Disney World Trip!!!

We all had an amazing trip to Disney World, but it was especially special for little Mary! There were so many amazing things she was able to do and I think she made memories that will last a lifetime! A special thanks goes out to Make-a-Wish of Hudson Valley and to Give Kids the World Village! These two organizations made our trip and our stay extra special. There are so many things to tell about . . . , Mary got to meet all of the Disney Characters, most importantly, her favorite; Tigger! She even got to have a private Tea Party with him!!
We took over 1200 pictures, so it would take a while to post them all (and view them for that matter) so I'm going to break them up a little:

Here are some of our favorites from the trip:
Just click on the link below the photo to see the rest of the album:

From Cropped Photos

Here are some pictures from Sea World. . . absolutely amazing, Mary instantly fell in love with Shamu and got to feed and pet the Dolphins:

From Sea World

The Animal Kingdom, Mary had all of her relatives come with us this day, including, Grandma and Grandma W, her cousin Billy, aunts and uncles, Bill, Amo, Angie, and Jason, and her Great Aunt Nellie!

From Animal Kingdom

Here is a link to Mary's extra special "Tea Party with Tigger!" This absolutely made her trip! Mary was smiles all day!

From Tea with Tigger

The same day as the tea party, Mary also got to meet all of the Pixie Fairies, AND all of the Disney Princesses!

From Magic Kingdom

Lastly, Mary had an amazing time at the Give Kids the World Village! Mary loved riding the trains there and doing all of the other fully accessible activities. This place it absolutely amazing!! Mary even got to go fishing and catch her first fish... a large mouth Bass!!-- That was fun for Dad too!!!

From GKTW Village

We need to upload some video as well. And maybe Kate can post about our RV adventure on the way back!!

Countdown to Disney World!!!

As some of you may know, Mary was recently granted a Make-a-Wish. Make-a-Wish is an amazing foundation that grants wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions. Well, they came out to the house a few months ago, and after some careful thought, Mary decided that she wanted to go meet Tigger at Disney World!

Last Saturday, Susan and Anthony from our local Make-a-Wish chapter came back out to tell Mary about her trip. Mary is SO excited!! Here are some pictures from the visit:

Mary looking at the HUGE Tigger in the Wish basket from Make-a-Wish:


Mary posing with Susan and Anthony from Make-a-Wish, she is still in her PJ's since she had been under the weather and decided to sleep in.


It was SO cute, Mary had been sick and unwilling to come off of Bipap for more than a few minutes all week, but with they showed up, she came off of Bipap and said, "I am feeling much better, I think I am ready to go to Disney World!"


Mary in awe of all her new Tigger friends:


My FAVORITE picture, that smile says it all:


Mary eating dinner with her "Big Tigger" later that night (yes, she is still in her PJ's, or what she like to call her "Elmo Pa-Jammies".


Well, we leave on Saturday and a driving down to Florida in a 30 foot RV!! We will try to keep to all posted on the progress of the trip and post lots of photos from Disney! Please pray that everyone remains healthy for the trip!

Mary's 33 Month Birthday and Thanksgiving

Sticking with the Cookie Monster theme from Halloween, Mary had a Cookie Monster cake for her 33 month birthday. She also had her Aunt Angie and Uncle Jason in town, visiting for Thanksgiving. Here are a few of our favorite photos from the weekend:

I call this one: "Jason stole my milk and I drank his beer!!"

From December

I call this one: "Pull my finger!!"

From December

Mary and Daddy ready to eat Thanksgiving Dinner:

From December

Mary and Mommy:

From December

Look how tall Mary is getting:

From December

Mary baking cookies with Angie:

From December

The Cookie Monster Cake:


Angie and Jason with Mary before she blew out the candle:

Halloween on Sesame Street!

Mary and Jackson had a great Halloween! Mary wanted very badly to be Elmo and she wanted Jackson to be Cookie Monster! The two made a great pair! Dad stayed up all night making Sesame Street signs for Mary's cart. They turned out pretty good.

Elmo and Cookie Monster:

From October

Mary and Caleb (sans front tooth!)

From October

Mommy was supposed to be Oscar the Grouch:

From October

From October

"I LIKE COOKIES!!!"

From October

Notice the cookie crumbs on his fur. . .

From October

Notice the beautiful fall leaves and the invisible kid running mach1 in the center of the picture:

From October

My buddy Joe Dirte:

From October

Our neighborhood crew:

From October

Cookie and Yoda!

From October

Love this one:

From October

Mary and her buddy Caleb:

From October

Cheerleader Mary

Mary had an exciting weekend of cheering on Army football and Rugby. First she got to go to a tailgate at Ryan's boss's house. She had a great time and got to show off her new cheerleader outfit!





Mary and Daddy getting welcomed to "The Department with the Heart":


We also went to a Rugby game on Sunday, and Mary and Jackson had a great time, here are some pictures:



Mary was more interested in playing with her buddy Caleb than watching rugby. . .



Jackson with Mommy and Jo:


Buddies:


Jackson and Daddy:


Mary tickling Caleb:


A shot of the new field, nice eh?


Hope you enjoyed the pictures! We look forward to many more adventures here at West Point this fall!

Angie and Jason visit!!!

We had a great visit this weekend from Mary and Jackson's aunt and uncle, Angie and Jason! They also brought the dogs, Bella and Britta. They came up on Saturday and came to see Mary in the hospital, Mary was VERY excited to have visitors. Luckily she also got to go home on Saturday afternoon as well. Mary just fell in love with her aunt Angie, and really enjoyed reading books and playing with her. Here are some pictures from the visit:







Mary and "Baby Jackson":


Mary was being so goofy, it was cracking all of us up. . . you can see Angie laughing!!!






