Sometimes it hits me

Yesterday i became quite overwhelmed with the fact that i have a special needs child. This school year nearly every single thing has changed for my Caden. He is 9 and is being faced with a new school, new teacher, new instructional aides, a different speech therapist and a different occupational therapist. Oh and his primary teacher at church became the relief society president. He doesn't even handle new shoes well.

Everytime he has a major behavior problem at school they write an escalation report and notify me to record the events and communication. For the past two years i received maybe 4 phone calls. This year i receive 2-3 every week. We've held an emergency meeting with his team & we've all been tirelessly grasping at any new ideas to help him "turn it around" (as we coach him).

His diet, sleep patterns & habits are put under a microscope. Its tiring. Its complicated. Its sometimes seems hopeless. Autism is what it is. He is what he is. And we love him even more because of it, but it is difficult.

Treat or treat

Holidays oh holidays, Let the craziness begin. The spookiness seemed to go on and on and on around here. Jared and i had to cancel our annual couples costume party since there was just no days available to do it. The school parades, and class parties seemed to keep coming. But the kids looted up and enjoyed every minute. This year we have Mike & Amy Salazar (Hartnell bball) living with us. They've joined the family extremely smoothly and we are really enjoying  having them along for our fun family stuff. We hit Spreckels with them and Kendra went with Grace Vasher out in las palmas.  Halloween done.

Holy ketchup

I have a lot of "catch up" to do. So I'll start with first day of school pictures. They were super happy to start kinder, 2nd, 4th, & 6th grades. I'm relatively happy with their teachers this year but jared and i know their educational success falls mainly on us and our approach and support. I'm the room mom for Kendra and Brady. I'm always a room mom for Caden but special ed is a whole different world. And Ray Ray couldnt  care less if i was in her room but i still help out when i can. It'll be a busy year I'm sure, but we will do our best to stay happy in true Anderson fashion.

dang you Gabby Douglas!

the olympics are AWESOME, im sure we all can agree, however those mesmerizing gymnasts make me miss like CRAZY coaching this ultimate sport. it all started when i was 16 years old, thanks to Renae Borgia i got the hook up to train (for weeks and weeks). to learn and do all this gymnasticy stuff was overwhelming at first but i had always admired the sport. long story short and 4 babies later i finally stopped coaching 16 months ago, but who's counting.
the list of things i absolutely adored about 17 years (off and on) of this "work" is awfully long. Of course it's all about the kid; taking these little balls of energy and teaching them to safely tumble, balance, spring off boards, and swing on bars.

i will say im pretty proud of the great friends i brought in to coach with me. bonding over cartwheels and handstands is something that's hard to describe.

Running field trips of 30+ big-eyed hyper-spazzes and the dozens of birthday parties i hosted were definite highlights. My special little caden was able to bring his class to the gym his 3rd grade year. my heart will never forget what it was like to work with those kids and their unique needs.

i miss chatting with curious parents about their child's athletic level,progression and mastery of the skills. i miss the chuckles amongst coaches at a gymnast's "attempt" at a certain skill, i admit it was more than a chuckle most times. i miss good bosses that supported me and appreciated my efforts. i miss herding my little turkeys from event to event. i miss setting up and creating different approaches to teach the same basic but crucial skills. but most most most of all i will whole heartedly miss the excited shout of, "coach laurie, i DID it!!!"

im not too late--we celebrated this guy's bday for a long time

man oh man does this guy make me smile.  he was very excited for his birthday, he only had a couple " must haves":  popsicles at school, a cuddleuppet (as seen on tv, its a blanket and a puppet, you should hear him sing the song on the ad)  and the scooby doo mystery machine. he also wanted to go roller skating for his birthday but we had to wait for a saturday that worked for our schedule.  proud to say i made all his dreams come true, eventually.

but it did take awhile to get all the celebrating done.  his bday was on a wednesday so i went and did the school thing.  teacher kim gave him moon dough which he loved.  then his family gathering, including shae, ashlee, and lincoln scored him some treasures like muppet puppets, a dvd set and science fun stuff.  he definietly felt like a king for the day.

oh the memories we've had with this guy.  he always found mischief in his quiet way and he loved his new baby siblings but just for a quick minute then he was on to other things.

he's grown, changed and progressed so VERY VERY much.  jared and i are extremely grateful for all those that have been an integral part in that.  family (of course), primary teachers, school teachers, therapists and dear friends that have shown genuine concern and love will always hold a special place in our hearts.  nine birthdays later we just couldn't love this guy ANYmore.  love ya CADE!

half way to 70--woot woot!!!

