Category Archives: Fun

May 18, 2013

Games Please

By Bobbie

Deeds has become quite the little math wiz.  In the past few months he has shocked us with his random bursts of math knowledge.  He loves doing addition right now and also counting up to 200 by 2′s.  Jeremy has been teaching him to count by 15′s recently and he can get up to 75 right now.  With all these fun advances he has really started to show interests in playing games.  Uno, Candyland, Blokus… you name it.  His latest game he is saving money for is the new Uno Robot game.

At school they do “social skills” and that often involves playing games and learning how to take turns and how to win and loose with grace.  We organized the game closet the other day so the kids could get into it by themselves.  I was a bit worried about the messes that it could cause but after a couple of days reinforcing that we put one game away before getting another out it’s been a huge success.

I woke up this morning to lots of giggling and laughter.  This was the sight I saw.

Kids playing Games all pics

These two have been playing all morning and it’s honestly been heaven.  As they get older their bond as siblings has some shining moments that really warm my heart.  Sometimes there are a lot of fights because Gwen doesn’t always understand why Deeds will ignore her or doesn’t want her close (hugs can cause big issues sometimes).  Lately however the happy moments have been closer together.  I think it helps that Gwen seems to grasp a lot of the concepts needed for the games, even at the young age of 3 years old.  It makes her a perfect playing companion for her brother.  What a blessing.

 

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Autism, Family, Fun

March 15, 2013

Disney on Ice

By Bobbie

How can you tell mommy is in the middle of a crazy semester of school…. she never blogs for Deeds and Magpie.  I can’t believe the last post was from Christmas, but hey, it’s spring break for me now which means catching up on everything from doctors appointments, oil changes, yard work and even blogging!

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Last weekend we were given tickets to Disney on Ice by an old friend of mine.  She even surprised us with third row seats and the kids were in heaven.  Since a Disneyland trip this year isn’t in the books I was hoping this would quench a bit of their Disney thirst but I think it may have added a log to the fire instead.

It was very cold waiting for the train in the morning.

It was very cold waiting for the train in the morning.

Hear no evil, speak no evil?

Hear no evil, speak no evil?

Waiting to get into the arena.

Waiting to get into the arena.

We decided to take the train up to Salt Lake instead of driving and it was a huge hit.  Magpie wasn’t a big fan at first but like the pro she is, she quickly relaxed and enjoyed the ride with the rest of us and then slept her way through all the ice skating commotion.  I did have to laugh at one point when Jeremy was standing with Deeds and Magpie while I was purchasing a drink for the kids.  I turned around and there were no less than 5 little girls, all dressed up like princesses, talking to Deeds and petting Magpie (who was loving all the attention).  Deeds was incredibly overstimulated during the show but despite it all we had a great time, spinning and flapping included.

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We did get a lot of great pictures that are pretty self explanatory.  Deeds favorite parts were when Rapunzel and Flynn flew and when the horse was ice skating.

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Autism, Family, Fun, In Public, Service Dog

October 17, 2012

Quick post with pictures

By Bobbie

I know there are many of you wondering where we went, how the autism carnival and soccer game were and what we are up to now.  We are still here but our lives are as busy as ever.  Between mommy’s incredibly demanding course load at the university this year and daddy working a multitude of part-time jobs we haven’t had a lot of free time and when we have we are often spending it together as a family and not blogging.  Lucky for you I got stuck home for a couple days with a stomach bug so TADA, a quick post!

Rest assured Deeds and Magpie are doing fantastically and here are a bunch of photo’s for your viewing pleasure.  I will work on a much more detailed post next week when we mark the one year anniversary of getting Magpie (can you believe it’s been a year!).

All our love!

 

Leave a comment | posted in Autism, Family, Fun, In Public, School, Service Dog

August 28, 2012

A week away

By Bobbie

A couple weeks ago we spent almost 7 full days off the grid at the family cabin up in the Uintas.  The kids are the 5th generation to be able to spend time there and it’s just fantastic.  It was perfect timing as the last hurrah before school started for everyone.  We had some friends and family with us for a couple of nights and then it was just us and grandma for the rest of the time.  We took a ton of pictures and so I’m going to let them speak for themselves.

