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We had a great Christmas, and hope all of you did as well. The kids got lots of great presents from Santa, and our loved ones. And then we moved onto New Years.

Reflecting back on 2010… we saw some ups & downs- like any year. But, it’s the blessings that we were counting. We’ve gotten closer to some friends, made some new ones, connected with LM families, had some great times & fun with the family and best of all, Mary Elizabeth got her trach removed after 5 1/2 years. You can’t beat that! We thank God for every day we’ve spent together as a family and we are looking forward to seeing what 2011 brings us.

With that, we’ve already seen that Mary Elizabeth herself is going to have some new experiences. One in which she just experienced – riding the bus. Who would have thought that riding the bus was that big of a deal. But back in September when it was her first day of school and she eagerly awaited the bus, it was then we had to let her down because there was no nurse on that bus (as there should have been). Mommy has been fighting with the district to no avail. They simply could not find a nurse to ride the bus with her all this time. So after the trach removal we scheduled a meeting because obviously she no longer needed a nurse. That meeting happened this past week and finally she RODE THE BUS! Seems like such a small thing but it meant the world to her so we were soooo happy for her!

And we all know what will eventually be coming as for new experiences…. SWIMMING!!! Now that she no longer has a trach, we can take her swimming – for real! The hole that was left over from her trach being in place has been closing but there is still a very small hole that remains. It hasn’t really changed much recently, so the Dr. has scheduled her to come in on January 24th into the OR and stitch it closed. So swimming is definitely in her future. We’re hoping to arrange something where she can go in an indoor pool so she doesn’t have to wait til the summer. Of course we’ll take lots of pictures when it actually happens.

The rest of us are doing well. Drew is getting bigger by second it seems and him and Mary Elizabeth have lots of fun together playing…. when they aren’t going through some sibling rivalry! oye! haha… but really how can you just not love these two:

Anyway, a belated Happy New Year to you all… we’ll be checking in soon! 🙂