Up and Coming!

I have been feeling very bad that I do not journal any of teh wonderful things my kids do.  So I will update my blog...if possible and record some of the wonderful things that have been happening in our life.

below is a list to remind myself:
montly update from March till now of day to day stuff...nothing fancy!
gf diet
o hugging c on way home from school
pillows on couch
beehive teacher
liv- math, reading, social, braces
sam- kiss me, eyes,
chlo- gf wont eat food unless knows good, preschool,
lu- firecracker, putin corner knows why
dad's cancer
mimi
fit for life
soccer
baseball
bob- work,
saving for house
walk a thon winery
doing the hard things!
life is like unto a dream
life is like a fairy tale

Text to my Dad

 This must have been a text message I sent my dad while he was since with AML leukemia.

Today the weather has been weird. It is sunny and cold and cloudy and hot. I have been out this morning to read with some kids in Sam's class. I usually go on Wednesdays to help the kids with Math, but today about 5 kids needed an extra chance to read to someone. 

When I was saying goodbye to Sam I noticed his finger was cracked. Sometimes Sam sucks on the knuckle on his thumb and it gets chapped and then bloody. He said it hurt so came back during his snack time and brought ointment to put on his thumb. The kids wanted to know what I was putting on this thumb. I said it was a secret ointment that would help Sam win when he plays thumb wars. They thought that was pretty funny. 

Then I took the two younger girls to music class. When it was almost over Chloe started helping one of my friends get her purses on her shoulder. It was kind of funny... music class was still going. I am not sure that Chloe was thinking. I guess she wanted to be helpful. Then I came home and Dory was already here doing the laundry. Chloe was excited to go read with me at the library, so we left right away. I spent 1hr 45 min reading to her and having her tell me about the books she was looking at. She could have done that for another hour if we had the time. After that it was time to pick Sam up from school. So Chloe and I went to pick up Sam while Lauren took a nap. Now I am figuring out what we will have for dinner. I have to make it before we go to Olivia's ballet class.

Have you seen Imanuel today? He was going to come report back to you today. I wonder if he went to the school to find out about starting classes.

Ann said she puts your name in the temple when she go to visit. The kids and I are praying that you feel better today. It looks like you can stop your medicine soon. If this was one of your AZ trail hikes, where would you say you are? Maybe yesterday when you were so cold that felt like the time you were hiking in the frozen snow. Remember when you were hiking and got cut from the frozen snow pack you were hiking through? After you finish the Trail, let me know which part was the nicest. Maybe Sam and I will go on that part with you! We will skip the ice hikes. For now we better stay with camping. The kids are looking forward to our campout in two weekends. I found some firewood and we have plenty of roasting sticks for our marshmallows and a big tent, so we are set.

I will check in later. Just rest! Chloe and Sam say hi. (Olivia is at a friend's house) and Lauren is just poking at the mouse. Love you. Lindsay Girand Ledesma

4 eyes

I have always thought Sam was such a cute boy.  My good friend Mandy said Sam reminders her of the little boy on the front of Mad Magazine (not because he is naughty) but because she thinks he looks like an all American boy.  I know exactly what she means, he is just adorable.  Well, my cute boy can't see.  He has 20/80 vision.  So he is going to get glasses.  Then we will officially be the cutest boy around.  I am sure he will do well wearing his glasses.  If I can find an image of what he has been seeing with 20/80 vision I will upload it.
 Click here and you can see the glasses Sam picked!

A.P. update

A.P.= auditory processing
Last night Chloë had on Olivia's undershirt and Olivia wanted her to change.  So I asked Chloë to go change and I took off her jammie top to help speed up the process. Chloë went into her room and the next thing I hear is her crying.  So I went into her room to see what was wrong.  For the billionth time I asked Chloë why she was crying.  Every time I have EVER asked her this I would get no response.  By now this WHY question was just rhetorical.  Her nonresponse was just part of Chloë's a.p. issue; she might not answer because she does not understand what this WHY question means or she might be so distracted by the fact that she is crying that she can't answer.  But to my surprise Chloë said, "Because you hurt me."  I asked her if I hurt her feelings or her body.  She said "You hurt body."  (apparently I took the jammie top off too quickly-but this is not the point of the story)  I could not believe she just answered my question.  I was so happy to hear her answer. 
Then tonight at dinner she asked me if I liked my corn.  I said "yes, especially with lots of salt and butter."  Then Chloë said, "I like corn of the cob."  Yeah! she is communicating with us.  Chloë loves being with people sometimes I forget she doesn't talk much.  Then when she asks me a question and says something like, "I like corn on the cob."  I realize questions and statements so specific are few and far between for her.  I think preschool has been good for her.  It gives her opportunity to talk to others and share with me what happened during the time at school. She is positively progressing.
p.s.  today is her 4th birthday...i will post about that later!

fun at home

Sunny Winter Days

It has been great weather lately.  On the way home from school Sam said he wanted to have a picnic.  I thought that was a great idea.  Next thing I know he is calling Lula and Chloë to sit on the grass in front of our house.  OH the joys of living on a busy road!