It’s become one of Magpie and Deeds favorite places in the world.  Magpie gets to really let loose and act like the crazy lab she is and Deeds gets to throw rocks in water and watch VHS video’s to his heart’s content.  I think we played Hercules at least 4 times a day while we were there.  He got so obsessed with it that guess who is going to be our favorite hero for Halloween.  We seriously lucked out and even found the costume on ebay already.  Here is the run down for everyone’s costumes according to JD:

  • Deeds: Hercules
  • Gwen: Meg
  • Dad: Hades
  • Mom: the “middle” Muse
  • Magpie: Pegasus

We have everyone’s costumes ready now with the exception of daddy and magpie.  I just need to convince Deeds to let me make Magpie a black Pegasus and not the white one with blue hair like in the movie.

Back to the cabin…  We went on a lot of walks and little hikes with the kids.  Little sister was much more interested in the outings than Deeds was but it helped when we took a half an egg carton with us.  We put pieces of tape in the bottom of each spot and colored them each with a different color.  During the walks the kids would try to find stuff from nature to put in the spots with the corresponding color.

It was an amazing week and we made a lot of cherished family memories.  After a rough summer it was the perfect ending and way to kick off the fall.

Throwing rocks after swimming in the creek.

Magpie in the creek with an amazing view behind her.

Very wet Magpie watching Deeds play after she was done swimming.

Deeds balancing on his favorite log. We had at least one picture a day on the log, it was his favorite spot at the creek.

The doggies resting after a extra long walk.

The kids decided this fort about 10 minutes up a trail was the perfect spot for a snack and drink break.

Deeds jumping over a log on the trail.

Magpie waiting for Deeds and I while we headed out for one of our many outings.

Bundled up watching for moose during one of our night walks. Deeds is actually wearing his great great grandfather’s coat, it was pretty cute. We would take glow sticks with us, I think it was the kids favorite.

Yet another shot on our favorite log.

Deeds watching his “favorite cabin movie”. The kids would play titans and heros while together. To the best of what we could determine it was a bit like their version of cops and robbers.

Deeds and Magpie splashing around.

Deeds sitting in the creek and trying to convince little sister to try it too.

Drying off in the sun after all the splashing around in the cold water.

Deeds swinging, we found it on our first night walk and then went back every other night we were there.

Pushing dad and Gwen on the swing.

Deeds counting his 24 glow in the dark bracelets from our walk the night before.

Side note: I love that last picture for a few reasons, one is that you can clearly see the side of his face that was burned so badly on his third birthday.  It still amazes me that it healed so well and that the hair grew back in almost the entire area.  You really have to look close to see the scars on his forehead.  Such a miracle and blessing for our little guy.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Burn, Family, Fun, Service Dog, Travel

August 4, 2012

Orange you glad I made Jello

By Bobbie

We had a family reunion today so I whipped up something I’d seen a picture of online.  Jello with an fruit twist.

The only tutorial I saw used a juicer to get the pulp out of the oranges.  I don’t have one so I just used a spoon to scoop out the fruit after I cut it in half and it worked out perfectly and gave a much cleaner look.  Once they were halved I put them in a muffin tin to keep them upright.

I made the jello with a thicker consistency than the typical directions.  More like the way you would make jigglers.  I used one cup boiling water with one 6 oz package then added a half cup of ice cubes.  I made two different packages and it filled 4 oranges with some left over.  Could have done another orange (maybe two) but since it was my first time and I was in a hurry I didn’t hollow out any more oranges.

Fill the oranges with the jello to the top.  If you’ve poked any holes in your oranges it will become apparent as you are trying to fill them.  Having the muffin tin under helps in this aspect since it will catch any spills.  After they are set slice them as thin as you would like.  I found it easiest to put it jello side down and slice the peel first.

This was such a huge hit that Deeds was sad when they were gone and I should have made a TON more for the reunion.  Now we know for next year.

