Grandpa Ketchum is here.....,

......, and our garage has turned into Toy Central!

Jeep Week 2010

Race for the Cure 2010

The Saturday before Mother's Day the kids, Auntie Renee, Hannah, Rachel and myself all did the Race for the Cure. I've done this walk several years now.., with girl friends.., with Dan.., with kids.., with out kids.., and this is the first time going with my sister. Every year I go, I am truly amazed by the amount of people there. Each having been in some way affected by cancer. This years registry was just over 20,000 and that's not including the hundreds that just show and walk. As you can tell, my kiddos were thrilled to be part of the walk as well.Auntie Renee ran the 5 k and I walked with the rest of the clan. Mason, believe it or not, walked / ran the majority of the 5 k. He was wiped by the end of it and fell asleep in the car after dropping his cousins and aunt off.
Part of the happy crew. Maya is just happy to be getting some bread slices from Great Harvest and Mason.., well.., you can tell from his face he's about to fall asleep.

Primary Children's Take 2

I like to think we're getting these ER visits out of the way while our children are young, so that when they are older they will always be healthy, happy and never visit the ER. Unfortunately..., I think this may just the beginning of our trips to the ER. This morning, Maya pulled our camera off our dresser. She grabbed the strap pulling the camera directly on to her face. She got a small Y shaped cut in between her lip and nose. Her cut was fairly tiny, but as soon as I saw it I knew it needed stitches. It was deep in parts and with the position on her lip, i knew it would continue to re-open with smiles, laughs, cries, etc. I called my personal nurse (thanks Kim) to verify and once again we were on our way to Primary Children's, dropping Mason off to Grandma's on the way. However, this time, I was extremely anxious. I knew how they would have to hold her down and the tears from Mason's stitches were still fresh in my memory. At parts I wanted to run out of the room and just cry because my little girl was hurt and crying. I reminded myself that I was the mom and this is what moms do. I some how got through it. Her and Mason's tears kill me.., well.., when they're hurt tears that is. I don't even flinch for their fake tears..., and yes.., they both have them! Thankfully, it was much quickly than Mason's zillion stitches to his finger. Two stitches and we were out the door. Poor baby girl! She really did so well.I do hate that this happened to her face and will scar! I know it's tiny...., but still..., I just hope it not very noticeable.
As for Mason..., his finger is healing well. I love his face in this picture. You can tell he's just so done with it all. He had his first follow up with the plastic surgeon and so far so good. We follow up every two weeks for a 3 or 4 months.
I have been a bit concerned the last few times I've changed Mason's dressings. We knew he'd loose his nail...., it's just being held on by stitches. We knew he'd loose that..., but everything else around it is turning black too. :( I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

the first of many ER visits with our boy....,

This past Saturday, Mason was helping me clean out and organize the garage. I use the word 'help' loosely because he mostly likes to move stuff around..., hence how eh got hurt. Mason pulled a bi fold closet door over and it landed on him and his hand. Not only did he break (just a crack) his pinkie finger.., he also cut the tip of it completely off.., yes you all read right. Mom had part of his pinkie in her hand. I threw that on ice, called the neighbor to stay with sleeping Maya and with in minutes, Dad, Mom and Mason were off to Primary Children's Hospital. An hour and an half surgery to reattach the tip with a plastic surgeon, a bunch of stitches and a million tears and Mason was good to go home. They're not sure if it will take though. Worst case scenario.., he get his pinkie amputated to the first knuckle. Best case scenario..., his pinkie is great, just with no finger nail. Will other kids make fun of that??? We follow up with a plastic surgeon this week. Mason has been in pretty good spirits through out the whole ordeal and been a great trooper about it all. He's playing like there's nothing wrong.., jumping off furniture and the rest of his norms.

I had to include this picture because it was so stinking cute! Yesterday, I caught him reading to his sister in his bedroom. Granted it was all babble.., but Maya still seemed to enjoy it.

Better late than never....,

With Mason practically running at 11 months, I expected something similar for his baby sister. Maya, however, does things on her own time and in her own way. She's been taking a step here or there but really seemed to have little interest in walking. At almost 14 months to the day, Maya started walking and now we can't stop her! The video is specially for Michele and her crew! ENJOY!