Smackdown!

A good portion of our visit with the newly designated North Dakota Odahlen's included wrestlemania. Mason even got involved a few times, but mostly it was Spencer vs. Conor or both of them vs. Isaac. Sooo funny!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is definitely a time to reflect on all of the things we have to be thankful for - and we have many. Of course all of the 'usual' things come to mind, but this year we are especially thankful for all of the love and support we have received over the past year. With most of our family and many of our close friends spread out all over the support has been amazing...via phone calls, visits, letters (shout out to you K-dog) and positive vibes and prayers.

The thing we are most thankful for is our two beautiful, healthy, smart and funny boys! They are awesome - we love you Mason and Spencer!

Thankfully we were able to give thanks on our Thanksgiving with family - including Beth, Isaac and Conor! Spence and I decided to make something a little nontraditional for the day - mashed potato cupcakes. No Gramcracker, not actual mashed potatoes...just cupcakes that looked like mashed potatoes.

Yummmm

Pilgrim or pirate?

Our two greatest gifts

Oh how he grows

Mason is changing so much. He wants to do everything Spencer does (of course) and is saying loads of new words (bark, block, Mase, squirrel, buzz light year...the list goes on and on). I was looking at recent photos and was taken aback..."Oh my gosh! He changed that much in 2 weeks?" Literally, 14 days! What?! Maybe it's a subtle change to ya'll, but to us it's crazy! Judge for yourself.

2 weeks ago

Yesterday

We're standing our ground

You wouldn't believe how often people comment that our boys have long hair - "Oh look, his mom likes his hair to be long," or "someone needs a haircut" (hello, he just got a haircut yesterday!). But our boys have curls...and when their hair is all curly, it's actually not that long...I like to think of it as 'shaggy.' But I guess compared to some boys their hair is long.

You also wouldn't believe how often people think Mason is a girl...which I don't get because he is clearly dressed in little boy clothes, but we'll say it's because of his eyes or eyelashes or something. However, when we were having a playdate last week some random lady referred to Spencer as a girl! Excuse me?

Then I reflected on this photo and thought...is it time to cut their hair really short? Uh, no. We're fine with our boys being long-haired little dudes - and they wouldn't have it any other way (trust me, I asked just to make sure). So people can refer to them as hippies, rockers, skaters, and even at times little girls...but we are standing our ground - for now, we are leaving their hair "shaggy" - so get used to it world.

He shall be sleepy no more

Many of you have asked for an update about Micah's sleeping, so here it is. As you know, it's been about two months since our visit to the Sleep Center and what a difference! He has gotten drowsy maybe two or three times since our return but compared to before it's amazing! He has not fallen asleep once during dinner or conversation or anything! I know that seems minor to a lot of people, but actually having to deal with that was no fun!

Many people have commented on how much peppier (is that even a word) he seems...i.e. his boss. And he's been told he looks younger! Which he generally doesn't like because he doesn't want to look young (I know ladies, we can't relate to this but he's weird like that!). But in this case he'll take the compliment!

The one negative thing to report is that there was a problem with the memory in his CPAP machine so the Sleep Center couldn't pull any hard data from his memory card, but it's all been fixed now...so that should give us some more information in the upcoming weeks.

Again, thank you for all of your love and support! Sleep doesn't seem like that big of deal, in the big scheme of things...until you or a loved one is not getting ANY. "Normal" sleep - just one more thing to be thankful for this year :)

Diabetics Unite! (and those that love 'em)

"As many as 3 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, a disease most often diagnosed in childhood that strikes suddenly, lasts a lifetime and carries the constant threat of deadly complications...JDRF's mission is constant: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research..." (JDRF website)

November is Diabetes Awareness Month. Please do what you can to raise awareness about Diabetes and help educate those around you. Here is a link to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)...click on the link and you can get tons of information - including information about when/where a walkathon may be in your area....go ahead, I know you want to!

http://www.jdrf.org/