Murder Mystery/Birthday Party

The Birthday Girls! Both girls are turning 13 with in the week (Asia and her friend Rush'l)
Ty (aka Joe) and Kim (aka E.C.) in character for our party!
Our three 13 year olds, Gabe, Asia and Rush'l.
The girls: Kim (E.C.) , Rush'l (Pris), Asia (Penny), and Me (Dee)
Dee and Rick
Our newest love birds Gabe (Del) and Asia (Penny)

We had a murder mystery party while Asia was in town. For two reasons, one to give us something fun and inexpensive to do, and two to celebrate Asia and her friend Rush'l's birthdays. They both are turning 13. We had a ton of fun and I think everybody enjoyed getting in to character. I highly recommend it!

Buzz and Woody!

Tyson's school had a Halloween carnival Friday night. This is the 1st year that Tyson picked out a costume, he saw the 'Buzz' costume in Costco and wanted it. So, naturally I made Lukey a 'Woody' costume. I just took and old long sleeved onsie and drew in the red lines with marker, grabbed some fabric at Walmart and had my friend help me draw a vest. Then I just cut it out and hand stitched it (I don't use a sewing machine, come on). Borrowed the hat and holster, and pulled out Jim's cowboy boots from when he was little. I have to say that it actually turned out. Note to self, "if you need to re-use Woody shirt, do NOT use Washable marker, your child will for sure spill water on it and you will have to re-do it before halloween." The carnival was fun, we'll have to see how Trick or Treating goes next week...

Asia's 2nd Vegas Visit

Asia came to visit us in Vegas a few weeks ago. Of course we were totally lame and didn't get the camera battery charged until her last night here, so these are the only pics I have. We had a GREAT visit, went to a football game, swimming, laser tag, two game nights, AND she and I got glitter toes, which are so fun and HOT! (Her's are the light blue one's ) We are excited to have her come and visit again the first weekend in November! I'll be sure to take more pics...

"Touch your head"

Lucas responded to a spoken command today. He was working with his therapist. She said "touch your head" (this was so he could get the toy he desired) and he did; with out any prompting or with out being shown how to touch his head. He hasn't done anything like this before. It was a good day.

How/Where to start?

Asia's visit to Vegas in August.
Tyson's 1st day of Pre-school at Goynes Elementary
Laughing Luke...
Lukey, Marci, Asia, Tyson, and Jim @ Shoshone Falls, in Twin Falls, ID.

We have had a couple of months full of CRAZINESS! I haven't blogged about it because 1. I haven't had the time and 2. didn't quite know how or where to start. SO, I'll just go for it.

A couple of months ago, we found out that Jim has a 12 (almost 13) year old daughter from his first marriage when he was 20. Although a little shocking at first, we are so happy to have Asia in our lives. She is gorgeous as you can see, is super sweet and has Jim completely smitten. He's head over heals in love, exactly how a daddy should be with his daughter. I'm just happy to have another girl around once in a while and just wish we could spend more time with her. Of course it's a little bit more detailed of a story, but I'm not going to "detail" it on the blog. We really are just so lucky to be a part of her life.

Lucas finished up all of his testing with the pediatric neuropsychologist, it was a long process. He has been classified as being on the Autism Spectrum. Highly functioning, but still with out any speech. He/we will be involved with intense therapy with different specialists almost everyday, and I will be learning how to be a therapy mom as to teach him through out the day. We already had a breakthrough this week, with him intentionally mimic-ing 2 different sounds I made multiple times. It was major. We are hopeful that he will continue to progress to get where he needs to be in regards to communication.

Tyson also participated in testing at the beginning of the summer that places him on the Autism spectrum as well. Also highly functioning. He "parrots" language. He can say everything and anything you say, often times repeating what is said rather than answering/asking questions. He has almost a savant ability for memorization, its really unbelievable. He started a "preschool" program that the school district provides at the elementary school to help him in the areas that he struggles with; such as "Wh" questions (i.e. who, what, when, where, why, etc.) He has also made progress in the last week, when I picked him up from school I asked him What he had for snack, he answered "grape juice and crackers" where as in the past, he would have just repeated my question. He also tells me about his new friends, Dion and Logan.

Although we feel a little "gipped" having two boys on the Autism Spectrum we are really so lucky. They are both "normal" boys that have some challenges that are different from other kids. The great thing about it is that they have both responded amazingly to "intervention" and therapy and they both have tested to be super smart kids, we just have to learn how they learn. Time to gear up for the challenge.

Jim is really busy. Besides being involved in our families issues, he is trying to keep up with his Master's class, can't help him there. His work let one of the pilots go, which means that he has to work a little bit more. We can't complain, we're just so happy he has a job in this crazy economy.

