Dallon Turns FOUR!!

I can't believe that Dallon just turned 4! We invited our neighbors (and their 2 boys--ages 6 and 2) and my friend Ann-Marie and her kids (2 boys--ages 5 and 3, and 1 girl age 2). I was thinking that only making 2 contacts for invitations meant it would be a relatively small affair, but I suddenly realized that 7 children between the ages of 1 and 6 was a big party!

We had decorate your own cupcakes.
Dallon had to be coaxed to open his presents, but he got most of it done himself.
Then we took the party outside for a pinata. Dallon took a few good swings....
And Jace took a whack or 10 at it....
and when it was all over we had more candy than we knew what to do with! So we sent a bunch of kids high on chocolate and cake home with their parents and then laid down to take naps ourselves! We had the party done by 2:30 so Jace could nap, and Chris had to leave for work at 5. It was a fun party, and I'm glad I decided to do it--even last minute.

Christmas 2007

We opened a present on Christmas Eve, which is traditionally new pajamas so we look good on Christmas morning. Dallon and Jace weren't really in the mood to hold still for pictures.

Christmas morning was great. The boys loved their gifts from Santa. Dallon got a VSmile Pocket, and Jace got a "Bucket" of Dinosaurs. Dallon got lots more CARS toys and Jace got some Little Einsteins in their stockings. They both enjoyed opening all of their presents until we got to the last few when we had to take over just to get the job done.


We had our big dinner on Christmas Eve because Chris had to go to work at 5pm on Christmas Day. So we had a lazy afternoon and leftovers before Chris left.

Family Pictures from Thanksgiving

We had some family pictures taken over Thanksgiving. It was a little hard to get all the kids and adults to look good all at one time.
Me and my sister Kaylee.
My siblings and parents.

Last Minute Christmas Stuff

Jace is obsessed with the tree. He won't leave it alone and loves to crawl around it and hide.
Mr. Incredible (aka Dallon) helping Daddy with the star.

It looks like we are not going to be sending out Christmas cards this year. Sorry everyone, but I just ran out of time. Maybe we'll send out a year end letter after New Years--but no guarantees.

We are in the home stretch before Christmas, and I've only got a couple more things to get for the big morning. I'm excited to be spending Christmas at home with our own tree and beds. I never sleep well away from home, so it makes the day a little better when I can actually sleep.

Just a little side note--and don't be alarmed--our garage door was tagged with gang graffiti on Saturday night. It was black paint on our dark brown door, so it wasn't a typical tagging because it was hard to see it from the street. We filed a police report and it is somewhat typical for that to happen around here, except that there was a cop car parked a few houses down, all of our outdoor lights were on, and nothing else on the street was tagged. We'll post something if anything comes of our police report.

Well, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that other holiday stuff. Love you all and hopefully we'll be seeing you all again soon.

Christmas Tree Hunt

We filled our Christmas tree tag this year--Chris was pretty pumped that he filled one of his hunting tags in only the first couple of hours. We went with our neighbors next door and their family. (The boys looked like the kid on A Christmas Story--ticks about ready to pop.)

Jace mostly tried to avoid getting too much snow on himself because he didn't like getting wet. But after a while he was dipping his gloves in the snow and licking it off.
The boys had a great time playing in the perfect powder that had just fallen on the mountains. Dallon made some snow angels.
I pulled the boys most of the way on a sled and kept warm doing so. Going uphill with a 60 pound, wiggley load that likes to drag their hands and feet as you go is a lot of work!
We found a beautiful tree and we're planning to put it up and decorate it tonight. We'll be doing dried orange slices and spices again, I'll post pictures of them later!

e Merry Christmas e

Ward Christmas Party

So we went to our ward Christmas party on Friday and the boys got to meet Santa. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the amazing decorations!

