Christmas

Our Christmas was wonderful. As much as we would have loved to have spent the holidays with all of our family, we decided to stay home. It was very fun and relaxing. We spent the day in our jammies, and ate, played and watched movies. The kids all enjoyed their gifts. I didn't take any pictures of them with their gifts. But I did take a couple before and afters.

at the beginning



during



and after

We had a mess in all the common areas
of the house. We opened gifts in the
living room, threw trash in the entry way, kids opened boxes
in the family room, and we ate and dirtied
dishes in the kitchen and at the table.
It was a great day.

Merry Christmas.

We hope your Christmas was a beautiful one. We love you.

The Party

The boys creating

Logan-the little chef

The group

Andrew - Tanner's Best Friend

Tanner was so happy about Legos!!


I threw together a last minute birthday party for Tanner. It turned out great. We had lots of fun. 7 out of 8 boys showed up. We had aprons and chef hats. We made pizza, played games, cars and basketball. Cupcakes, presents and made ...


Gingerbread Houses. They had a great time designing their own masterpieces. Thanks Melissa for the cool idea. It was a hit!!

7 !!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER!!!

7 years old. How is that even possible. I am not sure why it is so hard for me to believe that Tanner is 7, but it is. something about him being the oldest boy.

Gage

We took some pictures of
Gage this weekend.
Here he is with his walker
that we borrowed from
our physical therapist.



He wanted to eat a fudgecicle
just like everyone else.

He really gets into his work


Scary. just had to share
this funny picture

tree and other fun pics

We finally got the tree out, it
is in many pieces, but it goes
together quickly with everybody's
help.

can you say attitude?

the santa hats are out

It is tradition that Jared
and the kids put lights on,
then I pass out decorations to
each of the kids, and they swarm
all around me like bees to the
hive.

I didn't get a picture with the
lights on yet, but here is the
finished product.
we had a good time.

smile

Yesterday Austin was throwing

a fit, so Jared stuffed him in

the laundry basket.

It only took him a minute to

fall back and get out, but

not before I snapped some pictures

I'm sorry I didn't post info on Gage. I know I said I would after the MRI. I just never got to it. We found out right before our trip in October that Gage has Cerebral Palsy. As most of you know Gage was born 10 weeks premature. He had a brain bleed, causing scaring near the ventricles of the brain called Peri-ventricular Leukomalacia, which is what caused the cerebral palsy. The form of cerebral palsy that Gage has is called spastic displegia. It means that he has muscle stiffness and makes it hard for him to move. He crawls pretty good. But has trouble otherwise moving his legs the right way. This is what he struggles with the most. He has a bit of trouble with his hands, but for the most part gets along just fine. His eyes are doing good with 2 surgeries so far and glasses. We are very blessed to work with a early intervention group called The Learning Center, through them we see a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. Also an eye specialist. They are all great and they help give us ideas of things to do to help Gage progress. He is a happy boy. We are not upset or sadden by these challenges. He is a wonderful blessing in our lives. I am happy to serve my Heavenly Father this way. I feel honored that he would entrust me with such a special spirit. I will continue to try and do what He asks of me.

Its a good thing I have the tiniest bit of will power because I probably would have eaten through an entire bag of chocolate chips and case of diet dr. pepper. The kids were all sent to bed at 8 pm. They are now all in bed, but not asleep at 9:45.


nuff said...

We are home

We made it back. We had a great time. The park was not too busy. We found a great hotel. The kids loved that they could watch Disney Channel whenever they walked in the door. It poured down rain on us on Friday, but it was still fun. Our shoes are just now dry. We ended up staying an extra day, just because. We were ready to come home by Saturday morning. I am so glad we were able to take this trip with the kids. I had some nice one on one time with each of the kids, that I will treasure always. It wasn't anything big, but it was great. I love Disneyland . It truly is the happiest place on earth. It is my happy place. It makes me smile to just think about the decorations, and happy spirit that are there.
I took over 200 pictures. I promise not to show all of them, but here are a few.

I decided to be a bit obsessive
with pictures this time, since we
won't have our passes anymore.
(yes Nikki, we had season passes)

This is a goofy picture, I think
Logan was trying to take my picture
and he was too close. But I
thought it was also kind of cute, and
there aren't many pictures of me
because I am always behind the camera.

Can I get one of these with a
lock and key??

as many of you know Gage is
behind in his gross motor skills,
as well as pretty much everything else
due to the cerebral palsy.
He is just starting to like
standing. He loved being
able to stand and hold on to
bars, nets, steering wheels,
Whatever we were next to.
Doesn't he look cute?

Austin got new glasses right
before Thanksgiving, so we
tried to get him to wear them
as much as possible.
And whenever I ask him to
smile he always sticks his tongue
out.