Dress Up

I'm going to try to highlight a couple of our favorite Christmas gifts in the next few blogs and the first are the cute dress up things that Brody got.

Here's one of the funniest and cutest gifts he got. Aunt Vicki bought him real cowboy boots and a real hat. It was hysterical watching him try to walk around in the boots! We are still laughing about it! I'm sure as he grows up, he is gonna want to dress up like a cowboy all of the time!

Here's our little "biker baby" costume. My parents bought him a motorcycle so of course he had to have the matching attire! Now he and Poppy will match!




Last, but not least in his eyes, is the DJ Lance hat and glasses from Yo Gabba Gabba! He looks so cute in it. It also sings songs from the show which of course he loves!

We want to thank all of our friends and family for making this Christmas so wonderful, what a nice way to end a pretty crappy year. Here's to 2010 bringing us all health and happiness, love to you all! xoxo!

Passing the torch

My brother and sister and I are notorious for giving our Christmas gifts to each other a week (or more) before Christmas. This year was no exception (well minus my sister) and we included Brody. I know, I know, we're bad, but it's all in good fun!!

Here is Brody opening his gift from Uncle "Gach", his first pair of hockey skates!!! What a great gift especially coming from my brother. I think I was more excited about them than Brody was. I was also a little touched.

It was almost like watching a torch being passed down from one generation to the next. Let's hope Brody is as good a player as his uncle. ;)

Reading is fun for everyone, literally!

Brody loves being read to! He could sit and listen to books for hours and not just books geared toward his age either, any book will do! I often get tired of reading him book after book, but how can I really complain about that?! The other night I was reading a favorite of ours, Merry Christmas Big, Hungry Bear, and Kiki jumped up to hear the story too! Brandon quickly ran to get the camera because this was definitely a Kodak moment!!! So, not only are we instilling the love of reading into our son, but into our cats as well!!

Best gift so far...

So my mom had a MRI today of her brain and we got wonderful news...CANCER FREE!!!! We are so thrilled and are hoping for the same news when she gets the scan of her lung in a few weeks. She finished her chemo treatments 2 weeks ago and had her last radiation treatment last Monday. That in itself was a big weight lifted for her and for me, I hated seeing her go through all of that even though she was such a trooper! (this picture was taken on Thanksgiving...would you think she just had chemo and radiation???) What a wonderful Christmas gift, but the best one ever would be to have a completely cancer free Mama! God has blessed us so far so hopefully the blessings will continue! Keep your prayers comin'!

And yet again...God is GOOD!!!!

Oh Christmas tree

Every year since Brandon and I have lived together, we've gone out to a Christmas tree farm and cut our Christmas tree down. It has become one of my favorite Christmas traditions!

We went this past Sunday and were so excited that there was snow, it makes it that much more Christmasy. We threw Brody in the backpack because there was no way he was walking up those hills in search of the perfect tree and no way I was gonna carry him in my arms either! The first hill was rough for me and I was cursing my out of shape body the whole time, but after that I was fine, thankfully!

It took us quite a while to find it, but we did! Brandon cut it down and took it down the hill to have it bundled and to pay the whopping $35 for it!!

They have a little workshop at the bottom of the hill that serves hot chocolate and candy canes which we all loved after walking around in the cold!

So here she is in all her glory! It is perfect if I do say so myself and it creates a smell of pine and oranges throughout my house! I love it! (it was well worth the money!)






And here's the finishing touch!

Santaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!

We took Brody to see Santa on Tuesday night. As you can see it didn't go very well. He loves Santa on t.v. and in books or even from a distance, but set him on Santa's lap and look out!

Ugh...

Well, here are the two new additions to our little family. Yes, there are TWO! Unbelievably, this was my non-cat loving husband's idea! Needless to say he is no longer a NON-cat lover. They arrived here yesterday and we've been lovin' them up ever since. They are super sweet and really cute as you can see. Brody was a little jealous at first but has slowly warmed up to them. The one in the back is the female and the one we originally chose three weeks ago, her name is Kiki (Brody named her!) The little guy in the front is a male and he was a last minute decision. He is really playful and loves to snack, just like Brandon, which is why I think we ended up getting him, they bonded haha! We are still trying to come up with a name for him so any thoughts you might have feel free to throw them out for us! So I say "Ugh" with the best and loving of intentions I guess, we shall see!!!