Santa had a very familiar voice (for those of you who know him it was Todd Davies--I grew up across the street from the Davies in Pocatello until they moved with the railroad in 1997).
Dallon really dug the Santa thing, especially getting candy from him.
Jace was not too sure and was giving some great funny looks at this weird guy with a beard.
More pretty decorations.

You Tube Video of Service Dogs

This link with take you to a video of some families that have gotten service dogs and what their dogs do for their children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xev6Tv0KBiU

Service Dog

I have been looking into getting a service dog for Dallon. There is a place in Lake Oswego, OR that raises and trains dogs specifically for children with autism. The dog is mostly for safety as far as I can tell. Since children with autism have speech and social delays, they are unlikely to be able to tell a stranger their name if they get lost, or respond to a strange voice calling their name. So if a child with autism gets lost, it can be very difficult to find them whether it be in the neighborhood, in a public place, a theme park, or out in the woods somewhere.

The dogs can go anywhere and are encouraged to go everywhere with their child. Children with these dogs tend to improve their social interaction skills because it is easier for them to have a conversation about the dog than themselves. They can bond with the dog which helps their social skills since they tend to not be able to bond with people as easily.

The dog is a big investment, though most of the cost is covered by fundraising. The program we're looking at in Oregon costs $13,500 for a dog, and it takes approximately a year to get a dog. They won't place a dog with a child under 5, so we can apply now and get a dog as soon as he is old enough.

The program has a web site:

http://www.autismservicedogsofamerica.com/

If this works out, we should have a great addition to our family that will have the potential to really help Dallon to develop in a lot of different ways.

Weird Weather

So I went out this morning at 8:30 to take Dallon to school, and it was 62 degrees! I couldn't believe it. Just a day ago we were freezing, and then this morning its like September again...I don't think I'll ever get use to the weather here.

Over the weekend we were planning to get our Christmas tree, but it was snowing really badly on the mountains and we decided to postpone our trip to next weekend. I was very sad, I was really looking forward to it. Hopefully this warmer weather will keep through the week making the roads better and the air a little warmer for the kids when we go.

Once there was a Snowman...

We went out and built a snowman in our almost freshly fallen snow (it was pretty wet by this afternoon). The boys were pretty proud of it. Jace wouldn't put on his gloves, so he didn't touch the snow much. He fell once, and you would have thought that he was instantly getting frostbite by the way he reacted.
Dallon did some re-arranging of the snowman's arms....
Then he decided the snowman looked like a hunting trophy!

I love the snow...it makes it really feel like Christmas is coming. We're tentatively planning to go up and get our Christmas tree this weekend. It will be fun to decorate with the boys this year. I'm hoping to find a chance to see Santa this year too...we missed him last year.

Winter Wonderland!

We walked into the family room this morning to find that it had snowed. I took the boys to the back door and showed them. Dallon let out a big gasp and said, "a Christmas!" I quickly got the boys dressed and Dallon went right out to play. He began by scraping snow off of everything he could with a little toy hammer. His hands got cold in his little gloves, so I went out while he was at school and got him some better gloves for his recess time. I stayed and watched him play at recess, he was throwing snowballs at his teachers and helping to build a snowman. After lunch we'll go out and try the snowman building thing. I doubt this snow will last long--it never does here. I'll post some more pictures later.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving Day we spent at my Grandma and Grandpa Christensen's house. We had an early dinner at about 2:00, and the food was so good we stuffed ourselves a couple of times. We went back to our hotel room to put the boys down for a nap, then headed to my parent's house because they had some early Christmas a birthday presents for the boys.

Jace was cheesing it up for every camera he saw even though he had been sick since Tuesday and was feeling pretty lousy earlier that day.
For Christmas they got an electric Polaris Sportsman that I'm sure they will have tons of fun on soon.
Kaylee and Colton being silly playing cards.
Jace playing with Grandpa, pounding on the big ball and growling.
For Dallon's birthday he got a flashlight that he was supposed to wear on his head, but he thought it was a camera and went around for the next couple of days saying "smile" and making shutter noises.

