Christmas

Christmas day we got to spend at home for the first time since we moved here.  That was pretty fun to do!  Grace was so excited about all the presents, especially the Dora doll that she got from Santa!  Skyler got to come down for Christmas, so that was nice that we could spend some time with him, and Grace was so excited to have him here to play with!  Our friends came over and celebrated Christmas with us, played games, and brought Grace a singing Elmo for her present!  They gave us a couple's massage gift certificate :)  We had a big lunch of lasagna and tons of snacks, and played games late into the night.  

On the 27th we left to go visit Brian and Lisa, my brother/sister in laws.  I had such a great time!  We just got home yesterday, and it was hard to leave.  We went skiing twice while we were there, which is my first time ever in my life.

 We also played games, checked out some guns (a left handed 270 for me, and a 300 for Brad), and just relaxed :)  New Years was fun as well!  There were so many yummy snacks and treats, and I loved spending time with family.  And now we are home and back to the grind.  I REALLY miss being up in Montana with family, and am hoping to get together with them again so we can go skiing!!  I will definitely be working on it.  I fell both days, but that isn't a surprise.  The first day I messed up my ankle a bit, and my knees were NOT liking the confinement and positioning of my body from the ski boots, but those didn't stop me from skiing on the 28th as well.  The knee pain went away super fast, so it wasn't a bother, and after resting my ankle and stretching it quite a bit, I was good.  My first day I also bruised my knee from the ski hitting it!  But, I got some good turns in, and all in all felt proud of how well I did for my first day.  The second ski day I was more scared because of my falling from the first day, so Brian came up with the idea to give me his helmet, which played music.  I rocked it with that helmet!!  It was so hard to give it back ;)  I got 9 runs in that day, and skiied from 10-3.  

Great times, all in all.  I was happy to be spending time with family, and can't wait to do it again soon!  Grace loved it too!  Aunt Lisa had so many toys for Grace to play with, and Grace's cousin was there as well, which was so much fun!!  They played well together, and it helped that Qeirstyn (her cousin) was so gentle and old enough to understand that Grace needs a little help being good.  Grace definitely LOVED all the snacks that were always out, and loved using the word "MORE!" over and over until she got yummy snacks!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 20-24

Well...you can obviously see that I failed on completing the countdown for 2012!!  Oh well, though.  That's ok :)  It was a super fun time and I'm so glad we did a countdown!!  This holiday season was awesome.  I really couldn't ask for anything better.  What a wonderful day to end the year, and ring in 2013!

Amanda

So Behind!

Wow, I can't believe how behind I've gotten!!  At this point, there won't be any updating until after the 1st.  I'm up in Montana with my sister and brother in law, and so I'm not going to spend hours updating when I could be visiting :)  Here's some updates, though.  Christmas with friends, skiing with my brother in law and Brad, hanging out with my sis-in-law while the guys ski again, card games, beautiful days, and New Years!!!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 19

Well, today just seemed to fly by, and to tell the truth, we didn't do ANYTHING related to Christmas!  Well, I organized presents, and make a pile of what needs to be wrapped.  Does that count? :)  I think it's the the fizzle as I get closer to Christmas...I'm getting burned out!  OH!  I looked up tons of recipes and cute appetizers for our Christmas dinner :)  There we go, Christmas activity!

Anyways, Grace is doing well.  She's got another nasty double sty on the bottom right eyelid that looks nasty sore.  Dangit.  I wish she could just be healthy, with NO issues, for...4 months straight AT LEAST!  Even in the summer she was getting sick.  So now it's warm compresses on her eye, which I might add, she HATES.

That's pretty much it for today.  Not much to share.

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 18

Shew has today been busy!  This morning I went grocery shopping, and then Grace and I had oatmeal.  When I had made the apple pies yesterday, I kept the syrup from when I was reconstituting the dried apples.  It was so thick with cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg, along with apple that I just COULDN'T throw it away!  So I poured some of that into the oatmeal and I must say that was the most I've seen Grace eat in a long time!  Then she and I went to the police station and fire station to drop off the pictures of us giving them the cookies awhile back, then we went to Walmart to buy cards for family and friends, and then we filled them with various pictures that finally came in the mail, sent them off at the post office, and then I HAD to come home before I pulled my hair out!  Grace was going CRAZY because she was so bored!  While she slept I made applesauce (YUMMY!), did the dishes, put together my scrapbook a bit more, wrote in her preschool memory books and put in some of the papers from her classes, and cleaned my sewing room a bit.  Deep breath... now I'm writing this while watching "Hart of Dixie" and Grace is in her room playing with Mariah, her play therapist.  Later we will go on errands with Daddy, and see what else comes of the evening :)

Here's some cute pictures of Grace turning the light off with some help from her stool!

Up she goes :)

Wa Bam!  It's off!

"Look ma!"

By the way...can you believe that the high for today is 27 degrees?  And when I went grocery shopping this morning, at 7:30 am, it was 20 degrees?  WOW!!


Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 17

Darnit, I missed a day again! Monday was pretty uneventful.  We had sundaes while watching a Christmas movie together, which is always fun.  It was really cute because Grace actually asked for ice cream.  I told her we would have some, and then I went about making dinner, and she kept saying, "Ice Teem?"  It was so darn cute!  Reese's ice cream with whipped cream, nuts, chocolate syrup and milk is WONDERFUL!!!  Monday was also a therapy day but we kept her home since her nose is still running a bit.  No need to share germs!  OH!  I made pies and bread!  Dutch apple pie (2), and blueberry apple cinnamon bread (6 small loaves).  Yum yum!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 16

So far, it's been a nice day.  The snow has been falling the last couple days and so we have a nice 3 inches or so outside, which is just absolutely beautiful!  I have cleaned the house a bit while I let Brad sleep in, and I got his presents ready for him to open when we get home from church :)  I will be making him dinner, and there are a lot of yummy treats I got him so we can watch a movie and snack together :)  Can you believe it's been 6 years already!!  Grace will probably hang out with us too, but that just makes it even nicer.  To see this little one that we created with love makes me smile all the time.  Well, I better get ready for church.  I will be modifying this blog with pictures once we have our evening, so stay tuned!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 15

Today we went to lunch with our friends to Pizza Pie Cafe!  It's their anniversary on the 18th, and we are on the 16th, and so I invited them so we could share a celebratory lunch together :)  It was a lot of fun, we visited for quite a while after we finished eating, and it's just lovely to have these great friends!  They came over that evening too, and we watched some tv for a while, but then we had so much fun!  We played Wii dancy party, and their three kids played together.  And then it was Brad and Garon's turn, and than Mysha and I!!  We had lots of laughs, and Grace even got involved.  She was supposed to be in bed hours ago but had gotten messed up on her sleep schedule because of going out to lunch, and so I brought her down.  She had SUCH a great time dancing with all of us, and I was so glad I had decided to bring her down :)  They left at around 11:30, and then Brad and I watched a movie together before heading to bed.  Another great day!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 14

Gosh I'm definitely falling behind!  I'm having a bit of trouble keeping the days right, but I'll do my best.  This was Friday, and since she didn't have any school, we hung out at home.  Of course, we watched another Christmas movie!  And we also got one of the presents that I bought for Brad for our Anniversary!  So that's pretty exciting.  Our friends will be coming over for Christmas to play games, have dinner, and just have fun (Probably play the dance game on the Wii) and so I've been talking with Grace about what we should eat for Christmas dinner.  We figured we would stay down here since Ryan didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with family, and we didn't want him down here alone again.  Plus, I work Saturday, which is when we would travel to family.  So, long story short, we will celebrate our first Christmas in our new house this year!  Grace is still pretty backed up with phlegm, and so we are hoping it will clear up over time, on it's own, without having to get a doctor involved again.  Our friends invited us to there house for dinner, which was so fun!  We had some extra yummy beef stew, and then they came to our house to play dice!  They are really enjoying that game, and it's especially fun to play with them :)  So that was our fun Countdown day 14.  If you haven't noticed, we've gone away from our list.  Sometimes, plans change.  And at this point, it looks like plans are changing to just having something fun to do each day that we wouldn't normally do!  That works for us!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 13

Sorry I missed updating for day 13!  I'm a day late, but that's ok!  Grace had her last day of preschool yesterday, and so when we went for her open house, we got to make a reindeer ornament!  The face was the outline of her foot and the antlers were her hand prints :)  This was so fun to make with her!  Then we just got to visit with other parents, her teachers, and just relax while she showed me everything in her classroom.  Then after that she had therapy (speech), and then play therapy at home, and then her teachers came over (from BYU-I preschool) to do their wrap-up for the semester!  So it was a super busy day yesterday, but that's definitely how I like it!  

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 12

Well, another crazy day :)  You know how you plan things, and then things change?  Well, the past couple days have been that way!  Today Grace got to go play with "Uncle Garon" for a while (THANK YOU!) while I went to an appointment and Daddy took a nap.  Then I had a friend over while she napped and we sewed skirts together!!  I will count that as our "Countdown Activity" today because they were skirts for the humanitarian center!  A little later Grace and I had an appointment, and then I went to clean a building for a couple hours, and now, as I type, she's in her bed SCREAMING because she doesn't want to go to sleep yet!  So, I guess I better go get her...after I get a bagel so we can snack together while we watch "Hart of Dixie!"

