Santa

Last weekend Aaron was MOD from Saturday to Sunday afternoon. Which meant for us a free nights stay at the hotel. We had a great bonus it was the "Santa Brunch" weekend so Kodi was very excited to be able to meet Santa.
Needless to say when he got the chance he was not to sure about meeting Santa. He stopped in his tracks and did not want us to walk up to meet him. He run down the hall and hide.
I let Kodi take his time in warming up to see Santa. Thankfully there was no one behind us to see Santa so we had all the time we needed.

Kodi got closer and closer has Kingston sat on Santa's lap and finally he came out for the pillar and decided he wanted to talk to Santa.
What you might ask did Kodi tell Santa he wanted for Christmas.
It was a plane, which surprised me I did not know he wanted a plane at all. I thought maybe he would ask for a dinosaurce or Handy Manny toys or his "guys" he plays with, but no it was a white plane. We will see if he remembers he asked for one.


Kingston wasn't sure of Santa "Mom who is this person you are having me meet?" He was quite taken with Santa, and Santa really liked Kingston as well. All in all it was a good trip for us to see Santa.

Music

We started a new disc in Kodi's music therapy, and let me say he loves this disc so much more than the last one. This one you hear birds, kids sings, and much better than jazz. I love jazz but Kodi is not a fan. He listens to his music twice a day for 3o minutes. We try and listen in the morning during breakfast and than sometime around dinner time. He has to have it three hours apart, much means I have to keep track of what time he ended so he doesn't listen to the disc so close together.
Kingston has been having a battle with ear infections. This is his fifth one since Oct, poor little guy. I noticed that he wasn't feel that well today when all he wanted us to do was hold him. Aaron was up at 5:45 this morning with him and I tried to sleep a little longer, but got up an hour later with the two of them. Kingston just cried and cried, so after we dropped Kodi off at school I called the Dr.office and they got him in.So once more we are on meds which is a battle in it self with Kingston. I have tried putting sugar on the medicine dropper, I have tried putting the meds in a bottle, holding his hands down and forcing the meds down his throat, which I always hate because most of the medicine ends up on me. I finally tried putting the medicine with some rice cereal and he took it. So we will see if we can last the 10 days with the rice cereal

We go in for Kingston 9 month check up on Tuesday, but since we were in the Dr.office today they got his weight and he is 22 lbs and 9.4 oz. What a big boy. He is already walking around holding on to anything he can. He is almost as tall as the table just a couple more inches and he will be. He is already saying Dada, which He said this morning while he was trying to wake up Aaron. I just laughed. I already had been awake with Kingston all night so I didn't mind that he didn't want me. Kingston is kind of a dad's boy. Kodi is starting to be one, he told me the other day that "MY DADDY is the BEST", I though thanks, I am the one who does most of the things for you and your day is the best," Thanks Kid!

But I still love my Kodi so much. He is starting to put together 3 to 4 word sentences and has been talking a lot more. The music has been a big help. Dakota is still sleeping in his bed, at least he starts off in his bed, but by the time I go to sleep he has come in and misses me. Since Kingston has been cutting teeth and isn't feeling well all he wants to do is be in our bed. The little stinker woke up last night as I was putting him down and saw that he wasn't in our bed and started to scream, I didn't want Kodi to wake up so I picked him back up and held him he went back to sleep, I walked in our room and put him on the bed, KK opened his eyes and saw that he was in our bed and when back to sleep.
My kids I do love them so much!

Do I have to listen to my Mom and Dad?

Dakota has hit another road block in not LISTENING. Image that a 3 1/2 year old not wanting to listen at all. So I am sitting here watching all the boys play together when I hear Aaron say"use your brain Empie" of course he is talking to Dakota who is jumping of the couch into pillows. I just started to laugh.
Listening is something we are trying to teach Dakota, for he has gotten both our stubborness. So naturaly Dakota doesn't want to listen but to do his very own agenda. Which is the last couple of days had gotten him into trouble.
Last year January when we visited Grandma and Papa, Grandma had made us some toy bags, well Dakota loves to try and put Kingston in them. Not sure where he got that idea but we are saying a lot "Dakota doesn't put your brother in the bag". Go Figure that it would be my son to do something like that.
Winter is here! Dakota loves going outside and playing in the snow. Today was very cold out and so there was no outside time :( but Dakota has made the house a train wreck and is playing as much has he can inside. We washed the car and cleaned is out while Kingston was taking a nap. I cleaned up the house as much I as could before Kingston woke up from his morning nap.
We are looking forward to this weekend, for it's Aaron's turn again to be MOD over the weekend and we get to spend the night at his hotel :) Than get up and go have breakfast with Santa. Dakota is looking forward to doing that. He loves Santa so much. But that telling him that Santa won't come if he doesnt listen to us doesnt' seem to make a difference at all.

