Therapeudic fun!

Jonathan has speech therapy and occupational therapy, combined, every Monday morning. He has spent some time warming up to his therapists and the therapy room, sizing things up and trying to decide what he thinks. Well, I think he's decided therapy is fun, at least sometimes. He works so hard for Jamie(speech) and Christine(occupational) and his hard work is paying off these days! He continues to scream at all of us on a regular basis but seems to enjoy challenging his therapists on a regular basis. He's such a problem solver that they are having to get creative in order to get him to do the things they want him to do. I think he enjoys this little game he plays with them.

He loves to play with the balls from the ball pit both in and out of the ball pit!



Recently they've been trying to get him to try some new things, like the giant lumpy pillows and the platform swing. This week he eventually gave in and took a chance on both things. He got to be pretty comfortable with the pillows but he's not so sure about that swing yet. It just keeps moving every time he touches it! He does like to spin it around to get the toys they've put on the far side of it.



The goal was to get him to get on the swing to get the toys but he's too clever to fall for their little tricks! Heeheehee! What a cutiepie! It's so exciting to see all the new things he's trying lately! Here's a few pics of Jonathan at therapy! I'm also adding a little video of him playing with Jamie with the ball pit balls. He was so excited that I just HAD to catch it on camera! Enjoy!

The End of the Season

The time has come once again for David's last Miracle League baseball game of the season. The Fall 2008 season was a great success! David really enjoyed playing and spending all that time with Doug and I think Doug enjoyed it too! They seemed to have a great time bonding together.



Waiting patiently for his turn at bat...



He has also started to interact more with some of his teammates and Coach Hannah, which is so fun to watch. Coach Hannah is the reason we return to the Dodgers team each season! She has been so great for David! She obviously loves the time she spends with all of her kids and David adores her!

THREE CHEERS FOR COACH HANNAH!



And the entire experience wouldn't be complete without an injury, right?!



He's also started to really enjoy posing for pictures which is quite funny actually and super cute especially from the kid who has always HATED pictures! All in all, he had a great season!



Nathan enjoyed the playground at every game this season. However, he managed to escape the camera lens so I have no pictures of him playing! Jonathan enjoyed pushing his stroller around all over the place which meant that I had very little opportunity to actually watch David's games since I was chasing Jonathan everywhere! He's become quite the little adventurer though. He even took his stroller off-road many times!



You've gotta love this face!!!

Jonathan's Latest Antics

So I had Doug put latches on all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen to keep Jonathan out of everything. We have one drawer that is the kids' snack drawer. It's full of snacks that are easy for the kids to get to. Well Jonathan managed to removed the latch from the drawer somehow and this is what I found after that! I have now attached a new latch and hopefully it will last longer than the previous one! He's a cute little stinker isn't he?!

Pumpkin Patch with FACESS from Bright Start!

So Jonathan gets all his early intervention services through Bright Start birth to 3 program. Within Bright Start there is a group called FACESS. Don't ask me what it stands for but it's for kids who have autistic spectrum disorders or are at risk for them, including autism. So they had a group outing to the pumpkin patch this week and Jonathan and I went. Sadly they were quite low on pumpkins that day so we didn't get any. They had several big school groups there that morning and each of those kids got a pumpkin so they might have just been running low. I suspect that ALL their pumpkins aren't grown on that particular piece of land and thatn they bring more over periodically from other farm locations. Just a guess though. Anyway, we played in the "corn"box and took a ride in a wagon through the pumpkin patch, in search of a good pumpkin, and through the kiddie corn maze. We had a good time but Jonathan wasn't too thrilled with the corn maze and all that. It was pretty bumpy. I did get a few pictures there so here they are. Jonathan enjoyed playing with all the dried corn in the "corn"box. He also loved the sound of it when we picked it up and let it fall back down.

Jonathan and Susan playing with the corn

First Day of School Fall 2008

I know it's been a long time ago but I wanted to post some pictures of the boys on their first day of school this year. David is in the same class with the same teacher and one-on-one aide as he had last year so he's happy there. Next year is probably going to be a difficult transition year for him, going to a new school, new teacher, new grade and all. Right now I'll just deal with this year. Nathan started 1st grade at a new school this year because we moved at the end of last school year. He loves his teacher. She is very creative and does lots of fun things with the kids. He is doing very well and getting to be a pretty good reader. Here are some pictures from their first day this year.

