Basket Ball Games!

So this week we have had three basket ball games and one more to go. Jay's Harley team has lost both of their games this week but have had a lot of fun. Deynna's team won their game this week and Deynna scored 18 points! She is such a ball player, she also has a black eye from her game! She plays her heart out when she plays. Last week, Jesse played in his first game of the season and his team won by forfeit. They still played though for fun and Jesse was able to play for about 5 minutes of the game! It really is a blessing that Jay is the coach for the Young mens team so he can monitor how well Jess is doing and how much he can handle. We still have Jays ward game tonight and the kids are very upset that they have to miss it, it starts at 10:00pm so.....

In other news, Austin got into a fist fight at school yesterday and Jay had to go to the principals office to have a meeting about it. This is the first time Austin has fought at school and we came down hard on him. He was being taunted so he felt justified. For those of you who do not know, Austin was born with fetal alcohol effect and he is also PDD, ADD, and bipolar. He is in second grade and has really tried hard to hold it together at school up to this point. Jay and I have decided it is time to switch doctors to one that specializes in more complex disorders. I know there has to be an answer somewhere, and we will keep on searching until we find it. On a whole Austin has been doing so much better. We started using the charts again for chores and responsibilities, which has helped tremendously, as well as a huge white board calender so he knows exactly what is going on each day with the family. Again, this makes a huge difference at home. I am hoping his new doctor will help guide us with information on how to rewrite Austins 504 plan at school to better help him with his unique situation. I will keep you posted on what we find out.

To end on a happy note, I love my new job! It is so rewarding to work with children with disabilites. I have decided that when I start my Masters program, I will not just go into Special Education, I will go into Special Education with the emphasis on the severly disabled. I love that I am able to take the training I am recieving in class, and apply it at home with my own children. It has been an amazing blessing for our family.

Through great trials come great blessings and I have to continue to remind myself of this as I tackle this latest issue with my son. I know, through faith, anything is possible.

Three weeks today!!

I cannot believe it has already been three weeks! My garden starts are doing amazing and I have started some flowers as well. For family night this week my mother taught a lesson based around the children's song Little Purple Pansy. For the activity we all planted pansy seeds. The kids had so much fun and cannot wait for their flowers to grow. I am also going to start some different herbs this weekend. As you can see the corn is out of control. I do not think I will be able to keep it alive until it is time to plant outside, but I will try. Next year I will start it inside about three weeks before I want to plant it! I am learning so much by growing everything inside. My tomato plants are doing so good. They are about 3 inches high now and their stems are very thick. They have multiple leaves as well. I plan on letting the kids sell all the extra starts in the spring so they are very excited and helpful! They are all saving up for something so this will be great for them. I will have at least 200 starts for them to sell I think. HAHA, I have no idea where we are going to put everything as they get bigger but we will find a place. My kids are keeping a journal about the plants, and are writing down all the things that happen each week. This have turned into a wonderful experience for everyone.







I just started a job this week as a para educator II in an autistic unit at an elementary school. I love it! I am learning so much and it is only 2 hours and 40 minutes a day so I am home when the kids are! As Special education is what my degree will be in, this is a great stepping stone for me. One of the little boys in my class is deaf so I am learning sign language. My family wanted to learn as well so every night before scriptures and prayer, I teach them 3 or 4 new signs. It has been less than a week and we already know quite a few words!

Jesse has been having a hard week. His absent seizures are more frequent but he still has not had a convulsent seizure. So we are counting our blessings and taking it one day at a time. He has only missed half a day of school this week which is great!

Deynna and Jay have been playing basket ball on their teams for the last few weeks and are loving it. Jesse has his first game this weekend and is very excited about it. It seems like we are living on the basketball court! It is great seeing everyone having so much fun.

I have about an hour to take a shower and get ready for work so......

One week today!

My garden starts are growing! I planted the seeds one week ago today! I can not believe how many starts I have. I planted way more than I needed because I was sure not everything would grow. Uh, I was wrong. Jay is in the process of building me three more light structures so I will have room for everything once I start transplanting the starts into their own pots. Soon my entire house will be over run with veggie plants! My sister said that before long I will have a corn maze in my living room! Hopefully not an actual maze, just totes full here and there! LOL.









I can not wait until spring. Spring is my favorite time of year. I feel like it is a new beginning! A chance to start clean and fresh, to leave the trials and heartache of the following year behind.

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created spring.-Bern Williams

A Snowy Day

This is the first year Jesse has been doing well enough to play in the snow so he was in charge of the snow man!










Not bad for his very first snowman ever!

We have gotten so much snow in the last 24 hours. It is crazy, I don't know if you can tell by the pictures but there is at least one in a half to two feet of snow!




Now it is time for some hot soup and hot chocolate!

Garden starts!!

I am so excited about gardening! It has to be my favorite hobby. I feel so peaceful and content when I am working in my garden. Next year Jay is going to build me a indoor garden so I can garden all winter long as well, but for now I have a mini indoor garden with all my starts for this coming season as well as some things I will harvest indoors. Right now my garden is covered in a foot of snow, but Jay is in the process of building my 9 boxes like the ones in the picture. I will post more pics in the spring when they are all done and filled with dirt! I can't wait.