Me? Well, let's see. I'm a semi-blonde now. It seems fitting because I honestly feel a little ditzy lately. I'm trying to figure out how to stay sane and productive right now, sometimes it feels a little like I'm in survival mode rather than productive wife/mom mode. I'm hoping that I can actually get a grip in the next day or two so when we start our different therapies next week I'm geared up and ready.

The next few months ought to be interesting...stay tuned!

Finger lickin' good!

The other day I was making brownies and had to leave the room to help Lucas with something. When I came back this is what I found. Ty had pushed a step-stool over and helped him self to some finger lickin' good brownie batter. This confirms it, he is indeed my child.

Nursery Success!

Lukey had 2 count them TWO weeks in a row of nursery success! We are so happy and proud of him! The reason for the photo's - no reason I just thought they were cute. I came home one night and Jim had got Luke ready for bed, in the jammies I was saving for Halloween. Ah well, who cares if they are totally out of season, daddy made the effort to help me out and I love him for it!

4th of July Yankee Doodle Dandies!

Jim and Luke - cheesin' for the camera pool side...
Fillmore Fam - Kaycee, Stu, & Audrey...
Jim- "stealth mode" on his way to squirt an unsuspecting pool-go-er...
Cute Katelyn posing before she digs into the watermelon...

Daisy and Danny crackin up...
Audrey enjoying some watermelon as well...

My buddy Kaycee looking so gorgeous...

Tyson doing his patriotic flag waving duty, even in the hot tub...
Lukey and his flag...he is still carrying it around.

We had a super fun 4th of July party at our house! We did the traditional BBQ, pool party, and firework watching. We had a great turn out of people, great food, and great fun!!! All the Station Casino's around vegas did the fire work shows, and we had an AMAZING view of the Aliante Station's firework show, from our back deck. It was all we could do to get the kiddo's out of the pool at 9:30 for the show, it's safe to say that all of the kids slept well that night. All in all we had a great time, and felt like true Yankee Doodle Dandies on the 4th of July!!!

Our Idaho Redneck Vacation Rocked!

The Falls on the South Fork of the Snake River.
Lucas LOVED the falls, I swear he entered like a Zen state whenever we got close (we went twice) and he cried when we left.



Tyson loved "helping" with everything to do with the boat. He also helped daddy fish.
Jim's Charlie's Angles pose...
Have you ever shot a 44 Mag? It's like shooting a cannon, not my favorite gun, but Jim likes it.
I'm shooting an AR-15. I liked it. I also happen to be a bulls eye shot from 40 yards out (bettcha didn't know I'm like freaking Annie Oakley), my favorite though is a Glock, which I also can hit bulls eye's with. Jim says this is why he made me quit playing Grand Theft Auto, something about transference...
We also did some 4-wheeling...

It was a really fun vacation. We had a lot of rain and it was MUCH cooler than vegas, but we all thrived, something about being in the mountains, in the fresh air, is well, refreshing. We loved our redneck vacation and can't wait to go again!

BREAK THROUGH!!!!

So we had a MAJOR break through with Lucas this weekend. We have been having a speech therapist come to the house for 6 or 7 weeks now to work with him. We are not yet working on actual speech, but rather the idea of communication. It sounds a little weird, but we have to teach him the very basic ideas of communication, for example: teaching him to make eye contact with us, look at the thing he wants and then look back at us. Along with this we have been trying to teach him the sign for "more", so he will understand that you have the power to do something (sign) and then you get your desired result. We're hoping that once understands that, we can progress to sounds, and eventually words. SO, after like 6 weeks of working on the sign "more", it clicked! We were in the pool and I was twirling him around. Then I would stop, and say more, show him the sign, and then wait. I SWEAR I saw the light turn on in his head, he grinned and then did the sign all by himself. All I can say it that the neighbors must have thought we had won the freaking lottery or something, we were jumping and screaming. Of course we did it again and again. Then I pretended that I was ignoring him and would look away, he would grab my face and turn it so I was looking at him (THIS IS MAJOR by the way) and then again show me the sign for more. Seriously I can not find the words (how ironic) to describe how awesome this was for us. He got to show his speech therapist this morning and she was thrilled as well. An all around great day for Lucas (and us). Everyone, put your finger tips together for more, more, more!

Oh yeah, we moved...

Apparently there are a few who didn't know we were moving, we moved a whopping 1.2 miles away, but are LOVING our new home! Maybe we'll start looking for that camera...

busy

We're still smack dab in the middle of our move. It's hard to convince the boys to go back to the old house for yet another load when the swimmin' pool is calling their name.

My Grandpa got married a week and a half ago in Provo, (we left the day after we moved the big stuff in) it was AWESOME, we're super happy for him.