On Friday we got together with all of my siblings and their families to have some family pictures taken (Jace and Dallon were not in the mood), then we had breakfast at Elmer's. We spent some time with Colton and Whitney and their new baby Andee. That evening we picked up some pizza and went to Jeremy and Liz Branson's house for a couple of hours and just lingered and played with some friends there. We went back to our hotel and swam in the pool with Kaylee, my cousin Kourtney, and a couple of their friends until we got kicked out.

Saturday morning we packed up, made a couple of stops to say some good-byes and headed on our way. We make a stop in La Grande, and made it home a little after 9:00.

Today we are trying to recover. Dallon is sick with what Jace had last week, so we'll see how things go for him to go to school this week.

Hope you all had a fantastic holiday, and that this holiday season is just as wonderful.

Gratitude

Gratitude is the word I think of when Thanksgiving rolls around each year--and I have so much to be thankful for. I have a fantastic husband and two beautiful and healthy sons. I have a job that keeps me busy and healthy. I have many talents that makes my life more full and gives me opportunity to serve others. I have a calling at church that has pushed my limits and helped me to give more freely of myself to people I barely know. I have a life filled with love and enriched with knowledge of truth. I am especially grateful this year to have been lucky enough to have been born in this great country. I am a huge fan of America, and most of my blessings are a direct result of the opportunities provided to me through the freedoms in this country--the most important of which to me is the freedom of religion. All of these great things in my life I know come from one source--my Heavenly Father who has given me so much opportunity to make something great out of my life.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!

New Classroom

(This is an older picture--from February--but I realized that I didn't have it on our blog yet.)

Dallon had his first day of school in his new classroom. The new building is really great, and his classroom is about 3 times the size of their temporary classroom. He seemed unsure about this new place, but he went in and found his way around. It will be a much better place for him. There will be a work station set up for Dallon for his STAR program. They will be getting started on that soon now that they have room for a real work station. I will be going to more training on the 20th before we leave for Thanksgiving.

We will be in Pocatello for Thanksgiving this year. We'll be leaving on Wednesday after Chris is off of work, and we'll be heading home on Saturday so we can have Sunday to recover before Dallon goes back to school. Can't wait to see everyone there!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Silly Jace

So Jace has been getting himself into trouble a lot lately. He loves to climb, and will launch or walk off of something if he thinks I'm close enough to catch him (he doesn't care if I'm looking or not!). He also tries to go out in the cold with no shoes or pants!
Luckily, I caught him riding his tractor pantless on a chilly evening and got him some sweats and shoes. His nose was really rosy which is a dead giveaway for how cold it really was.
Last night he had been bathed and put in his jammies before Dallon took a bath. Turn your back for one second, and he's in the tub fully clothed!
He thought he was pretty cute, we were unhappy about his really soaked diaper, but at least he was clean.

Bathroom Remodel Almost Complete

So Chris has been working on our master bathroom for a really long time. Since July actually. He tiled and put up the new light, but then he went on his inspection job for 2 months. After inspection we went on vacation, then it was hunting season....you get the point. He has slowly been buiding this cabinet for our vanity for weeks now.
The sink is now functional, and the base molding runs all the way around the room now.
We even have a little helper installed under the sink which is a unique feature.

Trick or Treat

So Halloween has come and gone. We spent the evening with our neighbors, Jerry and Missy. We met at their house, and the boys went out to play on the trampoline.
Then we headed out for Trick or Treating. Dallon was really into it. After an hour he was still going strong, but Jace was getting cold and ready to head back.
The boys all played (Jerry and Missy have 2 boys age 6 and 2, and another couple brought their boys too), and the adults sat around munching on snacks and finger food.
Jace loves their dog who is a black lab mix. Jace was laying on the floor eating the sprinkles off of a cookie, and the dog slowly scooted closer and closer to him. Eventually Jace's head was laying on the dog's front paw, and he was feeding the dog one sprinkle at a time.