Kids Pictures

So how lucky are we to have an Aunt Sarah to come down and take pictures for us?? We are very lucky. We just did the kids this year. They do so dang cute if I do say so myself. The one of all the kids together makes me laugh because Nick is so much taller than everyone else. Nick and Aeryka are only 18 months apart in age.

All I want for Christmas

Well All Jessy wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. Within a week she has lost both of her front teeth. How is this happening to my baby? She does look awfully cute with them out.

Snow Day

I know it has been a while. The computer is now working and the e-mail is all straightened out so I thought I would post a few pictures of what has been going on the last couple of days. We have got about 20 inches of snow (Yeah). Bring on the white Christmas. The kids got their first snow day out of school. If you can't tell they were very excited to get out and play in the snow. Robby and Aeryka were out for over an hour. Nicholas' favorite thing was to climb under the swing set and play because their was not any snow under it. The last two pictures are of the back porch before everyone went out to play. Now I will have to figure out why the words are all over the place. Sorry.

Why some people are in our lives

Do you ever wonder why we are so blessed to have the people we know in our lives?? You know what I'm talking about, the people that help you remember that you are so lucky to have this very special boy in your family. No matter how hard things are at this given moment, they help you find the blessings that you know are there but you are having a little hard time recalling. I read this awesome post the other night after having an especially hard couple of days dealing with Nicky and some of the many challenges that come with a sweet little boy that has to deal with aspergers. So I thought I need to post this so that I will always have something to look back on and remember how awesome Holland can be. We will still have our challenges but it is always worth the trip. I am so thankful to Merodene that she put this post up so I could read it and then steal it and share it with everyone that I know.





WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley
©©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley.
All rights reserved


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 guide books 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 a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.



So you must go out and buy new guide books. 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....and 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."



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


I am so thankful for Nicky and the special set of challenges that are in our family because of this wonderful little boy that chose to come into in our family. I am so thankful for his kindness and the love that he shows to his family. I am also thankful to wonderful friends, that help me remember to enjoy where I am at.

My little Bakers

I thought it would be fun if the kids started learning to cook/bake this summer. I told Robby he could be the first one to choose what he wanted to learn to cook. So he chose pumpkin pie ( in the middle of the summer). I did want to encourage him so we went for it. Robby helped with the pie part and Jessy was in charge of helping with the crust. They were so excited that we had enough dough and filling to make 2 big pies and one little one for them to split. Aeryka didn't have a chance to help with this pie but she did plan dinner another night and she is learning to make homemade macaroni and cheese one of the few things that she loves to eat. Nick is learning things that he is interested in baking such as cookies and bread. Every once in a while he will help with dinner, he is actually more interested in eating dinner than what actually goes in it.

Gymnastics

Aeryka has been doing gymnastics for about 6 months now and man does she love it. She is on level orange (2) and she is doing great. These pictures are of her when she passed her first level and of her spring spectacular. She is really strong and was able to do a backwards pull over on the first time she had class. Bar and floor are her strong points and she will keep on working on vault and beam. She always has a blast and she is very excited to move to the next level. I thought that she would be on level orange for a while but one of the teachers told me that she is almost ready to pass to the next level. I guess we will see when she has pass offs in the beginning of August. I am so proud of Aeryka and the hard work that she puts in to improve herself in this sport. One of the things that I want to remember about her is how funny she is when she leaves the living room. She always does a cartwheel or a round off or a flip over to leave. I think it is so funny. I am so thankful for this sweet little girl in our family. She has been a great helper to me this summer and it is so fun to have this shy sweet girl in our family.

T-Ball

What could be more fun than being on the same team as your big brother?? Oh yes, being on the same team as your big brother and your cousin!! Robby loves t-ball, he loves to go after the ball, he loves to bat,and he loves being cheered for and is always looking for a thumbs up after he does anything. Basically he is really into baseball. Then after Jessy begged me to let her play( she didn't want to be the cheerleader any more). So I have had 3 kids go through t-ball and I have never had one quite like her. She doesn't want to bat you have to remind her to run and after all that fun she goes out in the field and dumps handfuls of dirt on herself.

