Having Fun Being Silly

10/16/12

Grace and Mommy love being silly...accept Mommy is always so busy taking pictures that Grace is the only one to be seen being silly!

 Mmmm...meat!  This is what I got to do today...separate the meat for meals for 2.5 people.

 Aw, how sweet!!!  Isn't she just a doll?!

 Drinking her orange juice. 

 There's her sty, but it's finally shrinking!

 And her new kicks!!!  Size 6 oh my goodness!

 Peek a boo!

 I "tee" ooo!!

Sending a kiss to papa *great grandpa* to let him know we love him!

Amanda

Friends and Gardening

10/11/12

Check out our watermelon!!!  It was the only good one we got out of our garden this year.  It's pretty darn good too.

 Here's what it looks like on the inside.

 Check out my beautiful bread!!  The one on the right wasn't as cooked as it should have been, darnit.

 Mmmm....How beautiful, right?  This is the first time I've made bread in quite a while.  I'm glad it turned out so well.

 So silly!  Hanging out with friends is the funnest thing, isn't it Grace?!

 YES!!!  "Na neh na" is so silly!

 Time to clean up.

 And the kids had fun making Grace's shoes look... "Cool!"

So much fun when we've got friends over!

Amanda

Dinner Time!

10/09/12

Grace just is so darn cute when she's eating!  Especially when it's spaghetti!

Yum yum!!!  It's so wonderful!!

Gotta get the last bit off her finger.

She it was a busy day...isn't she so cute when she sleeps?

Amanda

Sick

Can you believe the run of luck my little one has?  She's sick again.  Darnit.  This is really irritating because her little body just can't seem to stay strong!  We have her testing at the end of the month.  The paperwork says allergy testing, but I'm hoping it also mean immune deficiency testing.  She didn't get to go to school today.  She wouldn't be going tomorrow, but won't be anyways because we have our social security meeting for her tomorrow at 9:03 am.  Silly time, right?

Amanda

Slow it on Down...

Well, I did it.  I dropped all but one of my classes.  Now that Grace is in school 5 days a week, therapy four days a week, and my classes were a total of 15 units, it was just too much to handle.  So other than 1 online class, I'm taking a break.  I'm going to evaluate and see if teaching is what I really want to do, and figure something out by January of what direction I want to go.  But for now, I'm not going to worry about it.  I'm going to be there for Grace, pick up on a ton of house projects I couldn't finish because of school, work with Medicaid on getting Grace a communication device, visit the temple more often, and start baking again!  Grace needs me home, I need to be home, and I think that's just what needs to happen right now.  Brad is going to Montana for the week, probably until Sunday, if ot longer, and so it would have been so crazy to try and find people to watch Grace while I was in school. 

Ahh...sigh of relief.  A huge weight has been lifted off my back, and for once, in a great while, I'm happy.

Love you Grace.

Mommy

Gotta Catch up...

