Strolling for SMARD

I have been so insanely busy that I have neglected one little thing I needed to do--talk about our walk!!  Strolling for SMARD was held on Sept. 24th at White Oak High School Stadium.  We didn't have quite the turnout I was hoping for, but we surpassed our $5K goal--that is five thousand dollars closer to finding a cure for Dakin.  It was a warm morning, and I got sunburned, but I went home happy and hopeful.  I have pics to share, and will soon. 

I did want to talk about our sponsors, though.  We had a ton of amazing sponsors--so many that I had a hard time fitting them on our thank you page we handed out.  The businesses in East Texas rallied around our cause, and I feel like we need to call attention to them .  So here we go. Part one:

Sante Pediatric Services: This is Dakin's Speech Therapy company, but they do all kinds of therapy all over North and East Texas.  Their motto is "Where kids come first"--and they truly mean it.

CPS Medical:  Has been our medical supply company since Dakin got out of the hospital.  They have always worked hard to meet his needs and treated us with integrity. 

Exceptional Home Care: Dakin's nursing agency, also since we got out of the hospital.  We have amazing nurses because of them.

Patterson Nissan: My husband's employer.  They too have never treated us with anything but respect, compassion, and integrity.  If you need a car, head over there.

Shadow Box Resale and Consignment:  An amazing business in White Oak.  Every time I go in there I find something I need.  Shadow Box deals in high quality consignments, as well as Scentsy, Pampered Chef and Passion Parties.

Snap Fitness White Oak: My gym!  They are open 24 hours a day, and offer Zumba classes as well.  A great community place to work out!

Caps and Tees:  Our t-shirt company that not only cut us an amazing deal, they made AMAZING shirts.  They were a pleasure to work with!!

The Mud Hut:  A paint-your-own-pottery place in Longview that we LOVE to go to.  The staff are warm and amazing with Dakin, and they have storytime and special events. 

White Oak State Bank: A local bank owned and operated right here in the White Oak area!

Reefer Pro Plus:  This company in Daingerfield deals in refrigeration unit repairs. Brandy is a friend we met at the Mud Hut!

1-800-Radiator:  They deal in AC and parts, as well as radiator parts.  They also work with car companies.  The owner is amazingly nice!

Sissy's Avon & Island Tans:  Right next door to 1-800-Radiator--the owner is married to the owner of 1-800-Radiator.  Sweet, sweet couple and great people.  Tanning packages and Avon sales!

Moe's Pizza: It has become a tradition for us that every Christmas we get Moe's.  They are always open!  They also have awesome pizza and did us the amazing service of putting flyers on pizza boxes.

Life Behind My Lens: Photography by Romonia:  Romonia donated three very large photography packages to our silent auction, and my mother in law won me one.  I am SO excited--you need to check out her photography.  Beautiful!!

Brookshires: Our local Brookshire's in White Oak, who donated a gift card that covered our water needs for the event!

OK, that's all for tonight, but tune in soon for the rest of the sponsors, and a little message from Dakin!

Birthday Party--Angry Birds Style

We had originally planned to do a Cars theme for Dakin's birthday, but upon observing his undying and passionate devotion to Angry Birds, we knew it was the only way to go.  There isn't a whole lot of Angry Birds themed stuff just yet, so we had to improvise:  behold, Angry Birds cookie pops!

Pig goody bags...

Angry Birds game.  Found this on a website, and it would have gone much more smoothly but for some reason the wind decided it had to blow as hard as it could on October 8th.  Sooooo, we had to modify.  One of the dads held the pigs up on the boxes and let the kids 'knock' them down with the birds.

We had pig cupcakes, but they didn't make it on here because they were horrible looking...haha.  It was a good party, and Dakin would have enjoyed it more had that cursed wind not been up to its tricks (he never learned to breathe in wind, and so it scares him.  He spent the first half of the party in tears because I was too dumb to think to put him on a breathing rate.  Once I thought to he chilled out.) 

Dakin got a playable Angry Birds game, a hat, a lovely painting, a handmade set of Angry Birds, a few stuffed Birds, a book, a Moon in My Room and a few cards.  The party was a lot of fun (even for Dakin finally...).  I love doing parties for him, and I love seeing how the kids are all so great with him.  He has grown up with this set of kiddos and so they all treat him like any other kiddo.  We are lucky to have such a great group of kids for Dakin to be around.

