Bubba's Bad Day, Spoken, IEP With Tough News, Allergist Visit

I swear kids don't seem to have taste buds--especially Sarah!  The other day we were having sweet and sour chicken for dinner.  I guess Sarah didn't think it had enough flavor so she went and grabbed the mustard and the Parmesan cheese out of the fridge and put both of them over her food.  MMMMM  Yummy!!  The rest of us watched in horror as she actually ate it all.  She offered me a bite, but, surprisingly, I declined.

Daniel can be one helpful guy.  Sometimes a little too "helpful", but I can't get too mad at this. Matthew has been struggling with his handwriting.  Our agreement about homework is, if I can't read it then it's wrong and he has to redo it.  This has caused multiple disagreements and makes me just dread homework time!!  Anyway, Daniel decided to help Matthew out the other day.  Daniel grabbed Matthew's homework before I could check it, erased all his answers and wrote them all back in for Matthew using his best handwriting as Matthew watched him and helped him get all the right answers.  I am sure Matthew's teacher was wondering how Matthew's handwriting got so neat overnight.  I felt awful when I told Daniel not to help Matthew so much because Matthew needs to practice his own handwriting in order for it to get better.  However, I was glad that Daniel wanted to help Matthew.

The other day I was having a bad day.  It just so happened to be during Sonic's Happy Hour so I splurged and got myself and everyone else a drink.  Matthew and Josh were excited to come home from school and see their special treat.

Even Noah got his own drink because I, selfishly, didn't want to share mine.  He thought he was pretty big stuff!

Last week Noah had a rough two days.  The first day Sarah shoved him into the coffee table.  He hit his head and got a nice bruise.  The next day I was at a friend's house and Noah rolled down her cement stairs and did a header on the cement patio.  About an hour later he had a pretty big goose egg that was quickly turning black.  When we got home later that evening I got Noah dressed in his footie jammies.  He was running around chasing his siblings and slipped on the floor and fell doing yet another face plant.  When I picked him up he was covered in blood.  I wiped it off to find he had split his lip pretty badly.  He had also chipped three of his teeth (two on bottom and one on top).  This cut was deep enough I was wondering about stitches.  After much discussion between Aaron and I we decided to wait and see at home instead of a traumatic trip to the ER for maybe a stitch or two.  Of course the picture doesn't even do the wound justice!  You can't tell how deep it really was because in the picture it was held together.  Poor Noah!!  At least he had his green on for St. Patrick's day from his bruises on his head.  No pinches for him! 

Yay for almost spring!!  The ground has defrosted enough that they were able to come out and do our final grade on our yard!!  Noah was fascinated with the Bobcat and watched it through his bedroom window.

Sunday Aaron and I had to speak in church.  We had fought I mean discussed at length on whether we should have our kids speak as well.  Aaron won out and we decided just to have Aaron and I speak and have the kids sit with G&G T in the audience.  We did end up dropping Noah off at a friend's house because he is such a mommas boy there would be no way I could speak without him on my hip.  Once he saw me or heard me speaking he would have started screaming and it wouldn't have stopped until I was holding him again.  Luckily, he only screamed for a bit after I dropped him off at my friend's house.  Sunday morning we were still finishing up our talks--nothing like waiting until the last minute!!  Anyway, Aaron had lots of 'help' from Noah when he was finishing up his talk Sunday morning.

We had to get to the church extra early Sunday morning, too at 8:15 am because we were meeting with the bishop.  I was the lucky one who got the calling.  I get to be the Sunbeam teacher aka Sarah's teacher in primary.  I am excited about that because I love kids at that age.  I think they also wanted me in there to help reign Sarah in, too.  Anyway, we did our talks without too much problem--good thing the audience couldn't see my knees because they were just shaking!  I HATE getting up in front of people for any reason!!!  Aaron did great and we are both hoping that we don't have to speak again for a very LONG time.

My birthday is coming up soon and as much as I want to forget that, Josh and Daniel keep reminding me how close it is.  They are very excited for my birthday and every night when they go to bed they work on their home made present for me.  I am curious as to what it is, but I have promised them I won't peak while they are at school so it will be a surprise when they give it to me on my birthday.  However, Daniel came up with a small sample of what they are making for me the other night.  It is a mini book that Daniel made himself.  Let me decipher.  The front page says Daniel--I guess that's just in case I don't remember who made the book for me even though he is standing right next to me as I read it.

The next page says, "You are the prettiest Mom"

The last page says, "I love you".  Oh it melted my heart!!  Daniel is such the sweet little charmer!!  I can't wait to see what they have made me for my birthday if this is a sample of it!!

We have had a rough two days at our house!  A few weeks ago Matthew's teacher informed me that Matthew's IEP (individual education plan) expires March 26 and that we need to update it before then.  Looking at the calendar I decided that Monday, March 19 would be a perfect day to have the IEP meeting.  What I failed to realize up until it was too late to cancel was that Monday, March 19 the kids were out of school for a teacher prep day.  DOH!!!  I had to bring all five kids to that IEP appointment with Matthew's teacher, the regular education teacher, the assistant principle, and the psychologist.  Luckily, Matthew's teacher had Ipads for her regular class that she let the kids play with during the IEP meeting which kept them busy--phew!!  During the IEP meeting it so happened to fall on Matthew's 3 year review this year as well.  They have to re-evaluate Matthew every three years to make sure he is still eligible for the special education program.  What that means is I have to fill out a ton of forms, his teacher has to fill out a ton of forms and that Matthew gets a bunch of psychological tests from the psychologist.  At his IEP meeting we got to hear all the results of his testing--which was not good.  I mean we know he is delayed and has issues, but to see how bad that actually were was quite upsetting.  The psychologist went first to give us his progress report and to explain all the tests results.  Then after going through his progress report they moved into the IEP meeting.  We didn't spend too much time on the IEP plan because we are going to have to totally revise it in about a month because Matthew will be changing programs next year.  That also means changing schools AGAIN.  He will have attended 5 different schools by the time he moves on to Jr. High which is crazy--the poor kid!  Anyway, after everything was discussed they basically gave Aaron and me the option of choosing what we want for Matthew next year--he can either stay where he is (which is definitely not working for him) or he can move into a blended curriculum between functional skills and a learning center or he can be in a straight functional skills classroom.  We have until April 20th to decide what we want.  I think we are leaning toward a blended curriculum where he will be sent out to the learning center for what he can handle like Math, PE, music, etc. and then the rest of the time will be spent in the functional skills classroom.  Once we decide we will have to revisit his IEP plan and make changes accordingly.  However, I must admit after hearing what the psychologist had to say at the beginning of the meeting, I spent the rest of the time trying to not break down into tears--which meant I better not say too much if I didn't want my voice to crack and the tears to start falling.  After the meeting Aaron went back to work and I went home with the rest of the 5 kids.  When I got home I threw a pity party for myself that lasted the rest of the afternoon.  Now every Monday and Wednesday me and friend go and work out at the gym.  As our workout time approached she called me and asked if we wanted to go shopping instead of going to the gym.  She had no idea about the terrible day I'd had.  I was more than happy to do that instead of working out so we went out that evening.  It was just what the doctor ordered--some RETAIL THERAPY.   Luckily I wasn't the one buying which made it that much more fun :).  By the time we were done I felt a lot better and was able to face the news about Matthew without crying (too much).

