Christmas and a New Year

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! We had a great Christmas and, as always, busy and chaotic one.

We (have always) spent Christmas Eve with Keith's family. We get together with his parents & brother, sister in law, and kids and then head to church. It's always so much fun when we are all together. Now with 5 grandkids and 4 of them being boys, it gets a bit crazy, but I love it!!

And it takes a long time to get a good pic of these 5- lol. I look at this and it makes me sad how quick these kiddos are growing up. My niece is almost 13- I still can recall the day she was born! 

When the kids open their gifts, it's my favorite time. I love seeing how happy and excited they ALL get!

We let the "cousin twins" open gifts at the same time, it's just easier that way! Then we made the older 3 due birth order- youngest to oldest.

And I love the chance to capture these 5 loves and their grandparents- Always special memories

After church we went and hung out with Keith's moms side of the family. We don't get to see them often, but this is a tradition long before I started dating Keith and it so nice. Keith's cousins are so sweet and  give the kids presents. This year we did another cousin photo, it is all the cousins' kids on his moms side. We did this about 5 years ago, when Aiden was 1, so it was cool to have an updated photo with some new spouses/ significant others. We were only missing one cousin/spouse!

Then Christmas Day came and I think this was my favorite one yet! Although tired, the kids totally were into it this year. It did only take all of 5 mins to open gifts, but the were so excited and JP kept saying, "oh this is awesome!" These are the memories I realize are fleeting, but will last forever. Now I know why people say you kids are only young once!

And this year, I got the most amazing gift! Aidens school does a Secret Santa workshop, so we sent him with money to buy for his parents, grandparents, and brother.  Well Aiden got me a ring and his reason was he wanted to "replace" the (wedding) rings I lost earlier this year. Yes that's Mommy's heart breaking you hear!! I had lost my wedding ring(s) in Sept and we can't find them anywhere, I've been upset about this and the fact my sweet 6 yr old understands how important this is to me is amazing!

We then rounded out Christmas Day by celebrating with my family, where the kids were showered with more gifts from my parents, sister and brother in law and then my aunt/uncle, cousins and their kids!

And I'm excited to announce, next year they'll have a new girl cousin on my side to celebrate with!! My sister and her husband are having a baby and found out two days before Christmas it's a girl!!

We are now preparing to head into the new year. While a new year is always exciting and refreshing, we know this year ahead will defintely have it's struggles. JP is scheduled for his next surgery on Jan 23rd. We will begin lengthening his leg. He will be in an external fixator for at least 5-6 mos and this will defintely be new territority for us.

We had a pre op appt Monday and both the doc & the PT at the hospital thinks it won't be long after surgery before JP will be back on his feet!

So as you go into the new year, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on the latest journey for JP having two even legs. Please also pray as this will be an adjustment for Aiden too!  He will have to deal with seeing his brother in pain, needing more attention, and being away from Mom and Dad when we are in the hospital with JP.

We wish you all a very happy & healthy 2015!!

Christmastime is here!

  The countdown is 4 days till Christmas, as I am reminded daily by my 6 year old. It's been a very fast, but fun season this year. We have had many new adventures from years past.

We built a Gingerbread train!

Which each of them just absolutely loved!!

We went on a sleigh ride with Santa ( a local shopping center has a horse pulled sleigh for kids to ride every Saturday in December)! The boys loved the one on one time with Santa!

Keith and I got to celebrate the holidays with some of our good friends at an adult only party!

Aiden had his holiday party at school which I got to attend and help with crafts!

I got adventous this year and decided to make cookies for Santa with the boys. 

Usually this is Keith's job with the help of me and maybe Aiden, but with him working full time it just wasnt going to happen this year. So I took on the task and decided to bake chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies from scratch.

It defintely takes patiences baking with a 6 year old and not yet 3 year old, but we all survived! LOL. It actually was a lot of fun and besides making sure the measurements were right and handling the oven, I let them use their creativity to do the rest.

We had 4 cookie cutters, but they seemed to get bored with them after a while and started to create their own shapes.

 

I think their favorite part was decorating with icing and jimmies (sprinkles to you non Philly people)

We wrapped up the pre Christmas celebration with a train ride with Santa on the West Chester Santa Express. It was very cute! The boys got their tickets punched (like the Polar Express movie), Santa stops by on the train, there was Christmas carols, and a stop to take your pic with Santa before heading back.

All in all, we have had a great season this year preparing for Santa's big arrival and we are ready! 

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2015!

