2014 Home Improvements

I am remembering last year that I made a list of things I wished to accomplish at our house in 2014. The main things I wanted to get done were dressing the naked living room/kitchen windows, as well as the very empty wall where our TV is. Also on the list was a fire place mantel. WELL, I am happy to say that I accomplished 2 out of 3 goals on the list. 

Windows. I didn't mind them being bare at all actually. I just thought if I could dress them with something light an airy it may look nice. I found the perfect hardware at Restoration Hardware and I LOVE it, although I am not so sure Jason loved assembling it! He did good though. Found a soft ikat pattern fabric for the panels and my Marmy sewed them and I am very pleased

Wall. Okay this wall was pathetic. The proof is in the picture. 
Now, I have shelves, media table and canvas that makes the wall look so much homier! I am still not finished accessorizing the shelves as I have a vision but have not found what needs to be there yet!

Mantel. No mantel still. That's okay though because of THIS...
Not the candy cane, though I still love it, but the yellow paper in the window is not an eviction notice, but a building permit!!! We are finishing the basement. 2015 will be PARTY TIME!!!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas 2014

As usual we had a very nice Christmas. The kids were so excited. They got everything they wanted and way more than they needed! Jason and I are just happy with how happy they are!

We spent Christmas Eve with the Flowes at our house. Had a great time. Taylor and Baylor were really starting to get into it all this year! 

Christmas morning was so much fun!

Highlights for the boys were Brighton's Batbot, Ninja Turtle House, Baylor's Ninja Turtle ride on, and their new art station! 

After we had some time to play with Santa stuff, go through stockings and open our gifts to each other, Rachel and Donnie arrived. I have no pictures as Rachel was sick  but we were just glad they were able to come, regardless of how bad she felt! They brought a whole new explosion of gifts.

 Had a nice lunch and time with them.

 Later that day we went to my moms for the Antley, Baygent, Flowe Christmas. Had dinner and more gifts! I think the grown ups have more fun than the kids at this! Mickey and Lacey once again had the WOW gifts as they made DB and Jason corn hole boards. Sure do wish I had a video of Jason's reaction! Priceless. 

We are all so blessed. I love my whole family and all of our celebrations!

I cannot believe that it's Christmas Eve, Eve! Tonight I will wrap a few last minute gifts that I've put off. Tomorrow cooking and gathering with family starts! Wow. My kids are sooo ready! I hope our elf Chipper comes up with a really good send off spot tonight! 
Merry Christmas!!

Baylor and the "Impact" Study at Chapel Hill

Why was I dreading this so much?? I don't know, because it turned out to be a really good experience. To start the study, they required us to come for 2 and a half days in a row. Jason, and I decided to make a trip of it instead of putting extra strain on us all by driving back and forth. My parents and Lacey helped out with Brighton and made sure he got to school and back, he taught them how to make snow flakes. Jason, Baylor and I headed to CH early on Monday. The 1st day was testing his tolerance with both peanut and placebo.  Once he got the slightest reaction he was given Benadryl. That way they knew what is safe to send us home with at the end of the 3 days. A dosage far far less than what he reacted to. The doses were in a powdered form and given by bites of apple sauce. This was easy and he did well, never refusing any.

Fell asleep watching Rudolph after the Benadryl!

The second day, we got "randomized" and nurse Pam, who is wonderful by the way, gave him test dosages and monitored him for several hours. We spend a lot of time in one lab room but they made it very enjoyable by providing crafts, toys and Christmas movies. I got to see Rudolph, Frosty and Elf about 4 times each! Oh, also all the juice and popsicles he wanted.

Add caption

 It was very interesting to  see the people already in his study or other similar studies they were conducting  come in for their updosages and to meet the kids and talk to the parents. Baylor LOVED seeing the kids. I actually learned a lot. 

On day 3, we got our randomized prescription to take home, administered one dose and he was observed and then they let us go home after 2 hours. We will give it to him every day in the form of apple sauce and then go back every two weeks to get higher dosages. It was not nearly as scary as I thought it would be, I loved the staff and they LOVED Baylor! Our little trip was fun for us. We have never gotten to take a trip with just Baylor the way we used to with Brighton when he was an only child, so that was fun.

Loves chips and salsa!!

 So, hopefully we are on our way to beating this allergy!!

Over the weekend we went to see Santa. The boys were so excited! 

Abuelo!

This is not the actual pic they took, but it's not much better.

Baylor is not ALWAYS somber looking. He just seems that way in most pictures. He really does smile!

