Fun Day Today

I had a lot of fun today with you Grace!  Daddy and brother Skyler went to Montana to take care of some business, and so you and I got to be together today!  I took you to therapy, and then Kelly, your new play at home therapist came over.  After that, we just had to have some fun!  We went to Walmart and got a Pepperoni pizza, apple juice, and chocolate ice cream. :)  You ate almost 2 small pieces of pizza all by yourself!  And you really enjoyed the apply juice.  I don't let you have it at all because it's SO horrible for teeth, but I watered it down and then we brushed your teeth REALLY well.  I enjoy spending time with you so much my sweet girl.

After you went to bed I made sure to get the rest of my homework done, and now I'm writing in your blog while I watch a movie.  

I love you so much sweet girl :)  You and your daddy are my everything, and I am so happy that I am your mom!

I love our girl time!!

Mommy

I'm Sorry Grace

Dearest Daughter,

I am so sorry that I haven't been keeping up your blog.  I've gotten lost in the midst of schoolwork, holidays, birthdays, and then the struggle your brother is having with his divorce.  I've loved so many moments with you that we've had, and keep them in my mind and heart.  It is now 11:05 pm and must be getting to bed so that I can get you up and to school in the morning, but I just want you to know that I love you.  Here is a list of things that have happened throughout the past weeks that I've missed writing here:

Mommy's birthday!  We went to Uncle Brian and Aunt Lisa's house for my birthday.  We got there on Thursday, went skiing on Friday (we had a babysitter come watch you.  She was the sweetest girl and had cerebral palsy, so she understands what it's like to have special needs!), on Saturday we went out to dinner for my birthday to Straw Hat Pizza (YUM), on Sunday Donna, Lane and Trudy came to visit, and then on Monday (my birthday) we headed home.  It was such a beautiful day to be driving home, and you were such a good girl!  I thought it was so cute when you fell asleep in your car-seat because you had one leg crossed over the other one at the knee, your head was slightly back, and your little mouth was hanging open :)  I left you in your pajamas so that you would be comfortable.

You love going to their house.  Every morning, when you first see uncle Brian, you yell his name... "MYAN!!"  over and over you say it.  And then you put your arms up and say "up" and then he picks you up and throws you in the air.  You and he giggle and laugh with each other.  You also sat by him during dinners and he would give you food from his plate, or some more food once you ran out.  You two just get along so well.  You also love your "Aunt Seesa!"  You love to play with the fun toys she brings out.  One day, while I was doing homework on their couch, you and Seesa were in the little tent she had put up and were playing with the pretend food.  She had a baby doll sitting in a pretend high chair and you guys were feeding her.  It was so cute to hear you and Lisa talking together and pretending to eat food.  You were in there with Lisa for so long...about 20 minutes!  Every time you were around Lisa you would try talking to her, and sometimes I didn't even know what you had said.  She's really picking up on your "Grace's language."  I love that she is able to do that.  That way you are being understood by someone other than me.  Uncle Brian is picking it up as well, so that's good.

I'll finish this list later.  It's too late now.

I love you.

Mommy

Blogging

I'm so sorry, Grace, that I haven't been blogging.  Ever since I started school I've been so busy, and then busy spending so much time with you!  I love being home with you AND doing school at the same time!  You've been great!  Sick, but this was such an easy bug this time.  You didn't need your nebulizer at all, and though you still have a tiny bit of a runny nose, you are healthy all the other ways!  We are going skiing soon!  We are heading to Uncle Brian's and Aunt Lisa's house on Thursday, will ski Friday, visit with them Saturday, go out to Pizza for my birthday dinner, and then leave for home on Monday!  So, hurray!

Well, I love you bunches sweetie.  I'm sorry that I haven't written much.  But I love you.  Always.

Mommy

Already Thursday

Well Miss Grace, it's Thursday and I didn't post yesterday.  Darnit!  School has got me going full speed whenever I have a moment to get on the computer.  But you will be happy to know that we had some fun yesterday together!  We turned on some kid nursery songs on the computer, pulled out a batch of potatoes, and you and I scrubbed them all clean while talking and singing!  Then you kept scrubbing while I peeled, and then went off to play while I finished.  The cutest thing was that you would always come to me and ask "Up?"  When I picked you up, you'd lay in my arms, cuddle up to my chest and say, "Baby...mommy baby..."  Isn't that so adorable!  Then you'd let me rock you just like I used to do when you were little.  I had the joy of doing this with you almost 15 times!  It never got old with me since you're my sweet girl and I'd do it a million times so you knew I loved you.