Winter is coming

It's starting to get cold out, which is a very big battle with putting our coats when going outside to the car. I should say down to the parking garage it's nice and warm, and Kodi doesn't understand why he should have to wear his coat. Needless to say we are learning to wear that coat.
Today at TTP, Meghan and Sarah are working on changes his clothes and wearing play clothes so Dakota can get messy and not worry about getting his clothers dirty. Which makes sense, but Dakota doesn't like to change, it took a little bit but we finally got him to put on his play pants over his jeans. Megan his OT said that doing a lot of deep pressure playing is great for Dakota and pushing into this works great as well.
Tuesday is grandma day and she came and got Dakota to go grocery shopping with her he loved it, they bought dinner for us and got KK some puffs to eat, he was so happy. He ate dinner and I thought maybe we could make some cookies which Megan also said was great a great thing for him to do. Of course he did help a little bit but mainly he wanted to eat the dough. So here I am still baking the cookies and the kids are sleeping.
I am so very grateful that we were able to find what Dakota needs. His therapy is great, he has made great progress, we are able to understand what he is talking about and I now know why he acts up. I just have to remember when he is jumping off the couch that his little body is looking for that sensory imput and that I need to find someway to give it to him and not have it be dangerous.
We will be starting a Therputic Listening program next week, I am very excited about it. He has done some music therapy before with them and I can't wait to see the changes and progress with it. His brushing has made a great difference in him and I know the music will do the same.

Happy Halloween

It took a little bit to understand what Halloween was for last year he was sick and didn't want to dress up so this year when I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween he kept telling me thast he wanted to be Captain Hook so we went to the Disney Store get it. Well of course once we got it he carried it around and showed everyone it, but when it came right down to wearing it he did not want to get in it.

I even took him over to katy's house to see if he would change into it, which we got the pants on and then he started to put the coat on and did not like the way it felt on his skin so off it came and he won't try it again. I guess that is what happens when your son has sensory issues. (which I have to keep in mind when he is being very trying) so he decided that he wanted to Handy Manny which he has two sets of tools we have gotten him. He put on some jeans and a polo shirt along with a hat and was Handy Manny for the ward party.

I than took him over to target that next day and got him a Handy Manny outfit and he loved it. He even wore it to bed. It was nice enough on Halloween that all Kodi had to wear was a "zip" sweatshirt.

I also bough KK a dragon outfit I thought it said 24 months which would have fit him but it was up to 9 months and kingston had passed the weight and length on it. So he wasn't that. Which waes ok since he stayed in with daddy and grandpa to help pass out candy.

By the third house Kodi had figured out what to do. He loved it, it was so much fun to watch him run up to the houses and knock on the door and he was able to say "treat - or - treat". I am so very proud of him and the process that he is making with his speech.

Pictures of the kids

So Aaron took some picturesw of all 4 kids when they were outside playing. It was great fun to watch them work so hard in getting all the leaves to a big pile, I thought Aaron was being nice and trying to help Pa with the leaves but he wasn't he wanted to make a really big leaf pile for the kids to jump in.

They had a blast! Kingston even got in the leaves. We really enjoyed fall and now winter is coming. We have already had some snow and the kids have already been out playing in the snow. They loved it. I can't wait for winter and how much fun they will have.

Katy and Adam's Wedding

We have a new member of our family. Katy and Adam are now married, yes they finally tied the knot. I was the maid of honor, which was great, I got to get a pretty dress and get my hair done. I was very happy and honored she picked me.
They were married in a very nice park in Wisconsin. We got up this morning and left the house and drove for about 3.5 hours and finally made it to the hotel, we were all running late and it was nice that Katy did not have a schedule to keep. We got ready and made it to park while Adam's Dad was taking pictures. We had to wait for Tara and her family (for my mom gave them the wrong directions from the hotel, they ended up driving an half hour out of their way) while we waitied for them we got pictures taken.
Finally they showed up and the wedding started. The ceremony lasted about 15 mintues they wrote their own vows and it was great! Katy was so beatiful, and so very happy.
I have to say I love Adam so much and I am very happy they found each other.
I will up load pictures when we get home :)
We are all tried for we came back and let the kids swim until they were tried, now they are sleeping and I hope that KK will sleep all night long like he did last night :0 I was so very happy that he slept all night.

