Rachel was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints today. She has been looking forward to this day since she was old enough to know what baptism is! We are proud of her decision to follow Jesus Christ and become a member of His church.
Of course she chose the baptism suit with ruffles! Girly girl!
The dress she picked out and absolutely loves!
Primary friends who came to support her.
Family who came to support her. That’s a big group!!
Our group. I can’t believe how fast we’re all growing up!!
Emily had a great Spring recital with all the students of her awesome teacher. We are sad her teacher is graduating and moving on (and we have to find a new teacher).
Here she is playing Sonatina.
Rachel had a birthday, shout hooray! She was so easy to shop for this year…she knew everything she wanted and had a list prepared for months. The best part is that most of it was not toys!!!
She requested Twilight Sparkle cupcakes for her treat. Twilight Sparkle is one of the ponies from My Little Pony. You can probably guess that she loves MLP. Here’s a picture of Twilight Sparkle so you can see how mom got the inspiration for the fun (and super sugary) cupcakes.
Rachel (and everyone else) loved the cupcakes and she was especially excited about turning 8! She is so much fun and we are glad she is a part of our family.
I’ve finally faced the facts: I’m never going to get caught up! I want to keep going on this blog because it is a great record (when I actually get to it) of our family happenings. So, I’m just going to do my best. I’ll be happy when I can post and let go of my agenda to stay caught up with too many things.
Here are 10 happy things:
Josh finally made it back to school after missing 3 weeks in a row! What started with a bad virus – likely a strain of influenza not covered on this year’s shot – turned into really bad pneumonia that took much longer than anticipated to recover from. After three different antibiotics, steroids, breathing treatments, xrays, blood work and lots of cough medicine, Tylenol and Ibuprofen, we are so happy to finally report that heeee’s baaaaack!
We have completed 2 of 12 family adventures this year. This was the main Christmas gift for our kids. We decided to do a monthly (mandatory for everyone) adventure in an effort to create lasting memories and avoid more junk that no one plays with or even cares about. In January we went to the Hill Air Force Base museum, with stops at Guitar Center and a piano store just for kicks, and dinner at 5 Guys. Caleb said it was the best day of his life! In February we had a family movie night – Ice Age 4. We had a great dinner of mammoth cakes, sloth-berry syrup, sabertooth sausages and scrambled dinosaur eggs. Don’t forget dessert: snowball cookies, Scrat acorns and popcorn! Ice Age definitely made Daniel’s day!
Emily is almost done with her first season of Winterguard (indoor colorguard during the winter)! What an experience this has been. She has loved it, and does really well. (Mom, on the other hand, is exhausted from driving to the high school {nearly} every day at 5:30 a.m., early morning Saturday hair curling, and late-night Saturday pick ups from the high school!!) It was fun to get to see her first performance, and we are looking forward to seeing her last performance as well. Shhhh! Don’t tell!
We have been enjoying the nice weather when it is here, and we’re thankful for the moisture when it comes. We can’t wait to set up our trampoline!!
Caleb lost his first tooth!
Daniel has a few new words, among them “No!” and “Back!” said while holding up his first finger, which of course means, “Be right back!”
I have managed to find time to get a few crafts done. Having Josh home for so long made that a lot easier.
Jared got a Saturday off work last week! Of course we had to take advantage. So we all (minus Emily who was at her colorguard competition) went to Preston to find Napoleon Dynamite’s house. We were successful (thanks to good ol’ Mr. Google)!! We also found his school, ate at Big J’s, and stopped at a nut factory. As we left Big J’s, Caleb noticed a teenager with curly hair and exclaimed, “IS THAT NAPOLEON DYNAMITE???” GOSH, this kid cracks us up!
I get to have a non-surgical procedure done to attempt to stretch open the stricture in my small intestine!! The best news is that my meds are doing their job of controlling inflammation.
And last, but certainly not least, taxes are due in less than a month!!!
Christmas came early when Daniel won a contest! He won a Strider bike for himself and SIX more bikes for our local chapter of our state’s Down syndrome foundation!
He’s not a huge fan right now, unless someone else is touching it. Then he’s more than anxious to go for a drive around the house! For now we’re keeping it inside, but come warmer weather we’ll be moving to the great outdoors.
In case you’re wondering about the contest: I saw a link for it online and just couldn’t resist. I had to submit a picture of Daniel and tell a little bit about his story. I don’t even remember what I wrote! Here’s the photo I submitted. How could anyone possibly resist that?!?!
