Family Time and Projects

The weeks seem to be flying by so quickly, I can't keep up! April ended in a whirlwind and we're already well into May. After I finished up my last week of my Hanen training course, Katey and Hope came to enjoy a Wednesday with me when I didn't have class. We went to Barr Lake State Park, which is about 15 minutes from my house. Hope and Hugh got on their little backpacks and hopped on their bikes for the big adventure. They did amazing as we walked around part of the lake. They loved seeing the birds and the ducks in the water. It was a beautiful day and we made it back just in time to pick up Jay from school! Mornings with just Hugh and Hope are simple and so fun! They play really well together and are some of the cutest two year olds. 

Hugh and Hope with their backpacks looking at the advertisements. 

Hugh crushing the look with sunglasses he insisted on wearing.

Hope and Hugh biking across the long bridge

What do you see? They had a hard time actually lining up their eyes, but thought it was still fun!

Me, Hope, Hugh, and Katey

Matthew started May with a trip to Lakehouse in Florida for training for work. He went to Sacrament meeting at the Branch, our second hour (which is first), then had to leave for the airport. I knew I'd be alone in Sacrament meeting, so I asked the Dahls if they would be willing to help me with the boys. They were lifesavers! The last time I watched the boys on my own during Sacrament meeting, I left church in tears and doubting Matthew could ever have a calling where he sits on the stand because I can't do that hour without him. The Dahls are incredible with the boys and they did really well! Jay and Hugh were a little confused where Dad was when we got home, but handled it all in stride. I spent the afternoon making homemade graham crackers so I could eat some leftover frosting on them, and be ready for the upcoming winnie roasts. Talking with Matthew while he is on work travel brings back floods of memories of our long distance dating. How grateful I am for technology that allows me to see and talk with him, even when he's across the country! We balanced Matthew's time away by starting projects and playing in the basement because of the never-ending rain that came while he was away. The Dahls also invited us over for dinner Monday night! The boys loved having dinner at Sister Dahl's house and thought it was the best! Even the next morning they were requesting blueberries, and when I said I didn't have any, they insisted we go back to the Dahls' house to get some.

I've been working on putting time into myself and doing things I want to do. Sometimes it's easy to get all-consumed by the to-do's of life, I forget I should take care of me. I've continued my morning walks at least once a week with Breeanne which is fun and Hugh loves getting to play with Milo who is four years old. They have done really good on their strider bikes, and also enjoy riding in the stroller when biking gets too hard. I have begun the process of refinishing our dining room table. It's a major project! It's much bigger than I originally anticipated, but I am learning. It's taken A LOT of effort to get the top varnish off and I'm now painting the table legs and all the chairs and the bench, which was not part of the original plan. I think it will be beautiful when I am done! We also had another cooking club event where I learned to cook salmon, a yummy dressing for it, and a delicious fluff jello. I enjoy visiting with the cooking club ladies and they LOVE having Hugh which makes for a great time! 

Hugh and Milo - enjoying some mid-walk snacks after stopping at the park to play

We've been able to squeeze a few more family fun things into the last few weeks as Matthew's work has somewhat slowed down. The day after he got back from Florida, we went to Kylee's middle school play. She did a good job, and seemed to really enjoy it! The boys did well for the play not being a musical. The Bishop's family invited us over for dinner one Sunday evening, which made for a fun night! They grilled steak and we brought dessert and another couple, the Jacksons, brought some sides. We also had the missionaries over for dinner one evening and the boys loved it! They get sooooo excited when they see me set out extra dinner plates and most of the time they know it is the missionaries. We volunteered for an extra Saturday church cleaning assignment and the boys were very excited to participate in that. They were very distraught we didn't get to gather all the trashes, but did help with vacuuming the chapel and cleaning up the trash in there. We went on a family date night to In n Out and ate at a new park. We didn't know it was open, so we went to check it out. It happened to be the grand opening and it was fun to see a whole restaurant full of workers trying to learn a new trade from more experienced workers. The boys loved the little activity books and hats they got. 

Jay loved helping put all the benches back after Kylee's play! 

Jay and I waiting to start our walk.

The boys are getting better and better on their bikes!

In N Out hats and books, woohoo!

