Happy Anniversary!

This week was our 7 year anniversary. This year we decided to go to Park City and spend a couple days without the kids. And it was WONDERFUL. In the past we really don't do anything big for our anniversary, so when Matt's parents offered for us to use their time share in Park City we couldn't refuse. We dropped the kids off at Grandma Davidson's and drove up to Park City Friday night.

Biking:
We brought our bikes along and after getting lost a couple times we found a bike trail that looked fun. Not soon later dark thunderclouds rolled in. We decided to keep going and hoped that it would be a short storm. Matt asked me if I still wanted to go and I did because we had spent all morning getting our bikes ready. The first 20 minutes into our ride it rain and I was really glad that I had my raincoat on . After we got to the top of all the switch backs it POURED and DUMPED on us. By this time my fingers were cold and I was ready to go back. My Capri's were soaked and it was hard to pedal because they were sticking to my skin. Not only this the rain was making the trail muddy and slippery. Our tires would skid out and we had a hard time getting traction on our tires. At the top of the hill lighting and thunder circled around us and we decided to get off our bikes and sit down low. Luckily it didn't last to long and got back on our bikes. At this point the trail was filled with big puddles, and our shoes and legs were caked with mud. The rain made our hands icy cold and braking our bikes was a challenge because mud was in our brake pads. We debated what would be the quickest way back because we didn't have our map with us. Luckily we came within a few hundred yards of a major road so we ditched the trail and walked our bikes through the sagebrush so that we could take take the road back home.

NOTE: I have to mention that it may seem like I am extreme but I am definitely not at mountain biking. Mountain Biking is definitely Matt's thing. I just tag along for the ride. HE is also very good at being patient with my slowness. Our first year of married Matt took me to Moab on a advance trail called "slick rock trail" and not even 1 mile into the ride I went over the handlebars and had to get stitches put in my chin. Ever since then I have this extreme fear of going downhill and getting flipped over my bike. So. . . . this is why I go very SLOW and I am very cautious of myself.

Here we are huddling together so that we wouldn't get struck by lighting. I know, how romantic is that! Sorry the picture isn't very good, it was hard to keep water off the lens. It was also kind of fun to sit and watch the lighting bolts strike in the distance.

After we got back to the condo and got all cleaned up we decided to go to "Butchers Block" and get some steak for dinner. This restaurant was super fancy and was definitely the most money we ever spent on a meal. We have not been out to eat since Jake was 5 months old so we felt like we could splurge. After the delicious meal we went to the swimming pool and relaxed in the hot tub while it rained on us. It was so relaxing sitting in a hot tub while cold rain fell on our faces.

The next morning we drove back and got the kids. They had tons of fun at Grandmas and I hope they didn't wear them out too much. (thanks again Paul, Julie, and Amy) It was good to have them back and we missed them a ton.

No No Neigh Neigh

Aiden has learned a new word: SIT

Only his "s" sounds like "sh". And he emphasises the sh. He LOVES to repeat this over and over. He even did it at church today and I just have to clarify that he didn't learn a swear word from us, he must have picked it up when we tell Soby to sit.

Aiden also learned to say my name a couple of weeks ago. "se saw" I was so sad the first time I heard him calling my name and searching for me. I really really want at least one of my kids to call me mommy. (jake now calls me 'hey D' ) Aiden has this thing were he will say the same thing over and over for a week or two. He hasn't called me "se saw" for a couple of weeks and I am okay with that. Instead he says sh*t!

Any where but the bed!

JAKE IN A COSTCO BAG













Jake has a strange habit of making a bed in different areas of the house. He rarely falls asleep in these places.

Jake has started developing a bad habit of waking up at night and cries because there are "rarrs"-translation for monsters. I guess he has watched too many Scooby Doo and Indiana Jones movies. He is waking up 2-3 x a night and it is really annoying because it wakes up Aiden. He really wants to sleep in our bed but that is out of the question. We usually take turns by sleeping with him until he falls asleep in his bed, and lately when we wake up in the morning he is sleeping on the floor by our door. Last night I laid down with him in his bed and he wouldn't fall asleep. By time 1:00 a.m. rolled around he still wasn't asleep and I was frustrated and left. 5 minuets later we heard him in the hall way and I got up to see he had made a little bed for him on the cold hard tile. I put a sleeping mat underneath him and he slept through the night! -yes in the hall. What a weird kid!

