Winter 2016 Catch Up

We were cocky!!  The whole East coast was just downright cocky.  No snow in November, none in December, hanging out in shorts on Christmas Eve, we were sure that winter was just going to pass us by this season.  Well, Mother Nature had the last laugh....winter did indeed arrive....in a big way!!!

The reason that I'm finally getting around to catching up.....Bobby is sick.  In fact, he has been sick a lot this winter.  It seems as if every few years he has a bad winter and this, unfortunately, is his bad winter.  This time, stomach bug.  We are in day 4 of this yuckiness.  Hopefully he makes it back to school before the snow begins again later this week.  So far, it isn't looking good for this to happen.

One other reason that I hadn't been sharing quite as many pictures lately....internet issues.  Happy to report that our internet issues have been fixed and it is faster than ever!!  It was rough for this family to be internet-less during the snow days.

My family, minus me, enjoys being outside in the snow.  I tend to bundle up and hang out in the dry garage while they play and work.  Something that I do enjoy about the snow....taking pictures of my family having fun.  Needless to say, I end up with tons and tons of pictures.  Thought that I would share a small sampling from our last couple of snows.

 I know, she looks like a dog in one of the pictures reminding people to bring their pets indoors during extreme cold and snow.  This girl is a snow LOVER and sometimes refuses to come in until she is good and ready.  I think that she is happy to finally be cooled off!!

The most time that these two spend together is outside when it is snowing.

I need to get Bobby a bright, colorful winter coat, this one blends into the snow!!

And now for the major snow event of the winter.....Snow Storm Jonas!!!  The forecast kept changing, but it was basically 6-12 inches of snow.  The boys went out and started plowing in the evening after the snow began.  I remember walking downstairs the next morning and my eyes went wide!!  I got out a measuring stick and opened our back door....15 inches already and it was supposed to snow for a few more hours.  A couple of days later, I read a report that this snow storm was the 2nd largest one time snow event in the Morgantown, WV recorded history.  We ended up with 19 inches total at our house, some of our local friends had a few inches more.  The eastern panhandle of WV was in the 30 inches range.

This snow was too much for Zoi,  it was well over her legs and she had to leap. She would have loved this as a puppy, but she's 8 now and struggled.  She loved hanging out in the driveway that Daddy and Bobby had plowed and this is where she had to go potty for a few days.

Daddy's car is under there somewhere!!!

A swim anyone???  How about a grilled steak???

I wanted him to stand in the fresh, knee deep snow for a picture, he, however, wasn't that interested.

The best surprise about Jonas, it wasn't a wet. heavy snow like was predicted.  It instead was a light, powdery snow that didn't stick to the tree branches and weigh them down......yay, no power outages!!!!!!!!!  Whoo hoo!!!!  First major snow with no power outage in the 12+ years I have lived in our house.

Since Zoi is used to going out to potty in our front yard, I tried to get her to go off of our front porch and move around to pack some snow down so that she would have some room.  Well that plan didn't work at all!!!!!!!  I finally coaxed her off of the porch and she got stuck.  She literally couldn't move. I ran in, grabbed my camera, took a couple of pictures and then went and rescued her.  I know, right, parents today....we all have to get the picture first!!!!  LOL!!  Back to the driveway to potty for Zoi.

We have managed to do a couple of fun activities in between all of the snow and sickness!  Bobby went to the YMCA for a swim birthday party.  As you can tell by the smile on his face, he was super happy to be out of the house having some fun!

And for the best time of the year........Junior Tykes tumbling with all of Bobby's friends from Stepping Stones!!!  The kids love this event more than anything!!!  Time to jump, jump, jump!!!

Hopefully Mr. Bobby gets over this stomach bug soon.  We are all ready to get back to school and life.....well, actually just to get out of the house!!

Spring is only a month away!!

Merry Christmas 2015----Part Two!!

Ahhhhhhh, there is silence in the house!!!  Bobby just got on the school bus and just like that, our routine is back!!!!!  What a long two week break it has been!!  In case you don't know much about autism.....routine, routine, routine is super duper important!!

