Pink Eye and Lots More...

So catching up to this past week, Monday morning Devin had his LAST speech therapy session, and he rocked it!  His speech is just blowing the roof off lately, he's a little chatterbox!  It's makes us so happy to hear.  Tuesday at dinner I noticed Devin's eyes looked red and one had gooey yuckies and I immediately knew it was pink eye...so I got Elizabeth ready for dance/tumbling left pink eyed Devin with my parents, Tony met me at Bravo then I came home picked up Devin and went to instacare, where sure enough he had pink eye in both eyes, so we got the prescription, filled it and went home...what a night! Wednesday Devin obviously didn't go to playgroup, but he had plenty of meltdowns at home(though he let me put drops in his eyes like a champ!).  That evening we went to the Bountiful cemetery to put flowers on my sister's grave as well as my great and great-great grandparents graves.  Someday I pray our kids will have a reverence in the cemetery, but for now I was doing my best to just keep Devin off the headstones and Elizabeth from playing hopscotch with them....hopefully someday.  Afterward my parents took us to dinner at Village Inn.  Thursday morning Devin had Behavior therapy which went pretty well.  That evening we had scouts which went really well. And that is where I'll leave you for now as we had a change of plans for our long Memorial Day weekend.

Pictures from the cemetery

But Sissy is playing!!

Linda Gail, Linda Kay and Linda Elizabeth

My dad's grandparents

My dad's great grandparents

  

Just Another Week

Ok I'm getting behind again...so we're going back almost two weeks ago.  Monday morning Devin had a therapy with his child development specialist, which went pretty well, we had a good chat about some issues of Devin's.  That night we had a good FHE and even made some yummy chocolate chip cookies for a treat!  Tuesday was just dance and tumbling in the evening(and laundry all day long...).  Wednesday morning Devin had playgroup and that boy is really letting his true colors fly now!  There is no question of why and how badly he needs to be there.  After we took Mary to lunch at Zupas(per her wonderful request) as a thank you for coming and playing with my sweet Elizabeth every week....getting to play with Mary is the highlight of her week!  She goes on and on about the imagination games they play.  My cousin Mary is the BEST!!  Thursday morning Elizabeth got to go to Mary's house and play(outside even I was told!) while I took Devin to Feeding therapy in Bountiful...nothing really to report....he still doesn't eat anything new.  But to prepare him for eating he gets to go into their "gym" I suppose you could call it and while in there she noticed some of his balance and sensory issues, and suggested I schedule him with one of their Occupational therapists as they're really good(and I'm having trouble getting with the one and only one through Davis Early Intervention) so on our way out I scheduled an evaluation for him in June.  Thursday night was pack meeting for scouts and our boys did the flag ceremony(which showed us what we needed to work on tonight ;) ) Friday was nothing too special, for Fun Friday I pulled out a game I picked up at a yard sale called Elefun and the kids had a blast!!  That night we went to Payless to get Elizabeth church sandals(as I just cannot bring myself to be ok with wearing, or letting Elizabeth wear flip flops to church) we ended up getting her the same super cute ones she had last year, just in a bigger size...obviously.  Then we did our needed grocery shopping.  Saturday we got up and drove to Taylorsville to support our great friends(and old neighbors)in their adoption fundraiser yard sale, we found some fun books and a few fun little toys for the kids, but donated far more than what they would have cost....it wasn't about the material things, we are just so happy to be able to help them bring their long awaited, much anticipated little Maddi girl home in just a few short weeks!  It was so great to see some of our old ward family again, and being there gave us both a bad case of homesickness.  We miss those incredible people so very much!!  Then we came back toward home, stopped off at Staples, for some things to help organize our office area, then at Kid to Kid, mainly to look for ballet shoes for Elizabeth and the black leotard she needs for her recital in a couple weeks, no luck with either of those, but we did find some books and a couple other little things, then it was home for lunch.  In the afternoon we went to a nice gal in the ward who cuts hair and got a family haircut as all of us needed one badly!  Devin went first and to our relief did really well, and got rid of his shagginess.  I just had her take an inch off of Elizabeth's to clean it up and get rid of the split ends.  I on the other had took off A LOT!! I'm not sure how much but I think it was around a good 7 or so inches....and I LOVE it! It feels so good to have short hair again!!  Tony got his usual done and was glad to finally have it done!  She had a just barely 4 year old daughter who Elizabeth got to play with while everyone else was done in their playroom which is conveniently located right by where she has her "salon" area....Devin was content just to play!   But it really did help out a ton! After that we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, then wandered Layton Hills Mall. In JC Penny we found some super cute bike shorts with lace for Elizabeth to put under her summer play dresses and a cute little denim dress!  We also found a cute T-shirt for Devin.  Then on the way out we passed by a Eye Masters and remembered that they had a two pairs of glasses for $69 dollar deal and went in to see if it was still going...which it was! YAY for me!  The gal working there even drew pictures with our kiddos while Tony helped me looked at frames which I easily found two I really liked so I made an appointment and am really looking forward to having frames that fit and being able to see clearly again(and hopefully have less headaches) Then we went home and called it a day.  Sunday went pretty well, Devin's pull-up had a malfunction at the end of Sacrament meeting and so he ended up peeing all down his pants....so Tony took him home and changed him then dropped him off at nursery, which he stayed in!  Elizabeth did so good in primary this week which we were super happy about!  After church we visited with our home teachers, then had dinner with my parents, then had a movie night complete with popcorn!  And that was our week!

