Track Time

We always like going home! We made a trip over there last weekend because Kyle had to go to Ephrata and Moses Lake for work (to check properties and meet with city people). Plus, we were able to watch Jared's track meet at home on Friday afternoon. It worked out good. Then, Jared had Prom on Saturday so I helped my Mom serve them dinner before the dance. Kyle got to visit his cousin Matt who just had surgery, work on the farm a little bit and go with my Dad to watch motorcycle hill climbs. I hung around the house with my Mom while the kids played outside in the sunshine, visited with my grandma and cousin, Sean, who I haven't seen in 18 years and I swept their shop as everyone else cleaned it out.

Jared competes in the javelin (his best), shot-put, discus and triple jump. This is his first year doing track. He used to do baseball, but switched this year and has already set records. What a stud. :)

Preston and Lindsey eating snacks to pass the time. Track meets are WAY different than normal sports I'm used to. Usually, you show up and watch a football/basketball/baseball game, but with track you wait around for the events and each person gets several tries so it took a long time. This is the first track meet I've  ever been to so it was interesting. It was very laid back. 

Kyle was discing around my Dad's fields and I brought the kids out to him to get a ride. Lindsey didn't want to get off the tractor.

Jared went to Prom with Jessica and the other couples are Alberto & Patty and Jordan & Alyssa. They surprised the girls and picked them up at 7am and brought them back to my parent's house for breakfast (my Mom made waffles/strawberries/whipped cream), then they played 'bigger or better' in the afternoon. After getting ready they came back to my parent's for dinner (bread, salad, alice springs chicken, baked potato and brownie, ice cream and hot fudge sauce).  

Preston's Results

Kyle and I had our conference last week at the CHDD at UW for Preston to hear the results from his testing. We didn't know what to expect going in. Maybe a diagnosis or maybe hearing the same thing we've been told before. I was a little nervous. We met with the psychologist, speech therapist and physical therapist (the one's who did his testing). They told us they thought Preston had High Functioning Autism. They gave us their recommendations for his IEP at school and how to proceed. They gave us lots of resources to turn to. We asked questions and discussed his strengths and weaknesses. I was kind of surprised, but then again not really because I knew something was different. I just don't want him to have that 'label' for the rest of his life. And then I think about bullying and how all these kids with autism/asperger's, etc get bullied. I try not to think about it or worry about it right now. They told us he was a difficult case to diagnose because he had a lot of strengths. They felt that he would receive the best help and care with this diagnosis. The main thing that will change is he will qualify for extended day preschool next year.

We are thankful for our family support! My Mom shared this poem with me that she had read a while ago. I thought it was so true.


Welcome to Holland
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this…


When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. 


After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." 


"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?" I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy. 


But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. 


The important thing is that they haven't taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. 


So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.


It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts. 


But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." 


The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. 


But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.


Written by Emily Perl Kingsley

Freshening Up

I finished painting the girl's room a light purple. It's much harder when you are pregnant and have 3 other kids running around destroying the rest of the house! I like the second color I picked because it's so soft. Kate loved this comforter I found at Walmart because it was mostly purple and had butterflies on it. We are waiting for the bunk beds to come so we can put them up and rearrange the furniture in the room and put up the purple butterfly curtains. We cleaned out closets and donated a bunch of stuff so I feel much better. :) I was getting overwhelmed with all the 'stuff'. I also found a nice dresser at Goodwill that fits perfectly into the closet so I can use it for the baby clothes. When I went to pay for it it was on sale for 30% off and I didn't even know it! So now I like the dresser even more since it was under $30. haha!

My Mom came last Monday and Tuesday to watch the kids while Kyle and I went to an appointment for Preston (more on that later). But she brought her Cricut and went to town making me all these cute vinyl sayings to put up in my house. Most of them are ideas from Jeni so thanks Jeni!!! (She did all the hard work of finding the cute sayings!) My Mom has this amazing program where you can upload an image from the internet and then print it out on her Cricut. She doesn't have to have a million cartridges. But the only sad thing is they don't sell that program that's compatible with the Cricut anymore. We also made an "I am a Child of God" saying but I have to repaint the board it's going on. I'll also choose a vinyl saying for the girl's room once we rearrange the furniture. We used to have the saying "Sugar and spice and everything nice that's what little girls are made of" but took it down to paint. Seeing the new vinyl makes me happy!

