Florida with The Barry Family

We've just had the best trip so far!

Our time with our great friends, The Barry Family has come to an end.  I am sitting in a silent home while everyone is sleeping and when we wake up in the morning, Jamie, Dave, Jaxson and Asher will be gone. :(  It was such a fun trip with them!  It's always a little nerve racking when you travel with someone new for the first time because you just don't know if it'll "work".  You know?  Like do you travel well together?  Do you enjoy the same types of things on vacation?  I wasn't THAT worried with Jamie because we are so much alike in a lot of ways and are always brutally honest with one another.  And it turns out there was nothing to worry about!  We make great travel companions. :)  Looking forward to vacationing with them again in our future!

The boys (there were a LOT of boys in the house on this trip!) got along great and played non stop!  We did a lot of fun things and kept really busy.  We will miss having them down here, but look forward to the 2nd half of our vacation with Brandon!  Lots planned for the next week!

So here are some pictures of our time with The Barry Family!

Before getting on our air boat tour at Myakka State Park...

Jamie and I did a lot of this...

Always smiling, this one!

These two are just really good buddies!

I'm not going to lie, there was some attitude too...it wasn't all smiles and joy!  Tired boys all around a couple of the days!

Jaxson's sweet smile...he was willing to flash it for the camera almost the entire time...aside from the day we did their family pictures! lol

Cason and Daddy...

Can you spy the turtle?!

The sunset at Nokomis Beach the evening we went to the drum circle...

Dipping their toes in the sea while listening to the beating drums of the drum circle on Nokomis Beach...

Tate loved listening to the drums...my little groover couldn't keep still! :)

Nor could this one!  He is in love with the ocean and the beach!

The 3 biggest...

Sweet Jaxson...

Since my boys wouldn't do great for a picture together, I thought I'd capture the willing subjects!

Man they're cute!

Seriously LOVE this shot of Jaxson and Asher!

Blessings being handed out after the sunset at the drum circle...

My little Ergo loving Cason.  He LOVED the drum circle and loves the beach and ocean as well!

It was such a great time with The Barry Family!  Lots of fun, lots of laughs, lots of sun and great memories made!  Thanks for coming down guys, love you!  Let's do it again soon!!!

Georgia Aquarium

When Tate was about 18 months old, we had some flight issues on our way home from FL and ended up staying the night in Atlanta for a night.  Sean said when we were there, "I think the aquarium here is pretty nice, we should maybe go."  We didn't end up going, but have wanted to since then!  Well, it only took about 6 more years and boy am I glad we went!  It.was.amazing.

The kids had the time of their lives...even Cason!

I never knew Manta Rays were so gigantic!

That is Tate in the bottom corner of the picture...he was amazed by everything!

Even just the regular fish were awesome to the boys! :)

Cason loved every second of the day...well, aside from the absolute terror and fear he felt for 5 minutes (until I took him out) of the dolphin show.  It was a dramatic show with loud booms and strobe lights and all kinds of things that are hell on earth for this one! lol

The boys loved the sea otters!

There were all kinds of tunnels that people could crawl through and then poke their heads up in the middle of an exhibit to get a closer look...Sean enjoyed that too!

The whale shark is like Georgia Aquarium's "thing"...and you just can't get a good idea in pictures...it's not possible.  They are the biggest fish in the sea and SO GIGANTIC!  These were over 25 feet long and NOT full grown...they get to be 50 feet long...the size of a school bus!!!  There are 3 of them at the aquarium.

Those fish swimming by this one are huge...the picture is deceiving.  This whale shark makes that huge manta ray pictured above look small!

I don't know what it is about jelly fish, but they're always among my favorites at aquariums...such amazing creatures!

Cason was really in awe of them too!

The boys in one of the tunnels look at me through an aquarium.  They had so much fun!

Pure awe...

Here Sean is touching a hammerhead shark.  I love the boys' expressions as they watch him!

Tate ended up touching the sting rays, but Wes wasn't into it!  He just enjoyed watching them.

Tate could have pet the sting rays all day!

And Wes wasn't easily lost in the "Sea Monsters" exhibit! LOL

It's amazing how many children on leashes we saw.  So funny to me!

It was an incredible day and a great drive down to Florida!  The boys truly could not be better travelers...like never talked or complained or said anything much the whole time (thanks to our DVD player and movies!) unless they had to go potty.  Tate read for hours, the littles napped, they all looked out at the scenery.  They were just perfect.

We pulled into the driveway of the house and I turned the car off and the boys said, "Why did you turn the car off?!?"  I said, "We're here!"  Tate said, "OH!  Already?!  Yay!!!"  Already?!?!  It took us 2 1/2 days!!! LOL  Funny boys!  Tate then jumped out of the car and said, "I love it here, this is my favorite place!"  Yup, it's one of mine too, bud!

We walked up to the door and were greeted by an adorable tree frog which excited the boys tremendously!  I was carrying Cason when we walked in the front door and no joke, plane as day, Cason broke the silence with a perfectly pronounced, "NIIIIIICE!"  as we were walking in the front door.  I died laughing!

