THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY......................

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break!  We have so much to be thankful for it was awesome to celebrate it.  On our way out to Terry's sister's for Thanksgiving Coop says out of the blue, "Mommy, I thankful for Mommy and Daddy!"  That was the perfect start to Thanksgiving Day!  We had a wonderfully delicious dinner and fun time with the family.  Coop and Raelynn had so much fun playing with their cousins.

My Mom and Karli drove in Thanksgiving late afternoon to be there when we got home from Bonnie's.  I was super glad to have them as Karli and I headed out early Friday morning for Black Friday shopping.  We left about 4am and had a great time finishing up our shopping.  I think we were home by 7:30am or so but we found some great deals!  Then it was time to decorate the house.  I honestly do not love decorating for holidays but the kids are really starting to get into it.  My Mom helped the kids decorate the Christmas Tree and told her who every ornament belonged too.  We got the house decorated and then headed to Hallmark to pick out their annual Christmas ornaments.  I ask them to pick something out that they love or reminds them of the past year.  Raelynn first found a beautiful ballerina that she was set on, but then stumbled across a Hanna Montana ornament that played music.  She was so excited and it was perfect because this year everything has been about Hanna or Taylor Swift :)  Coop on the other hand had some troubles finding the perfect ornament.  He was in love with this one that had a train going around it but they were all sold out.  I have to say I was relieved because it was a very expensive ornament.  Next he found a John Deere tractor that he was equally excited about but............out of stock.  Finally he found Mickey Mouse on a train and that seemed to do the trick!  Next we headed back home to get ready for the arrival of Santa.  Every year we head downtown for the arrival of Santa at Weavers.  It is always fun and this year was no different.  Coop, who is terrified of Santa, was in awe over the fire truck that came to rescue Santa from the top of Weavers.

After he watched that he says to us, "Santa nice guy, I like Santa now."  And that was that.  He now loves Santa and even sat on Santa's lap to tell him he wanted footy pajamies and chocolate chips.  His picture even made the front page news on Saturday morning!

Raelynn was much more prepared for her Santa visit and with list in hand informed Santa that she wanted a Princess Guitar, Gum, Candy Canes and her brother wanted Tic Tacs. 

After all of that fun we headed home where Cody and Steph had been waiting.  My kids adore Cody and Steph so more excitement!  Saturday was busy preparing for Coop's birthday at LGA.  It was a huge success.  Our friend Kelly made his Mickey Mouse cake and it looked awesome!  Coop loved it too!

The only not perfect thing that happened was Coop got his foot caught in the back of a chair.  We worked and worked to get it out and had decided we would cut the chair when Terry finally pulled the opening apart just enough to get Coop's foot out.  I have no idea how he pushed hard enough to get it in there but it sure was comically getting him free.  Randy, the guy in charge of our party admitted that had never happened before, I told him to leave it to Cooper to do something unexpected. 

After that we headed back to the house to celebrate my little sis, Karli's Birthday.  She is 18 today and we always celebrate with her sometime of the weekend while they are here for Coop's bday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!  You are one beautiful, kind, thoughtful and motivated woman.  I am so proud of you and grow prouder every day. 

Sunday was Coop's actual birthday so the day was all about him.  He got to open his presents after breakfast and then we made him his favorite dinner, meatloaf and puffy Cheetos's!  He played and played!  Sunday night we had Cooper's Birthday Bash for Cooper's Cause Foundation.  Everyone that ate at Johnny's West and used their Lawrence GiveBack card, 25% of their tab went back to the Foundation.  We had a great turn out and a lot of fun.  Needless to say, by the time we got home the kids were exhausted.  Monday morning rolled around way to earlier but we are on our way through another week.  We had an amazing time with family and friends and cannot wait to do it all over again at Christmas!

COOPER VISITS THE CARDIOLOGIST...........

