snow!

Well, after much anticipation and a lot of waiting it finally arrived! Snow everywhere! No, it's not like Utah snows but for Missouri it's a pretty decent one. Evan has been asking about playing in the snow since Thanksgiving when we visited the family for the holidays so he is thrilled! In fact, all morning he's been asking to go outside. Hadley has been amazing at helping me distract him. I don't know how much longer it will last though...he's ransacking the mud room as we speak and searching for his coat. :)

I have to just say that I am so impressed with Hadley! I couldn't have asked for a more helpful and wonderful sister for Evan! She spends so much time talking to him and explaining things to him when he's upset. I know she's definitely the expert when it comes to dealing with him. She's a natural teacher and thrives on taking charge. (Maybe that's from being one of the youngest and this is her only opportunity?) She's just a life saver so much of the time and I'm so thankful she's my little mother!

Other than playing in the snow we actually are going to be heading down to the mall today to try and support Lodema and Briana with their yard sale Briana is holding to raise money for the people of Haiti. I can't believe how much time and work has been put into this project by both of them!! It's amazing and I am so impressed. I'm not looking forward to driving today but Lodema has been such a huge help to me so many times that I'll risk it. :)

Other than that the big event happening in the family is Jessie and her hair. haha. She ended up coloring her last week with a friend, Megan, and went brown. It didn't go well in Jessie's mind and she's been trying to wash it out ever since. Unfortunately, it was a 20 wash dye and it's just not working. She now has reddish brown hair and is panicking. Linda, our hairstylist, is fitting her in today at 1:00 to try to get it back to it's blonde color so I hope it works. Of course I'm going to add some pictures! lol!

changes

Well...today has been quite an interesting day. You know how there just seems to be one of those days every once in a while that is life changing. Things seem to go along like normal for a long time and then all of a sudden it all comes together and one day it just seems to take a different direction. Today seems to be one of those.

I received a phone call this morning. Tracy from the Regional Center (a girl I went to school with at West County believe it or not...small world!) called to tell me that the coordinator we have been using for over 3 years will not be getting the certification we had expected. Basically, we are without a leader. It's actually been a long time coming and we have been paying Matt out of pocket since August, but all in hopes that his funding would go through anytime. Looks like that funding won't and it's time to make big decisions. What is strange and amazing is that we've been moving toward an end to our ABA team for a little while and just yesterday had a meeting with our "girls" and had said that we were slowing down and making it a goal that ABA will end permanently at the end of summer. I think now it will be end of this school year. Evan still has a way to go but he's doing so well. I don't know if it's going to be possible to get him to a point where we can "fix" everything and who knows where that line is anyway. He's still not completely potty trained which is our biggest hurdle right now, but that is because he doesn't want to be potty trained. He's perfectly capable but unwilling. He is a quirky little kid who still flips lights and zones out when you start asking him questions but I can't think of any programs we can do with him that will help those issues. I am trying to come to terms with the fact that there will be a point where we have to just say we've done a great job and put 100 percent into this. Now we have to just work with him as parents and do our best. Hopefully we've gotten there and I'll be able to look back and feel confident and comfortable with ending it in May.

pictures from our trip!

Busy January, part 2

Well, as you can tell, I'm still new to blogging. I hit a wrong button and here we are starting a new post! :)

To leave off from my last post...Bryan becomes a new man when we hit the soil in Orlando, Florida. It's an instant "pick me up" for him and we all love seeing it and as much as we love Bryan daily he becomes such a happy go lucky guy it's just contagious. (This might be why we are members of the Disney Vacation Club and every vacation we go on will somehow be Disney related!) Maybe that retirement in Orlando working at the parks will actually happen. It's Bryan's secret dream to retire there and work as a character. I think I'll stick with working a ticket booth. ;)

Back to the marathon! We made it to Orlando and checked ourselves into the Contemporary. It's the first time we've stayed there and I have to say it was nicer than I expected for one of the oldest hotels on site. Our first night was staying in the actual hotel and the next four were in the new Bay Lake Towers which was just finished. It's the Contemporary's vacation club that's attached with a walkway on the 4th floor. Bryan was anxious to go and check in at the Wide World of Sports complex where they had vendors of all kinds and had heard it was a mad house if you went Friday, so he and Jessie went while I waited with Evan and Hadley for our room to be opened. We actually had fun at the hotel arcade, which was empty. After getting our room and Bryan and Jessie making it back we headed down to Chef Mickey's for Evan's 5th birthday celebration! The food was better than I remember, we got in right away, and Evan had a really fun time! Perfect day for him as we were able to get a room at the hotel that overlooked Magic Kingdom and ended the night watching "Wishes" from our bedroom. We all thought that was amazing.

Friday came and we bundled up...literally bundled up!...and after moving our luggage over to the vacation club side of the Contemporary and being amazed at how beautiful and big our two bedroom villa was we headed to Hollywood Studios. It was so freezing (about 35 degrees) that the park wasn't super crowded and we could probably have ridden any ride within 15 minutes. We chose to see Playhouse Disney for Evan (and Bryan, haha) and I think the lights at the show along with bubbles coming from above made for a good start. Second was hitting American Idol experience for Hadley and me. I love that show and it's fun to see the really talented people who perform. Again, the lights were perfect for Evan. He's really in a "lights" mode right now. After that we all started feeling the cold wind and it started raining which made it worse. We decided to try The Great Movie ride since Bryan couldn't remember ever riding it but when we made it to the door Evan really started freaking out! It looked scary, I guess, and he was very, very upset. I chose to wait outside with him and we found an alcove for shelter. By the time they made it off the ride we were just done. Too cold and wet for us. We went back to our amazing villa for the rest of the afternoon/evening while Bryan and Jess headed back to the vendors area at Wide World of Disney to look at a jacket Bryan had his eye on.

