Just a few pics and update

I tried to take pictures of Brody's ready for school but he doesn't hold still very long and the camera seems to take forever to actually snap the picture.

5 years old and in Kindergarten

Since it is mostly Ryan throughout the day now and I was still trying to put stuff away he liked to get into stuff and play

So he got a hold of all of my bracelets

And had some fun!

This is just my boys in the car

being cute (and Brody is asleep I guess)!

So here is the built-in entertainment center at the Yale house torn apart.

boxes and boxes

and boxes

More to come on the new house (hopefully some pictures soon)



Delaina and Kris are visiting this weekend which we are looking forward to. We love seeing those amazing and wonderful ladies. We always enjoy their company.


Also the results of Brody's procedure on August 11th came back. Brody has acid reflux (which is most likely one explanation of why he doesn't eat much cause, if you have ever had it, it affects your appetite). Back in February an x-ray revealed that Brody had fecal retention in his colon. Since then we have tried flushing it out or cleaning it out starting with a 3 day clean out with lots of miralax followed by a daily dose of miralax. Well the morning of the procedure Brody had another follow up x-ray to see if the treatment has helped. As it turns out there is just as much fecal retention as the first x-ray. Just to give an idea of how much it must be - the night before the procedure as well as the morning of the procedure we had to give Brody an enema to clear out what we could. So even with all that there was still so much fecal retention that the doctor would like a little more drastic attempt to clear out his colon. She recommended Brody be admitted to Phoenix Children's Hospital for a 2-3 day clean out. There are some details better left unsaid since I have already mentioned too much about poop. It is a little drastic but in 6 months the problem has not gotten any better. Also his doctor is a pediatric GI specialist and 70% of her patients also happen to have autism so I trust her knowledge and experience. We might be going in starting Friday September 9th. Cross your fingers and pray for our little Brody that he can withstand it all and that it will help him.

We are alive

So we are in the new house and we are alive BUT everything has decided to hit at once:


Moved

Unpacked and settled (mostly)

Brody decided to not respond to melatonin anymore which means very little sleep at night

We all got sick (except for Brody)

Brody's first day of kindergarten

Upper and lower GI scoping procedure at Phoenix Children's Hospital - prepping was an enema the night before and first thing in the morning. The procedure also meant sedation through gas and IV

We are slowly re-cooping from being sick and Brody's body is still adjusting to a new sleep schedule

But we are in a cute home and we are alive and well - counting our blessings at times like this helps!

2011: the year of moving

Have you already moved this year? Or are you planning on moving? If so you should join the ever-expanding club. It mostly our families but friends can join as well:

Jake's other sister, Delaina and Kris moved to Kansas City, MO (okay technically it was in December of 2010 but they bought a house this summer and will be moving in soon so that is why I am counting it)
My brother Gabe and his wife got married and moved into an apartment
Donna and Dennis moved to Italy
Sarah, Jared and kids moved within the same city but about 15 minutes farther away
My sister Jada and her family moved a few weeks ago just across Val Vista from our neighborhood
Josh and Amy moved from down the street from us to Queen Creek
Jake and I are moving this Saturday
Becky and Trevor will be moving at the end of August (close by, thank goodness)
Jack and Melissa just found out they have to move and they will move at the end of this month as well

So yeah, lots of moving this year in our families. If you do decide to join the club there are many benefits. You are able to sort through and get rid of stuff you don't need. There are SO MANY boxes available (well after we are done with them) and tape guns (you will probably have to buy the tape) as well as a dolly and the number of a company that you can rent a moving van from. See half the work is already done for you!!

Well here is to a couple days of even more chaos than a home half packed!

Our Brody is a busy boy

Brody is starting full-time Kindergarten in August. His first day of school is Wednesday August 10th! We found out the school will be Jordan Elementary (pictured above with a cool picture of their school mascot - I guess they are the Jordan Jaguars). The school has a great program and highly trained staff for kids with autism. It is a little farther away from our house than we thought but there are only a few schools in the district with a program that will meet Brody's needs. I guess it just means a longer bus ride!

We got an augmentative communication device a few months ago (pictured above). We are finally getting me trained on to know how to program and he will eventually learn to use it in order to 'talk' for him. I was initially really excited, like the device could finally help me know how to communicate with Brody and for him to communicate with us but after the training and seeing how Brody is on the device it will take some time but then I am confident it will be a wonderful new advancement for him

Brody has been going to an afternoon summer camp at a therapy center. It is the same place he gets his other therapies. He goes on field trips twice a week. He has been having a lot of fun going to jambo park, museums, libraries and splash parks. The hab providers he works with are so nice and friendly to us and to Brody. They are all so excited to see him.

