My Sweet Girl

Just a quick note to show my beautiful girl off next to some pretty flowers...

We had a fun day today.  Daddy left for the cabin and so it's just the three of us hanging out together :)  We went on a walk, enjoyed the laziness of not rushing (which I feel like we usually have to for some silly reason), had some totally awesome split pea soup, and colored outside with chalk while Levi watched us in his bumbo chair.  It was such a great day!  

Amanda

Movies and SICK SICK

First the fun news.  A couple days ago Grace and I had a fun time.  We watched movies while snacking!!

And then comes the sad news.  Yesterday was a miserable day.  It started off really well.  I finished making a blanket for Grace's cousin Nyssa...

And then we had her 4h Cloverbud meeting.  Right then is when it started going really bad.  Grace was throwing a fit, white as a sheet, and kept saying her stomach and throat hurt.  Oh boy.  I knew what was coming but hoped it wouldn't while everyone was there.  She also hadn't pooped for about 2 weeks (I mean a real good poop.  She's had some...but not an actual one.)  I thought maybe it was toxic shock or something.  Everyone left after the meeting and it became horrible.  She threw up...again and again and again until about midnight.  And I was sick sick as well, except mine kept me running to the toilet as I tried to care for Grace because Brad and throw up DO NOT mix.  Poor guy.  He was so good about caring for us, and around 10:45 pm I was crying and so tired.  He told me to go to bed and he stayed with the kids.  He took Grace to the bathroom and gave her an enema and they were in there for 45 minutes cleaning her out.  Enema after enema after enema.  She went a lot, and it was grueling work.   Oh, I forgot to say that a lady from our ward brought me some Powerade, the enema kit and surprise!  Bubbles for Grace and milk duds for me :)  Grace tried playing with the bubbles but quickly tired out.

But today is much better.  I'm still friends with the toilet but so far, Grace hasn't thrown up.  She's had juice and water with crackers all day and she's done well.  She's also having bowel movements so that's great as well!  Here's the kiddos...

 I scared him on accident with the flash.

And there's the girly!!  I'm glad I canceled the trip I had planned for Brad and I because we wouldn't have been able to make it since I'm still not feeling up to par.  Thank Heavenly Father that we had the feeling to cancel the three day trip.

Hoping for all of us to mend quickly.  

Amanda

Busy Week

Between Grace getting better from Strep and Levi getting worse from sharing strep, it's been a crazy week.  Now both kids are on antibiotics and I'm really hoping to see things looking up by the weekend.  Grace did get to go to school on Wednesday because she'd been on antibiotics long enough, so that's good.  She got to see two big german shepherds in her class on Wednesday!  They were Miss Kim's sons dogs, and he was back from the army for a week so he brought them in.  They did a bunch of tricks for the kids and Grace had so much fun!  And then there was gymnastics afterwards, and Grace had a new worker.  They clicked so well together!  Grace did the floor routine two times and did each activity the correct time, and I'm just so proud of her!  I could tell she knew how well she did as well because she was so hyped up and excited.

Today is Thursday and she's at therapy as I write this.  I'm working on making a tie blanket for Nyssa, Grace's cousin, and then I'll cut out squares for Elaine's rag blanket, like the one I made Grace.  But this is going to be slow and steady.  I'm not going to push myself like I used to before I had the baby.  I'd like to but the kiddos need their mama :)

Well, there isn't much more to say.  She'll be out of school May 13th and then it'll be fun time!!  Camping, traveling, cabin time, etc.  Oh!  We went to the kindergarten class yesterday and met one of the kinder teachers.  I really liked her.  We spend about an hour there and there was some assessment going on but Grace was really distracted with all the activities that are everywhere so she was just here and there and everywhere.  My fears were lessened a bit by being there, meeting the teacher, and seeing the classroom.  And the fact that she has an aid will help a TON.

Love you Grace.

Amanda/Mommy

Getting a Ride from Daddy!

Sometimes it's just fun to get up high on Daddy's shoulders.....

SO FUN!!!!

Amanda

Sick

04/12/15

My poor sweet Grace just doesn't get away from anything!  She is now really sick, and I don't know what it is yet but whatever it is, Levi sounds like he's catching it as well.  Grace's throat has more white globs than it does normal skin so I'm hoping to be able to get her into the doctor first thing tomorrow.  She told me in the morning that her throat hurt but I thought she was just whining because she'd slept with her mouth open.  But then after Brad woke her from nap with a temperature of 106.5, I checked her throat and there was the culprit.  Mommy fail right there.  Dangit.

