The Gelter's

"Early Hatcher"

2014-06-06T23:55:00.000-06:00

My very talented sister-in-law took some Mothers Day photos for our family. See more of her work here.

This past week a friend of mine called me an EARLY HATCHER and I thought it was the cutest thing ever. I'm going to update on this pregnancy and how it has progressed much faster than we'd hoped. WARNING: If this pregnancy business isn't your cup of tea, stop reading. I am mostly writing this for my memory so don't feel like you're missing out by not reading the rest.

We had these photos taken and at that time I was suspecting 2 months of misery as my largest baby to date settled in for the last legs of this pregnancy. Contractions are pretty common-place for me so while I was having them I wasn't concerned. The next morning I woke up and our girl had dropped, which was in my mind too early. Hello, freak out number one. She hadn't dropped all the way so I figured we'd be alright. But it was enough to start causing regular contractions which turned into early labor with the passing of a few weeks. We ended up in the hospital where the staff hooked me up after a not so pleasant IV experience, and pumped me full of fluids. They ran a bunch of tests and kept a close eye on our baby, who by the way is a CHAMP, nothing has stressed her out yet. After a few hours my labor had slowed down, my labs were good and they sent us on our way. 48 hours later I was back in labor. I refused to go back to the hospital and waited out the night before I headed into see my doctor. My doctor basically concluded that my Uterus just hates me; she used more medical jargon but that's what I got out of it. I was sent on my way with a prescription to help calm my body down and prevent labor to make sure the baby makes it a good solid 35+ weeks and the hope was that the drugs would calm my system down enough that labor would hold off once I stopped taking the meds. Fast forward to last night when our girl decided to make it even more clear she was ready to come by making her final drop which lead to a MAJOR midnight freak out by ME. I have known and been warmed this entire pregnancy that this baby would probably come early because Porter was 37 weeks and Priya was 37.5 weeks, but I never thought I'd be going into preterm labor at 34 weeks. Then to have her settle in along with a handful of other tell tell signs that labor is eminent just shocked me and left me feeling completely unprepared. Today we've spent the day making peace with the idea that once I stop these meds in a few days (taking them past 35 weeks isn't encouraged) we may have a baby shortly thereafter. Of course we're worried about having a baby come that early, but statistics are great concerning infants born in that window and we've been blessed with a comfort that she'll come exactly when she needs to and exactly when I need her to. I packed our hospital bag this morning and spent the afternoon buying enough food and supplies to keep things functioning for several weeks to make things a little less stressful as I recover from my C-Section.

The reactions of others is always so interesting to me. Everyone asks why I'm not on bed rest and is upset that I'm still standing. My doctor believes that I'm too far along in my pregnancy and too progressed towards delivery to slow it down with bed rest, so I'm still going. Yay, for that tender mercy! Some people act like I can control this... like I am a magic baby pixie fairy, ya know and can make this stop by clicking my heels, or whatever it is pixie fairies do. Sorry for the sarcasm but seriously? Then the next reaction is blaming and shaming me about this and what the consequences for my baby will be. Which I'm too feisty to put up with any of that! Um... No, you are not allowed to try and make me feel bad about this...the end. Then there are those that, like me, find it so dang ironic how one person can desperately want to go into labor and then others, like myself, just wish it would hold off. All I know is that the whole thing makes me crazy anxious. This morning I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd have a baby in the next week, but I figure such thinking is dangerous because babies will be babies and they do what ever the heck they want. So I'll probably make it to 39 weeks to my scheduled C-Section date. So I'm hugging my calm husband and doing my best to Let Go and Let God with this pregnancy!

In lighter news, She has a name! It's not the name we announced earlier; we encountered too much feedback about Yvette, causing us to fall out of love with it. Because of that we're not sharing her name, which is pretty unique. Like this picture below shows-- we already love this girl with all of our hearts and if she comes early we'd be thrilled to meet her! So Mommy may moan and groan about you messing with my best laid plans, but the truth is You Are Always Welcomed & Loved Little Girl!

Next Update: Welcome Baby or let's be realistic 3 Month update on baby.

Wouldn't You Know... We're still here

2014-02-18T14:32:00.001-07:00

We know that we need to change the way we update our family records because the blog isn't working very well anymore. It just isn't my season for writing large update on here. I have to ignore my kids to get a post up and we don't love that. Aaron and I have talked about a few things we just haven't decided on one yet.

Tomorrow we will be learning the gender of our 3rd child and when I woke up this morning I realized that I haven't written anything about this pregnancy. I really want to get something down for our memory before everything changes like decorating the nursery, picking out names, ect. So I'll be writing a brief summary of the last 6 months and how we ended up on this path and what's happening now. I do quickly talk about some girly problems so if that bugs you, don't read anymore.

At the beginning of August of last year Aaron and I felt like we needed to get away just the two of us. With the help of Grandma Nec and Aunt Rachael I was able to kiss my sweet babes goodbye and tag along on one of Aaron's business trips. We spent an extended weekend in San Francisco and a couple of days in San Jose. We went Sight Seeing and exploring every day we were there. A boat tour around the Bay, Morning runs along the coast, eating delicious food and Aaron even took me to see the Muir Woods because he knew seeing a Redwood Forest was on my Bucket List. Why yes, I have a bucket list and it's full of random things but I love when I can check something off that list. This trip gave us lots of time to talk and be together. We discussed having more children and both of us were just so happy and comfortable with the little respite we were having with our two children (who are fairly independent at this point) we didn't feel like having more kids was in our future. We also didn't really want to have 3 children for fear of someone being left out. I was raised in a family of 3 and my brother and I were so mean to our little baby sister. The truth of the matter however is that with my C-sections in the past we knew I could only have 1 more baby via C-Section safely. We could fight for a 4th with my doctor, but with my anatomy she feels strongly that a 4th would be a risk. C-sections are hard enough to recover from and they get harder with each one Aaron felt strongly that I shouldn't have a 4th anyways. We both agree with my doctor. That left us with, "Let's start saving up for adoption 5+ years down the road." We felt right about our family and moving forward with the status quo with adopting siblings from an out of country orphanage much later in life being our expansion plan. Being together on this trip was bliss and we came home refreshed.

Waiting to fly home and excited to see our children

Photos of my Grandma Lynda

About a month after our trip I was with all of the Maxfield women at Squaw Camp for a weekend retreat. About halfway through the trip my little sister asked me about having more children. She then shared a conversation she had with her boyfriend Thomas. Thomas is the younger of 2 brothers in his family, his older brother has Autism and he had shared with Baylee how he often wanted another sibling. The moment my sister brought up more children I had an overwhelming feeling that my Heavenly Father was reaching out to me through my sister, since I hadn't been receptive to messages He had been sending to me. I had an IUD migrate on me (a painful experience) and an early pregnancy lose as a result, looking back everything was preparing me to be ready for a pregnancy. I just wasn't listening. But I sat down and listened to my sister and knew, "Three will work for us! Three is RIGHT!" It makes sense that three siblings would be nice when one of those children has a disability. Everyone will always have a friend because Porter will always be a friend. The other 2 will have each other for support as they go through their role of being a sibling to a child with special needs, which isn't uncommon but at the same time it's unique. The thought consumed my mind and I was in the perfect place to hash it out. I was with a whole bunch of Mother's and a handful of Mom's to 3. I quickly found the comfort I needed in these incredible women to know that three totally works, but that we needed to have another baby ASAP so the youngest wasn't too far away in age from Porter and Priya. I left completely blown away that my heart could be changed in an instant. I also knew Aaron would of course need to feel the same way. I cornered him the morning after getting home and told him about my weekend full of excitement and anxiety. I told him he need to hear me out and then we could discuss it. I finished my speech with, "What do you think, should we have a baby?" He hugs me tight with a big grin and agreed that it was the right thing. We laughed and hugs and were full of joy at the thought of a baby.

I found it ironic we had change our minds about another baby because my sister-in-law had hinted that she'd like us to have another baby so her baby would have a cousin close in age. Aaron and I both greatly protested that it just wasn't time for our family. As things have played out there will in fact be 3 Gelter siblings welcoming babies to their families this year. (Rach in March, Karli in May and Aaron in June) Craziness, but of the best kind!

Meg, Rach and Tyler running the Electric Run together while Aaron missed out due to a trip to China

We continued with life. Aaron traveled to China for a lengthy business trip. I kept training for, another Bucket List item, Running a Half Marathon and our kids started school. I completed my first marathon and it was a fantastic experience. I still don't know what my time was because for me it was all about finishing but it felt like a good race to me. Aaron insisted I didn't run fast enough because I still had energy after finishing.

Meg completing the SOJO Half Marathon

A few days after my race I started to get nauseous and started to wonder. I finally felt sick enough I was positive I was expecting so I ignored the warning on the box about testing for pregnancy early and took one anyways. It just happened to be Halloween and I wasn't able to sleep because I wanted to know so I got a positive test at like 4 a.m. in the morning. I left a note for Aaron on the mirror that said, "Happy Halloween 2013 peekaBOO!" He was elated, we've never had our pregnancy hopes fulfilled so quickly.

As I mentioned I was sick right away. We were hoping to keep it private information but our families were suspicious and I was too sick to hide my symptoms so we let our families in on the news. We were given a huge amount of support. It's amazing how you can be completely overwhelmed with joy that you're going to have a baby and so utterly miserable from the morning sickness. I have never experience morning sickness to the extreme I have this time. I lived in the bathroom for the first 15 weeks. It was not an easy time in our household. I was put on meds for the sickness because it was so severe but they only helped a little. My Mother later picked up on the fact that the medication was making me experience depression. I really was down, sad and not functioning at all. I wasn't myself. We decided I'd stop taking the medicine and just make it through the sickness. A clear head and positive attitude made all the difference. I lost weight as a result of the sickness after going off the meds but not enough to be concerned. I am still sick a few mornings a week but not all day long. I feel much better then I have prior to this point. YAY!!!

I was sick this morning and Priya brought me her blanket to make me feel better

We've been on two vacations while I've been expecting. We went to California with Aaron's family for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun for Aaron and the kids. I enjoyed the family and had some good moments. I was at the height of my sickness and still on the meds so I wasn't at my best. The thought of being so far from home at that point terrified me and it was hard on me. I am grateful for Aaron helping me through it all with love, support and forgiveness.

At the beginning of February we went Disneyland, a trip I'd been planning for over a year. I researched and studied anything I could find about taking children with special needs. My parents and sister Baylee decided to join us on this trip and were a tremendous help with the kids. It went as well as we could have hoped and I cried as we left. If you're interested in hearing more about our trip please ask to see our Disneyland vacation book.

Best Friends at Disneyland

The last thing I'll share about this pregnancy is how conflicting my feelings are at times. I feel like a crazy person for having a baby when my current kids are already pushing me to my limits. I am TERRIFIED of having another C-Section, I didn't realize this would be a fear of mine until I started reliving my previous 2 surgeries in my dreams. At least this time we shouldn't have an emergency C-Section like I did with my other kids. Since my babies come early and it's best if I don't experience labor my doctor is going to schedule a C-Section at 38 weeks. I'm nervous about having a baby, we're out of baby mode. I know that is a lot like riding a bike it comes back quickly. The truth that this is exactly what we're suppose to be doing fills me with joy and excitement. Feeling this baby kick reminds me that we're going to have a BABY and babies are so special! We look forward with faith knowing that this part of our lives maybe a little bumpy and some of the bonus items we've gotten used to having completed in our lives just might have to wait for a season. We know that loving this baby is easy and that he or she is already a part of our family. The kids will love the baby and get used to the change with time. We know how this goes we will all get used to each other and we'll be happy with our family of 5.

