Halloween

Halloween was a HUGE success and fun in our house. We had our church Fall Festival a few days before Halloween and we were worried that Tyler's costume would not be ready in time. I try really hard to make his costume exactly what he wants, so we look months ahead. Grayson got what he wanted as well. However, when the day of trick or treating came he had changed his mind and went as a Airplane.

But Ty won Best Costume at the Fall Festival:

 

Grayson was a Green John Deere Tractor: ( Of course it HAS to be Green.... Red tractors are not real tractors!)

We also did pumpkins. Tyler wanted Goofy and since he doesn't really carve them, his worker did his. Grayson just wanted a face and I did a bat. Dallas... well he wanted Cartman 

Day 2: Sunday

Sunday morning brought on bouts of laughter and loving on Nicky's dog, Oreo. The kids ( Kayden, Koy and Lexi) were with their mom until later, and Nicky was still there to play with us. We took full advantage and after conference session we went to the local park at my moms.

My parents live in Small Town USA. I grew up there. My mom grew up there. Her dad Grew up there ( kinda) and it is LITTLE!! The local park, however, is KILLER. Nicky and my mom and I went down after the boys left on the side by four wheeler. The boys loved it.

At the park we played with Nicky's dog and had him chase the ball and since he can't drop it, Grayson and Tyler would run circles around him trying to get it out of his mouth. We were all laughing so hard.

During the second set of Conference, the boys played outside, non stop. Grayson also realized that my moms neighbor has a cat that is really fluffy. He also likes to be petted. But doesn't like to come with called. We also thought that there was a possessed cat. Turns out that Cat was Grandpa's and he loves Grayson.

Later that night, my dad went to pick up the kids and my sister left. My kiddo's took off outside to play with the cats. I went out to check on them and do my homework and they were missing. I got in my dad four wheeler and went looking. Sure enough, the boys were lost. They were right in the middle of a HUGE field full of piles of dirt. They were almost to the river. Luckily they were stuck.  They were crying and screaming to help! I saved the day by climbing over the piles and saving my kiddos.

The boys said they were looking for the cats and then they couldn't find the right place that was our house. In other words, a blind kid and a 3 year old can't find their grandparents house, that they don't visit very often. Thank goodness the town is little. And thank goodness they didn't get to the river.

The rest of the night was spent with Kayden and Koy and especially Lexi. I love them so so much!

December-

Obviously my blog is not a priority at all these days. But I miss having a journal of my kids. Plus, my kids are great and why not share them as much as I can.

 So December was a long time ago. So instead of catch up I will do photos, because they are much better anyway. The only low was a falling down the stairs in the middle of the night resulting in a pretty damaging disaster to a knee that will take about 3 months to figure out.

As far as Christmas went, it was small, perfect and we had a great time. Dallas and I have now paid cash for the last 7 Christmas' and we are going to keep staying out of debt to the best of our ability forever.

 Here it is in Pictures :  (With some words)

One of the things we have done while we have lived here has been to find our own traditions. We really have loved going to the Superstition Farms here locally and met with the same Santa, year after year. So last year and this year we have pictures with the same Santa. We made arrangements to go and it was amazingly warm this year and we had a great time. Hoodies were needed by adults and light jackets were required and shoes.... shoes! A few in our party wore flip flops.

 Our favorite Arizona Santa:

Both kids were in need of a hair cut but Grayson has curly hair so it is even more unruly. Plus I dread hair cuts. But they all had a great time. We had a dance party in the barn, we drove around in the hay ride wagon with Christmas lights. We fed animals and all were impressed with the ability to not be afraid of a small calf eating my fingers. One of the goats were loose and was eating Grayson and he was loving it! 

We miss the traditional night of Scones and Christmas lights with the Brown family so we did our own. We decided that we would do our own scones, walk around the neighborhood for lights and enjoy a little fire outside. ( See, Arizona is where it is at!) Oh and did I mention we had our own lights up for Tyler to be able to see, and Grayson LOVED. 

Christmas morning was perfect. But a little bit of backstory. A few days before Chritmas we received a GINORMOUS box that could have fit a person ( and if it was Grandma the Old Lady there would have been room to spare). Dallas thought I bought something he didn't know of and he waited for me to check it out. Turns out, a very amazing organization ordered and upgraded Tyler's adaptive trike. Mind you this is NOT a cheap gift. These bikes are around 2-4 thousand dollars so to open up the box and realize what was inside was amazing!! 

