Sister's Can be Sweet!

Merry Christmas

Well, I had a few spare moments during the down time after Hurricane Cowan blew through this morning. Yesterday we started our Christmas early with Mom and Dad coming over to do our exchange. Next we made our annual trip to David's parents house for our big celebration there. It went really well and the kids made a HUGE haul as usual. I'm not even sure we need Santa help next year....between my parents and David's fam. Santa could sure save some money :o)

This morning I set my alarm for 6am so I could be "ready" for them. Didn't take long.....by 6:15 everyone was up and ready for Christmas. Here are some pics we took so far. There is just nothing better than kids on Christmas morning....it's just so fun!!!

Christmas Eve Attire-Designed by Olivia

Reece's New Chair Grazie's Assistant

David's Big Surprise

Okay, Good Example Daddy!

There's Mommy

Sister is a Great Helper!

Who's Ready for Santa?

The Haul from Gammy & Papa's
Christmas Morning Ready.....Set.....
GO!
The Barbie Piano
Who Sees Hannah Montana Barbie???

Barbie Bike

Tag Reader

Reece's 1st Car

The Monster Dump Truck

The Aqua Doodle

Who Loves Mickey?

Prayer Request

Okay, so I don't usually post anything like this on the blog but I think this time it's necessary. There is a mom who I've met via the internet who has a son around Reece's age who also has hemophilia. She also has a blog that I read regularly. Well, at Thanksgiving her little guy had a massive spontaneous bleed in his brain that he luckily recovered from in full. Since then they have been infusing him via a PICC Line. With a PICC line or a port like Reece has, whenever the child develops a fever they are admitted into the hospital to determine if they have developed some type in infection relating to their device. Here is a link to her blog and I would like you all to read this story. This is such a reality check for me. I feel like it is only a matter of time before we encounter something like this.

I'm Bruised Not Broken

Please keep this family in your thoughts / prayers during this Christmas!

Olivia's Christmas Program Video

Olivia's Christmas Program

Olivia had her Christmas Program on Tuesday night and it was SOOO cute. We were all invited to the class rooms first for some refreshments and to see all their Christmas activities they have been working on. The program was a little skit and several songs that the kids did a GREAT job on. Granzie and Grandad as well as Gammy and Papa were all able to come this year so we had a huge cheering section. Reece, naturally, thought everyone was there to see him perform. Luckly when the kids started to sing he toned it down and bit and let them borrow the spot light. Here are a few quick pics and a video of the evening is on the post above. We were all very proud of her!

No Nerves Here!

FocusedQuick Pic with Clayton
Our Best Friend, Alyssa
Reece w/ Granzie & Grandad Watching Sister

Working With Daddy

I couldn't help but blog about this. Yesterday David changed the belt on my vacuum cleaner and Reece was such a big "helper". He is a love affair with it anyway so it's a real treat when he is allowed to play with it. Here are a few pics of my little helper.

Evaluating the Situation

Making Minor AdjustmentsBreaking for a Photo Op
Relaxing After a Hard Days Work

Third Black Eye in Four Months

Okay, so raising boys is TOTALLY different than girls. I don't remember Olivia ever having a black eye and she is 5! Reece has had three since September! Of course, the one who wears a helmet and I follow around all day making sure he doesn't get hurt, always seems to find a way. We went for a walk on Sunday and he tripped over his own feet and went face first into the curb. NICE! We hustled home and gave him a quick infusion. Luckily this one did not require any stitches. Here are a few pics...as you can see, he loves his "tough" look.

Christmas Parade

We had so much fun last Saturday at the Chuy's Children Giving to Children's Parade in downtown Austin. Each family is asked to bring a new toy to donate to the Blue Santa program so Olivia and David had fun picking out a couple of gifts to take. David's been wanting to do this for a couple of years, so since the weather was perfect we decided to make our way down. We were able to get a pretty good spot where David could hold 'livi on his shoulders and Reece and I could be up on the sidewalk......just in case he decided to be a monkey. Well, everyone had a blast. Olivia loved the big inflatable balloons and the cheerleaders (of course) and Reece loved the Firetrucks and the bands. He kept dancing the whole time we were there. We are going to try and make this an annual event for the Cowan Family. Here are a few pics.