In a phrase: We are scared but so excited!

19 weeks- halfway

Porter Turns 4

2013-08-30T09:42:00.003-06:00

All about Porter at 4 years old:

After an 8 month plateau in Porter's development we are starting to see a flourish of new skills and vocabulary. We love seeing him be confident and healthy enough to try new things out. We are so proud of him. We had backed off therapy a lot but after getting the all clear from specialists on Porter's health and development, we decided aggressive therapy would be the way to move forward. Porter has been seeing an Occupational Therapist twice a month a Speech Therapist every week and doing Equestrian Therapy every week. These things are a sacrifice for our little family because even with insurance they cost a great deal in time and money. We're so grateful to the handful of friends that help with Priya while we are at appointments. These things have been paying off and Porter is progressing. We are currently headed into a rest period where you take a break from therapy after 12 weeks on and I'm really looking forward to that break.

Some of you know that we had become suspicious of Porter having Autism. The specialist we visited also told us that while Porter does have Sensory Processing Disorder and Anxiety, two very common side issues with Autism, Porter doesn't at this time have Autism. She told us it may emerge in the next year but for now sensory issues and anxiety are just those problems on their own.

Pretending is a new daily game at our house. The most popular one is "Scary Bear" (Brave) Porter will go into scary mode and wait for your reaction, then he growls and chases you around the house. We also play "Bad Guy" (Ralph from Wreck It Ralph), "Monster" (Sulley) , "Dinosaur" (Rex- from Toy Story) etc. He'll also cook in our play kitchen and mimic our daily tasks. Yay!
From Porter's little game it's probably easy to tell that his favorite way to escape his frustration and honestly his true joy in life, is movies. He loves most things Disney and I'd dare say any animated movie I'll let him watch. It's borderline a problem some days.

Porter and Sydney are learning to play together. I love it. I think this is more a change in our dog than in Porter. Sydney is getting old enough that he's softening up to the children.
The most challenging thing about Porter these days is dealing with his Sensory Processing Disorder. We're learning how to deal with it and how to help him cope when he is overwhelmed but if we deviate from his comfort zone too much or break routine it can get really tough. The most frustrating part of that is trying to explain to others something that we don't completely understand ourselves. It also breaks my heart when others assume Porter is just being naughty when we know there is a reason behind his behavior and that it's not something he can control. Like any diagnosis it takes time to learn and adapt to it. We're still learning but it's nice to know he's not being naughty.

Because of SPD (sensory processing disorder) Porter will pull you down to the ground and wrestle with you. He does this because his body craves the pressure he feels in his joints when he wrestles. I'm so grateful our Priya Lynn has picked up many skills in wrestling and nicely holds her own with Porter.
Porter is a big fan of Birthdays for anyone. He loves the cake, presents, candles and sings happy birthday to others. He always pretends to blow the candles out and is a little sad when it's not his turn. It's really sweet.

School this past year was a really good thing for Porter. He learned a lot and really enjoyed being at school. He has been missing it a lot this summer. We did not make great progress on goals because of the plateau we encountered and in some aspects we saw regression which is always discouraging to see in a report. We changed his goals and some of them we saw a lot of growth others will continue to need work. I'm excited for our IEP for next year and setting new goals (I know I'm a weirdo). I was so proud of Porter when he sang the words at his end of year program along with his classmates. It was obvious he was fighting with his urge to just run away because the room was full of adults, it was noisy, and he was overwhelmed, but he did great! He also had many people laughing at him and I was so glad I was in the front row so I didn't see any bad looks (if there were any) because of his shenanigans.
So this may seem silly but Porter is fully drinking thin fluids these days, making it a lot easier to keep him hydrated. He still needs a little bit of flavor to his water but we can get away with a 4:1 ratio of water to juice. A small victory!

Porter's favorite meal is Cereal without a doubt. He has become very stubborn about what he'll eat and when he'll eat it. But he's always game for cereal.
Part of SPD is not liking textures or in Porter's words, "Eww, messy!" He absolutely hates being messy and is starting to generalize messy over to his sister and has a hard time when she's messy-- which is constantly. He'll say, "Mom Messy" as he points at Priya.

Like any respectable brother he harasses Priya just for the fun of it. This morning he stole her blanket and ran down the hall as she chased him screaming. He giggled with delight as he ran down the stairs away with her blanket. He had one big mischievous grin.
Porter really likes to rock out to a good tune but we're also finding that his favorites are always instrumental. He loves dynamic movie soundtracks and he also really loves calming classical music. It seems to bring him peace when his world is over stimulating.

The last 6 months Porter has had a love/hate relationship with his glasses. His favorite frames were discontinued and he has yet to find a pair he really likes. However, he's a smarty and knows he needs his glasses to see so he keeps trying and so do we. We've been through 6 sets of frames in the last 6 months due to some of that hate coming out in our boy. I hope we find something that works soon! (update: we have indeed found a pair he loves and wears without destroying)
Porter will run away from me and never look back. It scares me to death! I just keep praying he'll learn to have a little fear and stay close. He is a skilled runner and is so extremely fast for his size. It's something friends comment on a lot because no one really suspects it and then they try to catch him. Another reason for me to keep running. I'm gonna have to be able to keep up with Porter as he continues to grow up on us.

Porter has A LOT of attitude. If he doesn't want to do what you've asked him to he'll put his hands up, walk away, turn the corner and then when you're out of his sight he'll say, "What?"
He is also very frustrated these days. While we've seen more vocabulary in his language this also means there has been a burst in understanding and receptive vocabulary (thank you Priya). The gap between his expressive language and his receptive language often results in screaming. He can't say what he wants to. It's frustrating to both of us. We'll just keep working and hoping we can help him through this with patience and love.
PORTER IS POTTY TRAINED!!! *Happy Dance* It still needs some shaping so he can be completely independent at it, but he wears underwear all day except for night time. So proud of him!
Porter is my little lover. Porter has a need to be built up every day. He needs contact and cuddles with people who love him. If you can imagine his frustration with the world he experiences it's no wonder he has a hard time. The world to Porter is very different from what the rest of us experience so he needs love.

We have learned and are trying to create a shame free parenting style because of Porter's tender spirit. Porter has shown us that love and positive reinforcement is the best way for him and we've seen the same to be true in our experiences with Priya. Porter maybe a super sensitive soul but I've come to realize that every child has a tenderness about them and I really don't want to be the one to influence that sweetness out of them. We still set limits for our children but we do so with encouragement, kind correction that doesn't isolate our children and lots of patience. It's one of the hardest and scariest concepts I've been learning but example and modeling are the most powerful ways to teach Porter. The pressure is on to be the Adult I hope my children will one day be... no pressure, right? I'm so grateful Porter has lead us to this path of parenting because it just feels so right for our family and our children.

As you can see my brain is a constant stream of thoughts, concerns, ideas and use of energy concerning Porter. That may seem like a lot to others but it's so worth it. When I have a peaceful moment with Porter I remember that we communicate best in stillness and quiet. As we really stop to look at each other his spirit whispers to mine, "Hello, remember me? I remember you dear friend!" In those moments I awe that this incredible spiritual being in my son! I have chills and our spirits share secrets with one another of the life we lived as friends before we came to Earth. I weep with his tiny body wrapped up in my arms as I feel the full joy of the privilege it is to be his mother!

WE LOVE YOU- PORTER!!!

June Headlines

2013-07-01T23:03:00.002-06:00

Umm... if you could see me my body language it would reflect that of a 4 year old in trouble who doesn't dare make eye contact with Mom. A month... that's just sad. I'm gonna try to get you caught up as quickly as possible.

Porter Turns 4

So this actually was May 31st but to help prevent sensory overload for Porter we broke up his celebration over 3 days. This event will have it's own blog post. Did you know Porter 3rd birthday never got posted? I find that lots of things about Porter don't get posted, mostly because they're very special to my heart and I just can't find the words... still not a good excuse.

Released

With Aaron being called into the Elder's Quorum presidency and me serving in Young Women's, our family was apart more than we liked. I mentioned it and prayed about it and talked with my Young Women's President. I came to the conclusion that whatever was decided we'd be just fine and that either way would be a blessing. In the end I was released and called to serve in the Nursery! It's been such a fantastic change, I really love it!

Thompson Family Retreat

36 hours, 7 rooms at the Little America, 7 children, 2 huge Pie pizzas, 2 birthdays and some VERY unhappy hotel neighbors. We were spoiled and loved getting to be a complete family.

I felt the bathroom was a little over kill.

Well Checks

I was a brave Momma and did back to back well checks with a new pediatrician on my own. It went as well as possible with Porter. We're doing good. Priya wasn't happy about shots.

Last Day of School

It was a much sadder day than I was expecting. We get to go to our Preschool another year and we're keeping our favorite teachers. But it was goodbye to our bus driver and bus aide, which broke my heart a little. They played a huge role in Porter's well being. He was so handsome and we were so proud of him at his end of year Program.

First T-ball Game

We are blessed with wonderful friends who arranged to allow Porter to play in a T-Ball game so we could see how he handled it. He did okay, but the heat ended up being more than he could handle.

Summer Time = Play Time

I covered our play set in shaving cream and filled up some dishes for the kids to play with. In accordance with their personalities Priya loved every second of the messiness and Porter hated it!

Horse Therapy

We decided to follow through on some spiritual promptings we've been having for a long time. We were lead to a wonderful place called Hoofbeats to Healing. They use World Champion Fox Trotter horses and there is a theory that their unique stride strengthens the connections between the two hemispheres of the brain. We found this information after a new research study was published showing brain mapping for a brain with Down Syndrome. The study showed that the Down Syndrome brain doesn't connect like yours or mine does. While this was fascinating and helpful information it breaks my heart to learn these things because that makes it that much harder for my little boy. Put it all together and it feels like answered prayers. We're seeing improvements and are excited to observe how things continue. Therapy is expensive and we cannot afford it on our own. My Grandparents have been offering us help for a long time and I finally swallowed my pride and asked for their help. They agreed to help pay for his therapy before I could even get the question out and I'm so overwhelmed by their kindness.

Zoo Trips

We love the zoo as much as ever. I really love the hand holding that happens.

Hair Cut

I've always wanted to donate my hair to a wig making program for cancer patients. I cut it off when I was 13ish but I still have the braid that got cut off. I vaguely remember my Dad having a hard time with me sending it off so I kept it. I wanted to follow through on this goal so I cut twelve inches off and sent it into Pantene Lengths. I took this picture just after leaving the Salon, this was my OH. MY. GOSH! moment. I was so scared to come home to Aaron, but he actually really likes it.

RUN

We like to run! We had a successful Ragnar Relay this year and really enjoyed how everything played out. There was no sleeping for me and very little for the people who were able to sleep. Our team was made up of strong and fast runners with the exception of yours truly ;-) I am a strong runner I'm just slow and I'm okay with that. It really is an amazing experience and I really enjoy running with Aaron.

My cute cousin and runner extraordinaire, Randy!