Lukey has been having a speech therapist at the house every week(Insurance won't cover it). He has an MRI scheduled for this Friday. We'll meet back with the neurologist after the MRI to go over the results of that and the blood tests. We've been put in contact with a pediatric neuropsychologist (the one and only in southern Nevada) who is supposed to be amazing. She doesn't take insurance (surprise) unless it's military. He turns 2 TOMORROW (oh crap, we have NOTHING planned for him), still not one word or sign. We do find it incredible, that although he had no words for us, his smile,personality, and love, leave US speechless in ways to describe the joy he brings us. 

Tyson is loving life. For him there's not much better than the new pool and "Wall-E's Nemo" you know the little robot looking vacuum thing that cleans the bottom of the pool, Wall-E's Nemo, duh. 

Jim and I are just trying to survive it all with a smile. Life is busy crazy but good. No, I don't have any pictures to post. Who knows where the camera is, "probably in that box over there..."

Happy Easter!

Note to self: It is difficult to get little boys to hold still together for a picture in an of it self, next time to not try taking pictures after 3 hours of church and right in the middle of nap time. Poor Luke, he's so tired. (oh and B, I know you're wanting to know, my skirt was bright, hot, fushia pink and the boys had white shorts on :) Happy Easter! 

Lukey Update

We went to the neurologist last week. He has a few "theories" as to what's going on. He ordered some blood tests (which we did on thursday and were NOT fun) and an MRI. While we're waiting for the insurance to approve the MRI, we are trying to find an "affordable" speech pathologist. We fought and argued with the insurance company and they will not cover speech therapy. Dang. 

Will update when we know something that is actually factual information.

Tyson turned 3!!!!

I originally decided to not have a birthday party for Tyson, but a few days before his B-day I started feeling bad so I threw a "party" together last minute. He loves Wall-E so that was the idea behind the cake. He loved it until we lit the candles and was a little concerned why we were trying to burn Wall-E. I made the tracks/wheels out of frosted rice crispy treats, and the eyes were frosted twinkies. It was a fun little party! Oh, and can I just say it is SOOOOO WIERD that I have a 3 year old! Jim and I agree that it's been the best 3 years we've had!!!

Group Photo

Brooke,

Here's the picture of us at Shalen's. Wish you were there!

We're confused!

We had Lucas' sedated ABR today and are thrilled and confused at the same time. We have had 2 ENT's, 1 Audiologist, 1 speech therapist, and 2 tests that have ALL said that Lucas has hearing loss. The test today said otherwise. Apparently he can hear normal conversation levels and some whispers. They are concerned about his ability for low level hearing so we will be continuing with the ENT's office with testing every 3 months starting next week. 

All though this is FABULOUS news, it leaves us SO confused! The ENT suspects that although apparently he can hear what he needs to, he may have a problem processing what he hears. He explained it by saying that he may not be able to tell the difference between "noise" and what's "important" (i.e. words and speech sounds) and that everything he hears may sound like "noise". So what the freak does that mean?!?! We don't know. The next step is private speech therapy. Maybe they will have some answer's for us. We'll keep the updates coming as we get them. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

15 year anniversary weekend!

I've been GREAT friends with the same peeps since I moved to their jr. high in the middle of 8th grade. We celebrated our "15 year anniversary" with a get together in California. After a few days in Vegas, Jenny and I drove to Cali to pick up Sherry at the airport. We stayed with our buddy Shalen at his apartment in down town Hollywood and laughed a lot! The wonderful belly laughs, you know the kind!

We then drove to San Diego and saw the sights including Corodado island and the famous Hotel Del Coronado (which I LOVED!)
We thought it would be a good idea to rent bicycles to get a better view of the island, so fun! (and Sher did it 6 months pregnant!)
We had so much fun, and laughed some more!

Ate really great food! 



Played on the beach!


And...Laughed some more! It was a much needed trip. I love those kind of friends that you can get together with no matter how long it has been and pick right up, just as if you had all been together the day before. It was such a great mini vacation!!!

Jenny Came to Visit!

One of my best friends (that's I've known since 8th grade) came to visit us. She's currently a grad student at the University of Texas. We were so excited to have her here, and are diligently trying to teach the boys "hook em' horns". We love auntie Jenny!!! (and yes, Ty's finger is up his nose in that picture)

Night out on the town!

Last week Jim and I had a really fun night out. One of the first families that we met when we moved to Vegas threw the lovely redhead directly above Jim in the picture a Formal 60th Birthday Party! We had a great time and then hit the strip after the party. Of course we left our camera dang it, but were lucky enough to be sent this photo. What can I say I love an excuse to get dressed up, and love LOVE that she had a formal birthday party.