My little Rock Star...

As usual Jacob was a rock star and I couldn't be more proud of him. I don't have the results of the heart echo yet but Jacob did so well today that he didn't need to be sedated for his echo.

The day started off with Jake waking up in the hotel at 5am. I don't think he liked not being home in his own bed. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30. Luckily when we got there they took us right back. The nurse looked at me with wide eyes and asked about his breathing. I usually tell everyone right away that it is from his airway but sometimes I forget that it is not "Normal" because I am so used to it. Once I told her about his vocal cords and that it is his "Normal" she was very relieved. Most people hear his breathing and think that he is in respiratory distress. The look in their eyes is always pure fear. The anesthesiologist was nervous about sedating him because of his airway. He said that even though it is fine right now he could get into trouble with sedation and he recommended we at least try it without sedation which I was hoping for anyway. Sedation is always risky for hypoplasts but especially with Jacob's airway.

At first Jake was fussy but once the nurse put on Thomas the Tank Engine he was a happy camper. He fussed again when they needed to look at the arch (They have to do an ultrasound up by his neck). By then we were aloud to feed him so we bribed him with some food and he did great. I have to give the team at Cincinnati Children's props. They were great with him and we were out of there by 8:30am!  From now on I am going to insist we always try without sedation since he has done so well the past two times. We were home by 1pm. Both boys made me so proud and were so well behaved this trip (as always). I seriously have the best kids in the world.

Thank you everyone for all of the prayers. I will let you know when we get the results.

While at the hospital I dropped off a bunch of Sisters by Heart brochures for the them to give to new families facing this diagnosis. Sisters by Heart just celebrated its 1 year anniversary! We sent out 130 care packages in the past year. I am so proud to be a part of such an amazing group of women. I remember like it was yesterday how devastating the diagnosis is and how lost you feel. To be able to offer HOPE and SUPPORT to these families means so much to me.

If you haven't visited our site yet, please do.
www.sisters-by-heart.org

You can make a tax deductible donation by clicking here.
For only $35.00 You can ensure that a family somewhere in the United States receives practical items for the arrival of their medically fragile baby...and the incredible gift of HOPE. 


VOTE FOR A GREAT CAUSE

Last but not least I have a quick favor to ask. There is a great organization called Apps for children with special needs (A4cwsn).  A4cwsn provides iPads to children with special needs. They are trying to win a grant which will allow them to get 10 iPads for children who need them. They need your votes!

A4cwsn is running a contest to get votes. If we get 10 votes on our behalf then we will be entered into a drawing to win an iPad for Jacob. They will announce the contest winner on Thursday so we have one more day to get 10 votes on our behalf.  It only takes a few minutes and we would really appreciate your vote. iPads have been proven to be an amazing tool with kids with communication issues and this grant would change the lives of 10 families who really need it.

HOW TO VOTE 

1.Click on this link:
http://sunsuperdreams.com.au/dream/view/ipads-for-special-needs-children

2. Click the vote button on the right. It will ask for your first name and email address.

3. They will send you an email to verify you are a real person voting. Just click the link in the email to verify that you voted. Keep the email because if we win we need to prove we had 10 votes on our behalf.

4. VERY IMPORTANT: Click the link below and post on A4cwsn's facebook page that you voted on behalf of Kathy Baker. This is how they will tally how many votes are on our behalf.
https://www.facebook.com/a4cwsn

I promise it only takes a minute to do. They are in second place right now so please vote. I hope that we can get A4cwsn enough votes to win this Grant. They are so good to so many people and they deserve it!

Merry Christmas to everyone! I will let you know when I get Jacob's echo results. Thank you again for all of the continued support for our amazing baby boy.

Headed to Cincinnati

We are headed to Cincinnati today. Jacob will have a sedated heart echo tomorrow to check his heart function. If everything looks good then he can wait until April for his airway reconstruction surgery.

Please send up a prayer that everything looks good. It is easy to forget that his anatomy is so different but when we go for an echo I can't help but get very nervous. Praying everything looks good!