Pay it forward

Tonight, one of the coolest things that I have ever had happen to me happened and it was especially nice with everything going on in our lives! Brandon, Brody and I went out to dinner and noticed when we first walked in a man sitting at the bar by himself, eating a salad. We noticed him, that's all, not even a hello exchanged. At the end of our meal our waitress told us that our bill (and tip) was already taken care of! My first thought was someone that we knew was sitting close by but to my shock and amazement it was the man at the bar who had paid for us! By that point he had already gone and I was in tears!!! I said to the waitress and bartender to please thank the man the next time he came in and they both said that they had never seen him before! So, with the holiday season fast approaching we have decided that it was an early visit from Santa, or simply just a small blessing from God! :) In light of this I am asking all of you to do something kind for a stranger, it might just change their life!

The king of OUR jungle!

I thought I'd post some pictures of my little lion before Halloween. He is so funny in this costume its like he doesn't even know it's on, like it's totally normal! I taught him to say "ROAR" and so now anytime we talk about his costume he's like "ROOOAAARRR!" Too funny!

"Bro Bro"

Brody's cousin, Marielle, has called him "Bro Bro" since he was born (mainly because she was only 19 months old and she couldn't say Brody)! :) Anyway, the nickname has stuck and now the whole Wilson clan calls him that, I love it and I hope they continue to call him that throughout his life!! These p.j.'s were a gift from Uncle Brent, Aunt Rosemary and Marielle...aren't they adorable?!! Brody calls himself "Bro Bro" too, because he can't say Brody, he has yet to master "Marielle" and I am anxious to hear what he'll end up calling her! His other two cousins are "Ha Ha" and "Dace" or Lila and Grace which ever you prefer! ;)

"Fall"ing ill...

So far this fall has not been good to Brody! He has had the stomach flu, a cold and starting this past Tuesday he had a fever for 3 days straight! We took him to the E.R. Tuesday night because he had never had a fever as high as it was (almost 103)! After waiting almost 3 hours they told us it was "just a virus" and sent us home with nothing! The next day was worse so I called his doctor Thursday morning and they called in a prescription of Amoxil for him, thank God! Ever since he has been doing really well! Hopefully we are done with sickness for a while!!!

Salsa bueno!

Yes, this is my 1 year old son dipping his Goldfish crackers in our favorite restaurant's salsa! He loves it which I find amazing considering he can be a pretty picky eater at times! I can't say I blame him, it is so good!! I often say that I, myself, could eat it every day, along with their delicious cheese dip which he likes as well!

A true Irishman!

Sorry Nana, your baby boy got a tattoo today!!! You may actually be proud of what he got though, haha! This is a picture of him after 2.5 hours of pain drinking a Guinness.

It's a Celtic cross and it is really nice but really big!!!


Brody just doesn't get it...he points at it and laughs!



He said anyone who says it doesn't hurt is full of it so I'm pretty confident that this will be his one and only tattoo!

My perfect little sleeping angel

It is moments like these when I want to just scoop him up and squeeze him! He just looks like a little angel when he sleeps, I emphasize when because he is not, and never really has been a good sleeper!

Yesterday morning he woke up sick, he kept gagging like he was going to throw up so I rushed him out of bed where he proceded to throw up all over me, (oh the joys of motherhood!) He was completely green and refused anything to drink so I knew it wasn't an isolated thing! After a couple more "incidents", he fell asleep and took a nice long nap and when he woke up he was like a different kid! While his cheeks were a little flushed and his eyes had that "sick" look to them, he was playing and acting as wild as ever!

So last night he slept in his own bed all night, woo hoo! It was nice to finally get some good sleep without my child rolling all over me, although when I put him in his crib I couldn't help but to get a little aching in my heart. Is it bad that I miss him when he is sleeping even though I complain that he never sleeps?!

On a side note I just want to point out his diminishing scars! It is crazy how much he has healed, once again...God is good!

B-R-O-D-Y

First off, I would like to thank Aunt Sarah, Uncle Brad and the girls for this awesome gift! It serves as so many things...stool, puzzle, it helps him learn colors and his name. Brody will literally sit for, well minutes, playing with it! He can finally get the pieces in where they belong and is starting to recognize the letters!!!

The "r" is his favorite!

