Cochise Stronghold and Kevin and Kim's Family Update

Trying to update the blog. It has been a while since I posted pictures because the battery compartment on our camera busted so I couldn't take any pictures for a few months. Aaron (the two year old) accidentally dropped the camera from the shopping cart. I had taken the camera to Wal-mart to print pictures and he got his hands on it without me realizing it until he dropped it. Sad day! Anyhow, we saved money for a new camera and just bought a new one about one week ago. Now, you will all be burdened with picture overload as I feel I have to make up for the amount of pictures that I missed.

I will post some pictures of our visit to Cochise Stronghold. It is very close to my mom's house in Sunsites, 10 minutes maybe less. Yes, it is that close! We cleaned up the house on Saturday morning, and on the spur of the moment, we decided to pack a lunch and go for a hike! The area around the Stronghold is beautiful and there are breath-taking views of the Dragoon Mountains. It is a bird lover's paradise. All kinds of different species. We enjoyed viewing and listening to a woodpecker as we were eating our lunch. We saw several deer, which, of course, our young children thought were Santa's. We saw lots of deer tracks as well so the kids are sure now that Santa is checking up on them. We also were able to go on a trail and read the various historical data of the happenings in the area--the famous Indian chief Cochise. We went for a little hike up the mountains and our kids enjoyed climbing all over the different rock formations in the area. We found several small caves that the kids enjoyed exploring. It was a great place to visit and I highly recommend visiting it the next time you are in the area. At the stronghold, there is a nice campground, firepits, bathrooms, picnic tables, and of course different trails you can go on.

Elijah is cutting new teeth so he has been a little bit fussy, but that has not prevented him from being mischevious. He loves to play cars and throw balls. He has a good arm for a one year old. You can tell he has a lot of brothers that play with him. Eli will sit and play with cars for about 30 minutes before he goes off exploring somewhere else. He enjoys emptying my kitchen cupboards and stealing Aaron's toys and running away with them. Aaron is so soft hearted that he will not steal the toy back from him and just whines, "Mommy, Eli took my toy. Let's get him!" Aaron is such a sweet little 2 year old. He is pretty much completely potty trained now--does not have many accidents. This helps with our budget--not having to buy so many diapers. Aaron loves to read books and would probably sit and listen to stories all day. We can always find him with a book.

Benjamin is getting excited for his birthday! He knows it is getting close because we are starting to pull out Christmas decorations. Kevin's grandparents down the street put up a beautiful life-size Nativity every year. It was just set up this weekend. Benjamin says, "Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus are out now, that means it's my birthday!" He is counting down to the day he turns 5 and is old enough to go to school with the big kids. Benjamin does pre-school with mom and we have a friend come over once a week to play with him. He has had a lot of challenges due to his hearing. He developed auditory processing disorder because his ears did not hear well until he had the tubes placed in his ears and tonsils and adenoids taken out at age 3. Apparently, according to my doctor, children learn very important early vocabulary sounds and major communication skills just prior to turning 3. This is the time frame when the largest amount of social skills are developed. Benjamin missed out on that and is playing catch up. He still has difficulty hearing if there is a lot of background or loud noises. He has difficulty with large groups and learns best in small, individualized groups. His disorder is similar to autism and is many times misdiagnosed as autism, but we really feel the problem is an auditory processing problem. He still does not hear every sound in his right ear and is being re-tested in January for his hearing problems. Best treatment I am told is individual attention, or very small group. The doctor said the tubes tend to adjust the hearing over time so we will check that out. Here is a website with some general information about his disorder if you are interested. He brain and ears do not process information correctly. http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/ears/central_auditory.html Benjamin also suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, as does Jacob. Benjamin has the type of Tourette's where he has tics, vocal sounds, throat clearing and will all of a sudden loudly say a word (not a swear word. He doesn't know any. It's usually poopy or you girl, which is funny if it's not your kid). The yelling out a word scenario most often happens when we are around a large crowd, like at church or in primary or at a school function. Not often. His behavior is different week to week and he has triggers that tend to make him be more effected. It's embarrassing, but understandable. I feel bad for him. I have to do a lot of explaining to people that don't understand sometimes, mainly in Primary. He does not really yell but rather speaks it louder than his normal voice, which is not that loud due to his hearing. If you sit near us, you will hear it occasionally. It mostly happens when Benjamin is out of his comfort zone--in large groups. Jacob only has the type of Tourette's that involves tics and a lot of throat clearing.