24 hours between these two photos. :-/

Aaron Conquering Ragnar Hill

Our Van #2

Tired and happy to be done

With my training going well and being halfway to a Half Marathon I decided to sign up for a race. I feel a little crazy.

Daddy went to Tennessee

Aaron had fun listening to the bands on Broadway in Nashville. Maybe I can get him to blog about it. We missed him so much and were so excited to have him come home.

Everyday Cuteness

Dancing and pretending to take pictures on a paper phone at the same time. This girl's got skills.

Making Rain Inside

Donuts

Whitley Jane Turned 1

My Mother's Day

2013-05-22T21:11:00.000-06:00

If you've followed me for very long you know the one thing I expect out of Mother's Day is photos with my kids. It's a tall order for one of the busiest days of the year, but we managed some decent shots this year.

Being the mother of our two beautiful children is all I want to do right now in my life! There are no words that can express my love for them, but I know every mother knows what I'm talking about. They are my world and I'm so grateful, even for that furry white baby of mine ;-)

Hopefully I'll get to posting the details of the 48 hours of celebrating Mother's Day weekend. We partied hard and made an effort to hug each of the very important women in our lives.

Our Little Grease Monkey

2013-05-15T14:26:00.000-06:00

One good old regular week night Aaron and I agreed that I should go do our 2 week grocery shopping while he got the kids ready for and put to bed. I had a peaceful time doing the massive amount of shopping and came home to a quiet house with kids in their rooms. Aaron turned to me and said, "They're both still awake." and since it was an hour past bedtime I knew we'd need to help the kids out and check for dirty bums. Aaron took Porter's door and I was headed for Priya's when Aaron let out some loud frightened exclamation upon opening Porter's door. I hurried over to look and Porter was covered in something reflecting the little bit of light we had. We quickly started asking the same questions, "What is that? He's covered. Is that vomit? Blood? Diarrhea?" While we fumbled for the light. Once we got the light on we were able to quickly start putting the pieces together. Porter was having terrible eczema with the changing of the seasons, we were applying aquaphor (a healing ointment) multiple times as day to his skin and we were just keeping the container on his dresser. Well Porter didn't get any before bed, was having a hard time sleeping, found the container, opened it (kind of a big deal for our boy who struggles with fine motor skills) and then completely emptied the entire container and applied the ointment all over himself. Once Aaron and I realized Porter was not in any apparent danger we curled up on the floor next to each other laughing until we cried. Thank goodness we could laugh about it. The clean up process was not easy. It was impossible to hold on to Porter and everything he touched became a slippery as he was. The internet is amazing and we found some tricks. We covered Porter in Corn Starch to absorb the oil based ointment. Once again grateful I keep corn starch in my food storage because it has endless play recipes, we had plenty on hand to clean up the mess, we do need to restock now though. We did this several times then we used his regular soap with a little bit of baking soda to cut through the oil and clean him off. It works pretty well but it took 2 hours. Then another hour to get him carpet to a point that we could leave it over night until we had enough energy to clean up the whole mess. The next day we used a Dawn dish soap solution in our carpet cleaner to attempt to get the mess out of our carpet and it worked. Not harm, no foal! It could have been so much worse and what's life without a few curve balls. We sure do love the adventures and laughs our children provide for us.

We took this at almost midnight. He watched a show while we worked on his room. Porter had some really awesome spiky hair the next few days that followed.

It actually cleared up his eczema. Guess he knew what he was doing!

Priya's 2nd Birthday Party

2013-05-15T13:19:00.000-06:00

Before I get into the party details I just wanted to make sure and note that per tradition Aaron took a day off to spend with Priya for her birthday. We took the kids to This Is The Place Park. It was so much fun and the kids really love everything we did as a family.

From the moment Priya got up she knew it was a day for her. We kept the party simple and only invited family with the exception of one of Priya's best friends. We did a Tinkerbell/fairy theme and she was very into it.

Cousin Whitter came early to the party and Priya loved the gift Whitley brought her.

We served pancakes for Priya's dinner because pancakes are her favorite. I had a picture but lost it when my phone broke down on me. We cooked up with pancakes with Purple party sprinkles adding a little flare for the party. She was crazy about them and so was everyone else. It was a labor of love to make that kind of meal for everyone but I knew our guest were the most patient, easy going people that I wasn't concerned about it.

Addison was also pretty excited about the fairy wings. While Porter refused to wear his. Porter went into hiding when our house go crowded. He hates crowds so he parked his behind in front of the Tinkerbell movie and stayed put most of the night.

Opening presents.

The guests:

When she started to get clothes she had to try them all on. It was not an option. You'll notice by the end of this post she's in a completely different outfit.

A soft fuzzy princess blanket that she now sleeps with every night. She still snuggles her baby blanket but this one is actually big enough to cover her body. I'm grateful my Mom knew this was something Priya would love and need. It's been a big help with bedtime.

All night long Priya begged for her cupcakes. I kept telling her she had to wait after opening presents I asked, "Priya do you want a cupcake?" and I will forever remember the excitement as she threw he arms up in the air and ran from the front room to the kitchen with her arms in the air squealing with delight. My girl loves her cake...like mother...like daughter.

Friends

While I was researching possible big gifts for Priya this Little People Disney Princess castle showed up #1 in multiple toy review for her age group so we decided it was the winner. As you can see Grandma Judy thought so as well. It has proved to be worth every penny. It's such a cute toy!

We had fun decorating and the canopy we put up in the kitchen is still up a month later. Priya comes down each morning to say, "Beautiful star for me!" then she spins around dancing underneath it. Melts my heart every time.

The after party.

Throwing this girl a party was the most fun I've had in a long time. She loved every little bit of it!

Priya Lynn is 2!!!

2013-04-15T01:44:00.002-06:00

This is a picture of Priya at her Party this weekend. The week leading up to her birthday she would randomly exclaim "Priya's Birthday Party!!!" usually with a Tinkerbell invite in her hand. She loved it! More on that later.

We've had a chance to keep a sheet of notes the last few weeks of all the cute and different things Priya does regularly these days. We want to remember what a feisty spirit she is in our lives right now. So here's the list we came up with... although it's not complete, it's a nice snap shot.

Priya Lynn at 2 years old:

She has impeccable manners. She hardly ever has to be reminded to use them and often goes to extreme measures to make sure people understand that she's grateful. She even greets us with a, "Nice to see you again!" when we get her up in the mornings. That's something she just picked up from our interactions with friends.
Our favorite manner however is, "G-wel-come!" She loves to say, "You're welcome" after you thank her for anything and even when you don't. There is always a G at the beginning and a spike in her voice at the end of the phrase. Cutest. Thing. EVER!!!
She walks up and down the stairs like a boss.
She is a very affectionate little girl. She loves to love! My Mother pointed this out to me as she was returning Priya from an overnight stay with them. I've really noticed it ever since. I've often taken for granted how willing Priya is to give soft gentle reminders that she loves you. Hugs, kisses, cuddles (which she actually calls "cuddles") and whispered or yelled "I Love You...(Momma, Papa, Grandma, Porter, Daddy, etc)" She's a lover!

She doesn't take naps most days. We just lost them somewhere along the way. She still goes down for naps every day and occasionally she'll sleep. More often than not she gathers up some books, toys, or her favorite ice cream kit from her kitchen, piles them up in her bed with her and plays. She doesn't see this as a violation of the rules. Nor do I. I've started calling it quiet time so she doesn't feel confined to her bed. Little smarty pants. It's worked just fine for us because she has just added that extra rest on to her night time hours which makes 14-15 hours. I will never complain about that! Her behavior doesn't suffer and so I don't really care.

Sleep deprived due to teething-- not happy about it

She is quickly learning her ABCs with her brother. She has a ways to go but she can recite about 50% of the alphabet in order and if she's looking at the letter she can tell you what sound it makes. As we go through our ABCs each day I always have to pause at E while she repeats several times, "*sigh* Oh! Cute Elephant!" something about that card just melts her little heart.
Fine motor skills are a strength for Priya.
She speaks in complete sentences. It really blows me away. Several months ago Aaron wrote this one down because she was only 19 months old and it just didn't seem possible but he swears it happened, "Daddy look those cute baby birds are flying!" She speaks with very advanced logic and understanding of vocabulary and language structure. We've always thought this was a gift her Heavenly Father blessed her with so she could enrich her brother's world with words. And she certainly has increased his vocabulary.
Now above I said that Priya is affectionate and that is true, but it's very much on HER terms. If you ask for a kiss or hug she will have to ponder your request before responding yes or no. Usually she responds by leaning her cheek towards us to kiss or her forehead. Let's hope she keeps this habit up in her teen years with boys!
The girl can EAT! We haven't found anything that Priya isn't willing to try 3 times and she likes everything. Occasionally she'll turn something away because of texture but only certain days. She's also a very messy eater.

Priya and her brother Porter are BEST FRIENDS!!! Making me feel like I have arrived as their Mother. They entertain each other, care for each other, read together, play all day long and my life is so much better because of it. I can't help but get caught up in the little moments between them as they go through their day together. *Honesty Disclosure: they can still fight like little tasmanian devils but it doesn't happen much.*
To go along with the best buddy's above she waits for the bus to come in the mornings to pick up Porter. She waves and says, "Bye Bus." Porter just got a new driver who is an older plump joyful man who has a full long white beard. She now says, "Bye Santa, love you." Yeah, it makes me smile too!

"Bye Bus"

She was saying to me, "Where's Porter? I miss Porter." Mommy just isn't as fun.

She has a set of go to conversation gap phrases like: "Huh?" she drops her chin, raises her eyebrows and lift her hands in the air with the palms up. The other thing she does a lot is, "What?!" She does this to avoid questions or conversations she'd rather not participate in.
The girl can sit and work on puzzles until you interrupt her. She knows all of her colors and is a very patient learner. She's fine to sit and think about problems, a skill I think she get's from her Daddy. She is starting to count but only get's 6,7,8,9 right consistently. Not sure how we got off with the first 5 numerals.
She can identify triangles, squares, stars, hearts, and circle shapes.
She HAS to dance during the end credits of every movie and will drag you into the party, no excuse will get you out of it.
We blame her for anything that goes missing. She's very curious and because of that she just picks everything she can reach. She manipulates it, studies it, and then walks off with it. Several items are still missing.
Every night after tucking her into bed she says, "Mommy stay. Mommy, Please, Stay." To which I always reply, "Mommy can stay 1 minute." That's enough for her. She just likes to know that I'll listen when she asks.
One of the things she says in the morning is, "My hair is EVERYWHERE!" It's usually out of control. Her hair has remained in finger ringlets. It's darling all the time and if you recall from Porter I kind of adore messy bed head so we let it be. I do it a couple times a week and it's cute then too.

She's a girly girl in so many ways. She loves jewelry, clothes, all things princess and pretty things. She has a sense of her own style.

3rd outfit change of the day

Priya desperately wants glasses like her big brother. Every time we go to the eye doctor she has to try on a dozen different styles.

She doesn't seem to care for the cold. Our spring like weather was interrupted by a 3 inch blanket of snow one night. When Priya woke up and saw the snow she said to me, "Snow a mess Mommy! What happened?" She spent some time bundled up in a blanket that day.

