2009 Memorable Moments

More 2009 Memorable Moments

A Year In Review

I decided that I would post a summary of big events in the lives of our family.

January:

Shortly after the New Year, my baby boy turned 5 years old! His party had a Mickey Mouse theme since he was (still is) a big Mickey Mouse fan.

February:

We received a big snow and was out of school for several days. We went over our snow day limit so I had to work on Presidents' Day. We celebrated Valentine's Day with our sweeties and tried to stay warm.


March:

Miss Carleigh's birthday was this month and she turned 4 years old. My toddler has been transformed overnight into an independent, strong-willed preschooler! She loves anything Princess so her birthday party theme was Princesses (of course!).

April:

We celebrated Easter and went to our church's Easter Egg Hunt. Matt turned the big 4-0! Eek! And we started to enjoy the warmer temps of Spring!

May:

Cody's big K meeting with his entire team met to devise a plan of action for Cody in the new school. Cody got to meet his new teacher and visited her classroom twice a week during this month!

June:

Matt and I celebrated our 11th anniversary! I gasp when I think we have been married that long! We traveled to Gatlinburg as Matt's sister was married. We had a yard sale to de-clutter our home, plus raise funds for our trip to the Sand Dunes of Michigan. We traveled to Silver Lake, Michigan for the last week and part of July. It was unseasonably cool and we had to wear pants and sweatshirts during the majority of the week. The sights and sounds were breathtaking!

July:

We had our friends over to celebrate the 4th of July and went to see fireworks. Cody had his 3 day test to check if he was having seizures. Those were the most LONGEST, boring days of our lives! Praise the Lord that he was not having seizures!

August:

I was crazy busy getting my classroom ready for a new school year as well as getting the Codeman ready for his first day of Kindergarten! Carleigh started her final year of preschool.

September:

We traveled to Kentucky for a family reunion for my dad's family. We came back changed people as what we witnessed in KY was like a scene from a horror film! It took months to get over the images in our heads. Plus we were hounded by the media! In the midst of this ordeal, I celebrated my 33rd birthday.

October:

Matt started his new job! We enjoyed corn mazes and a trip to the pumpkin patch to pick the best pumpkin. Cody dresses as the Scarecrow and Carleigh was Dorothy from the "Wizard of Oz." Pumpkin carving and trick or treating was loads of fun!

November:

Jen started her lifestyle change and began walking, exercising, and changing her eating habits. Thanksgiving happened and the craziness of Black Friday shopping was fun!

December:

Cody returned to the doctor to discover that he needs eye surgery for the crossing of his eyes. I made a gingerbread house with Carleigh at her preschool party. We celebrated Christ's birth on Christmas. Cody and Carleigh began a research study to determine if they have a new X-linked Chromosonal Study and Jen was diagnosed with Pre-Diabetes.

And that is our year in a nutshell! I am praying and hoping that 2010 brings positive changes and blessings for our family and yours!

Research Study

Cody had his genetic appointment down at the main campus of Children's Hospital this afternoon. We haven't seen the Geneticist in almost 4 years! Over the past summer, the dr. was at a convention and met another dr. who had a similar case like our children. So, we are doing a research study with this other family in Canada who have similar physical features and developmental delays like Cody and Carleigh. He is also trying to get other biological family members' test samples to see if they find a new X-linked Chromosonal Syndrome. It would be exciting if we find a new syndrome and find ways to better help my two kiddos in the future.

On a less cheery note, it was not fun being stuck in the hospital for 3 hours plus having to take both children down to the lab to have their blood drawn. Carleigh had never had her blood drawn plus they had difficulty getting enough blood out so they were digging in her veins, poor thing! She was upset for probably 20 minutes (can we say DRAMA QUEEN?!!) whereas Cody had his bandaid pulled off in less than 2 minutes and was a happy camper before we reached our parking spot in the garage.

Clutter be gone!

I could not stand the toy clutter nor the fact that my living room looked like a toy store blew up in it therefore, this afternoon, we did a clean sweep. I tackled Cody's bedroom first and threw out 2 large garbage bags of broken/old toys. Then I moved in some of his new toys and organized some of his favorite old toys. Then the living room disaster was next. That was quite a job, but since Carleigh is a great helper, I had her climb under and behind the couches to find any toy or sock or piece of trash. She did a great job! When she was finished, she remarked "Boy, I am thirsty!" To which she was rewarded with a cup of water!

It feels great to have my living room back (and yes the Christmas tree is already down!) and I always feel so much better with a clean, clutter free room. Now tomorrow's job is to tackle my bedroom and work on lots of laundry and clothes organization. I am so glad to have this week off to take care of the house that was badly neglected due to the holidays and working. Hopefully I get all the tasks done before I go back next week!

A New Year, A New Me

Out with the old year and into the new year, I too must change as well!

I have had some testing done over the past couple of months and had a Glucose Tolerance Test that indicated that I am glucose intolerant. This means that I have "Pre-Diabetes." Diabetes is prevalent on my dad's side and I can remember vividly watching my Grandma giving herself shots of insulin. And now some of my aunts and uncles have Diabetes as well. You just cannot prevent genetics, but I am going to do my very best at preventing full-blown Diabetes.

My plan of action is to lose weight (already down about 15 pounds), exercise, and to learn how to plan meals that are Diabetic friendly. Most of you are aware that my husband has Diabetes so it would really benefit the both of us. I am planning on meeting with a dietitian as well as take nutrition classes at a local hospital. I am also taking some medication that should help out as well.

