Christmas Day 2011

This year for Christmas there were some first for our family. First, Christmas was on a Sunday. I don't remember having a Christmas on this day before. Luckily for us we had church at 1:00 so Christmas morning wasn't any different. Although we only had an hour of church, not only were my kids tired but everyone else's were as well. The primary sang 5 songs for the Christmas program and I had 3 kids fall asleep in their chairs on the stand! It was very amusing.
Second, every kid got a present from Santa and P.J's from us the night before but all the other presents were homemade. I really enjoyed making scarves, hand warmers, white boards and with Denyces' help quiet books for the three little girls. Each kid also precipitated in Secret Sibling. We started this in our family last year. You pick a sibling's name and make a homemade gift. We had so much fun last year and it is what inspired the homemade theme this year. Garrison made Denyce a wall hanging with her initials, Kwynn gave Lily a garden snow globe, Mason made a pillow for Garrison, Lily had Kwynn and made her a match game, Aubrey made Mason a big Jenga set and Denyce made a box for Aubrey that was filled with musical instruments. My favorite gift was from Dwayne and the kids. They took my 12 favorite pictures that I've taken and put them together in a calender. It looks great! The boys favorite gift had to be the bottle rocket launchers that Dwayne made them. We all had fun working the pump and watching the 2 liter bottles rocket into the sky.

As you can see from the pictures, it was still dark outside when we got up because it was at 5:30 in the morning! Normally we make the kids wait until 6:00 but for some reason we let it go this year. Maybe we were all excited for Christmas this year. After opening presents we had our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watched A Christmas Story. Garrison found it real funny this year. Hopefully memories were made and everyone had a great Christmas. My kids are already looking forward to next year!

Snow Day!

The most amazing thing happen this last Friday Dec. 2nd. It snowed..a lot! We have lived here for 8 years and I have never seen this much snow before. School was canceled, nobody in town had electricity and we were so unprepared my kids didn't even have gloves. We had to wait until that afternoon when the power was back on to pick some up. But we had so much fun that day. Our neighbors down the street the (new) Hatch's brought out their horses and towed everyone up and down the street on a sled. The Hall's were there too which prompted a big snow ball fight. My kids stayed out as long as they could and they weren't the only ones. Driving through town you could see kids everywhere building snowmen, making snow angels and at Hunt park some very resilient children made a huge snow duck in the field. Since Dwayne was home he got to help us put up outside Christmas lights. It has been a long time since he has done this because he is usually at wrestling finals. Garrison and Lily were helping him put up the lights on the fence and I need to know what kind of end he had at the end of the string. I asked and he reply ed that he had a male end. "A male end? Dad what does that mean?" Lily asked. Garrison answered "Don't worry Lily, you'll find out when your older. But its not as exciting as you think it is." Oh how that kid makes me laugh! We built our own snowman and colored him with food coloring. The kids loved that part. To top off the the weekend we also put up our Christmas tree. This year we are trying something new. My sister found a Yoda tree topper and was kind enough to send it to us. We bought Star Wars good and bad guys colored ornaments to go with the theme. Everyone agrees that the coolest thing is that Yoda's light saber glows. Nothing say holiday cheer like a scowling Yoda. We love it anyway!

Halloween 2011

Every year Halloween is a stressful yet fun time for me. It's stressful because Dwayne coaches wrestling so he isn't there to help with getting kids ready. Dwayne is my right hand man and my biggest helper, so when he isn't there I miss him. With six kids we have to work as a team just to survive and we work really well together. What he does help with before hand is the construction and artistic creation of many of our kids costumes. Garrison's especially. He has a very big imagination and his Halloween costume wish list is mind blowing. Last year he was a hammer head shark. Yeah I know..wow. Denyce is just as bad. She was a Storm Trooper from Star Wars and her costume was homemade.I am so glad my husband is an art teacher. There is no way we could pull off all these creative costumes without him. This year though we had an easier time. Joann's Fabric had a sale on butterfly wings that all the girls wanted so they put them on whatever they chose and we went with that. Mason was a ninja (vanish) which again was easy because we already had that costume. Garrison had to have an original costume...again. When you put together two vacuum hoses, plaster, a toolbox and a homemade sword you get a phantom assassin. Who knew. I think the highlight was Bree's costume. We all thought it was cool that she was a monkey because that's her nickname. Boy she loves that costume and slept in it the next night. She was so cute. This year we did actual trick or treating door to door for the first time. Normally we have a trunk or treat where a bunch of cars park in a parking lot and the kids go to each car for treats instead of a house. It's easier and much faster. But this year it was cancelled. I think the kids still had fun though. I put the back seat of our suburban down and let all the kids pile in back there as we went street to street. The kids and I also picked up the Hall family. It was a lot of fun with all my kids plus Lauryn and Jillyan. I loved having a friend to walk and talk with too.