The one thing that has helped historically over Christmas break is that Bobby usually gets to play in the snow, something that he loves.  Well, this year, not so much.  60's and rain.  Lots and lots of rain. Not fun to play in.  The lack of outside play also had a much unwanted side effect.......lack of sleep. Bobby NEEDS the outdoors!!  I'm absolutely mean this!  He NEEDS to be outside.  When he doesn't get outdoor time, his sleep decreases.  Over this break, his sleep decreased TREMENDOUSLY!!  He woke up many, many times at 1 am and 2 am for the day!!  Talk about fun for Mom and Dad!!!!

Tired or not, the holidays continued.  Ashley and Chris made it to WV!!!!  We all went to Grandma's house for Christmas Eve dinner part 2.  It wasn't actually Christmas Eve, but it felt like it.  Love big family meals.  This time, spaghetti and meatballs.  Yum-O!!  Funny enough, zero pictures of the meal.  Too excited rehashing all of the details of the engagement to get out a camera.

Christmas morning part 2 happened the next day.  This time, they all came to our house for brunch and PRESENTS!!!  Bobby hadn't opened all of his Santa gifts, so he quite a few gifts to open.

 This was the definitely the funniest gift, which was from Chris and Ashley.......

It's funny......because it's true!!!!!!  LOL!!!!  Bobby still wasn't interested in opening gifts, but he did sit and open everything in one sitting with verbal prompting.  He was even excited with what was under the wrapping paper, but still was just uninterested.  The table that Daddy made for him is still by far his favorite gift.  He has played with the new table daily.

 A couple of boxes of these trestle sets from Santa have also been a huge hit!!!  Santa is figuring out what Bobby likes and will actually play with!

Everyone else did a great job of opening their gifts, no verbal prompting needed!!

Now that Ashley is engaged, she got cookbooks for Christmas!!  However, it's something she asked for before she knew the question was coming!

Now that Chris wants to be a member of our family, it was time........he had to get some WV Mountaineer apparel.  He is now allowed within the state borders, he has a WV shirt and hat!!

A fun lunch box for Ashley.  Zoi never left the fun, she's always right in the middle!!

After brunch, the games began.....

Later in the day, the kids (Daddy included) went to see STAR WARS!!!!

Finally, finally, finally the rain stopped!!!  The temps dropped some, but the rain went away.  As soon as it stopped, we got Bobby OUTSIDE!!!

 Even though we had been up since 2, we were out walking on the rail trail.  Fresh air for Bobby!! We stopped off at the grocery store on our way home to pick up something fun for dinner.

 After dinner, we all moved to the living room and watched THE INTERN. Such a great movie for a multi-generational audience.  What a great evening!!

 What is Bobby so excited about???  He is watching the neighbor kids riding their 4 wheeler.  For some reason, this made him flap and clap and squeal with laughter!!  Whatever!  We could sit outside and watch him be this happy watching others for hours....and we did.

Ashley and Chris went back home to North Carolina....boo!! We were so tired that New Years Eve and New Years Day came and went with very little fanfare.  I did make a banana cake for Bobby so that he could blow out his holiday candles.

You MUST clap after all of the candles are out!! This is a big rule in Bobby's World!!

We got Bobby out and about as much as we could...

The playground is always a hit!

We came up with a fun activity for Bobby that we knew he would love.  We took a short road trip to one of Bobby's favorite places.....South Hills Village in Pittsburgh!  Riding the escalators and glass elevator as long as he wanted was our only agenda for the day.

The only other thing that we did while we were at the mall was have some lunch at the food court. Bobby said all done and then we left.  It is just amazing how happy riding these things makes this boy.  His own personal Disney without the lines!

 Same playground, same pictures, different outfits!

After we left the playground this time, I noticed that the tennis courts were empty as we were driving by.  I pulled over, got his nerf soccer ball out of the car and we went into the courts for a little soccer fun.  Amazingly, he was into it!!  We kicked the ball back and forth for about 15 minutes.  FUN!!!

I'm happy to say, the Christmas tree is down and all of the decorations are put away in their storage containers until next November.  This is the one that I always miss the most.....because it is from all of my friends and family.....

We made it!!!  Christmas break is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bobby actually had to wear his winter coat this morning, this first time this season.  We woke to snow on the ground and reports of accidents all over the place, even some school buses stuck in ditches.  Why oh why does this weather always come at the worst times???  Thankfully, we didn't have any trouble.

HAPPY 2016!