A BOY!!!!

It's a boy, it's a boy, it's a boy!  Grace was so excited to hear that she's going to have a little brother.  Daddy and Grace both came to the ultrasound and it was so funny because Grace thought we were there for her.  When I got up she said, "Is my turn!"  We had to keep explaining that it wasn't her turn, and that it's mommy's turn.  She was having so much fun seeing baby in the ultrasound screen and Daddy kept describing what we were seeing.  Baby boy did NOT want to look at us so we didn't get a profile picture, but we got a beautiful picture of a hand and a foot.  And we got the gender picture but I won't be putting that in the blog :)

 He is saying "Hello, Sister!"

"Look at my foot, Sister!"

And here are the pictures that we used to announce on Facebook...

 Pink and Blue...Girl or boy?

"Which one?"

BLUE!  A BOY!!!

It was also a pretty busy day :)  We went to the doctor appointment to find out about baby, went to gymnastics to make up for missing last week, had lunch, nap time, played outside with friends, Grace had a babysitter over while Brad and I went to dinner at a friends house, and then Grace got to play with Daddy while I did some homework.  Now it's 9:23 pm, Grace is in bed (but I think I hear her) and I'm ready for bed!

Goodnight :)

Amanda

Grace is Healthy!

I'm so excited to report that Grace is one healthy girl.  And boy is she making a comeback with all her pent up energy.  She most definitely has a ton of energy, and this is absolutely great because it's beautiful weather and so we have a ton of great opportunities to go outside and play!!  We had a great time today because we went to the new neighbors house.  They moved here from Washington state and have an almost 2 year old girl and almost 4 year old boy.  Grace and I went over for about 2 hours in the late morning and played inside with the little girl and they just got along SO WELL.  These children are so gentle and loving, and I don't feel like I have to be Miss Mama Hawk Eyes all the time.  Much at all, actually.  Then it was lunch time and nap time (which she didn't take) and so we went back over at 2:45 pm.  The little girly was asleep but the little boy came out and they played for a little while, and then another neighbor came over with her two sons, and then another 2 neighborhood kiddos came out!  (The two girls that came last are the ones Grace just loves...they are moving...poor Grace is going to lose her friend Sabrina).  Grace had a TON of fun and it was really nice just to be out and relaxing.  We headed in about 4:30 pm to get dinner ready to celebrate Ryan's birthday, and now it's 10 pm and he's headed out.  Grace went down at 7:30 pm because she was off the hook...she would slobber all over her hands, wipe it all over her face, and then pull her hair while making crazy silly faces.  And then she'd rock in her chair making crazy howling monkey sounds...all this in an attempt to stay awake.  So off to bed she went after a steak, 3 servings of potato salad, cake and ice cream.  And she went to sleep right after I put her down!!  Silly girly :)  Can't wait until tomorrow because it's gymnastics, therapy, lunch and hopefully playtime with friends again!

Oh, here's a birthday cake Grace drew for her Mema for her birthday.  We were discussing that Mema was having a birthday soon and Grace drew this.  It's her first time EVER drawing a cake, and I didn't prompt her at all.  She went off on her own and sat at her Princess table, and came back with the cake.  I was thrilled, to say the least!

And then here's Miss Grace in one of her totally awesome eye patches.  There are 5-6 designs and she has to wear it for 1 hour, and so we watch two episodes of The Magic School Bus during breakfast every morning to get the patch wearing done.  If I don't do it in the morning, I won't remember, and if I don't have her in front of a show, the patch will NEVER stay on.  :)  Compromise!!

All in all, awesome day :)  I think Ryan liked his whole evening as well, and I'll say he thought my gift was awesome.  I bought him a box full of healthy groceries since he lives like the typical "college student" (Top Ramen, freezer burritos, etc).  And Brad got him a nice pair of shoes because he walks to school.  We tried to be practical with these gifts :)

Amanda

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures of the cutie :)  

 This picture is from Grace's eye appointment.  6/17/14  Her left eye is getting a bit weaker and so we have to start patching again, but otherwise, her eyes are doing great!!

And here's Grace while having lunch before we headed home from Utah!  Who knew that what was coming when we got home was going to be so sad...

