This is so silly, I keep holding myself back from posting because if I miss a day or two I feel like so much has happened that I can’t write it all. Oh well, here I go.
Tonight at bedtime Noah got his picture of Christ off his dresser and said ” I know Jesus is real but do you really think this is what he looked like?, cause I saw another picture of him and he looked different.” I love his questions he is so sincere.

This morning we went to the Draper Temple open house. It was really neat. I am so glad our kids got that opportunity. Brandon is going to write in more detail about it later. After we were done we met Brandon’s dad for lunch at Chilli’s in Orem. He has been flying up from AZ for the past two weeks for some work that he is doing with one of the steel companies. Joslin has a very sweet relationship with Grandpa Beecroft. She loves him, and wants him to hold her over any one else besides Brandon and I. Well after we dropped him off at his hotel we were driving away and Joslin quietly said “bye bye Grandpa”. It was so cute. Last weekend we took Padre to see the new Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith Building in Salt Lake. That is an amazing movie.

Last but not least. We have definitely had a big change in our life. Well especially Noah. Basically from the time Noah was about 2 weeks old he has been hurt by Hailey about 10 to 20 times a day. No I’m not exaggerating and no it is not normal sibling rivalry. We tried everything for years and nothing worked. When she would hurt him she would get her mouth washed out with soap, she would get time out, books taken away, movies taken away, apples taken away,we tried everything nothing worked. Sometimes Noah would walk past her and out of the blue she would throw what ever she had in her hand at his head, random things like that constantly. Noah prayed every night that Hailey would stop hurting him.
I am always researching and reading books on all of the things that Hailey deals with to try to make things better. Well it seemed to me from what I had read that Hailey had aggression and impulse control problems. When she was 5 we finally gave in to try medication but after 2 weeks of Hailey acting depressed and sad we took her off. When she first turned 8 we decided to try something again. This stuff made her even more aggressive to a very dangerous point. After that again didn’t work we took her off and both Brandon and I were discouraged. By the way we have done many natural things as well. We are still working on that. Well there is a medication called Risperadall which is tested and made specifically for kids that are on the Autism Spectrum. It has a mood stabilizer in it. What I had found out earlier, (which some Doctors forget to tell) is that if you have mood disorders that run in your family or the possibility that a person has a mood disorder they should not go on an anti-depressant unless they also take a mood stabilizer or it could make them worse or manic. Well we pretty much believe that to be true after what Hailey went through with the first two.

So after Noah came to me and said “Why isn’t Heavenly Father answering my prayer?, I pray to him every day so Hailey will stop hurting me”. I told him about how sometimes we have to go through hard times to make us stronger and more compassionate. I also told him sometimes Heavenly Father wants us to use our knowledge that we gain to make things better. I knew what I had learned and also knew after consistently disciplining her for her behaviors and it not working at all that she couldn’t stop herself. I also had come a long way from the negative stigma I had about medication. (Awesome article in the Ensign about 2 years ago titled the “Myths about Mental Illness”). I do realize there are a lot of people out there that abuse prescription drugs. There are also people that need these medications to be able to live as normal a life as they can.

That said, I asked the psychiatrist to start her on a very low dose .25 he thought she needed more but I just wanted to try. Well Hailey has not hurt Noah for 2 weeks now. Brandon and I can hardly believe the amazing change. We’re not running to Noah’s rescue or yelling for Hailey to stop hurting her brother every other minute like before. We hope this dose will continue to work for her at least for a while. Noah is so relieved, and at the end of the day I ask Noah if he’s gotten hurt (already knowing the answer) and he says ” No” and throws his arms around me with a huge smile!!!!!!

Now that we have that hopefully under control I want to focus with Hailey on hygiene, knowing where and where not to undress, closing the door in a public bathroom when she uses the toilet, Sensory problems (right now as always she yells and fights and cry’s when getting teeth brushed hair done, or getting dressed). She still has a hard time zipping, tying or buttoning anything and gets very frustrated when trying to get her coat on or shirt on. It is just so hard for her to maneuver her arms the right way. Her Occupational Therapist has always tried to help us help her in these areas. A lot lot more but at least we took the first step toward success. If we could get her to stop running out of sacrament meeting over and over that would be great. A couple weeks ago, she ran out of sacrament and I didn’t follow her because Brandon was out there with Joss. About 15 minutes later Noah says ” Mom I’m getting worried about Hailey” we went out and Brandon said he never saw her. We finally found her outside in the snow with no coat on.

I forgot to mention one more thing, Brandon and I and Hailey’s Resource teacher noticed. Since Hailey has started this medicine it has some how slowed her brain down enough that she has been able to express her self a little bit. Tonight, I was wrestling her to get her teeth brushed and she pinched my neck and said “how does that feel’? Brandon and I started laughing and I said “great communicating Hailey”. Ok, it’s 11:00 p.m. better end this.