Dutch Wonderland

What an unbelievable day!  Ok, so we missed out on the whole weekend part and Chocolate World, but Saturday at Dutch Wonderland and the chance to meet so many of our POLP friends and families was incredible!!!  Hopefully if we make this a yearly event, Jaxson will be old enough to handle the whole weekend next year!

Peyton made a new friend in Trace’s older sister, Taylor.  He was so excited that there was going to be someone there his age and they seemed to have a good time together.

 

Peyton had a blast riding all kinds of things.  Together we rode roller coasters and anything and everything that would spin really fast!  Unfortunately since I was riding, there aren’t many pictures, but I loved being able to have so much fun with him.  Here is one from the swings and come on, who doesn’t like the swings?

Jaxson unfortunately did not like any rides.  I’m going to take the blame on this one and say I traumatized him on the very first ride.  I loved the tilt-a-whirl as a kid, but I gotta admit Jaxson is probably too young to enjoy it.  Anyway, we all four rode it together and Jax HATED it.  After that I thought ok, we’ll try the carousel.  Who doesn’t like the carousel and it can’t be that bad, right??

WRONG!!!

So sorry Jax!  He did enjoy his day being strolled around in the stroller and sipping lemonade all day!

While waiting to get the group picture taken and ride the train, we came across Duke’s dance show so we decided to take a little break and let the kids watch.  Duke is a huge purple dinosaur and he had two people dressed as jokers dancing with him.  Peyton once again had a good time and even danced a little….

This was him “shakin’ his tail feathers” during the chicken dance!!

I think Jaxson was a little weirded out by the jokers and their dancing…..

And here was one of my favorite parts of the day…….Everyone got together and we tried very hard to get a group shot of the kids.  Let’s just say Jaxson was on the move.  He was so happy to be out of the stroller that he kept walking off.  Oh well, here’s a few of the shots I got……

It was so nice to meet so many POLP families.  We are very blessed to live in an area where Jaxson has the chance to grow up with this many friends close by.  Many thanks to Jenn Greene for organizing the whole thing and we can’t wait to connect with many more people in Nashville!!!

Blue Angels

Wow, what an amazing day!  Saturday Jason and I took Peyton to see the Blue Angels.  It was a joint open house day at the airforce base so not only did we see the Blue Angels fly, but there were all types of other planes in the airshow and parachute jumpers. 

 

This is “Fat Albert”.  It’s the plane that is used to carry all the supplies for the Blue Angels.

We had an absolutely amazing time!

Ice Cream Cake

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get this recipe posted, but it’s been quite hectic and I just haven’t had a chance to sit down to type it.  Anyway, I think I got this from a Kraft magazine:

 

1/2 Cup fudge ice cream topping, warmed

1 Tub (8 oz) Cool Whip, thawed and divided

1 pkg (4 serving size) Jello-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

8 Oreo Cookies

12 Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches

Pour fudge topping into a medium bowl.  Stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping with a wire whisk until it’s well blended.  Add in the dry pudding mix; stir 2 minutes or until well blended.  If mixture is too thick to spread easily, stir in 1/4 cup of milk.

Chop Oreo cookies roughly into chunks.  Stir into pudding mixture.  Arrange 4 of the ice cream sandwiches side by side on a 24 x 12 inch piece of aluminum foil; top with half of the pudding mixture.  Repeat the layers.  Top the pudding mixture with the remaining 4 ice cream sandwiches.  Frost the top and side with the remaining whipped cream.  Bring up the foil sides.  Double fold top and ends loosely sealing the packet.  Freeze at least 4 hours before serving. 

Peyton’s 6th Birthday

 

Ok, when did a birthday turn into a birth”week” or longer??  I guess it’s always been that way at our house, but wow, this has been exhausting, although a lot of fun and Peyton has really enjoyed himself!!

Last Sunday was the start of everything.  We planned a birthday party and a little cookout for Peyton’s family birthday.  All of our families came over and helped us celebrate.  I really enjoyed having everyone here, although the kids spent most of the time outside and I don’t really think anyone saw Peyton except for presents and cake time! 

Peyton was very happy to get a ball bag for all of his baseball gear from his mom-mom and pop-pop.  I think Jason and I are equally as excited since it’s now much easier to carry all that stuff across the field too!

Here’s his birthday cake for this party too.  I know it doesn’t look like much, but it  is the best and easiest ice cream cake I have ever made.  It’s made with ice cream sandwiches, chocolate pudding, crushed oreos and cool whip!  YUM!!!

Peyton’s actual birthday was the 21st.  Although he had school that day he got a couple of presents from us that night.  As soon as I walked thru the door from work he wanted to know where I hid his presents!  Just look how nice he was to allow his little brother to help open them.

 

He also got to pick what he wanted for dinner.  Of course, it was not for mom to cook, but rather his favorite pizza place!

And FINALLY, we had a little party this weekend for some of Peyton’s school friends.  He invited a few friends from school and we planned to roast hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire pit.  I didn’t really plan any games or activities for the kids and it’s a good thing because they spent the entire party chasing each other around the yard!  Boys can be sooo easy at times!!!

One More Appointment to GO!!!

Jaxson had three doctor appointments on Tuesday.  We went back to Johns Hopkins for a follow up with Dr. Tunkel about the ear tubes and a hearing test.  Since we were already going to the hospital I decided to make an appointment with the ortho doctor for Jaxson’s checkup so we finally got to meet Dr. Ain. 

