Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas Friends & Family!
We had a wonderful Christmas Day! Shawn's parents arrived on Thursday. We were excited to have them join us in Arkansas for Christmas this year. Christmas Eve we followed family tradition and went to see Tin Tin followed by dinner at Logan's. We came home and got in our Christmas Jammies and had our family Christmas program. It's always a nice way to spend Christmas Eve singing Christmas songs and reading the Christmas story from the scriptures.

We woke up bright and early to see the treasures Santa had brought. The trio were very happy with their Christmas surprises. We went to sacrament meeting at church. We came home and had a very yummy Christmas dinner and an evening full of family time playing with the trio! It was a wonderful day and I'm grateful for such a sweet family to make treasured memories with.
We also had a the opportunity to have our missionaries share the day with us. It was fun to have them here with us. They were so good to play with the trio. I am not sure they enjoyed waking up at 6 am to join us!

Nana & Papa Christmas morning

The trio waking up Papa where they can see their Treasures!

Christmas Morning!

Some of Jaxon's treasures!

Some of Ashlin's treasures!

Some of Jeron's treasures!

Jeron in his rocket ship!

More of Christmas treasures!

Anyone call a doctor?

Legos, legos, legos, what else do you need?

The missionaries....still asleep!

Goodbye Jazzy!

Goodbye Jazzy, you were good to our family. With Shawn's parents arrival we realized the need to get a car with more room. After several long days, folders thrown, and a trip to Little Rock we traded in our little Prius for a Chevrolet Traverse. I don't have a picture yet but it's white and the kids have named it Snowy. Merry Christmas Shawn!

Almost Stitches!

I got a call at work while proctoring finals, "Jaxon fell at school and cut his eye. I think he needs stitches!" Needless to say I was a mess. We made it there and he had his eye all patched up. We couldn't get an appointment with the doctor for 2 hours. So, we took him to his class Christmas party. His teacher felt very bad about what happened. None of us could figure out exactly what he cut his eye on. We got to the doctor's and he said good news we can glue you right up. Jaxon said I don't want my eye glued. I explained the alternative to him (stitches) and suddenly he loved they idea of glue. He however did not like the idea of no rough and tumble play this was a huge challenge for him. He failed miserably but he survived and did not reopen his injury!

Pictures from the Class Parties!

Ashlin's Primary Talk

The following is Ashlin's primary talk that she wrote last minute to fill in for Jaxon completely on her own. May we all capture the true meaning of Christmas as she has. Our family hopes that the sweet spirit of the most precious gift given fills your hearts this Christmas Season.

I know that my Redeemer lives. Why this is our theme is because this is a very gifted time of they year and because Christ was born. Here's the story of how Jesus was born. Okay a little after Mary was married to Joseph an angel appeared and told her her "you will have a child named Jesus." So when thy heard it they started to find somewhere for her to have her baby but 2 people said, "No." but at the the third door they said, "Yes" but they had to stay in a stable. So they said, "yes" and what was in that very stable....Jesus Christ was born but the wise men and shepherds were still out there but when they saw that bright star they knew there was a miracle happening so they followed that star and when they got there they were amazed because they were led to Jesus. So they each gave him a present so that is the story of Jesus when he was born. And it teaches us that Christmas isn't all about the presents and all the goody's. It's about Christ's birthday and that's the biggest present we can get.

Arkansas Hands & Voice Christmas Activity

The Arkansas Hands & Voices is a group of parents and professionals who work together to benefit children with hearing loss. For a long time we did not get involved in activities such as these because we weren't sure we belonged. Jaxon's hearing loss is mild to moderate and he does so well we were torn where we fit hearing versus hearing loss which we viewed narrowly at first thinking of more severe hearing loss. So.....we hesitated getting involved. For the past year we have made an effort to participate in the Arkansas Hands & Voices activities and it has been such a blessing.....especially with the rough transition to kindergarten.

The Chapter Coordinator had approached me about doing a Christmas activity mid November. We attempted to plan it but things just were not going well so we decided to scrap the activity. Another area in Arkansas moved planned a Christmas activity. We didn't feel like one area could have an activity and the Conway area not. So we had to plan the event in a very short time. Needless to say there were a few stressful moments in the planning process but the evening turned out to be a success. Some of Shawn's students came to help out with the evening. They were a huge help and were very cute interacting with the kids. There was crafts galore, pictures with Santa, and a good friend from church came and did caricatures! The kids had an amazing time and it is always nice to be around parents who are going through similar adventures!

Once again, I find myself thankful for the experiences Heavenly Father has brought my way!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas....