Speaking of Baylor, we have a lot going on. After his last trip to the allergy Dr. I got a call from Chapel Hill University. They were interested in having Baylor participate in a new study they are doing for peanut allergic children in a certain age group. I got a little excited as I know the mother of a peanut allergic child who participated in a similar study with this same group and her daughter is now seemingly desensitized! The excitement ended in tears after a long talk with the nurse explaining to me that is was a STUDY, so 1 out of 3 children randomly get placebo (which he is not allergic to) for 3 years. The other % get small amounts of peanut doses and are monitored for reactions No one knows which one the child gets, not the Dr. or us until the 3 years are up. It's very confusing and hard to explain, really. The idea is that small doses will be given, if tolerated more will be given, if not, immediate treatment will follow for his safety. Jason and I pondered over this for a few weeks. The thought of dragging him back and forth to Chapel Hill (3 hours away) frequently for 3 years is a huge commitment, and could be stressful on all of us. The more I thought about it though, I kept coming back to the fact that we are lucky enough to live in one of the 5 states that have medical research studies being done in their universities, that are committed to finding a cure for this disease. This is something that we are LUCKY enough to be a part of. It may cure him in 3 years. He may be desensitized by Kindergarten time! Even if he is one of the ones who gets placebo though, we will still be helping to study this matter to find a cure for future kids. AND IF we find out that he got placebo at the end, the Dr. has said he will then start the desensitizing process. It will be a long road but I feel like we have to do this.   

We went last week to meet everyone and see the facilities. We were impressed and felt like we were in good hands. Movies, toys, popsicles for Baylor, followed by pricks and prods, but they use a topical numbing creme that makes them so numb that they cannot even feel blood draws!  Yes, this DOES exist and they have been keeping it secret from all of us who suffer from the dreaded blood draws! Anyway, when they saw his results they said he qualified for sure. We start on Monday. Go 3 days in a row and then will dose him at home and go back every 2 weeks. Wish us luck!! I will keep you posted

We are Thankful for...Orlando Trip!

One day, while sitting around having some cocktails on an easy, breezy weekend with the Antley's, we got a call from my dad saying he had gotten a great deal on a large villa in Orlando for the week of thanksgiving.  Since it was my side of the family's year for Thanksgiving (and did I mention the cocktails?) this deal sounded to good to pass up so we decided to go for it.
 Pros: Nice, huge, villa near all of the parks, plenty of room for all of us as well as sister Kelley and her family. Disney vacation for the kids on the week of Thanksgiving!
Cons: Disney vacation ON THE WEEK OF THANKSGIVING!!! 
Haaaa Basically it was a fun trip but crowded at times. 
We decided to break the trip up and stop in Charleston on Saturday. We wanted to see the Johnson's and their brand new beautiful home. It was fun. A little bonus for us. 

We arrived in Orlando on Sunday. We had decided to wing the whole trip and not buy tickets in advance. I am thankful we did it this way! Monday was the Magic Kingdom. The last time that I had been there was when I was 17 and not to much had changed there. Except the crowd! It was packed. We saw a few parades  but Baylor, my parents and I only got to ride two rides due to the long lines eating away at our day :(
It was neat to see though. I have never been to Disney while it was decorated for Christmas before, so that was fun to see.  We left and let the rest of the group enjoy some night action. Everyone else got to do several more things as well as Space Mountain! 

We had a day off the next day trying to recover from the day before. Kelley, Duane, Gracie and Emory had arrived. They are actually going to Disney in a couple of weeks so they did Universal this trip and were mainly with us at night time when we regrouped at the villa. 

We watched the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom on this porch every night

Wednesday was extra special as it was Michael's 4th birthday!!  We wanted to go to Epcot. Jason decided to opt out and stay back with Baylor as he could not deal with waiting in 3 hour lines with a 2 year old again. To bad for them, Epcot turned out to be a completely different kind of day. It was wonderful! So much fun. No lines longer than a 20 minute wait. The kids loved it more than Magic Kingdom even! We all enjoyed country hopping. Had THE BEST pizza and salad of my life in Italy. 
This was a fun day that I will ALWAYS remember, and I cannot wait to return. 

Africa

Blink and you'll miss it, I'm wearing tennis shoes in public!

having a little lunch in Italy

Luckily the resort had many activities on sight and Jason and Baylor played some games and did some paddle boating on the lake. 

Thursday we decided to play it safe and do Sea World. Turned out to be a great day. Not crowded, barely any lines. The kids enjoyed the show and the rides. We will probably cross this place off the list this time since I don't see the need to go back. It was fun and well suited for small children, but once was enough.  We enjoyed the day and ended it watching a festive Christmas Tree light show. 

Ended the perfect day by picking up our Thanksgiving meal and eating back at our place in the resort. It was so nice to spend Thanksgiving with Kelly and her family this year. 

We could have stayed until Sunday but we decided to get on the road on Friday since we had a long drive ahead and a lot to get done at home. The boys were surprisingly  good on the 8 hour drive home! 

We had such a GREAT week with family in Orlando. I know the boys made some great memories. I enjoyed a few vacations in Orlando as a child with my sister and parents. I hope that we do the same for our family through the years. Jason and I are looking forward to the two of us taking our boys back in a few years to make some more memories and will hit up Universal, and go at a less busy time!
It was a very special Thanksgiving though. 
Add onto the holidays we go....