Piggie and Gerald!!

On Friday Nico and I went to see G.G. at the hospital. He had the day off from school so it worked out really well. While we were there she wowed us with how well she was getting around even after being cooped up in a bed for a few days!! She was released later that day. Yay! We will see her this Saturday again!

Last Saturday was the Sensory Friendly Movie. We went with Tiffanie, Aadam and Sammy and we met friends from church there as well. The movie was Kubo and the Two Strings. It was kind of scary. Near the end of the movie Nico said he wanted to go home and I asked him why and he said he was tired. The last few times we've been to a movie he has started getting antsy about 30 minutes before the movie is over. He always asks me "How much longer?" I'm not sure we'll go to the movie next time.

Sunday after church we went to a Piggie and Gerald party at the library. Not the library downtown but a different one over on Overland. Tiffanie and kids followed us there, and then we met Grandma Salisbury and Lexie there too. They had reader's theater, which Nico and friends participated in, and coloring and painting and decorating cookies. There was a drawing for free tickets to the LIVE Piggie and Gerald show at the Morrison Center this Friday. Each family could put one raffle ticket into the fishbowl, and so we did. When the drawing took place an hour later, there were only a handful of us still there, so we all waited eagerly to see if we would win. They had a lot of tickets to give away. Name after name after name after name... most weren't in the room so they moved on to the next one. Then, Lexie won!! They gave her 3 tickets so her whole family could go. Then name after name after name... Tiffanie won! 3 tickets to her. More names were called and I could see we were getting to the very last of them and he still had tickets available. Finally, the very last ticket which he struggled getting out of the fishbowl because it was stuck - OURS! That's right. 3 tickets to the Piggie and Gerald Show - TOMORROW! We are going. We might be a little late, but we're going!

Reading "Let's Go for a Drive!"

Reading "My New Friend Is So Fun!"

I can't remember which book this was! (That's Lexie in the middle) They did a great job!

Reading "Today I will Fly!"

On Monday it was G.G.'s birthday. Happy Birthday G.G.!! We will have your present for you on Saturday (you already know what it is!)

That night we had our last night of Financial Peace University. Everyone graduated and we all got a certificate. Nico fell asleep while we were there, with Guy holding him. He had to put Nico down on some of the chairs to take this picture with us.

Guy and Nico bought a few games at Fred Meyer. Life, and Uno. Here's Nico playing Life with 3 of his stuffed animals. He woke up early that day and spent about an hour before breakfast doing this.

That's it for this week. See you all next time!

Lumberjacks and Halloween

Saturday all of us drove up to the cabin for a Lumberjack Party! We were the first ones there and got to have Grandma and Papa all to ourselves for a few hours! It was perfect. My mom served chili and turkey meatballs and sides. Everyone was supposed to bring a dessert and on Friday Nico and I made Sunbutter Chocolate Pumpkin Cups to bring with us. They were tasty!

I put some Halloween Jamberry nails on Lexie, just like the ones I put on Nico.

They matched up their fingers with matching nails

Showing everyone their matching nails

Nico not smiling at the camera when I told him to smile. hehe

There was a contest to guess the weight of a HUGE pumpkin, and also games to guess how many candies were in a jar, and how many M&Ms were in a bottle. Nico asked if his two imaginary friends Bico and Dico could also place guesses, and Bico ended up winning the pumpkin! I forgot to take a picture of it but it's sitting right outside (68 pounds!) I think Allicia and I are going to try to cook it up and freeze it so we have pumpkin puree throughout the year! Then, Nico won the jar of candy. The jar is a beautiful clear glass pumpkin with candies in it and a removable lid. 

It was a fun and full day, we came home happy. Thanks so much for the yummy food and the fun time Papa and Grandma!

Monday was Halloween of course, and we met everyone at the Roosevelt Market and then walked home from there, trick-treating on the way. Just like last year! I left early so I could catch the Financial Peace University class that was all about real estate and mortgages. 

Guy told me that Nico was very focused on trick-or-treating, and he got a lot more candy than the others. He was really committed and ended up with 125 pieces. He has been sorting them, trucking them around on the Spring Fair trucks, counting them and recording how many of each type he has (in his new red notebook that Gma Russell sent his way). 

Check out the video of the Boo Bash and of Halloween at the end of the entry!

Nico had a doctor's appointment today and we will be starting a few new supplements. I am excited to see how they may help his sleep and stomach.

Today was our parent-teacher conference, and Nico is doing really well in school, has a lot of friends, and has very good handwriting. He is in the upper level reading group and the upper level math group. They said he's very humorous and they enjoy having him in the class (this was the teacher and the student teacher talking). When he stood up front during his Star Student week showing his friends his pictures, he showed everyone a picture of someone reading him a book (this would be GG or Grandma Russell) and asked everyone to make 3 guesses what the book was. No one could guess so he kept asking them to try again. No one could see the picture closely so the possibility of books was really endless. They say he's very precise, and is good at seeing patterns in math.

