BUILDING BL(ayl)OCKS: Service, Snow, and Sunshine

I can't believe I haven't written since we visited Grandpa Great! It's been a busy month and I let the time pass by. I'll do my best to recap and share the highlights.

I'll start with service. I had many opportunities this month to serve and to be served. Both ways of service, giving and receiving brought me great joy! I'll start with my dentist appointment. Grandma and Grandpa are my usual go-to's when I have a dentist appointment because it's down in Highlands Ranch. I was very grateful when my friend Rachel said she could watch Hugh for me. Hugh had the best time, she had all of her balls out and balloons and a little pond he could throw rocks into. I was grateful he did so well for her!

One of my ministering sisters, and friend, had a birthday at the beginning of November. Breeanne Nead was Anna's ministering sister over the summer and wanted to make her a gluten free cake for her birthday. We partnered together and made a super cute, delicious chocolate cake. Breeanne came over here with her two boys and we baked throughout the afternoon, decorated it, and then delivered it together to Anna. I think Anna was surprised, and I hope she liked it! We had fun making a little personal cake, and giving someone who is gluten free a delicious dessert is one of my favorite things!

Our neighbor came by and looked at our furnace. Last year when we had it serviced, they told us we'd need to replace it soon. He is an HVAC guy and came over in the middle of the snow storm and took a look at it. He replaced a couple small parts, free of charge, and cleaned a few things and told us we should still get a couple years out of it. The furnace is original to the house, so it's about 18 years old. Here's to praying it holds up! He wouldn't take any money and insisted he simply wanted to be sure we were taken care of. He was also so kind when the boys wanted to watch and see what was going on in the furnace room!

I felt Stake Conference was a personal call to me to do better with my ministering. I found my companion and asked her what her availability was for visits and started to schedule with our sisters. We ended up getting all three of them on the calendar within three days. I had talked to my companion Katie once, enough to know she's a behavioral therapist for children with Autism. I met her only a few days after Jay's diagnosis and I truly feel like it's Heavenly Father's hand who has brought her into our lives. We had wonderful visits with our sisters over the weekend and I got to know Katie better. I also invited her to go to the park with the boys and I while our husbands went to the Elder's Quorum shooting activity. She was amazing with the boys, particularly Jay. She wasn't put off by any of his behaviors and it was so nice to have an extra set of hands at the parks we went to! When one kiddo went one way, I knew the other was taken care of! I was happy she was willing to take advantage of a beautiful sunny day with us! We also took advantage of any warm and sunny day by going to the park! We tried one new on in a new neighborhood and went to some old ones too. Parks make us happy!

I usually have a lot of confidence in Jay's climbing and don't get nervous, but when he climbed up on top of these monkey bars and walked across, I panicked. He was strong, safe, and allowed me to help him safely return to the ground once he finished his adventure.

This was a fun spinning toy Jay liked to give Hugh a ride on.

Jay driving and Hugh riding the bumble bee at the new park we visited

Matthew went on two work trips this month, one to Dallas and another to Florida. We miss him when he's traveling and we got a huge snow storm while he was in Dallas. I took the boys outside to shovel the sidewalks of the six inches of snow and built a snowman with them. Hugh isn't too sure what he thinks about snow, but I am hopeful as he gets a little stronger and bigger and can navigate in his suit better, he'll learn to enjoy it. We got enough snow that tons of flights were cancelled and we were worried Matthew wouldn't be able to get back in, but his plane took off and landed on time. It did take him about an hour to drive the normal 30 minute drive home from the airport, but he made it safely! I made some fresh ice cream for him with raspberries from Grandpa Great. It was super yummy!

Jay was so excited for the snow, he wanted all his gear on and his special snow shovel!

I never knew how many seeds came from raspberries, but here's a picture of the seeds I filtered out so they wouldn't be in the ice cream.

I've been working as much as I can on Jay's paperwork for the state and to figure out what I can do to help him get the support and services he needs to learn and grow! I decided I should look into another school nearby even though it's out of district. Hugh and I toured together and it was amazing! They have so many resources for their kids who have Autism, including teachers, aids, a learning center, and more. I was impressed with the high standards of conduct the school requires and left feeling hope that maybe there are places in this world to help my son grow in the ways he can, however non-traditional they may be! I've continued to look into the school and because we are out of district, we will need nothing short of a miracle to get Jay in. Open enrollment is in January, if we can get on the list soon enough, they MIGHT have space for Jay. The principal has made it seem fairly hopeless, but I want to believe we can get a miracle if it is Heavenly Father's will. We have also started Jay in Speech and Occupational Therapy at the hospital. He likes both therapists a lot. They both have fun toys, but the OT has a ball pit and Jay really thinks that is fun to play around in! I also had Jay's annual IEP meeting this month. I shared some insights with his teachers about things that might help him function better in school. Overall, school is what people would define as a "non-preferred" activity for Jay. This makes him extra vulnerable for misbehaving, and it's cause a lot of challenges this year. I mentioned he loves to gather and he loves suitcases. The next day, Mrs. Tiffee had a suitcase with two 12 pound dumbbells in it! She said Jay had an awesome day! Jay was so sad to leave the suitcase at school, and I was so pleased with Mrs. Tiffee's efforts to help Jay!

I'll wrap up the first half of November with our visit from Grandpa and Grandma. I didn't tell the boys they were coming until about twenty minutes before they arrived. As soon as I did, they both ran around the house like crazy people until Grandma and Grandpa arrived! They couldn't contain their excitement and would look out the window, run around the kitchen, back to the window, and were in constant movement. We love having Grandma and Grandpa come visit! We had a nice dinner and Grandma brought the award winning fruit that convinced the boys to eat the other food. We were able to visit and catch up on all the things throughout their evening with us. It felt like it had been forever since we'd seen them and it was really nice to spend our Friday with them. We are blessed to have them so close! And, we wished they lived a little closer! I miss the days when I could load Jay up in the bike and we could take a bike ride to their house. Or, we could stop by after running errands, or just spend the morning visiting and playing!

General updates about the boys are here with the associated pictures!