Justins Wish trip :) Pre trip report...

[VBAndrea]

Yay for your first BG!!!! Lisa B is a sweetie! And don't you worry about Wendy -- from what I understand Wendy just adores you

Sad to hear Justin's braces are costing more than mine did! (I know our dollars are pretty comparable right now.) Of course, I had to have major surgery before my braces and that was covered by insurance otherwise I wouldn't have had braces -- never could have afforded the surgery. I'm hoping you have some insurance coverage for them. But from the huge smile Justin has in the gift card pic I can see his problems were nothing like mine. I had crossbite and crowding -- Justin looks like major overbite. Good thing you were selected for a BG -- you can save the $$ you would have spent on clothes for Justin's braces! But braces or not, I love Justin's smile -- it's so genuine

And I forgot to grab a pic, but I adore the one of your nephew, Justin, Hayden and Sophie -- what a great photo! So do you do professional photography? The first thing on my list when our house sells is a new camera -- a really nice one (we have a second house b/c dh is military and we had to move away for a couple of years).

 

[4monkeys]

Hi!!! Joining in!!

Have to catch up yet, but loving what I have read so far!! Can't wait to keep reading!

 

[clairemolly]

Yippee for your first BG arrival!

I love Justin's smile! Just wait, there's so much more to come

 

[loveappletrees]

Yay for your first BG!!!! Lisa B is a sweetie! And don't you worry about Wendy -- from what I understand Wendy just adores you

Sad to hear Justin's braces are costing more than mine did! (I know our dollars are pretty comparable right now.) Of course, I had to have major surgery before my braces and that was covered by insurance otherwise I wouldn't have had braces -- never could have afforded the surgery. I'm hoping you have some insurance coverage for them. But from the huge smile Justin has in the gift card pic I can see his problems were nothing like mine. I had crossbite and crowding -- Justin looks like major overbite. Good thing you were selected for a BG -- you can save the $$ you would have spent on clothes for Justin's braces! But braces or not, I love Justin's smile -- it's so genuine

And I forgot to grab a pic, but I adore the one of your nephew, Justin, Hayden and Sophie -- what a great photo! So do you do professional photography? The first thing on my list when our house sells is a new camera -- a really nice one (we have a second house b/c dh is military and we had to move away for a couple of years).

Wendy is just great, I'm really enjoying emailing back and forth

The overbite is the most obvious (and makes it hard for him to eat from the front) but I think their biggest concern is that his jaw is growing down instead of forward, and that is impeding his airway and that the lower bicuspids are growing sideways towards the tongue and there is severe lower dental arch crowding... etc. etc. medical big words etc.... They do say that the best course of action would include jaw surgery But that will be decided on when he is a teen.
Tomorrow he's going in to get his 2 lower canine teeth pulled, they are going to try to do it in office instead of a hospital procedure where he is put under. Fingers crossed it goes well, they left it up to me whether to try it in office this time and I hope I made the right choice, He's just been put under so many times already....I just hope I made the right choice.

I do some photography (just got an SLR this year) Mostly for friends or friends of friends, but I have done a few small "jobs" too. Once The kids are all older I hope to be able to commit more time to it.

 

[loveappletrees]

Yippee for your first BG arrival!

I love Justin's smile! Just wait, there's so much more to come

I love his smile too, Its like a light switch is turned on and his face just glows!

I'm glad they are going to get started on his braces before he gets self conscious and starts to hide his smile. I can't even imagine the "more".

 

[loveappletrees]

Hi!!! Joining in!!

Have to catch up yet, but loving what I have read so far!! Can't wait to keep reading!

Welcome! Fair warning, there are lots of pictures!!!

 

[hey_jude]

Also jumping in to say hurray for the start of the Big Give ! The fun has just begun!

 

[loveappletrees]

Family Photo BC (before Callie)

Just noticed H seems to be channeling the disco look!

Superkid birthday

Driving to BC

 

[loveappletrees]

So the 2nd Big Give came today !! It was from Diane (Dis-name DiznyDi I think?)

Diane kindly wrote on CAT on the envelope to warn us as Justin is allergic and it's funny at first he gasped and froze once we assured him he would be OK opening the gift he would just have to be careful not to touch his eyes until he washed up he was more than ready to rip the envelope open!!

Inside the envelope Diane sent a great note, the cutest mickey facecloths and an awesome Cars crayon tote (a fight almost broke out until I reminded them that we share in our family!! Lol! Even Auntie Mal (who is coming on the trip to help out was included).
Sorry I can't get the pictures to rotate

Thank you so much Diane for your thoughtful gift.

 

[mommy2mrb]

what cute wash clothes! and the crayon carrier will get lots of use!

 

[Delaney21]

I'm joining in!!

