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!