First Day of Preschool!

September brought the best us the best present we have seen in a while - SCHOOL! We had a great summer and swam a LOT, but I was so excited to get back into the school routine. The kids were ready, too. School is such a fun place for them because they get to do so many activities and interact with lots of friends. This year Emily is in the Panda class and Aiden is a Duck (and I teach the Butterflies - PreK)! They have adjusted wonderfully to their new classes and teachers. I am sure they are going to have a fantastic year!

4th of July Fun

We had such an amazing 4th of July this year! My best friend, Jennifer, invited us to spend the weekend at her parents' lake house on Lake Livingston. The kids, especially Emily, loved being so close to the water. She carried her Puddle Jumper around all weekend just waiting for someone to agree to take her swimming again! In addition to swimming, we rode Wave Runners, played in a huge float that we kept tethered to the dock, and went on a Sunset Cruise on the boat. On Sunday night, the boys (Mason, Jackson, Tim and Jon) put on a great firework show for us from the top of the neighbors 2 story dock! Emily, of course, was their biggest cheerleader yelling "Yay!" and clapping after each one exploded into the sky. We had such an amazing weekend with even more amazing friends. So many memories were created that we will always cherish. Thank you Tim and Jennifer for inviting us out and thank you Grandma and DoDoc for being the best Hosts in the world and sharing your lake house with us!

Silly Moments with the Widdle Woyds

Now that school is out and doctor visits are behind us (for the most part), we are spending a lot of time at home. Being cooped at home can cause a variety of feelings and situations to arise - ranging from relaxing to lots of time outs! This past week, however, we have experienced many 'silly' moments. Emily is at the stage where she realizes she can see her picture right after I take it. This is GREAT because now I actually get smiles from her! She also LOVES to stand behind me and make silly faces at Aiden while I try and take his picture. The two of them are becoming so close and I love to see them play and interact. One day last week as we were getting ready to go swimming, Emily decided to put Aiden's shirt on her head as hat. All Mommy had to do was take out the camera and 2 little hams started putting on a fantastic show!

Swimming, Swimming and MORE Swimming!

I think my kids were born with gills. They are little fish in the water who think they do not need ANY help! Emily is using a Puddle Jumper this summer and it really helps Mommy out when I try taking both kids to the pool by myself. The Puddle Jumper is so supportive that it can be used as a life vest on a boat! Aiden is still too small to wear one (we tried and it slid right off!) so he gets around the pool in his floaties. Since CC moved into an apartment complex with a great pool and splash pad and Cappy moved into a house with a pool, the Woyds are swimming several times a week...morning, noon and night! It is not very often that I bring my camera out to the pool, but here are a few photos taken a week or so ago.

Father's Day 2010

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,

The majesty of a tree,

The warmth of a summer sun,

The calm of a quiet sea,

The generous soul of nature,

The comforting arm of night,

The wisdom of the ages,

The power of the eagle's flight,

The joy of a morning in spring,

The faith of a mustard seed,

The patience of eternity,

The depth of a family need,

Then God combined these qualities,

When there was nothing more to add,

He knew His masterpiece was complete,

And so, He called it ... Dad

~~Author Unknown.~~

We have the best Daddy in the whole world! Even when he is tired after work, he always has time for kisses, hugs, play time and books. We love you so much, Daddy.

Love,
Emily and Aiden

A Long Overdue Update on Aiden Boo

It seems like life has just been one doctor visit after another this summer for Aiden and myself, but the pace is finally slowing down. We decided as a family not to post any photos of Aiden from his hospital stay (all wired up, head wrapped, and carrying his large backpack) because as cute as he was, we would rather people not feel sorry for him or anything...if that makes any sense. Anyway, through the week long test, the neurologist was able to finally diagnosis Aiden with having Staring Seizures. Even though we were not able to prove the Collapsing Seizures (or Drop Seizures) during our stay, we were told that kids with one type of seizure is very likely having other types...so that is still a possibly a cause of his falls. Right now when he has one of these staring episodes, they last on average, about 5 minutes. We were offered the solution of medication, but the doctor told us we needed to weigh our options of what would hurt his brain more, the seizures or the hidden affects of the medicine. At this time, we have chosen not to medicate Aiden. However, if the seizures become longer in length, or as he gets older, medication will be required for safety reasons. It is very likely that he will outgrow the seizures and that, of course, is our hope. So this is what we know! It is great to finally have an answer as to what is going on. Since our stay in the hospital, he has only had 1 seizure and the falling has been significantly few and far between.

