Meet My Siblings Day 4: Meet Ammon

So last time I did this...I posted every consecutive day..but seriously don't make me do that again.

So as I sit here and eat my graham cracker DRENCHED in nutella, I decided I am ready to do this one. This might me my hardest sibling to do...because #1 how do I get you to TRULY understand this sibling. It's difficult but as Ammon's favorite sister-he told me- Just kidding he didn't-because he can't really talk- I feel like I can sum him up. Or try to. When he was a baby I saw him for the first time in a room we call the Piano room now, he was in his car seat and I fell in love immediately.

At night when I heard him crying I would run to his room and rock him back to sleep or get him a bottle. He was the sweetest little thing. 

Can a person be hard to love? Can a person make life harder?

Can a person make life harder but more meaningful at the same time?

Ask my parents.

Ammon is number 13 child, and Ammon is autistic. 

ha! You know you hear that thrown around like it is icing on the cake.

Oh so and so is autistic.

Oh so and so just was diagnosed with autism.

Well friends...

Ammon is a whole new level of autism.

His forms of communication are:

Biting

Clawing

Scratching

Screaming

Screeching

Raptor scream

or banging his head on hard wood floor till he gets a bloody nose.

He doesn't know how to communicate so he has these above tendencies.

He knows the meaning to a lot of words, he just doesn't have the capacities or skills to communicate what he means. He is good at mimicking someone though.

I love how Brad is yelling at him to fold his arms...just so he can say our favorite thing..haha. 

He loves to streak...
Landon's wedding reception he ran through completely naked and rubbing himself....Think what you will of that.
He also has the 6th highest world score in Temple Run..some game.
He's pretty awesome.

He is getting so big, I cannot even contain him. 

I don't have a video of him freaking out-which may be the best way to understand him. But only pure strength can stop a freak out.

He was freaking out at Thanksgiving in the hot tub in AZ and some lady said, "What's wrong with him?"

I wanted to punch her.

Like seriously but instead I said, "He is handicapped, clearly."

As Ammon was tearing my hair out and biting my shoulder and I was trying to restrain him from running away and screaming in the public area.

Then she said again, "But why is he doing that-whats wrong with him."

Then I said probably ruder than I have ever talked to anyone, "He is autistic!"

Then Brad turned to her and said, "He is pretty severe."

She then asked what autism was and I learned quite quickly she was an uneducated soul.

We always joke about what Ammon will think of each of us when he can tell us in heaven.

He will say, "Mom- wasn't scared of you, you couldn't chase me or hold me down."

"Dad I was terrified of you."

"Miles I loved your baby hands and just wanted to bite them all the time, sorry about that I had a thing with biting."

I was on the phone with my mom today and Lad (Number 15) came in and said, "Mom can you PLEASE get Ammon to stop biting me?- he keeps saying, "Bite Please" and then bites me wherever!"

Oh Lad, just get over it and take the bites.

I wanted to take a picture with every sibling of mine that was home holding Miles. We knew Ammon would be tricky.

So Landon helped out-sometimes pure strength is the best thing to take with you when you have Ammon.

He kept grunting and grimmacing. And even bit Miles hand a few times.

Then a miracle happened.

And he just turned and smiled like he was a normal kid on a normal day.

We were all shocked and showed everyone.

He hardly ever looks at you or acknowledges you exist, and never smiles for the camera. And they were combo-ed. Best combo ever.

Then he went to biting his hands and grabbing Miles' hand to bite it.

We let Miles touch his face and play with him for a minute.

See how Miles is laying here? Shortly after Ammon pulled up his right hand to his mouth to bite and that put Miles in a complete choke hold. Ammon was rocking and biting all the while Miles is getting choked. But that's why we brought Landon around.

He saved Miles real quick. And we all had a quick laugh and I scooped Miles up to the rescue.

Ammon goes to a school in Utah now where the rest of my siblings go to Idaho-we live on the border.

My mom drives him everyday the distance of about 3 hours round trip.

Good mom.

He is FINALLY getting the help he needs with trained professionals.

God Bless them.

Seriously for their safety.