Progress Report

Dakota has now been in speech class for two months at The Therapy Place and "Star Talkers" which he takes at the ECFE building, and he is doing AMAZING, he is working so hard. We can now understand him! He has also started to see the OT at the Therapy Place I thought maybe he had some Sensory Issues and I was right. We have started a "brushing program" where we use a little brush and brush his legs,arms and back and end with joing compressions so far it's been every two hours for the last three weeks we are starting on our 4th week, at least I try to get the brushing in very two hours. During the weekend it's about every four hours.
But I can tell you he is a whole new little boy, he is sleeping through the night. His fits have cut in half and he is a happy camper!
Potty training is going really good. We set the timer for every hour and he goes when the timer goes off. It's great, we have had a couple of accident's but he deals pretty well with them.
Kingston is a trooper he is getting bigger and bigger, he is starting to pull himself up and wants to stand up. Before we know it he will he walking around. It's so crazy how fast they grow.
We have had a nice slow week with MEA this past week and no school for Haleigh and Kodi only had "Star Talkers" once last week. But this week we are off to a full crazy week. Not that I mind it but it was nice to have a slower week. We were running around, way to fast for us.
We have started going to the library and checking out books as well as movies. The Lastest movie that Kodi loves to watch is "Sonic" he saw a little bit at T's house so when I found the full season at the library I got it. It's due on Monday and he will have to part with it. But we have found one Christmas Present for him :) Which I totally can't believe it's almost that time of the year, Target is already putting out Christmas stuff.

When is our family going to get better?

I thought we were all done being sick, but boy was I wrong! Kingst has a check up tomorrow to make sure the pneumonia, I think he has a ear infection again. Kodi started out having a great day and than we got to my parent's house and he played with Inara for a little bit and wanted to watch a movie which was fine. But he did not look right he never wants to just sit and watch a movie.
Tara checked his forehead and he was hot to the touch. I told him we needed to pack up and go home of course he did not want to leave Grandma's and Pa's house, so I told him we could stop and get "COKE" which he calls all Soda "COKE"(should be a sign to me that we need to stop drinking so much soda) which he than got ready to go.
We picked up some small cans of sprite and looked at the movies whic heh did not find any that he wanted, he just wanted to go home. I kept asking if he was going to throw up and he said "No Mommy".
Once we got home he went straight to bed and has been in bed ever since. I took his temp and it was 101.2 I gave him so meds and put a movie on for him. He has not eatten anything but has had some Soda. I tried to get him to go potty he did twice, but his pull up was soaked. Which was ok since he is sick.
I called Aaron to see what time he was coming home cause I started not to fell good and KK had been crying non-stop and Kodi wanted me. Thankfully Aaron was able to leave and come home. Daddy to the rescue!!!! :)
He took KK and I was able to lay down with Dakota. Right before Dakota fell asleep I asked what was sick on him and he pointed to his mouth. I looked in his mouth and there were the spots just Inara had with Mouth, Hand and Foot! Yes we finally got it. I am just praying that KK won't get it.
Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for us!

Monday what a Monday!

Do you ever feel like life is passing you by as you stand and watch. That is totally what happened to me. We have not spent to much time with Tara and the twins since the last two weeks someone in one of our familes has been sick and we don't want to pass the sickness along. So finally we are all better and Inara and Kodi really have been missing each other so off we went after dropping Haleigh off at preschool we headed over to Grandama and Pa's house for the afternoon.

It was a fun afternoon Tara got to watch KK "army crawl" across the wood floor and man can he move. Than we both nursed the boys, when I say boys she has twins who are 5 weeks old and Kingston is 7 months and loves to nurse! We sent Dakota and Inara outside to play. I don't know how many time we have told those two to stay out of the grill area where pa puts the charcol, but I could not see the kids so I poked my head outside the back door and to my suprise (really not) they were COVERED in it, from head to toe. Needless to say they both got baths tonight.

Life just seem to pass me by today, just with being around Tara and her kids there are so many kids at Grandma and Pa's house when all of us are home. Tara has 4 kids I have 2 and Katy have 1 so that makes a grand total of 7 kids 4 of them can run around Kingston is trying his best to move like the older ones.

We had a wonderful time I was able to make dinner and have it ready for everyone. I do miss making dinner with Aaron working nights and Kodi not really eatting a lot we usually have ceral or eggs for dinner. So it was really nice to have a good meal with other people. I offered to make dinner every night for them. I love being at home with my Family.

The boys played hard at Grandma and Pa's house they both were sleeping by the time we got home, thankfully Kodi stayed asleep and Kingston went back to sleep around 8:30 not to bad.

