The love of my life...my kids!!

2011-08-07T12:06:00.001-07:00

I guess I should write another post since the last one was so depressing haha. I hate looking at my blog and seeing that post. So I figure I will write another post so that I can look at something happy instead!

So for the last year and a few months we have been living in Phoenix. We really loved the house we lived in. We were renting from my brother Trent. The house was perfect. Everything we wanted and more was in that house. I loved the school that Tyler went to. I am SO GLAD that Tyler had that as a starting point to his schooling years. He learned so much from going there and it was so important that he learned such great skills. We loved living so close to downtown Phoenix. It was fun to be able to get there so fast and so easy. We went to lots of events and stuff. It was close to PCH where Jakes docs are and it was close to Toms work! Everything seemed great. Well that is until it was time for Jacob to get therapy. We could not find a therapy center for Jacob out in Phoenix. Even our support coord said that it was hard to find therapy where we live because not very many people want to work out there. So after a LONG year of no therapy we decided that we needed to take Jake back to LIFE. So I started driving there 3 times a week. It was horrible! The drives were so long and I started to dread going. But I knew that I had to for Jake because he needed this therapy. After about a month of driving back and forth I told Tom that it just was not working and we needed to either move closer or just not do therapy anymore. Tom was VERY against moving. He loved where we lived, he loved everything about it. Both of us had callings in the ward that we loved and did not want to give up. Every time I would bring it up, Tom would just say, NO...im not changing my mind! We are NOT moving. I prayed soo hard about what to do. I felt like moving would be a good decision but Tom was so against it that I had no idea what I should do. I looked at a few houses and was trying to figure out if we did move where we would go. But nothing seemed right. Every house that I looked at just was not the right one. I just never had a good feeling. Both of us felt like either decision was not the right one. So we thought we would just stay and drive and do what we are doing. The night of Tylers kindergarten graduation, my mom was going to take the kids overnight. So while we were at home I just had a thought to look one more time online for a house. So the very first house I did I emailed and got a response right away! So since we had to pick up the kids the next morning we thought we would go look at that house right after. When we went the next day....as soon as I stepped in the house I just felt so good about it. I felt like this is where we needed to be. I was almost in tears because I just felt so strongly that we needed this house. But I knew that Tom still would not be open to moving. When we looked at this house...I just told Tom...please look at it with an open mind. But when we got done, and in the car, he said, I really felt like this is our home! And right there I knew why I felt so strongly about it. I knew that we needed this house. Everything after that fell right into place. We signed the lease and moved in a week later! We love where we live. We feel so at home and so comfortable here. I am so glad that we made this decision but I am still really sad to leave our phoenix world behind. I know that Heavenly Father had put us in Phoenix for a reason. And I know that he wants us here for a reason. We may never really know what those reasons are but I am glad that we can follow what He wants us to do.

Now hopefully we can stay here for a very long time! I am tired of moving!!!

2011-01-31T06:17:00.000-08:00

So the week before school let out for winter break I decided that I needed to pull Jacob out of school. So we started the new year a homeschool family. I now teach him at home. We signed up for a school called AZVA and its amazing! It is working so well for Jacob. He really enjoys it and is learning so much. And I love it because I get to help him learn. I can really see why teachers always have such a hard time with him though. He is so easily distracted and does not pay attention when there are other things going on. But I have learned how to get over that and we are really working good together. We have really gotten a good schedule going and I think having that schedule every day really helps Jacob. I hope that this continues to work good.

2011-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

Friends...

This is a touchy subject for me. I think it is so vital to have friends...and good ones!! Friends that you can tell everything to. Friends that you can go to their house and even though it might be messy and horribly disorganized you dont care because you see past that. Friends that even though you are not perfect that friend thinks you are darn near close. Friends that when you hang out you laugh and have so much fun! Friends where you have lots in common and share the same interests.

There is no one in my life that fits all that and I miss that. There are a few wonderful people who fit that in my life...one very good friend but we just never get to hang out =( I miss having a friend. I make friends but for some reason they only last for about a month and then what I call the fizzle out period begins. So I am starting to think maybe its me. Maybe im doing something wrong. Tom assures me that its not me and that I just dont need to have friends. Maybe I dont...but when I see people talking all the time of how much fun they have with their friends I get sad. I used to have friends, but then we moved.

I wish my kids had friends. Its sad to see that they are growing up without having friends too. Its not their fault. I know that Jacob is hard to be friends with but he is trying. At least they dont get sad that they dont have friends. They dont really know the difference. But I do. I had so much fun growing up because I had the best of friends.
Tom doesnt have friends. Well he has guys that he works with that he hangs out with at work but they dont hang out when they are not at work. And I think im ok with that. But not having friends is ok with Tom. Maybe I should just learn to be that way.

My goal would be to find a family of friends. People that we can all get along with. We love to go camping and love going with friends. So finding a family to go camping with us or on a road trip or something would be so much fun!

2011-01-13T13:36:00.000-08:00

So I got an email from a lady at CSN asking if I would review a product. After looking at the website I was so excited to be able to do this. Have you ever been to their website?? If not its great! CSN has over 200 stores! You could find great things for your house. Since I am trying to get my house all cute and decorated these corner tv stands would be great!

I will be finding something great to review in the next few days so keep checking back!

2010-09-23T09:17:00.001-07:00

When we got home from the hospital on friday Jacob started complaining of a headache. It was more of a "mom my head hurts" and then I would say something like ok go lay down and off he would go and play and act normal. So I didnt think anything of it. And then Tuesday night him and Tyler were laying down in the front room watching tv and I hear him scream and start to cry. I look over and his head is on the ground. So I tell him to walk to me. He did and I asked him what was wrong. he told me that his head hurt so bad. Tom and I thought he was getting a migraine so I told him to go lay down in bed. He went right to bed and layed there for about an hour. Then he was fine after that. An hour later I noticed Tyler was already asleep on the couch and Jacob was on the chair with a blanket covering his body and the pillow over his head. I figure he got another migraine and he was trying to keep the light and sound away. So we woke him up and when we did I asked him if his head still hurt. It did so I gave him some tylenol. He went to bed and didnt wake up all night. In the morning I asked him if his head hurt and he said it did. But then he said "I cant go to school...but I can go to scouts." So I figured he was faking and I sent him off to school. About 9 am I get a phone call from the lady in the front office and she said that Mrs Bergman said that he started to get a headache and he just was not acting like himself. He started to get really pale so she was going to take him across the hall to lay down on the couch. When she was walking him over there he passed out in her arms. So they had to call the fire department to come look him over. I arrived after the fire dept was there and so they were already doing their checks on him and trying to get him to be responsive. Jacob's blood pressure was very low so they had to check his blood pressure standing up. When they had him stand up he passed out again. So they decided that they needed to call the ambulance to take him to the hospital.

So off we went to PCH again. The first doc came in and checked him over. It was just a resident doctor. I have never had good luck with those. Usually they have no idea what they are talking about and is always completely wrong with what they say! He said that since they reported that there was some tenderness in his tummy he would check it out himself. Jacob started laughing and the doc was like oh hes ticklish. I had to tell him no...that's how he says it hurts. Since Jacob doesn't feel pain like we do its hard for him to know whats pain and whats not. And ive seen that when Jacob laughs like that it usually means its painful. Because of our recent history of just being admitted he wanted to get an xray done of his belly and just see whats going on in there. So we went to xray and a few min after we were done he came back and said that from the looks of the xray he has MORE poop in his system than his first xray showed BEFORE we did the clean out. I was actually mad because I had thought they released us without having him all cleaned out. And if they did that, then they were going to have momma bear attack! But he said that he looked at the xray that they took when we left and it showed there was nothing but air in his system. So from Friday until Wednesday some how it all came back! Now im not a doc but that just doesn't seem right. So he wanted to give Jacob an enema but I said NO! He wont tolerate that and if there is poop still in his system he needs to get it out again. So I told him to please call GI and talk to them. So he called and talked to another doc in the practice and they said to admit him. But they have no beds. SO they sent us home and said they would call us when a bed is available. Last time they did this they called us within a few hours. But so far we have waited over 12 hours so far and nothing yet. So hopefully they will call us soon! I assume they are going to have to do another clean out with him. But not only do we need to get that taken care of but now his headaches and what caused him to pass out. And then we have to figure out how and why so much poop came back so fast. I actually got a call from the GI last night around 5 as we were driving home from the ER and they said that we never saw a nutritionist when we were there last time and they were upset over that. We need to see one before we leave the hospital this time. The nurses should of made sure we saw one but they told me that it was not in the hospital orders...when it clearly was. So this time we will also see one of those. Hopefully this hospital visit wont be longer than the last. I was about to claw my way out of there by the 2nd day!

2010-09-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

In July we decided to go see a GI doctor. Jacob had always had some stomach aches and we just wanted to figure out what they were from. We thought it was from an allergy but we went to the allergist and all their tests came back fine. So next step was the GI. They asked his history and after feeling around his stomach they told me its just constipation. So they gave us an order to up his fiber intake to 16 g a day and he should be fine. So we did that and nothing happened. So they told us just in case lets do some work. They sent us for a xray and some blood work. I guess I forgot to send them my new phone number when we moved because when the tests were done they were trying to call me but could never get a hold of me. So they called Tom at work and Tom gave them my new number. So they called me and said there is a significant amount of poop in his colon and he needs to do a clean out. So for 4 days give him 2 caps full of miralax 3 times a day and 2 chocolate xlax bars 2 times a day. So we got all prepared for this massive clean out and started it on a Thursday. That day...nothing happened. No poop...nothing. The 2nd day he only went 2 times. The 3rd day he went 3 times and the 4th day he went once. So I called them after the weekend and told them what had happened and that I didn't think it worked. They told me to try it again the next weekend. So I did. This time, the whole weekend, he only went 3 times! I had an appt with the doc on that Monday. When we talked to him I told him what had happened and he said well this obviously is not working. He started to write something down and then said to me "Go take this paper next door. Get an xray right now. If it shows poop still in there then we will have to admit Jacob and do a clean out in the hospital." So right away we went and took it over there and got the xray. The next day I got a phone call that said there was more poop in there than before and that the hospital would call me with a time to come in to do the clean out. A few hours later we were in the hospital!

When we got to the hospital there was a lot of waiting around. We got to the actual hospital at about 445 and finally got to our room at about 6. Well at 7 is when the nurses do their shift changes so no nurses really wanted to get started on anything because it was about time for them to go home. Then the night nurses came on board and they had to finish with all their patients first before they came to get us started. So finally at about 8pm they get to us. They tell us whats going to be happening with him and what they are going to do. About 845 they came back and took him away. What they did is they put in a feeding tube that goes from his nose all the way to his stomach. And then they put in an IV. I actually had to convince them to put in the IV because I didn't want him to get dehydrated. They gave him some relaxers to relax him and so that he wouldn't flip out when they put in the feeding tube. But he just started crying and wouldn't stop. Finally I convinced him to stop crying at about 10 pm because he wanted to go for a walk. I told him that there were too many sleeping kids and he had to be quiet because he would wake them all up. We actually had a roommate too. And I was worried he was going to wake up the other kid. They started his meds also. So it was pumping into him a stronger version of miralax. He couldn't swallow or close his mouth with the feeding tube in. It was so sad to see him like that.

We finally went to bed at midnight only to be woken up at 4 am by Jacob throwing up. I figured it was just because he was not used to the tube and it probably gagged him or something. Well then he threw up again...and again...and again...until 6 am. They gave him some zofran and then decreased the amount of meds being pumped into him and that was the end of his throwing up.

The next day (Thursday) we said good bye to our roommate...who's name was also Jacob. And we were roommate free the rest of our stay there. That day was also full of lots of pooping and diaper changes and stomach cramps and LOTS of tv and disney movies. My wonderful friend Erin came and brought Jacob some fun toys to play with and that kept him entertained.

Friday came and was all the same as Thursday. Lots of bed changes and diaper changes. However this time the poop started to become less and less. They told us we could go if his poop was clear...which meant there was no "rocks" or specs it was just basically pooping out the meds that they were giving us. Finally about noon he started doing that. They told us he had to have 3 poops that were clear. We did that around 2pm and then they took him at about 3pm to get an xray. If it came back that there was nothing in his system we could go! So at 4 we were released to go because everything had come back fine.

It was such a scary experience for him...and me. I do not enjoy seeing my kid in the hospital that's for sure. But we have a great support system and I am so thankful for everyone who prayed for us and who called and visited.

2010-09-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

So im about to tell a story about what happened like our first month in our house. The only reason im blogging about this is so that I remember it. Just because it was a lot of madness.

So we were getting ready to send Tom off to scouts and I was getting the boys ready for bed. I heard a sound of a helicopter that was pretty loud and it sounded like it was close. So as Tom was leaving to scouts I decided to go outside and look and see what was going on. I saw the police helicopter and it was flying over our neighborhood. So I decided to call Jackie and see if she knew of anything since she lives a few neighborhoods over. She told me...oh its probably just the police nothing big. And so I took it as that and went on with our night. A little bit longer I hear MORE helicopters. So I go outside and look around and I see 6!! They are news helicopters. So I knew something had to be going on. I turned on the tv to see if there was any news about it and there was. It happened to be a drug bust gone wrong in the neighborhood next to me. And an undercover cop got shot!! So I decided to turn on my police scanner. I think that was the worst thing to do because I knew EVERYTHING that was going on there. So I went outside to see what I could see and I hear from up in the sky "GO BACK INSIDE...IT IS VERY DANGEROUS" So I go back inside and call my mom freaking out. I kept telling her...I dont know what I got myself into moving here. I had no husband and there was some shooting going on!!! So then a little bit later there is a knock and I Hear...ITS THE POLICE. So I go and answer the door and there are 5 police officers with their big guns drawn and they had to go search my house. From what I understand the suspect was running on MY STREET and they had to check all the houses. Once they saw that I was not hiding the suspect they left. But only to return a half hour later just to check up on me because they saw how scared I was. While all of this was happening Tom was at scouts and I had no way to get a hold of him. He told me that after scouts he went to go home and they had the whole area blocked off and no one could get into their houses. So he had to wait at QT until 1:30 in the morning. It was a scary night and I hope to never experience that again.

2010-09-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Jacob just had his 8th birthday a few weeks ago. I know I am SO behind on my posting here. So I thought I would post a few memories from the day.

It was a special day for him. Not only did we have all of our arizona family there but Stacy and her kids all came from Texas. So I knew that I had to have a good party for him. It was a lot of fun. I decided that the party theme was going to be "rainbows." A lot of my family members thought that it was not a good theme. But they were thinking of what rainbows represent. And well I was just thinking of the colors of the rainbow. My silly family!! But it was such a fun party and theme. Jackie helped me with a few ideas and getting things started and I just took off from there. I had a lot of fun getting things ready for the party and all the crafts I had to do. When the party was getting close to being done we looked outside and it started to rain!! And what do you know, a rainbow showed up. I thought it was a perfect way to end the party. Here are a few pictures of the day.

These are the cupcakes that I made for the party.

This is the cupcake holder

The food setup

Some of the partiers! Yeah it looks like a happenin party,doesnt it??

Kids playing in the rain

Overall it was a great day. And I hope Jacob remembers it forever!! I know he will.

2010-05-24T17:55:00.001-07:00

I have been having some not so good feelings lately and I thought that if I just wrote them down I would feel better…so here I go!

I am having such a hard time moving. Not sure why its been so hard on me. Well it could be the fact that I had to take Jacob away from the people that mean the most to him. Every time I think about it I start to cry. Every time we see his friends or teachers…I start to cry. It's been harder on me than it has him I think. I had no idea that there was so much love in his little body for these special friends. And the fact that they feel the same way is amazing. I am just glad that they are still able to see each other and play with each other.

Or the fact that I'm just so tired all the time. Having the kid's home all day has been really tiring on me. I don't ever get a break from them. I feel like I never have a time to recharge my batteries. So being tired makes me grumpy…and I'm just not nice to be around anymore. I did get to have a little break last Friday and it was amazing!! I am so glad that I got to get out and have a good time. Glad to of been able to make some new friends. That's another thing on my list. I don't really have any friends out here. Most of all the friends I had before I moved now act as if I don't exist anymore. It's like I moved too far away to be their friend. I don't get why people don't think that we can still hang out it just takes me a little bit longer to get there haha. I know that I will make friends out here…it just takes time.

Ok so I think I feel a little bit better. I just need to sleep…at a decent time. I just need to get out and do something fun to get my mind back to where it was before. No more poor me posts…I promise!! Haha

Mother’s Day

2010-05-10T07:43:00.001-07:00

So Mother's Day has come and gone. To me, it was a day of reflection. It was a day of thinking back to the memories and focusing on the wonderful mothers that have been in my life.

My mom has been a great inspiration to me. I love my mom more than anything. She has been there for me in times of trial, the good times, and when I didn't think I needed her. I know that if I have a problem, my mom can always help me with that. She's the first person I call when I need advice on something. She is the best Grandma my kids could ask for. She is so much fun and the kids just beg to go see her. I am glad that they had that good influence in their lives.

Then there are my Grandmas. Last night my mom asked us to think of a good memory about our Grandmas. We never got to share them so I thought I would on here.

Grandma Malone was certainly a fun one. She loved to play cards and at every family event there was always a game of cards going on. One memory of her that stands out was one time I went to their house in Tucson for the weekend. It was just me and there was no one else in my family with me. Well I had forgotten my swim suit back at home. So she said we had to go get a swim suit for me. We went to this weird store. I remember it was a weird souvenir shop or something. But we found a swim suit and when Grandma went to pay for it she gave them 100.00 bill. And the lady that she gave it to started freakin out. She was not sure what to do with a hundred dollar bill. I just remember thinking it was funny they were making such a big deal about it like it was the first time they had ever seen one.