However, the next day we got another blow.  It was Daniel's semi annual visit to the allergist and this time it was for the skin prick test.  I waited to tell Daniel about his visit until after he got home from school.  When he found out where we were going he got really quiet.  I was busy cooking lunch and I turned around to see why he was so quiet only to find him crying softly into his arm because he HATES going to the allergist.  I felt horrible!  I picked him up and he burst into tears telling me about how much he hates going there.  About that time Aaron came home.  He surprised me by coming home from work so he could come to the appointment with me.  That was a pleasant surprise because trying to wrangle three kids in a tiny room during nap time alone is not my idea of a good time!  Anyway, he found Daniel crying and offered to give him a blessing.  After getting the blessing Daniel felt better.  I am thankful that calmed him down!  We all headed over to the doctor's office--Sarah, Noah, Daniel, Aaron and me.  I took some pictures of the whole process so you can see what torture they inflict on the poor kid.  Here's the beginning shot of his back:

 Then they have him lay down and mark it up and then start putting drops of the different allergens on his back.

 After that they get a needle and scratch each one into his back.  Ten minutes later they come and evaluate the marks.  The bigger the hive the more allergic he is to the allergen. 

 As you can see he has not only NOT outgrown anything including the milk, eggs and nuts, but is starting to get extremely allergic to the seasonal pollens of Utah and such.  As he gets exposed each season to these allergens they will continue to get worse until he is so symptomatic that he will need allergy shots to try and function normally.  Something to look forward to I guess.  Hopefully I can hold off on the shots until Daniel is a little older for two reasons, one being because I think Daniel would be too traumatized to learn he had to get two shots in his arm twice a week for a month, once a week for a few months, then every 3 weeks for 3+ years and the other reason being we have a $35.00 office copay plus the cost of the shots for each visit--yowza that would get expensive!!  As for now I will stop complaining of the cost of two allergist visits a year and the $40 copay for each of his medications.  Speaking of that we still have to carry an Epi pen around with us because he continues to be that allergic to milk, eggs and nuts.  If you want proof he still has marks on his back today from the hugeness of his hives from yesterdays skin prick test in the area of milk, eggs, and nuts (especially pistachios and cashews).  After they wiped off his back and put cortisone cream on it, Daniel had me scratch his back straight for almost the rest of the office visit--poor kid!  It also doesn't help that our allergist has the worst bedside manner ever!!  She definitely does not give anyone the warm fuzzies!! 

Anyway enough of all the doom and gloom.  When we got home I started cooking dinner.  To help out Sarah decided on her own to set the table.  She went over to the fridge and pulled out everything in the shelves that she could reach and put it on the table for me.    That's why there is strawberry syrup and minced garlic as well as mustard and Worcester sauce. 

She gets an 'A' for effort though because right after this I got a reminder call from Josh's old cub scout leader reminding us that we had the Blue and Gold Banquet that night and they would be providing dinner for everyone.  I had completely forgotten so I quickly cleaned up my dinner mess and got all the kids ready to go to the Blue and Gold banquet.  We left to go to the banquet as soon as Daniel got home from soccer.

We decided that even though we have moved we still wanted Josh to get his Wolf award from his old leaders because that's where he earned it.  He could have gotten it last month if they would have had pack meeting, but pack meeting ended up falling on Valentine's Day so they cancelled it  and were going to have it in March instead.  When we got there Matthew and Josh along with some other boys helped the cub master out with his Blue and Gold explanation. 

 Here's Josh getting his Wolf award!!  Way to go Josh!!!

Here's Matthew up to his old tricks--he loves to be the cub master's helper whether he wants a helper or not.  That meant Matthew led the flag ceremony, he helped with the cheers, and he also said the closing prayer.  Good thing the cub master is pretty laid back and rolls with the punches.

 Spring time is here and that means it is time for soccer.  YAY!!  Only Daniel is playing this time, however.  Here he is kicking the ball during practice.

 Here he is as the goalie trying to stop the ball.

Daniel definitely has the advantage of being a lot older than the rest of his team since he is already 6 and most of the others are only 5. 

As for things...they could be better, but I am trying to stay positive.  Aaron and I have to make a decision of what to do with Matthew for next year.  Also even after we make the decision it could be changed since the school district has the final say in where he goes which can be frustrating!!!  Daniel has not outgrown any food allergies and his other allergies are getting worse.  However, thankfully so far he doesn't get too symptomatic to the seasonal stuff....yet.  The allergist said every year it will get worse and worse.  **SIGH**  In trying to stay positive I have to remind myself of my blessings which I have many and that makes me feel better.  I just need to stay positive--easier said than done, right?!

What?! , Chatty Cathy, Disintegrating Wipes IS BAD!!

I thought my kids could properly dress themselves so I haven't been double checking their clothes.  That was until Daniel came home from kindergarten with his shirt on inside out.  I didn't realize that the reason he had trouble doing up his front buttons was because his shirt was on wrong.  What a funny kid!

 All the kids had dental checkups last month and thankfully no one had a cavity.  We even got a call from the dentist's office today saying that Josh had won a $20 Toys-R-Us gift card from being entered into the cavity free drawing.  WAHOO!!  Anyway, during this visit we did find out that Daniel had broken two molars and they happened to be the same two teeth with cavities he had gotten filled last visit.  I guess they give you a three year guarantee on fillings and his fillings lasted less than 6 months so they had to be replaced.  We made the appointment for an early afternoon last week so I wouldn't have to pull Daniel out of school.  When we got to the appointment they led Daniel back to 'the chair' and got him set up with some nitrous oxide gas and some video goggles.  That worked well until they tried to put the ear buds into Daniel's ears.  Daniel has the strangest shaped ears.  He has had these weird ears ever since he was born.  With these 'interesting' ears consequently no ear buds will ever fit into his ears--poor kid.  After trying and trying for a few minutes the dental assistant gave up and taped the ear buds on Daniel's ears because that's the only way he could listen to the movie and not hear the drill.     

Here Daniel is awaiting the laughing gas to relax him.  He chose to watch the movie Tangled (with the ear buds taped to his ears) while he was waiting.

 Once they started work on him, they closed the door so the other kids couldn't hear Daniel whimper once they gave him the shots to numb up his mouth.

Of course I had my sidekicks Sarah and Noah with me.  Since the appointment was during naptime Noah thought he'd make himself comfortable first by pulling off one shoe and one sock, throwing the shoe and sock (because Noah loves to throw things) and then by dirtying his diaper.  Of course I ran out of the house not thinking this appointment would take very long so I didn't bring the diaper bag.  Everyone got to smell Noah's sweet aroma--it was great.

