One Year, One Month, and One Day

I'm a month and a day late to celebrate "gotcha day" but we have a lot to celebrate. We recently had a medical scare with Ava and we just found out that she is ok. She had an MRI of her brain in November because of her physical/developmental delays and they found a cyst on her cerebellum. The radiology report said that the cyst was having a mass effect and we were sent to see a neurosurgeon, but it took ~6 weeks before we were able to see him. That was a long, worry filled 6 weeks!! We finally saw the neurosurgeon last week and he said that it was a small cyst and that it was not affecting her and that we would get another MRI in a year to make sure it isn't getting bigger (he doesn't think that it will). He said that a lot of people are walking around with cysts like these and don't know it unless they happen to have an MRI for another reason. I am so thankful that she is not going to have BRAIN SURGERY!!! She has had enough surgery in her 4 years!! We are so thankful that we are lucky enough to be this sweet, loving little girl's parents. Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. This has been a difficult time for us and it was so nice to know that there were people out there thinking and praying for us. Keep her in your prayers. She has come a long way, but she also has a lot of catching up to do.



It is nice to have such great news during this time of year. Not only do we celebrate Christmas this time of year, but we also have three December birthdays in our family. Peter turned 6 on the 12th and he had a penguin, winter wonderland birthday. He picked out his cup cakes and he helped me decorate the dining room into Winter Wonderland...he was so excited! We started the celebration at The Varsity and had hot dogs and onion rings and then headed to our house for present opening and cake. He was so funny during his present opening...he didn't act excited about any present he opened, but he really loves all of them. His favorite present was Martian Matter (he has been making martians every day!), but he has played with everything he got. Peter is one of the happiest people I know!

Bring on the grease!

Welcome to Winter Wonderland

The Birthday Boys


Grandaddy celebrated his 75th birthday!!!

I'm also going to post some pictures of the Secret Santa Shop at the boy's school. Every year the kids get an opportunity to shop for their friends and family. Kids can come in with any amount of money and buy gifts. I helped one little boy buy 9 gifts for five dollars. It is such a fun experience for the kids and they feel so good about picking out presents for their family. It was also a fun experience for all of the helper elves that got to help the kids and wrap their presents. The mom who was in charge of this no longer has kids at the school so this was her last year and she has passed the Head Elf job to me. This is what will be keeping me busy shopping at the after Christmas sales coming up and wrapping presents throughout the year.

All of the gifts

The first group of shoppers

Elves Yasna and Karen

Elves turning the shop back in to the science lab