Special Olympics and Walk for Autism

Thursday was special olympics and today was the walk for autism.

Here's a family shot. Lee had gotten off of work at 7 this morning and had not been to bed.

Here's a family shot. The turnout wasn't as big this year within our family or the general public, but it was still pretty good.

Morgan got loose.

This is special olympics. Morgan was not a happy camper. It was hot and she wanted to ride on this mule instead of participating.

When it was her time to race, she wanted to walk, but as soon as she hit the finish line, she took off running.

Her and Paige. I didn't get to go because I had to go on a field trip that day, but Lee went.

Early Easter

Sandra has to work next weekend, so we did easter at their house today. Afterwards, we stopped by Mel's.

This is what Mel's kitchen now looks like.
Okay, so Sandra bought a pinata and the kids spent their time and energy busting the thing only to find out it was empty. Sandra thought it came with candy in it. We all got a good laugh and Jackson and Lauren decided to make hats.

Jackson had fun hunting.

Morgan preferred swinging, but she did get up and find a few.

Lillian and Abby in their matching outfits Sandra bought them. Lillian is getting pretty good at sitting up which makes me sad because before I know it I won't have a baby to snuggle with anymore.

World Autism Awareness Day

Today is World Autism Awareness Day and April is Autism Awareness Month. I thought I would include some information about autism.

Autism Facts & Statistics

1 in 150 children
4:1 ratio of boys to girls
1 in 98 boys
Fastest growing developmental disability
100 billion annual costs
In ten years the annual costs are projected at 200-400 billion.
Cost of lifelong care can be reduced by 2/3rds with early intervention
A family with a child with autism will fund 3 to 5 million dollars of services throughout the lifetime of the child.
More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than cancer, diabetes, Downs Syndrome and AIDS combined.
Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of most of the more prevalent childhood disorders.
Approximately 1 million individuals in the US have autism
Incidence vs. Private Funding (2007)
Condition Incidence Private Funding
Pediatric AIDS 1 in 8,000 394 Million
Leukemia 1 in 25,000 310 Million
Muscular Dystrophy 1 in 20,000 175 Million
Juvenile Diabetes 1 in 500 130 Million
Autism 1 in 150 42 Million

This is my beautiful child with autism and her awesome aide that works with her at school (Paige).

If you have free time:) find something in your area that benefits autism and get involved. Go to this website and watch some of the videos. Be sure to have some kleenex.http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214

Update on the flood

Amazingly, the water receded by yesterday afternoon, so last night we packed up what was left in the bedrooms and got all of the wet stuff out. Today, the men went over and started ripping out the flooring and all of the wet sheetrock. Mel went to the Laundry Mat this morning to do all of the wet laundry. It was enough to fill up the back of Ish's truck. In the midst of tragedy, your heart can't help but be warmed by the generosity of others. Quite a few friends and church members came over yesterday and helped and then today after church, there were soo many people there you could barely move without bumping into someone. We are all extremely grateful.

The sheetrock started pulling away from the baseboards and wrinkling immediately.

This is what the living room looked like after. We found trash everywhere. The trash can was tipped over and I found a piece of apple and an eggshell in Lauren's closet.

This is Bradley's dresser. You can see the water line.

Here's the water line on the couch.

This is around lunch today in the living room. They have to do this to the entire house including the garage.
This is the wall between the living room and the hallway to the kids rooms. You see Bradley in the background trying to help Ish scrap up all the wood glue.

Prayers needed

Mel and Ish's house flooded this morning. The water was about up to my knees in the house when we left. We moved what we could upstairs to the bonus room, but their house is gone. Please pray for them as this is going to be a difficult time. You can go to www.rickeystokesnews.com to see pictures. It's the house on Blackman Road.

