Once again we are trying to get back into the swing of our normal, crazy life!

Saturd​ay we had a fun day of relaxing, playing outside and taking a bike ride.

Sunday was Football day. Alex wasn't feeling great so we just hung around the house.

Monday was supposed to be jam packed with labs, horseback riding and a party. Luckily, horseback riding got cancelled which lightened the load. Labs looked AWESOME!!!

O​nce again playgroup amazes me with their kindness and love for Alex and I. Our playgroup Halloween party (which is tradition at this point) was scheduled while we were in the hopsital in Houston. Instead of just having the party, they decided to postpone it until Alex was home. So on November 16th we had our Halloween party! I cannot tell you how much it meant to Alex. He loves his precious time with his friends more then anything in this world. He would have playgroup everyday if we would let him. So girls-Once again THANK YOU for always accomodatin​g the needs of Alex.

I had only been home a few hours on Monday, when Kelly called. She decided to have an impromptu surprise party for Walker's 6th birthday yesterday. Since we cannot attend Walker's "real" party (because of teh # of kids and germs) we were happy to be able to celebrate Walker's birthday. Alex was so excited to be going back to Walker's for the second time in 2 days. I had to chuckle to myself when the kids sat down for pizza and cake. As I have said many times in the past these kids have grown up together. They only know Alex for who he is. So they sit down and immediately say, "Hey Alex, are you going to have piece of pizza to smell?" then during cake and ice cream they were all smelling there's too. Can I say priceless? Where else could Alex find that kind of acceptance?​

Today is a BIG day! We are heading to the airport to pick up Grandpa! Woohoo!!!!

O​ne last thing....Pl​ease pray for two specific things. One, our good buddy, Samuel is sick adn in the PICU. If you will remember last year Samuel almost lost his life to an infection that landed him in the PICU. So needless to say this is a very scary time for Missy, Ben and their whole family. Second, Brucey had a great interview on Monday with a really good company. We are hoping and praying they call with a job offer this week.

As always, thank you for supporting our family.
Ali

P​S- Many of you have commented through the years on enjoying watching the kids grow through the annual Halloween picture. So here is this years playgroup halloween pic. (Alex is bmblebee from Transformer​s)

All in all we had a pretty successful trip to Houston! Aside from not completely the test on Alex's spine and the hearing test we accomplishe​d quite a bit!

We were discharged on Wednesday evening even though feeds were not back to our "normal" rate. Dr. k trusted us to continue increasing on our own. We went back and spent one last night in the hotel and dropped Mimi off at the airport early Thursday morning.

The hotel was WONDERFUL! The room was nice. The restaurant was great food. But most importantly the staff was incredible. They were so nice and accomodatin​g. They went so far as to frame one of our photos for us and they gave Alex a transformer after hearing a little of his story. We were so amazed at their generosity and kindness. We will definitely go back.

I could go on and on about Alex's new tube. I cannot even begin to tell you the difference it is already making. And Alex woke up this morning feeling much better. I was even able to clean all the dried blood off the site. I am so thankful we were able to get it changed.

We are raying and believing that Alex will stay healthy and we will be able to spend the WHOLE holiday season at home. Our next scheduled trip to Houston is at the end of January.

Tha​nk you for all your prayers.
Ali​

Home, Sweet, Home!!!

We are safely home. Alex is a little sore from his tube change. It is slightly swollen. But the change is huge! We are having NO leaking, we don't have to tape it to hold it in place, and we don't have to disconnect his feeds every time we need to give meds. So overall just a much more userf friendly design!

I will post some more and some pictures tomorrow!
Al​i