Grandma Johnson was an amazing woman! She was so full of information and I just loved to hear stories of her mission and when she was young. There are lots of good memories with Grandma Johnson because growing up I lived on the same street as her. So I would go over there quite a bit. I loved her homemade bread. I remember she had this tape with a bunch of songs about the constitution and stuff like that. I would listen to that all the time and I still remember most of those songs to this day. I loved going to Lakeside and staying at Grandmas cabin. When the cousins all came it was so much fun!! A lot of my memories with cousins were all at Grandmas cabin in Lakeside.

Then there are the special mothers that I have met in this autism journey. They are so incredible!! They have so much wisdom and I can find out anything I need just by asking a few of these moms.

Around 1 am on Sunday morning I got up in a panic because I thought that my garage door was unlocked. So I went to check to make sure it was locked and I passed the kids room. And I had to stop and peek in to make sure they were all ok. Tyler was sleeping sideways on his bed and Jacob had kicked off all of his blankets and was curled up in a ball. I fixed Tyler to where he was back to sleeping on his pillow and I put the blankets back on Jacob. And I started to think about being a mom, and how lucky I am to be a mom to the kids that I have. I know that there are times I am done being a mom but I think that we all have those moments. Even the best moms I'm sure have thought that at times. I am lucky to have 2 great kids that love me unconditionally. Tyler tells me all the time that I am the bestest mom and that he loves me so much. That makes me feel like I'm doing something right to these boys. And when they grow up I want them to always remember that they have a mom that loves them so much.

House Party My Party

2010-03-11T13:37:00.000-08:00

House Party My Party

An update

2010-02-16T11:56:00.001-08:00

I am going to update since the last time I updated the blog.

I eventually got Tyler evaluated for the preschool. And well, he passed! So he got to be in the same class as his cousin Caleb. It has been so much fun for the both of them. They are such good little friends. They play together every day at school and it has been good for them both, socially. Well what we got also when he got evaluated was another autism diagnosis. Yep! That makes 2 kids with autism for me. Although Tyler does not have it like Jacob does, but he still has it. We did not qualify for services, like Jacob gets through the state, but that's ok. I know enough to work with Tyler on the things that he needs help learning. Tyler got the diagnosis because of his social/emotional problems. But since starting preschool his social skills are getting so much better! He also has a few fine motor issues that need to be addressed through an occupational therapist that he sees at school along with the speech therapist. His speech is getting a little better, but I see him having to continue that through next year. I can't believe that he officially starts kindergarten next year!!! I will have BOTH boys in school and have lots of free time for mom! I am not sure what I'm going to do with myself. People ask if I will have more kids and I think after having all this time to myself I would be crazy to have another baby right now. Although I do feel like there is another child that needs to come to our family through adoption. I have felt this way for a very long time. But there is no way we can afford that right now. So I guess we will know when that time comes.

Jacob got his tonsils out June 26^th. I was really nervous about it and I had no one to go with me to keep me company. So Sharon said that she would come with us since she had that day off. I am so glad she did. What an awesome friend she is, right?!?! Well we ended up playing a fun card game to take my mind off of him being in surgery. And it went a whole lot faster than I thought it was going to go. And he was a rock star! He did awesome. He had a little bit of trouble coming out of the sleepy meds but he normally does. When we got him home he was a little calm and stayed down pretty much the rest of the day. But after that it was all over with. He wanted to eat but he couldn't. I didn't know this but he snuck a piece of pizza that next day and ate it! He never wanted any of the soft foods that he was supposed to eat. But it healed perfect and it actually healed pretty fast. So we were pretty happy with that.

On the Jacob note…he had another little procedure done a few weeks ago. A few Sundays ago he came to me and said look at this mommy. And he showed me his toe where he had this big black mark on it. At first I thought he drew on his toe with a marker or something so I tried wiping it off. But I felt that it was raised and it looked like it was something stuck in his skin. So off we went to the phx childrens hospital urgent care. And when we got to see the doctor he kind of ripped into me for bringing him. There were lots of other sick kids waiting but I felt that Jacob needed to be seen. So the doc assured me that it was only a marker mark and that I should of just taken him to the pediatrician in the morning. When I told him NO it's not just a marker its raised. He was pretty concerned. He even had all the other doctors come in and take a look at it. No one could figure out what it was. He then told me that we needed to get in to see the dermatologist ASAP the next day. He was worried that it could be melanoma. So the next day comes and we get right in to see the doc later that afternoon. And he comes in with 6 other doctors. And they all take a look at it trying to figure out what it was. They also thought that it was melanoma of some sort. So the doc took a biopsy of it. He ended up taking off the whole thing and sending it in to get looked at. 2 days later I get a phone call from the doctor and he said that it was only a blood blister haha. He sure did scare us! It was really weird that that's all it was because it sure did not look like a blood blister.

Trying something new!

2010-02-16T11:38:00.001-08:00

In my quest to better myself I decided that I needed to take up blogging again. It usually helps me lift some stress off of my shoulders to kind of just let things go. So hopefully I will be better at this blogging thing. I know not very many people read this blog and that's totally fine with me. But as I found out a month or so ago, it's so much fun to go back and see what I blogged about and remember some good and not so good memories. If I never blogged I would of totally forgot about Jacobs autism "anniversary" because I had totally forgotten the date. But I blogged about it and the date and everything and now I will always remember that its on February 2^nd. Or the feelings I felt when Tyler was going through a bunch of genetic testing. It brought back some sad memories of those times but I'm glad that I had those feelings written down to look back on.

But I found an easier way to blog and hopefully this will help me want to blog more. A WONDERFUL lady from my ward gave me a copy of the office software and on the Microsoft word it has where you can type a blog post into a document and it will automatically import it right to the blogger website. I thought this was awesome and probably a whole lot easier for me to type them out and get the published.

2009-06-25T18:28:00.001-07:00

Today I took Tyler to get evaluated for the special needs preschool. He has a little speech delay but he is delayed in other things as well. So I figured it wouldn't hurt to get him evaluated. Turns out he is delayed in 4 of the 7 areas they look at. So we will be going back in August and get another eval and then hopefully he can start school by the first of September. That would be really nice for him...and for me! That break would be awesome!!

Jacob is going to get his tonsils out tomorrow. I am pretty nervous about it. I dont know why I am so nervous since its a very small surgery but I cant help but be nervous. Im a mom and I am a worried mom at that haha. I am sure he is going to be fine. I cant wait to see about whats going to happen when he is all fine. They told me that he could calm down a little bit and sleep better. I am so excited to see if he can finally sleep without being medicated. That would be awesome!

2009-06-22T11:23:00.001-07:00

I know its been like 5 months since ive updated. I thought I would start doing it more often. So, to start off im going to do a little tag that I got tagged with a while ago but never got to it.

Past, Present, and Future

20 Years ago: I was 6...almost about to turn 7. Probably swimming a lot and playing with my friends.

10 Years ago: I was 16...thinking about getting my drivers license. Hanging out with Sharon and Nicole a lot. I was working at Foodinis with Jermaine...and having A LOT of fun!

5 Years ago: I have been married for 2 years. Had a baby...Jacob was almost 2. We were on our 3rd house, living in Texas. I was 3 months pregnant with Tyler. And really missing home. This is about the time I started to get VERY homesick and ready to move back.

3 Years ago: Tyler was born and was about 18 months old. We had been going through some genetic testing with Tyler. Lots and lots of doctors and tests. This is also when we found out Jacob had autism. Started a whole new period in our life.

1 Year ago: We have finally gotten a good routine...and found some awesome therapists. We started school at LIFE academy and things seemed to be looking up for us.

Yesterday I: Went to church, taught a lesson to 4- 3 yr olds, had a fun fathers day at my parents house, and went to bed really early...and it was great!!

Today I: Have done lots of laundry, cleaned my house, packed up our clothes. Made some waffles for the kids for breakfast and will be making yummy sandwiches for lunch. I also watched Armageddon (such a great movie!!)

Tomorrow I Will: Be having a great time...in good weather...Missing my hubby since we will be apart from each other for a few days.

In the next year: I hope to have life even better than it is now!!

2009-01-17T13:49:00.001-08:00

This is really hard for me to post on here...but we need everyones prayers right now.

My sister, Shelly, was just diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. I just cant believe that someone in MY family has cancer. I have had grandparents and cousins have it. But when it hits one of your brothers or sisters or parents...it is a lot harder to take.

This has hit me very hard for some reason. But im trying to stay strong for my family. Which is why im on here. We need everyones prayers. We need you to pray so hard for her and her family. She has 5 little kids and they are so young and they dont need to go through this. We are all fasting for them on Sunday and if you could PLEASE do the same!! If you want to read her blog its http://www.bslomu7.blogspot.com/

2008-12-23T22:27:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know I haven't updated in a LONG time!! But im addicted to facebook now and well, blogging has been on the back burner. but if you want to add me to facebook just look me up!

So I had to post this about what happened tonight. So my friend Sharon and I went shopping late tonight to pick up a few things she needed. We went to Old Navy where they were having a killer sale. I even picked up a cool shirt for Tyler for 99 CENTS!!! I couldn't believe it. So anyways, I saw this jacket and it was on the sale rack but it didn't have a sale price on it so I thought I would ask the people up front if it was on sale. So I get up there and she rings it up and it rang up at the regular price for 24.00. She was like that's ridiculous and I don't think it should be that much. How does 4.99 sound? I was like HECK YA!! That sounds awesome haha. So I got a nice jacket for 5 bucks. I thought that was the deal of the year right there for me! So I thought I would share.

On a family update everything is going good here. All of Jacobs blood work and tests came back fine but she wants to see us in 6 weeks to see if he has gotten worse on anything or improved and we will do more testing then. We are all getting ready for Christmas and its been fun. Tyler is so into Christmas and Jacob is getting there.

We had Tylers bday party today with his cousin Caleb. Caleb was born 5 days before Tyler so it was fun to have their bdays together. They were so cute and got some fun stuff. I will post pictures later when I do my Christmas post.

My brother, Trent, was just called as Bishop!! I cant believe that I have a brother that's a bishop. That is so cool but I do feel bad for his wife haha. We were in their ward when he was announced and it was so cool to be there for his setting apart. Congrats Trent!!

I guess that's all from us for now. Hopefully I will post more...I know im slacking big time on it. Maybe in the new year I will get better!

2008-11-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! I know we sure did.

2008-11-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Today we had to get Jacob's blood drawn for some of the blood tests that we have to do. So we went in there and he was pretty nervous. He started crying when they put the needle in and then as soon as he saw the blood go in the vials he was fine. He thought it looked so cool that his "bleed" was going in the vials. So they had to take 3 tubes of blood from him. The first 2 were fine. Then she put the 3rd one in. And all of a sudden the blood stopped coming. So she jiggled the needle a little bit and put it in and out and still nothing. Jacob started screaming because he was really scared. All of a sudden he just went limp in my arms!! He had passed out!! I wont lie...I was really scared when it hap pend. Then a few seconds later when he woke up I was laughing because it was kinda funny. And those who know tom....knows that he HATES needles. And he will pass out just seeing them. So Jacob passing out was just funny because his daddy does the same thing. Then when I tried to tell Tom the story he made me stop in the middle of it because just talking about needles was making him light headed haha.

Tomorrow we go in for Jacob's MRI. And that I am pretty scared about. They are putting him out so they can do everything fine without having to worry about him. I am glad they are putting him out before they put the IV in or else he would probably pass out for them too.

2008-11-10T12:55:00.000-08:00

Jacob has a new love. Its a little crazy and I'm not sure where this came from. But he LOVES infomercials!! He will actually sit and watch them and soak up all the info and then come tell me all about it. Well since Toms birthday is on Saturday, Jacob has been on the lookout for the perfect present. Well last night I think he found it (so he thinks). It was an infomercial about a sandwich maker. He told me about it for a good 5 min and if we were in the market for a new sandwich maker I would of been sold. Although, it doesn't take much to sell me on things if a 6 yr old can do it haha.

2008-11-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

I couldn't put more pictures on the last post so here is a Halloween post. Our Halloween was a lot of fun. We all dressed up this year. Jacob was a rocker, Tyler was a dinosaur, Tom was a scary clown, and I was a hippy. We did things a little differently this year. Usually we go to my moms house and T or T in her neighborhood. But this year Jacobs little friend Max told his mom that he wanted us to come T or T with them this year. And because of the difficulties our kiddoes have with socializing and friends....we both thought this was huge! So the boys talked about it for a few weeks...every day at school and we knew this is something we needed to do for them. So we got together with them and had a great time. Us parents put on a pretty fun Halloween party for the kids at school. And boy were we tired after the party was done! I give those teachers lots of credit for having to do this every day. So here are some pictures of our Halloween.

This is toms scary costume. He dressed up for our wards Halloween party. The young men do a haunted house every year and tom loves to dress up and be involved since hes in the scouts with them.

This is a picture of Jacob and Max...his best friend. Max was a bloody doctor...haha.

This is max's cute little sister anna. She was a mermaid. Her and Tyler are the same age.

These are the pictures of Jacob's school party.

This is his whole class.

This is his classroom before they all came in to see the party. We surprised them with everything. None of the kids knew what was going on.

Here is me and 2 of the other moms. We were trying to be scary...aren't you guys scared?? haha

This is Jacob with 2 of his therapists. Well the cat one is his occupational therapist Becky and the witch is not his therapist but she treats him like her own. She is an awesome person!! Her name is Erin. And I'm not to sure who the other boy is...it was one of Becky's clients.

2008-11-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

We had good luck going to the re eval appt and everything worked out great and we got another diagnosis. So thats all taken care of and we are so excited. Then we went to his orth appt and just what we figured, he has to get orthotics in his shoes. Thats not a big deal...its just going to be expensive so if anyone wants to donate money ill take it...haha. The nuro appt...its going to have to wait until we get some more news. We have to get Jacob some blood work done and an MRI. I am a little worried about the MRI because they will have to put him out for that. Here are a few pictures of the past few weeks. I just downloaded all the pictures off my camera.

Tyler and I had a fun playdate with Sharon and Rebecca a while ago at McD's. They were so cute and had a lot of fun together. I thought this picture was cute...and that other little boy was just someone there that wanted in the picture.

We went camping a few weeks ago and when we were driving back we got a flat tire!!! Thats what we get for parking our car in the dark...in a bunch of glass.

2008-10-23T07:22:00.001-07:00

We are in need of some prayers this week. Jacob has some pretty big doctor appts coming up this week and I am nervous about all of them. Today he goes in for his re diganosis appt for autism. The state requires you to get another dx when the child turns 6 and this is the soonest we could finally get in. I am really nervous because this basically holds the fate of my son. If we dont get another diagnosis then all of his therapies will have to stop and he cant get therapy again. And if that happends, I dont know what I would do.

Then tomorrow we have an appt with an orthotic specialist to look at his feet. Since he is a toe walker and always has been there are some concerns about his feet. They are starting to turn in when he walks and he has a hard time walking flat footed. So we will probably have to get orthotics on his feet to help him walk better.

Then next thursday we have an appt with a Nerologist. Jacob has had some issues come up that now we need to see a nerologist. Its probably nothing, but we want to make sure, just in case there is something that we juust cant see. All doctors recomend getting an MRI just because autism could be caused by something else in the body somewhere.

We also have to make an appt with a hearing doctor to get his hearing checked. His speech therapist is having some concerns that he is having a hard time hearing so its always good to get that checked as well. But all of these appts are pretty scary because you never know whats going to come from them.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!!

2008-09-14T20:44:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would put a little update on here about Jacobs school. He is doing AWESOME!! Since the scholarships came through, they are able to split the classes. So one class is for the advanced learners and one for the beginning learners. Which basically means they split the verbal and non verbal kids. Which is awesome for both groups!! That means that there is 10 kids in Jacobs class and 5 adults in the class. So the kids get a much better 1 on 1 ratio. Jacob is doing wonderful and his social skills are getting so much better. He has a little best friend named Max and him and Max are so good together. They talk to each other and engage in play with each other and its awesome to see them both act that way. We have been doing a huge assessment through his therapy and to see what he can and cant do. And so far everything on there has been that he can do it...and he does everything to where he should be at! That makes me so happy to know that in most places hes developing right where he should be. There are a few things where its very hard for him to do but that's nothing compared to what he CAN do! I have been very discouraged and stressed out this past week because everything seemed like it was coming crashing down on me. We had some good therapists quit, Jacob started to pick up some strange behaviors, his aggressiveness has been coming back, and Tom was going to be gone this weekend camping with the scouts and I didn't know how I was going to do it. So I went searching for some inspiration in the way of a poem or a story of something that would make me feel better. And this is the very first one I saw...and I knew it was put there just for me right at that time. This is Jacob almost 100% and so I wanted to post it so you all could read it.

I am Ethan:

You may not understand me, or the way I feel today.

You may not understand my reasoning for things I do or say.

The reasons why I’m so loud and say things over & over again,Why I run so differently or lose my homework every now & then.

I write my letters backwards and sometimes numbers too,and when in a conversation, I’ll say “Guess what” 100 times to you.

Too much noise, light, or excitement can set me in a spin.

I don’t like the way these pants feel rubbing against my skin.

I try to be good, but sometimes it’s hard to control,I have to do it, it’s an impulse, I don’t always do what I’m told.

Ketchup, Ranch and BBQ sauce on everything I eat,sometimes I have days that I just can’t sit still in my seat.

I like to talk a lot even when it’s out of turn,my mind plays tricks on me and interrupts what I’m trying to learn.

Sit up straight, wipe my face, and play ever so soft,some of these things

I have trouble with and I usually lose my train of thought.I didn’t mean to spill the milk mom, or slam the door so hard,everyone else is done with their homework, I don’t know where to start?

My heart’s as big as gold, my feelings get hurt too,I get sad, cry and have bad days just like you.

My brain works differently than other girls and boys,but one thing always holds true, I can give your life so much joy.

