Good Call Mom

A few months ago I took Brianne in for her long overdue appointment with the audiologist. He couldn't get a good testing record of her hearing because of an overabundance of wax and fluid in her ears.

That propelled us to a visit with an ENT. After treating a bout with an ear infection, and he cleaned her ears of excess wax, we made another trip to the audiologist and this time the testing went well.....okay,I should say he was able to complete the testing, but Brianne's hearing wasn't well, she fell below the acceptable line. The doctor explained we could wait to see if her hearing improves as she continues to overcome her ear infection, or, we could schedule surgery and put tubes in her ears. I knew that due to her Eustachian tubes being flat, not angled like non ds kids, this would further the problem of the ear fluid "clearing up on it's own".

With this knowledge and because I've noticed a great decrease in her hearing, I opted for the surgery. I believe she needs to be able to hear well now to help her learn language development. We're starting to teach her sign language, but being able to hear would be fantastic too.

Any how, two days before Christmas she had surgery and it went well. She woo-ed the nurses with her charm and smile. They all loved her. She even cheered a fellow patient in the OR holding area with a song and a smile.

After the 15 minute procedure the doctor came out and said that there was "alot" of fluid in the canals and that it looked like "thick yellow snot" (his exact words). He then said that it probably never would have cleared on it's own. All I could think of was 'good call' on my part. I guess I can make good medical decisions from time to time. (Barry's usually much better at deciding when to take a sick kid into the MD office than I am.)

She scared me a bit as the effects of the anesthesia wore off, her oxygen saturation rates were below 89. All I could think was "NOooooo, I don't want to go back to 24/7 O2" but after 45 minutes or more she perked up and her O2 rates picked up too.

It's fun to watch her respond to sounds around the house. As Cailin practices her flute she'll follow the sound. She's becoming a peace monitor. So far she's cried about 5-6 times just from hearing a fight break out among 2 of her siblings. I guess we'll just have to learn to be a little more quiet so we don't hurt her sweet sensitive hearing.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

I can't think of a better way to get into the Christmas spirit than to give of ourselves-- time talents and provisions. This year we....

-Sharing goodies, cinnamon bread with friends, family and neighbors. I made over 20 regular sized loaves.

-Shoveled snow for neighbors

-shoveled snow for disabled brother in ward and at the church building too.

-Invited a neighbor/friend's family over for dinner and shared with them Micheal McLean's 'The Forgotten Carols'. The daddy is struggling with cancer and they are feeling rather overwhelmed with life right now.

-Invited the missionaries for dinner plus, I've got freezer meals almost ready to go, so they'll have more meals later.

-made pine cone bird feeders--because the birds need some Christmas cheer too.

-Along with some friends, we sang carols and Connor and Cailin played their instruments to uplift the spirits of residents of the long term unit at the hospital. Delaney shared her beautiful voice and sang a solo--'Away in a Manger'.

-That was so much fun, we took the show on the road and visited with a friend whose wife if home bound. She's not able to speak well, but she smiled and loved the cuddles that Brianne shared with her.

-Shared a dinner box with a family whose dad is also dealing with cancer. They are an amazing family, so strong and faithful.

-another physically challenged friend called and asked for some help in unloading her car of groceries.....of course we'll help!!

-helped an elderly brother move into his home.

The kids must have felt the joy of service, because they even shared a bit of it among themselves. I found different older kids reading books to the younger ones. They were all more helpful and happy, at times (lest I lead you to believe that we're anything but normal), with each other.

(at the hospital the kids enjoyed time with the therapy dogs.)

Trying to follow President Monson's encouragement to give more love and service to others this holiday season has brought about an amazing gift to us. We've loved this year's celebration of our Savior's birth. We were able to forget the hustle and bustle that usually comes and delve into what I would think, Christ would have us do to celebrate his birthday--love one another--it sure has helped us have a holly jolly Christmas, that's for sure!!

O Little Town of Bethlehem (and other favorite traditions)

Ah Christmas time is full of family traditions. Wonderful memories in the making.....

preparing the sugar cookies to decorate
(a favorite family home evening activity this time of year.)

an absolute must have goodies--dipped pretzels then coated in sprinkles.

When taking the picture of these I missed the cookie on the bottom far left--the star with the M and Ch on it. Now, I'm wishing you a _erry _ristmas!

The kids love this tradition....because the cupboard rarely sees these types of cereal-- only at Christmas time (or an awesome sale and I become a sucker to a puppy dog pouty face.)