My mom casually tells me that several of them have been sent to the hospital from Ammon, and its a normal thing.

One lady was bit by him. And she was older so they were worried about the blood vessels or something.

Another lady was restraining him and was standing behind him with her arms around him and he dropped quickly to the floor and that put her back out and she couldn't move.

And I think all the others have just been bit by him.
But these ladies love him with all their hearts, they told my mom they put his name in the temple, and my mom constantly apologizes to them and thanks them, and they just love him.
He has his own room at school, with a swing and padded walls and there is even a rock climbing wall.

Now you think we should teach him how to not bite.

Well people always give us advice, and they are just passerbys. 

Me a Kindergarten teacher-college degree of how to teach children........

would say to you, "You take him for 15 minutes, then you will give him right back and say, sorry I ever gave you any misplaced advice."

My mom said today he took a box of lightbulbs and started crushing them all over the house.

Our house has probably hmmmm over $40,000 of damage throughout it from him.

Mostly caused by flooding and smashing and unscrewing things.
He runs away constantly, and my mom said on the other day on the phone, "Oh Ammon is running through the snow drifts barefooted again, Oh wait! He has socks on!"
Perfect, glad he is protected from frostbite by socks.
Ammon is known for just taking things off of people's plates, or their plate altogether.
At Thanksgiving dinner this year, he just sat down by me while Brad was getting a drink and just started eating Brad's food with his hands.
My mom laughed and said, "Oh sorry, Ammon get away that is Brad's plate."
Brad graciously said, "I'll get a new one, no problem."
Haha. Ammon is KING of picking at everything.

These videos I had to split up but they are just awesome..and show a tad of his frustrated side, nothing comparative to what he can do, but he gets frustrated when things are out of order, not how he wanted them to be, when he can't have or do something, or when his 'stemming' (autistic word) is interrupted. 

So he has a robotic voice, freaks out and screams and bites his hands a lot (as you can see the damage to his hands in this video)
But he against all autistic standards, loves to cuddle and be held and give kisses.
He does love to unscrew anything in sight and Brad and Landon love to joke and make fun of his crazy dancing and jumping he does, but I think he will laugh in heaven, because they are quite funny and amazing.
Sometimes he will just come and sit on my lap and be still and I talk to him like he was a little baby again, and someday, he will be able to tell me he loves me in a non robotic voice where my mom or dad tells him what to say to me.
I hate it when he gets sad, I mean his freak outs are one thing, but sometimes he gets really sad when he hurts someone during his freak outs and realizes it.
So he is in there, he is a little boy in there, its just buried really deep and really hard to find, but it does come out sometimes.
He makes us laugh, makes us stressed, makes us not be able to go to any public places without feeling like we are being scrutinized and judged, but he also makes us humble, and better, and stronger and faster for chasing him and restraining him from hurting others and himself.
He makes us be able to deal and love people who are handicapped and different.
He is somebody's brother, son, nephew, grandson, and loved one.
My mom has been through all the grieving stages of having a handicapped child, several times over again but ultimately she knows one day she will be able to have a conversation with him and he will be able to hug her and say, "I love you mom."
But until then, she will ask him to go open the garage door, and wait outside in the car in a rainstorm for 20 minutes just hoping he will actually do it...... someday mom.
We love Ammon.
And his name really is a warrior name.

Pee your pants

So, we had a little Christmas dinner in Standrod, that wasn't on Christmas.

We decided last minute to dress up in old prom dresses.

This looks like it just happened so easy....

But it took some serious man power to get those dresses on.

Echo kept saying, "Ya this is how it fit me when I went to Prom, I remember."

Sally kept saying as Tiera was zipping her dress, "I know it fits me, just keep zipping it."

I just completely knew my old dresses were not going to fit my 12 week post baby body/nursing chest.

So I went for the stretchy top dress: after a few failed attempts at other dresses.

You see with 8 (7 that have graduated high school) girls in the family that makes a lot of dresses we would own.

2 Proms, 1 Homecoming, maybe a few other random things.

I know I had 3 Prom dresses in my high school time. So 3 times 7 is 21 dresses.

