Braydon's baptism

Whenever we attended a baptism of a friend or family member, it was always amazing to watch the reaction of Braydon as the child was dunked into the waters of baptism. He always seemed to try to jump out of his chair and would let out loud squeals of excitement. His day has finally come and he couldn't have been more excited. He had a wonderful program with an amazing support of friends and family. We started with all the primary age children singing a medley of primary songs, and it was so beautiful to hear their sweet voices. Our dear friend Brandy gave the talk on baptism and she did an amazing job. She had Braydon's attention the entire time. he then was baptized by his dad, the way that Justin held him in the font was in a way to show their special bond that they have together. I am very lucky to have such a wonderful husband and father to our children and this was a humbling reminder of that. He calmed down enough to make it through on the first dunk(those of you who know Braydon are aware of how much he wiggles, let alone near water!). His Uncle Darren gave a wonderful talk on receiving the Holy ghost. He reminded him of what a special companionship it is to have with him in times of need. He was confirmed a member of the church and received the holy ghost by his father with a wonderful circle of Priesthood friends and family. He had an amazing baptism!

A Baby Bird Leaves It's Nest...

We were very fortunate to have a bird nest right out front of our home. We watched the mama and daddy bird build the nest,Mama stay and keep her eggs safe,The baby bird eggs hatch,The mama bird come and feed the birds,Mama coach her baby bird out of her nest to fly, Now the nest is empty....

Madisyn and Braydon started their new school year on July 6th and I too feel like that nest. My baby has grown and left to be at school all day. She is now in the first grade and I am home alone(not quite yet, the older three don't start school until August). For the last fifteen years I have had a child at home with me. I feel a great sense of accomplishment as I sent them off to school. I am mama bird. We built their nest, I kept my babies safe as they grew, and helped them to become independent to leave the nest, to go to school.

I know this is not like me to write so comparingly to something such as a bird nest, but it just seemed so parallel to my life right now.

Braydon is in the third grade now and we just got the new COMMUNICATION DEVICE we have been working on since last year! I will add pictures and tell you how it goes. I went in for four hours one day and learned a lot about it. Braydon came in and got it calibrated to his eyes, so he can move the cursor around the screen. He immediately was asking them to turn the TV on!

Madisyn is excited to be in school all day now and eating lunch at school is such a big deal. I asked her how it was eating lunch at school and she said, "Great! I even got a free chocolate milk!" To which I was a little puzzled? I asked her how she had gotten a free milk and she told me that they had a big cooler full of milk and she just went up and got one! OH! BOY! I did explain to her that those were not free and that she needed to pay for that one.

Braydon turns "8"

Braydon turned eight this year! WOW! He had a wonderful two week celebration of his birthday! He started with celebrating at school on his actual birthday. I brought in "Snickerdoodle" cupcakes to share with his class and teachers. He was given a crown that was made by his special friends in his "ILC" classroom and when he went into his regular classroom they had a birthday hat and light-up cupcake. They sang "Happy Birthday" and we handed out the cupcakes. The tradition in the school is to give out any leftover cupcakes to any other teachers or staff. Braydon gave them to his PE teacher, Cayson's teacher(who allows him to come in everyday on his ponywalker and find the chocolate cabinet and get a bite!), the Assistant Principal Mr. Powell too!

A week later we had a "WATER" party at the park with all his friends from class. We had a relay race a balloon toss and a water fight. The kids enjoyed cupcakes and Braydon opened his presents. I think he smiled the entire birthday party!!

Lost a tooth, Popsicles in the Park and 5th Grade Continuation

Madisyn lost her first tooth in June. She is the youngest of all our kids to do so. The boys all lost their first tooth at the end of first grade or later. She was very excited about this because she had a special tooth card in her kindergarten class that she marked on for each tooth lost during the school year and she made it the last week!!!

Instead of a big assembly, Madisyn's class had Popsicles in the park to say goodbye to kindergarten and look ahead to the new school(which starts two weeks after their last day of kindergarten). We had a fun time at the park and went back to class to say our final goodbyes to Ms. Debbie and kindergarten! Maddie had a great year and has grown so much!! YEAH MADDIE!!!

Cayson has finished elementary school!!! He has attended four elementary schools over the years and always did great. He had a very nice continuation program. Each student was given a certificate and a copy of a slide show they showed during the program! Cayson has come so far! He is a smart kid! Never needed help with homework, always did his work without complaint! He is looking forward to starting middle school and being with Jake again!

