What a fun, busy, scary, tiring and also blessed month!
So much can happen so quickly!
We started the month playing in the yard and sitting in the driveway! That's one of Dee Dee's favorite things to do. I love to sit outside on the driveway with our entire family but usually your Mommy and Bennett and just watch you two play! Your sweet smile melts Dee Dee's heart...
Your Dada has been working in the yard this month. He brought these home from work to use as tables...
I think it's SOOO cute that you LOVE to get your hair cut. You don't like your hair to get long at all! We decided to go to Great Clips this month...they did a great job!
We had so much fun at Nelly's house for Halloween! She has a TON of houses in her neighborhood. JoJo made you three these shirts! SO cute and SO sweet!
Nelly painted your face to match your cape..
You were pretty insistent that you were NOT Batman... just a bat! HA
I love how you aren't scared! You are so brave!
After trick or treating you wanted to also hand out candy!
You got quite the stash! :)
We went camping at Vogle State Park! SO much fun! You LOVE to climb! Anything! :)
We tried to play cards in the camper while you two went to bed. You eventually fell asleep and watching you two was a HOOT!
Dee Dee loves riding bikes with you! And you LOVE it too!
It was super windy and you and B had fun trying to catch the falling leaves...
We went to downtown Blue Ridge. Your Mommy had never been. We had a great time!
The weather was pretty enough to eat outside! BQ! YUM!
You crawling up in my lap around the campfire is one of my favorite things. SO sweet!!!
You two had so much fun exploring in the woods...
Dee Dee's friend, Becky, gave me these fake mustaches for y'all to play with!
We do our best to keep you away from the wind blowing with our fires going. It may end up being something that you can't tolerate well. Mommy is going to ask Dr. S!
Dada made you a leaf boat to put in the creek!
It wouldn't float but you sure had fun trying!
We had a beautiful day to kayak! You fished with your Dada!
Your 2nd tooth fell out this month!
Y'all gave Thomason a book on National Parks... he loved it! :)
The Foundation sent you a "Wish for Wendy" shirt and you were SUPER excited and proud!
I've never seen a little boy that loves games as much as you do! You are really good at Operation!
And you love puzzles too!
Being silly...
You love your Mommy so much! You are going through a phase of wanting to kiss on the lips! haha
Thomason celebrated his 1st birthday this month! Nelly made fruit boats! Of course, that's all you wanted! LOL
You love playing with Rosemary!
Thomason had a Wild Things birthday party!
So happy that Granny and Papa were able to come to his party...
Playing outside is your favorite. You LOVE to play with Steven!
Mrs. Michele and Jenna came and you ran to give them a hug! You love them!
Thomason wouldn't look at the camera... so.... ! hahahaha Nice try!
Dee Dee and Pops gave Thomason his wagon and he loved it and you loved pulling him around!
You were really excited to help Thomason open his presents...
We went to Frontera after Thomason's party...
The day after Thomason's party was his dedication at church. We went to Starbuck's for breakfast before church. You and B wanted a cake pop...
You two make Dee Dee's heart skip a beat! :)
SO grateful for our family...
It's been a challenging month at times with you smarting off. I know you must be picking these things up from school. You get phone time during your vest and you love that privilege. I LOVE that your Mommy takes the time to teach you the right way! You've got to learn and I know you will.
I love for you to come up and play...
Your Mommy had just gotten word that Dr. S wanted to admit you to CHOA. It took us all off guard. You've had a cough that hasn't completely gone away since August.
You would never know by this picture that Pops was driving you to check into CHOA!
You felt pretty good but your cough sounded terrible!
The doctor said you would be there for 10 days...
While Mommy was getting you checked in... we checked out the gift shop!
You immediately picked out this snake...
HAHAHAHA! You still had a lot of energy!
Making the best out of the cards dealt. You were in the hospital last Thanksgiving and we really didn't want to be there again but MORE importantly... we want you better!
They got you settled in room 5102... a much smaller room than last time with a much better view!
Waiting to be seen and playing the CUP game...
You love playing phone games with Pops!
Not very happy about having to get a shot!
You remembered more about your visit in 2017 than we thought you would...
Dee Dee hates leaving y'all at the hospital!
You are so cute that you get excited about grapes from the cafeteria!
Snapchat filters can make you laugh...
It's hard being in the hospital... Every 4 hours... it takes about 45 minutes!
I LOVE to FaceTime you but I hate seeing a sad face! :( You got your IV in...
They were able to put the PICC line in the next day. You REALLY remember this and the trauma from 2017. It went MUCH better this time!
You got several SMILE-grams from friends...
Your friends... Mutt and Lila! HA! You loved playing with them. They make a scary face when you squeeze their head...
Co-Chri was able to stop by and see you during work!
Dee Dee brought you a bag of goodies!
You still weren't very happy about the PICC!
The nurses wanted to check your muscle mass! You love showing off your BIG muscles!
I love crawling up in the bed with you and trying to make you laugh!
I brought you Candy Land and it was a HUGE hit!
You didn't want us to leave...
I'm so thankful your smile and energy came back...
Your new "smirk"! hahaha! SO cute!
Your humor is back too... trying to act like you fell asleep during vest time! ha
Cocoa and Noel came to visit and you had a BLAST! They played so much with you!
Cocoa is a HOOT!
Noel wanted to see the end of the Falcons game and you wanted to balance on one foot! LOL
Steven came to visit and your day was made!
Looking out the window and hoping you will see Steven to wave BYE! TOOOO cute!
