Christmas Lights!

We went to a holiday lights show in Littleton. It was pretty impressive.

We had a fun family gathering with my grandparents and some cousins. Here I am with some of my cousins!

Here is Easton with his cousin Spencer.

Littleton Museum

We are in Colorado visiting my family. We went to the Littleton Museum this week. It is so fun for little kids. It's free (which is nice) and it has exhibits about Littleton, old farm houses you can walk through, and a ton of animals.

Here is Easton with his "don't bug me" face.

We watched the blacksmith make some tools. In the farmhouses you can see people churning butter and cooking on their coal stoves.

Family picture and a donkey.

This picture is a little dark, but there was a lady milking a huge cow.

This was at the park. We went to this particular park because it has a train that kids ride it that circles the park. It is so fun for kids, but it was closed for the season, so Easton just played on the playground.

Have you ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered where all those fall leaves go once they fall from the tree?

Starts with the beautiful colors shown in the above picture

Then goes to this

Then to this

Then into the truck, so the leaves are taken away by the city. Growing up, everyone I knew raked once, put leaves into some trash bags & that's it. In Philly, there are so many deciduous trees that the leaf cleanup is a 2 month process. Crews have come to our complex every 2 weeks since October to cleanup. Homeowners just rake their leaves to the curb on leaf pick-up days, so you see these big leaf piles on the sides of the roads everywhere.

We had a great Thanksgiving! Very delicious & relaxing!

As a bonus we got our first snow fall this season! It wasn't very much, but I was happy! I love all 4 seasons & the characteristics of each one! I love and flowers & trees blooming in the spring, swimming & being outside on a warm summer day, the gorgeous autumn colors, & the glistening of freshly fallen snow!

Looks like winter is knocking at the door. Soon you will find me curled up in slippers & a blanket watching a good movie & drinking hot chocolate! Time to break out the winter gear and do some sledding & snow boarding!

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Justin's 32nd birthday last week! We kept it small since that is the way he prefers it, but we had fun! Here is his homemade ice cream cake. In case anyone is wondering why it is pink, it's because it's mostly peppermint ice cream which happens to be pink. Happy Birthday Justin! Thanks for being a wonderful husband and father!

Family pictures

We got some good pictures! The colors were so beautiful!

These last couple pictures we took after we got back from taking our family photos. Easton enjoys the swings in our apartment complex.

Halloween

Easton was a pro golfer for Halloween. He's still young to trick or treat, but he had fun dressing up! You may not be able to tell, but that's a stuffed golf bag he's holding.
I used my old fall back costume, a cat. Not original, but Easton seemed to like it! We went to our church Halloween party which was fun! A chili cook-off, costume contests, and trick-or-treating!

Book Exchange

I am participating in a book exchange. I am supposed to get some friends to participate. It's a great way to build your child's book collection. Here are the basic rules.

If you participate you will receive a letter from me with instructions and 2 children's names, ages, and addresses. Send 1 book to the child listed in the # 1 spot. You will then give the letter to 6 friends and wait for your child's many books (36 books if done correctly) to arrive at your house.

Let me know if any of you want to participate.

Full autumn experience

We went with some friends to a cute farm to get some pumpkins.

Here we are on a hay ride. Easton loved playing with the hay!

There was a corn maze that he loved! He put his hand out and just touched the corn all the way through.

Even though his face doesn't show it here, he had a great time! They had old tractors and a slide for kids to play on.

(Pardon my hair. I hate humidity!)

Of course he was smiling here when I had my eyes closed. Impossible to get a perfect picture. Anyway, we had a great time and brought a couple of pumpkins home to Dad!

Birthday # 2

Here are a few pictures from Easton's 2nd birthday party. I didn't get to do what I wanted for it b/c of the hospital, but we did have cake and ice cream a few days later. Easton had a frosting mustache.

Easton definitely enjoyed his birthday cupcake!

Easton with Grandma and Grandpa Wilsted

Here is a picture of the cupcakes we made. They were so cute and they were banana flavored cake which is his favorite, so he loved it!

We went to a fair in the Poconos. It had good food, a few stores, and a bunch of rides. Justin particularly enjoyed this clown smoking in front of the kids. You can't see the cigarette very well, but if you look closely it's in her right hand.

We were a week before peak fall colors, but it was so beautiful up there. I must say that the northeast is one of the most beautiful places in the fall because everywhere you look there are thick deciduous trees in all different colors!

The neurosurgeon, the dentist, & the pediatrician

Well, it's been a very interesting week. Easton has been so irritable for the past few months which the surgery did not seem to improve,so we took him in for another MRI and it showed that he still had excess fluid in his head. This was on his birthday, so it was sad for me b/c I did not picture his first birthday being spent in the hospital.

He had surgery the next day, but this time his doctor put a shunt in. The shunt will cause some of his extra CSF to flow down to his stomach where it will be absorbed. He made an incision in his stomach and fed the shunt (tubing) up thorough his chest, over his collarbone and to the back of his head.
You can see the shunt in the picture above. It will sink further below the skin, so it won't be as noticeable. An extra 2 feet are in there, so it will grow with him.
Here is incision # 2 on his head. Honestly, it was stressful, but well worth it! Easton seems to be back to his old self. Thankfully my parents were in town for Easton's birthday, so they could help out. The only enjoyable time at the hospital was when we ate at Bobby Flay's Restaurant. It was only a short walk and it had the best sweet potato fries!

Unfortunately, life didn't settle down for too long. Yesterday he face planted which resulted in a fat lip and a battered tooth. I was without a car, but luckily some church friends helped out (thank you Ellen & Becca). We took Easton to the dentist & he said that we'll have to watch a few months to see if his tooth turns gray. We hope not.

We finished up with a visit to the pediatrician today for a neurologic exam. Thankfully that went well and showed that this surgery seemed to be a success! What a week! We're exhausted!