Scarecrow Festival

A couple weeks ago Zuri's school sent home a flyer about the 22nd Annual Scarecrow Festival--and the best thing about it--admission was free!  So, I rounded up Amanda (my sister-in-law) and her toddler, Jaxson, and we went.  Unfortunately, the activities are more geared toward elementary school aged children, so there wasn't much for Jaxson to do, but we had fun hanging out together. 



Zuri had a blast.  She went in the bouncy houses (Jaxson briefly jumped in one), explored the big pumpkin, and for a dollar, she made a rocket and got to launch it.  That was her favorite activity, and would have kept it up all day if she could.  It started to get cold, so we ended up going home earlier than anticipated.

Retrieving her rocket.  Once you pay your dollar for the rocket, you can shoot it off as many times as you like.  If your rocket gets lost or damaged, you can make a new one for free.  It was really quite cool.

Kai enjoyed the time out as well.



Back home.  Amanda holding Kai

It was a two day event, and we had some respite hours on Saturday, so we took Zuri back.  We had lunch at Firehouse Subs first, where she got her nifty Fireman's hat. 


She loved the steep slide.  I think she went down it a good five times before the line started getting really long and we moved on to the next activity.  Along with the slides, bouncy houses, and rocket launchers were games, pumpkin patches/mazes, bungee jumping, a tower of terror, and so much more.  Many of the activities had a height requirement and Zuri was just slightly too short, but she had so much fun with the activities she could do that she didn't even notice.


Once again, her favorite activity of the day was the rocket launcher.  She was really good at tracking her rocket while running to get it.  We are talking about the rocket going at least 100-150 feet in the air. 

Just Like Her Mom

Kindergarten Photo

School pictures came back!  Here is Zuri's kindergarten photo.  Other than a fake smile (I think she may not have liked it when they tilted her head) it turned out really cute.  I just love Zuri's curls!  She is growing up so quickly!

30 Weeks

So I rarely ever do selfies (self portraits), but I have had a few requests on facebook for some baby bump pictures.  I thought that since I went through the effort to take them, that I might as well post them here as well!  --Just ignore the serious look on my face.

Here I am at 30 weeks!  Ten more to go--the last little bit.  Overall, I am doing well.  I have the regular pregnancy complaints: tired, some mild back pain here and there (but really nothing compared to what I had with the other two), attempting to sleep comfortably, etc.  

I can't think of much to say--I can't wait to meet this little one (in eight to ten weeks, hopefully; thank you very much).  We haven't really done anything in the way of her nursery yet.  It is on my to-do list for November.  I haven't even decided on colors for her room.  I feel like a slacker.  ;-)

Working Hard

Look who has learned a new trick!  He managed to roll onto his tummy all by himself.  He has done so twice so far, and several days apart, but it is still progress!

Kai's OT has been really sick, so the temporary (possibly permanent) replacement has come up with a few new things.  That is one of the advantages to having new faces, even though we loved Kai's OT, the new PT has been great as well.  She brought us this tumble form chair which Kai loves.  Really loves, and it has the benefit of allowing him to work on his head control.  He will purposefully pull himself forward and then work on pulling his head back up.  The new PT said that it is wonderful that he has a desire to work on head control--that many kids don't have that desire. 

October Conference 2013

The weather was a bit on the colder side for General Conference this October.  We went from summer temperatures to winter.  Luckily, Sunday was warmer than Saturday.  Instead of having a picnic lunch in between sessions on Saturday, we went to Johnny Rockets.  It was a nice change, except we decided to get a table outside and although it started off as nice, by the end of our meal we were all pretty cold.

Sunday, we had our normal picnic, but we sat against the Tabernacle instead of on the grass because the grass was wet.  So, we changed up our routine a bit.  We still sat inside the Tabernacle for Conference itself, and it still became too warm inside by the end of the day.  Our bums were numb from the hard benches, even with the pillows we brought to sit upon.  Each Conference becomes harder and harder to make the trip up to temple square, especially since we can watch it from the comfort of our own couch.

However, make it we did, and once it was all said and done, it is fun to soak in the atmosphere and spirit that reside there.  Zuri kept herself entertained for three and a half hours on Saturday by drawing/coloring in a blank notebook.  She and my dad would create connect-the-dot pictures and she loved that.  Zuri was stuck to my dad like glue all day Saturday. 

