Cutie Celia

Nothing feels better to a little one then a warm bath filled with bubbles after a long day of fun and playing at the park. Celia started hamming it up for me during her bath so I had to take a few pictures. I love her to pieces.:)

A Perfect Ten

Joseph has been so cute this week with getting ready for star testing. He has gone to bed pretty good and has woke up on time! He wants to get to school early and is excited to have a chance to test and show what he can do. So, when he opportunity to bring snack to class came up I signed up to bring some muffins on his birthday. he told me he had been picked to bring the snack and that we needed to bring cupcakes too.:) that was delicious dessert number one. I utilized Evite to send out initiations for a little get together after school for Joseph's tenth birthday party. He helped me pick out which invitation to use and told me he just wanted friends and neighbors who knew Spencer to come. He gets a little embarrassed sometimes, which is just fine. He was happy to find that I scheduled it during tutor hours so not only did he get to have friends over but Celia and Spencer would have their buddies to keep them company while his party was going on. He had a grand time playing band hero, filling up and throwing water balloons, and playing with his new football he got from his friend Payton. It went well and the ice cream cake we got was so yummy. Its brilliant to have the ice cream in the cake and to get a small one just for the amount of people that were there. That was yummy birthday dessert number 2! Joseph always likes to be with Papa and Rah Rah and see the cousins so the grandparents called Aunt Lisa and we had another party at the park. It was windy, but nice to be out with the family eating pizza, enjoying the outdoor and celebrating Joe's Birthday. I made Joseph a white cake with tropical pudding in the middle with rainbow chip frosting. Sweet treat number 3! Joseph received many gifts and had a great birthday, hooray!

Life's Little Treasures

A huge smile on the swings, an attentive older sister, myself running around the bases at an almost deserted baseball field and finding something I had been looking for for a while, these are some of the joys I found while playing with the kids recently.

Last Weekend we enjoyed listening to General Conference very much. During the time in between on Saturday Celia and I went to Costco, got some food and I found an amazing Hydrangea. I had been looking for one to plant in my yard. The ones at Lowe's, Home depot, and other nurseries looked sickly and sad. I was very happy to see this one! I saw a friend at Costco too, who said it was gorgeous! I agree, it felt like I had received flowers as a gift. We have had a hard time with Spencer with some mishaps and accidents. He keeps getting hurt at school. He likes to run off where he shouldn't, move furniture,bulldoze past people to get what he wants etc.. It has been very tiring for all involved and he has suffered a swollen eye, (bit by some mosquito), major allergy symptoms, a burgundy bruise among many and a seed stuck in his ear. Not to mention his chipped front tooth last month. True, the medicine he is on makes him dizzy, but this is a bit much. We are giving him his medicine mostly in the evening to avoid most of the side affect of dizziness. We had an IEP at school and addressed his issues and safety at school. It was unpleasant negotiating, but it can't be anything like the National budget that almost shutdown the federal government. We are blessed and I am glad for my family and these sweet happy children, We call our own. I find when I look for them I can see many blessings and treasures in our family life.:)

Our Time Spent

Pretty cool gaggle of Turkeys we saw on the temple grounds.

Its good to focus on the nice things in life, the opportunities that bring us joy, strengthen us and help form closer bonds with our family members. On Thursday Emmy had a opportunity to go to the Temple with her youth group at church. I was off at Celia's IEP triennial to determine her eligibility for transitioning to General Ed kindergarten. It went really well. Celia will have speech therapy for a half hour once a week. She will have a consultation with an Occupational Therapist once to help create a sensory diet, to help her sit well in class. She will have an aide for the first two weeks to help her learn the schedule and get used to the new student teacher ratio. She will attend Kinder boot camp in the summer Monday thru Thursday for fours with typical developing kindergartners from our district. I am so pleased that Celia is doing so well academically and in all sorts of other areas enough to transition out of Special Education. She has come such a long way from saying only a few unintelligible words to now. She has quite the imagination, intellect and social capability. It truly has been a miracle how fast and how well she has caught up in her development. She can ask "May I" before doing things she wants and follow instructions which is what I would like for all my children:)