She likes to sing and picks up lyrics to the chorus lines pretty easily. Her favorite song is, "Try" by Pink. She'll sing it randomly through out the day.
Her favorite movie is any Tinkerbell movie and Sofia The First (which she refers to as Princess Priya).
One of the silliest and most delightful things about this girl are her facial expressions. They never cease. See for yourself:

these first 3 were taking in a 2 minute time frame

She was embarrassed by her parents head banging when we took this. hehe

She still loves her books!

She is determined, strong willed, and persistent; all things that will serve her well in this world. At times it can be a trial for me as her Mother. But she's becoming more respectful and I in turn more patient. We meet each other half way.

she didn't want to leave the Minnie chair

It is a rare thing for Priya to stop talking. Even when you ask her to stop,the sheer will power that requires is written all over her face and at best she can last 2 minutes without using her voice. Even when she's by herself she's labeling things, thinking out loud and just a goin'.
Priya says her prayers very willingly each night and has started kneeling with me to do so. I often peek and just want to scoop her up in my arms cause it's so cute! (Porter lacks the trunk strength to do this so it's new to us.)

These days we find it hard to remember life before Priya. She's such a special person and has a significant place in our family. I don't know what we'd do without her. We just think she's the prettiest, smartest, kindest little thing :-) I am rightfully biased though.

I know this for sure, we thank God for her every night and our hearts are full of gratitude for the joy this little Miss brings into our lives.

We love you baby girl! --Mommy, Daddy & Porter

p.s. Porter says, "Pound it!"

I couldn't pick which I liked more so you get both.

The Results

2013-04-02T16:10:00.002-06:00

*SIGH*

So... the results are good, very good, the best possible in fact. This is great news!

Now I will tell you that I was not very happy about this when I first got the news from the doctor. I have spent the last 6 months of my life worried, anxious, and baffled about my Porter Ray to the point that we had him go through a surgery to try and get answers to why he has been so miserable and sick. The answer to those questions are answers a doctor would know what was going on with a typical kid right away. Porter has been holding his bowel movements, until he makes himself miserable and very sick. Can you imagine controlling your bowels for over a week until your body responds in a negative way? The very thought of it makes me uncomfortable. Go ahead, take a moment and laugh. :-) My mom did when I called her and said, "Everything in my life comes back to poop and pee!" That's an exaggerated statement but there's a lot of truth in it. If Porter were able to communicate that it hurts for him to go potty we never would have been consulting with a specialist to try and figure out what was wrong with him. As things are right now Porter isn't able to tell us that it hurts and so we went down this path. If Porter didn't have Down Syndrome we wouldn't have been so worried. I initially felt like the whole thing had been a waste of time and money. Our doctor, however, reassured me by explaining that my concerns were valid he was as convinced as I was that something wasn't functioning properly in Porter's body. Based on the facts the people with Down Syndrome are at a high risk for many, many GI problems and so we kept looking. The positive side of putting Porter through this procedure is that there were 16 biopsies done and lots of images taken that were assessed and analyzed.

I no longer need spend anytime wondering if he has allergies or enzyme deficiencies --
HE DOESN'T.

I no longer need spend time worrying that his body is not absorbing or responding to his diet well--
IT IS!

I NO LONGER HAVE TO WORRY!

HALLELUJAH!

(I'll have to adjust to that, right there ^^^ because I have been worried about these things for... years!)

We have some difficult work ahead of us as we try to ease Porter's mental anxiety and physical pain around going to the bathroom, but the doctor helped me come up with a plan and I can work with that. I also now know if A and B happen then put a teaspoon of MiraLAX in his juice and I'll get my happy, compliant and playful Porter back.

Information is POWERFUL and I'm grateful for it.

Surgery {check}

2013-03-26T23:45:00.001-06:00

Porter just after arriving home and wanting his all time favorite thing... Television.

The last thing Porter ate before his 24 hour fast...a tagalong. He knows how to make us proud.

Here's the brief version shared with me via Aaron since I didn't go into the hospital today.

Porter was a fart for his pre-surgery exam because he knows nothing fun happens with a doctor around. His Dad took him all the way back so he would have a friend when they put him under. Porter's oxygen levels stayed around 100% after anesthesia, showing us once again that having his adenoids removed has indeed improved his ability to breath adequately. He woke up very unhappy but he woke up! He was able to leave after only 45 minutes in recovery, a new record. Previously we've spent 4-6 hours waiting for his oxygen levels to stabilize. This improvement did not occur to us until everything was happening, we are grateful. The poor boy is dealing with post anesthesia symptoms like a headache (he said, "hurt" a very difficult word for him so we know it must be significant) and nausea. The procedure has him bloated since they pumped him full of air and other problems that are not blog appropriate :-/ There were a few minor concerns found but until the biopsy results are in we won't know what the next step is to help ease his pain.

The big picture he did better then we hoped!

Thanks for all the support and prayers. Special thanks to Randy for going to the hospital in my place and to my Mom for coming to be with me to distract me. We love you guys!!!

Porter has Surgery Tomorrow

2013-03-25T11:53:00.000-06:00

If you haven't heard Porter will be having an endoscopy and colonoscopy tomorrow. The procedure itself is low risk. Porter has done pretty well with anesthesia in the past but there have been some bumps he has faced that individuals with Down Syndrome often do. We've been doing our best to keep him healthy and so far he has remained so. They'll have to put him under a strong general anesthesia tomorrow and that's our biggest concern. We hope he'll respond as well as he can. It's not a big scary kind of surgery, but as parents we always worry.

This doesn't get any easier the more ya do it. I just finished submitted all of Porter's paperwork online and I have all the prep work in place. We'll wait for the call confirming our surgery schedule later today but he most likely wont go in until afternoon. We'll have to make him fast all evening tonight and all of tomorrow. That's the longest this poor boy has ever had to be kept from eating and it goes without saying we are nervous about making him so uncomfortable. I'm am so worried. I was wide wake last night thinking about my little guy. The older he gets the more I worry about traumatizing him by willing passing him off to strangers and watching them walk away from us. Making things harder, I tested positive for influenza B (your good ol' regular flu virus) on Friday and have had to stay locked up in my room for the past 3 days to try and keep Porter from getting sick. Unless I get A LOT better by tomorrow I wont be going into the hospital. I just can't live with the idea of getting an already sick child sicker, but just the thought of not being with Porter tomorrow makes me cry. Being away from him the past few days has just made my anxiety worse. We've been working towards this for over 6 months so I am trying to keep the big picture in my mind of why I started this whole process and I am trying to put my doubts aside for the hope that we can help this little cutie feel better. I pray that he'll be safe, he'll be strong, he'll be comfortable and that he'll know we're always there for him.

All prayers and positive thoughts are greatly appreciated!

p.s. y'all rocked those socks! I'm excited to collect the masses of photos we received of your socks. We know this little guy is so loved! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

3:21 World Down Syndrome Day

2013-03-20T22:31:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow Morning I will pull out our 3:21 T-shirts that Grandma Nec ordered us and we'll be clad in our DS pride attire celebrating this life that has chosen us and the blessing that our son Porter Ray is.

Last year I did a post titled Why We Celebrate. This year Aaron and I are co-authoring a list of 21 ways that having a child with Down Syndrome has changed us. I'll be putting a tag on each item so you know who wrote it because this experience is unique to each of us so we don't have the same feelings but they certainly are similar. It's probably pretty obvious because he's a guy and I'm such a girl.

Sporting some Granddad Fashion

Having a Child with Down Syndrome has changed me by...

teaching me to finally allow myself to acknowledge and understand that perfection lies in imperfection. --meg
giving me greater tolerance and love for people with disabilities.-- aaron
helping me shake off and let go of the hurt this world can do. -- meg
opening my eyes to scripture. Like this story: Help Thou My Unbelief... Christ helped parents of Children with Special Needs during his time on earth. I often listen to talks about parenting and find myself thinking, but it's different with Porter. I believe that Christ will strengthen me and my son as we travel this path together. I believe it is a reasonable possibility to imagine Christ walking with someone who had DS. If not then I know He does now and loves everyone even if they have extra chromosomes or are the parent of a special needs child. --meg
learning to appreciate small milestones and simple progress. --aaron
opening the doors of Heaven to me as I have asked and in return I've been guided.--meg
giving me hope in Humanity. Porter shows me that the majority of people are good and they are a powerful influence. --meg
showing me sign language is cool!-- aaron
bringing me back to my true self. Taking care of Porter in addition to the typical responsibilities of motherhood forces me to work on myself. I have learned that caring for myself is necessary so I have more to give not only to him, but everyone. - meg
forcing me to be more out going because people are drawn to him and want to talk with us.--aaron
giving me unwavering belief in God and His Plan. I trust it. - meg
(an addendum to 11) I was raised to believe in God and while I think that is part of the reason for my constant faith, I also believe this to be a defining quality of my spirit. I was sent to earth with this wiring. I do trust that Porter is a huge part of God's Plan for Me, but that doesn't mean I don't question my Heavenly Father or at times feel distant from my God as I experience the pain, frustration and sadness that parents of children with special needs face. All it means is that I can not ever turn completely away; these past 4 years have taken my strong roots and woven them deeper and wider. -- meg
showing me that you can't always believe what Doctors tell you. - meg
educating me about things I might not have learned about otherwise. Like how an eye exam works, or seeing how blind my wife really is, seeing a heart and learning how it works.--aaron
giving me the opportunity to work on forgiving others. Friends and strangers alike have said some very ignorant things. 4 years ago I got so hurt by it but now I let it go. - meg
stressing me out! Mommy stress is very universal, but when you've got a child with lots of health/development/emotional/schooling etc. issues it is multiplied. The blessing in this is learning how to manage stress... I'm not there yet. Maybe one day. - meg
Acceptance- (a ditto to Aaron's #2) Porter has taken away my intolerance for people who are or believe or behave or choose differently than me. I'm now painfully aware of how intolerant I was as a youth and young adult. Yay, for progress! - meg
eliminating the word Retarded from our vocabulary. Neither of us has said it since before May 31, 2009 the day Porter was born. -- aaron & meg
allowing surrender to my illusion of "control". I no longer believe in, "My life is supposed to be...", "By that time we will..." "If things go according to plan..." I still plan things but not our lives. I'm more patient in the unknown and put control where it really belongs...with God. - meg
showing me that my son is just as COOL as any other child! - aaron and meg
giving me LOVE! Love does not fail. Love is in the acts and also felt. Love is not always spoken. Love from Porter is unconditional and eternal. Having a child with special needs is at it's very core about the same exact thing it is with any Parent and Child...it's about LOVE!!! - meg

HAPPY WORLD DOWN SYNDROME DAY!!!

If you want to do a little thing to show support for our Porter wear mismatched socks, take a picture and post it somewhere. If you do would you tag me in your post so I can show him the pictures. We love and thank you all for the constant kindness you give to our Porter, Porter!!!

Breaking or Growing

2013-03-13T18:41:00.000-06:00

This is the BEST moment from this month!

The picture says it all.

Life right now has me overwhelmed and that has left me a mess. I keep thinking I'm going to break. I keep reaching for strength and hoping to find positive thoughts about everything we've got going on. After we had children I simplified my life a lot because I enjoy being home and it helps me be calm. The last few weeks have reminded me of college life stress and I have been fighting it because it's so not what I want. Resisting it has only made it worse. I feel like it's a perfect storm and everything happening at the exact same time. I'm not there yet but my hope is to make it through without going crazy. I know I'll have to let go of doing things as well as I'd like. Just trying to breathe through it and have a little faith.

