Apples, Flowers, Movies, Potties, Soccer and Dating

Phew! That was a mouthful.

I have such a conglomeration of things to write about that I am going to just put it all together.

How do you feel about that?

Me, I am not so sure, I will let you know when I get to the end of the post.

Every day after school Brother comes home and picks several apples off our trees in the front yard. These apples trees were definitely a plus to us buying this house and it has proven to be a very fruitful investment indeed... pun intended. Everyone has come to know Brother as having an apple in hand or sitting in an apple tree. These are the last pictures I got of him before we harvested all our apples today. These pictures have a special place in my heart. (smile)

Baby always tries to join in but just can't quite seem to get up there high enough.

Here are the nine bushel of apples that we picked today with the help of our friends Brittany and JJ.

We didn't get our apples sprayed this year, I guess since it was our first time ever having fruit trees,
but we certainly got some beautiful apples out of it even though 3 bushel of them did have worms.
(I'll be doing a lot of slicing and juicing to get around those pesky things, but I do hope it will be worth it.)

I went up the canyon to find some cool spots for photos and
I just had to capture a few of these on my iPhone while Baby was enthused with "petting"
the flowers. It was so cute because she was talking to them and touch them like they were little people.

Brother was having a rough time one afternoon so I thought maybe he just needed some "mommy" time so we put on "Abbott and Castello Meet the Mummy" on Netflix. I laid my head on the pillow and he snuggled up and laid his head on mine and we watched the movie together. It was such a sweet moment that I just had to sneak a picture.

Baby has been watching Signing Time's "Potty Time" video and really enjoys sitting on the potty.
She doesn't do anything except sit, smile, giggle and then flush, but, hey, I'll take what I can get.
And just look how happy she is.

So, I feel guilty, and have felt guilty for years about the fact that I don't put my kids in recreational city sports. I, honestly don't think I can handle one more thing so I guess it is selfish of me, but I did try a gymnastics class for them a few years ago, and although, it was fun and they loved it when they were there, it was also VERY overwhelming for them to have it after a long day at school. And Brother doesn't have a competitive bone in his body so I just let it all fall by the wayside.

Lately, though, I have noticed that Sister is actually quite athletic and has really taken and interest in Juju's and JJ's soccer. So, after talking to Brittany, she convinced me to try letting Sister go just to Juju's practices and trying out soccer to see if she liked it.

I went and watched her first practice. It was actually on the same night as my Grandpa's viewing so I wasn't able to stay for the entire thing but, my eyes welled up with tears of joy and pride as I watched her kick the soccer ball around with the other girls her age. She was so happy to be out there, she was just beaming. I loved watching her try so hard and succeed at following the coaches instructions. The coach was so sweet and so patient with Sister and my heart is so happy that she is allowing Sister to practice with her team. I think Sister has found a new activity to keep her happy.

She's in the middle with the pink shorts.

Practicing dribbling the ball.

One happy soccer girl with her bestest of best friends, Juju.

 I was talking to a friend the other day. She was curious about Fragile X, wondering if maybe her son has it and wanted to know about the testing. As we were talking about that part of it we came to the part of how having a child with special needs really affects your life and your marriage. She sounded shocked when I mentioned the stress that it has put on mine and Marc's marriage. She mentioned how she thought everything seemed so perfect on our blog...

Here is where I had to interject, and where I will take the time to tell you...

This is my blog. The place that I try to keep things positive for not only my readers, but for my mental and emotional stability. I don't like airing all the dirty laundry to the public. I try to be very honest about depression, anxiety and dealing with everyday life here in order to help others who deal with the same and for me to have a sounding board so that I don't go crazy.

Really.

That is what this blog is for.

Fragile X Awareness.
Honesty about raising children with special needs.
A mom who struggles with depression and anxiety.
A family who is trying to stay together and be happy together as a family.

Marc and I have really, really rough times in our marriage.

So tough sometimes that it seems hard to move forward.

Our children wear us down until we have nothing left for each other or ourselves.

There are things we do together as a couple that are helping us through these tough times, that I will mention here:

Pray together everyday
Have a knee to knee (eye to eye, not pillow talk) at least once a week
Read scriptures together
Show love to each other often
Date regularly

I love dating my husband. It is our time to be husband and wife and just release any stresses we have about the kids and just have a good time. Every married couple needs to date, regardless of their child situation. It is imperative that we continue to build a relationship and have a reason to get dressed up for each other and look our best for each other. It is so much fun to get all dressed up for my husband.

We, sometimes, are like teenagers when we go out because we are so excited to be out without the kids in tow.

We rode around town one night while the kids were sleeping over at my mom's and we ended up in this spot with a great view. This night was one of our simpler dates, but also one of our funnest! 

On another date we went on Go Karts and Miniature golfing. This was definitely one of those nights I felt like a teenager. I couldn't wipe the smile of my face the whole night, it was so. much. fun.

We did black light miniature golf. I had to get a picture of this because it reminded me of that snail from Never Ending Story... remember that one?

Marc here in the black lights.

OK, so the conglomeration my post was long, various but I feel good about it in the end... (smile)