We're Still Here!

Yes, we are still here! I can't even begin to tell you how busy we have been! Hopefully this one post will sum it all up for you and then I can get back on track! Sorry to all for our extremely long absence! I don't think I have ever taken that long of a break from blogging!

Ok, so I left of in mid November... I'm going to extremely summarize here and I'm sure it's still going to be long so...fair warning!

At the end of November Sonya's arm rod had began to migrate out of her arm through her elbow. With just the skin holding it back I could both see and feel the pokey metal rod forcing through her skin and out her bone. Emergency surgery of course! So we are now up to 12 surgeries. The elbow is now doing great!

Our Winter Christmas photo shoot didn't go as well as I had planned... We re-visited the same park that we went to last year and tried to get some new pictures on the pretty white bridges. Unfortunately, it was a crazy busy day at the park given the beautiful mild weather we were having and every other photographer seemed to have the same idea and location. To top it off, my girls were a bit uncooperative so these are the few decent photos I managed to get for our Christmas card. I ended up not choosing a particular one and ordered several of the different shots and sent them out randomly.

We went for our tree 3 weeks before Christmas up at The Crystal Spring Tree Farm in Lehighton, PA where the White House had also found their tree for 2010! The girls thought that was pretty cool! We were pretty bummed that Ian had to work and couldn't come with us, but luckily his brother Ben was there to help us chop it down! As you can see, I don't even know how to hold the saw even if just for a picture!

We visited Santa at the mall! Sonya wasn't afraid this time and there were no tears, just pure excitement and wonder!

The girls cousin Taylor also thought Santa was pretty cool!

Sonya decided to finally take the plunge into the big girl tub! Well, sort of... She's been bathing in our kitchen sink since she was a babe, but now she loves her infant whale tub inside our standard tub! Being outside an infant tub is still too risky since she loses her balance so easily in everyday situations, adding slippery water to the mix which will also make her buoyant without some protection is just not in the cards yet.

This year the OI community has lost so many good friends. It's been so upsetting to hear of so many snowflakes passing away, yet at the same time we are happy they are no longer suffering and know that they are watching us from above. In honor and memory of all of the precious OI snowflakes who have gone home my girls and I (Ok, mostly me) cut out 100 snowflakes to hang above our tree. They looked so beautiful there, I think I may make this an annual tradition!

My Beautiful Snowflake
A snowflake fell from heaven one day,
Into my heart, forever to stay.
Fragile and precious, like china so fine,
Beautiful and delicate, and one of a kind.
How can I hold this snowflake so dear?
What if I break it, is my greatest fear.
But hold it I must, and break it I may.
For I never will regret the day,
When this snowflake fell from heaven above,
And into my heart, stirring such love.
Now, wherever I go, and whatever my fate,
I am forever blessed by my beautiful snowflake.

Shirley Cole -- April 2005


The girls had so much fun decorating the tree as always! I barely had to do any of it!

We had so many Christmas cards this year!!! I finally figured out a way to display them taking a cue from Katie Johnson! I loved how she displayed hers with ribbon and glittered clothespins last year so I decided to do the same but in our family room instead!

More PAM! Sonya had her 7th PAM just before Christmas and did very well! We are still having issues with the port drawing back blood, but they still want to wait and see how she does with the next few infusions before we start talking port surgery again. Sonya's next PAM in March will also include her first DEXA or bone density scan. This will give us a baseline for Sonya's future scores. I'm hoping for as close to normal bone density score as she can get, but I know that since she has only had 7 treatments the chances are slim. We'll see!

Flexible indeed!

Buttoning up her shirt "so the nurses will leave my port alone!"

Leg fracture... yep, just a few days before Christmas Sonya fractured her tibia while she was bouncing on the couch whilst in a crawling position. It just snapped. She did get a nifty Christmas cast out of it though, complete with Santa's, snowmen and trees! A few days after Christmas she fractured her left lower arm bones when she was crawling over to me to get her PJ's on. So much for a fracture free holiday, but it's nothing new.

And then Santa came! He sure did... It looked like ToysRus threw up in our family room for a whole week!

Akela was completely overjoyed at the sight of her new plasma car!

She has been waiting so patiently for this puppy pillow pet!

Do you Zoku?! Akela can't wait to!!!

Yay! Cupcakes!!!

Sonya was so happy to see that Santa remembered her Kitty Cat Piano!

And drums!!! I see a future rock star!

She was very excited over the wheelchair for her dolly! "Now dolly can be like me!" she said and gave snoopy a ride first!

Of course she may aspire to be a doctor too! She certainly has enough experience in orthopedics already!

Zoe is loving Webkins right now!

And clothes! She is starting to turn into a little fashion diva!

She is quite the reading connoisseur and lately has been devouring a book every 1-2 days!

This kid cracks me up! "Look mom, I'm Christmas Lady Gaga!"

"Yes! The ice cream maker ball!!!"

Hoping for lots of snow so they can build a fort! We totally could have used these last year!

Well, we got some! Not as much as last year, but enough to go have some fun out in it!

Sonya couldn't stand the whipping winds that took her breath away literally every shot they got.

Akela was all over the place, enjoying even the shoveled area where daddy would come to park his car when he got home!

Sonya thought burying one of her chewbys (pacifiers) in the snow would be a great idea. Guess who lost it and won't see it until spring?

Zoe just wished there was more!

Well, that's all for now... I just got a new Canon EOS Rebel T2i camera, and as soon as I figure out how to get my photos onto Adobe Photoshop (for some reason they aren't uploading to it) I have Akela and Sonya's birthday party to post as well as an update on Sonya entering school! Yes, I said school! Now you know why I have been extra extra busy! IEP's are nightmares to get through! Thank you all for checking in and please bear with me as I attempt to catch up with everyone else! I'm so far behind!!!