Nesting

I'm starting to nest.

Kyle was helping someone move last Saturday (that was taking longer than expected) and after a couple hours he told them that he had to go home because he had a pregnant wife at home who was nesting. I had gone to Home Depot and Walmart to get plants, bark and top soil. I had things I wanted done. And so it begins. :)

On Saturday, we planted some new plants in the front yard, put new bark down- love the look of new fresh, red bark- cleaned up the garage, made the kids clean their rooms and cut Kyle's hair. Then we got a babysitter and went out to Jak's Grill (yummy steak) and to the Temple. It was a successful day after all.

Now I'm onto picking the paint color for the girls room. I found their comforters at Walmart and picked out a paint color, but it was too dark so I picked a much lighter violet color. I'm hoping to get their room painted tomorrow. Organizing and fixing their closets is on the list for Saturday. Wish us luck. :)

Welcome to Kate's school. She means serious business. We had math, reading and spelling.

We were given name tags and sharpened pencils.

We learned to distinguish between "fancy" and "plain" words. :) So now YOU know!

Spring Break to Easter

We had a long and fun spring break over at my parent's house. Kyle went with my Dad and brothers to Moab, Utah to go motorcycle riding. They left Saturday and came back Wednesday. They had a good time. I just kept reminding Kyle to be safe because he has a baby on the way. ;) Then Kyle went back to Everett to work on Thursday and Friday. Then he came back for the Easter weekend. Lots of driving for him, poor him!

We kept busy while Kyle was gone. My Mom fed us, sewed Easter dresses for the girls and entertained us. We were able to go into Tri-Cities for Paige's birthday party, to see my G&G Wright and to get a pedicure/manicure with Sara. We even had a girls night out without kids and went to random stores and to Outback for a yummy dinner. That was fun.

Our FHE night about King Benjamin and we talked about what we had just learned from Pres Monson from General Conference.

Visiting with G&G Wright. My Grandma has Parkinson's and deals with the bad side effects of that. I feel for her because she's had to deal with a lot of health issues in her life. We had a good visit and the kids loved riding around on her motorized wheelchair. It took 10 pictures to even get this one with Lindsey scowling and all. :)

Paige turned 5! She had a cheerleader themed party and Kate was so excited to go to it. Keitra Calaway, a cheerleader at Wahluke HS came and taught the girls some cheers. They loved it.

We died eggs and Preston kept saying "we're making rainbow eggs. They're so beautiful." He also managed to spill over the green dye. Thank goodness for bleach spray.

Kate insisted on going to the town easter egg hunt. It was windy and cold. I should have brought coats. But they had fun and got lots of eggs there. They had a PA system and the guy spoke only in spanish so my mom and I had no idea what he was saying. We only knew it was almost time to start when we heard " cinco, quatro, tres..." haha!

Lindsey is ready to go find eggs!

All the kiddos ready to go for the easter egg hunt at my Mom's house. We had close to 200 eggs so there were lots to find. Then each kid had a golden egg (with money inside) with their name written on it to find. In the past there was only 1 golden egg and tears were shed by the kids that didn't find it so this year we were politically correct and gave each kid their own golden egg. haha! My cousin Cari and her husband Ryan and kids Jaac, Gracie and Piper were there for the Easter weekend. It was fun to see them!

Happy Easter!!!

My mom made the girls dresses. They turned out so cute. I found a dress online that I liked so she replicated it. I love ruffles! We went to Church, heard beautiful music, felt uplifted and came home to a yummy Easter dinner. We are grateful for our Savior and know that He lives!

I laugh when I see this picture. Oh Lindsey Loo Who!

One big happy family!

I'm 30 weeks and feeling big! I'm doing pretty good still overall. I need to organize the girl's bedroom (find new bedding and decor) and to organize closets. Those are my "to do's" for April.