Nice Day

Adam and Nathaniel Reading.

It was such a beautiful day today! Warm and gorgeous! After cleaning the kitchen and family room this morning, I got to go on a nice long bike ride with Sandy Tarwater, Tina Rassmussen, Donna Jex, and for a little ways Emily Brimhall. We went down 6400 to the north side of Alpine then down 4800 to the Cedar hills golf course trail, then down past the temple and back home. Lots of hills. I was tired! I then came home and fixed my sprinklers and planted. After picking up Trevor in Spanish Fork, where he was doing community service for Hoofbeats to Healing, I weeded the rest of the night away. A nice, but exhausting day!

Long week

Allie and Abby playing with the Balloons.

Macey opening her presents.

Allie smiling.

It has been a long week this week. I spent half a day Tuesday at court with Trevor. The Judge was very direct with his sentencing. He sentenced him to 30 days at Lightening Peak Early Intervention Program, 150 hrs of community service, a criminal thinking course, a substance abuse assessment, and that he had to comply to any reasonable request his parents make of him. So we went home and of course he immediately started testing the boundaries. By Wedsnesday night we had to call the police as he was not complying with anything we said. When Jim asked him to go outside and cool down after he was harrassing Ben, he began yelling at everyone (we were eating dinner). Needless to say he was told again to comply. Who knows what will happen. He starts at Lightening Peak tomorrow. I hope, by going there, he will realize he doesn't want to be told what to do for the rest of his life. That he gets more "freedom" if he follows rules than if he doesn't . It's just that there are so many errors in his thinking patterns. We spent a couple of hours at Lightening Peak today and that was one of the things the advocate said to me afterwards. "He has a lot of thinking errors," so sad...
We had a birthday party for Macey tonight! Becca and Amber came and helped me do all the girls nails and hair. We made cute flower hair clips and ate pizza. I think everyone had a nice time. Macey was so excited! We had at least 15 girls there. Her best friends from home and school, Addison and Audry were both there. She was really cute! The Meyers came and brought Allie and Matt and Andrew swung by after Matt picked up Andrew. It's so fun to have them around. The kids are so cute, and we have such a nice time with them!
Last day of school is tomorrow! The kids are thrilled and it definately feels like summer already! I hope I make it through the summer!

Heather and Aubry.

JM

Today I am thankful for a therapist who sees my oldest son! I am also thankful for JM. It is his 13th birthday. He was so excited that he woke up at 5am this morning. By the time I got up to go to kickboxing at 5:30, he had finished his book and was pacing around upstairs...so excited! He is such a cute kid! The other night we "lost him." When he failed to show up for dinner we started to get worried, he'd been gone for 4 hours. Earlier I had been unable to find him for lacrosse. His bike was gone. We searched the back and the neighborhood, checked his friends house and then called the police. An hour later he walked up from the Brouer's back yard with his book in his hand! He'd been reading in their backyard for 5 hours!

I had a nice evening tonight. Jim got home from LA around 8pm and went to the "father's and sons" at the park with all 5 boys. Macey went to Addison's and I went to Sandy Tarwater's for ladies night! I had a great time just hanging out and chatting. We need more of those nights around here! I feel like I'm beginning to have a few friendships that I love here. It's been so much harder here to form those bonds then anywhere else I've ever lived, but tonight felt nice.

Lots of sissor problems this week. A. Just decided to cut a hole in his shirt. I guess he wanted his belly button to show. The other day when I was out JM decided his bangs were bugging him and cut them...very close to the top of his forhead and very crooked. He now has a number #4 buzz which he thanks me for profusely everyday. Thank yourself JM.

Girls

T is so sneaky. I am so thankful that so far none of my other kids are exhibiting such advanced sneaky behavior!
BJ and I worked on his poem book most of the night. Then after the kids went down I made M's birthday party invites. I had this great idea for BP and AC. They're starting a business together doing little girl birthday parties in the home ie hair, nails etc... M's party will be their first. They're calling it "Sparklez and Dreamz". I hope it works!

Frustration...what do I do with him? No motivation...no desire to succeed. How do I help? Frustrated.

Miss M

M and her funny car faces on our way to Placerville for TC's Mission Farewell.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Time with T

I wanted to share an interesting experience I had with T the other night. He was out playing the piano. He was experimenting with different accompaniments to go with one of the veggie tails songs. I decided to go into the living room and just sit an listen. After a while he got up to go. I stopped him and asked him if he wanted to play a game. I would say a song and he would play it. He grinned and said, "I don't know if I can do that." "I'm sure you can, " I said. He then proceeded to play the top hand of "I am a Child of God." O.K I said, now play the accompaniment with it. He did. Again. I can't, I don't remember it. So, play a different one. He did, a more complicated version. Again, I said. He did. Now I got it Mom.
We did this again for two additional songs. Scripture Power and Book of Mormon Stories. Both played fluidly, both played without written music. He amazes me. Sometimes with the hardness of him, I forget the beauty, the unequivocal raw talent he possesses. His ear, his ability to translate what he hears into music, his amazing ability to create both musical and visual art. He really has incredible gifts. I only wish, as his mother, I could help him understand and capitalize on these gifts.

scrabble

Our families been obsessed with scrabble lately...a game of words. How important are words. An inflection or placement makes all the difference, a bee or to be...

thanksgiving 2

I just wanted to add I am so grateful for an unexpected but beautiful 2 year old!

Thanks giving

I was reading in Real Simple today and there was an article about Giving Thanks. And being grateful and how healthy it is for you. So I decided that I would take another step in healthy living and begin a thanks giving portion of my blog. What am I thankful for today? I am thankful that I got my garden partially planted. Today I put in tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, zuchini, broccoli and cauliflower. I am grateful for a husband who knows how to put a regulator on the sprinkler system so the drip system I put in does not blow up and my newly planted garden can live! I am also very thankful for a mother in law who let's my aspergers teenage son come over on tuesdays and hang out. It is a nice break for the rest of the family.
I love sitting out here in my back yard and looking out over the ravine feeling the space around me. There is no fence and no one to peep in my windows. Birds sing, the breeze blows and the kids run and play. I am grateful for my back yard, and the city owned protected marshland behind it! Life is good, love is strong.

Interesting Day

After Grandpa left for the airportthis morning and we completed a few chores, we decided to go play raquetball as a family. JM was on a campout in Goblin Valley and T, of course refused to go, so that left BJ(10), M(7), NW(4), and A (2), and J and I. We loaded up the raquetballs and raquets and threw in a couple of ping pong paddles for the little boys. How much fun we were going to have! The first out was A. In the process of going through the door, crushed fingers! NW was the next down with a ball to the eye. J joined the ranks when I hit him in the ear with my paddle scraping off skin on his outer ear. BJ In turn whacked my fingers with his paddle...ouch! We ended the session without paddles throwing the ball around the room and off the walls. I think M was the only one who avoided injury!
Tonight we traveled to Clearfield to M Davidsons baptism.we enjoyed hangin' with the family.