Utah Beauty...

The Willardson's live near the mouth of Provo Canyon.  I love where they live and especially their windows in their house because of the amazing views of the mountains.  Grandma took the kids for a walk in the stroller while I did a few runs.  It was so great enjoying the beauty of Utah.  Both Darin and I really miss the mountains.

 After exercise we made a stop at the park to give the kiddos a reward for being so great!

Utah with G&G Willardson

We made it to Utah without a glitch.  We made our airline connections perfect, there was no screaming on the plane, and I didn't even have to break out a movie! We were super excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Willardson.  I feel pretty fortunate to have such great inlaws.  It has been a while since Darin was able to come to Utah with us, so Mom and Dad Willardson are always so welcoming to the kids and I.  While in Orem we spent a lot of time in the backyard.  There is a lot of shade and plenty of area for the kids to run/crawl and play.  We discovered how much Asa loves watermelon and balls!

These pictures are pretty random.  Sometimes I like to practice shooting my camera from my hip.  It adds character and sometimes I can get the kids to laugh, because they can see my face! 

 Grandma let Nash play with the water.  He was one happy boy!

 I wish I would have taken more pictures because we did some fun things.  We played at the playground.  We attended some family parties and had a nice time visiting.  Nash really had fun.  He enjoyed crawling into bed with Grandma and Grandpa each morning to wake them up.  I tried to hold him out as late as I could but he was always so excited to go upstairs and see them.

 Asa was teething while we were there so he wasn't the happiest little guy.

 But nothing that his blanky, Grandma and a bag of doritos can't console! 

My kids always enjoy cuddling with Grandma.

Final Run in the Parkway...

I can't say enough about the "family" we gained in Pennsylvania.  I am actually tearing up as I write this because our final morning in Pennsylvania was so dear to me.  I don't think I could have spent it any other way and have been happy.  I met up with my three greatest friends in PA at the Parkway for a final run.  It was a beautiful morning although it was a little cold.  I had packed my suitcase for summer so I didn't have any long running pants only shorts that went to my knees and a short sleeve.  I was freezing although my emotions warmed me up pretty fast.

 Christine was my first friend in the Lehigh Valley. I met her through the moms club and we became friends instantly. I don't know if I would have survived that first in year in PA without her.  She taught school that year but we emailed back and forth all day.  It was so fun getting to know her that way and they we would get our kids together later in the day or on the weekends.  She also came to church with me and supported me in my callings.  I remember her parents and inlaws were worried I was converting her. haha.  Although, she would make an EXCELLENT Mormon! :)

  Brook and I moved into the Kutztown ward the same week.  Everyone would confuse our families.  We decided we could be friends when our families both arrived at the Bishop's welcome party late and we all were flustered with our spouses about how to get there. haha.  Anything we ever did we invited the Ockerman's along.  Every holiday spent in Pennsylvania was with the Ockerman's.  They are a family that means a lot to all of us.

And of course we all know how much I love Stacia.  There is pretty much not a post on this blog with out a reference to Stacia or her boys.  She is my sister!

 Oh how I love all of these ladies and I love that almost every memory I have of PA has one or all of them in it! Such a blessing to know them.

 Our plane didn't leave until the early afternoon.  We got to spend some time with Darin and unwind from the moving madness.  Darin was not going with us to Utah.  He still had 1 month to go before he was done at LVHN.  His plan was to live in the call room.  And that is what he did!

 This is Nash on the plan ride.  I think we were a little wiped out!  In fact both the boys were good little travelers on the plane to Utah.

Oh and the nice shinner is from running up the stairs to show Stacia something and he smacked right into the banister...so Stacia says.... ;)

Moving Craziness...

I started fairly early to pack and go through our stuff.  I got rid of probably 1/4 of our stuff if not more.  I was pretty proud of how organized I was this move.  I put numbers on all the boxes that matched a room in our new house.  That way everything was put in the right rooms when we moved in.  The only problem was I lost my list and so I had to do it by memory.

Our house in Pennsylvania was a pretty crazy mess for the last week.  I am so thankful for so many of my friends that helped out with babysitting, cleaning and loading.  It was soooo appreciated. 