After being there for a few minutes, he either knocked himself out with his sweet aroma or the naptime sleepiness was setting in:

 Noah got his second wind, though and decided to play the game 'come get me while I try to run away from you'.  He kept running down the hall and trying to walk into different patient's rooms.  Of course, I had to try and stop him which made him think I enjoyed playing his fun game.  He would run down the hall and try to walk into someone's room and see how long it took me to come and scoop him up.  I tried to stop him, but he kept sneaking by me.  One point and dental assistant came to talk to me about how to care for Daniel's new fillings.  Noah took this opportunity of my lack of attention to him and took off.  Another nice dental assistant saw him run down the hall and she went to pick him up and bring him back.  I think she caught a strong whiff of his stinky pants and didn't help me the next few times he ran away from me.  I don't blame her, Noah was pretty stinky!  While I was trying to keep Noah contained I gave Sarah my phone to play with.  She stayed quiet and busy with it and it was nice.  However, I found out what she was doing while she had my phone later on when my memory was almost full.  She was playing with this hair salon game and they let you take pictures of your 'clients'.  Sarah had filled up most of my phone memory with her salon 'clients' like this:

Luckily, I have a DELETE button!  It took a good long time to delete all those stupid salon pictures, but it kept her quiet so I can't complain....too much anyway.

Saturday we were getting a strong case of Spring Fever so we headed outside for the day and did some geocaching.  We found a few microcaches which is fun to do.  Of course while we were looking for stuff Noah made his own fun by taking off one shoe and one sock and throwing them as far away from the stroller as he could. 

 The boys had fun and all of them fought for the chance to sign our geocaching name to each cache.  Here's Aaron trying to open one of the micro caches:

 After a while Sarah was getting slower and slower in her walking.  The boys had scooters so they could go a lot faster and she just couldn't keep up.  We did let her try and ride a scooter, but she didn't like it so she just walked with me and Aaron.  Aaron tried to help her by putting her on his shoulders.  She did NOT like that and would only hold on by covering Aaron's eyes.  That didn't work so well so we just had to walk a little slower for her to keep up.

 Daniel is a funny kid.  He came to me yesterday and told me to watch him.  He started pulling all these weird faces with his eyes closed.  When he was done he asked me if I saw that.  Not know what he was exactly talking about I asked what I was supposed to see.  He did the whole weird face thing again (this time I recorded it) and then asked me if I saw his ears move.  I think I saw everything else but his ears move with all that face pulling.  He is so funny!

He is also a pretty friendly kid and will talk to anyone and everyone.  In moving into a new house we have had a few things that we have had to get fixed.  Daniel LOVES the fix it guy that comes.  The fixit guy came last week to fix our back door.  When the fix it guy came in and was looking at the door, Daniel started chatting it up with him.  He followed him everywhere the fix it guy went.  When Mr. Fixit went out to his car to get tools Daniel followed him out there talking the whole way out and the whole way back inside again.  When they were back inside Daniel went over and drew him a picture of Daniel and him standing outside in the sun.  When Daniel was finished drawing the picture he presented it to Fixit.  Mr. Fixit said he loved it.  However, when Fixit left, he left Daniel's masterpiece here.  Daniel was devastated.  I told Daniel that Mr. Fixit had to come back in the morning to finish the door and that I would give his picture to him.  Unfortunately I forgot to give Fixit the picture and I forgot to get rid of the picture before Daniel got home.  When Daniel saw his picture still here, he was upset all over again.  Luckily, Mr. Fixit had to come back yesterday to finish up and he came right as Daniel was getting home from kindergarten.  Daniel was so excited to see him again.  He went over and started talking to him and didn't stop until Mr. Fixit left, but this time Daniel made sure Fixit left with his picture. 

Noah has discovered the upstairs railing and not only that, but he has also discovered how much fun it is to throw toys over the railing to hear them clatter on the floor below.  I caught him just after the fact here as he is walking back into the bonus room to gather another handful of toys to throw over the railing:

I must say the funniest time he did it was when Josh was sitting at the desk below the railing and Noah threw a big truck over the railing and hit Josh squarely on his head.   Josh was MAD, but I couldn't stop laughing in order to get upset at Noah because it was so funny.  Noah, of course, wore his most innocent expression that said, "Who, me?!  I wouldn't ever do such a thing!" when he heard Josh howling after being hit.  The kids now know to watch out down below when Noah's upstairs.

Josh has told Aaron he wants to run the Clinton 5K again this year.  He went out jogging with Aaron yesterday and during their jog he told Aaron that he really wanted to run with him instead of Mom because Mom slows him down.  WHAT?!  Josh also told Aaron that he was embarrassed last year because it was all my fault that the ambulance almost passed us at the end of the race because I was running so slow.  WHAT, AGAIN!!??  When Aaron told me what Josh had said I was bothered by it.  Let me set the record straight here.  Last year when the race started Josh took off sprinting as fast as he could.  As you can imagine he tired out pretty fast, but I did the slow and steady thing.  However, since Josh was so tired he begged me to walk a while.  I kept trying to encourage him to jog with me, but he was too tired so we walked even more.  I was the one that was trying to jog while Josh was begging to walk.  Who was slowing who down here?!  Luckily we did finish the race before the trailing ambulance passed us.  It will be interesting to see what happens when Aaron 'slows' Josh down this year.  I do believe Josh must have a case of very selective memory loss because he was the one begging to walk last year....I promise!!!

Speaking of Josh...they had their end of year pictures taken at school a few weeks ago.  In looking at Josh's picture, it appears he got his picture taken AFTER lunch since he has lunch smeared all over his shirt.  It looks like Josh really enjoyed his lunch at least!

Aaron learned a lesson the hard way last week, however, it was my fault.  Sarah, after flushing the majority of the flushable wipes down the toilet, she left the flushable wipes bag open.  They dried out pretty quickly since the package was left wide open.  I tried to salvage the flushable wipes by rewetting them.  I poured some water on them and left them to soak up the water and remoisten themselves.  A few hours afterward Sarah decided to poop her underwear and Aaron being the nice guy went to clean her up.  He grabbed a wipe and started wiping when the wipe disintegrated in Aaron's hand leaving him wiping a dirty bum with his bare hand.  YUCK!!  Aaron gave up didn't want to 'chance it' with another wipe so he just threw her in the shower and scrubbed his hands.  He wasn't too happy about my trying to salvage the wipes because they don't salvage very well.

I am very nervous because our family gets to speak in church this upcoming Sunday.  It should be very interesting.  I don't know where to have the kids sit or if they should talk or just bear their testimonies.  I guess we will figure it out this week sometime....again it should be very interesting to say the least. We have a hard enough time trying to contain everyone while NOT sitting on the bench it should be interesting to see what happens when we are sitting up there for everyone to see....

Parents and Pastries Disaster, Student of the Month...Again, Bubba's Sweet Moves, I CUTE!!!

Noah (aka Bubba) thinks he is such a big boy.  The other day for lunch he screamed and screamed and I couldn't figure out what he wanted.  It was a little frustrating, but eventually I figured out he wanted to sit at the bar with Sarah and Daniel for lunch.  Once I sat him up there he thought he was big stuff.  Then he started screaming again.  I then realized he wanted his own fork to eat his nuggets with just like Sarah and Daniel.  He is getting too big (and very socially aware which we have been anxiously watching)!!

