St Jude Marathon

My cousin, brothers, and I started running the St Jude Half marathon/ marathon in 2005. We have tried to run every year since (except when I was pregnant or just had baby). We do the half marathon every year, except in 2010 my cousin and brother ran the full, and love it. It's for a great cause and I love having this memory with my brothers. Saturday was the annual marathon and this year running had a different effect on me than years before. We run beside LeBonheur Children's Hospital, which is where Ansley and us spent most of July!! It tugged at my heart a little running by but it made me push harder. I missed seeing my parents standing at mile 6 where they stand each year (dad always drove the back roads to park on the road and mom didn't want to try it- she would have gotten lost) and that too was hard! I hit a wall at mile 8 but around mile 11 or 12 I saw a sign from a spectator that said "This is nothing, you have been through harder"!! Ummmm hello...was that sign for me??? It gave me the push I needed!! I ran one of the worst times, if not the worst time, I have ever ran but it was fine with me because I did finished.  It was completely worth the cause:

The St Jude Heroes raised 5.7 million dollars for St Jude!!!! 

 About to run by Le Bonheur

 Cousin, me, and the brothers

 Their thoughts on this race

The thousands of people waiting to run

 Running

One of  the spectators :) 

Holidays

Sorry the pics are not in order!! 

Aiden and I making a Christmas craft

In their Christmas pjs

The 3 babies at Thanksgiving (all 1 month apart) 

Thanksgiving came and passed quickly but it was an extremely hard day! I woke Thanksgiving morning and knew it was not going to be easy! I had many crying spells while cooking that morning and watching the parade but while getting ready I lost it! I just knew it wasn't going to be the same and honestly I wanted to go back to bed and let the day pass. But if my mom could do it, so could I, and we all did. We made it through the first holiday without my dad! The day before thanksgiving was my parents 35th anniversary! My brothers and I spent the entire day and night with my mom and it was so fun just hanging out! This time of the year was my dads favorite, he loved Thanksgiving and being with family and enjoying whatever we wanted to eat.  Last year my dad was doing well watching is eating and he told us before Thanksgiving Day he was going to enjoy it and eater what he wanted! I'm so thankful he did!!! Dad loved Christmas the most. There wasn't anything he didn't enjoy, he even Black Friday shopped with me (at Lowes or Home Depot) if I asked him to! My dad was known for making Peanut Butter Balls this time of the year, and he would take weeks making them for everyone!! He and my mom always did some major decorating. Dad would spend the entire day after Thanksgiving decorating the outside of the house (not like Griswold style). So we know the weeks will only get tougher but we know dad would want us to enjoy this time together. Please remember us the next few weeks!

ONE YEAR OLD

My beautiful baby girl is ONE!!! We had a wonderful party and I will post many pictures soon!! Ansley went to the doctor Monday and weighed in at a huge 18lbs, putting her in the 10th percentile for weight! She's TINY but I would be too if I never ate! Her doc wasn't too concerned about it but does want us to force the cup more so we have been trying!! She had a great visit at the neurologist last week and he is pleased with her development in 3 months!!

2 short weeks

In 2 short weeks this sweet girl will be ONE!! I can not believe how fast this year has gone.  I have been busy planning her party, although she will never remember it I still feel like it should be a big celebration of all she has overcome this year!! 

God has big plans in store for this sweet girl! 

My babies sleeping together

Already wrestling!! 

On the up and up....

I am feeling much better this weekend, almost back to my normal self!
I also have some wonderful news- my baby girl is 3 months seizure free as of yesterday! I had my monthly meeting with her therapist today and we both feel there is no pressing issues we are concerned with for her developmentally. She is doing great!! She is a completely different child since starting day care and therapy.  She has developed such a personality and independence! She has just recently decided she wants to eat table food and loves it!! She is the sweetest thing. I do hear more and more often that she looks just like my dad and lately I see it so much more. Her actions are even very similar to him.  My mom and I were discussing last night how much Ansley loves men.  She wants Brandon, my father in law, or brothers to hold her anytime she is around them.  When she was a baby dad would hold her in his chair, on his tummy while Ansley slept (he did me, my brothers, and grandkids this way), oh how I miss seeing that!!
This weekend we had a memorial service for my dad at the hospital where is was employees for 30 years.  I've mentioned this before but the week after dad passed away the dialysis department at the hospital did a memorial in honor of dad that was placed on the hospital wall of the department.  The service Sunday was for all the hospital employees that passed away this year.  It was a very nice ceremony yet very hard.  On the back of the program these words where written:
And if I go while you're still here...
Know that I live on,
Vibrating to a different measure
-behind a thin veil you can not see through.
You will not see me, so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we will soar together again,
-both Aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to the fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart
...I will be there!!

