I Love You Because...

Rodeo Round-up.

At Christmas Husbandface and I came up with the great plan to go to The Ranch in Florida for The Rodeo. We drove in Thursday and Friday we spent the morning teaching Ethan (finally) and Owen to ride a two wheeler. Then it was rodeo time. My cute 8 & 11 year old nieces were not only in the drill team performing but also starring as Barrel Racers as my 4 & 5 year old nephews showed us how to mutton bust like pros. Even Owen and Ethan got in on the action catching greased baby pigs and earning money in the process. Bampa flew in for the occasion and it was such a fun, amazing weekend. Nothing like playing in the dirt and horse back riding to give you a perfect weekend getaway.

Since Ethan received The Harry Potter books for christmas and needs a little, ummmm.... coaxing and... let's call it modivation,  we decided to make the kids a deal. "Read Harry Potter Book 1- we'll take you to "Harry Potter Land". After all, we'd be there anyways, right? So of course my kids dutifully read everynight for months. Even Owen gets in on the action and the kids start taking turns reading to eachother. It was adorable.... Fast forward to reality and being in a new place and unfamiliar people around and the crounds and the not-so-according-to-regular-schedule of a rodeo and come Saturday no matter how hard my 10 year old Autistic sweetheart tried he just couldn't hold it together. There were lots of tears of no big deals, lots of disobeying and rule breaking and lots of meltdowns and frustrations. Doug and I have noticed that the first day we are somewhere new he coasts on the excitement, day 2 and 3 tend to be autism centered and rough and by day 4 we're back to smooth sailing and we have our happy son back. The problem with that is 4 day weekend trips, no matter how fun they are, it's always hardest on him and he's barely adjusted before it's over and we're headed home. We had planned on visiting Universal Studios on Sunday and come Saturday night, Ethan flat out said he didn't want to go if there was going to be too many people there (which in his mind is more then 10 people). So we broke the news to his siblings... as hard as they worked and as sad as they were, they realized that yep, let's do what we have to in order to make Ethan's life a little easier. Sunday morning we went to church, had lunch and played games... according to schedule. We still had a relaxing ,perfect weekend and my kids still had fun and played with cousins and made memories to last a lifetime. 

And I learned something... we are an Autistic Family... and we may plan and have fun things scheduled and they might not always work out according to plan... but that's okay! My kids have actually embraced it and set thier expectations and listened when I break up fights or remind them of eachothers differences and needs. We may not be able to take the kind of vacations that others do but, this is our life... unpredictacble, unorthodox and perfect for us.  

Sincerly and lost under a pile of weekend laundry catch-up,
Joanna 

 

PS- did you know baby pig poop stains clothes and the smell doesn't come out even after two washes? 

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A Boy and His Bear and His Blanket

This is one of those things... what happened first? The Boy or the Bear? Owen has always been a bear lover. We've called him Baby Bear since the day he was born and it's you don't have to look very far to see why.   (Owen and his Bear Blanket - Summer 2003) -sidenote; seriously could 2 brothers look anymore alike? it's like I gave birth to an Owen clone when I had Cameron!

My Mom designed and made Owen this AMAZING Bear Quilt while I was pregnant with him. (using THIS paper pieced bear as inspiration) My only request was a quilt that was 'Waterton-inspired." She nailed it. It's named "Bear's Hump" after a favorite hike. I love the colors the contrast and the textures of the bears in the woods.

(Owen and his Bear Blanket - Fall 2010)

After 5 years of extreme night-night love, this blanket has been through 20+ states, Canada, twice, it's started a HUGE bear collection and it has had to have the binding completely replaced because he scratched/chewed it and loved on it too much.... it may be faded and worn in and dirty most of the time but it's still his most prized possesion. 

 (Owen and his Bear Blanket- Feb. 2013)

You can see more of Mom's Quilts HERE, HERE and HERE. I should really go back and post picts of Lorali and Ethan's baby quilts too... because yes, they're just as amazing.
Joanna

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Coppermine Creek

Oh how I love you Red Rock Canyon. Serious love. 

This evening we took the kids up red rock for a picnic. While driving to our picnic spot (about 4km total)  we saw 4 bears, Owen was EXTATIC. One of them was without a doubt the biggest bear I'd ever seen in my life and it was only 4 feet off the road. When I say big, I mean MASSIVE. He waseasily the size of a car. Unfortunately I was too thrilled watching the kids to get any pictures of any of them. This time we ended up at Coppermine Creek and the first thing the kids did was run down to the water.

Which of course meant moments later Ethan fell in. It was adorable and amazingly he was still happy even with soaking wet clothes... like I said before, WATERTON IS SOO GOOD FOR THIS BOY'S AUTISM! He was absolutely able to just shrug it off and run onto the next adventure.

Doug (and the boys) hiked up the mountain side while we were waiting for the the stove to heat up. Then Grandpa taught the kids how to build a fire, use a cowboy hat to make it bigger and roast hot dogs on a stick. Yep. It was a perfect evening! 