 Here he is trying to work his fork.  I guess it doesn't matter if you have to use two hands to actually get the nugget on the fork in the first place.

 Ahhh success.  He is quite proud of himself.

I was at the store the other day and they were playing overhead music.  Noah must have really liked it because he started to bust a move.  I love the 'oh so serious' look on his face when he starts dancing.  His sweet moves are some serious stuff, according to his facial expressions!

In other things we are still working with Sarah and the potty.  Let me just say I have not had a kid so stubborn as she is!!  She has the #1 down, but getting her to do #2 in the potty is next to impossible.  The only times she has done #2 in the potty was mostly by accident--it just happened to come out while she was doing #1.  Sorry to be so graphic, but that's the only way to explain it.  I have tried bribing her with 'pretty lips' (lip gloss), giving her a cold shower if she poops her underwear (I know it's mean!), sending her to her room after having and accident, and nothing is working.  I will be trying a chart with her to see if that will work.  I am hoping it will otherwise she may have some problems when she starts preschool later this year.  Maybe they teach #2 training in preschool....how's that for wishful thinking?!  It is SO FRUSTRATING!!  A funny part to this is every time I get upset with her, she looks at me and says, "I cute, Mom!"  That gives her a reprieve of my wrath for a few minutes at least while I try not to smile.  I hear that quite a few times in any given day, too, "I cute, Mom!" Anyway, Sarah loves going pee pees in the potty.  I used to be able to send her by herself and she would take care of everything, but lately she has been needing some parental supervision.  I have found her supposedly going pee pees in the potty, but she has been putting all my flushable wipes in the toilet, swirling them around with her bare hands and trying to flush them all down.  Ewwww!!  She has clogged many a toilet doing this and she has recruited Noah to be her accomplice in all this, too.  I will send her to go potty and after a long time has passed by I will go and check on her to find her and Noah playing in the toilet trying to flush all the wipes down it.  Their guilty faces when I catch them tell me they know what their doing is wrong, but they continue to do it.  AHHHHHH!!  I HATE plunging toilets!!  Here's a side note to that....when we were building this house we specifically requested 'power flush' toilets because between Daniel and Matthew.....well I will just leave it at that.  That was a fun conversation to have with the builder.  I made Aaron deal with that one and here's how the email conversation went:

Aaron, "Is there any way we could get some 'power flush' toilets?  We have some kids that tend to clog them quite often."  What you can't see is how red his embarrassed face was after he sent the email.

Builder, "Uh, sure.  I will have to look into that because we don't get too many requests to upgrade toilets."

Needless to say we did get the power flush toilets even if it was quite embarrassing in requesting them.  However, Sarah has still clogged them more times than I can count flushing all the wipes down the toilet.  I wonder if they make super duper turbo flush toilets that can handle a whole bag of flushable wipes, but that's a whole different situation entirely for a different time.....I am sure everyone will be quite relieved that I won't be going deeper into that situation for now. As for now I am now short on flushable wipes thanks to Sarah and Bubba for taking care of my whole brand new pack just a few days ago.   I should have just flushed the money to buy them with down the toilet because that would have been more entertaining for me and probably wouldn't have clogged the toilet, either.   I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids.....

Matthew received student of the month again for February.  The theme for February was patriotism and Matthew fit that bill quite nicely.  In his class at school they have made him the official Pledge of Allegiance leader and he has taken that job quite seriously.  Even at home he will bust out at random times into the Pledge whether we are shopping, eating dinner, showering, etc.  To quote what his teacher said about him, "Our patriotic, Tenacious Tiger is Matthew Mancil.  Each morning he never forgets to lead the class in the pledge.  If I begin class without remembering to do the pledge, he is there to remind me and asks the class members to get ready and begin with him leading the words."  Somehow I did not find this surprising in the least.  If you give Matthew a job he loves to do, it will definitely get done every day whether you want it to or not.  Good for Matthew, though, and I am glad his teacher is so patient with him, too.

This past Wednesday was Dads and Donuts day at Josh and Daniel's school.  Aaron was able to take off a couple hours that morning to have breakfast with Josh and Daniel at their school.  Of course Aaron had to bring Daniel's breakfast because he can't eat the donuts or drink the milk since he's allergic to both.  Aaron assured Daniel he was going to bring him something good.  When they got to the school and Aaron pulled out some Pop tarts and juice for Daniel, Daniel was MAD!  He thought 'something good' meant fruit snacks.  Aaron got a tongue lashing for that--poor guy.  Anyway, Josh took advantage of Daniel's inability to eat the donuts and ate enough of them to cover his share, Daniel's share and Aaron's share.  Where does that kid put all that food since he is SO SKINNY?!  They still had a fun morning together minus the tongue lashing, of course. 

Last Friday Matthew's school they had a Parents and Pastries day.  Since Aaron went to Josh and Daniel's Dads and Donuts day it was my turn to go with Matthew to his Parents and Pastries day.  Now I kept reminding myself all week about Parents and Pastries day.  When Friday morning rolled around I completely forgot--D'OH!!  I remembered about it at 8 am that morning and it started at 8 am--Double D'OH!!  By the time I remembered Sarah and Noah were already in the shower since Noah and Sarah had already played in the toilet that morning.  I made Matthew pack his own home lunch while I made sure Josh and Daniel were ready to leave for school.  If I hurried fast enough we could make the last 20 minutes of Parents and Pastries--hurried is the key word.  I got myself dressed and ready in 5 minutes flat.  It is so amazing to me that I can get myself ready in five minutes after having kids, when before having kids it took me a whole hour to get ready.  I guess kids will do that to you.  Anyway, after I was ready I pulled Sarah and Noah out of the shower to get them dressed.  Noah I got dressed likety split.  Sarah, however, did not like the clothes I had picked out for her and proceeded to throw a major tantrum.  I tried to put her pants on which was very difficult since she was kicking and screaming.  Every time I would get one leg in she would pull it back out.  I was trying to hurry and this was so frustrating to me.   I finally decided to threaten her and told her we were going to leave her home since she wouldn't get dressed.  Well she called my bluff and just sat pouting and screaming on the couch and still did not even attempt to get dressed.  I hate it when they call your bluff!!  Anyway the clock was still ticking and I was running out of time.  I finally had to hold her down and force her clothes on her.  It was like dressing a screaming, unwilling octopus!  I must admit by the time I finally got her dressed I was broken out with sweat on my brow.  It was hard work dressing and unwilling screaming octopus girl!!  Anyway, I threw the kids in the car and we headed over to Matthew's school.  We got there about 8:37 am which was cutting it close since the school bell rant at 8:50 am.  It was pretty busy so we had to park far away which was not fun since it had snowed quite a bit the night before.  I was pulling Sarah and Noah out of the car when Matthew saw one of his friends and decided to not wait for us and to walk in to school with her.  I grabbed Sarah's hand and was holding Noah and tried to catch up to Matthew.  He was too fast and we quickly fell further and further behind him.  I kept calling out for him to wait, but he had selective hearing loss and I swear started walking faster.  I probably would have too, if I had a crazy lady following me and screaming at me to stop.  Anyway, he disappeared inside the school while I was struggling/half pulling Sarah along on the slippery sidewalk trying to balance Noah on my hip and not fall.  Sarah did not like being pulled along and started screaming and fighting with my grip I had on her wrist.  When I got inside the school he was no where to be found.  I looked and looked and couldn't see him anywhere and Sarah was still screaming which caused everyone to stare at us.  I started walking over near his classroom carrying Noah and pulling a screaming Sarah and finally found him putting away his coat and backpack.  I grabbed him and we started over to where the Parents and Pastries booth was set up which was over by the cafeteria.  Sarah continued to scream all the way over to the booth attracting stares from anyone and everyone.  We even ran into an old neighbor who probably heard us coming before she even saw us.  Again Matthew started walking faster than I could since I was trying to man handle Sarah and Noah through the crowd.  He walked straight past the booth and headed into the cafeteria.  I finally caught up to him in the cafeteria where he was chit chatting with the lunch lady about when he could eat his breakfast.  I turned him around and we went back to the booth where he then informed me that he did not like donuts.  At this time the bell rang and he ran off to class and left me in the middle of the hallway with two screaming kids.  I finally grabbed a donut and gave it to Sarah to try and stop her screaming and, thankfully, it worked.  Well so much for a fun morning of parents and pastries with Matthew.  That was a horrible parenting FAIL.  Hey, at least I give myself a few points for trying even if no one appreciated it.  Again I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids....and yes, Sarah is cute of which I get reminded quite frequently of throughout every day...."I cute, Mom"...

