. We made David's favorite dinner, chickens and french fries! LOL! Then we opened presents. He got a new outfit from mom and dad and 2 new games. Nathan gave him a racecar computer game. Jonathan gave him an atm machine that counts his money when he puts it in except he keeps putting all the money in and then opening it up with his atm card and taking it all out(which does not zero out the total) and then putting it all back in again! He had around $7 in change and he had the total on that thing up to almost $80 by the end of the night! LOL! He also got his much anticipated Ben 10 omnitrix "watch"! He was so excited! He's been waiting for it since Nathan got one for his birthday back in February! We had a Superman cake and he loved it. Again, we asked if we could sing Happy Birthday to him and he said "yeah but soft ok?" We said ok and that's what we did. He smiled, he posed for pictures without putting things in front of his face! It was a wonderful birthday! I feel like this is the first time he has totally enjoyed his birthday completely. That's a wonderful feeling as a mom to know that your child has enjoyed his special day! Enjoy all the pics!

First Born

2008-05-28T22:25:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged, yet again. Thanks a lot Nicki! :)

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? yes and no, sorta but not exactly

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? yes

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? excited, then panicked(see question 6)

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? never even entered my mind, no way

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 20 (21 when he was born)

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? home pregnancy test, I had been sick with diarrhea for several days and was taking all kinds of medicines to get rid of it and I finally realized I was late so I took a test and it was positive.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Doug. I wanted to do something really fun and cute like wrap up a little baby toy and give it to him or something like that but he came home from work early and as soon as I saw him I just blurted it out! LOL!

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? I always thought I'd want to wait and be surprised but once I was actually pregnant, I couldn't wait to find out!

9. DUE DATE? June 6, 1999

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? does constant diarrhea count? If so then yeah I had that for about the first 2 months. I had to eat the most bland foods during that time to keep it under control! TMI sorry!

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? watermelon, strawberries, applebees oriental chicken salad and chocolate shakes

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? One of my coworkers who overheard me on the phone with a family member and decided to share MY news with the entire office! I was not happy with her for that!

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Well, Doug's brothers kept insisting that "we don't have girls in this family" so I was really wanting a girl just to prove them wrong so I was a little disappointed at first but then I was excited. I really didn't care that much to be honest.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT YOUR PREGNANCY? 30lbs exactly

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? I think I had 3, 2 before he was born and 1 after he was born.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew about all of them

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? I had some spotting and contractions around 28 weeks. The dr put me on partial bedrest and that was about it. I also got a horrible stomach flu at one point and had to go the hospital to get fluids and nausea meds. Not fun!

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah and dang it I missed out on their brand new birthing suites by only a few weeks! Oh well!

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Started contracting weeks before but I was induced on May 29. They started the pitocin around 7:30am and I labored, including pushing, for almost 9 1/2 hours, when I finally got to meet my prescious baby boy at 2:52am. I will always remember that time for some reason, it just sticks with me. I think I looked right at the clock when he was born and I just have always remembered it exactly. 2:52am.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My sweetie of course, Doug, who, by the way, the nurses kept bringing him meals while I was in labor and starving and he was such a picky eater that he'd send it all back, untouched! I was so jealous!

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Doug (and the dr and nurses of course), my mom and Doug's mom, Lana were right outside the door and came in as soon as he was born though!

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? natural, tearing and all. fun fun fun.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I was dead set against having an epidural. I was young and had it in my head that women have been giving birth for thousands of years without it so I could too and I was gonna do it. I was gonna prove to Doug (who was skeptical of my decision based on the fact that I am a complete wimp) and to myself that I could do it. However, I did not expect to progress so incredibly slowly and I did not expect any contraction to last 5 minutes OR 10 minutes like the few I experienced. AFter 12 hours the nurse asked me again for about the millionth time if I wanted and epidural. I finally said ok but I asked her to check me one more time before they did it. I had been at 4cm for hours and I was thinking in my head that if she said I was even at a 4+ I would wait but I was still at 4cm, no change in hours so I let them do it. I was so exhausted and in so much pain that I just didn't even care about the whole thing. It helped although it didn't take all the pain away which I later discovered I liked better than not feeling anything at all. My friend asked me later what it was like before versus after the epidural. The best way I could think to describe it to her was that I went from feeling like I was being run over by a semi truck to being run over by a pick-up truck. Don't know where I came up with that analogy but that's what I told her. I later learned that I preferred feeling something because it was so satisfying to feel that urge to push and to feel the pushes doing what they were supposed to do and to feel myself pushing that baby out of my body. Giving birth is horribly painful and yes so incredibly magical.

25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 8lbs 2oz

26. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? May 30, 1999 at 2:52am

27. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? David Isaac Wright (named David after his deceased grandfather David Lee Wright) and if I do say so myself, never having met my father-in-law, only heard the stories, I think my sweet boy does his Grandpa Wright proud!

28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? David will be 9 years old on Friday(less than 2 full days from now) So that makes him exactly 8 years, 11 months and 28 days old. Now I'm crying dang it! I can't believe he's getting so old and so big! He's gonna be taller than me before I know it! ~SIGH~

OK. I am tagging:

Beth AKA FXSmom
Melissa Dixon
Danika Park
Mom AKA Laura Pace (time to finish your blog mom! love you!)
Melissa Pace
Sarah Sorrill

Love you all and want to hear your stories!

Tales of stress fractures and hospital visits

2008-05-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a very busy couple of weeks for me. About 2 1/2 weeks ago I started to feel a certain pain in my right calf and there was a noticeable lump there. At first I thought of Deep Vein Thrombosis but that I thought that was a bit extreme to jump right to that conclusion so the I got thinking that maybe my Fibromyalgia was just progressing and that this was a new symptom I hadn't had before. However, after about 4 days it didn't change at all and there was still a lump in my calf that I could feel, it wasn't getting better, so I decided to call the dr and try to get in to see him. They couldn't get me in until the next day. Dr was thinking it might be a blood clot or a cyst of some sort so he ordered several different blood tests and and ultrasound. All the blood tests came back normal and the ultrasound did not show anything abnormal either so he then ordered an x-ray and an MRI. I had the x-ray and it was perfect. Then I had the MRI on Wednesday morning this week. They said it would take about 2 days to get the results back to the dr but, while I was at David's triennial IEP meeting, the dr's office called and talked to Doug. He said the good news was that they knew what was wrong with my leg finally. Turns out that the MRI showed a stress fracture about 2-3 inches below my knee. We saw the ortho dr on Thursday and he confirmed the stress fracture. None of us can figure out how this happened but it's there so I guess it doesn't really matter at this point. Due to the location, he said a walking cast (boot) wouldn't help at all and might even cause more damage because it would only go up to just below my knee which would not be high enough to help the fracture due to it's location. He even said that it might even make it worse because the weight of the boot could cause the bone to grind together rather than healing. The alternatives were either a full leg cast that would go almost all the way up almost to my hip or to simply use crutches or a walker and stay off of it as much as possible for at least 3 weeks. I am supposed to go in in 3 weeks to have a new x-ray done. He said that it didn't show on the x-ray because it was too "fresh". He said that it won't show on an x-ray until it starts to heal a bit so he said that if it doesn't show any healing or enough healing at that time then we will have to talk about doing the full leg cast. Yay. (note sarcasm)

So I went and had to get some crutches but apparently I do not have the coordination to use both of them so I just use one on the side that is injured and it helps to keep the pressure off of it.

Then this morning I woke up around 3:30 or so with really bad stomach pains, kinda like cramping but it was constant. I had to get up and get the kids ready for school and get Jonathan fed and everything and I barely made it through all of that. I thought maybe if I ate soemthing it would go away so I ate a bowl of Rice Krispies but that didn't help at all. I think I actually felt worse after that. I got David on the bus and drove Nathan to school. I had some crackers in my car so I tried eating some of those and it was ok but I was still in a lot of pain. I put Jonathan in his crib with a bottle and his crib toy and he was happy to play until he got tired. Then he just drank his bottle and went to sleep.

