Isaac's Report Card!

We had a parent teacher's conference with Isaac's teacher this week, and we got his report card. He had a perfect score on his report card and we were so proud of him and how well he's doing in Kindergarten. : ) His teacher told us that Isaac is almost reading at a Second Grade Level already! The only thing he needs to work on is doing his work more and chatting with friends less. Hehe. He always gets it done though. Isaac just loves school and we're happy that he's doing so well.

Bryce's First Day of Preschool

Bryce had his first day of preschool today, and it went SO well! When Bryce turned three, he graduated from Early Intervention. This is the program that offered all of his at home therapy like feeding therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. Since he definitely still needs all of the therapy to help him catch up developmentally (and learn to eat orally!), Josh and I made the decision to enroll him in special education preschool. It is part of the local elementary school, and is just amazing. Josh and I went and checked it out and met the teacher, aides, and therapists. We were super impressed! They have several aides that help the kids, and Bryce will have his own that will help him do all of the activities. He will have a speech therapist, feeding therapist, and physical therapist that come into the classroom and work with him as well. We really think the peer interaction will be really good for him as well. It seems like such a great school district in general, but their special ed program is just phenomenal (we've heard so many great parent reviews). In order to coordinate and juggle all of our boys' school schedules, we opted to let Bryce ride the bus to and from school. I met the bus driver and one of the aides that helps out on the bus and they are both such sweet ladies and so good with the little kids. The driver said that her and the aide had been working together driving the bus for 19 years and they just love it. I was a little nervous to send him off on a bus for the first time, especially since Bryce doesn't really understand what is going on, but it went so well, he had fun, and it made me feel better to have such neat people working with Bryce and taking care of him. His teacher (another really sweet lady) called me after school and said that he did really well and he seemed to have fun! :)

Finally Caught Up!!

I just spent the last 2 hours updating our blog, and am finally completely caught up (woohoo!). You'll need to scroll down quite a bit to see everything because I just posted a HUGE amount of new posts. Enjoy, and thanks for reading! :)

Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year! We spent Christmas day at home and just got to spend the whole day together as a family which was SO nice! The boys were so excited to get up and see what Santa brought. Bryce was a little sick with the flu and ended up sleeping most of the day, but he still had fun opening his presents and playing a little with his new toys. Santa brought the boys a GeoTrax train set (they LOVED it!). He brought Isaac some Castle Lego sets, Parker a Pokemon ball, Bryce a bath toy, Josh a RC helicopter, and Heather a cake decorating set (as well as some games for the family). Josh also got clothes, books, and a Ball of Whacks. Heather got a foot massage spa, the game Quiddler, and some fun ethnic foods. Isaac got a Pokemon ball & a Light Saber. Parker got a RC Lightning McQueen car and a Light Saber. Bryce got Clipos and some toy cars. They all got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to share! (that was probably Bryce's favorite.

Christmas night we had a fun Christmas Dinner. It's our tradition to "splurge" on seafood. We had some YUMMY beer-battered coconut shrimp, snow crab and artichokes.

The day after Christmas we went to Josh's parents' house to celebrate with them. We had a good dinner and exchanged gifts. We had a good time. We didn't make it to my parents' house until New Years Day because Josh ended up getting sick with that flu. But we had a good time when we went down. We exchanged gifts with them and had dinner. We got a chance to visit some other family members the following day which was nice. We got to visit Great Grandma Chappell, Great Grandmpa Bell-Tuft, and my sister Marcie & her family!

Here are some pictures from Christmas day (you'll notice that the boys changed their clothes & jammies a hundred times that day! LOL!):

Happy 6th Birthday Isaac!

OOPS! I forgot to post about Isaac's birthday before Christmas Eve. Isaac turned 6 on the 22nd. He had a fun day, although I was sick with the stomach flu, so we didn't get everything done for him that we had planned. :( He opened his gifts that morning. He got a Power Ranger costume, and a MegaBloks castle which he loved. He wore the costume ALL day and of course had to do all his Power Ranger moves! He also got a set of Legos from Grandma & Grandpa Bell, a Fishing kit backpack from Aunt Cammie & Uncle Jesse, and a digital camera from Grandma & Grandpa Chappell. Unfortunately I didn't get his cake made. :( But Josh made him a birthday dinner when he got home from work and luckily, our neighbors had just happened to bring over some Christmas cupcakes that day so we used those as Isaac's birthday cake. I felt so bad, and I still owe him that cake and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, but he had a fun day anyway. I didn't get all the pictures I wanted either, but here are a few.