I get frustrated so easily and my hand won’t work that way,I don’t understand why those other kids won’t let me come over and play.

Please don’t think of me any differently or love of me any less,I’m just like other kids and trying to do my best.

I am very special in my own unique way,and every moment with me you’ll never have a dull day.

I am Mom:

I love you more than the sun moon and stars,my little miracle you’ve come oh so very far.

Each day that you grow and learn and love I thank god for everything in the heavens above.

You are sweet, smart, and funny, all rolled into one and you have so much love to give, you‘re my whole world my very special son.

2008-08-31T17:48:00.001-07:00

I just want to wish my very best friend Sharon a happy birthday!!! Thanks for spending the weekend with me =) I had so much fun!! I hope you have had a good day. Glad you are finally 26 with me! Feel any older?? haha

2008-08-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Jacob!!!!

Today is Jacob's 6th birthday!! I cant believe that I have a 6 yr old. So because hes 6, here are 6 things that I love about Jacob!!

1. He is so sweet!! He is full of hugs and kisses right now. He loves to give anyone a hug and a kiss. He tells me he loves me about 20 times a day...and I love it!!!

2. He works SO HARD!!! When it comes to therapy's he never gives up he is always working hard and accomplishing all of his goals.

3. He is the life of the party. He is always wanting to have fun. He loves to make people laugh and usually does it just acting like Jacob because hes such a fun kid.

4. His love for music is just awesome! He can pick up any song the first few time he hears it and sing it again. He loves to play the piano, guitar, and drums. If hes not talking, hes usually singing.

5. Hes one after my own heart...he LOVES to talk!! Yes anyone can tell he is MY son since we both talk so much. But I love it because it reminds me of me.

6. He loves his cousins more than anything. He makes a reference to at least 2 of his cousins a day. When we asked him who he wanted to come to his bday party all he named was his cousins. Too bad they all are not here =( But when his cousins come into town...that's all he can talk about to anyone. And he has the same love for the oldest cousin right down to the youngest.

Here is a picture of birthdays from the past.

This is a picture of his bday last year. I decided to make a cake last year. I was going to make a big one and frost it and make it cute. Well it didn't turn out good AT ALL!! I think it fell apart and I was so upset. So we bought a cake instead haha. This year im going to attempt to make another cake. Hopefully it goes better this time.

Here is a picture of his first birthday. We were living in Texas at the time but came back to Az to visit for his bday. He was not sure of the cake and we had to put his hands in the cake for him to see if he would do anything. And nope...he just cried.

Last night we went to Peter Piper Pizza with Grandma and Grandad. They are leaving today to go up to Lakeside so they wanted to have dinner with him before they left. So this is when we did presents and stuff since he was getting them from Grandma and Grandad we just did them all. He got another MP3 player and I think that is his fav gift by far! He had one before and it got stolen out of our car and hes been using our Ipods and now he has one of his own. He also got a gift card to target, a game boy, some Lego's, a movie, and a game.

Happy Birthday buddy, I hope you have a good day today!!!

2008-08-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

***Ok, I am so mad. I just had a big post all typed up, I hit the keyboard and it deleted!!! So hopefully I can remember what I posted***

We just got the best news! A few months ago they took away the scholarships for the kids with special needs to go to private schools. That was a BAD thing for a lot of parents...like us! A few days ago they found an account that had 5 million dollars in it. And so they said they could use that money to fund the scholarships. Well just tonight we got an email saying that it did indeed pass!! And that they will be having a press conference tomorrow to reinstate the scholarships. I am beyond excited and hope this is not false hope. We need this to happen...badly. We just got word that we are using all of our hab hours and respite hours and we dont even have enough to use for our date nights anymore. So we will finally get all our hours back!! Which means Jacob will finally be able to get ABA therapy again. For those not in the therapy lingo...ABA is the behavior therapy Jacob gets daily. He has not been able to get it for a month and a half and is suffering BADLY! All of his therapists are having behavior problems and we are experiencing A LOT at home. His aggression is coming back in full force and its not fun. Just tonight, he put a blanket over Tyler twice and sat on him with the blanket over him. I talked with his Occupational Therapist and we decided that we are going to put him back on the Gluten Free diet. We had him on it before and didnt see very many results. And we think its because he was on Meds as well. But since he is no longer on any meds we figured we are going to try again and see how that works. Grocery stores are carrying Gf things and so it seems a little easier to find things. So, those people who are GF...please email me some good recipes that my whole family would enjoy. I dont like cooking 2 meals but I will if I have to.

In other Jacob news...his birthday is next week. I cant believe that I will have a 6 yr old next week. He is getting SO BIG!! And really...he is so tall I am scared to see what he will be when he is done growing. He is learning so much every day and im so happy to be his mom!! I have been homeschooling him since the scholarships got taken away...and its so fun to see everything he learns. He is SO SMART and amazes me every day. Right now he is obsessed with street names. He can tell you exactly what street we are on and when we are at a light he can usually tell me the cross roads we are on.

2008-08-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

5th Disease has taken over our house!!! If you dont know what it is, here is a little rundown for ya.

Its a parvo disease. Its in the same family as chicken pox...so if you get it once, you wont ever get it again. Sometimes you have sick reactions sometimes you get nothing. And then you get a rash that is on your cheeks, arms, chest, and legs. It is contagous but only before you get the rash. And most times there are no symptoms so you dont know that you have it until you get the rash. The only way you can get it is if you share your germs. Because Jacob puts almost everything in his mouth, im sure he picked it up somewhere that another kid with it had put his mouth on. And then Tyler also has it. So im sure it was passed the same way. Tyler also puts everything in his mouth. So Jacob had something in his mouth and then I didnt clean it off...because I didnt know he had this. So tyler got it also. Its not a big deal, it doesnt bother them at all. The one big worry is that anyone who is pregnant to catch it because if you are 4 months and under in pregnancy you could lose the baby. But for someone older to get it...Jacob would have to of sneezed on the person and then that person put her hand or whatever in her mouth...yeah, doesnt sound good haha. Hopefully we will get rid of them soon. Doc said it should take 4-6 weeks!!!

2008-08-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ok I got tagged on Carlies blog so here I go!

1. What were your nicknames in high school? Didnt really have a nickname except Brit.

2. Did you do any extra curricular activities in high school? nope...nothing.

3.What did you do with your free time? Hung out with friends and worked.

4. Coolest /Funnest thing you did as a teenager? I think one of the funnest things I did when I was a teenager was either go to EFY or go to Snowflake with Sharon quite a few times to visit our friends there...haha.

5. Did you have a boyfriend in high school? Not until the end of my Senior year I started dating Tom

6. Songs that come to mind? haha this might be a little emberassing. Sublime songs...lots of dave matthews band...LL Cool J...haha

7. What did you think you would be when you grew up? something to do with sign language.

8. How did you picture yourself? I was a little shy...I only really talked to my friends although I talked a lot (and still do) I thought I was pretty fun to be around. Always trying to have fun

9. Fun/silly Memories? Going to Bahama Bucks every weekend just about because Sharon worked there and we thought it was so much fun to go and hang out there. We got to try all the flavers we wanted...and we thought her manager was cute...haha

10. Most embarrassing moment? Asking a guy I really liked to a dance and having his mom call and say he couldnt go.
I tag anyone who wants to do it. Its fun!!

2008-07-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend we went up north to Lakeside for my birthday. It was a lot of fun and we did a lot of fun stuff. The best part was...I got a camera for my birthday. YAY thanks so much mom and dad!!! So this post will finally have pictures!!!

For some reason the pictures did something funny. Just click on the pictures to see them.

So we got there Friday night and just relaxed, ate dinner, and then went to bed. We had to be up really early Saturday morning (my birthday) because we were going to the parade in Snowflake for Pioneer Day. So we are out of the house by 750 am and as we are driving to Snowflake for the parade. Here are a few pictures from that fun time!!

My nieces Taylor and Madyson are such big helpers. They helped so good with Tyler and making sure he didn't run to where the parade was. EVERYONE was throwing candy and so Tyler liked to run and get the candy even when the floats were coming.

So then we were leaving from the parade and we decided to stop at Trappers for some pie. If you have been to snowflake then im sure you have been to trappers. They have THE BEST PIE!!! And I was so excited to get some for my birthday. So when we were in Show Low we were stopped at a stop light looking at the helicopters that were just landing at the hospital. All of a sudden we get hit from the back by another car!!! I was so shocked and I wasnt really sure what just happened. I kept saying to myself...did we just get hit? But we pulled over and sure enough we got hit! Everyone was fine but most of us have stiff backs/necks and my arm and head hurt really bad. What a great birthday present eh? Here is some of the damage that happened.

So then we finally got home after waiting for the police for about an hour and getting out of there like 2 hours later. When we got home I had the kids helping me make some home made ice cream. When it was done in the machine I brought some up for the kids. They attacked it like crazy and thought it was so funny.

And then we had dinner and pie...and it was over all a pretty good birthday.

Thanks for the emails and everything from people wishing me a happy birthday =) I appreciate it!!

2008-07-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

So my birthday is coming up on Saturday. And Tom asked me a few weeks ago, what I wanted for my birthday. I thought about it and told him that I wanted roller blades again. I haven't had a pair since I was a kid and I haven't even gone roller blading since I was a kid but it sounded like fun and really good exercise. So on Sunday we were at my parents house and I was looking through the ads that come out on Sundays and I found some roller blades for really cheap. Tom also wanted some golf clubs at the same place so we decided to go yesterday. We got my roller blades...YAY!! I was so excited to try them out. So while it was 110 yesterday I just decided I would go around the block. I first put them on...and I fell!! I was so embarrassed. I couldn't believe that I forgot how to roller blade. Then I realized that they were on too loose and that's why I fell. So I tightened them up and off I went. My legs were hurting so bad just going down my street. I could tell I haven't used those muscles in a long time! So then right before bed we took the boys to the park that's across the street from our house and while Tom went with them, I went around the block. It was a whole lot better the 2nd time around and I wasnt as sore. I am excited to be able to roller blade every day now!! Now if the heat would just go away so I can roller blade and not feel like im going to die...haha.

2008-07-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

This has been on a few blogs so I thought I would do it as well.

Here are the directions:1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

2008-07-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

What a fun weekend we had!!! We decided to go up north to Lakeside for a few days this past weekend for the 4th. We went up Thursday and stayed till Sunday. The car ride there was ok. It started raining on us when we went through the canyon and that was really scary. Then a rock came and hit our windshield and put a crack in it. The weekend went pretty good. We just hung around the house and relaxed. For the 4th we had a BBQ at my aunt and uncles house with their 2 daughters and their family. So that was a lot of fun to get to talk to them and have our kids play. Fireworks were pretty late so we just stayed in and watched them on TV. Jacob was so excited to watch fireworks and he loved them on TV just as much as he would of liked them live. Maybe next year. Then it started raining on Saturday and pretty much rained the whole day, and even hailed on us. It got down into the 60's and it was so nice!!! Then we went to church on sunday and headed out.

Now here is where the "fun" came in...haha. Those of you who are familiar with Arizona and up north will know what im talking about. If you dont, im sorry...haha. So we started off at about 12:10. We decided to go through Payson instead of going through the canyon just because its fun to go that way sometimes. Right as we started out, it started to rain again. Before we got to Heber, we saw one accident and it was backed up a little bit. By the time we got past that it was raining pretty hard. So between Show Low and Payson, it took us 3 hours. It was raining so hard that we could not see the car in front of us. By the time we got to Payson, the rain storm was just about to hit so it was fine. We decided to stop and have a bathroom break since we were all dying and needed to get out and stretch. But there was a HUGE line for the bathroom and the mens restroom was flooded and there was nastyness all over the floor. Tyler wouldnt walk and Jacob of course was making all kinds of noises because it stunk so bad. There was only one stall in each bathroom and so it took forever to get to the bathroom. Finally we were on our way home and we didnt get home until 530!!! It was one of the longest trips...but the weekend we had it was well worth it.

2008-06-29T21:55:00.000-07:00

This past week Tom was away at scout camp. He had to take my car and so I was left carless. So the boys and I decided to go up to the mountains, to Lakeside, with my Mom for a few days. It was a lot of fun...and the weather was SO MUCH better!! I wish we could just move there. While we were there my mom had a birthday. We actually left on her birthday, but we went and had ice cream at Dairy Queen for her birthday...haha.

Not much has been going on with us. We are still struggling on what to do with Jacob and where he needs to go to school at. I just told them at his therapy center that we would not be able to go on with the school for this next year. Only because we dont have the 1ooo dollars a month it cost to keep him in there. Other than that, Jacob is doing a lot better now with his behaviors and such. He is talking a whole lot better and people can actually now understand most of what he says. He still stutters a lot and when he talks fast you cant tell what he says, but over all its coming a long good.

2008-06-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have a movie for everyone to see. Yes, its a movie about Autism, but I think this is a movie that everyone should see regardless. Its called Autism: The Musical. When I first heard about the movie I thought...wow that's horrible they made a musical about autism. I thought that people were making fun of the movie and I wanted no part in it. And then I heard more about the movie. And I was totally wrong!! Its about 5 kids who are the main part of the movie. They start out in this social acting group and they end up doing a musical in a span of about 6 months. And it goes through a lot of challenges...it shows a very good range of kids with autism and I think its a great movie. I was in tears almost the entire movie because I just fell in love with these kids. Especially this girl named Lexi. She is 13 and so fun!! She had me cracking up every time I saw her on the movie and boy can she sing! She sings a lot in the musical and she is a very good singer. And because I want everyone to watch this movie...I am going to let you into my "secret" website to watch it...haha. This website is awesome! Its where you can watch movies for free. And its not illegal because they go from different websites and you don't have to download anything. Most of the movies are on hosting websites like youtube. So here is the website to watch Autism: The musical and if you watch it, let me know how you liked it. Oh, and I have to warn you...because its like a public website there are some ads that are not very good to see. But you can just not scroll down to the end of the page and you wont have to look at them. I usually just make sure the bottom of the movie screen is on the bottom of my computer screen and I dont ever see them.

2008-06-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Today is my Dads birthday!! Happy Birthday Dad, we love you!! You are the best dad anyone can ask for. You are so loving and caring to my boys and they love you for that. You show genuine love to Jacob and he knows that and loves you right back. Thank you for being a great example to all of us. The first thing Jacob said when he woke up this morning was...its grandads birthday yay!

So being sick is no fun! Especially when you are sick over Fathers Day and do nothing for your husband because you are too sick!! Well that's what happened to me! Saturday was a big birthday party for my mom. And we were so busy all day and I just started feeling really sick through out the whole day. By the end of the night I was really sick and just wanted to lay down. Sunday (Fathers Day) came and I couldn't move I was so sick. And I stayed in bed and did not say one word to anyone. I did wish Tom a Happy Fathers Day right when he woke up and I did let him sleep for a hour or 2 longer. Then Monday we ended up going to Urgent Care where the doc really left me not knowing what to think. He took a look at my throat and said "Hmm something is definitely going on down there." So I asked him what he thought it could be. And he told me that strep is going around, and so is a virus, and an upper respiratory infection type thing. He didn't know what I had so he just gave me a strong med that will kill all of it but the virus. He told me that if I had the virus then I would start coughing soon...and what do you know, Ive been coughing. So I think that's all I had. But he did tell me that the sore throat will last for 2 weeks. I really hope not because I am tired of this sore throat already.

So Happy Late Fathers Day Tom and Dad!! Sorry I missed Fathers Day but I was still thinking of you guys!

2008-06-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Im sure I can think of something to put other than birthday greetings. Nothing has really be going on with us lately. We went up to Lakeside for a few days and that was a lot of fun. My neices and nephew have been here for the past week while my sister was at girls camp and we have had a lot of fun with them. Jacob and Joshua have really had fun playing together.

The only real news is that the state took away the scholarships for everyone...not just us. Its been really hard on a lot of people. I never posted, but we did end up getting accepted and so we were excited to be able to go to the school we want. But since they took it away we are now going to home school because that is our only choice. But if for whatever reason they bring the scholarships back we will put him back in the private school.

Also, Jacobs therapy center did a little commercial about their center and had it playing on cox tv and Jacob is in it twice!! Here is the link to it http://www.laurensinstitute.org/news/index.html its really cool to see him in it and I was so proud haha.

Ok, here is another birthday greeting...its LANIS BIRTHDAY!!! Happy birthday Lani! She is turning 7!! We are sad we cant celebrate with you hopefully we will see you guys soon.

2008-06-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Jonas!!!

Its my cute little nephew's birthday today! Jonas is 3!!! Happy Birthday little man we love you!

2008-06-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow and Wednesday (June 3rd and 4th) KTAR is doing a station wide Autism fundraiser for SARRC (Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center). I think its really awesome and I cant wait to hear what all they have to say and what they do. I really hope they focus on ALL parts of the Autism Spectrum so that more parents are aware of the other kids (like mine) that have autism but don't fit the autism stereo type. So if you want to know more about autism, have someone in your life that has autism, or you want to donate to help this great organization...please listen!! I know my radio will be on for the next 2 days!

Here is the link to it http://www.ktar.com/actionforautism.php

2008-05-28T15:19:00.000-07:00

Well here is another Birthday post. Most of my familys birthdays are in the summer so there is gonna be lots of these...haha.

Today is my oldest nephew Noah's Birthday!!! This is Shelly's oldest. He is turning 9!

Happy Birthday Noah! We wish we were there celebrating it with you guys. We sure miss you.

Love you!!

Britney, Tom, Jake, and Tyler

2008-05-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to write a quick post and say Happy Birthday to my brother MIKE!!!

Sorry mike, this is the only picture I have of you...haha.