Doug had been over at the new house working on the tool/garden shed. He called me around 10:30am and I was in so much pain that I was in tears. He asked me if I needed to go to the hospital and I said that I thought I did so he headed home. Meanwhile I started making phone calls trying to find someone to watch Jonathan and pick Nathan up at school and then meet David's bus and watch them until we got home. Amanda came and took JJ and then went to pick up Nathan then she came back to our house and met David's bus.

So at the hospital, they gave me an iv and I think I must have been a little bit dehydrated because they had a hard time finding a good vein and they have never had a hard time with that for me before. They started fluids and gave me some meds for nausea because the pain was so intense it was making me pretty woozy. Eventually they gave me some dilodid (nice!)for the pain and that helped a lot. They also drew a ton of blood for tests. All the tests came back normal so then the dr added a few more tests for me but those were normal too. So, the dr said that he was going to send me home and said that if the stomach pains came back to come back and they would do a CT scan. I thought they should have just done itw while I was aleady. I got a nice little nap so that was nice. So since they couldn't find anything wrong, they were sending me home with instructions to drink plenty fluids and to rest. The dr said that if the pains come back to go back and they would do a CT scan. Hopefully they are gone and we will just wait and see wha happens. The dr gave a new prescription for pain meds for my leg.

Exciting, I know. They gave me another dose of dilodid before I left so I would feel a little better. Anyway so that's what's going on here. So far the stomach is feeling tons better. Lana comes tomorrow and she will help me with everything. Thanks for reading! Anyway, I'm fallig asleep so I'm off. More later...

New lolcats! Enjoy!

2008-04-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged AGAIN!!!!

2008-03-24T22:38:00.000-07:00

What is it? Do I have a bullseye in the middle of my cyber forehead or what?! LOL! Beth(aka fxsmom) at Fragile What! has tagged me (again!) for a meme! She says this time I can't get out of it so I have to do it. DANG IT! :o)

THE RULES:

Write your own 6 word memoir
Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you like
Link to the person who tagged you in your post
Tag 6 more blogs with links
Don't forget to leave a comment on the blogs you tagged inviting them to play along

MY MEMOIR:

"So many dreams, so little time!"

I TAG:

Amanda at Dreaming of the future
Nicki at Forever Young Family
Melissa at The Dixon Gang
Shea at The Faux Family
Jenna at For the Love of Baby!
Ruby at Incredible Shrinking Ruby

Busy times

2008-03-20T11:20:00.001-07:00

Well, in the last couple of weeks, we've been pretty busy. Jonathan saw Dr. Lanier (Ear, Nose & Throat) about the fluid that has been in his ears for so long. Dr. Lanier was very nice, he looked in his ears and sure enough there was still lots of fluid in there even with him taking Rinatan(decongestant) for over a month at that point. So he did an tympanagram to test how his ears were receiving sound (how well he can hear) and it was bad. Way worse than I expected it to be so he said tubes for sure. So we signed the paperwork and they said it would be 3-4 weeks before he had the surgery. The next day the surgery center called to set a date and she said they had a cancellation for that Thursday if we wanted it! EEEK! That was so fast but we figured, better to get it done asap than to have to wait and have him be miserable all that time! So he had tubes put in his ears that Thursday (2 weeks ago today) and has been doing much better. However he developed a strange cough this week that sounded horrible but not like it was in his chest or anything. Just sounded like he had something stuck in his throat and he was trying to clear his throat to get it out but it's was really LOUD! Poor guy! I got to thinking that maybe he had developed some asthma or allergies or something so I took him to the Dr. yesterday and sure enough he was wheezing bad so the dr put him on nebulizer treatments 4 times a day for the next week then 3 times a day for 2 more weeks and then down to 2 times a day. He did okay for his first one last night and for his second one this morning so that's good. He also had a skin infection on his nose so we had to get an antibiotic ointment for that. It already looks better after two applications yesterday!

Nathan is doing much better in school now that he is taking some medication for his ADHD. It has been a big help to him! He can actually focus long enough to finish something and for the first time all year he has finished all his work 4 of the 5 days of school last week! Yay!!!! They had a big easter egg hunt and he won a giant stuffed bunny from that. It's pretty cool!

David is still having a hard time with his anxiety and aggression. We are working on it behaviorally at home and then we are working with the psychiatrist on his medications to try to figure out what is going on. So far nothing has helped at all so we are trying something new this week and if that doesn't help then we will try something else. We go back in two weeks so we'll find out then what we are goign to do.

The kids are on Spring Break this week but it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. They have been pretty well behaved for me most of the time. Unusual but that's ok. We are trying to get them out of the house and doing things as much as we can. We went to the park on Tuesday and tried to fly their new dragon kites that they got from Grandma but there really wasn't any wind, not enough to fly kites anyway. Too bad!

That's it for now! Have a happy day! OH! And here's some lolcatz for you!

LOLCATS post of the day!

2008-03-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Nathan has been really into building forts lately and he has also been very anti girls so this one reminded me of him and David playing together. I always here Nathan say "no girls allowed in here!" and then David will say, "Yeah! No gurws awowd!" It's very cute!

And the rest are just ones that I think are hilarious! Enjoy!

I'm hooked and I blame FXSmom!!!!

2008-03-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

So FXSmom posted a funny picture on her blog as an illustration of her two sons' relationship with each other. I thought it was so cute and funny that I had to check out the website and now I'm addicted! (Thanks a lot Beth! LOL) These things are too funny!!!! Here are a few, starting with the one from FXSmom! Then I think I will put a few others and then start posting new ones every few days. There are just too many to add all at once! LOL! OH YEAH! Here's the website... www.icanhascheezburger.com

Especially for Jason, Jamie, Noah, Adam & Katie!

Tagged again!!!!

2008-03-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

So my lovely friend Nicki (love ya Nicki!), tagged me again! Here it is! (A little lightness after my rambling deep thoughts post seemed in order) :o)

10 Years ago...

Doug and I had been married for a whole 2 months. We were living in a very old, very small, one bedroom apartment in south Provo, UT and living in wedded bliss. I believe we were still in our honeymoon phase at this point! I think I had already gotten my first post-marriage job at Equity Title as the receptionist. I love it and really liked most everyone I worked with. It was a fun job, answering phones and various other duties. I really loved it and it came with benefits! I think Doug was still searching for a job, might have been working at Supersonic Car Wash at this point. That was a short lived job for him before he got hired at Hansen Vending and worked there delivering drinks and snacks and filling them vending machines with them. His arms got really buff really fast doing that! I was very fond of that little development! LOL! I believe Doug was going to school at night also, so we were pretty busy and just starting to meet some new people in our ward which consisted of young married couples in our apartment complex and the next one over. This is where we met the Parks as our next door neighbors and eventually the Cecils as well! We miss you guys!!!! Wasn't life simpler way back then?! Oh well! I never dreamed I'd be living back in my home town and I had never even heard of Fragile X at that time. Ignorance is bliss I guess! I was pregnant with David by that summer!

5 Things On My List To Do Today:
1. put on make up and do my hair
2. enjoy my last day of peace before spring break begins
3. Pay bills
4. Go grocery shopping
5. Get Easter basket stuff for the kids

Snacks I Enjoy...
I used to love the Hostess Crumb Coffee cakes but then I couldn't find them anymore. Then when we lived in AZ, I found them but they were made by Drake's. Then I couldn't find those anymore either. So I'm happy to say that Hostess has now started making them in the 100 Calorie packs! I get 3 little cakes for 100 calories and only 3 grams of fat! Perfect for my snack allotment with the Alli program! I also love King's Hawaiian Bread and I love Target's Market Pantry chocolate chip pecan petite cookies. All bad for me but that's what I love! I also really love Funyuns!

