Thursday, December 29, 2011

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve we had our families over for dinner, it was a nice festive evening. That day I decided to dig the Jumperoo out, Mr. G LOVES it!


And most of the time he ends up like this...

 Miss Rosie held still for a split second for a pic. Her ears are a lot more floppy then they look here, she's trying out her pitbull pose.
 Our Tree, I am quite satisified with our tree this year. You know how you have the years when you just want to say "blahk" at your tree. Yes, I know it was the 6th or 8th one I had decided on at the Christmas Tree Farm, but that's beside the point...

Christmas #2 at Mamie and Bampie's House Christmas Morning.

Mom/Mamie you look pretty good here, love the village in the backdrop. Aren't you glad you put it up? 

 Buddy (my grandfather who all the grandchildren call Buddy), Betty, Ashleigh and Mamie watching the antics of Mr. Asa

Bampie and Gracyn, I love how you love to cuddle Dad!

Crazy Ace, he was a hoot this year! and he had double the presents to open because he got to open his brother's too.

Asa opening his Zurg ball gun, thanks Jen! This thing really shoot them too! Ace says "OH" after every shot.

 He was excited for every gift. It was awesome.

Miss Vermont 2024 in the far background


Bri got a chainsaw, please use it wisely dear...

Here are some phone pics.
X-mas morning Ace and his tractor from Santa, I have a video I need to post too.


Mamie and Bampie gave Asa a InnoTab, he really does a good job with it. Here he is hard at work in the car on our way to our 3rd Christmas...

Gracyn enjoying Nana and Bumpa's house Christmas #3 (Brian's parents)

We ended with Christmas #4 at my Grandmother's late afternoon on Christmas Day, but I was way too tired to take any pics then.

Lastly, this I took last night. Asa and Gracyn watching Baby Signing Time. I caught a smile on Gracyn's face watching Hopkins.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Hidden Angels: American Families Saving Children With Down Syndrome

PHOTO: Children with Down syndrome in Ukraine are often abandoned at birth, deemed worthless by a struggling society that praises appearances.
Reeces's Rainbow and the Cox Family were on ABC World News last night with Diane Sawyer. Please click on Hidden Angels link below to watch and read about the Cox's adoption journey of little Mia.




Reece's Rainbow's website got so much traffic after this aired it crashed for a little while, but do go and see all the beautiful children waiting for their forever Mommy and Daddy to come and rescue them from a life of despair or death. I was a Christmas Warrior last year for a little girl named Sandra (pictured below) and a little boy named Evan you can read about them in my post A Christmas to Remember. My mom and sister Jenna each donated to Sandra's adoption fund and I received 2 ornaments with her beautiful face on them. I fell in love with her picture, it spoke to me and we shared the same birthday of June 22. Much to my surprise and utter heartbreak I found out through a friend's blog last January that she had died. Her health was listed as good on her adoption page, I wonder what happened to her and am extremely saddened that she was not saved in time. All the children on Reece's Rainbow figuratively wear a ticking time clock around their necks. As depicted in the ABC story you will see what their lives are like and most likely hold if they do not find families in time....

Sandra
Rest in Peace Sweet Girl :(

Friday, December 23, 2011

Gotta See This - Elf Yourself!

Thanks Jenna - Asa makes the perfect Elf!
Elf Yourself

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Video: JINGLE BELLS! JINGLE BELLS!

Introducing...

TROUBLE!!! I mean Rosie....



Yes, we have a new puppy. She is an Olde English Bulldogge who was a Christmas Gift from Brian's Aunt and Uncle a SURPRISE Christmas Gift.... She is 12 weeeks old, 2 weeks older then Gracyn - we now have 2 infants... It's nice to have another girl in the house other then myself, she now has a pink color and may sport some painted toe nails in the future - LOL

She is cute (when she's not getting into trouble) though :)

Monday, December 19, 2011

Yankee Christmas 2011

It has been crazy busy. When you work retail during the holidays they fly by in such fury that you never get a chance to enjoy them. Every year we have a "Yankee" Christmas with my mom's side of the family, better known as The Spauldings... We ate lots and enjoyed an afternoon. Santa made his annual appearance and all were exhausted by the end. There is over 60 when we all get together, Aunts, Uncles and lots of Cousins...  Here are some pics to share.