Side Note: To make mommy worry even more Jacob has learned to climb and LOVES IT! Glad he hit this milestone but I am going crazy making sure he doesn't fall lol.

I will update when I can after we get back from Jake's echo.

A Christmas Wish...

Merry Christmas to all of our blog friends!

Jacob has an echo scheduled in Cincinnati on December 20th. Please pray that everything looks good! I always get so worked up when I take Jake for an echo. It is so easy to forget that he has half of a heart because he looks so good. When he goes for an echo the fear takes over. I know he looks amazing so I am praying that everything looks great but it is still nerve racking. We are going to make sure that his heart function is still not being affected by his breathing. If it is then we would have to move up his airway surgery. It will be a quick trip, the boys, my mom and I will go up Monday night and come home after he wakes up from the sedation on Tuesday.

The boys are super excited for Santa to come. Jacob is loving the Christmas tree. We have no more ornaments on the bottom of the tree. Between Jake and the cats they have all fallen off and I put them at the top. Aidan keeps talking to Santa out loud which is hilarious. I told him that Santa is always watching so if he doesn't listen or does something that he thinks Santa would be upset about, he looks to the sky and yells "SORRY SANTA" lol. Love this time of year because Santa is my back up. I didn't get a picture of them with Santa this year. We don't want to bring Jake to the mall right now and Aidan is too afraid to sit on Santa's lap. He did peak at him from afar but we couldn't get him anywhere near the big guy.

Jacob has started hugging Aidan and it is the sweetest thing. He used to push him away but now he walks up to him and gives him a big hug. Aidan LOVES it. I couldn't believe it but Jacob comes up to Aidan's chin now. He is getting so tall! He is now 24lbs 9ounces and 31" tall. He is in the 48th percentile for his weight which is AMAZING for a cardiac kid. I am so proud of our big guy.

My Christmas Wish ...

My Christmas wish it to be able to communicate with Jacob. He is still not talking but is coming along really well with learning American Sign Language. The whole family has been learning. He still gets frustrated with not being able to communicate but we are working with him a lot. He can now sign: sign, baby, more, all done, please, milk, play, boat, book. He wants to watch baby signing times all of the time.

I want to try and save up for an iPad for Jacob before April of next year. I have read so many studies on how iPads have helped children who are non-verbal. There are hundreds of apps out there to help children with speech development. It is a wonderful tool to help children communicate. Children who were completely non-verbal started speaking whole sentences after using the apps. Jacobs birth to three therapists think he would greatly benefit from having one. There are sites completely dedicated to apps that help children with disabilities. A really great one I have found is A4cwsn.com.

Jacob also is hospitalized for procedures and surgeries a few times a year. He has a HUGE fear of doctors and getting poked and prodded throughout his hospitalization. He has sensory issues as a result. The iPad would be an incredible tool to assist with his fear and anxiety during hospital stays and lend itself as a distraction during his most trying times. My ultimate hope is that Jake would be able to communicate with us using pictures or signs and hopefully words to tell us his needs or if he hurts. Jacob wants to communicate so badly and gets frustrated because he can't. I know that this would be an amazing tool to help him do that.

The problem is they are very expensive. We are going to use any Christmas money we get this year towards it. There is a website called Babies with iPads. They have a grant that specifically gives iPads to children with disabilities. I was going to apply and still may however they do not currently have any funding available.

If anyone knows of anywhere that is selling a used or referbished iPad please let us know. We really would love to be able to purchase one to help Jacob learn to communicate. You can email us at thebakertrio@gmail.com.

Thank you all so much for continuing to help and support our amazing little warrior. We hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas! I will post updates about Jacob's heart echo after we get home from Cincinnati.

Hello Blog World...

Once again life has taken over and I have not had much time to blog. The family is doing great and I have lots to update.