My niece attacking her coveted Jell-o orange slice

Little sister with evidence of her enjoyment of her treat all over her face.

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Family, Food, Fun

July 21, 2012

Cotton Candy Dreams

By Bobbie

A neighboring city was having its annual “Foam Day” today so we all headed to the park to check it out.  They use the fire trucks and shoot foam into a field and everyone can play in.  I wasn’t sure how Deeds and Magpie would do with foam covering them from head to tail (literally) so we enjoyed a couple hours of pre-foam activities and then left before the actual foam started to fly.

Gwen tells me “Mommy I love bruders Pie Pie.” and then leans in and gives her a kiss.

Little sister wasn’t a big fan of all the bouncing and sliding action so she hung out with Magpie and mommy in the shade a lot.  Deeds thought it was the best thing ever and would just fly down all the wet slides.  Since Jeremy is still out of work we have really been looking for free activities this summer for the kids to keep them entertained and it’s amazing how much you can find to do.  Maybe next year we’ll have to stay for the foam part too.

We took Magpie’s vest off at one point when it started to heat up and then the wet kids laid against her while munching on cotton candy and drinking water.  It cooled her down and it was just too cute not to share.

Our handsome boy with his “best service dog friend” Magpie.

This afternoon Deeds and I went to a book signing and then I promised him he could look at the Disney Store before we went home.  I was so pleased with how well he did at the book store.  When we got over to the Disney store Magpie was very tired so she sprawled out on the cool tile and the next thing I know Deeds is sprawled out next to her.  The two little turkeys were almost blocking the entire entrance to the store so I made sure no one was coming, snapped a couple pics and then we headed home.  We got some strange looks but we are getting used to that now.

Cuddle time in the middle of the mall.

A sure sign that it’s time to go home.

 

 

 

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Autism, Epilepsy, Family, Fun, In Public, Service Dog

July 10, 2012

Jell-o Fight

By Bobbie

Daddy and the kids running down the hill to the Jell-o Fight.

Yesterday we heard about a Jell-o fight at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  We decided to give it a try for fun since it was cousin Hannah’s last day in Utah.  I wasn’t so sure how exciting being covered in sticky gelatin on a day that was over 100 degrees would be so I bravely volunteered to sit with Magpie in the shade.

Little sister thought throwing the Jell-o was fun and came back sticky and red.  At first Deeds was quite excited, then he got dirty and sticky and he was done!  He sat with Magpie and mommy in the shade until they finally turned on the sprinklers.

Magpie loves how sweet Gwen smells covered in Jell-o

Once those sprinklers were on the roles were reversed and Gwen sat with mommy and Magpie while Deeds went nuts playing in the water.  He was soaking wet by the time we were all done but happy as a clam.

Love how happy he looks in this one!

Very wet but no longer sticky Deeds.

We are happy to know now that the gardens have a different activity for family night every Monday through the summer.  In a couple of weeks they even have one for Angry Birds that we will be anxiously waiting for.

Drying off in the sun after all the fun.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Family, Fun, In Public, Service Dog

July 9, 2012

Cabin Fever

By Bobbie

My mother’s side of the family has a cabin in the Uinta mountains.  My great grandparents started building it in the 1950′s.  The past couple of years my parents have been going up every weekend during the summers and fixing it up for all the generations of the family to be able to enjoy it again.  The past couple weekends I went up with the kids and Magpie to help out and this weekend we even got to take Deeds cousin from Houston with us.

Deeds and his “best girl buddy” Magpie the miracle service dog.

We have never taken Deeds up before because I was terrified.  Loosing him in a public place is frightening but you can usually enlist a lot of help to look for him.  Loosing him where there is nothing but vast wilderness and no cell phone coverage to call for help was something that I wasn’t willing to risk.  Now that we have Magpie and Deeds is getting older we decided it was time.  We even did a practice track while we were there to make sure Maggie could still find her boy out in the woods.

Deeds was so excited that he finished this puzzle all by himself!

Little sister painting and being a goof.

