Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving was great! Lots of down time to relax, hosted the 1st Thanksgiving in our new home, and we enjoyed doing more fun activities outside since the weather was gorgeous! A trip to the zoo was a blast seeing Santa dive with the penguins. We had friends over for play dates and introducd the boys to holiday movies. They are super excited for SANTA! Preston even learned the sign for Santa. Definitely a holiday break to remember! :) Need to add more pics from my camera instead of just my phone. Enjoy! 

Diggers, Dinosaurs, and Donuts! Plus Trach FREE for P Celebration!

Last weekend was BIG for a lot of reasons. My boys had their 3rd b-day bash and time is slipping thru my fingers. :( Their upstairs playroom wall will soon be sporting an amazing 3ft canvas from the celebration showing all of our amazing friends/family's 'Trach Free for P' shirts (the group photo turned out fantastic!). Diggers, Dinosaurs, and Donuts covered every inch of our kitchen and was  a HIT! Preston blew out his own b-day candles. We said good-bye to Infant Toddler Services and had Preston's first IEP with his team. We also got the 'PERFECT AIRWAY' news to make this celebration even more surreal! I always joked with Tim that we would have a HUGE HUGE celebration once P was trach free and planning for it still didn't sink in. It wasn't till I sat down and looked at the photos taken from our group shot and I had chills. My heart if bursting with gratitude to our friends and family who helped us cross over the finish line! Life is GREAT! Preston is vocal as ever. Words are happening slowly. School is the best thing to happen to both of them. The routine feel amazing. Their teacher has me SO excited about learning more signs (he has the words but can't verbally get them ALL out yet so this is a great way to bridge that gap). Now that his IEP has taken place, services have started. He receives speech and OT and changes are already happening. Really exciting! We have signs for all of his friends names at school b/c this little fella is a social butterfly and greets his peers each morning with a wave and "hi!" so we immediately needed signs for their names. I wish i could be a fly on the wall each morning. The best part of all is that the kids are receptive. Reid is a peer in his class (like i have mentioned before) and he can trace his name and loves having me sing about his friends during our song time before bed. I am sure i sound like i am coo coo for cocoa puffs but its so cute! :) He is a BIG encourager to Preston to talk at home too. Hard to believe 3 is here and I plan to enjoy this next year. People have warned me about the terrible 3's but I am choosing to think otherwise. My goal is to keep them busy (i find their behavior is terrible when B.O.R.E.D but fantastic when busy and minds are occupied) and school has made a big difference with this. I am sure my post over Christmas break will include being MORE THAN READY for school to start LOL :) Routine is such a wonderful thing! 

I celebrated the boys actual birth day by taking them to the mall after school got out early. We headed to Starbucks in Barnes and Noble for a coffee for me and ice waters for them. I had them order their waters from the barista with a please and thank you (they thought they were BIG STUFF) and they each enjoyed a giant cookie compliments of the Kids Club! Such a fun program. Then we headed upstairs to the train table (its tucked away in the children's books dept) and played away! We paid the Disney Store a visit for some fun movie videos and then headed to the play area. Such a fun morning and I am grateful I get to spend my days being a mom and enjoying every second before it is gone too soon! They slept for 3 1/2 hrs that afternoon- VERY nice!! Birthdays are tiring ;) If I could tell them now and have them understand, I would simply say THANK YOU! My boys entering my life 3 years ago has changed me in every way imaginable. I look at life in a whole new lens like most parents do! I am more compassionate, understanding, giving, others focused, sensitive, relaxed, and thankful. I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for my little lovies! Tim and I are looking forward to it! :) I have too many pics to post. Here is my fav! 

Sharing a bed with your son

Well, three generations pile into the car and take off to the Queen City, Cincinnati. P did awesome along the way and we stopped and allowed him out to run as much as possible. We were stocked with snacks from Lorna's open house and Nana. We even had Nana-made sandwiches. Those were a hit. He watched 4 Disney movies and did not sleep until we had about 2 hours left of the 10 hour drive. We arrived to RMH and had dinner. He made a direct route for the play room. The funny thing is that anytime Ronald McDonald came around P would sign for grandma since Julie was a clown for Halloween. Pretty funny!