Most Fridays I take the two younger girls to the park with from friends from church. 

Great to be 8

The ward we attend has over 130 kids!  There are 18 kids Olivia's age that will be getting baptized this year.  Here are some of the girls.  They decided to sing at each other's baptisms.  Here they are practicing their songs.  Far left: Lilly Burt, Bethany Liddycoat, Kelly Smith, Taylor Picket, Lucy Alebest, ? Budge, Olivia Ledesma, Vivian Reed, Samantha Fairnanks, and upper right, Sarah Bettinger. 

Beehives

I have been teaching the Beehives at church for about a year (there are about 13 girls).  Beehives are the girls ages 12 and 13.  I love working with them.  Every Sunday I get to talk with about important gospel principles such as faith, family, modesty, work, the Holy Ghost, God, and especially Jesus Christ.  I share with them every week my loves for Jesus and his restored gospel.  I made each girl a journal like the ones above.    Each week I give the girls an important quote and I ask them to take notes from the lesson and write their feelings down.  I hope the girls will love to re-read their journals when they are older.

no second thought

I am so proud of Olivia.  Today she received a birthday invitation from a girl she has wanted to have over to play.  Olivia was very excited, she opened the card, read all the details out loud and then said, "Sunday! It's on Sunday."

Then she picked out some stationary and started writing a letter.  When I asked her what she was doing, she said she had to tell Francesca she couldn't go to her party.  I asked her why she couldn't go, and very matter of factly she whispered, "It's on Sunday." and then she smiled.

Olivia may or may not have a complete understanding of keeping the Sabbath day, but she has wonderful faith and obedience in the principle!

Chloë started Preschool

After much research and money, we have decided to start Chloë in a small (6 kids) preschool at a larger private school.  She has been seeing a speech therapist for a little over 3 months.  She has some auditory processing issues, which is a broad term, but basically she has trouble processing what others are telling her for several reasons.  The most common ways in which Chloë has a hard time processing what we are saying are: (1) if she has something she wants to tell us she won't "hear" our question until she gets her point across (so she gives us any answer to appease us) and (2) if there is just too much outside stimulation, so she just turns off and drops into the background.   

Chloë made great progress with Dawn, the speech therapist, and I learned better ways to cue Chloë into to listening to us.  For example, I have learned to ask her questions with visual cues as well as speaking. In addition to her speaking skills I was concerned that Chloë was always complaining about her tummy hurting, which could also contribute to her lack of energy and interest in interacting with others. 

I am beginning to figure out Chloë has some food allergies.  It seems she might be allergic to milk...which could be a big problem!!  She is definitely lactose intolerant, and the blood test indicates that she is allergic to milk.  So we are having allergy tests given to Chloë at the end of the month to be sure. 

I will get back to you when we have solutions!

SKI jump!

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The first time they went over this LITTLE hump everyone got a little more air, except Daniel.   We all had to stop so I could sent up my photo shoot, which made everyone very slow for their jump.  Oh well they are all so cute, even Daniel.  Olivia and Daniel are in the first clip and then Sam is in the second.

Ski Utah!

After Christmas at Ann's house, we drove up to Salt Lake where we met all the Girand sisters and their families for another ski trip.  This was the first ski trip that I was really able to enjoy.  Other ski trips I was either pregnant or had a little baby to watch.  Ann was a saint and volunteered to watch Lu in St. George while we skied for the week.  The weather was crazy the first few days with TONS of snow.   But we enjoyed it.  Most of us skied at Solitude.

Apparently Olivia was loving the snow

Olivia, my dad, Sam and Daniel enjoyed the slopes the first day.  My dad was so great to come ski with us. 

I did make it up on the mountain.  All these pictures were taken with my phone camera.  It was FREEZING cold and very snowy as you can see.

At some points it was so snowy is was hard to ski.  Sam would get stuck very easily.

