Holidays 2010

We started off the Christmas shopping season with Grandma Williams flying out from Idaho, Anna and sister Melyssa also came out from Montana to do some serious shopping.  We loved spending time with them and showing off Austin.  We had a great time and the kids miss them so much.  Especially the bike lessons.

I can't believe Hanna is 4 and Hayden is almost 2.  Hanna is becoming more fun at 4.  I think this is going to be our best year yet.  She is becoming more affectionate saying I love you and along with the extra hugs and kisses, she can't get enough of sneeking into our bed at night.

As fun as each milestone is, Hanna and I had a hard milestone.  The weather here has been perfect, so we have been out practicing on Hanna & Haydens' new bikes.  The other day, Hanna was playing with all the kids in the neighborhood and one boy (whom I hadn't met before) yelled at her and purposely excluded her from riding in his motorized truck when he gave everyone else rides.  She came running crying several times after asking for a turn to ride.  Luckily another mother who knew this boy, kindly introduced the children and they made up.   Hanna was then very happy when he offered her a ride.  And so it begins...

The sweetest women you will ever know.

I had a gift idea to personalize ornaments for Hanna's preschool classmates and made a donation in each of their names.

I thought it was a win, win.  

Scott ran the charity run and we all had a blast.

The first Santa that both the kids liked showed up at the race for the kids.

Scott getting ready for his fun 5k run.  He did great!

Our friends Angie and Josiah, who also has SB.  We will be cooking Chirstmas dinner for the Ronald McDonald House together.

Hanna getting her face painted at the run and loving it.

Birthday girl enjoying her weekend!

Hayden getting even more handsome.

We had a scare last week when Hayden was throwing up with a fever.  Most kids you give an antibiotic to and send them home.  Not so with Hayden.  We spent an entire day at the Dr. office getting all sorts of test to make sure it wasn't the shunt in his brain.  Both kids were very patient and I had a peaceful feeling the whole time.   Fortunately, it was "normal" kid stuff.  Gotta love "normal".

Recently, it is also hard for me to believe that Hayden is now about the same age that Hanna was when he was born.  I still view him as my baby.  He is growing up into such a big boy.  He can repeat almost any word I say.  It is so surprising what he can say.  He surprises me each day.

October was Spina Bifida Month/Colorado/Halloween

October was a trying month for our family.  We had long planned a road trip vacation to Colorado for several reasons, to visit family, run a race and attend a good friends wedding.  Even the best of plans changed quickly when Scott became very ill at the start of the month.  Once Scott started feeling better we felt that support from family by traveling to Colorado was still what we needed.  So we packed up the car with 2 kiddos, many games and our dog, Domino, and hit the road for the two day drive.  

Here was a stop to stretch our legs and see where both of Scott's Grandmothers lived.  If any of you follow Dora's adventures, I kept telling Hanna that like Dora, we had to get to the mountains before we got to Grandma's house.  The mountains came 4 hours before we got to Grandma's house.  That was the longest part of our trip.  Overall, the kids were wonderful troopers.

October was Spina Bifida month along with Breast Cancer Awareness.  Because it was Spina Bifida month, I thought it would be great to run a half marathon on behalf of my son, Hayden, at Denver's 1st Rock and Roll Marathon.  Training at 500 feet in Austin and running at 5,000 feet in Denver was a challenge, but worth it.  Before the race I got to train at my mom's at 7,000 feet. Below are a few pics.  

This is my race shirt that I made and felt proud to wear on behalf of SB awareness.  I teared up as I was running next to a man in a wheelchair who said he had raced in over 100 marathons.  We cheered for each other.

I am not yet Hayden's Hero, but I aspire to be.  Pushing myself makes me want to be better for him.  My family and friend Nicole waited and cheered for me at mile 5 & mile 8.  I hope to run on behalf of Spina Bifida in the NYC marathon next year like my cyber SB momma friend Liz.

Below is a pic of my Mom's new house in Colorado Springs (Black Forrest) with plenty of room for the whole family to stay.  Her view is fantastic.

The front of the house

the view from the front of the house

First pumpkin carving & tasting

My brother came out with his family from Provo, UT to introduce their newest addition Conrad and Hanna & Hayden got to play with their cousins Drake and Pierce.

cute chubby Conrad

Hanna and Drake running around the long driveway.

Pierce and Hayden are only 3 weeks apart.

The weather was colder than we are used to, so on the first warm day we headed to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  It is my favorite zoo.  It is built up on the mountain with great views of the city.

My dad happened to be in the area so he took Hanna on a tractor drive too.

Here we all are at Sarah's wedding.  She was a lovely happy bride.

Hanna finally got to meet her buddy Collin and go to the Pumpkin patch with him.  I try and make it a practice not to post other children other than my own family.

Batman at Halloween

Hayden will get this medal from my race.

Mean/bad black hat cowgirl with a scary cat shirt her momma made

Hayden's new bike.  More to be published for the November post.

