My dad is awesome!

If you know my dad, no surprises there!  He has been diagnosed with ALS and his first concern was making sure my mom is taken care of!  Due to his being in the military, he will get many benefits to help him out, which is awesome!  He has little strength in his left hand and his right foot, which makes things somewhat difficult, yet he is being very positive about it!  Yesterday he fell and rolled to try and get his feet back under him.  He came in laughing, still with some dirt on his cheek and told us he's great at rolling!  Seriously, my dad is amazing!  He is still working at the Temple on Saturdays and doing all he can to still serve others.  He was telling me how to take our dryer apart (since it stopped working this week).  Seeing his face light up when Samuel smiles at him is great too!  He absolutely loves his kids and grandkids!  The feeling is mutual!  He is working super hard to be able to do well as long as he can!  He is taking massive amounts of pills, where he has never had to take medicines before.  Anything to help his family!  He is an amazing example!  I love my dad!

Samuel turned four months old this week, so he got to eat rice cereal.  He downed it, no problem!  Then his Aunt gave him banana, and he loved that too!  FOOD!!!  It was super funny yesterday when I was eating a popsicle and he was eyeing it!  My dad was cracking up!  My baby can track, that's for sure!  He wanted that popsicle!

My kids are adorable, even when they're not being awesomely behaved.
Here's the picture dump from this last week.

 Ben meeting Janette Rallison

 Amazing sunset

 4 months old

 He ate his bib and sucked his fingers between bites!

 Josh wanted to help!

So did Cecilia!

Four Day Weekend

Tuesday was Kira's last PT appointment!  She went in and he tried to make her feel pain, but she didn't, so we were out of there within fifteen minutes!
This week was Parent Teacher Conferences on Thursday, and we stayed late on Wednesday, so I could prep.  Then I was there from 8am-8:30pm on Thursday.  But I got off Friday!
Friday was spent cleaning Ben's room.  He had "straightened" in order to go to the Authorpalooza and meet one of his (and my) favorite authors.  My mom came and picked up Kira and Emma for the weekend, because they worked super hard all week for the privilege!  Ben and I headed up after they left.  We ended up getting there right before it ended, but he still got to meet her and shake her hand!  Plus she signed her pen name and her real name on his dragon drawing that he was telling her all about!  So nice!  I got to say hi to a few of my other favorite authors-Danyelle and Lisa (you rock!)!  Then we headed to Half Price Bookstore to pick up a few clearance books.  Ben was a happy camper!
Saturday, I went through some of the boxes in the little girls' room, in between tracking my amazing sister-in-law at the Maryland Ironman!  She's been working incredibly hard, so I was super proud of her for coming in under 13 hours!  What a day!
I feel like I got a lot done in a couple of days!  Today I just made some yummy snacks.  I had no idea that my kids liked pudding so much!
Now, to hope that Josh doesn't eat everything tonight while I'm trying to sleep.  He's growing fast, and his food intake is testament to it!  I found a completely empty bologna package with the little red outside things just sitting by the back door.  After I saw him eat multiple hot dogs.  He's a hungry fellow.
Samuel turns 4 months old tomorrow, so we'll be taking pictures of his first time eating food!

Aquarium Visit

It's been a fun week!  We made it through and Emma got to celebrate her early birthday at school with rainbow cupcakes!  She was so cute!  She desperately wanted to give one to her PE teacher, so I gave her back the one she gave me!  She really likes him!  She wrote him a secret fin (fan) letter!  Then he put it up on the wall and she admitted to it!  So cute!
Saturday was down at my family's house and at the Aquarium.  We got to help clean out one of the rooms in the basement, well, finish cleaning out.  Then we headed to the Aquarium for Scott's birthday present.  He LOVES fish and aquaponics and such, so I bought tickets for all of us to go to the Aquarium for half off!  It was still $60 (including tax)!  It was very cute seeing how excited they all were!  I took a LOT of pictures!  They also had a ton of photo ops where the people could go "inside" the aquarium.  Very cool!  It was small, but fun.  We let the kids play at the playground at the end, before we were going to walk back through, but Ben decided to mess with a little boy and pretend he was biting him (I'm still not sure exactly what happened), but the kiddo's mom got very upset, so we hightailed it out.  Ben knows better, and we've talked a lot about how he should act around strangers.  He really had no idea, but we should have been paying closer attention.  I keep forgetting that Ben has Autism, because he has lots of days where he does fantastic!  Then I get reminded that Ben is not like other almost 12-year-olds.  Not even close.  He's still my very favorite Ben in the whole wide world!
We headed back to my parents' house and had a little birthday party for Emma.  My family is so great!  My dad told us an amazing story of his blessing in the Temple, from the Temple Presidency.  I feel like everything is going to be okay!  Maybe not forever, but definitely great news for the near future!  His name is on every Temple prayer roll in the world.  The whole world is praying for my Dad!  The Church is true!!!  My Dad is already happier and was adding windshield wiper fluid to his car as we left.  It may not sound like a big deal, but those containers are hard to open!  I'm so proud to be a daughter of my amazing parents!
Now, for the picture dump:

I Love Labor Day!

I really enjoyed the three day weekend!  I got to spend more time with my family, which is always great!
This week Kira finally got her stitches out!  I learned some new methods in managing my class!  My kiddos have cracked me up!  We're getting things together, so our house is looking much better!  We're still working on unpacking and finding a place for everything!
Grandparents' Day at School was fun!  My mom and Scott's mom came!  My kiddos were pretty excited!  I was shocked to see my mom in a sling!  Poor mom!  She's got tendonitis and something else!  I wish I could help her out more!
Scott's birthday was fun too!  We picked up my Dad from the airport, so we got to talk!  I love my Dad and we're constantly praying for him!  I need my Dad!  I don't need another angel helping us out, since lots of our loved ones have died and are already over there.  I'm trying very hard not to worry/think about it, but can't help myself in those quiet early mornings.  Anyway, my sister agreed to watch our kids for 4 hours!  It was great!  We got to shop at Savers and found Ben's and Emma's birthday presents, plus tons of much needed furniture!  Then we walked around Old Settler's Day and talked to Scott's mom!  We picked up the kids and came home.  I'm excited for next weekend!