Whoa sounds like a movie.

After Tiera spent much time pulling and stretching and pulling and ziiiiiip finally got it up.

Then it was like Moses parted the sea and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz pop!

That zipper exploded in half!

We were DYING laughing.

Looks like it still fits Sal Pal!!

HAHAHAHAHA!

She wore a different dress, and Mom was not very happy we ruined the zipper by squeezing her in.

Foreshadowing: Not the only dress to be defiled that night....

But she did insist she was the same size.

We tried to console her telling her that your bodies change from 17 to 22.

Plus she is more muscular from being on the track team.

She took it okay.

The boys dressed up as well...

Ian took it quite seriously.

Landon and Brad put on their formal white shirt and tie.

And we all had quite the feast.

My little brother Ammon who is autistic...

thought my dress was so fascinating. 

My dress had little sparkles on the chest...and I do have nursing chest right now.....

So clearly he was very intrigued...

He came right up to me and rubbed my chest, and I knew he was just in it for the sparkles, but it sent the table into hysterics.

Echo was trapped in and couldn't get out fast enough to go to the bathroom, so she just down right peed her dress.

Mom was VERY mad about that one.

Everyone else was DYING laughing and after Ammon stopped and went on to something more exciting like stealing Brad's plate of food, he came back again for more rub rub, and by that point almost all the girls had run out of the room to pee their pants....

So we had quite the night.

Miles just wore his jammies, and Brad did his hair so handsome (uhhhhhhhhhhh Creep master).

And I'm pretty positive Brad wore a shirt and tie and sweats.

Can't ever get him out of those.

That sounds bad.

In Standrod we went to church.

Which is in Almo, Idaho.

Which is where the famous City of Rocks resides.

I spend most of my time in Mother's lounges at church.

Either feeding Miles or trying to get some peace and quiet and get him to sleep.

But he never falls asleep in there because its so bright and I'm too creeped out of church bathrooms to turn off the lights.

But we are back in Texas now, and while it snows and snows in Utah, it just blows and blows here in Texas.

I am going strong teaching Preschool with my friend Carissa and it is such a wonderful thing because it gives me a chance to plan and have something academic to do.

Brad just studies and studies in the office in our house.

Which is nice to have him home and I try to consolidate all the times I go in to interrupt him.

Like: Hey want a drink? combined with: I gotta grab this. combined with: What time are you going to be done? combined with: Me sitting on his lap while Miles sits on my lap. combined with: Hey I gotta go get the mail, watch Mr. Miles for a second. combined with: What did you get me for Vday last year?

Sometimes I just send him a quick text if its a meaningless interruption.

Sometimes I post on my blog instead of doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning, and mopping.

Valentine's Day is coming!!! Do you have your present all planned out for that special someone????

Stump

I have been in this blogging stump.

Stumped.

I have time to blog, don't get me wrong. It's just, everytime I go to write on it, I do something else instead, like the laundry or dishes, or play with my baby.

He rolls over ya know. Pretty coolio.

He did it at four weeks on our bed when we put him on his tummy. We thought it was totally normal.

Apparently not.

Doctor says he is so awesome, I can't remember if I already told my blog this...oh well.

Our ultrasound is tomorrow. I just don't think about it. I just don't think anything is wrong. I just pretend like its all okay. And I know it will be all okay. I have to just pray for that, otherwise I can sit up all night thinking about it.

Mr. Miles is just too precious.

We visited AZ for Thanksgiving. Most of my family came.

Started with football in the morning. Daddy is in the red shirt. (sometimes it hits me that I call Brad Daddy now...kinda weird) 

It was good bonding time for Brad and my brothers. This is Ethan, I don't know what happened to him...one time I came home and he was taller than me and had this deep voice.

Landon was the all star qb for the other team. They of course won.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner outside and it was banquet style.

Lil sister Faith who is FIVE!! And Hazel who is 21 months. Hazel is Hannah's sweet baby girl. Yellow skinny jeans?? Pinch me.

Jemma is my sister Summer's little girl. She has a high pitched voice that goes higher and higher then drops again when she talks. Let's Gooo!!!!