What Would I Do If I Were A Billionaire...
Build a custom home on a large piece of land that's not too far from civilization but far enough that we could have some animals, like maybe some ducks, horses, things like that! I would build it with a huge therapy room for David and Jonathan and I would build Nathan his own fantasy bedroom, reminiscent of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition rooms that they have done. Somethign really special just for Nathan! I would have a room for me to do all of my crafts, sewing, etc. A nice shop for Doug to do all of the projects he would love to do if he had the time and a place to do them.

Then I would donate a huge chunk of money to Fragile X research! I would put on an annual fund raiser event and hold some sort of small conference locally every other year, on the years that National Fragile X Foundation is not holding their international conference.

Other than that, I would try to find some way to repay my parents for all of their generousity over the years. They have done so much for us and I would love to be able to give some back.

3 of My Bad Habits:
1. clenching my jaw/grinding my teeth
2. picking at the dead skin on my lips
3. I am horribly forgetful and I keep forgetting to send pictures of the kids to my grandparents!

Places I Have Lived:
Visalia, CA
Provo, UT
American Fork, UT
Visalia, CA
Gilbert, AZ
Mesa, AZ
Visalia, CA

Last 5 Jobs I Have Had:
Mother
Advocate
Invoicing and Billing for my dad
Receptionist at Associated Title
Policy Typist at Equity Title

5 Things People Don't Know About Me:
1. I intend to write a book one day for LDS families with children with disabilities
2. I am going back to school Fall 2008 see #5(probably 1 online class at a time)
3. I would rather speak in public than pray in public (ex: church)
4. I actually don't worry about Doug when he is working, not usually anyway.
5. I am planing to become a genetic counselor (like wonderful Louise Gane!)

Ok so that's it. Now I tag, my mom, Danika, Shea, FXSmom, Melissa Pace and Melissa Dixon!

Deep Thoughts

2008-03-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

So I'm sitting here at my computer tonight and I find that I really feel the urge to write. Just to start writing things down. My thoughts and feelings right now. I'm feeling very contemplative at the moment about my life and my family and my hopes and dreams and all that I dreamt my life would be and how my life is and the things I hope and dreamed for my kids and how those things have changed.

People often say to me, "I don't know how you do it" when talking to me about Fragile X and David and Jonathan and Nathan too and then there's Doug and his career and all the many things that are in my life. As for David, he is my first, all I ever have known of what it is like to mother a child so I have never known any different that my life with him and the challenges and joys that have come with him. I have never known any other way to do things for my children than how I do them because I started with David. I did and do what has to be done because I am their mother and that's my job. I would like to say that any mother would do the same but i know that's not true. I do know that the Lord has tested me and pushed me to the very edge at times. There are times I have wondered why He gave me THESE children because I often feel inadequate to give them what they need but I know they are mine because they are meant to be. I adore them. They bring me joys that I never knew my heart could hold! Not only that but I adore Doug for being the husband and father that he is, for giving me the gift of these wonderful, challenging, beautiful children. I can honestly say that I don't know how I do any of this some days. Some days I want to lock myself in my room and cry for hours. Some days I feel so strong that I think I can conquer the world. Some days I just want to hold my babies and never let them go. It's not so different I don't think than any other parent in this world. I love my kids. They are my babies, no matter how old they are, no matter how big they get, no matter how hard it is to really hold them anymore, they are and will always be my babies.

I struggle. I cry. I smile. I laugh. I yell. I scream. I pound my fists into my pillows in rage and/or frustration. Sometimes all in the same day. Sometimes I think I just float through the day without really noticing anything.

My anxieties are increasing. Sometimes I am nervous to leave the house. Sometimes I can't actually do it. I can't explain it but it's there. I think the new meds are helping but I'm not sure yet. I just have to keep trying and see. The kids suffer too because of my anxieties sometimes. I hate that.

I don't worry about Doug at work as much as I always thought I would. I think 2 ride-alongs helped with that a lot. To see him in that role, is so strange. He is so different when he is working. He's still DOUG, he's still funny and fair and all of those things but he's so serious too. He is so professional in his work. I can see that his instincts are strong and he is extremely good at what he does. He seems to KNOW the truth even if he isn't getting it from a person at times when I was there I honestly would have probably believed some stuff but I would have been wrong. He is a huge asset to his department and his team. I am so proud of him for what he has accomplished and what he has overcome to get where he wants to be. I hope that he will continue in that strength. He inspires me.

David is struggling right now. It breaks my heart because I don't have a clue how to help him. He is so anxious and angry and agitated so much of the time and I just can't fix it. I wish there was a magic pill that when a person takes it, it just knows exactly what is wrong with you and becomes what you need it to be to fix you. I wish there was that magic pill for David. He was doing so well, so happy, making so much progress and then suddenly he went backwards! I hate these backwards trips! I hate to see him lose the progress he has worked so hard for! He works so hard for every simple thing in life the that rest of us take for granted and to see him regress just kills me. I want to wrap my arms around him and just make it better but that has never made it better for him. I want him to be happy again and to do the things he loves and enjoy those things. I want him to feel JOY! He deserves to feel those good, sweet feelings in his heart. He deserves the rewards for all of his hard, hard work. I can see in his eyes when he comes home from school that he is exhausted from working so hard to keep it all together and when he gets home he just collapses on the couch. He is so tired. I think if I had to work as hard as he does just to remain in control and lately he just can't seem to do it all day. He's so tired but he's been waking up a few hours after he's gone to sleep and seems to have a hard time getting back to sleep. I just worry so much for him and it hurts to see him so unhappy when we've seen him so happy so recently too!

Nathan is improving at school now that he's started taking some medicine for his attention issues. He has been finishing all his centers almost every day but he has lost some of the skills he had last trimester and that is frustrating. We are having to reteach him some of his sounds and letters and numbers. He is so eager to learn but he has a hard time at school. He is really fighting for some independence right now. Not only from mom and dad but also from David. He hates that David gets into his things and gets on his bed and stuff. He really wants to be in his own room. He says he wants to be where David can't hurt him anymore. It makes me so sad because I know he loves David but it's true that David pinches and hits him. Nathan isn't innocent by any stretch of the imagination. He has been known to frequently push David's buttons and then he gets upset when David does those things. He knows what will happen but he continues to push him. I still feel bad for him though. He fights back now which is not really what I want but at the same time it has taught David that the things he does actually hurt people. He hasn't fully made the connection yet though. I hope he does eventually but I'm not sure that he will. Nathan is so sweet to his brothers though. He is always trying to get David involved in playing with him and doing things. He loves Jonathan and is always dragging him all over the house. He gets him out of his crib, his exersaucer, his high chair, wherever and just takes him where he wants him to be. On the down side, when Jonathan wants to explore, he's got David and Nathan running after him and dragging him back to the same "boring" rug and toys! LOL! Poor baby! I worry that Nathan doesn't know that we are proud of him and that we love him! We tell him and we try to spend special time with just him and we try to help him understand that he is special in his ways that are different from the other boys. Sometimes I think he gets it and other times I think he suffers from a serious case of middle child syndrome! He is such a great little artist! He loves to draw and paint and color and build things and do all of those crafty things. He gets better and better all the time too! I love to see what he builds and draws each time. He is so creative. I think he must have gotten that from Grandma. I think it skipped me and went straight to him! He has all these ideas and he's so good at implementing them! I am amazed at the things he creates sometimes. His imagination is something I have never encountered before. It's amazing.

