Happy Halloween!

We met some friends from work and went trick or treating in Brevard tonight. Thank goodness we started at 6:00 because by the time we were finished it was dark and we were totally afraid we were going to lose a kid or two! All the kids looked super cute and had a great time. Thank goodness for Charlie coming with us or I swear we would have lost Caroline. I don't know what was up with her but she was WILD when we got there, she ran and ran and ran some more and sometimes just ran in circles. We were all running to keep up with her. Anthony had a great time to, he was a little hyper but nothing like Caroline. She was definately a swarming busy bee but it was tons of fun.

All 8 of the kids that we went with.
Of course I only got one really good picture because Anthony and Colton were running out of the picture as soon as we would try to take it!

The kids got TONS of candy and toys and I dread the sugar high that they will have for the next week. I have finally convinced Anthony to take some of his candy to my dentist's office where they are giving money in exchange for some of the candy. It was a hard decision for him because he loves candy and he loves money. Chad of course told me that I could only take the crappy candy and sell it because he wanted to keep the good candy, he is worse than the kids when it comes to sweets!

meeting the Ringgold's & Jonah & the EB race

Halloween weekend was super busy. On Friday Melanie, Lacey, and I drove to Winston-Salem to meet Jonah, and the Ringgold's (Bella's family). It was great to finally meet someone we feel like we know so well, although I was a little nervous to meet them because I know a lot about them but they don't know a lot about me. It was great though, they were wonderful to talk to and super sweet. Jonah is even cuter in person than in his pictures!!! It also made me know with all my heart that spreading the word on EB and teaching area hospitals is what I want to do. It will be extremely rare that someone with EB is born in this area but there is always that chance and I want to be able to educate the staff about what to do and not to do just in case. We got some great information from Tim (Bella's dad) and also I emailed a nurse at CHOC (Children's Hospital Orange County) and she sent us all of her information on EB. After the EB gathering we drove home and I got home around 11:30pm and then the next morning got up to go run a 5k race for EB. It was FRIGID! I am definately not a cold weather runner and it was 32 degrees that morning. For the first 1.5 miles I totally couldn't feel my face and I was running with the sleeves of my shirt over my hands. The last 1.6 miles was a little better, I just had to keep thinking about those precious babies and the pain they live with. We hope to help organize the race next year and gets tons more runners to be able to raise money for DebRA.

Melanie, Lacey, and I after the race. (I also won a free night at the Grove Park from buying $10 worth of raffle tickets!!!! So excited for that.)

The back of our shirts. We wore these while running and many people asked us about the kids at the race. We all wore our shirts the whole day and many people asked about them so we were able to get the word out to more people. It was great to be able to let people know that this disease exsists because most people have never even heard of it.

Lacey and I before the race.

Melanie and I before the race.

Tim and Ali (Bella's sister) at the EB gathering on Friday.

Ali and Jonah

Jonah LOVES to swing. We had to get all of our pictures with him still moving because that was the only thing that was making him happy.

conversations with Caroline

Here are the EB shirts. Aren't they cute?

Here are a few of things that Caroline has said this week. She is getting to be to darn funny.

Charlie and Caroline were at the salon and Caroline was looking under Charlie's station and Caroline said "a bunch of shit cha cha". Charlie said she didn't think that's what she said so she asked her again what she said and Caroline said "a bunch of shit cha cha". Charlie said she wasn't sure if she said battleship or the other. As much as I wish it were battleship that she said, I just don't think that's what it was!

Charlie was at the house keeping the kids yesterday and Caroline shut the bedroom door and said "bye bye cha cha". Charlie said she wasn't sure where she was going so she went to look for her. Caroline was standing on the table with her legs spread wide apart. As soon as she saw Charlie she said "AAAHHH aroline (Caroline) not do it. Baby pee pee on papble (table)". She had gotten up on the dining room table and peed on the table!! When Chad got home Charlie said "Caroline where did your baby pee pee"? She said "on the papble". LOL.

Today Anthony got in trouble for pitching a terrible fit. Chad went to Anthony's bedroom and as he was walking down the hallway Caroline yelled out to Chad "spank his butt, spank his butt."

She is just too funny. I think she is gonna be just as funny as Anthony is!

EB awareness week!

October 25th-31st is EB awareness week. EB stands for epidermolysis bullosa which is a rare skin disorder that causes severe blistering of the skin and even internal organs. I have followed several blogs about kids with EB and will be running a 5k on Saturday for EB. You can follow Jonah and Tripp by clicking on the buttons on the side of my blog. These precious little boys will touch your heart with their beautiful eyes and smiles even while they are in pain. Bella died on October 11th after her battle with EB. As of now there is no cure for EB and these kids live a life of pain and suffering and many of them do not live long due to infection, malnutrition, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance. Please consider making a donation to www.debra.org to help find a cure for this horrible disease. I am also collecting donations that will go to DebRA so if you want to contribute please email me or leave me a comment. We also made wonderful shirts and if anyone is interested in buying one to wear to spread the word on EB then please let me know. I will post of picture of the shirts tomorrow since it's 10:30pm and I don't feel like going to take pictures right now!

Grandad's Apples

On Sunday Charlie and I took the kids to pick out pumpkins and pick apples at Grandad's in Hendersonville. We all had a great time, Anthony picked about 15 pumpkins and I had to make him put all but 5 of them up. I think 5 pumpkins is more than sufficient, that's a lot of pumpkins to carve and paint. We picked out our pumpkins then went and let the kids pick apples then we ate at the BBQ place there. Definately some of the best BBQ I have ever eaten, I think I may go back just for the food!