If I never have to make any other Angry Birds-themed things ever again it will be too freaking soon.

Big Changes!

Ok, so I know it has been like a month since I blogged last, and I apologize.  I have been insane crazy busy, first with our fundraiser--which was a success! Will tell more later--and some other really fun things that are coming up.  But tonight I wanted to talk about the big new thing for Dakin: behold the Big Boy Room.

 Sigh.  Big Boy wall.  All Angry Birds and Imagination Movers.  Where did my baby go??  And here is the long, long awaited Big Boy Bed--thanks to a good friend of mine who finally stepped in and took care of the fact he was WAY too big for his bed.  It is a loft bed, so quite high (perfect for us--so we don't have to hunch over to suction him).  She will be installing a drop down side too--she is an awesome woodworker.

Dakin LOVES his new bed.  LOVES.  So thank you to our sweet friend who helped us with it!!

And Another Random One

Another post that is more just for me than anyone else...we will continue with regular blogging tomorrow when I update on our walk!

Dakin is sick tonight...or so it appears. He started with a really runny nose yesterday that escalated into a fever today. The fever has not come back though...so I am hoping it will be a mild one, especially considering everything going on this week with Strolling with SMARD. He is resting peacefully at the moment, thank heaven, as I do not have a nurse tonight either.

Yesterday and today have been wonderful. Dakin was so clingy yesterday (prelude to a cold?) and I got to snuggle with him a lot during church. He was so good in church- he led the line from Sunday School into Primary with all the little boys following him in his powerchair. It was so sweet.

He pays so much attention in church. He was listening to the story the teacher was telling and commenting on it to me. When we got home he was singing the song they learned. He is just a sponge.

He was so excited today when his Speech Therapist brought him an early birthday present of Angry Birds stuff...he wanted to talk to the pig sticker I had on my finger. 'Pig sticker talk to Dakin!' Adorable.

Last thing I want to mention is his new best friend: a Wonder Red doll (from Super Why). He LOVES Wonder Red, and this is the first time he has really attached to a stuffed toy. He insists that I hold her in my hand so he can show her stuff...him playing Angry Birds, the FlexSeal commercial on the TV (he likes old people commercials...haha). I can't sit her up so she can see....oh no, even when it is physically impossible I am supposed to hold her. It'sneat to watch how he tries to interact with her.

Ok, enough for tonight. Thank you for indulging me. :)

Birthday Invitations

Behold...Dakin's birthday invitations...I am going to pat myself on the back here...they are ball pit balls I painted with paint markers and wrote the party info on the back.  I wanted to make the pigs look a little rough...cuz they kinda do in the game, you know?  :)

Special Visitor and AOA #8 and #16

Last weekend we had a visitor!  Dakin's aunt Carrie came to see us all the way from Denver. 

It was awesome having Carrie here!  She is a lot of fun and is great with Dakin--the tubes and paraphernalia don't bother her at all.  So we took advantage of the slightly cooler weather and accomplished some Autumn Of Awesome items: Going to Tiger Creek and Making Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread!



Tiger Creek was good--though they have expanded a TON in the last 18 months so the tour was a lot longer than before and we cut it short because the small one was getting warm. 

And the Pumpkin Bread:  Dakin refused to sit up in his chair to help us bake this, so we did it on the floor.  Why not?

We had a wonderful weekend with Carrie here!  She and Dakin got to play a lot--he was, after all, the reason she came.  He spent the entire weekend saying "Aunt Carrie!  Aunt Carrie!" to draw her attention to any little thing or just to 'ping' her, as he is wont to do with aunts.  We love you very much, Carrie, and hope you come back soon!!



AOA #72: The Marshmallow Gun

So when I saw this post on The Idea Room, I just knew we had to make Dakin his very own marshmallow gun.  So we did!  It was crazy easy (especially when you use your feminine charms to get the guy at the hardware store to cut the PVC pipe for you...)  It took all of ten seconds to assemble and has provided hours of fun so far!

 Target #1: Blocks.  Not a good idea.  The marshmallows just don't have that kind of velocity.

 Target #2: Stacked cups.  Much better idea, if you can get them to stay up despite two fans blowing in the house (yes, it's still 106 degrees here).  But look at his grin!  He loves it!

So, first Autumn of Awesome item accomplished, and the verdict: awesome, of course.  You just have to be careful not to inhale the marshmallow...