Aidan's 3rd Birthday!

Today we celebrated Aidan's 3rd birthday. We had a party at Aidan's favorite park with all of his playgroup buddies. We had Thomas cupcakes and the kids just ran around and played for hours. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day in January as it was 64 and sunny. After the park we went to McD's playland for lunch with some friends. Then we headed home and opened presents. Aidan loved all of his presents. He got a Thomas bath tub boat, a huge car hauler trailer, a nerf gun, a Mickey Mouse clubhouse car set, a magnetic play set, a chocolate fish and of course the only present he asked for and has been telling everyone he is getting for his birthday, a ride on tractor. He smiled so huge when he uncovered it. He rode the tractor outside for hours. It was so sweet. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful presents. We had a fabulous day and are looking forward to a relaxing evening of pizza and movies with the boys. As you can see in the pictures Nick was home from school again today. He has been home most of the week with pneumonia. The antibiotic they prescribed on Tuesday just made him very nauseous and he couldn't hold anything down so we took him back to Urgent Care today and they prescribed a better antibiotic and an anti-nausea so hopefully he will be on the mend soon and back at school tomorrow.

Aidan's GI Appt

Well we traveled up to Birmingham today to the Children's Hospital to see a new GI and it was worth the trip. The whole facility was so nice and the Dr and staff were fabulous. They performed an upper GI which despite Aidan spitting most of the barium all over the staff and room were able to tell that his wrap is still intact and doing its job. He is red from head to toe from the fruit punch flavored barium. Other then his spitting escapades he did really well and flirted with all the staff. The Dr. thinks that his pain is from constipation and so we are changing up some meds and also she is sending us to a feeding therapist because he is losing weight from not eating. We will re-evaluate in 6 weeks and if no progress then we will consider other meds to increase his appetite and do some further testing like a Bravo probe or more motility testing. For now that makes sense and I am thanking God that we are not looking at another surgery in our near future. Thanks to everyone who was praying for us today. As you can see by the picture Aidan was exhausted from all the fun and flirting. He slept the whole way home. Now it is off to give this monster a bath and get all the barium out of his hair and off his skin.

Our New Favorite Places

Since it has been colder here lately we have been out exploring some indoor places of fun and have found some new family favorites. The first place my boys love is the Eastdale Mall. As far as the Mall and stores go it is a pretty lame mall but my boys love it because it has a carousel inside it and an ice skating rink. Of course they like the cookie shop and smoothie stand too! There is also an arcade and movie theater too but we haven't been in either of those yet. Our other great find is just down the street from our house and is called House of Java. It is a coffee house with a play center (think McDonald's playland) inside an enclosed glass space so you can't hear the kids. Whoever designed this place had kids and was a genuis. So we got hot chocolates and the boys played for hours one afternoon. Hopefully, as we continue to explore our new surroundings we will find lots of other fun things to do.

Karate Testing and Yellow Belt

Nick tested for his yellow belt last night and earned his new belt. He worked very hard and was very proud of himself. Here are a few pictures from his testing. Jeremy video-taped the whole thing so hopefully I can upload some of that later.

Disney World 2010

The whole family at Mickey's house.
Nick with Mickey and Minnie.

Aidan sleeping through the whole afternoon.

The whole family after the parade.

Jeremy holding the official Disney flag, which was guarded by security the whole time.

The whole family in front of the Magic Kingdom tree.

Nick and Aidan after riding Dumbo.

Riding the raft out to Tom Sawyer's Island.

The boys hanging out in Tom Sawyer's Fort.

Aidan riding the carousel for the 5th time straight.

The boys by the castle.

The whole family by the castle.

Nick and Daddy under the Christmas Tree.

Daddy saluting the flag at the retreat ceremony.

The boys in front of Main Street before we went home.

Happy New Year. We started off the New Year in Disney World and it truly is the happiest place on earth and one of the most beautiful places over the Holidays. It was busy but we were able to ride all the rides we wanted to and see everything we wanted to see. Jeremy was honored as the Veteran of the Day and got to take part in the flag retreat ceremony and we got to march in the parade with him after that down Main Street which Nick thought was one of the best parts of the day. Aidan slept through the whole ceremony. He received a one of a kind Mickey Mouse pin after the parade and we got all the photos off of our photo pass for the day. It was a very cool honor. Some other highlights from our day were seeing it all lit up at night. The castle turns on to a beautiful silver and purple and all the buildings light up and then they make it snow on Main Street. Nick really thought it was snowing. The smile on the boys faces when we went on Buzz light year and the Astro Blaster. Aidan really thought we were in a rocket. Aidan also laughed hysterically at the Mickey Mouse PhilHarmonic show. Riding the Disney Train was Aidan's favorite ride you would have thought it was a rollercoaster he was so excitied to ride it. We had so much fun and we can't wait to go back. We were also blessed to be able to go to Sea World during the week which my boys actually thought was just as fun as Disney. Unfortunately, I have no pictures from there because my digital camera was stolen out of my back pocket while we were there. It was really the only bummer of our vacation. I wish you could have seen their faces light up when Shamu jumped out of the water. It was priceless. So until I get a new camera which will be before Aidan's birthday there won't be any more pics on the blog.