After a quick mid morning or mid afternoon break Olivia was always ready for more.  Grandpa Mike said Olivia was a natural skier and had the same look Valerie had when she was little. 

There is Sam in the yellow coat.  One day the resort hired horn blowers to come play to the skiers.  It was pretty remarkable how far they could be heard up the mountain.  I felt like I was skiing in the Alps.  Can you say, "Ricola"

These are some great pictures from our lunch break.  The lunch crew (Barb, Andrea and Valerie) did a great job making lunch for the tired skiers.  Thanks!

Everyone was so happy and full of energy even when exhausted.  What a great memory.  Thanks Mom and Dad.

Christmas with the Rosas

Look at Sam, I don't think he knew what to do with all these boy cousins his age!  What fun!!!!

Olivia and Jennifer spent the afternoon playing with Jenn's glitter Barbie.  It was a creative way to get Barbie lovers to buy another Barbie.  I will be honest here.  I am not a Barbie fan.

Our chefs are getting ready for la cena.

Here is Olivia holding Olivia Rosas.

Christian, Aaron and Sam ready with their ligthsabers

Christmas in St. George

For Christmas Eve we had a yummy ham dinner.  The evening was perfect.  After a nice dinner with Great Grandpa Jack we had dessert.  Olivia and Grandma Ann like to make lemon meringue pie, so that was one of our desserts.

After dinner we read and acted out Luke 2.  It went pretty well even though there were only 7 of us to act out all the parts, read and video record the show.  Olivia and Ann had to be the angels, shepherds and wise men.  The reading ended with a fight over who would hold baby Jesus.  Our wonderful night ended with a reading of 'Twas the night before Christmas. 

YEAH!!!  Christmas morning was here!  This picture is going to be a classic!  Everyone was ready for the fun to begin, yet they were very patient as we began opening gifts.

Everyone is holding their favorite present.  Lu loves her ballet dress (which she wore everyday for almost 2 months and still wears almost daily), Olivia is holding her umbrella, Chloë is holding her princess outfit, Daniel loves his nerf football, Sam loves his nerf guns, and I guess my favorite present was Daniel.  I am grateful for him and our parents.  This Christmas was especially nice for the kids.

A few hours after we opened presents the girls were all huddled around their girl toys.  While the girls were in their room playing you can watch the clip below to see what the boys were doing!

Elizabeth and Ricardo and their 6 kids drove down from Salt Lake for Christmas dinner and time to play with their cousins.  Ricardo made an authentic Mexican dinner for us.  What a treat.

Luke 2 at the Tuacan

Ann and I stayed home for a few day after school was out for Christmas vacations to get things organized.  Then Ann drove with the kids and I to St. Geroge.  Before we arrived in St. George we stopped in Las Vegas to pick Daniel up.  We decided it is better for Daniel to work all day while we drove the kids to Southern Utah and meet him at the Vegas airport.  Our first day in St. Geroge was wonderful.  That evening we went to the Tuacan outdoor theater for a viewing of their Live nativity.  It was a beautiful show.  I love it every year. 

It was VERY cold and the seats were a little wet for a rain shower that late afternoon. 

Mother and Son...

Most of the pictures taken between these two were so goofy.  I am glad they did take a few cute ones.  After the show we sat by a fire for our traditional hot cocoa.  We needed it, it was so cold.  Thanks Grandma!

See... here is one of these goofy pictures!  I am not sure what look he was going for??  And yes he knows he has chocolate all over his face.

Olivia really wanted her picture with Santa!  Chloë just went along for the ride.  Sam and Lauren were not interested!

Just a normal day...

...Or maybe not.  Sam and I went in for his normal 3 shots.  We are finally on the highest level of medicine.  About 15 minutes after the shot Sam started getting short of breath and coughing.  So I said something to the nurse, Trish.  They quickly took him back read his oxygen levels and heart rate.  Trish quickly gave him some medicine and Chris (the other nurse) gave Sam an epi pin (epinefrin)  It all happened so quickly. 

Needless to say, Sam was wired for the next few hours.  I think they might have over reacted a little, but he has been fine ever since.

Bubb gingerbread houses

I took the three older kids to a friend's house (from Bubb school) for a fun party.  The kids loved running around in the backyard playing.  After a while it was time to decorate their houses.  Here is the smile Chloë gives when she is shy.

 At first it was a little hard for me because it was apparent that most of the mom's already do things together, but as the party continued I warmed up.  It was nice to be invited to this party so my kids and I could develop our relationship with the people we see at school.