Autism Run/Walk

Saturday was a great day. As many of you know, Autism has become a huge part of our family's life. So, this month was the Autism 5K Run to raise money and awareness for Autism in our community. I pulled a ligament in my leg and couldn't run, but Dan, and two very awesome friends, Kami and Andrea ran in it. . . and did awesome!! Andrea won first place in the women's division, and Kami and Dan were close behind. My parents came up from Utah, to participate in the Family Stroll with my kids and me. Ammon and his kids also came to support. I just have to say that while observing other families with their children I was very grateful for my amazing children. They may have some developmental obstacles to over come, but they are so light compared to what many other children with autism have to deal with. I know it is due to early intervention, amazing children, and my Heavenly Father. We plan to do this every year! Thanks Kami and Andrea for participating! I am so proud of my amazing husband for training hard and getting healthy.

A Shout Out To My Amazing Sister

Today is my sister's 29th birthday. She is not only beautiful, talented, and smart, but she is also my best friend in the entire universe. We talk practically every day, and have such a great relationship. Here are some funny, and not so funny memories I have about my not so lil' sis.

- One summer we watched Pretty n' Pink practically every day

- For my mother's 40th birthday I took Megan to the store so she could buy my mom a present. I could not talk her out of getting a key chain that said "Old Fart." Not only did it make my mother cry, but we Both got in trouble!!! I guess it was guilty by association.

- Megan and I played with Barbies together until I was about 16 years old!! No joke.

- While on a trip to Europe it was discovered that Megan had taken a picture of her eye for the entire first half of the trip. She didn't realize she was holding the camera backwards. . .and to think. . .her ACT's scores where higher than mine!!

- While watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, Megan and I discovered it was very fun to drink Koolaid in Dixie cups and pretend they were like shot glasses. We would drink our koolaid the way Indie's long lost girl friend Marion would, and challenge each other to drinking contests.

- Megan got straight A's in high school. She is one of the smartest women I have ever met.

- Megan is without a doubt my best friend in the entire universe!!

I am sure I will think of more as the day goes on and will add to the list. But I just wanted to wish my amazing sister a very Happy Birthday!!!

Honoring our Local Heroes

For the past few years our family has had the honor to serve many of our local heroes. As many of you know, I am a youth service club leader for our life insurance, Modern Woodmen of America. Each month my youth service club serves our community by donating our time and service to those in need. The past few years we have honored our local firemen and women by serving them dinner every September 11th. This time we drove a little ways out to the small town of Star, Idaho and ate pizza with the firemen. My kids had a wonderful time.

Before dinner they took us for a tour of the fire station. Their favorite part is always the fire trucks. We learned an interesting fact: each fire truck costs about $350,000 just to build; to add all of the equipment needed to actually fight fires the total comes to around half a million dollars!! No wonder they are always polishing it and making it look pretty!!

I let each of my kids choose a friend to come. I learned that it takes a lot of patience to be a mother of six!!! They were all well behaved, just the noise level went up. . .a lot! I could tell they all loved learning about fire safety and what it would be like to fight fires.

After the tour the firemen sat down and ate pizza and cake with us. We thanked them for being our local heroes and posed for one last picture. It was a perfect way to honor those who risk their lives every day to keep us safe, and it was a great way to honor those who lost their lives in New York City nine years ago.

September 11th, 2001 was a sad day. Dan and I sat in front of the TV all morning shocked like the rest of the nation, however, it was also a day that brought wonderful news to our family. Dan passed the Idaho Bar and was officially a certified Idaho Lawyer! I can't belive that my husband has been out of school and working in the real world for over eight years!! It made us feel a little old.

Something We Don't Often Think About

For most of us, the way we speak and say our sounds is second nature, we don't often give it a second thought. For my children, hours and hours of speech therapy have become a way of life. Jackson started speech therapy about six months ago, and with small baby steps his speech has improved dramatically. Today, Jackson himself witnessed a dramatic change within five minutes. . .he can say the letter "K". Instead of going outside to ride his "Bi" he can now ride his "bike." Instead of wanting chocolate chip "tooties" he can now enjoy delicious chocolate chip "cookies." Today as Jackson was in therapy something clicked, and once he figured out how to say the sound he didn't want to stop. As you can imagine, I was excited, his therapist, Jami, was excited, but the most excited person of all was Jackson, he knew he had accomplished something great!! We are celebrating with cup caKes, taCoes, and anything else we can find that makes the "K" and hard "C" sound. Way to go JacK!!

P.S. like everyone else that blogs I will be posting back to school pictures soon! Yippee!!

My Sentiments Exactly

McCall

"Two Pant Suit"

This past weekend we went to McCall. I would call it sort of a reunion, but my little sis, Megan and her husband were missing. It was a fast trip, but we had a blast!

The main reason we came to McCall was to see "Two Pant Suit" (a.k.a. my brother's neighborhood/ward band). They played for the MS bicycle dinner/fundraiser and they sounded great!! The boys loved sleeping in the same bed. They got the giggles so bad they could hardly fall asleep.

This is my lovely mom.

She and my pop came up from Utah to spend the weekend. It was so relaxing.

My pop is the greatest guy you will ever meet.


Zach was all smiles the entire time. He also out ate everyone at The Pancake House:two pieces of french toast, scrambled eggs, a good portion of the plate size cinnamon roll, bacon, and hash browns. I don't know where he put it because he is such a bony guy!!

My hottie husband at the beach

These cousins are BFF's
Every time I look at this picture I think she could be a model.
Jackson could have stayed at the beach all day.
We have decided to do McCall a lot more next year!! It was a perfect way to end the summer.

A Birthday Riddle

What do you have when you:

1. Go to the movies to see Night at the Museum
2. Go on every ride at Pojo's
3. Eat a Happy Meal at McDonalds and play at the play place for over an hour
4. Open presents, which include: doctor kit from grandma, walkie-talkies, digital camera, gumball machine, and much more!
5. blow out four candles and eat yummy cupcakes
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

A very tired four year old birthday boy!!!

Happy Birthday Jackson! We hope you had a great birthday!