A little catch-up before the holidays

I found these 3 pictures in iPhoto and while I have many other things to blog about (Thanksgiving, GiGi and Mimi and PopPop coming, Seeing Santa, etc) I didn't want to pass these by.

We're still working to get a picture of Cadence holding Shaun with Shaun not crying. This is another unsuccessful attempt.

Cadence wanted to be jasmine for this whole day :)

A little girl that I teach piano to often comes with her hair in pony tails down at her sides and Cadence likes it. So, she had asked me for several days for long ponies - which I didn't understand - and then once I did and we fixed her hair she was really happy.

YEE-HAW!

Last Sunday night we decided, along with some friends, to go to the rodeo. We've talked about it for a long time and driving by the arena on Friday saw that it was the finals weekend and decided that we HAD to go! So, we loaded up the kids and off we went - along with the Kales and some teens from church.

Here are Cadence and Shaun all ready to go! Check out his overalls :)

It was actually a bigger nicer place than we expected from the signs and considering that I'm pretty sure it's in someone's back yard - seriously. This was our view from the stands.

Cadence and all her big friends

Yes, Katie did kiss that horse! Cadence loved the "hursies" too and wanted to know why the people only rode "tows" and sheep instead of the "hursies"

What I've done this week

These words are more for my documenting purposes than your reading enjoyment so don't feel like you have to read it :)

Monday, Nov 16th, when I went to bathe Shaun I noticed a blister on the bottom of his incision from his heart surgery. The home health nurse was coming over so I had her look at it. She called the cardiologist who said for us to watch it for the day and for her to check it again on Tuesday morning. As the day progressed it went from being a watery blister to being filled with puss and really red.

Tuesday morning she came back and sure enough, it was infected. She called the cardiologist again who said to bring him in for them to look at it. We took his pulse/ox levels and they were in the 60's instead of the 80's so I figured that it wasn't looking good for little Shaun. I took Cadence to Jenn's and headed to Winston-Salem with Shaun.

Dr Cook, the cardiologist, looked at it, popped it like a pimple - which was really gross - and said that he needed to be admitted :( We went thru the admissions process and they put us on the 6th floor of Brenners CHildrens Hospital.

Things I'm thankful for in this process:

That I have family close enough to help out with Cadence without thinking twice about being inconvenienced

Nurses who were believers and told me specifically what they were praying for for Shaun.

Sweet friends who clean our house even tho it was DISGUSTING!

the nurses who were so nice and sweet and never left the room without asking if I needed anything

Karen coming to take me shopping

That my windows looked at the helicopter pad so at least there was something to look at as the helicopter came and went

SCC's Beauty Will Rise album that kept me in perspective as I watched our sweet boy have to lay in a hospital bed

Hospital towels that exfoliate your body with their sand paper-like qualities

SCC's song "One Heartbeat at a Time" that reminded me that it wasn't a waste of my time to sit in a hospital room for 6 days straight consoling a baby.

Cadence and that fact that she can go anywhere with anyone and find fun to be had in the situation.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK

My MRSA education since Shaun tested positive for it

the fact that hospitals have WIFI

maybe that's all for now :)

Random pics too cute to not post

This is definitely one of my favorites of Chris and Shaun

Look at our 2 babies each enjoying the play mat 3 years apart :)

Shaun has started smiling in the last few weeks and really responding to the things we say and do. It absolutely melts our hearts. Here are some pics that Mama got of him smiling.

all ready for church! Outfits compliments of Aunt April and Grammie!

I'm still on a quest to get a picture of Cadence holding Shaun where he's not screaming. it just may happen one day :)

Cadence put one of her babies bibs on Shaun

Loving this lollipop that came in a Halloween package from Aunt Debbie aka Kagan's Mimi (kagan's in the pic below)

Pumpkin Cookies!

Pumpkin Cookies have been a tradition in the Wilson house since we were little. There's some debate over exactly when we were introduced to Pumpkin cookies but we know with certainity that the date on the recipe that Mom brought to NC with her was 1986!! So for at least 23 years I have made these cookies every year in the Fall. This year was no exception and it was ever more fun because we got to include Kagan and Adaline in the tradition.

This is how Christa and I roll for our baking/cooking/hiking/folding laundry/pretty much everything these days :)

Decorating the cookies after we baked them - they were very serious about their cookie decorations

Happy babies after decorating and eating cookies :)

The Mountains

This past Friday we went the Blue Ridge Parkway to ride around and see the leaves. The Callaways went with us and we had SO MUCH FUN! It was freezing cold and ended up wet and gross and a major road detour later, I still had a good time - and so did Cadence. The detour was because of a rock slide on the parkway that wasn't on the map when I was looking for fun stuff to do and see and the wet was because of a major storm system that was moving thru the mountains. We're not sure that the boys (Daddy and Shaun) had fun but overall I thought it was a good day.

This waterfall was along our detour route so we got out to hike to it. It was really fun and beautiful.

Here's Cadence playing a game on her Daddy's iPod while we were driving. We are so blessed with a kid who is a good car rider and pretty laid back about the crazy adventures we take her on :)

CLICK HERE to watch a video of her entertaining herself on the drive over to Asheville.

Halloween 2009

This year for Halloween our church had a Fall festival. it was so much fun and a great event for the community to get a better taste of who CCCM is. Cadence talked all week about what she was going to wear as a costume. We knew it would be a princess it was just so hard for her to decide which one to wear! She settled on Sleeping Beauty and I think it was a great choice.

Shaun was a Pea in a Pod thanks to Aunt April :)

GiGi - the yellow one - came up for the weekend and we were so glad!

Playing games at the fall festival

There were more princesses there!! and even a bride

Probably her favorite thing about the night was the popcorn - you gotta love free popcorn.

and of course Chris and I played music with the youth kids.

All in all it was a great rainy, cool night but LOTS of fun!