The Weekend

Saturday was a really nice day.  Beautiful weather, got so many things accomplished, and met a new friend at the park!  I finally got a sewing project done that I've been being lazy on for so long, which is a wonderful accomplishment!!  I had spicy bbq pork ribs in the sun oven which ended up tasting DELICIOUS!  We had them for dinner, along with salad, cucumber slices and corn on the cob.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  After nap we went to the park and it was just CRAWLING with people!  College students covering every speck of grass and playing Frisbee, or soccer, or football, or just lounging around with all the little babies and toddlers.  I just can't believe how many new couples there are, as well as new mommies and daddies!  The playground was also teeming with people, and there were long waits for the swings and slides.  I love it here for this reason!!  Anyways, after a while a little girl had come to Brad and take Scotty so she could take him for a walk.  Grace and I walked over and she took Grace's hand and walked the dog together.  Well, long story short, the two girls played together for over an hour!  They ran around together, held hands and walked, and played with a group of college girls.  They did Ring Around the Rosie with them, as well as tickle games and gave hugs and kisses.  The girls name is Samantha, and her mom and I had a nice talk!  We exchanged phone numbers, which of course I ended up losing, and we set a date to meet up on Monday to play again.  Dinner was delicious, and Grace actually ate two lettuce leaves, a slice of cucumber, and about 1/4th of her corn on the cob.  She did great spearing her pork ribs that I had broken apart for her, and was just such a big girl.

Sunday was church day.  Grace had a great time in Primary, and just loves her Sunbeams class.  It felt weird being back at church after so long!  We'd had general conference which we listened to at home, and then we were in Montana, and then Grace was sick, so we've missed a lot of church :)  We didn't do much more on Sunday, but I did clean out Grace's room really well, and my main purpose was because I am getting ready to start preschool with Grace.  So all of her teaching supplies and toys/games are all organized, I'm waiting for Grace's school calendar and 10 drawer organizer to come in the mail, and then I'll get things started with prepping lessons.  Oh, one great thing that did happen?  Grace wrote a number 1 at church today!  We were working on a number writing book at church and were practicing the number 1, and she finally did it on her own :)  She did it 4 times.  She was also very good at circling pictures that I asked her to circle!

Monday.  Today is Monday, and it's surely a nasty day.  High winds, and Brad said it really looks like snow.  So our plans with Aubree and Samantha are off, but I can't text or call her since I lost her number.  Darnit!  I cleaned my bedroom, the kitchen, and have the laundry started, and we are watching Little House on the Prairie Season 4 episode 3 with Grace :)  Grace has therapy today, which I'm so excited about because she loves it so much, but other than that, there's nothing left to do.  There is a free swim at the college from 6-7 pm so maybe we will go to that, but I can't remember where I put Grace's swimsuit!!  That's it for now :)

Amanda

Shew, a Busy Friday

Grace is feeling much better today.  Still has a bad runny nose, but otherwise, she's doing better.  This morning we were so lazy and just stayed in bed for a long time playing around.  I finally had to get up when Grace started getting into her memory box stuff.  Ug.  Most of the morning we just messed around and didn't do much.  While Grace was napping I watched my Little House on the Prairie, and in the afternoon while Brad was at a doctor's appointment Grace and I went to the park!  I took her with her trailer on my bike.  Oh what a beautiful day it was.  Just a wonderful day.  There was a wind but it complimented the sun's warmth very nicely.  Grace swung and swung forever, as usual.  After I swung her for a bit we went and played on the slides, which she likes just about as much as she does swinging :)  We were there until about 6 pm.  2 mile round trip :)  After that we had chicken and gravy over rice with greenbeans.  Grace was SO hungry!  She was fussy and whiny and tugged on my like nobodies business.  But we made it to the table, Grace said prayers, and then we stuffed our faces!

"Heabenly Fader, tant u food, tan to fami, sun, in name, sus tist, amen."

It was so beautiful to hear.  I tell her what to say and then she copies.  Good girl!