Gosh I've got three midterms and it's just been so crazy!  I've not had any time to write about my sweet girl!  But I've got some time to use up now, so I'm hoping I can get everything down!  We are starting next week with four days a week of therapy!  AH!  I can't believe it.  Now that we have developmental services all set up, they can start coming twice a week, for an hour each time, to work with her on whatever we decide.  We've already chosen things, such as behavior issues (she's starting to hit, arch when angry, throw fits, and will put her hands in door jams in hopes that we will shut the door on them *Weird right?*)  So there will be therapy Mon, Tues, Thur and Friday!  And then school is still 5 days a week for 2 hours a day in the morning.  I will be talking to her preschool teacher at Burton and telling them that through the IDEA Act (it's okay if you don't know what that is), if I ask for a one-on-one aide, then by law she is supposed to have one.  I wish we could do the same at BYU-I, because she's having a TON of trouble there.  There are too many kids, and so she's extremely overwhelmed.  She's starting throwing fits, arching, screaming, and becoming defiant because of the disorientation and being overwhelmed.  On Wednesday she was restrained, which made me almost go through the observation booth window (That is NOT how you work with a child) because she hit a child.  But I saw it, and it was more of a touch on the face as if you were stroking a child's face.  But when the teacher told her not to do it, and Grace saw the reaction of the other child, then OF COURSE she's going to do it again.  Redirection after having Grace show "soft" would have sufficed.  I am really going to start pushing my way to get things that I want.  First off, I'm going to figure out how to get to a real person in Medicaid to see about getting an Ipad for Grace.  Second, here's some interesting information that REALLY ticks me off.  When we first found out about Grace's medical condition regarding her bowels, we could have been, right then, put on a plan where insurance would pay for diapers.  We could have been getting diapers for 3 years now, at no cost to us, because she has a life long condition.  THAT makes me mad because we've spent thousands of dollars on diapers.  Especially since during her clean outs she goes through about 15 a DAY.  Hm...what else...  She can zip her jacket down!  She can't unlatch it, but she can get the zipper about 3/4 of the way down. :)  Good girl!  And she can just at least 1 inch, if not two.  Hm...she's now a size SIX shoe!!!  AH!  She's growing up so fast!!!  And she's dong so well with brushing her teeth!  She can brush the front very well, the way they are supposed to be brushed, and the tongue as well.  The sides of her teeth are a bit harder, but that's ok.  Hm...She's going on her first FIELDTRIP!!!!  It's her first one EVER!  It's on the 19th, and I get to go!  It's still on BYU-I campus, but it's a bit far.  They are going to the geology/fossil museum :)  I can't wait to experience that with her.  Gosh she is such an awesome kid.  I wish her whole family could see her all the time...  she misses her Dado/Papa/MeMa.  We talk about them all the time.  It was so cute because she was looking up at Dado and Papa's (my grandparents) picture and she waved and said, "hi Dadooooo, hi Papa!"  And then she said, "WUUUUUUVVVVVVVV  YOU!!!"  And then she kissed at them.  But she does similar for MeMa too.  She hugged herself really tight once and said, "hud hud (hug hug)."

I love you Grace.

Amanda/Mommy

Zipper

I am so excited!  After I picked Grace up from preschool and brought her home, she still had her jacket on since it was so cold :)  So to my surprise she'd unzipped it almost to the bottom and signed while saying help!  WOW!  She can almost unzip her jacket!  And when I unzipped it, she tried to take it off, but she couldn't quite get it off her arms, so I had to help her a bit.  But I'm so excited she's making progress!

 Super cheesy smile!!  We had to get some updated pictures of our sweet girl :)  This is after getting home from preschool.

 And this is the super cute bun I put her hair into this morning!  Can you believe she actually has a hair pretty in her hair and it wasn't taken out during preschool?!

 And here's sweet Grace with her darn sty.  Yucky.  See how straight her eyes are!!  She's just super fun, and a joy to have in our lives.

It's so funny because her teacher told me today that she was being super goofy throughout the entire preschool day, doing things like putting her forehead on the teachers foreheads and making super goofy faces!!!  All the other kids didn't want to be there, so I'm glad Grace had her happy spirit!

Amanda

Good job girly!

Oh What a Monday

Today was a crazy day.  It's always crazy when Mommy doesn't get to see her little girl before going to school...  Anyways.  Grace was supposed to go to school today, but when Daddy went to wake her up for it, she had made such a blow out mess that by the time she was cleaned up, and the bed was cleaned up...it was WAY too late for her to go to school!!  Then when she went down for nap, she didn't actually fall asleep until 2:30!!!  Holy cow girly!  Then Mommy came home, let you sleep until 4:30, and then we went to Idaho Falls to go get some shoes for you and Mommy, stop by Home Depot, and then we headed home.  We got home, had leftover pizza, and you were in bed at 9.  This darn schedule is getting harder and harder to keep in tact.  But you went right down, which was wonderful.  Daddy bought you two new dolls!  They are just like your Elmo and Ernie, except it's "Tootie" and "Bid Burd!"  Now you have all the buddies!  You also have SIZE 6 shoes now!! AH!  We got you boots for the snow...funny story about those boots.  Since you are SO short, in comparison to other three year olds, when we put on the right size snow boots, they came up to your knees.  Which of course causes a problem. SO...we bought you cute fashionista boots, that fit you, have room for about three socks on each foot, and will still keep the snow out.  Gotta do what you gotta do right?  Then you got another pair that are just play, any time of day shoes.  Mommy got a new pair of sneakers and then a pair of dress shoes for when I go to the second grade class and teach :)

I love you bunches girly!  And I love your Daddy! 

Mommy

The Weekend

Well, this weekend was full of General Conference.  I think the highlight of the entire weekend was when my friends and I had a girls night while the boys were at priesthood session.  The part of it that was NOT fun was when Grace threw the most horrible fit I've ever seen.  Screaming at the top of her lungs, thrashing, arching, hitting.  Anything you can think of.  But once she was put to bed, our friends stayed over, we grubbed out, and they stayed until after midnight :)  It's so nice visiting with them.  