It's a blog party!!!

Jenna at For the Love of Baby! is hosting a great party right now and she knows how much Mom needs to relax! So head on over and check out an awesome giveaway from Fraiche that will make sure Mom MAKES TIME to Relax!

Woohoo! I know I could use to good relaxation and this stuff sounds like it could really help!

Jenna is one of my February LuvBug mommies so she has a little girl the same age as Jonathan and also just had a new baby girl! Go check out her blog and enter to win some great prizes. She'll be adding tons of new contests all the time during her blog party to keep checking back for more chances to win!

Swim Swim Swim!

Nathan took 2 swim classes this summer. The first one was before our vacation and the second one was after we got back. Initially, they wanted him to take the first class over again because he wasn't quite ready to move on but then on the first day of the second session he passes all the requirements for that level so they went ahead and moved him up. He passed that one too! He did a great job and turned into quite a little fish this summer! He gave up his beloved Spiderman floaty suit and his arm floats and took to the water solo! He improved throughout the summer and really showed us what he can do! We are so proud of how great he did in his swim classes and also in learning to do so many new things in the water all on his own! Great job!



David also made progress this summer in the pool. He was brave and ventured away from the safety and comfort of his step in Grandma's and Grandpa's pool and learned that he can touch the bottom in the shallow end. He also loved to put his face in the water and kinda snorkel around with his goggles on. He did so great and we are super proud of him too! He would let us hold him and he would kick his legs. We even got him to try to do some arm strokes. As long as we held onto him, he did great! He has really overcome some of his fears in the pool this summer and we are looking forward to all the progress he will continue to make as time passes.



Jonathan wasn't sure about the water at first but eventually he grew to love being in the pool. It seemed to relax him at times and then other times he was just excited and was splashing and kicking all over the place! He much preferred to be held than to ride in a baby float. I think it was easier to splash and kick in someone's arms than in the little boat float! What a cutie!

Nathan's Kindergarten Graduation

I know this is not exactly in the right order of things but I realized that I never blogged about Nathan's kindergarten graduation!

He did a really great job all year and the kindergarten teachers put together a cute little ceremony/program for their kindergarten graduation. They sang songs together. We got to watch a cute video/slideshow of the kids participating in various activities throughout the year. It was so cute and they even made little caps to wear! Congratulations on a great year Nathan!

On to Idaho and Yellowstone

The Pace family took a trip to Idaho and Yellowstone this year together. We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery and all the fun outdoors activities!

We left Texas and drove north toward Idaho. We stopped at some point in the middle of the night and got a hotel room but I can't even remember where we stopped! We slept for only about 4 or 5 hours and then got back on the road again so we could get to Idaho and meet the rest of the Pace's at the cabin that we would be staying at. We got there before everyone else and we couldn't get into the cabin yet because it was still being cleaned for us so we just drove around and looked at all the other ginormous "cabins" around the area. It was beautiful and very close to the water. Eventually we all got into the cabin and got ourselves situated in separate rooms.

The first day was spent on the beach, playing in the water, riding jet skis and fishing. Jonathan slept most of the morning so I stayed there until he woke up and then we went down to the lake to join everyone else. The kids were all fishing and David got a hook caught in his leg but it wasn't bad and he pulled it out before any of the adults could get to it! He cried a bit but then he was fine. Doug and I went out on the jet ski for a while and then came back and took the kids back to the cabin. The water was cold but the area was gorgeous!

We also spent a day riding ATVs and other days were spent just relaxing around the cabin and enjoying being together. Doug and Nathan went white water rafting with almost everyone else except the youngest kids, me, Mom and David. We played games, watched movies, sat in the hot tub, roasted marshmallows, played pool and ate yummy food.

After church on Sunday, we took a ride into Yellowstone to visit the hot pots. We had a close encounter with a bison who decided to take a stroll down the middle of the road! The picture I got is not zoomed in at all! He was THAT close to our car! It was kinda crazy! The hot pots were cool to look at but it was very hot out there! Obviously! LOL! Jonathan enjoyed riding in the backpack on Doug's back and David and Nathan just loved following their daddy around everywhere!