Playing Hooky

Ok, so I admit it. This last Sunday instead of going to church like a good little girl, I ditched. If that wasn't bad enough, I took my kids with me. We packed a lunch, piled into the car and drove to Snowflake to take pictures of fall colors (what I wanted to do) and go play at the park (what the kids wanted to do). It was a win win situation for all. Unfortunately Dwayne declined to go because he was feeling under the weather. The kids and I also stopped by the Snowflake Temple to look at the grounds which include three beautiful fountains. On the way home I told the kids what a 'Chinese Firedrill' was and they insisted on acting on their new found knowledge. As we were racing around the suburban Garrison yelled "whats the point of this again?" and Denyce answered back " there is no point..it's just fun!" I'm glad someone got it.

Homecoming 2011

This year the theme for homecoming was Rock'n the 80s. It was fun for the kids at the junior high and high school to dress up in sub-theme everyday, which leads up to the homecoming parade and football game on Friday. The dance is on the next night. As a family we had fun playing dress up and getting into school spirit. On "rock day" Denyce put pink streaks in her hair and Dwayne gave her pen tattoos on her arm. On Friday Kwynn, Bree and I meet Dwayne in the Safeway parking lot to watch the homecoming parade. It was there that I gave Dwayne flowers with a paper note asking him to the dance. I said it was a very important decision and he should think about it for the day before he answered. I think I made his day. This is a unexpected upside I never considered when I married him. I can go to homecoming and prom any year I want. If I didn't have the best time, I just have to wait until next year. Plus I always have an awesome date that is a lot of fun! This makes up for not going in high school. So hear is my advice ladies...find yourself a educator for a hubby. The benefits are worth it! I had fun helping Dwayne with his look, he even let me put eyeliner and fake earings on. My favorite reaction from his students was this...."Hey Mr. Hawk. Looking good!" "Thanks Tyrell."  Then there was a pause (5..4..3..2..1) "Mr. Hawk...are you wearing EYELINER!"

I go walk'n

   After watching conference on Sunday and having an early dinner, my kids needed to get out of the house before I did bodily harm to them. So we went on a little walk to the Rock Clubhouse. The Rock Clubhouse is a little plateau of rocks near our house that our kids love to go to.
  We have many stories about the clubhouse. Blackjack got wedged between two rocks, Mason fell off the side one Fourth of July night (luckily another rock stopped him before he fell too far) and it features in many of the kids outside imagination games. One of my favorite features is the rock toilet. Yes a toilet. And I'm sorry to say it's been used. I was up there with all the kids one day when Kwynn looked at me and told me she had to GO! I asked her if she could hold it until we got home but was told "no way..I gotta go now!" Garrison then informed me that there was a bathroom if she wanted to use it. Once I was directed to the rock toilet, I asked Kwynn if she wanted to use it. "Sure" she said like she peed outside everyday. So I helped her and the rock commode was used for the first time. Everyone was of course impressed.

 I was trying to take a picture of Aubrey and Kwynn when I saw "the lip" come out on Bree's face. What was the reason for the sudden pouting...Dwayne was walking over to see something one of the other kids wanted to show him. Aubrey is going through a 'my daddy' phase. She immediately got down and ran to him shouting "Daddy" the whole way.

 This is the tunnel that runs under the railroad tracks. The kids like it because it's not very long and it echos.

   Aubrey is learning new words everyday. One of her new favorites is flower. On our walk we found a bunch of wild flowers growing. Aubrey had tons of fun grabbing the flowers, crushing them in her hand and squealing "flower!" We had to pull her away because Lily had to use the bathroom. Alas, she would not use the rock toilet.