Back to the grind though.

Amanda

Time Flies

I can't believe it's already Friday!  Grace went to preschool today and did great, as usual :)  I love getting to watch her through the observation booth!  Today she got to sit in a miniature recliner and have her teacher read to her, and she was RIGHT by the window.  I love seeing what she likes to do in school.  I think the only think I'm not liking to see is that she's learning that if she thorws fits, she will be left alone and the teachers won't make her do what they want her to do.  So I told the professor that they are more than welcome to make sure she does what they tell her to do, no matter what.  Now I'm sitting in the college waiting for Brad to pick me up so we can go to a meeting for Grace.

 

Amanda

Developmental Services Meeting

So we had this meeting set up for the 16th, and then the lady called me yesterday and said, "want to meet on Tuesday morning?"  Heck ya I did!!!  This is so important to get started, and it's been long enough of a wait.  So I got all the paperwork done, got her Medical binder ready, and here I sit, waiting for 7:50 to come when we can leave.  It's half an hour away, but who knows what might happen to slow us down!  I'm pretty nervous.  The paperwork said that anyone that is Grace's supporter, or my supporter (friends, family, neighbors, church leaders) and that knows Grace can be there to help make plans for Grace, but sadly it's just me.  Of course I know that Brad and Grace couldn't be there because of her doctors appointment, but yes, I do wish there were more around here that I could invite.  I understand family is too far away, of course, and it was SUPER last minute.  It's ok, just one of those, "take a deep breath, say darn it, and then oh well" moments!  In the end, I know the most about her, so it's ok.

Well, I'll let everyone know how it goes.  It's 2 hours long!  And I don't know what to expect or anything!

Amanda

Black Eye

My poor little Grace got a black eye!  She was hit in the eye with a toy on Sunday, and it's been showing itself more and more.  We actually thought it was pinkeye, and so we took her to the doctors on Monday!!  But thankfully/and not really thankfully, it's "just" a black eye...her first one!!!  And of course she has here eye appointment today, and so I'm hoping the doctor won't touch her eye or anything.  Daddy and Grace are down in Utah while I'm here in Idaho, unable to go with them because of school.  Darnit.

Amanda

Saturday

Sheesh, what a busy day!  We had fun playing outside this morning, and then you got to see Jarik for a little bit before he had to go home.  Then you had naptime, and while you were sleeping peacefully, I was busy doing homework as usual.  Then Grandma and Grandpa Hildreth came to stay, and they brought Haley and Emmalee!  You were SO excited to see them all!  We went to Pizza Pie Cafe with them all, and had SO MUCH FUN being goofy with the girls.  Making shadow figures, teasing each other, talking about nothing important :)  Then we came home and you watched Emmalee go crazy with over-excitement!  I tried to get you to go to bed at your bedtime...but here it is...10:11 pm, this is your second time up, and you are now eating crackers and drinking juice because watching your "Judy Moody's not so bummer Summer" didn't work!!!  I think that's what it's called!

Anyways, this has been a wonderful day.  Getting to see grandparents is always fun, and adding some cousins adds to the excitement!

Love you bunches girly!  Especially when you are goofy as I walk in to get you at 10:00 in the evening and your laughing, giggling, and saying "HIIIIII!"

You're my everything.

Mommy

Friday :)

Friday was a pretty fun day!  Mommy had school, and then after that she went out with our friend Janica while you got to hang out with Daddy!  After that, later in the evening, we went over to hang out with Mysha and her girls, and Brad, went with Garon and Jarik to go shooting!  That evening, the girls had a girls night watching movies, while, after shooting, the guys had a guys night watching War Horse!!!  It was so much fun :)  

I'm so glad we have such friends, and you LOVE spending time with "Neena!"  You are just so excited to see them all the time, and they love you too.

It was a wonderful Friday :)  It couldn't have been any better!

Love you bunches girly.