After dinner we went out front and while Brad fertilized the lawn Grace and I planted some herbs in my 18 count egg carton.  She helped put the dirt in, then push it down, I got it wet so it didn't blow away, and then Grace helped put in the seeds, I watered it some more while she took 2 empty packages to the trash can, and then we took it into the garage.  And then she was naughty... I had told her right when we went outside that she must NOT go near the fertilizer because it will make her sick.  Over and over I told her, but where did I find her?  With her hand deep in the fertilizer bag.  AH!  Don't worry she didn't eat it, smell it or anything.  I rushed her to the sink and washed thoroughly.  So that was her first no no.  Then we went out back because I had a dutch oven upside down cake cooking (which did NOT turn out by the way) and I told her not to go into the grass because there was fertilizer.  She did it once (second no no), and so I put her on timeout on the stair.  While I was taking the dutch oven out of the fire pit I caught her in the grass again (third and last no no).  It was 7:30 pm, but off to bed we marched.  She was tucked in by 7:40 pm with a firm good reason "You are going to bed early because I asked you not to touch the fertilizer and you did anyways."  Well, you could tell that she didn't care because she went right to sleep!  Little stinker!  But it's obvious she was tired.  We will definitely be going to the park more often, that's for sure.

Well, now it's 8:59 pm and she's in bed, I'm watching Little House on the Prairie Season 2 Episode 21, and now that I'm caught up with the blog, I'm going to work on a present for someone. :)

Amanda

Grace does this really cute thing by the way.  When she is really into talking to you, she puts her hands on her neck and gets RIGHT in your face, our noses touching and eyes crossed.  It is SO CUTE!!  She is definitely my sweet girl.

Oh!  Something else.  Grace got her first canker sore.  Darnit.  It's almost gone, but we found it when we went to the dentist a few days ago.

Well, that's all :)

Gosh, I'm Late Again!

I can't believe it's already Thursday.  There hasn't been much going on because Grace has been sick, sick.  She missed school Tuesday because that's when it started, Wednesday I took her to the doctor and found out her reaction had turned into bronchitis (which meant more penecilin) and Thursday she missed therapy and preschool.  She did have home therapy and that went really well!  She cut her first banana!  She got to use a butter knife and did so well.  She had just as much fun eating it as she did cutting it :)  We are working on the color red today so almost everything she did had to do with red.  Sorting pom pom balls, red dot marker, pink (well...it's a shade of red) stickers, and writing the letter A with her red dry erase marker.  She did great focusing!!

So I know that was short and sweet but in reality, we don't do much when she's sick.  I don't like taking her out...well, except I did take her to get some shoes!  She's now in size 7!!  I've still been putting her in size 5-6, so don't you know I sure felt bad when I realized they were way too small.  So now she has 4 more pairs of shoes.  2 sneakers, 1 sandal, and 1 pair of water shoes for when we start swimming!!

Well, that's pretty much it :)  I ordered some toys today for Grace.  They are more like learning tools.  A spelling activity, lacing activity, peg board with pegs, counting blocks, and then an organizer so I can start preschool at home with Grace.  School ends May 9th and I do NOT want her falling behind!!


Amanda

Time

So, I've finally made time to work on the blog.  It's been forever, I know.  I need to keep this updated, especially since I've been trying so hard to find journals for ancestors and haven't found much!  Journals are important!!  So, here I go :)

California...

I was cleaning Grace's room on Saturday when I get this text...

CA?

So of course I'm going to say yes!  2 hours later we were packed and on the road.  We got to Dado and Papa's house about 2:30 am, and this ride was good for the most part.  Grace didn't fall asleep until probably 11 pm, so she was a bit whiny.  But once Daddy turned a movie on for her she was happy.  She watched Nemo and...I can't remember the other one, and then finally went to sleep.  One weird thing that happened was around 1 am maybe.  We had pulled into a gas station that was connected to a casino, and there was this really weird looking old guy sitting on a bench outside of the casino.  He had missing teeth, his hair (what was left) was a mess and greasy, and he just looked...dirty.  Anyways, while Brad was pumping the gas the guy asked him if he had any cash because he was trying to get to Sacramento.  Brad told him no after thinking for a few minutes, and then we were on our way.  Brad had been thinking about maybe giving the guy a ride... UM, NO!  He was trying to be nice, but what had clicked in his head (and mine) is that the guy was outside of a casino...asking for money...hm.  Doesn't take a genius to see what he was really going to do with the money.  So, anyways.