Christmas Eve

Josh had to work this year on Christmas Eve, but we had a really fun night. We had a fun dinner. We had an exotic cheese tray with whole grain crackers and fruit as well as some clam strips. After dinner, we made brownies for Santa. Then we all sat down together and read the story of Christ's birth from the bible. We opened our Christmas Eve gifts and set out milk and brownies for Santa. The boys were jumping off the walls, they were so excited! These are some pictures of the boys in their new pajamas.

Temple Square

This year we took a trip to Salt Lake City with Josh's family. We all (Josh's sister Melissa, her kids, me and our kids) got together one afternoon and make about 30 sack lunches to donate to the Ronald McDonald House in SLC. The Ronald McDonald House has been a HUGE blessing to our family with all of Bryce's hospital stays, and so we wanted to do something to help them. They were so thankful to receive all of those lunches and we had a lot of fun making them!

We all met Josh and his parents (who had all been at work) in SLC, and after we dropped off the sack lunches, we all went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights and they Nativity there. Afterwards we got hot chocolate. It was a fun night!

Decorating our Tree

We decorated our Christmas Tree around the first of the month. The kids had fun hanging the ornaments, and Bryce had fun taking them off! He was actually better about it than I thought he would be though. : ) The tree turned out great!

Welcome to the world Baby Sydney!

On December 16th, my sister Cammie had her first baby. She had a little girl whom they named Sydney Nicole. Cammie and Jesse invited me to the birth, and it was a really neat experience. Sydney is just adorable! She was 7 lb 10 oz. I'm so excited to have a little niece! She is the first granddaughter born on my side of the family.

Santa Clause

We took the boys to the mall to visit with Santa Clause this year. They had a fun visit and Santa was so cool to sit and talk with them. Isaac asked Santa for a Lego set, and Parker asked for a Pokemon ball.

Afterward we went out for ice cream at the coolest little shop called Sub Zero Ice cream. If you haven't been, I totally recommend it. It's a fun experience. For those who haven't been, they make their ice cream to order and use liquid nitrogen to do it. We were the only ones there when we went, so the guy working there showed us some cool things with the liquid nitrogen. He did some tricks by putting pouring it on the counter & splashing it on the walls, then he froze a gummy bear and shattered it. The kids had a blast!

The ice cream itself is yummy and they have tons of flavors. They will even make you ice cream out of rice milk or soy milk! What an awesome place for a family who has a child who can't have milk! When Bryce starts eating someday, the soy ice cream will be perfect for him.

A funny moment: They let you pick which base you want - regular, custard, low-fat, or yogurt. The guy asked Isaac and Parker which one they wanted. They both yelled out - "Low-fat!". LOL! Just not something you'd picture a kid yelling out so excitedly. The cashier about died!

Gingerbread Houses!

We made some graham cracker gingerbread houses this year, and the boys had so much fun! Even Bryce got in on the action and we helped him make a little gingerbread house. He even tried a couple of nibbles. We made them with chocolate graham crackers this year just for fun, and they turned out really cute. (Of course the stuffed animals had to get in on the picture). ;)

Happy 3rd Birthday Bryce!

Bryce turned 3 on December 9th. He had a fun birthday. He opened his gifts that morning. He got a Little People farm, which he loved, a fun singing doggy from Grandma & Grandpa Chappell, and some clothes from Grandma & Grandpa Bell & Aunt Cammie & Uncle Jesse. Since Bryce doesn't eat much orally, we didn't bother with a special birthday dinner, but I made him a kitty birthday cake since Bryce LOVES cats. Bryce even ate a nibble or two. :) We also got Bryce some balloons which he loved playing with.

I just can't believe it's been three years! It seems like yesterday that we were in the NICU with little Bryce. He's come a long way and made lots of good progress. He's been very blessed, and we're so proud of him.

Here are a few more pictures of his day:

Cutting Christmas Trees

For Thanksgiving we went to my parents' house in Loa, and the day after we all went out to cut our Christmas trees. It was cold and snowy, but we had fun and got a great tree. : )

Catching up!

Wow, do I have a lot of blogging to catch up on! I haven't posted at all since November, and December was a busy month for us, so I have a lot to post. Here we go!!