The Last Couple Weeks, With a Super Fun Mommy Daughter Day!

So after all of Elizabeth's fun birthday celebrations, we went back to pretty much the same old same old.  Monday was just a typical school day, Tuesday Devin had OT in the morning which is going pretty well....we always seem to find more things to work on. :/ My cousin Mary is my absolute savior right now as she not only watches Elizabeth for me twice a week(soon to be three times as Devin is starting a music play group through early intervention next week) but she helps with her language arts lessons while she's there!  Best cousin EVER!  That evening was piano for Elizabeth and tumbling for Devin, and by the time I got home I was just too pooped to go to the Relief Society meeting, but we and my parents had a very good dinner together.  Wednesday was feeding therapy which is in it's last month as we're just not really getting anywhere and he's getting harder with it, so it will definitely be time for a break.  Thursday Tony took the day off work to help me out and build a shelving unit for our storage unit, so after Devin's Developmental therapy in the morning, which went really well actually, Elizabeth and I had a mommy daughter day, while Devin got to spend some time with daddy!  Elizabeth and I drove to Bountiful and she got her hair cut at Cookie Cutters, which she of course LOVED! (I just had them trim it so it would look even and good for her pictures on Saturday) They put her hair in a cute wrap around french braid, then we went to McDonalds for lunch(per her request, after Applebees, which I informed her was a dinner restaurant). Then we drove to the Moran Eye Center and had her glasses looked at by Ellen as they just weren't fitting or staying on well.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ellen!  She took Elizabeth's frames and a display set of frames and built a completely custom set of frames to fit Elizabeth's head perfectly, and she spent a good half hour doing it right.  They are better than perfect now!  We had a nice chat as well. After that Elizabeth took a little nap in the car on our way back to the Layton area where we stopped at a Barnes and Noble Book Store, as she and I both got gift cards for our birthday.  Elizabeth got three books with her gift card, a step 4(Step into Reading) book about Tinkerbell, which she has already read a couple times, and then I finally talked her into simple chapter books that she can read to me a chapter at a time during October and November.  For October she decided on Nate The Great and the Halloween Hunt, in honor of Halloween of course. For November she got Magic Tree House #27, Thanksgiving Thursday, in honor of Thanksgiving!  The gift card from her Aunt Alicia and Uncle Derek was a favorite birthday gift as she LOVES reading!  I also got her a Care Bears book with play mat and little characters with it, as it was on the bargain price shelf.  With my gift card I got some books I'd been wanting for Devin's play school(I have a whole stack of books I still need to read, which is why I didn't buy myself anymore) Elizabeth and I spent a good hour or so in Barnes and Noble and Elizabeth read a dozen or more children's books, by the time we checked out it was time to get home for dinner so she'd be done in time for her tumbling class that evening.  She is so much happier in this class, she's made a cute friend named Izzy, and they have lots of fun together.  That evening was pack meeting which Tony took Devin to, while I stayed home with Elizabeth.  Friday we went grocery shopping, always fun times.  Saturday morning we had Elizabeth's 5th birthday pictures taken at JC Penny and they turned out sooooo cute!  I can't believe how grown up she's looking these days!  After pictures we went over to the Baby's R Us close by and looked again at car seats....it was a tough choice!  Mostly because Elizabeth is in a bit of a transition area.  She's tall enough to be in just a booster seat, but when we had them weigh her she was only  39 pounds and it's recommended they be at least 40 pounds....darn tall skinny kids!!  In the end and thanks to a wonderful, and very knowledgeable employee, we ended up with a new 3 in 1 hybrid 5 point to booster seat, that's really nice and was under a hundred dollars!  We are very happy with our purchase!  after we got home Tony and my dad went to our storage unit and put together the shelving unit Tony had built on Thursday then organized our unit a bit, it took a little longer than expected but they managed to get home before dinner time.  Eric and Jen came up and we had a little tailgate type dinner in honor of the BYU vs U of U football game, which we sadly stayed up to watch.  Sunday Elizabeth had the talk in sharing time, it was on service and with a bit of encouraging(and a bit of bribing as well) from me, she read her talk to the entire junior primary ALL....BY....HERSELF!!  Tony and I were so very proud of her and she did so good, despite being a bit nervous. She was pretty proud of herself afterwards as well!  I think reading her birthday cards in front of gradually bigger groups of family boost her confidence quite a bit! After church our home teachers came by for a visit then we had a quick dinner, and drove to the Nester's house for our nephew Landen's birthday party.  This week Devin has been very trying!  I would swear my 2 1/2 year old has colic!!!  He's been sensually off all week, spinning, shaking, rolling even ticking(he does this thing where he swats his head/ear when he's uncomfortable in anyway) Monday was a typical(long hard)day ending in family home evening which went well I'd say.  Tuesday he had OT where Megan tried to balance Devin out sensory wise, and made a little progress.  That evening was Elizabeth piano and Devin tumbling where he did A LOT of spinning and rolling, but at least it was in an appropriate environment.  Although his teacher called in sick so he had to join a dance/tumble group(like the one Elizabeth used to be in) but it worked alright.  Wednesday was feeding therapy which was honestly a disaster!  Carey was running about ten minutes late and Devin was not ok with waiting....especially once all the other kids had gone back with their therapists.  So he was off going into it, but he just plummeted farther the longer into it we go, so he only actually had about 10-15 minutes of actual attempting to eat time.  Then we just called it. Yesterday Devin had home OT in the afternoon but of course the one day he can't sleep past 4pm he would have, and I had to wake him up for it.  But he did well, so it was ok.  Elizabeth had tumbling and we did scouts.  Today since the weather was cold and iffy I pulled out the tunnels and their tents and they had lots of fun with them.  I cannot believe how much Elizabeth is learning in her school lessons!  It's so exciting for me!  Devin is one smart boy as well, though he didn't fare formal learning very well this week, so we didn't do much and that's fine he did what we could.....and that was survive mostly!  Sorry no pictures, I've gotta get back on that, but after the past few tons of pictures posts I figure ya shouldn't mind much!