Easter/Birthday Weekend

My birthday fell on Easter weekend this year. So we did a lot of combined celebrations.
Friday night we met up with Adam and Jessie and Jessie's brother Tyler and went to Red Lobster. They were having their lobsterfest. So yummy! I didn't get a pic of me and Jeremy but this attractive pic of Adam and Jessie will have to do. Looks delish huh! After Red Lobster we came back to the house for some games and dessert.
Saturday was my actual birthday. I started out the morning with breakfast in bed, courtesy of Jeremy, Mikkele, and Shelby (Mikkele's Friend that had slept over after helping Kell watch the kids so we could go out Friday night).

Then I got to open my present. I got a money tree for my birthday! How cool is that! Jeremy and Mikkele put this together. (Sorry I can't turn the pic) They got 75-$2 bills and pinned them to this topiary. I got to use it to go shopping with Jeremy later that afternoon for some new clothes. And I had to pay for each purchase with the $2 bills. Needless to say it took some time counting out the money each time I made a purchase and I had some annoyed clerks. Oh well, I had fun with it! I also got a new iPhone with money from my mom and grandparents!

While we were out shopping, the kids went to grandma's house to play and got to dye some eggs with the cousins. They made some pretty cute eggs.

Sunday was Easter. Since we have early church, I didn't let the kids open their Easter baskets until after church. I'm such a mean mom. The kids' Easter outfits kind of flopped this year a little. Aunt Lisha had gotten Hallie this really cute dress and so I decided to use that as our reference point for matching. It had aqua and lime green and white in it. So Mikkele got a dress with the aqua and Grant got an outfit with the lime green. That morning when we were getting ready we found out that Hallie's dress didn't fit. :( So she just had to wear another dress and so Grant and Mikkele's outfits didn't look like they coordinated. Kind of a bummer, but oh well what do you do.

While Hallie was napping, Mikkele wanted to dye some more eggs. There's mean mom #2 for the day of not letting Hallie dye eggs with Kell. Hallie=mess and I didn't want to deal with that.

That evening we went over to Jeremy's parents house for an Easter dinner/birthday party. The evening got away from us and as we were leaving we realized that we forgot to do an Easter egg hunt. This is probably the first year since we've had kids that we didn't do one. Pretty sad. We'll have to do better next year.

Mikkele's 11th Birthday

Mikkele planned her entire birthday this year. It was kinda nice just being told what I needed to do. She decided that she wanted to go swimming and then have a sleepover. So the kids gathered at our house, we ate some pizza, opened presents and then headed to the pool. Indoor of course because it was still freezing outside.

She finally got the converse shoes that she's been wanting. She's been coveting Grant's since his birthday in February.

Kamrin, Mikkele, Shelby, Rietta, Alanna, and Kenzie

They had a great time playing volleyball with the flags as their net, having diving contests, playing with the other inflatable toys that were there, and flirting with some boys that were there! That's right, I said flirting with boys. EEEKKK! My girl is growing up!

After swimming we came home and had some cake and ice cream. She chose a recipe for home made ice cream sandwiches that we found in this fun cupcake cookbook. It was really hard for her to choose since there are SO many yummy ones! They were really easy though and pretty good!

After dessert the girls went down and played Just Dance 2 on the Wii. We gave her that game for her birthday. It was pretty funny to watch them play it. Each girl did the moves differently. It's a pretty good laugh! They had a great time with it! Between the swimming and dancing they were pretty tired. I didn't even have to beg them to be quiet and go to sleep! It worked out perfectly!

In the morning Mikkele wanted Norwegian pancakes for breakfast. The girls all loved them! They decided to have a contest to see who could eat theirs the fastest. Kenzie came out the winner!

That night Jeremy and I took Mikkele out on a mommy/daddy/daughter date. She chose Brick Oven and then we went to a movie. It was yummy. Check out the size of the chocolate pie they brought her for her birthday! It's almost as big as her head! And very yummy!

Sunday we went over to Grandma Dorene's for dinner and more cake and ice cream. She got spoiled with more presents! The only candles we could find were a 2 and a O. It's kinda fitting. She does tend to act much more mature than just 11!

I can't believe that I have an 11 year old! She is such a good kid! I couldn't ask for a better 1st born child! She is such a good help around the house and with the kids. She is a great friend and example to others! She works hard at everything she does and produces great results! She is going to do some great things in her life! Love you Kell!

Adaptive Skiing and Snowboarding

Back at the end of 2010, we heard about a program called Wasatch Adaptive Sports. It is a program that takes different types of sports and makes the accommodations necessary for kids and adults with special needs to be able to participate. We thought that skiing would be something that Grant would just love. He is the type of kid that is a thrill seeker! I have even said before that if he hadn't started out in a wheelchair, he probably would have ended up in one because of some crazy trick he would have tried. He loves speed, bumps, and anything wild and crazy! So for Christmas we got him everything that he would need to be able to go skiing. We scheduled his first time skiing for the Saturday after his birthday, but it was canceled because of weather. It was rescheduled for the following Saturday, February 12th. And we are so glad we switched days! The weather was absolutely perfect! We even had to strip some of the extra layers we had put on him because it was so warm. Once we got him all checked in, we met our instructor Cary. I wish I would have gotten a better picture of her with him. She was so patient with him and he loved working with her! As we were getting him all strapped in he wasn't too sure about what was happening, but he was still pretty excited. We had been talking about it for a while, so I think he kind of knew what was going on.

You can kind of see his smile under all the ski gear!

Up on the lift...

It was so cool to see how everything worked. He never had to get out of the sled once he was harnessed in. The ski part on the bottom of the sled just pops off and the sled is sat on the ski lift ad belted in. Pretty cool!