Brody has been taking swim lesson now for about a month, maybe a month and half. I cannot remember the exact day he started. With him, the way he communicates - or lack thereof - as well as short attention span meant we had to take him to a place that was capable of teaching children with special needs. So there is a great place called Swim Kids, USA. It is a little pricy for 30 minutes a week but I feel it is worth every penny. Brody LOVES the water but he has no fear and that is a big danger around water and pool, pond or anything he can drown in. He just passed the beginner level and moving right along into intermediate. His teacher, Mirabell is strict and does not tolerate not being safe or not listening. Thus, she is the perfect instructor for Brody. So he does not know how to swim yet but he is doing great.

Brody has been a busy boy this summer and will continue to be busy from now on with school and all the therapies. Though I will miss having him home, I know it is important that he does all of this because it all helps him improve and function better.

In the meantime we will cherish Brody's time at home and the time we have with him!

We have found a home

So after several months of looking on the Internet for homes and then seeing dozens of homes these past couple months, Jake and I have finally found a home we love that (unless there are some unseen hurdles) in about 30 days will finally be ours.

It is pretty cute (as you can see above). It fits our lifestyle really well. Even a extra room to make an office. Also there is an Arizona Room that will be the perfect playroom. Therefore, in this new house the boy's rooms will just be there rooms they sleep in. No more eating in their bedrooms, no more coloring in their rooms, no more puzzles and no more toys everywhere around the house. Well I am sure they will try to bring toys everywhere but at least in this house there will be a designated area for toys. It is only about a mile or two away from where we live now which is nice cause we like this area.

What is even better with this home is that we are buying it after the real estate bubble that occurred a few years ago. We bought our first home in 2006 and it was during the bubble. Needless to say because of the bad mortgages being sold at that time and how inflated the price of the home was, we didn't have that house for long. Just for an idea how bad the bubble made the price of a home back then - this home we are going to buy is going to have a mortgage payment of almost $900 less than the home we bought in 2006 and the actual price of the home is almost $140,000 less than our old home.

I am happy this home will be affordable and that we can make it a nice home for our family. Of the almost 8 years we've been married we have only had about 6 months that we had a place to call our own. Now we will hopefully be moved and semi-settled before Brody starts kindergarten.

Not only those positives but also when it comes time for someone to kick us out of this house we are in, we won't be homeless!!

Fun at Jambo

So it is a little ghetto and the rides are a little rickety but you can't really beat $5 for a day of rides and climbing and playing.


Last Friday we went to a place called Jambo Park as part of a celebration for Brody's birthday. There is a massive play area and a bunch of rides. My kids had a lot of fun. It was a nice experiment if we are ever tempted to go to Disneyland. If my kids do not have the patience to wait or are scared of the rides at this places the money for gas and price to get into Disneyland would be a waste! Here are a few pictures of our fun time there with some family.

Brody spent a lot of time in this area.

There were money barrels that Brody loved but Ryan cried the entire time, clutching to me as if he were going to die!!

Oh and he got stuck in this play area a couple times!

Here is another view of Jambo. Ryan wanted to play with the arcade type games just like when we went bowling

Brody get climbing up the slides - too bad for the other kids who were trying to slide down. For Brody it is the most logical way to get back up and then go down again. He finds climbing back up the other way a waste of time!

Grammie was able to be there which was a lot of fun. Ryan was scared to sit on the hippo

But both him and Brody wanted me and Grammie to set them in the hippos mouth - doesn't really make sense!!

Brody loved play on this game

He even moved it a little bit. When I put the tokens in for him to really play it me - the adult - couldn't figure out how it moved and worked!

This was an awesome moment. Ryan decided to be brave enough to go on a ride and Brody and him sat by each other. It was as if they were brothers and looked like brothers (I say that only cause Brody rarely, if ever, interacts with him). It was cute and they had fun!

June 16, 2006 at 11:23 pm

Okay the time he was born I am not 100% sure on but I am 98% and I think that is close enough

Now my son, my first born, officially is 5 years old.

I wanted to write this long awesome post about my beautiful boy but sometimes birthdays with our little Brody can be bittersweet and hopefully that is not a bad thing to say but understandable given the circumstances of Brody. I do not want that to be the case this year.

Therefore, I will keep it short and sweet. The pictures above are from today. The party with the cake is going to be on Saturday. In the meantime we celebrated with a one candle on a zebra cake (which he calls a cupcake)! It was lame to some put he doesn't know any better and for now it was sweet and fun to sing to him around that zebra cake.

I cherish his love that he freely gives and envelopes me in with his hugs, kisses, giggles and sometimes amazing eye contact. My life and our family has been blessed to have this beautiful, happy and wonderful child for the past 5 years...and counting!