Part 2 NC visitors

Well my speady attempt to catch up was thwarted by my spending almost 4 days in bed with strep throat. So lets try this again. We were very excited to have our friends from NC visit us, just after our visit there. It made for a nice long extended visit. Great for us, since we've been used to seeing each other daily. Anyway, just some fun pictures around the house. We celebrated Lauren's birthday while they were here and visited a nearby cavern. Mostly we just played, visited and enjoyed our friends.




Grand Caverns in Weyers Cave, about 15 minutes from us

Becca and Hannah making a mammoth marble run.

Isaiah blowing bubbles to the delight of Eliana. We all enjoyed time out on the deck, with bubbles, playdough and the water table.

Well just because I really liked this picture, he happens to be eating a favorite snack, veggie straws.

Thought it would be fun to show a picture of the front yard with the newly laid sod. The house looks much different with a lawn of green instead of brown.

Catching up Part 1 Surprise Party

Well buckle up, we're going on a fast paced ride through the life of the Couch's the past month and a half. Seeing if I can catch up and then go back to the regular scheduled posting. I'm breaking it down into smaller posts so it's not so hard to follow.

We went to NC in early August and were there on Hannah's birthday and just before Lauren's birthday. I had shared with my friends that I wasn't sure how we were going to celebrate because here we really had no one to invite to a party. So I had planned on taking the girls to a paint your own pottery place and invite some of their friends along. My sweet friends had other plans....... While the kids and I were visiting Aaron's former occupational therapists, my friends decorated the Nelsen house with an Olympic Theme birthday, complete with streamers, signs, balloons, decorated tables, a cookout style lunch and a beautiful cake, themed games and a pinata!!! To say we were surprised is a huge understatement. I think it took us a moment to figure out what was going on when we walked in the door. It was a wonderful and very thoughtful surprise. My sweet girls were just thrilled to see all their friends and the party was just icing on the cake : ). I was speechless and so touched, though not surprised that I have such terrific friends.

I should share that the party had been planned for Monday night, but at the last minute we changed our arrival plans to make sure Aaron wasn't sick. When I called my sweet friend to let her know, she didn,t let on at all that I had just thrown a huge monkey wrench into her plans. So everything had to be rearranged!







The cake is decorated with flags that say "Happy Birthday" in each of the languages of the countries represented at the Olympics. Do I have creative friends or what?

The lost Olympic game of the blanket toss. Lots of fun.

Discus throwing

Caleb had a blast with this sombrero, guess he was representing the country of Mexico

Aaron just had a blast with all the activities and people. He probably enjoyed the cake and ice cream the best.

Intently painting pottery.

August is also Leslie and my birthdays. Last year I took us to have a pedicure. My first one ever. This year a sweet friend treated us to one together, so we could spend some time with each other. It was wonderfully sweet and pampering. I'm the one with the fancy neon green shoes!

Mega Post

Well, I started this post two weeks ago. It's been so busy, now I'm even further behind!! So here is a quick run down of recent happenings since the last post. We've had 1- sprained ankle, wierd rash, case of strep throat, infected tick bite 2- spider bites, fun weekend visitors, trips to NC 3- rounds of antibiotics, birthdays (all us girls) 4- trips to the doctor 5 - more weeks of horseback riding lessons 6 - weeks since we "officially" tried to start back to school 7 - pallets of sod. Okay, that's as far as my creativity can take me. Here are some pictures of us just doing everyday stuff.



Well he's just cute and oh so busy.

My nature loving girl. She was so thrilled when this butterfly just flew up and landed on her. He stayed for the longest time, even flew off and came back to rest in her hand. Our yard is full of a variety of butterflies and we've enjoyed watching them.

Our school curriculum has a cookbook with meals to go with each of the books we do. Lauren loves this, as did Hannah, especially when she can make it into a restaurant. We had some friends over to be "customers". She had a blast being, waitress and chef.

We ended up with a large deck off of our "walkout" basement, which ended up being about 10 feet off the ground. Wasn't sure what we we're going to use it for, and now it's one of our favorite places. The sand and water table has been a huge hit. We also do bubbles, playdough, and plasma car riding. We can also watch the birds, gophers and deer from this spot. Despite Ken's best efforts, grass just won't grow on dirt that's like cement and lots of rocks. So the backyard hasn't been that comfortable to play on, well unless you're a prickly weed or poison ivy. So this deck has been great.