Mike has been such a great big brother, and I really appriciate that. He has also been an even better unkie! My boys love him so much, expecially Tyler. Tyler has this special bond with Mike and its so sweet to see how much love he has for his unkie. And it is also great that we just live around the corner from them, so we can see them whenever we want. Every morning we would see unkie going to work when we would take Tom to work...and my boys would always yell "bye unkie have a good day" even when we wouldnt see him, they would still yell that. I know he could not hear them but it was still funny to hear them say that.

So Happy Birthday Mike! Hope you have a great day today.

2008-05-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun weekend!!! We got our tax check thing and so we decided to head up to Flagstaff for the weekend. We haven't been on a real family vacation in 2 years and so we figured this would be the perfect time. Ive been to Flagstaff a few times but ive never really been there. Just passing through type thing. So it was fun to actually go and be able to see the sites and explore. Friday night when we got there, we kinda got lost. We couldn't find our hotel and it seemed like the whole thing was getting off to a bad start. We finally found it and we were actually pretty surprised at how nice it was. So we decided to go to dinner since it was already around 6 and the kids were cranky and hungry....so were mommy and daddy..haha. We wanted to eat at different places every meal that they don't have here in the valley. And so we both wanted to eat at Sizzler. Since they used to have one here and they shut it down....I've been wanting to go back there and eat. BIG MISTAKE!!!! The food was HORRIBLE! We both got steaks and they were so dry and chewy...not worth the money at all. The best part of dinner was the baked potato and the strawberry lemonades...haha.

Then Saturday we woke up pretty early....hung around the hotel room a bit, and then went to breakfast. They had a really good cont breakfast at this hotel. That saved us some good money im sure haha. We went and ate breakfast and then off we went to go see some stuff. It was about 9am when we headed off and realized it was too early to do anything because things were closed. We went and drove around NAU and looked at the campus and then we found our way to the visitors center to see what was to do around there. We found a little brochure for this mansion thing and it seemed like fun. When we got there I remembered that at state parks you can do this Jr. Ranger thing and when you visit state parks you get a little button pin for the kids and its a fun thing to do. So I had Jacob do it and he was so excited to get his button. We went to take the tour and the mansion was amazing!! It was hard with the kids because you cant touch ANYTHING and of course tyler wanted to touch everything. Jacob was actually very good. He was very calm and stayed by our sides and did not touch a thing. The tour was an hour long so I was very proud of him. When we got done with that we went to best buy for a bit and around the little mall there. When we went to eat lunch there was another couple there from the valley. They told us that we should take the kids up to snowbowl because there are still patches of snow. We thought that was a good idea so we went up there. We had to do a little hiking to get there but once we did it was a lot of fun. Jacob loved the snow. He had so much fun throwing snow balls at us and at the trees. Tyler was not too sure about the snow but he had fun trying to throw snow balls as well. It was just too cold for him. That was about all we did...haha. I know not too exciting but it was a nice relaxing weekend. By Saturday night the kids were asking to go back to our old home. They were ready to come home. Tom and I wanted to live there forever. The weather was SO NICE!!! There was one thing that I could not take if we lived there. And if you have been to flagstaff you will know what im talking about....THE TRAINS!!!! There is a train going past about ever 5 min and no matter where you are, you can see the train and hear it. We went to where the train tracks are at the visitors center and I decided to take the kids to see the train as it passed through. When the train came, they both got freaked out. The looks on their faces were priceless. If you haven't been to flagstaff, I recommend it. It is a little college town but its a lot of fun because of it.

2008-05-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

Something happened yesterday morning that I knew was coming, I just prayed and hoped it would never happen. The boys and I went to walmart to get a few things for the week. Normally Jacob is always in the cart but because we had so many things he had to walk. So as we were walking out the door, Tyler stopped the door lady because he wanted a sticker we didn't get when we walked in. So as we are talking to her I look out the door and Jacob just darts across the street like he does every time but this time there was a car and Jacob got hit by a car. The lady that was driving was only going like 10 miles an hour so she was able to stop pretty fast and it only hit the side of him, but he fell to the ground and was crying and really upset, even tho he had no idea what just happened. He was so unaware that there was a car there and that it was going to hit him if he ran in front of it. I kept asking him where it hurt and he said nothing hurt but I took him to the ER anyways just to get checked over. The doc checked him over and did a scan of his head to look for a concussion or something and said that he had a small concussion. He started throwing up yesterday and threw up about 3 times but has been acting perfectly fine. I think it hurt ME more than it did him. To watch my son get hit by a car has to be one of the worst sights I could see. I cried and cried until we saw the doctor and he said he was fine. Then I felt better and I was fine after that. Until the boys were in bed...and it was quiet...and I could just think about what REALLY happened. And then this horrible depression came on and I kept thinking about how it could of been worse and that just tore me up. I am so grateful that it was something so minor. And the fact that bad things just keep happening to us and I don't know when its all going to stop.

I do want to thank everyone who called and came over yesterday. Its nice to know that there are people out there who care about us. Also, Sharon, thank you for coming with us to Chuck E Cheese. We had so much fun and it was so nice to get my mind off of things for a little bit.

2008-05-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

Happy May everyone =) haha

So yesterday was a pretty fun day. Jacob does not have therapy on Wednesdays so I usually dread the day because im usually stressed out. But it was actually a good day yesterday. We started off the day by going to a new therapy appointment. We got Jacob a new physical therapist. She was really nice and we really like her. When she came out she asked me if Jacob had ever had braces on his legs or orthopedics in his shoes. I told her no, no one has ever said he needed them. She told me that his feet are very flat and he walks on the side of his feet on his bones and if he keeps doing that then his feet are going to grow like that and when hes older hes going to have some major problems. So we have to take him to the doc and see what he wants to do. I just picture my son like forrest gump with the braces on his legs...haha.

Then we came home and did some school work and then Jacob's respite guy came and got him and they left for a few hours. When Jacob got home we all took a much needed nap. Although it made me miss something very important for church. We woke up and went and rented a movie from those movie machine things that are only 1.00. Then we had to go to the grocery store so we went to walmart, we came home, I put the movie on for the boys and made them dinner and then by 7pm they were out! Today is going to be a different day, im sure.

2008-04-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today has been a pretty hard day for me. First of all, this morning, I went to take tom to work. As I was walking out the door he said...did you mess up the car last night? I said no, why? He said...because our car got broken into. I didnt really think anything of it until we started finding things that they took. Thank goodness our car is still here...and everything they took can be replaced. We are blessed that neither of our wallets were in the car and everything was in the house with us. The one thing that hit me the hardest was they took Jacob's backpack. With all his therapy stuff in it including his "Ipod" he calls it...its just a little mp3 player but that was his one and only therapy tool that worked wonders for him!!! And he was very upset that he could not have it and told everyone at therapy today that the bad guys took his ipod. So I guess the next few days is going to be spent cleaning out the garage so that we can park our van in it. I dont want to take any more chances. When we first got married, our car got broken into and a week later, someone stole our car. I actually was 9 months pregnant and the stress made me go into labor with Jacob...haha. But now im very paranoid that someone is going to steal our car. We all thought the doors were locked because we lock the doors every night but we must of just slipped and not locked one door because you have to lock it by hand. I am just greatful that nothing was taken such as our ID's, credit cards, or bank cards!!

2008-04-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

So some of you know about the not so fun experience we had with Jacob in school this past year. We ended up taking him out after being in there a month and putting him in a therapy school. Well hes been going to their school and its been awesome!! Come August they are opening it up to a private school. The cost to keep him in is 27,000!!! Can you believe that? I don't see why its so expensive...like anyone is going to be able to pay that. But getting into this school is our only hope for him to have a good education. I tried to get him into the Autism classroom but they said no because they have too many kids but not enough room so hes either going to have to go to a normal class (and if you know Jacob that is so not happening) or the IK class again where he was before. the IK is Integrated Kindergarten. And that's where half the kids have IEP's and have are normal. IEP's are kind of like "rules" that the school has to follow for your child's needs. That's fine but Jacob needs more than just the IK class. He was very aggressive and the teachers couldn't handle him and so would just push him aside. He would come home saying that he was a bad kid and he was crazy...and its from those teachers telling him stuff. He still brings up that hes crazy all the time. We have now made it a joke thing to be crazy because I dont want him thinking that its bad. So, getting to the point...haha. So our only hope to get into this school was to get a scholarship from the state. And they pay some or all of the tuition to the school of choice. So I sent in all my papers...and got a call a few days ago. She told me that Jacob got denied =( I am so sad...I dont know what we are going to do now. I am going to other school districts to see what our options are there. I am visiting Mesa and seeing how their autism classes are and hopefully they wont push Jacob out like Gilbert has. If I have to drive him to school every day, I will for the right school!

With that being said...we are still having major behavior problems with Jacob. The people at his therapy center told me that his behaviors have gotten a whole lot worse in the past week. It seems like every week they are telling me that...haha. I met with them again trying to figure out a positive reinforcement program to come up with that will be used at therapy, at home, out in public, at grandmas house, at a babysitters house...everywhere. And let me tell you, its VERY hard trying to ignore the bad behavior but praise the good behavior. I didnt think it was going to be as hard as it is. Of course your initial reaction to a child doing something bad is to tell them no..but with Jacob we cant do that. Everything works on "5 stars" system. So like if we are at a restaurant or something we would say ok Jacob you need to get 5 stars and if you do you can pick out whatever you want for dessert. So every time he is good you tell him...good job you just got another star until he has his 5 stars. But when he does bad behavior you ignore it completely but the second hes doing good behavior that's when you praise him so he knows that its that kind of behavior that hes supposed to have. It has worked A LOT when ive enforced it...but its so hard to do it at all times. Especially when hes throwing toys or hitting Tyler or something destructive! His eye contact is getting worse also. It makes me wonder if there is something going on that is doing this to him. I wish I was rich I could take him to all these doctors that specialize in these kinds of things that don't take insurance.

Oh, this past weekend we went to a picnic put on by Jacobs therapy center. It was at the Power Ranch Club house thing and it was a lot of fun. But when Jacob would see his therapists he was hiding and did not want to look at any of them or talk to any of them. Then afterwards he told me he was scared. It was really weird. But we had a great time and the boys had a fun time also playing with their friends and playing on the playground.

GO suns!!! Its playoff time! Hopefully they can win it all!!!

And GO Dbacks!!! They are doing awesome this year so far!!!

2008-03-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I left out some very important info from that last post. First of all...I now have NO MORE KIDS IN DIAPERS!!! Thats right...Tyler is now finally potty trained!!! We have gone a whole week with no diapers and no accidents even nap time and bedtime!!! It is soo nice to not have to worry about changing diapers anymore.

Also, I have started to homeschool both kiddoes. Tyler gets it 3 days a week and Jacob gets it every day. I am really enjoying it and they are actually learning and having a lot of fun. It is so nice to see that they learned something that I taught them. I think its awesome and I love how I feel when im teaching them. Its great that we get to incorporate our LDS teachings into our school work.

Now...there has been this bill going around here called Stevens Law. And what it is, is it makes it so that behavior therapy (ABA) and Hab therapies would be covered by private insurances. Also stuff like Physical, Occupational, Speech, and Music therapys would all be covered. Well on Friday the Gov. passed it!! YAY we are all so excited! So what does this mean for us? Well come Jacob's 6th bday we may be losing all of our services through the state because he isnt as severe as most kids are in Autism that he may not meet the requirements they have for 6 year olds. But he is only this good because of the therapies he has been in. So if he doesnt get them he Will go back to his old self. I saw it this past week. He didnt have therapy almost all week and by Wednesday you could really tell he was gone without therapy. He had NO eye contact, he was just really out of it and not in tune with the world. And im scared that if he loses his services he will go back to what he was before therapy. Well because this law passed it means that we will still be able to get all therapy's even after hes 6 through our private insurance. I am so excited and I can not wait until I get that notice saying we will be able to get it on our insurance now!!

2008-03-24T05:57:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a good Easter. I know we definitely did! This week was my week to teach the lesson in our sunbeam class so it was really fun trying to figure out a good way to teach our little kids about why we celebrate Easter. It was a nice review on the life of Jesus and it was really good for me. I started out the lesson having the lady I teach with take the kids in the classroom for prayer and stuff and I went outside and hid some eggs out there. So when I got back in the room they all asked me where I went. I told them I had to go get something from my car. And when I was outside I saw the Easter Bunny and he had eggs for the kids and he wanted me to tell the kids to go out and find what he left for them. So they got all excited and wanted to go out and find the eggs. So we did that then came in and I explained that it was fun finding eggs and getting jelly beans and having the Easter bunny but that isn't the real meaning of Easter...then I went into the lesson. It actually went really well and it lasted until parents came! Its amazing...that never happens. Usually I have 20 min left haha.

Friday night Sharon and I got together and had so much fun...like always!! We played a few games...which I won all of...but one...hahaha. Sorry Sharon!! I'm just the game master...I cant control that =) and we made THE BEST cookie thing...EVER!! It was so good and we couldn't stop eating it! But it was sooo rich and made us sooo sick. But very yummy. It was a peanut butter cookie that we put in a cake pan and then covered it with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and marshmallows. Then put it in the oven for about 5 min and let it all melt and the marshmallows got a little brown...and it was perfect!!

2008-03-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted a blog in a while. Nothing real fun going on to blog about...haha. I hate always writing about negative things but that just seems to keep popping up in my life!

First I want to start off with a very positive thing. Today is my niece Madysons birthday!! Happy birthday Maddy we love you very much. You are such a great little girl and you are growing up to be such a great girl! My kids just adore you and love their cousin maddy. Jacob gets so excited every time he sees you and Tyler loves to hug you and talks about maddy all the time. We are so happy to have you here all the time with your mommy and daddy. But we sure do miss you at church and on the weekends!

Here is a picture I have of maddy. Not a very recent one, sorry maddy haha.

Ok with that being said now I can talk about the other stuff.

In Jacob's therapy they have been changing his schedule A LOT. And well, if you know or have a kid with autism, you know that schedule changes are not good. They don't adapt easy to a schedule change and its just not a good thing. So hes been having a lot of behavior problems, at therapy, and at home. So last Wednesday his teacher tells me that she wants me to meet with her and then one of the head guys at this therapy center. I am scared to death because I think hes gonna get kicked out of school or therapy or something. She told me that we have to discuss his behavior so I knew he was gone. The next day I go for our meeting and they started out by talking about positive things about him, which was GREAT. It made me feel like they weren't there just to tell me all the bad things about my son. So then we go to start talking about his behaviors. I guess at therapy (and at home) hes been running into walls, kids, adults, throwing toys, not having control of his body and hitting himself on things. So after hearing this I had mentioned to them that maybe it could be sensory problems? They totally agreed with me and said that it definitely could be that. Now I have written before about Jacob and his sensory issues that we were getting him diagnosed with a sensory disorder. It never got done so we never addressed that. But since all of these new behaviors are going on we definitely are going to address it. He just got a new occupational therapist and so when they get to know each other more we are going to have her make him up a sensory diet. Its not a diet that you eat but its activities that you do to give them more sensory since he is seeking it the most. Examples would be, deep pressure, playing wtih play doh, jumping, swinging, spinning around, playing with shaving cream or sand, brushing...and more. So we will see what they come up with for him. We are going to have to do it every 45 min so that's going to be a challenge but I am pretty sure its going to work. On Sunday, during Sac Meeting, Jacob was sitting on my lap and I started giving him pressure and next thing I know he was fast asleep...haha. It calmed him down so much that it put him right to sleep.

Oh, in other Jacob news...remember how I posted about him hurting his toe? Well a few days ago they called and told us that his toe was broken...haha. that's nice, a week and a half later they finally get around to calling us to tell us that its broken. He is walking fine on it and it doesn't hurt at all. A few days after he did it, he was walking on it with no problem. That's just how much he doesn't feel a lot of pain. isn't that crazy?

2008-02-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

I know I havent blogged in a while...so here is a big update of whats been going on in our lives!!

Valentines day was a good one. My husband is not much of a gift giver and never has been. But this year I got a pretty good gift and he suprised me big time!! He got me an attachment to my bosch mixer. Its the food processer. And its amazing!! It does so much and I dont even know what to do first. I tried making salsa and that really did not turn out very well. If anyone has any salsa recipes please share!!! We love salsa and I would love to have some that I made and not having to go buy it.

Then, Friday night, I heard Jacob screaming in pain. I run to the front room and his foot is all bloody and he has blood all over the floor and the couch and hes screaming in pain. Jacob does not feel a lot of pain so when he is screaming I know it hurts him. So we rush him to the bathtub to put him in and wash off his foot (Thanks to my mom, I know not to put a cut in warm water anymore...haha) and it would not stop bleeding and it actually started to bleed harder. I gave him his meds to calm him down because he was freaking out so bad he was shaking and we couldnt get him to calm down. And then finally we get him to calm down and put a bandaid on his toe and wrapped up and he goes to sleep. Around 11pm he started to wake up and started screaming in pain again. I took off his blanket and it was covered in blood. his toe was still bleeding and was bleeding everywhere! So we took off the bandaid and the wrap and it was really swollen and just looked bad. So we decided to take him to the ER and make sure it was not broken. Well Tom took him and nothing was wrong. Sunday morning he woke up and couldnt even walk on it because it hurt so bad. Then Monday it was perfectly fine...gotta love kids!!!

My cousin Katie had this on her blog so I decided to take this test. I love typing and I know im fast at it but didnt think I was this fast. Can anyone beat me?? I am sure there are lots of people who type faster than me so I want to see it!

84 words

Speed test

2008-01-27T20:21:00.000-08:00

I am sure everyone has heard by now, but if not, Pres. Hinckley died tonight at 7 pm. Here is an article from deseret news in Utah. Its so sad to know that he is gone but then again im so happy that hes going to be able to reunite with his wife!! What a great reunion that must of been for them. It tears me up knowing that he finally got to see his wife again, rather than him passing. He was a great prophet and will not be forgotten!! He has been the only prophet I really remember and there is a lot that I will remember of him. I was telling Tom...just when we finally get the little kids to know who the prophet is, we have to start telling them something different...haha. Poor kids!! I work with the sunbeams so its gonna be interesting trying to explain to them that the prophet had passed away.

