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Its been such a happy eventful weekend. You all know we got a surgery date. Hooray. But before that we got even more exciting news. My sister in law {who is the only family that lives in Las Vegas with us,} had her baby Friday morning. We were all waiting on one phone call. It came Friday morning at 9:30am as we were taking my nephews to gymnastics. A little baby was born, and they had decided not to find out the sex of the baby. What a surprise when they found out it was a girl!

The first girl! After 5 little boys, the first granddaughter was born! Little Parker June {PJ} has made quite the entrance to this world. We are all so excited for her. {and shopping on the pink side of the stores!} Which we certainly did yesterday morning. I mean it was ruffle bloomers! How do you not buy them. I cant wait to see her in every single outfit we found, or she received in her first 4 days!

This is going to be one spoiled little girl. And I can’t wait to be a part of her life growing up. As if my camera does not seem to snap enough on it’s own, Ive been loving taking sweet little girl photos. Bring on the pink, the ruffles, the bows, THE GIRLY!

Congrats to Jess, Matt, Tate and Beckett on the amazing new addition to an already wonderful family!

We had a wonderful Saturday celebrating Mothers Day with all the family here. Pretty much perfect. And tomorrow I won’t be posting because hopefully we’re having just as awesome of a day. (wink wink!) So for all the Mothers in my life, Thank you. For just being you. I know I wouldn’t be the same without you. And I wouldn’t be the same without this little boy either.

Happy Mothers Day.

As you can usually tell, I am pretty good about posting, unless someone is visiting. I have said it in the past. Its better to live in those moments that be blogging. So here is the breakdown of our Auntie Kimmy’s week!

We got to go to Gymboree, since Kimmy is a Gymboree teacher! And even though Sawyer is not completely sure about Gymboree, we managed to go three times this week! We went to a trial class. And Sawyer hated it! Haha I think a little overwhelming. But he did love watching the other kids! And then we went to two drop in free play times. And it was a bit better since he had the whole place to himself!

We went to all the baby consignment stores and Auntie Kimmy cleared out all their good items. We were part of a garage sale. We spent a day at the pool. We went to a movie. We hosted a mommy and me play date. We got to meet Sawyers cousin little braxton. (though from the ultrasound, he’s going to be very different than sawyer in one big way! He was about as camera shy as you can be haha!) Kimmy babysat for a night out for mommy and daddy. And we took a whole set of maternity pictures! Yay! I cant wait to get them all up! (though I am still trying to get her to let me take a few more!)

It was a great week, and a fun visit. I am sure Sawyer will miss waking up to Auntie Kimmy as much as I will miss not waking up to either of them till much later in the morning!

And for those of you who didn’t catch it, Sawyers CATscan will be thursday morning at 8am. He will be in light sedation (I’m not 100% sure what that means.) Hopefully it will be a quick appointment, and we can move on to the surgery date as soon as possible!

Hey guys I am just sharing this because the more people who vote, the higher the bid,s the better their charity does!

You have heard me mention Cranio Care Bears before. I’ve brought it up a couple times in past medical posts. It was started by two mom’s who’s son’s underwent surgery for craniosynostosis. They use donated items and money to put together care packages for children with craniosynostosis. I also have spent a fair amount of time reading the success stories on their website. They are extremely sweet ladies with a very worthy cause!

The next 2 weeks on their facebook page they are having an online silent auction. Place your bid, and see if you win some of the cool prizes. Or if you want to donate your own items you can message them a picture and starting bid+shippping prices. All the money goes directly to the care packages, and its tax deductible!

I just wanted to share it since we have a special place in our hearts for this cause!

I have to say all the waiting can sometimes drive a person crazy. Does “you’ll hear from us in ten days” mean: 10 days, 10 business days, 30 days or never? It becomes harder when your a first time parent watching your kid going through a teething stage but second guessing yourself. All the screaming, endless. Thinking maybe its not a tooth. Maybe its a headache caused by his condition. Could there be something else were missing. The thoughts of the sleepless mommy.

Especially when at a 6 month well check the new pediatrician tells you there is nothing wrong, even though his head is measuring big. Brandon and I almost let our moths drop and just hang there. But Brandon instead corrected the doctor that indeed something was wrong. So wrong in fact we’ve been chasing pediatric neuro doctors around for 2 months. So wrong that we are waiting for the CATscan to finally be set and awaiting a date for surgery. Needless to say we’ll be happy to see our own doctor at the next visit.

So while we wait, I practice being ok with this whole surgery. If you’ve talked to me in person I will tell you its not big deal. Because with the internet you can always find a worse story.  And that’s how I choose to deal with this. You may think this is a traumatic event, but for us its going to just be another week in our lives. Albeit, one where we live in the ICU, but one that we will get through all the same. For many parents that’s not the case. Even other craniosynostosis kids will have a harder battle. And yet the babies smile. Happy for each day. So that’s how I will be one smile at a time, one day at a time. No sense wasting the days upset!

