Wrapping Up December….

Hard to believe it's almost a new year!  We've had a very busy December though, here are a few pics from this month….

Ainsley turned 8 on December 20th!  She had her party on the 15th and I plan to share that on my party page.  10 little girls had a great time though.  

Party day!

Bennett has had soooo much fun at school this year.  This day was pajama day!  He loves wearing that back pack!

Writing letters to Santa;)

 This is one of my favorite pictures of Bennett because he's wearing the same coat his daddy wore when he was a little boy!  Yep, Grandma saved it!  He was all dressed up to meet Santa at his school Christmas party.  

Opening his gift from Santa.

The girls had fun at the party and are tracked out for the next 4 weeks…I have no idea what we're going to do but I better come up with something quick! :0

Here's Bennett meeting Santa.  This is the first year he's interacted with him.   Other years he's just plopped on Santa's lap and the girls sit next to him and we get a quick photo.  But at his school, Santa really took time with each and every child. I thought this picture was so sweet;)

Pushing the red light under Santa's glove-very nice trick I must say;)

There was so much more and of course we haven't even gotten to the big day but thinking back on everything just exhausts me.  In a good way though.  We've been blessed with happy and healthy kids, great friends, loving family...so much to be thankful for.  So just a few more days and then "that's a wrap!"

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a blessed new year!!!

Christmas Around Our House...

No words, just lots of pics…

Merry Christmas From Our Family to Yours!

Stay tuned for a Christmas tour around the house, later this week!

Feeling….

Blessed because this little guy said "uv you" and signed it in response to me saying it when I dropped him off …I usually get tears.

Stressed because "Charlie" is back and if he doesn't move every night..ahem, like he's supposed to, I get tons of questions the next morning;)

A Mess because my house is covered in glitter, ribbon, and wreaths.

But I Guess all that Mess was inspired by this, that was discovered on Pinterest;)

Well, and that just makes me feel kinda….cool:)  Sorry no rhyme for that one!  

I think it's time for a small update...

Well it wouldn't be right to not post an outfit on a Wednesday!  Entire outfit is from Target and the shoes are from Old Navy.  Tellin' ya people, you can get some cute stuff at Target!

Halloween!  The kids looked pretty cute, huh?;)

Bennett made a cute "T-Bird"!

Going to school and getting sick has been the name of the game lately.  But all are well right now!

I'm making wreaths!  Email me if you'd like one!  The are $60 plus shipping costs.

That's it for now.  Just recovering from a long election season and moving on.  Looking forward to some holiday decorating and an appearance of a wreath I made in a real magazine!!!  More on that later....

If I Could Change Something...

I haven't been posting about Down syndrome on my blog this month but I have shared things on facebook.  The month is wrapping up and I wanted to share this post with you:


Today will be my last post about Down syndrome for the month.  But I won't stop advocating for my son, not ever.  If I could change anything about Down syndrome it wouldn't be to change Bennett and make him like all other "typically developing" kids.  Nope, we like him just the way he is.  But it would be to change how the world views him.  How people perceive the diagnosis of Down syndrome, how people treat people with Down syndrome, how people make fun and say hurtful things.  I would change it so that everyone would see Bennett how we see him.  And I hope by advocating for him others will come to see that.

Thanks to all our amazing friends and family who do see Bennett the way we see him and love him for just being Bennett.

Girl's Day At The Pumpkin Patch...

Hard to believe October is coming to an end already!  We had to get in the annual pumpkin patch visit!  So with an invite from a friend that was hosting an event we decided it would be our last chance to go and it wouldn't be right without a real visit to get pumpkins.  Only Bennett was still sick so it was just me and the girls this year... 

My big girls!

Happy Fall!

Good Heart News for Bennett!!

So incase you didn't know, Bennett had open heart surgery when he was 10 weeks old- he was barely 10 pounds and it was by far the scariest thing Mike and I have gone through together-okay well, Ainsley's birth was high up there as well but open heart surgery on a baby is pretty darn scary too.  But since then we take Bennett once a year to check on his heart because with the type of surgery and heart defect that he had, there is often minor leaking in the mitral valve of the heart.

So every year I of course get a tad bit anxious but honestly, Bennett has been very healthy and gives me no reason to think anything is going on but you just never know.

Last week we went in for his yearly visit and the cardiologist was so impressed with how everything looked!  He called it a "near perfect repair" (B's surgery was done at CHOP in PA and then we moved and we see a cardiologist at Duke in NC) and said in another year or so we could go to every other year! He really couldn't believe how nice everything looked, including his scar.  He said there was very little leaking and gave him a clean bill of health as far as his heart was concerned.

Here he is waiting for his echo.  You can see his 4 inch scar if you look closely.  

Of course later that night Bennett came down with the Croup-ugh!  We've had strep throat and croup since starting preschool but I know that school usually comes with exposing kids to new germs.  He's slowly getting over croup-it's now just a really bad cold {I think} and I feel terrible that there is not much I can give him for it;(

Trying to feel better.  

Hope all of this clears up before Halloween!

Bennett's Brigade....

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Bennett Goes On A Field Trip!

Well, Bennett has been in school for a month now and I think it's taken him a while to adjust to his new schedule, but he's finally coming around.  It's a whole new world to him.  He went from being with his mommy 24/7 to going to school and staying from 9:15-3:45, where he eats there as well as naps, receives his therapies, and then rides back home in the "cab".  (The school provides transportation back and forth but it's not a school bus, it's actually an SUV with car seats and 2 adults are on board.)

Anyways, this week his school went on their first field trip of the year-to the farm!  So here are some pics of Bennett on his very first school field trip....

He was excited to run around when we first arrived and eagerly pointed out the tractor that would pull us on the hayride saying "tacker, tacker".

Happy Bennett on the hayride, at first...

And then Maaad Bennett when it started getting too bumpy;)  The guy honking the tractor horn didn't help either!

The girls are tracked out of school this month so they got to go along as well.  They love seeing all of Bennett's school friends!

Fun on the tractor!

Until big sister came to join him.

Not so thrilled when it was time to sit down and make butter.

But sweet hugs from his sweet teacher Mrs. Caroline made things better;)

All in all it was a great day!  I just love his little school and all the things they are doing for the kids that go there. In a few weeks they'll go to the State Fair for another field trip but we'll be out of town for that one;( 

We're so thankful that Bennett has the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful school!!