Sooths the savage beast

As I was growing up, music was a constant in my life. Not only was every member of my family in band but my mom gave piano lesson and my dad gave clarinet lessons as well. I remember once Dwayne and I were watching a movie and the fictional family gathered together around the piano and burst into song. Dwayne looked at me and asked "who does that!?" I then told him we did...all the time. He thought we were a little weird because our family did and I thought his family was a little weird because they didn't. Needless to say I have brought that musical importance into my own home. It started when my kids were babies. Instead of one song or lullaby that I would hum (I don't sing..not a talent of mine) to all my kids, each baby ended up with their own song. This makes sense to me because each child is different. All my kids know which song is theirs.
 It took me the longest to find Denyce's song. She wasn't happy with anything I could come up with and I was very frustrated trying to find a song that would calm her down. Finally I struck gold. For some reason The Wise Man and The Foolish Man from The Childrens Songbook hummed really slow worked for her. She is still that way. Totally unique.
 Garrison's song is "Stay Awake" from the movie Mary Poppins. As a baby Garrison was very mellow and easy to please. I only had to hum this song once and his eyes would get droopy and he would nod off to sleep. He is like that now. Once he calms down, he will sleep like the dead.
   Mason was one of my kids that needed all the help he can get to calm down and get to sleep. He needs three different pills to go to sleep at night and it still takes him an hour to do so. It doesn't surprise me that he needed the ultimate in calming songs. In my opinion that is Alisson Krauss. I would kneel at the side of Mason's bed humming "Down to the River to Pray" over and over again while rubbing his back and legs. This process would sometimes take me and hour. It's a good thing I love this song and didn't mind the repetition.
  As a baby, Lily loved anything with movement in song. Her song is "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. I would sway and dance while humming this song and she enjoyed the back and forth motion this song created. If I'm every listening to my Bob Marley CD, she gets excited when her song comes on.
  I was going through a Jane Austin faze when Kwynn was a baby. Because of this her song comes from Sense and Sensibility. Its the song that Kate Winslet character is playing when Col. Brandon first sees her. I don't know exactly what it is called. I guess I should find out because if everyone else knows what their song is, she will too. Kwynn loved the three count feel to this song, especially when I would rock her in our rocking chair.
   It's no surprise with Aubrey being the youngest I don't watch what I want but what Kwynn and Lily want to watch. When Aubrey was a infant, Kwynn loved Cinderella. So Aubrey loves the song "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes". It would make me relax which would make her relax. Plus Kwynn would dance to it too.
  My girls love to dance in the living room and everyone will sing along to songs on the radio. Garrison and Mason have excellent memories and learn lyrics quickly. Part of Mason's stemming is humming. Not only does he hum a variety of different songs but he responds well to music too. As we were watching conference today, the only time he was still was when the choir was singing. Being still for Mason is rare and he only does it when people are singing. But he doesn't like my taste in music. I'll have to work on that.

Why Me?

With two boys that have Autisim, I am often faced with challenges not only daily but long term. One such challenge is reading. It comes up at every parent teacher conference and it is going to be something both Garrison and Mason will struggle with long term. Garrison has issues with problem solving. If he reads a story about a day in a dogs life and is then asked "if you were a dog, how would you do...ect" Garrison could not answer the question. The reason, he's not a dog. He can't think in an imaginitive way like that. He see's life in black and white. In one way this is very good for me because he is a rule follower and doesn't like to get in trouble at all. The negitive is that he thinks everyone else should be on the black and white path. He gets very upset when others break rules, especially when they get away with it. But reading comprehension is a skill that he doen't have and will have to continually work on. His fifth grade teacher found an amazing way around this by simply asking him if he was a tiny person on that dog shoulder, what would he see or tell the dog to do. Garrison can figure that easier than putting himself in someone elses shoes.
 Mason has reading comprehension problems too but in different and more extreme way. Mason's teacher told me that Mason can read 78 words a minute. That's fast for an 8 year old. But when asked to go back and remember the words he just read, he could get 17 of them. 17! I have to say I was floored. Basically Mason is an in one ear out the other reader. After discussing this little hiccup, his teacher and I came up with a plan that we hope will work. But it is hard and alittle frustrating for both of us. Instead of Mason going and reading by himself, I now have to sit with him and quiz him after just two pages of the book. The first book we tried this new process on was "The Story of Ferdinand the Bull." The first two pages said where the story took place and what the name of the bull is. I asked Mason the same two questions. He looked at me and said he didn't know. I wanted to hit my forehead on the table... repeatedly! Now we barely finish a shorter book because we have to stop so often and sometimes go back so he can re-read and answer the question I asked him. He gets very frustrated with me because I have to push him so hard. The harder I push the louder his humming gets and the harder he hits his head. It hurts me that I'm putting him through this every day but I know it's helping a little. But after everyday helping him read and listening and helping Garrison with his emotional ups and downs, I feel exausted. Then Garrison will come through the dining room with Bree on his back, making her scream with laughter and Mason reminds me that his name today is Pizza Server and I'm invited to his beauty parlor. I know I was ment to have these two wonderful boys in my life and I'm learning from them everyday. And I smile.

Ask and ye shall receive

I've been asked what photos I won ribbons for at this years fair. Well here they are.... Garrison and Aubrey was 3rd and Mikelle in the sprinkler was 3rd too. The landscape at the Petrified Forest won 2nd place and the water drops on our car was my blue ribbon 1st place!