The grass wasn't much better in the front yard, as you can see by the weeds that Aaron is playing in. We opted to sod this with some grass that Ken found that he really likes, a summer zoysia if you're interested. Anyway, it needs to be planted in the summer, so lots of dirt spreading and sod laying later and we have a nice front yard. Aaron really enjoyed the giant mounds of dirt to play in. Perfect for his trucks.

Caleb is turning into quite the tool baby. He loves to help Ken with projects, his favorite being the power drill. Here he's working on his own project.

Some pictures of Caleb working on attempting to feed himself. He's very interested in doing this, though frequently gets distracted by the fun of it all and forgets to actually get the food to his mouth. He also usually ends up forging his spoon and just using his hands. This time he ended up with an after dinner bath !

Helping out in the kitchen. He loves my pots and pans and has figured out that the shelf rolls out, which he then loves to sit on.

Caleb really likes to snack, especially on Veggie Straws and pretzel sticks. He is so funny because he always likes to have several in each hand and then alternates bites from each.


Sometimes you just gotta sleep. He fell asleep while eating. Also a great shot of his curly hair that likes to stand up on top.

Well you're still not caught up. We've also had a fun surprise party thrown by our NC friends for Hannah and Lauren, a visit from our NC friends and now visiting friends from Germany and many site seeing trips with them. We have an upcoming trip to the beach, my brother's wedding
and starting our participation in a homeschool co-op.

Hopefully I'll be able to post some fun pictures soon

Happy Birthday Aaron, the big Six

This is a great picture of Aaron, because it's just like him ~ hair tussled, dirt on his shirt and a smile that can't be contained on his face. There's also giggles just flowing. Sometimes he gets going and he just can't stop. Of course that he's playing in water and outside, two of his favorites, just add to the fun.

We try to do the birthday person's favorites on there special day. So here is Aaron with one of his favorite breakfast ~ waffles with whip cream. He really loves whip cream, a fairly new addition to his favorites list. He also is thrilled with blowing out candles, so he did this at least three times before we actually ate breakfast.

No Aaron day is complete without balloons, the bigger the better. He is crazy about them. He also really enjoys Curious George and finds great humor in the monkey's antics. So a giant Curious George balloon, just seemed perfect.

What's more fun than licking the cake batter from your own birthday cake.

We opened presents and tried them all out. He had lots of fun. He enjoys things that move, twirl, make music or roll. It's so much fun to see him having fun checking out new things and really enjoying being the complete focus of everyones attention. You could tell he felt very special.

The finished cake, complete with George, which Aaron found very exciting. And of course more candle blowing.

He loved being sung to and applauded our efforts very enthusiastically.

He was so funny about wanting me to make sure I saw him with his cake, which of course he loved ~ another favorite ~ chocolate. That's my boy!

He's had lots of pictures taken of him, and has started to find humor in trying to move so I have to "catch" him to get the picture. I was successful here, though I now have many pictures with missing body parts.

A pinata~ a perfect combination of many things that Aaron loves ~ Curious George, candy, dangling ribbons, and it can spin or twirl.

It's hard to believe that my little guy is 6. He keeps us busy and on our toes, laughing, inspired, and feeling well loved. I jokingly tell friends that though I'm getting older, Aaron is keeping my reflexes and peripheral vision youthful.

In thinking of him on his birthday, I thought I'd share..........

Some Things I've learned from Aaron:

*the unexpected can be much better than what you feared

*different can be wonderful

*hard is a way to things that bring great rewards and a sense of the worthwhile

*joy and contentment are a choice we can make (Aaron seems to be both with such ease)

*seemingly small and simple can be amazing

*we can communicate lots with no words

*unconditional love can be so easy and free

*forgiving quickly, not holding onto anger or frustrations is something we should all strive for, though Aaron has mastered this rather quickly

*we miss lots of joy and excitement by overlooking the small things~ rain on a window, butterflies, the feel of sand in your fingers, the amazement of a floating bubble or balloon, the awe of a lightening bug at night, it's a shame we grow out of this

*the value of working hard to learn things that others take for granted, this is different than working hard at something we can do that just requires time and effort, but working hard and showing determination when trying to do something you can't yet do

*failing at something, just means trying again a little harder

*the things the world views as measures of success and accomplishment are fleeting , the things that last - being loved and loving others, caring for others, the ability to show compassion, being content but still striving for better, finding joy in the everyday, feeling a sense of belonging in a family, feeling that you have a purpose even if others don't always understand

*some folks see us and I know feel sorry, badly etc, but the truth is the extra effort we have put out for Aaron, is far surpassed by all that we have gained by having him in our family

*challenges are really just opportunities for God to show up in big and small ways

*hugs are undervalued, one given well can relieve most daily ails