They showed us his journal, and I wish I could show you guys every page, but I only took a picture of one of them. He's been really into car symbols lately and so notice that on Grandma's truck he wrote "GMC" because that is what she owns. 

Nico was very curious about Horseflies so we looked them up in the book that GG gave Nico. We ended up looking up a lot more than just Horseflies, and we even got out the ruler so we could see in real life how big some of these bugs get. Horseflies are HUGE!

We heard yesterday that GG is in the hospital with congestive heart failure, looks like it can be managed with the right combo of meds and we are praying for health and recovery! Love you Grandma!!

Enjoy the two videos this week!

A huge sandwich, spider pizza, and Boo Bash!

Last weekend on Friday and Saturday Guy took care of Nico as I was at the "Women Ignite Idaho" conference and trade show. I had a henna booth at the trade show and was attending the conference. It was fun!

Guy made Pad Thai for himself and Nico on Friday night, and on Saturday they made a HUGE sandwich. They had been planning this for a few days, ever since Nico read one of his new Pete the Cat books that Grandma Russell sent him (thank you Grandma!!) He got a set of 5 Pete the Cat readers. And, he can read them! In one of the books, Pete the Cat builds this HUGE sandwich with all sorts of things on it. So Nico made a list of stuff he wanted on his sandwich. Not everything that Pete had, but things that Nico could eat.

Apparently Nico ate a few things from the sandwich for lunch, came back a few hours later and ate some more, a few hours later and finished it off.

Because of my day on Saturday, we had pizza on Sunday instead. We made spider pizzas with olives!

Nico's

Guy's (his salami is under the cheese)

On Saturday, Guy took Nico to the library and Nico picked out Shaun the Sheep on DVD and that's what we watched on Sunday while eating pizza. 

Tonight was the Boo Bash at Nico's school. We walked there with the whole crew. 

Guy had to be at the church at 6:30 and the Boo Bash was at 6. So we got in there quick and made sure to get our polaroid before Guy had to book it.

We left the Boo Bash at 7 PM and about 40 minutes of that was spent at the Cakewalk. Last year Nico won within 2 minutes, this year took a bit longer, but he persisted! They called his number and we hustled over the gluten free table and he picked out a chocolate bar. Yum! I have already agreed to let him eat half of it tomorrow after breakfast and the other half after lunch.

Next to Sammy at the Cakewalk

Waiting for the music to start

Some more pictures from this past week..

We finished the Star Destroyer!

It opens up!

Playing with leaves at Aadam and Sammy's house.

Star Student!

This week Nico is the Star Student at school. Each kid gets a chance to be the star student and this was Nico's week. Every day this week there's something different. Monday he had to bring a show and tell item. Tuesday he brought pictures. I asked him if he wanted me to print a bigger picture of him and Uncle Tom because the one we have is so small, but he held it to his chest and said "No I love this one because I love Uncle Tom." Wednesday was another show and tell item, and today he showed everyone his poster.

My birthday is: July 29th 2010
5 words to describe me: really fast, funny, nice, sharing, smart
My eye color: blue
My favorite foods: pizza, rice and ground beef, pancakes
My favorite color: blue
Donald Duck Trick or Treat... is the best book I've read
Here's what bugs me: Flies
Sports and Hobbies: Soccer, basketball, read books
My one wish is: to be Darth Vader
A self portrait

About my Pets: I don't have a pet

In my future I see... seeing Darth Vader in a movie

My favorite movies: Star Wars (he hasn't seen this), Masha's Spooky Stories

My favorite movie star: Darth Maul

One question for my teacher: Do you have any pets?

My favorite TV show or computer game: The Incredible Machines

I collect: Grosseries

Things I'm good at: riding bikes

My best school subjects: reading

My fingerprint

Tomorrow the teacher will be reading a letter that Guy and I wrote to Nico. I'm sure she'll be giving him the letter afterward, then I can post a picture or something. Some mushy stuff about his name meaning "Victory", etc etc. ;)

Drawing the Spring Fair with henna.

Nico taking a picture.

That's it for this week! Short and sweet. It's been a busy one!

The Week of Celebration

Friday we invited Sammy and Aadam over to play inside the main house! Jeff and Allicia and crew were out of town so we used their living room for a play date. They colored and wrote books and had a grand time. It was nice to have the space available to invite them inside!

That afternoon they played out front on our table.