Emmy and I were able to go to a baptism of two children in our ward yesterday. The music they had was wonderful, I loved hearing my friend Patty's talk on Baptism and the Holy Ghost. Later Emmy and Bri went to Deseret Industries and bought some neat books She loves to be out so it was fun for her! Then Emmy and I went to dinner and the General Young Yomen's broadcast. The theme was the thirteenth article of faith stating what we believe in. President Eyring who is my favorite talked about how we gain a testimony which was wonderful for all to hear even us moms.:)

Spencer had a long night so the boys and I stayed home from church. We went and visited the temple and saw some pretty cool turkeys~ their feathers were fanned out and they were crossing the street, Joseph was nervous around them, but I assured him they weren't like the geese that are so aggressive that we've encountered. He is a sweet boy and I loved being around him. Our days are packed with so much to do, it is nice to stop and realize that the cute things the children do and enjoy that time together before it passes. What we do with and for them are worthwhile and create lasting relationships that I'm sure I will cherish always.

Really?

I don't what it is about March and my Family's teeth, but it has been pretty eventful! It is especially surprising since last month was a busy month for dentist visits as well. Spence fell down at school and cracked his front tooth and knocked a portion of it off. We went and had it fixed, in Auburn, which is up the hill around 30 minutes. We go there for the best pedia dentist care for our sweet Spencer. His front teeth look flawless now, and After the kids had their teeth cleaned and a regular ortho appointment I thought we were done with the dentist for another six months.

Boy was I wrong. Joseph didn't have any cavities, but they wanted to do sealants on his molars to prevent any cavities from forming on those big kid teeth. It went great then they did an ex ray and noticed a supernumerary tooth they had been watching from 2008 is now protruding out the roof of Joseph's mouth and interfering with the coming together of his two front teeth. He is going to have that extracted later this month. Celia had been having too much sugar in candies for reinforcement during tutoring times and has a scary thing called a "Treatment Plan" dum dum dunm. They didn't tell me how many cavities their were but I'm thinking at least nine. She goes for that pretty soon. Emmy has her ortho appointment where she may get headgear and last but not least Brian had oral Surgery last Tuesday. It was a unusual thing that was remedied with going in and scraping excess enamel and replacing some bone loss! Brian was a trooper and did quite well healing up. He had a chipmunk cheek and didn't eat anything , but liquid for days though.

So in celebration of being able to eat solids we went to Thai food.:) We order this amazing soup every time that comes out in a stainless container lit in the middle with fire. It has coconut milk, lime, Galanga, bamboo, chicken, mushrooms, and baby corn. I don't know what other secret ingredients are in it, but it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.:) Rah rah was there to pick up Brian from his appointment and brought some food over. Young, our respite worker, made some yummy soup and chicken salad out of a rotisserie chicken I had for the kids to eat. It was yummy soft foods for our family. I love the little supports we get from our family and friends. I hope the dental needs stop here since only I was left out of the excitement.~

Walkin' in the Rain

Its springtime here and there are many days or sun then subsequent days of showers. I love the rain so I wasn't shunned away from our normal Tuesday morning walk today. We got drizzled on a little, but for the most part it was fun and we loved the trees blossoming near our house. The daffodils were a nice splash of color too. Celia always has to pick a flower. She is her mother's daughter. Flowers are great. We loved smell of rain and flowers combining into a sweet fragrance. We used my phone to listen to music while we walked and even though no one else turned out for the walking group we were so happy we went. I can imagine myself in far off lands in nature. The Nectarine tree in the backyard's blossoms remind of something I might see in china or a least in a garden that has beautiful pink blossomed trees. Speaking of far away places...Japan has experienced so much devastation the last few days. I hope and pray the people there can be comforted and many others can bring relief to those suffering. We are subject to the elements around us and I am grateful for the mildness in weather we have at this time.