Jonathan is our entire family's joy these days! He brings smiles to every face in this house and all over town. People seem drawn to him like a magnet when we go out. He smiles and interacts and his eyes are just amazing! People are always coming over to talk to him and smile at him and they always say his eyes are just amazing! I know that myself but it's fun to see how magnetic his personality is already. I think that he is such a joy to all of us, partly because he has given us hope. He has given me hope at least. I now can see first hand that Fragile X doesn't have to be so scary and sad and frustrating! He looks at my face and copies me and he talks to me and he looks in my eyes and he reaches out for me. He WANTS me. I never felt that when David was a baby. (Aunt Mandy was his favorite, even over me!) Jonathan is obviously attached to people. He recognizes the voices of the people who are important in his life, even the ones he doesn't see as often, like Nana. If I put the phone to his ear when she is talking, he grins from ear to ear! He plays with his toys and he's so curious! He will tilt his head sideways to try to see better how something works or what it's doing or maybe just for a different view. I don't know but it's so fun to see his personality developing and growing. I have enjoyed him so much! Interestingly, I haven't had the worry that I experienced with David and with Nathan. With David he was my first so I felt scared and worried I was doing everything wrong. With Nathan I worried he was going to be "like David" somehow and I watched for every single milestone and then only celebrated them briefly when the came on time before worrying about the next one. With Jonathan, I was expecting him to be so much less social and alert and "normal" that I think I just enjoy seeing all the things he does. He amazes me! I love to see him smile when he sees David come close to him. He loves to grab David by the ears and give him a "hug". David always says "ow! That kinna hurt." but he smiles and goes back for more. And when Nathan is around him, Jonathan loves to play with him. He loves when nathan carries him which I can't figure out! Nathan's going to throw his back out before he's 7 years old but Jonathan just grins his irresistable grin and waits for Nathan to put him down so he can get right back to what he was doing! He loves exploring the house. Today he came into the office and dissasembled my shoe rack after shaking it and making it make noise first then he left that cause it was no fun anymore and then he moved around the room playing with and looking at different things. Finally he ended up right next to my chair on the floor and he grabbed a plastic bag and started crinkling it. I looked down at him and he just gave me this smile that seemed to say, "oh hi mom! I'm just sitting here totally innocent! I am not doing anything at all!" LOL! It was so cute! He loves sounds. He loves to make things make sounds and see what kind of sound things make in different places, on different surfaces, when banged against other things or dropped on the ground. He goes from the carpet to the wood to the tile and drops things over and over again just listening to the sounds they make. He rubs things on the walls, the furniture, the floor, etc. It's amazing to see his eyes light up when he finds a sound he likes and he does it over and over again. Adorable.

I love them all so much that sometimes I think my heart will burst! I worry about the future and I worry about now. And I know that I can handle all of these things but yet, sometimes I forget that and feel as if I will crumble under the weight of it all. I am so thankful for my husband who has supported me through my many endeavors and encourages me to be better every day. He has never once blamed me for Fragile X in our lives and that is a special thing for sure. We've seen so many families split apart because of those kinds of attitudes and I'm grateful that Doug never once thought of any of this that way. We've been in this together all along and he has taken the time to learn and process it all with me. He has seen how his personal experiences have been able to help others he has come in contact with at work and elsewhere. We both have seen how we can help others who are struggling with so much information and so much emotion when they are "new" to Fragile X. David had taught me things that I could never have learned in any other way than being his mother. I am blessed to have been given David and Nathan and Jonathan to teach and raise in this beautiful world. They are the greatest gift I could have ever received.

I'm sorry if this post is a little scattered. I was just spilling out my thoughts as they came. Someday I'd like to put these thoughts and ideas and feelings in some sort of order and write a book that might help others like me to get through all of this. Someday.

Happy Birthday Big Brother!!!!

2008-03-03T18:56:00.003-08:00

Today is my big brother Mike's birthday!

Happy Birthday Mike!!!!!

I wish we were closer so that we could see you and do something fun but I know you'll have a great time with Melissa and Beckham anyway! I hope it was a great day! Here's a fun picture to take you back a ways! I think maybe we were dancing but I'm really not sure but it looks like we were having fun! I've always loved this picture! Happy Birthday again! I love you!

Sleepy Heads

2008-03-03T18:34:00.000-08:00

One day last week, I was working on my computer, making a flyer to put up at COS for respite help, and I was also on the phone. Nathan came in and wanted something but I told him he needed to wait until I was done on the phone. I thought he left the room cause it was so quiet but when I turned around to go find him, he was fast asleep on the loveseat in the office!!! What a cutie! How peaceful they are when they sleep!

Then another day last week Doug woke up and came in to sit on the loveseat in our office and Swat (our cat for those who don't know) was sleeping there so Doug said, "You better move Swat. I'm gonna sit on ya." Swat just looked up at him and stayed put. So Doug sat down VERY close to Swat, hoping Swat would get the hint and leave but he obviously needed something more obvious! (Doug was covering his eyes cause he had a migraine.)

Nathan's 6th Birthday!!!!

2008-02-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Nathan!

It was a great day! He got to wear a crown at school and be "chief" for the day because it was his birthday and he shared cupcakes with his classmates!

Yesterday, Grandma called and wanted to know if she could pick Nathan up from school and take him to lunch and shopping so he could spend the gift card she had given him on Saturday so we made plans for that and then about an hour later Grandpa called and wanted to know if he could take Nathan golfing for his birthday! I told him that he could but he'd have to call Grandma and talk to her because she'd already booked some time on Nathan's apparently busy birthday schedule! Poor Grandpa! He decided that he and Nathan would have to go golfing another day! It was kind of funny though. He had no idea that Grandma had already made plans with Nathan! What a popular little boy he was today! That is one thing that is so nice about living close to family is that we get to enjoy those little things with them more often rather than trying to cram that bonding into just a few short days! What a blessing! We all wish we could be closer to ALL of our family but it's still fun to be close to the ones we can. We just miss the rest! I know Nathan missed his Nana today and he also was missing Noah and Adam! He really wants to invite them to his birthday party but they are just too far away! I told him we would have to have a big birthday party for all the kids next time we get together!

After school, Grandma picked him up and took him to lunch at Burger King because he wanted a monster truck toy. Then they went to Target to spend his birthday gift card on something fun! Grandma gave him a Dinosaur Curator Set so he can take dinosaur skeletons and give them "skin"! He is very excited to try it out! He also got the Power Rangers Jungle Fury Red Tiger Ultimate action gear play set. Very cool!

When they were done, Grandma brought him back to me with all his goodies! We went home and he played for a while.

He chose to have "curly" pasta (again) for his birthday dinner and then he wanted a chocolate Transformers cake with chocolate chips added to the batter. The cake decorations were a bit of a fiasco but in the end it worked out just fine! He insisted that he wanted a cake like one he saw in a party catalog but I couldn't find any Transformers cake decorations anywhere so I started calling all the bakeries at the grocery stores and they said they had them but they couldn't sell them to me without the cake! Ugh! So we had to improvise. Nathan remembered that he had a Optimus Prime (in truck form) toy that was small so he set about trying to find that while I got to work on the cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate chips added to the batter, per Nathan's request, then chocolate frosting with vanilla frosting piped on it to make a road and then I added "Happy Birthday Nathan" to it, on the road and Nathan found his Optimus Prime and washed it and we put him on the road! Then we crushed up Oreo cookies and put those all over the cake on the sides of the road to look like dirt/rocks! (I said it was dirt but Nathan insisted that it was rocks so we agreed that it was both.) It turned out cute and Nathan was very happy with it!

Dinner was yummy! Then we lit the candles on Nathan's cake and sang him Happy Birthday. Doug had to cover David's ears and then David put his own hands over Doug's but he didn't cry and didn't yell and didn't run away. He actually had a smile on his face. No singing yet though. Maybe someday. Nathan blew out the candles but then we had to relight them because David wanted to help blow them out so then they both blew them out and you would have though we had trick candles because one of them did not want to go out! The boys both thought that was hilarious! The cake was yummy, very moist and super chocolatey!

After cake we let Nathan open his presents! He got a book from David called 1001 Pirate Things to Find. He's very excited about it and can't wait to start looking for all the hidden "treasures" in his new book! Jonathan gave him a new CareBears movie. He was so excited because he's been wanting this movie for months. Then we gave him the Ben10 "watch" that he's been asking for. It's not really a watch at all. It's actually a video game kinda thing but it goes on his wrist so he calls it a watch. David is desperate for one too so we told him he would have to wait for his birthday to get one! We also got him the Lego City Police Headquarters set. He is very into his legos lately and he is so excited to get started on this new set! (Although I think Doug is more excited than Nathan! Hmmm.)

