17 Years

of Cole.

He was my first born.  Like all of the other kids, he'll always be my baby.

Love my Cole Cole and I hope he has many more wonderful birthdays.  it took a little extra effort to get these candles out.  I just grabbed some and didn't realize they were relights.  And they, apparently, were really good ones!

Happy New Year 2014!

I'm hoping for a really great year.  One where things settle down in the world and maybe society finds their way back to more simple times where not everything revolved around money and one upping, but helping each other and buying what you can afford.  I think that alone will help the world and what kids are growing up to believe is the new norm for America.

Last year was good, but I'm always hoping for better.  A better outlook for all of our futures, fun, a few more breaks.  Not that life was as difficult as others are dealing with.  I just had one of life's simple pleasures today.  Jaemin really enjoys 'What does the fox say', so we found Chase's old MP3 player from many moons ago and got it up and working again.  I downloaded the video for him, finally got it to work on the MP3 and hooked Jaemin up to it.  It's one of very few things that settles his tendencies. He really does stay still when he watches and listens to that song and video.  It's amazing.  He listened for a long time and then looked at me (actually looked in my eyes) and said "thanks for putting that on mom, you're the best, you're beautiful".  He rarely says that much all at once and it was so sweet and then he gave me a little kiss on the cheek.  So, I'm pretty thankful for 2013 bringing 'What does the fox say".

Other than that we rang in the new year very quietly as usual.  We just stayed home and went to bed at the normal time.  'Til the neighbors fireworks woke me up at midnight.  That was a 20 minute show I tried to sleep through and then woke up with a massive headache.  My TMJ and sinuses are flaring bad today.  Not a good way to start off the New Year, but could be worse, we're all together today and that's just nice.  I just sit thinking about what this year will bring.  Haven't heard from the cardiologist yet, so wondering if it will bring surgery for Cole or not?  Can we figure out a vacation we can do maybe?  I'm waiting to find out what's going on with Cole on that.  We may NEED a vacation depending on what's going on with his heart.  How's Jaemin going to do in Kindergarten this year?  That's probably my biggest fear.  Will the school really help him enough?  His sensory disorder really hurts his ability to behave in a 'normal' manner and I get so afraid that if he gets the wrong teacher that doesn't see how great he IS, they could hurt his self-esteem and make him feel bad because he's different.  What if he doesn't know how to handle all of the other kids, daycare is so limited, when he gets in that situation.  He goes with the flow almost too easily.  He is definitely socially delayed and I worry so much about him.  I just want him to be okay and safe and happy.  It's not because he's my youngest, at least not only because he's my youngest.  It's because he's vulnerable.  He's special.  I wish the world could see how special Jaemin is.  Maybe that's what 2014 could bring to me.

Well, I guess we'll see what 2014 has in store this year.  As far as me and my family and the above worries, wishes, I hope it brings more happiness, health and closeness for the 7 of us.  This is so important to me.

Happy New Year All!

Christmas 2013

The kids didn't get anything extravagant, but they got pretty much everything on their lists and I think they enjoyed it.  We decided to not rush Christmas this year by trying to run too many places and stayed home on Christmas Eve.  We went to mass, which lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes.  I think it almost killed Jaemin.  He was really struggling to control himself for so long.  He just kept asking how many songs were left, but they sang everything at this church, so he counted everything.

We came home and made their favorite snack food Christmas.  We had smokies, shrimp, wings, donuts, cinnamon rolls and whatever else.  Each one got to pick a food for us to buy.  Then we watched Elf for a bit.  They opened all their presents and just played the rest of the night.  Jaemin was pretty excited Santa would bring him a Pororo table from Korea.  And he really liked the Monster Truck Great Grandma W got him.  Cole was pretty practical this year and got lots of things for hunting, his car, etc.  Chase has a drawer full of hoodies now, so he should be in good shape.  Kaelin is full up on clothes and accessories.  Chelsi got tons of shoes and finally got a boy doll for her Barbies.  She now has Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.  I actually got a present this year.  Brian saw my mirror that had broken a few years ago and got me a brand new mirror.  Just a simple little hand mirror, but I finally got a new one.  All in all I averaged out to my budget of $100 per kid.  I tried to work as many ebates, Kohls cash or whatever reward I could find into everything.  So after Christmas, I should have a decent little check coming.

I think they're all worn out now....just fairly quietly playing Wii.  We did do what a coworker told me to try.  We put no labels on the gifts from mom and dad and they each just opened a gift and had to decide who's gift it really went to.  Fairly easy until we got to hair accessories.  We got it though.  You can tell from some of their faces, these were not their gifts.  :)

Here are their own gifts.