Musical~

Its amazing to me that Brian and I haven't been the theatre very much together. I think it was because I had seen Phantom of the Opera several times and he had seen Les miserables and we couldn't find any other plays we thought looked fantastic we could both agree on. Opposites attract right? Our tastes aren't exactly the same which is fine, it makes for a great time appreciating what the other likes. Well we went out with our friends and they were going to see 9 to 5 at the Sacramento Civic center and I thought that sounded great. They got us seats right by them. We borrowed binoculars and I really enjoyed being up high to see the play . The music was great, the actors were animated and as far as I could tell there were no mess ups! True Broadway professionals. Some songs I liked better than others. They had a lead portraying Dolly Parton, She did pretty good singing her songs. It reminded me of listening to Dolly Parton with my parents when I was younger. The song sounded a lot like coat of many colors, but with different lyrics. It was a story about three women and how they were oppressed by the man's working world. the girls were the beautiful one, the new divorced homemaker, and the single mother. They showed their ingenuity, creativity, and spunk after an evening of Marijuana(shocking I know! The play was set in the 1970's..) The story was a slight bit feminist for my taste, but it was all in all pretty fun. The second half of the show was better overall. The costumes and backdrops seem to come alive, the songs were better, and it wrapped up nicely as the story concluded. Its nice to go out with the Goldthorpes. We always have interesting and intriguing conversations and we do things and go places we don;t normally. Its pretty nice to mix it up!

Tutor Treasures

Cool things have come to past because of having tutoring for the kids. One that may seem kind of silly is I was introduced to this cool website called Loseit. Its a free program where you can track what you eat and how often you exercise and it calculates and records it for you. One of Celia's tutors named Jono lost almost 30 pounds doing this and I thought I'd give it a try. Three weeks later I am 9 pounds down and have learned a lot. I think the most valuable thing I've learned is to notice what I take into my body. I think just like tracking fiances ,its good to be aware of your budget, even if it is for calories not money. The website program even lets me plug in caulking and painting my home as exercise and calculates calories burned.:) I painted Emmy's room eggplant on one wall. It looks nice and looks a bit more like a soon to be highschooler resides there.

Emmy was able to have a friend over on Friday. The rest of us were occupied with tutoring, they had peace and quiet from the brother and little sister and seemed to have a grand time. They jumped on the trampoline in the backyard, which we use so Spencer for sensory activity. We do all sorts of great things with tutoring, the kids bounce on a exercise ball, we play with moon sand, make music with real instruments or band hero, blow up balloon animals, have peer play dates regularly, and draw murals on the retaining wall in the back yard while exploring nature. Celia named a mini snail recently, it was cute!

It is a rich learning experience and is great for me to associate and work with so many wonderful people. Currently, I have a consultant named Yvonne, a lead tutor named Luba and Spencer had two tutors; Andy & Stacey. Celia's recent tutors names are Jono and Alicia. Celia is getting a new tutor since her other one is on temporary medical leave for pregnancy, Celia is fine with it, its just more friends to meet and play with to her. With all these regulars coming five days a week and the supervisor dropping in, other people coming to shadow and review the workers, it gets to be a full house around here. I appreciate the support. We went on a community outing with all the Kids and Luba & Andy. They were a great help to have extra eyes and hands to move through the registration line and be able to get on with our day without too much turmoil.

I used to dread them coming over because that meant everything had to be cleaned and organized. What a great motivator to get my home cleaned and organized! It is quite busy and stressful at times and a lot of hard work, but I am seeing progress in my children that makes it all worth it. I am growing into it, the routine and demands of it all, and treasure the friendship, learning experiences, and opportunities this program creates.