On Saturday morning we went to see GG. Guy was able to come with us because we did it on a Saturday, and it was great! As always really fun to see her and talk about what she's been up to and what she has planned in the coming weeks. Nico brought over his Grosseries to show GG. We may have left them there, in fact! I still need to call her and ask if we left them.

On Sunday Guy helped at the sound booth again at church. I think it will become a regular thing!

Monday was Columbus Day, which we affectionally renamed Columbo's Day, a day to watch an episode of Columbo. We picked one of our favorites. Guy and I watched while Nico was in school.



Monday started Guy's VACATION week! He took the whole week off from work. While he's been home, we have sorted through stuff, taken a load to the Youth Ranch to give away, watched lots of Netflix, bought lots of snacks, eaten lots of snacks, and on Wednesday night we even had a PARTY! We bought cupcakes to celebrate Guy's birthday and went to Trader Joe's and filled our carts with all those snacky items and dips that always look so good but you never buy because, well, they can get expensive! But really, Trader Joe's is cheap, although spending $120 on snack items was really a piece of cake for us. We are enjoying blowing all our money this paycheck.

The party on Wednesday was just under the covered porch and we had Jeff & Allicia, plus Tiffanie over. The guests that are staying in the suite above us, Vanessa and her 3 year old Ansel also came to the party, they've become good friends of the family. She bought us flowers. We ate all the snackie items from Trader Joe's, then cupcakes. Finger food heaven! Sammy is also gluten free, and Tiffanie told me that at the party he was like a child in Costco eating all the samples except this time he could actually eat them (because all our food was gluten free!) We sent them home with hummus and salami and veggies for Sammy's lunch. He is growing into quite the foodie and only 8 years old.

I captured only one picture. You can't see the rest of the people/kids that were at the tables, but you CAN see a small section of the dips and chips and crackers we got.

We purchased Nico his Star Wars Lego that he has wanted for a very long time. We ordered it last week and it was delivered on Monday. We opened it up and started putting it together straight away.

Before opening the box

Just starting out

Getting close to the halfway mark...

It is not together yet, but we are close.

Random pictures. Nico is tall enough to ride his blue bike now!

Picture by Nico

It is fun having Guy home. He takes Nico to school with me and picks him up with me. Guy even got to spend some time working on a project - building a card shuffler with legos, using a lego motor to power it. Want to see how it works?

The Farmstead!

On Saturday we had a special day that started at the Sensory Friendly Movie that was showing Finding Dory. We took Evelyn with us, and Tiffanie and Aadam and Sammy also came with us. Afterward, Nico and I drove out to the Farmstead in Meridian to celebrate Bruce's birthday!! The Farmstead has a corn maze, hay rides, corn pits, and a bunch of other fun activities to do.

I lost track of Nico once and almost freaked out. He had taken his shoes off to go jump on the bouncy pad and I was talking to family and turned around and he wasn't on the bouncy pad anymore and his shoes were gone. Ack! We deployed the forces (my brothers) and the special forces (sisters in law and Grandma) and we went searching. Nico turned out to be at the attraction right next to the bouncy pad, which was the zip line. I looked over and he was ON one of the zip lines. I had a talk with him. But then an hour later I noticed him quietly leaving where he was and walking away from us and then running toward an attraction across the field. I ran after him and had another talk with him.

Nico, Bruce, Rory and Lexie

Check out the video below of Nico going down the slide with Bruce. It was a fun time, we were exhausted after! We came home and made our Saturday night pizza and discussed what we should watch while eating. Nico chose Penguins the movie.

Sunday Guy went early to church to practice doing the sound board. He has been going on Thursday nights during worship practice to learn how to do it. And this Sunday he watched while someone else did part of it, then he took over. He did a good job.

"No Spendtember" is over, so Nico and I took advantage of the two days off that he has and we went shopping today! We got him a Halloween costume, and a few other needed things from the store. Nico spent some of his money on some Grosseries (like garbage pail kids, but figurines, groceries that have molded over, like "Disgusting Mustard" which is a mustard bottle with green goop coming out the top).

After we got home he put the costume on and wanted to show Aadam and Sammy right away but they weren't home, so he sat on a stool reading the Rube Goldberg book outside in the driveway, waiting for them to return (he gave up before they did)

Then we had a treat and went to Boise Juice Company and tried their Pumpkin Smoothie bowl. It was so good! Nico also chose a fresh beet juice with carrots and apples, it was very tasty and he drank most of it. And he was convinced my pumpkin smoothie bowl was ice cream.

Then this afternoon he went over to Aadam and Sammy's house. They watched Hotel Transylvania 2. Tiffanie posted these two photos of them having fun:

That's pretty much it for this week.

Here's the video I told you about, Bruce and Nico going down the slide then Leah follows.