Today was Coop's appointment with his cardiologist and it started off a little silly.  Raelynn had awaken this morning around 3am complaining of an earache.  She finally went back to sleep about 5a.m.  I had went to be about 12:30am. so needless to say I was a little tired.  I was running a little behind because I was trying to get too many things done.  I usually dress Coop in the mornings but this morning I asked him to go start getting dressed and I would be there soon. He darted to his room where I had already laid his clothes out.  The next thing I know he comes into my bathroom with his jeans on his head, socks on his hands and shirt tucked into his pull up.  With an ornery little grin on his face he says, "I dressed Mommy!"  He knew I thought it was funny but we needed to hurry so I was trying not to laugh.  However, as I said, he knew I thought it was funny so he just kept smiling.  Anyway we did manage to get dressed the proper way.  We headed to visit Dr. Kaine in KC this afternoon.  His report was fantastic!  Coop now weighs 26lbs 7 oz and is 3' tall although Terry said the height doesn't count because they measured his spikes :)  His echo and EKG looks great.  We will take him off aspirin in January.  We do not need to restrict his activity at all at this time.  Basically, we can treat him just as any other3 year old and this is very exciting for us!  We are so proud of how tough Cooper has been and are just so pleased with his progress!!!

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM..................

This past week was probably the least busy week we have had in months.  It was awesome to just go home after work for a couple days and I could tell the kids enjoyed it too.  Friday night we got to go to the KU game which was the first game we have made it to this year.  We had a great time as always and now we actually make it to the end of the game which is nice for Terry and I.  Saturday I had "The Big Green Bee" which was a charity adult spelling bee.  It was a lot of fun.  We were HORRIBLE but it was fun :)

Really the only memorable events for this week was that Cooper no longer wants his hair spiked!  I have been spiking his hair for a long, long time and this week one morning as I sat him on the counter to do his hair he says, "No spikes!"  I asked him why not and he said, "I a big boy now not a baby!"  I assured him that spikes made him look like a big boy not a baby but ended up compromising that we would not spike his hair every day but I could once in awhile. 

As we approach this week all I can say is "take a deep breath"!  From now until Christmas we are booked solid with more things to get done that we will ever complete but we will do our best.  Raelynn loves the holidays and is starting to recognize our traditions which makes me want to carry on our traditions more than ever.  The day after Thanksgiving I always take the kids to Hallmark and they get to pick out a new ornament.  I ask them to pick something that reminds them about the past year.  On Saturday Raelynn says to me after we were talking about the fact that Thursday was Thanksgiving, "that means we get to pick out our ornaments on Friday and decorate for Christmas!!!!"  She was so excited which makes me excited.  All the efforts that go into Christmas preparation is all worth it when you see the twinkle in their eyes.  I can't wait either!!!

DID THEY SPIKE THE WATER......................

Last night we went to the Baker game and we are pretty sure they spike the water bottles there!  :)  Baker games are quickly becoming one of our favorite family outings.  The kids have a great time and the games are never boring. Unfortunately they did not win last night but I am blaming the refs for that one :)  After the game the kids were on the court playing around.  Cooper was literally running the entire court and dribbling an imaginary ball and then doing a lay up.  He did it over and over again.  It was absolutely hilarious and caught the attention of several people on the court.  I wish I had pulled out my phone to record it but I was laughing too hard!  We had to drag the kids out of there and to head home. We assumed they would be asleep in seconds but noooooo, they were so wound up we hardly got them to sleep at all.  Then this morning they woke up and were funny from the get go.  For whatever reason Coop decided we should redecorate the house.  He comes into our room and says, "Mommy what if we make the living room pink, and the kitchen green, and my room orange!"  I told him that would be interesting and he took me by the hand and led me around the house showing me what we could paint......"the doors could be brown and the couch could be green......"  He was also very helpful.   He decided he would change the laundry and he did but it was sure funny to watch.

 

After all that it was finally time to head to church.  After church we stopped at the store because the kids wanted to make pizzas.  As we are shopping the song "I wanna be a millionaire" came on.  Raelynn starts singing along not missing a single word including the chorus that says, "so frickin' bad!" I stop the cart and whisper to her that "frickin'" is a bad word.  She looks at me with horror in her face and says, "why do they say that then?"  How innocent she is! When we get home Raelynn runs to her room to change.  As I am walking back to my room I hear her just chatting away.  I ask her who she is talking to and she says, "myself".  I respond, "you and you many imaginary friends". She smiles and says "I like my imaginary friends, when I am done, poof, they are gone.  Do you think there are imaginary mommies?"  "Oh no you did not just say that!" I replied laughing.  She is getting too smart for her own good The rest of the afternoon we played outside and just hung out.  There definitely should be more Sundays!

LOVING TEACHER CONFERENCES................