My kids!

This pic is a little blurry but here are all my kids! I am just learning how to add pics on here so it may be a little crazy for a while! I am going to take some pics of my indoor garden in a few minutes and I will try and post them.

Back to school.

Today is the first day back to school for the kids and Jay and I. It has been slow going this morning as everyone is out of habit. This year is the first year I have had all six kids in school at the same time, Ashlee is only half day, and it has been harder than I thought it would be. Granted, Jesse and or Shalee end up staying home a couple of times a week so I am not alone all everyday but..... I enjoy having a few hours to work on homework without being interupted but I am always listening for kids. next year is going to be very strange for me as I will have the whole day to myself. At least I will have time to do all my homework and have a clean house for a few hours a day! That will be different.

It is only 5 degrees here in Orem Utah this morning. So cold! Our furnace stopped working right before Christmas and we had to purchase a new one. We had no idea how bad the furnace had become over the last 5 years but as the new furnace started heating the house back up we were amazed at how comfortable our house was! This morning I am especially grateful!

Well...I better start my day!

Starting anew....

I really want to blog, I have attempted a few times but life seems to always get in the way. This time I am going to try and make it a priority. I love having a place to write about my children, garden, books I am reading, plays I have seen, and Temples my husband and I have visited, just to name a few. Writing down my sorrow and my joys helps me to appreciate my life so much more. So here goes...again.

The kids are getting so big! My oldest, Jesse, is almost 14, Deynna is 12, Shalee is almost 11, Soren is 9, Austin is 7, and Ashlee is 6! I can not believe my baby is six years old! The time has gone so quickly, it is a little scary. Jesse and Shalee are still struggling with their seizures. But they are both in school most of the time and happy. We have found a medication Jesse can tolerate finally, and he had another surgery to implant a new VNS device this June. The VNS has most definitely saved his live and we are so blessed to have found this ingenues use of modern medicine. On a sad note, Jesse and Shalee have both been diagnosed with a seizure disorder that does not have very positive long term outcomes. We are just taking it one day and a time, and praying for guidance.

Jesse loves life, he is an avid reader and reads almost as much as I do!! He reads far above his grade level and although the doctors told me he would always be very behind academically due to his seizures, he is at or above grade level in every subject, save math. He is already talking about getting his teaching degree online when he graduates High School so he can teach either in person, or online depending on his health.

Deynna is starting to become a teenager and it is so fun seeing her blossom. She is so responsible and has a great testimony. She loves the gospel and is always telling us new things she has learned through reading her scriptures. She loves everything sporty and is planning on joining the track team next month. She loves school and is finally starting to dress a little more like a girl!! Yea!!!

Shalee is sweet, loving, and kind. She has really struggled with the deterioration of her health this last year. She has seen what Jesse has gone through and is scared that she will be as limited as he is. We have no answers for her as no one knows what the future will hold for either of them. She loves to play with her little sister, and one of her favorite games is scrabble. She sees beauty in everything around her and loves to help me cook and garden.

Soren is doing amazing! He has been with us now for almost 2 years straight and has adjusted extremely well. He loves basketball, football, and soccer. He's favorite pro basketball team is the Jazz, much to my dismay, I am a blazer fan all the way, and his favorite football team is the packers. He is very excited about playing tackle football this summer with Austin. He loves to help me in the garden, harvesting is his favorite.

Austin loves anything to do with any sport. He is great at every sport he has tried but football is his favorite. He loves the Jazz as well, Ugh, and his favorite football team is the Dallas Cowboys, thanks to Jay. He is the height of the average 13 year old and the weight of the average 13 and a half year old. He outweighs all of the kids and is almost as tall as Jesse! He loves to watch football and help us cook.

Ashlee is the princess of the family, Well if you ask her, the entire world. She is very tiny for her age and loves to cuddle. We are having a hard time helping her to realize she is 6 and not a baby anymore! We will keep trying. She loves playing dress up, tea party, and my littlest petshop. She loves getting her nails painted, and going shopping. She is extremely advanced in school and although she has an attitude, she loves school when she is not bored.

Jay and I are both in school full time which I love! I wish you could get paid go to school! That would be my ideal job, ha ha. Jay is working in construction while he works on his degree and I am babysitting and rarely, transcribing from home. My passion is gardening and I am have just started an indoor green house in my kitchen. It is way too big thus far and it will only get bigger! I do not know where I am going to put it all until May! I started this early so I would be able to get some veggies indoors before we ever plant outside. Each year my garden gets bigger and bigger. Jay is in the process of building me beautiful 9 ft by 4 ft garden boxes that are 2 and a half feet off the ground to accomedate my back issues. When it is all said and done, I will have 9 of these amazing boxes, two 3 ft by 3 ft strawberry boxes, and many many pots to make up my garden. I can not wait until it is finished. In the winter I have to try and contain my gardening wants with indoor house plants and this year I finally decided to make a green house indoors. Next year we will turn the craft room into a craft room/ indoor garden. I will have a 10 by 8 space all for my green house so I will be able to grow things year round indoors.

Well the masses are up and ready for some breakfast so.....I will post again later.