Pictures from the Festival of Trees

A little recap from the Festival of Trees... Nany, the kids, and I all braved the pass and drove over to and from Seattle in one day to enjoy...
watching this little angel strut her stuff at the Festival of Trees at the beautiful Olympic Hotel. Daddy had to stay home and work which was a bummer. But Maddie's cardiologist, Dr. Vernon and her family, were there and what a treat it was to see them! We were also lucky to have Aunt Lesa, Uncle Mike, Savanna and Braydon as well as Maddie's great-aunt Janet S. there enjoying the evening with us too!
Cousins Braydon and Savanna standing by Maddie's tree & looking very sharp for the fun evening!
The patients wore red ribboned bells while the siblings wore green necklaced bells. The big brothers were very proud of their sissy's tree although Cade kept wondering where his was. I'm sure he was envisioning a spider-man themed tree.
Maddie and Jackson...another tree honoree. We all live in the same little town, he's Mrs. Becky's son (the boy's preschool teacher) and is currently undergoing chemo at Seattle Children's. He's a great young man and his family is wonderful. Maddie wasn't thrilled with taking any pictures at this point though, even with this handsome boy.
The beautiful tree in Maddie's honor..."Sophisticated Snow Ladies" and very elegant it was. There were over 20 different trees throughout the hotel lobby, all fully decorated with their own theme. Some are still up for auction if you're interested!
And Miss Maddie was not a fan of Santa. The boys loved him. Cade was speechless with a perma-grin while Jace talked his leg off, rattling off all of his wishes. Maybe next year she'll give Santa a chance?
What an honor it was for Maddie and for our family to be given this opportunity. My eyes welled up with tears many times throughout the evening...realizing the reason we were there and also feeling so fortunate with how things have turned out for Maddie thus far. In the opening ceremony of the tree lighting, the speaker mentioned that his life has been touched forever by the children at Seattle Children's and he's reminded of the saying, "but for the grace of God, there go I" when he sees the children and the families this wonderful hospital serves. I learned this saying at a young age from my grandma Nany and when the master of ceremonies said that, I realized that some may think this of our situation. But I don't look at it this way, it's by His grace that we have Maddie. We have been blessed beyond words with our little girl. Her heart has both softened and strengthened all of ours and we have so much to be grateful for.

this little turkey...

and the rest of us wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Having a kindergartner has been so much fun. Jace is doing great in school and we've loved watching the progress he's made. His joy for learning is contagious around here. Cade is all ready for kindergarten, thanks to his big brother. Too bad Caders still has another year to wait until his kinder debut.

Along with all of the academic progress he's made, we're also learning what's hip in kindergarten. One of his new sayings is..."ya-yuh" which is just 'ya' with a little 'uhh' added on for extra emphasis. He's also given us the "whaaaat" (in a punk, shoulder dip, sort of way) when I ask him something, and he's becoming pretty quick with his jokes and comebacks lately. He keeps us laughing and we often reminisce about our elementary school days with the stories he shares about his day.

Here's a little note he wrote me the other day..."Jace Hfus Fun" which translates to: "Jace has fun." And yes, he's got this one down. He's the creator of fun in our house most of the time from rock-n-rollin' on the bed to inventing super cool contraptions. And his note is a great little reminder for us all..."have fun". Not a bad motto to have.

 

Festival of Trees

Our little lady will be honored as one of Seattle Children's kids at this year's Festival of Trees! Maddie has her very own tree that will be auctioned off and sold for Seattle Children's Uncompensated Care Fund. The trees are valued at $2500 and sell for anywhere between $4000-$10,000! Here's the website with all of the information: click here. You can read Maddie's "signage" under the featured patients tab and she's not the only one you may know...we have a couple of friends being featured too!

little sis is 20 months...

and smiling from ear to ear about it!
and here's that same beautiful smile (minus all those teeth!) one year ago today...

Miss Maddie's back...

Our Maddie is back after spending the last couple of weeks under the weather. For about a week and a half, we couldn't figure out what it was. She was really blue, had a lack of appetite, was so tired, and was a super needy girl. When she began running a fever with no other visible symptoms, I took her in. She had a thorough exam, a urine cath, Dr. Milnes started her on Tamiflu just as a precaution, and she also had blood work done which was pointing to something viral. But what? We were stumped, her sats were low, the fever kept hanging on and she just felt crappy. After 5 days of fever, it finally ceased and a rash covered her belly and back. Voila, it was Roseola! The boys both had this at around her age and I hadn't even tripped to her symptoms being this. I tend to panic and think it has to be something with her heart instead of focusing on the normal illnesses. She's now rash free and back to her normal self. Since we're still a little stumped to what's causing her increased blueness and low sats, we've bumped up her next cardiology appointment and head over to see Dr. Vernon in just a couple of weeks. In the meantime, we're happy to have the little girl back who loves to...

shake her little booty!!!

halloween hullaballoo

We enjoyed lots of Halloween festivities, starting with Caden's preschool party. Halloween doesn't take place on one day anymore...it DRAGS on and I find myself up late a few nights during the Halloween week making goodies, filling treat bags, and finishing final touches on costumes. Anyway, Cade showed some talent by eating a sucker + singing to the crowd of parents during the preschool's performance of spooky songs and he made a super cute Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the red one named Rafael, of course. He has some great ninja moves too...didn't get those on camera though. Next was Jace's Kindergarten Harvest Festival...here he is enjoying the classic "donut on a rope" game. Again, takes some talent. I had fun volunteering and meeting MANY Kindergartners. It's a huge class for Royal, over 150 of them!!!The Halloween party in Room 111 was a hit, everyone totally out did themselves with treat bags, cookies, goodies, and fun...and so did I with Jace's face paint that morning! Yikes! He only made it to lunch then wanted Mrs. Stewart to wash it off. This rookie mom has now learned...#1 paint your kid's face just "minutes" before the party and not 7 hours before it starts #2 buy the paint that dries and is not shiny, oily or wet #3 go for a more "subtle" child skeleton look, instead of Gene Simmons from Kiss... On Saturday, we enjoyed a fun afternoon at Pa and Grandma's for Papa's birthday party. Great food + great company= great fun. Here's a few of the cousins posing with Pa before heading out to trick-or-treat.

Maddie, our witch in a tutu, posing with cousin Kylie who was the cutest, cuddliest teddy bear ever! We all enjoyed a break at Nany and Ba's after trick-or-treating. We made it to 6 houses in 3 hours...more visiting than treating goes on in our neck of the woods. It's a great time to catch up with family and friends :)
And finally, our three little spooks... Happy Halloween!!!