Christmas & The Smithsonian!

Man....Did Christmas just pass us by or what??? It was here one day and simply gone the next. One of the many perks of getting old....NOT.

We had a Wonderful Christmas!! The boys are at a great age. Just filled with excitement!! Jacob tore through ALL of his presents in like five minutes while it took Johnny like two hours. Too funny! I think Jacob just likes to rip things open. My house looks like a bomb hit it. I think I might be having a nervous breakdown due to the amount of new toys. It is all SLOWLY but SURELY getting put away. I did something I have never done before.....I took some of the new stuff and put it away. I figure I will bring it out in a couple of months when the excitement for the other new stuff has worn off. They haven't even asked about the missing things. Just goes to show how much it WASN'T needed........(are you grandparents catching my drift?) !:) :) :)!

Anyways, we had a very Nice time with all of our Family!! I haven't seen my brother in a year...can you believe that, CRAZY. So it was VERY nice to see him!! We haven't seen my sister in a couple of months so it has been great seeing her too!! I sure with they lived closer :( Johnny and Jacob especially liked spending time with them!

Johnny was quite upset at how long it took John and I to get ready for them to come down Christmas morning. (about 5 minutes) You can totally see his frustration in this picture. I SO remember being the same way. I always thought...What the hell are my parents doing?? Come on already!! LOL!

On Saturday we headed out to the Smithsonian with the boys......Yeah...that was my bright idea. Man Oh Man was it PACKED. There was a very interesting odor throughout as well. I seriously contemplated burning my clothes when we got home!! The boys had a BLAST though!!! I knew they would. Johnny LOVES Dinosaurs!! The T-Rex was his favorite. Everything was "WOW...That's Awesome"!!!!

Now I am ready for one good snow and then for Winter to be OVER!! I am tired of wearing socks and coats. YUCK.

Merry Christmas!!

May you all have a Wonderful Holiday filled with the magic of Christmas!!

Christmas Programs

Here are some cute pictures from both Johnny and Jacob's Christmas Programs! The Elementary School one is definitely different than the Preschool one!! Who would have guessed!! Hee Hee! The Kindergarten kids did SO good! For the most part they just sing their little hearts out. It was adorable......all up until the end where a kid on the bottom row started puking. NICE. His family now has a funny story to tell for years to come!!

Johnny did so well! He is such a handsome little man. He takes things like this VERY seriously!! We were all so happy and proud of him!!

Look at the kid to the left of him. He did that throughout the entire program. I guess it was just too much! LOL!!

Little Jacob did SO good during his program as well. That is a BIG deal for such little kids. I'm sure it is totally overwhelming to have that many people staring at them......but they all did great and were just as cute as can be!!

I couldn't really tell that he sang but he did good with all of the hand motions!!

Can you believe that this time next week Christmas will be over? Man....I am NOT liking this whole getting old thing. Time is going by WAY too fast.

Recent Activities!!

We have been what seems like super busy lately. I think that's how it is for most people during the Holidays though. The boys have been pretty good through all of the craziness. I find it hard to deal when we go off schedule so I can only imagine how they feel. It has been blowing my mind how grown up they are getting. I swear Johnny is a little man. He has excellent manners (all because of mommy!!). I am very proud of the boy he is growing up to be! Jacob is talking more and more everyday!! It's AWESOME!! It is wonderful to be able to communicate with children. They have the most interesting things to say!! Jacob is on a pretty please kick right now. Everything is "more mommy. pretty please". It is so cute!!

Jacob is really starting to get into the imagination phase. It is very sweet to see him and Johnny wrapped up in their imaginations!! They have been playing pretty well together lately too!

Johnny and Jacob taking a nap together last week when Johnny got a snow day!! Isn't that the sweetest thing!!

John decorated their playhouse with LOTS of Christmas lights. They LOVE it!!

Getting ready to decorate the Gingerbread House!! It was an "interesting" evening!!

Johnny, Jacob and their cousin Jadon at our Family Christmas Party!

We took John bowling on Sunday for his Birthday. This was a first for the boys. They did SO good and had such a good time!! I was so proud of them!! Johnny was a natural. I can't wait to take them again!!! I LOVE to bowl!!

