Jacob Mathew

Lauren with Jacob (and a little too much eyeshadow!!!!)






Jacob not looking very happy.







Jacob was born the Saturday after Thanksgiving. A few days later we found out that Jacob has some health problems. One of those problems was a rare disease called Pompe. Only a few thousand people have this disease in the United States. This was not what we hoped for or thought would even be possible. But it has and now we are learning a lot about Pompe disease. Pompe disease is a rare neuromuscular genetic disease. People with Pompe disease are missing or do not have enough of an enzyme.

Brian and Diane took Jacob to the doctor today to talk about what treatment is out there for Jacob. We are lucky that we are in a time that a drug company has come up with a treatment. First they have to test to see if Jacob is missing the enzyme or if he just does not have enough of this enzyme. We are hoping that it is just not enough. If that is what is happening than Jacob can get a treatment of this enzyme every few weeks and hopefully live a full life. There is a boy out there that has been living with this treatment since he was a baby and is now almost 10 years old. There has only been one death with this treatment and it was because of some other issues. We are so hopeful. If Jacob does not have this enzyme that he will need to have drugs for his body not to reject the enzyme first. Either way we are so happy that medicine has advanced so much that Jacob will have a chance at a normal life. He still needs a lot of prayers while he starts this treatment.

Christmas Night

Our Christmas Blessing.

Ready for the evening.

Having fun.

Playing with the girls.

Acting goofy while I "try" to get some pictures.

All the cousins after a long evening (including a trip to the park after the rain!)

Opening more gifts.

Playing with Sammie.

Christmas evening we went over to Brian's home for Christmas dinner and to open the last of the family gifts. Before heading over to him home I tried to get some pictures of Lauren. She was acting crazy and of course driving me up the wall. She was just excited from the whole day.

The evening was fun and it was a great way to end Christmas 2008. One of the special blessings for 2008 was my new nephew, Jacob. Jacob is just a few weeks old but has had a rough going. He was in ICU for about a week after he was born. He has an enlarged heart and he has some other issues related to that. We are hopeful with a new treatment that he can live a long and healthy life. He is our Christmas blessing and we thank God everyday for such a sweet little guy. Please keep him in your prayers.

Christmas Morning

Waking up to a stocking full of goodies and a room full of presents.

Unpacking the stocking.

A new Webkinz animal.

Opening Santa gifts.

Lauren's favorite gift. (It better have been!!)

Playing with her new computer.

Trying out her new skates.

Christmas morning is at my home. Santa delivers all the gifts to my home. However, Santa fills the kids stockings at their own home. After looking through their stockings, they come over to my house to open Santa gifts and eat breakfast.

Lauren got up at 4:00am and let me know that Santa had been there. I made her back to sleep but she was so excited that by 6:30 am she could not wait any longer. I let her go and open her stocking. She also opened kitty's stocking. I then got breakfast ready and we waited for everyone to get to our house.

Once everyone arrived the kids opened the Santa gifts. Us parents decided a few years ago that Santa would bring the kids 3 gifts each. This makes it great for us because we all know that each child is only going to get three gifts and we don't have to worry about one kid getting a ton of gifts from Santa and another only gets a few.

Lauren's favorite gift was a new computer. I spent more money then I had planned but I hope this will last until she is in high school. I needed to get her one so that she could load her games on that computer and not mine. She thought it was great. Uncle Brian set it up for her that morning. We went the next day and got a computer desk and chair but for Christmas she just used a little side table and a stool.

Our Christmas breakfast has included crepes with cheese filling since we started the Christmas breakfasts. They are great and everyone looks forward this meal. I like having people at my house I just wish I had a little bigger house. I move the furniture around so that we have as much room as possible but it is still a bit crowded.

Once everyone left we had time to clean up and rest for the evening at Uncle Brian's home.

Christmas Eve

Ready for the fun of Christmas Eve

Message to Santa.

Cookies and apples for Santa.

The girls.

Opening gifts.

Sammie and Lauren ready for bed.

Lauren and I are pretty lucky that we have a lot of family that live by us and that we are all able to celebrate Christmas together. A few years we decided that we would go to each other's homes for different meals on Christmas eve and Christmas day. So, Christmas Eve night is spent at Janine and Don's home. This year we went to their home and had dinner and opened one gift and then we went to church. After church we come home and this year we tried something new that was really fun. We each brought a "funny" gift and had a gift exchange. We all had a great time playing it and Brian and Diane brought the best gifts. We will all be ready for next year!!! It was a fun game to play. We then opened one more gift and were done for the night. It was such a nice night and it is always nice to have the family together.

Before we had gone over to Janine's house, Lauren put out cookies and apples for Santa. I found this really cute cup/plate set that allows Lauren to write a note on the cup to Santa. She did such a good job, I don't want to wash it off for next year. I might just keep it for years to come.

At the end of the night Lauren changed into her Christmas pjs and was ready for bed. Lauren was so excited for Santa to come. I remember being so excited when I was her age. She got up at 4:00am and came into my room to let me know that Santa had come. I made her go back to sleep but every 30 minutes she was asking if she could get up.

Zoolights

We probably didn't need a hat and mittens but they are fun to wear once in a while.

We had been trying to go to Zoolights for about a week. Every night I thought would work out it would rain or I had to work late. Finally on December 23 we were able to make it to the zoo. It was a bit crowded but it was nice and Lauren liked it. It was even cold so it made it feel like Christmas was almost here. It also was good way to start Christmas.