He calls this his “Spelling learning game”

The kids had a lot of fun playing games, doing puzzles and watching Disney movies while we were inside.  We would go for walks outside and it became quickly apparent that Deeds is not a huge fan of the great outdoors.  He never wanted to go for walks but once we got down to the water he would always have a lot of fun with Magpie playing fetch or throwing rocks into the creek.

Little sister LOVES being outside.

Deeds laughing as Magpie sticks her entire head under the water.

 

One day another family was also down by the creek and Magpie thought it was Christmas since they had two dogs and she got to play with them for a while.  She hasn’t been able to run and play that much since we were at training at 4 Paws.  Every once in a while I would randomly call out a command to make sure she was still aware we were still there and she would come bounding back with her tail wagging.  I’d praise her, Deeds would giggle and give her a treat and then we would let her jump back into the cold water to play some more.  It was a really great weekend.

Rock throwing, look at that form!

Beware the flying dogs!

You do NOT want to be standing next to Magpie when she is shaking off the water.

Deeds showed his cousin his favorite “biggest rock”

On the way home we took a little stop by the Provo River Falls.  They are beautiful and I promised Deeds cousin she could get some pictures by them.  About a half an hour later in the car as we were driving Deeds started to scream that he couldn’t find his blankie.  My heart sank and I pulled over to look around the car.  Sure enough it wasn’t there.  I could flip through the pictures on my phone and see exactly where he had it one second and not the next.  We turned around to drive back and prayed it would still be there.  My little guy was beyond upset and I was dealing with a great deal of anxiety about it myself.  Lucky for us someone had found it on the trail, folded it up and placed it on a rock.  I’ve never seen such a look of relief on Deeds face.  There is a new rule that the blankie doesn’t come out of the car unless mommy or daddy has it.  Since it’s what he hides under when he is overstimulated it’s more than just a comfort thing for him.  I’m so thankful that someone was nice enough to pick it up for us and set it somewhere we would see it.

All the cousins on the trail right before we lost blankie.

Provo River Falls

Deeds and Magpie checking out the falls. It was a beautiful day.

 

2 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Autism, Family, Fun, Magpie, Service Dog, Tracking, Travel

May 19, 2012

Day 3… FINALLY

By Bobbie

Sorry for the absence and leaving everyone hanging about our last day at Disneyland.  Somehow I contracted Viral Meningitis, the doctor believes it was the week I had finals but it got a lot worse and mommy ended up in the hospital for a while.  I’m at home on the mend and have wanted to finish up the blogging about our amazing trip to Disneyland.  Especially so our Fairy Godmother can see why we are still smiling even with all the rough patches with unemployment and hospital stays we’ve had the past few weeks.

The last day on our vacation we decided to spend the entire day at Disneyland park.  We knew daddy had to leave by 4 pm to make his flight back home so he could be at work the next day (the dreaded day he lost his job, wish we’d known to save on that airfare and time away from family. ha ha)
We hit Tomorrowland first and Deeds even rode Space Mountain.  It wasn’t his favorite but meeting the storm troopers outside the ride made him quickly forget about that.  The troopers were fascinated with Magpie and I decided that they aren’t actually bad guys but probably just misunderstood.

While the kids and guys went on the last ride I went to stand in line so we could all meet Tinkerbell.  I heard dad yell and then I looked over in time to catch Sleeping Beauty walking by on a pathway while holding the kids hands.

The line for Tinkerbell was long but worth it.  Each family gets to meet them alone and it was AWESOME to meet Tink and her friend Faun who is apparently the Animal Talent fairy and so happy to meet Magpie.

We enjoyed heading over to ride the Haunted Mansion, which might have been better liked if we didn’t get stuck in the dark for a minute or two.  Poor kids weren’t fans after that.  We headed over to ride on Splash Mountain and encountered the Winnie the Pooh ride and right when we got off we saw Tigger, Eeyore and Pooh as well.  Deeds liked Splash Mountain so much he rode it twice, once with dad and once with mom since little sister was too short to make it on the ride.