Thursday was teacher conferences which we always look forward too.  We had conferences in preschool too and I suppose if we had a bad experience there we wouldn't love them now but we didn't.  I love to hear what she is learning, where she stands academically and socially and what we can do to make her school experience even better.  This conference was exciting because there was much more to cover.  Raelynn is learning so much and so quickly.  She is beginning to read which is very exciting.  Sometimes I do not know which of us is more excited when she reads a word!  Her teacher is wonderful and Raelynn really likes her.  She said Raelynn is doing fantastic and we were shown some of her work and the progress she was making.  Mrs. Mooring said "Raelynn is just so happy and always eager to do whatever activity we are working on."  I love this and I was beaming with pride!  I had asked Raelynn if there was anything she wanted me to talk to her teacher about and her only concern was a tardy that her progress sheet was showing but Raelynn promised she and Daddy had never been late and of course I knew I had never taken her late.  Mrs. Mooring removed the tardy :)

Thursday night the Ballard boys came home with us and we had a fun evening.  Raelynn was soooo much help with Brooks and Coop and Kaden played like wild little boys all night.  I don't usually get to see this side of Coop because Raelynn always dominates the play at our house but she was so busy with Brooks it was just Kaden and Coop playing.  He was having soooo much fun!  Coop did end up in time out at one point.  He had only been there a few seconds when Kaden came and asked me if Coop could get up now and assured me he wouldn't do it again.  It was all too cute!

Tonight we had a quiet evening at home which was wonderful.  The rainy dreary day made us all just want to get comfy and snuggle so we did.  At dinner tonight Raelynn and Coop were being pretty loud and messing around a little.  Terry was getting after them.  Raelynn turned to me, held her hand up to block her mouth from Terry and whispered, "Reeeeaaaarrrr!"  I tried so hard not to laugh but I couldn't help it.  I looked up right into Terry's eyes and I lost it.  I started laughing which made Raelynn giggle and Terry glare.  Raelynn is just so funny and says and does exactly what I am thinking most of the time. I told Raelynn that I should not be laughing that it wasn't funny......a statement hard to make convincing when you are laughing so hard your eyes are watering!!!!

Last night I was doing some research for a family and stumbled upon a blog of a family who have a son with a congenital heart defect.  The blog title that day was, "When will I stop crying and when will things be back to normal"  I read the post which basically was a Mother who could not come to terms with her sons heart defects and could not find happiness.  She sounded very detached from her son and saturated in sadness.  I explored her blog a little more because I was so taken back by her grief.......then I discovered her son was 3! He was born with the defects and they knew about it prior to his birth.  So this wasn't a new mother who was trying to learn how to deal with things this was a mother of a 3 year old who I was instantly angry with!  My instinct was to think she was so selfish and hateful and how could she be so negative.  Then I stopped and thought, what if I did not have an amazing support system; what if I did not have a strong husband; what if I did not have an amazing daughter; what if I did not have a family who would sacrifice anything just to help; what if I did not have such a supportive boss; what if I did not have amazing friends; what if I did not  have God......would I still be as happy and thankful as I am.  I really don't know.  I would like to think I would have kept my head up but I cannot be sure.  Now however, I cannot imagine our lives any other way.  I thank God often for what he has given us including the difficult things.  It is the difficult things that define us and God gave us every tool in the world to make it through all our challenges.  I initially wanted to comment on this Mom's blog and literally "chew her out" but by the time I thought it all through my anger left and my heart ached for her.  Not because of everything she is dealing with and not because she is so sad but because she will never know the immense joy and love that I do.  She will never look at her son's scars and smile like I do.  She will never smell her son's hair and tears come to her eyes because she fears she will someday forget that smell.  She will never understand the excitement of his little accomplishments.  So to this Mom I simply wrote......."Find God and you will find the son you long for."  I cannot tell you how much I hope she does.  Her "normal" life is right there waiting for her.  I hope her tears never end but I do hope the change from tears of sadness to tears of excitement and joy.  THANK YOU TO MY HUSBAND, MY DAUGHTER, MY SON, MY FAMILY, MY FRIENDS, MY BOSS, TO EVERY PERSON WHO HAS ENTERED OUR LIVES AND TO GOD! If that Mother's sadness is what you saved me from, I am eternally grateful!

BAKER BALL, TERRY'S BDAY AND MOORE........................

