End of Year

As always, May was the end of another school year and brought with it all the end of year festivities for school and the kids extracurricular activities.

First up was Brynn's preschool graduation. Brynn was beaming as she proudly stood with her class and sang all of her favorite songs from preschool for us. She has absolutely loved every single second of every single day in Mrs. Young's preschool for the last two years. As Mrs. Young calls the children up to give them their diploma she announces what they want to be when they grow up. No surprise that Brynn wants to be a Grandma. I can't believe we aren't going to have a preschooler next year, and don't even get me started on the fact no more of my children will be going to Mrs. Young or I will turn into a giant puddle. The last four years I have dropped my children off at preschool without a single concern knowing that they were being taught with love and patience. I am forever grateful to Mrs. Young and the role she has played in my children's lives.

Goodbye Preschool!

Next up was Mason's final days as a first grader at Scera Park Elementary. Instead of a dance festival the school did a singing program this year. Mason was very excited for the program and did a great job singing each of the songs. Mason has had some high points and low points during first grade, but thanks to his amazing teacher Mrs. Nelson helping and believing in him he enjoyed first grade a lot.

School isn't the only thing that came to an end. It was also the end of Brynn's year in gymnastics at Patterson's Soft Landing Gymnastics. Brynn would count down the days until Thursday when she got to go to gymnastics and, like most things, would have a huge smile stuck on her face the whole time. She mastered her bridge, cartwheels, and handstands along with some tricks on the bar and beam. We missed her year end performance with our move, so I had her put on a mini show in our backyard. I asked her if she wanted to try dance instead of gymnastics next year and she very adamantly insisted on continuing gymnastics.

 Mason played his first year of "real" baseball, meaning he got a real baseball uniform and played on real baseball fields. His team was the Tigers and all of his best friends were on the team with him, making it a lot of fun. This was definitely the most excited and into a sport Mason has ever been. He had a couple doubles, a lot of singles, and of course his fair share of strike outs during the season. He got to try out lots of different positions and was able to make the play to get someone out a couple of times. Sadly we had to move in the middle of the season, but lucky for us Omaha is big on baseball and we already have him signed up for fall baseball with his new best friend out here.

It was a great year for these two and I am proud of both of them!

Ellie's Bubble Bash

We celebrated Ellie's first birthday with a big bubble bash. We started off the bash with a spaghetti dinner since Spaghetti sauce is one of Ellie's favorite tastes right now. She likes to play with the noodles and then taste some of the sauce off her hands. After dinner we had fun playing with all sorts of bubbles. I had a table of bubbles with different bubble wands for the kids, then we made bubble snakes, and we finished off by putting each of the kiddos in a giant bubble. The kiddos were having so much fun with all of those activities we didn't have time to do the bubble art I had planned, but that's okay. 

 

Bubble snakes are made by cutting the end off a plastic water bottle then securing a washcloth on the end with an elastic. You dip the wash cloth in regular bubbles and then blow to make a long bubble snake.  The plastic water bottles we happened to have laying around the house are for the sterile water we use for Ellie's trach mask and I found that gauze worked just as well as a washcloth and so we ended up using some of Ellie's extra trach supplies to make the snake bubbles. When I was getting everything ready for the party Mason said, "oh I get it, we are having a trach supply birthday for Ellie." I got a good laugh out of it.

Ellie loved the snake bubbles because she could touch all the bubbles.

The giant bubble was a hit with all the kids. At first the wind was making it hard to get a good bubble, but after we held up some blankets to block the wind then we had better results.  I made the mix using water, bubbles, and karo syrup and letting it sit over night.

Before we knew it these crazy boys were in their skivvies having a blast.

Trouble Maker

Since Ellie is not able to eat anything orally there wasn't much point in a smash cake, but she does love the taste of frosting so we gave her a cupcake loaded with frosting and helped her get her hands covered in frosting so she could get a good taste. She loved it and consumed enough frosting to make herself sick that night.