Elefun!!

Elizabeth playing abcmouse.com(excuse the messy desk)

A Mother's Day Garden And So Much More!

We've had a lot of fun the past week!  The weather has been so nice and warm so we've been going outside a lot.  In the mornings we go for a "walk", Elizabeth is on a scooter kick so she's taken that everyday, I push Devin in his fancy trike that he has no desire to learn to pedal...this summer's project. In the afternoon we go out to the backyard to play, and they have endless fun back there!  Elizabeth loves swinging and is getting really good and "pumping", Devin loves going down the slides(the big one on my parents' swing set and the little one on our "castle climber") he will even kind of swing on the little swing on our castle climber.  They both LOVE the sandbox and the tramp though Elizabeth definitely gets more out of it than Devin who likes to be in there more than actually doing anything...non the less jump while in there.  But fun is fun!  They also play endless imagination games.  Monday evening we did our very much needed grocery shopping, Tuesday evening was dance/tumbling for Elizabeth, Wednesday was playgroup for Devin, and playtime with Mary for Elizabeth.  Devin did....OK in playgroup he seems to be getting really touchy and sensitive there but that is what he is there to work on so I guess it's good.  Thursday Mary graciously came back down to watch Devin so I could take Elizabeth to the Syracuse Family Fun Center, as she earned all the needed stickers with good behavior.  She had such a good fun time!!  She had the place mostly to herself a lot of the time so she just went from inflatable to inflatable.  After about an hour and a half I got her some lunch there, then she was back to playing.  The last hour or so she found a friend to play with, then when she had to go Elizabeth decided she was good to go as well. It was a great reward for great behavior!  And Devin reported having lots of fun with Mary.  :) Thursday night was scouts which went really well.  Friday I finally went through the kids closets, and switched out their winter clothes for their summer ones...which was no easy task!  Elizabeth helped me pick up her room which I was pleasantly surprised wasn't that messy!  And then for Fun Friday I let the kids have a picnic lunch in the living room while watching the Disney Channel.  While they were eating I cleaned up Devin's room which was a huge mess....though most of the mess was shoved under his bed and dresser.  He was also hoarding books!  I took out probably a dozen that belonged in the living room.  During Devin's nap my mom did a Spanish lesson with Elizabeth.  She is getting really good, it's so fun see!  Saturday was quite the day!  Tony and my mom went to Sams Club to get stuff needed for the garden to be planted later that day, then my mom and I went to a fundraiser yard sale for a scout in the ward who is earning his Eagle.  I found some nice clothes for the kids(mostly Elizabeth), a fun game, and some books for the kids.  It was a success!  Then when we got back we had a quick muffin breakfast then went out to work in the garden!  Eric and Jen came up to help as well, and in a few hours we got all we needed to done!  Then my parents provided pizza for lunch.  After lunch my parents watched our cute kiddos for us while we went to Desert Star's Les Miserables....A Lot Less Miserable! It was VERY funny! We really enjoyed our time together.  Then we went over to where we were meeting my parents as they had to go into Salt Lake for a concert they were attending.  I looked through the dollar store and found some great stuff for school, and some other fun things.  Then we got our kids and went to Barnes and Noble so I could get a book I'm reading for our neighborhood book club(it's called The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and so far I have a love hate relationship with it). We of course also looked at the kids books, I've been wanting to get some new summer reads for Elizabeth.  So when I found their Step into Reading books and all the fun Step Two books they had I got excited!  Elizabeth came over and picked up Bolt(which was a step two book) and read it pretty much completely by herself....apparently she's moved on to step three....I cannot believe how well she reads! So I picked up a couple step two books(for independent reading time) and a couple step three books to work on over the summer, I also found a collection of four Stuart Little stories on the clearance shelf that looked like they may have some learning opportunities in them.  She is definitely going to be starting to read chapter books by the fall.  Craziness! Then we went to Seagull Book for some Mother's Day shopping and I found 5 Anita Stansfield books on the clearance table. :) The kids each got a fun book as well.  And as we were checking out we found an amazing picture of Christ with a little girl and boy on his lap...on clearance! Couldn't pass that up, it was PERFECT!!   We then went to Sizzler's for dinner.  What a day!  Sunday was Mother's Day and Tony let me sleep in(as long as our screaming children would let me) but then he even let me stay in bed and read(The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis....LOVE THAT BOOK!!!) He had Elizabeth bring me a muffin breakfast in bed...it was so sweet!  For lunch he cooked crockpot lasagna which we shared with my parents.  My mom gave a great lesson in Relief Society, Devin stayed in nursery the whole time....Elizabeth however had a meltdown and Tony had to have some words with her near the end of primary....I talked to her teacher and was glad to hear she handled it just as I would have.  We stopped by home changed clothes then headed off to Tony's parents' house for a Mother's Day BBQ which was very yummy!  She gave us a very nice gift, a birthstone pen with some fun blank cards and yummy mint chocolates! Both she and my mom liked their little gifts we got them.  Elizabeth had a great time playing with her cousins, and Devin had fun playing....amongst himself....as he does best.  He has taken quite the liking to his cousin Emily so he played with her a bit!  It was a great Mother's Day and a great week as well!

