Spring Break, part two

While we were in La Sal for Spring break we did a lot of fun things. Some of them wll come in later posts. One of them is this... One of our favorite things to do is to "work" with our grandpa. (He even pays us!:) This time he was hauling gravel from his gravel pit. This our favorite job to do with him, and from the pictures you will see why. It is SO MUCH FUN! It's also VERY dirty, which adds to the fun. Thanks so much for the great time, uh I mean the hard work, Papa Lane!

Grandpa's little helper.

You climb to the top, then sit down, lift your feet, and SLIIIIIIIIDE!!!!!

King of the mountain.

Our little mountain climber

Adia is just like her Mom. It only takes a few minutes in the truck before she crawls in the back, gets in bed, and falls to sleep. Neither one of us can make it more than 20 minutes or so.

Cheese!

Easter in Pictures...

I know, it's late, but last week was wild, so this is the first chance I have had to upload photos. We went to my parent's house for easter/spring break, and did spring-y things (Mostly bundled up on the couch and watched it snow outside:) It was fun, and there is much more to come, but for now, here is the egg part in pictures...

...and another...

I know I just posted some funny things Adia said, but I had to include this one that just happened too. This morning we were on our way to the tire shop to get new tires. Adia asked why we needed new tires and I said "because these ones are worn out."
She got this silly smile on her face and said "Oh, are they...TIRED?" Then she busted up laughing. I think that is one of her very first play on words. I love that she came up with it herself, and I really love how funny she thought she was. That girl cracks me up...

Adia Funnies

Adia has had a large vocabulary since she was a year old. She talked really early, she has always spoken clearly, and has great pronunciation. That is why when she mispronounces something, or misuses a word it is so funny to us. Here are a couple of recent ones that have made us laugh...

* We watched Monsters VS Aliens a few weeks ago. In the movie one of the monsters is a cockroach. It is Adia's favorite character, so she talks about it all the time. She calls him a "crotch rope"

*She always asks me to sing "the princess song" (From Sleeping Beauty) while she dances around like a ballerina. Last week I was singing and she said "Mom, your singing really SUCKS!"

"What?!" ( I wasn't shocked that she said it really, it's true, it isn't a secret, but I was shocked by the word Sucks. First of all, where did she hear it?, and second, it is kind of a naughty word in our house.)

"You know, that's what you say to Ethan when he cleans his room, or does his homework. It's what you say when I cook for you."

Still, "What?" I know I'm not the best mom, but I don't think I have EVER told my kids that anything they do sucks, so I had to ask a few more questions... Finally we figured it out she meant "Rocks" My singing rocks, not sucks(debatable), I tell Ethan he rocks at math, NOT sucks, Adia's cooking rocks, NOT sucks, etc.

*Last night Adia told me a bedtime story. It was "Snow White and the Seven Dorks"

Hero of the week...

So I didn't post about a hero last week, but I am posting about a really good one, so it is going to equal two...:)

This week's hero is my sister Bobbi. She is the mom to Kalista (who, if you know much about me, or have been reading my blog for long you know is my angel who helped me get my babies) A few years after Kalista was born she was diagnosed with autism. That was a hard thing for our whole family because none of us knew much about autism at that point, but I'm sure it was the hardest on Bobbi. At that point she had a choice to make. She could be overwhelmed, and let grief define her for the rest of her life, or she could be proactive, become educated, and give her family the best life possible. She chose the second one. It wasn't easy at all. In the area where she lives there isn't a lot of information or resources available. She had to work really hard to get any information, and even harder to get any POSITIVE information. Most people seemed to think that there was no sense in trying to imagine a "normal" life, and she was often given the numbers of institutions where she could drop Kalista off. She also was given the job of educating others. She had to explain why her daughter used to have a huge vocabulary, and now didn't say a word, why she would scream in the grocery store, why she would lead visitors to the door, and then slam it in their face. She learned that a lot of people would rather judge than learn. She learned that ignorance can make people mean. It was a hard battle for her, and one that she had to fight every single day with no exceptions. Can you even imagine how hard that would be? She did a great job of getting all the education she could. She went to conferences, learned about different kinds of therapies and treatments, and learned sign language (and then started the difficult task of teaching it to all of us:) She followed her heart, and the spirit, and did what she was guided to do whether it was traditional or non-traditional, and whether she had support or not. And all of her struggles have payed off. Kalista now signs as well a saying several words.(The rest of us haven't picked it up quite as fast as she has, but we are trying:) She has learned to work out a lot of her frustrations, and has fewer melt downs. She deals with public situations better. She even loves (tolerates) Ethan now! She is doing great! That doesn't mean that Bobbi's job is done. Even now she is fighting for people in the community to think outside of the box, Literally, (Long story that I'm not sure I'm aloud to go into, but stay tuned, and it may be the subject of a post some time in the future) when it comes to existing with autistic people. She doesn't give up though, and though at times she gets discouraged, it doesn't stop her from changing the world one person at a time. She has been a huge inspiration to me, and has been really helpful as I try to figure out the best way to help Ethan. Even when she doesn't really know about the particular problem I am trying to solve she is supportive of whatever methods I choose to try to solve it. She also tells me I'm a good mom a lot, and let's face it, who doesn't need to hear that a little more? So there are a lot of ways that she is a hero to me, but she is also a hero to other people. Right now she and a few friends are producing a magazine about autism. It is primarily for people who have just received the diagnosis that their child has autism. It talks about different people's stories and the things that they have tried, and how the world of autism is full of possibilities, and success, and happiness. It is full of hope in a time where it is easy to get overwhelmed by despair and discouragement. It helps you see that you aren't alone, and everything really can be okay. Pretty awesome right? So yay for Bobbi, my hero of the week.