SNOW......just a little but I will take it!

Our future sports writer!

Our family absolutely loves basketball. We are lucky to get into the UCA games for free since we work there. We try and make as many as many of the games we can. The trio are picking up on our enthusiasm for the sport.

One of the games this week Ashlin wrote a play by play of the game. She filled an entire little notebook. She knows all of the players name and will cheer for them loudly. If they could play on her enthusiasm they would win every game!

Let's go UCA Bears & Sugar Bears!

Christmas at Grandaddies

We made a very quick trip this past weekend to go to a family Christmas party. We stayed the night at my grandparents. We had a great visit with them. I am so grateful the trio get the opportunity to spend time with them and make treasured memories. My grandparents have played such a significant role in my life and I am grateful for all that they have taught me as well as the opportunity my children have to learn from their sweet spirit.

Ashlin loved meeting all of her extended family and even made friends with a cousin her same age. She was very excited to work on her family tree. I showed her a book with the Van Zandt county history. It has a section on our family. She loved reading in and was excited to know this was her family history. I truly love her enthusiasm for life and learning. The boys loved playing with Grandaddie. Grandaddie loves to see tease them and they enjoyed it immensely. The trio once again got to spend time with the tractor. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of this.

My Sweet Grandparents and the Trio

The Trio with my Auntie J! They adore her!

2011 Thanksgiving!

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Conway. Our dear friend Lindsee Shipp invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with her family. It was good to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends. There was tons of yummy food and good friendship.
I love Thanksgiving as it gives us the opportunity to reflect on the many blessings in our lives (of course we should do this daily). Our family has been very blessed. Our Father in Heaven always provides with what we need in that particular time in life. This past few months have been quite difficult for our little family one of the harder times since Shawn and I have been married. Despite the fact that life has not gone as smoothy as we liked we had the strength of our family to weather the storms of life. I am so grateful for Shawn and his continual love and support. He is always ready to give me his shoulder when I need a good cry. My trio bring such a sweet spirit into our home. They bring love and laughter each day. For this Thanksgiving I am especially grateful for my sweet family that make life better no matter what's going in the moment!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Jaxon!

Our sweet boy turned 6 on November 8th. It's unbelievable how fast they grow up. I am so thankful that Shawn and I were blessed to be Jaxon's parents. He is a an amazing little boy who continues to bring joy and happiness to our lives. He is very smart and continues to love his family, friends, school and learning. We are very proud of the little boy he has become.

We celebrated his birthday at Hollender's Martial Art Studios. The kids got to play and learn a few martial arts moves. Jaxon got to cut his sword with a samurai sword....this was definitely one of the hight lights of the day for him.

Happy 6th Birthday, Jaxon! We love you!

Happy 2011 Halloween!

Yep, I am behind once again! We had a great halloween. The trio raked in the candy. Ashlin was a flamenco dancer. Jaxon was Thor and Jeron was Captain America. My boys love superheroes and were excited for Halloween after so many great super hero movies this summer.

Sweet Moment Turns Sour

Yesterday I got a call from Ashlin while I was at work she asked, ""Mom can you tell me about autism? There is a little boy in my class with autism and I need to know more where I can be able to be a good friend." My little mommy heart leapt with pride. I spent five years working with children with autism in San Diego and I have told her stories about the children I worked with. She remembered this and wanted me to tell her all about it. We talked later on that evening. I let her call one of my friends that currently works with children with autism and is a brilliant behavior analyst. Ashlin took this very serious. She took notes and asked very grown up questions. I was impressed and amazed by her sweet example. Honestly if my university students followed in her footsteps there would be quite a bit more A's. She was very sincere and really wanted to make sure she was a good friend.




