Halloween

This was from Trunk or Treat at our church Friday night.  Thanks to Grandma D we were the second ones in line and didn't have to wait in line for 2 freezing hours like last year.

I had fun incorporating Nathan's chair with his costume this year.  It's amazing what you can do with some cardboard and a couple cans of spray paint. It's something I plan to do in the years to come, as long as he is using it.  I kept talking about it in the days leading up to Halloween weekend, but he didn't see it all put together until we went to trunk or treat.  I got it ready while he was still in the car and when I brought him out to show him he was really excited.  He said, "Wook!  It's my digger, like Scoop!"  I was inspired by another mom and was happy to find that there were several awesome wheelchair costumes including a spaceship, ice cream truck, Thomas train, and Batmobile (check out Caleb's Batmobile here).

This was from Nate's preschool Halloween party.  Notice the construction worker with his hands over his ears. 

Baby's first Halloween.  He's growing up too fast!

And the best part of Halloween?  Nathan actually requested to hold his little brother!

Fall fun

Guess who decided to try and eat the paint?

Mommy's pumpkin-he was so excited.  "Mommy it's glowed!"

Nathan's pumpkin

Pumpkin patch

 

 

Candy in the pumpkin

Friday night we went to our church for "Trunk or Treat". There were A LOT of people there. We would find during the service on Sunday that there were over 5,000 people there!!! It was coooooold, but Nate had both Gramma's there so he didn't mind one bit. It was really a fun night, and such a wonderful event put on by our church. Nate had a ball.

When I asked him what happens when he says "Trick or treat" he said "You get candy in the pumpkin!"







Enjoying a sucker while waiting in line for over an hour.



Checking out his loot.

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For the first time, we stayed in our neighborhood on Halloween (we usually go to Ryan's sister's house). Nate has his own buddies here now, so we went door to door with some of them. SO fun for him! We took turns carrying him and when he got too heavy we just rolled him in his wagon as close to the door as we could get. He was really shy about saying "Trick or Treat" and only mumbled it a few times. Other times he would get confused and say "Thank you" first.



Howdy partner!







Some of Nate's neighborhood friends Preston and Mason

When I asked Nate if he was done, or if he wanted to keep trick or treating, his response was, "More candy!"

I think it's safe to say he enjoyed himself.



Here is a recap of Nate talking about this whole Halloween experience:

Fall photo shoot

I use the phrase "photo shoot" loosely because a photo shoot for me consists of my camera, a pumpkin, and my sister jumping and waving her arms frantically behind me trying to get Nate to look at the camera. This was probably one of the last nice days of October and I decided last minute (while Nate was napping to be exact) that we were going to head out to the Old Mill to get some pictures. The sun was literally setting when we got there. But I think it made for some really great light. Here are some of the goodies in no particular order:

County Line Farm

Last year when we took our trip to the pumpkin patch it was cooooold. I remember desperately trying to keep my baby warm.

This year it was actually HOT. I guess that's Chicago weather for you.



Nate really enjoyed the "animal zoo". He loves pointing out all the animals and knows all their sounds. He was even brave enough to pet a calf!

There were no apples to pick. I guess an early frost meant that all apples had to be picked early, so we didn't venture out to the apple orchards. We did enjoy a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch (and by patch I mean a bunch of already picked pumpkins sitting in a dusty field). But it was fun anyway. Didn't get too many good pumpkin pictures here-I really have no idea how to handle the bright, bright sun when taking pictures.






Some rare mommy pics.



I really can not get over how big he is getting. Seriously, where did my baby go?

Leaving our mark

I love October.

Fall is hands down my favorite time of year. This morning, the first thing Nate said to me was "Trick or treat!"-he is soooo excited about Halloween and how people "put the candy in the pumpkin". It is way too cute.

But this October has been about way more than leaves changing colors and kids dressing up in costume. This October I really feel like this wonderful group I have been so blessed to become part of, has left our mark. Together, we are doing amazing, amazing things. And I can only see it continuing to grow and reach people each year.

In honor of October being Spina Bifida Awareness month, I created a "flyer" to send out to friends and family that donated to our Walk and Roll as a sort of thank you and a way to educate, update and spread awareness. I hope to do this each and every year in the month of October. Next year I hope to include yellow awareness lapel pins for everyone (I tried to make my own like I did last year but I had a hard time finding a marker that wouldn't bleed on the ribbon).

And this is just ME. I don't even feel like I really did enough.

But together we sold over 700 shirts advocating for SB awareness and joined together thousands of people for a day of prayer. (**Update-the woman I wrote about here has decided to keep her baby! See, AMAZING things!!!)

Thank you to all our friends and family who donated, are helping spreading awareness by sporting a t-shirt , prayed with us and continue to be such an encouragement and source of strength in our lives. We love you.

And to my sb family-being a part of all this amazingness and being able to share our lives with you as well as yours with us has left no doubt in my mind that we are right where we are meant to be. Hugs!!!!

Here is the flyer I sent out:

Wordless Wednesday

And so it continues...

Our wheel chair saga is not over. (Omgosh, is wheelchair one word or two? I'm pretty sure I type it differently every time I write it!)

Nate had another fitting today, with the new wheels. The guy came two and a half hours early. Just as Nate was going down for a nap. And then when Ryan put him in his red chair, he started crying. Not a good sign. Long story short-wheels are better but there is a problem with the seat height now. Which requires some little tool thingey that the guy (surprise, surprise) didn't have with him. So we are set up again for the end of next week.

Sigh.

Later after I got home I was talking to Nate about his red chair. I asked him, "Did you like your red chair?" His response? "Like the blue chair."

And continuing the fun...the bladder test I mentioned the other day turned out to be just a renal ultrasound. Which I knew was not right as soon as Ryan and Nate left Children's and were headed home. A few phone calls confirmed that he also needed a video-urodynamics (which fills his bladder with a saline solution to see how much it can hold, while taking a video to see at what point there is reflux to the kidney-or that's at least how I understand it-we've never had this procedure before).

So, it's back to Children's on Nov. 3rd for the correct test. Trying to set up clinic for Nov. 16th. Feeling anxious about it all.


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I am incredibly behind in pictures. Stay tuned for pumpkin patch, fall photo shoot and happy-to-be-reunited-with-Aunt-Gina pics (she is officially HOME as of a half hour ago!!! No more two and a half hour flight to visit her in Orlando-now it's just a two and a half hour drive to Milwaukee!!!)

PS-I can't find the cord that connects the camera with the video to the computer so I can't upload video of him in his chair just yet. Please let this picture serve as a replacement for now! :)

Happy little cowboy

Falling for him

Okay, I know the title is super cheesey, but I couldn't help it! The following are attempts at taking ahem, "professional" pictures of Nate myself. My mom and I drove to a nearby park and I set him up and started snapping away. I probably took a total of 100 pictures and got a handful of good ones. That's the way it goes, I guess. I still have a lot to learn about light (I'm pretty sure some of the pictures came out over exposed) but I'm pretty happy with them. Christmas pictures are going to have to be taken indoors and that is a whole different story. Maybe Santa will come early and bring me a new lens? Ha! Adorable fall sweaters courtesy of Gramma.