Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just a short post to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We have been traveling a lot and are finally back home.  No plans to go anywhere anytime soon.  Here are a few pics from our Christmas...

From 2010-12-25

From 2010-12-25

From 2010-12-25

From 2010-12-26

From 2010-12-26

Santa

While I was in Louisiana for Thanksgiving week, my sister and I decided to take our kids to go and see Santa at the mall.  We did this last year when they came to Texas for Thanksgiving and it worked out well.  It did not work out that well this year.  Kirsten and Grayson went first and we actually got a few good pictures. Then Grayson started getting antsy, so we tried adding Charlie to the mix. He was all smiles until I sat him down on Santa's lap.  Then he burst into tears!  And then Grayson didn't want any part of Santa.  We got one with a partial Grayson, Kirsten smiling big and Charlie crying.  That was the best we could do.  Oh well, maybe we'll have better luck next year! 

Before Santa

Kirsten and Grayson

Grayson, Kirsten and Charlie

Charlie

Halloween

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! We had a nice day.  Since Charlie is still pretty young and doesn't walk yet, we didn't really go trick or treating.  We went to the church where he goes to Mother's Day Out and participated in their "Trunk or Treat".  It was pretty small, but fun.  We then went over to our friends' house who live on the next street over and "trick or treated" there, but that was about it.  Charlie was in bed by 6:30 and slept through all of the doorbell ringing, barking dogs and trick or treaters coming up to the door.  He was super cute in his outfit though.

Charlie Brown

Handing out candy at Trunk or Treat

Charlie and Linus

Trunk or Treat!

 We went to a Halloween party on Saturday night at one of Jeff's coworker's house.  Can you guess what we went as?

One Year

So one year ago (yesterday) was my surgery to remove the tumor (and my left lower lobe) in my lung.  It was hard leaving my 2 week old baby, but he was in good hands with Jeff and his mother.  This surgery was easier than all the other ones (I figure, by the 4th time, we should learn from past mistakes!)  and I didn't have to stay in the hospital long at all.  I think surgery was on Wednesday and I was home by Saturday afternoon.  I had a good reason to be a good patient and get out of there quick!  My baby needed his mom!  And I needed him, too!  I (we) are hoping and praying that we are finally done with all this cancer nonsense and can move on with our lives.  I believe Charlie is my miracle baby in many ways and feel that he is the ultimate healer for me.  It was a gamble to have him and it paid off.  I don't regret anything and would do it again in a heartbeat.  I can't imagine life without him and he brings such joy to our family. He is our hope for a better and brighter future.

Potty training

I think he'll be a natural when it comes the time to start potty training.  I think this is so cute! He is on the space toilet.

Birthday weekend

Yesterday we had a joint birthday party for Jeff and Charlie.  The weather was excellent and so was the food.  We had a great day and were glad so many of our friends and family were able to come and celebrate with us.  A big thanks to Erin for baking the cupcakes and Charlie's cake.  Everyone loved them! Here are the pictures:

Birthday #1

Happy Birthday, Charlie!  It seems like just yesterday that we were in the hospital preparing for your arrival.  We went to the doctor today and he is still very skinny at 20 pounds (10%) but has gotten a little taller at 29.5 inches (50%).  He got a great report from the pedi and escaped with only 1 shot and one blood draw.  He has a total of 8 teeth, 4 on top, 4 on bottom, with more to come shortly I'm sure.  He's chewing on his hands and drooling a lot.  He is not walking yet, but we are practicing with the new push toy he got for his birthday.  It won't be long now.  Not sure I'm ready for that just yet! He sleeps from about 6:30-7pm to about 630-7:30am.  And he takes one morning nap for about 1-1.5 hours and an afternoon nap for about the same amount of time. No complaints there!  He is saying Mama and Dada and can wave bye bye and also sign for milk.  He's pretty much fully weaned and on mostly cow's milk until we run out of the frozen stash of breast milk.  I achieved my personal goal of breastfeeding for his first year.  No small feat, but definitely worth it.  Now the next challenge is getting rid of his bottle.  Sort of ironic since it was a battle to get him to actually drink from one consistently! He truly is a blessing and a joy.  We love him to pieces and can't wait to see what the future holds for us.