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 11

Well, another yucky day and so Grace didn't get to go to school  It was her second to last day of school before the Winter break comes, so I'm really hoping this yuck goes away enough so she can go to the open house on Thursday!  So we ran some errands, had a hot dog lunch at Sams Club, and while Grace was taking a nap, I wrote some more of my book :)  Then our friends brought over cookies!  And so we are counting that as our "countdown" activity for today!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 10

Monday, another sick day.  Darnit.  There was no therapy today either since she's feeling yucky.  SO we pretty much just had a lazy day.  It's not really keeping up with our countdown, but time slows down when we have sickies in the house :)

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 9

Today was church day, but sadly, Grace was sick, and so she and Daddy had to stay home while I went to church.  Then afterwards our friends came over and we watched a few episodes of "Merlin" and then played a few games of dice!  It's so hard to do anything "scheduled" when little miss isn't feeling well!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 8

This was so exciting!  We went to a show at BYU-I and had such a great time!  There was an awesome jazz music group, and vocalists that did amazing jobs.  What was the funnest?  The Christmas friends were there!  Frosty the Snowman, Santa, The Grinch and Rudolph!  So fun :)

There will be pictures on her other blog since I can't put any on this one.

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 7

Today was pretty fun today :)  Grace had her last day of BYU-I preschool...ok, well that was pretty sad...she will really miss her teachers and classmates, and the teachers were pretty emotional too.  No one cried, but you could see it in their faces.  Thankfully, one of the teachers made a video of the kids time in the class, and so that's awesome to know we will have forever!  After that we made cookies and cookies and cookies and cookies!  Gosh there were so many cookies!  These ones were butterscotch pudding chocolate chip cookies.  In the afternoon we went to the fire station and police station with bags of cookies so they could have some Christmas treats :)  Then we went out to dinner together, which was fun, and now is relaxing time.

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 6

Oh what a day!  Grace didn't fall asleep until after 11:30 pm last night, and then was wide awake at 8 am for school.  Crazy girl!  So she went to school, then after nap (which she also didn't take) she had therapy.  And then we rushed home for therapy here, and then we had company at 5:30 for dinner!  Grace fell asleep right before they got here, but only took a cat nap, which I'm glad for.  We ate potato soup and her yummy pumpkin roll, then played a game of dice and then they left.  We were going to go to the Planetarium for a Christmas presentation, but Grace was too "iffy" to make the trip.  So now it's 7:47 pm, she's in the tub, and our other friends are coming at 8:30 to visit.  Busy day, and I'm glad it's almost over!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 5

No pictures today :)  We were supposed to make reindeer hand print faces with googlie eyes and pom pom noses, but instead I made cookies that we can hand out.  And we actually did give some to one of our neighbors, so we've started on the handing out!  They are vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookies.  And BOY are they good!  There was also school for Grace this morning, and then Mommy had work this evening.  Nothing much to report otherwise.

Amanda

New ornaments for 2012!

Yesterday Grace got two packages in the mail from her Dado and Papa, and one thing that was in there was her 2012 ornament!  Here's was a little moose with a red and white scarf standing next to a Christmas tree, and her name was written in the snow below it.  Ours was a Santa face with a beautiful beard! Thank you Dado and Papa!

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 4

This morning Grace went to preschool, and so that gave me time to make some chocolate chip cookies :)  After she got out of school (I had the bag of cookies with us) we went over to the assisted living facility here in town and we gave them to one of the caretakers so the residents could enjoy them :)  It always feel good to think about others, and I know they probably get ignored.  Grace had a great time!  When we got in there she calmed down, which was nice because there was a Bingo game going on.  When I went up to the caregiver and told her why we were there, Grace grabbed the bag out of my hand and lifted it up to the caregiver, saying "tootie."  They were so surprised someone had thought of them that they were "Deer-in-the-headlights" looking at us.  Maybe people should think about all the grandmas and grandpas more often.  I think I'll be going there to visit a lot more since I've got time.  After that we went to a pet adoption place, but was overwhelmed with CATS!!  So we are thinking about making treats for the cats, but I don't know...96 cats is a lot of treats!  Later today, probably after nap, we will write a letter to Santa and take it over to Broulims so they can mail it for us :)

Amanda

Christmas Countdown Day 3

Today was sure a fun one :)  Grace got to go to school where we made a photo album of some classroom photos.  Sadly, the group class photo was taken on a day that she was sick so she wasn't even in it!  But that's ok...then she had therapy in the afternoon, and at 5 we went and saw Santa!  It was so much fun!  I bought Grace a super cute outfit and she wore her cute boots, and she just rocked it for sure.  We had cake and cookies after, and then went grocery shopping.  All in all, a great day 3.  She was tucked into bed at 8:05 and probably asleep by 8:08 pm!  Silly girl conked out.  I guess that's what happens when she doesn't take a nap!  Oh, and one of our friends brought over a HUGE box of clothes her daughter had outgrown, and so now Grace has a TON more clothes, as well as a jacket I'm hoping fits her :)

Shew, I'm tired...off to go write my novel.  I'm on page 83 with 29,364 words!  So I'm getting there :)

Amanda

By the way, when we went grocery shopping tonight we were VERY happy to see that Broulims had a mail box JUST FOR SANTA LETTERS!!!  And you know what's fun?  GRACE WILL GET A LETTER BACK!!!  So we will be writing to Santa tomorrow for sure :)

Christmas Countdown Day 2

Today was definitely a daddy daughter day for sure.  I think the two of them spent...80% of the day together!  Playing horsey, playing chase, playing in her room while I'm folding laundry.  It was just so beautiful.  This was pretty much a calm Sunday countdown day, and this evening, at 6 pm, we watched the Christmas Devotional together.  And then more playing daddy daughter style!  They played some fun games together and I just loved watching it.  Wonderful countdown day for sure.
  

