Christmas in KY (in February)

We finally made it up to KY for Christmas, in February! Uncle Dana and Brutus were able to come, too. We had so much fun! It even snowed while we were there. Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Kelley Came to Visit!

Back at the end of January, my dear college friend and pledge sister Kelley Raasch came to town for a visit! She was in town to meet with the CDC and planned an early arrival to spend an afternoon with us. We had so much fun! The kids thought she was hilarious and such a blast, imagine that! Lauren has deemed her the funniest person she's ever met. Lauren had so much fun and laughed so hard, in fact, that she had to change her "undies" two or three times. THAT'S how much fun we had! Here are a few shots of them playing the Dr. Seuss game called I Can Do That. They played that for a while then made up their own games with the pieces. It was great to have Kelley here for the evening, and she may be back at the same time next year! We hope so! See you in Boston on marthon weekend, Kelley!

Interpretive Dance

We've been listening to a lot of ColdPlay around here lately, and the kids took it upon themselves to create this dance. Lauren is the ringleader, of course, and Ethan follows her moves (for now). Check this out. I think it's actually kind of neat. We've had multiple performances and this isn't exactly the best, but Lauren just started taking ballet and had put a lot of her moves into some of the other versions.

A new post...

Our blog needs a new post. I sure wish I had something fabulous to post. However, we're just getting by around here. I am taking things day by day without our Em. It's been really hard, and I'll leave it at that. Some of you may have seen the photo tribute to Emma I did on facebook. I'm going to make that and some other photos into a nice leatherbond album for her. She was such an extraordinary dog. Here is a fun picture of our family movie night, "Horton Hears a Who." It just happens to be Emma's last night with us. She loved popcorn, so I'm so glad she got her favorite on her last night. I'm going to post a funny video of the kids next.

Emma's Final Chapter

I need to keep this brief, but wanted to update. Our Emma is gone. Her fight is over. We had a difficult night last night with her, and she gave us a sign that now was the time. She was bleeding internally, in her GI tract. This was all due to complications with the disease itself, medications, and her platelets being low, etc etc. We knew this because of the bloody stool in our bedroom last night at 1:30 am and in the yard at 3:10 am, I think? We confirmed with our Dr. this morning that the best course of action was to let her go, so today we did. The decision was made with much clarity. We don't need reassurance that we did the right thing, because we know we did. The sparkle was gone out of those beautiful brown eyes. She went to sleep so peacefully, and much to our surprise, we felt a great deal of relief at that moment. Of course now that we're home, other emotions are taking over. We were very honest with our children. They don't exactly know that it was our decision, but they know that her heart couldn't beat any longer, that today she was going to die, and that she couldn't overcome her illness. They said goodbye to her, but it's clear that they don't understand the true implications of what took place today. That is all for now. We will will miss you like crazy, Poo Bear.

Some Holiday Photos...

Finally, the New Year!

Are we ever glad around here to ring in the new year! Without rehashing the entire crazy holiday, I will mention it was an interesting one to be kind, with our family almost losing our precious Emma, Ethan having 8 days of high fevers (spanning Christmas) that topped out in the 105's, and last but not least, a fire in the yard on New Years Day! Now, of course we are able to recognize that things could always, always be worse, and are so thankful they are NOT! Things are looking up around here! Big changes are coming this year. We are putting our house on the market on Sunday, and have been looking for houses in an area of town with some of the best schools in GA. (Our current school district is... not good.) After all, Lauren will be starting kindergarten in August (WHAAATTT????) and Ethan is only two years behind. So, a move, starting real school, a few marathons, a summer at the lake, future medical challenges with Emma as we wean her meds... lots of things coming up in 2009. We are buckling our seat belts for this ride!

Here are some pictures from our New Years Day fire. The fire was caused by our neighbor, who was heavy into fireworks New Years Eve after LSU won. The firemen said the embers smouldered over night, then with the drought we've had and 20-30 mph winds on Jan. 1, the fire started and took out his lawn completely. Of course, the winds were blowing right at our house, and the fire was coming right at us SO FAST. When it started, I was wondering where the smoke was coming from, so I went at looked out the window and first saw the fire. I yelled, "FIRE!" and ran outside and started up the garden hose. Eric helped me unroll it while I squirted the flames. Then he disappeared and came back out with Papa and two fire extinguishers. Nana was inside with the kids and didn't start taking photos until the flames were out, so you won't see fire, just the black grass. It was coming right at our house!