A New Year, A New Car

It sure feels like that anyway!  HOPEFULLY, we have finally found the right vehicle for our situation and we can stop running a used car lot from our driveway!  

The bus was fine in that it fits both wheelchairs, the rest of our family, and all of Bryce and Annalise's supplies.  The Jetta (AKA Green Smoothie) was great in that it gets great gas mileage and it was nice to have a smaller car to run around town in when I am on my own.  However, we quickly learned that this combination of vehicles is not the best.  First of all, I rarely go anywhere on my own, so having a small car without a wheelchair hook up is just silly...it's just not realistic.  And second of all, there are many times that I only need to take one of the little ones to Phoenix or some other place for an appointment and it was costing us 50 bucks each time we had an appointment.  Crazy!  

So, I did some more searching and decided that a minivan that would hold one wheelchair might be a better option.  However, even the 10+ year old converted minivans were crazy expensive!  I was bidding on some through ebay motors only to find out that the reserve for those was about $10,000 more than I was bidding.  Ouch!   And they weren't anywhere near new or super nice!  Finally, I ended up contacting a company in Florida regarding one of the vans they had for sale.  I told them what we were looking for and what our price range was .  They said that the van I was looking at was much more expensive than that, but they had another one that had just come into their lot that may work for what we needed.  It is a 2001, but only had 31,000 miles on it and looked brand new.  They sent us pictures and we fell in love.  That was right before Christmas.  We worked things out with the dealership in Florida and by New Year's Day, we had our new van.

The only problem with it was that it arrived without the title!  So we contacted them and they said that they had just sent it to us by UPS.  About a week later, we had the title and were able to drive our van.   

It took some getting used to by Bryce, but he is now very comfortable in it.

 The best part about this van is that because of the way the conversion was done and the type of ramp that they put in, both of the small wheelchairs can fit at the same time!  Serious bonus!  Now we don't have to take the bus to church or other short trips!  

Who would have thought that we would be back in a minivan!  It's tight, but everyone fits.  When everyone is in, there isn't much room for anything else, so whenever we go on any over night or all day trips, we will have to take the bus, but for quick trips to Phoenix, or church, or around town, we can all ride in a "normal" size vehicle that gets good gas mileage once again.  This van is truly a blessing. Now as long as this one keeps running and if we can just sell the green smoothie and one of the buses, we'll be all set!

Bryce's Birthday Celebration

We had planned on spending Bryce's birthday at the Ryan house, but we found out last minute that John would be going out of town for work from the 23rd to the 27th, so we decided to cancel our plans and celebrate at home this year.  Since my Dad's birthday is the 23rd, we celebrated both of their birthdays the day before on Sunday at my parent's house.  

First we sang Happy Birthday to Bryce 

 and then we did it again (he seriously can't get enough of that song.  It is so funny!)

Then we sang to my dad.  It is so nice having my parents down here.  I think that they are really liking Arizona as well.  Who knows, maybe they will decide to stay!

When we were done singing, Annalise sang her own version of Happy Birthday to Bryce.  (Sorry about the annoying laugh at the end)

January 25, 2012

Happy Birthday Bryce! 

Since Bryce didn't want to wear the birthday crown from his teachers at school, they attached his birthday certificate to his wheelchair instead.  This is him when he got home holding the card that he had also gotten from his teachers.  I love his school.  It is going to be sad to say good-bye to them at the end of the year. 

We had just a little cake and presents for Bryce on his actual birthday.  You can tell by the look on his face here that he was not enjoying the thought of having that frosting anywhere near him.   

Once the candles were lit, it was better... 

and then the singing began and once again, all was good with his world! 

We again sang multiple times  

and then Annalise wanted to help blow out the candles.  She is not quite able to do it, so William and Jacob ended up helping as well.  Finally all 5 candles were out and we had cake and then went on the presents. 

What Bryce would have really loved (and I would have loved to get for him) for his birthday is a bike.  He is no longer happy with just watching other kids ride bikes, he really wants to ride.  I usually just hold him on one and help him move around the driveway.  Not quite the same, so a few months ago, I looked into adaptive bikes.  I found this one on the Rifton website.  It looked great!

As I looked further, I found that an adaptive trike that would give him enough support, would cost over $1800!  So, unfortunately that didn't happen this year.  We need to save a few more pennies before we can get him what he would really love!

So instead, he got this stack of goodies. 

Once again, Annalise was very willing to help him open his gifts! 

He seems to be much more excited about the Tom and Jerry then the Wiggles, but since that night, he has enjoyed them both. 

By the end of the day, Bryce was definitely tired out.  I had barely changed him into his new birthday PJ's and he was asleep on the floor.  I can't believe our baby boy is 5 years old!  We are so thankful that we got to spend this one with him.  I hope we get to celebrate many more special days with him!

January catch-up and on to February

Yes, it's time for a little catch up.  First of all, I am so glad that January is over.  It was a month that was beyond packed with stuff that had to be done, not to mention a few less-than-fun surprises.  February has been a bit calmer so far, but we shall see what happens in the upcoming months.  John's mom is coming into town tomorrow, so hopefully our wonderful weather will hold up for her while she is here and everyone will stay well!  

So...January happenings...

Another year...another pinewood derby!  My boys love the pinewood derby.  This year we were a little concerned that John would be in the hospital and not able to help the boys with their cars, but luckily he was out in time!  William and Jacob designed their cars and then worked with their dad to make it a reality.  

William and Jacob both raced in the first race.  William's car did ok, but Jacob's never made it to the end.  After this happened again, the judges told him that if a car is a non-finisher, he is able to work on it and see if they can get it to the end.  John ended up putting different tires on it and luckily that took care of the problem. I was proud of Jacob though, even though his car didn't make it to the end at first, he was fine with it.  I'm sure he was happier when it did finish, but I was proud of him for not getting upset.  

Once his car was working, they had him "race" alone a few times to get some speeds and catch him up to the other boys.  He didn't really know what was going on, but he just went along with it.  William's car came in first one time and they both had a great time racing with their friends!

William, Nathan Peterson, Jacob, and Spencer (who is excited that he too will race next year!)

The boys are all into bey blades this year and Jacob chose to add one to the top of his car.  He was awarded the "most futuristic" award.

William was awarded the "most aerodynamic" which was great since that is exactly what he was going for!  They both did well and the best part was that they had a lot of fun both creating/making their cars and racing them!

After the pinewood derby we went out to Famous Dave's to celebrate the raise that John had gotten that week.   We are so blessed that he has a job that he loves and which helps to pay the bills and allows us to go out to eat occasionally.  This meal was supposed to feed 2-3 people.  It fed all 5 of us with plenty of left overs to take home.  

It was funny, when the people who ended up sitting next to us were seated, it was obvious that they were a little reluctant to sit there.  It was a slightly older couple and his mother.  They finally did sit down next to us and luckily it all ended up okay.  In fact, as they were getting ready to leave, they turned to us and asked us what we were doing next Saturday.  Granted, we thought that was a little strange, but the lady went on to say that it had been a pleasure sitting next to our family and that they would love to go out with us again.  We joked about that for a minute and then they told John what a wonderful Dad he is and what well behaved children he has.  That is always nice to hear!

Since we knew that taking Bryce and Annalise to a restaurant would be more like torture for them than fun, we left them home with our respite worker.  Although we missed having them with us, it was nice to be out and able to spend some time with the older boys.