Amanda

CLICK ON THE LINK TO THE RIGHT TO GET TO GRACE'S NEW BLOG THAT WILL ACTUALLY HAVE PICTURES ON ITChristmas Countdown BEGINS!!! Day 1

I am so excited that our Christmas countdown is here!  I love that Grace is old enough to understand what we are doing.  Every time we go driving in the evening, she points out all the "kissmiss yights!" over and over.  It is so beautiful to hear her jabbering back there about them.  Every so often we get an "Awww."  Another thing she loves to do?  Whenever we are headed to Montana, we are driving on dirt roads that have been grated (I think that's the word).  Anyways, the tire tracks from the tractors have made such deep divots that you can feel the bumps, and when you say, "ahhhhhhhhhh" out loud, you voice bounces up and down too!  So, ever since she's realized that, she does it ALL THE TIME!  For the past few nights, she'll start... "ahhhhhhhhhh" and then.... "mom!....MOM!!!  AHHHHHHHH" She wants me to start in.  And then I do too, but Dad?  "Dad...ahh...DAD...AHHHHHHHH"  She's asked us both to join in :)  What else would we do but join?  And then after a few seconds she cracks up, covering her mouth or eyes with her hand as the laughs and giggles pour out of her little body.  SO SWEET!

Anywho, today, for day one, we had "Snowman on the Shelf Breakfast!"  Our snowman is named, "Mr. Snowman" and we use a snowman instead of an elf because she's never seen an elf before, but can tell you "snowman" at the first sign of one.  So...here's our breakfast fun!

Well...darnit...guess what?  I've filled my 1G of photo room...darnit.  I'll try to figure it out...but until I do, I think I might start another blog and put a link to it.  I'll see what happens and add another post about it.


Amanda

Rainy Day Friday

Darnit, I missed out on Thursday!  Well, I'll fill you in.  Grace had a great day at school, and while she was at therapy I went to the library to pick up some Christmas books.  I'm excited to start our Christmas advent countdown soon!!  Then after we hung out at home for awhile, our friends daughters came over to watch Grace so we could go to an elder's quorum activity!  We went to Fat Cats, which is a bowling/movie/glow miniature golf/billiards/ballarium (you shoot foam balls across the room at the opposite teams goals and whoever hits the goals the most wins), food, and...I think that's it!  Anyways, we played bowling and I did horribly!  Daddy didn't do very well either but that's because he was trying so hard to get his wrist twist down...I guess it's been too long though!  Our friends Shannon and Steven were there and they won some contests, but I was too shy to do any of them.  Then we played in the ballarium, and the women's side won, and then ended the night playing billiards with Shannon and Steven, as well as another friend Diana!

Great night!  Grace did wonderfully with her friends as well, and when she woke this morning, I get to see her hair in pretty french braided pigtails!  Her friend, Kenna, is SO good at doing Grace's hair!

Anyways, Friday!  Today she got to go to school.  She did great, as usual, and now she's napping.  I got her home late because she and I had a shopping day at DI.  I had a whole cart full of super cute clothes...but I only came home with two things.  I would have looked again but Grace was SO done.  Tonight is going to be exciting too!  Except that she gets to go with us this time!!  The college is having a "Walk in the Life of Christ" exhibit where we go to different buildings and see artwork and other things from Christ's time.  Then at the end there are refreshments and an assortment of paintings!  Sounds wonderful, right?  We were going to go see the juggling show, but I figured this would be better.  Get's us into the Christmas spirit!

Can you believe that there is NO SNOW?!  It rained today, but no snow.  I'm hoping it comes soon because some of our countdown activities have to do with snow!  I'll have to push them back to the end of the countdown if we don't get lucky with some snow.

Well, that's all for now.  We are going to have a super special breakfast tomorrow so I am going to start getting ready for that :)  Pictures to come FOR SURE!

Amanda

So Sweet at School!

Grace got a Christmas card today from her friend Jack!  I was so tickled to see him go up to her and hand her the envelope...I just couldn't wait to go see what was in it!  I was wondering if it was an invitation, but this was so cute :)  He wrote the message on it by himself.

Another cute thing about school...Jack played the violin for the class today!  He did wonderfully, and Grace was so excited about it.  She kept laughing, and it was sweet because she would rock forward with her hand over her mouth until her head was in her lap, giggling and rocking!  I absolutely loved watching her.  It's so fun to watch how sweet she is...so innocent.  I'm glad she'll always be that way.

Amanda

Teethy Tuesday!

