First trip to the dentist

He wasn't so sure about this whole going to the dentist thing.  And he certainly wasn't going to lay down in the chair. As time went on he warmed up to the idea of a strangers fingers in his mouth and he began to open really wide!

By the end of the visit we got him to actually put the sunglasses on and he finally said, "this is amazing!"

Mustache Madness

Who knew just putting on fake mustaches would erase the stressful last two hours of the day.  Nothing like a good belly laugh!!

A New School Year ( three months ago)

Nope...

Not quite....

Ahh... There we go.  First day of school picture, only three months late!

 She is in kindergarten this year.  The days that she is gone all day are still so weird for me.  I still can't believe she is old enough to be gone all day.

Another First Tooth Gone

And just like that, she looses her first tooth. 

 (Note: thank goodness for Annie, she saved the whole spirit of the tooth fairy....can't say any more for fear that the little ones will understand...wink, wink!)

Figuring out a New Way to Learn

Our days lately have been.... different.  Thomas isn't even trying to go to school right now.  It just wasn't working.  I would get him there about eleven, then he would call to come home an hour later.  His constant headache and jerking were just too much to be sitting in a classroom.  So, he has been at home, which consists of watching a movie, reading, sometimes goofing around in the backyard trying to shoot squirrels with a BB gun, figuring out what to eat, ect.  

The episodes he's been having where he looks like he's having a seizure, jerking uncontroably, holding his head in pain, and holding his breath, have been happening daily now.  It's exhausting and frustrating for him and for us.

But this past week we've made more of an attempt to get out of the house.  My mom had offered to come over a couple afternoons and if he was feeling okay, we went with it.  He wanted to fish, so we went to the lake and he fished.  Even caught two!

We found rock climbing down on campus that both of us enjoyed!  Thomas "rocked" it too!  He flew up those walls like it was nothing, until about an hour after we were there he started not feeling good.  

A woman from LPS came this week to set up Skype on our iPad.  He can now be a part of his class and "tune in" to certain classes.  The first day he did this we sat and laughed at how funny the kids in his class were!  They all were so excited to see Thomas on the iPad and kept making funny faces and talking to him!!  It was good to hear thomas laugh!

This next week he begins having a tutor come in the mornings for an hour.  

One of our favorite teachers has so graciously offered her time by coming once a week in the evening to help Thomas with math.  All the kids love having her over, and hang all over her!  I enjoy her company and am so grateful for her!

He also joined his good buddy Dominic for a homeschool boys book club and science group which he really enjoyed!!  I was so happy he was able to learn something and have fun!

Fall 2014

5 o'clock news debut

It's not every day that the local news station stops by for an interview... 

I was so proud of you today Thomas.  You answered her questions very well.  

When I told you that the news station was coming in 30 minutes, you jumped (literally) in the shower, got nicely dressed, and were ready to rock!  I loved that when she asked if she could tape you doing something you like to do, you said, "I can cook."  Then proceeded to fry up turkey bacon and chat with her as she was filming.

A Surprise "Adventure"

TJ surprised us the last weekend before school started by taking us to Adventure Land!  He came home early on Friday and told us to pack up and that we would hit the road by 3:30. I am so not spontaneous like that!!  But I knew we were in desperate need of a little fun to end one very long, not so fun, summer.  

Other than one very long night with people not falling asleep in the hotel room… (I won't name any names...)We had a fabulous time! It was short, but sweet! We spent Friday night and then got up Saturday and headed to the park at 10.  I hadn't been to an amusement park probably since high school, But the sounds and smells I remembered well!  

The kids started out a little timid and nervous of the spinning rides, but after a few times around they were loving it! All except Evelyn, who I thought for sure was going to toss her cookies as we went down the waterslide that we didn't know was a spinning one!

The water park was awesome and we spent most of our day there. Even the overcast and cooler day couldn't keep the kids away from the water and the gigantic waterside, which I could t believe both Thomas and TJ went down! Everyone loved the lazy river.

This picture pretty much sums up Peter for the day… He spent the majority of the day in either mine or TJ's arms with his face buried into our shoulder!  We did coax him onto a few little rides, he was hilarious!  He loved the waterpark way more than the rides!

Golf is Good!

One thing that Thomas found he could really do this summer even with the headache was to play golf.  I would drop them off at the golf course and he would play either with George, or with friends, or sometimes just by himself.  It was the perfect thing for him to do. He heard there was going to be a tournament, and so we signed him up to play in it.  And what do you know, he won his group!

 It was so good to see him excited about something!