We went to church and everything, so of course, now there's no school, gym or anything else.  She's supposed to be meeting her kindergarten teacher tomorrow, but now that's out.  And there is a block play day at her school on Tuesday but I don't think she'll be going to that either because we don't want to share.  I hate that my girly gets sick all the time!

Amanda

Crazy Week

Well, we've definitely had a crazy week.  One that we most definitely didn't expect.  We headed to Utah for an appointment with Grace's ophthalmologist and found out her optical nerves were swollen, so instead of getting to go home, we waited around for hours for an MRI.  We went into the appointment at 8:40 and didn't leave the hospital until 6:30.  LONG DAY.  But the kids did so great, and Brad took Grace to the playroom and they were there for hours!  The scan was to check for any abnormalities in her brain and thankfully, everything was normal.  So now Grace gets to wear glasses and we'll go back in three months to have her checked again.

Here is a picture of Grace getting prepped to go into the MRI machine.  Makes me choke up to even look at it.  Thanks to daddy for the picture!

I'm so glad to be home and I can tell the kiddos are too.  Back to our normal routine sounds good to me.  And soon Grace will be out of school so we can have real vacation!!  I'm hoping to do a lot of traveling with the family.  Utah for some caverns and rock climbing, Montana to be with family, camping in Idaho.  Just fun stuff.  Oh, and I'm hoping to make it to California as well.

Amanda

Videos

We watched videos today of Grace when she was little.  Not too little...we were already living here.  She was so calm, collected, and wow!  Her language has gotten so much better since those videos!  It's so great to see the progress that she's made, and I'm so proud of her for it.  It was nice to share that time with her.  And she got such a kick out of seeing herself, and picking out the videos that she wanted to watch.  It's been a ho hum drum day.  Haven't done much but watch Little House on the Prairie movies one after the other after the other.  Mommy has had a couple low days so we're just sitting around and not doing much.  I'll get better in a little while.  I should be napping right now while both kiddos are napping, so I guess I'll sign off and go do that.

I don't know if I posted it in an earlier post but Grace went to the dentist to get checked and has NO sugar bugs!!  Hurray for Grace!!

Love you girly.

Amanda/Mommy

School Day...Field trip Day!!!

04/01/15

It was so exciting at school!!!  Grace got to go on a field trip, and I got to go as well!  We went to Cal Ranch in hopes of seeing a bunch of little chicks, bunnies and turkeys, but all that were there was about 12 chicks.  They had a huge sale and everything was sold out!  But Grace had so much fun riding the bus and getting to see the few chicks they had that she didn't even care the other animals weren't there.

 On the bus she goes!  She did so well stepping up the stairs :)

And seeing the chicks!  It was so great to see Grace having fun with her classmates and visiting the little chicks.  

Grace had a great time.  After the field trip I got to watch Grace in class.  I don't normally do that because there's no observation booth, so this was a special treat.  

 Grace got to help with circle time today!!  She was the music helper and so she got to pick a picture of a song off the tree you can see there, and then she got to choose the topic for the song :)

SNACK TIME!!!  Trail mix and water :)

I loved watching her in class.

Amanda

So Many Days

I hate that I've missed so many days.  Time is flying by and things are being passed up and forgotten because I can't seem to find time, or energy, to write.  I know, it doesn't seem to take much to write, but mentally, it does.  So anyways, I try my best, and I don't like there being gaps, but truly, within those gaps, nothing really happens.  There are a lot of days when we just follow the monotonous days with therapy, or school, nap time and fights over nap time.  But anyways...

I signed Grace up for "Imagine If" summer classes.  They get to learn how to use their imagination to be something they want to be.  Music, drama, dramatic play and creative play.  It's one day a week for 6 weeks and it's only $24!!!

I'm also going to sign her up for some art classes and they are free, so she's really going to like that.

I just really want her involved with kids throughout the summer.  I signed up to be a leader for a Cloverbud Club!!!  I named our club "The Clever Clovers" and we're going to have SO MUCH FUN!!! Service projects, fundraising for the dog shelter, crafts, working on our packets...etc.  Hurray!!  I have about 10 or so moms interested in their child being involved, and that would calculate out to 10-20 kids.  We'll probably just meet 2 times a month and there will also be activities throughout the month to coincide with the activities we are working on.  I'm pretty thrilled.

We went to play at her friends house yesterday.  It was so nice to visit them because it's been forever, and Grace had a fun time playing with them!  I'm hoping to have a lot of play groups this Spring and Summer.

Amanda

Sissy and Elaine wearing blue to support Grace and her Autism!  April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day!