We all received cookies with our names on them.

And for some reason on Thanksgiving day I was exhausted/stayed in my jams all day/didn't do my hair or makeup/and didn't have one picture of myself taken.

 Oh wait, this one!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Brad and Landon wanted to pretend they were....well you guess.

Really weird and I don't know why I even accepted this as a picture, and then why did I post it on my blog?

Hazel came up to Brad and said, "Timpal"

This lego creation was a "temple"

We thought it was adorable that a 21 month old could make a temple from legos, and then be so proud of it.

Most of the time we just chillaxed at my sister Hannah's new house.

I found Jemma in this disaster of toys.

She said, "Come on!"

She wanted me to play tea party.

She then went on to pick up several different food items and bite into them like they were real?? With a face that looked so shocked when she said "COOKIE!" and took a big bite, only to find it wasn't real.

I hate that too Jemster.

Echo was the first one to get Miles to laugh.

Brad has a video on his phone.

Fav aunt award I guess.

Hannah's sister in law wants to start a bakery, and she made all these adorable delicious cookies for us! Thanks Whitney!

Summer sat down and made all these Bugels are cornucopias and Runts are the filling. Too cute and I hate bugels and I just ate all the runts. Minus the green ones, those taste like cleaner.

We had TOO much food. I don't know why we made so much.

I myself with Brad's help made Frog Eye Salad, and this pumpkin crunch bars.

When we left 3 days after Thanksgiving...the crunch bars were mostly still there.

Food overload.

The turkey was delicious it was smoked in a pit or something...and it had the best flavor.

Hazel is obsessed with babies. She loves Miles and she accomplished his name while we were there, although it does sound a lot like Midols....

My baby, Miles, not to be confused with the menstruation drug, Midol.

Echo, Ethan, Chandler and I decided we would venture out and do the whole Black Friday thing.

Chandler was really funny when I told him if you want to buy something just find it and go get in line RIGHT AWAY!! He said, "Why do you have to stand in line?"

Ethan said, "Duh Chandler, you just have to buy it after you find it."

Chandler said, "Ya but there isn't going to be that many people there, I mean its 1 AM.

Then he saw this ^ ..

And he said, "Ohhhhh"

And I took my small town naive farm boy brothers to this event that they hadn't even heard of until recently. 

I don't know why I took this picture, but let me tell you a little story.

We walked up to the end of the line to get into the Mall in Chandler, AZ. We had never been there before, and so we weren't even sure we were at the mall, so upon getting to the end of the line we asked, "Is this the line to the mall?"

They turned and this snoot face said, "No its to Spaghetti Factory."

(there was a pizza/spaghetti restaurant right there)

Echo said, "Oh really? Brit let's go find the right line."

I said, "No she is lying this is the line."

She continued to be a snoot bum and said, "Ya half off all meatballs."

And Echo continued to be a blonde bum, "Really, okay well are you sure, is this the mall line."

I then said, "No there is no Black Friday at the Spaghetti Factory and stayed in the line."

After that it should have been done, like she had her fun...

Nope she didn't stop. She kept saying retarded things like, "Ok I can't wait to stuff my face with cheap spaghetti and meatballs."

But not to our face, just really loud and turned toward us.

Then a car drove by and she was like, "Oh those IDIOTS going to the mall, so dumb, pizza and spaghetti is where its at."

At that point I was questioning if she was serious, so I took a picture, I wasn't sure what else to say or do. I had no comebacks....I was blank. Plus I wanted to say something like, "Okay scrawny butt turn around and say it to my face so I can punch you and knock you out."

But I didn't I said something like, "somebody has PMS."

She didn't stop there, and if she had it would have been better I think.

But I then heard her say, "Salt Lake City is where losers live."

I was so confused.

She kept going and said, "The Mormon Book of Religion is so dumb, why would anyone ever read it."

And she said it loud and in a very slow voice, as if to taunt us.

I had no idea how she knew we were Mormon! Was it that obvious???

Then she said, "BYU is the dumbest school ever."

I was really CONFUSED!!