Jacob's Christmas Program is tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. I'm sure the two year old's are going to be hysterical!!! I will post pictures from that and Johnny's program a couple of weeks ago soon!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy 30th Birthday Honey (John)!!

We LOVE you and hope you have a wonderful day!!! Welcome to the 3o's Club!! :)

The poor man is at work :( It's just wrong to have to work on your Birthday. We had a VERY long weekend. Hopefully he can make it!! I have lots of cute pics to post later!

Holiday Fun!

Here are a few pictures from last weekend!!

Christmas Tree Farm

John cutting down the tree

The boys feeding the Goats!

Jacob all tuckered out after a LONG day. He never made it to help decorate the tree :(

Johnny hanging ornaments. This was by far his favorite part this year!! The two of us had a wonderful time together!

The result of his help. Too funny!! I had quite a bit to fix!! :)

Living with Diabetes

I have people ask me all the time how Johnny is doing and what is it like for a child with Diabetes. Yes...there are needles, but I would say the biggest part of the disease is maintaining a routine and counting your carbohydrate intake. For now EVERYDAY Johnny has the same routine:

(between)7:30-7:45 am ~ Wake-up

7:50 am ~ Check Blood Sugar

7:55 am ~ Get Insulin

8:00 am ~ Eat Breakfast (45 Carbohydrates...total)

(between)10:00-10:30 am ~ Eat Morning Snack (15 Carbohydrates...total)

11:50 am ~ Check Blood Sugar and Get Insulin if needed

12:00 pm ~ Eat Lunch (45 Carbohydrates...total)

4:00 pm ~ Eat Afternoon Snack (15 Carbohydrates...total)

(between)5:30-5:45 pm ~ Check Blood Sugar

(between)5:35-5:50 pm ~ Get Insulin

(between)5:45-6:00 pm ~ Eat Dinner (45 Carbohydrates...total)

(between)8:00-8:15 pm ~ Check Blood Sugar and Get Insulin if needed

(between)8:15-8:30 pm ~ Eat Evening Snack (30 Carbohydrates...total)

3:00 am ~ Check Blood Sugar and Get Insulin or Snack if needed

I swear it's like Groundhogs day over here. As Johnny gets older we can change his Insulin to something that gives him more freedom, but for now this is the best one. Some days I wish for the moment that I won't have to wake-up at 3am anymore, but I know that the minute that day comes I will be laying in bed freaking out with wonder over his blood sugar levels. He is getting better about telling us when he is feeling funny, but we still have many times where he is very low or high and he showed no signs and says he feels fine. That FREAKS me out. It really freaks the school nurse out too. That poor lady :(

Through all of this Johnny has been just plain amazing!! To only be five years old and have everything that you've known change and barely blink an eye. I am in awe of him. I know that I most certainly would not be handling it this well if it were me. Isn't it wonderful how resilient kids are. They just keep going and don't look back. With that being said...there are bad days.....but the good by far outnumber them!!

I did have a heartbreaking moment a few weeks ago though. I was folding laundry upstairs and Johnny came up to me and said he couldn't wait to tell one of his friends that his Diabetes is gone. I calmly asked him what he meant by that and he said "You know Mom. My diabetes is gone. I only had it at the Hospital". I swear I just wanted to grab ahold of him and never let go. Overall John and I are adjusted to all of this, but there are those moments where we just feel like loosing it. I still have random nights where I lay awake and wonder how this is even real.

One of the hardest things to adjust too though is the way people look at you when they find out. Or just the way they look at John. He is the same little boy he was four months ago. There is a Mother of a child that Johnny knows who was extremely friendly every time I saw her....until one time in a passing conversation I mentioned Johnny's Diabetes. She has avoided me like the plague ever since. WTF does that mean? Is she freaked out by us know? She can't be friendly anymore?? It just seems cruel.

Anyways....for any of you who were wondering about a Child's life with Diabetes....There it is. Not the best situation, but definitely doable!!

Does he look any different to you? He sure doesn't to me!!