Parenting is not for the feint of heart--that's for sure!!

Oops, Hardware Ranch, Night Action, Meet Bunsie

In unpacking and other generalized stuff I haven't had a chance to catch up blogging until this morning.  It is somewhat of a long, random and jumpy post, but there has been a lot to catch up on!!  We are continuing to unpack, unpack, and unpack some more.  I think it would go a lot faster if I didn't have so much 'help' from little hands!!

In unpacking the toys the kids thought it was Christmas all over again.  Here's Noah sporting Aaron's boyhood Superman cape that we had just found...again:

 Unbeknownst to me it appears Daniel got a hold of my cell phone and took some candid pictures.  Don't you love it when you come across pictures like this?! Um...Thanks for the laugh, Daniel:

 In unpacking we have found Sarah's princess shoes.  I can't tell who was more excited Sarah or Daniel...

 or Noah...

I am sure Aaron will be excited to see his boys decked out in Cinderella shoes (or as Sarah calls them Snow Wipe shoes).

 With our laminate flooring we have a new dust mop/broom that Noah thinks is tons of fun to play with.  He will sneak into the pantry, get it out and play with it for long periods of time.  It isn't until I trip over it later on that I find it again.

Sometimes when home life gets boring, Noah makes his own fun.  I will always wonder what it is with boys and farting noises...They start thinking it is the best thing ever at such a young age!  Geez!

 Noah is just like his Dad and brothers.  As soon as we get home, he pulls his shoes and socks off faster than anyone else that I know.  I have found dirty socks in the strangest of places! No wonder we lose so many socks since they randomly get tossed wherever the wearer happened to take them off at.

This weekend we ventured a trip up to Hardware Ranch.  To learn more about it click here.  Anyway, we try and do this as a family every year.  Last year we didn't make it so this year we really wanted to try and get there this year.  We ended up waiting until the very last weekend it was open to go and, of course, it was FREEZING!!!  The outside temperature was 32 degrees, but the wind was blowing and that made everything feel so much colder!!  Since many sane people didn't want to come out in such cold weather there weren't too many people around, which was nice.  We got on the horse drawn wagon and waited to ride out into the elk field. Have I mentioned it was FREEZING?!  

 Here's the elk just watching the wagon drive by very uninterested like.

 Some of the bulls hadn't lost their antlers, but they should soon.

 The kids didn't want to spend too much time looking around after since it was so cold.  We tried to get another person to take a family picture of all of us standing around the pair of horses that pulled the wagon, but that didn't happen.  Aaron handed him the camera and explained how to use it.  The poor guy thought he had taken a few pictures and assured us that he did, but he hadn't done anything at all.  DOH!!  We didn't realize it until we were all back in the car and none of us wanted to go back outside in the cold for a retake.  Oh well, maybe we can try again next year...Here are the rest of us hurrying back to the car to get out of the icy wind, except for Sarah who is always up for a photo op.

Of course no trip to Logan would be complete without stopping for ice cream (even if all of us were still freezing from the Hardware Ranch visit).  We were excited to find out that Logan has a Sub Zero ice cream shop which is the only place that has Daniel friendly ice cream.  On the way over we were talking up the place to Daniel making him excited that he would be able to eat ice cream along with the rest of us.  You can imagine how horrible we felt when we pulled up to Sub Zero to find it had gone out of business and was no longer open.  Oops.  We decided to go back to our usual ice cream place, Caspers, but to help Daniel feel better about not eating any ice cream we stopped by a store and let him pick out any candy he wanted to eat while the rest of us ate our ice cream.  He seemed to be ok with that because he did give me the double thumbs up sign (I think ordering him the extra orange soda to go with his candy helped a bit, too).

Do you like his HUGE bag of gummy bears?  He also has a big glass of orange soda that you can't see as well.  Nothing like a good ole' sugar high?!!  In trying to keep all the kids appeased we ordered their ice cream first.  Even Noah got his very own first small scoop of ice cream, too.  However, since the kids only got one scoop of ice cream, by the time Aaron and I had sat down with our ice cream the kids' ice cream was long since eaten and we had to endure the puppy dog stares until we gave in and shared our bowls of ice cream as well.  Here's Sarah after her bowl of ice cream ran out:

Good thing Dad was willing to share his ice cream because that was the only way to get her to stop crying.

We try to have family movie night every Friday night.  Lately we have added a hot air popcorn popper to our routine.  We have even found a dairy free 'butter' flavored seasoning that everyone likes to sprinkle over the top of our popcorn.  Isn't it a little troubling to have it 'butter' flavored without any real butter ingredients in it?  Anyway, I try not to ponder that too much as all of us can eat it and enjoy it.

The kids love the popcorn so much that I don't think they have any left to eat when the actual movie even starts.  As soon as we set down the bowl everyone dives in like ravenous dogs.  I fear for my hands when I do set down the bowl, but I haven't lost a finger.....yet.

In unpacking we have found Sarah's barbies.  One of them, however, seems to be missing all of her clothes. I picked that one up and was looking at it yesterday when Daniel just casually mentioned, "Oh you found Bunsie."  I guess that is one name you can call a naked barbie doll in which you can see her naked bum...Bunsie.  Sarah found a Barbie tiara and decided to wear it and make herself princess Sarah.  What a funny girl!