As they came down the mountain the first time you could just see the grins and hear the squeals from him! I loved being able to see him having such a "normal" experience. The instructor just skis behind the sled with some tethers and helps him go in a typical zig zag pattern that you would normally ski in. So he was able to feel the motions of tilting left and right as the sled moved across the mountainside.

The resort was a little busy since it was such a beautiful day to be up on the slopes, but he was still able to go down quite a few times in the 2 hour time slot that they give us. We definitely knew that it is something that we would have to do again soon!

Since we were taking Grant, we thought we'd take Mikkele as well. She had never really shown an interest in wanting to learn, so we had never taken her. But we thought it was time she learned. We asked her if she wanted to try skiing or snowboarding and she chose to try snowboarding. We called Adam and Jessie to come down and join us and help to teach her how to board. They were great teachers! Since she is a beginner, we just got her the bunny hill pass, which is where Grant did his runs, so they were able to go down the hill together quite a few times.

After a few runs she was able to go up on the lift and down the mountain by herself.

Adam helping guide her down the mountain.

She spent a little bit of time on her bum, but she picked it up pretty fast! And she looked pretty cute :)

And let's not forget Hallie May! She had a great time playing in the snow and Aunt Jessie even took her for a few small rides.

It was a great day!

Grant 6 Year Old Stats

Singing songs at school on his birthday.

We brought in chocolate cupcakes to share with the class.

*Height: 40 inches 1st percentile

*Weight: 32 pounds 1st percentile

*Wearing size 4T-5T clothes

*Size 9-10 shoe (without braces)

*Loves to listen to music

*New found love of the Game Show Channel

Favorite shows are Cash Cab and Lingo

*Loves to flirt with girls by blowing kisses

*In all day kindergarten and enjoys school

*Taking steps with the help of a gait trainer

And we have a lime green one on order

*Loves his big sister

*Still trying to get used to baby sister...

especially when she beats up on him on a regular basis

*Still a big mama's boy, but doing better

*Gets excited when he hears dad's truck when he comes home from work.

*Says: mom, dam (dad), sis, ya, i love you, more, umm (for food),

dam-ma (grandma), dam-pa (grandpa), will answer no by sticking out tongue

*Can make choices between 4-5 different items

*Likes to go to his church class, mostly for the songs :)

*Likes to help do the dishes and make dinner

*Doesn't love kisses from the dog

*Loves to go on crazy car rides and on the school bus

*Goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps all night

(well with the aid of his sleep meds ;))

*Gets up at 7 to get ready for school

Will sleep later on weekends

*Can count to different numbers 1-10 that you ask him

by clicking his tongue

*Loves food, especially ice cream

*Can suck through a straw,

but still likes his bottle at night

We love this boy and we are so happy he is in our lives!

Grant's 6th Birthday

Grant has a friend from his class at school named Carlos, and they are the best of buddies. There has been a few times when I have gone into his class to drop him off after an appointment or pick him up early for an appointment and Carlos is always very concerned about where he is going or why he wasn't on the bus that morning. One day he told me "Thanks for bringing my friend Grant back to school." That kid just melts my heart! Such a sweetie! So I decided quite a few months before Grant's birthday that I wanted to invite Carlos to his party. I thought it would be a little weird to just invite him to our family party that we always do, so I decided that it was about time that Grant had a friend party. We invited some kids from his school and church class. 14 kids total were invited. And all but 2 came!

It's always hard to think up a theme for Grant's parties since he can't really tell me what he likes. So I decided that since one of his favorite things is music, we were going to have a musical party. I made his invitation on a cd label and then burned one of his favorite cd's for each of the kids. I think the invitations turned out really cute! By far my favorite part about the party!

The table was set with a craft project for each kid to do. Each person got a paper plate tambourine, a water bottle trumpet, and a toilet paper kazoo. They got to decorate each item with foam stickers and curly ribbon.

Trey with his finished tambourine.

Carlos thought it was way more fun decorating Grant rather than his instruments. :)

Next we played pass the maraca. Kind of like a hot potato, but with a maraca that you had to shake before passing it to your neighbor.

Then came present time. Grant got lots of fun presents. Somehow Trey knew that Grant loved ice cream and got him some pies to go along with his ice cream.

Carlos decided that present time wasn't as much fun as clearing all the foam stickers off the table and pretending that it was snowing foam stickers.

But pizza and cupcakes came shortly after and that made him a happy boy!

I made ice cream cone cupcakes that were supposed to resemble a microphone.

Grant LOVES the Happy Birthday song! I have a ring tone of that song on my phone that we play for him when he's sad. Puts a smile back on his face pretty quickly. I think it makes him think of cake and ice cream...two of his favorite things.

Wyatt, Trey, and Grant. I invited Grant's girlfriend Savannah, but she wasn't able to come. That would have been 4 wheelchairs in the house though and would have really pushed the space issue. :) Aren't they 3 handsome little boys!

On Sunday we had the family over for cake and ice cream during halftime of the Super Bowl. I continued the music theme and made him a guitar cake. While I did cheat a little and used a guitar shaped cake pan, I still decorated it myself. I think it turned out pretty cute!

More presents! He was one spoiled little boy!

A big smile for the money from Grandma and Grandpa Gallier. $6 for 6 years old.

A cd case from Grandma and Grandpa Dorene to put all his cd's in.

And some cool converse shoes from mom and dad.

And of course more cake and ice cream for Granty!

Hallie loved it too!

I think he had a great birthday! As for me, I definitely learned a few things about having a friend party for Grant. The next time I do, there will be fewer kids and a shorter length of partying time. I'm glad we did it, but there won't be another one next year! :)