Today you didn't go to therapy, but Mariah came over and you were all excited to have play therapy with her!!  After that, you sat next to me at the computer and watched Blue's Clues while I did my homework.  I love when you sit next to me and we share the screen :)  Then I don't feel like I'm ignoring you because we are talking about what's going on in your show!

When you went to bed, Brother Ryan came over and the three of us played cards for a while, and now here I am writing on your blog!  I love you so much my sweet girl!

Amanda/Mommy

Sick Again...

Darnit..Grace is sick again.  We had a great day and all, with her going to preschool and then having her play therapist over, but she woke up from nap stuffy, coughing, and having a bit of trouble breathing.  I'm so tired of my little bit getting sick all the time!  It's hard on her little body!  Tonight by 6 pm she was laying down over and over again on the floor, saying, "ni ni."  I felt so bad for her and wished I could have put her to bed, but she did well staying awake.  Dinnertime was a bit of a struggle since she was so tired, but she got enough to be satisfied!  After a nice warm bath, I tucked her into bed 2 minutes before 8 and she was quiet right then!  Usually I hear her in there talking to herself, sometimes jumping, but this time...nothing!  No more preschool or therapy for my little one until she's better. 

Amanda

FOLLOWERS

I HAD CLOSED MY BLOG DUE TO SOME WEIRD SEARCHES THAT HER BLOG WAS BEING OPENED TO.  IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE FOLLOWING GRACE'S BLOG YOU WILL NEED TO GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO I CAN INVITE YOU.  MY COMMENTS ARE MODERATED SO THEY ARE PRIVATE, SO ANSWER BACK TO THIS POST.  PLEASE ANSWER BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE SO I CAN MAKE MY BLOG PRIVATE ONCE AGAIN.  THANK YOU.

AMANDA

Fun Monday!

So far it's been a pretty fun Monday!  It's been -4 degrees so far, and a transformer had problems so we were without power!  That means the house got down to 65 degrees!  So we all cuddled in bed until the power went back on!  Then Grace and I had homemade oatmeal for breakfast while we watched a girly movie, and now she's in bed for a nap while I start to do homework.  Then she has therapy at 2, and then we will go wander Walmart for a while to get out since it's too cold to actually be outdoors.  The high for today is 1, and the low is -3!  And this week we won't get above 19, and the lowest low is -8 on Thursday!  Crazy right?!  Well, off to do homework now!

Amanda

Not Much

Not much has been happening recently.  Brad and I went skiing on Saturday, and Grace got to play at a friend's house.  It was fun, don't get me wrong! First of all, don't ski on a sprained ankle, it just gets worse. Second, if you rent skis/ski boots, make sure you move and walk and lean in them just as much as you would if you were skiing. Mine were as tight as they could go and I still couldn't turn in them. Third, I gotta get over being nervous!! I did have fun, but was SUPER nervous, and so I didn't get many turns in today. The loose boots didn't help. All in all, it was a nice Saturday. :)

Sunday is a normal day as always.  We went to church at 9, and Grace almost fell asleep in Sunbeams today!  Of course, now she's talking and talking in her crib when she should be sleeping!  At two I go visiting teaching, and then that's pretty much it for the day!

Amanda

Oh My Snow!

It's been snowing and snowing since yesterday morning!  This is so exciting!  Now I'm getting a tiny taste of what Winter is supposed to look like in Idaho!  But it's still nothing like the stories I've heard.  When I woke up this morning I looked at the clock and said, "we'd be waking Grace up from her MRI right now..."  We turned around from our travels to Utah to get her to all her doctor appointments because of the horrible weather.  In the matter of 30 miles, we'd seen 6 cars that had slipped right off the road!  The 6th one we helped.  She had gone off the side of an off-ramp, and so we used our tow rope to pull her back onto the street.  I'd say it was only scary because the off-ramp was practically all ice, and there were vehicles constantly coming off the freeway.  Obviously we had some heavenly protection there so we wouldn't get run over.  I had later thought..."  Wow, if someone were to slam into our truck, Grace's side of the truck would be first impact..."  Shew...Thank Heavenly Father for keeping us safe.  At one point the truck went parallel with the slight hill she had gone down and I was a bit worried that our truck would get stuck as well.  But then Brad put it into 4 low and we were fine.  After that we turned right around and headed home.  There's no sense putting ourselves in danger for doctor appointments that aren't needed desperately.  They are all just checkups.  

So, that's where we are now.  Brad and I are still in bed, and Grace is sitting here while I type and she's playing with her Magna Doodle that came from her Grandma/Grandpa Hildreth for Christmas.  Brad will be hanging out with his friend today (so he says) so it will be just Grace and I.  I'm hoping she and I will have fun, but we'll see.  Not much to do when the snow is falling.