September Happenings

Wow, I am getting really behind by blogging only once a month. Here is our September breakdown:

Hanna happily started back to preschool twice a week. She didn't have a lot of the same kids in her class this year because many of them went to three days a week. Although, this year she gets to see many of her friends from church in different classes. She loves preschool almost as much as her mommy.

Hayden had his 18month doctor's check up, Spina Bifida Clinic and started church nursery. All were very big events that in hindsight caused his mom and dad a lot of unnecessary emotional anxiety. We surely want to express our gratitude for all of the Facebook love and prayers for our little guy that gave us hope and now gives us peace. Here is what I posted on FB:

Hayden got a brain MRI, ultrasound of kidneys and x-ray of hips. Haydendid great. All clear on everything!

Before we go we think, have we done enough with his therapy? Have we been faithful enough to receive spiritual blessings? Have we been observant enough of his needs? Then we say to ourselves, he is happy and seems to be healthy. We exhale and hold our breath again trying to have patience and faith and know we have done all we can. Here we have to leave it up to God and this is the hardest part.

It was an exciting emotionally loaded day. Thankfully when it was over, I got to crash and take a nap with my kids. The Neuro said we are clear for a full year! And the Urologist said the kidneys are clear so we don't need to cath for another 6 months.

As for me, I pulled off a large Back to School Enrichment/Relief Society meeting with 3 great teachers (including my hubby as the Ward Employment Specialist). Our Ward is so huge, that the attendance is great. And our big news next Sunday is that our Ward is splitting for the second time in 5 years. Change can be hard and exciting.

I continue to train for my 2nd half marathon in Denver and my 1st marathon in Houston on New Years Day. I do this all in the hopes that I can run NYC next year on behalf of Spina Bifida with my Blogging/FB friend Liz. I am inspired by so many of these kids with Spina Bifida. Recently I posted on FB about an amazing kid Aaron Fotheringham's "Hard Core Sitting." No pitty for this kid. You have to watch his video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z43PXkvVC5c.

You can also learn about Liz's race for Emily and support her at: http://lizkeicher.blogspot.com/

Our most recent SUPER exiting thing is....First Class Parking!!! The opposite of pity...gratefulness!

August Fun

Many of you may be thinking eeeewwwwwhh gross! We have the sweetest dog Domino. He loves the kids and is very gentle. The kids are far more likely to hurt him than he would ever be to hurt the kids. He is great motivation for Hayden's therapy.

These are a few pictures of Hayden's new $1,800 bling AFOs(ankle foot orthotics). They have pictures of helicopters, fire trucks and police cars. The simple use of the AFOs is to help him stand and put weight on his legs properly. Thank goodness for insurance and medicaid! He really loves the new colors and designs. He cried when "Bud" took them off to size them.

Already other kids are asking about them and seeing just how cool he looks in them. Hayden is a great teacher.

The kids have been having a lot of fun trying to stay cool in the water. Hanna just loves her home made water slide even better than the pool.


Kristin also came for Scott's birthday and Hanna hasn't stopped talking about it since. We had a great visit.

Below is a picture of our breakfast in bed tray used for Hayden to sit up and play. It works more this way than any other.

Until We Meet Again

This is dedicated to my new friend Viviane in Brazil. I have the privilege of meeting many new mothers through this blog and my children. Viviane lost her son who was diagnosed with Spina Bifida due to premature complications. My heart goes out to her.

Therapy

Hayden's loves almost all of his therapy sessions with the exception of a few when he really didn't want to work/play. June was bitter sweet for Hayden because he lost both his favorite play therapy with Ms. Leslie, and his favorite physical therapist Mrs. Kimberly.

Leslie and Kim have been with him since his first therapy sessions. We have welcomed them into our home and hearts. It was very hard to let them go.

Kim has moved to Chicago, so we had to wish her well that she may bless the lives of other children in Chicago. Leslie has not left Austin and will periodically visit our community, so we hope to have stop-in-visits. While we will miss Leslie and Kim, we get to welcome Ms. Karla who just graduated from TCU and moved to Austin. She is a sweetie to Hayden and he took to flirting right away. Hayden also got a new occupational therapist, Ms. Emily who he has the pleasure of seeing twice a week.

Hanna's therapy of choice has been swimming. She can't get enough of it. She swam so hard the other day that she was complaining that her legs hurt. I would have thought that her tummy would hurt from her nonstop belly flops. Can you see the corner of her grin? We also managed to get some shopping therapy in with a heck of a summer sale at the cutest baby...I mean toddler boutique.

Horse Therapy/Hippatherapy at birthday party

This was Hayden's first time on a horse. We have been searching for true Hippatherapy and not had any luck in Austin. He can't sit up yet, but he sure loved the movement.


I try and keep our blog only exposing our family, but this is the back of the birthday girl. She is Hanna's favorite girl friend and had the best birthday party. They had many horses, ducks, tractor rides, fish ponds and a good ol' bbq.