Our most exciting family event was getting "dirt" for my grow boxes! We drove up to Longmont in the morning to get Jason's truck and Jack's wheelbarrow, then hit the place for soil on our way home. It took us two truck loads to get all the soil we needed for the grow boxes. Matthew and the boys did all the unloading! I lined the beds with weed barrier and made sure everyone stayed safe in their hauling. The boys LOVED it! They loved helping in the truck, loading the dirt with shovels, and watching Matthew pour out the loads. We finished the whole job in about 4 hours and the boys zonked out when it was finally time for naps. They played and worked so hard! We finished our day in Longmont for a family winnie roast and returned our borrowed items. Jay made sure we returned the truck and the wheelbarrow, as he was very concerned we weren't going to. The weather for the winnie roast was PERFECT! I could have stayed outside in the green grass, chilling with family, roasting s'mores all night long. It's my happy place, and a place that fills my soul. I think it comes from so many years of winnie roasts at Grandma and Grandpa Great's house. It was a time when cousins didn't work, we played, and the worries of the world didn't seem to exist. Jay, Allen, and Kade did a little wrestling on the trampoline, which was fun to watch as they each learn how to play together in their own unique ways.  

Jay using a bucket to haul dirt

Everyone loading up the wheel barrow

Jay and Matthew scooping into the boxes.

The boys loved staying in the truck and just playing, they got royally dirty by the end!

As we've had some more time in the evenings, we've started to read the Chronicles of Narnia. Matthew has never read them, and it's been a fun way to spend our time together! We are reading the Magician's Nephew, which is much more interesting as an adult than it was as a child. I have been loving it! We also had a double date with the Jacksons to play Clue. We witnessed a whole new level of playing Clue with them. They tracked everything people did and asked for, in a way I had never thought of! The best thing we got to do was go to the temple. We did Sealings and Katey watched our boys for us. It was beautiful to be in the temple and brought added peace and perspective for both of us. 

Jay has been rapidly finishing up pre-school and I had his transition to Kindergarten meeting. We introduced our ABA Therapist to the school staff and met all the support staff that will work with Jay in the Fall. It was an interesting meeting, and the biggest win was convincing them we need to start Jay at half day and slowly work up towards a full day as the year progresses. We finally found an Occupational therapist to come in home for Jay. She specializes in kids, and it's been sooooo hard to find an OT to come in home. We feel blessed and watched over! 

He's mastered the use of these diggers at the park which is super fun!

Here are a couple cute crafts he's done at school. 

This made me giggle!

Jay got to meet Fletcher the Fox during his snack break, and loved him!

Jay working hard to clean up his crumbs off the table. 

Step 2, eat the crumbs!

I taught Jay how to fold his socks, which he's done amazing at!

Hugh is a little climber, getting braver and braver on playgrounds and on things around the house. He loves showing his strong muscles and all the things he can do by himself. His most recent phrase is, "I'm okay." When we say it's time to go potty, he says, "I'm okay." Time to eat dinner, "I'm okay." He loves wearing his cowboy boots, a hat, and sunglasses. He usually always falls asleep by his door, and occasionally we see little hands poking out. 

Hugh, Katey, and Hope

Rockin' the swing

I see little fingers!

Hugh wanted to walk home from school drop off. It lasted until he wouldn't listen and ran into the road at the corner up there. 

Hugh and his boots!

Boots and hat style

Being a super brave climber.

Having two little boys is so much fun! I love watching their relationship grow and how they play with each other. We had to break out our rain pants a couple times to enjoy the outside weather in spite of the rain. They love picnicking for lunch on the back porch whenever I let them. We've also been trying to explore new parks to keep life a little more interesting. The boys keep me busy and moving, which I am very grateful for! 

Hugh and Jay in their rain pants

Picnic time!

Hugh going down a big slide

Jay

Hugh and Jay trying to climb!

Both boys riding a spinning toy at the park. 

I found them outside like this and it was so funny! They both won't fit for much longer. 

Celebrations, Social Events, and Therapies

The weeks are full right now, with many things happening all the time! I'll blog the past two weeks based on categories instead of daily, it feels simpler. Our little baby is growing and I had bloodwork and my 16 week appointment. They weren't able to find the heartbeat on the doppler, which is always a little nerve-wracking, but the OB pulled in the ultrasound machine and I got to see a sneak peak of baby who is looking much more like a baby now! Hugh is my appointment buddy and does really well, until I have to sit on the exam table and then he wants to join. Luckily, right now, my tummy is small enough, he still fits fine. 

With the great weather, we've been outside as much as possible to enjoy all the moments! I've planted my garden starts for tomatoes, peppers, and jalapenos. I had little helping hands, so we'll see what comes up! I am excited to fill my new garden grow boxes that were a birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa. The popcorn on the trees has brought new energy to the popcorn popping song, and Hugh points out every tree he sees that has popcorn, which is fun! 