We get there at 2:30 am, it's Sunday, Dado and Papa come to greet us, we chit chat for a bit, and then head to bed.  Grace is in the middle bedroom and we're in the front bedroom.  Every day this week Grace and I got up about 8-8:15 am.  Sunday was just a visiting day with them since we were so zonked from the trip.  So we talked about life, played dice, and just enjoyed the Sunday!

Monday I was super excited because we were going to go surprise my mom, my friend Pam, and my other friend Keri (oh, and we ended up going to another friends house, Amanda).  So we went to my mom's work about 10ish?  Her boss met us at the door and we chatted for a bit but I really wanted to get back to my mom's office before Grace made herself known!  So we went over to be close to mom's desk, and then I told Grace to be quiet and walk over to mom's cubicle.  Grace stood there for a few seconds and all was quiet (my mom was on the floor organizing files), but then the realization set in of who this little child was and mom was ALL screams and giggles and "oh my goshes" and all in-between!  She kept saying, "what are you doing here...what are you doing here?"  It was so cute.  She showed us around to all of her friends, talked with us, and showed us off some more.  We were probably there about an hour, and then finally had to leave because we were going to Elk Grove to visit some more friends.  We visited my friend Pam next, who was also surprised!  We talked for a while and set up a lunch date for pizza on Thursday!  I was so happy to be able to see her again, and she felt the same.  She couldn't get over how big Grace had gotten.  After her we were going to go see Keri but she wasn't answering her phone and so we dropped by Amanda's house.  A very quick hello there and then off to our rental house.  I won't even talk details about that...just that our property manager does a horrible job managing and we are very disappointed.  Keri had called me while we were there and when I told her we were back in California, she came over to the house with her son Jonathan!  He had grown so big since the last time I saw him.  It was so amazing.  She and I visited while the painters were repairing their messes.  This was the day that we were back to Dado and Papa's house late because of Brad having to talk with our property manager, who just happened to make a spot in her schedule to come see us.  Mom had been invited to my grandparents house as well, and so we were about an hour late for dinner!  But they waited for us and weren't upset (which is a good thing).  Want to know one of the best things about Dado and Papa's house?  Papa makes the BEST milkshakes!  The rest of the Monday was a nice evening, played dice, visited, took Mom home, and then headed to bed at 10:30 (which is around the time we went every night).

Tuesday: Dinner at Keri's.  I can't remember much of this day, which is horrible!  But I do know that we had dinner at Keri's house.  Before that we went to Amanda's house and visited for a while, and the girls played together.  It was so cute to see how fast Grace and Preston clicked with each other.  We got to visit with Amanda and the kids were very independent, which was surprising to me but also so weird for me.  I just watched Grace as she played with the girls, then went outside (stepping down one step by herself) and was just...ok.  Played ball, played kitchen, and whatever else they did together.  After Amanda's we went to dinner at Keri's, and it was SO FUN AND YUMMY!  We had burritos, and I just couldn't believe how much she'd prepared just for us.  Seasoned chicken, guacamole, homemade salsa (AH!! SO GOOD!), sour cream, shredded cheese, black beans, rice...tortillas and tortilla chips.  I just love visiting with this family.  They are just such a strong family, and have been through so much.  And Keri and I just clicked when we met.  So we spent the evening with them and headed back to my grandparents home around 8ish I think.  Then visiting with Dado and Papa, dice, and probably a milkshake!

Wednesday:  We went to Project RIDE!  It was so fun to visit them, and I loved seeing their faces when they saw us.

 Saying hello to the horsey :)  This horse's name is Tobey (I think) and he is 17.2 hands!!  Grace absolutely loved him, and he felt the same way about her.  This is Tina that she's with, and Tina is such a sweet woman.  I had worked for Project RIDE when I was in high school, and very quickly was drawn into the family.  And when Grace was born and we found everything out about her, Tina said Grace would always have a spot in the riding program when she turned 3 with tuition paid for.  The bond I have with the ladies at this organization will never cease, that's for sure.

 Tina and Grace!

 And here's Jean!  She's another great friend that absolutely loves Grace :)

 All of us!

 This is the "first ride" shirt.  If Grace were to have ridden at this organization when she turned 3, she would have gotten this shirt.  So since she wasn't able to ride, she got the shirt anyways because Grace is just that special!!