In other happenings Josh had a follow up neurology appointment yesterday morning.  Aaron stayed home to get the other kids up and ready for school while I took Josh down to his appointment at Primary Children's Hospital bright and early at 8am.  We were pleasantly surprised as we were walking inside the hospital to find IHOP making and giving out a free pancake breakfast to anyone and everyone to celebrate national pancake day a day early.  Josh was so excited.  He loaded up his plate with two pancakes he would have taken more, but they limited you to just two.  He doused them in strawberry syrup and was in heaven.  After the appointment he wanted to get another plateful, but they had already cleaned up so he was a little disappointed.  During the appointment Josh is doing great.  His gross motor control is getting better, too which was nice to hear.   When the PA was wrapping up our visit she asked Josh if he had any questions about anything that was going on.  Josh, ever the opportunist, asked, "Ya, what do I get for coming down to see you today?"  Not the exact question the PA was expecting, but she rolled with the punches and ended up giving Josh a word search book for all his 'troubles'.  I was little embarrassed, but what can you do?  Anyway, we don't have another appointment until 6 months barring no problems/seizures before then.  Hopefully this time we can actually make it to the full 6 months before he needs to be seen again.  In talking with a friend she had mentioned something about a nighttime camera to monitor stuff.  Aaron looked more into it and found this nice night vision camera.  It normally is used as a security camera, but it really works well for our needs.  It only records when it senses movement and it does have night vision capability so we can keep an eye on him all night.  It starts recording after sensing movement then it records the movement and 20 seconds after the movement stops.  That way we can really see if he is having seizures or not at night. We just hook it up to the computer and watch the video snippets the next day to see if there were any problems or seizures throughout the night.  It is a blessing since everyone is able to sleep in their own beds which makes for a better night's sleep.  However, when we first set up the camera the boys loved messing with it.  Here's a small sample of what happened the first few minutes it was set up:

The next night we couldn't get the stupid thing to record so Aaron went downstairs to look at what was wrong to find that someone had put a sticker over the camera lens.  DOH!!  Luckily, the newness has worn off and the boys have pretty much left the camera alone since then.

In finding new things to try out for Daniel's strict allergen free diet I came across this little number:

I am always willing to try something new and it fit in perfectly for our family dinner of macaroni and cheese the other night.  However, Daniel's dairy, egg and nut free version as you can see from the box was mac and chReese. After I made it Aaron informed me that he was NOT even going to try it because it smelled and looked  disgusting.  I had to agree it did look and smell gross, but someone had to try it along with Daniel so I was the guinea pig.  Daniel tried it and didn't like it so when I bit into it and almost gagged I didn't feel too bad for not ever wanting to make it again.  It was worth a try, but that's as far as it will get for us--BLECH!!

One thing I did forget to write about was something that happened the first week after moving in to our new house.  That first day we had told Josh and Daniel that they shouldn't ride the bus home anymore because we are no longer on a bus route.  We told them over and over again that first morning that we would be there to pick them up from school.  So when I went to pick up Daniel from kindergarten, he was no where to be found. I parked the car and went in to talk to his teacher to find that he was, in fact, on the bus.  I drove over to our old house hoping to catch him, but the bus never showed up.  That's when I called the transportation office and started in to the explanation when the dispatcher stopped me and just asked me if my son's name was Daniel.  I said yes and she told me the bus would have to make it's rounds and then it would drop him back off at the school.  In further discussion I guess once the bus made it to Daniel's regular stop he realized that he shouldn't have ridden the bus at all and burst into tears.  He tried to explain what happened to the bus driver, but it was a substitute bus driver and she didn't quite know what to do.  Luckily, Aunt Jill stayed at his usual bus stop while I drove over to the school to wait for him.  After making all the stops the bus driver made one last loop around the old bus stop and that's when Aunt Jill was able to grab a very upset Daniel and bring him home.  When we all got home I asked Daniel what had happened and he just burst into tears.  Luckily we got him home in one piece and everyone (including his teacher, the bus driver and dispatch) was now aware that Daniel was not supposed to ride the bus anymore.  It was a pretty traumatic experience for the poor kid!!  Thank goodness for cell phones and that we were all able to stay in contact the whole time to track him down!

Hide and Stink, Moving with Strep, Welcome Me!!

Wow, where to start?  I have been away from the blogosphere for about two weeks now, but I have a very good reason--WE FINALLY MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOUSE!!  Between packing, packing, packing, taking care of kids, actually moving and unpacking, unpacking and unpacking I have stayed pretty busy!!  I will hit a few highlights of the last two weeks.  Last week we were hitting very low reserves as to our food situation.  I had to run and pick up a few things to help us last through the move.  I wasn't at the store very long until I realized that with each turn Noah flopped onto my hands pushing the cart.  The poor kid fell asleep.  Too bad you can't see the drool dripping out of his mouth and down the cart in the picture. 

 During checkout he flopped back to get more comfortable and stayed in this position until I loaded him back into his car seat when we got to the car.  What I wish to be able to sleep that sound in those positions!!  The clerks were all laughing at him.

 Moving day finally came upon us last Friday (as in 10 days ago.)  During the day Aaron and I were packing stuff up.  Noah watched Aaron very intently as he took the dining table apart.

 Later on in the morning we went to pick up the big ol' moving truck.

 We had people scheduled to come and help us move the heavy things later on that evening so during the day Aaron and I made a few trips with the moving truck full of just boxes.  I kept thinking to myself how in the world had we acquired so much stuff (aka CRAP!!).  I guess having five kids will do that to you!  That afternoon Grandpa T came and picked up the kids to take them for the weekend--which was a HUGE help.  It seems while Noah and Sarah were around we had to pack each box three times at least.  Every time we put something in one they would take it back out and cart it off somewhere.  That was a little frustrating to say the least!!  Anyway, once the kids were whisked away for a fun filled weekend with Grandma and Grandpa T the real work began.  We got lots of help from our ward, friends and family and are so appreciative of all the help we got!!  Moving stinks big time!!  By late Friday night our garage and house were FULL of boxes.  Luckily we had some help in setting up our bed so we could crash when all the stuff (crap) was unloaded off the truck.  That night Aaron was completely wiped out.  I was tired, but Aaron was completely exhausted.  The next morning the unpacking began.  We truly had our work cut out for us!!  This is what the three car garage looked like (and that was just the garage and not the house!!):

As the morning went on Aaron continued to be exhausted and could hardly move.   I woke up that morning not feeling the best, either, but we both chalked it up to being old and moving so many things the day before.  However, as the day went on Aaron felt worse and worse.  He finally asked me to feel his forehead and he was burning up with a fever.  I sent him over to the insta care to get checked out because he felt so crappy.  While he was gone I got more unpacking done, but I wasn't feeling the best either.  Aaron came home to let me know he test positive for STREP throat.  Of all the weekends to get sick!!  Instead of messing around with pill antibiotics he just asked to get a shot in the bum.  He took a large dose of Tylenol and ibuprofen and laid down while I tried to unpack.  Unfortunately that night I started feeling really crappy.  I had a fever all night long and knew that Aaron had shared his unfortunate bug.  I ended up going in for my shot in the bum after testing positive for strep as well Sunday morning.  Again could there have been a worse weekend to get sick?!?!  Oh well, at least we didn't have to unpack and take care of kids which was nice!!  Sunday afternoon Aaron's mom, Jill and Sydney came for a visit and to help us unpack.  The kids came back from G&G T's house later on that afternoon, too.  Aaron and I didn't get as much done over the weekend as we would have liked, but we gave ourselves some leniency since we both had STREP THROAT!!  Anyway, we were very appreciative of all the help with baby sitting and unpacking because we really needed it!  The kids had a fabulous time with G & G T's house during their fun weekend visit.  We also now have a somewhat organized house (thank you to Jill and Grandma M who did a TON!) which is nice.  It was also nice to have the visit as well as help from Jill and Grandma M.  Don't get me wrong we are not done unpacking, but we have a pretty good start on it!  We are also feeling a lot better after our double shots in the bum, too.  I am glad I live in a time with antibiotics that's for sure!!

