Made the Paper!

Hey guys,

I made the AZ Republic. Check it out! http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2008/12/12/20081212gr-familyblogs1213.html

Thank You!

It's OVER!!! And it was a HUGE success. Thanks to everyone who donated their things and time. We really have been blessed with amazing people around us, who set such great examples to me of service and love. I hope to be able to be more like them. I'm amazed and all my great friends and family who took time out of there busy lives to help us. It really means so much. We couldn't have done it without you.

Here are some pictures of Saturday, I couldn't find my camera for the other days, so I didn't get pictures of the others. ( for some reason these days I can't seem to figure out what the order of the pics are going to be so here they are in random order.) Who doesn't love Shep. He had a blast playing with all the kids too.

Todd and I with our fanny packs! Yup, that is right mine is bright green straight from the early 90's!

Todd loving it!

Tal and Jenn

Candace! Dressed to kill.

Nat helped everyday, she was AWESOME!

Loving being in the back of Uncle Talans truck.

(by the way thanks Talan now he wants in every ones truck!)

John looking HOMELESS! He pretty much was for the 3 days. He was in heaven with so many kids to play with.

JoJo loving swinging that Dino. It was massive!

And it's over!

Special Thanks to.... My Mom& Dad, Todd, Nat, Stacey, Barb, Heidi, Jill, Holly, Shauni , Jenn, Candace, Talan, Darin, Travis, Ryan, Anney, Sis McClaws, Sandy, Karen & Ted,everyone that donated & so many more! Thank you so much!

Reminder

*Just a reminder for JoJo's garage sell this weekend.(Friday & Saturday) It's going to be at my parents house, located across the street from Mesa High. (Southern & Hall)

*Also we are still collecting anything you guys don't want. You can drop it by my parents house or give me a call and we will come pick it up. (480-242-1931)

*Thanks for every ones support, We love you!

Thank You!

Thank you to the nice person who sent me a gift card to Ann Taylor Loft. That really was the sweetest thing and meant so much. I wish I could do a better Thank You but the person didn't leave a name. Thanks again, it was SO fun!

Welcome to Holland

I wanted to share an e-mail I was given by my good friend Megan. She sent it to me last year after one of my bawl sessions t o her. It's really hard to express the way I feel about having a son with autism but this little story sums it up perfect.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
byEmily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Noah & Jill Halloween Party!

It was so fun to finally live in AZ so we could attend Noah & Jill's Halloween Party. They did one amazing job. The theme was HOLLYWOOD so Todd and I decided to dress up as Joy and Crab Man from the show "My name is Earl" It was so fun dressing up and Todd was a good sport about it all. I wish I had pictures of everyone else there was some great costumes.Crab Man & Joy!
I loved shopping for Joy, it was so fun!

My tummy said "Karma Sucks".

The happy couple!

Halloween 08!

Halloween 08! ( I thought I had put the pics in order but o-well) This year John was Super Man and JoJo was a football player and Todd and I were Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carey (notice the green your vaccines t-shirt) We had a lot of fun trick or treating. JoJo loved it and John just wanted to push the stroller. After hitting some houses in the neighborhood we headed to Todd's sisters house Stacey for some Halloween Fun! Here are some of the pictures of the night.John & Me

JoJo ready to trick or treat!

So he hated the black on his face so he smeared it everywhere. So he was a football player after the game!

The Family!

Nat the Swedish Milk Maid!

Jim & Jenny!

Super Man and his Daddy!

JoJo after the game!

SUPERMAN!

TRICK OR TREAT!

Love him!