Happy fourth of july

Happy Independence Day! We had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th. On the 3rd we drove out to a fellow firefighters house in Athens and had a great time with friends! The kids got to fish in the lake, ride horses, ride 4 wheelers and run around like crazy. Ethan enjoyed fishing and riding the horse and well as chasing around their 130 lb dog. At one point in time he had his arm around the giant dog and a tea cup chihuahua in the other! That boy sure loves animals. Ethan and Aiden got to ride the 4 wheeler (with daddy), which was a ton of fun until Ethan touched his ankle to the hot engine. I then had to run him down to the lake and stick his foot in the water.  Always a little drama with boys around. At dark the firefighters all shot off beautiful, big fireworks (purchased out of state : ) ) off the dock. The kids LOVED it! It was a lot of fun. On the 4th we went to my moms and Grana cooked a good southern home cooking lunch (YUM!) and we swam and lets the kids play. Then went to dinner at Grammy's to meet some of her friends. Of course grandfather made homemade ice cream, which he does every year. He made coffee ice cream with caramel sauce, so good! I need to diet now just from my weekend intake of calories! Grandfather and Aunt Katie took the big boys outside and did some firecrakers with them. They really enjoyed it this year! Then we came home and puts the kids down and Ben and I rented a movie. Perfect ending to the weekend!

This morning I woke up and was sitting at the computer to find smoke coming from my yard. When I went out on the back deck I realized that our neighbors had cought our yard on fire with fireworks last night and the embers were still burning. Nice! So of course Ben is at work and I had to drag the hose over and put out the fire in my pajamas at 8 am. Never a dull moment ! Now we have a burnt place in our mulch. Lovely.

I little update on Gavin:  He is rolling EVERYWHERE! Both ways and all over the place. He can get across the room so fast! Too funny. I started calling him rolly polly. He has 2 doc appts this moth. Pulmonology and the pediatrician. I hope that they will see a good weight gain and have positive things to say! He has PT 4 times this months as well. We are seeing great improvements from the PT. I think he will be sitting up soon, he is trying! He is taking 8-9 oz at a time in the bottle now (we are still mixing high calorie formula and cereal with his breastmilk) and he takes baby food twice a day. He is a good eater, sleeping through the night and taking 2 naps a day, I just hope he is gaining weight!

For Gavin...

 I wrote this poem when Gavin was a few days old. Since I am using our blog like a family scrapbook, I decided to put it in here.


As I love you through the glass I watch your tiny finger sweep across your face,
I watch you turn your glance toward mine and pray I might catch your gaze.
You fight to merely breathe, and I to hold back tears.
I long so bad to hold you, touch your face, calm your fears.

As I love you through the glass I watch your heartbeat dance across the screen,
These monitors have become my world, when I close my eyes they're all I see.
The breaths you breathe are not your own, as they try to keep you alive.
My heart aches, I pray you win the battle. I long to see your eyes.

I sit and stare in wonder, wishing I could make time pass.
I end up on my knees in prayer, as I love you through the glass.
I reach in and touch you, silently you rest.
I try so hard to walk away, I pray this day won't be your last.

I struggle home, but do not sleep. For my soul is still with you.
I feel torn apart and helpless; there is nothing I can do.
Your picture frame is all I have of you to see.
I sit in what should be your room and hold you close to me.

As I love you through the glass I know the ending doesn't matter,
Because Gavin Jacob Hand you have changed my life forever.

Pics

 Ben's triathalon. Father's Day Weekend 2010- Callaway gardens.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

 That would be the Monkey eating my lens cap! When I tried to take his picture I dropped the lens cap and he reached out and grabbed it! Oh, well!