Halloween

Jacob and Aidan went trick or treating in Grandma's neighborhood. Aidan was Woody from Toy Story and Jacob was Buzz. Unfortunately it was pretty cold so Jake went to a few houses then we bundled him up in his stroller. He still seemed way to cold for my comfort so I had grandma take him back to her house while we hit the neighborhood with Aidan. Andy and I loved watching him run from house to house with such excitement. He even hiked a pretty big hill to get to a house. It was a great night for the whole family, even Jake who spent most of it in the nice toasty warm house lol.

Cardiology Update

Jake went to see our favorite Cardiologist the other day. As usual, Dr. Heydarian said how impressed he was at how well Jacob is growing and how good he looks. Jacob wouldn't sit still and showed off his high energy. We discussed him getting an echo to make sure that he can wait until April for his airway surgery. CHOP was ok with waiting that long as long as we had an echo a few months before to make sure his breathing is still not effecting his heart. Dr. Heydarian said if he were having lower heart function he would not have as much energy as he does. Let me tell you Jake never stops. From the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed at night he is constantly going. I can barely get him to take a nap anymore. I lay him down and walk by five minutes later and he is standing up laughing at me. Such a silly kid.

So I will update when I find out the date for his echo but our little rock star is doing great!

Cold, flu and Synagis Season

The dreaded cold and flu season is here again. This is the worst time of year for me because I worry so much about Jacob getting sick. I blogged a little while ago about him having a cough and doing great with it. Well he had a cold a few weeks ago that made that cough look like nothing. Jacob and Aidan both came down with a cold around the same time. It was a few days after halloween. Jacob was so congested and had a croupy cough. I was really scared about his airway. Luckily he already had an appointment scheduled to get his Synagis shot.

The Synagis shots are monthly shots that act as an antibody for RSV. It doesn't mean that he won't get RSV but it does protect him from it and if he does get it then the case is usually much less severe. As you know RSV puts healthy children in the hospital. For a child with a heart like Jacob's it could be deadly. Because of this he qualifies for the shots. You have to practically jump through hoops to get your child qualified because the shots are so expensive. Thankfully we have a medical card for Jake as a secondary insurance. We found out that after our main insurance pays their portion our co-pay would still be $926.00 a shot! That is almost $1,000/month. He needs to get them through March. It is crazy. I mean our kids need this protection and it would cost insurance companies a lot more if they are hospitalized... but I digress.

So I took Jacob in for his appointment and they ran an RSV test just to make sure that was not what he had. Thank God it came up negative YAY! The doctor said that his lungs sounded fine so as long as he keeps his oxygen levels up he should be ok. She wanted us to try Pulmacort breathing treatments to help with all of his croupy cough. Jacob was not a fan of the nebulizer. He screamed bloody murder anytime you came near him. So we did the breathing treatment when he was sleeping. I swear he slept with one eye open because he kept waking up so I didn't get much in him. The next day he lost his voice. This freaked me out because if you have ever been around Jake you know how loud his breathing is. To hear him silent made me feel like he was not breathing. I kept him hooked up to the pulse ox most of the day and the kiddo held his oxygen levels around 86! That is higher than he normally is when not sick. He is usuallly around 80.

We decided not to do the pulmacort because of the no voice issue and within a few days he started getting better. I must have asked Andy if we should take him to the hospital 10 times those few days. I called his doctors and everyone agreed he would be exposed to more germs there and they would monitor him just like I was doing. Turned out everyone was right and he did get over it. Still I was worried sick. Have I mentioned I hate this season?

His cardiologist said that until he gets that airway opened up we need to play it safe. So we are once again putting ourselves in our little Baker bubble. I ask all family and friends to please not come over or invite us over if you or anyone you have been in contact with recently is sick. If you do get sick and were recently around us I would really appreciate it if you could let me know so I can watch out for symptoms with Jake.