Everyone is sound asleep and I am heading there now!  Feeling so happy and relaxed and ready to start our vacation NOT on the road! ;)

The Diagnosis - just words

As many of you know, Cason is extremely delayed due to a brain injury.  He was shaken at 7 weeks of age and it is a miracle he even survived.  He was found unresponsive, life flighted to IA City where he stayed for a long time, suffered strokes and seizures, was deemed blind and odds were not good he would survive.  Fast forward to "the call".  We were given very vague details of his situation and told that it was unknown how he would progress.  He was 11 months old and functioning like only a couple month old if that.  He could do nothing, did not use his left side, could not roll or crawl or even babble.  He could see though, he had glasses to assist him, but his vision had come back when doctors did not think it would.  He had beat lots of odds and we saw a fighter in his tiny body.  He could smile and coo and snuggle and was so easy to love!  And we fell hard and fast.

We knew the road would be long and hard and he would have to endure lots of therapy and we would have to work consistently with him to help him progress.  We were all in.  We were told he may never crawl or walk or talk, but that he might.  No one knew what he would do.  Months passed and I never lost hope, but it faded...he didn't walk for so long I began to wonder if it would ever happen.  His physical therapists always assured us he would.  And he did!  At 2 1/2 years of age, he took his first steps and hasn't stopped since!  He is starting to say words and show so many more cognitive improvements.  Hope came back and came back strong.  I knew that for Cason, the sky would be the limit!

Then, I was knocked down when a few months ago we got a provisional Autism diagnosis out of no where along with a Cerebral Palsy diagnosis.  Those words did not change Cason's progress or who he is, but they effected me.  I was not expecting them.  It was so upsetting.  After letting those diagnosis sink in, we moved forward knowing that this little miracle child would continue to progress and learn and be the amazing person he is.  Hope came back after the sadness of those diagnosis went away.  They were just words.

The big diagnosis that we knew could possibly be on the horizon was the Intellectual Disability diagnosis.  I hoped that this would be something that we wouldn't get for years...maybe by the time we were thinking he could get it, he would have progressed so much that he wouldn't even need to be tested for Intellectual Disability.  My "hope" was maybe my form of denial.

We recently were told that it was time.  And today was the day.  He received his IQ testing and it didn't take long for us to hear that Cason fell within the scores of Intellectual Disability.  There are 3 levels of ID...mild, moderate and severe.  According to Cason's test scores and IQ (which was 52), he falls within the "moderate" range.  I walked into the Center for Development and Disabilities fully prepared that this diagnosis was a possibility, but when I heard the words, I felt like I was punched in the stomach.  And even worse, they explained that the terminology "mental retardation" would be put on his file if we were to accept this diagnosis.  Stupid legislation and blah blah blah.  I HATE that word.  It saddens me so much and though it is JUST A WORD, my heart is having trouble accepting that.  My head knows...my heart will catch up, it will.

We were told that Cason will plateau eventually and there is no telling when.  His neurological issues are complicated and every shaken baby is different.  The brain is so complicated and there is just no way to know how it will heal.  So is hope gone?  NO WAY!  I have been amazed by our little man time and time again and I know he will never stop fighting to learn and no matter how far he progresses, we love him more than words.  We can't imagine our life without him and without all he has taught us.  He brings such joy and light to our family and if he doesn't progress another ounce, we would love him just the same and be proud of him just the same!  He is full of joy and smiles and all we want for him is to be happy and to reach his highest potential no matter how high that is.  After all, he is a miracle for even being here today...that he lived and he can see and he can walk and play with his brothers.  He is so beyond incredible and so unbelievably loved.

So it's a word, a word I hate.  I word that makes me sad, but it's just a word.  It doesn't change Cason.  He is so much more than a word, than a diagnosis.  And God is the ultimate healer and He can do anything in Cason...and no matter what His plan is for Cason, we are ready to be there every step of the way with gratefulness in our hearts that WE get to be his Mommy and Daddy!  Wow...what a blessing Cason is to us.

So SCREW the diagnosis.  We will use it for our benefit in any way we can.  We will use it to get the therapies that he needs to reach his maximum potential and that is it.  We will make it be a good thing for Cason and never let it shed any negativity on Cason or our lives.  He's proven the doctors wrong before and who knows what's up his sleeve.

It's just words...

Moving...

It's pretty much the worst thing ever.  Ugh.  I just want to be unpacked and have everything in it's place.  Our garage is full of stuff and my van is sitting out in the driveway while I pray that with this crazy storm, there is no hail!

We are so thrilled with so much about our new home!  We love love love the neighborhood and actually like the yard a lot even though it's much smaller than our previous lot.  We are having fun exploring the restaurants in our neighborhood since right now our oven is sitting in the middle of the kitchen waiting to be installed.  We got our new fridge and love it...it's a monster.  We figured with 3 growing boys, we need the biggest fridge we can get...so we got a giganto one.  We even had to trim a bit of the wood off of the cabinets above the fridge so it would fit!  Ha.  Soooo worth it!  Can't wait to get our dishwasher installed TONIGHT as our dishwasher in the house was not draining right and I am FINALLY getting the double gas oven (that's the one sitting in my kitchen waiting to be installed!) that I have been wanting since moving into our PREVIOUS house 2 years ago!  Woot!  So needless to say, we are excited about the new appliances. :)  We definitely have less square footage here which is a bit of a struggle as we don't want our house to look cluttered, but it turns out that I kinda like (and want to keep) most of my things.  Ha.  We'll figure it out, I'm sure!

