Jason's borrowed therapy :)

Jason is so silly.  Anytime Garrett or Caiti are in therapy, he sneaks in when the door's open and sits in their chair and waits patiently for candy.  Of course, they can't resist because he's so cute, and he is learning a bunch from this borrowed therapy...along with his own therapy that he gets for 2 hours a day.  It just really makes me smile.

Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Today was a crappy day because, barring any further complications, Kevin left for the summer.  Garrett rode with Kevin and me this morning so he could say goodbye so "Daddy could go bye bye on the ship." He tried to get out of the car and go with him which made me feel sad. Then, the school sent me an email asking if Garrett had a change in medication or anything because he was acting up. Obviously Garrett understands what is going on. My poor baby.

 All of my kids had therapy all day today (speech and ABA). Actually, their therapies are what made them in a good mood. While Garrett was in his ABA therapy, Jason and Caiti were bored and restless, so we decided to play outside. I got out the old pool...and it looks like it's time to get a new one.

 It ended up being a good thing because the water would trinkle out of the cracks in the pool and then roll off of the cement and sort of water our dying yard.  Hey!  That's making some lemonade out of lemons.

Caiti enjoyed playing with the spout more than playing in the pool, and Jason had fun singing songs with mommy, like "Eensie Weensie Spider," and "The Wheels on the Bus."

They finally decided they could splash and play in the pool, even if there was only an inch or so of water that was draining rapidly...and Caiti kept trying to fix the sides so it would actually look like it's supposed to.  I'm thinking I know what we're going to purchase next payday.  :)

Too Cute Not to Share

Happy Father's Day Kevin!

We had a great Father's Day.  Kevin was supposed to be gone, but the ship had some complications, so he is back for a few days.  We ended up making handmade gifts for Kevin.  I made him a wall hanging out of his favorite shirt, and the kids had a card for him with their hand prints and some wallet pics to take with him while he is gone.  We sure love him and are so blessed that he is in our lives and takes his job as a father so seriously.  He takes such good care of his babies.

Caiti's Friends

Lately, anytime you find Caiti, you will find her playing with her three favorite friends:  Big Bird, Barney and Dora. :)

Testing out the New Camera

Jason's 2!

Two years ago, our family was in a much different place.  Kevin had just joined the military and was away at Basic training.  I was enormously pregnant and trying to manage my two cuties, Garrett and Caiti, while dealing with pregnancy fun, like my gestational diabetes.  Luckily, I had very supportive friends and family around to help me get to all of my appointments, give me breaks from my kids, help me around the house, etc. 

On April 18, 2008, I went to the doctor for my checkup.  We discussed inducing me the following week because of my gestational diabetes.  Then I went home feeling great.  That night I was awakened to multiple contractions.  Because I had had false labor on many occasions with Caiti, I tried to ignore them, but finally I called Michelle and asked her to come watch the kids so that I could go to the hospital.  Then I called my parents and asked them to come take me to the hospital.  I apologized in advance for waking them up in the middle of the night because I knew the hospital would just send me back home...but they didn't.  Instead they admitted me.  Because I was only 36 weeks and 6 days along, they would not give me pitosin or break my water, so I had to try and wait patiently for Jason to decide to make his way into the world with the wonderful company of my mommy and my sister Sarah.  Luckily, the doctors changed, and the doctor on call in the morning said, "Let's have this baby!" and broke my water.  Unluckily, the anesthesiologist was stuck in an emergency situation, so I had to go through natural hard labor for an hour.  I am a big wimp when it comes to childbirth and was so relieved when I FINALLY got that epidural.  My sweet little Jason came (arm first), at exactly 12 noon on April 19, 2008.  His daddy didn't even know he had arrived until I got a surprise phone call the day I came home from the hospital, and he asked when I was going to be induced.  :)

Last year, for Jason's first birthday, his daddy ended up having to miss it again because he was deployed.  So, this year we made sure Kevin could be there for Jason's birthday celebration.  We had a great little party with our small family.  We had yummy Oreo cake, bought Jason some fun balloons, opened presents and played all night. 

We are so thankful for our little Jason.  He is such a happy, loving, funny, cute boy.  He brightens our life and our family, and Heavenly Father knew what we needed when he sent our little surprise baby our way.

