For Those Really Tough Days

A friend of mine posted this on her blog about our sweet, little Brayden....

Over the last few weeks I have completely fallen in love with this kid. He will sit beside me, his legs crossed Indian style on his chair, with his little hand in mine. Or he will sit on my lap, usually with a hand in my hair. Every once in a while he'll briefly look at me, I don't know if he is seeing me but I see him and I can't help but kiss his little cheeks.

....I can't tell you how much it means to hear that Brayden is melting hearts and making people happy. Over the last several years I have come to realize that he is a gift from Heavenly Father. Not just our gift. Everyone's gift. And we need to share him with other people.

Thanks to my wonderful friend for reminding me! I need to remember this for the days when life gets really hard.

Is It Already Over?

I can't believe Christmas is already over. It seems to take longer to prepare for each year, but each year, the day also goes by so much faster! I'm glad the kids are still home from school and Earl took a long Christmas break, so we're able to hang out with each other.

I have to say, my best day was the Sunday before Christmas. We had a really beautiful Christmas program for Sacrament Meeting. Our Bishop gave a wonderful talk about the atonement. He said how he looks forward to the time when we are all resurrected so he can be with all of us and experience things with different people. In his list, he mentioned that he really looks forward to having a long conversation with Brayden. Of course, that started my tears flowing and they didn't stop for the rest of the program. I'm so thankful for a thoughtful ward that is in tune with some of the stuff that's going on in our lives. It was so emotional for me to hear that someone else also looks forward to hearing his sweet voice.

To top off my already emotional day, Spencer received an anonymous note while he was in Primary. The note said that he is such a good example and everyone looks up to him. It included some money to help him purchase a suit for his upcoming 12th birthday. It was so wonderful. He is such a good kid. I am so proud of him, and I'm sure it is nice for him to be recognized for that. Usually the squeaky wheel gets the grease at our house and Spencer just isn't very squeaky!

So that gave us an inspirational start to our holiday. I hope the little we have been able to do for other people this season has helped them. Going caroling with our neighbors was a big highlight for me. And our kids loved picking out angel-tree presents for other kids. That will definitely be a family tradition!

We hope you all had a great Christmas!!

Santa's #1 Fan!!

Andraia is Santa's #1 fan this year! She absolutely loves the big guy. She has had her picture taken with him three different times this year. I think she's making up for last year when she really wanted to sit on his lap but just wasn't brave enough to do it.

We took the kids to Hogle Zoo for Breakfast with Santa a couple of weeks ago. They really enjoyed it. We would have stayed to check out the animals, but it was snowing really hard.

Andraia loved sitting with Santa. They had a nice little conversation about Christmas, gifts, the snow......

I didn't get a picture of Chloe on my own camera (the zoo took pics for us) because she was too scared to sit alone. But she really loved this elephant.

Brayden wasn't thrilled with sitting on Santa's lap, either. But Santa was so kind. He did everything he could to make Brayden comfortable. It was very sweet.

Spencer didn't want to chat with Santa. He's too old. That doesn't mean I'm old....just him! But he did have fun taking pictures of the snowy landscape at the zoo!

We've had a great holiday season so far. The snow is falling really hard today. We might already have 6 inches, and it isn't stopping anytime soon. Hope we aren't snowed in!!

Rough Weekend

I know we have many friends and family who keep up with us on our blog. Thanks for all of the emails! Many of you don't have blogger accounts and don't leave comments, so I'm glad that you have let me know you are reading and keeping up with all of our craziness. You guys are the best!

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that Brayden had a rough weekend. He had several seizures from Saturday night until Sunday afternoon. None of them were particularly horrible on their own, but he had so many. It is so frustrating that I can't make him better.

So, now it is Tuesday, and he is back to normal. Running around, playing, having a great time! Most of the weekend, he was pretty quiet and very tired. Hopefully this back to normal period lasts for a very long time!

Happy Valintimes!

Yesterday when I opened Bray's backpack after school. He had two 'Val-o-grams.' These are cute little cards that you can buy and have delivered to the students at his school. One was from his teacher, the other from someone named Taylor. The message she wrote said "Happy Valintimes." At parent-teacher conference I commented on this to Ms. Warnick. She said that Taylor is a regular ed. fourth grade student who comes in during her recesses to help in their class. She had used her own money to buy each of the students a Val-o-gram. I don't know that Brayden even noticed, but it sure brightened my day!!

Brayden's Battle

Having never had a seizure myself, I don't know what it feels like to be the person having a seizure. One thing I can tell you is that as the mom of a sweet, innocent little boy who continues to have seizures, it really kills me. Despite our best efforts to adjust meds and help his life be less stressful, they continue. Prayer seems to be our only defense, but I wouldn't want to fight this battle without it.