A family "photo-shoot"

My good friend Lizzie was kind enough to let us borrow her great camera, so we went over to a resort close by and my sister snapped a few pictures of our family. It was pretty chaotic trying to get anything with all of us cooperating at the same time, but we did manage to get a few fun ones...

My little "turkeys"...

This September I started doing an in-home preschool so that I could encourage and even monitor (for lack of a better word) Will's socialization. I had him at a preschool that had aids for children with Autism but they were very inconsistent with attendance and he would end up off in a corner playing by himself most of the time. Sad. Now he's with friends and I have and aid that helps him stay involved.

Will and Tanner

Ever since Ben started his "big boy" school the dinamics with the other younger kids have changed a little, in the at home preschool I've been doing, and I think it's been nice for Will to have their friends all to himself. I've noticed that he's becoming more social just in this short amount of time. Here he is with a good friend of theirs, Tanner, who used to live across the street. I'm so excited to see Will becoming more and more social. This is a big deal in the world of Autism. He used to barely interact with kids his own age and now he is seeking them out. He's still not where he "should be", but he's progressing really well. What a blessing these little guys in his preschool are for him.

"Male bonding" time...

More Will and Tanner time and yes, that is a bounce house in the house. When you have such long summers, and such wild boys, you need to have a serious outlet for energy that is indoors. Hence, a bounce house in our "formal" living room that folds and tucks away, quite nicely, under a table in the corner but gets pulled out on almost a daily basis. I call it our blow up wrestling ring because you should see these boys go to town on eachother in that thing. Luckily it's soft so there are only minor injuries occuring from their own flailing body parts.

We love to see the temple!

Last New Port Pic's...

We will definitely have to make this trip a tradition, or something like it, because it was soooo much fun to be able to get the kids out the heat of the desert and be able to spend a few days out doors, eating good food, and hanging out with good friends. Thanks Lizzie!

They love being outdoors, especially after a long hot summer!

Someone looks taken by surprise!

Lizzie and me...

Lillie was there for the afternoon and took some fun pictures with her great camera... We had a yummy pizza for dinner out on the grass and just watched the kids run around playing.

Hanging out at the resort. I can't believe we had so much fun just relaxing and enjoying the great weather. Here's Ben, Tanner, and Sophia having a blast!

Great fun in New Port...

Like I said earlier, Lizzie is a very talented photographer and was kind enough to roll around in the sand for a complete photo shoot of my boys. She was quite a sport, and we got some really amazing pictures. These are just a few...

I love this picture!!!

This is their little buddy Tanner who we were with for a couple of days in New Port. His mom, Lizzie, is the one that took all of these great pictures of the boys. She has a great camera and is very talented! We had soooo much fun with them just playing and playing!!!

I don't know what else to say except that is one dang cute bumm!

Luckily there were very few people at the beach that day because I could not keep close on this kid if my life depended on it! There were many full body applications of spray sunblock that day for this "half-ghost" child.

Happy 35th to me!!!

Per David's request for a, relatively, current picture I have added this one, to my vain dismay. Never been the most photo-genic person, so I'm usually the one with camera in hand, not in front of it. I think it's funny that he likes this picture so much since he's not completely in it...

Happy Halloween!

I'm just now realizing that I didn't take very good Halloween pictures, and didn't get any of Ben. Actually, I got one of him but it won't upload. Anyway, I'll have to get more later and put them up. This is from our little party at our preschool. The kids had a blast doing a little scavenger-hunt.

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG ONE...
I should start by just putting it out there that I love my children very much. We waited a long time for them and are very grateful for them in our lives... That being said, you may want to skip this post new mother's or mother's with only one child under the age of about 18 mo., there are days (sometimes whole ones) when they drive me off the edge... When I feel like they have figured out every possible thing they can do or button they can press, to drive me insane! Of course it's my job as "the adult" to not let them, but some days/weeks, that can be really hard.

The reason for my ranting is that this has been an exceptionally loooooong week! I tried to connect it to Halloween and lots of candy, but they haven't been involved in much and I've been very careful to limit the sugar intake for this precise reason. The bottom line is that I happen to have been "blessed" (I try really hard to look at it that way, I promise!) with two very "Spirited" boys. One, for those of you who we haven't been in contact with in ages, who was diagnosed with autism shortly after his second birthday and one who tends to be very defiant and mimics a lot of his younger brother's (they are 14 mos. apart) autistic "behaviors".

For example, when Will (our younger son) throws a tantrum, which is very common for even the highest functioning autistic (which he is) our older son (Ben) often follows suit and starts misbehaving because they are so close in age and tend to model behaviors back and forth. This is very common with siblings, of autistic children, especially when they are so close in age. Fortunately, this is the same with good behavior and skills and so we feel very blessed with this and don't feel that it was an accident that Will came so quickly after Ben.
What I mean is that while it makes for some craziness at home, the fact that they are so close in age has helped Will to be as high functioning as he is because he has someone to model "typical/normal" behavior from, as well as someone to make friends for him which is exactly what Ben does.
I try really hard to keep the blessings present in my mind, at least to think about them at the end of each and every day. Sometimes the only time I can do that is once they're sound asleep in bed and I know it's "my time". My time to put the couch back together after the days fort has crumbled to the ground, or to clean the spicy-cheatos stain out of the carpet for the millionth time. Time to brush my teeth because I realized when I was talking to Will's Speech Therapist that I had completely spaced that one out that morning.

You get the picture. It's just quiet time. Maybe if there's enough of it, I'll be able to slip in a little "me" time and take off the nasty nail polish that's been peeling off the 2 month old pedicure I gave myself the last time I squeezed myself in. Speaking of... my husband's at Mickie D's with the boys so I'm going to go take a long over due bath, and I don't mean the soaking kind. Sick, I know!