Christmas morning was perfect for the kids and magical as a christmas can be when you are little. I can't wait till next year. ( I am saving already) 

We have so many trains and cars and "city buses" that get used on that track and we have googled new ways to make them all fit. We have added a airport and more cars. The Marble run was moved out of the way of the little and just yesterday we were even up playing and doing new mazes. So we know the presents were picked out and done amazingly this year.  

One we went into 2014!

A Movie Night

Tyler has not once seen a full length movie. He has seen Winnie the Pooh but spends half the time throwing stuff and not paying attention. He has seen a few hour long Sesame Streets or Barney’s but not anything that is “plot worthy.”

We have been trying a lot of new things lately and trying to do things all together. He mentioned one night that if Ty earned a certain amount of tokens we could pop popcorn and turn on a movie. We thought of both kids interest and came up with Car’s. But I was a little concerned about the time it took to watch Cars. So we decided on the second best, Mater’s tales.

We put out a blanket, popped popcorn and got them
 all set up.

After taking a million photos so we could blog  have them for posterity and to remember the good times  we realized that Ty was not going to be able to lay on the floor and watch.

So we rearranged adapted our original idea and it worked It seemed to work best for him and Grayson loved it regardless. That is one obsessed child.

Things we Adapted to make it work:

• First and foremost, we tried something new. It is SO hard to try something new. 
• We put pillows down but quickly realized it wasn’t going to be close enough or comfortable enough so we pulled out an extra pillow AND a bean bag chair. 
• We all sat down and all talked about the movie and how it works. 
• We stayed excited, even when we could tell it was getting a little to long. 

Things we plan to do next time: 

• Try a movie he is interested in. 
• Do it more often. 
• Make sure we are all a little more comfy
• Just enjoy.

What things do you do that require you to adapt, but your family has loved doing?

* non personal photos are from Google Images*

Happy Halloween

Halloween time in our house has been a well thought out event. Though I had no desire to get out the decorations ( and I didn't get them out) Th knew exactly what he wanted to be. No matter how much we tried we couldn't talk him out of it . So I ordered a Mickey Mouse costume. When we got it, it was kinda childish so I had to order another one.

Let me tell you Mickey Mouse doesn't come in a million sizes. So I ordered another one. We tried on both costumes right before Halloween. One didn't even let him bend over. He tried and said he was stuck!

So come Halloween day we loaded him up and took him to school and sent him on his way to a parade. He loved it. He wore his suit, waved at everyone and enjoyed himself. When he got home he was ready to be out of his suit. I didn't blame him.

By dinner time he was ready to go out but wanted to go to the Halloween party at Grandma's house. So off we went. He was so excited. But for some reason when we get to this Grandma's house he really turns into someone who is super quiet. Not sure why this grandma's is different. But he went out trick or treating, he ate ( OK he looked) at chicken nuggets and was DONE and ready to go home around 8. It was a good day.

Trick or treating is hard with Ty. By the end someone basically had to carry him up and down the stairs. It was a long night for all of us. But he had a wonderful time.

Oh and baby Grayson sported a Sock Monkey hat and Jammies... He is pretty dang cute to. To bad he came down with my horrible cold and I feel SOOOO sad for him .

Happy anniversary..... to Tyler

The 4th of June was mine and Dallas' anniversary. I wanted to get him something that we both could enjoy but that he has wanted. I generally let him buy whatever he wants and then just tell him it was his anniversary ( or whatever occasions) present. But this year I was on a quest.

We went to Aunt Jennifer's store ( Smith's Marketplace!) and looked and looked. We found just what we wanted too! We bought it and Ty was so excited. When he talked to his dad on the phone he even spilled the beans but you couldn't understand a thing he was saying because he was so excited he was talking to fast.

I thought we should maybe wrap it to keep Tyler's mind off it and then he won't tell our surprise till his dad was ready. The wrapping was totally GHETTO!!

So ghetto that when Ty asked for bow ties on his present we used old ribbon. The paper was not big enough to cover everything so I let Ty draw on the box. It was ghetto!

We had found a inexpensive fire pit for outside. Ty was so incredibly excited. He was so happy that we decided we would go ahead and put it together and use it. It was so cold. But Ty was determined.

He carried around the bag of marshmallows for HOURS till we got everything set up and food eaten for the night. He was so excited. We put on our winter clothes and headed outside with marshmallows in tow and cold cold weather and wind.

The wind was blowing so bad we couldn't even get the dura flame log to stay lit. We finally resorted to scout juice so we could get it burning. But Ty was all ready.

He kept repeating over and over how he was so happy. He loved the fire and was so excited to make smores.

He was getting his stick ready and just waiting for it to be warm enough to make the marshmallow warm.