One that note: Aaron is now a member of the Elder's Quorum presidency. My meetings that Aaron used to complain about are nothing compared to his now 2 a week meetings. I've already seen the blessings of having Aaron serve in this role. I'm grateful Aaron is able to support one of our good friends Nate as he takes on such a large and new responsibility in our ward.

Aaron took me out to use my tickets to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that he gave me for Christmas. I was as giddy as a 5 year old in a ice cream store. It was so much fun!

Playing with Mommy

I took the pic below during the Binkie Wars (tired, grumpy girl) and I'm happy to report that we have successfully navigated those waters and she's now napping and sleeping just fine without her binkie. Yip, Yip, YIPPEE!

Porter got a stomach bug and I set him up for a sick day.

Is there anything a Stay At Home Mother loves more than a napping child? Pretty much adore this boy.

You know Porter is sick when he falls asleep at random. I took this to send to Aaron, we were cuddling during one of his favorite movies and for him to crash was a shock.

The next few pictures are from a birthday party we took the kids to for one of their friends. We showed up and their parents told us their two oldest had been fighting over who would get to play with Priya. It was awesome to watch their faces when we showed up. It was at a warehouse full of bounce houses, needless to say the kids had a great time!

Priya had two mini mommas all night.

Occupational Therapy: Porter is much more of a sensory kid than I thought and now I'm just trying to get our household stocked and organized for helping him cope. From this day at therapy it became obvious to me just how much he struggles with this. We tried these different products that help people with sensory processing disorder and Porter turned to goo, just look.

I was so nervous he was going to fall on his head.

I loved that he was flipping through the Toys R Us catalog while eating.

Party in the play kitchen!

More unhappy sick Porter. Have you noticed there has been a lot of that lately? We scheduled him for an explorative surgery on the 26th in hopes of getting answers to what has been making Porter ill.

Tantrums have arrived...I had forgotten just how much work it is to have a 2 year old and she isn't even 2 yet. I am doing my best setting boundaries and she's testing them constantly. She is seriously such a smart and good girl, yet that doesn't stop her from testing me. Wouldn't trade her for anything! ...most days... ;)

She insisted on wearing her dress up out so I'm trying to tone it down and I took her to target. I think she's pretty cute.

She's such a helper

Young Women's at our house and look who's right in the middle of it!

My brother Landon got married and for the first time in a long time I did my hair down and realized how long it has gotten. I need a cut. Never mind the bags under my eyes.

The bride was incredibly beautiful!

These are from our most recent trip to the Zoo:

The kids loved the new bat exhibit and it totally creeped me out! The Zoo in the winter time is just awesome! Lots of animal activity and not many people.

I just giggled when Priya laid down to observe the Sea Lion.

You know you are a parent when you make your dessert in these cups!

Gotta love a man that helps with the laundry!

After a year of physical therapy I have "graduated". I got approval to start running again but extremely slowly. The other thing I'm not looking forward to is re-learning my stride. The fastest way to learn...RUNNING BAREFOOT, fun right? My therapist mentioned these shoes but he and I both have made fun of runners in them. Might have to eat those words. I really don't have time anyways so we'll see if running even happens.

Aaron and I are registering with a group of friends for the Electric Run in September. I'm so excited!!!

It's early, early Spring in Utah so we're finally getting outside! I {heart} winter but I'm so excited to see it go!

Today was the first day we were able to go out back in the yard and we are loving it.

We're doing our best to keep Porter healthy before his surgery because of the extra risks that people with Down Syndrome have when they go under anesthesia. He's staying home from school, we're staying home from church, having Aaron change clothes when he gets home from work, I've canceled all therapy appointments, playdates, etc. Since I'm Porter's caretaker I'm also staying away from people, meaning no Young Women's (it's terrible timing and the hardest thing I've done in a long time, but family has to come first) and we are hoping we can keep Porter's lungs healthy enough to avoid any problems when the procedure rolls around.

This reminds me, we experienced a true miracle in our family this month. Our nephew Logan was born with a very rare heart defect. He's had a very hard time the first 6 months of his life. We actually got our germ free plan from them because Logan's mother has been able to avoid all illness this entire winter, which is amazing considering just how hard our community was hit this winter. Logan went into heart failure and went through emergency heart surgery to save his life. It is hard to think about without tears coming to my eyes. He's the most beautiful child you've ever seen and we are so grateful for the way he came through the surgery better than his doctors expected. God is GOOD! We are looking forward to seeing Logan improve and hopefully avoid more problems in the future. We are so grateful!

Celebrating Love and Other Updates

2013-02-24T11:13:00.003-07:00

My goodness a lot can happen in a little bit of time.

I made this cake to add a little something special to our Valentines day. It was a big hit but in the end I threw most of it away because we just don't eat many sweets anymore. The cutest thing was watching the kids pick the candy pieces off through out the day and enjoying them.

I love how this picture illustrates the difference in our children. Priya digging in with both hands while Porter is being as neat and careful as possible with the cake.

Before breakfast we opened our gifts.

Priya got Minnie Mouse Keys.

Porter got a Cars phone.

Priya decided hers was a phone as well and her faces made me giggle.

The finished pizzas for dinner

After breakfast we were off to the Zoo with our friends. We found that visiting in Winter was pretty Awesome! We saw maybe 5 other people so the kids got some much needed exercise in and they got the see the animals without worrying about crowds.

Porter rode in the stroller with Baby Claire and he had to hold her hand. Now my friend Heidi teases me, "Priya and Porter want you to have another baby." And she's right, my kids are baby hungry.

After the Zoo we spent the afternoon with 2 of our favorite buddies. I love that Porter and Tallin are holding hands while they watch a show together. They jumped up on the couch, cuddled in close and held hands. We're so blessed with great families and little friends in our life.

We were being silly one night before bed and the kids were going nite-nite in the baby doll play n' pack.

Always reading

Porter accidentally shattered 3 of our tiles and I was once again grateful for Aaron's skills. He had done some tiling with his Dad before and in less then 48 hours he had it repaired.

After Valentines Day Aaron took some time off to compensate for the overtime he had worked. We had a 5 day weekend ahead of us and a plan to potty train our kids. The goal to help Porter manage going to the potty himself and to just get Priya trained. First we had to take care of a speech therapy appointment for Porter. During the appointment Aaron took Priya out for some Daddy Daughter time at the Dollar store. They had a ton of fun together!

After the appointment Aaron took me on a Valentines date and when we went to get the kids from his sister Aaron's Dad showed up and managed to persuade us to come and spend our extra time off in St. George with the family. We talked and debated about it because there was no way we'd get potty training done, but Aaron wasn't too upset about that not happening. We left a few hours later for Sunny Weather. It was a great trip down and our kids slept well that night. We got up the next day and Aaron said he wasn't feeling well but we wanted to go out and enjoy the spring like weather they were having down south so he ignored it.

We discovered that Porter is a rock climber and that he was content doing that for hours.

He found this perfect little stick and kept it with him to help keep his balance.

Priya tried but she wasn't as coordinated.

That night as I was helping making dinner someone came up to let me know Aaron had fallen asleep while he was suppose to be watching our kids. I went down to check on things and Aaron was burning up with a fever and totally out of it. I knew right then we had to leave ASAP. With so many people in the house and Aaron's older fragile grandparents I knew there was no way we could contain whatever it was Aaron had. Judging by his fever I figured he was highly contagious. We ate dinner after which my Father-in-law and Brother-in-law loaded us up in a flash. I drove us back home that night. I was proud of myself for managing to get us safely home with a car full of sleepers and not arriving until 1a.m.. It was the shortest trip to St. George ever for us. The next day we found out Aaron had strep throat and I was so glad we had left when we did.

We did a left over craft with the kids when we ended up back at home. Aren't they the CUTEST!

Then the rest of us got tested for strep and were pleased to find that we had all managed to stay healthy. Sadly by staying away from Aaron.

Aaron was feeling well enough to go back to work when his time off passed which was a bummer that he spent his free time sick but HEY we didn't have to use any of his sick time.

We talked with Priya this week about Big Girls not needing a binkie. She was so excited to be a Big Girl that she gladly tossed her binkie in the garbage. Sadly the excitement didn't last and we're still battling this out. One thing is for sure, binkie will stay gone. It has resulted in no naps, Priya loves her naps, so she hasn't been very happy in the afternoons.

My favorite Bedhead picture of all time.

This weekend Porter went to his friend Braxton's birthday party found a super hero cape and ran circles around their kitchen island.

I missed the party because Aaron gave me 24 hours off from being Mom and Wife. I headed out for my parents home were I locked myself in a room. Unfortunately for me the moment I allowed myself to relax my body attached me with a cold virus...not cool body...not cool. I slept in, took a nap, watched movies, and read for hours. I had intended to do some introspective reflecting and prayer but this dumb cold has sucked all my energy away. So resting was all I got done. It was still so nice.

My sister Baylee was home from College this weekend and had this kitten with her that she had rescued. She asked me to watch him for a bit and it's the first time I've actually enjoyed a cat. He is the sweetest thing ever. Too bad I had to run to the shower after watching him because I had an allergic reaction.

I just want to say thank you to my incredible husband for being so supportive of me taking a little time to care for myself. This gives me renewed energy for my responsibilities at home and I'm so grateful Aaron is more then willing to give me the opportunity.

Other News:

Porter's blood work came back negative so the next step is to schedule a surgery for a head to bum scope to look for problems. *sigh*

Aaron's work will be relocating. We will not know for a very long time what the details are but it was just announced that the manufacturing part of the business here in Utah will be shutting down (we're so sad for those who will be losing their jobs) and engineering will be relocated. They haven't decided on a location yet and the move will happen in 9 months. We have been told that it will be in Utah. We'll just have to wait and see how this will change our lives, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed for a good situation. More than anything we just really hope moving from our home wont be necessary. We'll just have to see.

i love you my darlings

2013-02-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited for today. We're busy all day with friends so yesterday I did all the prep work for our Valentine's day. We've been singing a preschool song called Heart Everywhere for the past 2 weeks so I decided to run with it. I finished off our pizzas with heart pepperoni, thank you pinterest! I also put together love notes and little gifts. Happy Valentines Day!!!

Lately

2013-02-10T19:43:00.001-07:00

My posts lately are not as organized as I'd like them to be, but I don't see our lives changing any time soon. In fact we just got some news today that we'll actually be adding to the to do list in the form of a church calling. When it's made official we'll let ya know more. So even less time but more blessings. :)

I still want to share some of the things that are going on with us. Without frequent blogging though some of the best stuff gets left out. We're happy and I'd like to share just a little of that for memory sake.

I missed one of my favorite things from our Christmas season this year: our wreath and home made banner. It matched the snowman table cloth and it made me happy.