You painted this picture for Dee Dee and you were showing it to me!
The furthest you had been out of your room in days... telling us bye!
SO grateful for friends that come to visit and bring JOY!
Landon and Logan brought you this outfit and it was hard to get off of you!
You made this snowman during craft time!
Mrs. Stefanie came to visit and played with you...
Mommy said she caught you staring out the window for about 10 minutes at the cars going by. You miss being outside SOOOO bad!
Mrs. Sandie sent you a rock painting kit and it made a HUGE smile on your face!
Bennett came up and painted too!
Mommy sometimes has a hard time getting you to do your treatments right! She's such a good Mommy! She wants you to do your best for YOU!
Dee Dee's friend, Mrs. Lisa, sent you this drawing kit! You had so much fun! Friends have been so generous and we are SO grateful.
You were worn out from some meds they gave you...
They told us you could go home earlier in the day but we didn't leave until after 7pm. We had no idea then how long the day would be. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and they couldn't find your medicine - Zyvox. You needed liquid form and what an ordeal it was. We thought we were leaving soon in this pic...
Mr. Robert ended up coming back to do another breathing treatment on you. He was our favorite respiratory therapist.
Getting excited... they brought us a wagon!
They told us we could go down to the gift shop... so we were singing FREEDOM!!!! But the nurse came before we got on and told us you had to be laying flat for another 20 minutes. ha!
We were NOT a fan!
But we laid flat and tried to make the best of it! LOL
They finally let us go down and you picked out this ornament for your tree at home!
FINALLY! Around 7:30pm on the day before Thanksgiving... they let us go! Your Mommy had to take a Zyvox pill and crush it and give it to you in a syringe... just on Thanksgiving Day! Your liquid medicine would be ready on Friday!
I drove you home and we stopped by Panda Express for something good to eat! We came home to Dee Dee and Pop's house to see Pops and Dada! You were really worried that your Dada wouldn't be there. You were really excited to see him!
You went home and cuddled with Mommy and Bennett to watch a movie and your Mommy's heart was FULL!
We were WORN out so we called off extended family coming over. We all needed a break to just chill. Dada cooked us breakfast while we watched the parade.
Thanksgiving was a beautiful day and it was in the low 60's! SO grateful. We sat outside most of the day...
Playing hide and seek and you hid in the tree! LOL
You missed your bike SO much!
We didn't plan to take these pictures but I'm so glad we did...
We threw leaves and played...
I'm so glad we could put up our tree... my favorite tradition of the year! We go to Family Tree to get new ornaments...
We came back to our house to make cookies and decorate our tree!
Y'all like to wrestle and Thomason is starting to join in with you two! ha
You love your Mommy SO much!
I love to watch you put your first ornament on the tree! You picked an ornament of YOU the year y'all moved to be our neighbor. You wanted to put it right next to Thomason's!
It's become tradition for you to put JESUS up at the top of the tree!
We had so much fun decorating cookies...
Thomason actually thought this was funny! LOL
You went back to school the Monday after Thanksgiving and Dee Dee was able to pick you up from school. You were SO excited to show me what you brought home. We went to leave and I realized the entire parking lot had left. ha!
You said you were thankful for DEER! LOL!
We came home from school and had to immediately do your treatment! Your Mommy is working SO hard to get this cough better! Your Mommy started on Tuesday to take your vest to school. That takes dedication and LOVE! Your Mommy is a rock-star Mommy and I'm so grateful. She wakes up at 3am to give you your medicine too. She's exhausted but your needs come first. I'm proud of you and I'm proud of her too!
It's hard for this Dee Dee to tell you how passionate I am to be a part of doing ALL I can to help the Foundation find a CURE and effective treatments for you. We usually don't "launch" our Great Strides until Valentine's Day but this year... we had a Thirty One party in October and launched early.
We ALSO had a generous friend donate $2,000 - TWO THOUSAND dollars to your team! I cried. I danced around the room. I praised the Lord for the heart of our friend. What a blessing of HOPE and encouragement that I will NEVER forget. It's hard for me to say how much good that did my heart.
We are already over $3,000 for the next year and Mrs. Michele has already started a team for 2019 too! I am feeling so encouraged and grateful for everyone's LOVE and support this hospital stay.
Please join us in praying for sweet Aspen!
* For his cough to improve and his lung function to get back to his baseline
* For him not to lose weight while he is sick but to gain weight
* For wisdom for Lindsey and Chris to know if the doctor should be called before his next visit on December 14th
* For his visit on 12-14 - He will see his main CF doctor, another doctor and all of the team and he will also have a CT scan of his lungs!
* For this recent exasperation to not have caused permanent damage to his lungs
* For the drug in trial that could potentially help him to be successful and for insurance to cover it
* For rest! Everyone is exhausted... especially sweet Lindsey!
* For everyone else in our family to stay healthy
* For Aspen and our family to escape the flu this year
Words can't express how grateful we are for YOU! We felt so loved during our stay. If you visited... we can't thank you enough for giving up your time! If you called or text or messaged... thank you SO much. If you sent something in the mail... know you made Aspen's day! This ALL helped his stay to be much more tolerable.
I wish I could express what's on my heart and the gratitude we have for YOU!
Happy 5 years and 8 months, sweet Aspen!!! I'm grateful for you. I continue to pray you will keep your fighting spirit and your determination. I pray that you will always fight with all that you have! I'm proud of you, sweet boy and I LOVE YOU!....