RIP Pres. Hinckley!!! We love you

I just copied this picture off of an email that I got from LDSLiving and I just LOVE it. I put it at the bottom of my blog also.

2008-01-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

Ok so my cousin Katie tagged me on her blog. Sooo here I go!

Here are the rules:-Link to the person who tagged you.-Leave a comment on their blog so that their readers can visit yours.-Post the rules on your blog.-Share the seven (7) most famous or infamous people you have met. Or go with the original 7 weird things about yourself.-Tag 7 random people at the end of your post.-Include links to their blogs.-Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Well ive not met 7 famous people...so I guess im going to have to do the 7 things about myself.

1. Growing up I always knew I would have a special needs sort of child. In elementary I was always helping out with the special needs class, in Jr High I was in a class that helped out the special needs there and ive always just had a love for these kids. I am so glad that my child is not severe as those that I have seen in school and through out my life. Its hard enough dealing with him as he is!

2. Right at this moment, my eyes hurt so bad. I just want to go back to sleep...haha.

3. I am so fed up with Public schools here and them not wanting to listen to me and ask me my opinion on everything. They think they know what is the best for my child when they really dont.

4. Right now, Jacob is mopping the whole kitchen floor...without being asked. I love that he loves to clean! And he does a good job too. I think hes OCD about things being clean and im far from that.

5. Ok this one might be a little emberassing...haha but I still sleep with a blanket my grandma made me a LONG time ago. It was the last blanket she made before she died and its very special to me. So I still sleep with it and I cant go to sleep unless I have it.

6. My house needs to be decorated so bad but I have no sence of decoration that I have no idea what to do or where to start (anyone wanna help me??? )

7. I dislike doing laundry. I dont like folding it, hanging it up, putting it in the washer/dryer..nothing about it. Right now I have 2 hampers full of laundry just sitting there and I keep putting it off as long as I can.

When I tag, I like it to have a theme...hehe. So the people I tag are all people I went to school with.

Becky
Carlie
Katie P
Kyla
Megan
Sharon
Ranee (Ok, so I didnt go to school with you but thats ok hehe)

2008-01-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had one of the best nights in a long time. My aunt and uncle just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary!! And my cousins threw them a little party. Well Tom is gone tonight with the scouts camping so I was just gonna hang out with the boys since ive had a bad week I just wanted to stay at home. Well my mom called me and said...suprise Shelly and Avery are here! So im getting a babysitter for your boys and avery and you guys are gonna go to the party. So I went and im SO GLAD I did!! We had such a fun time and I got to hang out with my cousins that I never get to see. They had a dinner, a little talking about how WONDERFUL my aunt and uncle are, and then we played games. There were 5 tables and each table had different games. I played a game that i've never played before and it was so much fun! I cant remember the name now haha. Im going to go to the store and try to find it, and then ill post the name of it. It was a lot of fun to get out of the house without the boys and get some much needed time away.

2008-01-15T09:11:00.000-08:00

I am so excited. Tonight is....

AMERICAN IDOL!!!! I love AI and I have been waiting for it to come back on! I especially love watching these next few weeks when they do the auditions. I like to predict who will be in the top 12 and who will win it. Tom actually predicted that Jordyn would win and he stuck with it the entire year.

Sorry I haven't updated lately. I got really sick last week. I had strep throat and a sinus infection all at the same time. It was not fun one bit! But hopefully im all better now.

Nothing has really been going on here. I am not sure if I wrote about this or not, but we got Jacob on a new medicine. It was working SO GOOD!! Everyone that works with him always tells me how great hes doing. He always got good reports home and he was so calm and just good. Well we went last week to get it refilled and come to find out, no insurance companies cover this drug!! I am so mad and frustrated. We finally found one that works really well and of course, we cant get it anymore. So we are back to working with him on trying to control his hyperactivity and his focus. I guess they have been doing some sensory work with him at therapy and its working so we may go back to doing that again here.

Oh...I just remembered something I forgot to write about. A month or so ago, we took Jacob to a psych because of his aggression. His dev. ped wanted to put him in a mental institution because one day, when he got mad at me, he told me he wanted to kill me. I told that to his DP and she told me that saying it just once is reason enough to put him in there. I told her NO I was not going to let her do that. So we agreed to go see a psych and see if there is anything they suggest. So we go, and of course Jacob has to be the best hes ever been. He looks at her when he talks and he answers all of her questions and then goes and plays with a puzzle. She told me that she did not think he had autism because he looked at her when he was talking to her and that he never regressed on anything when he was younger. She told me that ALL autistic kids regress on speech or something. I laughed about that because no 2 autistic kids are the same. There is no defining factor on what makes a child have autism. So then we get to talking about the meds that hes on and I told her that hes really calm because of it. Well she tells me that the autistic traits he has are because of his ADHD...not the other way around. I started to think about it a little bit and figured she must be right. So then we talk about his aggression. She thinks he might have anxiety. Which is what his DP thought too...so we may go on with that but im not pressing anything. So she prescribes him a drug called Rispidal. Its to help calm and not be so aggressive and anxious. When he was on it...things were great. He was not aggressive...did not hurt tyler, I didn't hear any tantrums, no pounding on walls and throwing things when he was mad. But if I missed a dose it would get really bad. I was giving him .25 mg 3 times a day. And on top of that his vyvanse for his ADHD. So last week, we went to his DP appt again and I told her everything that we talked about at this other appt. And she was beyond upset at this doctor. For one..we were giving Jacob basically 2 of the same meds and we never knew it. So he was getting the same med twice basically. and the dosage that the psych prescribed is VERY strong for a little 5 yr old boy with no meat on his bones. So now we have to go get his blood tested to make sure everything in his body is running fine. I guess the reason why he would get so violent and angry when he didn't have it was because of the withdrawal. He was already addicted to it just being on it that short of time. I haven't given it to him since and I don't think I will anymore. He is back to being on no meds right now so we have to figure out another plan to get him calm and back to focusing so that we can get him ready to go back to school next year.

2007-12-28T05:18:00.000-08:00

3 years ago today I had a little baby. Its 6:23 am right now and im reflecting over what took place at this time in the morning. 3 am on the 28th I woke up and I was all wet. I had no idea what was going on and thought that I must of just peed (yep gross...but if your a mom you understand haha) so I went to the bathroom and nope it wasn't pee. So I went back to bed. 20 min later I woke up again all wet. So I got up and walked around to see if it would stop...it never did. This was a month before I was supposed to have him. 3 weeks earlier I was in the hospital for pre term labor. About 6 am I wake up Tom and tell him whats going on. He says lets go to the hospital and I say no...its ok its nothing. Well we end up calling my mom and she tells me to hurry to the hospital. I still didn't want to go but my mom made me go...haha. So we did at 10 am. When we got there they did a test to see if my water had broke or not. One test came back positive one came back negative. So they just treated me like my water broke. I was scheduled to have a c section exactly a month before on Jan. 28th. So they just went ahead and was going to give me a c section. My sister had her baby on the 23rd and we share the same doctor. He said that he was about to leave on vacation and so I knew he wasn't there. As soon as we got to the hospital my contractions were getting bad. They had me in triage until an OR room would open up. They wouldn't even give me an epidural because they didn't want it waring off before they did the surgery. about 1 pm they finally came in and said that there is a room open and we can go do it now. So we finally went and they tried to give me a spinal. But I couldn't move forward because my contractions were so strong. When he went to do the cuts he said...this baby's head is right here what do you want to do? I took a few seconds to decide if I wanted to just push him out or have the c section and as I was thinking the nurse said his heart rate is in the 40's someone call NICU. So at that time I said...I don't care just get him out. So they pushed his head back up and took him out by a c section. Because they did that, it cut my uterus in 4 different places and I had an additional 3 hour surgery to repair it.

When Tyler came out he was not breathing. They had to take him up to NICU and get air to him. He was only up there for 3 hours and was fine the rest of the time. When he was born he only weighed 6 lbs 2 oz. When we took him home he went down to 5 lbs 10 oz.

We have been through so much with him and his short 3 years. To genetic testing appts (go to the first posts ive done on here to read up on that) to him not walking till 18 months...to now, being a car loving kid.

Everyone who meets tyler is just falls right in love with him. He just has this sweet spirit and always has a smile

Even on his first bday when he was sick with RSV he was still happy

There is so much I could say about Tyler. He definitely is a blessing to have in our house and I'm glad hes my son. Happy 3rd birthday Tyler...we love you!

2007-12-26T08:13:00.001-08:00

Well I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I know that we sure did!! The kids had a great Christmas and they made out pretty well. My camera is out of commission right now so I'm going to try to get some pictures off of my video camera. We took a lot of video of Christmas so we wont ever forget it.

One great thing that happened this past week was that Jacob's therapy teacher said that she think he is FINALLY ready to go to school!! That has to be the best news Ive heard in a long time. So hopefully he will be good and ready to go in August when the new school year starts. He is going to a charter school that his therapy center is opening up starting next week so hopefully that will be the true test of how he will do. And I'm sure he will do great. He is so smart and is just soaking up all the info he can. He wants to learn all the time so I know this will be great for him.

Every Christmas Eve we have a little party with my dads side of the family. This year when we went, we were surprised to see my cousin Chelsea. She is in the Marines and stationed in Japan somewhere. Well she was there and it was so nice to see her. I think, from what they said, that she is going to be stationed in Yuma now so that's really nice. I am so proud of her and all that she is doing. She is not one that you would think would join the military but she did...and I think that's awesome!!

Friday is Tylers 3rd bday. We don't really have anything big planned for his special day. My sister Shelly will be here visiting and her little guy turned 3 on the 23rd so maybe we will celebrate both of their bdays together. We will probably just have cake and ice cream...nothing to big but im excited for him to be 3. And starting in the new year, he will be in my sunbeam class. I am not sure how I feel about that, but I guess time will tell. I think things will be fine and im excited to get a new class of kids. But I will sure miss my kids we have now. They are all 4 so they will be moving up.

Then on Saturday we are having a family reunion. Its my Grandma Johnson's 100th bday. She passed away 7 years ago (I think?) and I actually am kind of excited. I never really got to know a lot of my cousins on that side, so now that we are all grown up, it will be fun to see where everyone is. I know a lot of them are here in Arizona so I need to make a better effort to get to know them since there are a lot of them.

Well I guess that's it for us, for now. I will post again with some pictures of Christmas if I can get them up soon.

2007-12-10T18:17:00.001-08:00

So im a slacker on updating...I know! But really there is not much to blog about.

We just got done with our FHE. Tonight we made sugar cookies and then decorated them. Tyler wanted nothing to do with it. For some reason he would gag every time I had him take a bite. But he loved the frosting and kept licking it off of his fingers. Definintly a fun thing to do with kids. Next we are going to attempt making a gingerbread house. We had planned on going to look at Christmas lights but its raining so we decided not to.

The 8th was our 6th wedding anniversary. I cant believe we have been married that long. For our anniversary we went to our ward Christmas party...haha. We are going out on Wednesday for dinner. It seems like every year we have something on our anniversary so that we cant ever go the night of. But thats alright because we had a great time at the Christmas Party.

Here are a few pictures ive taken over the past little bit that I havent posted about yet.

A few days ago Tyler and I were eating Oreo's. We have had a lot of flies in our house because ive just been keeping our back door open because Tyler is in and out all day so its just easier to keep it open. Plus it feels so good outside. I got up for about 10 min and came back to find this in my milk...it was so gross!!!

It was bedtime and I was making my rounds to rooms to make sure the boys were asleep. Tyler shares a room with the playroom and I went into his room and found this...I guess he was just wanted to play a little bit longer and was way to tired.

A few of you might be in these pictures...I tried scanning them to put them on my computer but for some reason they were not scanning so I decided to take pictures of them. It was way to dark if I turned off the flash but then the flash light showed if I didnt...so deal with the flash light...haha. This is my first grade class picture. Mrs White was the best teacher ever!! And im sure everyone who had her thought the same thing.

This next one is one of our softball teams. Not my fav team but it was a lot of fun. I sucked so bad at softball but I had a lot of fun and I guess thats what counts

When I was like 5 I was riding my bike and I was talking to someone (I really cant remember who it was I think it was one of the Worthen Girls) Anyways and I crashed into a parked car...haha oops. And this was the end result of that. Sooo sad =( Ok, so you cant really tell whats wrong but I had to get stitches in my head and my lip was all ripped up.

2007-11-29T05:26:00.000-08:00

This is a kinda long post. I had lots of pictures on my camera and I just put them on the computer so I thought I would share a few pictures.

Thanks to Aunt Shelly, the boys got a much needed hair cut!! Aren't they so cute???

When Shelly came to visit for Thanksgiving we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese with all the kids. We had SO much fun. Even the adults got into playing games. Here is my mom and dad in a heated Air Hockey match...

Even Tom and I got in some air hockey that night

Caleb was so tired that he just passed out under one of the tables. I just happened to look down there and see him. It was so funny and we all couldn't stop taking pictures of it.

My dad and Tom got into a basketball match.

Then my mom and Shelly wanted to do it also.

Tyler loved this ride. They take pictures of you while your sitting with Chuck. And he kept playing it. It was so cute.

About a month ago Tyler was in my bedroom. All of a sudden I hear him screaming. He cries all day so I really didn't think much of it. And he wasn't coming out of the room so I thought he was fine because he was laying down on my bed and I just thought he was going to take a nap. So finally when the crying didn't stop I walked in there to find him covered in blood. My sheets and pillows were also covered in blood. So I put him on the counter to wash off the blood. It was a tiny little cut on his lip that did all of this. I couldn't resist taking a picture it was really funny.

2007-11-27T06:49:00.000-08:00

Wow I got tagged by Kristen so here I go...

4 Places I've Worked:
1.Childtime (many times at different locations)

2. vericore

3. I was a nanny to 3 different families
4. Mill Ave Preschool

4 Places I've Lived:
1. Mesa
2. Tempe
3. Gilbert
4. Greenville, Tx

Favorite TV Shows:
1. ER
2. Friends
3. The office
4. Anything on food network

4 Movies I Want to See:
I dont even know whats out so I have no idea

4 Favorite Foods:
1. Roast and Potatoes
2. Cheeseburger from Whataburger
3. Chicken Chimi from Mattas

4. Baked ziti that I make

4 Weird Things About Me:
1. I like to play video games
2. I hate my hair and want it short but im scared to cut it
3. im gonna copy Kristen on this one...ive lived in Az almost my whole life and ive never been to the Grand Canyon

4. I dont ever watch TV or movies

4 Places I'd Rather Be:
1. Somewhere cold...but other than that I like where im at

Who I'm Tagging:
1. Shelly
2. Stacy
3. Mike (Or Debbie haha)

4. Mom

5. Im adding one in...TOM

Yep...all family

2007-11-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a short post but I just have some good news! Jacob FINALLY got into speech therapy at the LIFE center where he goes. They hired on another ST but the catch is she doesn't have the c's at the end of her title yet until May. So they hired her on as a hab worker with emphasis on speech and language but she will be doing speech therapy. Then in may when she gets her c's we can count it as real speech therapy. The state wont cover it as speech therapy until she gets her c's. We have been trying for quite a while to get speech so we are very excited. He will be going on Thursdays now so he now is at therapy most of the day on Thursdays instead of coming home at 11.

I hope everyone has a great thanksgiving. Cant wait to see pictures and hear stories of them all.

2007-11-15T05:31:00.000-08:00

Today is Tom's 27th birthday!! And in my mind it kind of starts the holiday/birthday season for us. Not only is Thanksgiving next week, but in december, we have 5 birthdays and Christmas. My sisters bday starts it all off in december. Then its my sister in law, and brother in law's bdays, and then the 23rd is my nephew's bday and the 28th is Tylers bday. So that month is crazy for us!! But it sure is fun.

Speaking of birthdays...I cant believe in almost a month my baby is going to be 3!!!! I dont even look at Tyler as being that old. To me, hes still my baby...and yes, I still baby him. I still cary him everywhere, like he cant walk or something haha. And hes not potty trained, or anywhere near it yet. I have tried and tried but he just wont do it. I am hoping that after he turns 3 it will be the magic time to potty train!

Happy Birthday Tom...we love ya!

2007-11-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

Do you like garage sales? If so, this weekend would be a perfect time for you to come to one!! My parents neighborhood is having their yearly garage sale. And let me tell ya, this is the neighborhood to come for garage sales!! They are all big houses so you know its nice things that will be sold. We always come away from these with TONS of stuff for my kids and ourselves from peoples sales. I will be set up with LOTS of boy clothes and baby toys for sale. There are a lot of people wtih kids in this neighborhood so I'm sure you can find anything you need. The crossroads are Recker and Baseline area. Email me and ill tell you exactly where if you are interested jakentysmom@cox.net Its tomorrow morning starting at 7 am!

2007-11-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

UPDATE!!!!!!

Tom took Tyler to Urgent care last night and come to find out hes got strep throat. So we will be avoiding everyone for at least the rest of the week. We dont want him to get sick again and we will try to get him over what he has. He is very prone to getting sick when hes already sick and we dont want him to be sick all winter like he was 2 winters ago.

OK so Tom updated his blog...here is the link to it http://tompriestley.blogspot.com/

I love Sundays. Mostly because its my day to sleep and rest from the week. Today we all took naps, like always, and when Jacob and I woke up tyler was still asleep. Tom took him and was holding him, trying to wake him up, and noticed he was burning up. I took his temp and it was 104.2 I started freaking out because, well, that's a high temp. He was so weak that he couldn't lift up his sippy cup to drink out of. So I gave him some Tylenol and finally his temp went down to normal. The last time I checked it was 98.9 so hopefully his temp wont spike up again. He has a really bad cough so I think hes just got a cold...well I hope so anyways. He seems to ALWAYS get sick during winter months. His first winter he was sick for 4 months straight. So I hope this is not another one of those winters. Pray for us that he gets better...and check out my hubby's blog. He doesn't post much but he always has some good posts =)

2007-11-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this post is going to be a major vent!! It probably wont make sence to most of you and im too mad to explain it all...but if you go back in posts you can find what everything means...haha.

