so many reasons to be thankful

Happy Thankgiving!  Today is more than just a day to put ourselves into a self-induced Tryptophan coma and watch football... while those are worthy pursuits, today also has another very special meaning for our family.  We have so many things to be thankful for, but Today, Thanksgiving Day, marks 5 years that Sam has been seizure free! 

Whooo Hoooo.... Now stand up and do the happy dance!!! 

To be perfectly honest, I don't remember the actual numerical day that year, but I do know that it was Thanksgiving day so we mark the occasion on what ever day Thanksgiving falls on.  So among many, many other things we are so very thankful for Sam's continued seizure-free status.  

Years ago we got the devastating news that Sam had Infantile Spasms, a rare and severe and life threatening form of epilepsy.  I believe that although his prematurity and extra chromosome have largely impacted his development... it was the Infantile Spasms that robbed him the most. So today we are thankful for another year without seizures...for one less battle that Sam has to fight, for one less medication that he has to take and for all the progress that he has made despite all the land minds that he has stumbled upon.  Truly Amazing!  WTG Sam!

****and OMG did  you notice that Sam is wearing his glasses!!! Don't mind that I cropped the arm splints out of the picture that keep him from ripping them off his face and twisting them into a rumpled ball of titanium, no don't mind that.... just focus on the positive.... HE IS WEARING HIS GLASSES AND SMILING!****

 

Happy Birthday Andrew

Today is Andrew's 7th birthday!!!!  He was so very excited to wake up and find the ground covered with snow.  He put on his favorite tye-dye tee shirts and got ready for school quickly so he could play in the snow.  He is out there right now with Pat making snow balls and waiting for the school bus.  I cannot believe that he is actually 7 years old.... such a little man.  We are so very proud of him.  He celebrated his birthday with friends last weekend at an indoor pool and had a wonderful time.  Next weekend over Thanksgiving break we will celebrate both Andrew and Sam's birthdays with family.  Well I think his day is off to a good start!  He already put in his birthday dinner request... what else... pizza hut!  

We all love you so much Andrew... have a wonderful day!!!!

7 years

6 years

5 years

 4 years

 3 years 

2 years

8 months

3 months

 

Just one of those days

Today has just been one of those days.  I have a splitting headache and between my coughing jags... Sam and Sean have learned some new tricks! (oh joy).  For starters... they have thrown every shoe they could find down the basement stairs, Sam learned how to dispense water from the fridge door and do you think he used any type of container to catch the water... NO!   Sean has ripped several pages out of the phone book. Sam is now able to climb over all the of the safety gates rendering them not so "safe"...Sean climbs on everything and he is also very very close to following Sam up and over the gates... stupid gates.  The 2 smallest monsters have been at each other all day... neither happy with what they have and will do anything in their power to get what the other one has.  Sean looks like he has been through a bar brawl and I am pretty positive that it will be impossible to get a Christmas picture of the boys without any bruises, rug burns or scratch marks on their faces.  Everybody got flu shots and then some on Tuesday and you can tell exactly how tall each of my children are by the distinct snot lines across my clothes.  I am hoarse from repeating "keep your hands to your self" for the zillionth time today.  So basically everyone feels like crap today and is taking it out on everyone else.  And now someone smells really, really bad... and if I can smell it I know it is bad because I have been congested and unable to smell anything for the past 3 days.  Andrew is completely un-phased and is happily building something in his bedroom.  I now need to find out who is stinky before we have a 2319 (AKA visual confirmation of diaper contents outside of the diaper)  

 

**** correction.... evidently there was one shoe that was not tossed down the stairs and it just came into contact with Sean's head.  

Halloween pics!!!

OMG... How could I forget to post Halloween pics???  

Well here they are... better late than never.  It was very very warm for this time of year (I think nearly 70 degrees) and so all the little goblins were out in droves.  I actually had to run out for more candy after Things 1-7 raided our candy bowl.  I didn't get any good pics but we turned our garage in to a big mouth.  We cut teeth out and placed them so it looked like you were walking through a mouth in order to get the candy.  Our decorations were small potatoes compared to our neighbors.  They went all out with a grave yard and spook house.  We also brought out the fire pit, made tons of chili and hung out in the drive way eating chili and drinking beer with neighbors and friends until the wee hours.  

Good times.

I went as a Fashion Disaster (think Mimi from the Drew Carey Show)

I do have to say that I loved the obnoxious pink wig... 

it might be showing up from time to time just for fun.

Sam the Skeleton

Little Lion

Dracula

 

GET OUT AND VOTE PEOPLE!!!

enough said!

Creature Feature

Well it has been awhile since our last Creature Feature.  Andrew is still quit the lego-maniac and is always building.  We have put a baby gate up in front of his bedroom door so that he can work to his heart's content without being disturbed by his brothers.  Sam and Sean don't yet appreciate the fine art of lego creature construction.  Sam would rather throw the pieces in every directions and Sean grabs whatever he can gets his hands on and either puts it into his mouth or runs off with it.  I think Andrew likes this little bit of privacy ... or perhaps protection... so that he can build something to completion before his brothers destroy it.  As always... these projects are well thought out and each part has a purpose (ie flame thrower, wings, rocket launchers, flotation devices and the like).

Kickin' For A Cause

Saturday was  the second annual Kickin' For A Cause Kickball Tournament (a Special Olympics fundraiser). Although we had some new people this year, most of the people on the team are veterans from last year's team.  Originally I had tried to put together a kids team too but that sort of fizzled out so the kids played on our team.... this I think actually gave us an advantage since last year we got our butts kicked by a bunch of 11 year olds (they even taunted us and called us names!). This year all the teams were really fun and were good sports about letting the kids play. Sam even rounded the bases (with Pat's help) a few times and played a little in left field.  Our team YOUNG AT HEART took 4th place and we won the "chicken dance" team spirit contest!  I think everyone really had a great time and I am sure I won't have to twist too many arms to get them to all come back and play again.