We will go into 2015 with some apprehension as it's another year we have to hand over our child for surgery. And now it will be sooner then we anticipated. We chose to move JPs surgery up to Jan 23rd. Why there's no "right" time for your kid to have surgery, we felt better pushing it up, so he can (hopefully) start preK fixator free.

With this surgery, there will be a lot of new territory for us. It's a shorter surgery then last time, but with a longer recovery process. We have never encounter an external fixator, pin turns, and what will be a more vigorous PT schedule initially.

And of course the effects of how all this will effect Aiden too

 We will be happier to be on the other side quicker and hoping our little superhero bounces back quickly!

So as we move into 2015, we ask our loyal supporters to keep us in your thoughts and prepares as we prepare (not only emotionally, but also clothing altering and all) and head into the next phase for JP!

Thank you!

6 years at the same gig

So the fall is in full swing and the holidays are right around the corner- how can this be?? Being a mom of two has put me so behind on my blog updates.

The boys had a great Halloween. This year we had a Police Officer and a Superman. Again they loved going around to the houses and saying trick or treat..and the candy wasn't so bad either. Aiden has now learned what candy is "safe" for him to eat and what is not.  It is great that he is aware, but it also made him look like "that kid", you  know the one is trying to score their favorite candy.

The boys are doing great. Aiden is still loving school and riding the bus, while I think JP is loving the peace and quiet in the morning. Most days our mornings seem like a nut house with two working parents trying to get out the door and getting a kid on the bus, but I'm sure that's no different in your house too.

Having two boys means there is a lot of...ummm...activity in our house. They wrestle, run around, get very silly, and do some fighting. So we try our best to keep their play time interesting.

We also spend a good amount of time doing arts and crafts, as well as playing school, which they love. It also keeps them calm and still.

This past week, we celebrated our special little guy- Aiden turned 6 on Thursday! So strange to think we have been doing this parenting gig that long.

I took the day off from work. I figure this is the last year I will get to spend the majority of his day with him since he will be in school all day next year. Since Daddy had to work and then play a musical the night if his bday, we went out to dinner the night before to his favorite resturant- Victory in Downingtown. He was so excited and what made his night was when they stuck a candle in his ice cream and they sang to him.

The day of, we let him open one present before school and then off he went. His school honors birthdays by doing non edible celebrations, so he brought his favorite book in to read to his class- Pete the Cat Plays Ball.

When he got off the bus- Mommy and Jonathan greeted him with balloons (Daddy was working). Grammy (my mom) came over and we took the birthday boy out for lunch- pizza of course. Then he came home and open a gift from Grammy & Pop, as well as his Uncle Brian and Aunt Amy who live in NC.

Mommy was a bit mean as she made him wait to open the rest of his gifts from us until Daddy came home. I must say he did really well, asked a few times to open one more, but wasn't bugging and had restraint....unlike his brother.

Then finally Daddy came home and he tore into his gifts. It was another year of Angry Bird things.

And we sang to him (again).

It's hard to believe he's 6! He so loving and sweet and sensitive. I think he also struggles with sharing the spotlight with his brother from time to time that he loved a day about him. Aiden still has another celebration to come (his birthday always feels like it will never end) when the family gets together for Thanksgiving and he gets to enjoy "his" day with his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins.

On Friday I was off as well and got to go in and help Aidens class celebrate Thanksgiving, which he loved. He's getting so big, so fast that I understand why people say enjoy these moments now, even the crazy ones.

JP is doing great as well. He tried to jump in on his brothers birthday action.

But he did great for the most part, well, until the toys were open and now he wants to play with all Aiden's new stuff.

After I got home from spending the morning with Aiden and his class on Friday, JP and I were off to DuPont. He got a new AFO, which we are super excited about!

This AFO came about from an idea Keith had in mind and one that we saw of another FH girl in our support group. It's a (partial) articulating brace which makes him have to control his footing and balance more, as well as give him some range of motion in his ankle. His last AFO restricted his ankle. It worked well and did what it needed to after his surgery last year, but now being healed and all, we want him to have a more "normal" feeling of using his leg/ankle. He is doing so well with it and again we are so excited for him. 

I'm so thankful for the support group we found on Facebook. I feel like I know some of these people so well, but yet we never met or on,he met a few times. I love that we can bounce ideas, ask suggestions, air our frustrations to each other. it has been truly a blessing already to have them in our lives!

JP always does so well during these long hospital visits, whether seeing the doctor or going to the prosthetic and orthotic clinic. This day we spent a few hours down at the hospital, as we had to get him use to the brace and see how he would adjust to it. Jonathan just played and had a good time.

He's defintely an amazing kid and also a ham! He to is growing up fast.

But none the less, I love my boys and spending time with them- crazy or not.