Christmas, here we come

It's that time of year again.  School has ended in CMS, the Christmas parties for the kids are over, and we are getting ready to see family and friends over this holiday season.

The tree is up with all sorts of wrapped presents underneath.

The stockings are hung ready to be stuffed.

Tons of Christmas cards are hung on the wall from all sorts of family and friends.

(sorry not all of them pictured here)

And two little boys ready to open gifts.

We can not wait for Christmas to arrive.  We are planning to stay busy this weekend and through Christmas.  Jay has The Hulk, Ironman, Ninja Turtles, and Transformers all on his list.  If you just mention something else, he adds it to it.  Mason, has no idea what is going on, just that he can't touch the tree or presents.  Oh those glowing lights are just a way to trick little kids and get them into trouble.

This year, we don't have a picture with Santa with the boys.  We didn't make our way to a mall or anywhere else where Santa was there.  Jay really hasn't made a big deal of it.  He knows the reason for the season is for Jesus' birthday.  Last week in Sunday School they had a birthday party and brought gifts for the the Latin American Campus food pantry.

Next time, we will have pictures from Christmas to share.  Until then, have a Merry Christmas!!

Weekend Entertainment

Friday night,  I was able to get out for a bit and go to a friend's house to have a girl's night.  It was great to get away just talk about whatever and just hang out for about 2 hours.

Saturday started out cleaning house while Garrett went to basketball practice at the church with his 13-14 year old boys.  Cleaning with a one-year old at your feet can be challenging, but can be done.

Yesterday afternoon, we made our way to the Charlotte Motor Speedway for my 3rd 5k.  We had awesome weather; 70 in December.  We couldn't ask for a better day.

Kelly McNeill and Laura Church ran in the race as well.  Come to find out in the end, there were several other people that we knew that were there.  We started the race by driving a bus from the speedway to the ZMax dragstrip.  We ran from midway in the dragstrip to the end of it through a tunnel and up to one of the bridges that crosses the road.  The second mile that takes you to the bridge was the toughest because it was a steep uphill run.  Once we crossed the bridge into the speedway we ran all the way around the track.  It was a pretty neat run and really cool to be inside the speedway.  I know I've only been there once, but now I can say I've been there twice.

Afterward, there was the kid dash, which really seemed like a sprint that Jay ran.  It was kind of crazy and some kids trampled over some and others ran in the 5k lane to the finish.

If you look close, you can see Jay to the far left of the picture

Here is Jay crossing the finish line running his little heart out.

Here are the two little runners and their moms when it was all done.

My goal this year was to run a 5k and I've done 3 to finish out the year.  Not bad.  My first was 27:27 in September, 26:26 in November, and 27:24 yesterday.  I was hoping for better yesterday, but still not bad.  I was 1st for the 30-34 year old women and was actually 78th among all of the runners.  I'm not really doing it to win, but the competition side of me doesn't mind if I do.  I haven't signed up for one next year, but I plan to at some point.  Lets see if I can get a better time.  I would like to be under 25 minutes at some point.

Thanks...even in the bad times

As a kid, we give thanks for the little things. Jay's thankful for God, his books, his bed and his shoes. He has no worries in the world, except for what clothes he's going to wear the next day and if we will let him wear a superhero shirt or not to school.

Through this month I've read some of the posts on Facebook where people have participated in the 30 days of Thanksgiving. I've chosen not to participate. It seems that most of the things people are thankful for are repeats of someone else and most of us are thankful for our kids, our awesome spouses and something they've done for us, the food on the table, having a job and more. But I have not seen where anyone posts they are thankful for bad things. As I look back on life and just recently in the past 2 years, it's crazy to say, but thanks for an ectopic pregnancy, a miscarriage, a prognosis of Down Syndrome. Without all that, we wouldn't have a child who sleeps very well, a good eater, and a happy boy who puts a smile on everyone's face. Without this, Mason wouldn't exist. Garrett and I would not be who we are today. The bad times make you stronger. Through our experiences, we wouldn't have met the people we've encountered. We wouldn't be able to share our experiences and most of all, Jay wouldn't have a little brother he adores so much. Although times are crazy and we ask God why, I always think, it could be worse. Someone else has it worse off than us and honestly, we live a typical normal life.

Today, my car decided a spark plug would break and cause some lights to come on. Things will happen with cars and will break, it's just a matter of when, but thanks that it was at a manageable time, a quick repair, and at no cost because it was under warranty.

As we go into Thanksgiving tomorrow, think of not only the present, but of the past and the future. The past brought you where you are today, and the present and your decisions today will take you to your future. God only gives us what we can handle, even if it does take us to our breaking point, it's how we handle it and where it takes us later that people see. Be thankful for everything good or bad.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Trick and whole lot of Treats

Tonight we had a whole bunch of people to go around the neighborhood with. We were joined by the Smith's, King's, McEntire's, McNeill's, Belote's, Kiser's, Knudsen's and I think that's it. We ended up splitting so that the bigger kids were together and then the smaller kids were together. They all had a blast running door to door, fighting over who would be to the door first and who would ring the doorbell. Many of the neighbors sit on their porch to pass out candy or leave a bucket on the porch so the kids can pick it up. We decided to leave a bowl full of candy while we went out thinking that most of it would be gone by the time we got back. Actually, most of the candy was still there. There were some really honest kids who took only one or two candies.