After Christmas we took on a task that has been overlooked far too long. We organized all of the toys we have acquired since Porter's birth. As I did the purge I thought about how it had gotten so bad and honestly our home has lots of nooks and crannies to house lots of toys so it wasn't terrible. I love our new system though. Both kids have a major play item in their rooms (i.e. play kitchen) that they love and play with every day without getting bored. There are 4 bins of toys that are in our living area that the kids can play with without adult interaction. Then the majority of our toys are in a closet in containers organized by activity and they're toys that we use for preschool. It's so wonderful because I can teach concepts with hands-on play activities that my kids are excited to engage in. That and less clutter. If you're curious I tossed over 50% of our toy inventory. It's all being sent to new homes or donated to children shelters.

I continue to weave necklaces for Porter every week for his oral sensory input needs. I thought this captured a lot about our current state of life with our little man. He's going through a lot right now and we're working through a lot of different things. It's sad knowing that Porter isn't well, waiting for doctors to discover what causes him discomfort, but we will not giving up. The doctors agree something is wrong and they're working on it. It just takes time. Part of his coping is chewing so I weave a lot.

Aaron worked an INSANE amount of overtime this last month. We all missed him a ton and I was batty by its end. Mostly because I missed Aaron so much. Aaron's boss is awesome though and has decreed that Aaron will get some free time off on condition that I have a day off. Aaron is required to report back on his day with the kids. LOVE THAT!

There has been a lot of blood work needed for Porter and this was after his first draw. We had a Mommy Son pity party, including cuddles, cars, and cookie dough (vegan style).

We had to change her diaper in the middle of the night and sleeping beauty was not amused.

A late night visit the the doctor after a particularly bad string of problems. The doctor scared me to death and suggested the P may have HEP B during this visit. His blood work came back good though and I was also informed he was CANCER FREE... yeah, doctors are tricky like that sneaking the super scary test in with the not as scary stuff. I was grateful but also a little taken back to find they were looking for cancer. :-( We love our new Pediatric office and they all work with Porter and do an amazing job. It's nice feeling confident in their care of our Porter Ray.

Friday family date night: Tinker Bell The Secret of the Wings, Games and Pizza. Priya is now obsessed with all of the Tinker Bell movies. I'm so grateful because I can do Tinker Bell instead of the Princess stuff, which I'm sure is just around the corner. For now she only seems interested in Rapunzel (my favorite) and Cinderella. She's easing me into this girly business.

I came out of the bedroom after getting ready for church to hear Donkey Kong Country old school style. I found the boys playing Super Nintendo. It was AWESOME!

I did this for a week with the kids in Preparation for Potty Training. I did a 2 hour trial with Priya and she is absolutely ready...not what I was hoping for... I'm just not ready. But Priya sure is. We've had to postpone with Porter's health problems and Aaron's overtime. I'm going to go 3 days intense because I just want to get it over with and I feel Priya can handle that. She is talking in complete sentences and tells us when she needs to go and she's got control of her muscles so my hope is that it's simple. Hopefully in the next week or so life will be calm enough I can find 3 free days to get it done. I really dislike Potty Training.

We still have a dog and he's cute.

We did some waltzing and swing dancing to celebrate having Daddy home for Breakfast. We were all sad when he had to go back to work.

Sibling love! These two are buddies and I so love the tenderness.

Our Friend Danny hanging out with us one morning. Danny just became a big brother! Oh yeah, we use our guest bath as a ball pit, much more useful that way.

It is the little moments that fill my heart with joy. I sometimes get overwhelmed at all I HAVE to do, but when I let the spirit of service enter my heart I see it as doing good works. Even in my family Heavenly Father still sees me in service to him. These Children are so amazing and I'm so grateful I get to care for them.

In "You Must Be Crazy" news we have changed our lifestyle and we are now 80% organic, mostly meat free, the kids and I are 90% dairy free, I no longer consume refined white sugar (only on special/rare occasions) and we're loving it! I made these changes because of the medical diagnosis I got in October (no, I never shared the details nor do I intend to do so here) and for Porter's overall health. I'm doing incredible on a whole foods diet and my symptoms are so much better! I will never be completely rid of this problem but it's much, much better and so is my life because of it. Part of this lifestyle has involved creating lunches for Aaron that are more nutrient rich and appetizing to him. We created a nuts about berries salad in a jar and it's very tasty. We make them ahead and they're good for a week. We've also done a taco salad and this week we're trying a Thai salad.

Popped Quinoa- Since buying a better quality of this grain and learning how to cook it I've become obsessed with it. We pop it like popcorn and add it to our salads.

I enjoyed my Christmas banner so much I made one up for Valentines day.

*Girls Night*

I don't have a picture but last Tuesday I got to sneak out for a night with the girls. We went to the Blue Lemon, ate girly food our kids would refuse to eat, talked about everything, laughed our guts out and strengthened each other through our Friendship. Special thanks to Aaron for doing bedtime with the littles so I could go.

We are increasing our toddler gospel study and hoping to teach our kids to love evening scripture study.

This past Friday we had to take Porter in for another blood draw. He has been traumatized by all this lab work recently and this draw went very poorly when a newbie tried to do his work. She dug around in this arm trying to find a vein for what felt like forever until her supervisor finally took the needle from her and got it immediately. Porter and I both cried. This test was for Celiac's Disease. We'll see, guess we may be gluten free soon along with all the other healthy changes we've made recently.

I took this picture because it was a happy sight for me. It meant that we were finally going to bed and that we'd get to rest our tired bodies, we would have fresh energy in only a few hours and we could do it all again.

I'm so grateful for our family's strong faith. The truth of the gospel keeps us true in our tasks, trials, and triumphs.

Thanks to everyone the supports and prays for us just because you love us. :-)

Christmas 2013

2013-01-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

Christmas is really MAGICAL with children. Just looking at these pictures make me happy. These pictures require few words, so I'll just put a few notes.

Yummy, yummy sugar cookies for Santa. Santa letter.

Isn't this just perfection!

The Kitchen was the first thing we unveiled for the kids. We had it covered up with a blanket and they freaked out! We play with it daily...most of Christmas this year gets used daily because I requested that Santa bring things that we could use with Home Preschool.

She is trying to put on her new clothes!

Porter got Cars bedding for Christmas this year. This is the kids cuddling with McQueen and Mater.

I gave Aaron some Real fan apparel for the games we'll get to go to with our Pass of All Passes this year. The Real Game tickets sold Aaron on the passes for the family.

Aaron got me a Date night to my childhood favorite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! It was extremely thoughtful of him. I'm very excited!

Reading Tent

We visited my parents Christmas evening. It was sad because we had hoped to get all 6 of my siblings together but because of general health concerns we just couldn't pull it off. We're all looking forward to spring so we can have a family retreat.

I love the ballerina point. That Mickey she has now goes everywhere this her.

On the 27th we got together with Aaron's family to see Les Miserable and presents.

We had a wonderful time being with family, giving gifts, and celebrating our Saviors birth.

We hope you had a great Christmas as well!

The Holidays

2013-01-10T22:54:00.002-07:00

So our Holiday Season was a step up from the usual crazy because of lots of overtime and a business trip for Aaron. I failed to foresee said overtime and scheduled many, many doctor's appointments for Porter in December (not sure what I was thinking, but some of his specialists take a long time to get in with so you take what you can get) and then the kids and I were sick often. My nephew Logan had heart surgery (he did great!), Grandpa Bruce had a massive heart attack and open heart surgery and one of my best friends tried to die on me. See, Holiday's gone out of control. :( This lead up to a Christmas Eve wrapping party that lasted until 2 a.m. Not the way I would have liked things to go, but we still managed to really enjoy some of the best parts of the season. Was it story book perfect? No. But, it was close enough. Our children certainty didn't mind and loved all that we were able to do.

I'm just going to share my Instagram posts from Thanksgiving to New Years. This is condensed and hopefully I'll find time for the more detailed post soon.

It was a White Christmas for sure. I often find myself defending winter just because it's the uncommon thing to do, why fit in? I don't mind the snow or the cold. I do enjoy the endless play that summer offers, but we've had some great adventures this winter as well. The one thing that keeps me in love with Snow is that it's beautiful...no argument... just is.

We tend to be spontaneous at our home and lots of things are done on a late afternoon whim. I'll call Aaron to ask, "What do you think about this...? We'll meet you in 30 minutes!" Our trip to Down Town for the lights was on of those whims. We went early on a Monday just as it was getting dark. We beat the crowds and the bitter cold temperatures. We ended the night with some Red Iguana and play time at City Creek.

Car Hopping at Big H! Our first real car hop experience. We had been at the Cardiologist with Porter and lots of things went wrong, including a potty accident and no extra clothes so we couldn't take Porter in anywhere since he only had underwear on. So this was our solution. GREAT NEWS did come from Porter's Echo results though. His heart is healthy, his heart does not have abnormal pressure and he is officially off oxygen! YAY!!! Every bit we can save on monthly medical will help since our insurance premiums just doubled, again. :(

love him

Things we did at home every evening that we could: our stories of Christ and Music Advent, read Christmas Children's books, Christmas Movies and cuddles in Christmas tree glow.

Seriously, everything about this photo of them all at the piano just makes me smile.

Classic "Glow" photo

Co-Worker Gifts and a special one for Daddy

One of the nights Aaron worked late I took the kids on a Christmas Light Tour as we listened to The Nutcracker. My children are AWESOME: they prefer to listen to symphonic music over any other kind of music! It does my soul well to share this love with them.

I dressed Porter in Green and White for school in respect for those killed in the Connecticut School Shooting. Thinking of it brings a heavy despair upon me. Yet, having a smoothie for this little guy after he safely came home from school made me grateful for each blessed day God grants me with my family members.

As a Young Women's presidency we taught a lesson called "The Life of Christ". I volunteered to reflect on his betrayal and death. It was one of the Hardest things I've done in a long time. Mostly because as I prepared I was overwhelmed by My Savior's love for me and my love for Him. Talking about those two horrifying parts of his life was really difficult, but it was an incredible way to spend Christmas Sunday. Aaron and the kids had to stay home that Sunday because of illness.

We did get pretty sick but we wanted to keep enjoying the season so we loaded up and went to Thanksgiving Point to see their Holiday lights but to stay in our car instead of doing the wagon ride like we usually do. The kids had such a fun time and we've been converted to car spectators. It's warmer, a lot warmer!

Christmas with the kids was exactly as it should be... magical!

Here are our the kids on Christmas Eve in their PJs. We had to stay home from the traditional Christmas Eve Party because we were not 100% and my Grandpa is recovering from Open Heart Surgery still.

Christmas Afternoon we joined part of my family for a Christmas dinner. I got a big surprise when my friend texted to tell me her water broke and she would be having a Christmas baby. About an hour after that Mom got a phone call and we found out that my Sister-In-Law Kaleena's water broke as well. 2 babies on Christmas Day! It was such exciting news! We sat down to this beautiful Christmas dinner and my heart was a flutter of anticipation!

Hollie's baby came healthy and well! She was named, Sydney. Couper's baby, Emelia Noelle came into this world very sick and how my heart rejoiced that she was here, but I was very concerned about their girl. Come to find out she was born with Strep B even though her Mom had been tested for it twice. There was nothing they could have done to prevent what happened. Their pediatrician most likely saved her life by doing a spinal tap to remove the liquid off her brain as soon as he got lab results confirming the extreme levels of her infection. Their story is a long and heart wrenching one that lasted 2 weeks in the NICU. SO, SO MANY things went right though. She received incredible care that was accurate and immediate. This lead to many blessings

I have yet to meet cute baby Em, but the night she was born I went right to work on a blanket for her because that's what I do.