The scary part of our world is that it is the little things that sometimes take the lives of hypoplasts. Just recently a 4 year old passed away from dental work. He had made it through 3 open heart surgeries. Hypoplasts tend to have problems with their teeth rotting from all of the medications, tubes etc. Jake will have to be on antibiotics even when he has a cleaning to protect him from infections. This little boy passed away when he was getting his teeth capped. So if I seem overprotective... I am. Wouldn't you be if it were your child? I have seen families lose their children from colds, the flu, you name it. It is just the reality that we live in. Things are much harder for our heart kids. I need to do whatever I can to protect him. My kids are my life so if it means taking extra precautions and not going out much during the winter, so be it!

Just Jake

Jacob is growing up so fast! He still hasn't progressed with talking but he is signing a lot more.

He signs:
Baby
Sign
More

All done
boat (kind of)
Block
Ball
Play

I can't tell you how much I love that he is taking to signing. He watches "Baby Signing Times" all day long. If it isn't on he brings me the DVD or the remote and signs "Baby signs". It just fills me with pride. Aidan also has gotten really involved with it. He gets excited when he learns new signs. Even I find myself signing throughout the day to help Jake learn. I really think it is making a big impact. He seems to really be showing us that he understands what we are saying.

Jake also likes to dance now. He basically stands still but moves his arms back and forth really fast and laughs. He obviously inheritted his dancing skills from his daddy lol (I am going to get in trouble for that one). Seriously its really cute.

Jake copies pretty much anything he sees us do. The other day Aidan bounced on the bed so now Jake likes to go on the bed or the couch and he lifts his arms up so his bottom comes off of it a bit and he laughs so hard. You say bouncy and he just bounces away. I of course am right there the whole time so he can't fall off. It makes me nervous but at the same time he is just getting this personality and I love it. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my kids. They are just awesome.

Photos of the kids have become so important to me. I have always had pictures of our family all over my house but it has become even more important to me with everything we have gone through with Jacob. I guess I just want to hold onto each moment. We recently won a free photo session with Kristi Dornon from Pikture this Photography. She took beautiful photo's of the boys at a near by park. These photos were taken at Pumpkin Park in Milton WV. It is so close to our home and I never knew how beautiful it is there. I want to share some of the pictures with you. You can see all of them by clicking here. She did an amazing job. Thank you Kristi so much!

Told you they were beautiful! If you are interested in having her do your photos you can click the links below.

Kristi's Facebook Page
Pikture This Photography

Well I think that about covers what has been going on with us. We are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with our family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Love beyond words...

Wow I can't believe this is my 200th post! So much has happened since I started this blog and I am honored that so many people have fallen in love with our little miracle!

Jacob is such a blessing and has been through more in his short life than many go through in a lifetime. Jake is the strongest boy I know and I am so proud of him for everything he has overcome and for the amazing boy that he is. One day I hope to share this blog with Jacob and show him just how much he has overcome and how many wonderful people followed his story and rooted for him! Thank you for allowing me to share his story with each of you. Tonight I want to vent a little for my own sanity about this next hurdle in Jacob's Journey.

As a parent you always worry about your child. As a parent of a child with a life threatening disease this is of course multiplied. But it is not just the major things that worry me. Lately I have been so worried about Jacob's development. Not because I am afraid he will be delayed because that doesn't matter to me. No matter what obstacle we face I know that we will be stronger for it and I will love Jacob with all of my soul regardless. I worry because I see how frustrated he is getting with not being able to communicate with me and that breaks my heart.

Jacob says some words but it is more like baby jabber than really talking. He does say "Mama, Dada, yeah and things like that but he just jabbers them. It is not like he looks at me and is calling my name. He is progressing slowly and recently has started saying a lot more sounds. For instance when Aidan takes a toy from him he puts his hands out and says "Ma" "Ma" really short and fast but we know that he is saying "Mine". I can't imagine how hard it is for him to talk when it takes so much effort just to breathe. The fact that he can jabber at all is a miracle. Still as a mother I desperately want to give him a way to communicate. The more time that goes by without him talking the more I fear how hard it will be for him to begin to talk.

