Makayla riding and Clara walking

Yesterday we were playing outside after school, and my kids had a ton of fun. Clara walked from our door, down the hall, and onto the grass, with me only holding her arm to keep her up. She was doing great picking up her feet and "stomping" as Makayla would say. We then tried it again when we had the camera out. She would have done a lot better if she wasn't laughing so hard. She is doing amazing - now if we would just get the walker that we ordered last spring, we would be in business.


Makayla was having fun outside. She is getting to be quite the skip roper. This is just a short video and she can go longer, but with the camera on, she was getting messed up.


Makayla has been practicing on her two wheeler. She is doing quite well at it, but she concentrates so much on balance that she has a hard time keeping on the sidewalk. She gets frustrated because she always ends up in the grass. She will have it in no time - she is loving the feeling of being a big girl!

Too Funny

I had to post this so I could get my daily laugh in :)

OK, it looks like I can't have it on my blog anymore, but you can see it by clicking here

Fun with my Kids!

This morning, while we were cleaning the front room so my Visiting Teacher could come, I decided to turn on the radio. There was a fun dance song on, so I started dancing with Makayla. I then picked up Clara and danced with her. We had so much fun dancing, that it was hard to stop. I need to remember to do silly things like that with my kids so often. They had a lot of fun and I truly believe it was good for Clara to move like that, because it isn't something that she can do on her own. Holden also had fun dancing with me when he woke up from his nap.

Yesterday before school, I took my kids and Makayla's friend Treyson to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake. They had so much fun playing together and running all over. The rock wall was a big hit. Makayla is really getting good at that, granted it is only about 10 feet high, but she does it well.

The helicopter was a big hit as well. Makayla and Treyson loved to be the pilots together, but then they switched and played pilot and dispatcher. Makayla loves to tell everyone that comes there with her that this used to be a real helicopter, huh mom? and that it is now broken, huh mom? and that Clara has ridden in a helicopter like this one when she is sick, huh mom?




















After playing at the Helicopter and talking them into going back inside because the babies were cold, they played newscaster. They had fun playing with the greenscreen

in the background and then seeing themselves on the TV with an image behind them. There was a green scarf that they could put on themselves and then it would make that part of their body "see through" on the TV, and they thought that was hilarious that their middle, or head, or whatever was just mysteriously gone. I love seeing the process of discovery take place. It was so great!
Every time we go, there are different blocks to play with and discover about. Some of my favorites are the Wedgits, but they didn't have those yesterday. Instead, they got to discover about gears and how they work together. There is nothing like figuring out what will work and what won't together. There were a few pieces that even baffled me and it still bugs me that I couldn't make them work!
And just another fun picture of Makayla and Treyson playing on the horse in the "farm" area.

We were getting ready to leave when another parent asked if we were staying for the elephant parade. I had not heard anything about this, but we were supposed to be leaving so the kids could catch the bus. I decided that seeing the elephant parade wasn't something that they could see every day, so we decided it would be OK if they were 10 minutes late for school and we stayed. It was the Bello the clown's birthday, so they were giving away clown noses and birthday hats. I can't believe how much fun the kids had waiting for and watching the 10 minute parade with the elephants and clowns. I forget how magical it is to see these creatures that only exist on that pages of their books. They were HUGE and I'm glad that we stayed a little longer. While I value school and all they teach there, there has to be something said for real world experiences!

What a fun day. I wouldn't have changed anything!

ramblings for the day

So, I've decided to stop cutting Clara's hair, as long as she can stop ratting the back of her hair. Sor far she's been pretty good since she's been up and mobile more. She doesn't just lay there and rub her hair back and forth. I've also started to put little pony tails on the top of her hair, with some little flower clips that a friend of ours made for her. She is so cute that I just had to share the pictures of her with them in.

On another note, we recently got Holden's 6 month pictures taken (I know we are a little late...), and I just had to share some of my favorites. My friend is just starting a photography business, and I was very pleased with the results. Here are some of my favorites:

Corn Maze

We went to the corn maze this past weekend. It was $.93 day, so we took advantage of it. It is normally $10.00 per person! All the kids had fun! It was sprinkling a little, but the temperature couldn't be better. The first thing we tackled was the maze itself.
Clara was on my back in the backpack, and Austin carried Holden in the front pack. Makayla and Easton had a good time walking through the maze. I don't even think we walked through 1/4 of the whole maze when we got to an exit, so we took it. The kids didn't mind, or even notice.

They had lots of other games and activities for the kids to do. They had a large blow up monster that you could walk through. It was a big maze inside, and dark. They had some cows that were pulled by a tractor through the pumpkin patch. Clara really enjoyed these, they were bumpy and she just had a ball. Makayla had fun riding with Easton.