Which is why last night in anticipation of Sawyers surgery, I made two little onesies. Custom for his conditions humor. Though I have been told its not funny by my mother. I choose to think if it makes you smile when you might be crying, its worth it. So I made one kiwi green {doesn’t that just sound like a cute happy color!} That says Chicks Dig Scars. Fitting as he will have one of the biggest. And Another baby blue that says “My first haircut was by a Neurosurgeon.” They beat grandma to it 😉 So if you find it morbid, so be it. He’s gonna get a lot of attention with that scar so might as well bring a smile to it as well. 🙂

Just thought I’d share some fun pictures from our Easter celebrations this year. It was a perfect day surrounded by family. Breakfast with the cousins, matching PJ’s and all! And the night with all the other families. Even an outdoor easter egg hunt and a visit from THE Easter bunny. How adorable! And duh I had my camera snapping the entire time!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!

A very happy Easter to each and every one of my readers. I will be out today spending time with family and friends. Easter breakfast bright and early with my Sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and my nephews. And Dinner with them and their whole extended family. Its going to be a fun filled happy day. I hope yours is the same.

I thought I’d share my easter bunny cupcakes today as well. I am going non-traditional tomorrow and making those DELICIOUS RED VELVET BROWNIES! But I got to make all out Easter bunny cupcakes for a kids get together over the weekend. And they were o so cute! I was gifted some cupcake liners and the little decorations (wilton brand from Michaels.) And I was so excited to have a perfect opportunity to use them!

From my bunny to yours, Happy Easter Everyone!

If you ever need a pick me up the internet is sure to provide you with an inspiration story. I came across one just this week. How touching would it be to have a kid have his dream come true. Especially a little one in the hospital. Im so happy to see that there is still some magic in the world, this guy is truly a hero. Make sure you read the full story. It melted my heart.

Im sure he knew he was loved. But no one can quite understand that amount until someone passes too early. All day on facebook I have seen status updates from all different circles and grades about what an amazing teacher he was. How many lives he changed and how he will be greatly missed. I can say there has never been a teacher quite unique. Sure some other teachers had elaborately decorated classrooms, maybe another has had coffee for watching the news. But rules that you were to bring treats for the whole class the next day if you were late. That was all his own. He even allowed you to skip class as long as you came to him first to get the days work. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t done it myself on a particular bad day. Leaving the last ten minutes of class open so you could choose to do the day’s homework, or sit and talk with your friends. Little things that don’t sound like much, but changed my entire look at school. After my first class with him I brought my grades up, not only his class but all my classes. Just barely missing graduating with honors. All because of his positive teaching style. And I was not alone in that. He inspired so many. And that is why when I got a message about his passing this afternoon I cried for wonderful man the world had just lost.

This past December I got to write him a little note to tell him these things. My high school had a donation set up for his family and along with that you could include a small letter to be delivered to him later that month. I was there on one of the last days, so I saw that it was getting to be a full box. Such a loved teacher. I wish I could have seen him again in person since its been 4 years since we last talked. But at least I did get to say goodbye in some way. And I am so grateful for that.

Today my heart is with his family as they grieve the amazing husband and father we all know he was. Truly another bright light gone too soon. People this week keep telling me they are amazed at how strong I am being about Sawyers Diagnosis. And again I have to say, it is because it could be so much worse. I get to love this little one for many years to come. And while we will have one bad month, that is nothing compared to what Mr. Hollings family will deal with for the years ahead. You all have asked if there is anything that you can do. Love the ones in your life every day. Too often we let the little things bother us and lose precious time with loved ones. Let things go and hug someone close tonight. For those who can’t anymore.

Thank you for being the most inspirational teacher I ever had. You truly will be missed by many.

Yesterday we had a perfect birthday celebration. We didn’t spend any time thinking about today’s looming neurosurgeon appointment. I had stayed up late the night before and banished Brandon to the bedroom with Sawyer. Where apparently it was extremely boring. But it was all worth it! I baked him an extra special vanilla sandwich cake with peanut butter butter cream frosting! YUM indeed. I half contemplated eating the entire thing the night before and starting over the next day. Good thing I had some red velvet brownies to eat instead. (More on those later this week!) He got some awesome presents which included the birthday button he voluntarily wore the entire day. Even got him free packing peanuts at the post office. And Sawyer was especially kind with his present. We ended up throwing out our first outfit that just wasn’t worth washing, if you know what I mean;)

I decorated the kitchen with streamers and banners and balloons. And set the table up with presents, the cake and pictures of us through the last year or so. I also made a birthday check list for him. (learning the hard way to always save a photoshop project before your computer dies unexpectedly and you lose an hour of work {inserts extremely sad face here}) It had 2 choices for each part of the day, and he could choose and make his own perfect day. He picked pancakes at home over breakfast out. 21 Jumpstreet and candy, over shopping and a nap. Our favorite hole in the wall restaurant over applebee’s and laser tag. And we finished the night off picking Sawyer up and watching the girl with the dragon tattoo specials.

We didnt even eat the birthday cake because we had already eaten so much Candy at the movie. (which was awesome, but beware they drop the f bomb quite a fair bit, but still hilarious movie.) All in all a good birthday I would say!

I will be updating this as soon as possible after our doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Thank you to all of you who continue to send us well wishes. We appreciate all the love.