Snake Corndog

Because sometimes, you just need one.

Officially Official.

Well I can officially say that I am a college graduate. I graduated from USD this past December. Never ever thought that would happen.

Accepting my Diploma!

Phoenix, Me, Matthew and Sean

Also, on my birthday (March 4th), I became an official Registered Nurse. I took my boards on March 3rd because I knew either way pass or fail, I was going to celebrate on my birthday! Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

More Criteria than Before?!

I've been meaning to update on Matthew's most recent school IEP meeting. It wasn't supposed to be due until March but they noticed some age speech delays and suggested I have him tested early. So in December, they administered the ADOS again.

The first time the school administered their test for Autism, Matthew met a 5/12 criteria. In our state, you need a 6/12 to be considered having Autism.

I was frustrated. But I did get my 6/12 diagnosis through the children's specialty needs hospital.

Well my 3 years were up so the school decided to do the ADOS again. Hmm. I was a little surprised at the results. I filled out all the paperwork on my end as usual. I still feel he has a lot of things to work on.

Of course the one part the teachers thought I was way off base but obviously he is a different kid at school. Then on the last 2 parts, I pretty much was in sync with what his teacher sees at school.

The end result: 7/12. Not sure how I feel about that. I mean he's made some remarkable gains, but now at 8 years old his is 1 more in criteria than he was at 4 years old.

So he'll be re-evaluated in another 3 years I'm sure and we'll continue with our annual IEP's. It's just hard because there's a few things I really hope he masters this summer. I know we will get there. It takes time. Such is life.

St Patrick's Day 2014

Well we have been an officially married couple for 2 years this past Monday. Pretty exciting stuff right there!!!!

Sean and I spent the morning relaxing at a sauna called SuiteSweat. Then we headed out for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. Sean got a free drink on the house since we told them it was our anniversary! Then we headed to McNally's for a beer, before we headed home we picked up these beauties. (pictured). What a romantic bouquet of flowers courtesy of Meredith and Bridget's. Finally we picked the boys up from school and took them to the Old 77 Bar and Grille (where we had our wedding reception). All and all a very good anniversary, looking forward to many more to come!

Bella Bonita Burrito

Over Christmas break, we added an addition to our family, meet "Bella," our 10 month old black and white female Chihuahua.



She fits in perfectly with our family and Matthew has been extra sweet on her.
The best thing about this lil dog is that she was born on my Mom and my BIRTHDAY!!! How cool is that?

On a happier note...

I forgot to blog that Matthew obtained his first pet in June thanks to Grandma.

Introducing to you: 

"Whiskers"

a male manx kitten

Grandma said he needed a pet to bond with now that we have a new home, and I am happy to 

announce, they are the best of friends.

The cutest picture ever of Whiskers.

Crazy cat.

Whiskers' Momma "Hum"

"She was my sister..."

"... now I don't have a sister." --Matthew Zane

It is with a heavy heart that our beloved family dog "Ruby" was laid to rest today.

She was a good old dog. We always teased Matthew that Ruby was his sister because he is an only

child. He hated us saying that but eventually it grew on him and he did consider her his sister.

Unfortunately, Matthew didn't cry when he heard the news. He takes death differently than most people

do. That dog was a special part of our family. She was very fond of the boys and would have done

anything to protect them. She will be greatly missed.

RIP 

"Ruby Tuesday"

10-31-05 to 7-25-13 

(she was only a few months younger than Matthew) 

Ruby on our wedding day.

Matthew and Ruby

Family Photos 2011

Phoenix and Ruby 

A big thank you dinner for my parents!

My parents have been more than amazing. I can't begin to thank them enough for the all the help and support they have given us throughout the years. They are the only ones who've been there for us through the ups and downs. 

This past Sunday, I decided to make them a meal in our new home. It was quite a change from me making the big meals for them at their home. 

The menu consisted of: French onion soup, porterhouse steak, baked potatoes w/all the fixings, and cucumber salad. :) 

My happy spoon working on the onions. 

Love our big table that seats 6. And my Mom found this table for me. 

Onions cooking down. 

Dad and his boys. 

Steaks on the grill. 

Love my new soup bowls. 

What a fantastic meal. 

Love that soup! 

A little look inside our new home!

A housewarming wreath from a friend.

Matthew.

Downstairs living room. 

Downstairs living room. 

Pretty proud of my rustic decor, laundry room. 

Downstairs bathroom. 

Master bedroom. 

Living room. 

Dining area. 

Love the kitchen cabinet handles we found and my Dad installed. 

Kitchen

Upstairs bathroom.

What's Yellow, Black, White, and Gray???

Matthew's New Room!!!! 

Thanks to his Daddy for doing all the painting and me for finding the idea off of Pinterest!

The start, painted the white stripes. 

They call me "mellow yellow." That's the name of the yellow paint. lol

Matthew's Daddy is working hard to get his room done!

Starting to come together. 

All done! Matthew's pretty happy! 

Now all we need is some wall decor and Matthew's yellow shag rug should be here any day now. :) 

3 semesters down 1 to go

Can't believe at this time last year, I was 1 down 3 to go..... now I've only got 1 semester of Nursing School left. Time flies.

Crazy Ice Storm April 2013

So the first few days of April wasn't too bad. Nice enough to stop sending the boys their snowpants and snowboots to school...until this happened....

They ended up missing 3 days of school and having a late start on Friday. Sounds like some more wintery weather is on it's way but the high will be 50 degrees next Friday-Saturday so hopefully it all melts. We definitely need the moisture. Guess we'll take it how we can get it.

Coming Soon! May 6th!

Our Family is officially becoming more and more official. Sean and I decided it was time to be done with renting and looked into buying a home in January. It has been a very interesting and painful process to say the least. We found one, but the sellers didn't want to go down in price too much. We didn't really like the neighborhood either. We really want to get out of the big city and out into the country more.
So a few more weeks slipped by and I noticed a new listing in a little town on March 15. Of course that was a Friday that the listing came out and we couldn't see it until the following Monday. So we celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary on St. Patrick's Day and hoped this could be the house for us.
We liked it and put in an offer on it and they counter-offered and we accepted. :) I've learned a lot in the past few weeks. We have a great realtor and our mortgage officer has been pretty helpful too. We found home insurance, had the house inspection, re-negotiated some work to be done, I took a first time homebuyer course, and we've been figuring out how we are going to decorate.
Matthew has been very excited too. We'll be painting his room a mix of yellow, white, gray, and black stripes. I've already found him a cool yellow computer chair.
Of course I've gotten a lot of help from Pinterest coming up with ideas in what to do.
I can't wait to take ownership of our new home in May!

Yoshi Family

Matthew has been a little in love with Mario and Luigi lately and all the characters that go with it. So much that he actually refers to himself as "Baby Yoshi," and I in turn have become "Mama Yoshi," and of course Daddy is "Papa Yoshi." It's pretty cute to hear him say "you mean Baby Yoshi," if I say "good night Matthew."

What a great little boy I have.