The Most Wonderful Time of the Year......................

is when you can have your WHOLE family gathered together, enjoying one another's company, for the Holidays. My brother, John, and his wife, Deonna, were able to come to Salt Lake for a family gathering. It was a nice to have everyone together, if only for a day..........

HaPpY HoLiDaYs!!

The Festival of Trees

We went to The Festival of Trees on a fieldtrip with Isaac's class. For the most part, Isaac thought the trees all looked the same. He found a few trees that stood out among the rest and fast became his favorites.

Grinchy Christmas & the coolest tree made from blown glass!

The only Snowman you'll find around here.............................................

Isaac (and all the other children) absolutely LOVED this tree. It was titled "Kinetic Christmas". It had all kind of balls coming and going and going and coming. It was amazing!

AND............If

I were a

Gingerbread

Man, I'd want to live here!

HaPpY HoLiDaYs!!

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I was very thankful for the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family this year. We had my parents, brother, Clint, brother, Ez & family, My aunt, Bernie and Dave, and my Uncle, Ralph and Janis over for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a good time, enjoying each other's company. After the big feast, we had a little band practice! ROCK ON!!

Michael Scott Oakes

Michael Scott Oakes

1975-2008

My cousin, Mike Oakes, passed away October 20, 2008, unexpectedly, at the young age of 33. He was the youngest son of Ralph Oakes and Bernadine Oakes. Baby brother to Linda Oakes Pressley and David Oakes. He leaves behind 2 small children, Austin and Mikayla Oakes.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we thought it would be fun to have the boys dress up like Danny Zuko from the movie Grease. Talking with Jake, and knowing that he loves the "1950's", I knew that he would most likely go along. Isaac on the other hand, he doesn't really even know that HE can choose his own costume. But, he's easy going enough that he didn't mind dressing up as a T-Bird.

I found the boys the perfect jackets and painted "T-Birds" on the back. I thought I found the perfect wigs, but those weren't exactly what I was looking for. All in all, I think the boys had a great time being Danny Zuko. Jake loves his jacket and still wears it around.

After weeks and weeks of Isaac asking if it were Halloween yet, the night finally arrived. We set out a bit early so we could really enjoy the 65 degree weather. Right away, Isaac noticed the "Sky is CLOSED", meaning it was cloudy. He was a little nervous, but went ahead to the first house. While at the first house, our neighbor decided to bring his garbage can up from the curb. Isaac nearly jumped out of his costume and immediately thought he heard "THUNDER". Needless to say, I couldn't convince Isaac that what he just heard was only the garbage can. So, after that, he was DONE! I think we made it to 4 houses and then he parked his little self on the couch for the rest of the night......................(sigh)

HEE HAW Farms

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Today I went along with Isaac and his class to The HEE HAW Farm in Orem, Ut. We had a great time finding our way through the spider web corn maze, sliding down the big ole slide, petting the farm animals, going on the hay ride and finding just the perfect pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. We packed a sack lunch and enjoyed the entire day on the farm! YEE HAW!

Silverlake 2008

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We went up to Silverlake at Brighton Ski resort today. We hiked about 1.25 miles (900 feet elevation) up to Twin Lakes. The boys had a great time! Isaac wasn't too happy about coming back down the mountain, he kept saying "dumb hiking", the whole way down. Once we got to the car it started raining. Talk about good timing! The colors are gorgeous up there this time of year! I hope everyone can take some time to see them before they are gone.

Sahara Cares Autism Carnival

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Sahara Construction hosted it's annual Autism Carnival on Saturday! It was held at Wheeler Farm. The boys had a great time making huge bubbles, climbing rock walls, digging for treasure, and bouncing their little bodies in the bounce houses! They also got to meet Nemo and Star Wars characters. Lunch was served along with Popsicles and cotton candy. The weather was perfect with the blue sky and the bright sun shining. It still amazes me to see how many families in Utah are affected by autism. Hopefully, one day we will know exactly what causes this disorder.

Vegas, Baby!

On Labor day, we headed down to Las Vegas for 5 days. My oldest brother, John, and his wife, Deonna, live in Summerlin, so we thought it would be fun to go visit them for a few days. We stayed at the Orleans Hotel/Casino. Jake and Isaac were in HEAVEN! They love staying in hotels. Isaac was especially excited about the parking garage and the elevators. I think they were the highlight of his whole trip. If he could have huged the parking garage good bye before we left, he would have!

We went to the Hoover Dam and took the tour. It was amazing to hear how the workers built this massive structure so long ago! Jake listened to every detail and loved every minute if it! He's kind of a history buff!

Everyone enjoyed the tour except it was a little too long for Isaac. He was done before we were able to look through the Visitor's Center. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked in the Visitor's Center or the great look out point.

We had a nice, relaxing couple of days. The boys loved being able to swim every day. Isaac even made friends down at the pool. Seems like everyone in the pool knew his name or were asking him not to splash on them. Several people even asked where mom and dad were! HA! We were right there, but didn't admit to anything...............................

We were able to spend quite a bit of time with John and Deonna in the evenings. They had us over to dinner and fed us YUMMY food. Then had us rockin' out with Rock Band and getting fit with the Wii Fitness!

Second Grade

School is in! Isaac finally started second grade on Monday. He was really excited to ride the bus, more so than to go to school itself. His teacher is Ms. Jenny and we've heard a lot of good stuff about her. There are also 2 aides that help out in the classroom as well, Bonnie and BJ. Isaac is in a 2nd/3rd grade split Autistic Cluster Unit. He has 12 other students who have similar diagnoses, 4 of which he has had in previous classes!

Isaac is going to a brand-new, state of the art school! They even have a sensory room for his enjoyment! They also have motion sensors on the lights in his classroom. If the lights don't detect movement, they turn themselves off! SO COOL! Not to mention, this school is a little closer to home which makes mommy very happy!

Good Bye Dingy Dud

Finally! After living in our house for 7 years, we've painted our whole house. As some of you may have witnessed for yourself, they ugly choice of paint the builders choose for our house, otherwise known as "Dingy Dud", wasn't as warm and inviting as we had liked. And after realizing what a huge project painting our house was going to be, we weren't too quick to start.

At first, we chose the easy rooms that required little or no prep work. We both agreed on a neutral color for the majority of the walls and a nice accent color for a few of the walls. Mike and I had finally painted every last bit of the house that was reachable without scaffolding when we finally had to break down and go to the "next" level. We rented 11' scaffolding from Home Depot and got down to business. Other than Isaac claiming to be "sick" on the first day, everything went according to plan.

It took us about 2 days to paint the ceiling and the upper walls of the entry and family room (that was Mike's job). I was in charge of all the corners, around all the windows, all of the trim, and cleaning all the blinds before we hung them back up. SO FUN! It took us another 3 days to get the lower part of the walls and trim painted.

An entire year and 19 gallons of paint later, we have no more DINGY DUD! WHOO HOO! Mike and I both agreed- if we ever need to paint the whole house again, we will MOVE instead!

Old Man

The other day, Isaac told us that he was "Grandpa". He had a shirt from his teddy bear on and a walking stick. He kept walking around the house, kind of hunched over, smacking his lips. SO FUNNY!

Back to school!

Well, it's official, Jake's summer is over and I am OLD! At least that is how I'm feeling with the realization that I now have a 5th grader! WOW! I clearly remember my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Coffee, and I loved that he lived right in my neighborhood, just 2 streets over! I remember riding my bike back & forth, past his house, hoping to catch him outside just so I could say "Hi".

So far, Jake thinks his teacher is great and is so excited for school each morning. Let's hope the excitement will last the whole year through!