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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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!

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 =)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.