On our last day, we went to see Old Faithful before we had to hit the road again and head home. It was pretty amazing to see that. The boys picked out some volcano making kits in the gift store and then we had to leave the Pace's for home. We drove to Alpine, UT that night and stayed with Lana, Jared and Laurie for the night and then headed home the next morning. On our way out of town though, we stopped at Cabella's and let the kids see all the animals they have on display and also try out the shooting game inside. We got home late and we were exhausted. We had a great trip but we were all happy to be home and sleep in our own beds finally! I think Jonathan was the happiest of all of us though!

Texas and the Family Reunion

After we left the MIND Institute, we went straight to Texas for a family reunion with Doug's family. The drive was long but the kids were amazingly well behaved for the trip and we had a good time visiting Doug's home state!

The first thing that happened after we left Sacramento was that the kids all got settled in the car for the long trip. David and Nathan watched movies and Jonathan watched David and Nathan and sometimes the movies. Mostly he just sat and looked out the window.

David made himself a bed on the floor and Nathan made himself a bed on the seat and they stayed in those spots for most of the drive. David slept and watched movies mostly. He also got very clever about sneaking snacks without us knowing it! Nathan spent most of his time playing PSP , watching movies and coloring. Mostly PSP though. He got a Ben 10 game and he was obsessed the whole trip!



Jonathan surprised me by how good he was in the car. He also made some great progress on some things while we were driving. He was quiet and didn't really fuss much at all except when he was hungry or tired. He has never been good about sleeping in the car so I was really worried about how he'd do on this trip but 5 minutes on the road from Sacramento, I looked back at him and he was sound asleep! I was amazed! Then later I was amazed to see him holding his own bottle up and drinking from it while he was sitting in his carseat, sitting up. He had not been able to do that yet so I was glad that he mastered this on our trip, even if he did use his feet half the time! It was cute!



We stopped in Albequerque for the night and were joined at the hotel by Jared, Laurie, Ethan, Rachel, Luke and Brady from Utah and Geoff, Natalie, Jacob, Anna, Bente, Isaac, Keaton and Lola from Arizona! The kids all went straight to the pool to swim before it closed for the night and had a great time! I don't know about anyone else but we had a hard time getting our kids to go to sleep that night cause they were so excited! The next morning, we all had breakfast and got on the road in a caravan. Doug and I provided the walkie talkies and most everyone seemed to enjoy using those to talk between the cars and tell jokes and play games. It definitely made the drive go faster! We made a quick stop at the border to take pictures by the Welcome to Texas sign then we continued on.

While in Texas we spent lots of time with siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and Meemaw of course! WE had a great time. It was wonderful to see Meemaw and everyone else and get to know some of the relatives that I had never met before. We had a family reunion with Meemaw's family. We ate some good BBQ and took some pictures and then we went to a community pool and played in the water. It was a fun time!



We also paid a visit to the cemetary to visit David's (Doug's dad) grave. The kids were a little freaked out to see Nana's name on the headstone next to his but we explained what that was all about. Then we also visited Grandmom & Grandad's grave and Papaw's grave among other relatives. It was hot and dry so we enjoyed some yummy ice cream after we left the cemetary.



We got to go to Chuck E. Cheese with the Black family (Wright family friends) including our friend John who we hadn't seen in years. It was lots of fun to see them and the kids had a fun time playing games and eating pizza. We ate some more BBQ the next day and the next day I think. LOL! There was a lot of BBQ to eat but it's the best! We had a good time all together and were so glad we all got to make it down there! We even got a chance to get a video record of some family history, stories and such from Meemaw and her sisters! This is something we will all cherish and pass on for generations to come. We hope to make it back to Texas again before too long!

We also got a visit from Jim and Mary while we were there and that was a treat too, as always! (Jim is one of Doug's uncles on his dad's side) They came to our hotel to visit us before we left and the kids ran all over the place while the grown ups talked and laughed together. Thankfully we were able to contain the children in one big room with us so they were at least a little under control! At one point, Natalie took them all for a walk and they all found a big tarantula on the ground by the hotel. They thought it was the greatest thing and insisted that someone take a picture! Yuck! Then the next morning Jim and Mary came back and brought cookies and watched all the kids swim one last time before we had to get on the road again! The grown ups and older kids also had a fun game of Uno Splash that morning! We were so glad to see them again too!



All in all it was a wonderful visit with family and friends and was actually somewhat relaxing if you can believe it! We all just kinda took each other's kids in and took care of everyone together! That's what family's for right! Live, laugh, love and play together!