We hope you had a Happy Halloween!!

Fall Festival

Yesterday afternoon, we joined several hundred people at our church for the Fall Festival. Jay dressed as the Incredible Hulk while Mason wore Jay's dragon/lizard/dinosaur costume from when he was one. Mason had so much fun, he passed out in the stroller. Jay enjoyed playing games, the hayride and getting tons of candy. We saw all sorts of people we knew. Garrett's parents worked the event at the Dead Head shooting game. Chris dressed the part. Jay got a picture with one of his friends Jesse and raced his friend Hannah in the bounce house. Jay won, but he had an advantage since he wasn't wearing a hoop dress. Can't wait until next year. Mason will be able to walk around and enjoy the games.

Mason: PT Evaluation

Each month, we meet with a coordinator from the child development services from our county. She monitors Mason's development and brings us material and ideas that we can try and use with Mason as he develops. We are able to bring in therapists to evaluate Mason at no cost to us whenever we feel it is needed. On Tuesday, Mason had his third evaluation. Mason is doing great right now crawling, pulling up, feeding himself, drinking with a sippy cup himself, and even standing up without holding onto anything. Unfortunately, he has figured out some of these things on his own, but they are really weird and maybe even wrong. He is beginning to form habits that could prevent him from learning to walk sooner. The physical therapist suggested this time, Mason start therapy. He needs to learn to use and bend his knees more as well as learn to shift his weight to begin taking steps. Hopefully, once we start therapy, Mason will catch on quickly.

Just keep us in your thoughts and prayers because it is another appointment added to our weekly (biweekly) routine. School is crazy and really busy this year and I know Garrett's been working a lot, so the added extra appointment in the afternoon can be tough. We will manage and do the best for both of our kids. Some weeks are crazier than others and I look back and wonder how did everything get accomplished..

Thanks for all of your support this last year with Mason. It has greatly been appreciated.

Little of this, little of that

What a week!! When it comes to Thursday, it feels as if it should be Friday or perhaps even Saturday because I've worked so much and am worn out, but I have to keep on trucking to get the week done.

This week has been a really exciting week for Mason. He has really started to get around on his knees. No longer does he do the worm, but he is actually crawling on his knees. Also, he has started to stand from sitting. He had been pulling up on furniture around the house, but just this week will stand in the middle of the floor. He even does it without using his hands. Since he has low muscle tone, Mason is able to hyperextend his knees and gets up. The person that we meet with one a month with the county to evaluate his development, was really impressed yesterday. She thinks that he will be walking in the next month or so. With this anticipation, we have decided to have another physical therapy evaluation in the middle of next month. He may not actually need therapy, but she will give us good ideas of what to do to help his development.

Jay had his 3rd soccer game last night. Each game, Jay has improved. The first week he couldn't keep his hands off people and ball control wasn't there. Last night, he was playing without using his hands and really dribbles the ball well. He scored a couple of goals last night when the ball wasn't stolen from him by his own players.

This morning we spent a couple of hours with his friends from school for Baer's birthday. We went to Monkey Joe's for about 2 hours of fun. I think all of them were pretty worn out afterward.

Infectious

The doctor's office has been my second home the past three days. Jay's had a cough for about two weeks and it wasn't going away. Really no other symptoms, that I knew of but couldn't stand him coughing during the night. We got to the doctor on Saturday and come to find out, Jay has two really bad ear infections. This boy can take some pain.

Today I was back at the doctor with Mason. He was starting to catch a cold as he does about every few weeks because of a low immune system. This was different because poor thing, it was coming out of his eyes and eventually was coming out of one of his ears with nasty stuff. Fortunately, we found out that his tubes are doing their job and that he just has a bacterial infection. No worries for anyone else, but the little guy seems very wore out and tired.

Needless to say, both are on meds and on the mend. I so don't want to go back to the doctor before Mason's 1 year visit in October.

Holiday weekend

Our holiday weekend was filled with tons of stuff to do. The weekend started with a girl's night with the Sunday School class at On the Border on Friday. Garrett took the kids to his parents to play for the night.

Saturday morning we all woke up and Garrett headed to a Hearts and Hammer project in Matthews and we headed to the Matthews Alive parade. Candy was the word at the parade. We met up with several kids from the Sunday School class who also enjoyed themselves.

Sunday, we headed to church and then came back to naps and a baby shower for a good friend. Later on Sunday we went over to Megan and Jeremy's for a small cookout. Noah had a great idea for Jay to spend the night. I think they had a blast.

Monday morning we woke up and got Jay from Noah's and soon headed to a one year old birthday party.

Our weekends don't slow down. They just get busier. Here's just a few snapshots from the weekend to enjoy.