HO HO HO...Merry Christmas DS Playgroup

Saturday we had our monthly Down syndrome playgroup and this month we had a Christmas party with the big guy himself, SANTA! Krisitn, the head of our playgroup, did an excellent job with planning the party and it turned out to be one of the best get together's we've had. We met at West Vigo Elementary school and had lunch, then the kids got to play in the gym while there were stations set up around the gym for the kids to do Christmas activities. Some of the activities were: decorating cookies, making plates for Santa's cookies on Christmas Eve, decorating a Christmas tree ornament and making frames for our Santa photos. We had a really nice turn out and met some new families from around the area. Thanks to our funding from Down Syndrome Indiana, which is supported by donations, like the ones some of you made to our Buddy Walk team! we were able to buy Christmas gifts for all the kids in attendance for Santa to hand out. I LOVE our playgroup and am so grateful to have come in contact with some amazing families!

Jayden telling Santa all she wants for Christmas is a Big Jessie!


Jayden getting her present from Santa. PJ's and an art set.

Sophia's first Santa experience.

I think she just kept wondering, "Who the heck is this guy???"

Helping Sophia open her gift. PJ's and a Winnie the Pooh telephone.

Dashing through the Snow......

Shelby wondering where in the heck we were taking her......the vet?

Jayden and Shelby getting ready to go see the lights at Deming Park.

Poor Sophia couldn't see anything over that huge carseat :(

Toy Story

Jayden had a front row seat :)

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

The finale. The lights played with music on a radio station.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Dancing to some Christmas music


Just being a ham :)

HEY!

"I crack myself up!"

Our girls

I LOVE these little girls!

A portrait by Jayden

Jayden's big a** lollipop she got from school today

We LOVED the snow!

Sophia couldn't go out in the snow today, but she LOVED watching out the window!

Jayden :)
Jayden LOVED eating the snow. I made sure to tell her about the yellow snow :/

Our crazy Shelby dog! She also LOVED playing with us in the snow.

Sledding :)

Our First Snow Day of the Season

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La La Land

First off, thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for Monica! The surgery went well and Monica has been back in her room for a while now resting and coming back from La La Land :) The surgeries lasted about 3 hours total, 1 1/2 for the masectomy and 1 1/2 for the reconstructive. After that she went to recovery for about another 1 1/2 hours before coming up to her room. We were all there waiting for her and she was pretty out of it when they rolled her into the room, but able to talk. I've never seen anyone coming off of anesthesia, or not like this anyway :). One of the first things Monica started talking about was seeing Brenda, who is Randy's aunt that recently passed away from a much more intense form of breast cancer. It was sad at first to hear her talk about her because it felt like she wasn't aware that Brenda was no longer physically with us, but then she started talking about all of her loved ones that have passed away and how she saw them all and they were up in Heaven doing all the same things that they did here on Earth. Like playing Euchre, making cherry salad, and people going off to church. It was crazy how everything she said sounded so real, and maybe it was? Maybe one of the craziest things she said was that Randy and I were going to have another baby, a boy, and we needed to get us a bigger house. And Randy's brother was married with 3 kids, all boys, which isn't even in the making yet. She sounded so sure of all of this, it was almost scary. I have always wanted 2 girls and a boy????? Who knows if she really saw our future :) but non the less we got some lottery numbers out of her and Randy is going out first thing tomorrow to buy a power ball ticket!

Thank you all again for the prayers! Please continue to pray for Monica in the months ahead because today was only the beginning of a long journey.

Praying for Grandma

Tomorrow Randy's mom is having a masectomy and reconstructive surgery to get rid of that nasty cancer that has invaded her body. She is an amazingly strong woman who has been two steps ahead of this since she first found out and has dealt with this misfortune like a champ. We are asking that all of you reading this please say a prayer, or two, for her tomorrow and the months to come. We LOVE you Monica!