SNOWFLAKE GALA

Our family was invited to the annual Stollery children's Hospital foundation Snowflake Gala. It is a black-tie event and it is one of their biggest fund-raisers of the year. Everyone was so excited to be able to dress up and enjoy an evening out. They transform the Shaw Conference centre into a beautiful winter wonderland...complete with ballerinas and the nutcracker. As you enter the hall you are walking through a forest with trees covered in lights....it is so magical. They have a kids area complete with crafts, magic show, video games, air hockey the list goes on.......they even have there own bar area where they can order blue raspberry drinks......they loved it!! It was a fun evening and the food was incredible. Dessert for the kids was Dairy-queen ice cream. It was so nice to spend the evening with my entire family...they all looked so handsome in their tuxes and beautiful dresses. Denaye asked me this morning if it was on again tonight....she wants to go again. The Snowflake Gala is for a great cause.....Sam benefitted from the Stollery when he was born so this is a cause that we support. The evening came to an end and everyone was very tired.....we had a wonderful time....thanks Stollery for all you do.

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS

MAYA TURNED 9

Maya got braids put in....all her own hair...no extentions this time!!!

Maya turned nine last week....for those of you paying attention we have skipped a few birthdays.......that's another post for another day. Maya had a Hanna Montana birthday......again. She invited 7 of her closest friends over and the girls had a great time playing together. These girl birthdays are a new thing for me and I am still getting used to it. The girls did a craft and they made the most elegant wands I have ever seen...complete with glitter glue, sparkles and sequins.....fabulous. Maya loves her friends and she was so grateful that they came to celebrate with her. The day was huge success....Happy birthday Maya!!!

HE'LL SLEEP ANYWHERE AND ANY POSITION....

I tell people all of the time that Sam is the kind of kid that will fall asleep just about anywhere at anytime. He plays hard all day long....can't sit still for any length of time....so when he's tired, he's done. He sleeps just as hard as he plays and here is the proof. I have no idea how long he was asleep.......... He just simply got tired and that was it...he went to sleep....his day was done!!!!

TAYLOR TURNS 22

It was Taylor's birthday last weekend and he turned 22 years old. It hardly seems possible that that many years have passed already. My sister and her family joined us as well as my mom. Taylor has not been feeling well ever since he had H1N1 so he watched us eat and blew out his candles all for our sake. What a trooper!! Taylor suffers from Crohn's disease and we think when he was sick that it has triggered some other things to go wrong. He has been in and out of the emergency for the past week.....it has been a long week. He is actually at the hospital right now with his dad waiting for test results. We think it may be his gall bladder. I am hoping to hear something soon. If you think of it please say a little prayer for Taylor...he has lost about 15 pounds since this whole thing has started and he is in a lot of pain. I am trusting that God will take care of him...we just need to know what is actually wrong.

Blessings

Debbie

HALLOWEEN FUN

Hannah Montana

Princess Ariel

Jack sparrow

CARVING PUMPKINS

This was Denaye's first time doing her own pumpkin...she did a good job.

The look on Sam's face says it all....he was not a fan of this part.

Proud Kids!!

The kids had a great time carving their pumpkins. Maya is a pro at taking all of the insides out of the pumpkins. Sam and Denaye lost interest in that part so Maya pretty much did it all...with a little help from me. They each drew the face they wanted on their pumpkin and then I helped carve it out for them. They were so proud of their work.....I think they look awesome. Now we are officially ready for Halloween.

MAKING COOKIES

Life is getting back to normal now that the flu has come and gone from our house. We aren't sure if we all had H1N1 or not, but I am just thankful we are all healthy again. I just have a bit of a cough still, but nothing serious. Anyway on the weekend we made cookies. Before the girls came to be part of our family I used to make these every year with the boys. They would usually only last for about 10 minutes then they got bored and move onto something else. It is so nice to have girls around...they actually want to do things like this and they stick around for the whole project. They had such fun cutting out the shapes and putting the sprinkles on our pumpkin cookies. Sam cut out 1 cookie and that was it.....oh well....the girls enjoyed it and so did I.

WE'VE BEEN SICK

There have been no posts lately because our house has been sick for the last 2 weeks......I am only now starting to feel better. I don't even remember what has happened...I feel like I have lost about 2 weeks of my life.....it's all a blurrr. I will get back at it when I get all caught up on everything else that hasn't gotten done for the last 2 weeks.....ugghh
Debbie

SAM'S STORY

In the past we ...or I should say Rod has done some speaking for the Stollery children's Foundation. They are having a fundraising event on Thanksgiving weekend and this time I am going to speak as well. I have put together a video of Sam's life in pictures to show at the event. It's hard to beleive that Sam's life started out so rocky...he is such an energetic and healthy kid today......I am so thankful that the Stollery was there for Sam....his life is nothing short of miraculous. I hope you enjoy the video. Here is the link http://video.yahoo.com/watch/6085514/15812474