So much to catch up on!

On Christmas day, we went to my sister's house for dinner and in the morning. Jack and Lorelei tried to play nicely.


























Lorelei sporting her new dress that Papa bought for her.
My Dad (Grampa) bought her her first bike. She is VERY excited about it!












Santa Claus came to Grammy and Papa's house.


















Lorelei used Grammy's snowman broom to clean before Santa came and she put out cookies and milk for him, but was very upset Christmas morning to see that he had ate the cookies and drank the milk.










"I just cleaning, Mommy, I just cleaning."













We played in the snow with Grammy, Daddy and Max (the dog).












Once she realized she could throw the snow at people, she had TONS of fun!


























Christmas Eve we went to my Dad's for lunch and to hang out for a while. It was interesting to try to get a picture of Jack and Lorelei together!











Shrimp, shrimp dip, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, what a fun lunch!












Lorelei colors with Uncle Tommy!













On December 18th, Hope for BraveHEARTS handed out Christmas presents to the kids/patients on PCICU and 8D (the new floor which is gorgeous! it used to be 7C). We also teamed up with Texas Roadhouse and served dinner to the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House.

Elijah was our BraveHEART Helper













Shannon giving Dr. Graham the donation for RESEARCH!!!!!!!












Lorelei also had her first taste of Hot Chocolate, since December was a VERY cold month in SC.
















She got to use her Pillsbury Doughboy cup from Grampa Don. She LOVED it!













Santa Claus came early to SC since we were going to NY for Christmas. He had to do a test run before the real deal to make sure the reindeer were in working order.










Lorelei also went to see Dr. Shuler in December. She did really well this time and she showed me how much she has grown up. She let the nurse take her blood pressure and she laid still for the ECHO. Dr. Shuler says she looks good and her ECHO was great and we got another see you in 6 months. We will go back in June. I LOVE good reports!

Mason

One of our heart friends has been flown to MUSC in distress and he is in surgery right now. Please pray for his family as these are trying times. I have met Mr. Mason and he is an adorable little guy! Check out his blog to the right and see the updates.

Thanksgiving!

John, Lorelei and I went to my mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great time with Memaw, TJ, Cody, Amanda, Uncle Walt, Chris, Rachelle and Sophie. We sure missed Aunt Jan, Uncle Mark, Aunt Jeannette, Uncle Marc, Lexi and Jack!

Lorelei sat with Memaw, ate goldfish and watched the parade.

Lo also sat with Daddy and watched Mickey Mouse.




Lorelei also watched the guys play catch and then wanted in the action. She played ball with Memaw and Chris and mom's dog, Opie. She was so patient in waiting for the ball to be thrown to her. She also played with Sophie. They had a great time and fun was had by all!

Just a Quick Update

Stay tuned for Thanksgiving pictures after tomorrow. We are getting ready to go to my mom's for Turkey Day and then we will be headed to Auburn for Christmas. We have much planned and we are very excited for the holidays. We plan on visiting Harmon's Tree Farm, seeing Santa with some good friends, serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House, having a small Christmas here before we go to NY (Lo is still little and really doesn't know what's going on so its a little easier) and spending time together. I hope there is snow in NY for Christmas, at least while we are there and not on the way there or back! What are your plans for the holidays??

Birthdays and Anniversaries for October, November and December

Since I forgot 2 months of Birthdays and Anniversaries I figured I would do those PLUS get a head start and do December as well!
Happy Birthday to:
Jessica Wilson (John's cousin)
Amy Wilson (John's cousin's wife)
Michael Wilson (John's cousin)
Ellen Wilson (John's aunt)
William Rhinehart (John's cousin's son)
Joann Friedel (John's aunt)
Jamie Howard (John's cousin)
Gabriella Garuccio (John's cousin's daughter)
Margaret Vasco (John's aunt)
Joan Wilson (John's aunt)
Tim Wilson (John's uncle)
Peter Edwards (my uncle)
Deanna Jenkins (John's cousin)
John Hanson (John's cousin's husband)
Benjamin DeMatteo (John's cousin's son)
Elias DeMatteo (John's cousin's son)
AJ Porfirio
Mike Rhinehart (John's cousin's husband)
Peter Wilson (John's uncle)
Ray Paseika (John's cousin's husband)
Jamie Wilson (John's cousin)
Scott Wilson (John's cousin)
Brian Hollis
Abigail Hendricks (John's cousin's daughter)
David Loysen (my cousin)
Sara DeMatteo (John's cousin)
Max Rietmann (my cousin's husband)
Jake DeMatteo (John's cousin's husband)

Happy Anniversary to:
Mike and Melanie Rhinehart
Kevin and Kim Friedel
Tom and Cindy Hendricks
Cathy and Ernie Howard
Rick and Lisa Wilson

Some Special Happy Birthday's go to:
my nephew Jack :O) He turned 3 on Nov 9!
my mom, Pat
my mother in law, Jeanne
and my sister Jeannette!

A ton of stuff to update on!

Yesterday we went to FunZone with our friends to play and what does Lorelei do? She gets in the exersaucer! Silly girl! She did not want anything to do with the Bounce Houses or bouncy things, in fact she wouldn't even go in the room!

Too bad Daddy and GodFather Uncle Kevin weren't here to play a game of b-ball with Lo!

She did jump on this thing though!

We were a firefighter for a little while too!

Cheese!

Here are some pictures from Halloween. Lo was Minnie Mouse and she loved it! We went trunk or treating at the church across the street from our house. She rode the entire way in her stroller. We had to start out saying trick or treat for her and then about half way through she started just sticking out her hand and when we were almost finished she started saying trick or treat and opening her bag and then saying Thank You!



Even Lola got to be Minnie Mouse for a little bit. Poor thing, Lo likes to terrorize her.


She is in constant motion any more and it is VERY hard to get a good picture of her.

This is what happens when you give a 2 and 1/2 year old a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing. Then you dump her in the bath!


I cannot believe she will be 3 in April! She is starting to talk so much more and you can actually have a conversation with her, in a 2 year old way. She knows a lot and loves the ABC song and singing and dancing. We read a lot and still LOVE Mickey Mouse.

We are getting ready for the holidays here and have gotten out the dancing snowman and have bought 2 singing Santa Mickeys'. We are doing a small Thanksgiving for us next weekend so there will definitely be pictures of that and then December and Christmas fun! We will be in NY this year and we are really hoping that it snows.

Our breakfast went really well and we are still selling t-shirts if anyone wants one. Hope for BraveHEARTS will be doing some fun Christmas stuff so please check back for more info! Please keep one of our board members in your prayers, she is an adult CHD survivor and is in need of a heart transplant. She is trying to be bumped up on the list, as she has had 2 strokes in the past few weeks and was rehospitalized 2 days ago.

I will be updating later in the week of October/November Birthdays and Anniversaries as I forgot to do them last month. I will also post pics of the projects I have made for the holidays but I am not putting names by what because I don't want people to know what they are getting!

Have a great week everyone!

Baby Be Blessed

Y'all please check out babybeblessed.blogspot.com, they make adorable dolls!