Jason's Ornament

So, since I realized Jason isn't represented at all on our tree, I decided to look up Christmas crafts and see how we could change that.  I found a fun reindeer ornament made using his hand prints and footprints.  This website also had tons of other fun Christmas crafts for kids.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/christmas/

Sentimental Value

For one of my bridal showers, when Kevin and I were engaged, everyone was supposed to bring an ornament along with their gift since it was almost Christmas, and we had absolutely no decorations.  These gingerbread men are my favorite.  My mom let me go with her to choose the ornaments, and I chose them to be Kevin and me. 

 

 We used this ornament of the Nauvoo temple as the cake topper at our wedding reception.  Jennifer did such a great job on our beautiful cake.  I was so happy with it and thought it was the best wedding cake ever.

We got married in 2002.  This ornament was from our first Christmas together.

In January 2004, Garrett was born.  We were given a couple of these ornaments that year..."Baby's First Christmas."  Funny, how he's the only baby who got an ornament for his first Christmas.  Kind of like when you do a great job on the first baby's baby book, and then sort of fill in the others.

This is the CUTEST ornament ever.  Garrett made it at school last year in kindergarten...I'm sure with lots of help.  The beard is made from a cutout of his hand.

I love this sweet ornament Caiti made in her preschool class last year.  Of course they would take her picture the day we woke up late. I didn't do her hair and sent her to school in her pajama shirt and hoped they wouldn't notice.  Funny how that works.  I had a similar experience in 3rd grade when I wore my Garfield night shirt tucked in jeans cause I thought it was cool, and that was the day our teacher took our picture for our ornaments for our mommys. 
Hmmm...doing this makes me realize that I really don't have any ornaments to celebrate my cute little Jason.  We're going to have to fix that little situation!

Getting Ready for Christmas

So I knew Kevin would be watching football all night on Sunday night, so we decided it was time to get out the decorations and start decking the halls.  This was my favorite sight of the whole night.  Garrett found the Christmas tree box.

 After I got the tree all put together, I let my sexy husband put up the lights.  Hooray for helpers.

 Caiti had just woken up from a nap.  Usually that means an ornery little girl, but she was so happy because her favorite tree was back.

 She grabbed a pile of the ornament balls and threw them on the tree.  Such a good helper.

 Next we put the sign I made at Enrichment on the door.  I was so proud of my homemade craftiness. 

 

Jason decided it was his turn to help, so he watched me put that up and then supportively sat on the chair by the door while I put up the outside decorations.

 I'm so happy to have this gigantic wreath and the fun Santa and Snow Man signs for outside.  We snatched them right up at Jerri Lynn's yard sale a couple years ago because she has great taste and we wanted our house to look sort of cute compared to hers.  I just need to sneak out and put a nail in the side of the house when no one can see so we can actually hang up our pretty wreath.

These Snow Men are a favorite at our house.  I got Kevin the Sailor Snowman our first Christmas in the Navy.  I got him the Colts Family last Christmas.  The other Snowman was from a beautiful lady in our ward who let Garrett and Caiti meet her horsies.

These Snowmen also have special meaning.  The Baker Snowman was Kevin's present to me our first year of marriage.  I have cherished it ever since.  Of course, I made that sock snowman.  Funny, I only have one of them considering how many I have made over the years, but that's okay.  I like it anyway.

 Caiti adored all the decorations and spent the rest of the evening with her new best friend, Mr. Christmas tree.

 Jason even joined in the admiring, although I think he was noticing the Spongebob and Diego ornmanents more than the actual tree.

 Such a sweetie pie.

...now, 2 days later...this is what my tree looks like.  Inevitable, I know, to have the half-decorated tree, but that just tells you how much it is loved.  (Of course there is a hint about who undecorated the bottom half for me.)

Model Madness 2

So, my sisters Nicole, Michelle and I are America's Next Top Model watchers, and we thought that Tyra's latest episode, where she filmed the girls in Model Madness, was quite entertaining.  Here's her "motion editorial."


Now, here's Michelle and Nicole's take on it.  I think it's even better, don't you?


I laughed the whole time I watched it.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was kind of typical for our family since our move to California.  Kevin was on duty, so we didn't really do anything.  :)  However, there was a Muppet Movie Marathon on TV, so that was a blessing.  My kids were in heaven.  The best part of Thanksgiving Day was having Uncle Steve and Larraine come over for some pie.  I really enjoyed the pie and the visit.  Garrett thought that was SO fun, and he's been asking for Uncle Steve and Aunt Larraine ever since.
We celebrated Thanksgiving as a family on Friday after Kevin got home from work.  I was so domestic and cooked up a turkey, some stuffing and roasted veggies.  It was yummy.  I tried to get a pic of Kevin, but he wasn't cooperative.  In fact, in one of the pics, the turkey wasn't the only bird you saw.  Ha ha.  So...here's the G-rated pic.  