An imaginary trip to Bethlehem every year is an absolute must. We dress up and eat a meal that Jesus may have eaten as a child.

Fish, cheese, olives, dried fruit, and bread

While we're still dressed up, we read the story of Jesus' birth in Luke and let the kids act out the story.

I wonder what the kids will remember years later, with kids of their own

of our merry memories.

A Nativity Pile-up

I found Liam playing with the nativity set. I've heard of kids lovingly set all the figures crowded around baby Jesus, as they assume that everyone there must be close to see the baby.
But my child,

....no, I just hear, crash, bang, as the figurines collide. Then he says "Crash, you're dead."

I guess we need to spend more time telling him of what really did happen that night, long ago.

Children Laughing, People Passing, Meeting Smile after Smile

Our Homeschool Christmas Party!!

We had lots of fun....
making crafts--pinecone bird feeders. (we have one child in our group who is quite allergic to peanut butter, his mom suggested using crisco in place of the pb and it worked quite well; I'd have to say better, not so messy!)
I'd find Liam here, looking out the window,many times during the party. I think he was dreaming of being able to go and play on the play ground....to bad for him, it was FREEZING outside!!

another craft--making cards and gift cards

Shopping at the Christmas Store. The kids were given the chance to "buy" gifts for their family members.

playing board games

Apples to Apples!! It was delightful to watch these older boys play and listen to thier howls of laughter.

Birthday Girl

Happy 1st Birthday Brianne. What a joy she is in our lives.

We gathered as a family to celebrate her special day.

She's not quite sure what this is in front of her. She dipped her hand into the frosting, but that's about it. She only got a taste of it after the kids put some into her mouth.

I guess, in the end, it's good that she's not interested in sweets.....but, I'm going to make a bet that will change sometime soon.

While Visions of Sugarplums Danced in Their Heads

The sugared candies were many.....

packets of gingerbread flavored graham crackers were plenty....

....dreams and schemes of architectural designs swirled in their heads

Magnificent sugar plumed houses abound....

Creative gingerbread houses to be sure,

happy sticky faces and fingers....

frosting gone crazy

creativity flowed

A wonderful beginning to this year's Christmas Season!

Traveling to Europe a Page at a Time

Although we're having a long break from our schooling with CC, I'm not about to let the kids have a 5 week break from school work. I decided we'd spend the next few weeks learning more about other countries. Ryan loves the show "The Amazing Race". So we choose to use the various stops that the contestants make as the basis for our studies in geography.
For the season that we are following they first stop in England.
Ryan chooses to study England and gave us a great oral report. I also had them learn about the church's history in their country of choice too.

Since we were "traveling in England/Europe", the kids wanted to branch out and learn about other countries in Europe too.
Cailin choose France. For fun I had the kids each make one food item from their country.
There was so much good food to make in the french cookbook, Cailin and I choose to make an entire meal....

...Quiche Lorraine...

Chocolate mousse-- this didn't turn out so well, we messed up the amount of unflavored gelatin, so it turned into chocolate concrete jello--that's not very appetizing!

Bri enjoying the homemade french baguettes

Connor took us on a "trip" to Portugal and Spain.

Paella is Spain's national dish....and it sure was yummy!

He helped me make Carmel flan for dessert, yet nobody liked it.

Delaney guided us to the Scandinavian peninsula for a visit to Sweden. Her yummy dinner consisted of Swedish meatballs, boiled potatoes, cucumber salad and rice pudding with raspberry topping for dessert. While nobody enjoyed the desserts from the other countries they all loved this one!

We're still waiting to go on our trip to Ireland, courtesy of Barry....then it's on to Africa!

Quirky

I've read many books where kids with Asperger's are lovingly described as quirky. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. What I do know is that these kids, along with their graduate student speech therapists, are a wonderful group to know.
For the past few months we've been attending RU for speech therapy. Ryan will claim he's not learning anything, but I'm sure he is. I know it's been wonderful for me. I'm given the chance to be with other mom's of kids with Asperger's--to talk and gain reassurance that all is well; we're not alone in this wonderful, yet challenging road of an Aspie's life.

Snow!!

The snow began to fall yesterday. Cailin and I were out and about shopping, hoping that the snow would accumulate and stay. We came out of the store to a white wonderland. The snow didn't stop for quite a few hours. And now, the kids are having fun.