Jakes Speech Testing

Jake had his last speech evaluation today. Jake has been diagnosed with Apraxia which is a speech learning disorder. Which basically means that Jake's brain has a hard time transferring his thoughts to the muscles in his mouth to make words. Another thing that kids who have this tend to use the wrong word in place of other words. Which totally makes sense because Jake does this all the time. For example Jake says "horse" instead of the word "where", he asks for "juice" when he wants "milk" so you see how confusing this could be for us. He especially has a hard time calling people by the right name. Aiden has a new nickname "neigh neigh" (yes like the sound of a horse) at our house. Jake has started calling me Ma Ma, but dad has become "Hey D". At least he's not calling him Teresa anymore:) He also calls all of the daycare kids "hey D" or "hey nana."

At the screenings they tested him to make sure he isn't behind developmentally. It seems that kids who have speech problems have many delays developmentally besides speech. The therapist says that he isn't behind cognitively (smarts) and understands almost everything that is being said to him. He seems to understand and following directions. He has good motor skills. (that's not a shocker) and he does okay with socializing with other children. The only only test score that he didn't do well in is his speech. Right now he can say about a 100 words but still has a hard time putting sentences together. Also most people have a hard time understanding him.

Jake has developed a talent for being able to ask for something without being able to say the word. For instant-we were having carrots with our lunch and he wanted ranch dressing but can't say ranch or dip. He kept pointing to the fridge and blurting out his "jake jiber jabor." I asked him if he wanted ketchup "no," he picks up his carrots and says "sis". "Do you want dip or sauce?" "yes" is his reply. I guess I have to add that I am pretty good at figuring out his demands. He is also very independent. If he wants something he will just grab a bar stool and drag it through out the entire house. Sometimes this is a pain because he gets into stuff he shouldn't be into.

One thing that the therapist suggested was teaching Jake some sign language. I was actually surprised about this suggestion because I thought that doing this would only delay his speech development even more. So about a week ago I learned some simple signs on the Internet of common words that we use daily and have started teaching him. He LOVES it. In fact he has started making up a few signs of his own. He likes to imitate me when I make the sign and thinks its a game. I have totally noticed a difference in him since I have taught him. Instead of making him repeat every word and demand him to repeat it I show him the sign and he copies me (with a smile). I still try to make him repeat the word.

Jake will be starting school twice a week in the fall. Because of my daycare they are providing a bus to pick up and drop him off at school. This relieves a ton of stress from me because now I don't have to arrange plans for someone to watch my daycare kids. He will especially love the bus ride because he absolutely loves buses!

Fun in the Sun

I just thought that it was time to update my blog. We had a great weekend with Matt's side of the family. For mothers day I was able to sleep in which I really appreciated. I don't get to sleep in very often because of my job, second my kids tend be early risers. I however had a really enjoyable Mothers Day. After breakfast I got the kids in their Sunday clothes and decided to try to get a few good pictures of the kids. I do have to say that my kids don't pose for pictures. They are all action shots. Plus for some weird reason when ever we pull out the camera Jake's smile tends to disappear and he won't look at the camera. So after 10o pictures later here are some of the better ones.





Here is a little clip at the park. Aiden makes sure that dad doesn't forgot him. He wants to be just like his big brother and dad. Aiden isn't as active as Jake but that doesn't keep him from wanting to do stuff with them. He is gutsy in his own quiet little way. (Also note his bottle in his mouth). This has become his new passy. He will keep it in his mouth like a pacifier. It is his comforter. A month ago I would only let him have the bottle when he slept and that backfired because when he would wake up he would stay quietly in his crib for hours and just suck the life out of the empty bottle-he knew that I would take it away when he was out of the crib. So I decided that he wasn't ready and will try later when he is a little older.