All of the appointments went very well and we were very pleased.   Dr. Tunkel is happy with the placement of the tubes and the hearing test showed improvement in Jaxson’s hearing so it looks like the tubes are doing their job! YEAH!!!

Dr. Ain was also very nice.  We didn’t really spend a whole lot of time with him since Jax is doing so well and we didn’t have many questions.  He watched him walk around the room a little, checked his back and his hips.  Now we only need to see him once a year!!!! 

We have one more appointment coming up with Dr. Hoover-Fong in a couple of weeks to go over Jaxson’s overall care for his achondroplasia.  After that we shouldn’t have any more appointments for at least 6 months!  God, that will be so nice.  It’s great living so close to these absolutely amazing hospitals, but I’ll be happy to not have to make that drive for a little while. 

Happy Easter (a little late….)

Ok, so it’s been quite a while since our last post and I’m really running late on the Easter post, but life is just CRAZY!  I was going over the calendar of everything we have going on and I honestly don’t have a free Saturday between now and June!  GEEZ!!  Life is good though, even though we are very busy it’s mostly fun stuff we have scheduled. 

Anyway, Easter was great.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather around here.  I actually got my first sunburn of the year!  Not that I ever get anything else being so fair skinned, but hey, it was great to sit outside at with my inlaws and again with my family to enjoy all of the Easter Egg Hunts and time with our families.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

Peyton and Jaxson had a great time dyeing Easter eggs.  Oh and Kim, we did get lucky enough to get the wax crayon so they could write their names of the eggs, but we only got 3 colors.

 

And of course, the Easter baskets……..

Can you tell Jaxson was really excited about his new Elmo coloring book?

The Easter bunny finally found some new hats for Jaxson that fit.  And Jax was nice enough to share that prized Elmo coloring book with his brother!

Here is one of the three, yes three, Easter Egg Hunts the boys had.

Ear Tubes

Jaxson had ear tubes put in and skin tags on each side of his face removed and he's doing GREAT!!! As many of you may know Jaxson has been having recurring ear infections every 4 weeks or so since November and has been pretty miserable. I am really hoping that the tubes will help him start sleeping a little better since it's been like having an infant in the house with him up every 3 hours or so since his ears hurt so bad.

We were extremely lucky to have Jaxson's surgery done so quickly. The staff at Dr. Tunkel's office is extremely helpful! We had to reschedule his initial consultation visit as Jaxson came down with a stomach virus the night before our appointment, but we were lucky enough to have it rescheduled for the following week. There was also a cancellation on the surgery schedule so his surgery was scheduled for the week following the consultation. It was a complete whirl wind of a week after the consult with trying to schedule pre-op visits to his pediatrician and get the all clear from his genetisist at John Hopkins and DuPont (since the genetisist at DuPont hasn't actually physically examined Jaxson yet), but everyone was on top this. To the staff at Dr. Hoover-Fong's office and all of the doctor's at both hospitals - THANK YOU - for being so responsive to our requests and allowing this to happen on such a short schedule!

Jaxson did great on the morning of the surgery, until we hit pre-op! His surgery was schedule for 11:00am, but we had to arrive at 9:00am. He was allowed to have a small amount of juice or water 2 hours before arriving to pre-op which means he drank a little something before we left the house, but nothing else. He was doing great and didn't really seem to mind not having breakfast. He did ask me for some juice a few times on the ride over which I must say broke my mom's heart. She rode in the back of the car with Jaxson and every time I would turn around he would ask me for juice. My mother promptly told me I was to keep my eyes forward and she would let me know when he was asleep so I was allowed to turn around again!! She's such a wonderful grandmother and mom, I know she just couldn't take his sad little face. Once we hit pre-op he was ready for a nap and wanted his milk or juice so he could go to sleep. I don't think he ever really stopped crying thru out the entire procedure in pre-op until about 10 minutes before they took him into the operating room. I was allowed to "suit up" and actually walk him into the operating room where they placed the gas mask over his face and once he was asleep I kissed his cheek and left the room.

Here is Jaxson in the recovery room right after his surgery. They actually brought us back before he woke up so I got to be right there when he opened his eyes.

Once he woke up he was SOOOOOOOOO happy to get a drink of juice and some cookies from the nurse!

Peyton was a little upset that he had to go to school the day of Jaxson's surgery so we had to take the monkey instead. Peyton went to Build A Bear and made this monkey for Jaxson's first Christmas. Jaxson calls it his "Ni Nite", I guess because he goes to bed with it sometimes. Despite his face in this picture, he really loves this monkey and you'll usually find him hugging it and patting or rubbing his back. I guess maybe he was afraid the monkey was going to steal his cookie!
We were only in recovery for about 45 minutes and once we got home he was feeling a little better. While we were waiting for the surgery to complete, Mom-Mom bought him a new doggie to love on and as you can see he was very happy to have a new toy.

All in all, we are now 4 days after the surgery and he seems to be almost 100% back to his self. He's eating much better today and thankfully we are done with the ear drops (he absoluely HATED them!) Now we'll see what the next couple of days or weeks bring and pray that the ear tubes work their magic!!!

Thank you again to everyone who helped us get thru this surgery and all of the doctors appointments. I know I mentioned them during my post on FaceBook, but I really don't think I could have made it without everyone - my mom who went with us to the hospital and helped keep me sane during the day, my sisters for allowing me to talk them to death and who also helped get Peyton to school on time, all of our LP friends who gave me advice, encouragement and well wishes - Kim, Melissa and Amanda especially, you were all Godsends!