This is me cuddling my darling niece Whitley. I was a mess this day because my brother, his wife and baby Em were going through hell not knowing what was truly going on yet, they had to transfer the baby during a storm and my SIL had to watch her baby be wheeled away from her while she waited to be discharged. Every private moment I got and some not so private moments I was crying. Whitley brought peace to my heart. She's a little slice of Heaven! Thanks to her Momma for leading me her sweet baby.

My brother with Emelia in the NICU

Porter's got imagination!

Homemade rolls for a Gelter family dinner

We ended up in a snow storm on our way to St George for New Years with Aaron's family. It was a result of unanticipated events and I'm very grateful to Aaron for getting us through it. It was a long ride but we were blessed and comforted along this trip. It was not good conditions but I never felt terribly frightened. We went to bed that night at 2 a.m.

We got a screaming deal on an extremely nice hotel room down South. Last time we tried to stay with Aaron's family down there is was a train wreck (our kids don't sleep well together) so it was a blessing to find a hotel we could easily pay for with Rewards points for 2 nights. There were 2 rooms, which is the key with our kids because sometime they just talk if they're in the same room and they often wake up very easily. Having the option to separate them made our night so much more restful.

We really enjoyed our time in sunny St George and getting to spend quality time with Aaron's grandparents and parents.

This is from New Years Eve. After a little party at Aaron's grandparents we went back to the hotel, put the kids in the jet tub, cleaned them up, had some popcorn, watched an episode of curious george and magically they fell asleep in the same room together which meant Aaron and I got to watch a movie! It was cozy.

Our trip home was smooth except we brought home a flu bug that was being passed around. The kids and I got it. When I don't feel well but have responsibilities I get done up because in my mind if you can't make it, fake it. I taught young women's so I had to pull myself together long enough to get that done.

Season 3 of Downtown Abby...YAY!

We took a trip to Park City to get above the nasty inversion. We took the kids sledding and they had so much fun! Don't worry once we got up there I pulled a pair of jeans over this clashing combo.

We discovered a better library for children in our area! Priya wouldn't put that book down.

Most recently terrible twos have started...we still love her!

San Antonio Trip

2012-12-28T22:18:00.001-07:00

This post has the potential to be very long, but it is a precious memory to my family, so browse the pictures quickly if you’re short on time. After our trip to NY with Priya last year we decided that the kids would get to switch off when the opportunity presents itself to travel with Daddy on business trips. Aaron recently took on new responsibilities to expand his career path and to add a new dynamic to his resume. Part of that involves traveling quarterly for conferences. We were able to take Porter with us for a week to San Antonio in early November where Aaron was traveling for a conference. We purchased 2 tickets for Porter and I using our flier miles and found that San Antonio is extremely affordable for travel expenses so we decided to go.

These two trips have been so special to me. They're not family trips, they are one-on-one trips with our children. We absolutely believe in complete family vacations but these trips allow us to bond with each child and gives us insight into our children that we might otherwise miss if we did not create opportunities to focus on just them. We picked up on some needs of Porter's on this trip and it finally clicked that he has Sensory Processing Difficulties. For a long time I thought these issues were a result of his Down Syndrome but in fact it's something entirely different. Coming to this realization means we're trying to learn what we can do to help him. One blessing from this trip with him.

Day 1: really should be night 1 - we flew out late and didn't arrive at our hotel until 1 a.m. We were excited to go to sleep. Porter was a good little flier. There was a grumpy man next to us, but oh well that's his deal not ours. I tried to talk with him and he completely pretended not to hear me, talk about an awkward moment. Other then that dude we had a nice flight.

Day 2- Our first adventure was to go to the San Antonio Zoo. It was a very short drive from our hotel and we delved right in. This was such a pleasant place to be. It was a large zoo and they had a bunch of animals that we don't have here at Hogle Zoo. It was really warm day to US for November... it was freezing to the locals. There were many people very concerned about my child who wasn't in a coat. I told lots of strangers while we were there to please not worry about Porter that we were from Northern Utah and just left snow behind. They'd get off my case pretty quickly after that. Gotta' love a culture that's concerned for the well being of children though. Very nice people in Texas.

Porter loved having his Daddy's attention.

Komodo Dragon, Bird Enviroments that you could walk through and birds could land on you, Underwater observatory of hippos/crocodiles, and fish.

Porter was extremely active and curious in this environment.

Petting zoo.

There was a back part of the Zoo just for small children. It was like an entirely different park. It was play based exploration. We reached this area after the majority of people had left for the day and we thought we'd have to leave as well because Porter had been hiking around all day and he was getting tired. Here he got his second wind and we had the place all to ourselves.

He has this lawn mover toy at home but not this type of space to use it in. He was entertained for almost an hour in constant motion.

There was a little learning center that we went into and my boys cuddled up to read some books. It was a fantastically fun day playing together.

Aaron's sister had visited San Antonio not to long before us and had lots of tips for us. One of them was great food! After the zoo we went to eat at the Gristmill, an old Mill that has been restored and serves delicious food. In the picture above Porter and I are looking over the opened deck down to the river where we sat that night. The hostess gave us the best table she had when I told her we were from Utah.

Day 2: SEA WORLD!!! We all loved this day. We were able to catch up with some friends and have lunch together before we went into the park. It was nice to talk with them and see our children play together. Once we got into the park we sat down to The Beluga Whale show. It ended up being our favorite show of the day because the trainers still get into the water. Porter was in awe of the whole thing...As was I.

Isn't that amazing, that would be so insane!

Aaron went on the roller coasters while Porter and I checked out the penguins, seals, and walruses.

After that we regrouped and went to the Orca show. The whales were awe inspiring and I can only imagaine what it must have been like when the trainers were allowed in the water with them. They were obviously in sync with their trainers and it was neat to watch. They had a baby orca and it was so cute.

It was about this time that Porter started to get really tired on us. But we kept him going long enough to feed the dolphins. It really scared him at first, but he was so curious that we stuck around for a little while. Before we left I was a little nervous he was going to jump into the pool with them.

As we were headed out we found the roller coasters that Porter was allowed to ride on and despite being tired he was all game for riding.

As we have always suspected he is a roller coaster kid. Pretty obviously he loved it.

Before we made it back to the car he was out. The security guard on our way out stopped to admire our sleepy child. It was such a great day I asked Aaron to take a picture of me kissing my cutie at the end of the day.

He didn't wake up when we strapped him into the carseat.

We woke Porter up so we could eat at the most amazing BBQ restaurant. Texas Pride Barbeque!!! We felt like we were driving out into the middle of nowhere and then all of the sudden it appeared. Incredibly delicious!

Day 3: This was the last day before Daddy would start working and we had a hotel transfer as well. We decided to just have a nice relaxing day together. The boys went swimming while I sat pool side reading and sipping on herbal tea.

He loved being tucked in to warm up after his post swim bath. Then as you can see we got some food and Porter really started lounging.

We transferred to the Grand Hyatt hotel and had to take a taxi. Taxi's in Texas do not have car seats and we had to return the one we rented. It's not against the law for children to ride without a car seat in taxi's. Porter was crazy excited to ride like a big kid and my heart beat a little harder every moment of that ride.

Porter loves Elevators and this is him helping us with luggage during our transfer. He was responsible for carrying this toys in his back pack.

Pretty adorable.

Day 4: We woke up in Down Town San Antonio in one of the nicest hotels I've stayed at since Europe. We started the day off with a traditional German Breakfast at a little German Deli that's been downtown forever.

We walked back to the hotel along the Riverwalk. As you can gather from this photo having Porter free on the Riverwalk made me very anxious. He loved it though. After breakfast Daddy went to work and Porter got me ready for a day of sight seeing and play.

We went to see the Alamo. It was a reverent place and I was glad to see it. While I wasn't able really read up on the history documented there because I was with a toddler, it was still nice to visit.

After the Alamo we walked a few blocks to the Children's Museum. I was lucky to find a coupon and I was able to get us in for a very discounted price. We stayed for a few hours, but there were many kindergarten field trips happening and Porter got overwhelmed. So did I. As a teacher I was going crazy seeing how many children were without supervision. We went back to the hotel and met up with Aaron. That night we went out to eat and we were serenaded by a Mariachi band. Porter did not know what to think of it.

We went up to the top of the Tower of the Americas. Porter and Aaron loved it. I'm not a huge fan of elevators or heights. Combine an elevator with a glass window that goes up 750 feet very quickly...ugh. There were people who were pushing to get to the window and I was like, "I'd like a place in the back where I can curl up and cry until this is over...thank you!" Porter and Aaron were right up against the window ooing and awing all the way down.

We could see the tower from our hotel window.

Gelato stop!

Day 4 & 5: Was purely Children's Museum. It wasn't nearly as crowded

and I got the discount again and we played ALL day long, with the exception of a lunch break at the HARD ROCK CAFE. It was 3 floors of pretend, play, and exploration.

Chatting with his friend. They had a english/spanish language barrier but it didn't seem to bother them.

This Grocery store was the best and biggest one I've ever seen. Porter spent the majority of his time down here. This level was set up to help children understand farm, store, kitchen. So you'd got to the farm and get some food, then you'd go grocery shopping and check out at the cash register and then go prepare your groceries in the kitchen. It was also very focused on healthy organic eating which I appreciated.

Texas does have a pan handler problem and on our walk back from the Museum I had about 4 of them harassing me. I told them no, noticed they were following me and rerouted to be near some police officers. They backed off until I crossed the street and the officers couldn't see them anymore. They started cat calling me and saying inappropriate things that frightened me. I tried to stay calm and safe. I kept walking saw that the traffic light was about to change grabbed Porter and ran across the street as the light changed and continued to run 3 blocks until I got back to the doorman of the hotel. He helped me in and after that I just didn't feel like going back out for our late lunch. So I ordered room service and Porter thought it was insane. He loved our waiter, the beautiful food, eating on the bed and we got lucky and found Curious George on TV. In his universe it was AWESOME!

These two days are kind of mixed up in my head. But one of them Porter made friends with a women at our hotel who fell in love with him right away kind of kid napped him with my supervision and she took him down to the lobby to buy him ice cream. Then later that night our waitress brought him free ice cream for the second time that day. He's a charmer I tell you!

We stayed up late and went on a Riverwalk boat tour of the city. It was romantic and a little chilly. Once again Porter loved the new experience and our complete attention.

View of the bridge from the boat.

Day 6: Porter and I said our goodbyes to Aaron and we left that afternoon. I was so nervous about traveling with Porter alone. It was a little stressful and with the exception of the time he was throwing a temper tantrum, stood up in his stroller and fell on his head with a crowd of people watching (who were agast at this event, but no one offered to help me with 2 bags, a stroller and a child), it went pretty well.

On our flight home.

I love coming home. Every time we have a the chance we travel, it's part of who we are. But I always love coming home. Utah make me happy, it's where I belong, my people are here, my history and future are here. Makes my heart happy to see the Wasatch Mountain Range out the plane window.

We had a few days at home before Aaron came home. The night he got home I wanted to have a fun night as a family and to do something that Priya would enjoy since Porter had been our focus. We had a Cinderella movie and dinner night. I cooked up a "Royal Feast" of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and veggies. Mostly because Aaron had been eating out for over a week and I knew he'd apprecite it.

