i have been so preoccupied with the end of the school year activities and everything else that has been going on, that i have neglected to post any new blogs about the kids. so now you can see what we have been up to.... you may have to hit the "older posts" button to view more blogs!!
my sister brought beckham up for the day on thursday and we decided to take the kids to pick strawberries and then go swimming. the kids had so much fun picking all the strawberries they could get their hands on and of course eating some along the way!
this is how i found Ollie one morning after he, Nico, Annelies and Sofia camped out down stairs!
our summer started early this year. the kids got out of school on May 20th!! the weather has been quite cool for GA at this time of year, but that has not stopped the kids from splashing in the water! of course we had to start the summer out by giving nico and jakob their summer hair cuts....
i have been side tracked with my own personal blogs with the CMV walk and media that i have neglected to post my family pictures. the kids had such a great time at the walk and had lots of fun playing with other children that were there. they had a great playground. after the CMV walk, we took all the kids across town to Jakob's baseball game. Just as Jakob got up to bat, the clouds opened and pored buckets of rain on us! we were SOAKED! it was a very fun day!!
while the big kids are at school, we don't just sit around twirling our thumbs waiting for them to return..... we go do lots of fun things and tell the big kids about it when they get home. they are always super disappointed that they missed out, but what can you do. so~ this time i took Sofia and Oliver to a fun little water fountain play area with a group of friends from church. it was a little chilly outside, but the kids had a blast.
somehow i managed to hit all three of my kids end of the school year parties this year! thankfully they were all on different days and i was only in charge of ONE of them! it was so much fun to be involved and spend time with each of them and all of their friends. Jakob's class is always so excited to see me and this year i did a butterfly theme party. they painted butterfly pictures and presented their butterfly reports. i also made super cute butterfly cup cakes that were a huge hit! it has been such a fun year and and now i am ready for summer!
sofia is finally letting me put her hair up in pig tails and pony tails and other fun hair do's. it is finally long enough to do cute things with. one night after coming home from somewhere i see a large amount of hair laying on the table accompanied by a beautiful bow that used to be in sofia's hair. instead of asking daddy for help to take it out, she PULLED it out of her head, hair and all!
this time we went to see Beckham at his house. i cannot post many of the pictures, because i am afraid sofia is a little too old for nudie pics on line, but needless to say.... they had a lot of fun and my sister and i had a lot of laughs!
my kids think it is the greatest thing ever when they can play with there cousins! luckily my nephew Beckham visits quite frequently. They have so much fun now that Beckham is old enough to really play with them. he is such a cute little guy!
This dessert is featured on a blog of a friend and i made it for my family and it was a success!!! even the kids loved it and rob, who is hard to please with sweets LOVED it! try it and tell me what you think. it is also featured here! (more pictures on this one, step by step...)
Saturday went very well. my mom joined me and 4 of my kids to Shorty Howell Park. the pavilion was set up for the CMV walk and i was ready to give my speech. The weather was overcast, but luckily the rain held off until later in the afternoon. it was not too warm and there was an audience of about 40 people. i was so grateful to see a few of my friends from church show up! thanks Krista, Evan, T-man, and Mandy & Sierra! ya'll have been moved up on my friend scale! Jakob had so much fun and knew the event had to do with him. He was at my side for the whole 10 minute long speech and made it all the more entertaining. He payed close attention to what i said and reacted to my words. if i said 'bowling', he showed everybody how he bowls. it made everybody laugh which only made him want to entertain some more. if you want to read my speech, click HERE.
4/29/2009 12:01:00 AM
Email this article • Print this article
If you go
• What: 2009 Congenital CMV Awareness Walk-n-Rollathon
• Where: Shorty Howell Park in Duluth
• When: May 16 at
10 a.m. Registration begins at 9 a.m.
Walk to raise awareness, funds to help fight virus
Staff Writer
DULUTH - To help raise awareness about a virus
that disables a child every hour in the United States
, a couple of Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention researchers will host a Walk-n-Rollathon
on May 16 at Shorty Howell Park.
Congenital cyto-megalovirus - or cCMV - can cause
hearing and vision loss, mental disabilities, seizures
and even death. About 30,000 babies are born with t
he virus each year. Several factors determine whether,
or when, symptoms or disabilities arise.
"My supervisor, Michael Cannon, and I were approached
at the International Congenital CMV Conference held
at the CDC by the Brendan B. McGinnis Congenital
CMV Foundation and asked to host a walk here in
Atlanta," CDC researcher Jen Stowell said. "We work on
CMV prevention and wanted to volunteer for this event
because we think it is an important cause."
Stowell said the event is not sponsored by the CDC.
Participants will walk the 1.25-mile trail, which will bear
signs serving as billboards with information about the
virus. Before the walk begins, researchers will share
their knowledge and a Gwinnett family will give its first-
hand account of how cCMV has affected them.
Rob and Shanna Boot's 8-year-old son, Jakob, was
diagnosed with the virus two months after he was born.
He has lost all hearing, didn't sit up until he was 16 months
and couldn't walk until he was 3 years old. Shanna said they
will be on pins and needles until Jakob is about 18, by which
time they should know if he will lose his vision.
Despite all that, Shanna feels lucky.
"Intellectually we don't know exactly how he'll be. We think
he'll have the ability to work in the world and survive,"
Shanna said. "But we're fortunate. I've seen some children
who are way more severe."
Stowell said the purpose of the "rollathon" is two-fold. The
first objective is to bring attention to children affected by the
virus, many of whom are wheelchair bound.
"The second reason is for strollers," she said. "We want this
to be a family event with parents involved - especially
mothers of child-bearing age as they are the 'at risk' population."
The McGinnis cCMV Foundation is asking for donations and
pledges to help fund vaccine research, but the event itself is free.
"One of our main goals is awareness, so the bigger the turnout,
the better," Stowell said.
Boot hopes that sharing her family's story can help someone else.
"When I was pregnant with Jakob, I had no idea what it was,"
she said. "They tell you there are scary things out there ...
my biggest hope is we can help let people know what it is
and what it can do."
Jakob loves watching T.V. he thinks it is hilarious when somebody falls or gets hurt, i know it's kind of sick! he started out loving AFV (and still does), then we moved to boomerang shows like tom and jerry and flinstones..... innocent enough, right. then he found power rangers by searching the channels. i felt this was safe enough and he was getting up and play fighting and interacting with the show. unfortunately with his obsession for television, we get letters home from school that say things like; jakob hit a friend over the head with a frying pan... (tom and jerry influence), or jakob slapped a friend across the face.... (power rangers). the list of bad behavior goes on...... he is just expressing himself right. well the other day i found that jakob has truly learned the power of the remote control. he knows what buttons to push to get to the channels that he wants and has now discovered CARTOON NETWORK!! yikes. has anybody else come across this channel? it seems harmless enough, unless your child wakes up at the crack of dawn and turns it on. at the wee hours of the morning it is called 'ADULT SWIM'. i have only watched a few minutes of this show and found it to be very disturbing. if your child is a CARTOON NETWORK fan, be aware of the adult content of the early morning and late evening programming. it is extremely offensive and not appropriate for children. i can only imagine what kind of letters i would get from school if i didn't catch this when i did. BEWARE!!!