 

Blue Lake (aka Crandell)

We've been in Waterton a couple days and our feet were begging to be on the trail, any trail. Since we are now completey out numbered by the kids we figured we needed them on our side. We picked the simplest hike we could think of so we didn't wipe them out before we got through our 'hiking list'. 

Crandell Lake as it's officially called, (for some reason everyone in my family has called it 'Blue' longer then I've been alive) is only 2 km from the lower parking lot. I've gone there straight from the backdoor of the cabin/townsite (7.1km one way) but again, I wanted to keep it simple for the kids. I promise anyone can do it! We even saw a friend of my grandmother's on the trail, Sister Spackman, who had just celebrated her 92nd birthday! It was the perfect juxtaposition to my little Cam on his first Waterton hike. 

It's also the perfect hike to remind the kids of hiking etiquette and rules and teach them a few new ones. Even though it's short you really do get a lot of reward for little effort on this hike. There are always amazing views, wildlife, tons of wildflowers and there is usually great fishing. 

It's a perfect hike to do in the late afternoon, pack a dinner up and enjoy the solitude of the lake. In past years if we get into Waterton early in the day we'll pack up a lunch and come straight up here in the afternoon just to welcome us into the park! The kids favorite part had to be the wildlife that well... got extremely friendly. (they may or may not have invited it to our picnic with a few leftover trail mix that 'fell' in the dirt)

We loved just sitting on the banks and teaching the kids how to skip rocks, we loved the picnic and watching Bampa fish and even though Ethan had an autistic meltdown when things didn't go his way, it was actually short lived and he was able to calm down super quick in the beautiful setting. (Frankly, Ethan's amazing resilience and change made me wish we could live here.)

Cam even loved it!

So... who's coming up to Canada with us next year?! 

Joanna 

 

 

Waterton Bound

Grandma's House is the place...

the place cousins go to become best friends...

and it's the best place in the world to get ice cream!

 

Dear Mom

Dear Mom

You left yesterday and we all miss you already. Thankfully I know you're always just a phone call away. Download 01 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Singl

I am one of the lucky ones. I have a Mom who does everything in the world that she can to support and be there for me in everyway no matter how far away I move. When I had to deliver a little early she was able to hop on an earlier flight and be there for me, holding my hand while I cried, making me laugh through the frustration or pain and comforting my babies when I couldn't. I've had four kids and I am possitive I couldn't have gotten through the delivery (or first weeks) of any of them without her.

I've loved having her here for the last 2 weeks. She's encouraged me, she's cleaned, she's calmed me, she's worked on projects and taught me.

She's kissed on our babies, she's read to them and entertained them, she's woken up in the middle of the night nights with them, she's been more then an extra pair of hands, she has been the best example of motherhood ever.

Mom, I love you. I know you sacrificed so much to be here with me during this time and I am so grateful for every second. I hope someday to be even a tenth of the Mom you are. 

Love always,

JJ

 

Hiking w/ Grandma

After being cooped up in a hospital room all week we're enjoying the beautiful Springtime weather with a Sunday afternoon mini-hike with Grandma... and it's making me excited for Waterton this summer! 

 

Isn't it ironic...

It hasn't been enough time at our house for me to be able to laugh about it quite yet but, I can now at least see past the anger and see the irony of posting this and the next day disovering our Little Miss did this....

Good thing her Grandma has some amazing home-fixes up her sleeve because otherwise we'd have a daughter grounded for life. So how exactly does one get out ball-point pen out of heirloom quilts (or any other fabric for that matter? Good question. According to Mom you soak it in hairspray for 10 minutes, then scrub it out with a cotton rag and repeat until it's gone then you wash it as usual adding a splash of vinegar to the load... guess what? it works! 

Now the quilt is clean and the punishment begins.... this little girls room makeover I mentioned last week has been put on hold until further review of her behavior.

 

oh the joys of motherhood, right?
Joanna  

 

Lorali's Quilt - Dardanelles

In an effort to get every room in the house settled in before Baby Cameron comes, this week we're focusing on Lorali's room. We have big plans in here for both organizing and decorating but we're lucky because we have some key pieces to the room that are perfect and staying just the way they are. Her Quilt is another amazing  treasure we have from Grandma that we're designing the entire room around so I'll start there. It's my favorite quilt pattern ever... Double Irish Chain in just pink and white. The details on this one are just as amazing as the details on The Hudson Bay Quilt. The fabric Mom chose is white/pink flowers and pink/white polka dots and so the quilting is daisies (another favorite) in each block. Mom alsop names all of her quilts. This one is named 'Dardanelles'.  The Dardanelles is an area in Waterton, Canada that we go to often to picnic or for a quick hike, my favorite memory of the area is going for Canada Day with my Grandma when I was about 8 or 9. It's an area known for the amazing wildflowers growing in the fields and she walked me through the fields teaching me/quizzing me on all the names of the different flowers growing there. It's the perfect name for a perfect quilt for a perfect little girl!