Doing Well!!

Our baby boy will be TWO on November 3rd.  Carson is such a joy to have our lives.  He is always so happy and full of energy.  Do not get me wrong though he is entering the terrible twos.  He does sometimes have a hard time understanding that he does not always get what he wants.  But he sure does love his baby sister!! 

My parents recently came in town to visit. They are always so helpful when they visit. It is so nice to have extra help entertaining Carson and to hold Emery. While they were here Justin left to go on an amazing pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota for work. He was gone for several days, so the kids and I went back to Waco with my parents. I am just not sure if I can successfully take care of two kids by myself yet. Then Justin met us in Waco for the weekend and to bring us back to Midland. We had a great time with my family and friends.

Baby Emery is dong so well! She is a really good baby. She eats well without spitting up too much. She is sleeping longer through the night but not yet all night. She is never too upset so not much crying. Early Childhood Intervention and Midland Children's Rehabilitation Center have both evaluated her and she has impressed everyone. She has good muscle tone and strong ligaments. She loves tummy time and can lift her head up high. She responds well to sound, motion, and lights. So she is off to a good start!!

 Kissing baby Emery!

 Cousin Davis and Aunt Diane holding Emery.

 Playing golf with Aunt Carol and Daddy.

 Carson loved Bubba's train.

Pumpkin Patch!

 

Go Brobee Go Brobee Go

Carson loves the show Yo Gabba Gabba!  It is a very corky little kids show.  Brobee is one of the characters on the show.  We went over to our friends Anna and Brown's house the other day and they had a Brobee doll.  Carson loved it so much that they let him take it home.  Here is a video of Carson and Brobee dancing.

Emery is 1 month old!

Time sure does go by fast.  I cannot believe that it has been a month since Emery arrived.  But I am definitely more tired these days.  Two kids is hard!  But they are also lot of fun!  Carson is talking all of the time.  He says the cutest things.

 Carson is going to be Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba for Halloween. 

 He just had to wear his Brobee hat while reading his night time story.

 Pops got a new motorcycle and Carson wanted to try it out.

Fiddlesticks Farm!!

Corn Maze

 Corn Popper Bouncy

Corn Cannon

Cow Train

Little Pigs

Sheep

Pumpkins

The Big Slide

I love Carson's Face!!

Carson had to slide again he loved it.

Emery having tummy time.

Sweet Emery

Justin and I are still shocked that our little baby Emery has Down Syndrome.  We feel so many emotions. Happiness that she is so healthy and that she is such a sweet baby.  Then some sadness for ourselves and Emery.  We just remind ourselves each day that the Lord is in control.  Some new friends of ours that also have a child with Downs shared the following story with us and I just love it.  I wanted to share it with my friends and family.

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this…

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."  "Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?" I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy. But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

Written by Emily Perl Kingsley