As I was putting him to bed tonight, I asked him if he was happy with all of his presents and he said, "I'm happy with THIS!" (his Ben10 watch) I asked him if he didn't like his other presents and he said he was very happy with ALL of his presents. I asked him if he had had a good day and he said it was a very fun day! I likes all of his presents and he loved his dinner and his cake! I'm just glad it was a successful birthday and we don't have to do it again until next year! I'm exhausted! :o)

The Family Birthday Party

2008-02-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we invited Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Meagan and Uncle Nate, and Aunt Mandy to a joint birthday party for Jonathan and Nathan since no one was able to celebrate with us ON either of their birthdays. It was a fun time. We let Nathan choose the menu cause Jonathan wasn't going to eat any of it anyway so we had "curly" pasta and french bread. It was easy and yummy.

Then we let the kids open presents, first Jonathan and then Nathan. Jonathan got a rocking, musical snail that he loves. Oh and it's antenna squeak too! He can't quite make it rock on his own yet but he still likes to sit on it and make someone else do all the work. He has spent quite a bit of time on it since Saturday and even his early intervention speicalists (old one and new one came this week) were impressed with it! I'm sure it won't be too long before he can climb on it all by himself and just rock away the day just like he does in his exersaucer now! This boy loves to rock!!! He also got some very cute clothes and a book!

Nathan enjoyed some cuddle time with Grandpa while he waited for his turn.

Nathan got his Martian Matter Alien Maker that he's been wanting for a very long time from Aunt Meagan, Uncle Nate and Aunt Mandy! He loves it and has been making several aliens every day! I think his alien making goo is about half gone now! I'm going to have to figure out where I can get some more for him because he LOVES this thing and he's a real pro at the whole process now! He hasn't figured out that he can let them "set" for less time and then have their insides stay gooey yet and I really hope it stays that way for a while! Grandma and Grandpa gave him some very handsome clothes and the Lego City Police Command Center and the Lego City Police Helicopter. He loves them both and insisted that Dad put them together immediately which took well over an hour! He also got some great books from Uncle Jason, Aunt Jamie, Noah, Adam & Katie! We are making our way through Stanley in Space right now and both the boys are really enjoying it! It's fun to read something that is ongoing with them!

The boys both loved their gifts!

After presents it was time for cake! Grandma ordered an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins and it was yummy! Nathan was very satisfied with her choice of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and chocolate cake.

After that, Jonathan was ready to go down for a nap and everyone was ready to head home and do the same although I'm not sure if any of them actually did that! Mandy and her friend Nate hung out for a while and then it was just us. NAP TIME!!!! It was a great party and we had a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed their presents and just spending time with all the family!

Thanks to everyone for a great party!!!

Silly Jonathan!!!! (a video post)

2008-02-17T21:42:00.000-08:00

So Jonathan took a 3 hour nap this morning and I figured there was no way he was going to take a nap this afternoon but about 2 hours after he woke up from his first nap, he started to act tired so I put him in his bed with a bottle to see if he just wanted something to eat(drink) and then he's liven up again. He did liven up again but only for a little while and he actually took another nap this afternoon and then went to bed by 8:15 tonight! What a sleepy little boy! I hope all this sleep means he's going to get better soon. He's been sick with this darn cold for way too long! Anyway, the first time i layed him down, he drank his bottle and then decided to play. He rocked his crib for a while which was very loud throughout the house. Nathan even came and was all upset cause he heard a loud banging and I had to explain that it was just Jonathan playing in his crib. Silly baby! So then he got really quite for a while and then I heard him making some noises but I couldn't figure out what he was doing so I went to check the video monitor (what did I ever do without this before?)... I found he had moved his crib toy to the opposite end of the crib than it was on when I layed him down. Then he had gotten himself underneath it and was playing with the spinny toys on the other side of it. So I took video of the monitor screen. You can really just see his feet moving around and that the toy is pulled out away from the side of the crib and then you can hear him spinning the toy. Then I quietly opened his bedroom door and tried to video without turning the light on but it was too dark so I had to turn the light on but you can see what he had done and it was so funny! He was stuck too so I had to help him! Silly boy! Enjoy these videos!

Awwww! I got a blogger award!!! Thanks FXSmom!

2008-02-16T22:12:00.001-08:00

My sweet friend on the blog Fragile What? gave me a V-day blogger award!!! Wasn't that nice!!! See my award at the right! I love it! Thank you so very much!!!!

My beautiful city!

2008-02-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

I found this seriously gorgeous picture of downtown Visalia! It has the Fox Theatre and you can see the green treetops and even the mountains! I love this picture and have never seen anything like it before!

Jonathan's birthday

2008-02-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful birthday celebration! He wasn't into the cake at all but the pictures make it look like he was! He got some great gifts and he is enjoying all his new toys! We will be having a joint party for Jonathan and Nathan for the family on February 23rd so there will be more pictures to come. Enjoy the slideshow! It's a tribute to our little sweetheart!

Jonathan's 1st Birthday

2008-02-14T11:04:00.001-08:00

Our Beloved Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley

2008-01-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

On Sunday evening, January 24, 2008, our beloved President Hinckley left this earthly life to reunite with his beautiful wife, Marjorie Pay Hinckley. As I heard the news I was both shocked and not. This man who has seemed to reach my heart and soul for so many years had passed. I cannot say that it was not expected as he has been ill for quite some time as is expected with a man of his 97 years. However, the news struck me with a great force and although others have said they felt peace and calm and did not shed tears, I cannot claim the same. I must admit I cried. I am happy for this wonderful man who has served others for most of his life and led our church with a love and kindness that is admired by many. I know that he no longer feels the pains of his mortal body and that he will continue to do the Lord's work in Heaven just as he has done here on earth. However, I am sad for the loss I feel for myself. President Hinckley is the first prophet that I have ever really felt a connection to. I felt that I knew him and I could feel his love for me personally each time I listened to him speak or saw his picture. He radiated love and affection and acceptance for every person in the world. Not only did he embrace us all with his words or wisdom and truth but he touched our hearts with his humor and that wonderful smile. I will miss him very much. I don't know if I felt so much affection for him and so much connection because I just wasn't old enough to really feel that for those who came before him or if there was just something special about him that reached out to me in a way that others had not before. Either way, he was truly a man of God who loved all and carried out the Lord's work until the end of his mortal life. I love him and will always love him. I look forward to the calling of a new prophet for us all to know and love as we have our beloved President Hinckley.

I found many tributes to President Hinckley but this one was one of my favorites and I wanted to share it with you. I have been thinking of the words of the hymn "We Thank They, Oh God, For a Prophet" and I want to share those words with you also.

We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet

We thank thee, O God, for a prophet to guide us in these latter days. We thank thee for sending the gospel to lighten our minds with its rays. We thank thee for every blessing bestowed by thy bounteous hand. We feel it a pleasure to serve thee and love to obey thy command.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Wh2x8ybxo

My Boys & Their Toys

2008-01-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

David and Nathan love to ride their bikes around the block but with the world as it is these days and with a registered sex offender just a few streets away, we won't let them go alone. So, Doug usually gets on his motorcycle and rides slowly next to them. They think it's so cool and have a great time. The other day they did this and I took Jonathan in the jogging stroller and walked along with them, well behind them since they were going much fast than I was! Jonathan loves his stroller and then when the boys were tired of riding their bikes, they got very SLOW rides on the motorcycle with Daddy!!!! Have a look!!!