We have tried to point to pictures but he is not interested in that. The one thing that he seems to love is Baby Signing Times DVDs. My mother in law gave them to us when we had Aidan and they were a huge success with him. He loved them and would watch them non-stop. I recommend them to all parents! I started them with Jacob a few months back and the past few weeks he has really grown to love them. If they are not turned on then he brings me the DVD case and hands it to me. If I don't put it in fast enough he starts to throw the remote at me lol. So he does seem to understand what he wants and is starting to tell me things in his own way. If he doesn't want something he shakes his head back and forth very fast or pushes it away. Most of the time while screaming. Jake also loves to imitate you. Because of this we think that he does understand us. He will interact with me and with his toys etc.

The problem I have seen lately is his frustration is growing. He gets irritated over the littlest thing and throws himself on the floor, throws his head back and does a inch worm crawl on his back while screaming. I have place my arm on his chest or touch his face and tell him it is ok. Rubbing his feet seems to soothe him as well. It is happening more and more and I feel so helpless. I also really want to make sure that he recognises the objects we are playing with. I have started placing objects on a try and then asking him to point to the ball or point to the car. So far he just plays with the one he wants and doesn't really respond to my request. His therapist did point out that up until now we haven't really "Asked" much of Jake with things like that so it may take time but it doesn't mean he doesn't understand. He may just not want to give us the car etc. He does give me a kiss if I point to my cheek and say Kiss Kiss. He leans in and gives me a big open mouth slober kiss on the cheek lol. He is also really great at building with blocks. He loves to build towers out of blocks and when he uses them all and his tower is standing he claps and it sounds like he is saying Yay. Tonight Jake did do the sign for "More" and the the sign for "Signing". That was a huge break through for us. Before he would watch the dvds and move his hands around but tonight it was obvious he was wanting more signing times.

This life has taught me so much about taking the little or big things for granted. I know Jacob is still young and most likely he will catch up and be able to talk. I also always knew that because of the lower oxygen levels he may have delays. His therapists have told me that his motor skills are very good and boys tend to focus on those before their talking. Girls are the opposite. I know he will talk when he is ready if he can and if not, we will find our way. This is just one more path along Jacob's Journey and one more lesson in patience for both him and I. It is so frustrating to see him get so angry and so frustrated but I know that together we will find a way to communicate and we will be stronger for it.

Thank you for letting me vent and get my worries out here. Tomorrow the boys are having their pictures done then we are going to spend the evening carving pumpkins and just enjoying time as a family.Then Monday is Halloween. The boys are trick or treating dressed as Woody and buzz from Toy Story. I let Aidan pick the theme. He is so excited. Happy Halloween everyone!

Aidan and Jake at the duck pond...

Jake was not a fan of the ducks.

Mommy & Me

Hanging out in our new Toy Story PJs!

We have a date for surgery...

I can't believe another month has flown by. Some people have been asking when I would be posting again. Like I have said in the past, if it is a while before I post please don't worry. No news is good news :)

But now I do actually have some news...

(Jake doesn't want to hear it)

I talked to CHOP yesterday and we have a date for Jacob's airway reconstruction surgery. It is set for April 25th, 2012. Originally they mentioned doing it in January but the thought of Jacob being in a hospital on the ventilator during the peak of flu season didn't thrill me or Jacob's doctors. Then we discussed March 28th however then we would most likely miss Aidan's 5th birthday. We already missed one birthday because of hospitalizations so we really didn't want him to have another birthday without his Mommy. Mommy didn't want to miss it either :)

So we settled on April 25th. Jacob has a cardiologist appointment on November 15th (almost 2 years to the day we learned our unborn son would be born with HLHS). I am going to talk to Dr. Heydarian and see if we can schedule a cardiac echo some point between now and his surgery to make sure that his heart function is not going down due to his breathing. As long as his heart stays the same then we can wait until spring.

