The Lyon's Den

After much agonizing over what to do with Kelman, I finally decided to start him in Preschool. Kelman has been experiencing a lot of anxiety, especially socially. He is still not real comfortable and happy in his primary class of two years. I had him evaluated with the Preschool Intervention Program, because of our concerns. We had wondered if he maybe had PDD (Pervasive Development Disorder), which is under the Autism spectrum. After some observation, the counselor concluded that Kelman must just have an Anxiety Disorder (not formally diagnosed though). I had been trying to get Kelman into preschool, although I was concerned how he would go to class without me. I figured he would just cry and cling to me for days; which is why he needed it even more so we wouldn't have to go through that during Kindergarten. Anyhow...I got a letter in the mail last week saying there was an opening at one of the preschools. Kelman had his first day on Friday, and he LOVED it. I had to stay the first half and then he allowed me to leave. All weekend, he was asking when he'd get to go back. Today he walked right in and didn't need me at all. Both days when I've gone to pick him up, his hair is all sweaty and messy from playing hard. I'm so excited!!! Some preschool was all he needed. He's still not a fan of church, because he says it's boring. He either cries or acts up. I think if they had some games and activities in there it might help. Any ideas of how to address that???
Unfortunately, preschool came up kind of last minute, so I didn't get any pictures until today after school.


Another exciting thing happened this weekend..... We borrowed my mom's fun sprinkler hose thingy for the kids to get wet and play with. We all got in our swimsuits and ran through it and swung on the swing set. While playing outside, I noticed we got some beautiful purple grapes from our grapevine!! I've never done grapes before, so I thought they were long gone since the leaves were turning brown. But finally, the grapes turned from green to purple and are edible! YAY!!! Hopefully we'll get even more next year.



Brechin

Saturday night I got to go to dinner and the Relief Society broadcast with my mom. We had a good time and the waitress at Applebee's was GREAT! We told her we were in a hurry, and we didn't have to wait for a single thing! It was wonderful. When I got home, Aaron was out in the family room and I found the twins asleep in the hallway. they had dragged their blankets and pillows out into the hall and fell asleep there together. I thought it was adorable.


That's about it for excitement for us. Oh yeah...except that we're gonna have a baby!!! I've been feeling healthy and strong and decided I was ready to go this road again. I feel really happy and confident that everything is going to be okay! That's about it for us.

We just got back from a three day trip to Disneyland and the beach! We took a long weekend and went with Aaron's parents. We were very fortunate to get some free tickets to park hop between California Adventure and Disneyland for two days. We had a great time and got to do some things we've never done before. It was especially neat because Kelman is tall enough to go on some of the bigger rides with us, like Soarin' Over California (a great, non scary ride). Both parks had a new ride we'd never been on; Finding Nemo, and Toy Story Mania (I think our favorite ride). Unfortunately we didn't get to see very many characters this time, but I think the kids were relieved to have less photo opps. I absolutely loved watching the kids in the Bug's life 3d show. Brechin started crying in the middle because it was kinda scary, so I took his glasses off for him to show him it wasn't real. He grabbed them from me and put them back on as he continued to cry. I think he was curious to see what happened next. Saturday was the day we went to the beach, and we had never been as a family. The kids were hesitant at the idea of a beach instead of Disneyland, but they ended up loving it, especially Kelman. Brechin didn't care for the cold moving water so much, so I just stayed on the sand and helped his Grandpa build a sand castle. It was so nice to have a vacation and to let Kelman unwind a little because he's been kind of uptight and anxious lately. He was pretty carefree at the beach, and it was a nice change! Oh yeah...and I can't forget to tell you about our little drive to the beach. We were driving down the freeway around Santa Monica and saw a cute little convertible old style car about like this one, but green.

I made a comment to everyone as we came up behind it, saying...I'll bet it's someone famous. Low and behold...we caught up to it, and it was Jay Leno, cruising along with the top down. He was driving at a comfortable pace and I tried to get Aaron to slow down to take a picture, but he wouldn't do it. =( Kinda funny though!

The beach was absolutely beautiful and not too crowded at all.


Kelman striking a pose in the water


Aaron and Brechin on The Buzz Light Year Astro Blasters




Kelman and I on the Jumpin' Jellyfish


On the Mark Twain boat




Carter and Tigger




The Pixar parade at California Adventure

In case you haven't read my last post, I think I've found my stalker! Are you ready for it... I'M MY OWN STALKER!!!! You might want to read my last post to better understand what's going on. Anyhow...I was at a friend's site and saw the Live Feed (that I have to the right) and noticed it said my visit was from Smartville, Ca. Well, I'm not from Smartville, but obviously my internet provider is! So I think I've been the one visiting my own page from Nevada City. My blog is my homepage so that's why I was getting so many visits from Nevada City. I was busting up laughing when I made this discovery! I'm such a nerd!

