My Amazing special boy

So tonight's blog is a little vent on the difficult times that come with being a mommy. Being a parent is such a huge responsibility and such a huge blessing! My baby boy, who is now almost 4, is the sweetest most loving little man ever, but he is also quite a handful. As many of you know we have been aware for awhile that he may be on the autistic spectrum mostly because he is behind in speech... but we have held of on further testing because his doctor thinks he is just a quirky kiddo and that we dont need to be concerned about labeling him at this point. We totally agree with this most days and have seen so much growth in Timmy that most of the time we feel like at this point we are doing whats best for him and just helping him grow up at his own pace in his own way. But in all honesty it is so hard seeing that your baby is not "normal" like other kiddos. One of my favorite shows is Parenthood, and in this show the family has a son who has aspergers, which is a highly functioning autism. Anyways a few weeks ago the mom on the show goes to see how he is doing at his new school and she sees him sitting by himself during lunch and it breaks her heart to see that he is not making friends. And of course I cry during this show every week because I am just starting to totally understand her feelings. For the most part Timmy is growing up so much! He is talking a ton and he is able to understand and answer questions, and he is even able to have almost conversations with people. But then there are nights like tonight where he just has a rough night. And on nights like these I see that he doesn't know how to relate to kids his own age. And kids his age get frustrated with the way he wants to play and then of course that upsets him because he doesn't understand what they are upset at. And its just exhausting as a parent to explain to him over and over things that he just doesn't get yet. So its just one of those emotional nights for me where I just want to see him be able to play with other kids and enjoy himself instead of having to constantly take him out of situations and remind him of the correct way to behave. Its just exhausting for both of us, but luckily he only remembers all of it for a minute where as I get to keep thinking about it all... Wondering if we are doing enough to help him ect. Anyway so that is my vent. I am probably just emotional because I get a little tired when Curty works this much but I just felt like maybe writing a blog would help me. So friends just pray as normal that we have wisdom to raise our little man the way God wants us too!

My Amazing Mother!

Happy Birthday to the best mom ever! 
I just wanted to write a quick blog about my mommy, since tomorrow is her special day! She is the most amazing mom and Beena(grandma)! She is so caring and loving to not only her family but pretty much everyone she comes in contact with! Even through this rough year she is still always ready to give a smile and a hug to everyone. She is a huge helper, her love language, at least how she gives I think is acts of service because she wants to help everyone with everything :o) I know she wishes she could be with me to help with the kiddos everyday... okay maybe not everyday(she still likes her alone time with dad a lot too lol). She finds joy in everything, I think she giggles more than anyone. She loves God and her family more than you can imagine!  Anyways enough bragging about my mom. I cant wait to celebrate her birthday this weekend! Its party time at the Truelove house, watch out!!! Love you mom! 

And these wonderful pictures are done by Elaine Dieball :O)

The end of summer has come...

Well our summer is officially over and we are getting used to our school year schedule. We got to end our summer with another amazing camping trip. This time we went to Hume Lake! It is so neat how despite the craziness of camping with kiddos, it can still be so relaxing. Its so nice to get away to a beautiful place with cooler weather and get to hang out with great friends while the kiddos entertain each other. The trip started out a bit rough when we discovered that Timmy gets carsick... our new van definitely got broken in! The poor guy freaked out because he  is a bit ocd so being covered in puke is a nightmare for him. But after that disaster was done he had a great weekend! He loves being able to run around and play with his "best friends." Allanna loves camping too, she likes to get way messier than Timmy so playing in the dirt is heaven for her. We had our first camping in the rain experience and it wasn't too bad. The nice part about camping with a big group is that we have plenty of stuff... like a tarp to tie over the tables :o)

So now that the camping is done we are settling into a schedule. I had thought this year was going to be quiet but God had other plans. A couple of my friends are letting me watch their adorable children a couple days a week so I can make a little extra money. We love it because it keeps us busy and I get to be creative to keep the kiddos busy. But while I am busy I am determined to finally get this house organized and decorated so I will hopefully be posting some pics soon! Here are a couple camping pics for the time being though!

I love Summertime!