The nurse mentioned that they book the OR for the whole day for this one surgery. It is the only surgery done that day for ENT. This worried me thinking about how major this surgery is on top of everything else he has gone through. However Bert from Dr. Heydarian's office mentioned to me today that instead of thinking of how serious it is. Take it as a blessing that the doctors will have pleanty of time to focus on Jake and not be tired or rushing through it.

I am still praying they will be able to cut the scar tissue by going through his mouth but am preparing myself for the complete airway reconstruction. That way I won't be taken off guard. Still the thought of it makes my stomach turn.

I am looking forward to Jacob being able to run around and breathe without struggling. Now when he is active he can't catch his breath. Still he has more energy than any of us lol. I can't imagine what it will be like when he has a whole airway to breathe through.

As for the post last month about leaving our "bubble" and putting Aidan in pre-school. Well we are back in. We tried it but it was not working out. Jake and Aidan were both sick the whole month he was in. Aidan had such bad anxiety he would non-stop worry about having to go to school even on the weekends. He kept asking when he would be sick again so he wouldn't have to go. My car broke down one morning and he jumped for joy because he knew he wouldn't have to go to school. If it were just for the fact that he would scream and cry when I dropped him off I would have stuck to it but there were so many things. He cried every night, on weekends, was acting out. That plus the kids both being sick and we just were not ready. If Jake was getting every cold that went by now then he would most likely also get RSV or FLU and that scares me to death.

So new plan. For now I will continue to teach Aidan at home. He loves doing his workbooks and learning. Jake will have his airway surgery this spring. I will feel much better about Aidan being in school once Jake has a full airway and is not so high risk. Aidan is ahead of the game as far as development. He knows so much for a 4 year old. I mainly wanted him to be in school for social reasons. I am thinking we may try and enroll him in sports in the spring. Something to get him to interact more with other kids. We are also going to be doing more play dates with friends. I know the transition to Kindergarten will be harder but I know in my heart that this was the right choice for our family.

Jake is still not talking much. I asked his speech therapist to start coming twice a month instead of once. We are working on object recognition with him. Sitting him in a chair and putting objects on the tray and asking him to hand them to us, pick up the block etc. We are also still doing the baby signing times videos. He loves them! He even brings me the DVD case during the day so I put it on for him. We are hoping he will start talking once he has his surgery. He works so hard just to breathe that talking would be very hard on him. He is making a lot more sounds though. His favorite thing to say is "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Ma'ma". He has a lot of baby babble but as far as words he isn't saying much. We are getting there though! Vowel sounds are the first step and he says all of them. He will talk when he is ready but for now I am focusing on signing and trying to give him other ways of communicating (Other than screaming lol).

Jake's motor skills are great. He is practically running now. He thinks its hilarious to hide in my room and close the door then laughs when I open it up and find him. He doesn't even mind if it is dark in there. I open the door and he is all smiles. His favorite thing to play with right now is blocks. He loves to build them into a tower then smiles and claps when he is done. He says yay. He is so proud, and so are we. He plays with trucks and trains, typical boy.

We are getting ready for Halloween. Aidan is going to be Woody from Toy Story so Jake is going to be Buzz. Jake's costume is just a pair of Buzz Pajamas but I think that will be more comfortable for him. I will post pictures after we trick or treat :)

Until then... Happy Halloween!

Hope you like the new layout! I thought I would switch it up a bit for the fall. Not to mention the fact that Jacob's picture was from almost a year ago! Hope everyone has a great week.

Walking for a better future.

Happy Autumn!

This is my favorite time of year. I love the Fall! Pumpkins, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin candles (Notice a theme here lol), the perfect cool weather. I just love it! We took the boys to Gritts Farm today. They have a giant pumpkin patch and other fun things for the kids to do. I got some great pictures of the boys but you will have to wait until the end to see them. I have much to catch up on so here it goes... 

TEAM JACOB

Last Saturday was the American Heart Association Greater Charleston Heart Walk! We were blessed with beautiful weather and they had the biggest turn out they have ever had. I am so excited to report that Team Jacob raised $4,293.00! We more than doubled what we raised last year!