Mommy

Wednesday the 26th, and Today

Wednesday was such a busy day Grace!!!  I had school so early, so I got you up for school, and we all left at 7:30!  You guys dropped me off at my class, and then you and Daddy got to hang out until your class started at 8:20.  You got out at 10:40, but I couldn't see you because I have school until 2:45.  Then Daddy came to pick me up, and I didn't have much time at home to see you because I went visiting teaching at 4 which ended up lasting until 5!  Then we went to Walmart, which last till about 6:45, and then we came home and Kailyn made vegetarian stir fry while I made bacon stir fry, we ate, Daddy gave you a bubble bath, and into bed you went!  Shew!!!  Today will be better though (Thursday) because my professor canceled our class for today.  So once you get out of preschool, I'll get to see you, feed you, hurry you to bed so you can get up and be rested in time for therapy at 2-3:30, and while you're at therapy, I'm going to be observing a middle schools PE class for one of my college courses.  And then I go get you, we head to DI because Mommy needs some slacks for an elementary aide class I'm taking, and then we'll head home for dinner!!  I'm going to make chicken noodle soup today.  Sounds yummy, huh?  And then probably a bike ride, because you love bike rides!  We might go by where a lot of our church members live because they always are out playing, and invited us to come anytime :)

A full day for us girly!

Love, 

Mommy

BYU-I Preschool First Day

09/26/2012

I am so excited about Grace's first day of preschool!  Of course I didn't get to be the one to take her, or get to observe her during class, but I'm glad Daddy got to take her.  He took her in the truck, and that was a disaster!  For preschool, they do a dropoff vehicle line and the teachers pick them up outside...well the line was out the driveway and down the street when he got there!  So he rode the bike to pick her up.  It took about 9 minutes, which is about the same amount of time with a vehicle (because of traffic, so many lights, college students crossing the streets at EVERY intersection!).  He got a paper from them that shows EXACTLY what they did in preschool!!!!  And they hand it out weekly, which I'm so excited about!  Here was what they did...

Ideas to Emphasize:

There are many parts of an apply: skin, flesh, seeds, core, stem, leaves.

Self-Selected Activities: 8:20-9:55

Creative Art Center: Apple Stamping and Finger Paint Apple Art

Manipulative/Math Activity: Feed the Horse, Pig and Cow

Writing Center: Writing Name with paint Bags

Science Center: Magnets

Sensory Table: Water Marbles and Funnels

Block Area: Red Wagons and Plastic People

Dramatic Play: Gardening

Alternatives
Creative Art center: Stamps

2nd: Melting Crayons

Rotating Snack: 9:00-9:55

String Cheese, pretzels, and juice

Outside: 9:20-9:55

Gross Motor: Apple Findings

2nd: Stilts

Cleanup: 9:55-10:00

Clean up Song

Transition 10:00-:10-05

"5 Little Apples Hanging in a Tree"

Small Focus Groups: 10:05-10:20

Book: The Apple Pie Tree By Zoe Hall

Book: 10 Apples Up on Top! by Dr. Suess

Activity: Discovering Apple Parts

Gathering Time: 10:20-10:40

Attention Getter: What part of the apple is missing?

Activity: Guessing Game

Hurray!!!  I get to see what they do even though I can't be there :)  And I'm really hoping they send artwork home for me to hang up!  

Amanda

Burton Preschool

Today was Grace's third day at Burton preschool, and I stayed to volunteer today.  She did ok, but since I was there she was more clingy, and cried a bit during circle time, so I am going to not volunteer anymore just so that she can get everything she possibly can out of class.  But it was so fun :)  She played in the water table with rubber dinosaurs, there were puzzles, blocks with rubber people, Mr. Potato Heads, the reading "house" and the kitchen center.  She had a great time!  We went to the gymnasium to play with hula hoops, balls, and scooters.  She couldn't do the scooter on her bottom, but when I had her lay on her tummy, she did great!  She did an army crawl on it all over.  I loved watching her play with her friends!  There was more playtime in the class for a while, and then circle time :)  They have two children sit in baskets because they need the comfort of a confined space to calm them, so that was interesting to see.  Grace didn't listen very well at this point.  I think it was because I was there, and a kid took a book from her and so she had her feelings hurt.  I loved that she wanted me of course, but I would also like to see her be independent!  But I know she does great because I hear about it because her teacher tells me so. 

All in all, a wonderful morning in preschool.  After that, we had grilled cheese and banana for lunch, but I had to rush off to school for an hour class.  She was napping by the time I got home, then went on a bikeride with Daddy once she woke up so I could get some homework done, and then we got to go to a friends house for a lasagna dinner and truffles for dessert!!!  YUMMY!

Now we are home, I am watching the season finale of Masterchef, and Little Miss is in bed.