Vindicated on Gobblers

Another minor adventure by Matt

Made a second attempt at Gobblers. This time I was accompanied by a work friend who had never been back country before.

It rained and rained and rained, by the time it finally started to snow I was soked through to the skin everywhere, including down my boot and into my feet.

I ended up alone with Soby on the ridgeline, my poor friend had such a hard time with the equipment, that I was freezing to death waiting for him so much, so I kind of had to ditch him or get hypothermia (seriously).

On my way up Soby was wondering around as she always does and out of the corner of my eye I saw her fall through a cornice. My first thought was "on no Soby!" and took 2 steps toward the edge of the cornice, when sombody in my brain said, stop you fool you'll fall too! Luckily there was a break in the cornice line a short way up and when I peeked on the other side, there was Soby, visibly shaken up but walking and ok. She fell around 20ft, I was just glad she didn't fall on any rock, cliffs or anything else. She had a hard time coming back to me though, it was still a very steep hill, she stoped halfway and looked at me as if 'help me'. I called to her and she made it back up.

The Cornice Soby fell through, notice the "V" notch
Poor Soby dog after she climbed out of her fall zone

After she got back I continued on up the ridge line. I reached a point just near the top and I started to really get worried about Bryan, he's an intermediate skier and and a very inexperienced (winter) back country traveler. Looking ahead I saw one last hill to climb to actually peak. I was here last year and skiied off the peak, so I really didn't need to repeat that again. Somthing was telling me though, 'you need to go find Bryan'. So I got my stuff together and made may back along the ridge. After a little while I found Bryan, he was trucking up the ridge doing his best to follow my tracks. When I skied up to him I said, "Boy am I glad to see you" he replied, "No I'm really glad to see you". He told me how he was a little nervious and that he was losing my tracks in the weather. I was ready to get off this mountain at this point and helped him get ready to go. I gave him a quick lesson in skiing safely in avalanche terrain and we praticed skiing one at a time, island of saftey to island of saftey, trying to maintain a visiual at all times. This was kind of hard though as the clouds would come in from time to time and completely envlope you as you skied.

We did make it down ok, Bryan had a hard time with the downhill though, he was very tired from the apporach which only hindered him in his decent. But I really have to hand it to him, dispite all of the struggles, he said he really enjoyed it and always gave it 110%

Here's a video, my old man could be proud of ;)
(Sorry for my friends shaky hand, I think he was pretty tired)

The Dredded Doorbell

Well its that time of year, the grass is getting greener, flowers are blooming and the door to door sales men are out and about trying to get a hold of your money!

I tend to have a soft spot in my heart for these guys because Matt sold pest control during the summer we were first married. He hated it and we made okay money but in the end it was HARD, HOT and he was MISERABLE. In the summer we get them all the time and I have a feeling that they are going to be bad this year becuase of the ecomomy. I have heard every gimmick to get you to listen to there spill. (oh did you know that you can get your whole house carpet cleaned for free? Someone out there is going to give you free labor plus free cleaning products out of the goodness of their heart! I don't think so). Oh and I had one guy who got me sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- don't ask) I did fall for a basic house cleaner two years ago and I have been happy with its results. And then last year Matt and I were sold for a young European who was selling children's books. I think mostly we bought them because Matt was able to talk to him a little bit about the gospel. It seemed like a good price at first but after taxes, and shipping fees it came to be way more then we wanted to spend. So now Jake has a great set of children books at a pricey cost$$$$. ANYWAYS. . . . Most of the time when salesmen come to my door this is what happens.

I open the door and they pause for a few seconds before saying anything.

Salesmen: "Is your mom or dad home"?
Me: "No they're not."
Salesmen: "Do you know when they will be home".
Me: "I don't."
Salesmen: "Is it okay if I leave you my card"?
Me: "Sure."

It's a great way to get rid of them because I am telling them the a truth. It's actually kind of funny because I am 27 but apparently I look young enough to still be living with my folks! I guess I need to start growing up a bit.