Part 2 Tree Festival

Ursala has an awesome camera and takes some awesome pictures, loved these trees!

Anderson's and Tora's

Ursala, Patrick and Gabriel Tora, they are such a cute family!

Delaney and Gabriel were the only ones courageous enough to actually go up to Santa

Gabriel is just the sweetest kid!

My smiley Delaney girl

Here are some more pictures that Ursala took with her camera since my camera went dead at the festival :)

Tree Festival

Yesterday we decided at the last minute to go to the Akron Tree Festival with our friends the Tora's. Wade had been sick with a fever but we wanted to take Justin somewhere to get out of the house for a little bit and he LOVES to look at Christmas trees. My batteries in our camera were going dead so I only got 2 pictures before it died but Ursala brought her awesome camera and got some pictures, so stay tuned for those when she sends them to me :) Everyone knows that I have been a huge Ohio State Buckeye fan since I was a little girl, so I LOVED this tree :)

It was cute to see Justin get so excited to see the different trees and that kid is obsessed with anything from Toy Story, so he was pointing to all of the different ornaments and decorations from the movie and calling them all Buzz...He loves to see pictures of Santa Claus, he always points to them and calls them "hoho" so we thought he would love to see Santa in person, guess what we were wrong, he totally didn't want to go anywhere near him, once he saw our friends son Gabriel go up, Justin walked up at least to him but on the other side of me so that there were a few feet in between him and Santa, it was so funny...We had so much fun, it was a nice free family outing :)

Thanksgiving 2010

I love the Thanksgiving season and the time we have to reflect on the many blessings we have recieved in our life. I am so grateful to be alive, to have the chance to be a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister and a friend. To be a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ and be surrounded by so many friends and family members that are such good examples to me, I love you all!
I always look forward to making the big dinner but this year I cooked it at my dads house since his kitchen is bigger and he has an actual eating area (I can't wait to have that someday, but I am thankful to have a home and a kitchen even if its small) My dad had Daniel and Natilie spend the night on Wed. because the last 2 years he has started this tradition with taking them out to breakfest on Thanksgiving morning. Then we loaded up the car and headed over. Everything went perfect, no food disasters and the kids were good. It was a nice laid back day with good food and our family! Here are a few pictures from the day. Delaney is 5 1/2 months now and almost 20 pounds, she has such a cute personality. I love these big bows my friend makes and we have alot of them, but now I am afraid that Miss Delaney is not liking them, she is starting to pull them off all of the time :(

The whole crew around the table. I left the other food on the counter because the table wasnt that big, but there was our yummy turkey, it tasted soooo good :)

Justin refused to eat any of the traditional thanksgiving meal, he kept throwing a fit thinking the pies in the boxes was pizza and was very disappointed when we opened it and he saw it wasnt pizza, so he ate the next best thing, a hot dog, some feast uh...

Our silly big boy...

Its rare to get a picture of Wade actually still, so this picture is a little blurry I had to snap it fast, but he sure is so cute! He was like Justin and wouldn't eat any of the food either (they both have this thing for textures) so his thanksgiving dinner was ramen....

Daniel trying to be a funny guy...

DIAGNOSIS

I am sitting here so overwhelmed and in tears, today has been hard but on another note I am
happy to hear we have a concrete answer. This morning we had a doctors appt
for Wade with his neurologist. I made the appt for when Justin was at preschool
so that I only had to take Wade and Delaney to hopefully be a little easier. Our appt lasted 2 hours and we went over all the tests that have been done so far and nothing has come back abnormal in them. The Dr. said by their bible/book they use in diagnosing children with autism that Wade has almost every sign hands down and his diagnosis is AUTISM. I dont know why I am so overwhelmed, Josh and I suspected it all along and accept the fact, but I think actually sitting there and hearing it, just hit me (not to mention its that time of the month and I am having a medical issue/reaction to my injections) I told the dr. that is what we thought to and now our focus is on what we can do to help him. She gave me a script for physical, occupational and speech therapy, she wants us to contact Help Me Grow and see about getting that program
started and gave me a few other numbers for organizations that help and focus on autism. I thought my days were already busy and now it looks like its going to stay that way for awhile, but whatever we can do to help him is what matters. He is my little sunshine! :)