Your Big Gives are amazing!! We were a BG family also and it was a totally overwhelming experience for us! Enjoy every minute of it because it goes so fast! We leave in 6 days!!!

 

[loveappletrees]

I'm joining in!!

Your Big Gives are amazing!! We were a BG family also and it was a totally overwhelming experience for us! Enjoy every minute of it because it goes so fast! We leave in 6 days!!!

Hi! Jessica I just wrote on your thread! Welcome to mine : )

 

[loveappletrees]

So today I thought I would introduce you to the 6th member of our wish trip crew my little sister, well my only one. Now keep in mind she'd likely have my head if she knew I was posting her picture but she lives in BC and won't be flying out until a couple days before we leave so shhh! Don't tell her!
Mallory is a great Mom to 3 boys, I love photographing these cuties!!!

The cousins

and is in love with Halloween, Nightmare before Christmas,Corpse Bride and loves Disney in general.

Here are couple pictures from her wedding (Oct 31 2009)

She is super excited (as are we) that she is able to come along to help make Justin's trip filled with magic and pixie dust!

 

[mommy2mrb]

your nephews are so cute! wow that looks like it was a fun wedding!!!

 

[loveappletrees]

your nephews are so cute! wow that looks like it was a fun wedding!!!

Thanks! It was fun : )
I should mention the birthday cake in front of the cousins? It is made with Ice cream sandwiches stacked into a rectangle then "iced" with thawed cool whip as frosting then refreeze = Super easy ice cream "cake". FYI, I am usually a stickler for made from scratch cakes and icings but in the summer? I would rather spend less time in a hot kitchen!

 

[Queen of Cumberland]

Just wanting to say hi to a fellow Canadian! You seem to come to my neck of the woods now and then - I love the Aquarium pictures! We have a membership and are there very, very regularly.

Your children are adorable! Time flies pretty quickly and before you know it, your trip will be here. Enjoy your countdown! And I'm looking forward to hearing more about our trip.

 

[loveappletrees]

Just wanting to say hi to a fellow Canadian! You seem to come to my neck of the woods now and then - I love the Aquarium pictures! We have a membership and are there very, very regularly.

Your children are adorable! Time flies pretty quickly and before you know it, your trip will be here. Enjoy your countdown! And I'm looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

Hi! And welcome!!!

We are usually in BC at least 4x per year I grew up in Chilliwack so we head out to visit family & friends regularly. Thanks the countdown seems to be going fast!!! eep!

 

[loveappletrees]

So yesterday Justin had 1 tooth yanked and the other bottom canine will come out at the end of the month.
He did really well with the exception of once the freezing went in he was shaking and vibrating so much I thought he was having a seizure. Not cool.

My MIL says that when she gets frozen her temp bottoms out and she shakes because she is freezing cold and that her dentist now uses a freezing compound without epinepherin, has anyone heard of this?

Today we went to the peds. Dr. to get the referral to ENT that the Orthodontist wants, But the peds Dr. wants to know more before he sends us to the ENT and sends us off to get an x-ray....

So a year & 1/2 ago I took a camera class and our homework was to capture our next day. Well the next day was J's ultrasound/Nephrology day and we had fun touring the hospital between appointments for interesting things to snap pic's of. It reminded me of when he was there for a couple nights maybe it was when he had pneumonia, Or when his blood sugar was doing weird stuff? anyways he was up at like 2 or 3 am and since we were going stir crazy in his little room we asked to go for a walk, So we went wandering the darkened hospital going to floors we don't usually go to so we get off the elevator & he's in his hospital issue jammies (striped like a prisoners) I'm pushing the stroller and pulling the IV & in tow and we came upon this huge saltwater aquarium and we spent probably an hour in this empty quiet part of the hospital just he and I like we were the last people in the building being able to forget for a moment we were in a sterile & clinical setting, this is one of the best and clearest memories I have of a hospital stay as the others melt together into a big puddle of blah.

So as I looked at my "homework" pics in post processing I wish that I had photos of that memory & I started thinking that I better take more pictures of J's medical journey as someday he may want to look back or have a scrapbook of all that he has seen and have had done. The quality of iphone pictures sure make it way easier, because who remembers to grab their camera as they are heading out the door heading to the hospital!

Now they aren't too camera friendly at the hospital for the most part but today we made an agreement with the tech to look away so I could get a quick camera phone pic. As long as I didn't get any confidential info in the pic:

so here is his sinus's & area, say it with me OOOH! AHHH!

And him goofing around ( PJ day at school that's why he was in his jammies)

 

[loveappletrees]

Whoops! Almost forgot!!


May the fourth be with you




It's national star wars day? Since?...um maybe this year?

 

[cogero]

Yeah for the Big Give those washclothes are adorable.

Love the NBC cake it is fabulous.