Today Grace had school, and she did great :)  I don't get to watch her in class Tuesday/Thursday, but I know she does well.  It was so cute because today there was a little girl holding her hand and leading her out to the lobby where we pick them up after the class is over!  So now she has a buddy there, and at BYU-I as well!  Then, after class we went to Grace's dentist appointment.  She got two x-rays done, and then her teeth were checked and cleaned!  No cavities, and the dentist was once again amazed at how beautiful her teeth are :)  Oh yeah!  Then home for a quick lunch, then down for a nap.  We are still not really on schedule...she didn't fall asleep until about 1 pm, but that's better than not at all.  While she was sleeping Daddy put up Christmas lights, but we need to buy more so the house isn't half done!  Then her play therapist is coming in about...6 minutes!  The rest of the day?  Who knows!

Amanda

Oh Monday, Sweet Monday

Today, we are trying to get back to our normal schedule.  So far, it hasn't quite gone as planned.  The morning was fine.  We got up in time for Grace to go to school, and we went to DI because Grace desperately needed new pants!  But naptime...she's not had a nap, as of now.  And it's 4:09 pm!!  Oh dear.  We are planning on dinner and a movie tonight :)  We will probably go see Brave since that's the only kid one she can see, and since the tickets are only $3 for adults and $2 for her, we don't mind seeing it again.  But...it's not 100% for sure yet!  We'll have to see how Miss Grace's attitude is!

Well, so far, I'm happy to be good.  I love seeing family, but you know that it's always nice to be home too.

Love you Grace!

Amanda

Thanksgiving

Shew, it's been a busy mid week and weekend!  We went to Montana on Wednesday so we could be there to spend Thanksgiving with the family, and I'm so glad we went!  My in-laws, brother and sister-in-law, nephew/niece in law and their two kids, and of course us!  It was so much fun!  Thanksgiving was great, and I was so happy to be able to spend it with the family.  Brad went hunting with his brother and shot his first elk ever!!!  When they came home I helped him skin it, and then we cut off all the meat.  This was on Friday.  Then on Saturday I worked on one of the hind legs and Brad did the other, and today we ground most of the meat up, but saved some of the best cuts for steaks and roast.  We brought home SO MUCH MEAT!!  And Grace had a fabulous time!  She loved seeing her Uncle and Aunt, and had a great time seeing her grandparents too!  Today we went sledding a little bit before we left to go home, and she LOVED IT!  She went down a couple times with her Uncle Brian, and then with Daddy and last with me.  The first time was a bit scary, but after that, she had such a great time!  All in all, it was a beautiful trip for Thanksgiving.  It snowed, which was nice too.  And I went hunting with my brother-in-law, Brad and my father-in-law, but both times we didn't get to see anything.  Well, other than 2 moose!  So maybe next time I will get my first elk.  Lastly, I got to shoot a 30-06!  My father-in-law set up four cans, 2 on 2, 50 yards away, and I shot right between the four :)  Oh yeah!

Now comes December, and Christmas.  I am excited that Grace can understand a lot more, such as holidays, traditions and things that are fun!  This will make Christmas exciting this year for sure!!  And I can't wait!

Amanda

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I am so happy that we are spending Thanksgiving with Brad's family!  We are up in Montana with the family, in the snow, and I'm just content with being here.  The boys got up at 5:30 to go hunting, and since Grace was already standing in bed, she and I got up as well.  Startled my brother in law a bit (the hunter), he didn't expect to see me!  It would be awesome to go hunting with him, I just wouldn't want to slow him down.  So I will stay here, nice and warm with the girls, and our one super cute Kaden love bug baby, and chit chat, play games, eat, and eat!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!


Amanda

PIE!

Tonight we went to the college for an evening out :)  They had a Thanksgiving Pie Social, and for $4 total, (Brad and I were $2 each, Grace was free) we got to have as much pie as we wanted!  And there were so many choices.  We had: chocolate cream pie x2, apple, lemon meringue, cherry, banana cream and pumpkin.  There was also: coconut cream, berry, and some other ones I couldn't really make out.

It was so fun!  Grace enjoyed herself and filled up with pie, as did we.  Fun night.  Nice way to spend time together without it costing an arm and a leg.

Now Grace is in bed, I've been working on homemade Christmas presents (1 done, 2 in the process) and I'm going to take a break for now to watch a movie :)

Amanda

Already Decorated for Christmas!

11/18/12

I like Christmas :)  I like decorating for Christmas, I like the sweets, and I like seeing Grace smile when she sees all the decorations, and especially the tree.

 The book that is there is one that we read every year :)  I write the date when we read it, and where we are when we read it.  The snowman is like the Elf idea, but we used a snowman so we would be original!  The box is his "house."

 There's my computer with my blog post up, ready for me to type!

So cute :)  Not totally perfect like I would want, but good enough for us!

Amanda

Good News!