Matthew is now 7 years old and will be baptized next year in October. He wants to be baptized on Halloween because he thinks it would be cool to get the real Holy Ghost on a day meant for scaring people about other types of ghosts. It is perfect that Matthew's birthday is around Halloween (October 30th. So is Kyra's.) Matthew loves candy so this works out great for him. We go to the school carnival every year--haunted mule rides, games, jumping castles, bbq, cotton candy, popcorn, caramel apples, and lots of fun! Here is a list of what our kids were for Halloween--Andrew (scary guy. He helps out with the haunted mule ride and had a scary mask and had to wear black. Jacob--Two face from Batman. Half of his body is a normal suit, the other side of the suit is part leopard, jaguar, cheetah, zebra and tiger. I had to make his outfit. Matthew was a ninja and bought his outfit at a yard sale across the street for 10 cents. His was my favorite costume because it was cheap and I did not have to make it. :) Benjamin was the character Hiccup, a dragon trainer from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon." Benjamin and Aaron were Benjamin's dragons from the movie. Aaron was Night Fury and Elijah was Terrible Terror. On Halloween eve as we were getting children dressed, Andrew was running away from Jacob who was chasing him and went into his bedroom and slammed the door. Aaron was standing right there and had his hand in the door. His poor fingers got smashed and crushed very hard. He broke one of his fingers and majorly bruised two other fingers. His fingers looked horrible! Andrew felt absolutely horrible and said, "I don't deserve to go to the Halloween Carnival." It was an accident. He was punishing himself more than I could ever punish him. Needless to say, he does not slam the door anymore. We all did go to the Halloween Carnival still. We just got there a little later than we would have liked. Aaron had to be super glued back together and was sore for quite a while, but I have to say his fingers look so good now. One of his fingernails fell off and is now growing back. This was not our first broken finger experience. Matthew broke his finger the second week of October. We went to Phoenix and he was playing air hockey against his brother and his dad. He moved his hand off of the hockey puck and it got slammed so hard that it broke his finger. His fingernail is very black and will probably fall off soon as the new fingernail begins to come in. Life is exciting with 6 little boys!

Jacob is 8 years old. He was baptized on his birthday, the 4th of July. Jacob is full of energy, excitement, and has a curious nature. He is very intelligent and listens to every single word you say and follows it to the tee. He does a lot of play on words. He has memorized the Preamble of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Jacob has a soft heart for animals. I think he likes animals more than humans, especially lizards, frogs, toads, chickens, and other creepy crawly creatures. Jacob became a cub scout in July. He has earned his bobcat badge and is almost finished with his wolf badge. We recently went to the International Wildlife Museum in Tucson for a cub scout expo. There are all sorts of different "stuffed" dead animals to observe in the museum. Our kids love it. They call it the dead animal museum. Admission was free on cub scout expo day for any cub scout and his family if they came in their uniform. There were lots of exhibits and there were different stations you could go to in order to pass off a scout requirement. We had a great time!

Andrew is 11 years old now. He is almost finished with his Faith in God award. He recently entered regular boy scouts in September. Before becoming a boy scout, Andrew did earn his Webelos badge, Compass Point with each point earned, religious knot, all 20 activity badges, and his Arrow of Light, the highest award you can receive in cub scouts and transfers to your boy scout uniform. We are so proud of him! He is a great example to his brothers! Andrew is involved in school sports. He finished cross country at the end of September. I was impressed with his endurance of a long run. He enjoyed running 5 miles. Personally, I don't. Currently, Andrew is playing basketball for Pomerene School. He LOVES it! Andrew has loved all sports ever since he was a baby--basketball, football, baseball, you name it--he loves it! Andrew's team has won about 8 games and lost only two--one loss was to St. David and the other to Naco (they have tall players in Naco).

Kevin and I stay busy chasing boys! Kevin travels throughout southern Arizona to client's homes to ensure the clients are receiving proper care. He can be found in Benson about three days a week, Wilcox about once a week, Pearce/Sunsites/Elfrida twice a month, Safford/Thatcher twice a month, Bisbee and Sierra Vista quarterly, and meetings in Phoenix quarterly. He stays busy with work and he teaches the 11 year olds in Sunday School/Primary. I appreciate everything he does for our family. He works so hard for our family and we are lucky to have him in our lives. I could not raise these boys without him! I stay busy teaching piano lessons, cleaning and re-cleaning the house, doing loads of laundry and piles of dishes, chasing children, teaching pre-school, teaching little boys to use the potty, changing diapers, playing with kids, cooking meals, baking cookies, picking up children from activities and taking children to doctor appointments. I'm wore out just writing down what I do on a daily basis. I have the best calling in our church--playing the piano for the children to learn and sing songs. Love it!

I get to speak in my Mom's branch in Sunsites at church in January. Since Dad is a high councilman, it is his turn to speak there in January. When he speaks in church there, he is asked to bring someone to speak with him. Mom has done her share of talks there and she is the secretary for the Stake Relief Society--so that makes her unavailable sometimes. Anyhow, dad thought it would be neat to have me speak in Sunsites with him since Mom is in that branch and I know some of the people and many of them know of me. I actually don't mind speaking in church. I am looking forward to it. I think I like it because that means I don't have to wrestle my boys during church (yes, this week felt like wrestling). Kevin will be in charge while I talk, and hopefully my mom and Kevin's mom and/or Tamra (if they are available) can help him out. Kevin's dad asked Kevin to sing a solo when we go to Sunsites. He loves to sing and has a gorgeous voice. He is also looking forward to that. Kevin would rather sing than give a talk any day.

Sorry this is so long but I felt the need to update. I will add some pictures in a different post. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!