I am excited to paint and will be making an IKEA trip in the very near future for the boys' new beds and some storage solutions.  Otherwise, things are coming together pretty well.  Tate and Wesley have had a blast meeting and playing with the neighbor boy who is a year older than Tate and we are really doing our best to make this house our home.

I cannot wait for the school year to end so I no longer have to drive Tate 25 minutes to school each morning and also drive that 25 minutes in the afternoon to pick him up several times a week as well!  That is no fun!

So there's good and bad, but we are super happy that at least the moving part is over!  :)

Spring Break 2014

Here is an overview of our spring break via my phone pictures.

We sold our house!!!!

We took an awesome 2 day mini vacation to Grizzly Jack's Grand Bear Resort with the DeCooks. We had so much fun with the kids and laughed so hard the whole time.

Then just the big boys and I went to Des Moines for the night. We went to find restaurants, the boys played with friends, and we went to Skyzone. It was a super quick, but fun trip to end our spring break. :-)

In addition to the fun that we had, Jamie and I actually got some work done for our photography business too!

It was a great week and a half break. It always goes by way too quickly.

Phi Phi is TWO!

(a belated birthday post for Sophia...I've had this drafted for almost a week and just got around to finishing it!)

Phi Phi turned 2 last week!  I can't believe it!

It seems like just yesterday that I walked into that delivery room and got to see her sweet face only moments old.  It seems like yesterday that I got to hold that sweet baby for the first time!

I love her and her sisters so much and love the amazing bond they have with my boys.  What a special relationship we have with the DeCook family...and how God orchestrated everything with our children being so close in age and them being such amazing friends and genuinely loving each other so much.  Tate and Wesley still don't "get" that they aren't their cousins!  lol

Lora, Sophia and I got to spend some time together just before Sophia's birthday doing her 2 year pictures.

Seriously...you don't get much cuter than this!

And I know I say it all the time, but this is my blog and my personal journal and outlet where I can say anything that is on my mind so I will say it again...I am so blessed to have Lora in my life.

I love that Lora and I are doing this thing called motherhood together.  It's so nice to be able to learn and grow as mothers together.  I need her and what we have is beyond friendship and it is so precious to me.  And her girls...I love them each so much that it hurts.  God brought our family together with the DeCooks at the perfect time in our lives.  We just "work".  Sean and James' friendship, the kids friendship, Lora and my friendship...it just works.  We have built so many incredible memories with this family...through our many evenings and weekends spent together, our trips away without kids, our family vacations, being there for each other in the hard times and the happy, big times in our lives, picking each other up when we are down, laughing harder than we've ever laughed in our lives together.  What a blessing to call these amazing people more than just friends...they are family to us.  And we look forward to the many more special vacations we will take, memories we will make and times we will spend together!

Phi Phi was not super excited about getting sung to.

It may have been a bit too much for her to take! lol.  I remember Tate doing this at his FOURTH birthday!  Ha!

 Aside from the fact that she obviously hated our singing, she was happy as can be!

We love you so much, Sweet Girl!

Happy Birthday!

I haven't started packing...

I am sad.  I really don't want to leave this house.  And the thing is...I LOVE our new home.  I am excited for what's to come.  I really am.  I let myself fall in love with this home though.  I had never done that before.  I have always lived in places that I knew were temporary.  This was the one home that I knew we would be raising our family in...the home that we would love and make our own over the years.  Ugh.  It's just a house...I know.  I just can't shake that icky feeling.  And honestly, our new home has a little bit less square footage than our current home and a smaller yard.  Because of those things, I honestly don't know if it is the home that we will be in for years to come.  It might be, but we know that in 5 years or so, we may want to get a larger place.  I hate the thought of moving into a home that might not be where we are for the long haul.  It's the reality for us right now though.  Sean is in school, my photography businesses are still growing and we didn't want to be house poor, so we purchased a home that we knew we would be able to afford comfortably right now.  Unfortunately, homes in the area we wanted to be in (for the schools and such) are just more pricey, so what we could afford comfortably wasn't going to provide us with as much square footage and yard space.  Once Sean completes school and starts his new career as a Nurse Practitioner and my photography businesses continue to grow, we may end up making ONE MORE move.  Although, the house isn't small...it's just that we've been spoiled with LOTS of square footage in our current home...so maybe this will be our forever house.  We've learned over the last few years...and continue to learn...that things never seem to go as planned.  Well, I believe they do go according to His master plan, but that plan is often not in line with my own plans!  Ha.

All of that to say that I haven't started packing...at all.  I probably should start working on that.  We are moving closing 2 weeks from Thursday.  I think I will cry when I walk out of this house for the last time. :(