Time is getting away from me again.  Last week was probably the busiest week we have every had but there was time for some fun.  Thursday night we went to Baldwin to watch the Baker Men's Basketball game.  It was so much fun and more exciting than I had expected.  One of my best friend's husband, Brett Ballard, is the new head coach there and we went up to support him.  Brett is this super nice laid back guy.  Our kids love him and Raelynn even had a little crush on him when she was little.  However, the Brett we saw on Thursday was anything but laid back.  He was so intense.  I was shocked to see this side of him but yet so proud too.  It was as if he had been a head coach for years.  He dominated the gym and demanded a lot from his players.  It was truly awesome.  We had a great time.  The Baker Wildcats won the game with a clutch shot in the last 2 seconds of the game.  We are so proud of Brett and Kelly, who remains completely poised at all times and makes the perfect "coaches wife".  We cannot wait to watch the rest of the season.

Sunday was Terry's birthday, I won't disclose his age, heehee55heehee!  Raelynn had the morning planned.  She woke up and hid his presents around the house.  Then she made him close his eyes and play hot and cold to find them.  Terry was a trooper and played right along. 

Then the kids and I were off to church and Terry off to work.  I don't think his birthday was exactly the relaxing day he had hoped for but I think he still enjoyed it.  Later that afternoon we had family pictures and Coop's 3 yr old pictures.  I an sure his perfect ending to the day :)

Happy Birthday Terry!  I love you!

"SNAP OUT OF IT".............

Wow, Wednesday already!  The week has been a little hectic for us but we are rolling with it.  Monday morning the kids woke up super excited to see what the Witch Fairy brought them.  For you who were not following a few years ago when the Witch Fairy was introduced to us, the Witch Fairy comes on Halloween Night and if you put out enough candy for her, she will take your candy and leave a present in its place.  This year I convinced the kids the more candy they leave the bigger the present.  So as soon as we got home from trick or treating they sorted through their candy and kept enough to fill our small candy dish and put the rest out for the Witch Fairy.  Luckily the Witch Fairy thought they put out plenty of candy and left a Halloween Webkinz for each of them.  They thought it was pretty cool. 

Tuesday Terry got to be a "Watch Dog" at Raelynn's Elementary School.  The Watch Dog program is where Dad's or another male role model in the kids' lives volunteer to help out at the school for a day.  At Raelynn's school there is at least 1 Watch Dog virtually every day.  The funny part of all of this is that Terry thought he was volunteering for half a day because Raelynn goes to school for half a day, but the night before as we were talking he realized he was there for the whole day and since it was a Tuesday (better known in our family as Daddy's Golf Day) Terry was a little distraught that he may miss his Tuesday Golfing.  Luckily, he was able to still play a few holes afterwards.  Anyway, it was a great experience for him and Raelynn loved having him there!

When I picked her up after school I asked her how Dad did, she replied, "He was awesome.  He helped us all make "L's" and we all got them right.  We never all get them right.  We got them right because of Dad, he was awesome!"  I was so happy it went well and I would imagine Terry felt good to make his daughter so proud. 

Funny Raelynn story.......so today I find out that a little boy in her class came up to her yesterday and says, "Raelynn, I love you."  Now I would have thought Raelynn would have just giggled or replied the same back because we tell her we love her all the time, but instead, my 5 year old snaps her fingers at the boy and says, "Snap out of it!"  I laughed and laughed.  There is a different boy in her class who tells his Mom that he and Raelynn and are in love and going to get married.  I know Raelynn likes this little boy because she talks about him all the time but she has never references "boyfriend" or anything like that.  So I say to her, "You know Jarod tells his Mom you are in love and going to get married?"  She looks at me and says, "well not for awhile Mom."  Funny stuff!  I say funny now but in 10 years or so I doubt that I find these same conversations funny at all!

Coop is starting to identify things that have happened in the past, things that are happening today and things that will happen in the future but they are all yesterday, today and tomorrow.  So now he is forever bringing up things that happened months again and says, " 'Member yesterday............"  and things he is looking forward to such as his birthday and Christmas are all happening tomorrow.  Tonight when I was telling him goodnight he says, " 'member yesterday Tom let me dive his boat,  I dove it really fast!"  I said, "that was fun wasn't it? But that happened this past summer not yesterday." He replies, "Who's summer?" "Summer's not a person it is a time period when it was hot." I explain.  "Summer not a person?' "No summer's not a person." "Summer when it hot?" "Yea, it was when it was hot." "Ok, 'member yesterday when I dove Tom's boat really fast?"  Somehow I felt like this conversation was not getting anywhere so I smiled and said, "Yes Boo I remember."  I guess we start "picking our battles" early on.