Mikkele's 8th Birthday Party

The Party

So I think this picture of Mikkele pretty much sums up how much fun we had a Mikkele's 8th birthday party. Mikkele invited her 3 closest friends. I went to DI and bought some fancy dresses. Made a lot of alterations. I know I'm quite the domestic goddess. My grandma would be so proud, I even did a lot of hand stitching to make it look as good as I could. Mikkele's dress that she's wearing here was once a spaghetti strap dress. Just don't look too close at the quality of my sewing skills. The girls got all dressed up, then we went to a salon in Spanish Fork called the Primrose Retreat. There the girls got to get their hair, make up, and finger nails done. They also had a huge assortment of dress-up clothes, jewelry, boa's, etc. To top it all off they had a catwalk. So the girls were able to try on different outfits then strut their stuff on the catwalk. At the end they had a tea party with huge cupcakes and cherry 7-up and then we opened presents. The girls all had so much fun. I would recommend the salon to anyone with a little girl, or even for yourself. So cute! And not to brag about my child or anything...but is she not the cutest girl alive??? I'm really gonna be in trouble in another 8 years.

This is a short video of Mikkele on the catwalk. Sorry it's sideways. I keep forgetting not to do my video's with my camera on the side. One day I'll remember to shoot the video in the right direction or figure out how to change the orientation. But until then enjoy and I hope you don't get a kink in your neck.

The Invitations

So can I brag for just a minute about these invitations. I think they turned out pretty stinkin' cute. Just in case you can't tell from the pictures, they are pink with brown polka dots. The handle is brown with white polka dots, and the button in pink and brown striped. Then you open up the purse and the writing part of the invitations is in the inside. They look like a real purse from a distance. I'm quite proud of these invitations. Can you tell???

Breaking News: The Boyfriends Are History

So Mikkele informed me last night that she no longer has a/any boyfriend(s). This is news to me. I casually brought up one of the boys that she says has been her "boyfriend" since the first day of First Grade and she looked at me with the look of death and says, "He's not my boyfriend Mother." After recovering from my shock I asked her about another boy that she has also called her "boyfriend" since the beginning of Second Grade, and she also said no. So I asked her what prompted the no boyfriend thing all of a sudden and she said, "Well Rietta (her best friend) told me I shouldn't have a boyfriend so I decided I'm not going to have one anymore." I don't know how long this has been going on, because she couldn't tell me how long ago she decided to not have a boyfriend, but it can't be for more than a week. And there you have it. We'll see how long it lasts.

Easter Activities

Our friends the Grover's came over and dyed Easter Eggs with us. Click on the picture to enlarge it and look at Mikkele's bunny rabbit smile.

We had a ward Easter Egg Hunt. Across the street from our church we have a big pavilion and baseball field where they hid the eggs in the grass. It's hard to push a wheelchair on the grass and be fast picking up the eggs before the other little kids do. So Grant only got 2 eggs, but sister shared a few more with him. As if he really needs or can even eat the candy.

The kids in their Easter outfits. Yellow ended up being the "theme" for this year. I was sick and in bed all week long, so I did all my Easter shopping in 3 hours Saturday afternoon. I wouldn't recommend that to anyone. Even though it was last minute, I think they looked pretty cute.

Opening their Easter Baskets. Check out Grant's skinny bird legs.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma Dorene and Grandpa Glenn's house
with cousin's Dillon and Connor.

Another New Toy For Grant

So Grant got a new bath chair today. It's huge! I'm pretty sure it will last until he's a teenager. It's nice for me though because it supports him a lot better than what we were using. Try bathing a slippery little kid that can't sit up on his own. He loves to take baths, so now we can let him play for a little longer rather than get him out so quickly because it's hard to keep him above water. The only downfall is that I can't bathe the kids together anymore. The chair is as long as our tub, so Mikkele just got booted out. I guess now that she's almost 8 she's probably getting to old to be bathing with her little brother anymore. And by the way...Grant loved it some much he peed on it as soon as he sat down. Little boys, cold air, and water...not always the best combination.