We went to a meeting for Grace today about a communication device, and we are now in the process of getting this device for her.  It is called a DynaVox, and I think that I've posted about this before.  Anyways, it will take about a month for her to get the device, but I'm super excited about it nonetheless!  She worked with it today for about an hour and she did great!  The Dynavox worker was surprised to see how well she did with it.  He LOVED how much she was into it, how engaged she was with the device, and how long her attention span was with it.  I was proud of my little girl :)

So, now is the countdown to the wonderful day!  Paperwork, doctors prescription, and a completed evaluation from her speech therapist :)  Then the okay from Medicaid and wah-lah!

Amanda

Riding her Scooter!

11/12/12

So, we've had Grace's scooter for almost two years, but she was so scared of it!  We keep trying and trying to get her on it, but I don't know...maybe it was too loud, or too fast.  So then, I was flabbergasted... she hopped on and drove off like she's always been riding it!  She even knew how to use the button constantly!  SWEET!  I can't wait for there to be a sunny day before the snow comes so that I can see her ride it around the street :)

How cute, right?

Well, have a good day :)

Amanda

Allergies

I don't think I ever wrote about Grace allergy testing!  Well, about 2 weeks ago we took Grace to get allergy tested to see if that's why she was getting sick so much.  The nurse didn't think she'd be able to lay on the table (on her stomach) for the 15 minutes, and you could tell she was nervous!  So I laid Grace down with her shirt off, put an Elmo movie on on the TV in front of her, and let the nurse put the 49 little drops on her back.  15 super fast minutes later (I had NO idea the time had gone so fast!) the nurse came in, obviously surprised.  SO, here's what she's allergic to:

1. Cats
2. Two different grasses
3. Tobacco
4. Two different trees

So now she's on a liquid Claritin every day.  And our cat has been locked outside since then.  I feel so bad because it's freezing outside, there's snow, and she's got the saddest little face, but I care about my daughter more.  Just sayin'.  

Amanda

Updates on Grace!

So, I have been utterly amazed by Grace again and again and again the past few weeks!  I am, first of all, happy to share that Grace is about...80% healthy!  She's still got the cough and the yucky mucus, but no more heavy breathing, retracted chest, or wheezing :)

Ok, now on to the other amazing things!

1. Grace can recite her numbers up to 15!!  That means she's not counting objects, but can say the numbers from memory!  
2. Grace can point out the numbers 0-10 when I write them!
3. Grace can point out 20-26 letters of the alphabet as you write them down!
4. Grace wrote her FIRST LETTER 'A' BY HERSELF!!!

And this is the one that utterly amazed me the most.  I almost cried, but I didn't want her to freak out and stop.  So, I'll write it out so you can be amazed too!

Grace and I were playing in my sewing room, which is now 50% sewing room and 50% Grace's school room.  So, she decided to play with the counting bears...

 So I let her :)  I had another kit for matching that consisted of blocks that look like the jenga blocks and they are red, yellow and blue.  I also bought a bowl of each of those colors.  I tried to get her to build houses for the bears with the blocks, but she still hates stacking blocks.  ANYWHO...

So I laid the bowls out and started showing her how to match the bears to the bowls.  At first, she played around, throwing the bears wherever she wanted.  And then I thought, "I'm just gonna be invisible.  Won't talk, won't touch the bears, won't correct her."  So that's what I did.  And then what she did next was A.MAZ.ING!  For about 1 whole minute, she matched the bears correctly.  The first bear she matched correctly was yellow to yellow.  "Ok, just a coincidence, the yellow bowl is in front of her."  Then went the red to red.  "Hm...that was a good guess."  But then came the yellow into blue bowl.  I froze to see what she was going to do...and she looked in the bowl, I could see it register that it was the wrong bowl, and took it out, hovered over the red, thought, and then threw it in the yellow bowl!  AH!!!  Then came about 15 more bears, all put in the correct bowls, dumped out, three more in and then dumped again, maybe 5 the next time, then all dumped, and then over again!!  HOLY COW!!!  I tried to contain my excitement so I didn't scare her.  I acted like it was an every day thing :)  Boy, was that hard!  I went to get the camera to video her but of course she does NOT perform, so that was it for that session.  Pretty quickly bears were flying everywhere, so she helped me clean them up and we moved on to coloring, where she then wrote her letter A :)  And also a smiley face!

OH YEAH!  HOW 'BOUT THAT?!

I'm proud of my girly, my super smart, super sharp, super awesome girly!

Love you sweet pea!


Mommy

Bronchial Inflammatory Disease

Blah, crazy day and I came home to my little sweetie that's lost her voice. Antibiotics taken, prednisone (the medicine we will come to hate because it makes her hyper) taken, fever reducer taken, claritin taken. Shew! Now time for some combination pizza, milk and a family movie!

For any of you wondering, we found the news out about the new diagnosis today.  So, if she's ever around someone with a bug, out in the cold too long, or around anything that's an allergy to her, there is a 95% chance of her coming down with this horrible sickness... fever, mucus buildup, coughing, wheezing, retraction of chest, trouble breathing...  my poor girly.

Amanda

Snow Day!