And I had no comebacks, I have kicked myself for so long because I have thought of these greatest comebacks ever...

like:

BYU is a college, but I'm sure you have never heard of that, COLLEGE, where you go to learn. 

And then I would tack on, SCRAWNY BUTT to the end of that, because she seriously had no bum.

Or what about this one: Your mom called and said its past your curfew.

Eww that one would have made her mad.

After we got back in the car I was talking about it and I said, "I just don't know how she knew we were LDS?? And Ethan piped up, "Oh I have a BYU shirt on."

Duhzo.

I have never wanted to punch someone so bad in the face.

So if I could do it over again, I would have said, "Hey turn around and say that to my face."

But I can never think of anything to say when people are rude, because I just am not used to it/don't think of comebacks in my spare time. And its just so beyond me that people act mean to strangers....

Night to remember.

We decided to hit up H&M. Biggest mistake of our lives.

We stood here as they let one person in at a time, and then a girl said, uh you can just walk in over there.

Echo went and checked and texted me "COME"

lo and behold!!!

Nobody was at the other entrance just a few steps away....strange and confusing.

Mostly all high school kids. Actually ALL high school kids.

This was the children's section. Couldn't walk ANYWHERE else.

I didn't buy anything. Wasn't worth the lines..

 Chandler did buy some socks...so after 3 hours of shopping in the middle of the night, we got socks to show for it, awesome possum. 

Hazel just says, "HIM."

And that means she wants to hold Miles.

Duh.

So she would hold him like this, then scoot away and plop goes his head on the floor when I look away.

The men reconstructed Hannah and Jeremy's yard. That's Brad there in the blue shirt.

Somehow every holiday Brad spends with my family, there is some hard labor activity.

Good for him. City boy Brad.

He got to run the chainsaw. I told him it was a flashback to anatomy.

Gross.

My dad ran the backhoe since that is where he has probably spent 80% of his life anyway in some heavy equipment machinery. (Being a farmer/farm owner/custom farmer).

I walked in and saw this......

What the?? Lazy Ethan and crazy kids. Guys lets put the air mattress on the couch and then somebody like Lad can get under the air mattress. (Look closely and you will see Lad pinched under there.)

FIRST SWIM!! I bought these swim clothes to fit him NEXT year when it is warm, but we had to break them out early in AZ. They are size 9-12 months...who knew?

It was BEAUTIFUL weather. And Brad and I loved taking our little baby for a swim.

I totally love being a parent, his first swim!! So exciting. Brad took him under the waterfall he didn't cry but he was so confused at all this water over his head!

This was my mom's 3rd attempt at getting a picture, she kept cutting our heads off, on my phone it was too bright outside and she couldn't see.

HELLO SUNS GAME!!!

Miles' first NBA game.

 And his two favorite cousins were there!

Baby Hansen in Tiera's belly.

SAY WHAT!!

Yes its true, Landon and Tiera are PReggers.

And its a boy.

So clearly Miles had a few chats with him up in heaven.

He said, "See ya in a few dude."

I like pretending Miles was pals with Parker and Baby Hansen in Heaven.

I can't even remember who won. I think it was Suns in overtime.

I was so tired from my 3:45 AM escapade the night before. BLACK FRIDAY.

I hate this picture of myself, but just pretend like its cute.

Lad was so excited to be there, he kept booing and throwing his hands up in the air, and afterwards he said to me, Brittany, every player has a different routine for free throws.

Then he went about saying the NAMES of the players and acting out their routine..

What? I was just trying to not fall asleep the entire time.

Baby Miles and Echo,

JK that's baby Parker. Gotcha.

Babies are babies right?

WRONG!!!! This is my baby Miles!!

Parker is Sum Bum's baby.

We did a holding train here. Once again disregard how hideous I look.

Cutest bangs ever. Maddie pants.

Halle was a drunk, drinking all the sprite endlessly.

We all bought tickets in random different places, then found a large open section and all sat together despite the lady's plea saying, "You don't sit in that section, your section is"...she was motioning and turning the other way, as we ran up the stairs and out of her reach.