Im not sure how i couldn't come up with a more optimistic title for this occasion, because i really wasnt very happy about turning 35. i always tell people i still feel 25. oh well, denial is a good thing in this case. and i couldnt help but be so happy on my birthday with all the kindness that was shown.

what's to complain about?  i got a wonderful card from a wonderful friend, goodies and flowers from friends, and went on a shopping outing to the outlets with my little ashlee.

i also had the choice experience of being embarrassed as the servers sang to me at my bday dinner out with my girls.  i'm blessed with kind and loving friends, im sorry there were some that couldnt make it, and those who have moved away were at least able to send their nice wishes to me thru texts and good ol' facebook.

i must admit being shot at with a confetti gun by my niece brianne really topped off the whole celebration week.

and in the end, all i wanted the morning of my bday was to get a picture with my kiddos.  i dont even hope for perfection anymore, the candid--funny face ones are usually my favorite now. 

brady my brady, i have not forgotten you

the boy turned 7 about a month ago. we celebrated on time, ive just been a poor blogger lately. this birthday for brady was all about lego Ninjago, heaven help me.

i think i pulled off his cake alright, he loves his black ninjago clock.

luckily brady's idols, 19 year old guys, enjoy legos too, so they stayed late after the party to help assemble.

these were his treats for his class at school. his first grade teacher commented that she had never seen those before and she's seen just about everything. haha! i didnt even need pinterest.

our little brady has always been our little lover. he's got grandma VoFo pretty much wrapped with his dimples, and grin. he loved becoming a big brother and still to this day is famous for his spontaneous hugs he gives to those he loves. i watch him and its funny, he gets this look in his eyes then he heads over and squeezes whoever he just was thinking about.

he's all boy for sure.  always been my mischief maker, in his undies, playin with bugs, being gross.

that grin, the mohawk, what's not to love?

he's grown into a very intense boy.  he plays hard, he yells quickly and so angrily but he's our softie inside. 

the day he was born we didn't know we were having our second little boy.  he has still surprised us in many ways.  the morning of this birthday jared and i stood at the back window and watched him hunt gophers in the back yard.  brady, you make us giggle and grin. we love you so much.  happy 7th to you, Turbo.

i guess i'm ok with this speedbump

so there's not a poetic or flowery way to put this, but seeing as this blog is my written record for my posterity (blah blah blah) i figured i need to journal my thoughts today. february 23, 2012 was my due date for our fifth child. we planned the pregnancy but kept it a surprise for a couple reasons. jared and i were the ones surprised when i lost the baby, 11 weeks along, on august 3 last year. all 4 previous pregnancies were problem free so this was completely new, foreign, and unexplainable to me. it all happened so fast. the loss of blood caused me to faint in the shower causing jared to call 911. i was quickly wheeled away in an ambulance, and had an emergency DNC. that all greatly added to the pure shock of the whole ordeal.

so i won't be holding my own newborn ever again, but i've had time to process it, with as much understanding that we are given in this life. i realize that we are ok with this unexpected turn. for a couple years now, since we were given a child with autism, i've felt that our plate was full and we could dodge other life challenges. well, i've been humbled and i'm grateful for the lessons learned thru raising a family. i know i have plenty more ahead of me. for now, i'm so very blessed to have a husband who is an excellent provider and more importantly a very worthy priesthood holder to lead our family. he's a good guy, he's dang cute and the kids absolutely adore him.

as for me, am i still sad? yes. i cringe when i hear an ambulance, when i stand up too fast that faint feeling comes back too quickly and clearly, and currently, seeing and holding other babies is still tough. but that bump in the road has led to other paths. i'm very lucky to have my fab 4, they need me, and i love them, so i'll focus on that and all the blessings that i'm continually allowed to enjoy.

ray ray is cinco!

i call her "booger" cause she is just my little boog. but wow she had her fifth birthday and now thinks she can conquer this life thing.

raylee requested my pasta salad for dinner so we added pizza with it and i made some ice cream cakes. as long as there was chocolates and "nem nem nems" (m&m's) she was pleased.

after we gorged she ripped into her presents. she loved them all, the big poofy owl was a hit, squinkies, zoobles and slushie magic met her demands also. speaking of demanding, she insisted that Rob (one of our adopted sons) help her assemble some of her lego stuff. not sure how she roped him into the tiara but its great.

she was most excited for her myo gift card so we redeemed that thing and got some bubble gum flavored frozen yogurt as soon as possible so i didnt have to hear about it anymore.

it seems like not that long ago i was huge and pregnant with her. 5 years goes really fast. we were so excited to add her to our happy little family. i remember cherishing all her moments since we thought she would be our final baby. she has been a hoot to raise. we love how she is so VERY independant, always amusing herself by playing with hairspray bottles. she is slightly high maintenace already, she must have a nob hill grocery bag filled with some of her toys everytime we leave the house. but she's happy, she loves preschool, she is 100% girl and we love our little ray ray.