Thanksgiving...one BUSY week!!

Last weekend we celebrated John's 6th birthday!!!

Hanging out in swimsuits the week of Thanksgiving....that's Arizona!!

Special potato flour cupcakes just for him!

Presents included hundreds of Legos, Magnet gears, Cartoons, Telescope, K'Nex, Coloring books, Dollars from the Great Grandmas! If that wasn't enough, we took John to Toys R Us to pick out a toy. He was WAY overstimulated with all the blessings. He almost fainted in the store and we had to carry him out. We picked a Spongebob WII game for him.

Thanksgiving came so soon. We celebrated with over 40 people around noon at Brian and Scottee's. Drove the quads, played volleyball, cousins had a blast!!

After hanging out with all of Adam's side, we went over to my Mom's for dinner. (Sorry, no photos...) We crashed on the couch after dinner, watching the Cardinals get slaughtered and reading the black Friday ads.

Of course, I had to go out on black Friday with my mom!! This is me at 5:15am...ready for the deals! Good time, Mom!!!

That night, Rich and Treslee's wedding dinner came...complete with singing and a delicious dinner from Famous Dave's!!





Saturday was the wedding (I'll get photos soon!). I managed to hobble pretty good on my sore toe all week. I also got a bit of bronchitis.

Did I mention I had finals for school on Wednesday too?


Here's a photo of darling baby Sam! Allison has been sick this week, but she's been doing a good job mommying while everyone is running around like crazy!

PDD-NOS Awareness

Here's the new blog I have been working on.

I hope for it to grow and become a helpful source for PDD-NOS.

pddnosawareness.blogspot.com

Europe 2002

Adam and I went to Europe when we first got married. We spent a day in Paris. Sorry, I just took pictures of these photos...I'll have to scan them later.

I remember our day in Paris. I was newly pregnant with John and exhausted from all the walking around. After walking around the Louvre, Adam let me lay down on the grass to take a nap. He even slept too! Best nap of my life...best memory of Paris. BEST HUSBAND.

While walking through the Louvre we were able to see the Mona Lisa...hence the name of our dog.

Mona's Boyfriend

Mona has a boyfriend but she's a little mean to him.

She tore his head off the other night.

Last night she ripped his arms apart.

She also ripped all the stuffing out of him.

Talk about tearing some one's heart out....

Poor boyfriend.

Ever stub your toe?

Sorry for the gross foot shots. Time for a home pedicure! I jammed my toe on the vacuum last night. After dancing around the room screaming at Adam for leaving the vacuum out, I sat on the floor and cried. Something was therapeutic about crying like a little kid. I woke up with some bruising...but it hurts worse than it looks. The toenail is chipped up a little too. Poor Adam...he's been babying me all day.

Gratitude Tag

15 things I'm grateful for:

1. My pillow.
2. John's good days.
3. Ella when she's helping.
4. Air conditioning.
5. Mona Lisa.
6. Ice cold milk.
7. Fresh basil.
8. Blogs.
9. Progesterone cream and Vitamins.
10. The Office.
11. Being able to go running.
12. Body Shop concealer.
13. The ocean.
14. Adam.
15. The gospel.

I could go all day with this one!

Feeling like a robot?

Congrats to Devin and Allison

New baby boy came today!! Sweet round face! Perfect baby!!

Hot Dog...Wild dogs night.

We went for a hike at the White Tanks on Saturday. Then we got together for hot dogs at the park that night.

Dixie is Mona's BFF...Hence, the "Wild Dogs" night.

Autism and Food Allergies

I haven't updated John's medical situation in a while. We had several blood tests done back in August to check for food allergies which might have been causing some of John's symptoms. Just as we suspected, we found several food allergies which were difficult to determine by trial and error. We were so grateful for the news.

John's allergies consisted of brown rice, navy beans, milk (all dairy), eggs and almonds.

With an autism diagnosis, I wonder why doctors don't immediately check for food allergies. We also started John on amino acid therapy treatment. He is only able to have one of the other chelating amino acids because the others are too excitatory. Meaning, if he takes certain amino acids they make him really hyper.

So, we are moving forward. He is starting to eat oats again. We are REALLY excited about that!

Halloween candy was a BIG mistake. Of course, we gave John the freedom to choose to eat candy, only ones without allergens. All his symptoms started coming back this weekend. Flapping hands, eye twitching, flicking fingers, outbursts...oh, don't let me forget - the infamous "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!!!!!" as loud as his voice can carry. I think we heard that maybe 50+ times this weekend.

Then, at stake conference, I had to bring John into a separate classroom to meltdown. He kept trying to touch the lady's hair in front of us. A wild 20 minute tantrum... complete with shoe-throwing, sock tossing, head banging hysteria. Ella and I watched in hopes it would end. I gave Ella a high 5 and a hug for being so patient through that one. With bruised shins from John's kicking, I left the classroom with everyone in the foyer staring at the "abusive mom". I'm used to that look.

John had one more bad day on Monday at school and got a yellow card. Now, the reaction is wearing off and he's calming down finally.

Back to the grind! No more candy. Oh, did I mention he threw up all over his bed in the middle of the night on Saturday? Yes, definitely no more candy. NO MORE.

We continue to see the Naturopathic Physician for all our needs. It's a fantastic thing to have support with all of this. She even calls throughout the week to check up on John. Thanks also to everyone for all your love and support!

2008 Election

Well, this is it! I've been studying U.S. History this semester for school. This election has been more meaningful to me than any other. I've studied post-war conditions and the economy ups and downs over the past 100 years. All I can say is I hope the right people are elected.

I turned in my early ballot last week. Yesterday, I received a call notifying me that I forgot to sign my ballot and I would need to come in to sign it or sign a provisional ballot. Where....WHERE else in the world would citizens be given such royal voting treatment??? I went down to re-vote and was SO grateful to stand in line for the minuscule hour of my day. When I was there, I saw my friend, Amy, at the polls and she emphasized her gratitude to be able to vote without people shooting at her.

I didn't mind standing in that line. I loved it. I AM BLESSED.

Mona Lisa

We've adopted a new Boston terrier puppy. 4 month old Mona Lisa, we call her "Mona".

We've had a quite an eventful year with dogs and we were given the advice to adopt a Boston terrier. After much searching, we finally found her. We hope she'll love living with us. We're so happy to have her in our family.