PJ's newest adventure!

Here is a little video of PJ's latest adventure!  He just received a stander and it is going to help him bear weight on his legs and hopefully build the muscle he needs to do it on his own.  It's short, but oh-so-cute!!!  Enjoy!

 

Picture Blog!

 

So I managed to figure out how to post pictures to go with the blog I posted earlier today! yay!  Enjoy!

 

 

Daniel's first day of school! 

 

 

Daniel and mommy

 

Always keeping us entertained!

 

Daniel fell asleep with his headlamp on while practicing his Awana verses.

 

Watching the soccer game!

 

On a mission!

 

The boys with Grandma Dorothy (Mitch's Grandma)

All the Hinton men!  Grandpa Simmie, Mitch, Daniel and PJ

 

Aunt Vanessa and PJ!

 

These two would cause some serious trouble if they lived closer!  Cousin Nathaniel and Daniel

Enjoying the Saturday morning workshop at Home Depot

 

Working on a firetruck

 

Grandma Marsha and PJ.  I just love this picture!

 

Grandpa Simmie and Daniel doing what Grandpa loves to do:  bowl!!

 

All the siblings together at last!  Aren't they a good looking group?!

 

Here are the handome Hinton men again.

 

How did he get himself in this postion?!

 

 

Taking a bath in the sink is lots of fun!

 

He loves bath time!

 

Somehow PJ managed to flip over on his belly to fall asleep with his hip brace on. 

 

Time to celebrate my 1st birthday!!!!

 

His birthday present from Daniel.  He LOVES puppies (that is an understatement!)

 

Me and my buddy :-)

Nanny and PJ

 

Merry Christmas!

We're back!!

So, it’s the new year!  Can’t believe it’s been over 4 months since I’ve posted a blog.  Four months?! Yikes!  I have to laugh at myself a little because you don’t know how many times I wanted to post, but always felt farther and farther behind…well, I better just update everyone with EVERYTHING and go from there! Ha!

As you all know, Daniel started kindergarten this year.  What a bittersweet time that has been.  I must say, I could tell he was ready by the end of the summer because I think mom and PJ were becoming quite the bore and he needed some better entertaining ;)  He was so excited for his first day all the way up until the actual day.  He was a bundle of nerves (as was I!).  It took a good couple weeks for him to feel comfortable and excited every morning for school.  He is doing so well now.  He’s received some reading awards which made me so proud!  The school year is already half over and I just can’t believe it.He was a soccer stud this fall on the grey tigers (can you tell the kids pick the team name?).      Taking him back to school after Christmas break was so hard!  My sister-in-law mentioned that it felt like the first day all over again and it did!  We had so much fun as a family during his break, I didn’t want it to end!  Daniel and I had so much fun baking endless amount of cookies, trying out new candy recipes and watching Christmas movies. He is a great big brother. I’d be lying if I said it was always peaceful. I have seen the two boys go at it! It’s hilarious! PJ is quite the feisty little boy and when Daniel does something he doesn’t want, he lets us all know, and especially Daniel. Daniel has been attending AWANA as well and is now a proud little Sparky! He has already completed and reviewed his book!! He has just been soaking up God’s word and loving it!! Praise God! We are so thankful.  We are so thankful for God blessing us with such a wonderful son, who loves God and has such a kind heart.  I don't want him to grow up!! ha!  Now, it’s the countdown to summer (too early??.....nah!) 

PJ has been doing SO great!  It’s really unbelievable!!  Let me think where the last blog left everything…I believe it was the check up after he’d been out of his spica cast for a while.  PJ still wears his hip brace at night time, although, he has become quite mobile and somehow manages to maneuver himself halfway out of the brace by the morning time.  Yes, you heard right, MOBILE!!! He is a crawling machine!  He has been rolling around for quite some time, but never crawling.  It was right after his birthday, we were getting a visit from Early Intervention (state therapy) and right in front of the therapist, he did his very first army crawl!  I couldn’t believe my eyes!  I could have screamed!!!  Ever since then, he has been ALL OVER THE PLACE!  He is still doing the army crawl, but he has been getting on all fours a ton, but won’t progress to a full-on crawl yet.  He will, I know it!  He has also mastered the art of sitting himself up from laying/crawling.  This is a lot of work for babies with spina bifida because their core muscles are very weak and it takes a lot of strength for them to be able to do that.  He is just surprising us left and right!!  He is quite the personality as well.  He’s making you laugh one minute and the next he’s making you drop your jaw in shock of his sass!  He is a cuddle bug, mama’s boy, food lover, kiss blower, high-fiver, puppy lover, blankie loving blessing to our lives.   Our latest visit to San Fran in November proved, once again, that PJ has been and will remain in God’s hands!  He underwent a sedated MRI to check his fluid levels in his ventricles which turned out to be not as bad as I aniticpated.  I definitely didn’t enjoy holding him while they put him to sleep, not to mention I think I caught wind of some of that gas, so I was feeling a little woozy myself!  His ventricles REMAIN STABLE!!!  They haven’t changed since March 2011.  PRAISE GOD!!!  I can’t mention enough what a miracle this has been.  We’ve been anticipating this dreaded shunt for over a year and he remains to be one of the 10% who don’t need it!  How awesome is that!!  He received a hip x-ray as well as a renal ultrasound to check his bladder and for reflux to his kidneys.  His hip is still in (YES!) and his ultrasound was good.  He’s also been fitted for a new pair of AFO braces.  We’ve had quite the ordeal with those.  He has developed horrible pressure blisters on is right heal a few times, one time, scaring me so bad we took PJ to the E.R.  But, I think we finally have the braces altered and fitted just right, we can start to work on him bearing some weight on those legs of his and get his feet into the correct position!

Mitch and I have been through the ringer a little as well.  With much prayer and time spent searching God’s word and waiting in Him, we decided for Mitch to make a career change.  Most of you know that he has been a police officer for the past 5 years (he is still doing a little reserve duty when time allows), but the insurance could not provide what our family needed.  He is now working at a gold mine about an hour out of town.  Northern Nevada is mining country and most of our town is populated by mining families.  He is really loving it and we can see God’s hand in opening and closing doors along the way.  We are totally at peace with our new adventure and we praise God for His provision!  I can tell you first hand that the insurance has been such a blessing.  I got my gallbladder removed the first week of November due to gallstones and nasty side-effects that brings and I have to tell you…it’s been nice seeing that explanation of benefits saying “you saved 89%”…um, wow!!

I was going to post a lot of pictures, but for some reason I am having trouble uploading them, so it's just a wordy update this time.  Sorry folks!  I will try to figure out what the issue is and get some pics up.  Here's a little recap of the past 5 months:

o   Daniel started kindergarten

o   Daniel became a sparky at AWANA

o   We celebrated PJ’s first birthday on October 3^rd!

o   We flew to MN to visit Mitch’s family.  What a blessing and much needed trip!

o   I celebrated my 29^th birthday (the 30’s are creeping up on me…NO!)

o   I got my gallbladder out!  What a pain in my side…literally!

o   PJ crawled!!!

o   We celebrated Mitch’s 30^th birthday (old man!)

o   We celebrated the birth of our savior…I have to say, this was my favorite Christmas so far as a family!   

               
We are excited to see what God has in store for us this year.  Seeing how He guided and provided for us in so many ways, we know that God is and will forever be in control.  He is our foundation and we are thankful that we have Him to turn to and lean on.  What a blessing!