Tonight, I put together my stationary bike that I purchased with my Christmas money. What's nice about it is that I can watch tv or listen to my iPod stereo while working out. Fun Fun Fun!

Hopefully this time next year, I will look and feel completely different!

Christmas Eve with the Schmidts

We celebrated Christmas with Matt's family on Christmas Eve. After everyone was stuffed with food, we had a game or aka "raffle" were Matt's mom drew names out of a basket and received a prize. Then it was present time and movie time followed. I think there is true validity to the notion of being very sleepy after a big meal. It happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners. Of course that will be the last of the big meals for me (for info on that later) so hopefully I won't be so sleepy after dinner anymore!

Christmas Morning

Carleigh awoke at 8am and then we knew that we would have to get up soon or find Cody under the tree with all the presents unwrapped. We awoke about 2 minutes before he came barreling out of his room in search of presents from Santa. This is a scene of what they saw Christmas morning.

Opening Presents from Santa

Santa arrived after midnight and I heard his sleighbells from my bedroom window. Luckily the kids didn't hear him as he had to get presents out of a little girl's closet who was sound asleep. After a few noisy moments, he was gone and left quite a spread of presents for two naughty er nice little children.

The Biggest Hit of the morning...

Cody's "First Learning Locomotive" was the hit of the morning. In fact, Cody refused to open anymore gifts until he had plenty of time to check it out. This gave us time to watch Carleigh open her presents. Then of course Cody enjoyed his "Hot Dog Mickey Mouse" and it is so cute to see Mickey dancing and singing to the "Hot Dog" song as well as tell corny jokes. Carleigh is thrilled to have Princess dressup clothes, shoes, crown, sceptor, jewlery and everything princess including her bed tent.

Playing with some toys

I forgot to include the pic of Cody at Aunt Connie's so I decided to place it here. While everyone else was eating dinner, he decided that counting all the letters to her "Merry Christmas" sign was needed. He took it off her table and had to lay next to it. Carleigh is enjoying her tutu and was doing "ballet" as she calls it. She is an "Angelina Ballerina" fan. Gator Golf, Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Giraffalaffa Limbo are just three of the games that have been a hit so far.

Christmas Day Dinner with Jen's Family

We had Christmas Day dinner at Jen's sister's house. Carleigh was excited to have her food of choice prepared aka Aunt Connie's "picture perfect" macaroni and cheese! I made an oreo pie that I haven't made in eons...and my niece was so excited that I made it.

After dinner

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After dinner, we opened gifts and watched "Home Alone." Cody and Carleigh were highly entertained by Cody's new piano/song mixer/ipod/ voice recording toy. Carleigh received two twin girls named Myra and Addie straight from the Cabbage Patch Nursery. We had to take their lettuce leaves off to find out their gender. A guitar and record spinning (noisemaker) toy also were highlights of the many, numerous toys they received.

Round 3 of Presents

Matt's parents arrived around 5pm and brought Christmas presents for everyone. Cody received an electronic drum set (big HIT!) and Carleigh received her dollhouse that we all absolutely love! We had pizza (that totally made me sick in the middle of the night) and had a fun time looking at the toy store that blew up in our living room.

Playing with her dollhouse

Carleigh received the Loving Family Grand Dollhouse from her grandparents. Several others including "Santa" bought pieces of furniture for it. She LOVES it! We have it placed on her train table which is the perfect spot for it. The oven as a light and it beeps when the oven is finished cooking food and the mini van has a car radio and a horn that works. Can ya tell Mommy likes it as much as her daughter? I just wish I had something that cool as a child!

Enjoying the break

I am really enjoying my Christmas break so far. It has been nice to get caught up on all the lost sleep that I have missed! The kids have been sleeping in until at least 8am and for that I am terribly grateful! We have enjoyed playing together, baking cookies, and waiting for Christmas. I cannot wait to see their faces when they open their presents this year!

Their independence and maturity is so different than last year. It's really neat how they understand Santa this year. (Sidenote: As we do "do" Santa, we emphasize Jesus' birth and not Santa as the REAL reason for Christmas.) We have a Santa puppet and both of them like to put the puppet on and ask each other what they want for Christmas. For Carleigh, her wish list changes daily. Her new list includes a stethoscope (cute hearing her say THAT one!) and a pink cell phone. She also wants a pink laptop and digital camera. she has expensize taste to say the least!

Matt's been working so much and has to work a full day on Christmas Eve which was disappointing to hear. The man needs a break! He will get a 3 day weekend which will help him out tremendously.

On to reading a good book....

Visit with Santa

After our nephew's birthday party on Saturday, we decided to take the kids to visit Santa. When I was a child, my parents always took me to visit Santa at his house near the courthouse. So, we decided to go there. I was overjoyed to find NO LINE! Carleigh was so happy to see Santa but acted very shy. We had to coax out what she wanted for Christmas. Cody instinctfully gave Santa a hug and kiss. Then when Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas, he excitedly said "piano."

Visit with Raygan

Our niece Raygan came over to play with Cody and Carleigh after our visit with Santa. My two overwhelmed her with attention! In fact, Carleigh was waiting outside the bathroom door waiting for Raygan to come out. They both fought over who would sit with Raygan in our glider.