Weston turns 3!

Looking back the past 3 years have flown by - way to fast. Weston is 3, that is so very hard to believe. Weston celebrated in true Steck style by first waking up to find his room decorated by the birthday fairy with balloons, #3's and Happy Birthday's all around the room. Needless to say he loved that! The rest of the day was pretty usual. That night we took him and the brothers to a birthday dinner at Winger's - we don't normally go out, but this year grandparents didn't come over so we thought we'd go out. We came back home and I made his cake and then we ate it... it was so fast. Then present time. It was such a nice relaxing day with my littlest bug.
I love my Westie to pieces. I am amazed as I think back over the last year I start to think about all the things I would have missed. You see we've been trying to get pregnant for the past year, and no success. With each disappointment I found such joy in watching Weston. I love seeing the world through his eyes - I am sad at what I would have missed had there been a newborn around taking my attention. Everything with Weston is so exciting. The noises, the colors of the world, the objects, everything is just amazing to him. He tells you about it with such enthusiasim, and wants your response to be just as energetic. His language has tripled in the past year and there isn't a word he won't try. I love listening to his cute little voice, even at 3:00 in the morning when he wants to snuggle. His love for his brothers has developed to a friendship - which I love to watch happen. I love watching him get excited about things out the window as we drive in the car. I even love his determined mindset to do everything on his own - even when it's not good for me to wait for him. I love his cute little slim body, his adorable face and his happy uplifting smile.
So to my Weston, thank you for being my positive post to lean on this past year. You are such an amazing easy going little boy, I am so happy to have you as my son. I love you, Happy 3rd Birthday.
The night shoot of his Birthday Fairy room

The Birthday Boy's entry to his room

The floor - the birthday fairy got smart this time and didn't do any confetti

He was so happy when he woke to find the balloons all over his room

Let the play time begin

A Daytime shoot of his ceiling

Weston and his Blue Balloon

Weston asked to call Daddy at work to tell him all about the balloon's, I was surprised at how much he actually talked to him

Here is the attempt - very fast attempt done after dinner to make a Toothless Dragon Cake

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Weston, Happy Birthday to you.

Blowing out the candles, we had to re-light them so Weston could do it without any help.

TOOTHLESS! He loves How to Train your Dragon so I found this one and he loved it

I love the look on his face in the shoot, he is simply so pleased with his new friend

Weston and Toothless

Really? Another Birthday?

Another year older! I am now the big 32 and it doesn't seem to matter to me. Darren was wonderful this year. He planned a snowmobiling trip which we will take next weekend as a family. He also took me out on a great date night with good food and a fun night away from the house.
I have amazing friends who all gave me birthday wishes or brought over cards and gifts. I truly feel loved and I am so grateful for each of you in my life!

My flowers and card and such from my cut hubby and wonderful friends

Darren's amazing knack for picking up one card and having it be a keeper. As you can see the outside of the card reads... Happy Birthday to my wife who's still "got it"... the inside read... From a Husband who still "wants it"... seriously so cute! Made me smile all day!

Can you spot the Laughy Taffy? Darren put 5 cherry ones in the arrangement - it was so cute

Here is my office... messy I know, he showed up before he went to work and left me these amazing flowers and then covered my desk in M&M's... I was shocked and didn't think he would do anything on my birthday. Thanks hunny!

Win a Free iPad

A good friend of my growing up years - Kecia Cox - are adopting this sweet little girl from an orphanage in Eastern Europe. Kareen is a 4 year old little girl with Down Syndrome. In her country a child with special needs is only held in an orphanage until the age of 4 or 5 and is then transferred to an institution where conditions are bleak and offer little hope for living a fulfilling life. The cost of international adoption is very high and they could use our help.

You can donate by visiting Kareen's Blog and click the "chip in" button or you can donate through the agency which would be tax deductible (this is a confidential site, so if you want the chance to win the ipad please leave your name and donation amount in the comment area)

This family needs to get this little girl home, please help them in any way you can.

Las Vegas = Gun Training...

Darren went to Vegas for 4 days for a convention for work - okay it was a gun convention and he is in the promotional advertising business. But still - it was a paid trip so he took it! This trip started a chain of events... funny events now that I look back on it.
Let me set the scene...

Fun on the strip! Mickey and Elmo - Darren sent this one to me for Weston

And now their kissing - yes it is in fact Vegas!

The view from his suite

His suite - he said it was really dark decor so the pic didn't turn out so well

While Darren is having fun on the strip and being a 'good husband' I was home. I HATE really bad having to be home alone at night. I get freaked out with every small noise. Because I feel so insecure I sleep with the gun by my bed loaded and ready to go. Darren is sweet he gets it all ready for me. I even sleep with a night light, and block the doors with my large kitchen table wood chairs - so now that you now I am a baby...

The last night - Friday night - we had stayed up watching a movie and I was exhausted from two previous night of light sleep. So I fell asleep fast which was a blessing. About 12:30 Weston woke up so the half awake me went into comfort him and I start to fall back asleep at his bedside. Then all the sudden I hear a noise! A LOUD noise! It sounds just like a wooden chair getting pushed across the tile!!! Nerves and oh my crap. I run to my bedroom and get the gun and the flashlight and the phone - yes 3 things, 2 hands and I need both to shoot the gun. Great!

So here I am squatting by behind the side of my bed with gun on top of the bed ready to shoot whomever walks in the hallway. I go to cock the gun when I realize - I have no idea how to unengaged it - about 5 minutes have passed now and I get brave enough to go check out the kitchen.