The season is almost over and she still cannot run the bases in the right order. The first couple of games she walked around the bases just like Eeyore. We finally got her to jog and she flaps her arms like she is a bird. I'm telling you this girl walks or jogs to her own drummer and he is playing the slowest march ever!!

At least she's cute and you get to enjoy that as she takes a year to get around the bases. I am looking forward to the end of the season. I usually need a year to get excited again but once it rolls around I can hardly wait.

Spring Break At Grandma's

We had so much fun during spring break. I decided to take the kids up to Idaho for a quick visit. We started out by going to Uncle Andy's house for a day and spending time with his family which includes his goats, chickens, and the new puppies. This was really for Nick, he absolutely loves going to Uncle Andy's. He was so excited to feed the baby goats from a bottle and of course get to hold one of the baby chicks. I think he was most excited that Uncle Andy told him that one of the chicks could be his. He can hardly wait to go back and visit his chicky.

We also went to the river and fed the ducks. This is always one of the favorite things to do. Nicky was excited to finally get some of the geese to take the bread right out of his hand. Then we had a picnic, the first one of the season and man they were so excited. After the picnic the kids did a little bit of exploring and they love to do that.

They can hardly wait to go back to grandma's house this summer.

The pictures of Jessy loving on her brother make me laugh because those two have such a cute little bond. Robby is a very protective older brother ( I know what that is like) and does not like to see anything hurt his sister. However, there are the times when he just has to tease her and you can see it in his eyes when that time gets close. They really crack me up!

Pinewood Derby

We had our pinewood derby the last night and I still have a hard time believing that we can get through it in less than an hour. I guess that is what happens when you have a total of eight boys. Nicholas had a good time and really enjoyed the making of and choosing of which lego guy to put in his car (the storm trooper won this year), and of course the racing of the cars, even if he was really tired. It is hard for me to believe that he is just cruising through scouts and really enjoying it. Seriously who wouldn't when you have the best den leader ever ( that would be me). I started in wolfs when we first moved here and now all the boys I started with are going in Young Mens this year. I can not believe how fast the time has gone. I guess before I know it Nick will be that old also. Where does the time go?? Anyway, The pinewood derby was a huge success and I even got the patches and arrows sewn on. It was an all around good day.

Aeryka's Birthday Party

Aeryka turned 8. We did the usual for her birthday. We took her and some of her friends sledding. Hurray for winter birthdays. She wanted donuts and wassail instead of cake. On their birthday the kids get to choose what they want for dinner and Aeryka knew exactly what she wanted, Christmas ham, homemade macaroni and cheese, rolls, applesauce, and fruit cocktail. We decided to take her out for her birthday and she chose to go to Cracker Barrel because she is able to order breakfast all day. She loves pancakes and eggs.

Aeryka is an amazing sister to all the kids but most especially to Nicky. She gets very upset if someone is picking on Nicky and let's him play with her and her friends at school. She chose to be baptized and was very excited to plan the program that she wanted (more to come on the baptism soon).

Ron and I decided for her birthday to let her take gymnastics, which she loves!! She is loving achievement days and looks forward to the next one each time. She is in 2nd grade and loves going to school and playing with her friends. She is so excited that she is slightly taller than Robby. We are so glad that this little sweetheart is in our family.

Field Trip

So for preschool Jessy's class earned money and then went to the dollar store and to visit Santa. This is her standing in the line by herself trying to be brave. She was trying to convince herself that she would go sit on his lap all morning. Obviously there are no picture of her on Santa's lap. I have yet to get one of my kids with him without a fight. So I decided it wasn't worth the trauma. Which is what it ends up being at our house.

I do love the I am out of here picture. She really cracks me up.

New Moon

Yes, I know it has been a while. This was such a fun night. Ron's work had a contest to get tickets to see New Moon. All you had to do was put your name in and hope that you get tickets to go see it at seven instead of midnight. Guess what we got some tickets. It was awesome we each got a ticket and as an added bonus we each got a free large popcorn and soda. There was security from the movie studio and we were not allowed to have cell phones on. I liked this movie better than Twighlight, but nothing beats the books. Just my opinion. I did love going to see a movie for free and not having to wait because there is no way I would go at midnight.