It's the most wonderful time of the year!

As I said in another post- busy, busy, busy!! Especially for a mom of four- - but so rewarding at the same time to see the wonder of the season in my children's faces. Here are a few highlights of our December fun . . .

Seeing Santa at the firestation:






Seeing the new Disney movie Tangled with our two oldest children - - it is my new favorite movie!! LOVED it:


Lillian at a pre-school friend's princess birthday party (they even got to meet Cinderella!)




A co-worker of Jon's GAVE us a 52 inch projection TV (it is about 10 years old and not Hi-def so they were upgrading)- so we picked up a couch and recliner chair at a thrift store half price sale, put down a carpet remnant and made a little TV room in the basement! I LOVE it. Mostly because the kids go down there to play on the Wii, watch Netflix and other movies. Normal broadcast TV still has to be watched upstairs, but it is so nice to have another spot for the kids to go and it makes our house feel bigger.
The kids watching Marcus play Super Mario Sunshine:


Last but not least- a house full of decorations:
(notice something funny about our tree? Hint- it has something to do with our little 14 month old destroyer . . . )


(you guessed it- the bottom half of our tree is empty of any decorations except for lights which I tied very securly to the tree - - Tyler could not leave them alone!! Even the non-breakable ornaments didn't work, he just took them off and spread them across the house!)







It is so fun having a house with a REAL fireplace! We have only had a fire a few times, but it is so homey and wonderful!



All dressed up in our Christmas best (for the Sunday before Christmas):
(I know this first one is a bit blury- but it was such a perfect pose by my girls, that I had to post it! I am sick that I lost my real camera- we have had to make due with Jon's i-phone which does this if you move at all . . . )






I love all the family time of the season- even if other regular chores sometimes get pushed to the back burner.

More to come- - our trip to Columbus for the week before Christmas, Christmas day and Christmas break fun.

Little handy man

Jon caught Tyler with one of his little screw drivers . . . 14 months old and aready trying to be a handy man.

Lillian's hair

She did it again- snip, snip and a little pile of hair later . . . .
It is hard to tell in the pictures, but she took a couple of huge snips out of the side and back of her hair, and also cut some of her eyelashes. Not only that, she also cut the cover and a couple of pages of one of Jon's medical books. All on Thanksgiving day while we were busy in the kitchen. What was she thinking? She wasn't and ooooo she was in trouble! What is the "natural or logical" consequence for that? I told her she was going to get her hair cut short (which she wasn't that unhappy about), she isn't allowed to have scissors AT ALL (which was already the rule), and she isn't allowed in our room without an adult present (that one was new- no more computer for her since it is in our room). Hmm- maybe a good swat would have been better??? Not according to the STEP parenting class I just took (which was AWESOME by the way). Ha Ha- well we taped JOn's book back together and got her hair cut- and have been sticking with our new rules . . . everything is good now, right?





Her hair cut: (one of my friends here in my ward cut and styled it- - I don't have the nack for styling it so wonderfully, but I still do love the cut! Seems so familiar like I had another daughter with short hair . . . )





She loved being in the "beauty room". That girl is a crack up and so much fun. She and Cynthia are so fun together, though they do clash sometimes as sisters will at times. One day, when Marcus was having an especially hard day and I was feeling down as a parent- they both gave me many hugs and kisses saying they loved me and that I was the best mom ever. How could that not brighten my day!

Some of my favorite things she says:
"My hands are too flat" (when she is tired and wants me to pick something up or do something for her)

"Stunks" instead of Skunks

"Eye browns" instead of eye brows

(When trying to get my attention) "Mom, I need to tell you something" (which is exactly what I say to get her attention) and then yesterday she was interupting a conversation I was having with Jon and she followed it with "I have the talking ticket". I turned and said, "No, I have the talking ticket and will talk to you when I am done talking to Daddy" She stamped her little foot and said- "It's not the real talking ticket, only Marcus gives the real one!" Marcus had been telling everyone that he was the one "in charge" of the talking ticket. If anyone is wondering what the talking ticket is- in my family growing up, when we were all trying to talk at the same time my parents would give out the "Talking ticket" so we would take turns.

She was bugging me for some food and said "Mom, I told you I was hungry. Hungry means you want some food." Thanks for clearing that one up for me! Ha Ha.