Today, she got home from school crushed. She said she had a bad day. After a bit of prying she told me that her classmates were saying this student with autism had a disease and she asked them to stop. But the teacher thought she was saying this. The teacher reprimanded the whole class and specifically looked at her and commented none of them were autism experts. Sigh......
I called the teacher and told her I was very concerned that Ashlin came home very upset and I wanted to know what happened where I could follow up with Ashlin (we do want to support the teacher). She told me the parent and a school psychologist had spoke with the class yesterday. Today members of Ashlin's class was telling other second graders that the child had a disease and they were running away from him. I told her that Ashlin really took it to heart and felt like she was targeting her. The teacher reported that she could tell by the look on her face that she was upset and felt guilty. I ended the conversation at this point. I did not want to say anything I might regret later.
I spoke to Ashlin again this evening I asked her what happened and she related her version. I asked multiple times if she said Gavin had a disease and said no. I stressed I would not be mad at her. She reported that she was the one that got a the duty teacher to assist. I asked her if I could verify this with the duty teacher. She said yes I could. I know my child is not perfect but I don't see any signs that she is lying to me. Nevertheless, I feel like even if she said the child had a disease it was obvious the intent was not mean and the teacher's response was not the best approach with my child.
My other concern is if they are going to talk about a topic like this I think they should send a note home to the parents and let them know and how we can best give our support. I wish more than words can say that I would have mentioned for her not share with others that this student had autism (shouldn't this have been covered in their meeting?).
My heart broke for her because I honestly think she was trying her best to do what is right....but was punished for it. Sigh...maybe it's my mother's heart talking. Here is a question how do we be an advocate for our child without coming across as a "Witch"? I am struggling with this!
Our life truly feels like a soap opera since August. It feels like as soon as we get one thing under control something else comes up. I don't feel like I am seek out drama but it sure seems to be following me. I sure hope we can get a little rest soon or I quickly learn what I need from these experiences because somedays I am running on empty.
I so want to end on a positive note. I am so thankful for my beautiful family. They bring endless moments of joy & happiness to my life. Despite the fatigue they are worth all of the battles fought!

In case anyone wonders what Shawn does....

Taken from his blog for his lab.
The Blu-ray player I “almost” owned…

On Saturday my family and I participated in a charity walk-a-thon in our town. This was the first of many scheduled events for our weekend and so we were forced to run before the prize drawing. This seemed like a wise decision as the odds of being in trouble with my wife if we arrived late for the kid’s soccer games were, in my estimation, much greater than for winning one of the major prizes. My calculations were wrong. Not 30 minutes after leaving a friend texted to tell us that had we been in attendance, we would now be the proud owners of a Vizio Blu-Ray player.

Now here is the interesting part: both my wife and I immediately started to feel as if we had lost something. For me (I cannot speak for her feelings), this was not the, “shoot I lost the grocery list” feeling, but more like a “that was my favorite ______________ ever” kind of feeling. It was as if that one moment in which I pictured myself inserting the Transformers 3 disc into this player was enough to enter this player into my personal inventory.

But it was never, actually, mine. I never touched it and I never saw it. Nevertheless, my brain immediately adjusted to the idea that it was indeed mine. And the emotional reaction I felt was similar to how I felt when I discovered that the new “friend” that had stopped by to play with my G. I. Joe collection had walked off with Storm Shadow (just to be clear, this happened when I was a lot younger). The decision to give the Blu-Ray player to someone still at the event was interpreted not as good policy, but as a theft of my property.

Fortunately, research indicates that I am not alone in my irrationality. Research on theendowment effect demonstrates that the value of an item increases once it is viewed as part of our personal inventory. To be honest, the value of the Vizio player, before hearing that I had almost won it, was $0. Nothing against Vizio, but I own two televisions and two Blu-Ray players already. Both of my players are fine systems and I see no need to spend money on a new model. But what if I could have one for free? The added value of a “free” Blu-ray player was much greater than $0. Without having to subtract the cost of the player from the perceived value of the player made it a positive, and thus desirable, gain.

So if I did not value the player and had no real use for it, why did I have such a strong reaction to its loss? Because the “bonus” value of having an extra blu-ray player was offset by the loss I felt at having it taken away from me. This reaction is well described by Kahneman & Tversky’s Prospect Theory that argues losses weigh heavier than gains. My happiness evaluator started out not valuing another Blu-ray player, added the value of the potential prize, and then had to subtract the value of having the prize taken from me. Because the loss associated with the player was greater than the perceived gain my happiness evaluator ended up in the negative. The result? I spent the next hour mourning the loss of the Blu-Ray player that was “almost” mine!

Jaxon lost a tooth!

Jaxon lost his first tooth on September 06, 2011

My baby is growing up so fast! ;(

A day in Memphis

We enjoyed a great day at the temple. We had a surprise visit from Matt Hillier and a visit from Elder Lisch which made the day even better.

Soccer

Our life is a whirl wind of activities. There is never a dull moment, but at least we stay out of trouble!
Monday: Dance
Tuesday: Swim
Wednesday: Piano & Soccer
Thursday: Swim
Friday: We catch our Breath
Saturday: Soccer Games
The trio are loving all of their activities. They are learning valuable skills and getting good physical activity for their little bodies. The boys are especially loving soccer. Although, Jeron is so laid back we are going to have to make sure he remembers that he is suppose to run with the ball. ;)