Aiden Boo

For the past couple of months Aiden has been keeping us on our toes, to say the least. He seems to have really poor balance, causing him to fall and hit his head often, and sometimes his falls just don't make sense. For example, sitting in a high chair and falling forward, hitting his head on the table. I could go on listing these 'weird' falls forever, but I will instead move forward to where we are now. After seeing our pediatrician about the falling he referred us to a pediatric neurologist. Two weeks ago we finally got in to see the neurologist and he suspected that Aiden was having clusters of drop attacks, or collapsing seizures. We scheduled an EEG and MRI for the following week to see if we could find any proof of the seizures. The EEG came back clean (Yay!) and the MRI is still being read and we do not have those results yet. Even though the first EEG was good, the neurologist wants to schedule another one...one that will last a week! So, here we are, preparing for a week long stay at the hospital, and as each moment passes, I find that I am getting more and more anxious. Just the thought of Aiden being in the hospital for a week under 24 hour video surveillance and EEG monitoring gets me a little unnerved. Add on top of that all the 'what ifs' of what is going on with him, being away from Emily, all the medical bills stacking up, being confined to a small area for an extended period of time, the lack of sleep that is sure to follow, and I am on the verge of tears. I am trying so hard to keep myself together for the kids, my family and my friends but really I just want to lock myself in a room and cry for a while. The most important thing right now, though, is Aiden. I am ready for answers so that we can start doing whatever we need to so he gets better. With that at the forefront of my mind, I put my emotions back into the drawer and put on my brave face. Please keep us all in your prayers during the upcoming week. We will update the blog once we know what is going on, but thank you in advance for your prayers and support.

Bubbles!!!

The kids LOVE to be outside, especially if they can be at a park with slides and lots of climbing toys. Lately they have been having SO much fun playing that they bring the park mulch home in their hair, on their hands, under their fingernails, and inside their clothes and shoes causing us to make a bee line for the bath tub. Yesterday I decided to make the bath a little more fun for them and added bubbles! Emily and Aiden had a blast splashing in the bubbles while mommy enjoyed making fun hairdos for them.

Mother's Day

I know this is a little late in posting, but I just wanted to take a few minutes to brag on how wonderful my Mother's Day weekend was this year. On Friday Jon surprised me at work with my favorite flowers, purple and white tulips. They were beautiful! On Saturday we spent the day together as a family just hanging out and relaxing. Sunday morning Daddy went out and got us kolaches for breakfast, we went to church, then had an awesome steak lunch at my Memaw's house. Emily and Aiden gave me beautiful presents that they made at school, too. Aiden put his hand print on a tile square for me and Emily decorated a flower pot with her fingerprints. These are the gifts that I will always treasure. The weekend was absolutely perfect and I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Aiden and his newest obsession

These days, Aiden can almost always be found with a book in his hands. He loves to go off and "read" them to himself as well as sit in our laps for us to read them to him. The funniest part to me is that he will pick one book and read it the entire day! His favorites right now are No More Pacifiers and any book about colors. Here are a few photos I took this weekend of Aiden enjoying his newest obsession.

Dads and Donuts

On April 14th, Jonathan was able to attend a Dads & Donuts breakfast with Emily and Aiden that was sponsored at their school. Emily was the only one who actually ate any of the donuts but both kids scored big when Daddy took them shopping for books at the book fair. All three of them had such a great morning spending quality time together. Here are a few pictures I took during the breakfast. The kids were not really wanting to corporate with the smiles, but trust me, they had so much fun with their Daddy!