Austin, Craig, and Jared had fun playing tetherball. They each had to accuse the other of cheating or crossing the line or something. They are boys at heart! Jared and Austin each tried their hand at swinging the lasso. Makayla had fun climbing the spider web tower - we had to drag her away from that. Austin took Holden on the big jumping bubble. They had fun there. Jared's favorite thing was the pedal go-carts that he took Easton on. Overall, it was a fun day and we left there just before the rain started coming down.

Clara's Paren Teacher Conference

I went to Clara's Parent Teacher Conference tonight. I had a great talk with her teacher. She is amazed that Clara is crawling and how fast she is getting. She loves it when they leave the classroom door open because then she will escape. She said that when they go out for recess, she takes off the minute the door is opened and will go "visit" the others on the playground. She is such a social butterfly :)

Today, they tried a new walker with her. It isn't a reverse walker like she had been using, but a forward walker with a pad in front that she leans against. She gets going quite fast and just walks all over. Sometimes it gets going faster then her feet can move and she will face plant, but she will get the hang of it. (Now to just get the one that we ordered for home so she can practice here.) We both agreed that by the end of the school year she will be walking, or right on her way to walking.

We also talked about her communication. Last year before her big seizure, she would imitate sounds, and could almost say Connie (one of her aids), well, she would imitate the intonation, but she isn't doing that anymore. So the new thing they have done with her is made some picture cards of the things they do in the classroom and they will show her 2 of them for her to choose. Her teacher said that she definitely has her favorite activities. She loves playing in the bean table and picking toys out of the dried beans. She will actually grab that card if it is a choice. She gets a little upset if it isn't a choice, but she will swat at another card. We actually talked about getting with the Augmentative Communication Device team to get her a PEG (I think that is what it is), something with pictures that she can pick, and slowly move her up as she gets the hang of those into one that will speak for her.

Last week her class got to go to an apple orchard for a field trip. The kids had a ton of fun riding the wagon through the apple trees and looking around. Clara didn't ride the bus because I drove her, but when she saw all the other kids loading onto the bus, she got excited and almost jumped out of the stroller to get onto the bus. She enjoys riding the bus and always has a lot to say to the bus driver and the aids.

Today in speech class, the read the story about the 6 blind men and the elephant, and how they feel the strange object they've run into trying to figure out what it is. They made an "elephant" out of several different things, but the one they got to bring home was very cute. It was made out of different candy with frosting holding it together. Her speech teacher said all the kids seemed to have fun with the project.

I have to say that I love Clara's school and all the things that they do there. She is in a self contained special ed school. She is so happy and taken care of. I can't say enough good things about all they are doing with Clara and all that she is learning.

The Amazing Holden

My little Holden never ceases to amaze me. I guess it's been too long since Makayla went through the milestones for me to remember what she did when, but Holden is doing some pretty fun things. This is one of my favorite pictures of him (I know, which ones aren't)!

So I think I am finally getting my schedule to somewhat mesh. I ran a few errands this afternoon and I got back home, put Holden down for a nap, and I still have over an hour to myself before my girls get off the bus. It's kind of nice to have a peaceful house. I'm sure there are things I should be doing, but I'm enjoying the silence.

State Fair

This weekend, we went to the State fair. We were just going to go and check out the displays, animals,

etc, but we got to a booth that was offering free ride coupons for kids that use their seatbelts. Of course my kids do, so Makayla got a free ride, along with her cousin Easton. They had a ball riding the roller coaster (Easton was a little scared). Grandpa Craig offered each of them one more ride. Makayla chose this bouncy ride where they hook you up to bungee cords and you bounce on an air pad. She had a ball and was probably going 25 feet in the air.
We were all ready to go when I found a booth that was offering more free rides, so we took advantage of it. She must have really liked me because she gave me 8 coupons in all. The kids were pretty excited! Clara loved the carousel and rode it 2 times!
All in all, it was a pretty fun night. All the kids were worn out by the time we left and immediately fell asleep in the car on the way home!!!

She's riding without training wheels!

So, on Labor Day, we borrowed our neighbor's bike for Makayla, because it is much smaller than hers. She learned pretty much how to ride a bike in a couple hours. We've been practicing it lately, and she is doing pretty good on her own bike, but is still having the hardest time getting started. She will get it with some more practice, hopefully before it starts getting cold out so she will remember next spring when we dust off the bikes again.


This video was the first time she rode without training wheels. She is even better now. I'll try to post some new video of her riding in the next week or so.

Here is the cutest picture of Holden that I took while we were outside watching Makayla.

Here I am

I decided now that 2 of my 3 kids are in school and I have more time on my hands, (I think), I'd start a blog. We taught Makayla how to ride a bike 2 weeks ago, and I wanted to share that with our extended family, so I've been thinking about this for a while. Today I had a few extra minutes, so I got it all set up. We are getting ready to leave for a party, so the video will actually have to wait, but look for it in a few days!