Weekend with Bodie and highlights of Jade!

JADE...
my wonderful, amazing son!  

First off,

 I can't believe that he turned 19 this year!

It seems like just yesterday 
when I was swinging with him on this swing!  

Highlights from his birthday celebration... 
May 12, 2013

SUSHI...

I've loved all of the sweet moments that I've got to enjoy with Jade this past year...

 Watching him run one last time 
as part of the cross country team!

 Being there when he was awarded a medal for his great participation on the cross country team!

 Feeling SO grateful that Jade has a wonderful team of people that care about him and want him to succeed!  Our yearly IEP meeting. I love the caring and joy that this photo represents

 Jade had a cooking class and I was honored that he wanted me to be the guest speaker at it!
We had SO much fun and showed his class how to make Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese frosting.. Afterwards, Jade said to me:
"Mom, we should have a cooking show together and call it the 
"Cooking with Kimmie and Jade" show"! 

I feel SO lucky to have a son 
that is thrilled and proud of his mom, 
even when he's a Senior in High School! 
It's something that I never take for granted!!

 He is my right hand man helping me out 
when Tracy is out of town.
Tracy went on a business trip this past January and we had the biggest snow storm EVER!
He shoveled and shoveled and made my job easier to get our driveway all cleared out!

He wanted me to come and watch him 

give his speech for his government class.  

He looked so handsome and innocent I couldn't resist snapping a photo of my sweet guy!

 I can't believe that I am old enough 
to have a boy this age!

I was one happy mama to come home from work on September 3rd to this happy boy after his 10 day long trip to Tennessee!  

SO, now to the title of this post:
"Weekend with Bodie"!

YES, you will see in the above photos that Jade is standing with his grandparents, wearing a graduation gown and holding a diploma cover. 

To explain that...

Since Jade is on an IEP (Individual Education Plan), it means that he is able to keep going to High School until he is 21.  The kids that do this are allowed one time to walk down the graduation aisle and he decided he wanted to do it with his actual graduating class.

SO, he will be going to High School until May 2015 and after he finishes he will receive a REAL diploma!

This year, he has been taking 

a Dating and Adult Relationships class 

and part of the assignment was bringing home a mechanical baby that he was in charge of all care

 from the afternoon of November 8th until the morning of November 11th.

Jade chose a cute little black baby boy for his project! 

His name was "Bodie"

 Ethan helped in the feeding times of Bodie as well.

WOW, was it ever an eye opener!
Up multiple times during the night, which meant NO sleep for the entire family!
Having to trouble solve on what the baby needed whether it was hungry, needed burped, needed rocked or needed it's diaper changed.
Needless to say, we didn't get much done this weekend at all!!

As I awoke Monday morning, 
the sun was shining brightly in the window 
as I sat and held "Bodie" and fed him, so Jade could get ready for school, I couldn't help but ponder and think how grateful I am for my sweet and amazing son! 

Life has been SO VERY HARD  and challenging for him, 
but he is such a positive kid with an amazing attitude and always has a smile and a laugh for all who come in contact with him!

I'm SO thrilled that I still get to be a part of his life and school projects and I'm going to be savoring these next 18 months to the fullest!


I love you Jade!
Love and Kisses,
 from Mom

This is Halloween!!

This is a spider web of a cat faced spider that graced our garage door!

I can't believe another October and Halloween are behind us! 

Time just has flown by faster than usual this year! 

 I wish we had another week or two 

to enjoy things just a little bit longer.

We did however, enjoy Pumpkin Cookies every single week! 
I think I made over 7 batches of them to take to various events and we enjoyed all of the extras! Out of all of the cookies I make, I am pretty sure my kids would say these are their favorite!

Today was my last afternoon to enjoy my favorite centerpiece...

My Halloween tree filled with wallet sized photos of all of our Halloween memories since Ethan was a baby!

Everyday this month has been a happy trip down memory lane. 

Oh how I love October!