Ok, so I just got an email from Jacobs behavior therapist. She said that he doesnt have enough hab hours and so they are taking him off her schedule one day. He only has her 3 days a week and even then she told me this is not enough!! We went through everything and made sure that he had enough hab hours for everything when we put him in struct. hab. And everything was fine, I dont see how he can have not enough hours now. I have him do respite for 1 1/2 hours a day and they are prob putting that as hab so thats using up my hours. And ALTCs is doing something dumb where they are not letting you get more hours and stuff so when I talked to our SC about getting him more hours she told me that I could only have the ammt i have or else it will be really hard for me to get more. Jacobs BT told me that he needs MORE ABA because his behaviors are just not good and she wants to work with him more. So how can they do this to us? I would rather them take off a day of his struc. hab and just leave his BT where its at. Ugh now im gonna have to go talk to them today and try to figure it all out...this is not going to be fun.

2007-11-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a good and safe Halloween. We sure did!! Our day started off, like it always does, at Therapy. Jacob and Tyler both had their therapy school thing and they had a harvest party. That was pretty fun. They had a bunch of little booths and they even had a real goat for the kids to go out and pet. It was really hard for Jacob to be there because there was so many people in this little room. He kept going outside where the goat was because there wasn't very many people out there. But both boys had a good time. And then Jacob stayed for therapy and Tyler and I had a few things to do before tonight. He was going to be spider man but for whatever reason he would not wear his costume. He would scream until I took it off of him. He even tried to rip it off and so I decided he was not going to wear it. So we went on a hunt to find a good costume for him but had no luck. We came home and I put on his costume from last year...and he wore it!! He wouldn't take it off. After we got Jacob from therapy we came home and made dinner and got ready to go for the night. We went to my parents house since that's where its the best trick or treating in my neighborhood. I got to talking to my moms neighbor who just happens to be Jacob's old preschool aid. And I was updating her on all of Jacobs things that are going on right now. And I look over and Tom and Jacob had gone and I couldn't find them. So Tyler and I went to the end of the street and then just went back to my parents house. About an hour later Tom and Jacob came back! And Jacob had his whole bag full of candy! There was so much that the handles broke and it was to heavy for him to carry. I told tom that i just wanted the boys to go to a few houses...haha. Oh well looks like Toms work is going to get a lot of candy this year haha. Then we came home and the boys passed out within 5 min of being home. They were both worn out and ready to go to bed!! I am a lame mom and I forgot to take pictures haha. Oh well I know my mom took some this past weekend when we had our ward party so ill just post the ones she took when I get them.

2007-10-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

So A LOT has changed in the past 7 days. First lets start with the good news. We have been on the Gluten free/ Casein Free diet for almost a week and I am amazed at the progress we are seeing with Jacob. Today I experienced him SITTING DOWN for 10 min...all by himself and listened to story time. that has never happened before! He is starting to have more eye contact and his speech is getting better. I wanted to stop this diet but the rewards are far to great to stop now. Sure, its a lot of work, but its definitely worth it. I cant wait for everyone to see the new Jacob once he really starts to get better. Yesterday morning before he went to school he was very lethargic and calm. I thought he was probably sick because, well, if hes calm...something is wrong. So I took him anyways and I stayed in the front waiting room. 5 min later they brought him back and said that he was just standing there and didn't want to do much. So we went out to breakfast because he didn't eat breakfast. Of course, he had gluten in his pancakes and almost immediately after he finished eating...he went WILD. It was like he was possessed. It was pretty scary but I found out that's from the gluten. So back on the diet we went and I wont ever go back off. We figured out he was just calm because he was CALM for once! So today, they were all so happy to see how good he was. Even the OT told me that he focused in every activity they did and he was such a good boy.

Another thing is we changed the schedule around. The sensory stuff is good...and we still do it, but we now have a picture schedule like he has at school. He is attached to this thing when he is home and we cant do anything that's not on the schedule. Kids with Autism really have to have a schedule and one that they can see...and its eliminated ALL of the frustration he had at home about what we were doing next...where we are going...and so forth. Here is a picture of the schedule. Don't mind the dirt prints on it...you can tell it gets used a lot ha ha.

OK now a little note on Tyler. Since he was 15 months old we have been trying to figure out what is "wrong" with him. All of the genetic testing we got done all came back fine...and no doc can really figure it out. One day I was going to pick up Jake from therapy and I looked at Tyler in the mirror. And all of a sudden I just got this horrible feeling. And I kept getting thoughts back to when we were going through the genetic testing. So I thought...this has to be a sign that I need to get him into the doc. So I called the doc who isn't his real doctor but she is the one who saw the genetic stuff in him in the first place. And we got in the next day. When we got there, I had told her about everything we have seen with him and she told me that she thinks he also has Autism. So we are going next month to see if he does or not. We put him in the same school/therapy thing that Jacob goes to. We have to pay out of pocket for it, but its worth it. It gets him to interact with other kids and they help with potty training and they will see if they think he has autism or not. Today was his first day and so far he did pretty good. We were pretty surprised and happy that he did so well. Here are a few funny pictures of my boys being goofy like always.

2007-10-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

I had a little meeting with some of Jakes therapists. And we decided that it would be the best to try him on a little sensory "diet" We are just going to try it out for a few weeks and see what happends. For those of you who are not familiar with what sensory issues are...here is a little bit about it. This is taken from a website I go to quite a bit. http://www.kid-power.org/sid.html

Sensory Integration Dysfunction is the inability of the brain to correctly process information brought in by the senses. Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID/DSI) or sensory processing deficits can come in many different forms. No two children will be affected in the same ways. SID/DSI was first noticed in children with autism or who had autistic traits but is also seen in children with other disabilities such as cerebral palsy or ADD/ADHD

Here are also a few "signs" that told us that Jacob had this and it was something to look into.

-- Loves to spin, swing and jump--this will seem to calm them down after several minutes

-- Oversensitivity to sounds--will frequently cover ears. Or undersensivity.

-- May have an exceptionally high pain tolerance

-- Unusually high or low activity level

-- Resists new situations

-- Problems with muscle tone, coordination, motor planning

-- Can be very impulsive or distractible.

-- Persistently walks on toes to avoid sensory input from the bottom of the feet.

Now a lot of this stuff is similar to autism and ADHD. I found out that sometimes kids have sensory disorders and they get misdiagnosed as ADHD. So we are hoping that is Jacobs case. So in this diet you are supposed to do some sensory activity every half hour all day. So I figured I had to redo our schedule so that we could fit it in. Now they are going to work with him at therapy and thats where he is at the majority of the day. So when he is home, all we are goign to do is sensory activities. Here is our schedule

5:20am-8am

Wake up

Rub feet, hands, and back to wake up

Listen to calming CD in car when taking daddy to work

play on sit-n-spin

play with playdoh

eat crunchy breakfast with fruit

brush teeth with vibrating toothbrush

let him pick out what to wear for the day

8:30-3 Therapy

3-6pm

Playground for 30 min

Push Tyler in stroller for 30 min

mini tramp. excersizes

massage feet

wheelbarrow walk

oral work

6-8 pm

Help with cooking dinner

help set table

crunch/chewy food to snack on

family time-coloring or playdoh

Warm bath with bubbles and aroma therapy

massage for bedtime

Ok, so this is a lot I will post again tomorrow or in the near future why we have to do the things we are doing. A lot of this just looks like playing and having fun. But its basically therapy for him and I can not believe how much it helps. We started it tonight after he got home from respite and we did everything right on this schedule and he was out by 7. This NEVER happends. He had his bath and I was rubbing his back and he fell asleep while I was massaging him. I really hope this is going to be a start of something great!! Everyone pray for us and pray that this works for him. I have been so overwhelmed at all this info and what to do but I really feel like im doing something good for him.

2007-10-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

A few people had asked me to update them on how Jacobs school has been going so here is an update. It has been going GREAT!!! We have been so happy and so pleased at how things are. He is not being aggressive at all and has calmed down a whole lot being there. We also figured that Jacob has a sensory disorder and that may be why he is so hyper instead of him having ADHD so we are trying to work with our OT and get him into some sensory stuff and hopefully that will help. Jacob loves his new school and loves the kids that are there in with him. When he is being hyper they will do a brushing technique on him or put deep pressure on him and it usually calms him down. So ive started doing that at home too and it works wonders!! Another thing im going to start doing is the gluten free/casen free diet. I saw Jenny M. talking about it on all the shows she did and I really think I could try it. I mean the least it could do it not work...so starting on Monday we are going to start to take a little out of our diet at a time. I have pretty much a list of all the foods we can and cant eat so hopefully it should be pretty easy. We are still going to cut out all the artifitial coloring and sugars out of his diet because that does help his hyperness. So really, everything is going great and we couldnt ask for better. I am so glad we made the disison to take Jacob out of Kindergarden and put him in this hab class.

Speaking of which, here are the ladies that are THE BEST!!!! I am making a new schedule for Jacob with pictures of everything he has to do so I got pictures of his hab ladies....here are the 4 gals that make his schooling a whole lot easier.

2007-09-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, so a few people posted this on their blogs so I thought I would too!!

1. Where would you say your testimony is the strongest? I have a few. First of all is Tithing! Sometimes it sucks having to pay 10% of our paycheck every pay period but I can not express all of the blessings we have gotten from paying our tithing. Next would be prayer! I know that if I ever need anything I can pray. And last would be the relief society. The fellowship and love that our ward RS has is just great!!

2. What do you struggle with the most (church related)? hmm probably reading and understanding the scriptures. I love to read them but sometimes what I read just goes right through me...haha

3. Do you have your food storage? Yeah I am starting it. I try to buy a few cans a month of food.

4. Do you have a favorite scripture? ok so I had to get my scriptures out for this one. I heard it in RS a few months ago and for some reason I just have not been able to forget it.

Alma 26:22

Yea, he that repenteth and rexerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing--unto suck it is given to knwo the mysteries of god; Yea, unto such it shall be given unto such to bring thosands of souls to repentance, even as sands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our bretheren to repentance.

5. What is your favorite Church hymn? I am a child of God, plain and simple

6. Do you have Any Sunday Traditions? Just relaxing and spending time with the family.

7. Do you have a Patriarchal Blessing? Not yet but that reminds me, I have to get it done. We have our recomends for it but havent called about it yet. Tom and I are both getting ours together.

8. Do you believe in angels? YES I do!!

9. Do you like the ward you're in? Yep I love it. I have my parents AND my brother and sister in law in it so its great!!

10. What callings have you had? Visiting Teaching Supervisor and Primary teacher to the sunbeams which im now...but havent started it yet.

11. What calling do you want? I would like to be back in RS. im sad im going to have to leave.

12. What calling do you hold now? Sunbeams teacher

13. Who out of your friends do you get spiritually lifted from? I would have to say my husband Tom. He has come such a long way and he always knows what to say spiritually to me when I need it.

14. Personally what do you need to work on with the church? Service, definintly.

15. Were you married/sealed in a temple...Tom and I were married Dec 8th 2001 in our church building and then April 2006 we were sealed in the temple with our kids =) it was the BEST experience ever. To have your husband and boys being with you at the alter was such a great feeling You could definintly feel the spirit in the room. To see my son that has severe ADHD sit there still for the entire time was just amazing by itself! There was not an empty seat in the room, everyone came to support us and we love each and every person for being there.

16. Do you have a favorite temple? I have not been inside any other temple but the Mesa one, but I do love the SLC temple it is so beautiful.

Ok, now I challenge everyone to do this on their blogs! Even if you are not of our faith, change it to where you can fill it out.

2007-09-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

I first wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister Shelly!!! I wish we could be there to help you celebrate...hope you have a fun weekend and your kids are good for you today, haha.

I love ebay! I have found so many cool things on that website. I love bidding on things and getting good deals. I recently found this GREAT store someone has. Its a lady who has a child with Autism and she sells a lot of different autism things. Here are a few of my favs..

First is...This is one of the best things we have. Its a chewy tube. Ours is red and it is a lifesaver! Jacob loves to chew. He chews on everything he can. He started chewing on his fingers and toes and then they would get infected so we got him one of these. And now when he wants to chew, he goes for this.

This next toy we have a few of. Its called a fidget toy. Since Jacob also has ADHD he fidgets A LOT. Some of the time, he just needs something to play with to keep his hands busy. Expecially when we are at the grocery store or something. He is constantly touching things because his hands need to be touching things. So this comes in handy so he doesnt have to touch everything. And this also lights up, so it works as a sensory object as well, which Jacob loves.

Now this, is something I dont have, but I want really bad so I may be ordering one soon. Its a weighted neck pad that looks like a dog. Some kids with autsim/ADHD need to have pressure as part of sensory. When Jacob is really hyper we have to take him and start rubbing his arms and legs and it usually calms him down. So what this does is you put it on their necks and it puts pressure on them and will work the same way. Plus you can heat it up and so its a nice calming feel.

Now this is something else I dont have but I want. Its something you put on your window and it basically says that if there was an emergency there is a child with autism in the car and he may not respond to verbal comand. I think everyone that has a child with autism needs this. If something were to happen and we were in a car accident or something, there is no way Jacob could talk to someone and tell them what happend or if he was hurt or whatever. Im sure if something happend Jake would probably be freaking out.Well thats it for now. If you have a child with autism and you want to buy some of this stuff or if you just want to look at all she has, here is the link Autism Superstore

2007-09-16T00:17:00.000-07:00

I guess I have been slacking on my posting on here. So here is all what have been happening in the Priestley household.

As some of you know, we have been having major problems with Jacob and his school/teachers/being in school all together. We get many notes and phone calls about his behavior and how aggressive he is to other kids. I had been thinking about taking him out of Kindergarten for a while but I really couldn't find a place to put him instead of being in school. Then I was introduced to this thing called structured hab at his therapy place. What they do, is they teach kids with autism (or any other special needs) how to act in a classroom setting. They have the room set up like a class and they work on special goals that the kids need to work on when they are in school. So hopefully a year of this and by next year he will be ready to go back to kindergarten. We were going to hold him back anyways because hes very young. His bday was 3 days before the cut off to go to school so that's another reason it was a very easy decision. His last day was on Friday and I didn't find out until Friday morning that we were able to get in on Monday. So it was very sudden and exciting. So I got a phone call from his teacher asking if we could come in for a meeting on Tuesday with the school psych and him. They wanted to talk about "options" for Jacob. So I had the opportunity to tell him that they didn't need to worry about that, I would be taking him out and that it was his last day. His teacher seemed pretty upset that I was taking him out...but I bet he was probably happy he didn't have to deal with Jacob anymore. Its sad and I wished that all the special ed teachers had more training in special ed...not just being thrown in the class. He doesn't understand Autism and that's why it was so hard for him to have a good relationship with Jacob. And I think that a lot of the aggression on Jacobs part was because he was frustrated. He needed more help than what his teacher/aids could give him, so this therapy is just what he needs. Here are a few pictures from the past week! So I just realized all the pictures I have taken are all of tyler...haha I need to take some of Jacob.

This is when we went to Neilsons with Shelly and my mom.

Tom and I were going to go out with some friends last weekend. We were going to get all dressed up and go to a steakhouse. Well our babysitter fell through last min so I decided to stay home and Tom didn't want to cancel on our friends so he took tyler. They both got all dressed up and Tyler was his date for the night. They had a great time and Tyler was passed out even before they left the restaurant.

2007-09-05T07:30:00.002-07:00

My sister Shelly, and her baby Avery, decided to come visit for a few days. Jacob just loves his little cousin Avery! He loves to play with her and make her laugh. Here are some pictures of them together.

Then on Labor Day, we had a little bbq. So we took that time to have cake and ice cream for Jacobs bday that was on the 28th. I didnt get any good cake pictures of him on his actual bday so here is one from that day.

2007-08-30T10:19:00.001-07:00

Ok so this entery might be a little long, as I have a lot to talk about. First of all I want to talk about Jacobs bday! We had such a fun day. We didnt really do much because really, he doesnt care so why do a lot of stuff. We went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch. Tom was able to get a few hours off of work to come and my mom was also there. We did our presents and ate and let him and Tyler play. While we were there, there was a ton of target employees. And they were all playing games. A lot of them just gave Jacob their tickets and tokens. So we ended up with 460 tickets! Jacob was sooo excited to be able to get a big toy. Although, most of it was candy that he got. Then we went home and went to make a cake. I let Jacob help me with that because he loves to help cook. The cake didnt turn out at all!! Thats why I never bother to make birthday cake...just buy it. But it was still fun trying to make it, and we did eat the mess afterwards haha. He got lots of fun presents and was so excited to get them all. Here are a few pictures of the fun. My batteries died at PPP so I didnt get very many pictures. Dont mind my messy house in the back...haha. It was his bday I tried to spend as much time with him as I could and kind of neglected my house.

He is enjoying the cake batter

Tyler had to get in on the fun

Stiring it like a big guy

Tyler and daddy playing basketball

Jake kept playing this dancing game...he loved it
Ok, so then yesterday I went and took Jake into the doc to get his allergies tested. His psych said that sometimes kids with Autism/ADHD have allergies and thats what makes their behaviors bad. So I made an appt to get them tested to see if he was allergic to anything. Plus he is always having runny noses and sneezing so I figured he was allergic to something. They do the test and come back 20 min later and the nurse said...wow this is a good one. I looked and he was allergic to EVERYTHING they tested him for! It was only respitory allergies and not food ones. So he is allergic to...feathers, mold, trees, plants, weeds, grass, dust, cat hair, dog hair, and some others I cant remember. So now I have to give him this med that I squirt under his tounge. But the doc said I have to give it to him every other day for 2-3 years and hopefully they should be gone by then.

