One Year Old

Levi turned one on March 18th. We had a great family day with the three of us and Levi's cousin-brothers Alex and Aidan who spent spring break with us. We enjoyed time at the park, dinner at spaghetti warehouse, and out together his amazing play set. It guaranteed 20 minute assembly it was more like 45 but that is still good.

Levi's one year stats:

24 lbs 13.5 ozs

30 1/2 inches long

Princess Alexa Foundation

Dear Family/Friends,
I am proud to serve on the Board of Directors of The Princess Alexa Foundation this year. The Princess Alexa Foundation celebrates the childhood spirit of seriously ill children through dress-up and play. Formed in memory of Alexa Aigner, our work honors a bright and beautiful four-year-old girl who passed away from neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, on June 25, 2008.
We need your help! The Princess Alexa Foundation has several ongoing projects, one of which is providing the oncology floor at Children's Medical Center of Dallas two dress-up closets – one for girls and one for boys. The closets will be placed this spring. To keep them stocked, we have set a goal of collecting 2,000 costumes for children ages 2-10 and we are happy to be well on our way.

To help us reach our goal of collecting 2,000 costumes, we ask your organization, company, moms group, etc, to collect costumes during a two week period in February. Designate February 8th—22nd a Dress Up Drive to donate costumes to the Princess Alexa Foundation. All costumes must be NEW as the patients at the hospital have compromised immune systems.
We believe happiness is healing. The Princess Alexa Foundation’s website recounts the story of a sick little boy named Blake whose life was changed by a simple cape. Though terminally ill, his pain gave way. In his cape, he was no longer Blake. He was Batman, Robin, NightWing, or the Red Power Ranger. I invite you to read his tale, learn more of Alexa’s story, and see the children who were given another great day at http://www.princessalexafoundation.org/.

Please consider partnering with The Princess Alexa Foundation to help the real superheroes in the Dallas / Fort Worth community by participating in the dress up drive from February 8th—22nd. To sign up your group to participate in the Dress Up Drive, please complete the attached form and send to Founder (and Alexa’s proud mother!), Crys Aigner at princessalexafoundation@gmail.com.

Most sincerely,
Rachel McMillan

busy, busy, busy BUSY!!!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for us. We had a wonderful holiday season. Levi has a marathon Christmas he had 5 separate Christmas'. Here are some pictures from Christmas. Levi's second cousin Caroline took the 'santa' ones.

Levi has been doing great. His grandparents (matt's mom and dad) stayed with us for about a month while they waited for an apartment to open. Levi was spoiled by having them here all the time with him. I am taking a wintermester class; American Lit. it is over this week and I am so excited to be done with it. It has been a lot of work but well worth it. Also I am serving on the boards of directors for the Princess Alexa Foundation.

My goal this year is to blog more!

Making the impossible possible

...well sort of!

I found it impossible this week to get a 7 month old to sit still during his breathing treatments. Which take 25-30 minutes. Well we got it figured out. VEGGIE TALES! Something with the colors & music puts him in the zombie like stage.. (which typically isn't good) and he sits in my lap nicely the whole time... and an episode is about 30 minutes.

This weekend Uncle Jeff, Aunt Raegan and cousin sister Abby are coming in town! We are so excited!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is 2 weeks away!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree....

That is what Dr. Frank (Levi's pediatrician) said Monday at Levi's appointment. Thanks to Matt and my family history Levi has asthma (well pre-asthma he can't be diagnosed until his first birthday). It started with a running nose that I thought was no big deal (which still isn't) then a cough started and got worse. I thought maybe croup but he wasn't running a fever or anything.

Levi had a breathing treatment at the doctors office and did well. Dr. Frank sent us home with our very own nebulizer and three prescriptions. Levi has his breathing treatment 3 times a day. They take about 20 minutes. The hardest part is getting him to sit still during the treatment. It is a fight the whole time but once he realizes he isn't going to win he sits nicely for about 5 minutes and then the fight starts again.

So, right now we are hoping for the first big freeze/frost so the junk in the air will lay low. My hope is that this isn't something we have to do everyday. Just when the wheezing, coughing and horseness is flared up.

On a different note:

Levi is crawling and is in to everything and he is trying his hardest to pull up on everything. He now thinks his bed is a jungle Jim.

Rocked the Vote

Matthew, Levi and myself went and casted our vote yesterday. It was interesting.. Levi fell asleep in the car so we took turns. I went first. The line was fairly long since it was 5:30 right after most people are getting off work. We went to UMC in Plano. The offered cookies and coffee.. I was a nice treat. When it was my turn to vote I was fairly nervous. I know it is silly but so much is different not the we have Levi. Matt's grandmother made a good point. She voted with her GREAT-grand child in mind. That we reach a point in our lives that politics just become silly. But in the end we all need to do our civic duty.

We had a great weekend. Levi went to Grumpy & Lolli's house Friday for the night. They went to the Apartment Life fall picnic. It was the first Matt and I haven't been to in 3 years. Matt and I had a nice date night Friday. Olive Garden, Babies R Us and Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Saturday our friend Angela and her boy friend TJ came over. Levi was so good and on his best behavior.

Check out some new pics of Levi.

Not so good at blogging....

My post seem to not happen as much as I would like them to.

Levi went to the state fair this weekend. He was so good and had a lot of fun. We looked everywhere for deep fired baby food or formula and didn't find any :) However he did have fun. We rode the Ferris wheel, the ski lift thing and went to a dog show that starred 2 pugs and other rescue dogs. At the end of the night we were tired and swollen from the fried everything.