As usual, there was no shortage

 of FUN and excitement dressing up for the day.

This is Tracy's day of the year to
 "humor" his wife and boys.  
Dressing up for the Halloween Concert, is enough for him. 
I'm just grateful that he dresses up for that!
(So in case you're wondering why only photos of Kimmie and boys are shown, that is why!)

Here are photos from Halloween 2013... 

Starring Sally, Jack Skellington and Nerd Zombie!

Getting all dressed in costumes to go to work and school!

I SPY... 

a "not-too-scary" Sally, 

ready to show her PE kids some FUN Halloween games!

 LOVE the way these photos turned out!

(our local cemetery has some great foliage to use as a backdrop)

I LOVE these guys!  

Nerd Zombie (aka Ethan)

(He totally got into his part 

and had fun with the photos...
Actually to be honest, he was "in character" from the moment he put on his costume/make-up early in the morning to the moment he took it off late at night!)

It's SO funny that he was a NERD Zombie, because he is my studious, book loving kid and just became part of the NERD club at school, where kids his age get together and discuss all kinds of cool things with space, science, animals and LOTS of history!

Jack Skellington...

(aka Jade)

 Sally...

 Hey...

There's a Nerd Zombie 

staring back at me in my rear view window!

As I type...

My little monsters are tucked in bed, 

our Halloween costumes and makeup are put neatly away 

and while it's sad to say good-bye 

to October and Halloween for another year,

 I'm looking forward to November 

and all of the joy that comes with the month of Gratitude!

It's my most favorite month of the year!

October

Oh how I love you!
I love the cool weather and that it's the start of wearing my knee socks and boots!
I LOVE the colorful leaves!
 I love Pumpkin EVERYTHING!
I love making FUN and spooky meals.

I love all of my Halloween decor.
I love all of my adorable SPIDERS that are scattered all around my house!
I love carving pumpkins!
I love watching Scary Movies!
I LOVE DRESSING UP!
I love all of the fun traditions that are abundant this time of the year!

Here are highlights
 from LAST years month of October 2012.
(since I didn't get it blogged about LAST year).

I LOVE my holiday tree 
with photos from past Halloweens! 

Colorful chips and Hot Bean Dip!

Coolest pumpkin EVER!
Awesome job Tracy and Ethan!  

Pumpkin Cookies
Finger Breadsticks
 Meal in a Squash
a few of the holiday treats we made up this month! 

My mother-in-law has such fun and unique holiday decor this time of the year!


Mr and Mrs. Smith celebrated 
birthdays on the 20th and 22nd! 
I LOVE that our birthdays are only two days apart 
and that we're just two years apart in age. 

Kimmie turned 42 and Tracy turned 44.

(Adorable cupcake compliments 
of my cute Beehive girl Ellie Taylor)

Happy Birthday Tracy dinner!
Heart-shaped Salmon Salad, 
fresh grape juice and pumpkin cookie!

Our costumes that we wore to the 
ANNUAL BYU-I Halloween Concert! 
(we've been attending this annual event for over 20 years)

(we invited Karissa to come along and enjoy the night with us)

LOVE my boys and love even more that they humor me in dressing up in costumes two times during the month of October!

Clever pumpkin carvings
 from Young Women Girls!  

Halloween morning breakfast!

PE teacher (aka Bat Girl)

This was the day after Halloween. 

I teach PE on Wednesdays and Thursdays... 

Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year and so I did my Halloween tag games with my Thursday class on November 1st. YES, we got SNOW!!!!

My awesome boys!

Jade did such an amazing job 
on his Zombie make-up!

We live right near a cemetery 
and so I took my boys there 
and we took some cool photos. 
It was AWESOME!

Coming out of the casket

LOVE these guys!

Scary, Scary!!
This was the sight in my rear view mirror 
when we went to the annual Chili and Donut party 
at our friends the Francises!

Happy Fall 2013! 
Looking forward to all of the FUN and beauty 
of this years October!