2007-08-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

So I got a new calling at church. I was called to teach the little sunbeams (the 4 yr olds) in primary! I am actually kinda excited. Next Sunday should be interesting being in there with them but I cant wait! Tyler will be in there in 2 years and now I get to be in singing time with Jacob and keep an eye on him.

Speaking of Jacob...we have been having the worst time at school. He has been hitting, and not paying attention, and just not being a very good kid =( I now have to sign a conduct chart and the teacher will put a red dot for having a bad day and a green dot for a good day. I am trying to not dwell on it, but its hard not to. I know when he is a good boy we have to do something extra good so that he knows that he was a good boy and that he understands that you always need to be good. He doesnt understand that hes being bad when he hits...and his teacher just needs to realize that.

Oh, and his bday is tomorrow! I cant believe im going to have a 5 yr old!!! I feel so old! We were going to do a big ol thing at peter piper pizza but we were all sick this past week and I didnt get anything ready...and he really doesnt care as long as he has presents and cake. So we will just have something with our little family here tomorrow and he will be just as happy.

Hope everyone is having a good monday!

2007-08-20T10:09:00.001-07:00

Jacob has been going to LIFE which is the therapy place he gets his ABA and therapys at. The past 3 weeks he has been getting evaluated with Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. The PT just called me that has been working with Jacob to tell me that he was not going to be having PT today because she has to type up the report and submit it to our Support Coordinator (SC) and then our SC has to see if we have enough hours and space for this therapy (which we do). So I asked her if that means Jacob was qualified for PT. She told me that she was pretty sure he was but she had to tally up the points and then she will know for sure. But she basically told me that he did. So its kinda sad but happy at the same time. I was sad because I didnt think that he was bad enough to need therapy but happy because he will finally get some muscle in his body! Just looking at him, you can see that he has no muscle tone at all. One of his MANY diagnoses include a diagnosis called Hypotonia which is low muscle tone. So wish us luck for Occupational Therapy which is next to find out if he has qualified or not for it. I really hope he does because that is the big one that I really want. I am kinda iffy about him qualifying for it because the school already did their own evaluation and he did not qualify for it. But they didnt go over sensory issues that he definintly has. I will find out about that one on Wednesday because that is our OT day.

I met a new couple in our ward who has a child with Autism. He is 3, I think is what they said. I am so excited to be able to get to know them and to share all the info that we both know. They have had the diagnosis a year more than we have so im sure she can help me so much!

2007-08-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

Oh what a fun weekend we had!!! Ok, so that was said really sarcastically, since you cant tell. It all started Thursday night when I started feeling SO SICK! I had my first bladder infection. Well lucky for me, I was going to the doc for something else the next day. So when I got there I told him I had a bladder infection, I thought, so come to find out I did. I got meds, and all is good...so I thought. I thought that taking meds the first day should take away the pain...HAHA I was so wrong! Friday night I was in so much pain! I couldn't stand it. And fun for me, my husband was gone on scout camp so I was alone with my kids. I did, go to my parents house to stay the night, even though they were gone. My kids entertain themselves so well there so I got to lay on the couch and try to feel better. Well it never happened and I didn't get any sleep because I was in so much pain. So Saturday morning comes and I start to feel a little better. I take my meds and for some reason it made things 20 times worse!! So I was back on the couch trying to feel better. I finally felt better later in the afternoon. I was excited because I had a fun girls night out with my friend Sharon. And I didn't really want to miss that because I really needed to get out. So the night comes and Sharon and I do our fun stuff. I didn't get home till 1am and then I was up at 5am with the kids. So im sitting at church and all of a sudden this pain comes back!! AHHH when will it end??? This sucks for my first bladder infection...I guess I should of gotten it checked out a month ago when it started...haha. I'm just thankful to Uristat...that's my best friend these past few days!! Not sure how bad the pain would be without it!!

2007-08-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Its amazing how much more time I have to do stuff for me, when Jacob is at school. Tyler is such a good kid, he just plays all by himself and never makes a sound. I just can hear the toys banging together in the playroom.

Jacob's bday is coming up in a few weeks YAY!! He is going to be 5! I cant believe im going to have a 5 yr old. I can remember being pregnant with him...and all the crap I went through with his delivery...haha. He hasnt had a birthday party yet. Partly because he really didnt know what a birthday was. But this year he is so into birthdays and loves them. So we want to give him a really good bday party this year!! We will probably do it at Peter Piper Pizza because thats his favorite place to be! We are going to have it on Sept. 1st probably at the PPP on Baseline and Elsworth. I know there are quite a few people with kids (boys or girls...it doesnt matter) who read my blog so I want to extend the invite out to everyone!! Just email me (jakentysmom@cox.net) and let me know if you want to come. Even if I have not seen you in a LONG time, I would love to have a lot of kids there for Jacob!!

So Jakes first few days of school went pretty good I guess. The teacher called me Friday after school just to tell me how must time Jacob takes up of his...haha oops. But then again, we tried telling him that he is like that but no one would listen to us. So they are getting an aid for Jacob so that he doesnt have to take the teachers time away. Then we decided just to keep him half day. I will take him out before or after lunch every day. All this week ill pick him up at 11:30 just because he has therapy at 12:30 in Queen Creek and it takes a while to get there. Oh, speaking of therapy...we went to this evaluation thing Friday night. Its for the habilitator that is going to be working with Jacob. We had to do a series of tests to see what kind of goals we will have for him. A lot of things he could do, but only with verbal ques or she had to do it forst and then he followed after her. They video tapped it and then said that I would get a call back soon after they watched the video and got the goals from that. I hope they call soon because I really want to get him into this therapy! A girl in our ward is going to be doing it so I am excited about the chance im going to get to get to know her better! She was placed in my life for a reason..Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he put us in this ward....and everything we have experienced has been great!!

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!!

2007-08-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

So the bus FINALLY came for Jacob yesterday! YAY! I guess when the bus dropped him off thursday afternoon, the bus driver said that he was just put on her bus. She didnt have him on her list or anything. So she said that she would just come take him to school and take him home every day. So yesterday morning she came and got him! I was so happy and excited, and so was he! He loves riding the bus so it was fun for him.

Thursday night, I was in my room, watching tv. I didnt even think that it was past the boys bedtime. So I went out in the front room because it was really quiet, to find this! I had to wake them up to put the jammies on and put them back in their bed, but this picture was too funny not to take.

Also, yesterday was haircut day! Tyler got a haircut FINALLY! We went to a place called Lolilocks or something like that and that place is awesome!! It is totally kid frendly and the lady who cut tylers hair was really good with him and cut his hair fast so that he wouldnt cry too much. Of course, he cried almost the whole time but I didnt care because thats what this place is used to since its all for kids. Here are some pictures of his cute new hair!

2007-08-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday was the first day of school for us..YAY Jacob was gonna be gone all day and I couldnt wait!! Like any other parent, I took some pictures of him before his bus came. Since hes "special needs" he gets to ride the short bus...hehe. And it comes to our house and picks him up...which I love.

So here he is about to go wait for his bus

Tyler had to get in on the picture action too

Here is Jacob waiting for the bus to come get him

Here he is...10 min later...STILL waiting for the bus to come get him

So yeah, the bus NEVER came and got him yesterday! I was furious! I have had issue after issue with this school...and this was not making it any better. I had Tom call the school because I was so upset and the school psych called and really didnt make me feel any better. He just said tomorrow will be a better day...lets just see how it goes tomorrow. Well fine...im sure it would be a better day. So today...I treat it as his first day again. The bus is gonna come get him...hes staying all day at school and its going to be a great day!! So here are the pictures from this morning

Ok here is Jake and Tyler again

Here is Jacob waiting for his bus...

and once again...STILL WAITING!!!!

Can you believe they forgot to pick him up...AGAIN?!?!?!?!?! I took him to school this time and I went in there and told them that the bus problems are not being taken care of obviously, and I want him switched out of this school. I dont care if I have to put him in the autism room...or in normal K with an aid...he will NOT go to this school!!! So the school psych said that he would talk to the principal and call me back! So I already called our home school and im going to talk to the principal there as soon as she calls me back to see what we can do for Jake in this other school where we had NO problems last year!!

2007-08-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have a few welcomes to post. The first one is of my new nephew Finnegan James Malone. My brother Trent and his wife, Jackie, had a baby boy Aug 4th. And from what I heard it was the best labor and delivery ever!! Jackie, you are so lucky!! Here is a little scrapbook page they made for him.

And then welcome to two new bloggers. My husband made a blog!! I am so excited and everyone should read it. Its really funny and im sure he will make you laugh. Thats one reason I love the guy!! He is always ready to make people laugh. His link is http://tompriestley.blogspot.com/

And then, my brother Mike and his wife Debbie. They made a blog!! So welcome into the very adicting blogging world. If you guys know Mike, and want to read their blog and see whats going on in their lives their blog is http://michaelanddebbiemalone.blogspot.com/

2007-08-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have been having a very hard time lately dealing with Jacob...and his autism and just knowing that its going to be here for a while. I was just looking through the internet kinda looking for answers....looking for something that would help me understand just what hes going through. I came to this guy's web page. His name is Jamie Manning and he has a son who has autism. He writes songs about autism and families dealing with autism in their family. I listened to this song and I just couldnt stop crying...I felt like this is what I needed to hear. Here are the lyrics to the song and here is the link to where you can hear a little bit of the song http://www.autismsongs.com/welcomehere.php

You are welcome here

Go ahead and take your time my boy, I can wait

There’s no need to run so fast, you’re not late

You walk on a different road, that’s alright

Do not fear the shadows, just keep looking for the light

And if that road should make you lonely

There’s no darkness you should fear

You will always find a light in my window at night

You are welcome here

You have such an open heart, free from all the stain

A smile that shines like sunlight through the thunder and the rain

The warmest hand, the truest eyes that I have ever known

And though you may walk slowly, you will never walk alone

And if you need some understanding

When the answers disappear

You will always have a place you can run to

You are welcome here
I can’t tell you that the world is kind

Nor can I tell you that it’s fair

But if you ever need a hand to hold

Mine will always be there

BREAK/SOLO

I can’t tell you that the world is kind

Nor can I tell you that it’s fair

But should you ever need a hand to hold

Mine will always be there
So when you walk down that long road

There’s no darkness you need to fear

You will always find a light in my window at night

You are welcome here

If that long road makes you lonely

And you need somebody near

You will always find me here where you left me

My child. You are welcome here

2007-08-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

(Edit)

I cant beleive I forgot this in the post...One of the BEST things happend yesterday!! A lot of people take hugs from their kids for granted...NOT ME, only because Jacob does not give hugs. For some reason autistic kids do not like to be touched, im not sure the reason, but he doesnt give hugs and if you try he will cry. But yesterday ALL DAY he gave me about 10 hugs!! I was SO HAPPY!! I cried almost every time I got a hug from him. Then we went to my parents house and he gave my dad 2 big hugs which is VERY unusual. My dad was very happy as well and kept telling Jake how proud he was of him =) We are so happy for Jake and hope that it doesnt stop. I love getting hugs from my little guy.

Yesterday Jacob started his first day of therapy! He had ABA which is a behavior therapy type thing. He goes Monday-Wednesday and has ABA for an hour and a half a day, and then has music therapy, occupational therapy, or physical therapy for an hour after each ABA session. Then yesterday, we also got hab and respite approved. I have a lady coming over from where we are doing Hab today so that we can fill out forms for the girl to start. She is going to be working wtih Jake 3 hours a day on the off days of ABA so thursday and friday and maybe some saturdays. She is actually in my ward and loves Jake. She has been coming over on her own time just to kinda work with him and observe him. So we are excited to get her to start with us and to get paid!! The place where I have Jake for therapy is called L.I.F.E. Center. They are brand new...just opened up yesterday actually. They have the best equiptment around and I am so excited for us to be going there. Everything is going so smooth there is no doubt in my mind this is where we are supposed to be...and this is what we are supposed to be doing for Jacob.

We are having such a hard time with his behaviors. I started writing down everything he does to Tyler or another child so that I can show the doc that he is really bad. Not very many people believe me on how aggressive he is because its mostly done at home. When we go out, he is very quiet and shy because he doesnt like meeting new people. But once he knows you are a good person, he will not be shy anymore, and show his real self...haha. Lately he has been obsessed with numbers. He is constantly asking me what time it is...or he will tell me what time it is. He knows almost every channel on the TV just if you tell him to turn it to a channel you dont even have to tell him what number it is, he already knows and will turn it there. Its not because we watch a lot of tv he will just flip through the channels for hours if I let him. Its a little anoying at times, but these are the things I just have to learn to deal with.

Well I better go get this house clean for the ladies who are coming over...I really dont want to get up and do that...haha. I just wish it would clean itself...that would be nice.

2007-07-31T11:15:00.000-07:00

So I sit down at my computer, and im about to blog about the wonderful monsoon season we are having. I go to turn on the TV and it is on channel 3 and of course they are showing the memorial for the guys who died in the plane crash. For those who havent heard...that dont live in AZ, on Friday there was a car chase in down town Phx. Channel 3 and Channel 15 helicopters collided and killed everyone in the copters. It was a camera guy, and the guy flying in both helicopters. SO sad! I love watching channel 3 news so it was really shocking to me to see these guys die. So I turn on the TV to see this memorial and I am just bawling....its so sad to see everyone crying...even the tough police officers that are there...there is not a dry eye, its a very touching memorial and even though you really don't know these people in person, you got to know them through the TV and its almost like losing a friend.

So anyways...why I came on here to begin with...ha ha. I love the monsoon season!! We have been having some good storms. They said on the news last night that here in Gilbert we got an inch and a half and in Mesa they got an 1.75 inches! Its been a long time since we have had rain like that. I even took pictures because its just so cool to get some good rain!! We always love it here and its always welcome. As long as im not driving in it. I get bad anxiety if I have to drive in the rain! Here are the pictures I took yesterday from my front door!!

2007-07-23T05:33:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 19th, was my birthday! It was a lot of fun this year. I have to say, this is probably my fav bday so far since I was a kid. My sister Stacy was in town from Texas, so she got to celebrate with us too. On wednesday, I was at my moms house, and she told us to come over for dinner since stacy was making something yummy to eat. So we show up at 630. Tom is freaking out because he had to go to scouts in a half hour and didnt think we would have enough time to eat and for him to get to scouts on time. So we are sitting there and the door bell rings. Its a lady from our ward. I didnt really think much of it since my mom is on the compassionate service commitee but then she started talking about babysitting kids. I was like ok, stacy must be going somewhere. Then my mom goes...suprise! We are going out to dinner!! I was very shocked and happy because dinner sounded so good. We went to Olive Garden which made it even better. Oh, and Tom was on the suprise the whole time! He was just making it look like nothing was going on so I didnt lead on to the suprise. And then we came back home and had cake and Ice cream.

When I walked into my moms house on Wednesday, I saw this...

She had gotten me roses...25 since I was turning 25. I also got a frying pan and a new dish set...oh and the best of all...a new mini van!! Well, its new to us anyways. Its my sister Shelly's old van. They have outgrown it and had to move to a suburban so we took over the payments on it and we love it!! We had a little Plymouth neon for 5 years so its nice to have space. Expecially for my husband who is 6'5. And the kids love it...although, Jake is having a hard time with it being OUR car now. He still thinks is his cousins car. Then on thursday, my actual bday, we we to peter piper pizza and let the kids play and then I Had a drs appt for Jacob (which ill blog about later) and then we came home and my mom watched both boys and Tom and I went out to dinner. Here is a random pic of stacy's kids, my brother mikes daughter, and Jacob

2007-07-15T18:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know this whole tagging thing is going around and I didn't think I would get tagged...but I guess I did, so here I go. My 7 random things about me...its gonna be hard because I have NO idea what to say...

#1 Sometimes I wonder why I was chosen to have the kids I do...there are times where I don't think I have the patience for them....but usually I get over it and realize that I have more than I think I do

#2 We lived in Texas for 2 years...it sucked and that's why we are back home. It was an interesting experience but we are glad to be back home in Az

#3 I have really bad insomnia. Sometimes I cant get to bed until 2 or 3 am and then I'm up at 5 with Tom to get his stuff ready for work

#4 Ok this goes onto #3, I do WAY to much for my husband that he could do for himself but I would rather do it myself so that it gets done.

#5 I love sign language!! Both of my kids know it and I love teaching it to them. Jacob is such a sponge when it comes to Sign Language and he wants to learn everything.

#6 I have no friends....ok that sounds sad, but when I moved to Texas none of them stayed in contact with me so when we came back...they just had other things to do, and a lot of people don't like my kids so its hard to be friends with people once they are around my kids. But I'm ok with that...I love my family and we have a great time together!

#7 I love the rain and I hope we have a really good monsoon season (or summer thunderstorm season...whatever they are calling it now)

Ok, there is a little peak into my boring life. Now I tag anyone who reads this that hasn't done it to their blog. And if you do, post a comment saying you are so I know who does it or not. But I know most of the people I blog stalk have done it already.

2007-07-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

We finally hit a good milestone in the autism stuff. We got qualified for ALTCS. Its what we have to go through in Arizona to get services for Jacob. I was really worried that we wouldn't qualify because Jacob isn't very severe but we did and I'm so happy!! Now we can get him all the therapy's that he needs, and get respite and hab and get him to learn to live with his autism and try to get him better. I started this process when Jacob was diagnosed on 2-2-07 and we finally were approved 7-10-07. The lady that came over said that someone should be contacting me on the services we get and then I can start with them. But Jacob will be in school in a month, and so we wont have a lot of time for them like we did during the summer. So our days are going to be full in the afternoon when he gets home from school. We will have hab, respite, Speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and music therapy. Here are some cute pictures that I have taken. Oh, and yes, I got a new camera...YAY so now every post will have a picture or 2 or 10...he he.

