Our new "normal"

I think we are finally getting into a new groove.  Instead of working 16 hour days we are getting used to working normal hours - like 10. Ha!  What is nice is that I usually leave early in the morning for school so that when the teacher bell goes off at 3:30 in the afternoon I can meet Ethan outside from getting off the bus and we can have our afternoon.  That doesn't always work because by 3:05 I have a desk of work that I haven't touched yet, but we try.

After all, we need time for play.  (This is a re-mix of Lord Farquad - thank goodness we are going to see Lion King in Memphis is two weeks - maybe we can shift our pretend play to something different).

I am tired of paying $6 for a small loaf of gluten free bread so I have begun experimenting.  You know the saying, if at first you don't succeed...........

Harding has a program run by the students who are majoring in Special Education.  Once a month this semester they have a "parent's night out" - they have games and activities for children with special needs - THREE WHOLE HOURS!!!!!  We decided we needed to take Ethan.  He was in heaven surrounded by twelve very pretty college girls.  He said "You can go now, mom."  Ha!

Phil and I felt like we had synchronized our watches with the girls and we had exactly three hours - what to do!  We didn't have time for a movie, and we didn't want to waste time waiting in line for a table at a restaurant.  Since we haven't been able to eat Mexican since Ethan's diagnosis we called in some take-out and headed to Redbox.

It was glorious!!!!  A flour tortilla has never tasted so good!  We enjoyed "real" food and watched "Maze Runner" and finished with just enough time to get Ethan.  Guess what?!?  They will do it again the end of February - we are already planning what we can accomplish!

Another new tradition on Sunday evenings, since I don't bake cookies for my two remaining boys  (they don't like them) - cheesey fries.  Because we are just health nuts that way.  Cheesey fries and Uno - a winning combination.

I am not sure what the odds are, but our extra day of vacation has coincided with an ice and snow storm.  Lucky us.  Ethan has decided to turn the living room into his own private play room.  I am unsure what everything represents, but I do know it makes sense to him, and a lot of it has come out of his bedroom.  What is a snow day without some mess?

I love having my evenings back - I have actually had time to READ A BOOK!  Phil has taken over the scouts again in addition to his other church work, and that is good because there are a couple of boys there with special needs and they need a good leader.

And.....Ethan has come up with another saying:  "I'm on it."

"Ethan, it's time for a shower, come downstairs."

"I'm on it, mom."

"Ethan, will you feed the cat?"

"I'm on it."

Never a dull moment............

The Holiday Whirl

It was a crazy two weeks - lots of eating (and subsequently a lot of grocery shopping), a lot of playing, and in the end, a lot of sickness :-(

Christmas Eve was the traditional Christmas story, complete with costumes.  Who knew the shepherds were such great dancers - ours were!  They made the Christmas story quite poetic with their ballet moves during the story.

Ethan spent Christmas Eve day at Cabellos with all of the guys.  It was a bit more than he could handle towards the end.......

Claire's great grandma made her a Frozen quilt.  It is hard to see in the picture, but each snowflake was cut and sewn on - it was a lot of work and Claire loved it.  She said her toes would finally stay warm....not sure what that means, she isn't that tall.

Phil and Logan went out because Logan has finally saved enough for a good down payment on a used car.  They came back with this beaut.  Logan feels liberated having a car.  Megan and Brian were very good to him these last couple of years, letting him borrow their car and picking him up when he needed rides places.  It is good to have a sister close.  But he finally made the plunge and is happier for it!

Bryan found us a good used ipad mini for Ethan for Christmas.  He has the capability to text and facetime, which he takes full advantage of.  After we took Ethan to see "Shrek: The Musical" he found the same thing on Netflix.  He has been spending time watching it, too much time actually.....

because he is dressing up as Lord Farquad and making up several scenes of the musical.

We received a lot of snow over the holiday.  The light, fluffy snow that is fun to play in and easy to shovel.  The kids spent a lot of time outside playing in it, even though it was super cold.  Kids are tough.

Jordan spent a lot of time snap-chatting, trying to convince me to get it on my phone.  I resisted the temptation.   

Megan and I went to Orem's public library which has, I think, the largest collection of fairy tales anywhere.  There are 12 sections like this one in the picture.  It is AMAZING.  I was in heaven - next time we visit, I am making a trip to the library first thing instead of two days before I leave. 

This is where "Storytime" is held.  Isn't that awesome?!?We got to meet Logan's new friend, Heidi.  She is sweet, kind, funny and adorable. 

Towards the end, the flu started going around.  Phil, who has not been sick a day with the flu for the last 31 years, was hit first.  Then all of Megan's family got it to one degree or another.  It was a rough final week.  No one else in my family got it, but I was preparing for the worse!  Thankfully, we got home unscathed.  Now, to stay healthy at school will be the challenge!

It was a great two weeks.  Thanks to Brian and Megan for hosting us for so long.  Thanks to the boys for coming and hanging out with us.  It was good to sit around it the evening with the whole family together.  I miss those days, and it was fun to have the whole family together again.  I just wish we could of taken family pictures before the flu hit us!!  I don't know when we will all get together again, but pictures will be the first thing on my agenda!!

We'll Be Home for Christmas

Home is Family - so wherever family is - that is HOME.  We are going HOME - yippee, I get to see ALL of my kids and ALL of my grandkids.  We get to eat, play, sing, and hangout together.  Dad and Ethan left early Friday and Ethan was so excited he could hardly stand it.  He talked about the trip months before hand and as the day approached he was giddy with excitement.

These are cell pictures, so be kind.....

Ethan, Megan and Santa Bryan.  That beard is on the way out, just at FYI.  All of the boys take stabs at growing beards, unsuccessfully.

This is the first time Ethan has met Elvis, Bryan's hound dog.  Oh, and it was snowing yesterday - it may be a white Christmas!!

Phil is going to be watching the kids and decided he needed to develop an effective strategy for keeping an eye on everyone.........handcuffs, a perfect multi-tool.

Phil came back from a run and Jack decided he would get ready to go on his run - you know - to save the world from "bad guys."

Joseph, not to be out done, had to dress up as well.

And so, the older boys (without Ethan) took Dad out to a shooting range for his birthday - Phil said they had a blast!  I believe they were even shooting machine guns.  That is one activity the boys do every time they get together - go shooting.  Everyone had a "blast,"  (that one is worthy of you, Logan).

So I will be heading out soon.  I managed to spend the last two (very quiet) days cleaning, going through tax papers, running errands, walking the dog - all in complete silence.  Weird.

It will loud, crazy, and wild - but so much FUN to be together this holiday.  I can hardly wait to leave.  Axle will be lonely, but we have someone coming to stay at the house to care for the dog, cat and chickens.  It has been a long time since we were all together for any amount of time, I feel so blessed that we worked it out.