Bampie and Gracyn

Asa eating "again"..

Ace and Ash

Mamie, Gracyn, Bampie and Asa

Ditto with Derrick and Ashleigh

Derrick and Asa

Asa thanking Santa for his gift like 5 times.

Santa and Ashleigh

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey...

Moved up, One True Media version better quality...

The Past Month

The past month has flown by and also crawled. I have to reiterate that perfection is made with 47 chromosomes because my angel with extra good stuff spoiled us as a infant who slept through the night at 4 weeks and never woke more then once in the time before that. I am sleep deprived with mostly waking hours between 2am and 5am.
To play catch up here we will start with our WHITE Halloween... The snow did melt by Monday evening on the 31st, but was an UNWELCOME surprise.

It was great snowman making snow but caught everyone off guard who hadn't dug out the snow pants and winter boots yet!


Next we have "To Infinity and Beyond!" He was beyond excited for Halloween this year and did an awesome job trick or treating. 

We did birthday parties with pony rides


Pretend to play hockey, which we totally REALLY need to do this winter.



Pretend to be mommy and carry buzz around in Gracyn's carrier.


And watch the Mickey train on Daycare's x-mas tree - Jess said "don't touch, just look". So he did by putting his hands behind his back - LOL he stood and watched for 10 minutes :)


and loving our new baby brother...


I have a video from Asa's first sing at Preschool for Thanksgiving that I need to upload so stay tuned for that :) 

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Introducing

Gracyn David

Proud Big Brother Asa

8 lbs 5 oz 19 inches

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Things I'll Miss

Friday brings a whole new life for our family, in more ways then an actually life addition. It brings drastic changes to our everyday. I keep thinking of the things I'll miss with only having one child, a child at times I can't get enough of cause he is all of me, he completes me.

Like, laying in bed in the morning watching TV, he lays beside me and randomly rolls over, throws his arm around my neck, says "Mom" and gives me a big kiss. He'll lay there a sec and I'll say thank you, I love you Buddy, or driving in the car and having our time, singing to the radio, watching for buses, trucks and horses. It's our chill time and we hang like best friends. There are so many more times when it's just him and me and now it's going to be him, me and a little brother who's going to have to share the time.

I know in a couple years his brother will mean the world to him, but our world has completely revolved around Asa and his needs for the past 4 years, it's going to be a tough balance at times. I hope I can be the Mom that can give it all and then still have the energy to give a little more.

I will post pictures as soon as I am able.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

October is National Down syndrome Awareness Month

I should be blogging 31 for 21, bringing the awareness of the month one day at a time through my blog for those fantastic 3 copies of the 21st chromosome! I would LOVE to, but the days are going to be limited for me in the month of October! I do have a little bit on my plate at the moment, Asa's little brother should be arriving anytime in the next week and a half and rendering me out of commission for the majority of October. I shall sit back and enjoy the richness of life and the ever changing colors of the month (hopefully all the rain won't turn the foliage brown and just make it fall off the trees, we've had SO MUCH RAIN!).


 BUDDY WALK 2010








By now we would have done our Buddy Walk in Concord, but there wasn't one this year. The excuse from the board at the Northern New England Down syndrome Congress was that there wasn't enough volunteers, but there was never any mention that the walk would be cancelled without those volunteers! No desperate plea for all hands on deck. I was bummed because this was the one thing that brought us closer to the Down syndrome community in our state. Our regional area support group does not get together and I know I need to take a stand and insert myself in a more active role, at least locally. The NNEDSC meets an hour and sometimes 2 hours drive for me on Wednesday nights, if I lived closer I would so totally be there.

I will try to post periodically. In the mean time, here are some fall pics from the pumpkin patch last year! ENJOY and Happy October!









We'll hunt for the perfect pumpkin again this year, I'm not sure that this field survived the flooding from Hurricane Irene. We might need to search out a new Pumpkin Patch for picking!

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About Me

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My name is Jackie and I am a mother, wife, friend, sister, daughter, cousin to many, and a dreamer of sorts. I dream of many things and one is a life full of acceptance, achievement and success for my Super Hero son Asa. He's got extra good stuff that comes with a little thing called Down syndrome. We live in the beautiful state of New Hampshire with our 2 Bulldogs; Rosie, Frankie and 36 chickens.