 We are at the hospital.  Grace had HORRIBLE a horrible stomach virus and vomited from 5:30 pm to 11 pm until we finally took her to the hospital.  It took her two bags of fluids to get looking better.  We didn't leave until 2:45 am the next day (Wednesday).  What a horrible experience for everyone.

Here's the girly on Wednesday.  Super puffy from all the fluids that she had to take.  She had eaten a purple popsicle which is why her mouth was so dark :)

 And here's Grace!  She's showing us the baby in her tummy!  I had daddy take a picture of my tummy for the new baby book and Grace definitely wanted some attention as well, so of course we are going to check out Grace's tummy :)

Love you girly!!

Amanda

All Getting Better

We are all getting better, finally.  I was blessed by Heavenly Father to not go through what Grace and Daddy did.  We all have been able to eat more food, but really, not much.  I was finally hungry enough to try something off the typical stomach flu diet and made chicken brother with noodles and an egg.  It was SO GOOD!  Grace even had some, and we were able to keep it down, with no stomach pains or sickness feeling after eating it.  Daddy was able to have a granola bar and some peanuts, but he's still being careful with what he eats and drinks so that nothing comes back to make him sick again.

We all spent some time outside today and it was so refreshing!!  Grace played in her new water/sand table that Daddy got her while he worked on trying to push a pipe under the driveway so he could run our internet cable under the driveway.  I was coloring with chalk while Grace stripped down to her diaper and poured water all over my drawings and then sat in the chalk running in the water.  It was so funny!  I thick we were out there for about an hour but I got so tired that we came in and watched Nanny McPhee.  It was Grace's first time Grace watched it, and she was a bit bored with it. :)  

 Our cute girl watching Nanny McPhee!!

Grace went to bed at 6:45 pm today.  She didn't take a nap and was SO tired that after I took a small walk with her, sat with her in her room and read to her and then talked about a dream she could have, she was tucked into bed and she went right to sleep!  Our dream talk was pretty cute :)

Me:  So what are you going to dream about tonight?

G: Horses

Me: What kind of horses?

G: Pink and purple horses!

Me:  Are you going to ride it?

G: Yes!  We go around and around on the horses.

Me: Where do we ride the horses?

G: At the park.

Me: The park with the splash park?

G: YEAH!!

Me: And then we say "hocus Pocus" and then we fly off into the sky with our horses!

G: YEAH!!  And we go around and around in the sky!

Me: And then we can go to the sun and say hello to the sun, and say "nice to meet you, Sun."  And after that we can go sit on the clouds and it will be so comfy.

G: YEAH!!  And it's going to be so soft and nice.  And they are in the sky.

Me: You are right!  And then when Mr. Sunshine goes down the moon will come up and we can go sit on the moon and we can shake his hand and say...

G: Nice to meet you, Moon.

Me: Yeah!  Good job!  And when we are all done and it's night time, then we go fly to the stars and find a star to sleep on.

G: And then it's night night time. 

Me: You are right.  So let's brush your teeth and get you tucked in, ok?  And then you can close your eyes, think of your dream and then you can sleep and have a good night!

G: Ok :)  Love you!

And then it was bedtime!

Amanda

More Than a Week

More than a week behind and too tired to write today.  Here's what we've been dealing with this past week...

Busy days

Traveling to Utah for a doctors appointment

Having to hear we need to start repatching because Grace's left eye is becoming weaker

Traveling home 

Grace having stomach flu and throwing up everywhere

Hospital visit

Daddy getting sick and throwing up

Daddy passing out

Mommy feeling horrible and begging to Heavenly Father that I don't get the stomach flu because it would be bad for the baby and there would be no one to care for Daddy and Grace.

Failed two homework assignments because I'm too tired to focus or understand (or care, really)

Poor Miss Grace not getting much attention because we are all sick.

A wedding coming up that we CAN'T be sick for!!

All in all, it's time for bed.

Amanda

Good Day so Far!