It's really hard moving because life still happens even while your whole house is in chaos and you still have to roll with the punches.  Two weeks ago right before we moved Matthew brought home this fun little paper:

 Aaron and I have been dreading this.  We had discussed this particular matter for a bit even before we got the notice, but hadn't come to a decision of what we wanted to do.  When we got the paper we had to make a decision of whether to send him or to keep him back.  We talked to his teacher and between the three of us, we came to the conclusion that Matthew was not mature enough to attend at this point.  We were afraid he would learn names and use them later on at very inappropriate times.  That's all I need is to have him repeat such things such as penis or other such terms in the middle of primary or some other place like that.  We will take care of it later on when he is more ready to hear things.  As for now we will just give him some deodorant and tell him to use it--and hopefully, he will.

The first Monday night  in our new house we had Family Home Evening.  After the lesson we played hide and seek for the activity.  The first round Daniel found an empty cupboard and hid in it.  It was an excellent place because he was the last one found.  The next round Sarah decided she wanted to hide in that spot.  She grabbed her blankie and hid.  Aaron was the seeker and saved her for last.  He walked around the island in the kitchen pretending to not know where Sarah was.  That's when the smell hit him.  He exclaimed, "P. U.!!"  That's when Daniel fessed up and said he was the stinky one because he had been tooting.  Now the smell had been explained, Aaron opened the cupboard up to "find" Sarah.  That's when Sarah crawled out and Aaron discovered that the smell was not coming from Daniel, but from Sarah's special cupboard.  She must have thought we were playing hide and 'stink'.  Sarah had found her special spot while hiding and took care of business.  The bad thing was she was wearing panties and a skirt.  That meant that when she slid out of the cupboard she "skidded" out if you know what I mean.  YUCK!!!  I got the lucky job of cleaning Sarah up while Aaron got to clean the cupboard.  Ewwwww!!  There's not enough Lysol...  I guess Sarah has taken it upon herself to really break in the new house!

Thursday night we had movie night and busted out the popcorn maker.  The kids loved watching it and every time they know we are getting it out they come running.

Yesterday we decided we needed to get everyone out of the house for a bit.  We decided to head down to Ikea to try and find a cheap TV stand.  While we were looking around Sarah kept sneaking off.  It was really annoying and scary because the place was pretty busy.  In the middle of the store she decided to hide under a dining room table.  I guess once she got under the table she decided to continue her hide and 'stink' game because she was very fragrant by the time we found her.  Again she was wearing panties and again it was a huge mess.  Luckily we were close to the end of the store, so we just bought our cheap TV stand and went out to the car.  I loaded the kids up and then I tried to help Aaron load the TV stand.  Any which way we tried we could not get the stupid thing to fit.  I had to sit out in the very stinky car with poopy girl while Aaron had to return the stupid TV stand.  Very frustrating (and stinky) to say the least!!

We attended our new ward today.  We left our mark, too.  Noah and Sarah were little stinkers today.  Sarah was a literal stinker, too.  I had to take her out at the end of sacrament meeting because she had pooped in her underwear.  Changing poopy panties with tights and a dress is not a fun thing to do.  I had forgotten the pull ups so I had to slap a diaper on her and she was not happy about that, but that's what happens when you poop your underwear!  We had sacrament meeting first and then headed to primary.  This new ward's primary is teeny!!  There are only about 50 kids on the rolls and only half of them attend.  There are only two kids in Matthew's class, four kids in Sarah's.  Because the primary is so small, they only have one sharing time and one class time.  They have class time first and then everyone comes into sharing time.  I went to drop Sarah off in Sunbeams and she would not let me leave.  I ended up staying in class the whole time with her.  When it was time to go to sharing time she made me come with her as well.  As we were all in sharing time someone in the primary presidency was making announcements.  When she supposedly finished she mumbled to herself, "I think that is all the announcements I have."  That's when Matthew spoke up and said in his monotone voice, "Oh, you forgot to announce that everyone needs to welcome me!"  She then agreed and invited Matthew up.  As he walked up he went straight for the microphone.  I was silently screaming NOOOOO in my mind.  He got up to the microphone and spoke in it saying, "Ya, we just moved in so everyone needs to welcome me to primary.  Thanks for all your help!"  She also called up Daniel, Sarah, and Josh so they could sing the Hello song to them.  During the whole Hello song Josh kept pulling stupid faces and Sarah kept inching closer to the microphone.  When the song was over she dismissed Daniel, Josh Matthew and Sarah to sit down, but Sarah refused.  She walked up the microphone stairs and sat there.  The presidency member gave her the chance to say something, but she didn't, but she didn't move to sit down either.  I finally had to stand up to get her, but she wasn't ready to sit down.  When I grabbed her she started SCREAMING because she wanted to talk in the microphone like Matthew.  She screamed for a bit, too.  It was even more noticeable because the primary is so small!!  Anyway, she finally stopped screaming, but insisted on sitting in my lap for the rest of sharing time.  What a crazy girl.  Well I can now say that people know who all my kids are thanks to Sarah, Matthew and Noah.  Oh well it was bound to happen.  I can't hide my light (kids) under a bushel for very long at their insistence :).  While all this was happening in Primary, Aaron attempted to attend Sunday school with Noah.  He was only in there a few minutes when he noticed that Noah was THE ONLY baby in the room.  Of course at that time Noah started screaming so Aaron took him to nursery and hung out there for the rest of church.  I don't think this ward knows what hit them when our crazy family showed up!!