So I get some really good quite time for me. I should be cleaning my house or doing something but after today and trying to manage the kids I just dont' have energy.

Potty training is going great! He doesn't want to put Real underwear on yet so pull ups it is, I am praying soon he will want to.

Enjoy the pictures that Dakota took!

Conference Weekend

It was a great weekend for us! Kingston is getting better has cough has been much better and he is all done with his meds let's just pray that his check up shows no more pneumonia. He is sleeping through the night again and in his crib.

Last night I had, had it with Diapers for Dakota I am done buying for him. So I decide today was the day to start potty training him. It was a good day, he was dry all day! Needless to say I had him in a pull up, we went to the bathroom every 45 mintues, for the first 4 hours and than Aaron pushed it back another 15 mintues so every hour and he went each time. I am praying this potty training won't take too long and he gets the hang of it very fast.

We were able to listen to conference as a family this morning before Aaron had to go to work, but it was very wonderful to hear our dear Prophet talk about families and how he does miss the days that we are in with our kids. Not being able to always have the toys picked up or even feel that you have made a dent in the moutain of laundry. I got a very good feeling that I am still doing what is right and keeping in coucil with the Lord. I am trying my best to raise good wondeful boys and if my house doesn't always get clean well than it goes dirty for that time.

It's the start of a new week and we have been trying to get up and read our family scriptures in the morning with the kid while they are eatting breakfast. It seems the best time for us. We are all togather since Aaron is at work around bed time and it sets the mood for the rest of the day!

Haleigh and Dakota love hearing the stories. So thank you Matt and Jami for the Book of Mormon you gaves us for Christmas the kids loves reading out of it. We call it our Book of Gold.

The seasons are changing here and it's starting to get cold out at night. You can feel the summer air as gone and autumn is setting in. Before we all now it Winter will be here and a New Year will be closing in.

We have been a totally new little boy with Dakota and his "brushing" I love it. He is calmer, happier and loves life. He seems to just be his old self. We are so very happy to have the help he needs!

The boys!

Let's see a recap of this week! It's been a week for us. Kingston has been coughing up a storm and I took him in to Urgent Care on Sunday thinking maybe he had an ear infection, I was wrong just a cold. Needles to say the last couple of nights have been sooooo bad for us. I decided last night at the last minute to take both Kingston and I into Urgent Care again. I knew I had a sinus infection it's that time of year for me to get them that was a no brainer.... But Kingston was not getting any better. Yes this time he did have an ear infection and she thought Pneumonia. They had Kingston get a chest x-ray done and the little chair he had to sit looked like it was made back in the 1900's or later. I had to hold his hand straight up and he was cry and trying to jump with his legs. But they finally got a good enough x-ray to see that he has it. :(
Last night he slept for a little bit in his crib and than back next to me and he slept all night! I was so very happy.
I got a call from Tara this morning and Inara has hand,foot and mouth, which means both my kids have been exposed to it. I am only praying we dont' get it. Haleigh already has it and we dont need anymore sickness around here. It's Aarons' one day off today and he has gotten a part time job and is working so with me not feeling my best and Kingston sick Dakota gets a fun day of tv!
He did go to school this morning and he doing wonderful with his talking and new words. His fits had been cut in half and he has start OT we found out he has some sensory issues and we are now geting OT along with this SP on Tuesdays. She has started a brushing program with us and we brush his legs, arms and back every 2 hours to get his sense working a little better and with two days under our belt he is doing wonderful! I am so very happy we have found out what has been going on with Dakota!

Renaissance Festival!

Each year we go out to the Renaissance Festival to watch my sister "Fire Dance" show. She is getting really good at it. This year we have decided that it would be the "boy's" last show. Kodi is getting too old to see people playing with Fire. But we did have a good time even with the rain, the kid got to ride a pony and eat some food! Enjoy the pictures!

School for everyone!

Kingston is a very busy will guy, he can roll very fast and loves to be on the move! He is almost to the point of crawling you can see his little brain thinking about how the heck does he get his arms and his legs to move at the same time, he will get it soon enough.

Dakota is doing GREAT with his speech. He is talking so much more and you understand him. He starts conversations out with you and wants to share his thoughts and feelings. His "fits" have been cut in half and he is becoming happier and happier. This week he started to ride the school bus to school, I wasn't so sure about it since my little guy is only 3 but Tuesday he got right on the bus with no problem, when he was getting off the bus he jumped right into Aaron's arms and yelled "Daddy"(which he calls aaron now) it made Aaron's heart melt! Thursday was another story of getting on the bus he did not want to at all. So we did not make him get on the bus, we took him and Aaron went in and dropped him off and he rode the school bus home.