His first bite of a smore. He never ate them before and I was pleasantly surprised that he chomped on down. He handed me his other marshmallow that I put in my pocket and later found in the WASHER!

Just cause I really think he is cute!!

These 2 had a great time. I think the present was a good surprise for everyone. Ty kept saying that his dad is going to be so excited when he sees it. I think we all are excited. Even more so to have friends over.

Thanksgiving-

I really like Thanksgiving and have many wonderful memories of having Thanksgiving with my Grandpa Rue in his wood shop and at the Labrum's in Logan. It's funny, I remember going to both sides and "sharing" but I mostly remember the times with my mom's family.

I am glad to be back to Utah and in the last 2 years we have now been with both families. Because my mom lives so far ( like 2 WHOLE hours) they decided to come up to my house and have my sisters come. ( My brother lives out of state) We also had my mom's sister Linda come with us too.

My mom and dad drove up early and got here to start cooking around 8 am. My mom and I literally cooked up to the time to eat. I got a shower in at the LAST second. My house is not large by any means and we had about 12 people here. It was full and fun!

My sister and her kids were here. Tyler was so excited. He wanted Lexi to come and play basketball all week and he LOVES having the "kids" over to play. As soon as they get here they are all off upstairs playing. ( playing is relative!)

We had a great dinner that tasted so yummy. It was so good and had all the trimmings. We had some lovely entertainment from Tyler and his story telling. He kept calling his Aunt Nicky, Nicky poo poo. He demanded everyone clap and would keep going when people laughed.

After dinner we sat around, laughed and talked. After all the playing and laughing my sister and Aunt Linda had to leave. Ty had played with the kids so much he curled up on my dads lap and he rocked with him for a little bit.

Bed time was a well deserved rest for me. I fell asleep after just a few minutes. Ready to take on the next day of tying quilts and enjoying my mom and sisters. The kids came and entertained Tyler and they had so much fun.

Tyler is such a follower. He would follow my sisters kids anywhere if they let him. They are really good to him. It is nice to see him enjoy the company. Poor Lexi was dragged from here to there and he would look at her and say PWEASE and she would smile and go along.

We tied a quilt for Dallas and Lexi stayed the night to have a "Spa night" with Nana. We ate burgers, painted her nails, did a huge bubble bath with the jet spa tub and she did wax stuff on her hands. She stayed up late eating popcorn and watching movies. ( I did not however get a photo!)

Saturday was a busy day of quilt tying. We did 4 of them and the kids will be so excited when Christmas comes. Ty was totally excited for yet another full day of "kids" to play. We knew Sunday was gonna be a rough one!

Today ( Sunday) we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. My house had a whole thing of yarn on the floor! Ty was without playmates for the first time in a week. He was so cute and kept asking Dallas for a brother or sister to play. As IF we could go to the store and get one!

Stay tuned for blizzard pictures and an update from the neurosurgeon

Family Reunion

Taking your child with special needs to family events can be a little nerve wracking. There are so many things to think about ahead of time and so many things that you can't control. I don't always have the ability to know all the details ahead of time in order to be able to make adaptations or make it more "Tyler" friendly. Some activities really don't work and sometimes we have to respectfully decline ( which I end up making excuses for, like we are busy that day or we have something else planned. It seems I can't just be honest) because there is no way to make the activity enjoyable or physically possible. Physically possible, not just for him but for me. For me meaning I can't carry him that long or I I can't find a way to adapt that activity to him and help him do that activity. He is almost to big for that darn stroller and he is getting to be just to darn heavy.

A few weeks ago we went camping down at my parents house. He LOVED camping. He associates grandpa with camping and fishing so when you mention grandpa, grandpa's house or going out he asks about going fishing. We were invited( do you really have to be "invited" to a family reunion in which you belong!) to the Labrum Family summer get together/reunion.

This year we went to Cold Springs Trout Farm in North Ogden. Because it is a trout farm there is more than plenty of fish for everyone. You pay per fish that you catch. You can't catch and release for the integrity of the ponds and you just have to feed the fish for them to start biting. I was really looking forward to taking Tyler because they had places that kids could fish. He LOVES fishing and carries around his fake ( and his real one if we let him) fishing pole all the time.

My parents were driving up early and had to make a few stops and so I asked my sister if she would like to ride with me. We left in plenty of time to get lost ( but we didn't!) and got there before most of the family. It was really easy to find.

We couldn't hold Tyler and his need to fish back any longer, so we went ahead and got a bucket and a pole ( they offered you a pole at no cost!) and went to town. Aunt Nicky was a trooper and was fine with helping Tyler. A little girl was standing by us and she was feeding the fish and Ty was catching them.