We enjoyed some lunch and then the kids decided they wanted to go to Toon Town again.  We hopped the train and headed over.  I waited in line to meet some princesses since we were still on a quest to find little sister’s favorite, Princess Tiana.  The guys and kids headed over to ride It’s a Small World again and then we had fun reacquainting ourselves with the princesses again.  Our magical moment of the day happened when Tiana was not there, on the way out I talked with a cast member to find out where we could find her and he told me to just stay in the gift shop for a minute with the kids.  Next thing we knew they were ushering us back in and there was Tiana.  Apparently she had been on a break and they let the kids go back and meet her without waiting in line again.  It really made everyone’s day.

Daddy had to go catch his flight shortly after that.  The kids, Uncle Bryan and mommy headed over to have fun in Fantasyland.  We found out where to meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.

We headed to go grab some ice cream with my cousin and his wife who had just come into town and then enjoyed relaxing as we waited for the parade to start.

Uncle Bryan is loosing his mind a little
Gwen spotted Mickey Mouse first.

We realized we had neglected to do the Jungle Cruise earlier so we headed over there.  JD loved it and laughed so much at the skipper that we all laughed along.  We swung by the carousel for our last ride and then on our way to the front of the park the kids fell asleep.  Rather than wake them to get on the tram we walked back to the car and actually got them buckled in the car and then into beds without waking them.

The next day we drove home.  Even after getting the call that daddy had lost his job we counted our blessings for our magical trip.  Our Fairy Godmother and Uncle Bryan helped us to make this a trip to remember!  We were lucky to have Uncle Bryan help us the entire time we were there and even brave the drive home with the kids and Magpie so that mommy wouldn’t have to do it alone.  Thank you so much Bry.

It’s been about a month since our trip and the kids are STILL talking about it multiple times a day.  They are already planning our next trip and Deeds has informed us of all the rides we forgot to go on and all the characters we still need to see.  I’m glad we waited until we had Magpie to go, and considering I was probably already sick with the Viral Meningitis while we were there and battling tremendous headaches I can’t wait to go again when I feel good.  I mean if the trip was that magical and I was under the weather imagine how it will be next time.  Even if we never make it out again, this was a trip to remember and one we are so incredibly thankful for.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Fun, Heros, In Public, Service Dog, Travel

May 3, 2012

Disneyland Day 2

By Bobbie

On the second day we spent the entire time at Disney California Adventure.  The kids had a lot of fun playing in the Bugs Life area.  We even ran into my cousins and their family and Deeds hit it off so well with their youngest that we had him stay with us and hang out for a little while.  He is such an out going little guy that it was perfect for Deeds.

Gwen and Mommy riding a ride in Bugs Life Land.

Almost unheard of for Deeds to let another child he doesn’t know touch him!

Silly Boys.

Marching in to become a wilderness explorer.

The kids got to be wilderness explorers, we road Ariel’s ride again (quite a few times) and the best part of the day for the kids is the lunch we had with the princesses.  They couldn’t enjoy their food very much because a different princess kept coming around during the meal.  The three adults loved the food however and so the overall experience was fantastic.   We even ran into a family who’s little boy has Dravet, a form of epilepsy that one of our friends from training has.  They even knew our little friend and the cute little guy loved playing with Magpie.

My favorite part of the day was when we happened to be in the right place at the right time to meet sailor Mickey Mouse.  We didn’t only get to meet him but since there was no one around at first he played with the kids a lot.  I think the kids favorite part was when he hid from them behind the garbage can and then bounced his nose a lot when he was kissing them.

Mickey, come out of hiding!

LOVE MICKEY!

Best pals!

Mickey meeting Magpie with Deeds.

After that we went and rode the Toy Story Mania ride.  The cast members were fantastic and even with a packed line they let our little party ride twice in a row.  Deeds and Gwen were SO EXCITED!  It was a great magical moment.

We finished up the evening watching the World of Color water show.  Deeds was NOT a fan but fell asleep part of the way through.  Gwen was really excited about the water, colors and fire.  Hopefully next time we go we will be able to see Fantasmic but they weren’t doing it the days we were there.

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Autism, Family, Fun, Magpie, Service Dog, Travel

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