Another horse!  I think his name is Sonny!

Going to see one more horse before we left :)

Thursday: We went out for Pizza with Pam and Dan :)  This was so nice, and I was so happy to spend time with them.  I have missed them so much, and it was lovely.  We went to their house and checked out their garden, which was awesome, and then we had to go to our rental house to check up on things.  Then we got to have an evening with Dado and Papa, which I LOVE!  They are just the most wonderful people to spend time with, and I am so thankful to have them in my life.

My grandpa likes to share some stories with us, so I have to write them down :)

• My grandpa worked at a place called, "Country Made (Maid?)" and he made milkshakes.  He didn't serve them, just made them.  So he made one for an order one day and then he sent a co-worker Shirley to go talk to my grandma and get her name and number :)  How cute!!
• My grandpa had a great Boy Scout leader, and he took the boys everywhere!!  He'd go for days, or weeks, things like that.
• My grandpa would ride his bike to work each day, and it would be from 5 am to 5 pm.  Both ways it would be dark, but he would do it anyways.  
• My grandma worked with the phone company during the day, and my grandpa worked during the night, and so they were switching off with the kids.  Both their children were adopted.  It was neat because they really just got a call, the person said "you have a son here" and they went to pick them up!  I wish that's how it worked now.

Friday:  Hm...For some reason I can't remember Friday.  All the days are really meshing together.

Saturday:My mom came.  We picked her up, checked on the rental, and then stayed at my grandparents house and really visited and connected.  I got some books from my mom that she didn't want anymore, we played dice, and then my friend came over with her daughter Evelynn.

 Aw, how cute :)  Grace and Evelynn had so much fun playing together, and they were both so tired at the same time!

 Evelynn is so tired, so it's tough for her to smile for this picture.

 Hugs for loves and see you later.  Evelynn was kind of sad because the first hug they tried turned into a topple over :) 

 Hugs with MeMa!!  This is before we took her home.  It was tough dropping her off because I knew it would be a long time until we saw her again (July).

 Grace, Dado and Papa!  We have a picture almost like this from the last time they all saw one another, and so I got this taken so we could see the differences in Grace.

 And then me in there as well.  This was a really hard picture for me because I was holding back tears.  It is really hard to leave them because time flies too fast without them.  It's harder to have aging grandparents because sometimes memories aren't as strong as there is aging.  My grandpa has some trouble but he's doing so great, and he loves to see little Grace growing!!!

All in all, a great trip.  We left a few minutes after this picture was taken, and headed home.  That was our trip.  Shew, I'm updated!!

Amanda

Catching Up

I can't believe how far behind I've gotten with everything...I'm going to spend the evening after Grace goes down for bed to document everything that went on while we were in California, and get caught up to today!  I'm hoping to sort out my pictures as well and get them posted along with thie blog posts!

Amanda

We are Home.

We are home, and I'm exhausted.  I'm going to call it a night and head to the couch for some quiet reading :)

Amanda

CALIFORNIA!!

I'm not posting this week...we are too busy in California!


Amanda

Crochet Flowers

Just a quick post to show off the chute flowers I made last night and this morning.  Brad put Grace to bed around 10 pm last night because Skyler had taken us all to Idaho Falls to celebrate my 3.9 GPA and completion of all my classes for the semester.  Once she was in bed I headed downstairs to watch Little House on the Prairie while I crocheted flowers for a blanket I'm making.  Finally I went to bed at 5 am after being bored on the computer (after crocheting lost it's excitement!)...

 Here they are :)  The only reason the one on the right is two colors is because I ran out of yellow.  I don't like them with two colors...eh.  I just wish I had a better assortment of colors!  I'm just trying to use up all my excess yarn, rather than buying new yarn to make all my activities.

See how cute it is?  I can't wait to put these on the project I'm working on.  The next task, which is going to be a lot harder, is to make leaves to go under all the flowers.  We'll see how it goes.

