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

What the Header Would Look Like

So blogger is being a pain.  I had the ability to upload a picture for your header this morning but it was so huge it took up the whole screen.  So then I made this one to put there...

But then when I tried to add this one, which is about 5x smaller than the other one, it said I couldn't.  How stinking ridiculous!

But anyways, this is the one I'd made as the header.

Amanda