Gun in hand peaking around corners like I am part of the SWAT team. I make my way to the kitchen. I have never been so nervous in my whole life. At first glance everything looks safe - the chair hasn't been moved, the dogs are silent and the doors are locked. However I still wasn't convinced that I wasn't okay. So I tried to text Darren to see if he was still awake - nope, cell phone was dead! Crap! Do I call my neighbor?

Instead I sat in my front room chair, which sits in the corner and has a clear shoot to anyone walking up my stairs or to our hallway. It would also send the bullet to my room where no kids were. Yes I thought it all through. There I sat for 1-1/2 hours gun in hand and ready to shoot, well almost I still hadn't cocked it.

At this point I start to dose off and thought to myself that I was so jumpy that I would most likely shoot at anything that moved - fearing that may be my kids that moved, as I was now back to being half asleep. I went back to bed, put the gun back in it's safe spot and fell back asleep. I was so Very Very Happy for Morning!

Upon further examination the next morning, I found that the GREAT NOISE was actually a Wii Tennis Racket sliding from the top bunk bed down along the wall. But when you are already paranoid and half asleep it sounded like the chair.

So... all this leads to the next Saturday's outing. I told Darren I was not going to be alone till I was comfortable with all the guns... how to load, re-load, safety, aim, shoot, un-cock.. all of it... so off to Utah Lake we went.

Loading up the 9mm

Weston stood by the side of the 22 as it was shot and one of the shell went down his shirt and burnt his chest. He has a perfect silhouette of a bullet.

Preston and Weston enjoying front row seats

Darren and his shotgun - yes I actually shot it this time - wasn't as bad as I thought

Bryson loves to shoot - he really gets into it. This time he tried shooting the 22 and loved that one even more!

Preston and Weston didn't leave the car, but seemed to have a good time

Bryson shooting the 22, it's a big gun for him so I was helping him aim at the targets

Darren and I both shooting

Shooting the 9mm

It ended up being a wonderful and fun afternoon, very educational and most likely not the last time that this Mommy of 3 boys will go out on a gun adventure!

A Lucky Fortune!

Darren and I went to PF Chang's for lunch today - mmmmm Lettuce Wraps - My fortune was a same old same old fortune. But Darren's was great!
"No obstacles will stand in your way during this lucky month"
This fortune only makes sense if you add in the hidden ending that you can to fortunes... Let's hope its true, don't know how much more "try" I have left in me.

Now we Know...

I keep telling myself that... now we know. Its been 3 years since Darren and I really started to take a look at our sweet Preston and what he was doing. We started to notice that his behavior and defiance seemed to be much higher then other kids his age or where we recalled Bryson was at that stage. We started him in Pre-school through the Jordan Child Development Program. He went in as a "Normal" child as this class is integrated with special needs, developmental delays and normal. In the back of my mind I thought "could something not be clicking?" His teacher was Bryson's same teacher so we had a very trusted relationship. So she started to test him for us and did all that she as a teacher had access to. None of which could 'diagnose' him but instead help us see his areas where he lacked. At age 4 he tested through to an 8 year old's intelligence, so that was not an issue. Where he lacked was behavior and social skills. So he went into Kindergarten with a behavior and social delay. When he was 4 we meet twice with a doctor at the U who came highly recommended. He was no help, but was willing to give us medication. So we went back to our ped who set us up an evaluation appointment with him. The appointment went well but he wanted to wait till Preston had completed 6 months of Kindergarten.

Since we are at that 6 month mark we went in to meet with him again, more tests, home evaluations and questions. The hard thing about a disorder that isn't found through a blood test is all the questions and guessing. After the hour meeting we were told that Preston has ADHD, while it didn't come to us as a surprise it was still overwhelming.

Most people say this is 'over-diagnosed' in the US, I question that. Over 11,000 babies are born every day in the US - so is it over-diagnosed or are there simply just more children to get diagnosed. Over the course of 3 years I have taken classes and read books trying to figure out how to handle Preston and help him - Autism, Aspbergers, Regulatory Disorder - none of them seemed to match. I started to read the book 'Taking charge of ADHD' from my peds referral and have found that just about everything they say seems to hit the missing nail on the head.

So, Now we Know... and now I start to learn about it. I start to know that I need to expect things of him, help him learn how to manage himself and time and help him over time understand his energy and how to redirect it. It has been a huge stress relief to open a book and finally find out what isn't clicking... on the flip side of that I learn what possible challenges he may be faced with and that we may be faced with and I feel emotional and overwhelmed. It will be an entire shift in our parenting skills with him thus far. But we are on the right road now and I am sure it will be a less frustrating adventure then the unknown adventure the last 3 years have been.

I love you my sweet Preston, you are an amazing, unique little boy... and I am so happy your mine!

Steck Pizzaria

for FHE this week I decide to have the kids make their own pizza's - it turned out to be a huge success with them and they want to do this again. We had a great time and the kids got creative with their toppings. I was amazed at the "ready for pizza" stuff that's out there. I did buy a spaghetti sauce instead of the pizza sauce which I think was a better taste. We had a wonderful time as a family making the pizza and talking about why we like things. It was nice to point out how different every one's pizza was but in the end they are all pizza's and everyone likes it. A great FHE - I would recommend giving it a go!

Weston did a great job at keeping up

Preston adding his sauce

Bryson working on his pizza

Adding the toppings

Bryson's finished pizza - Cheese, Sausage and pepperoni

Weston's Pizza - Cheese, Olives Pepperoni and Canadian Bacon

Preston's Pizza - Cheese, Olives, Pepperoni, and Canadian Bacon

The Parents tomatoes and cheese Pizza. mmmmmmmmmmm

Bryson and Weston eating away