Soo.. my brother Micah told me about this thing called Google Analytics. It tracks who visits your blog or other webpages. It doesn't give names, but it gives locations and tells how many times a certain location (IP address) has visited your page in a 24 hour period. It updates every day and you can check to see what new visits have popped up. I've been doing this for over a week now, just out of curiosity; as has my mom. My point in this whole post, is to find out WHO is from Nevada City or Rough and Ready?!? I know you're reading this, so please leave a comment. Don't be afraid to leave a comment and show me who you are. Unless you enjoy being my private stalker!haha Even still...let's share the secret kay. Thanks!

We were disappointed that we haven't taken a camping trip this summer, so we decided to have one in our family room Saturday. We rearranged the furniture and made room for a tent, and set it up right in front of the TV. We gave each of the boys a sleeping bag and put a beanbag in the tent, and turned in a Christmas movie. The boys like to celebrate Christmas year round. We always have on, the Polar Express, The Grinch, Christmas with the Kranks (don't know why they like that one), and the Santa Clause III. Strange children. Anyway, we were supposed to make S'mores while camping, but we ended up going swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's and didn't get home until bedtime. Besides, Grandpa fed them banana splits while we were at his house. The kids only need so much sugar in a day. So, instead we did it Sunday after dinner, using the S'more maker my parents gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago. And they were yummy! Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of our S'more adventures, but here are some of the boys in their tent. Just kidding. I'm so sad!! I just went to put the pictures on my computer from the camera, and they're ALL GONE!!! One of the kids must have gotten to it last night and erased them. So sad! =( I guess you will all have to imagine how cute the boys were in their sleeping bags.

We planted a Gala Apple tree in our back yard shortly after we moved in; And this year we got about 8 apples from it. It was so fun to have our own fresh apples. They tasted good too. So, on Sunday I decided to make a homemade apple pie. It was so pretty and so yummy!!! I'm sad I don't have more apples to do more with, but I will next year. :)
Here is a picture of Kelman since I left him off my last post. And me with my apple pie. Oh yeah...and don't laugh at my Sunday Moomoo. It used to be my Grandma's.

It's been just over two weeks of potty training and the twins still don't quite have it down. I have to say; Carter and Brechin really do have a lot of successes in the potty. I think I just need another day for just me and them to do some refocusing. It seems like Brechin now has the ability to hold it, because he can sometimes stay dry all night, and during naps. I can also sometimes tell when he is needing to go, and I can get him to go on the potty. Carter is a little behind in that department, but still not without his successes. What got me started on the whole potty training bit was that one day, between my mom and I, we had changed about 15 diapers. It was insane...and expensive! Right around that time, my friend Donna told me about this lady in Chicago or something who runs a "Booty Camp". She was on some morning talk show discussing how she takes your child for 5 hours at a rate of $250. She feeds them all kinds of salty junk foods and really sugary drinks. All as a ploy to get them to drink even more and to have more opportunities to go on the potty. This lady also says it is important for the children to take responsibility for their own bodies and to make them clean up any accidents. We should be saying, "if you need to go potty, go on the potty," instead of, "do you need to go potty?" It supposedly makes a difference as to who is responsible for their body. Anyhow, I decided to give it a try. I cannot even tell you how hard and frustrating it was to just focus on potty training for at least 5 hours straight! That first day was awful. What this lady doesn't warn you of, is that by feeding your children all this garbage all day is going to result in a huge sugar rush...times 2!! So, I had these two little boys running mad, bottomless, through the whole house. BUT...they did have many successes and learned what the potty was all about. The booty camp lady asks that you take an additional three days to focus with them and then guarantees no accidents. Now maybe my following three days weren't so focused because we still aren't quite there, and we're going on day 16. I'm proud of the boys and their success, but I also can't wait until we're completely done with diapers and pull ups. The pull ups have been great for them, but they are so darn expensive, times 2!
Okay, so now for a funny story. I believe it was either day 1 or day 2 of the potty training, and the twins still hadn't gone poo poo on the potty. Well, a couple of things. 1. Brechin knew I kept saying, "you need to put your poopy in the potty." So...Brechin did just this. He pooped on the floor...picked it up....and put it in the potty. So your first rule in potty training has got to be, be careful what you tell your child. They take everything literal! 2. I was on the computer or something and heard Carter and Brechin making growling noises in the other room. I got up to go see what they were doing and low and behold... here lies a poopy on the floor, and Carter and Brechin, together, were holding the end of a stick horse whacking...yes I said WHACKING, the poop! Gross!! It was Brechin's first poopy during potty training, and I guess when they saw it lying on the ground they just thought...hm...let's whack it!! My mom called it poop polo!
So there are some of our latest adventures.