Feeding the llamas. Anthony wasn't so sure about them but Caroline loved them. Anthony may have been a little hesitant because one of them spit on him last year!

Why is it so darn impossible to get a picture of the two of them actually looking at the camera?

Caroline loved picking the apples but every time she picked one she wanted to take a bite out of it. I had to chase her around and try to grab the apple before she starting eating on it. I think she managed to get to about 4 of them and then of course Anthony had to eat one too. But they had a great time.

Walking down the road beside the apple orchard.

I cleaned most of the "stuff" out of the pumpkin because neither one of the kids liked doing that too much. Caroline kept saying "that's yuck, gross". But after I finished cleaning out the first pumpkin I caught Caroline picking the seeds up and putting them back in!

Our finished product. We only got 1 pumpkin done that day. Hope to get more done today. One side is Anthony's (the spider) and the other side is Caroline's. Whoever said carving a pumpkin with a 2 and 4 year old is fun, lied! All Anthony kept saying is "give me the knife, I want to cut" and Caroline kept throwing the seeds back in. Oh what fun, but it is a another memory to add to the collection.

Bella

Anabella Claire Ringgold

May 27, 2009-October 11, 2010

Bella passed away yesterday from her battle with EB and a BMT. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.

You can read about Bella and her fight on her blog.

Happy Birthday Caroline!

Today Caroline turns 2! Can't believe it has already been 2 years, the time just goes by so fast now. It seems like she should still be a baby but she it totally not my baby anymore. She is so big and starting to talk a lot. She pretty much repeats everything you say and is starting to talk in short sentences. She also has learned some basic spanish that she likes to use all the time. She is such a girly girl, loves her dresses, earrings, hairbows, and most of all shoes.

We had her birthday party yesterday and it turned out really good. We did a bumble bee theme and she wore her Halloween costume. It is the cutest costume ever and she just loves it. Here she is right before the party started. Doesn't she look so big? (She is playing with her new earrings in the picture)

Here is my first attempt at making a birthday cake. It turned out better than I thought it would and the cupcakes were super cute also.
If you know me at all then you know I am not crafty like that so it's a complete suprise that I did this at all but I had such a great time doing it that I think I will start making their cakes every year.

The kids all painted their own pots and then planted flowers. It was a messy project but I think the kids had a great time doing it so it was totally worth it.

Painting their pots.

Yes, they are wearing trash bags over their clothes, but it's better than ruining clothes!

Taking a break from the party to walk Drake. She thinks Taylor's new puppy is the greatest thing ever and she asks for him at least 3-4 times a day. He is pretty darn cute.

Eli is concentrating sssoooo hard!

Caroline got new boots for her birthday and she had to wear them around for the rest of the day. They are pretty darn fabulous. Wish I had a pair!

Caroline loved when we all sang Happy Birthday, she has been singing it to herself all week and when everyone else started singing she was all smiles. When we finished singing she clapped and starting yelling "Yay". She also had to blow out her candles 2 times.

Caroline on her BIRTHday.

Caroline at 6 months old at our photo shoot for the billboard.

Caroline at 2 1/2 years old.

Hasn't she changed so much!?!?

catching up

Yesterday at nap time I guess Caroline didn't want to go to sleep. I layed her down in her crib and was walking to the door when she stood up and threw herself out of the crib. She did a flip and landed on the floor because I couldn't get to her quick enough. So I decided today that she needed to be moved to her "big girl bed". I converted her crib in to a toddler bed and here she is, her first nap in her new bed. She was none too happy about it at first. I closed her gate at her door and she kept opening the door yelling "Mommy, it lock". But she did finally lay down and is right now sleeping away! Let's hope bedtime goes as well.

Lacey and I ran in a 5k on Oct. 2 for Alzheimers. Lacey came in 3rd overall for girls and 11th overall. I came in 1st in my age group and 20th overall. We decided that we should take a picture because it will be the only time we ever get a medal for running!!! It was frigid that morning and neither one of us had bought pants to wear running so we froze to death in our shorts, I totally went and bought pants and shirts after the race.

Since I had to work after the race and for the rest of the weekend Kim took the kids to Farm Day. They had a blast and did lots of fun things. Anthony apparently talked to a fireman because he walks around the house saying "Stop, Drop, Roll if your clothes are on fire. Ok Caroline let's practice cause you never know when you will catch on fire!" So he puts Caroline down on the floor and rolls her through the house, she thinks it's funny for the most part.

Here is Caroline playing in a box full of corn kernels. Anthony decided he didn't want to do that.

Coloring pumpkins.

We went to the fair when it was in town. Anthony loved all the rides and would have stayed all night riding if we would let him. Caroline didn't like the rides as much.

Here they are on their first ride. Caroline looked so excited and happy but as soon as the ride started she decided she hated it. After one lap around she started crying and yelling to the top of her lungs "I'm done Mommy, I'm done" and reaching for me. We tried one more ride with her and she did the same thing so the only other thing she rode was the merry go round because I could ride with her. She loved that and kept saying "Yeehaw Yeehaw, giddyup". I think she just liked it because I rode with her.

Anthony loved all the rides.

After we tried the rides and Caroline didn't like them I took her to jump while Anthony finished riding. This she absolutely loved and when it was time for her to get off she looked at the man and pointed her finger and said "No touch aroline (Caroline)".

Anthony started preschool again for the year in Sept. He for the most part loves it and wants to go everyday. Every now and then he will cry because he wants to stay at home but after he gets there he is fine and has a great time. Here is a picture of him on his first day of school. He was up and ready to leave at 7:30.