Old Town with Nana and Jason

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A Visit from Nana for Kevin's Birthday!

The day that I left for Utah for baby Noelle's blessing was Kevin's 33rd birthday.  For his present, we flew in his mommy.  I wasn't able to be there to celebrate, but I know that Michelle did a great job making Kevin's birthday a better one by making him a cute card from the kids, getting his ice cream cake and just making sure everything was ready for when Mom Roach came in.  Here are some pictures from their birthday celebration. 

While she was there, Kevin was able to take her to the zoo, show her around Miramar Marine Base, Naval Base San Diego, and an outdoor mall.  :)  He had a great time visiting with his mommy.

Kevin sure had a nice visit with his mommy.  He was pretty sad when he had to take her to the airport this morning and send her on back home.  Hopefully, this will be the first of many visits!

Baby Noelle's Blessing Weekend

I was very lucky and was able to spend last weekend with the Froerers and be there for the blessing of baby Noelle.  Here are some of the highlights of my visit, in no particular order.
1.  Going to Costco while Nicole had a heart attack about how much cheese I bought for the get-together.
2.  Singing primary songs with my buddy Camden and giving him fun books that he can read on the potty.
3.  Visiting with my former favorite roomie, Kelly, where I was able to go to Seagull Book and get some camisoles that are actually long and a great saying for our wall to remind me to be happy.  "Being happy doesn't mean everything's perfect.  It means you decide to see beyond the imperfections."
4.  Going with Nicole to a silly movie, "When in Rome," which I thought looked super dumb, but was just what I needed, and I laughed the whole time.  We went to Target afterward and found some fun stuff like nursing bras.  :)
5.  Seeing my good friend, Sister Gilchrist, who was so wonderful to me when I first moved to San Diego (She and her husband were the military relations missionaries and are the ones who got my family to be active in our ward.)

6.  Eating meals (especially sandwiches) with the Froerers and just enjoying their awesome spirit.
7.  Getting lots and lots of rest, including a 3-hour nap on my first day there.  That was a miracle.  Thank you to Nicole who knows how it is to not get rest at night. 
8.  Watching my favorite comedian, Brian Reagan, on Comedy Central with Nicole and Jake...which I felt was in honor of Kevin on his birthday because Brian Reagan is someone we both love and discovered together.
9.  Seeing Ant Larraine and Kayli and meeting Kayli's super happy, cute baby, Gavin and playing with my buddy Joscelyn.

10.  Singing "I like to move it, move it" with Camden.
11.  Realizing just how many calories cheese has in it because Jennifer is making me do the Lose It program.
12.  Snuggling a super sweet and pretty baby.  I was so happy to meet Noelle.

13.  Having a wonderful lunch with Grandma Slack (that Ant made) and just catching up with her. 

Of course the very best part of the whole visit was being able to be there for the blessing of my beautiful, sweetie pie niece, Noelle who looked so beautiful in the amazing dress her grandma Slack made for her. 

I thought Jake did such a great job and it was so nice to sit with my grandparents and see so many of my wonderful aunts, uncles and cousins. 

I loved being there to hear Nicole and Jake bear their testimonies as well.  Thanks for having me guys!  I miss you already and wish I could play with Camden and snuggle Noelle some more.  :)

Caiti and Jason's Wednesday mornings

So, for a couple months now, Jason has been going to speech therapy once a week.  We are very happy about that because he has since started to wave and has figured out that that is a normal communication for hi and bye!  Yay!  I need to find the song they use for that because it is awesome. 

Anyway, Caiti just started going to speech too, so Michelle and I pack the kids in the car for a long morning at the Speech Therapy office.  Caiti had a great time with Aunt Michelle and her speech therapist, Nora.  I heard them out in the waiting area with Jason, and they kept cheering and telling her good job.  The key with Caiti is to use movement to elicit speech.  She would have to say "Tilt" or "up" or "down" while sitting in the Billibo Chair, and they would follow her request.