This picture describes how I felt perfectly...a blur.  We actually almost did not close on the house.  I think there was a HUGE divine intervention that kept us from pulling out of the sale.  Our realtor called us the morning of the closing and said we needed to bring $3000 with us to the close.  This alarmed us because we had been told up to that point that we were not going to need to pay a cent at the sale. Our realtor knew this and actually sent his secretary to talk to us.  We were all but thrilled.  Darin was irate and wanted to pull out of the sale.  We decided we would pray.  The funny thing is we started to pray 3 times and each time was interrupted by a phone call.  I kind of believe that if we would have gotten to the end of that prayer we would have quit the sale.  It went forward.  We were an hour late to the closing because we had to get the house finished before we went.  That was fine with everyone and besides our realtor did not show up.  In the end he took the cut and paid the $3000.  The people present at the closing were happy it ended that way since he did nothing to help us.  We are happy we sold and the lady that bought it seemed super nice and and thankful for our home.

The kids were awesome during all the craziness.  Asa stayed and "helped" me and Nash spent most of the week at Stacia's house.

When he was home he was a great HELP! Check out those feet, from running up and down the trailer ramp. 

  I found this in the basement while I was packing.  It made me so sad but so happy to know we made such great friends! 

Big Brother Nash...

I tried really hard for a month to get a picture of Nash.  He really hates pictures these days.  Who can blame him he has had one in his face since day one of his birth.  I did manage to get ONE.  So here is my big FIVE year old. 

Nash is old enough to go to start Kindergarten but the IEP team discussed his present levels and we decided that he would benefit from one more year of pre-k.  I really felt comfortable with this decision but Darin wasn't so sure.  I contacted the school district in South Carolina to see if I could get him into their pre-k class.  They told me no because he was 5 and should be starting kindergarten or if that wasn't what I wanted then I needed to seek out a private preschool, because they only accept 4 year olds unless the 5 year old has an IEP.  DING DING DING!  That is exactly what we have and they agreed to test him.  Nash worked so hard to get ready for the test.  I didn't want him to stress out for it but I really wanted him to understand how important it was to do his best.  We met with Mrs. Clerc, Asa and I sat outside while she played and tested Nash.  He did really well and was very proud of himself.  Mrs. Clerc said he tested high for pre-k but a little low for kindergarten.  We talked about his anxiety and confidence level as well as his speech issues.  She agreed with me that she thought he should hang back in pre-k one more year.  She said that they expect their kindergartners to be reading by December.  If they are not then they repeat.  Darin and I both agreed that the pressure of kindergarten may just send our little guy over the edge.  So Nash will be going to pre-k one more year. He was pretty proud of himself and said to Asa in the backseat. "Guess what Asa I passed my test and I get to go to pre-kindergarten.  And I get to ride a bus!" He smiled all the way home.  I love his innocence so much!

Nash is such a great big brother.  He always "has an eye on Asa".  Making sure he isn't eating any of his toys or eating something yummy that he might want.  Asa adores his brother and wants to be everywhere he is.  Nash is really into music and dancing right now, and Asa is always right there with him bobbing up and down to the music.

It is funny how one word can make such a great impression.  I remember when Nash said "mama" for the first time.  I was so excited.  Then I remember when he started saying "mommy" instead of mama.  It was like a little piece of me died because he was no longer that baby.  Today he called me "mom" which he really has never done that before.  I stopped and stared at him, baffled at what I was seeing.  Nash is a big kid now.  Or as he would say "a medium kid!"  When did my brown eyed boy grow up??!!  I LOVE being his mother.  He makes me proud every day.

Building Blocks Graduation...

Nash graduated from the Building blocks preschool program at Faith Church. I am so happy Nash was able to attend this amazing preschool for 2 years.  It has been such a great experience for him.   Here are a few excerpt from his IEP dated 12/13/12 from his Special Ed teacher Desireah Poandl:

"Nash receives specialized instruction and speech therapy within his preschool classroom.  Nash is a pleasure to work with and has really developed great skills over the last year and a half.  His self-confidence and communication have flourished.  Nash has become louder this year and is communication more to express his wants, needs, and feelings.  It is great to hear his voice...He enjoys participating in the classroom jobs and free play.  His favorite activities include playing with the cars and dinosaurs."