http://mwilkesphotography.zenfolio.com/p548518073/slideshow

Ben's race

We went to Callaway Gardens for father's day weekend for Ben to do a triathalon and for a mini vacation. We really had a good time! We Got there and on day one went into the beach side of callway and hung out in the water and on the beach. The boys all did the giant water slide and we rode the train. Gavin stayed with grammy so we got to do some "big kid" things on this trip. All the firefighters who did the trithalon had their families down there are we all hung out together. We had rooms that were close and hung out during the day and did meals together. We ate dinner together the first night at a seafood buffet. That was a disaster. Ethan puked and Aiden was so overly tired he cried the whole time, the joys of motherhood!! But the second day we went to the wild animal safari, butterfly house, pool and a counrty cooking place for dinner. At dinner we celebrated Ethan's fourth B-day since it was the next day. We sang to him and let him open his present. His birthday party is not til the next weekend, but we had to celebrate his birthday! he was happy!! It is so hard to believe it has been 4 yrs since I had him.....what a joy he has added to our lives! Then on Sunday Ben had he triathalon. He did great! 1 hr and 2 mins. Not bad for no training since last year. with everything going on with Gavin it got put on the back burner and he didn't get to train much, but he did great! The boys and I watched him swim and run but missed the bike. While he was biking I had to give a 60 yr old man CPR on the beach! He either got pushed under during his swim or had a heart attack and the lifeguards pulled him out of the water. When they got him to the beach everyone was just standing there so I ran down there and gave him CPR. We got him back and he went to the hospital. He was talking when he left and had no pulse or breathing when I found him....needless to say, I missed the biking! All the guys did great and the kids too! 2 of the kids from the families did it too and the 14 yr old had the best time out of all of them, Ha! We had fun and really enjoyed getting away and spending time building relationships with the fire crew!

I took lots of pics and will get them up soon.... Having difficulties right now!

New pics of the boys

Our friend and an amazing photographer took some new pics of the boys, here they are.... Check her out for good, really afordable pics too! http://mwilkesphotography.zenfolio.com/

Vacation 2010

Ahhh, I love the word vacation. It was awesome. We spent a week in PCB beach at Grana's house. The Blake crew went with us which was great for us and the kids. We had so much fun. Other than the dads and Chandler going deep sea fishing we didn't really do any big acitivies but we didn't have to, the kids enjoyed the beach and pool so much! That was nice on the budget. On the first night, Ben and the Boys and I ate dinner at Uncle Ernies. My favorite! It was great! We had a great dinner at sunset over the water, watching the boats come in. Then we were able to take bread down to the dock and feed the fish and bird which the boys loved! Other than that though we just cooked there and relaxed. Ben, Chandler and Josh all went deep sea fishing on Sat and we took all the kids down to the marina to watch hem come in. They loved it. They got to see so many birds and fish while we waited and then they got to see the boat come in and them unload the fish! the guys got a ton of red snapper which we cooked for dinner a few nights later and had a ton left over. They seemed to have a good time and the little boys really enjoyed the marina.

Ethan was swimming up a storm and a Pro at the beach. he dug holes and built sandcastles and really enjoyed swimming in the ocean. Aiden really became a good swimmer in the time we were there and caught onto the sand building. We spent a lot of time catching little fish and crabs which the boys enjoyed. We even got a huge hermit crab that Ethan found! We had great weather with no rain! Woohoo! I was able to get a few pics of all 3 boys toether, but they weren't really enjoying the photo shoot (they wanted to play) so they are not so good! It was sad to come home, I love having our family together without the every 3rd day daddy missing. Here are a few pics!

cheap fun

Today I let the boys color with markers (outside) on a box...provided an hour and half on entertainment. Too funny. Of course then they had a middle of the afternoon bath because Aiden always colors himself.

Gavin had PT yesterday. He is doing great. Rolling over, really lifting his head and eating baby food. he has only had a few things (bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, peas, pears) but bananas are for sure his favorite. He always sucks his thumb at the same time.

We leave for PCB in 6 days and I am so excited. Very ready for a vacation and I know the boys will love it! Ethan has always liked the beach. i am so thankful we are going to be able to go without all the healthcare equiptement we had a few months ago and we had anticipated still having. But nope, only his monitor for sleeping! Woohoo! I hope everyone does good on the ride down...6 hrs in the car with our crew...

We have been swimming at Grandma's pool a lot and the boys are getting more and more used to swimming again. Its like they have to relearn every summer. But it is fun watching them

We currently haven't done anything else on the basement. We saved a little money for trim, but we know we are going on vacation (at granas beach house...but we still have to pay for food and stuff) so we are waiting until we get back. We get back from the beach on the 16th and leave for callaway gardens for 3 days for Ben's triathalon, fathers day and Ethan's b day all in one. So thats a lot of stuff to pay for.