11/11

We had some snow fall, and I'm so excited about it!  We had so much fun!  Grace and I went to the dip (a big dip in a grassy area about the size of two house lots) to go sledding, and then Daddy came along to sled with us too!

Isn't she just darling!!!  The hat is mine but I let her wear it because it tied under her chin just perfectly!

The first steps made in the snow on our grass :)

And here is the imprint of the bottom of her shoe!  I LOVE IT!

Walking to the "dip" so we can go sledding.

"No Mommy!  No! (snow)."

Grace and her friend Kenna sledding.

And then Daddy joined in on the fun!

Aww, mommy and daughter :)  It was fun.  But I can't wait for there to be even more snow!

All done and heading home with rosy cheeks and a bright red nose :)


Amanda

The Word I Hate to Type.....Sick.

Grace is sick again.  I'm 95% sure it's bronchitis again, which will be the third time in a little of three months.  She's got a temperature of 102, chest retraction, short rapid breathes, coughing, wheezing, and mucus.  We've done 2 nebulizer treatments in the past hour, cough syrup and fever reducer within 3 hours of each other...and now I wish I had a doctor on hand that could give her a magic pill to help her feel perfect.  Here goes another week of school...missed because her little body just can't stay healthy.  Chest x-ray tomorrow for sure.  Here's a picture of my sweetie to keep us all smiling even though, once again, she's suffering.

Isn't she sweet :)  This is her first hairstyle with the single pony to the side.  I like it!

Amanda

New Beanie :)

11/4

We picked out a new beanie for Grace since the one she had didn't go all the way down her neck.  So this new one is just perfect.  Goes all the way around her face, and all the way down her neck so the wind doesn't go down her neck.  It's SO DARN CUTE.  Grace picked it out from a choice of three total, the other two were just as cute, but I'm glad she chose this one.  One of the other ones had an owl on it, and the third looked like a pink pig.  I'm glad she chose the panda!  We also got her some super cute gloves, which she choose over Barbie ones.  

 She was so excited to show off all the hearts on her gloves :)

 I love this picture!  She's telling me about her gloves, and how there were "hauts, hauts."

 "Cheese!"

 Mommy and daughter.

 Daddy and daughter having fun!

And if only her finger wasn't up her nose, this would have been a super cute picture!  I asked her not to, and right when I snapped the picture, up it went.  Silly girl :)

Amanda

Grace Drew her First SMILEY FACE!!!

11/9/2012

I can't believe that I wrote that title, but it's true!!  We were coloring together, and I kept drawing smiley faces for her.  I would say, "Line, line, curl" and then all of a sudden, she did it!!!

 It's so fun drawing with my sweetie.  She's great at sharing, great at trading crayons, and has a great attention span.  We laid there for 30 minutes!

 See how she's holding the crayon?  No longer fist grip!  I'm so happy!  And she will actually change it to this way of holding it if she picks up a crayon with fist grip.

My little silly girl :)  This is what we do in the evenings, hang out and spend time together.

Do you see it?  I drew an outline of the eyes and mouth in case you couldn't in the first picture.

Well, I'm just so happy :) 

Love you Grace!


Mommy

Bad Day at School

So I'm pretty ticked off right now about her day at BYU-I school.  First off, I'll say that yes, I know they are just students.  Yes, I know that this is their first experience with a classroom, and yes, I know that they are learning and doing their best, but SERIOUSLY.  How many times are you going to let a boy pull my daughter to the ground, grab her arms, grab her around the waist and drag her around, yank her off the floor, and pull her around the classroom before you DO SOMETHING!!!  I was observing today and he was, literally, on her like glue.  And I actually had to tell the professor that was also observing that she was being pulled down, forced to stay laying down and dragged around up in the loft of the climbing structure inside because NONE of the teachers were paying attention.  5 teachers, maybe 6.  You think ONE would at least see.  The professor had to go in 5 other times because they weren't paying attention.  Her head hit the floor 5 times, and one time into the shelving piece, which left a mark.  Then, during circle time, the teachers actually put him next to her because he whined about wanting to sit next to her.  The professor was in there already, and her face was like, "Say what?"  And she stood up and was like, "NO.  Move him NOW."  I'm so glad she's got my back.  And yes, I broke down in the observation booth.  What do you expect?  It got to the point where she was whining, trying to yank away, and was just desperate for help.  And all the teachers were oblivious.  Before they had all sat down he'd grabbed her around the waist and then fell into her, her landing on the floor (hitting her head) and him on top of her.  HELLO?!!!!!  I sat out in the lobby and talked with the professor for about 30 minutes, and I'm going to see what I can do about getting her an aide.  The professor was also upset because they teachers weren't modifying the curriculum so that Grace would understand (which is a law if any of you didn't know that).  So...shew...deep breath.  I'm ticked, still, as you can see.  And then they had a marshmallow and toothpick activity where you make figures or whatever with the pieces.  They had to redirect Grace 5-7 times because she didn't understand that she wasn't supposed to eat the marshmallows.  The professor and I discussed it and she said, (which I totally agree with and was already thinking) that they shouldn't have redirected, but given her a modified activity so she could still be involved with the other children at the table.  Oh boy do they have a lot to learn.  I gotta try to keep the fact that I've had 4 years of experience out of my judgements of how they are doing.  Grr.