We are potty training Tyler right now...and he loves it! He likes to sit on the toilet but doesn't like to go in it...ha ha. He will go about 2-3 times a day but that's it. Hopefully soon he will be fully potty trained!!

No one ever believes me how mean Jacob is to Tyler. I got this picture right as he pushed Tyler off of the couch...now I have proof he he. Gotta love boys and being rough and mean. I don't think Jacob is doing it to be mean hes just trying to play with Tyler and Tyler doesn't like it.

2007-07-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

We are back from camping. We have actually been home for almost a week...haha. But I'm now just getting to posting about it. Well for one, we came home 2 days early. So you know it really didn't go as planned. It was really hot and everyone was cranky and my boys were wild, and those things just never go well together. So we just left. I was ready to come home the day we got there! So it was nice to be home when we got here. Here are some pictures of our few days up in the Mtns.

When I turned on my camera to get the pictures...this is what I saw. Obviously the boys thought it would be fun to take pictures of themselves.

The first night we were there, I went in to the tent after playing a few games and saw this. This shows my boys do not stay still when they sleep!!

Tyler was walking around the fire pit and decided to play in it. He was filthy. This picture does not do it justice.

It was so hot that one day we had to take the pants off of Tyler because he was sweating so bad. So we let him run around in his diaper. Pure white trash!!

This is the only picture I got of both boys. They were finishing up their breakfast

Here is Tyler just being cute!

Jacob LOVED the fire. We had to try so hard to keep him away from it. But every time it was lit he was right there by it.

Here is grandad relaxing in the hammock with the boys. They loved that thing and kept going in it.

So these are just about the only pictures I took of Jacob. I just realized most of them were of Tyler. Jacob wouldn't stand still enough for me to take any pictures of him, I guess.

2007-06-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well...tomorrow morning we are leaving for a week. I am going camping with my parents, my brother mike-his wife and daughter, my sister in law's sister, a girl from my ward (that the sister is friends with) and another family from our ward. This was supposed to be our big family trip this year but most everyone couldnt make it =( so we had to invite other people to come with us. Tom isnt going to be with us because he had scout camp this week and he comes home saturday and we are leaving friday. Plus he couldnt take another week off work to go. So im going to brave this with my boys alone!!! Pray for me that I will come back sane! I am already going crazy this week without tom being here. Its been a bad week for us...and I cant wait until tom is back here with us.

Autistic kids have a tendancy to wander. Jacob is huge in that. He will leave the house and I wont even know and he would be down the street, or at the park, and I would have no idea. If we go to the mall and hes not in the stroller he will just wander off. Well yesterday we went to walmart and usually Jake rides in the cart but he screamed and screamed until I took him out. I didnt want to make a scene so I just let him out of the cart. I turned to get something off a shelf and Jacob was gone!!! We spent 10 min looking for him and couldnt find him anywhere. We even had 2 employees looking for him. Finally one of the employees found him. And then we left right then and I went to put the groceries in the cart and I turn around and Jacob is gone again! I was so freaked out and frustrated at all of this. But today has been a better day and I have so much to do, but am I doing any of it? NOPE!! I am looking at blogs and *thinking* of the things I have to do tonight haha.

Hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July!!!

2007-06-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

My sister posted this on her blog and tagged everyone so im going to do the same.

1. When was the last time you ran? Just a few min ago I ran to get Jake from being outside

2. Do your jeans have rips, tears and holes in them? No, I cant stand holes in my jeans

3. Do you get the full 8 hours of sleep a night? No I have bad insomnia

4. If you had someone "stop by" without you knowing what would your house look like? is actually pretty clean right now but usually a mess

5. Do you eat raw cookie dough? yep!

6. Have you ever kicked a vending machine? YES!! I actually did it today when my water was stuck

7.How do you eat an Oreo? dipped in milk

8. Have you ever stayed online for a very long time waiting for someone? not that I can remember but im sure I have

9. Could you live without a computer? I could but I really dont want to. I love my computer

10. Do you wear shoes in the house? haha no, I never wear shoes period

11. At what age did you find out Santa wasn't real? Who knows

12. How many phones, house and cell phones are in your house? 2

13. Who would you call first if you won the lottery? im with Shelly on this answer...I dont think I would want to admit that I actually played the lottery

14. Last time you saw your best friend? lol well I guess Tom is my only best friend so that would have to be 2 days ago =( Hes on a scout campout for a week

15. What jewelry are you wearing right now? both of my wedding rings

16. What is the first thing you do when you get on-line? check my email and then check blogs

17. Do you watch 'Grey's Anatomy'? Nope

18. How do most people spell your name? Brittany

19. When was the last time you left your house? about 8 am this morning went to walmart

20. Do you return your shopping cart? neever...unless im right next to it.

21. What noise do you hear right now? Tyler crying because Jake is trying to play mommy and put him to bed...haha

22. Who is the youngest in your family? I am

23. Who does the dishes at your house? I do most of it and Jacob puts away the silverware

24. If all of your friends were going on a road trip, who would be most likely to over pack? And, who would most likely be driving? I would definintly overpack and Tom would do the driving...

25.Do your siblings ever pay for stuff for you? sometimes

26. Do you know anyone with the same name as you? sure, Britney Spears

7. When was the last time you cleaned your toilets? yesterday

28. Do you watch movies with your parents? I havent in a long time

29. Do you get your hair cut every month? hahaha im lucky if I get it cut once a year

30. What was the last thing you purchased? groceries

You know the drill, copy, paste, fill it out.

2007-06-19T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am at the end of my rope with Jacob I am not sure if this is an autism thing, ADHD thing, or just because hes a *bad* kid. But his behaviors have become VERY severe and VERY bad! I am no sure what to do with him and his behaviors anymore. We cant punish him because he just doesnt care. I try taking toys away and that doesnt bother him. He doesnt play with toys or anything else so taking something away doesnt work. When he is in time out he will come right back out...ive tried everything to make time out work and it doesnt work. Ive tried yelling and spaking and he just laughed at me. Ive tried the loving approach and that didnt work either, it just made him do more. We have him on meds for ADHD and ever since we put him on those its like these behaviors have become way worse.

Its 7 am and ill tell you what he has already done in the hour we have been awake. He took a blanket and tried to choke his brother, he was throwing a shoe at the wall and every time I told him to stop he would keep doing it, he turned on the water outside and threw his brother in it, he got markers and colored himself and his shirt. I am not sure what to do anymore and I hate feeling like he has defeted me. Like I am nothing to him because he just wont listen to me...or his dad.

2007-06-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

I know there are a few people who read this so I thought I would post on here. I am doing an online tupperware party through one of my friends. I know you guys are probably thinking, what is she doing?!??!?!?! But I really like doing these kinds of things. So if you have any interest in any tupperware stuff, check out the website and see if there is anything you would like to buy. I would appriciate anything that you can buy!! This is going for 14 days so there is still a little bit of time left. If you know someone who would be insteresting in buying just send me their email and ill send them a link to go shopping. This is all online so when you buy stuff it will go right to you. Thanks for your help everyone!!!

Here is the link http://order.tupperware.com/coe/app/home

2007-06-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

We are in my parents ward. I love being in this ward and being able to sit with my mom every week in church is a lot of fun. My brother Mike and his wife are also in our ward. My dad is 1st Councilor and so I kinda told him the callings I want and didn't want when we first moved in. He knows pretty much what I like and what I don't like. Well one of those callings I said I would never do, is be in the nursery. The 2 hours I get without kids on Sundays are great!! I love being able to have time without my own kids...or any other little kids. I really don't mind if I get called into the primary, but not the nursery. My dad is over the whole primary and so a few weeks ago I was at their house on a Saturday night. The primary Pres called and said they will be 2 teachers short tomorrow for church. SO he asked if I would help out because I was there and he knows I would say yes. So the next day, we all woke up SICK!!! So, I couldn't go in and help. Well the next Sunday they still needed help and so I went in since I told him I would go last week and didn't go to church. It was a mess!!! There were now 4 teachers gone! NO one knew where they were and why no one called. We have 3 nursery's and 2 teachers at each class plus one singing girl. We had 14 kids in our class and 2 teachers. It was nuts and I came home so stressed out because I was just going crazy the whole time. Then something very tragic happened earlier this week. The lady who is over the whole nursery gave birth to a still baby =( it is one of the saddest things and so of course now she will be gone for a while. They just had to release a couple who was working in the nursery because they moved suddenly. So once again, I am back to helping out. My dad asked me if I would help out for at least another month until they can get some more people in. Well I told him, I hope this isn't a perm thing because I really don't like being in there. He kinda looked at me like...oh no!! So, I was pretty sure they were going to call me in there. But I feel so bad that I really don't want to be in the nursery. I just don't have enough patience to deal with that AND my own kids!!!

Tomorrow morning we are having this lady come from the Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) to meet Jacob and I. She is our new support coordinator and so she just wants to come over and talk for a bit and get to know us and let us know what all we qualify for and stuff. I already know that we don't qualify for anything because DDD has little funding and its basically already being used up. So we have to go and aply for Arizona Long Term Care Services(ALTCS) and that has a lot more funding and thats how we can get our therapies and meds covered. We did apply for it once , and got denied. They didn't even come to our house and meet us and evaluate him. They just sent a letter saying that we did not qualify. Our new SC said that we need to appeal that and get another application in. So that's what we are doing now!! I hope that they approve us because Jacob really needs these therapies. Its 1041 and he just fell asleep about 10 min ago and had been screaming for the past 3 hours. Not sure why...but he does this at least 3 times a week. I don't know if its the meds that hes taking or what but he just is uncontrollable when he goes through these.

2007-05-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

So if there is one thing I cant stand its throw up!! I know, as a mom, I should be used to it, but my kids NEVER throw up. I think they have thrown up maybe 3 times...both of them combined. Usually every morning I take Tom to work so that we can have the car. And as I was driving home Jake threw up EVERYWHERE!!!! It was so gross. And then he just layed there and his eyes kinda rolled back in his head and he wouldnt talk to me. It was so scary. So (for those of you in Arizona) I was on the 60 at Mesa Dr when it happend and I was going almost 90 all the way to Higley where we get off because I just wanted to get him out of the car and in to bed. I had no idea what was going on with him. It was so scary because I thought he was gonna have a seizer or something. I am so paranoid that my kids are going to have seizers like I did when I was a little kid. But as soon as we got home I caried him inside and took off his clothes, stuck him in the bath tub, and now hes laying on the couch watching dora. Its really cute and funny because Tyler is laying down acting like hes sick now too...haha. Maybe I will get a good, laid back day! That would be nice! But sad that Jake is sick. He never gets sick so I always worry about him. His cousins are coming today too from Texas so I hope he isnt sick for too long. My sister stacy and her family are coming down for a week to visit.

2007-05-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend I had!!! It was fathers and sons this past weekend and my husband took BOTH boys with him! So I had the night to myself!! As soon as they left, my mom and I caught an early dinner since she was also alone since my dad was also at the camp. Then we went back to her house to watch the suns game. I left at half time because it didnt look good and I was tired. So I finished up the suns game and it was so depressing I just went to bed. And then I woke up saturday morning at 10AM!!!!! I dont remember the last time I woke up that late! A few min after I woke up, Tom called to say they were on their way home. So I didnt get to do the things I wanted to whle they were gone, but I got to sleep and have some quiet time and thats all that I needed. Here are some pictures of their fun time.

2007-05-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

So in Jacobs preschool class they made the moms a little gift. It was a little picture frame with a picture of them in it. They also filled out this little questioneer about their moms. I thought it was so funny so I wanted to blog it.

My mothers name is Britney

She is 44 years old

She weighs 5 lbs

Her shoe size is 12

She has purple eyes

She has brown hair (at least he got that one right)

Her favorite food is Macaroni and Cheese (I think we eat that too much!!!)

Her favorite color is Blue and Pink (He also got that one right)

Her favorite TV show is the movie cars (no, I think thats his)

Her favorite hobby is Making dinner (HA!! I wouldnt call it a hobby)

Her biggest wish is to eat ice cream (haha that one is funny because the night before I was trying to convince tom to take us out for ice cream)

Her best friend is Tom (aww now thats sweet)

2007-05-13T19:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Mothers Day to everyone reading this that is a mother!! I had a great day today. My husband really isnt the best gift giving guy, and ive learned to accept that. So instead of a gift I just wanted a day to do nothing. And he was so good with it. He took care of the kids, got them ready for church, got them breakfast and lunch, and even put them to bed!!! I hope you all had just as good as a mothers day as I did.

So im sure everyone has heard of the movie Cars. Since Jake has been taking his meds and he can concentrate more and sit still he has been watching movies and realizes that he loves them. So we watch cars at least 5 times a day! I am starting to get sick of this movie but if I turn it off we have another meltdown! So I just leave it on and he will fall asleep to watching it. We have to get a new movie that he wants instead of this one. I never bought kids movies because he couldnt watch them so I didnt want to spend my money on them. But I might go buy a few now.

2007-05-10T07:09:00.001-07:00

2007-05-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

We just had Jacobs drs appt at the Melmed Center a few days ago. The Melmed center is a place that has pych and developmental pediatritions there. Basically for kids who have brain issues...lol and develpmental problems. We go here once ever 3 months for Jakes "therapy" for his autism and ADHD. Well when we went we finally got the official diagnosis for severe ADHD. She told us that he is as bad as they get...he cant get any worse than what he is. It was pretty hard to hear because I really didnt think he was that bad. So we decided to put him on meds. Hes only 4 and we really didnt want to do it but she said that its the only thing thats going to help him. And if we dont put him on meds then he wont get any better and we will just hurt him more than putting him on meds. She told me of the side effects and I felt like that was a good decision. The first day that we had him on them, I have noticed a BIG difference. It is making him very sleepy. Which is fine by me, but I dont think he likes being on them. When he comes off of it he gets very cranky and will usually just cry for about 45 min while hes coming off of them. And then he will get REALLY hyper. I can usually tell when hes coming off of them. I think its too strong for him and so we are supposed to go back in 4 weeks for the follow up and I am going to see if she has anything different we can try him on.

When we had Jacobs K transition meeting, we decided to put him in the intergraded kindergarden. Its kinda like normal K but they dont sit at tables...they do centers and learn like that. I had requested to go in and observe the class that is going on now just to make sure that is the class I want him to be in. I know that he can not be in normal K even with his meds. He just cant sit and concentrate that much right now so we had to figure something else out. Plus he is going to have speech and OT during school time and its easier if he is in a class where everyone needs it as well. We had to choose between the Autism class or this IK class. We didnt go with the Autism one because most of the kids that are in that class are severe and we dont want him to start to model those behaviors that the more severe kids do. But with the IK class we can have what he needs to help his autism. Like he will have his own picture schedule for the whole day. We use that at home and he also uses that at school right now and that has helped so much! He has to be on a schedule and he does very well with pictures since he can see what it is instead of trying to read it. Also we will have his therapys. I am going to try to get Physical Therapy to start at school too that way we dont have to do any therapy at home and after school. Well I go and observe the class on Thursday! I am excited to go and see what he is going to be doing next year. i am getting kinda sad about him going to all day kindergarden. I am sure he will do fine but its going to be a big adjustment for him. Its probably going to be a rough few days as he adjusts to it but im sure in the long run it will be the best for us.

2007-05-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

I made a group for an LDS moms playgroup!! If you are interested just follow this link to it and join!

Click here to check out
The LDS Stay At Home Moms Meetup Group!

2007-05-01T07:18:00.000-07:00

Being sick sucks!!! I have been sick since Friday night and nothing I do makes me feel any better. So im just going to have to sit here and deal with it. Last night we went to my parents house to get something and my dad said he was sick. We both have the same thing and got sick at the same time. So someone in the family must of given it to us somehow. I dont remember anyone being sick.

So a few nights ago I took out my contacts and there was a big chunk missing. There was also a little tare. So yesterday morning I call the eye place to see if I can get some contacts ordered. The girl that I talked to was obviously new. She had to put me on hold every time I asked a question so that she could ask the question to the lady sitting next to her. Well she had to call me back 3 times because she kept forgetting to get info from me. Well 5 min had passed and the phone rang again from that place. I answer it and it was another lady and she was like you "just called here ordering contacts right? I said yes and she goes well you were in here in August getting new contacts and you were supposed to come back in sept for a follow up visit." Well no one told me that I had to go back...so I had no idea. And she goes " The contacts we gave you were a 30 day trial pair. What happend to them?" Well...ive been wearing them since August because again, no one told me they only last 30 days. I am not used to soft contacts because ive always had hard ones. And then she says " We have 2 boxes of paid contacts sitting here waiting for you to have your follow up appt...can you come in today for that?" Sooo thats where I went yesterday. And I had to take the boys with me because it was such short notice I didnt find anyone to watch them. So I packed up backpacks for them both of fun things to do so they wouldnt be running around everywhere. They still did that, but it made them a little bit easier to manage. Since we were going over there at lunch time I decided that we would go to peter piper pizza for lunch. We only had a half hour to eat and play before my appt started. I was just sitting there and though...I need to get Tyler to come eat, he hasnt had anything to eat yet. So I go and look for him and hes not in his usual spot. So I walk all over the store and I still cant find him anywhere. Its about 10 min passed and I am about to start freaking out until Jacob goes...mommy I go in bathroom. So I said, good idea lets go look in the bathroom. So I had him go in the boys to see if he was in there, and he wasnt. So I went into the womens bathroom and right when I was about to walk in there I hear him crying. I open the door to see him in there just sitting down. He had gotten in there somehow and didnt know how to get out. It was so sad and im glad that he was ok. I was so scared that something had happend to him!!!