She was a huge fan of all the presents wrapped up with their crinkly bows and tissue paper. The presents inside were okay, but not nearly as cool as the wrapping they came in. Once all the wrapping paper and bows were forgotten about then Ellie really did love all the presents, especially the activity box from Grandma and Grandpa. It has been the greatest toy now that she is sitting independently.

It was the perfect celebration of our sweet Ellie and all she has accomplished in her first year of life.

All About 1-year-old Ellie

* Her favorite thing to play with is crinkly wrappers and paper. Her suction catheters with their plastic cover are especially fun. She will pucker up with the saddest face you've ever seen when a wrapper gets taken away from her.

* She doesn't eat orally, but is starting to recognize food and tries to get her hands on it to explore it. She still shutters when she gets a taste of any in her mouth, though. Some of the tastes she accepts better are spaghetti sauce, gravy, ice cream, frosting, and bananas. (by tastes I mean a wiping some on her lips and the corners of her mouth)

* Her crazy auburn hair is getting longer and thicker, but continues to stick straight up no matter what we do.

* Still loves her big green binkies as well as sucking on her fingers and hands. Those are the only things she openly invites into her mouth.

* She is fascinated by combs but absolutely hates getting her hair combed. It must be sensory overload for her because she starts thrashing around when I try to comb her hair making it nearly impossible.

* She is still a tiny peanut with tiny little feet. Size 2 shoes are still way to big for her.

* Right around her first birthday she finally became an independent sitter and can be left on her own to sit without tipping over a few seconds later. She also started to get the hang of rolling and started rolling completely onto her stomach rather than her little half roll she had become so good at. She even started rolling to get to something she wants. 

* She squeaks and squawks around her trach more, even without her speaking valve on.

* She laughs the hardest when Scott or one of the kids startle her.

* She is a solid sleeper and sleeps through the night every single night. If only we got the luxury to sleep with her, but we still have to get up at least every 3 hours to refill feeds and adjust all of her equipment. 

* She got her first tooth at 9 months, had 5 teeth (3 on top 2 on bottom) at 12 months, and is up to 10 teeth (4 on top 6 on bottom) at 13 months. Teething has been an interesting process with her because she doesn't eat. Her gums just bulge and bulge but with no chewing on things the teeth don't break through until she has almost full grown teeth and the gums can't stretch any further. It has been a pretty miserable process for her.
*Loves to be outside and swing in her swing.
 * She is adored by her brothers and sisters.

*Has the cutest big toothy grin in the world.

Warning: this may be the cutest video you have ever seen.

Happy Birthday Miss Ellie Jane.

San Diego

The week after Scott's graduation we celebrated by taking off to beautiful San Diego. We have really wanted to take the kids to Legoland and Sea World and knew now was the time to do it before we moved to Nebraska and California was no longer a drivable trip for us. Thanks to my parents' willingness to stay with Ellie as well as their generous graduation gift to Scott, we loaded up the car and headed out for California.