Saturday came and we realized it was EVEN COLDER! I feel so sorry for those who ran the half-marathon that morning. Sleet was coming down when we work up and I think it was all making Bryan even more nervous. We spent the day at Magic Kingdom....well, at least 3 hours of it. Rode Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh (which broke down while we were inside), spent time at Mickey and Minnie's houses, and then called it a day. Too cold even in layers to enjoy it.

Finally the big day was coming! Bryan was a nervous wreck trying to figure out what to wear that he was willing to shed off throughout the run since he would never see it again. After many changes he finally settled on clothes that wouldn't make him too uncomfortable while it was freezing at 4:30am and he waited for a few hours for the race to start AND would not be too hot when he was on mile 20 and probably hotter than I can imagine. I didn't think it was enough layers for the weather....even with the shirts he was planning on dumping along the run. Turns out that he didn't dump anything at all.

Saturday came and Bryan headed out the door at about 3:30am worried about his leg still really bothering him and the cold. I was very worried for him since I knew that he would cross that finish line even if he was dragging it behind him! (so stubborn!!) At about 7:30am the kids and I walked out in front of the Contemporary to watch him pass by. Our location was at about mile 9 of the run. It was bitter cold with pretty strong winds when we walked out. COLD!! It was so fun to see all of the people running though. I can't believe how many people are in that great of shape! I read that over 16,000 people finished the marathon that day....WOW! Anyway, after waiting for over a half an hour, Jessie and I were wondering if we missed him. It would have been easy since the runners were pretty crowded up even at that point. We met a really sweet lady who was searching for her husband too, dealt with some very strict Disney workers who were just doing their jobs but making it hard for us to see the runners, and finally we hear Bryan yelling our names! (I'm so glad he saw us because we definitely would have missed him!) He looked great and even stopped so we could take him picture!! It made me hopeful that his leg was holding out alright and at that point he was at a time where if he kept his pace he would finish the run at about the 3 hour 55 minute mark.

The kids and I went back to our villa to warm up and try to feel our fingers again after that. BRRRR! After slowly getting ready to head to Epcot for Bryan's big finish we made our way to the monorail in the Contemporary. Big mistake!! We should have probably gone over right away. We ended up in a huge line with frustrated people trying to do the same thing we were. After waiting about 4 monorails we were able to make it on, knowing we were going to miss his finish line appearance. It was really exciting once we finally made it to Epcot and seeing the finish line area! We walked off the monorail and made our way over to the huge crowds that were surrounding the course. I don't know how it happened and am still amazed, but we found a thin spot and tried to see some of those who were coming in. Those right in front of us had just seen their runner pass by and moved just in time for me to be able to see Bryan! I was shocked since not even Jess saw him. It was such a lucky thing since the crowds were so big and so many runners were still coming by together. :)

We made our way to the tents where those meet their runners and after quite a while Bryan texted me and we were able to meet up with him. We were all so proud of him!! He finished with a time of 4 hours and 15 minutes. When we found him the poor guy looked good but couldn't stop shaking from being sweaty and having the bitter cold wind blowing! He even shed him shirts and jacket right there in that bitter wind to change into a dry shirt. His leg was a mess and since he had favored his other leg his opposite hip was really hurting too. BUT, he did it!! I think Hadley, Jessie, and I were much more excited than he was at that moment. haha! He was disappointed with his time and was in enough pain that his "moment" was lost for the time being.

All in all it was an interesting but really neat experience even for Bryan. It has also made him even more determined to be there next year even more prepared since he's already signed up to do the Goofy Challenge in 2011. (half marathon one day, full marathon the next!) I think he's a little bit insane but it makes him happy. :) Actually, Bryan was able to get the kids to agree to run next year in the half marathon with him! Jessie, Conner, and Landon will be joining him (along with Jacob who is Jessie's boyfriend). Payton, Hadley, and myself will run the 5K which is the day before that. (Yes, that is all I was willing to commit to!) So I guess we'll be back next year and pray for warmer weather!!

Turns out that once we made it home and Bryan had bone scans done, he had fractures in both of his legs! One seems fine to him but the other still hurts and he's still limping even 3 weeks later. He's taken up swimming to keep himself in shape and to give his legs time to heal. Then I'm sure his training will start up again!

Busy January!

We've had a crazy, but happy, year so far! Things are finally settling down and feeling like they are getting back to the normal swing of things.

After a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday we kept the fun going by heading to Disney World. This trip we went with a purpose....for Bryan to finally run that marathon he's been wanting to do. What better place, or more appropriate location, for Bryan to reach that goal?! We actually left Conner, Landon, and Payton since they are at an age where if they miss school not only will the school give us a hard time, but their grades will suffer. (We learned this from the year before when after going to "the World" we later realized that the boys all had a nice little drop at report card time. Smart boys but not a lot of interest in making sure those grades stay high! grrr! Anyway...the boys will also be heading out on a Disney cruise with Bryan and I after Memorial Day so it only seems fair that we take the other three with us now.

Disney was, like always, a lot of fun. Bryan becomes