Happy Birthday!

So as a birthday/anniversary present to US....I surprised Dan with bobble heads of us :) I thought it was a neat idea...seeing the kids had a head bust done, that we should have something too. They are cool!! These were also done by the same local artist that did the head busts...Tim Brunn. Thanks Tim!!
My birthday was Friday and Dan's birthday is today. So September is a busy month for us :) Dan took off Friday afternoon to go up to Tomahawkto see the Harley festivities, hang out with his buddies, and cut some fire wood. I can't believe it's been cold enough in the morning that I can have a fire, so I'm really excited once we get the wood here to have my first fire in the fireplace. I LOVE wood burning fires, snap crackle pop and the smell in the house. SNIFF!! So we'll celebrate our days tonight. Well have a roast in the smoker and I think the kids n I will bake a cake. Well see how ambitious I feel later, heehee.
I decided to take the kids out shopping for awhile yesterday. I was alil intimidated taking Lil man out in public, but it went well. Check that off the list of firsts....New trache out shopping, CHECK! Boy did we find the deals :) I LOVE shopping when that happens. We were out for about 4 hours and then Danny had ENOUGH and wanted to be home out of his chair, NOW. Avrianna must have been wiped from all the shopping and playing yesterday as she is STILL sleeping, heehee.
I was considering getting a cleaning service to clean the new house but decided to go out and get some supplies and do it myself (well with my mother's help). The house still has dust on the walls, trim and vents, the floors are bad, and there are sticker marks on the windows. I think the builder got ripped as they got a cleaning service to tiddy up before the parade, hummmm so not up to MY standards. So it just needs a good DEEP clean and then it shouldn't be too bad to keep maintained, you all know me OCD is kicking in.
Avrianna is making new friends and LOVING it. She now has a friend in her class that lives just around the corner from us. This is great! The girls have played a few times and I think it will be a wonderful relationship that will last forever. They are two peas in a pod :) Avrianna everyday asks if she can call and have her friend over. I told her you don't want her to get sick of you, heehee. I'm so glad she is adjusting well to school and enjoying it. Avrianna started Brownie's so she's excited about that too. I am trying to get her in the Neenah Swim Team as she LOVES to swim and she is so good at it. I think it would be good to challenge her with her abilities (much like school) and get her out competing. I haven't heard from them as of yet, but hoping I will soon. I got a letter in the mail the other day and they are keeping Avrianna in second grade. I'm excited about that!
Danny is doing AWESOME! As of Friday he has been off the TPN and he is tolerating his formula great. So tomorrow, after Michael (his home nurse) draws the labs, we are going to pull the PICC line. I can't tell you how happy I am about that! I was more scared of the PICC line then the trache. So NO MORE PICC line!!!! The next step will be getting Danny to tolerate a faster rate so he can be off the pump more. We are in no real rush so it will be a work in progress, Danny's the boss :) Then we will have to talk with a dietitian to see what will be Danny's formula that he will be ending up on, whether we go back to Promote or if there is something else out there that has less calories but the nutrients that he needs. He is still gaining weight, but I think it was because for awhile there, at the end, he was actually being feed double with the formula and TPN. He is at 64 lbs now, WOW!
Stop by our lil friend Moriah's site as she has some MAJOR set backs this week and he is in critical condition. Send many prayers and thoughts their way. What an amazing family! I'm so glad to be included on their journey. BLUE RIBBONS everyone!!
Thanks for stopping by and checking up on us. Please let us know you were here, as we LOVE to hear from you too.

Senior Moment

This evening I gave Danny and hair cut, bath, and a new G-tube. But I have realized that after a long day NOT to take on too much in the evening as the Senior Moments happen.....hence to "new" hair do (ok Erin can you fix this one, LOL)

This is what happens when you are trimming his neck line and then forgetting to put the attachment BACK ON when cutting the hair, argh! As I'm cussing myself out Danny is laughing, figures. If it wasn't so darn cold out (but we hit 35 today, this is the first day in 34 days to hit above freezing....it's a heat wave, NOT) I'd shave the whole back and let it grow in together. THANK GOD it happened in the back of his head and no one will really know (except me!). Of course I have an artist coming over on Monday to take close up shots of the kids for life like statues I'm having made of them for in the new house. It's a good thing it's in the back....so sorry buddy. As you can see even after the hair cut his hair is still very thick (except in that spot) and wavy so I'm hoping it will camouflage it more. I'm so glad the bath and the new G-tube (I replace his every 3 months) went better then the hair cut. It's not that I did anything really tiring today but I did get alot done.

I had a visit with another mother in the Valley that has a special needs child and two "normal" children. She was here for a good part of the afternoon and it was GREAT! So nice to talk to others that "get it" and be able to share our son's milestones ie: holding a head up for a few seconds, no seizures, hitting a switch to activate a toy. You don't know how many times I can tell someone that Danny held his head up for 10 seconds by himself.....and then get the look as if yeah he's five and it was just 10 seconds. They don't get it!!! She too is building a new home so we shared ideas about the accessibility for our boys(yes our current home is still for sale, check out the link to the left in Our Stories for info). It was wonderful to see how they interact together. Another bond and friendship I hope to continue for many years to come. Thanks again for coming over.

After they left I finished making the Superbowl goodies. It's just going to be us but thought it would be nice to have our own mini Superbowl party. We are not BIG football fans but you have to watch the Superbowl for the commercials, right? Tomorrow morning Danny and I are going to take a ride to the new house and take some pictures of the progress there, then off to my aunt's house for lunch. There we are having a birthday party for my niece and mom (aka Nanny). Dan and Avrianna should be home before the kick off .... if not more for me to eat, heehee. I made taco dip, ham rolls, beer bread and spinach dip, subs, and I have strawberries, kiwi, & blueberries so Avrianna will be totally excited about that....she is a fruit fly!

I am also going to surprise Avrianna when she gets home ..... I signed her up for Gymnastics again once we get back down to Florida....she is going to flip, REALLY. I took her out of Gymnastics last year because of her spleen being enlarged and with her on the bars, climbing ropes and such I knew that we were farting around with danger....so now that her spleen is out and that she has ALL this EXTRA energy, Go Baby GO!

Have a great Superbowl Day and be Safe! Take care