Our first day we went to Legoland. I honestly don't think we could have picked a better destination for our family. Mason was in Lego heaven as he admired all the Lego creations around the park and could have spent the entire day in the Star Wars mini land. Brynn turned out to be a roller coaster maniac and couldn't get enough of all the rides that were perfectly geared towards 5-12 year olds and provided just enough thrill without being too scary or intimating for her. Miles was excited he was tall enough to ride almost all of the rides and the lines were generally short and quick because we all know waiting isn't a strong point for any 2-year-old. In the few lines that moved a little slower they had Lego tables that the kids could play at while we waited and most of the time we were dragging them away from the tables when it was our turn to ride the ride. Scott and I were just glad we weren't having to deal with the stress and crowds of Disneyland. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE Disneyland, but it was so much more low key at Legoland and that is exactly what I needed right now. We didn't have to make a plan of attack and race around the park at opening to get fast passes and spots in lines. We just casually strolled around the park enjoying things as we went along and were able to do everything we wanted to in one day including spending some time at the waterpark in the afternoon. We lucked out that our kids were all the perfect heights to optimize our experience. They are super strict about height requirements and check at the beginning of every single ride. They have a minimum height requirement to ride the ride with an adult and a minimum height requirement to ride the ride alone. It worked out perfectly that Mason was tall enough to ride on his own and Scott and I could accompany Brynn and Miles and we all got to ride the rides together. If you know Mason then you know that no trip to Legoland would be complete without a souvenir of a Lego set or two.  The kids had all been saving their money, including all of their birthday money, for months in preparation for this trip and so at the end of the day we went into the Legoland gift shop that has every Lego set you could ever want and let them buy some sets. You have never seen happier kids. Even Miles, who fell in love with Lego Duplos on this trip, bought a little Lego Duplo truck set that he still plays with every single day. When we got back to the hotel late that night Miles and Brynn crashed, but Mason couldn't wait to build at least one of his sets so he stayed awake, working by the light of a lamp at the perfect little Lego table that was in our hotel, until he was done building his set. 

Our very first ride left us without a dry spot on our body. Good thing it was nice and hot all day.

Mason and his favorite Star Wars character Baba Fet

Miles was playing with this figurine like it was a real child. I'm not sure he knew it wasn't.

Chima 4D movie

Duploland. One of my favorite places. It felt like the kids had shrunk down and lived in a world of Legos. 

The Xbox zone where they have all the different Lego Xbox games you can play. Of course Mason loved it.

Miles fell in love with Lego Duplos while we were there.

The next morning we just let the kids spend some time playing around the hotel room with their new legos. It is always nice to have some downtime after a day at an amusement park. I have to mention that Scott and I have become big fans of staying at hotels that offer family suites. We have stayed in suites the last few times we have gone on family vacations and it is heavenly. We put the kids to bed in their room and then shut the door and are able to watch a show or movie in our room, rather than putting the kids to bed and then us sitting in a dark room trying not to make a sound and wake any of the kids. 

Since it was Sunday we decided to take the kids to see the San Diego Temple, which was beautiful as always.

After the temple we went to the Mormon Battalion visitor center in Old Town. I was actually blown away at how awesome it was. The kids genuinely enjoyed it and so did I.  I learned so much about this part of pioneer history that I never really understood and came away from it with a strengthened testimony of how the Lord answers our prayers. 

We spent the rest of the day at the beach. I just can't put into words how much I enjoyed our time at the beach. Watching my kids playing in the waves, building sand castles, and burying each other in the sand made me so happy. These are the kinds of memories I remember from my childhood with great fondness and I am just so grateful I got to make these memories with my kids.

After our day of rest we were recharged and ready to do Sea World the next day. Once again, it was such a great fit for us. It had some great rides, fun shows, and plenty of sea animals for the kids to be fascinated by. The best part was there were no lines and we would arrive at the shows just a few minutes before they started and get prime seating. Mason and Brynn left with new aspirations to be Sea World trainers when they grow up.

Tuesday was our final day in San Diego and we went back to Legoland for round two. As I mentioned before we were able to go on all the rides and see all the things we wanted to on our first day, but the kids were really excited to go back for another day. We are so glad we did, because the crowds were non-existent and there were literally no lines. Several times when we finished a ride they would just let us go again without even getting off. It was the perfect end to our vacation. We stayed until the park closed and then loaded up in the car and started our drive home, stopping in Henderson, NV to spend the night with our cousins, the Stubbs.
The next day we made it home and we were happy to see Ellie after 5 days away. We wish she could have come with us, but truthfully she had waaaay more fun at home with Grandma then she would have had being dragged around all the places we went. I'm hoping this is the last family vacation we will have to take without her, because it just isn't the same when our family isn't complete. A big huge thanks to my parents who made this whole thing happen. It was an amazing trip!