It's so cute,when he doesn't get one in quite right he'll say, "noooooo".

Finally, when he's done he'll sit on it or stand on it or just carry it somewhere else. (Of course he had to pose for me!)

Where's Brody???

I've talked about Brody's favorite show before, Yo Gabba Gabba. If you've ever seen it you probably thought what I thought at first..."this show is creepy" but, after you've seen every episode about 1,000 times it kinda grows on ya! I can recite just about every word to every episode and if Brody could talk (enough to fully understand him) he would too! Those are the characters he is holding in this picture. He loves them! I can honestly say that I owe alot to this show because if not for it, I would not get that half hour of peace a day!!!

Another "first"...

I gave Brody a juice box for the first time the other day. He loved it!

He does a pretty good job drinking it, every now and then he'll squeeze the box, pull the straw out or dump the whole thing upside down but, overall he does pretty well!

Finally, some good news!

So, last week my mom had her first appointment with her oncologist, we thought we would be getting her chemo/radiation schedule then and were anxious to get it all started! Much to our dismay she was told that she would need a PET scan to be sure the cancer did not spread to her bones or anywhere else. While I stayed very positive, I couldn't help but to be a bit annoyed and scared, "why can't this be over with?" "why didn't they do this test in Pittsburgh when we found out about the other spots of cancer?!" It was just another bump in the road which of course we know we were and are in for. So as we anxiously and nervously awaited this scan which was this past Monday we had to wait some more to get the results today. Yet again we have been blessed and the power of prayer has come through again!!! The scan was clear!!!!!

Now she will be going to Pittsburgh within the next week or so to get the radiation to the spot of her brain where the tumor was removed and that will be it, as far as the brain goes. Then she will start a pretty hardcore dose of radiation and chemo to her lung. She will have radiation every day (approx. 10-15 min. long) for possibly 2 weeks and chemo once a week for 5 weeks. After this treatment she will get yet another scan and if it looks like the treatment worked and was shrinking the tumor they will do a milder dose of chemo until it is gone!

We appreciate everyone's continued love, support and prayers....keep it up!

God is good!

P.s....Mom, don't kill me for this picture haha, I couldn't resist!!! ;)

Pullin' a Britney

Last weekend we went to Grove City. Brody drove.

The Playground

On nights like these we like to take a walk over to the elementary school by our house and let Brody play on their playground.

One day Brody will attend the school behind him. It is called Horace Mann Elementary. It is also where my brother went!!

He wanted to be a big boy and swing by himself!

And slide by himself!

I made sure Daddy assisted him across the little bridge although, he would've gone all by himself if we let him!!!

Ahhh, time to leave! It's always a joy!

Poor little dude! :( It breaks my heart but it was almost bath time so we had to go!!! I honestly think he would stay there all night long!!

Here we go!!!!

Well, the Steelers have officially kicked off their season! Woo hoo!!! And what a start, phew!!! We enjoyed some fall weather and off course some black and gold attire!

Brody can finally sit in his recliner that Mimi and Poppy bought him for Christmas last year. He was so funny...he looked like a big man sittin' there watching the game!!!

Took a time out to "cheeeese" for mommy!


Oh boy am I gonna have my hands full with this one! What can I say, he is his father's son! ;)


And Uncle Zach thought it was hilarious of course!!!

P.S...they were empty!

That's better!

Chillin' with Poppy watching some football (my dad is in heaven)!

I needed a cold one after that game too buddy! Haha...oh well a win's a win! we'll take it!

Go Steelers!!!!

Finger painting???

Today I decided to let Brody do some finger painting! Well I hoped he would do some finger painting but about 30 seconds into it he was done and ran off to play somewhere else, of course covered in paint. I didn't mind because we did it outside so I wouldn't have the mess inside!!! ;) I invited my parents over to watch my little artist at work!

I kept trying to get him to do a handprint but he just kept making fists, this was the only one I managed to get out of him!

Beautiful...

A little war paint!

Mimi had war paint on too. (Yes, my mother just had brain surgery 2 days ago!!!!)

And of course Poppy had to have some war paint as well.

My little monkey climbed up on this chair, it's his favorite thing to do these days! Lookout!

One shoe on, one shoe off! He's so proud of himself. He cracks me up, he now says "cheeeese" when I take his picture!!!