Daddy Son bonding...Miles' favorite sport...

right Brad?

Oh HI Halle pants!

Miles loves basketball so much it hurts, so he takes breaks from it.

(We will read this in years to come and see if his favorite sport is really basketball, like Mommy's or we will see if it is Baseball/Golf/Guitars like Daddy's)

Ps, I am aware that guitars is not a sport.

Ammon is my autistic brother, and he was like this the entire time.

Miracle.

At the pool he was screaming and yelling and biting his hand and jumping up and down and thrashing around, and this lady said, "What's wrong with him."

And I said, 'He is autistic."

And she said, "What's that?"

And I said annoyed and bugged that she was so nosy pants, "He IS HANDICAPPED."

Mind you I was trying to hold Ammon in the hot tub at that time and he was hitting me and clawing me, so I was a little flustered at the moment.

Oh hi baby Miles. You love this game don't cha!

Echo and I took 17 pictures walking out of the game and this apparently was the best one.

Echo was constantly taking care of Miles.

So nice to have family around, they love your baby so much and will do anything for you.

Go get me a diaper, go get me a drink, hold my baby, put my baby to sleep, watch him while we go shop.

What the?? Jamie!! Jamie and Scott are our married Provo friends, and they live in Mesa!

So of course we had to go to lunch with them.

And we haven't seen them since MAY!

Last chance is a place where happiness begins...but really....

Its Nordstrom RETURNS. So not Nordstrom Rack, but yet a better DI of Nordstrom stuff.

So I got Miles some Toms for ten bucks, and a whole lot of clothes for 2.00 each for him, and a shirt for me at 3.00.... Mind you all these clothes are NAME BRAND and good quality....

Like Mini boden, and Gucci....serious.

So this was the line to get in, on Saturday, after Black Friday, we were so confused....

but we got in in a short 30 minutes.

Pregnant Tiera thinks she is just tired from teaching, but really little does she know, baby in belly makes you exhausted! And you think you are fine but really you can't even move and you don't know why.

I got Molly those flowered pants for 1.97 at Last Chance, they were too cutesy.

Molly is the 2nd oldest of Hannah's girls and she equally loves Miles.

He is still working on the loving her part.

I said to Ethan, "Hold him for a sec."

I came back to Ethan not even touching him and he could have tipped over and started screaming and Ethan probably wouldn't have moved....

But Ethan did put him to sleep by rubbing his nose and holding his binkie in so ...good job Eeffee...

Faith my little sister really wanted Miles to like dolls.....

When she put the doll up to Miles and said, "Wanna play with this cute dolly Miles baby?"""

Ethan smacked the doll away and said, "Get that doll away from him."

Muuuhahahhahahhahaa Ethan protecting Miles' manhood.

We tried to play games with everyone, and I was drinking the juice out of this pineapple can...don't tell me you have never done that??

Chandler won...and we aren't sure how because I felt like he was losing the whole game?

Grandpa!!!! The first person to hold Miles when we got to Arizona was Grandpa, and he smiled so big at him, and my dad loved him ever since.

My dad's hands dwarf his body.

Told ya.

Traveling home went by fast because Brad drove the whole time and Miles and I must have been exhausted because we slept 10 out of the 13 hours. And it was all during the day....Strange.

Stop at a rest stop because I could not wait another second to go to the bathroom in middle of nowhere New Mexico.

Trip went well as you can see from this longer than life post, but I'm putting pictures on here like crazy because I just talked to a woman whose house burnt down last Saturday and she lost every picture she ever took EXCEPT those posted on her blog.

So there. Deal with my BILLIONS of pictures.

And Happy Thanksgiving.

Here comes Christmas.

Can't wait to see my family again.

Can't wait to see Brad's family (which is my family, but I just need to specify).

Can't wait to see our Provo friends.

Can't wait for some chilly weather.

Can't wait to feel the holiday cheer/laziness.

Can't wait to bless Miles.

Can't wait to drive 16 hours with a 3 month old :)

PS, he is amazing in the car. Just stares at the mirror, then falls asleep more than normal, looks like he has my car genes. Sleeping gene.