I just love how much fun summer is! During the school year we do lots of fun stuff but we it seems like everything is so scheduled and we are always so busy(and the kids are not even in school yet!). So I just love that every week during the summer is so different, you never know what fun things are going to come up. Yesterday me and the kids went to a waterpark with one of my best friends and her kiddos(and she brought a babysitter to help us keep track of the kids, which was very helpful). I was super excited but I had no idea how the kids would do and honestly was not sure if I should be attempting this adventure without Curtis. But it ended up being so much fun and the kids did really well so it actually wasn't stressful at all! Both of my kiddos have absolutely no fear of water which is good and bad. I love that they enjoy it so much and are content to just stay in the water all day, Allanna would actually start crying everytime I tried to take out of the water, not so cute and yet pretty funny. I dont like that they both want to run everywhere and attempt things that are not meant for their age. Both kids were wanting to climb everything and go down all the slides, even the ones that are way to big. So I definitely got a workout chasing both of them and trying to carry Allanna when she would let me. They loved the floating river, Timmy was wearing his floaties so he loved getting to swim next to me. He was so excited to see the older kids really swim too, every time one would swim by he would yell out "nice swimming." They also loved the wave pool, which had some pretty good size waves actually. I wasn't so sure I loved that part! We stayed at the park for about 4 hours so by the time we were loading into the cars the kiddos were ready for a great nap. Once they woke up we spent an hour with daddy before he left for work and then we headed out for a church barbecue. It was really nice to spend some time with a couple families from our life group. But the kiddos did not last long, they were still a bit tired from the fun day so we left early and came home to all go to bed. So it was just an overall wonderful summer day, even if Curtis couldn't enjoy it with us. I just love that both the kids are at such a fun age and that they are really interacting with us and each other so much! Timmy talks so much now and I love it, I cant wait till Allanna starts talking more its gonna be so precious so hear them talking to each other.
Another highlight of our week was that we got to see Stacy and Andrew for a few minutes as they were on their way home from Sacramento. The kids were so excited to see them. Honestly I think Timmy was more excited to play with their iphones, he is a little obsessed, but he really does love his aunt and uncle too. Allanna was almost friendly, I think she smiled at Stacy a few times :o) But it was really great to see them, we miss them and wish we could see them more! The hard part was when they left Timmy freaked out because he didn't understand that we got to see them but not see Beena and papa(my mom and dad). So that was a bit tough for him to understand. He thinks my parents house is the coolest place ever so he constantly asks to go see them. Hopefully we will get to take another trip soon!

Timmy day

So I decided that for the month of July Wednesday might as well be called Timmy day. He has swimming and soccer on the same day, and even though thats only two things it is quite exhausting for all of us but he has a blast. This week was Timmy's 4th week of swimming and he is doing soooo good, he is officially a "goldfish" now. He knows how to jump in the water and then reach for the wall and pull himself out, my buff little boy. He has gotten 100 times better at floating on his back, he used to hate that. Now he is just working on his kicking and blowing bubbles still so he doesn't swallow water. He has so much fun with his teacher though, she is so great with him. She really knows how to keep his attention and make him listen to her. This week she asked him for a hug and of course my cuddle bug gives her the longest hug ever, it was precious!

This was his first week of soccer, and it was pretty much chaos but he loved it. Its a church soccer camp that is being led by the FPU soccer girls, who are very sweet but maybe haven't ever tried to control about 50 3 and 4 year olds before lol. So Timmy pretty much got his ball and kicked it all around the field until I chased after him with Allana in my ergo carrier and brought him back( I probably looked like the crazy mom, running around in that heat but my boy runs to fast for the teachers to keep track of him). But he was just so happy kicking his ball that it was all worth it!

So it was a great day! We have been potty training Timmy for the last week and yesterday he had no accidents! He even went potty at target and at a friends house. I am so glad he has finally gotten it! 

Summertime!

So it has been more than a month since my last blog! Time goes way too fast when you are having fun! Since my last blog we have been busy with summertime happenings such as swimming lessons, water park trips, a camping trip, going to the lake with friend, having bbq's, and trying to stay in the air conditioned house once in awhile. I will probably try to catch up on the details of all those sometime this week because they each definitely need their own blog. But I wanted to just get myself back into the blogging mode and hopefully keep it up. I am really going to try to be more consistent with me blogs for a couple reasons, which of course I will share with you :o)

I have realized over the last couple months that I am super dependent on the fact that I get to talk to my mom all the time! I am one of those moms who still calls her mommy at least every day. She is usually the first one that I want to call when my kids do something adorable(which lets face it, thats all the time) or when my kids do something so awful or gross(okay thats all the time too lol). She is the one that I call for all kinds of advice, like knowing when I should take the kids to the doctor or not, or if ground turkey should turn white when you are cooking it. But lately I haven't gotten to talk to her very much so I definitely learning to appreciate even more every chance I do get to talk to her or see her! But I am getting to talk to my dad more, even to talk about things other than cooking advice :o) But anyways because I cannot talk to my mom very often I want her to be able to read about every cute thing my kids do and about everything that is going on in our lives. So even though some of you may get bored of reading about my children I will keep doing it because I know both of their grandmas will be very appreciative!

The other reason I want to write more is accountability to myself. I am really trying to lose weight and get in shape, and therefore hopefully get healthy so I am going to try to write about my progress on here. I will try to share ideas and tips that are helping me and struggles that I having so that maybe you can help me with your great ideas. So anyway thats a quick little blurb and I will write in more detail soon. Here is a sneak peek picture of our summer!

 So this song is my new favorite, it is really encouraging lately. Life just hasn't had very many easy days lately but God still reaches down and reassures us that He is there and that He knows everything that is going on in our lives. This is the song by casting crowns, I hope it is encouraging to you all as well.


I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say “Amen”, and it’s still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

Chorus:
I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can’t find You

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The maker of Heaven and Earth