NASCAR Weekend

For Christmas I gave Jeremy tickets to see the NASCAR race in Las Vegas. He loves NASCAR. Most people don't understand why someone would like this sport, but he does. I am slowly learning to understand the rules and what exactly the point is to watching the cars drive around in circles for 4 hours. Anyway so we left last Friday for Vegas. We stayed in a hotel off the strip and away from most of the traffic that the race brought to Vegas. We decided to stay away from the strip as much as possible. This proved to be a good idea. We only had tickets to the Sunday race so Saturday we went down to the old part of Vegas, Fremont Street. We have always wanted to go to this part of Vegas, but never have before. They had a lot of different shops and some neat street vendors. We stopped to look at one of the vendors and the guy running the booth noticed Jeremy's NASCAR hat and asked if we wanted a couple tickets to the Saturday race that was going to start in about 30 minutes. He said that he had been trying to sell them, but since the race was getting ready to start we could just have them. Jeremy was very excited so we hurried on over to the track. We got there late, but who cares, the tickets were free. They were really good seats. We were really close to the start/finish line. The race was ok. It is like the minor league of NASCAR, so we didn't really know who was driving because Jeremy doesn't follow that one as closely. There were a lot of good wrecks, so that made it interesting. I think that's why most people even watch racing. So once the race was over and we sat in traffic for 2 hours we went back to Fremont Street. By this time it was packed. They had a country singer performing. With Fremont street being covered they broad casted the performance on the ceiling. Pretty cool.
Sunday we got up and went back to the track. This time we for sure thought we had the whole parking /traffic thing figured out. That was funny thought. 8 laps in to this race my driver, Jamie McMurray spun out. I was bummed, but he did come back into the race. He didn't do very well, but let's face it, I don't cheer for him because he's good, I cheer for him because he's good looking. The Sunday race didn't have as many wrecks as the Saturday race, so I got a little bored and kept wondering when the next one would happen. By the end of the race all of our drivers had wrecked. Jeremy was disappointed when his driver Jeff Gordon crashed with like 5 laps to go. At least my driver was able to finish the race. Another 2 hours later we got back to our hotel and crashed. I think we were both asleep by 10. If everyone else in Vegas only knew what time we went to bed they would be shocked. 10pm in Vegas. Oh well. Overall the trip was good. It was nice to get away.
The kids did great for Alisha while we were gone. Mikkele lost another tooth. She is looking like Bucky Beaver right now, but the others are growing in already. Grant was awesome. He even slept through the night once for her. He still hasn't for me since we've been back. I think he's giving me payback for leaving him for 3 days.

Tooth #8 Lost

So Mikkele is a little scardy cat when it comes to losing teeth. She will not wiggle them. She will not let anyone else wiggle them. She waits until they practically fall out on their own. So Friday morning before school, I asked her to let me look at one of her teeth that is REALLY loose. You could already see the permanent tooth growing in underneath. Surprisingly she let me wiggle it. Then I told her that it was too slippery and that I needed a tissue to wiggle it better. So we went into the bathroom and I proceeded to place the tissue on her tooth. I paused for a second and thought to myself "she's gonna be mad" then YANK. She looked at me with a shocked face and then took her tongue and felt the area where the tooth was. She said that it didn't even hurt. So I asked her if I could "wiggle" the one on the other side that is also loose. She said no...go figure.

Grant's New Wheels

So after 6 months of waiting Grant finally got his wheelchair today. He was a little hesitant at first, but after lots of singing and lots to "num nums" he relaxed enough to realize it wasn't as bad as he was first thinking. Once Mikkele got home from school she wanted to take him for a spin on his new wheels. Thank goodness it was a nice day outside. (These days are few and far in between right now.) He did really well, and we think he looks pretty stylin' in it as well.

Grant's First Day of Preschool

Grant's first day of preschool was on February 4, 2008, just 2 days after his birthday. We had been talking about it for a couple months so when we mentioned being a big boy and going to preschool to Grant he got excited. But then the actual day came. He started getting very worried once he figured out I wasn't staying with him at preschool. His teacher's name is Miss Rachel. They have 3 aids in the classroom as well. One of the aids is specifically for Grant. Her name is Miss Carrie. They are all very sweet with him. He goes Mon.-Thurs. from 9-11:30. I was very nervous at first, but it is working out really well. It is a much needed and I might say deserved break for me. If only I didn't have 3 years of catch up work to do. The 2 1/2 hours goes by fast, but I have been able to get a lot accomplished without him around. I still am finding myself wondering...did I leave him in the car, or is he okay...I can't hear him crying. But then I come back to my senses and remember what's going on. Once he gets his wheelchair (which will be next week :-) yeah!!!) he will be able to ride the bus to and from school as well. Which will give me another 30-45 minutes. What am I going to do with my time? Oh wait...the 3 years of catch up work...that's right.
Some of you are probably wondering why preschool all of a sudden, he's so little, is this the right thing for him, is there any other options? Well the therapy program that he was in only goes until he turns 3. Once that happens then he is moved into the school system. So he still gets the same therapy services, they are just in the classroom now verses the home.
So we have completed our first 2 weeks of preschool and I have to say that he did a lot better with the adjustment that I thought he would. It is definitely a big relief for me that he is doing as good as he is and my anxiety of leaving him isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Whew!!! I hope you like the pictures. There is one picture that is the saddest face you will ever see. You can really see through each picture his anxiety growing. But he came home happy. They were studying king, and queens and magical things the first week. That's why he has the crown on his head. He's King Grant. All Hail, King Grant.