A Full Day From Beginning to End.

Ready for Church.

Teddy Bear Tea at the Ritz

Feeding BunBun a little bit of food.

Tea wouldn't be complete without scones.

Lauren and her new teddy bear.

Christmas Caroling on the hayride with Blaire.

Petting the horses.

More horses.

And more horses.

Today was a full day. We started the day with church. Since it is the Sunday before Christmas, Lauren wore her fancy Christmas dress to church. She likes to get dressed up and I like to dress her up. I love this dress. I love the big bow in the front, it looks so fancy and festive.

We left church and had a light lunch before heading to the Ritz for the Teddy Bear Tea. This is a very cute (and expensive) event. It was so cute to see all the little girls (and a few boys) dressed in their fancy Christmas dresses. The children had hot cocoa and the adults got the tea. We had finger sandwiches and some little desserts and of course, scones. Mrs. Claus was there and they also had a puppet show. Santa was also planned to be there but for some reason he did not show up. That surprised me because it was a lot of money and that it was the Ritz that was hosting this event. I would have thought that they would have made sure the Santa was there. Lauren had fun but this is one of those things that you experience once and you don't have to do it again. Lauren was a bit disappointed that Santa was not there but she was fine once she received her bear.

We left the, changed clothes and met Janine and Don, Elaine, Blaire and Grant for some Christmas caroling. Elaine takes horseback riding lessons and they host a hayride Christmas caroling event each year. We went around the neighborhood and sang songs. It was fun and the neighbors seemed to enjoy it. Then we come back to the stable area had chili and hot dogs and etc. Lauren just wanted to pet all the horses.

We headed home after the carolling. Lauren was asleep within a few minute of her head hitting the pillow. The next few days are going to be busy but fun. So far this has been a nice holiday season.

The Week Before Christmas

Star of the week.

Cheer program at a care center.

Dressed like a person from France for the school program .

Activities from around the world.

Christmas cookie decorating

Baking contest

Winning cookies

Time for bed to get ready for another very busy week!!!

This past week continued to be as busy as the weekend had been. First, Lauren was "Star of the Week" in her class. This meant that we had to make a poster all about Lauren. We did that very late Sunday night. Then each day Lauren would have to bring two items from home. (A sort of show and tell.) Then on Friday, Lauren had to fill a large jar with an item. The rules are that you put between 19 and 100 of these items in the jar and then the kids try to guess how many there are. We decided that candy canes would be a good item to use. Lauren liked being Star of the Week. I just wish we could have done it during a week that was a little less packed!!

Then Lauren had a few parties during the week. The first was at cheerleading and the next one was at Awanas. Of course Lauren had to bring a small gift to exchange at each of these parties. After this week we have a few weeks off from activities. That will be nice not to have something going on each evening.

During the week, Lauren's cheerleading group went to a care center to put on a short program for the residents. It was very cute and I am glad that she was able to do this types of outreach activity. After doing the program Lauren and the others went up to the residents and hugged them and talked to them for a short while. Lauren was not afraid to talk to the residents at all. It was nice to see her do this.

On Friday Lauren's class celebrated the end of their latest theme. This theme was Children from around the World. They have been on this theme for the past month or so. Each student had to pick a country from around the world. They had to write a report and do a small talk about the country. Friday was the celebration of the end of the theme. The students each brought an item of food from their country and they were also encouraged to dress like children from their country. At the party they all shared the food and they did some art activities from some of the countries. Lauren had picked France. Lauren did wear a beret to school but by the afternoon she was done with wearing it. It was a nice time and not the typical holiday party.

Later that night we all got together at Lauren's aunt's house to decorate cookies. The cousins all seemed to have great time. I was so tired from just a long week I just wanted to go home and sleep.

On Saturday, Lauren still had dance and then we went to Aunt Janine's house for a Bake Off. Lauren and I picked peanut butter cup cookies. Lauren did a great job helping. Although from the picture it looks like we won everything we really didn't . I think there was some bribing with the judges or something because we only came in second. We felt we were cheated. We will get them next year!!!

It was a very full week and we have a very full day tomorrow. This holiday season has been a lot of fun but also very tiring. It will be nice to get back to normal.

Christmas Party #3 - Recession, What Recession?

Tonight we went to our 3rd Christmas party of the weekend. This party was at one of Lauren's classmate's home. All I can say is that this party was a bit over the top! This is the same family that had the pumpkin party at Halloween time, so I have a feeling that it would be nice but wow.

First, the invite that we received was nicer then most Christmas cards that are sent out. Second, when we arrived there was valet parking and then a golf cart to take you up to the house. Once at the party, there was 30 tons of snow and again a "snow hill". There was brick oven pizzas being cooked during the evening by a well know upscale restaurant in town. There was a DJ. There was a full bar and so much other food. There was gifts for all the kids as well as party favors. There must have been over 300 people there. I looked at all of that and thought if people saw this there is no way they would think there is a recession going on.

Lauren had a great time with her classmates and enjoyed all of it. It made me a bit uncomfortable. For me, it is hard to go to these type of parties by yourself. A lot of these people know each other from so many different social events and activities. They have their groups and I always feel like such an outsider. It is hard for me to connect with these people. I am glad that most of Lauren's other classmates are much more down to earth.