Amanda

List for the Spring/Summer 2013

Ok, here's my list of all that I hope to get done through this vacation from school!  The items aren't in any particular order:

• Sew humanitarian dresses
• Finish 2x4 projects
• Sew some capris for Grace
• Make flannel pillows
• Make living room couch pillows
• Finish all other sewing activities
• Finish organizing sewing room
• Fabric the number 10 cans
• Make magazine holders
• Make curtains for sewing room
• Finish up Grace's wall decorations
• Finish sewing room wall decoration
• Make wood vases
• Paint shelves in Grace's room
• Sew kitchenaid cover
• Sew sewing machine cover
• Sew sun oven cover
• Crochet with rest of yarn
• Put up pegboard in sewing room
• Finish blanket for cabin
• Finish crochet flowers for a blanket
• Make shadow box for cabin bedroom
• Print pictures for scrapbook
• Print pictures for walls
• Print pictures for frames at cabin
• Fix vinyl lettering in Grace's room
• Hang ironing board
• Make dog pillow for Grace
• Fix crochet horse
• Organize books upstairs and downstairs
• Write out workout schedule
• Make sun oven meal list for summer
• Plan meal menu for cabin in July
• Try out pinterest activities
• Start on Grace's day schedule
• Print duck signs for bathroom
• Find more decor for bathroom
• Find end table to make into kitchen for Grace
• Make garden corner outside
• make outdoor play house for Grace
• Trim bushes
• Go through all boxes in garage
• Swap Grace's toys
• Find cheap toys online
• Make homemade wipies
• Make new skirt for me
• Go through deep freezers and organize
• Use up old cleaning products
• Make a lot of beef jerky!

I AM DONE!!

I am so thankful to say that I am completely finished with my college courses.  I will no longer be in any classes until September, and of course this means a lot fo fun with the family, traveling, arts/crafts, baking, and so many other fun things throughout the spring and summer!  I know that I missed a whole week of posting, but this is because life has just been so hectic with finals and finishing up courses while pushing through my procrastination.  I'll try to remember last week...

Our Fridays we don't have anything going on, neither preschool nor therapies, and so we usually just hang out and do whatever.  We go outside and play, go on walks, read a ton of books (she's definitely my little bookworm), and just do whatever to keep the day occupied.  

Okay, Saturday and Sunday were the same way.

Monday: Therapy day!  We visited with each other in the morning, and once again did the normal play, eat, read routine, and then went to therapy.  But this day was a bit different because when I went in to get her out of bed 10 minutes before therapy started...well, she needed a bath again.  Darnit!  I need to learn to go in early!  So we were about 30 minutes late for OT, and so instead of starting any activities with Grace, Jeff just talked with me about some things that they have been working on in therapy, and things they are going to work on soon.  Speech therapy went well.  At the end of speech therapy Grace gets to play a game on the Ipad where she has to listen to a song "Wheels on the Bus" and at the end Sarah will pause the song so that Grace can say the last few words.  This helps with Grace's cognitive skills, memory, and speech as well.  So now Sarah is known as "all tru town!"  This is the easiest way to get her out of bed for sure!

Tuesday:  Crazy day.  Grace had therapy with Kelly and so we went to the neighbors house to play!  Grace got to play with all the kids, swing on the swings they had there, and I got to talk to the mama's!  It was so cute to go watch Grace because the children would follow right behind her while she climbed the stairs so that she wouldn't fall, and then there was one girl in particular that would always wait for her at the slide so that she could put Grace in her lap.  I was so happy to see this, and felt so blessed to have these children in our lives, our ward, and just around the corner!  Oh, and there was no preschool because of Spring Break.

Wednesday...Hm...this is our day where there's nothing going on, so it was a hang out day.  I made something in the sun oven...but can't remember!