And each other's gifts.

Then they played.

We got to go to both of their grandma's houses on Christmas Day and cousin E and uncle B came in from NY.

The pictures of E and grandma kissing cracked me up.  He started out smiling in the one and then looked at her out of the corner of his eyes.

Dear God,

please help my two oldest as they go through middle school and high school finals this week.  Especially, help them in Algebra.  Please help their Algebra teachers to recognize how to make a better impact on kids. 

Chase has put so much work into Algebra I and I'm really having to jog my memory.  Tonight we got out the home teaching book my brother sent us and it helped with linear equations.  Yep, I can again do those.  Just don't give me fractions....ugh!

Cole had a great night at wrestling, so hopefully, that builds up some self-esteem and he'll push through 4 finals tomorrow.

I let Kaelin know how great she's doing.  She's keeping her grades up with straight As and really listening at home and being more unselfish.  I told her she's really turning into a nice young lady and it makes me proud of her.

Chelsi is still vivacious Chelsi.  Enough said.

Jaemin is so Jaemin.  Really the two of them are so much alike except Jaemin has his sensory issues.  He's got quick wit like Chelsi and is very bright.  Being behind socially and emotionally masks his wit so much, but I see it and know it's there.  We're working on his flapping before kindergarten.  Kinda kicking it into overdrive.  The teachers say they have a plan for him, but we still need to try to reroute the reaction.  I know he can't quit flapping.  It's how he deals with anxiety and sensory ups and downs.  But, we're going to try to reroute it to a less noticeable hand action.  At least try.  He cognizantly knows to squeeze or massage his hands instead, but old habits can be hard to break, so hopefully over several months we can break into a new way to deal with it all.  He's so funny and happy.  I wouldn't want Jaemin to change too much.  I love his fascination with time and announcing the time constantly....'clock says eight zero eight, time for bed'.  Even if it's 8:08 am!  He's so structured.  Sometimes you would seriously think he was aspergers, but the doctor says no, it's all sensory related.

Anyways, knock on wood, after Cole got over the stomach bug last week no one in the house has gotten in yet, but it's running rampant at work and school, so I'll feel better if we escape Christmas without it.  Only time we'll tell.  For now, the kids are looking forward to our newer tradition of junk food, movies and games Christmas....just the 7 of us.

Christmas Tradition

Our tradition, since the year Kaelin came home, is to dress in pjs and take a picture in front of the tree for our Christmas cards.  Only one year did we use a different photo instead and I kind of regret it.  It's kind of fun to look through these pictures and see how the kids have changed.  Meanwhile, I was trying to test my flash and Chase was nice (weird) enough to sit in front of the tree for me....then he pulled Jaemin in too.

But, first this is the kind of boy Jaemin is growing into; a corny, funny, little guy with a sense of humor.  Much like Chase....goofy!

Then, we took the real pictures.  This picture won the prize for landing on our card.

Halloween 2013

Jaemin had a blast. He is definitely starting to remember things.  We went to a couple of trunk-or-treats at church and he said he wanted to go home and ride in the wagon.  He remembered that Chase pulls him in the wagon every year through the neighborhood to trick or treat.  Chelsi decided to wear the same dress she wore last year.  The girl that I bought the dress from, found the crown after Halloween last year.  Since Chelsi made it a witch costume last year she wanted to be a princess this year.  I was stumped on Jaemin.  He wanted to be a Ninja Turtle when he saw the costume Monday while we were waiting for his medicine, but it was $25.  I had put off figuring out what to do for Jaemin's costume thinking I had all this time, but then he got sick and I ran out of time.  When we were at the grocery store (when he was sick) Jaemin picked out the Batman mask.  So I bought a $1 box of black trash bags, found some leftover felt, velcro, Kaelin's leggings and with Chase's artistic ability we made Jaemin into Batman.

Party Time for Jaemin

Jaemin has been SO excited about his party for the last week.  It's not really a big party, but it was just right for him. Luckily, his Godparents' daughter is his friend, so he got to have his friend over and his Godparents in one.  They got along well, for the most part, trying to share the jeep.  He liked having the fire in the firepit later when it got cooler.  He loved his dinosaur cupcakes and Ninja Turtle plates and napkins.  Thank goodness, he's easy to make happy. It was all outside and super easy for clean up and the weather was perfect.

Money is Jaemin's favorite gift.  He always likes to announce he got 'monies'.

Some.....of the birthday pictures

I will have more of Jaemin after his party this weekend, but I finally got Chelsi's off the camera and Jaemin opening his gift from us.  You can see his look at the blanket....less than thrilled.  But, he likes it now and sleeps on it.....yes, not under it.