*if you or someone you know could benefit from knowing more about autism please email me eberling2@msn.com or leave a comment here, and I can help you find a place where you can find some answers.

Super Cute!

My Friend Melissa makes these darling wipe/diaper holders. Aren't they adorable? There are wipes inside, and on the back they have straps to hold a diaper. Then all you have to do is grab it, and you have everything you need. It makes it a little less obvious that you do such a "dirty job" with them.:) Great idea right? Plus it's so cute, who wouldn't love to pull one of these out of their purse? I wish I had one of these when I had babies in diapers. Even if you don't have a baby they would still be darling to keep in your car in case of spills, or dirty kids, or whatever. The really exciting part is that online and in boutiques they usually sell for around $30 plus shipping, and they don't even have the cool diaper straps. She sells them for half that. HALF! See, I told you it was exciting! Anyway, she would love some feedback, so take a look, fall in love, and leave some comments. Also, if you would love to buy one, or know more about them, comment or e-mail me eberling2@msn.com and I will let you know how to get a hold of her.

Spring Shoot

Well, you know that one of my favorite parts about changing seasons is an excuse to do a new season photo shoot with my kids. So today between Conference sessions (And between rain storms - Can I just say, What the heck happened to spring weather?!) I took my kids over to the Tabernacle here in town and forced them, uh, I mean encouraged them to let me take some pictures. Here are a few (when I say "few" of course I mean several:) of my favorites.

April made a fool out of me...

April Fools day is one of my very favorite holidays. I have loved it as long as I can remember. Every year I play pranks on people, and love it! I plan out in advance to have several pranks to play on each person in the house. I have old traditions, and several new ones to try. But today it seemed that the fool was me.
I should have known it was going to be a day when at 2:30am I was awakened from a dead sleep (Really, I had just gone to bed an hour earlier-thank you very much ETHAN-, and was dead to the world) by Ethan Screaming "IT'S SNOWING!!!"
"What the ...?! WHO CARES if it is snowing at 2:30 in the morning? It has been snowing every single morning this week!" (I get grouchy when my heart is beating out of my chest)
Apparently Ethan cares because he got up several times each hour for the rest of the night to be sure it was still snowing.
Anyway finally about 5:00 I got his settled down and drifted off to sleep myself only to be woken up at 6:00 by my sweet heart, sure that because he has to be up that early everyone else must be too. He let me in on the news, because Obama is the first Black President they decided that each state had to name a city after him, and guess which one Utah chose? You guessed it, I now live in Barak City. "April Fools" He had me going for about a second, but the poor guy can't tell a joke to save his life. He giggles. It's a curse on days like today. It was a good effort though. He usually doesn't even bother. I think he did it to flirt with me, what a turn on. OOOO, what a stud, YU-MEEE!
Okay, back on track...
I had a few tricks up my sleeve for today.
I dyed the toilet water. Adia won't go. Seriously, I think she has been holding it all day.

Last night I sewed the legs of their pants closed so that when they went to put them on they couldn't. I expected it to be hilarious, but instead they just ran around in their underpants all morning until Ethan nearly missed the bus.

I dyed the milk green, and when I poured it into their cereal bowls I said "Uh Oh, it looks like the milk went bad. Oh well, we don't have any fresh milk, so just eat it and hope you don't get sick."

Here's what I got:

And no one ate anything. Later I found Adia eating a cracker she found under the bed...

For lunch I made Ethan a sandwich with bugs in it. (Raisins) He threw it in the trash and convinced his teacher to let him eat school lunch.

I tried the same thing on Adia, but she told me that she wanted something else because she couldn't find anymore crackers under the bed, and she was hungry!

When Ethan got home I had rubber-banded the handle of the sprayer on our kitchen sink so when he turned on the water it would spray him, and then I asked him to get me a glass of water. But he's too short, and it shot right over his head. He didn't even notice what was happening, so he didn't turn it off right away. I ended up having to turn it off myself. I got drenched, and then I had to clean up my flooded kitchen.

I tried a few other things that pretty much ended up the same way. In fact the only thing the kids really enjoyed was the dirt cups we do every year for dessert. (we usually do gumdrop flowers, but in the spirit of Ethan's No-sugar diet we decided to make a fruit version of it. I'm positive it canceled out all of the sugar in the pudding, the crumbled up Oreo cookies, and the gummy worms, right:)

Finally at bed time Adia got the hang of it. She put her night dress on upside down and yelled "April Fools!" That's my girl...