Our Budding Photographer

2008-01-22T16:44:00.001-08:00

David has always loved to play with cameras. We used to buy him those disposable ones and figured that he would just keep using them but he always knew when the film ran out and then he wouldn't use them anymore! Last year, Grandma gave him and Nathan the Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital cameras and they loved them. Nathan still uses his but David doesn't think it's a "real" camera now! He keeps saying he needs a "real" camera! He loves to take pictures. On Christmas eve he borrowed Aunt Mandy's camera and took some pictures and now every time he sees her, he wants to know where her camera is. She's promised to send me some of his shots when she can. He then borrowed my camera on New Year's Day and took some pictures at the park. He is actually getting pretty good and it's fun to see his viewpoint through the lens! Here's some of the pictures he took that day and some that I took of him on Christmas eve when he was taking pics with Mandy's camera. You can tell he's having the time of his life!

1000 Hands Park

2008-01-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Day, we went to this park that is pretty new. It is huge and there was this huge playground. There's a half wall all the way around it and they are doing these tiles with handprints on them and then putting them on the wall. It's really cool. Here's a pic of what they have so far.

Anyway so my mom & dad bought tiles for all their grandkids. We just barely did my kids' handprints so they aren't up there yet but it's really cool. Plus the playground and the whole park is so cool! The kids had so much fun! Here's a few pics...

Happy New Year!!!!

2008-01-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful time at the Pace Family New Years Eve celebration! It was a blast! (Thanks Mom!) We had our traditional fondue which was delicious and then we munched on desert fondue the rest of the night! Hello!!!! Yummy cream puffs dipped in chocolate fondue! MMMMMMMM!!!!

The kids all donned their New Years hats and tiara (Katie) and then they finally went to bed.

With the kids in bed, what else is there for the adults to do but.... Play BUNCO!!!! We had a great time although neither Doug or I got any buncos and just didn't come out that well overall but it was still a fun night! My poor wrist was in no shape for bunco but I played anyway and paid for it later but that's ok!

Then we all donned our hats and tiaras and feather boas to ring in the new year with glasses of sparkling lemonade, and cider! After the new year, we released the balloons and started popping! We each got to pick 3 so we just went around the room. Everyone got a little something, gift cards to Jamba juice and In N Out or Fandango bucks. Some got money (I got a dollar! I got a dollar! I got a dollar! Hey, hey, hey, hey! --Little Rascals) and some got fortunes. It was a lot of fun!

Thanks again to Mom (and Dad) for all the hard work to make it all happen and to everyone else who helped out! It was a blast!

Ten Years Together

2007-12-27T00:17:00.000-08:00

Happy 10th Anniversary!

It all started with just some chance encounters and a few people in common and we finally had a chance to talk we just spent all our time together until we just knew it was right. It was fast and crazy but it was right and it was worth it. Then 10 year ago today, December 27, 1997, Doug and I were sealed together for time and all eternity in the San Diego temple. It was a beautiful day and the beginning of forever together. The years have gone by so quickly and yet at the same time, it all seems so long ago! So much has happened in these ten years and we're still here, still in love and making a life together. Everything changes so much everyday, it's a constant challenge to bend and mold ourselves to make it all fit together. We've had our ups and downs but through it all we continue to realize we are truly stronger together than not. If we stick to each other's side, we can make it through anything.

We have 3 beautiful boys who we adore even when they are driving us completely mad! We live for our family! Each member bringing their own special charm and love to our home. We've learned much about ourselves, both emotionally and physically. In ten years' time, we have learned about Fragile X and more about genetics than I think either of us ever thought would be necessary but we have learned to see it all as a blessing. We wouldn't change David or Nathan or Jonathan no matter what. They are who they are and we love them each individually and equally. David with his "catch phrases" that are always changing and evolving. We have watched him grow and learn and develop in so many ways, some things we never thought would be possible and he has proved us wrong many times. Nathan is such a sweet brother. He takes care of his big and little brothers better than anyone else could. He is truly their guardian angel! Jonathan has shown us that Fragile X doesn't have to be so scary. He is such a blessing, a miracle to us. I have watched each of us respond to him in a way that I've not seen before. David adores him and is constantly wanting to help in any way he can. He will stop whatever he is doing if it means he can spend time with Jonathan. Nathan is a great big brother and he loves to teach Jonathan games and make him laugh. Doug and I have been touched by his sweet spirit as well. We really believe he is our miracle baby. He was meant to be ours and we have embraced that completely. He has brought us closer in many ways. Doug has been so much more involved in the everyday things with Jonathan than he ever has been before. I think Jonathan is just too precious for anyone to resist spending time with him, even if it is changing his diaper or feeding him a bottle in the middle of the night!

As for Doug and I, we've both experienced our ups and downs physically and emotionally but we've learned so much about ourselves and about each other and we continue to learn new things all the time. I have no doubt that Doug and I were meant to be together forever and we will be. He is my strength and my rock and my best friend. No matter what happens, I always know I have him by my side. He has supported me in many various endeavors from new hobbies to a local Fragile X conference, spreading Fragile X awareness, to picking me up when I've been down and just being there, holding me when I needed someone to love me. I know I can always be myself, totally and completely, free of judgement, with Doug. He loves me completely even with all my faults and quirks, he loves me unconditionally and that is why I love him so much. He loves me in spite of all my craziness and ups and downs and his love is always there. He is a wonderful father and I see my boys eyes light up when they get to spend time with him, wrestling or going to the park or playing ball or just watching tv or a movie and sharing a bowl of his special parmesan popcorn. That makes me love him even more to know that he is such a wonderful dad to our boys and that he makes a point to spend special time with them. He loves them and he loves me. What more could a girl ask for?

We Love Christmas!

2007-12-26T23:05:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was Jonathan's first so that was special plus Nathan and David were really into the whole Santa thing. Nathan made sure we did everything right, right down to the cookies for Santa and the carrots for the reindeer.

For Christmas Eve, we went to Grandma & Grandpa's house for dinner. While everyone else started eating, I fed Jonathan his baby food and everyone got to enjoy his "Mmmm!" with each and every bite. It's very cute. Dinner was wonderful! Thanks Mom! Then we all chatted for a while and just enjoyed being together. After a while it was time for the Nativity. Now, growing up, us kids all used to dress up as the people in the nativity story and "act" out the scene but that' s a bit difficult now because we didnt' have any little girls to play Mary! We thought about dressing up David, Nathan and Jonathan as the 3 wise men but in the end I just decided they wouldn't be too thrilled about it. So instead, Nathan was given the job of putting the people and animals into the Little People Nativity set as Grandpa read the story to us from the scriptures. He did a wonderful job! After all of this, the kids were rewarded with their traditional Christmas eve gift of new Christmas pajamas and I also gave them each a new Christmas book. They loved their books and their pjs! The looked adorable too! We then took them home and put Jonathan to bed and then David and Nathan and I made sugar cookies for Santa to have a treat when he came to our house. The boys had a very hard time going to sleep that night but eventually they did and Santa was able to come and complete the task of setting out all their Christmas goodies.

This was the first year that David and Nathan actually did what we told them and came straight to our bedroom when they woke up instead of going to the living room first to see what they got! This was a huge accomplishment for them! And then they had to wait for little Jonathan to drink his bottle before we could proceed with the Christmas morning festivities! Such a hard wait it was! They were finally allowed to see their gifts and they were so excited! Santa brought David a handheld video game player with 50 different games one it and Battleship Torpedo Attack. He also got some new clothes, a DVD (The Wonder Pets Save the Reindeer). Santa brought Nathan a set of Legos in a box so he can built all sorts of cool things and a handheld video game player like David's. He also got some clothes and a DVD (My Friends Tigger and Pooh: A Super Sleuth Christmas Movie). Of course, 5 minutes later they were ready to open all their other presents but it was all ok. We let them open presents and they eventually settled down to play with only one or two things at a time! From Grandma & Grandpa they got the Ultimate Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron Transformers which they love but have not learned to transform by themselves yet which means Mom and Dad have to do it and we're not that great at it either! From Nana, David got a Power Rangers toy and Nathan got the new Spidermand 3 web blaster! They also got some clothes and a computer arts and crafts program that looks really so as soon as we can get them a computer monitor we will set that up for them! They love everything! Jonathan was not interested in opening any presents. He really only paid any attention to 2 of his new toys and then he just sat on the floor in the middle of it all and ignored it all! I think he might have been a tad bit overwhelmed by all the activity! I finally let him play in his exersaucer and he was a happy little boy once again!

Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Mandy came over for breakfast and to see what the kids had gotten for Christmas. I made french toast for everyone. It was yummy! We all ate up and even David had some! Then they headed home to relax until dinner time. Soon it was naptime for Jonathan and me and David and Nathan just played with their toys all day. We stayed in our pj's until it was time to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner and then we put them right back on when we got home! Again, dinner was delicious!

All in all it was a very fun and relaxing day once all of the morning chaos subsided. Doug was able to be with us for Christmas eve and Christmas morning but then he had to work Christmas night but he was here for all the best parts so that was a huge blessing. We miss him when he can't be here for those holidays and special times. Merry Christmas!

Nathan is DEFINITELY his father's son!

2007-12-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

So I got a package in the mail today and I opened it, emptied it and set it aside. We asked David to go set it by the trast can so we would remember to recycle it later. A little while later, we went into the kitchen and we found Nathan's in the midst of a creative endeavor. He was making a boat, using the afore mentioned cardboard box, paper, pencils, tape, saudering wire stuff! When we asked him how he cut the wire, he showed us a pair of wire cutters that were in the back of the junk drawer with some pliers, etc. Here's some pics for you to see his masterpiece. Oh yeah! And he used the wire to attach a tape measure to the "boat" as an anchor.

Jonathan Splish Splashin'

2007-12-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I put Jonathan in the big boy bath tub. We have been trying to teach him to splash for months now and he just wasn't into it. He did not play in the water. So last night I used baby shampoo to make a bubble bath and he splashed for the first time ever! I was so excited! Here's a cute video!

Update: Sorry the link for the video didn't work. :( I'm working on a new one. We'll see if I can get it to work this time.

Elf Yourself!!!!

2007-12-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

You gotta check this out! It is so funny! Watch mine and then you can make your own too! ENJOY!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1430452985

TAGGED!!!!

2007-12-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

I've actually been tagged by two people at the same time but I'm only doing this once! I really wish I had more interesting things to say but here I go.

1. I really don't worry about Doug when he's at work that much. Everyone always wants to know how I manage to not go insane with worry. I've learned not to think about the "what ifs" because if I spent every night thinking about all the scary things that could happen while he is on duty then I would have to be committed to a mental institution. I choose to be supportive of him and his chosen career and to be proud of him for the things that he has accomplished as a police officer. I love to hear his stories and his impersonations of people he comes in contact with. Police officers have this whole different language that I've begun to learn but every once in a while I have to ask him what the heck he's talking about! LOL! Recently he arrested a man who had committed several rapes in the area. Doug received a letter of commendation for making that arrest. It makes me so proud of him to know that he is good at what he does and that he's out there making things safer every time he goes to work.

2. I want to go to culinary school and become a pastry chef and open a bakery some day! I've always been fascinated with cake decorating and various patries and desserts and I have just wanted to learn all of those things. Plus Visalia really needs a good bakery! Maybe I'll get there some day. I'm in love with the show "Ace of Cakes" on food network and I also love to see the cake decorating competitions they show sometimes! It amazes me the things that they can do with cake and icing and fondant and gum paste and sugar!

3. Fragile X info cards saved many people from being verbally assaulted for their comments about David in the past 5 years. I used to get so angry at some of the things that people would say about David. It's not as bad as it used to be because he is more in control due to more maturity and the right meds but we still get comments. I just hate the dirty looks and the nasty, snide remarks about how he behaved or how he talked or that he was crying or whatever, they were just jabs at him and at me as a mother and I resented every single one of them. I still do. There are still some incidents that stick in my mind that if I remember it for some reason one day I still get pretty upset by them. David's big for his age so people always assume he's at least a year older than he is if not 2 years older. He also doesn't look "different" so they don't know there's a reason for the way he is. I've learned so much from being his mom. I know that before I had kids I would judge other people for the way their kids were behaving and now I just realize that you never know what is going on with a child. You never know if that child might be autistic or have some other "issue" like Fragile X or something else that makes life harder for them than for the rest of us. I have learned that you can't judge anyone because you just never know. People judge me and they judge David and it hurts. He is the sweetest little boy I've ever met and those people who can't see through the crying and the tantrums and see the real David are missing out because he is super special to me. So back to the cards, when I found them I was at my boiling point with people in general so I got them and I learned to carry them with me everywhere and if someone made a comment or gave a dirty look or if someone was extra nice to David, I gave them a card. Some people are surprised and say they had no idea. Some apologize. Some are snooty and just walk away. Some are still rude. But at least I know I did my part to spread the word about Fragile X that day and hopefully someday the world will be more accepting of David and Jonathan and all the other kids who are different all over the world.

4. I love to cross stitch! I am picky about the projects I'll do because I am not going to do it just to do it. I have to be motivated to finish it so I can give it away or put it up in my house, which I have never actually finished one that I've started for myself. I have 3 in progress right now for myself but I just haven't finished them. One was started 9 years ago, another was started about 6 years ago and the most recent one I started about a month ago. For some reason I just keep giving them away and I never finish the ones for myself. I am determined to finish at least one of them in the coming year though!

5. I like those teeny bopper kids shows on Disney and Nichelodeon, like Hannah Montana, Drake & Josh, and that one with Jamie Lynn Spears on it. Can't think of the name of it right now! I only watch them if the kids are watching them but I secretly like watching them. I think they are clever and funny and yet still clean!

6. I'm addicted to those Variety Puzzle books that you get at the grocery store. They have lots of different kinds of games in them and I go through and do the ones I like and then get new ones! I am always looking for the new ones to come out cause I've gone through the ones I have so fast that I don't have any more to do until the new books are on the shelves! I like the word puzzles mostly but I also like the sudoku puzzles and the logic puzzles although I almost never get the logic puzzles right and I end up giving up on them cause I can't figure them out.

Ok... Now I am tagging Melissa Dixon, Aisha Fish, Jamie Pace, Mom, Meagan and Nicki(guess you better start a blog if you haven't yet)!

The Big 3-0!!!!

2007-12-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

Well, Doug and I finally turned 30 this year. We didn't get a chance to do anything for Doug's birthday back in October so we decided to have a party for both of us right after my birthday. We invited family and friends and had a great time! We even had a cake! Baskin Robbins chocolate cake with mint chip ice cream! We had dinner, pot luck style, and then we ate birthday cake and then we talked and played Cranium! It was a blast! Thank you to those who were able to come and join our celebration!

The Amazing Developments of the Great Jonathan Wright

2007-12-13T23:08:00.000-08:00

Our little Mr. Jonathan is growing like leaps and bounds and progressing more and more every day! He's so amazing and he makes everyone around him smile. Just one month ago he was barely learning to sit up unassisted and since then he has progressed even more. After he learned to sit up alone, he learned to change from sitting to any other position and back again. Then he started crawling which is amazing! He crawled before even 10 months old! Then he started pulling himself up to standing in his crib and then he started doing it on other furniture too. Now he's started to cruise along the sides of his crib and around his exersaucer. He still loves to sit in his exersaucer but he doesn't just sit there anymore or simply spin around to look at and play with all the different things. Nope. Now he JUMPS! He jumps in there and rocks the thing back and forth so hard that I swear he could tip it over if it didnt' have the little feet on it to keep it stable! He just thinks it's so much fun! He also has started talking a little bit. He says "mama", "dada", "do(g)" and "nana". We think we heard him say "no" once but he hasn't really said it since. He also loves the dog and cats now. He will sneak up on Aden and climb all over him and he loves it. He ends up with fistfulls of fur when he's done but we just wash his hands and he's all good!
He is also learning to play games. He and Nathan play this game when Jonathan is in his crib. Jonathan pulls up and stands at the side and then Nathan gives him a book. Jonathan holds the book for a few seconds and then he drops it. Nathan stars laughing and then Jonathan starts laughing and lets go and falls down in the crib! Then they do it all over again. It's hilarious to watch them. He laughs so hard.