Silly Devin

Kids playing

Elizabeth having a great time at the fun center!

Enjoying her lunch

Silly girl!

Fun Friday living room picnic

The Mother's Day garden

Elizabeth helped push Daniel in the swing

Getting a refreshing drink of water...a was a very hot day!

Catching Up On The Past Couple Weeks

So I haven't posted in a couple weeks, life's been pretty busy!  So lets go back a couple weeks... Monday April 22nd was Earth day so school lessons were obviously on that.  We talked about the 3 R's reduce reuse and recycle, along with other ways to save energy and water. We talked about plants and trees and why they're so important...it was a good week! That night was swimming lessons. Tuesday morning Devin had Speech therapy which went well. That evening was dance/tumbling. Wednesday morning Mary came down again to play with Elizabeth(she gets so excited to play with Mary!!)and I took Devin to playgroup, which went pretty well. That evening was swimming lessons again. Thursday morning Devin had behavioral therapy, which was really good. That evening was scout meeting, which went really well.  Friday morning I called on a spreading rash Devin had on his legs, back and arm, and ended up making an appointment for that afternoon.  I packed up a lunch and my mom took the kids and I to a really fun park to play and have a picnic lunch.  While Devin was napping I packed an overnight bag for Elizabeth as she was having a sleepover with her Aunt Ketty and cousin Emily.  After Devin's nap I drove down to Ketty's work and dropped off Elizabeth and her sleepover stuff. Then took Devin to his doctor appointment, they had a bit of an emergency earlier in the day so they were running WAY behind...like 45 minutes or more!  We ended up waiting it the waiting room for over an hour(we did get there early though). But it turned out his pediatrician did that on purpose as she was ready and waiting for us when we got back to the exam room.  She told me she thought he'd wait better out there than in the small boring exam room.  I LOVE DR. SANDVIG!!!!! This is why I will drive an hour to keep her as my children's pediatrician! She knew Devin well enough to know having to wait twice was not going to go over well.  She checked out his rash and diagnosed him with severe eczema...poor boy.  We left with a steroid cream and a new set of care instructions to deal with it.  I then met Tony at the Trax station, and we went to  Cracker Barrel for dinner...it was delicious!!  Saturday Tony and my dad worked in the backyard. Tony got all our "play equipment" put in their permanent place, then he and my dad did some prep for the garden.  My mom, Devina and I went to Sams Club where we found a fun Baby Einstein book that played several classic songs when you pushed different animal buttons...it even came with a cute little dog that Devin LOVES! Then we went and looked at work books for Elizabeth for the summer, when we suspend weekly lessons(mostly) and just work on reviewing and not forgetting what we've learned so far.  I wanted the workbooks to be something she can mostly do on her own so we got a couple really good first grade workbooks(not all workbooks are created equal!!) as next fall she'll be transitioning from first to second grade level work.  My mom graciously got these for us as her contribution to Elizabeth's schooling, and Devin's book played classical music so it's educational right?! ;)  We ate lunch in the car and drove down to West Jordan and walked through a model home of Ivory Home's Hannover model which is my dream home!  And walking through it only solidified how much I love that floorplan!!  Then we went over to Daybreak and wandered more model homes, it was lots of fun!  Then in the afternoon we went and picked up Elizabeth who had some rough times with her Aunt Ketty, but overall had a fun time.  We visiting for a while, then got some dinner at Robintino's in Bountiful, where she had a meltdown after finding out they don't have chocolate milk...Tony had to take her out, she was making such a scene(this is why we're taking her to the Children's Center, she has some seriously uncharacteristic behaviors lately) she was good the rest of the time though.  After dinner we went to my grandparents house for a visit and had a really good time!  