November

 In swept November with the cutest girls ever! Claire was getting bigger, snugglier and more smiley by the day.  We all absolutely loved it.  We went to the library for the first time in a long time (it's been rather difficult to go with Luke as he's really noisy and doesn't love sitting in a stroller).  We got all of Patricia Polacco's books and really loved them all.  Stories with lots of emotion.  I think I cried in almost every one.  Sheesh I'm a bawl bag.

 Here we're at the Dr.'s for Claire's 2 month appointment.  Elliott is always so good to play and entertain Luke.  I just loved that Luke was holding Elliott's hand for a minute.  Much of our November played out like this: lots of running around.  Alex was still playing soccer (lots of rained out games got pushed to November) Elliott was still attending baseball practice, piano lessons, MCO, art class, the Heard Museum science classes, thinking reeds science classes for Alex, as well as gymnastics for Lily and Elliott.  Claire had her follow up appointments for her tongue tie release as well.  We were all over the place.

 Elliott being a helper, as always, and holding baby sister.

 I don't think I mentioned this in previous posts, but I will now.  We bought land!  Twelve acres of it in fact.  This little parcel is located in Wylie just a few lots down from some of our dear friends.  It has an old 150 foot dairy barn and 50 foot tall, concrete silo.  We came across this land because I pulled a 'Clint Day' a year earlier.  What I mean is, I saw two empty lots of land near my friend's house and found the owners on a website for the county it's in.  I sent them letters explaining who I was, that I knew their neighbor, where I found their info (so I didn't seem entirely creepy) and that if they were ever interested in selling their land to please contact me first. Those were sent July 2017.  We heard from one of the owners in January of 2018 for this lot.  He was an aging man with macular degeneration and was looking to sell this place.  We finalized everything in August.  I had such a peaceful feeling when we took the kids to the land and let them get out the first time.  I knew we had made a good decision.  I should also clarify that we bought this land so that we could put animals on it, so that Luke might benefit from being around them and taking care of them.  Adam and I had done lots of research on farm therapy for autistic individuals and felt this might be a good path for Luke.  November was the month that we finally started doing work: setting up new electric apart from the barn, piling up farm trash and removing barn siding.

This photo no only shows how Lily got caught while climbing a tree, but you can see through the barn since we'd taken off the sides.

 Here's Lily attending her cookie rally for girl scouts.  I'm glad we have something like this for her to do.  She really loves doing activities with her troop and learning the life skills that go with it.

 Here is Adam driving our neighbor's tractor.  He had been pulling out fence posts with it.  The kids, of course, loved sitting in the bucket and driving the tractor back to our neighbor's house.

 No post would be complete without a few more pictures of this darling girl.  She's big!  She's wearing 6 month old clothes because she's so long!  100% percentile at this age.  Still a string bean though.

I think I took this picture because we had just been playing phase 10.  Elliott was sad because he didn't finish the phase.  I was super proud of him because he was playing on his own.  We started Sunday night games after I went to women's conference and had the distinct impression that we needed to do this.  I felt a sense of urgency that time was passing and the time for setting this type of tradition was now, because our kids might very soon not want to play games with us anymore.  It's not about the games per se, but setting up a tradition and expectation that we spend active time together on Sundays. Though this picture might not show it, game night has been a hit.  The kids have loved playing and learning new games.

Thanksgiving!!  This was all new this year, as we were gluten and dairy free for this meal.  No rolls. I thickened the gravy with rice flour (which turned out great!).  I made the turkey different this year as well.  I didn't roast the whole thing.  A friend told me to cut the meat off the bones and then roast it in a specific pattern in a pan.  It turned out fantastic (very juicy!) and in a fraction of the time it would normally take to roast the whole thing.  I just put loads of roasted veggies with our meal. I loved it!  Everyone else was pretty good about it....except Elliott.  I included both pictures because his face says it all. Too funny.

 I actually made a gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie. The crust was edible...the filling was fantastic.  I put whipped coconut creme on top.  Really good.

 This girl clearly didn't make it through dinner.  Comatose and didn't even eat. Go figure.

 Here's a close up because she's adorable. Look at those SQUISHY CHEEKS!!

 This year, on Black Friday, instead of shopping for ourselves, we took our 'angels' from Adam's work and shopped for them.  We had a boy Alex's age, a girl Lily's age and a senior citizen. It was really fun to shop for someone else and have the kids be so excited.  I really love this tradition.

We got Luke's lab results back.  He had a lot of unexpected things out of range: High cholesterol, low thyroid, low iron, really low b vitamins, his methylation process wasn't really working (detoxification), is UREA/bun ratio was way out of range, (it keeps going).  That was stressful to hear.  What was worse was he had a parasite (Blastocyst Hominis) and yeast.  I knew he had yeast but it was hard just the same to confirm, scientifically, my suspicion.   Our MAPS doc immediately started us on a parasite cleanse and then we would be starting a 76 day yeast treatment.  She warned us that Luke would get really stimmy during these processes because, well, parasites and yeast would be dying in his body and release toxins and cause him to be more checked out.  We started the parasite protocol 10 days on a product called "wormout"...gross name....ten days off, and then ten days taking the medicine again.  Mind you, Luke had started verbalizing more when we started him on the basic supplements Dr. Brooks recommended (Vitamin C, Therabiotic, Fish Oil, Multi vitamin, intolerance enzyme) which was fantastic!  Then Luke went radio silent again and super stimmy.  The weight of it all just felt too much.  The weight of progress then regress, the weight of "what does Luke's future look like?, the weight of "will he ever become verbal" and the thoughts of so many other unknowns. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I was a mess.  I asked Adam if I could just go to the temple briefly (Claire is still small and nursing frequently and won't take a bottle) to seek peace and guidance, but really just peace for my mama heart.  He didn't hesitate and told me to get dressed for the temple, rounded up the kids in the car and we went.  I went in to perform some initiatories and then would go sit in the celestial room.  Adam all the while would be outside walking the grounds with the kids.  Normally I would have been given a list of 5 or 6 names, but for whatever reason I was only given three on this particular day.  I finished the ordinance quickly(still thoughtfully) and then proceeded to the celestial room.  I sat down in a chair on the perimeter, bowed my head and proceeded to silently sob and pour out my very broken heart to my Father in Heaven.  I felt so heavy and helpless for my son.  I plead that I was doing everything in my power and yet nothing seemed to stick in terms of progress.  I finished my prayer, looked up and decided I shouldn't keep Adam waiting any longer.  I came to do what I said I needed to do.  Right as I shifted my weight to stand I heard a clear voice in my head that said "I am with you, and I am with Luke.  Be Patient"  I couldn't believe it.  I felt immense love and concern on my behalf and a wave of peace, that I had been desperately seeking, wash over me.  I quickly changed and met up with Adam outside.  The whole trip start to finish was 30 minutes.  I have never in my life been to the temple and done any ordinance that quickly AND had such an incredible experience in terms of an answer to prayer ever. I thanked Adam for enabling me to have that experience by watching kids without hesitation.