Spring Break is here and we are going to have fun

I am so excited about our spring break!!!!! What to do with all the time we have, Lots of playing at the Park and The YMCA and going into Boise.

Joseph is doing amazing. His Med change has made a huge difference. WOW I have a boy that is mine again and I LOVE it. I am amazed of what I put up with for so long. I still have to us my own tactics to get him to do what he needs to do but not to often and when I do he is very willing, it does not drag out to long. I believe that with all the prayers that are being said on his behalf and with our FAITH our Father in Heaven is answering our prayers. Thank you for all your support everyone.

Joseph is Home

We got the Phone call from the nurse today that we have been waiting for for 1 week and 6 days, The doctor has written discharge papers. I can not tell you how excited I was!!!! Just this time 2 weeks ago David and I had been discussing taking him to the hospital. I can not believe how long ago that seems. When having a son a child taken from your home, makes everything different. The days seemed to take to long and I was constantly relying on my Father in Heaven for gudiance and strength to get our family through this trial. Also so Joseph would feel of our love for him. I felt so relieved to know that he was now on his way home!!!! While he was in the hospital he went through some intense anger management classes with other children his age. These kids had 4 groups a day where they would work on goals and discuss ways that they could control them selves. We have a lot of learning to still do, and as we are consistent we will prevail!!!! As a family we have decieded to do a family group nightly. This consists of making a daily goal to work on for each of us. We write each of our goals on a paper that goes on the fridge for the day. We then go around the table and say one nice thing about each other, in creative ways not always the same way. Tonight we went around the table and the person they were sitting next to had to say something nice to them each taking a turn. After that we sing a song and then read scriptures as a family. We have a prayer song "Let us Gather in a Circle and Kneel in Family Prayer" Then we pray. We then have Story time and bed. The kids are all in bed by 8:30 and then the house is pretty quiet. Although we are still going rounds with Michael trying to get him to fall asleep. Crazy kid just can not settle down and fall asleep. It is a work in progress with him. Any ways we will have a fun time with this more structured evening I hope. We have already been doing Prayer Scriptures and Stories so there are just a few add ins. My goal is to help the other kids under stand the need for Joseph to have a very structured routine. That is it for now

Update on our Family Life as we have known it this week

Our Family is doing well. Joseph is doing well. He has now been in the Hospital for 1 week and 2 days. He is now off of one med completely and doing well. They will be starting him on a new med and upping another one so we are hoping that he will do well. I am a little nervous to bring him back home into a sort of chaotic environment compared to the very structured on that he has been in for the last week. He thrives on routine and when you have a large family with 6 children 4 being under the age of 5 it does get a bit hard to follow a routine to the tee and that is what he loves. There is always a lot of things going on at once. I guess we will see how things go in the next couple of days with his med change and how he will be at home. We are hoping by the end of this week we will be able to bring him home. Thank you for all your prayers and help through this trial that we are going through.

The other kids are missing their big brother and ask when he is going to come home. They are always remembering to pray for him so he can get better and come home.

Let the Potting training begin!!!!!

I did this with Spencer and Maddie and now it has once again worked to my advantage!!!!! I do not say to my little ones lets put our underwear on and go potty on the toilet. I simply let them do it when they are ready. For the last 2 months Michael has shown a lot of interest in going potty and loves to climb up on the toilet and sit there for ever. He just never figured out how to go. Well today and of all places in Sacrament meeting he announced to me "pee come in out, pee come in out" So I thought that I would humor him and let him sit on the toilet. He sat there with wide eyes and he concentrated on trying to let the potty come out and then he did it. HE DID IT!!!!!!!! Yea for me and then again when we got home he did it again. I think that I like the wait until they are ready thing and when they do it all by them selves it makes it so much easier on the mommy. He is so darn cute. I love him so much!!!!!!

Sammie is 4 months

Wow this went by so fast. Where does the time go. She is doing great developmentally. She is rolling over, she is laughing and blowing a ton of bubbles and she loves her tongue. She loves her jumperoo she also love her exer saucer. She is eager to start sitting up yet has not quite mastered it. She will I am confident by another month!!!! She grabs anything and chews on it. So she has mastered that. I do love her a ton. She has just started to eat rice cereal. And loves it a ton. She is the first ever baby that has absaluttly swallows this nasty rice cereal and wanted more. She is a delight.

She weighs in a 12lbs 2 oz. and 25 in long. yes she is my smallest little one most of the other kids hit 14 lbs by 2 months and were at 16lbs by 4 months.

I am a little concerned because for the last month she has been extremely fussy and hard to console. She is very agitated. But when we went into the Dr. She did not show off any symptoms. Why do they always do this for us. They are so sweet. We actually did not get her shots because she to me was not right and wanted to hold off a week so this week I need to schedule an appointment and let the Dr know what I have seen by watching her. She is very stiff and screams after during and before eating. she will fall asleep and then be awakens suddenly and scream some more. She has diareah quite often like 2-4 times a day, and spits up which is a new thing now. This has been going on for sometime now.
I was talking to a few friends that have said maybe acid reflex. We will go and have it checked out to see if this might be the case. I hope that something will help. But at least she did not do this when she was first born. I do not think that I could have handled it then.

By and By she is a remarkable little cute girl and pictures will follow soon, As life slows down enoungh for me to post more.

Sorry it has been a while

We have had a lot going on here for some time now. We admitted our oldest son into the Hospital. Talk about a very hard and emotional step in our lives. To trust him to the care of someone other then us is very hard to do. But it is the right thing and we are at peace with the desiscion that we have made. He was becoming violently aggressive and we were no longer able to keep all of our children safe. He was not happy with our desiscoin, and it may take him a long time for him to feel happy again. He will be there a minimum of 1 week but more then likely 2 weeks. We pray that he will have a good learning eperience and know that we love him , but more importantly that his Father in Heaven is right by his side through this whole journey. We love and pray for him and that he will feel of our love and know that we love him and want him to get the help that he needs so that he will beable to succeed in life and make it back with his Father in Heaven. Please pray for him that he will be comforted.