Sadly, the Billibo chair wasn't quite so motivating for Jason because he was about ready to fall asleep and super ornery.  Next time, we will have Jason go first and then he can have a little nap during Caiti's time.  :)

Blog Catch Up - December and Early January synopsis

In December, we were lucky enough to start attending church with our new respite provider Dana.  That definitely has helped our attendance and helped me to actually listen to the talks/lessons.  That is one blessing I am very grateful for.

We celebrated Christmas Eve as a family a day early, since Kevin had duty on the real Christmas Eve. We were all able to open 1 present. I opened a very cute calendar Garrett made me at school. It had fun pictures for every month that were made with his hand prints, i.e., a turkey for November, an upside-down handprint that made Santa with the fingers for his beard for December, 2 handprint as a spider with the fingers for the legs, etc. Very fun! Kevin opened a toolbox. Garrett opened his Leapster Flix thing...which he wasn't too interested in...Caiti opened her Dora doll with the twin siblings. Jason opened this fun ball toy that you put the balls in the openings in the top, and they go down a maze until they come out the bottom. We ate barbecue pork sandwiches and had eggnog. We fulfilled a Roach family tradition and watched Christmas Vacation. It was a nice day.

On the real Christmas Eve, I celebrated with Michelle. We spent the morning visiting with one of the families Michelle works with. They are very nice, and it was fun to hang out with someone who also has children with autism. "Stevie Claus" and Sharon Shedroff, a friend from the ward, also stopped by for a visit. That evening, Michelle and I wrapped presents and listened to the Messiah. Then we helped Santa get everything ready, and I stayed up until midnight making CDs for Kevin and cleaning up the house because we all know Santa can't come to a messy house.

On Christmas morning, I got up early and made some bacon and eggs for everyone. By the time breakfast was ready, Kevin got home, so we were able to have a nice Christmas breakfast. We then opened presents. It was so cute because Caiti opened Uncle Jared and Aunt Lynley's present first, and ended up playing with that the rest of the day instead of opening presents. (She got My Little Pony from them.) Michelle said it was her best Christmas ever, gift wise, because Jennifer bought her a wet suit and a body board. She was so excited. Our Christmas was very successful. This was the first Christmas that ALL of the kids absolutely loved their presents and were entertained and playing all morning. So we had a wonderful morning and early afternoon...However, then Caiti got sick and threw up many, many times, and the neighborhood turned off our power for a couple hours and we only had a couple candles. Annoying! Overall, though, I had a great Christmas.

That Friday, Kevin and I were able to use his Movie Tickets that he got from Santa. We decided to go see Sherlock Holmes. I just had a really nice time with my honey. I love when we can go on dates. It makes my week have a little bright spot to look forward to. 

Michelle inherited some tickets to Universal Studios from her friend Ali because he was going to use them when his dad came to visit from Turkey but they didn't end up going, and they expired on January 4. So, she kindly gave them to Kevin and me to use for a day away from the kids. She is our respite provider, so we had an instant babysitter too. Kevin and I had such a nice time together and some much needed alone time. We really liked the Simpsons ride. The Jurassic park ride and the Mummy ride were fun too. I loved seeing all of the characters that my kids are obsessed with, like Dora, Shrek, Spongebob, the Penguins from Madagascar, Alex the Lion, Curious George, etc. So fun! I sure love my Kevi!  We had to use a disposable camera, so whenever we end up getting those pics developed, I will try to remember to post them on the blog.

On January 6, Garrett turned 6, so now Aunt Michelle is trying to teach him a new answer when people ask him "How old are you?" We had a birthday breakfast of eggs and ice cream cake. Garrett was able to open his presents. He got a magnifying glass, a couple of squish balls with Curious George on them, a monkey swing toy, a pair of dress pants and a soft and comfy body pillow.  After breakfast, Kevin and I took Garrett to Sea World for his birthday. That was just the perfect morning. We had such a nice time with our little boy. We had planned on just hanging out at Sesame Place the whole time, but we got there at 10, and Sesame Place didn't open until 11. We ended up just walking around the grounds until we came upon the penguins. Garrett absolutely loved watching them swim around in the water. When we left them, he was upset and kept saying, "Swimming in the water!" He got distracted, though, when we saw a bunch of flamingos out in the open. The worker even let Garrett pet the flamingo. It was really neat. (Yes, we did take pictures, but they are also on a disposable camera and will be posted someday when I actually get the film developed.)  Finally, Sesame Place opened, so we were able to take Garrett on his first theme park rides. They had a teacup-type ride with Abby Cadabby, Elmo's Flying Fish ride and an Oscar the Grouch ride that was this thing that swayed back and forth. He loved those rides! He had to go on each of them twice. We also ended up taking him on the rapids ride where we all got soaked. He loved having mommy and daddy all to himself and going "bye bye." Kevin made Garrett hamburgers for lunch because that is his favorite. Such a cute daddy.  The rest of the day was rather uneventful, but I think this was definitely Garrett's best birthday yet. It was so fun to spend the morning with my sweetie pie.