Worried about Marcus

Just a quick note- I have been really worried about my 9 year old boy. He has always had kind of a rough time emotionally due to the Autism Spectrum Disorder- but over the years he has matured and usually can handle himself fairly well. We have also grown and learned as parents. Since our move to the Detroit area, he has been struggling again. Mostly it is emotionally- and it has gotten worse this last month. Almost every day he says "I have a bad life" and that he isn't happy. The littlest of things makes him angry or frustrated and he is super sensitive. He has moments where he seems happy, but then later he will tell me "I am never happy, and even when I act happy, I'm really not" Even at his class Christmas party, which I helped at, during which all the other kids were having a blast, he seemed somber and made his gingerbread ornament man with a frowny face. His teacher and friends at school have also expressed their concerns to me. I can only hear this so many times before it really gets to me- my heart breaks every time, actually. I feel like I am trying so hard but I think we need some extra help. Counseling, anti depressants - - what should we do? Depression and emotional instability does run in our family a little. I worry about the effect on the other family members- Cynthia and Lillian sometimes feel like he hates them (he gets super annoyed by them- which I am hearing is pretty normal for a 9 year old), and has said some really horrible things to Jon (which I won't repeat). I do have to say that Marcus does want to do what is right. I can see him making an effort to be nice, and then other times he is just too irritable. After a talk with him about a specific really hurtful thing he said to Jon, he apologized to Jon saying that he didn't mean it, and that he loves him, and Jon also showed how much he loves and cares for Marcus. They shared a special moment and things seemed to get a little better between them. Our trip to Columbus for Christmas was also wonderful- I hadn't seen him that consistently happy for a long time. My heart sank, though, as we drove home and a tangible cloud settled over him. I asked what was the matter and he said- "I don't want to talk about it- it is too heavy". He wouldn't say another word. Sometimes I can talk him out of the deep gloom if I just let him talk about his ideas for stories (he is a good writer), his favorite video games or books or other 9 year old interests. Since I am a "talker" too- I love to just talk and talk with him, because I see the happy side of him (or at least the non- gloomy side of him). I sure do love that boy, through all the ups and downs.

So- I am working on figuring out what is the best course of action- he is so young! Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? I know that he turns into a person that isn't really him when he is having his bad moments. I can see through to the "True" Marcus- a child who wants to do what is right, and one that knows how much his family loves him.

The girls just adore him when he does things like this:

Thanksgiving with the Coons

I am loving having my sister living nearby! She came up for a visit the beginning of November while her husband Chris was on an away rotation for Medical school, and then Chris stayed with us later in November for a few weeks while he had a rotation here in Michigan. Thanksgiving just happened to be right in the middle of that rotation, so Laura and the kids came for a long Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of fun . . . though I think I lost my camera somewhere the beginning of November- I think at the Jump place at the mall that we went to. Sigh- oh well- at least we have Jon's i-phone and our new video camera which takes still pictures too . . .

ANYWAY- so much fun with the coons for Thanksgiving!! Our feast:






My adorable nephew and neice Ben and Rachel:



The day after Thanksgiving was our big shopping day- and the Coons were so good to babysit while we did some shopping that morning with the crazy crowds. We got some great deals though and got 95% of our shopping done. Don't worry- we didn't do the middle of the night or 5 am door busters- - no matter how good the deals are- THAT isn't worth it!! Crazy story- we saw that Toy's R Us was going to open with their sales Thursday at 10pm- so we thought we would go check it out. When we arrived and saw the line, which stretched all the way around the back of the store, AND the attached stores of Michaels and Petsmart, AND came back around to the front, we turned right around and went home. Are people really THAT crazy to stand in freezing rain and bitterly cold winds to save on Toys? We went back the next morning at a more reasonable time when the store wasn't so crazy (although still very busy) and we still got most of the things we wanted from there. I still did see a lot of crazed people- and even a grandma with a really tired countenance that asked me where I found a toy train set that was in my cart -- she had been searching the store. I had found it on the wrong shelf by itself and on a whim put it in my cart even though we had gotten plenty for Tyler. I had seen it in the ad and liked it and it was such a good deal . . . Anyway I couldn't tell the lady where I got it, but saw that she REALLY wanted it so instead handed it to her and told her she could take it. She looked at me with so much gratitude and said- "THANK YOU!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" Totally made my day. I think I found that train just so I could give her a bit of cheer on such a crazy shopping day. Phew- what a day, though- and not without its hiccups - - but everything all worked out.

The weekend also involved good food, playing board games and fun outings such as trips to the Library and the Detroit Science Center. It was my first time to the science center here and I loved it! I'm not terribly picky when it comes to science centers- I loved Des Moines' which is fairly small- and this one was pretty fun for all our kids. We bought a year pass which also gets us into other science centers across the nation- so we will be using it also at COSI (the one in Columbus, OH) when we visit the Coons there. Bonus- they were doing a Christmas sale so it was on $60 for the year instead of $70! It costs about that much just to go one time for a family our size- so totally worth it. We will go often this year, I think. I loved how a huge part of it is devoted to the Physical Sciences of Engineering and car manufacturing- which is what Detriot is all about. EVERYTHING here seems to revolve around car manufacturing. There was more too- but the theme of motor vehicles for the Motor City was great.