Thanksgiving

Okay, sorry I'm behind on my posting. My power cord to my laptop died and I was waiting to get my replacement in from dell.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had mom and dad and my aunt and cousin over for lunch. The food all turned out good, and it was so nice to catch up. The bummer to hosting is that you get most of the left-overs...darn. It is all gone now though :o)

After lunch we packed up the kidos and drove to David's parents house for the rest of the day. We had a really nice visit with the fam and the kids had a blast seeing Gammie and Papa.

Here are a few pics from the day.

Olivia's Thanksgiving Program

Olivia had her Thanksgiving program last Friday and she did SUCH a great job. Of course 5 min. before David and I were walking out the door to go, Reece fell face first into a plastic storage tote had cut his eye brown and had a nice shiner under the other eye. Luckily, now that we have his factor here at the house, David quickly infused him and off to the program we went. Without that ability here at home, that would have been a trip to the doc. office....whew!!

Back to the program. There was a quick slide show and a few songs, but Olivia sang and participated so well. I think last spring was the first time she actually participated in one of these, so we've come a long way. After the program we went back to her classroom for their Thanksgiving Feast. It was a fun time and she was so proud to show off her room and art work they have been working on. Here are some pics.

The Cowan Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

NHF Conference in Denver

Sorry it's taken me so long to post about our trip last week. You would think we were gone for a month as behind as I am on stuff.

The trip was really good. We left early Thur. morning so we were able to take our time and do some sight seeing for a couple of hours before the conference started that afternoon. We went to several wonderful sessions and really learned a lot. We also met several families who have been through way more than we have. I only thought we had things tough, but it sure put things into perspective for us after visiting with them. They were a wealth of knowledge and I know just where to go when things get tough for us.

The good news is, while we were out we got Reece's inhibitor test results back....they were negative thank goodness. We did find out though, that his half life is much faster than we initially thought. Basically, 4 hrs after his infusion all the factor is gone in his body. Our doc. doesn't want to change anything right now though. It seems to be doing some good, so until he starts having breakthrough bleeding we'll leave it at the 3 times a week. The infusions are also going really well for us. David and I are taking turns and Reece doesn't even budge anymore when we do it. Just pop in one of his movies and he's totally engrossed in that and doesn't even look at us while we stick him. Such a trooper!

Movie Night

We had sooo much fun last night on our family movie night. David has been trying to get us to do a movie night outside and use a projector to show the movie on the side of our house. Well, last night we finally decided to try it. We waited until Reece went to sleep at 7:30 and then we moved out to the drive way. We hooked up the computer and projector and got the movie up on the garage door. It was so fun! We blew up our air mattress for Olivia and got her sleeping bag and hot chocolate. David and I bundled up and sat in our camping chairs and snuggled in. It was really chilly last night, but it was lots of fun. We may try it on the back of our house next time since the neighbors outside lights made it a little too bright. It was just like going to a drive-in movie but at your own house. I think one of our neighbors found it a little amusing, but we loved it. We may have to invite some friends over next time and make it a big movie party.

On a separate note, David and I are leaving this Thur. for the National Hemophilia convention in Denver for a few days so I'll have an update after we return. The kids are staying with mom and dad, so it's not only a great learning opportunity for us, but also a mini vacation :o) I'm REALLY looking forward to it!

Halloween

Happy "Late" Halloween to everyone! We had a really good time last night. Since our neighborhood is so new, there aren't enough houses here to go to all the trouble to get the kids in their costumes. So went went to the neighborhood our friends Joe and Maryann to do some serious trick-or-treating. Maryann ordered a pizza for everyone and I brought some wine for the moms. We were gone only about an hour but Olivia got a basket and a half full of candy. We had to empty it in the bottom of the stroller because it was getting to heavy. The kids were so cute, the first few houses had dogs that the kids were able to pet, so every house after than they would say, "trick-or-treat, do you have a dog". Reece did great just hanging out in the stroller and taking it all in. He did crash when we got home though since it was about an house past his bed time.

Here are some pics from last night.