Blessed

Autism A Blessing?

I look at Cohen every day in complete an utter amazement. I am so overwhelmed everyday with him. When I say overwhelmed I don't mean with work I mean the love I feel when I look at him.  The first half of Cohen's life I felt overwhelmed, seriously overwhelmed like how am I going to do this??? Why me? Why did God give me a special needs child?  I am not the most patient person and I never thought I had the gift of taking care of a child like him.  We (Clay and I) struggled and we still do with knowing how to parent him properly, but we just do our best and take it day by day.

Cohen is teaching me probably more than I am teaching him. I am learning to have more patience for sure and to have more compassion for others.  Cohen loves with all of his heart..all of the time! Wow,  how can that not be a gift?

I watch my big 5 year old boy progress daily in his talking, (actually sometimes I can't make him stop), his art work,  riding a bike (which we didn't know he would ever do), and even starting to throw a ball a little. (I don't think he will be an athlete :))  Cohen knows all of his numbers and letters and is learning site words at school.

Just over a year ago I was wondering if we would ever know how how he felt, what he needed, if he would have any friends, have any passions (other than Thomas).  I know I am lucky, I know that I am blessed, some parents aren't ever able to know the thoughts of their children or how their child feels. I get that, I am getting more than that. I am Blessed.

Celebrating Cooper

Cooper has been working so hard in school this year!  He has had some struggles with his spelling.  We have been trying to build his confidence and then I think better grades will come! So...his reward for an A was to go to Chuckee Cheese!  Just before the Christmas break he got 2 A's on his spelling test! We are so proud of him and took him out to celebrate!

We went to our favorite breakfast place, Black Bear Diner and then went to Chuckee Cheese to play! The kids had a ball and Cooper new this adventure was all to celebrate him!!

Christmas

We just celebrated our 3rd California Christmas!  We have created quite a few new traditions here that we all enjoy. Being that we don't have family here, Clay and I have tried to find other things to do to make lots of family memories!

We go to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our tree, which is always fun!   We did a little bit of baking together, went to visit the white reindeer at Mount Madonna and this year we were able to go to the Christmas Eve service at Church.   The past few years we haven't gone because we always have to leave around 10 minutes in,  the kids just can't keep quiet.  This year we made it, almost the entire time. Clay had to walk out with Cohen because towards the end of service Cohen says Really loudly 3,2,1 and then says My Mom makes really good hot chocolate.  We tried and the kids new what Christmas was all about, which was the important part.

And of course..we made reindeer food and left out Cookies and milk for Santa!

Christmas morning, Cohen was sick but we were still able to enjoy opening presents together and had a wonderful day!  Hoping soon to be able to celebrate with our Alabama and Georgia family!

Christmas Time 2014

Well...it's December already!! And I am so in the Christmas Spirit this year!  The day after Thanksgiving we went to our favorite Christmas tree farm here and found the perfect tree for us! I love doing that..it's so fun and the kids love the experience. All the kids were able to help cut down the tree this year, pretty cute! Cenley found a stump she worked at for a while trying to cut down? :) The Gilroy newspaper took our families picture while we were there, so we will see..we might end up movie stars! Ha Ha
The next day we turned on Christmas music, had hot chocolate and had a lot of fun decorating. I am glad we don't have 10 trees in our house though, it took us a few hours to accomplish the one :).

Loving the memory making and family time together.

Thanksgiving 2014

I can't believe this is our 3rd Thanksgiving here in California.  When we moved here I thought we would possibly be here for 2 years and head back. The time has not come yet for us to leave, but we are really making the most of our time here.  We have not been able to celebrate with all of our family for so long, I really don't think the kids even remember the Holidays back in Alabama. So...I am trying to recreate some of the things (foods) we used to have back home. We are creating some new traditions as well. I just want the kids to have Great memories of all of the Holidays here in California even though we don't have our wonderful family with us.

So, Clay cooked the turkey for us yesterday. While that was baking he took the kids to the park so I could make all of the other stuff :). I pulled out my book of my Mom's recipes and went to town and added some gluten free yummies too to ensure Cohen didn't get the wrong foods.

We had a great day together! Fire going, playing outside and full of thankfulness!!

The dogs filled their bellies as well. I just added a picture of Roxy doing a trick we didn't know she could do! :)

Back to School

Well school is officially back in full swing! All 3 kiddos are in school now!! :) I would like to say it's going to make my life easier but it's not really. They all go to different schools so I feel like a bus driver! :)  I need to find the pictures of Cohen and Cenley...I have them..


Cohen

I decided to hold off on K-5 for Cohen this year, he has been doing so well in his preschool class we chose to do that one more year and try to mainstream him into regular classes next year. (we hope) So back to school with Mrs.Shew (his happy place)




Cooper

Cooper is in Second grade and has Mrs. Patterson!  He really likes school so far and his teacher. I am proud of him and hoping for a great year!

Cenley is in Soccer

I have wanted for some time now to get Cenley in some activities! She loves to dance, jump, flip and run! So what to choose, what to choose?? We started out with Soccer this time. She said she wanted to play but when the first practice day arrived she said she was too little to play :). Getting nervous I think. I had to take Cooper to his last day of a class he was taking so Daddy got the privilege of taking her to her first practice.  He said the first 10 minutes she wouldn't join in but finally did and LOVED it. She keeps asking me when she can go back to "basketball."   I asked Clay to take pictures and he sure did, he took 200! Love my photographer!!

So here are a few of her first day!