"BIG CHEESE DAY", Zoo school trip and Field Day

It was Madisyn's turn to be big cheese in her kindergarten class. Being "Big Cheese" means they are the important person for the day. They get to bring in a snack to share, read a book to the class, share a favorite toy, they have a poster hung up all week about themselves that they get to talk about it and they also have their family come in too. Maddy had a great time being "Big Cheese". She brought in fruit roll ups and kool-aid bursts to drink. She read to the class "Green Eggs and Ham". Brought in her favorite toy dog "Clifford" and when it came time to talk about her pictures she just said, "This is me and this is me and this is my family."

I went on the Zoo field trip for the Kindergarten class. This was the first field trip I went on with Madisyn. We had a enjoyable time! It was funny to watch the girls and their maternal instincts with the animals. I heard a lot of "Ahhing and Oohing. We enjoyed a lunch and returned to school.

The three youngest kids had field day the end of May. It has sure changed from when I remember my field day. Where was the balloon toss? the three-legged race? What is Jump the Canyon? Climb the mountain? It was a beautiful sunny day! Maddy made it to the semi-finals in the crab walk and flag tag! Braydon had the best time in the parachute! Cayson was enjoying being outside all morning.

A wonderful company!!!

We found out about a nonprofit company here in Denver called Kids Mobility Network and what an amazing thing they do for special needs children with mobility issues. The company was started by parent's of a special needs daughter who didn't know what to do with the equipment their daughter outgrew. They take in donated equipment for mobility and refurbish it and re give it to other children. Our insurance would have taken months to order a new chair and would have only covered one item, so we filled out an application for a special wish list of items for Braydon. Braydon was in need of a new wheelchair(his previous one was supposed to last him 4-5 years and he had it for three) and we live in a three level house and wanted him to have a hi-lo seat(you can raise this to table height and lower it to the ground) on our main level so he could watch TV and play all in the same seat. In about 14 days they called us and said they had both available for us! We went down there where they fitted him to the brand new wheelchair(it still had the manufacturer's tags on it) and a slightly used hi-lo. If I could only describe the excitement and smile Braydon had on his face when we tried him out in each new seat! We donated his old wheelchair and another walker that he had outgrown. They only ask for a suggested donation on each item and gave us an invoice on the price each one would have cost us brand new. Let me tell the donation price we gave was one tenth the price each item cost. They are an amazing group of people!

What happened in the last few months

I finally have a working computer!! Over the last four months we had both our laptop and desktop break. We thought it would be nice to take a break from having one in our home for awhile. Thanks to my computer savvy Dad and his graciousness to fix our desktop we are back online. I have a lot to catch up with on the blog:

April

We took a family/business trip the end of April to Salt Lake City. We thought it would be nice since the kids hadn't been there in over six years. I wanted to see Temple Square in all it's spring bloom! I wasn't disappointed. They had colors of tulips that I didn't know existed. It was a wonderful time once we were there. As usual there is never a dull moment in the Fantauzzi's household. We drove out Friday afternoon around 4pm and by about 7pm we were in a blizzard!! We couldn't see a foot in front of us. (It came upon us quite quickly!) We were doing fine with roads, but it wasn't the same for the large Semi's. We came to a complete stop on the interstate just outside Laramie, WY. It appeared that the Semi's were having difficulty on a small hill/curve combination about a mile ahead of where we stopped. Justin called the highway patrol and they told us to sit tight and they should have the trucks cleared in an hour or two. Around midnight we had a highway patrol lady come to our door and ask how much gas we had and if we had any medical needs that wouldn't make it through the night! We had plenty of gas and we ended up spending the night in our suburban on the interstate. I had packed oranges, bananas and many other items that I never bring with us on a road trip. Needless to say we all did well sleeping in our car. Around 8am the snowplows came and we were on our way. We had a real enjoyable time visiting temple square and they added a new center in the Museum that the kids had fun visiting. Justin went to a retirement party that night and the kids and I enjoyed dinner and a movie in the hotel. We felt very blessed to have been so prepared and comforted that night before. Everyone was truly patient during our night's stay on the interstate and it will be one to remember!!

I will continue with the next few months and all the happenings!!