Sarah Breakin' in the New House, Party All Night and the Lead Foot Lucy Busdriver

Oh this week has been a crazy one!!  It has been parent teacher conferences--need I say more?!  Anyway, we had Matthew's on Monday afternoon.  I always have to prepare myself for that one because it never is rosy.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised this time!  He is progressing and has come a long way from the beginning of the year.  In all the testing they have done he is currently functioning on a level between a 2nd and 3rd grader, but that is up from the beginning of the year where he only tested in the range of a kindergarten to 1st grader.  The teacher also told us that he is now used to the routine and is able to do better.  You have to remember that the beginning of this school year he had to change everything about his school routine with changing grades, elementary schools, teachers and rules and that is one tall order for an autistic child who THRIVES on routine.   We are still going to be transitioning him to the functional skills next year, but he is doing well, all things considered.  His teacher did bring up one area she was concerned with--lunchtime.  The past few months Matthew has been requesting to eat home lunch instead of school lunch--so every morning I get up and make him a school lunch consisting of a juice or milk box, applesauce, chips and a peanut butter sandwich--all the things Matthew likes to eat (or so I thought).  Every day after school he would come home and show me his empty lunch box so I just assumed he ate the lunch.  I was WRONG.  His teacher tells me he tries to throw the whole thing away before even trying anything, but she attempts to make him eat at least a little bit of it.  So Matthew takes the most microscopic bite of everything and then throws the whole thing away.  His teacher was concerned about this and wanted me to see that he wasn't eating so she told him to not throw anything away and to put all the uneaten food back in his lunch box to bring home.  Every time they wouldn't let him throw anything away he would have a complete and total meltdown.  The teacher would occasionally get him to save the uneaten food, however, when he would get on the bus to come home he would throw everything away on the bus garbage so I still never saw the uneaten food.  However, I did happen to be outside the other day when his bus pulled up so I got to speak with his bus driver and she told me about him throwing all his food away.  As this was news to me I was interested in talking about it with his teacher.  Luckily, we came up with an awesome solution.  His teacher has a fridge and a microwave in her room so I can send leftovers for him to eat the next day.  Once Matthew heard that he could bring lasagna to school and eat that for lunch he was over the moon.  The next day his teacher and bus driver told me they couldn't get him to talk about anything else, but eating his lasagna for lunch.  He told anyone and everyone he could that he got to eat lasagna for lunch because he was so excited.  It also helped me for when he came home because he was a lot more calm and willing to do his homework without a fight because he wasn't starving.  When Matthew is hungry he gets very agitated so him actually eating a lunch at school has helped a lot.  Now I just got to make sure we have plenty of leftovers of food that he actually likes eating.  We also got a call when we got home after the conference from his principal.  I HATE getting calls with the 402 prefix!!  Anyway, this call was a good one.  It told us that Matthew has been selected as a Tenacious Tiger of the month (a student of the month) because he is so courteous.  He holds the doors open for people, always says please and thank you, helps the duties at recess, is always willing to vacuum at school and is polite.  To celebrate he gets to have a cupcake party with the principal on Friday.  Way to go Matthew!!

As for his bus driver she must have a lead foot or Matthew gets out of school early every day! Since it is early out all week Josh and Matthew get out of school at 1:25pm.  Yesterday I was out running errands and drove up to  my house at 1:22pm to find Matthew sitting on my porch freaking out because the front door was locked and the bus driver parked and waiting for me to get home.  What in the world??!!  He wasn't supposed to even get out of school until 1:25pm and then ride the bus home!  Either his bus driver drives so fast that she can go back in time or Matthew is getting out of school early every day because he is walking through the front door on average of 4 minutes after school lets out.   Matthew's school is about three miles away from our house, too.  I am a little concerned about this, but I don't know if I am concerned enough to make waves...I guess I just need to make sure I am home 10 minutes before he is supposed to get out of school because you just never know when or how early he is going to get home!

We had Josh and Daniel's parent teacher conferences yesterday.  Daniel is doing superb (despite all the allergic reactions he's had at school that his teacher apologized profusely for).  His teacher is under Daniel's charm spells just like the rest of us are.  He is doing well enough in everything that he is able to start the reading program--Wahoo.  Josh is doing good.  He is still struggling with his hand writing as well as not covering his mouth when he coughs.  His teacher also told me to make sure Josh has some tissues in his pockets because when he sneezes he gets double snot rockets out his nose and, instead of wiping them off with tissues, he uses his sleeve or attempts to walk across the room with the aforementioned snot rockets hanging precariously from his nose while he is trying to find a tissue to use--ewwwww! Other than that he is doing well.  He is reading above his grade level and his comprehension is great.  We do have some stuff that we have to work a little extra on at home--his typing speed and math, but otherwise he is doing ok.  I took a big sigh of relief when the conferences were over because I hate going to them, but these weren't as bad as last time--phew!!

The night before last I got to have an all night party thanks to my kids.  Noah started screaming at 11 pm.  I tried to let him just scream it out, but he kept going and going and going.  To help everyone else get their sleep I decided to stay up and hold him for a little bit to calm him down.  Sure enough he calmed down and fell asleep, but every time I stood up to try and put him back to bed he would start screaming all over again.  Finally he fell in a deep enough sleep about 1:30 am that I was able to put him to bed without him waking up.  After putting him to bed I went to bed and got all comfy only to have Daniel come upstairs crying at 1:40am.  He said that his foot was hurting really bad.  I had to get back up and give him some ibuprofen and hold him.  He had to snuggle until 4:15 am until he felt better.  After he went to bed I tried to sleep and was able to sleep until I was woken up at 6:45 am to the crazy morning chaos.  I tried staying in bed and letting the kids take care of themselves, but you can imagine that didn't go over well at all.  I had to get out to break up the fighting, help someone find their shoes, sign someone's homework, help someone find some pants, etc.  I must admit I was a little on the grumpy side as well and I wasn't the only grumpy one.  It appears that Noah kept quite a few people awake, too.  That was one day I was glad I got to send the kids away to school and hope they got their grumpiness out there instead of at home!!  It was early bedtime for everyone that night including me!!

Yesterday afternoon we were walking through the new house and marking all the stuff that needed to be fixed or repaired.  While we were doing that the blinds guy and the hardware guy were busy at work.  A few minutes later the blinds guy came over to me and said, "Uh....umm....So do you have any toilet paper to help your little girl out with ?"   I looked at him strangely and then he said, "I think your little girl needs some assistance in the master bathroom."  I thought, "OH NO!!" as I ran over to the master bathroom to assess the damages.  I could smell it before I saw it.  As I opened the master bathroom door I could hear the movie Psycho's shower scene music playing in my head.  It was bad!  Sarah had decided she needed to go potty, but she had already done half of it in her underwear before she could make it to the toilet.  She was in the bathroom and had worked off her poo smeared pants and was trying to pull off her loaded with poo panties when I saw her.  When she saw me come in she knew she had done something wrong so she hurried even faster to get her poo underwear off.  In her haste she kicked and smeared poo all over the bathroom and toilet before I could stop her.  Also before I had even gotten there she had already attempted to go potty as her evidence was smeared all over the toilet.  It was BAD!!  I made Aaron come and keep her contained to the bathroom while I ran out to the car to find something to clean it up with.  I could only find an almost dried out pack of wipes and a spare pair of panties.  I brought them inside and tried to clean everything up.  We had no toilet paper or soap to use only the half dried out pack of wipes.  NASTY!!!  We left shortly afterward, but not before the hardware guy and blinds guy got a good laugh about it.  Aaron just joked with them saying at least our new toilet has been broken in by Sarah!!  The hardware guy then replied, "Hmmm why don't we break in your new master bathroom fan right now, too?"  Did I mention the whole master bathroom reeked to high heaven?!  Sarah only wore panties out to the car and on the way home because we didn't have any spare jeans to put back on her.  I am sure she was cold, but that's what you get when you try to take care of your poopies without help!!

In other happenings a few days ago Sarah found her hair headband and put it on the way she thought it was supposed to go.  After she got it on she came over and told me she was ready to go running.  What a funny girl!