I bolded the line "until then live your life to the fullest" because my dad would say that exact thing!! Are you living your live to the fullest??

Beach

We had a blast at the beach.  My mother, mother in law, and sis in law went with us.  Ansley enjoyed the water and sand.  She did not like being confined to the baby pool on the beach.  She however loved the big pool.  Aiden LOVED the beach and pool.  He loved everything about FL and I know he would stay for weeks if he could.  We had perfect weather and it was the absolute best trip.

 

Aiden loved playing on his buggy board.

Ansley cried anytime I wasn't holding her.

Aiden did a lot of go kart riding!

 

Where have we been??

So where have we been?

 The Beach (a whole post will come for that)

 

Doing a lot of this- swimming 

(well that was until it got cold this week)

 

I have been training for this!

 

 AND...

WATCHING THESE TEAMS PLAY FOOTBALL!

I must admit though football is just not the same without my daddy to watch it with.

 

 

WHERE HAVE WE NOT BEEN?????

We have not been in the hospital with Ansley!! 

But unfortunately we have been in the hospital.

 

I have been meaning to update for awhile now but really have not sat down to take time and post.  We had a GREAT time in FL. But you can hear more about that here. 

Ansley started going to day care 2 days a week.  She goes to therapy for an hour one of those days.  She is doing really well.  She loves school and enjoys playing with friends her age.  I especially love my days of getting caught up around the house, exercising, grocery shopping, and most importantly spending time with Big Brother.  Ansley is almost 11 months old now.  We are about 3 months seizure free, yes that is correct- no seizures since leaving LeBonheur.  She is pulling up and trying to cruise around.  She loves crawling (it's more of an army crawl).  She still has NO desire to eat anything other than her bottle.  This to me is a pressing problem and I really want ALOT more therapy focus on it so hopefully we will see improvement soon.

Aiden is still staying at home with me all 5 days! Sometimes it can be a little overbearing but I know next year, when he starts Kindergarten, I will not get to keep him home with me when I want.  He seems to be adjusting well to the changes of everything that has happened to us this year.  He acts a bit still but he is 4.  He is the smartest child I know (I'm biased) and loves to learn.  He is working soo hard on his handwritting, which I have mentioned is bad, real bad.  But now its getting A LOT better. 

The hubs is still doing what he does best and working hard to provide for our family!  When he is not working we have LOVED our days as a family doing anything or nothing. 

ME- I am doing what I always do- being a house keeper, maid, cook, and MOMMY to these sweet babies!  I have enjoyed the past weeks of hanging with my babies without a schedule or anything planned.  But I know that will end sometime and I need to go back to work, I'm pretty confident I will try to go back to working in Jan.  Until last week I was working hard at my training for the St Jude half marathon and getting my prebaby body back. However last weekend I had a severe pain in my stomach and side.  After a little conviencing from Brandon I decided I needed to head to the ER (we hadn't been the hospital all month so why not? ha).  After seeing the doc and having a ct scan, I was being put to sleep and undergoing surgery to remove my Appendix.  YUCK!  I have recovered well and feeling ALOT better now however I can not lift anything over 10 lbs for 6 weeks.  Which means I can not pick up Ansley to feed her, change her, rock her, bathe her....  SO of course my mother and mother in law have stepped in again.  They are taking turns staying with me when Brandon is working.  My training has been placed on hold and hopefully soon I can get back to it. 

I again apologize for the 2 months of silence from the blog I will TRY better.