Sunday, she spent most of the morning with Shin and Heather, but fell asleep on my dad's lap 20 minutes before the end of the morning session.  We thought she might sleep through the lunch break, but she woke up and was full of energy--ready to run around.

After conference was over Sunday afternoon, we went first to the mirror pool, and then to see the Christus while giving traffic a chance to clear out. 



There were a few talks that really touched me, but the two that I really remember are the ones from Elder Jeffrey R Holland and President Henry B Eyring.

Elder Holland talked about mental illness, specifically depression.  While the closest I have ever come to depression would be the time right after Kai came home from the hospital, but before he was vented and before we had respite care (during Kai's "blue" period), I know several people who have (or had) depression.  I cannot myself fathom the pain that those people go through, but I am glad that it is being addressed.  Too many people try to hide it, or feel that by not addressing it, it will just go away.  Unfortunately, that course of action rarely resolves the problem.

President Eyring talked about the choices that we make which would lead us to happiness.  The part that touched me the most was near the end of his talk, however, when he was talking about the wayward grandson, and the grandmother who questioned why he was given to her.  The response back was:
"I gave him to you because I knew you could, and would love him."   

More than any other statement made in conference, that one line has stuck with me.  Am I still searching for answers as to why with Kai?  I thought not, but that statement changed my whole perspective.

I gave him to you because I knew you could, and would love him. 

I am nowhere near a perfect parent.  Daily, there are things that I know I could be doing better.  I do the best that I can, and some days my best is better than other days.  So why would I be given this child that someone else could take care of better than I?  This non-verbal, non-mobile child that needs so much... But what I can communicate to him is my love.  Anyone could go through the motions and do the therapies with him.  I have seen nurses do just that--go through the motions.  Then there are the nurses who truly care.  The difference can be seen very clearly.

I gave him to you because I knew you could, and would love him....and I do.


Heather chasing Zuri around.  Shin and Zuri at the Christus.

Canning

Late in September, J's aunt Peggy called me up and said, "let's can!"  I said okay, and she came over to help us can all our pears and apples.  She is simply amazing.  Unfortunately, we had already given or thrown away (due to overripeness or bugs) most of our apples and pears (unbelievable how much fruit our trees produced).

We thought our apples beyond saving, because we hadn't sprayed and quite a few of them had holes in them.  Peggy showed me that until you actually open up the apple, you don't know if it is good or bad.  Some that I would have thought would be completely ruined only had a small area that could be cut out and the majority of the apple was still good.  There were others that only had a small hole that I thought would be good, but when we opened it up, was completely eaten away.  Quite amazing. 

Most of our pears were either too overripe or under ripe to use.  We were able to get five cans of pears, however, so I call that a success.  Our apples took the majority of our canning, however, and we still have two boxes of apples that we didn't get to.  It was twelve hours of washing, cutting, peeling, and cooking.  It was fun.  I had never canned before, so this was a learning experience for me.  There is a deep satisfaction from knowing that we did all the work.  The fruit came from our trees--we picked, washed, cut, cooked, and now we will have fruit throughout the winter.  We made applesauce and apple crisp filling (which can be used in so many things, like apple crisp, apple pie, on top of pancakes, or even just by itself) with the apples. 

I was amazed at how big some of the apples had grown.  We are talking much bigger than the average supermarket apple.  More than a few were bigger than softballs.  Even though we thought we got all the fruit from the trees, we are still finding apples and pears falling to the ground that we missed.  Wow.  Well, we definitely know what to expect for next year!




I have been amazed at how sweet and good the fruit has turned out.  So much better than store bought.  I am excited for next year--now we know more what to do and expect, we will be better prepared.  It had been obvious to us that the previous owners hadn't pruned the trees for some time, so we didn't think we would get a good bounty this year.  We were certainly mistaken! 

On my wishlist is my own processor so that I can get the canning done a little earlier so we don't waste as much fruit.  We also have the cherry trees in the spring, and the four trees we thought were plum are actually called kumquat (it is like a mix between an apricot and a plum but they are tiny--maybe twice the size of a grape at most) .  They are so delicious, but not practical for canning.  We are thinking next year we will make some jam and preserves from them, but this year we just picked and ate them (they don't last off the tree for more than a few days).