Thursday!  PRESCHOOL!!!  Finally Spring Break was over and Grace was so excited to go to preschool.  She is so adorable.  We will wait in the lobby and when she sees her teacher through the glass doors leading to the main hall in the school, you can just tell she's happy.  She reaches for my hand so we can give hugs and kisses, and then all I have to do is say "go ahead" and she walks over to her teacher, or through the open door :)  I sign her in, and then that's it!  She will grab a hand of a child next to her, and every time she's done this the child happily obliges.  There has not been one child that has pushed her away, or pulled their hand away.  I really think Heavenly Father has given Grace her guardian angels all around her to care for her.  After preschool Grace played by herself and sometimes came to me for attention while I was making a banana strawberry bread to put in the sun oven.  When that was finally cooking I fed Grace (actually, she fed herself in her booster chair!) and then she went to bed.  I got some homework done and then pretty quickly it was time to take her to therapy!  Physical therapy outside and Speech therapy, and then it was time to head home so we could do therapy with Kelly.  They worked on dressing and undressing since Grace is 3.5 years old and I'm still dressing her.  But I have to keep remembering, she's about 2 years old developmentally.  The bread had been finished when I came home and so I put white beans (not soaked) out there for white bean chicken chili.  Then the three of us went out front to work on bikeriding, and Grace succeeded yet again in riding her bike!  Oh yeah!  The wind had really started to pick up and so we said goodbye to Kelly for the weekend and headed inside.  Later in the evening I had to bring the beans in but thankfully they were cooked.  About 7 pm Grace was extremely naughty and had tore up a memory file I had of her BYU-I preschool experience.  There were pictures crumpled, the label on the front was torn in half, and pictures had been torn off construction paper with their descriptions on the back.  She also tore open all the CD's of her baptism pictures and Brad's sons mission pictures.  Ug.  I was mad...I was mean.  Darnit.  I apologized later but she kept being naughty (hitting, pulling my glasses off) so she was changed and put in bed.  Shew...that was a tough day.

Friday!  Finally Friday.  The blessed day when I finished my last final.  I got a 72% on it, but I'm still at an A- in the class.  5 classes total, all A's and so my GPA is 3.9.  That means I get a full scholarship for Fall semester!!  HURRAY!!  And now that all my classes are done, I can start on a huge list of activities that I have wanted to do for so long.  I will list it in another post since it would make this one way too long.  I am also excited because that means that while she's napping, I will have time to update her blog with all the pictures that have been stacking up!  She is napping right now, and then around 4:30 we will be having family come.  They are staying with us while they go to a family member's BYU-I graduation, and then after the graduation (around 9-10) they will be coming here to celebrate with ice cream and cake.  There will be about 30 of us total, so I'm so happy the house will be full of noise and laughter.  And Grace will be in bed so I won't have to stress over her.  Oh, and I've also got beef jerky in the dehydrator and so my whole house smells like MEAT!  3 trays of ground deer jerky and 2 trays of steak jerky.  This will probably be done about 6 am tomorrow, and so I'm really hoping they turn out.  I was going to dehydrate them in my sun oven but remembered that I don't have the trays to dehydrate with it.  Plus, the weather is so weird.  One minute the sun is nice and bright and the next minute it's cloudy.  We will probably go to the park alter, once the family leaves to go to the graduation.  I was going to be watching my two nephews but they were sick, and so my sister-in-law didn't want them to get Grace sick.  Her husband, Brad's brother Blaine, stayed back in Montana with them, so we have the evening open to do whatever :)  

Well, that's it for now.  I'm going to start that blog about my list of things to get done :) 

Oh yeah.  Grace has been wearing a cloth diaper every so often, and I'm in the process of making cloth wipes.  I don't really know what I'm going to gain from doing this, but it's pretty neat that she's using a homemade cloth diaper, don't you think?  I'm thinking about starting potty training, but that will be talked about later.

Amanda

BIG GIRL!!!

Grace is no longer in her high chair!!!  She now has a booster seat.  This is definitely the news of the day, for sure.  I'm so excited, and I can tell she was as well.

 Here's my little girly, sitting in her new booster seat :)

 She doesn't really understand why I'm so excited...but it's so awesome!

 See the cheese that she hid in her booster?  It's right behind the brown part.  I was going to get a pink chair...but that's not really a neutral color, is it?

 Mmmm...cheese!!

So proud of herself!  

This was the highlight of the day.  We didn't do much...well, I cleaned out the truck, vacuumed it, washed the floor mats, washed the jogging stroller and pumped up the tires, and then cleaned the kitchen.  It was a pretty day but then quickly turned cold and threatened rain the rest of the day.  A great day, all in all :)

Amanda

So FUN!!

Well, Daddy bought an outdoor fire pit for me so that I can use my dutch oven this year, and it got here today!!  So Brad put it up and of course lit a fire up!  Janica, Kyler and Jarik were here but the two oldest left.  Jarik was outside with us while the fire was going and it was so great!!  I talked the guys into camping outside, and so Brad and Skyler will be in brad's new tent, and Jarik will be in the second tent in case his dad wants to come over after work.  The boys are gone now.  They went to Walmart to get S'mores goodies!  Oh, they are back!!  They got TONS OF BAD STUFF!!  Cookies, chips/salsa, and of course S'mores fixings :)   But you know what they forgot?  MARSHMALLOWS!  Goofballs.  So now they have to go back out.  