Well, it's been such a nice day.  This morning we organized everything into Grace's new chest of drawers (which were then slammed during nap time, darn it) and she was so pushy about having macaroni and cheese for breakfast that yes, we did :)  I love spoiling her and I don't think lunch for breakfast will harm her!  Then we ran some errands and it felt so great to get money back from Walmart and walk out without spending!!  We went to the post office to send some mail (we ran out of stamps) and then Grace picked out a new book of stamps...flags!  They look great for the 4th of July coming up.  And then off to the park to play and eat.  They had hamburgers today but Grace was not interested.  I didn't realize it until I tried the leftover at home that the burger was absolutely disgusting!  Poor girl.  She didn't eat very many of the french fries either and so it just wasn't that good of a meal today.  But she loved the chocolate milk and fruit mix.  We went back to the playground to play for a bit more and seeing Grace almost fall while trying to cross the bridge on the climbing equipment has rekindled my desire to have an all-inclusive playground put in.  So I emailed the coordinator for the playground equipment and asked her to print the pictures of the possible playground I want put in.  Then I'll meet with City Council once I figure out a presentation.  

Now it's 2:20 pm and she's supposed to be sleeping, but she's in there slamming into her blinds, talking to herself and doing who knows what else.  I think I'm going to have to figure out something else to do with her blinds because she's going to break them if she keeps slamming them.  I'm trying to think of some type of board that I can secure over her window each time we put her to nap time.  It sounds dramatic but blinds are not cheap!

The rest of the day?  Well, I really need to take some things out from underneath the stairs, do a lot of organization/cleaning, but I just don't know.  It's a beautiful day with barely little wind so I think we might just go play outside or have a picnic in the park or something :)  The lawn could use a mowing...but isn't that a daddy's job?!  Ha ha ha!

So far, a great day :)

The rest of the day was fun.  She never went to sleep, I never cleaned, organized or did anything like that, and now it's 7:06 pm.  We just got back from a community event for parents called "Parents as Teachers."  They had an activity for kids to make a "cookie in a Jar" for their dads for Father's Day, and we also made a card.  Here's the jar!!

Oh, and I bought Grace a tricycle!!  We had went to another friends house to play and a little boy never shares with her, and we've had problems with this child a ton of times before.  And Grace doesn't understand that she just needs to stand up for herself.  There were two little boys...the one that owned the tricycle, and the pushy one.  The boy that owned the bike gave Grace a turn, and then the other boy came over saying, "Get off!  It's not your turn!"  And he was peeling her fingers off the bike.  I barked at him, "(Name), it is NOT your turn.  It's Grace's turn so keep hands off."  Then he went to throw another bike around and throw a fit because he didn't want the other one.  But he finally  told Grace to get off enough that she complied...darn that sweet girl, and so I grabbed her hand and we were out of there.  He also wouldn't let her push the stroller around, and would actually hover over it like a dog guarding it's food as he got a drink of water.  I was just so done.  We got in the car, picked up a trike, and came home and put it together.  And there you go!  I taught her...well, let her know, that she doesn't have to share it, and that if someone touches it, she can say, "HANDS OFF!  NO!!  My bike."  So hopefully the boy will get a taste of his own medicine.  It's getting hard to bite my tongue every time we get together.....

Anyways, a video!  Here's Miss Stubborn Grace...

Ok, we'll have to come back to that...I took the video with my phone so I have to wait for Daddy to come home to help me download it to the computer.  I noticed I was saying bike...it's a tricycle.

And here is the picture of her eating the ice cream I promised!!!

FUN!!!

Amanda

Insane Days

Ok now it's just been insane days and that's why I haven't written.  We've been go go going constantly!!  Therapies, homework, errands, shopping, we went to the zoo (post coming), lunch in the park, and typical home things as well!  So lots of posts to come :)

Amanda

The Super Cute Haircut!!

6/6/14

Wow, way behind again.  We have been having such great days now that it's summer and there's no school, we are just busy busy!

Oh my gosh it's been so long since she's had her hair cut.  I was so proud of her to want to do it, and I didn't do it at home, either.  This was her first time she's EVER had her hair cut at a shop, and it just went so well.

Ok, here are some before shots :)

And here's some "during" shots:

And the after shots:

How absolutely fun!!!  And she did so great!!  It took about 45 minutes, but that's because it was a school and Grace's hair stylist had only been cutting for 6 months.  But Grace was so patient, I help her cartoon in front of her face, or talked to her, or the hairstylist and teacher turned her around, made it fun, and things like that :)  They were great with her!