We invented our own version of cleaning the sink. (Daniel is enjoying his own little bowl of ice cream next to where I’m standing.)
We took goofy selfies.
The weather was so nice for so long that we were able to get the front door painted the weekend before Thanksgiving! Obviously we still have some work to do with the frame and the sidelights…but I’m still not sure how I feel about the door.
Rachel participated in the Veterans’ Day program that the 2nd grade puts on every year. Made me all teary-eyed!!
And I worked on some projects. This one is the finished drapes for the sliding glass door.
Thanksgiving mantel.
Fall centerpiece. Jared cut the wood and assembled the box. I sanded, stained and did all the foliage.
We also hosted Thanksgiving for my side of the family. We had lots of fun, ate lots of good food and yummy pies, and enjoyed the day. We only had 12 people total so it was actually kind of quiet. I was not very good at taking pictures. But we did get these few phone pics.
Caleb drinking his M&M water and an “M” that floated to the top of the water.
Daniel really enjoyed the pie.
And the day after Thanksgiving (thankfully), Daniel started the puke fest. It made its way through him, Caleb and then Rachel. So glad it didn’t hit any sooner!
The last project for the month was putting up the Christmas tree, which I did in between rounds of puke with Daniel.
We had a great Halloween week, with lots of preparations and lots of partying. Over the course of 4 days I made a tutu, a skirt, leggings and a hooded robe. I also crocheted a hat, dyed a shirt and overalls, reconstructed and embellished a shirt for Emily, created an Olaf face shirt for Rachel, and made a ninja turtle shirt for Caleb. And I don’t even like Halloween!!!! Maybe that means I’m a nice mom after all!
We partied with Grandma and Grandpa Beckstrom and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles. We partied with our ward and even got to take part in the shooting of a candy cannon. And of course we trick-or-treated until we just couldn’t take it any more!
Here are Olaf and Anna.
Next up are Leonardo and the Grim Reaper.
And last, but certainly not least, the most adorable minion you’ll ever meet!
Hope your Halloween was as delightful/frightful as was ours! Time to start planning the next round of costumes…
Emily had a birthday, shout HOORAY!! She loves a comfy seat and German chocolate cake…a girl after my own heart!!
What can I say about this girl? She’s beautiful, smart, awesome, persistent, talented and lots of fun.
Here are a few things you may or may not know about her:
She loves beef jerky, especially the peppered kind.
She is a super speed reader. She got Michael Vey 4 and the Blood of Olympus books for her birthday and she had them both finished within a couple of weeks.
She is becoming an awesome piano player. She plays most weeks for opening exercises in Young Women.
She loves being outside, away from all the boring stuff of life.
She recently started Winter guard (color guard) at the high school. She is a natural! She participated in Christmas Fantasy and did a great job!
She is an animal lover through and through.
She’s pretty good with a set of tools. She got rusty bolts off her bike tires, replaced the tubes, and got everything in working condition all by herself.
In early October we learned that Daniel would not be able to continue attending his preschool at Sound Beginnings. It is a long and emotional story, and involves decisions and processes that are likely not legal…but we decided not to fight the system and conserve our emotional and physical energy for our family.
So Daniel moved to the preschool at our elementary, right in our backyard. It is nice to have him close (but sure wish he could get more hours of service) and Rachel and Caleb love being at school with him!
The change happened so quickly that he wasn’t able to ride the bus for the first couple of days. WHAT?!?!? He rides the bus?? Yep, all 200 yards to the front door of the preschool! We were told it’s a good experience for him to ride the bus, and it helps him practice some of his language and social skills. Whatever. All I can say is he looooooves it!! The first day was a little scary for him, because of the noise and unfamiliarity. Since then, it has become the highlight of his day.
Is it coming yet??
Here it comes!!
Bus #61.
Daniel has been thriving (but sometimes being a wee bit naughty) in his new school. He has a great teacher with lots of awesome aides and therapists. I was lucky enough to get to go on a fieldtrip to the pumpkin walk with his class. It was so fun to sit next to him on the bus and see just how excited he is to be a big kid. We passed Jared’s work and he knew right where we were…
The pumpkin walk was fun, but a little overwhelming for his little legs and attention span! He was NOT a fan of the character cut outs!
We are happy with the progress this kiddo is making. He is using more words (over 60 words/approximations!!) and even signing more. He is generally a happy and thriving kid who learns pretty quickly and captures hearts wherever he goes.