Happy SNOW!

Amanda

Wednesday was a Calm Day, and Thursday was a Cold day!

Well, there wasn't much going on Wednesday.  No therapy, no school.  So we just hung out at home.  Plus, it's so darn cold that we can't go outside or we'd freeze!  It is fun to see the snow falling from Grace's window, which is what we love to do when there's a lull in time.  This was the super crazy busy day when we were scheduling everything for Spina Bifida clinic, but then we needed up not even going because of the crazy weather!  By the time we were 30 miles out of town, it was a white-out with super slick roads.  We passed 5 cars that had gone off the road, and the 6th one we saw we were able to pull over and help her off the side of an off-ramp.  We almost didn't get it, but at the last second, after we put our truck into 4-low, we got her out!  I'm glad we ended up coming home.  We had called Brad's dad to have him check the weather and he let us know Salt Lake was going to get 10 inches of snow today!  Shew!  I'll stay home, catch up on my blog, do some homework, and be safe :)  Now she's napping (since she didn't get to sleep until 2:00 pm).  And now, as I'm writing, I hear my sweet girl moaning in her room, ready to get up and be goofy the rest of the day.  

Amanda

Preschool Changes

Well, since there has been some scary things going on in the world, Grace's preschool has made some changes in how parents are to drop off their children.  We used to take the kids through a back door that leads right to the preschool room, which I can see how is a BAD IDEA!  But now we are to take the kids to the front of the school, and wait in the lobby.  The teachers will then walk down and pick up all the kids at the appropriate time.  I think this is so much better!  I'm so glad that they decided to change the procedures to drop off the children.  It makes me feel a little less worried, even though I still have a heart flutter every time I drop her off.  Just the idea of something happening to my sweet pea makes me tremble.  But I need to just remember to keep breathing, praying and believing that she will be safe.

Amanda

Way behind on posting

I know I'm way behind, but sometime in the near future I will update!  We are leaving tomorrow to go to Utah for her normal MRI/Spina Bifida clinic, so obviously it won't be in the next few days.  So bear with me :)

Amanda

Sunbeam Sunday!

I was so excited about today because it was the first day as "Grace, the Sunbeam!"  I can't believe she's getting so big!  Oh, something about yesterday...she wanted a cracker while we were playing the game with Ryan, but she'd already eaten, and dinner was going to be soon.  So she came to me and signed open while saying "kacker open dur?"  It was so darn cute!!  A three word sentence!!  I was so proud!  Anyways, so I took her to the primary room, but she didn't want to go in!  It was something new, and of course she was a bit shy.  But her teacher gave her a baby doll to hold, so at that point she was happy to go in.  Her "uncle" Garon came a bit later and was with her the rest of the time.  He is her shadow, so she will have him with her every Sunday so nothing happens to her from the other children.  After church I invited them all over for dinner, so we will get to visit this evening.  And Ryan came over and brought his game so we can play again!  So all in all, a great Sunbeam Sunday!

Amanda

Slow Saturday

Well, I didn't do much except for go on a fun date with my honey!  Grace got to play with her two friends that came over to watch her while Brad and I went to the theater to see "Life as Pi."  It was a wonderful movie, and I enjoyed the company with Brad!  Oh, and Ryan brought over a new game and so we played that before we left for the movie.  It was a pretty neat game, and made the time go by between nap-time for Grace and leaving for the movie.

Amanda

Friday Already?!

This has definitely been a weird week.  It's gone by so fast, and so it's weird to see that the weekend is already here.  Two more days and then my college online courses open up!  I'm hoping that Grace understands that school is very important and that when Mommy needs to do homework, that she needs to let me do it :)  But I know she'll be great!  I have two hours Tuesday/Thursday to do homework while she's at school, and if she gets into BYU-I preschool again, that will be two hours every morning!  I can tell she's getting back into her schedule of being home, all except her naps.  She's still keeping herself away.  Oh, and do you want to know how I found her this morning?  Stark naked!  Little stinker took off her footie pajamas and her diaper...and yes, I forgot to put a onesie on her.  Oh well, she got to take a swim bath with Daddy, so she was happy!  What are we going to do today?  Nothing big...clean the house, make bbq beef for dinner with croissants, and organize the food storage room.  Grace can help with the first two, but we've got mason jars on the low shelves in the food storage room that she'd just love to push off!  Oh, and laundry.  She really likes to help with that, too.  Her favorite thing about laundry is pushing the buttons!  

Well, that's Friday for us.  Nothing big, and nothing exciting.  Just a normal day in our household.

Amanda

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