The kids got wands, Priya got jewels and we made cup cakes.

The kids got to lick the batter bowl and obviously from my kitchen it wasn't a little process getting everything together, but we had fun. It was the first time Aaron has watched Cinderella completely.

Thanks if you made it through this post, if not I don't blame you. :-)

Thanksgiving 2012

2012-12-28T15:54:00.001-07:00

Thanksgiving was with my family this year. My favorite was the Hillbilly way of making mashed potatoes. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

All the tools used were sanitized for kitchen prep.

Porter adding salt was particularly the very best moment of all.

Aaron and I have kind of started this little tradition where we make a new type of pie every night before Thanksgiving. We stayed up late making a Butterscotch Cream Pie. Aaron loved it and it wasn't my favorite, but it was definitely a divine creation.

Halloween

2012-12-28T15:45:00.002-07:00

I received some difficult news a few days before Halloween and we were hosting our friends and neighbors for a party Halloween night. I was distracted but when the night rolled around our friends and all the kids really helped me enjoy the holiday.

Priya was a cute little lady bug. She picked out her costume herself.

Priya figured out the system very quickly this year. She also figured out how to abuse the system very quickly as well. She would say, "treat-treat" get a treat then she would say, "More please!" It was adorable and a little difficult to correct her at the same time.

We just put Porter in his Pirate dress up and he ran around yelling, "YO HO HO!" all night.

We got together with Aaron's family one night to carve pumpkins. We had dinner and the best part of the evening was letting the kids lick beaters from the brownies. We were all laughing and running away from the chocolate covered kids. Porter enjoyed helping me gut the pumpkins we never got to carving them though, just seemed like too much work. :)

The party went smoothly. We took the kids out together and enjoyed donuts and hot chocolate afterwards (no one needed hot chocolate though, it was still very warm out).

Thankful November

2012-11-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

I was going to have this be our Thanksgiving post but I'm running out of time today and still have a few photos to gather from family before that post will be complete, but I still wanted to share this today.

You know how there are many people who do 30 days of Thankfulness in November well I keep a gratitude journal and write in it daily. It was gifted to me by a dear friend who encouraged me to start this little ritual. I love doing it and Kym for sharing this tradition with me. On the next page you'll see some arrows and such. On that page I keep two columns I write down one difficult thing about the day and then I keep a list of things to pray for. But you don't get to see that stuff, we'll keep this positive. I just scanned my journal so you can see my entries for November. It's my journal so I don't worry about grammar ect and sometimes I'm writing when I'm half asleep so... BE KIND people.

I hope you're hearts have much to be Thankful for!
Love,
Meg

Grateful Humbled Heart

2012-11-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight Porter earned a reward ice cream sundae and he got to stay up late to have it so Sister wouldn't be jealous. After he finished his special treat I had him help me clean up his dishes and we sat down together. I asked for a hug and he let me hold him close and I was overwhelmed with gratitude for this amazing tiny 3 year old who is my son. I started crying and Porter asked, "You okay, you alright?" I pulled him back to look him in the eyes doing my best to smile, so he could understand what I was going to tell him and said, "Mommy just loves you SO much! You mean Everything to me!" He started to giggle and cuddled in close. We stayed like that for a few minutes.

Raising a child who isn't always able to do everything we hope for him can be so heartbreaking, disappointing and painful. We recently had to pull Porter out of his private preschool. I've known for awhile that things weren't going well. Porter would just fall apart when I would pick him up and from some reading I've done I've learned that children save their deepest emotions for those whom they feel safest with. This left me very concerned about the emotions he was experiencing at school. His teachers loved him dearly, but the structure of the school was such that in 2 short hours there were 10 transitions...which is a LOT. You add special needs and sensory processing struggles in there and it was so difficult for him. Talking openly and honestly with strangers about my child's weaknesses took so much courage on my part. He is my child, an intimate and private part of my soul. Having to talk candidly about his difficulties, while emphasizing all of his amazing feats was really intense for me. The bottom line of the situation was that it was not the right thing to be doing for Porter. He was unhappy there and he'll make more progress at home with me. All of this has been disappointing. When someone you love so much isn't able to do what you'd longed for them to do... and we wanted that for him hoping it would bring him happiness... it's been hard.

We now find ourselves in a very tough transition during one of the busiest times of the year: trying to develop the perfect home school curriculum for our son. Creating a new schedule and routine during the Holidays has left my mind buzzing every moment I'm awake and many when I should be sleeping. I'm not rushing, but I also feel that the sooner we can get started the better. I am also so excited to have those 2 days of the week back with Porter. I'm excited to be doing home schooling with him because I know him better than any teacher ever will. Porter is a tremendous gift and I'm glad to have him back. He is not perfect like many people say children with Down Syndrome are because anyone who knows him well knows he's naughty at times and he knows it. However, he is the PERFECT example of unconditional LOVE. He is teaching me so much about life. Things that are important to me really aren't as important to him. We have to live in a world that knows so very little about unconditional love, that frightens me. I know that Aaron and I can provide Porter with a safe and loving place for as long as we're on this earth with him. I believe his siblings will take over for us when we no longer are able to do that for him. I guess my jist in all of this is that I often feel so much like I've been smacked in the face with a reality that isn't what I was hoping for, that is painful, hard to accept, but that doesn't mean it isn't good. It's teaching me to look at life creatively and with an open minded perspective on what really matters in life.

I often feel like the Lord has to Humble me because I am no good at doing it myself. The Lord needs me to be a better woman and sometimes that requires being forced to learn lessons that hurt because becoming stronger is often painful. I see now that going through life with Porter is making me face with all the ferociousness in my soul my greatest weakness and fear, "What will others think of me or my family?" I worry about that. I am learning that what others think of me, perceive of me and my family doesn't really matter. What other's think of me could never be correct because I am the only person who knows the intent of my heart, what I have done or have not done, what I believe, what I cherish and hold dear? I am also the only person who completely understands my weaknesses. Heavenly Father and I are the only people who can correctly say, "I KNOW Who Meghann Lynn Sorenson Gelter Is." Everyone else can think what they like. When I start to care too much what others might (because I'm never going to really truly know what other's think) believe of me I try to check myself and recenter myself. Being okay in my own skin was unavoidable necessity after Porter was born because now people stare, good intentions or not, they see him and I'm usually standing right next to him. The incredible thing is that the vast majority of people in my life love me, period. Anyone who takes 2 minutes to open their heart to Porter LOVES him, because Porter loves them, period. I'm also learning that as I stand bravely on my own foundation and be myself unashamed of who I am... I can do so much more good than when I'm constantly frightened of what other's may think of me. Porter has challenged me to be a better person.

When I say to Porter, "You are everything to me." I mean it. There is a constant and ever present whisper that reminds me that this tremendous little person is an incredibly valuable spirit whom God may call home at any moment as He often does with these very special people who have DS. Being his Mother isn't easy but every challenge I've faced has been paid back to me when I share the most incredible journey of loving Porter as his Mother. I can not explain it, but I am so grateful Porter and his very special chosen sister Priya were sent to Aaron and I.

This was just going to be a little post about ice cream. I guess I had a little more I needed to get out.

Love you all,
Meghann

P.S. Please note: the only reason I'm sharing something so personal is because I believe it is only when we are authentic that we're able to experience empathy with/for others. While I often feel alone and like I'm the only person who's had these feelings I refuse to believe that I'm the only person who knows what this feels like. I decided to publish this only because maybe it will help someone else feel less isolated. While I believe in God and feel comfort in His presence in my life; I just want to remind friend of mine who do not believe the same as I that I love you, that I cheer for you, please don't feel alone.

Visiting The Farm

2012-11-26T11:50:00.002-07:00

I'm pretty certain I've written about this before but I'll share again. My parents read that pygmy goats are tremendously good pets for children with Down Syndrome so what do they do... buy 4 of them. Build them a very customized goat house and play area. For a long while Porter just wasn't interested in them like he was the horses but it's starting to work. Porter is starting to enjoy playing with the goats and they're really fun. Priya likes them as long as they don't nibble on her, which doesn't happen very often. Here are a few pictures of the kids visiting the farm.

Autumn Round Up

2012-11-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

While I hardly come close to keeping up with this blog of ours, I do organize my photos regularly into different files with titles to be blogged about. This file is all the photos from our Autumn season that couldn't be categorized...random but good stuff...

Priya insisting on her baby being wrapped up in her blanket and put to sleep while she eats her breakfast. P.S. Look at those curls!

During a trip to the store I let the kids convince me to buy some Gerber cheese puffs. They each got a can on the way home. By the days end of errands both cans were empty.

I. Adore. Her. that is all.

We took (continue to take) many trips to the zoo.

They are my twins! Friday I was asked 7 times by strangers if they were twins. I did a quick milestone inventory tonight using the HELP development charts and Porter is still ahead of Priya developmentally but they're very close. It's a combination of him being behind and her being WAY ahead. Combine that with being the exact same weight, only an inch different in height and I've got twins. There's no other sight that sends happiness up and down my spine like this photo above right here: them sitting side by side in the built-in window bench in their boosters...ahh. Something about that just makes me melt, SO CUTE!

We have another Curious George junky. George and "Minnie" (never Mickey) are the only television shows she'll watch for longer than 2 minutes.

With winter comes illness in small children.

Very rarely is there just one tub time during the day at our house. My kids usually get in the tub twice a day. I can only imagine what some of you are thinking about me right now. ;) They love to play in the tub so I usually let them have a daytime/playtime bath and then they get a short scrub down, bedtime routine bath as well. They get in our large soaking master bath because it's safer and more fun. Warm baths are also one of the most natural ways for me to help Porter's chronic congestion. WE LOVE BATH TIME!!!

On this Sunday Sydney and I were both wearing the pinned back bangs look. His hair was SO long.

P singing along to Happy Birthday for his Cousin Ava. Priya was frightened.

I am lucky enough to watch our neighbor's kids from time to time and with that I get my baby fix. Paityn is the sweetest baby.

More sick, this is at like 3 am. Don't you just love the bent, sock less, leg?

Happy Boy

Daddy got home from a work conference and he took the kids out for ice cream and a play date. They loved it.

The two photos below have a little story attached. Priya was not having a good morning as you can tell from the two blankets, binkie and cookie. The extra neediness is why I took the first photo. The second one I took because when I checked back on her like 1 minute later the cookie was gone and the binkie still in place, chocolate smeared behind it. I wish I had witnessed the consumption of that cookie!

I surprised Priya with a new pair of church shoes and winter boots one morning. She loves shoes and was pretty excited about them.

Love this Photo below!

This right here captures such a typical moment for me. My children were playing fantastic together, side by side talking about their books together. I grabbed my camera to take a photo of the blissful moment, only to have Porter close the book on Priya's hand as the photo was being taken and Priya in true dramatic fashion overreacting. :) I must tell you, however, that while I rolled my eyes I'm glad the perfect moment was ruined so I could get this great picture that makes me laugh every time. These are my real children and I still love them even though they can be really tough. Isn't it funny?

Classic Porter & Priya Moment:

Priya, "If I scream loud enough and make it look bad enough Porter will get in trouble."

Porter, "What's her problem?"

Here's to the adventure of raising a boy with special needs and a gifted and strong willed girl; hoping I survive with a smile on my face and a little peace in my heart!