Mini-vacation

Since I was out on spring break and Lee is about to begin outage (72 hours a week at work), we decided to tag along with Mel and Ish on their trip to Atlanta. We left Saturday around lunch and went to the temple and let the kids run around on the lawn. Then we went to the bookstore and headed to our hotel. We stayed in Buckhead which is a ritzy area and when we tried to find a place to eat, it all had valet parking. We finally ate at the food court in the mall (which also has valet parking). Sunday Mel, Ish, their kids and Heather came up and we went to the zoo. It was okay, but the Jacksonville zoo that we went to a few years ago was better. After the zoo, we went to Bass Pro Shops and then back to the hotel. Monday we went to the Aquarium. It was neat and Jackson thoroughly enjoyed it. The only down side was how much it cost us to eat there. We headed home after that. It was fun, but I was glad to get home.

Jackson watching the beluga whales. They kept trying to mate. Luckily, Jackson didn't really catch on.
The babies were mesmerized by the water and fish as well.

Our attempt at a picture of all three.

Lauren was pouting at the time.

There were three or four huge walls of water and a tunnel where the sharks and huge stingrays swam over you. Jackson was really excited about that. He kept yelling "Look Bradley"

This is on the carousel at the zoo. Morgan loves anything that goes around and around.

Jackson was the only one who wanted to go in the petting zoo.

This is at the temple. The flowers were soo pretty.

We let them run, so I had to chase Morgan.

Jackson was very excited about being at the temple.

T-Ball

Tonight was Jackson's first t-ball practice. He was very excited and enjoyed it. My pictures didn't turn out very well because I was too far away trying to entertain Morgan.

Wild Weekend

Last Saturday we had planned Jackson's 5th birthday party. It's hard to find a place to have his party where Morgan will be content, so we decided to do it at home. We rented an inflatable thing where they could jump and slide, and we rushed to paint the kitchen, clean the yard, etc. Well, early in the week the forecast was rain, but I kept hoping it would change. Finally Thursday night I conceded to the fact that it was going to rain Saturday. We gave Jackson the option of postponing it to this weekend or moving it to Burger King's indoor playground. He opted for Burger King, so I called and canceled the inflatable and typed up notes to send home with all of his friends. It worked out fine and he had a great time.

Jackson wanted a hunting and fishing cake, so he and I went out and bought the animals and the fishing gear and a guy that I work with did an awesome job of putting it all together.

Jackson got two new fishing poles from his PawPaw and MeMe. My camera died, so this is the only present picture I got.

After singing happy birthday to Jackson, his friends all chose something off of the cake to lick the icing off of.

My beautiful little girl.

The kids had fun playing.

We kept Morgan content by letting her watch The Price Is Right on the portable DVD player.

Then, Sunday Morning, we woke up to snow flurries. Jackson threw on his coat and boots and went outside. He said it was a miracle, but got upset that it wasn't enough to stay on the ground.

He tried to catch a few on his tongue.

You can see the flurries in his hair.
If you make the picture bigger, you can see the snow flurries.

We are still alive

It's been a long time, but I promise we're still here. With everyday life and sickness I can't seem to shake, things have been a little crazy. Jackson will be starting t-ball next week so we are excited about that and Lillian is so cute and happy most of the time. She can't seem to shake ear infections. Jackson and I currently have a stomach bug, so it's been a long day.

This is from Valentine's day.

This video is of Jackson playing with Lillian. Laughter is the best medicine.

He's leaving in a Toyota Yaris.....Don't Know When He'll Be Back Again

Jackson got these clippo blocks for Christmas and he built this airplane. He was very proud of it.

Micah being attacked by Morgan and Jackson was being silly.

The brothers.

Micah with mini-Micah and Lauren.

Heather wouldn't get in the sibling picture even though I caught her in the brothers picture.

Micah and Abby.

Micah and Lillian.

Last night everybody came over to eat and see Micah before he left for Utah. He and dad are driving out there and then dad is going to visit for about a week and fly back. They made it to St. Louis today and plan on driving to Wyoming tomorrow.