Jay and Matthew

Hugh wanted to be my little helper!

Grow boxes in place!

Hugh has big aspirations to climb!

This was the most entertaining thing at the park, the bike fixing station

Hope and Hugh waiting to pick up Jay at school

Hugh helping me put together my grow boxes, look at that concentration!

My birthday presents from the boys and Matthew arrived late, so I got to leave my birthday sign up for a little bit longer than usual and extra celebrations. I opened my presents over a couple different evenings and the boys really thought that was fun! Matthew gave me some gold hoop earrings, a hair cutting apron, a new water bottle, and a label maker. Jay and Hugh added some cake decorating tools and it will be fun to use them in the future! I also cached in my free Nothing Bundt-bundlet cake and a free pizza from Old Chicago. Both were yummy! Grandma and Grandpa came on the 13th to celebrate Grandpa's birthday and mine. They grilled steak, made baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, and a yummy jello. Matthew made my birthday cake to go with it, and it was amazing to have a wonderful dinner without any of my own efforts! I felt loved and celebrated and so grateful! We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa, and it always goes too fast! 

Happy birthday to me from Nothing Bundt Cakes

Baker Matthew working on the cake

Frosting time! 

Jay and Hugh waving their palms!

Grandpa, Grandma, Jay, and Hugh

Happy 33 to me!

Jay, Me, Hugh - they couldn't stop looking at the candles

Family photo! 

Grandpa, and us because it was his birthday celebration, too!

Presents!

I've been logged many social events the past couple weeks as well. My friend Breeanne and I have continued our walking trend and we're hitting about one morning a week, which is really great! Hugh had a major poop episode at her house last week, which is the WORST! Breeanne was gracious and let us use wipes and extra clothes from Milo. I also set up a ministering park visit with Nancy and her little boy, Rio, who just turned one. We had a nice visit and she walked to picked up Jay from school, which made Jay very excited! He loves when extra people come to get him from school. I was also able to meet up with my friend, Rebecca Szpak, from Lockheed, for brunch. We found this little place that's half way between our houses and we met up there. I had the biggest chocolate chip pancake I've ever had! It was bigger than a dinner plate and bigger than most GF pizza's you can buy. It was super yummy and Hugh loved it too! I should have snagged a photo before I ate it! Hugh was a trooper and ended up loving Rebecca, of course! It was wonderful to catch up with her. She's a fellow coach, and she's naturally amazing at showing empathy, listening, and making a person feel seen and loved. We were able to walk around a nearby park and then split ways so I could get Jay from school. Our catch up was much too short and had been too long since the last time. Her son's best friend's dad works at KPMG and is a member of the church. I hope maybe they'll be able to get the Szpak's baptized, they'd be amazing members! I had another ministering catch up with Michelle at Smoothie King. I used to minister to Michelle, but, she hasn't been on my route for some time and we still love to catch up. I met with her in the evening, and left the boys to be put to bed by Matthew. It was a nice escape for me and she has an adult son who is Autistic and is so kind and always so supportive of what we're doing to help Jay. Finally, I taught my friend Katie how to make crepes and we had crepes with our other friend, Anna. They are both within a couple years of being married, although close to my age. They are wonderful women who value the Savior and the Gospel and make visiting a lot of fun! 

We also had Stake Women's Conference at the beginning of April. Although it was a busy, busy time for Matthew, he kindly watched the boys that evening so I could attend and worked the extra time to make up for it. We had yummy treats and a keynote speaker. One of my take-aways was about the "enabling strength" we receive because of being covenant bound to the Savior. The verb enabling means it's a constant flow, and it's something beyond what we can do on our own. Strength is where our effort comes in. Our constant desire to be strong in the faith and hold to what we know is true. Attached to the word enabling though, enabling strength takes on a new meaning. It's a strength beyond anything I could even train for, work for, or receive on my own. I am incredibly blessed to have that strength as a gift for when I am seeking to do my very best, and the Lord gives me beyond what I can comprehend. 