Equally as important we were able to set up a table at the walk and have information for people to take about congenital heart defects. We had pictures showing what our boys have gone through. We were also able to speak at the walk. We talked about how important funding is so that medical advancements can be made, advancements that could one day save thousands of children.

Jake waving to the crowd
(Such a superstar)

This smile is everything to me!

It warmed my heart to see everyone come out and show their support for Jacob. Jacob even walked some during the 5k. Seeing Jake walk just filled me with more pride than I could ever express in words. It was very emotional for me. I made custom shirts for both Jacobs that said "I'm a Survivor". They had a custom made heart sewn from different fabrics. It was beyond awesome to see the boys walking with us sporting their shirts with pride. They are a picture of strength and an inspiration to all of us.

I have said this before but I don't think I can say it enough. We walk not only for our boys but also for the thousands of babies who are no longer with us. 4,000 babies do not make it to see their first birthday. This is not acceptable and we have to keep fighting for research and for medical advancements that can save them.

I want to say a special thank you to an amazing woman I met recently. Her son Corbin passed away due to a CHD after a few short months of life. He was such a brave boy and he fought a valient fight. In the end it was just to much for his little heart. His mother Ruth has been at the forefront of Pulse Ox Advocacy. Despite her own pain she fights for all of our children. Ruth came out to walk with us on Saturday. I can't imagine how hard it was for her to come but she wanted to support Team Jacob. Ruth drove over 2 hours to walk with us.

Jacob, Myself and Corbin's mommy Ruth

I believe Corbin's spirit was there with us as well. He knew that we were walking for him. I know he is so proud of his mommy. We were walking for every life that has been lost due to a CHD and for every life that may be saved from the funds that were raised and the awareness that was spread. I am so blessed to have Jacob here with us. We almost lost him multiple times, his future is uncertain (more so than most) but I will always cherish each day, each minute, each second I get to spend with him. I plan on raising them to know how precious life is and to never take anything for granted.

Lori just had a hip replacement 12 weeks ago.
She walked the whole 5K. Lori you ROCK!

Thank you to each and every person who helped us raise funds and who came out to walk for our boys. I can't tell you how much it means to our entire family. I am already looking forward to next year! Go Team Jacob!

Meet Bella

Ok so everyone is going to think I have lost my mind and I quite possibly have. We got a kitten. We didn't plan on getting a kitten but we have one and I have to say she is ADORABLE. I had been talking with my mom about how we get these jumping spiders downstairs and how when we had cats I never found them (alive). Now that we don't have a cat we can't ever seem to get rid of them. The other day one made its way upstairs and some how made its way into MY SHIRT! I felt something strange and scratched, imagine my surprise when a spider fell out of my shirt. Lets just say my husband woke up to me screaming for him to kill it lol.

So we were talking about this and then realized that we were right by the animal shelter. So I decided to take Aidan to see the kittens. I should have known I wouldn't walk out empty handed. I have to say it was a touching moment I will never forget. Aidan picked her out and instantly fell in love. There were about 30 kittens but he went right to this gray and white one and wouldn't look at any others. I think he picked the PERFECT one. First of all its a girl so I am finally not the only female in the house lol. She is quiet and very lovable and social.

She and Aidan play all day long. Jake doesn't give her a second glance lol. He is not a big animal fan.  He pushes the dog away anytime he comes near him and he acts like the cat doesn't exist lol. The dog even likes her and she doesn't mind him. She has even cuddled up to him a few times. So our family has grown with a tiny 2lb kitten named Bella.

 

Last but definitly not least...

Jacob is 18 months old!

Happy year and a half birthday to my beautiful baby boy. Many people probably don't think a 1/2 birthday is a big deal but for our little miracles they are something to be celebrated. Each day is such a gift and each day represents another day our heart warriors are beating the odds. Time is precious and I hope if Jacob's story has taught you one thing, it is to slow down and celebrate the little things in life!

Now, here are those pictures I promised...