My cute sister.. and Ty's Aunt Nicky Mouse

His face is priceless and he gets so excited. We caught 3 fish quickly and thankfully grandpa and grandma got there soon after and Ty was able to take Grandpa around. Ty was so excited. As soon as he saw grandpa he asked him to go fishing.

My dad helping Ty fish. SEE I told you his face was priceless.

We ate lunch and I was able to visit with my Aunts. I haven't seen all of them for almost 2 years. ( A side note: I LOVE my Aunts. My dads sisters are seriously so great. My Aunt Mary and Aunt Luanne showed up at the hospital after I had Tyler. Though there was no baby for them to see they still came. I always feel welcome with them. They both wanted to know about Tyler, how he is doing and everything inbetween. They were and are so understanding and accepting of Tyler. My Aunt Mary even came up and saw Tyler when he was stuck in a incubator. My Aunt Linda Labrum is such a sweet lady and Oh my Aunt Kaye.. Honestly, there was NEVER a sweeter lady. I LOVE her.) While I was visiting with them Nicky and my dad had walked back down and were fishing. We all walked back to the pond and Ty had caught WAY to many fish ( that you can't throw back) and was laughing so hard as he did it. He was so funny. And everyone else was behind him laughing as we tried really hard to NOT catch a fish. We were relived when the few he got were able to come off the hook. He has the biggest joy of just tossing the pole in the water. ( We have a video so you can see him.)

Thanks mom for the video!!

When you are ready to go you take your fish to the shack there and they gut them and filet them. You pay per fish and it is calculated on the length of the fish. They charge a small fee for the filet but WAY worth it. We ended up spending way to much for the priceless look on his face. But not enough that I didn't mind handing over my card.

It was a great day. It seemed VERY handicapped friendly. It isn't hard to get to the ponds. There is no major hills. It is grass but a wheelchair would easily be able to be maneuvered. You can put up chairs on the grass and sit or just sit on the ground. There is shade and water to drink. You can also bring in your own picnic. You can rent the pavilion for pretty inexpensive. Best of all you get a kid with LOTS of smiles.

*My dad is the fish grandpa and Dallas' dad is the campfire grandpa. We had a campfire there on the 24th and Ty asks all the time for a campfire. Like EVERY TIME we see Grandpa Brown. *

24th Holiday Weekend- Camping

The long awaited camping post.

Dallas and I have been contemplating taking the toot camping. We have gone back in forth to try and figure out exactly how, where, when, and if it would work, how it would work type questions and then the actual execution to MAKE it work.

We were so lucky to have my parents come to our rescue. They offered their trailer for us to use this past weekend. Let me tell you, that was by FAR the most luxurious camping trip I have EVER been on. They had it set up so we could use the ....... AIR CONDITIONING! Seriously! They had a bed made up for Tyler and we were pretty much all set up.

We left here after a busy packed morning to get to the EC to unpack our stuff and figure out where we would be. While we went up to the mountains with my dad my sister and mom took Tyler and the other cousins to the local pool.

We were able to stay in the Joe's Valley campground. My parents pulled up earlier that day so my dad was giving us the main tour of how things worked and how to use the air and the TOILET. ( Yep no Port a potty for my butt!) We were so excited.

( my Handsome Hubby!)

We then headed back to catch up with everyone to go to the children's parade. We didn't care much about the parade and Ty was not having the waiting in the heat so we took him to the park to wait for the dinner to start.

During the festivities of the 24th they always have a lamb Fry. It is YUMMY! But after a day of swimming, driving and hot, Ty is not exactly the best behaved kid. So Dallas and I just ate our food and decided to take off and head back up the mountain.

It was going to be just the three of us that night and we were really excited. To set up Tyler with this camping trip we gave him books with Little Einsteins camping, we talked about fishing, watched shows with fishing and really just hyped it up. My parents found the perfect spot for Tyler. LOTS of dirt and rocks!

(see my happy kid!)

We sat and watched Tyler play and throw the dirt and rocks. He was having the best time. We went in and let him chill out a bit and then Dallas started a camp fire. I brought him out and it was like Christmas for him! The pictures that were in his book were ALIVE and he could see them and he LOVED them.

(Sitting like a big boy in his camping chair!)

We stayed out for an hour or so and then put our tired little munchkin into bed. He slept soundly till about 3 in the morning. I then just moved over into his bed and he fell back to sleep.

We didn't wake up till after 9 the next morning but after we got up Dallas took Ty outside to show him what our plans were. We were going to go FISHING. I stayed inside and got all of our breakfast going.