We've been full speed ahead on supporting Jay in many ways. We were honored when he was named Student of the Month for his class and he got a special t-shirt and paper award. It was for his ability to work hard on building skills and also having fun while doing it. That's a good way to describe Jay, he works SO hard and doesn't give up easily! He had a Physical Therapy evaluation and a Behavioral Therapy evaluation this past week. Physical therapy will really be working with him on balancing and using one side of his body, along with coordinating movements between hands and feet. Physical therapy is right up Jay's ally, so he's excited with Ms. Elena comes! Behavioral therapy was mostly questions for me and a few for Jay. Katie did the evaluation and was actually able to complete a lot of it without even having to ask us because of the time she's already spent with Jay. She did attend school and watch Jay there, and she said he did really great! Speech therapy with Hanen has been a bit of a disaster the past couple weeks. The boys were in extra bad attitudes when it was our 1:1 virtual session with Autumn. She was gracious and gave us much time and space to try to calm down the weeping children. We ended up doing another session Thursday and will do a final one next week to try to get some flip-charts put together to help Jay increase vocabulary. 

Can you tell Jay was a little confused about why he was getting his picture taken for Student of the Month?

Jay's cute grad picture

Jay actually made a silly face, unprompted and I caught it on camera! Amazing!

Jay did this triangle tunnel all on his own, I was so impressed! 

Matthew finally got a couple days off and it was wonderful! He took part of Friday, the 18th off, and then Saturday he didn't have to work. Friday we were going to go to the temple, but the weather wasn't looking great with rain/snow, we were nervous to make the drive. The weather did clear enough for us to go to Mead to watch Allen perform in the Lion King school play. He did awesome in the Ensemble and the program was amazing! I've never seen a children's play so well done, and Jay and Hugh did amazing! They watched and watched, and loved it! We were so grateful! We joined the Bryce's for a treat at Dairy Queen, which the boys thought was a very fun treat! 

Hugh's favorite spot is to sit on the counter and he wants to lick everything when I'm done with it!

Hugh loved our ice cream treat!

The Dahls invited us to a Passover dinner at their house with Katie's parents and her sister. The boys were so excited to be able to play at Sister Dahl's house and we had a great time! Ben had done a ton of research into the Passover readings and slimmed them down to only about 15 minutes. We would read various parts, and then use something off the Seder plate. We had the bitter herbs, horse radish, apples and nuts, and a few other things. We had unleavened bread as well, which was just a huge maza cracker. The boys did really well and it was neat to put all the things from the Passover together with our beliefs of Jesus Christ. Ben and Katie did an excellent job! We enjoyed a regular dinner afterwards and we brought some "unleavened" chocolate cake which is one of my absolute favorites. 

Easter was fun this year! Jay and Hugh have really gotten into our scripture reading from our paper chain countdown, thank you to Kara for giving that to us! And, I printed off a little journal for them that gave us a few things to talk about related to the Savior. On Palm Sunday, I helped the boys make little palm leaves with their handprints and then we watched the Church's video of the Savior's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The boys loved waiving their palms and then we listened to a few nice Easter songs. We weren't consistent on using the journals, but the boys did enjoy opening them and coloring them. We had a really nice talk one evening while they were coloring and shared some simple truths about Jesus. I think right now, it's about the moments of teaching. Moments where we can testify of truth. Sitting down, having deep conversations about truth, are not where our family is right now and moments come and go and when we use them to testify, the Spirit is strong! Easter Sunday, we did a little egg hunt for the boys in the backyard and enjoyed a beautiful sacrament meeting. We read the scriptures about Jesus rising from the grave and sang a couple of Easter songs. We joined the Bryce's and Merrill's in Longmont for a delicious Sunday dinner. Jay did fairly well playing, but was a bit of a handful by the end. It's always wonderful to be with family and we are so blessed to have so much family around us! Jesus lives and He is the reason family means so much and we can have our families for eternity! What a blessing it is to be able to sing praises to Heavenly Father and our Savior! I love music and the powerful testimony that comes along with it, so we listened to a lot of Easter music this year. 

Hugh finding an egg at the park

Jay hunting!

Hugh was wiped out after the park play and neighborhood hunt, he fell asleep on the rug!

Hugh and Jay on Sunday morning before the egg hunt. 

"I found another one!"

A bright, sunny, beautiful Sabbath morning!

This was the one shot after church I got of trying to get them to stand by each other for a photo.

Hugh

Jay

Hugh, Dad, Jay

Hugh, Me, Jay (Jay's trying to kiss my cheek)

Me & Matthew

Last note, we've started to go for walks after dinner and it's Jay's very favorite thing! Jay loves riding his scooter and he's doing very well at stopping and waiting. Hugh is learning how to "zoom" on his bike and think's it's great to be a big kid and not ride in the stroller! Matthew and I do our best at keeping up on foot, but soon we may have to transition to wheels of some sort. It's been a great way for us to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and time together as a family! 

Jay

Hugh - he doesn't take this on a walk, but is learning to pedal, which is so fun!