Indoor S'mores

I'm not going to lie, s'mores are one of my favorite things about summer. I love the process of making them and finding new ingredients to add to the yummy mess.  I love the open flame, family and friends coming together and the way you smell when you get home from the fire. In our old neighborhood we used to have fires almost every weekend of the summer. Sometimes we would have 3 or 4 firepits lit at the same time.
James has been begging me to do a fire at our new house and I finally was able to find wood and buy the Hersheys chocolate bars, but then the flash flood started and old friends knocked on our door and well you can't blame the kid for getting frustrated.
Tonight after dinner we got out the Graham crackers, marshmallows and Tarder Joe's Chocolate Almond Butter.  We set up a line of grahams with the chocolate almond butter and then cut marshmallows in half and put them on the other half of the graham and into the toaster oven. I have tried them in the microwave, and although I love watching them expanding they get so chewy and I don't love that. The toaster of was perfect.  It lightly toasted the marshmallows and it didn't make the graham crackers soft!
Now to enjoy the sticky mess with the boys!

We moved...again!

I feel like I am always talking about moving.  I lived in the same house for 18 years,  but in the last 13 years I have moved 26 times.  Guess I need to figure things out a little!
I loved living in Coupeville.  I loved my neighbors, my job, the boys Pediatrician (Dr. Barrio) and the boys preschool. It has never been such a perfect fit and I guess that's why we stayed for 2 years.
Last year I was ready to do this move to Utah and even gave notice at work and the preschool, but then I got some sense knocked into me and I signed my lease for another year. At that point I felt like I was just doing my time until school was out and we could make the move south.
Moving away from my family was difficult and I worried about my mom. But in humor only Heavenly Father would think of my brother moved to Washington the same week I moved out of Washington. She lost 3 grand kids she knew intimately and gained 3 that had lived 15 hours away from their entire life.
Now we are in Washington, Utah and only 5 minutes away from my sister.  The boys have loved our daily visits to the pool or local splash pads and finding new places to eat ice cream. It is funny how Carson and Easton (both 3) don't get along, but Easton seems content playing with James and James doesn't seem to mind.
School will start in the next 2 weeks for Logan and James and I might even find a place for Carson to hang out for a few hours a week to play with kids his own age.
I will post pictures once I have done some cleaning!

Episodes

My eldest son has been having violent episodes of rage as long as I can remember.   I have always been able to hold him tightly to help settle the rage, but as he gets has gotten older this method hasn't worked as well. Episodes seem to occur more frequently with change.  In the last month he has moved twice, finished the first grade, played with his father, and drastically changed everything he has ever known in life. 

Today he had 2 episodes- the second being far more violent resulting in dented walls and broken toys. I was able to see the signs at the beginning of the episode enough to send his 2 little brothers into a bedroom and lock the door from the inside to be safe. Thankfully it only lasted 15 minutes and no one was hurt.

I am curious if it was short because I completely removed myself and the little boys. I have never left him to calm the storm alone.  I hate that can see the hurt in his eyes as he struggles to calm his body and it pains me beyond measure.

After he had settled he came downstairs and politely asked if he could color more pictures for me. I asked him to give me a few minutes so that the floors could dry and he said yes and headed straight upstairs.

This sweet child went from being insane to calm in a matter of moments. Thankfully very few have seen this side of him and even more thankfully I have the opportunity to stay home with him to help protect him and provide him with stability.