Dear Family and Friends,

Nothing big happening this week. No huge traumas or things broken. Robyn has been down with a cold the last few days but it is just the kind that makes her cranky and have a horrible sounding cough. She thinks she is fine and is most upset when I won't let her play with her friends.

Monday the kids were our of school for President's Day. They were happy to spend the day hanging out, playing with friends while I tackled laundry. Then Kelly called to see if we could watch Brynn that evening while they went to see Percy Jackson. Spencer and Allison thought that sounded like a great idea. So Jeremy came home a bit early to stay with Robyn, Brynn and Taylor while we went to the movies. A little too intense for Allison as she had me cover her eyes and ended up in our room that night several times. But Spencer just ate it up. It was sort of a tag team FHE as we came home, gave Jeremy a hug and then he was off to a late birthday party for a friend while we went to bed.

Tuesday I had Taylor's IEP at his school. It was really inspiring to me to hear of everything the teacher and different therapists are working on with him. They are really stressing having him signal yes or no for things, drinking out of a regular cup, chewing, walking (he is waiting on some new daffos to arrive), keeping his head up etc. Mostly as I realized how much they interact with him and are constantly trying to involve him and solicit reactions from him. The last few years I have gotten into the habit of more taking care of him than of trying to involve him in our daily lives. So I am repenting and trying to do better. For example for mealtime I have gotten out of the habit of sitting down and helping him eat which has led to him sitting there being ignored at times as he feeds himself. They have him walk on a treadmill at school to help build up his cardio and hopefully increase his circulation in his hands and feet. Their goal is to get him to the point where he doesn't bring his wheelchair to school at all. We have conditioned him that his wheelchair is for zoning out in.

Jeremy went to a smug-mug event up in SLC this week, to check out the venue for a class associated with photo camp. It was a different photographer group than he usually associates with but he said it was fun. And now he has met the owners in person which is a plus. Nothing better but nothing worse at work right now.

Friday was cousin pizza and movie night. Kids had a blast playing together, eating pizza, playing their DS, making peanut butter popcorn. Jason and Kelly went and bought appliances for Lauri's condo while we had kids so we are getting ever closer to being able to list it.

Saturday Jeremy and I were able to go see the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I bought season tickets last summer for the community theater by us. It was hilarious - I don't think I have seen Jeremy smile that much at a play before. I have never seen the movie so the plot was a surprise to me. One guy who played Freddy truly put himself out there for his role including keeping a live goldfish in his mouth until he spat it out into a pitcher. Talk about dedication to your craft!

Robyn has been busy as ever and as loud. Jeremy commented this morning that her voice just has that piercing quality even when she is just talking normally. Last night when Meredith was with her she was very grumpy. Meredith told her that when you were grumpy you went to bed so she better spit out the grumpies. Robyn complained that the grumpies were stuck in her with glue. So she ran to the bathroom and started making spitting noises trying to get the grumpies out. When it was time for bed she complained that she wasn't grumpy anymore so she didn't need to go to sleep and ran into the bathroom to make sure she had spat out all the grumpies. Have to love her. First part of the week was running around with friends. Second part of the week was house arrest with an increasingly grumpy Robyn as she tried to get rid of her cough.

Spencer at school is doing an Oregon Trail project. He and his 7 month pregnant wife have to decide what to pack, what to do in situations etc. He is really getting into it. Currently he and Allison are playing Clue. I played with them this morning and they haven't stopped since. Somehow discussing weapons and murder has just enough illicit appeal to make it exciting. Spencer had his blue and gold dinner this week that Jeremy was able to attend (Allison had activity days but came in late to snag some food and goodies). Its our last pack meeting - hard to believe. His cub scout shirt almost covers his belly button right now. Need to go buy a boy scout shirt. We sketched out a BYU logo on his wall, now I just need to paint it.

Allison is either reading, playing or designing some sort of craft or a maze for her hamster. Her room is constantly covered with little snippets of paper,fabric and library books. Her teacher wrote me a really touching note this week about how Allison makes her want to come to work everyday because she knows Allison will be waiting wide eyed to see what she teaches her. That Allison is a reminder from God that life is good. Before I break out the halo though I remind Allison that she is the perpetual non-toilet flusher in our family.

I have been working on finishing up the girls' aprons. I made them for their cousins for Christmas but never got around to making theirs. On the plus side, my skills are getting better so theirs are looking cute.

Love to you all, Heather