Since my diagnosis of my RH and Spondylitis Arthritis, my dr has started me on weekly injections that is a type of medicine that blocks my immune system from making TNFs and is supposed to slow down or stop the bone deterioationg process. My first injection I gave myself was fine, no injection site problems or side effects that I noticed. I gave myself the 2nd injection this past Thurs. morning, and again everything seemed fine, just had a little bruising until Sunday something felt strange on my leg and looked, it was a round sunburned looking rash that was warm to the touch but again, didnt think anything about it just thought it was a normal reaction. Well now its Tues. and the rash has grown pretty rapidally and is about 4 inches across and 3 inches tall and is now swollen, warm to the touch and getting bigger along with I dont feel good on top of it. With this medicine the main side effect is infection of different sorts that can even be serious since my immune system is surpressed. The dr. wants me to try ice today and benedryl and if that doesnt help or it still is rapidally getting bigger I have to be seen ASAP....because it could be a possible staph infection or something of the sort.

What a day, I think now, I am going to go cry some more and drink a diet coke! Even though it has been very hard, I still am very grateful for all that I have been given through my trials and love my family so much!

Stake Conference

Our Sabbath day this past week was interesting. I am always super excited for Stake Conference, not only to hear uplifting talks but to see all of my friends from my old wards like Tallmadge, Wadsworth and the Easthill branch. I just love my friends and I love seeing them all gathered in a great building that I am so thankful we have to meet in and worship in the gospel. On our normal Sundays it is very difficult to make it through our regular sacrament meeting for an hour with our 5 kiddo's, but what makes it more difficult is my adorable Mr. Wade who is like taking care of 2 kids literally. The more we watch him day to day and the more dr's appointments we go to, we are really thinking he has some form of autism which makes my days and nights very exhausting, but even though it is hard I wouldnt have it any other way, I am so thankful for him in our family and I think the lord knew that I needed him! I was leery about taking all the kids to Stake conference, but I figured we would try it, I got up way early and got Delaney, Natilie and Jamie J. (who spent the night) ready and took them with me to get to the church by 8:30 so I could get a padded bench so we could block Wade in and hopefully last the whole meeting. We got there by 8:20am got a bench and just waited for Josh to show up with Daniel, Justin, Wade and Jesse J. (who spent the night) I was so happy to see them come in the door and we made it for about the first 15 minutes and then lost all control. Delaney was fussing and crying because she was tired but wouldn't fall to sleep, so I stood up to the side and was rocking her and then Wade followed and threw a loud fit, so I carried them both out one on each hip, got in the hall and Wade really lost it then while I was trying to carry both kids I had two men stop and ask me if I needed help, finally I sent a friends husband from our ward in to get my husband to come out, needless to say we tried for about the next 30 mins to make it but it was impossible, so Josh finally decided to just take the 2 young boys home. I felt bad for all those who were sitting around us, but hey at least we tried, right...and at least I got to hear the last 2 talks and see all of my dear friends. Everyone has told me that this is the hardest stage to deal with when having a kid who might have autism and it wont get better until they are like 10, boy we gotta long way to go if this is what it is, but for now we do all we can do to help our little man, and regardless of how difficult it is and the last 20 months of sleepless nights, that little man melts my heart with each smile even if it is not directed at my face he smiles and giggles so much and I am so thankful for those who still try to reach out to him and treat him like they would anyone elses kid, that means alot to me, even though he has different needs and difficulties in life he is still a heaven sent special little boy! I am so grateful this holiday season for my beautiful children, a husband who loves me even with my faults, my family and amazing friends and the gospel of jesus christ! I am truly blessed!

OCTOBER COMES TO AN END AND A FEW MORE HALLOWEEN PICS

When we went trick or treating, it was really cold so my friend from church lent us a ladybug costume that was much warmer for Delaney to wear..

Jordan and her husband Mike with his mom and their adorable kids from the Wadsworth ward met up with us, it was so fun!

The kids got tired easy and sat down to have a snack...

Josh and I

Our little elephant man Justin, this was Daniels old costume from when he was little, thank goodness it was warm...

Daniel and Natilie with their cousins Lilly, Bella and Shawn

We went trick or treating twice this year in Rittman and in Wadsworth, here is a few of my Wadsworth Ward friends we met with for trick or treating..

We had so much fun!

I think this picture is so funny of Daniel and Justin, Justin was doing like some superman pose, I guess he is "Super Elephant"!