Okay...I think I've caught up on the more eventful parts of the last couple of months when I was too lazy to blog.   Now, if I can only keep up...

Garrett's Neurology Update

I took Garrett for his first follow up since his seizure a couple of months ago.  They told me that he does have an official diagnosis of epilepsy.  They also told me that a lot of times, if children start having seizures around his age, they will grow out of them in a couple of years, so that is what we are hoping for.  They told me, according to his EEG from his hospital stay in August, that the seizures were not caused by any sort of brain injury and that no injury to his brain had resulted.  So, we are upping his medicine a little bit, and they will keep him on that.  If he doesn't have any breakthrough seizures, they are hoping to be able to wean him off seizure medication after a couple of years.

Fun at River Run Farm

My friend Sharon owns a couple of horses, and she was kind enough to invite Garrett and Caiti for their first experience on a horse.  So, we were able to spend the morning at River Run Farm and have some fun!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Kevin's Visit to Indianapolis

So, someday Kevin can come in and edit this and tell all about his trip, but I didn't want to forget to post that too.  While I was having fun with the McCreas, Kevin was in Indiana for his vacation.  He was able to spend a whole bunch of time with his family, spend New Years Eve with my parents and the Enz family and even attend a Colt's Game with his brother.  I know he really enjoyed seeing everyone again and getting some time to do something for himself.

My kids make me proud!

Today I took Caiti with me to Wal-Mart so we could get some more Crystal Lite  (I swear she bleeds Crystal Lite because she drinks so much of it.)  I decided to be brave and not use a cart today and see how Caiti would do just holding my hand in the store.  My only other attempts at this have been utter disasters, so I was a little nervous.  It was such a sweet, happy surprise to have her hold my hand and chatter happily away.  We went in the garden entrance so she could see the pretty Christmas Trees and poinsettias which she loved!  She had to touch all the pine needles and petals on the flowers.  Then we ventured in the busy store and she was very good and just walked beside me while I held her hand and didn't try to get any of the yummy treats off the shelf, etc.  She even held the Crystal Lite containers and waited patiently in the line.  Once we had payed for the drinks, she was such a big girl and carried the grocery bag and didnt' let go of it until we were home handing it to her daddy.  :)  That was very fun for both of us.  I was proud of Caiti for being such a good helper today at the store!

Oh, and today, I was playing with Garrett in his room, and he was able to tell me what a cow, frog, horsie, sheep, pig, kittie, doggy, duck and a chicken say.  Very cute.  Of course, I had to bribe him with Superman rides.  He also sang, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" with me and did the actions, and would point to the right areas on his body when I asked if I pointed at mine first.  He's come a long way. 

You know, it used to make me sad that things that come so easily and so early for most kids was so difficult for mine, but I'm just so proud of them.  It makes me happy to see them and how proud of themselves they are when they make the connection and figure things out for themselves.

A Glimpse

Today, I took Caiti for a walk outside at church.  She was in such a sweet happy mood today and helped me not feel so frazzled.  We saw a nice lady who was walking her dog.  The lady came up to Caiti and let her pet her doggy.  Caiti was very excited and said, "Woof, woof" over and over.  I didn't even know she knew that word.  Then, when I told her to say " Bye, Bye, " to the doggy, she waved.  I know that she has come a long way since starting her ABA therapy, and that made me so happy to hear some appropriate language coming from my sweet little girl and to see her wave bye bye.