Amanda

Mommy Nose, Dwacey Nose

I love when I hear Grace say her own name..."Dwacey."  Isn't that just the sweetest?!  Today was a pretty typical day.  School in the morning, then to the library because I thought reading time was today but it's every 2nd and 4th Tuesday and Thursday, then home for her nap, then her play therapist came over, and then we went to Idaho Falls to get out of the house :)  Then voting time, and now Miss "Dwacey" is in bed!  Got a visiting teaching letter for November sent out, and now I'm not sure what I want to do.  I've read two books from the library in two days...so I might pick up another one out of my stack.  Or maybe clean my sewing room...make a list of Christmas gifts for the family...Hmm... who knows?!

Amanda

Grace has a Boyfriend!

Can you believe the title?!  I couldn't believe it either!  Every time we go to the BYU-I preschool, he's there.  He just adores her!  Follows her around, tries to talk to her (even though she doesn't answer back), and holds her hand!  He talks to her just like she is talking back, which I think is the sweetest.  He'll hold her hand as he helps her up the stairs into the playhouse, and will take her to the mini couches and read to her.  There was one time, when it was time for the kids to go outside, that he kept wandering, like he was confused.  Grace isn't allowed to go outside because it's too cold, and so when he realized that she didn't have her jacket on, he went to one of the teachers.  "Um...she needs her jacket on.  Grace needs her jacket on to play with me outside."  Just warms my heart up so much!  He's always attentive of her, and helps her when things get too busy around them.  On Halloween, he'd asked her what she was dressing up as, and their little coversation was so cute!

Boy- "What are you going to be for Halloween?"  

Grace-  Looks at boy.

Boy- Waits a few seconds and asks again... "What you you wearing for Halloween Grace?"

Grace- Stares at him, and they both stand staring at each other for about 20 seconds.  Then Grace turns and points at a sign... "Tar!" (car)

Boy- "You're gonna be a car!  (no she wasn't but oh well!)  That's cool!  Let's go read."  He grabs her hand and walks with her over to the mini couch and reads :)

What a gentle giant, and he is tall for sure!  Sweet brown haired, brown eyed boy.

Amanda

Yummy Prune Juice!

Well, we all know about Grace's neurogenic bowel, so I thought we'd try prune juice instead of her medications.  So we'll try that out for 2-3 days.  I'm not too worried about it because she's already cleaned out, so we won't do any damage if it ends up not working.

 We are so thankful that she even likes prune juice!  And she likes it A LOT!

 Aw, how cute :)  Some leftover ravioli sauce!

And do you see what she's doing with her shirt?  It took me about 6 pictures to get this shot.  She absolutely LOVES to hold her shirt to her mouth when she drinks, doesn't matter the time of day :)

Love you girly.

Amanda

New Beanie and Gloves!

Well, the weather is definitely cooling down here...today was 49 degrees!  And this whole week won't be going past 57 degrees, with Thursday at 48 as a high and 28 as a low!  Shew!  So, because she likes to go outside still, and I'd like to see her play outside once or twice a week at school, we got her a beanie and gloves.  She choose the beanie from a group of three, and she chose the gloves over pink barbie mittens :)  I think she made great choices!  You know what's even cuter?  As I sit here writing this blog, she sits at my feet, reading her books to herself.  What a doll!  So, here come the pictures :)  Kinda a photo bomb so watch out!

SO CUTE!  Grace is showing you the rubber parts of her gloves :)

Look at her beanie!!  Isn't it the most adorable beanie!  And you know what's nice about this beanie?  IT FITS!!  It's not too big!  Also, it goes all the way down her shoulders so no snow or wind hits the back of her neck, and it completely covers her ears, and actually wraps a bit under her chin.  I'm going to sew ribbon to either side so it can be tied, that way she won't take it off outside.

 And obviously, she LOVES the beanie!  The shirt is new too.  Isn't it cute?  Long sleeve with an extra long bottom that's frilly.

Mom and daughter :)  I love that girly!

 Daddy and daughter :)  Aren't the just the cutest couple of crazies ever?!  I don't know what's up with Grace sticking her finger in her nose, that silly girl.

 Acting so goofy!!

And another picture of a finger up her nose.  I'd asked her to not touch her face, so... ta da!

I love my family :)

Amanda

Grace's Puppy

This is our dog.  His name is Scotty.  Grace calls him "Stotty!"  And he is such a ham.  I think it's so cute how he sleep...check it out :)

Isn't he so silly?

 By the way there is only one pillow because I have yet to make the rest of the covers for the pillows.  Plus, I've kinda chosen to stop because Grace throws the pillow down the stairs, so I think... "What's the point?"

Amanda