Afterwards she got a purple sucker since she told them that was her favorite color.

Amanda

The ZOO!

It was absolutely exciting to go to the zoo.  We got a special invitation through her therapy program and so we most definitely went to the event!  There will be an overload of pictures, so let's just get to it :)

 As you can see, this definitely isn't the zoo.  We went to the mall first to try and find some stretchy belly pants for me since this little bit is growing big fast, so she got to ride in the bus!  I'm so excited that she wasn't scared of it because last year, she was deathly scared of it.  At first she had some pretty white knuckles, but after Daddy got in and played, then she got so much better.  She was so frustrated it was over!!

 Now onto the zoo pictures!  They are sort of our of order...we had the ice cream in the middle of the trip, but that's ok.  We got three tickets for free ice cream and Grace and I got Rocky Road, and Daddy got Huckleberry.  Grace got a free water bottle (AWESOME!) and also a bag of animal crackers. 

The mascot penguin!  Grace gave him a high-5 and was so excited to take a picture with him.

Can you see the penguin over there?  It was so close to us and by the time I snapped the picture, it was so far!

 The python!  Grace was extremely nervous about this part but we were safe.  The snake was so much more interested in the birds hopping around in the tree above.  The three workers with him were so sweet, and I was surprised to see that they were all older women, like grandmother age!  Not trying to sound mean or anything.  I just didn't expect it :)  Anyways, that was tough for Grace but she did great pushing through it.

 The giraffe!  It was either this picture of both daddy and Grace with eyes closed in interesting facial expressions.  

 Isn't this so cute?  Grace was so excited to ride on the tiger with Daddy.

 Grace tried so hard to get the deer to turn it's head :)  She just didn't like that it was looking the way it was.

She was so nervous about putting her head in here, just like last year!  She put her head in so fast that I couldn't get a picture of her actually drinking.  I took the picture 3 times and this was the best one.

 You can't really see the animals that they are looking at, but the picture is still so darn cute.  And there was a guitarist playing his guitar behind us while I took this picture :)

And last but not least, the sea otters!  She absolutely loved these, and watched them forever.  

All in all, it was a great day and at the end, she actually got a bear with a pillow attached, but I didn't take a picture of it just because it was so crazy at the exit.  She calls her pink bear "sleepy bear."

Great day!

Amanda

A Couple Days Past

Well, it's been a while since I've written.  Obviously.  These have been a couple tough days.  I've been extremely hormonal, Grace has been extremely physical with hitting and slapping and when I have a chance to write, I've de-stressed instead.  It's been really hard for both of us, and there hasn't been much to document.  There have been those good times, yes, but since I've been hormonal because of this pregnancy and dealing with horrible allergies, I've been doing more sitting around and sleeping than much else.  We have gone to lunch in the park for the last three days.  That's been a lot of fun, and the past two days we've gone with her HI (home intervention therapist).  She has really pushed us to start using the respite care that we have stocked up (86 hours) because she can see that I am burnt out.  We can use 5.5 hours a week and then it renews in October.  I can also use this for the time I'm in school which is most definitely a blessing.  She's also going to find out how we can fight for a higher budget for services because she thinks it's ridiculous that we aren't receiving more support.  We are hoping that with all this negative behavior, it will bump her up on the scale.  I know that sounds crazy, but negative and violent behavior requires more intervention and therapy, and this is what I'm seeing with her.  She has even started hitting children and pushing them to see what reaction she can get from them.  It's extremely difficult.  Ug.  Anyways, she's on the mend from being sick and I'm sleeping when I can because this baby really is kicking my rear.  At least I have these signs because it means that it's still alive and growing!  Ok, I think that's all for now.  She is in her room being rambunctious instead of sleeping like she should, and I'm watching a movie, but might go lay down.

Amanda

Gymnastics

6/3/14

Just a picture of our Grace girl working hard in gymnastics!  She's doing the bear crawl up the bars.  Can you believe the coordination it takes to accomplish this?

Amanda