5am came early and we were off to the OR. We got all prepped and went back. My dad and I were walking as the doctors were walking in, I predicted about 40 minutes and I was right. Dr Rutter and Benscotter, the Pulmanolgist, met and shared what they saw. All looks good, the lower lobes of his lungs were a little junky, they suspect due to him not having a strong cough. Also his air way is S shaped, which is normal for kiddos who had traches. No concern shown for it since he is doing well. We were given a 6 month reprieve from coming back and we were given permission to do a revision. Dr. Andrews will do it and that will be bitter sweet. His neck will look as if nothing ever happened. 

We head home tomorrow and will resume life. 

Fall Festivities and Halloween

We have had a busy Fall getting into a routine with school and establishing new work hours for me while Tim was in full swing with practices and games. Tim is done coaching so I feel like i can take a breath now. Halloween was fun and I had the pleasure of going to the boys 1st school 'party.' So cute! We pulled Preston's Mickey button out so he is feeding tube FREE. That feels INCREDIBLE!!!! We are gearing up for my 12th annual holiday open house this weekend so my boys will be off to Grandpa and Nana's for some fun. Tim and Preston leave Sunday for Cincinnati with Grandpa Walker. They are driving. Flights were too expensive to justify the cost so they are roadtripping. I am looking forward to some quality time with Reid. Preston will have a another visit to the O.R. on Monday for his post decannulation follow up scope. Please pray his airway looks GREAT! They will be staying at the Ronald McDonald House which we are so thankful for. They had a short stay room available! I am curious to see how a school day for Reid goes without his side kick. The house will be VERY quiet! We are really eager for Preston's Trach FREE for P party coming up! The boys celebrate their 3rd Birthday on the 15th with a Diggers, Dinosaurs, and Donuts party. We decided to combine both celebrations with this time of year being so busy for everyone. We asked friends and family to wear their shirts and it will be so wonderful to finally watch Preston blow out his candles on his cake for the very first time. I have prayed for this day as each Birthday passed and it is a prayer finally being answered. We have been practicing how to blow out candles too so he sure is ready! I had professional pics taken of the boys (and P's first pic trach free) for Tim's b-day. That was fun:) The boys had their very first overnight at Grandpa and Nana's TOGETHER! This was such an awesome 9 yr anniversary gift for us. I never realized how much Reid missed Preston going with him on his overnights until I was putting their shoes on and telling them where they were going and Reid turned to P and said, "You coming with me Preston?" Reids face lit up when Preston nodded yes. Pretty awesome!:) We also paid a visit to see Dr Andrews and show off P's naked neck and have him examine the scar (the plastic surgeon who actually trached P as an infant). It will be a full circle moment for all of us because he will be the one closing up P's stoma sight on his neck for good and making it appear as if a trach had never existed. Normally the revision on his neck would be done by Dr Rutter (his ENT in Cincy) but Dr Andrews offered to do it and to save us travel cost and time would be huge. Plus, his work is so amazing and I really feel like he would do the best job. The look on his face when he saw P for the first time without his trach was awesome. Aside from all of the activities, we have soaked up lots of beautiful weather with trips to the park over lunch and lots of evening walks before winter is here. I also make it a point to visit my parents each week to play the piano with Grandma and see the construction they have going on at their house since the boys love watching the hammers and getting in dirt. We hope everyone is having a wonderful Fall :)

Enjoying lunch on the driveway

Never a dull moment with Mr P. He NEVER has pants on! Sad its blurry but you get the picture!

Playing piano with Grandma

The best plastic surgeon EVER Dr Andrews! 

Loved celebrating the Royals going to the World Series! Loved these crowns they made at school

I made pancakes for lunch went in the other room for something and came back to find the plate on the floor and they were chowing down. LOL And do you notice who doesn't have pants on again? 

1st professional pics without trach- Happy 3rd (almost) Birthday

The Twinkies for Halloween 2014

Celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary KID FREE in our own home and got to sleep in! :) Put up our new tree that Tim surprised me with and made homemade cauliflower pizzas and drank too much wine! It was awesome!

These 2 are VERY into playing 'camp out' in the family room. EVERY blanket and friend possible joins them! 

Daddy playing legos with Mr Naked legs 

Excited about his pumpkin behind him.

The boys celebrating Halloween at school with Ms Abby. (she is incredible and the boys even ask to go to school on the weekends LOL)

Snack time at the Halloween party with Ms Kelsey

Trick or Treat time 

Cousin Will, Cousin Ava, and the boys 

My mom dressed up like a clown and the kids went bonkers! 

Another 85 degree day in October so off to the park we went for lunch!

Looking forward to all that November brings!:)