I got a ton of homework done and so now I'm watching "Worlds Strictest Parents."  Pretty interesting show :)

Amanda

Busy Days

Shew the days are flying by.  I am on the second to last week of school, and I'm just so excited that soon enough, I will be able to spend all my days with Brad and Grace and I won't have to worry about rushing to do homework.  Well, here's a recap of our day yesterday and today.

Yesterday was a normal Tuesday in the morning with nothing much going on.  We played outside a lot since it was such a beautiful day, and I put...something...in my sun oven!  I can't remember, darn it!  Anyways, that was coking, and then after Grace had nap time, she had therapy with Kelly.  Since it was such a beautiful day we went to the court behind our house and there were about 7 kids out playing.  So I went to sit with two moms while Grace and Kelly worked on communicating and playing with the children.  The hour went by great, the sun felt so good, and Grace did GREAT!  She made her way over to the swing/slide set, and while she played the moms and I talked about food storage, gardening, and just life in general.  The hour finished up pretty quick and so I went to see how well Grace was doing, and she was having so much fun.  The kids would block her from behind as she climbed up the stairs so she wouldn't fall down, and then there was a girl that waited for her at the slide that would pull Grace over her leg, put her into her lap, and slide down the slide with her!  The girl was probably 8 years old or so, and I just loved that they did so well with Grace.  She fought for a few seconds when it was time to go home, but quickly she got over it.  

Oh, before this we had picked up my friend's son from school since they were too busy to go get him.  

Ok, so after therapy we played out front a bit more.  I had put sausage in the sun oven in hopes that it would cook in time but I had put it in too late.

I made sausage and waffles for dinner and our friend's boys ate with us and I sent some food over for their two daughters because they were sick.  

Skyler had a basketball game and so Brad went to watch him for awhile and so I got some more homework done.  The evening was pretty eventful but not worth repeating or remembering, so I'll just say that it was a really late night and that I'm hoping it won't happen again.

Today was not so busy, but was busy as well.  Since we were up so late I slept in until 9...and then found Grace without her footie pajama on.  I had even turned it backwards and so somehow she figured out how to take it off...as well as the diaper.  So she had bath time and then we just played around until 11:30, which is when we took Brad to the food bank because he volunteers there passing out food.  There were mice in the mouse traps and the head worker freaked out!  She really doesn't like mice!!

After we got home at about 1 pm I fed Grace a corn dog and some strawberries, but she wasn't too interested.  She was so tired, and so off to bed she went.  While she slept I put a turkey breast in the sun oven, but the sun played with the clouds and so the temperature in my sun oven didn't go above 250 degrees.  Oh well.

For dinner tonight we will have bean and cheese burritoes, which sounds so darn yummy!!  After dinner there isn't anything planned, so we'll just have to see what happens. :)  Hopefully it's a nice evening.  Skyler will be home from work any minute (he worked from 10-5 today) and so maybe he will have some ideas of what we can do today!

Amanda

Easter!

Easter was so much fun :)  Grace was given so much fun stuff from the Easter Bunny (2 sheets of shiny stickers, an apron to help in the kitchen, a Dora washcloth, and an Elmo coloring book).  And she also had so much fun finding all the Easter Eggs the Easter Bunny hid!!  Dinner was so good, too.  I made turkey, stuffing, gravy, garlic bread, pasta salad, and then had celery and carrots.  I know, it sounds like Thanksgiving, but we wanted something other than ham.  Ryan came for dinner, so that was nice.  After dinner Kenna, Jaric and Kyler came over, and so after we hung out at the house for a while, we went over to the park and played basketball, swung on the swings (Grace), and played Bocci ball for a while.  We came home at about 6 pm, hung out some more, fed Grace dinner and then stuck her in the tub, and after she fell asleep we got to relax and just talked and had dessert.  Then we started a movie but the kids had to leave, so after that (Skyler was already at work) Brad watched some tv and I did some homework.  All in all, a great day :)

Amanda