That's all for today :)

Amanda

Orientation Day at BYU-I Preschool

Today was orientation day at the three days a week preschool on campus.  Mommy didn't get to go, but Daddy did and he had so much fun!  I had told him to make sure she was dressed up, but I should have known better!  He texted me during class and said, "PAINT!"  Oops!  Anyways, he said she went on the climbing structure and back down all by herself, painted, played with some other toys, and just had a really great time.  I will be able to observe her in this preschool class every Friday, and on Tuesday and Thursdays I will get to volunteer in her public preschool :)  So even though I miss some days, I still get to see some so I'm not as sad about missing out!  Right now it's 4:18 pm but she was SO cranky at therapy that I put her to bed.  I can hear her in there making monkey noises, and jumping in her bed!!  It's super late for a nap, but seeing how tired she was after school and therapy...it was necessary!

Now mommy needs to go take a nap!  A full day of school on 6 hours of sleep!

Amanda

Our Girl Saturday

Dear Grace, 

We had such a good day today!  We played around in bed this morning because we had no real reason to get up.  Daddy is in Montana again helping Grandpa put in an engine in the truck, so it's just us :)  Around 10 am we had pancakes with peanut butter and syrup, and you had THREE pancakes!!  While we were eating, we watched Tooth Fairy 2, and you loved the movie so much.  It was after 12 before we got into our day clothes!  We went for a walk, and then you went to bed for sure!  I did some homework while watching Master chef, and when I woke you up at 3:30 pm, I had us all packed and ready to go on a bike ride to DI!  I needed to find some slacks, but all I found were size 14, so that ride was a bust.  Of course it got me working out, but I definitely felt like I was gonna just flop on the ground like a fish!  We played outside for a few minutes, and then you watched a bit of Sesame Street while I made pepperoni spaghetti.  After having a quiet dinner together, you took a bubble bath while I finished up homework!  And now, here I am...watching master chef, just finished more homework, and now I'm writing to you :)  I love you so much sweet girl.  You know what you've learned to do?  You've learned to open doors!  I had put you in your room with Scotty while I was doing homework so you could have alone time, and I heard the click of the handle, but I thought it was just you trying to open it.  And then I hear your little feet pattering down the rug and I see you pop out around the corner with a huge smile and sparkling eyes!!  My good girl!!!  I am so proud of you!!!

I love you bunches Grace.  I'm so glad you are here, I'm so glad I'm your mommy, and I'm so glad Daddy is your Daddy :)


Thank you for being mine.

Love, 

Mommy

Here it is...Grace's 3RD BIRTHDAY!!!

09/02/12

Gosh I can't believe it took me so long to post this!!! 

 I am so excited to be sharing Grace's Elmo birthday party!!!  See her beautiful cake?  Elmo's face was made by our very special family friend Mysha!  Thank you so much Mysha!

 The entire group of women that were in the cabin helped out with some aspect of Grace's birthday, and that's what made it so much more special :)  Here's the fun Grouch!!!

 Cookie Monster!!!  I am so excited!  He is so darn cute and decorated by the little nieces as well as Mysha's daughter, Kenna!

 Here's the whole table!  Grace in her birthday shirt, Mysha and Kenna!  So exciting!!

 These are pizza casseroles!  And even though Elmo is the one that likes pizza, he was on the cake as well as the fruit tray, so I couldn't put him on the pizza too!  These were AWESOME!  And we had another this big too!

 There's a close up of cookie monster!

 The Grouch's eyes are ranch dip.

 And here's our really good friends Donna and Lane!  They are family, and I'm so glad that they were able to be there with us.  Grace loves playing with him, and they get along so well.

 She did so great blowing out the candle!!  We've been working on blowing by blowig out candles, and it obviously paid off!

 Everyone cheered for our wonderful Grace, and then she was so excited...

 

That she cheered too!

 And now it's presents time!!!!!  The drum was so much fun!

 And of course an awesome Elmo counting book!  Now I'll just keep quiet so you can see the wonderfulness of her birthday!

Doesn't this face just show the fun?  See that dirty face?  That is happiness for sure!!

It was a wonderful birthday.  I was so blessed and happy to be able to share it with the family, and to see all the happiness in her eyes.  She loved that the attention was on her, and I could tell that it was a success!  It was such a special day for me, seeing my little girl growing up with so many loving family members all around her.

I love you all my awesome family!!

Amanda