New Year & Lots of Fun!

Wow! Its been awhile since I've been on here...I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season and New Year celebration. We had a busy, fun holiday season and are starting to settle into a normal routine again...and anxiously awaiting another cousin for Carson & Kellen (Sarah is due any day now!).

I cannot tell each of you that keep Carson (& our family) in your prayers, how much it means to us. We are truly blessed!! We have our rough moments but God is teaching us so much through this journey! We will not have an actual surgery date for a couple months but I'm hoping to schedule the surgery process for sometime in April. I will definitely let you know when we have an actual date.

We are making some big changes to Carson's feeding regimen/expectations...since we know we have a few months before the next surgery and we are several months out from the first reconstruction (in September), we have a small gap when nutrition (for healing purposes) is not so important. Carson gets about 1/3 of his calories by his gastric tube and the rest are by mouth, whether its drinking, eating pureed foods like yogurts and applesauce, or solid food. At one point in his feeding therapy, we were doing anything to just get him to taste some food and then eat a quantity of something. However, he has progressed much further than that and is now able to eat pureed foods easily and alot of solid foods okay. The habit I got into though was me (or Preston) just feeding him and him not having to do much of anything other than open his mouth. So, we had decided that it was time to let Carson do more of feeding himself but still have this predetermined amount we chose. This took alot of encouragement on our part because Carson just isn't used to feeding himself (although he is capable of it) and at times it came down to more of a power struggle. And as many of you know, 4 year olds can be pretty stubborn - which leads to MUCH parental frustration. Anyways, long story short, we decided this was as good of time as any to let Carson figure out what hunger/satiety is. His feeding regimen has never been normal...I mean he has a G-tube, we (along with a dietition) have always dictated how many calories per tube and I almost always got him to eat a set number of calories by mouth. That's not normal...yet it's not as easy as say with Kellen, because Carson has some legitimate swallowing deficits and oral aversions due to his anatomy and beginnings. So he is still getting two tube feedings a day but with his oral feedings, we are taking the approach of 'here's your food, either eat it or don't but there won't be more until the next snack or meal', etc. He has control of what he eats by mouth. We would appreciate all the prayers for guidance in this new plan and for even tempers for Preston and I, to really praise the things Carson does well and ignore (as much as possible) the other stuff. And also for creativity on my part for meal ideas, smoothies, etc. We have been at it a week, at times, I think we are getting somewhere but then other times, I think Carson just thinks this is the greatest thing ever. The first few days, when he didn't eat his food and I let him get down from the table...Carson would comment, "I can get down?!?" "But I didn't eat my food?!?" and then he ran over to Kellen and said excitedly, "Kellen, I can go play downstairs and I didn't even eat my food!!!" [sigh]

Now, on to the fun we've had!!! We have a new kitten, thanks to Nana & Poppy. Carson and Kellen were so excited to have another little kitten! Meet Buttercup...

Preston celebrated another birthday...thank the Lord for this man and daddy!

We've had several nice days this past month and a new favorite past time of the boys and mine is to explore the woods behind our house...a piece of heaven on earth!

We've been frequented the library for their Story Hour again (now that we don't have surgeries coming up...staying healthy is not as big a concern)...these are my most FAVORITE Superheroes!

Smart!!! Brave!!!! Tough!!!

And to top it all off, we got our first snow last night!!! These boys were pumped up!! When they woke up and got their first looks at the snow...their wonder and excitement was so much fun. Kellen said, "Mom, it's EVERYWHERE...it's even up here....it's even in the woods!!!"

And then, after breakfast, I was getting ready, while the boys were playing (waiting for me to get them ready to go outside) or so I thought...I look out the basement window and see this footprints.

Huh?!? That's weird, those aren't cat prints or deer and no one has been outside yet...and then it dawned on me with those sweet little toe prints!! Those boys let themselves out into the snow BAREFOOT!!! It didn't take much interrogation before the fessed up...HAHA!!! They just couldn't contain their excitement.

Don't worry though, we spent almost four hours out in the snow with a small break for lunch...it was WONDERFUL! We didn't get much snow but it was enough for some sledding, miniature snowmen, snow angels, hiking, and hot chocolate when we came in!

Kellen coming down on his belly

Carson thought it was fun to try to balance on the saucer... and jump off it

Then double decker sledding

Complete with a real carrot nose!

Carson really wanted to try his bike out in the snow!