He is a complete joy to our entire family! David and Nathan adore him and are constantly competing for time to play with him. They are starting to learn to share him but it's hard for them! His smile spreads across his whole face and his eyes light up and you can't help but adore him!

A Mexican Getaway!

2007-12-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

The resort was beautiful and it was wonderful to get away with Doug, without the kids and just have a good time with the family. Doug and I hit the ground running when we got there. Mom, Dad, Mike, Melissa, Beckham, Meagan, Nathan and Mandy picked us up at the airport and we went straight to Xel-Ha to swim with the dolphins. I'll post pics of that when I get copies of them but it was an incredible experience. We were able to get them to do tricks, and then just sit there in the water while they swam around us. We got to pet them and then they had us all do a "foot push" where they come up and push you through the water with their noses! It was so awesome! After that we went back to the resort to clean up and crash for the night. Wish we could have spent more time at Xel-Ha because there was so much more to do there but maybe we can do that next time! Here's the view from our balcony at the resort.

The next day was Sunday so we just relaxed around the resort. I spent a lot of my time on our "relax" days, painting ceramics. It was very relaxing to me and I knew if I spent too much time in the sun I would get burned and I really didn't want that. I painted way more than anyone else and they all teased me for it but that's ok. It was fun and relaxing to me! Everyone else spent the day napping, laying by the pool or swimming. That night we went out to dinner and had a great time. Lots of virgin Margaritas, Pina Coladas and Daquiris!

Monday we went to Chichen Itza and saw the amazing Mayan ruins there! It was a amazing to me to see where an ancient civilization lived and worked and to walk in that same place! The structures were amazing and the things we learned from our guide were fascinating. They said there are 2000 columns in the Thousand Columns Group (center pictures) which is right next to the Temple of the Warriors. It was a little strange to see all the vendors lining all the walkways selling all kinds of different things. Doug and I bought a chess set made of stone that is really pretty. Doug's gonna teach me to play chess now.

Tuesday was a relax day again. Wednesday we went to Tulum and saw more Mayan ruins. They were very interesting too and in a very different setting than Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is in a jungle and Tulum is right on a cliff overlooking the ocean! It was beautiful! I loved there that you could see the stone bases of where their homes used to be. It was amazing.

We went home on Friday. I think we were all ready to go home by then. Ready to sleep in our own beds. Doug and I were really missing the kids by then. We were glad to get home but it was hard to get back into the swing of things again, all the daily routines. It was good to see the kids again though!

Nathan's a Soccer Star!

2007-12-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

Soccer season ended last weekend but Nathan loved it! He was the fastest runner on his team and he really enjoyed it and got into the competition of it in the end. The games were a little crazy because the kids are so young that they don't really know much about the rules of the game or anything yet. They also allowed parents to go on the field during the games so it got a little interesting at times. There just seemed to be a giant glob of kids and parents moving around the field all together at once! Nathan did really well and got better every week. In his last game he scored 2 goals! After the last game they had a pizza party where the kids all got pizza and cake. The city's rec department provided a certificate for the kids but one of the dads had trophies made for each of the kids with their names on them and everything. Nathan is so proud of his trophy that he has been sleeping with it at night. He'll kill me for telling anyone that when he gets older!

Trick or Treat!

2007-12-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween. Both the older boys were Power Rangers. David was the Blue Ranger and Nathan was the Red Ranger and Jonathan was a super cute little scarecrow! First we went to our ward party in the orchard. We had chili and cornbread and the kids played for a while but when it started to get dark we decided to head out cause David has not done well in the past with the whole dark haunted orchard thing. So... We headed to Grandma & Grandpa's neighborhood for some trick or treating and the boys came out with some great loot which Doug and I promptly "sorted" (read: took some of the stuff we like!) and then they did pretty well at not eating it all in one day this year which was good. Jonathan was ready for bed by the time we got to the trick or treating so he just chilled in his stroller and was happy to get his costume off when we got back to Grandma & Grandpa's house. He got his Halloween jammies on and went to sleep after a bit. It was a late night but we had fun. David didn't get as scared this year as he did last year and he was really excited to go up to the doors. Last year he stayed back at the sidewalk at a lot of houses that had decorations and stuff. Progress!

We love Pumpkins!

2007-11-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Party

On the Monday before Halloween, I took the kids to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins. Doug was working so he couldn't go with us and we really missed him but the kids had a great time, even Jonathan. He rode around in a wagon with the pumpkins the whole time. He sat up in there and didn't fall over even one time! Yay! He liked his pumpkin and would just sit there and pat it! David picked one pretty quickly and stayed by my side the whole time. Nathan, however, took us all over the entire place and I think he looked at every pumpkin they had before he finally found one! Once they found pumpkins, David and Nathan went through the kids hay bale maze and played in the corn kernal "sand" box.

After the pumpkin patch, we went straight to Meagan and Nathan's house for pizza and pumpkin carving! We had a blast! David and Nathan were not all that excited about touching the pumpkin goop and David ended up convincing Grandma to do all the dirty work for him, including the carving but Nathan eventually got into it. He even helped with some of the carving!

Grandpa entertained Jonathan while the rest of us carved pumpkins. They all turned out really great with only a few minor mishaps! We all had a great time and survived the storm that came through in the middle of our little party. Luckily we moved our pumpkins inside to finish just before the rain hit!

Party! Party! Party!

2007-10-21T23:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday

Meagan!

Friday was Meagan's birthday so we had a fun celebration! We went to dinner at Tokyo Gardens (of course) with the whole crew, kids and all and had a great time! Jonathan was fascinated by the fire and not scared at all! So cute! David and Nathan loved their shrimp and chicken and then they loved other people's shrimp, chicken and steak too!

After dinner we all went back to Meagan and Nathan's house for presents and dessert! We had Meagan's favorite ice cream cake, mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate cake! Yummy! Meagan and Mandy decided to give Jonathan a taste of the whipped cream icing and that was amusing to witness. Hopefully his tastes change by the time his birthday comes around! Everyone else loved it though! Then Meg opened presents.

We wanted to stay longer but the kids were so tired that they were wired so we had to go home and get them to bed. We had a great time though and it was fun to celebrate Meg's birthday with her! Happy Birthday Meagan! We love you!

The Wright's Blog is Born

2007-10-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

So I am finally starting my blog. I know it's a little late coming but better late than never. We have been staying very busy here. David is in 2nd grade this year and is doing really well! His new love is basketball. He took one of his own balls to school and they keep it there for him to play with at recess. He has started sharing his ball with his friends sometimes and playing together with other kids at school. He makes about 4-6 baskets at each recess according to his aide.

Nathan started kindergarten this year and he loves it. He is making friends and learning lots. He also started soccer this week. He loves it and was actually pretty good at it. He can hardly wait for his next practice. His first game is next Saturday. He's also learning to golf with Grandpa. Grandpa even let him drive the golf cart, with assistance of course!

Jonathan is a complete joy for the whole family. He is growing like a weed and changing all the time. He is 8 months old now. He is very close to sitting alone and crawling. He loves to get on his hands and knees and just rock back and forth like he's about to take off like a rocket. He is so smiley and happy all the time and he loves to laugh, especially at his big brothers. He loves to give "hugs" where he grabs both sides or your face or hair with both hands and just pulls you toward him for a hug or a kiss. He is holding his own bottle now and he loves that.

We are looking forward to Halloween. David and Nathan have been trying on their costumes almost every day. David is going to be the Blue Ranger and Nathan is the Red Ranger. Jonathan is going to be a scarecrow. His costume fits him perfectly and he looks so cute in it!

More to come when I get the time! Love to you all from the California Wrights!