Slideshow of our Christmas Day Pictures

Great Christmas! Santa ate the milk and cookies and the reindeer nibbled the peanut butter celery and carrots we left on the roof! Visits from Pops and the Griz's...The kids still had plenty of presents under the tree when they hit the sack Christmas night...we love spreading the joy of Christmas out over the break... Best gifts: New pants for Patrick, E-Reader for Jen, Skateboard and portable DVD player for AP, MP3 player and DS for Margaret, a bunch of things to suit Abby's various interests!

Beginning of Dec

Click on the picture below to see more pics of us getting ready for Christmas!

Abby's MRI and Getting ready for Christmas

Abby had another MRI in the beginning of Dec. The news was promissing from the neurosurgeon. While there is still not a lot of room for spinal fluid to flow around her brain... the MRI showed no build-up of fluid... so that's good. He also saw that her brain stem (which had been sinking down past her 2nd vertabrate prior to surgery) has receeded and now is at the 1st vertabrate. That's good too. He doesn't think she'll need to have another sleep study or MRI until next Dec. That's good!! He is referring us to another doctor to address her hyperactive gag reflex... but he doesn't consider the gag to be so problematic that he would need to do more surgery... It's hard not to worry, but I am trying to relax and put it out of my mind.

One cute thing, is that Dr. Jane told Abby she could try to go on bigger amusement park rides and that it would be fine for her to play soccer. She was so excited at this news, that she kissed her own hand and touched it to the top of her head! She was congratulating herself! We celebrated our 13 anniversary, had a quick visit from Grandpa and Grandpa Mac last week and we've been busy getting ready for Christmas! We hope you have a great one!

Thanksgiving

Baltimore Harbor

National Aquarium

A Heelen hug

The next generation of Heelen boys...

Have "Bouncy Ball" will travel...

We spent Thanksgiving in MD w/ Patrick's family. We had Thanksgiving dinner w/ Pops, Nana and Sean and Carley at an Irish Restaurant in Davidsonville. We've been there for a few other Thanksgiving dinners so it's become a sort of tradition... The kids were well behaved, TG... and it was nice to see them interacting w/ their cousins.

Abby's been into dolphins lately, and we wanted to take the kids to the aquarium since we'd never been there w/ them. We got tickets for 5:00 pm for the Friday after Thanksgiving since the tickets only cost $5.00... It was awfully cold, and Abby was REALLY tired since she never naps for us... but she perked up enough so that the visit wasn't a total bust! I rented a back back even though she is getting so big... she was too tired to walk around that much, and it was packed w/ people, so I think it helped her feel safer. She enjoyed walking on the harbor and seemed to like the dolphin show even though the rest of us felt it was a bit of a let down... We plan on trying Port Discovery, the Baltimore children's museum soon.

Abby's Halloween

Warrenton Halloween Parade Beautiful weather for carving pumpkins

Lunch at Subway after Halloween story time

Girls at Trunk or Treat... AP at soccer

Practicing Fern... before the carriage arrived...

The moment she'd been waiting for, for months!

Abby chose to be Fern from Charlotte's Web and I think she was adorable, although many people didn't quite get it! She really wanted to be Fern so that she could push Wilbur, the baby piglet in a carriage. It HAD to be a carriage just like the one Fern pushed in the movie. So after searching every antique store in VA this summer, I found one on EBay that a man was selling in a town next to my dad's in NY! My dad and Carol drove it down the day of the Trunk or Treat (which worked perfectly for us, b/c they had a wedding reception to attend in Annapolis and were headed down to visit this weekend already!)

Abby wore a vintage apron and a ribbon in her hair and was so proud pushing her carriage! When I bid on it, I was under the impression it was a doll carriage, but it turned out to be the genuine thing... straight from England and in wonderful condition. Everyone stopped to admire it... although many people thought she was Nanny McPhee! I guess the giant spider sitting on top w/ the web that said "some pig" doesn't mean anything if you haven't read the book... but in any event, she loved being Fern and didn't seem too put out, when people kept saying "you're who?"

(She did through us for a loop Sat. am when she woke up and decided I should be Fern and she'd be Wilbur!... I had about 45 minutes to get everyone dressed, fed and figure out a pig costume for her before we headed to Warrenton for the Halloween parade and story time!)

Patrick's Halloween

Trunk or Treat was on a school night, with soccer to boot! Enjoying a late pizza w/ Grandma and Grandpa Mac, who came into town just in the nick of time!

Spending Halloween weekend w/ Bubby and Grandfather... soccer in MD on Sunday... busy, busy...

Contacts!

The Ranger's Apprentice at Trunk or Treat

Fun painting pumpkins w/ Grandma and Grandpa Mac!

Patrick chose to be the main character from a new series of books called, The Ranger's Apprentice which are popular w/ preteen and teenage boys right now. He combined a few old costumes together (a pirate and Anakin Skywalker) and added a cape. We wrapped his bow and arrow in contact paper to resemble wood and cut feathers out of sticky-back felt and covered the plastic feathers on his arrows. I wrapped his boots w/ cording and he sewed a Celtic clasp to the cape. He also made a gold feather necklace which the character wears in the story and made his own knife which we tied on w/ a leather belt... he loved the look!

Patrick got straight A's this quarter and his teachers all had very positive things to say about his work ethic and behavior. Thank goodness! His last soccer game of the season is tomorrow and he has one last tournament to go. Then he is planning on taking a break from soccer and has expressed an interest in Tae Kwon Do...

He got his first pair of contacts this week and is doing very well w/ them. He's definitely growing up... it won't be long before he's asking for laser surgery!

Margaret's Halloween

Carving fancy pumpkins w/ Grandma Mac

All dolled up...good thing the weather cooperated!

Volleyball Clinic

Here She Comes... Trunk or Treat at EHE

Amazing weather on Thursday for Trunk or Treat... needed long johns for Sunday's trick or treating downtown...

Margaret was Miss America this year. It was so much fun gathering all the things for her costume. I ordered a real tiara online and clip on diamond dangling earrings. I searched for the perfect dress and found one at a second hand shop in town. It had a rip in the underarm seam and when they heard it was for my daughter's Halloween costume, they gave it to me for free! I made a sash for her and she had perfect shoes from Santa from last Christmas... she was a sight to behold!

Other Margaret news... Margaret has just finished a season of volleyball training which met once a week for the last few months. I'm hoping to sign her up for Sat. cheerleading at school this winter... She also just got new glasses: purple!