Here we are again. It's been 3 years!!!

Hank is doing great!

Right after Tom and I found out about Henry's condition, my Mom and Sister Angela packed their bags, jumped in the car, and drove all the way from Raymond(12hrs) to our house in Boise. We were so blessed to have them drop everything to come help us deal with the shock, fear, concern, anxiety, and all the other emotions. Thanks girls. We actually were blessed to have dozens of friends and family give us so much support, but Mom and Ang bought us Rock Band so that's why they got a special shout out. We love that game. Hahaha. The crazy thing is 3 years later we are living across the country, Angela is living with us, and my Mom is here for a visit. Can you believe that? It's like we planned it!
It's nice to have them here to "celebrate" how well Hank is doing TODAY.
He is so much fun. I can't say he is an Angel, but I can say that we love him even more because of all the crazy things that kid accomplishes.
So, to follow tradition, I'm going to say what I've learned this year.

I have decided that what I have really been working on re-learning(because we've all heard it at some point in our lives, most likely too often) is that even though the glass is half empty, I'm going to focus on the half full part.
EXAMPLE?
O.K.- If you read my Blog and thought- "Wow Em is so happy and is having so much fun in Virginia," well, you'd be partially right. Everything I put on the Blog is absolutely the truth. I just choose to leave out the "half -empty" stuff like how I've lived here for almost a year and haven't let myself open up to anyone to really be friends with them. Why? I really can't put my finger on it. I'm sure it means there is something seriously wrong with me, but what-eves right?  Or I could tell you that it takes forever to get anywhere, Tom's commute is 15 minutes of me driving him, followed by a 65 minute train ride, followed by a 5 minute walk(unless leaf oil has anything to say about it). I could, of course go on, but I don't want too. I want to focus on the good stuff.
So to swing this back to Henry, every year he has a ginormous run down of tests. This time he didn't beat all the odds with a few of them. He is showing some signs that he may have trouble controlling his bowels, and bladder. I could go into lots more detail, but I really don't want to dwell on it. He is such a happy little trouper. It isn't bothering him now, and we don't even have to test him again till he's three. The scrapper is running everywhere, he falls all the time, and just gets right back up. I had the physical therapist over and she asked where a certain bruise came from and I seriously had to try hard not to laugh. how can you identify one from the many? One time he fell on one of his little wooden blocks and got a perfect triangle bruise.
O.k. so here is a little up date on the kids personality.
He LOVES Dora!!!!!

"Mom, a Dowa?"

"Daddy a D-o-w-a, a D-O-W-A!"

"Ang, a Dowa?"

"Ga-ma a Do-wa, a Do-wa, a Do-wa...!!!"


Nuff said.

As you can see
Angela and I give him special treatment
cause he is so delicate.

Halloween Happenings!

Happy Halloween.

I called my friend Staci on Halloween and she answered like this-

"Happy Halloween, even though you hate it."

Hilarious:)

It's true that I hate Halloween. I pretty much stop feeling like myself for two full weeks before it, and feel better right after all the decorations are down.When I was in 8th grade our family suffered a tragedy, I lost my little brother on the 30th and I just can"t quite stop the memories and sorrow from coming back. I think it's just that there are so many traditions that you do for holidays so it triggers memories of that time in my life. Over the years I've realized that if I just allow myself to feel a little "Mel-Un-cho-ly" then I get over it faster. By the way if you don't know why I wrote it that way then you really need to rent the kid movie "Mega Mind" cause it is super funny. Anyways...

Here is what we did this Halloween.

On Friday the kids had a "Wear red to stop bullying."

Nice smile Logan.

 Then on Saturday we went to trunk or treat.

It was actually super nice cause the old boys went by themselves,

Tom took Hank around,

and Lays went around with "The Princess Posse,"

Wish I would have taken my camera for that sight. 

There were about 9 of them 

and once it was done they all huddled in a corner and traded candy.

The theme this year was "Hidden Identity"

Lays totally fits in cause no one knew who Cinderella was at the ball!

It's a bit of a stretch, but I'm proud of it:)

 On Monday we went to the kids class parties.

This is Layla with her friend Lailah on the left.
Pronounced the same way so they call my Layla-
Layla-P

Jay was so excited when he saw me walk into his class. I'm certain he didn't
believe me that I was really going to come. 

Logan was so sweet with Hank.

He made the mistake of letting him out of his stroller so we had to let him walk out of the school cause once that kid is free, he is so not going back into that prison.

I took a video of it and I don't know if you can tell, 

but at the end he totally bonks his face on the hand rail.

Yes, I was counting seconds till he fell, but it was out of love for the little trouper.
He just wants to run everywhere and that was a steep ramp.
Last Sunday he ended up in Logan's class(for a number of reasons),
when I went to get him out he jumped up,
started running,
fell,
got snickered at by all the kids,
got back up with his head down(you could tell he was frustrated),
and since he couldn't see it,
ran right into the wall.
Poor kid.
He is just so determined to do everything faster than he probably should.

Monday night we took the kids trick or treating.
Angela is so helpful. She staid home with Hank so Tom and I both got to go with the crazies.

There was a pumpkin shortage on the east coast so we all carved this tiny one.

Today was 80's day

I didn't plan ahead so we just rummaged through the house and created this little gem of an

outfit for Lays. The boys would only do it a little, but I still think they look good considering their

Mother is a slacker:)

p.s. I still need to do the post for when Tom's family was here,
but I need to get the Pics from Tom's cell,
and keep forgetting to get them when he is home.