 "Goal 1: Nash is making wonderful progress with his interactions with peers in his preschool program. He is greeting peers when they arrive or join in his play activity.  He is able to share toys with the peers and engaging in adult facilitated turn taking activities.  We will continue to work on his peer interactions."  

Nash LOVES to be with friends but he struggles with confidence and social cues.  He has come a long way.  I LOVE that he is speaking out now and really talking to others rather then just at home.

 "Goal 3: ....He really seems to enjoy preschool this year and is not as shy as he was last year to engage in the variety of the activities."

Most of Nash's IEP was centered around speech.  I was not a huge fan of his speech therapist through the intermediate unit but Nash seemed to learn quite a bit from her....so I guess that shows that sometimes mom needs to back off!!!

December 2012 "Nash is making steady progress and is using most age appropriate sounds.  He has mastered the use of the /m, b, p, s/ sounds in the initial position of the words in sentences and is demonstrating carryover to conversation.  He is using the /sh/ in the initial position of words with approximately 65% accuracy.  He is using consolant clusters to include most /s/ blends with approximately 70% accuracy which improves his overall intelligibility.  He has particular difficulty with /l/ blends."

 He ended the school year with this progress report: "/sh/ in the initial position of words during structured activities with approximately 90% accuracy and is beginning to use initial /sh/ in sentences independently.  He is no longer stopping the sound using /t/ or /d/ for /sh/, but usually substitutes /s/ for /sh/ such as "my sirt/my shirt".  He is using consonant clusters to include more /s/ blends with approximately 80% accuracy which improves his overall intelligibility.  He has particular difficulty with /l/ blends.  He is using the /l/ in the initial position of the words duing structured activites with approximately 90% accuracy which has increased his accuracy with /l/ blends to approximately 80% in words.  Nash has difficulty with voicing of final consonants /g, d, b/ and will usually replace them with voiceless consonants using k/g, t/d, p/b such as pik/pig, ret/red, tup/tub. These are improving but still require modeling."

***This makes me laugh because he talks like a navajo! ;)

 Oh man I love Mrs. Kim Cowell!  She was an excellent teach and Nash REALLY loved her.  This part of the graduation made me cry.  She had asked each of the kids what their hope for the next year was and had them put those "wishes" (little marbles) in a jar.  Then with each child she told them what her dreams for them were this next year.  It was so touching how much she loved each kid individually. 

 We are bad parents and can't remember what she said to Nash.

 Nash was always so excited at the end of a school day because they would do this goodbye chant that they added to each week.  He would often drag us into the classroom so he could show us what they added.

 Nash had some pretty great buddies.  This was his speech buddy Joseph.

 This next picture makes me laugh.  Look how big his smile is!

 Mrs. VanHolt was a pretty awesome assistant in the class as well.  This is Nash's friend Aaron.  Nash says he was his favorite.

 He was pretty done with pictures.  But I had to get one last one.

This is the good-bye chant.  There are actions with each one.

See you later, Alligator

In a while, Crocodile

In an hour, Sunflower

Gotta go, Buffalo

Better swish, Jellyfish

See you soon, Raccoon

Take care, Polar Bear

Give a hug, Ladybug

Bye Bye, Butterfly

Toodle-loo, Kangaroo

Be sweet, Parakeet

Out the door, Dinosaur

Give a kiss, Goldfish

Chop Chop, Lollipop

Can't stay, Blue Jay

Hit the road, Happy Toad

On the bus, Octopus

Take a bow, Silly Cow

Got to sleep, Little Sheep

To the caboose, Mustache Moose

Farewell, Gazelle

Don't meander, Salamander

Time to go, Hippo

Do not cry, Firefly

Until then, Little Hen

Go to mama, Baby Llama

Move your feet, Stinky Pete

Our School is done, Time for Summer FUN!

Isn't that so cute!  I love it and Nash always yells one out with out fail whenever we part from ANYBODY!

Tea Party...

This was so long ago!  My friend Brook had a groupon for tea party in a near by town.  Brook and Betsy were my visiting teachers and my dear friends!  And of course we couldn't go without Stacia because well she is the most girly out of all of us! haha.

We had herbal tea and biscuits.  I had a quiche.  It was super yummy and a fun afternoon with friends!