Haleigh has started Preschool 3 times a week and is very good at it. Her teacher told me how "ready" she was for school and how she just fit in with everyone on the first day! It was a sad day in our house on the first day of preschool, Kodi did not understand that it was not his turn for school and that he would be going on tueday. Haleigh tried her best to explain that it was just for her and that he would be going to school "tomorrow" we watched Haleigh go into her classroom and find a spot of the carpet and we left, with Dakota crying, I was sad to see how grown up she is getting and KK who was very tired. Overall it was a good day for us!

I want to say thank you to my family

This past Sunday a friend of mine who has been battleing limbic ensephalitis in his brain lost the fight and passed away. It really makes you take a step back and look at your life. I am so very thankful for the gospel and the knowledge of knowing that I will be able to once again see Jeb.
There was such a peace around his family today at the funeral and it's because of the gospel and their faith in the Lord that he will take care of them.
I am so very thankful to my family. I have such a wonderful husband who wants to make sure his family is taken care of. How loves his boys so much. It bring such joy to my heart to hear Dakota call out "Daddy, Daddy" when he needs help. How Kingston is a Daddy's boy already. He loves his daddy, you can tell at the end of the day when Kingston has had enough of me and wants his Daddy, he puts on a great big smile when Aaron comes in.
It's been a great 8 years that I have been married to a wonderful loving man. I cannot image what I would do if he was taken away from me. How would I go on, without him. We have been blessed to have 8 years together and I can't wait for 8 more years!
So thank you to my wonderful family.

Haleigh giving her first talk in Church

Haleigh gaver her first talk in church and she did a wonderful job!

Picture to enjoy

Max and Leo Are Here

Max and Leo Hawks made their grand enterance into the world on Labor day around 5:30 that morning. We are so happy they are here!

Speech for Dakota

I first want to say how sorry I am for not updating the blog more often, I will really try a lot harder to make sure I update and post new pictures weekly. There has been so much going on that it's hard or me to keep up.
We had Dakota's speech tested about a month ago and we found out that he will be needing some speech therapy. For me it was great to hear that, he has been having a very hard time communicating his needs or wants I should say. I have got very good at decoding his words but the rest of the world around him doesn't know what he is saying. We just finished our second week of speech and he is moving long and learning and doing great.
Dakota will also get speech through the School District which tomorrow he will go and met his teacher. He is very excited to meet them.
Right now this goals for speech are working on the sounds B,P and M which he is doing wonderful at. He is speaking so much more to us! Yah Speech I love it. Dakota is actually telling me he loves me and I can understand it. You can check out where he goes at www.thetherapyplace.net

The Saint's Game

Last Tuesday night we went with Katy, Haleigh, Adam his sister and her daughter to the Saint Paul Saints Minor league Baseball game. It was so much fun. Dakota loved it, but I think he loved his little bat and ball more than the game. The Saint Paul Saints are so much fun for families, this time there was a ping pong table which Dakota was trying to play with Rocks since he was not able to find a ball.
They have a couple of guys who are dressed up and will go into the crowd and talk with them. Dakota was really scared of the guy who had a mask on, but was ok with him after the guy gave Dakota some popcorn. Which Dakota still has the bag of popcorn
Dakota did a pretty good job in watching the game, we watched the game for about an hour and than he was done, which was ok by me. We than sat the pinic tables and just let the kids run around and Aaron was still able to watch the game.

Como Zoo

Aaron had last thursday off from work and we decided it was time for us to to finally take our first trip to Como Zoo this summer. Well it just happened to be one so far of the hotest days of the year. But of course we had been talking about it all week long and Dakota DID NOT want to go swimming in the pool instead.

So what good parents we are we kept our word and took him down to the zoo. What a blast we had, 5 hours of fun. Which is pretty good since Como is not a very big zoo, but I want to say we saw all the animals at least twice, and to much of our dismay the Polar bears are getting a new home built and it won't open until May of 2010. So that was a little disappointing for us, but we can't wait for the exhitbit to open.

At one end of the zoo they have some kiddie rides and games which of course Dakota wants to do. So we let him ride a couple of rides and the best part is they had a mist area that you could stand under. KK loved it, Aaron would hold him up and let the mist just get him in the head and he would laugh and smile.

Dakota loved to play in the play area,which has a couple of big slides and some area to play in the rocks which you can climb on. Which I think would explain why we spent 5 hours at Como. Once it was time to go Dakota was tried and of course fall asleep by the time we left the parking lot. What a day we had.