Sunday church went pretty well...Devin struggled a bit but wasn't terrible.  Devin did well in nursery and even stayed the whole time, though he was melting down when I got him(he doesn't like not being the first one picked up...but se la vi buddy!) Elizabeth was reported as being good in primary(other than freaking out when one of her ponytail braids fell out because the band broke). After church we headed back down to the Salt Lake area, Tony dropped me off at the Taylorsville insta care to get an infection that was killing me checked out, while he took the kids and went with the Nester's to visit his grandma in the care center.  Then we went to his parents house for his mom's birthday party which was a good time!  And that was the week!!
As for this past week....Monday was swimming lessons, Tony played with kids in the kiddie play area after and they had a good time.  Elizabeth held her head under water for 5 seconds three times so Tony took her down the big water slide as a reward.  Tuesday morning Devin had therapy with his child developmental specialist. That evening was dance/tumbling.  Wednesday Devin had playgroup and this was the week that his true colors came out...big time!! He was on edge to begin with, so everything set him off, and he freaked out pretty much the entire time.  It was exhausting!  But now everyone really knows why he's there! That afternoon while cleaning up the explosion in Elizabeth's room the kids were playing under the bed(loft bed) and Devin fell and hit his head hard on the edge of Elizabeth's toy box...that one's gonna leave a scar!  So I left Devin with my parents while I took Elizabeth to her last swimming lesson, which she rocked!  She passed off everything expected in the class! YAY! At the end she got to go down the big slide with her teacher a couple times then got to play in the play area for a few minutes and even got a yummy treat!  In the winter we'll sign her up for the next class up!  Go Elizabeth!! Thursday was scouts and our two kiddos almost didn't make it...especially Elizabeth, she seriously struggled there towards the end...but we made it.  Friday morning Devin had his Play Project therapy(she also leads his play group so she works on some of the things he struggled with on Wednesday) he did pretty well.  Then I got us all packed up and ready to spend the weekend at Jordanelle in Park City.  And about 2:30 the kids and I and my parents set out in the motor home.  Elizabeth did great with the drive...Devin started looking terrible about a half hour in and about an hour in we learned Devin gets very carsick in the motorhome...poor little guy! He was a trooper!  We got to our site and set up then it was over to the Tanger Outlets!  We got lots of cute summer clothes for the kids and even some clothes for next fall and winter. After we were all shopped out we stopped by Papa Johns and picked up pizza for dinner.  The kids were really excited to be sleeping in the motorhome so they took a while to go down.  Saturday we went back to the Outlets to finish up our shopping, then we treated out parents to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays....MMMmmmmm such good food! Then we hit up just a couple more stores while my mom stayed in the car with a sleeping Devin and my dad took Elizabeth to play at the playground.  Then we headed over to the Redrock(or something close to that) outdoor mall to look in a cool toy store they have there, we got the kids a cute frog kickball!  Then it was back to the motorhome, we snacked and got the kids dinner, then put to bed then we had dinner and chatted.  Sunday we just chilled, Tony took the kids to the playground for a while then we had lunch, then packed up and came back home.  And that was this past week!  You're all caught up with what's been going on with us!

Pictures from Elizabeth's swimming lessons...doing chop chop timber!

Floating!

Doing the "monkey" part of monkey airplane soldier(teaches them to do arm strokes)

Just swimming and playing

A couple of handsome Devin!

On our way to Jordanelle!

Look at poor Devin's pale sick looking face...this was just before he lost his lunch. :(

Riding a fun toy while waiting

Did I mention Elizabeth had to be taken out of the toy store and melted down?  I think this is why!

Devin became well acquainted with this fun app on Tony's Kindle.