For those of you interested, we took some birthday pics on Monday.  Check out this website www.mindyrathe.com to see the sneak peeks! 

Can't believe it's that time already!

It is almost Charlie's first birthday!  Where has this year gone?  This past weekend, we went to Louisiana to celebrate my stepmother's birthday and also have a party for Jeff and Charlie.  It was a very busy weekend, but very fun.  We had my stepmother's party on Saturday night.  Then on Sunday was Jeff and Charlie's party.  On Monday we had family/birthday pics done by my friend Mindy and then drove home.  Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.  (They first ones are random ones from the house).

NASA Tour

A couple of weekends ago, NASA had a family day where they opened up the entire center to employees and their families to come and look at the facilities.  This included areas usually restricted, ones that many people (including employees) don't get to visit.  So Jeff, Charlie and I decided to go and take a look.  It was really neat to see the simulators and mock ups of the shuttle and space station.  We had a great time and took lots of pictures.

Grandpa Mauldin

Last week we got the unfortunate news that Jeff's grandfather had passed away.  This was his dad's father.  He passed away in his sleep, so he did not suffer at all.  He was a generous, kind, funny man and will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

4 Generations of Mauldin men

Jeff and Charlie with his grandparents

Bromley snuck in the picture!

Picture post

Some random pictures I had-still practicing with the new mac and putting pics up...

Lauri's Checkup - Good News!

Lauri and I returned to M.D. Anderson today to get the results of Lauri's chest CT scan, X-ray, and blood tests.  We have these checkups every 3 months to check to see if the cancer has returned.  The good news - Lauri got a clean bill of health!  The radiologist report reads "No evidence of metastatic disease"!

This was a nervous appointment for us; it marks about 1 year since we found the last nodule in Lauri's lung.  For the past four years or so, we've returned to M.D. Anderson to find out the cancer had returned about 1 year after the previous finding.  So while we were very hopeful, we were worried we'd remain on schedule, and find another nodule this time around.  Thank God, not this time.

We are due to go back for another checkup in December, and I'm sure we'll be nervous again.  But for right now, we've broken through a barrier we've been working a long time to break.

Fredericksburg-Wineries and A Baptism

This weekend we went to Fredericksburg to tour some local Texas wineries and celebrate the baptism of our niece, Rebecca.  We arrived on Friday night and on Saturday went to 3 different wineries, Spicewood, Flat Creek and William Chris.  We were very impressed with how good the local wines were.  Sunday was the baptism at Resurrection Lutheran Church, where Jeff's mom is a member and also where Carrie and Chris got married.  Rebecca did great and didn't cry at all during the ceremony!  I have the honor of being her Godmother, while Chris's brother, Jeff is the Godfather.  (Kinda crazy that Carrie and Chris both have brother's named Jeff!  And Chris's mom is named, Laurie! They were meant to be together!) Anyway, after the baptism we had a great lunch at the house.

Monday, we went to even more wineries. This time we went to Texas Hills, Pedernales Cellars, Woodrose, and Becker.  Whew! That's a lot of wine drinking!  We had a great time and found something we liked at each winery, but Becker was our favorite.  We pretty much liked EVERYTHING they had!  Now our wine fridge is fully stocked.

We came home today and will have just enough time to reset and repack because Thursday we leave to head out east to Louisiana.  We are spending the weekend in Covington for my mom's birthday celebration.  Should be fun!  I'll leave you with some of the highlights of the trip from this weekend.

Spicewood

Elway, the Spicewood dog

Texas Hills

Flat Creek

William Chris 

Charlie at Woodrose

Chris, Lauri, Rebecca, Carrie, Jeff, Pastor

From Rebecca's Baptism

Chris, Lauri, Rebecca, Carrie, Jeff, Pastor

From Rebecca's Baptism

Pictures from Destin

Ok. Here are just a few of the pictures from Destin.  I am still having problems uploading from iphoto to picasa, so this will have to do. 

View from our room

                                                        

                    

                                                

                                                             Kirstin