We really had a great year and I know it will be hard for 2011 to match the awesomeness of 2010 but I sure hope that it passes it in greatness!
January - We spent the New Year in Orlando with Rich, Linda and Josiah enjoying food, family and good fun! Also got to visit with my mom for a few days. Julianna turned 3 on the 20th and had a fun birthday party at Southern Prep, an indoor play gym. We also took her to her favorite place the Children's Museum
February - My niece Brook came to stay for a few weeks! Jayden's favorite part was playing in the snow with her. We took the kids to the Big Apple Circus. Julianna attended The music class program and loved it!
March - Jayden turned 5 and had a dinosaur themed birthday party! His favorite part was the piñata and the cookie cake that he got to decorate by himself with dinosaurs. We also took him to his favorite place, the Fernbank History Museum.
April - Julianna and I flew to New Jersey to help celebrate the expected arrival of Marcella with family and friends. We also visited a pediatric orthopedic specialist at CHOP for a second opinion on our options for her spine. Basically the ortho visit was a bust! Over the phone the doctors personal assistant/nurse told us that the doctor we were going to see had said yes to every question that we asked but when we saw the doctor in his office he said he'd never done half the things that I re asked him directly! Anyway long story short our surgery options are limited for Juli due to multiple issues with her spine.
May - Justin and I celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary! Time really does fly. I was happy to turn 30 this year too! 30 has been good to me so far. We took the kids to their first baseball game with Justin's work. It was hot and difficult for Juli, Jayden thought it was okay. He liked all the food and the kids area best! Then after the game we had to drop Justin off at the airport for a business trip. :( Thankfully he doesn't travel too often, just enough for us to miss him! Julianna had her first spinal related surgery in May. Her spinal cord was tethered and it's supposed to be free floating at the bottom. It was a rough week in the hospital but it was worth it! Her curvature is not as severe as it was before the surgery and she seems to be able to move a little better.
June - Summer has finally arrived! Jayden LOVES vacation bible school at First Baptist Church of Woodstock. He talked it up so much that Juli begged to go, but she was to young. After talking to the director she said they needed a volunteer to help in the younger kid rooms for the parents that volunteered in all the other rooms so Juli got to attend the last day and seemed to enjoy it. There attendance numbers are through the roof at FBCW! Of course the kids favorite parts are the bounce houses and the petting zoo. Next year I will be volunteering the whole week so Julianna can attend just like her big brother. Jayden will be in the big kid building though and not the preschool building anymore!
July - We spent the 4th of July close to home and were surprised at what awesome fireworks our home owners association has! They had all kinds of activities for us to enjoy through out the day and ended the night laid out on the lawn and watched as they put off fireworks over our lake. We were home within 5 mins of the display ending! We spent most of August enjoying swimming, playing at the parks and visiting museums.
August - What a great summer filled with FUN! Both the kids got much better with swimming. Jayden went from hugging the steps of the pool to jumping into the deep end and Juli went from complete hysterics at using any type of flotation device to wearing floaties and jumping in too! In Georgia school starts in mid August! Jayden started Kindergarten! He is in the Georgia Cyber Academy which is a public school that is home based! He's held up to Georgia standards (including state testing), has a teacher assigned to him, and awesome field trips.
September - VACATION time!!! We took the kids to a nice long week of Disney World! It was truly a magical vacation. Everyone of us had an amazing and memorable visit. It is so moving to see your children experience Disney World. The characters were all amazing and so great with both the kids. Jayden's favorite characters were Mickey, Mary Poppins and Princess Tiana with her Prince Naven! His favorite ride was Dinosaur! Julianna's favorite characters were all the Princesses, Minnie, Pluto and of course Princess Tiana with her Prince Naven. Her favorite rides were the carousel and the tea cups! Of course we did NOT let hers spin due to her neck and spinal issues, but she still loved it. The Princess and the Frog characters were truly their favorites and I have tons of pictures of them talking and getting hugs from them. We were also thankful that my mom got to spend some time with us in Disney, I know she enjoyed watching the kids experience Disney. At the end of September Justin had a business trip to Pittsburgh so he took Jayden with so he could see his family. This is the first time that Jayden has been away from me that long! He had an amazing time with everyone especially his cousin Hailey! He can't wait to meet her in Disney World next year!
October - trick-or-treat! Jayden was a dragon and Juli created her own costume with wings and a tutu... She said she was a butterfly! Our calendar was insane this month with Juli's ballet classes, Jayden's phys ed classes and more field trips than we could handle! Justin and I enjoyed a date to the Atlanta History Center to see the Lincoln exhibit.
November - We spent Thanksgiving with the Hennequant's in Stockbridge. Enjoyed watching Juli in ballet, Jayden loves his gym class and is doing well with all of his school lessons. We had some fun fieldtrips including a trip to one of our favorite places the Center for Puppetry Arts to see Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. They always put on such wonderful performances.
December - While Justin was in Vegas for a business trip (yeah, a business trip to Vegas! LOL right!!) my mom came to visit! The kids had a blast visiting and I'm thankful that she was here because Juli ended up with a visit to the emergency room with pneumonia! Thankfully it was mild and they caught it early and we didn't have to stay there. She is doing great now. Jayden had a gingerbread contest/party with school and won an ornament. The kids really enjoyed Christmas this year and got some great gifts to play with. Jayden has done really well with his school work so far with the GCA program. He finished Kindergarten math this month and will finish all other subjects within the first half of January. He is in the ALP (advanced learners program), Sharp learners and will officially be a first grader in all subjects by February 1st! Juli loves learning just as much as Jayden does and with the right equipment to help her be able to see things I am sure she will accelerate at the same speed as her brother. The best news of all this month was when we visited Juli's orthopedic surgeon. It seems that shes grown a little bit in the chest cavity and that it's helped open things up! This is great news! Her bones are also ossifying nicely and instead of looking at surgery in the near future it looks like we may have a few years before they have to go in and correct the spine! There are so many reasons that it is great to wait: she will be older and understand more, be stronger, heal better and be able to grow some since post surgery she won't be able to do so nicely!!
We really had a great 2010 and I hope that 2011 can be even better!
The kids had a blast in the snow today! We've never seen more than an inch in our area and last night more than 5 inches fell on our house! Juli was not happy that her dirt was covered with snow but she still had fun playing in it. Jayden loved sledding and having snow fights. This was Juli's first snow, ever!