SuperDad

Bri loves to make faces. Even the picture of him on my phone is a variation of this face!:)

Technosavy Dad to the rescue. Emmy has a Zune as an MP3 player and for some reason it wouldn't connect with her computer to upload more music on to her device. Emmy and Bri worked on it one evening this week and then after work dad fixed it for Emmy She was so smiley and said Thank you several times. I wish I had my camera right when they were looking at me while hugging with expressions of triumph over a menacing problem. Emmy loves her electronics and Brian loves his girls. He is always doing things for our whole family as individuals. He went to Emmy's play and took us to Claimjumper afterwards..mmmm.

He lets takes the kids to Walmart on the weekends because i try to avoid that place and they love it there. My Internet explorer was closing on me and Bri took a look at that. Joseph and Brian take turns in a video game and have a lot of quality time playing games together. Joseph's favorite is Bonanza, a game about planting beans. I rarely win so I prefer other board and card games, but the time with the family an enjoyment is there. Brian takes Spencer for car ride. They have specific places they go to where people recognize them as they get drinks and snacks and also just times when they listen to music or books on tapes. Celia get spoiled all the time by Bri,there are strawberry cakes, Dora clothes, pajamas,books, and basically giving her anything that will spark her smile and enjoyment. He does that for all of us actually. Its great to see the relationship he has with her and each of us. He's a superman to do so much for our family at work, home,and Church. I feel very blessed to have him as my hubby and as the great father that he is to our children.

Budding Musicians

Emmy is quite the musician these days. She takes flute during school five days a week then Piano lessons on Saturday and plays guitar for her own leisure whenever she can. I love to hear it. Spencer loves to hear Emmy practice too. Spencer is learning to play the guitar as an independent play skill. He likes to strum and does even better when someone grabs a guitar and plays near him! Emmy played with him on Monday and he was quite happy. We are also teaching Spence to use his bongo drum and he has fun with that too. Its a great creative outlet and hitting a drum is much better than hitting other thins like a bus window all the way home from school, but that is a story for another time. I love Spence and his smiles. He is such a happy boy, he is hard to catch on camera, but I got a few pictures of him here with the guitar he uses which is my guitar from when I used to take lessons from sister Haskins at a young age of ten.:) I have fond memories of that and playing this guitar in college too. Celia has a half sized guitar she named Rosey( I think after the little sister in calliou) and Emmy's guitar is named Claire. We have a new respite worker we use to babysit the kids sometimes named Nadina. She plays the guitar for the kids and has shown Joseph a few things on the piano. We have a keyboard, but its so cute Joe says she is his piano teacher an d how he has to practice.:) I am the music mentor for Joseph's fourth grade class. I go in there once a month and we talk about the elements of music, play instruments and have a lot of fun. Its neat teaching Joseph's class the same material I taught Emmy's class when she was in fourth grade. Its a great program and I'm glad to be a part of it. I learn a lot by doing it too. I hope to make time to play my guitar more and maybe even pick up the banjo:)

Growing up fast.

Life has been Busy Really busy. I was so glad to see the hectic schedules of February come to an end, but unfortunately it looks like March is shaping up to be quite similar.Its taken quite a bit of Prep time, but Emmy registers for High School tomorrow! It feels surreal, really I was just in high school myself yesterday right? I'm glad Brian was able to help me get Emmy's immunization record faxed from Utah and we have her schedule all figured out online on their home link program. It will be nice to be able to see Emmy's grades as the semester happens, but I think the whole high school vs Junior high experience is going to be quite different for us. I tell Emmy to enjoy her last days of Junior high, which might seem like a weird thing to say, but he is having fun and loving her close knit relationships with her friends. Her and several of her friends were in the play"Peter Pan" last Friday. Emmy did an excellent job playing Tigerlilly. She was very dramatic and skipped around in her beautiful headdress,struggling, drowning,complaining in jibberish, crawling on all fours, and my favorite part making her grand entrance at the Tigerlilly is home celebration. She had her own time to come out on stage at the end of the play and bow. I was beaming with Pride and very excited for her. She is so at home on the stage and very outgoing, which if you saw her in a different situation you would find unbelievable.:)