After eating we were a little slow getting going. We knew my parents and sister and her kids were coming but didn't know when. We knew where they were headed when they did. So instead of waiting we packed up our lunch stuff and headed to Potter's Pond. When we got there Dallas tried a spinner and it didn't work so he switched it and FIRST throw out with the right lure he caught a fish. Ty LOVED it.

Ty stood right by his dad the whole time doing exactly what dad was doing. Ty later came to sit on my lap and we threw out his lure a few times and did what dad was doing. He kept saying "fishing pole" and then when we asked him what we do to the fish he said we "eat" them. He had a blast.

Dallas helping Ty close to the lake.

"We caught a fish!!"

Watching his dad. Everything D would do Ty would follow.

He started to get more and more brave and would go stand super close to Dallas. So I would get more and more nervous. He didn't care. Dallas pulled a chair up to the edge of the lake and I stayed back a little. SO nervous. I heard Dallas scream "don't move, don't move" and realized that Ty had gotten a lure in his eye. How much in his eye would be the kicker. Some how it just barely touched his eye and a little blood came out and then nothing. Ty was ready to go back to fishing with his dad. ( I have a problem with getting lures in other peoples bodies. I once caught my brother's ear. In order to get it out it had to be pushed through. Lures have a catch both ways. It is a bad deal. Especially for "special" eyes like Ty's)

After a few more fish Ty kept getting closer and closer and I couldn't watch anymore so I pulled out my book. Not even 2 pages into it I hear a splash. Ty had fallen in the water. He got the top of his head and was just nice and wet. We soon decided that we would pretty much be about done fishing.

During the fishing trip Tyler did what Tyler does and threw EVERYTHING into the lake. First started with a Dr. Pepper can which I followed till it got to a bank. Then we were wearing hats and he took it off and OFF it went into the lake. Dallas saved it by "catching it." He started throwing the fish net in but luckily the on edge parents got to that before it went in.

The best thing about the trip : Seeing Dallas do what he has always wanted to do. Have a great time doing something that he loves with Tyler. Tyler LOVED fishing with Dallas. He sat on his lap, he talked to D and he understood everything that we were doing. ( In fact all day today he has asked for his fishing pole and to go fishing.) Those two are best buds.

On the way back down we went passed my mom and dad and decided we would stop for a few minutes ( in which my child didn't get his way because we said we were going back to camp so he cried) and swapped sandwich stuff for who ever needed it and then they headed up to fish some more and we headed up to lay down and get Ty to take a nap.

We were expecting them to come for dinner but we weren't sure when that hour would be so we just kinda hung out and ran the air conditioner. Everyone took naps and then Tyler and I went out to gut the fish. Yep, I gut fish!

Ty was not that happy but he hung out till it was done. I didn't even get a picture of our fish after their heads were cut off. We went back to camp and threw rocks and just hung out. It was perfect.

The rest of the crew finally showed up and we started our dinner. Hamburgers and fish and tinfoil dinners. Tyler was able to play with Koy and Kayden and Lexi was all over the place. They had a great time. I was glad they did.

When everyone left we went to bed and all of us slept amazing again! We did run the generator out of gas. I guess not everyone can have snow blowing when they are camping.

While we were waiting for everyone to come for dinner. He had SO much fun!

Ty's version of "running" ( did we mention he can JUMP!)

Determined to play and PLAY hard!

Breakfast the next day and a dirty trip back to Lehi. It was just what we needed.

Dallas was totally unplugged for the entire weekend. No Internet, no phone no nothing. It was just what the wife ordered. We were so thankful that Ty enjoyed it.

* For those out of state, July 24th is a Utah holiday and a Church holiday for the LDS church. It represents the first day that the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley from their trek west!*

Planting Flowers

Ty spent Saturday outside with Papa and Dallas. He tried to "help" with everything. When we got all the flower beds ready for flowers we let Tyler "help."

Dallas had never planted flowers before. Luckily Grandma Labrum used us as slave labor and we DID, so we filled up a bucket, got out some cups and brought out our flower flats.

Ty's job was to water the flowers. He did a REALLY good job at it too.

He carefully got he cup full and carefully poured the water and carefully made a mess.

But no worries. After a while he was all done but he did come back out every now and again to see what we were doing. He even handed us flowers every so often. At the very end, Blanket even came out!


He was listening to directions, using his coordination and he LOVES water so what could be better.

Our flowers got planted and have enjoyed an entire day of LOTS of rain so we hope that they will be perked up and nice and pretty when the rain stops.