Getting to Know Us

Hi, everyone welcome to my blog. I want to use this post to tell you more about our family and what exactly this blog is for. First I want to share that we are a Christian family. We believe in teaching our kids these values everyday throughout the day so they grow up to be godly men and women. As a SAHM and homeschool mom these kids are my main focus. It has always been a dream of mine to be a SAHM and homeschool mom. I love it , I love watching our kids grow and learn. As I mentioned in the about section our kids are special needs. I am going to share more about them and their individual special needs in this post. I want you to understand us and our family. To start introductions I am going to start with my husband.

STEVEN: If you haven't guessed by the picture he loves fishing . Steven loves spending time

us. He loves the outdoors, and taking us on nature walks /hikes. He also loves camping. He loves building robots . He loves seeing the kids enjoy them too. He is very goofy. The kids love him acting goofy. I have to mention some things about Steven that are important for you to know to understand our kids also. He was diagnosed with ADHD and ADD at a very young age. Its not something you grow out of. The most important thing about Steven is that he is a godly father and husband. He shares the same values as me when it comes to raising our kids. Raising godly kids is our primary goal in life. He leads us in daily devotions and continues to lead us closer to God everyday.

Next we have

LILY: Lily is my girly girl. She loves pink, unicorns, ballet and her doll Lillian. She loves playing barbie with her sisters. She loves the outdoors too and camping. She loves to explore and

Kate find things to collect. Now Lily has several specialist she has to see on a regular basis about 3 different Neurologist, GI specialist, Rehabilitation , Allergist...the list goes on. Anyway she has epilepsy. It took a while for them to get the right dosage of seizure medication to help her stop having seizures. In 2021 she had a major seizure and she developed cerebellar ataxia. Her muscle weakness and balance got worse. She had to start using a wheelchair. She can still walk holding on to something or for a short distance. Her muscle weakness also causes her to have bathroom accidents. This happened before any of these diagnoses we just didn't know what was causing it till we got these diagnosis. She has to wear a diaper because she has no control over it. Now on to her GI and allergy issues. She has a number of allergies some are environmental and we have no idea what they are. She was also diagnosed with EoE an allergic reaction in her esophagus. This causes all kinds of gut and eating issues. Because of this she is on

formula. Its a nutritional drink to help her increase calories. Like I mentioned before she has epilepsy. She is on medication for it however it doesn't stop anxiety seizures. Lily was diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder. This effects literally everything. She has sensory processing disorder (one of the reasons she is always wearing noise canceling headphones). I think I mentioned all I needed to about that. Lily loves reading simple books. She has a development delay. That mixed with her anxiety makes it very difficult for her to learn. She has issues with reading, math, comprehending, and auditory processing. To encourage her I wanted her to help me write a short simple book she can read easily. She recently helped me write

. She wanted to help others who may also be adjusting to life with a wheelchair. The book is available on Amazon. The paperback has the Lily Can Too Journal in the back of the book. Lily loves reading bible stories. Learning is very difficult for her but she loves science and learning about Gods creation.

Next is

EMMA: Emma is my goofball. She loves animals but is mildly allergic to dogs and cats. Hence all her stuffed dogs. She loves her dogs they are almost always beside her. She sleeps with

them too. If one is missing she cannot go to sleep without it. She even sleeps with her big giant husky dog Jack. She loves outdoors and exploring. She loves daddy's robots and pretty much anything daddy likes too. She loves puzzles and challenging herself. She loves learning to play on her small keyboard. She loves crocheting and sharing her creations with others. Emma was the first of our kids to be diagnosed with autism. This is challenging for her because she doesn't always know how to respond in certain situations. She gets overstimulated quite a bit. Sometimes it leads to an all out meltdown. MELTDOWN! Not a tantrum. I am not screaming at you I promise. I just want to clarify that they are very different. It effects how we discipline her so it was important to mention that. She also has her own sensory issues too. She is very smart. She is above her level in reading. I taught her letters and sounds. When I would have to help the other kids with school work and while she was waiting she just taught herself to read. She is going to be better at math than me pretty soon too. She loves reading the bible. She was so excited to get a "big kid" story book bible for her birthday. That is one of the reasons she took off with her reading. She wanted to be able to read that bible without asking me to help her. She is always asking us to pray. We can never forget to pray when Emma is around. She has taught herself to play Jesus loves me on her keyboard.

Next we have...

SETH: Seth loves the color red and firetrucks. He loves playing with all kinds of cars and trucks. Seth is my wild child. He is always always moving, running, jumping or just

stimming(autistic trait). He loves coloring. He loves puzzles as long as its cars or trucks. He loves his nerf gun and having nerf battles with daddy. He loves playing outside too. Seth was also diagnosed with autism. They diagnosed him as level 3 non verbal. I couldn't figure this out because he talks alot. While I don't think he is "non verbal" he definitely has some speech/communication issues. I mentioned that he wasn't non verbal to his pediatrician and they agreed that he communicated enough to not be considered non verbal. They told me he should have been diagnosed with selective mutism disorder. He was doing speech therapy for a while. He graduated from that because they figured out he was getting he was just delayed. Like Lily it comes with anxiety also. Along with his autism diagnoses he was also diagnosed with DMDD(disruptive mood dysregulation disorder). That one is very challenging. It causes a number of behavior issues. Seth also has severe SPD (sensory processing disorder). It effects him so much that just about the only food he will eat is peanut sandwich and goldfish. Not just any peanut butter either it has to be

. He has eaten others from time to time but not regularly. Not just any gold fish either flavor blasting goldfish. He eats the others from time to time but not near like those. Now since he doesn't really eat much he also has to be on the Kate farms nutritional drinks. SPD doesn't just effect eating it effects everything. It effects Seth in many different ways. He also has OCD. That with SPD, autism, DMDD and anxiety makes it a huge HUGE challenge to potty train him. I have not been able to potty train him. I have tried several methods every single method I know of to no avail. He has a developmental delay also. This causes issues with school and learning especially. Despite all these issues Seth is the only one of my kids that Seth loves cuddling. He loves listening to bible stories. He always asks questions about Jesus, the bible and going to Church. He loves going to Church. He asks if we are going to church on non church days. He absolutely loves me singing Jesus loves me to him at night. He can't go to sleep until say a prayer for him and sing Jesus love me.

Last we have

LUCY: Lucy loves a little bit of everything the older kids like. She is a girly girl that loves ballet

but will also play cars with her brother. She loves playing with her baby dolls she loves feeding them, taking care of them, taking them on walks in her stroller and everything. She loves doing puzzles. She loves her caticorn. Yes its a cat and a unicorn. She loves outdoors like all of us. She loves exploring and finding things. Lucy hasn't been diagnosed with anything major but she definitely has SPD like all her siblings. She loves school time. Before I even started her on anything she was asking to "do school" with the older kids. I started giving her things to do just to keep her occupied but she wanted to start using a pencil like the big kids too. So I gave her tracing work to do when she was very young. This year she is starting kindergarten. She loves me singing Jesus loves me to go to bed too. She loves listening to bible stories and singing.

This blog is for encouragement and fun through our family's experiences. My plans for this blog is to share stories of encouragement or things I have learned while parenting. Like I mentioned before these kids need lots of activities and things to keep them occupied. I am going to be sharing some fun crafts and activities that I do with the kids to give you some ideas to do with your own kids. We also have lots of fun in the kitchen. Sometimes we have fun doing science projects in the kitchen too. Our kids love science and learning about Gods creation. They love

. They are so fun. They learn so much by engaging them in things they love. You can never have to many activity ideas. This blog is sure to be an encouragement for you and your kids not mention lots of fun!!