Winter in Jacksonville

We have had probably a total of 8 cold days this winter and usually even if they start out cold sometime around 2 you will have shed off a layer or two and be in your t-shirt.

The best thing about having such a mild winter is that we have spent a lot of time outside.

We have loved having friends over to grill out and play in the back yard

We took a little adventure the other day down to the landing for lunch.  After lunch we walked down the river walk to take a look at Shad Kahn's yacht.

Unbelievable!

And it was only $150 million!

goof ball

22 bedrooms

60 thousand gallons of gas

4 stories

A friend down the street gave the boys a ramp and they have loved playing in the backyard.... anything that rolls has been launched off the ramp, usually with either one or two Alexander boys flying along.

New Year 2012

Finally an update..... Right?!?!

I have a few to make.  I don't know what happened to my pictures in the last post.  If I get the time i will try and re-post the pics.

New Years this year, like the last few we were very blessed to be invited to Dew's Island.

Dew's is a private duck hunting club on a beautiful island on the Outer Banks in Currituck NC.

For the first time since i can remember the weather was beautiful...... not so great for duck hunting but perfect for playing outside with all these kiddos.

One of our favorite pasttimes though was

Just Dance on the TV

And what would a trip to Currituck be without a visit to see our friend Dennis Anderson and the entire Gravedigger Monster Truck team.

We did lots of exploring

We took golf cart rides around the island and spotted 12 of the wild horses

you know we couldn't resist,

If you have never done it..... i will tell you it looks much easier than it actually is.

Happy New Year

Christmas 2011

The boys got some new PJ's and LOVE THEM!

They ran all around the house yelling "Super Hero's"

James and Mary Jane were in town and we had a wonderful Christmas eve at the Brent's house.

Dick and Missy Cassidy joined us, which was so much fun!

The cousins loved playing

Santa came, even though Kirby had been put on the "maybe list"

sweetness

boba fett

Christmas day was spent with our cousins from Boston at baba's house.

These kids love seeing each other even if it is only once or twice a year.

Busy Busy

We have had a crazy past week or so... to say the very least.

Aside form the usual chaos  that comes along with Christmas, we have had Dr.'s appointments galore and parent/teacher conferences to the point that i feel like i might as well set up office at St. Marks School.

We did get our tree and had a very sweet tome letting the boys decorate it.

As each ornament was pulled from the boxes we heard Kirby shout..." Oh I remember that one,  Look Roe, it's...."

The Christmas ornaments quickly have become toys

Candy canes are guns, nut crackers have become action figures and we have had to put a family ban on messing with the tree.

I got brave the other day and decided to pull a couple of carrots out of our garden, even though i knew it wasn't time.

The boys loved seeing that they already look like tiny little carrots, and after a thorough scrubbing, tasted like carrots too,

Roe was in a splint for 5 days last week.

Over the past 8 days we have had 4 trips to the pediatrician, 1/2 day at Wolfsons children's hospital and an appointment at Orthopedics at Nemours.

Survey says:

Roe has a virus that has settled in one of the joints in his left leg.

At one point we thought it may be broken, and that seemed like a good alternative to all the terrible stuff floating around in my imagination.

But a virus sounds even better. 

The doctors think he may be limping for a few more weeks but it should run its course.

Keep praying!

Kirby has had not such a great year in Kindergarten, after much deliberation and like 100 parent/teacher conferences we decided to let him visit  a Pre K 2 classroom last Thursday.

He Loved it!!!!

And unfortunate for all his Kindergarten friends, we never looked back.

He has been so happy to go to school, and Ted and I both feel like we have our old Kirby back.

Another answer to prayer.

Oh baby Roe...

So, I know that the two probably have nothing to do with each other but ever since Roe's scope a couple of weeks ago he has had a slight limp.

It started very subtle, I thought he may just have a wrinkle in his sock, maybe I needed to trim up his toenails.... but I tried everything (including time) and the limp just seemed to get worse.

Sunday TA and I felt like it needed to be addressed.

The strange thing, he said nothing hurts. I have squeezed it pulled it pushed it

nothing

So first thing Monday morning I had a call in to the pediatrician.

I was thinking we would get there and he would be miraculously fine

no such luck

we were sent immediately to the Children's hospital with orders for lab work and x-rays

as usual like all these amazing kiddos. Roe was a champ. I just can't imagine being 2 and being so accustomed to being poked and prodded

I have read that joint pain is common for EE kids, but he says that nothing hurts.

I also have heard that they usually develop an autoimmune disease

but the Dr. said that this would usually have redness and swelling.

As I write this I am waiting for a call back from the Dr. with our results.

I will keep you updated.

Busy?

you would think..... sorry for my lack of posts. 

I would say we have been busy but doing what, I can't really say.

A lot has happened since our last post.

Roe had another endoscopy, the results that came back were the best we could have hoped for.

Zero eosinophils, meaning his disease is in remission.

HUGE PRAISE GOD.

We were able to take him off the steroid and will begin trialing foods in 4 months (end of March).

We are doing so well and looking forward to Christmas... just around the corner.

a few pics of the last month

rainy day painting

I have been doing watercolors with my home school family, the boys have been going crazy to play with all the paint brushes (and paints)... I am not about to let them dig in to my $40 set of watercolors but we had fun painting the back of cereal boxes with water.

Roe was invited to his first Jags game with daddy

please excuse the mess we had a "Black Friday Garage Sale"

anyways,

Roe was a champ, and has turned out to be a huge fan, he happily stayed the whole game and Ted reported he even watched more than half of it!

Well, he definitely has more of his father in him.

And lastly we said goodbye to some good friends

:(

Wade, Courtney and Baby Marshall left today for DC.

Wade has a great job at the US Chamber of Commerce.

We will miss you guys.

xoxoxo

Happy Halloween 2011

We had a very fun Halloween this year.

A few weeks ago I asked the kids what they wanted to dress up as, Kirby wanted to be a ninja and Roe said he wanted to be a clown.

Originally I had planned to make both costumes, I got the pattern for the clown costume and raided my mom's fabric scraps to make Roe's costume.  I spent probably 4.5 hours on a pattern that said

 "easy only takes 2 hours"

When I had the finished product, I could hardly wait to show Roe.

He LOVED it............................... until he saw himself in the mirror.

"Me not want to be clown, me want to be ninja"

what?!?!?!?

Here is Kirby in the size 2 clown costume, I couldn't get roe to put it back on :(

Roe did not get to be a ninja, I gave him the choice of something we already had, and after spending an entire afternoon making the clown, we bought the ninja.

Roe (the golfer) and Kirby (the ninja) at the St. Marks costume parade

We went to a Halloween/1st birthday party at the Moore's house, and got to trick-or-treat with all the usual suspects

Lucky for us Roe had absolutely no interest in trick-or-treating.

Baba gave him a box of raisins, and he thought he had won the jack pot!

Funny pumpkin at this house

and they had jello-shots

We wound down with a laser light show in the bath tub

super fun

Pumpkin time

The pumpkin patch is here and like every year at this time, it is one of our favorite fall activities to go look at all the different shapes, colors and textures of pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.

I took the boys after Sunday School  yesterday and let them run around for a while.

I have never seen pumpkins so big as the ones this year.  We saw a family who brought their wagon just to haul their pumpkin to the front to pay!

Crazy brothers

Sunday afternoon we were invited to the annual pumpkin carving party at Karen and Chris' house