A highlight of my Friday was when I got my birthday present from my parents in the mail.  I had asked my dad last summer if he would sketch our family portrait.  It was the last thing he drew before his surgery and all the resulting difficulties.  It makes me happy to see it hanging up on my wall.

Birthday and Anniversary

November 23rd was Kevin's and my 8th anniversary and my 31st birthday.  I just kept thinking all day about my wedding day.  That was just the best, most perfect day ever and, to adopt a McCrea family term, it was our family's first birthday.  How appropriate that my family and I were born on the same day.  :)

Weren't we just so cute back then.  Yes, yes, we were.
My birthday was pretty good.  The kids were out of school, so I got to spend a LOT of time with them.  We watched movies, and I cleaned a bunch.  Basically, kind of a normal day.  I had a wonderful visit from my fabulous visiting teachers who brought me some Thanksgiving treats and some flowers.  I'm looking forward to going to lunch with them soon.  Yay.  I also got a fun visit from my favorite family, the Larvias.  They came bearing gifts and friendship and made me smile.  Happily, Michelle came about then too, bearing the best birthday cake, a.k.a. Krispy Kremes.  Mmmmm..... She came to watch the kids so that Kevin and I could go on a fun date.

We ended up going to Gaetannos for dinner, where I devoured some super good portobello mushroom ravioli and Kevin enjoyed some yummy lasagna...at least some of it.  That was the biggest piece of lasagna I've ever seen.

We spent the rest of our date at Open Mic Night at The Comedy Palace.  It was so nice to just go somewhere where the main purpose was to laugh.  We smiled and laughed ALMOST the whole time.  The guy who said, "Boo Ha Ha," after every punch line was kind of annoying, though.
I'm a pretty lucky to have been born 31 years ago into my wonderful family, and I'm pretty lucky that 8 years ago I was able to start my own family.  Love you Kevin!

My Opinion on a Cure for Autism

So, I can't tell you how annoyed I am when people ask me if I think my kids can be cured of autism or when I see a fundraiser or organization that is raising money to help "find a cure" for autism.  In my opinion, autism isn't something that can be cured.  Autism is a part of who someone is.  It is a part of their genetic makeup.  That would be like saying, "Let's find a cure for depression."

That being said, I don't think a diagnosis of autism is the end of the world for a child.  Just like with depression, where you can get therapy to help you cope and see the world in a more typical way, autism has many therapies to help a child learn to cope and see the world in a different way.  Just like there are medications to manage symptoms of depression, there are medications out there to manage some of the symptoms of autism.  Not all medications work for all kids.  Isn't that how it is in the real world with other medications?  There needs to be a process of trial and error to find just the right medication for your child...if that is a path that you even want to take.  There are ways to treat the metabolic problems that many children with autism face, whether with vitamins, diet and other various therapies.  Just like with diabetes, being on a special diet can greatly improve the symptoms in one child and do nothing whatsoever for another.
Managing the symptoms of autism is a long, difficult process and can take years, but it can help the child and those that love him/her deal better in this world that can seem intrusive to them.
As I said before, I don't think there is a cure for autism.  That is just silly, to try and cure a part of someone that is just who they are.  But, there are ways to manage the symptoms that can hinder their progression in this crazy world. 

I, personally, don't see why you would want to cure someone of the unconditional love, self awareness and honesty that comes from a person with autism.  They are blessed to see the world in an amazing way and to find joy in the little things.  All of us could use a little bit of that kind of "autism."

Halloween 2010

 We basically celebrated Halloween on Saturday.  I was quite proud of Jason's costume.  We found the pants at Old Navy for $1 because they were missing the top.  I later found out they were monkey pants, but we wanted Jason to be a puppy because that was his first word.  :)

 I was going to buy him a brown shirt, but then I realized that Caiti's hoodie (that says love in pink and purple on the front) would work great...if I turned it inside out.  He would even keep the doggy ears on if he was wearing his hood.  He was a little sleepy.  I found him like this just minutes after we took his puppy pics.  :)

 After a good nap and some dinner, Jason was all set to go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat.

   

You can tell Caiti felt beautiful in her princess costume.  I absolutely loved her hat...and so did she.  (This picture is of her trying it on earlier in the week.  I just thought it was too cute.)

Caiti was all set for the Trunk-or-Treat too. 

 Although, she may have been confused and started walking to the neighbor's house.

 

Garrett wasn't too excited about the prospect of getting his picture taken, he'd much rather swing.  I thought he made quite the handsome astronaut.

And...he did tolerate mommy for a couple pics...

However, as you can tell, he was done soon after.  :)

The kids were very excited to "Go Bye Bye."

Especially since Daddy got to come too.  

 I thought my little trunk-or-treaters were sure cute!  We didn't get a chance to take any pictures actually trunk or treating because our hands were full...  ;)

 But here's a pic of the spoils.  A good thing about Garrett being on the GF/CF diet is that I can separate their candy into candy he can eat and candy he can't.

 Anyone would smile if they were the ones who got the chocolate, right?  Plus, how can you not smile when you are spending fun time with your family on Halloween?