Jason telling Jackson a hunting story, I'm sure:

Mary in the hospital

Sorry we havent posted in a while. things have been busy with school and the whole family being sick this week.Mary is in the hospital tonight. We thought she was over her cold, but she is have some trouble managing her secretions and keeping her sats up. Please say a prayer for Mary. I will post more when home and not just on my phone. . . my thumb is tired.

Mary Turns two and half!!!!

We all celebrated a huge milestone this weekend as Mary turned 2and 1/2!! Mommy made her this wonderful cake:


And Mary enjoyed blowing out the candles!


For her birthday, Mary got to go to the PX and pick out anything she wanted. She insisted on getting the purple baby pictured here, that she promptly named Jackson. . .


She loves to feed the baby and take care of it just like a really mommy.

Jackson got to eat some of Mary's cake too!!


Mary also got an Army cheerleader uniform from daddy, which she is very excited to wear for the first Army football game!!







Overall, it was a great day and we were really excited to see Mary turn two and a half!!

Jackson's First Haircut, Mary's Second Haircut

We've been super busy, as I know all of you have, so we haven't posted enough on here. On Friday we took Jackson to get his first haircut. Mary went with and really enjoyed watching Jackson, so much that she wanted to get her haircut too!
Here are some of the pictures:
































Hope you enjoyed, see you in a week or two!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Well Mary and family had a wonderful 4th of July. The weather was absolutely beautiful here, sunny and mid-70's. It actually got a little cool eating dinner outside this evening, we all had sweatshirts on.

The day started with Mary and Jackson participating in the 4th annual Connor Loop 4th of July Children's Parade. Everyone had a great time and it was so fun to see how all of the kids decorated their bike and strollers. Mary's was one of the most decked out with balloons and flags.

































After all of that excitement the kids took really good naps and then we had some friends over for dinner and to go watch the fireworks at Trophy Point.

Backyard Bar-b-q and a trip to the Zoo!

We enjoyed another weekend of beautiful weather her in New York, (it was actually a little bit on the cool side) so we spent lots of time outside. Last night we grilled out in our new backyard and the kids had an absolute blast eating and playing outside. Mary asks to go outside and lay on the lawn chairs pretty much everyday, she just loves being in the backyard and playing. Then today, we went to a little zoo that is at Bear Mountain State Park about 6 miles from our house. The zoo wasn't that great, but it was a very nice day and a good adventure in nature. Here are some pictures from the weekend, enjoy:





(Don't ask me how I got Sam to smile!)

Big Blog Catch Up

Ok, Ok, Ok, I've been a terrible blogger lately, but we've been extremely busy. We've finally completed our move to New York and we are about 90% done unpacking the house. We have about ten boxes that we still need to unpack. We are very happy with the house in New York and the fact that it is fully ADA accessible makes life a lot easier for us. It is great to be able to wheel Mary right into the house with NO steps! So, since we haven't posted for over a month there is a lot to catch up on, Mary has been very busy and coming up with something new everyday. Lately she has become little miss independent. Her new quote is "Can I do it? . . . . by myself?" It is SO cute and very encouraging for us that she wants to be so independent.
I've got a ton of pictures to show what we've been up to for the last month or so, so here goes . . .

Before leaving Virginia Mary went to a butterfly release at the local farmer's market:




Mary also celebrated her 26 month birthday and her dad made her a Lighting McQueen cake:


Mary also got to go to Build-A-Bear and she picked out a cute little frog that she named "Fergie". . .


Mary also made Jackson a dog named "Sam" of all things, here she is kissing the dog's heart and putting it in the dog:




Mary even recorded her voice saying "woof, woof, I love you Jackson" and put it in the dog. Jackson loves it!


Mary picking out an outfit for Fergie:


Now Mary never leaves home without "Fergie the Frog". Fergie gets the same treatments as Mary everyday, and a bath, and pretty much does everything Mary does.


Here Fergie and Mary pay one last visit to Dr. Gaston, Mary's pulmonologist. He was great and we will miss him very much!


Fergie even got a G-tube, so Mary can feed her:


Grandma Martha came to visit to help us move, we made plenty of trips to the park to enjoy the nice weather before we left Virginia:




Mary helped Grandma celebrate her 63rd birthday on the last night that we were in Virginia:




Jackson helped celebrate too:


Saying goodbye to our awesome neighbors, the Gaspar's:


Here is a picture of our new house in New York:


Here we are all taking a tour of West Point:








Sam and his buddy Murphy playing in our new backyard:


Mary keeping a close watch on Jackson:


Celebrating Mary's 27 month birthday:


Jackson helped celebrate too:


Finally, today Mary had another visit from her Great Aunt, Danielle and she got to meet a bunch of her relatives from Minnesota, (Brett, Carol, Matt, Mike and McKenzie):




Mary and McKenzie:








Lastly, a picture of Fergie and Mary after their bath tonight:


I hope you enjoyed, sorry it has been so long and I apologize for the mega-long post, but I had a lot to catch up on.

The Center for Courageous Kids

Well as many of you know, Mary got to go to camp last weekend. She had such a great time and this camp was such an amazing place. Here are some pictures from the weekend. I think Mary's favorite part of camp was the bunkbeds, or as Mary calls them, the "dunk-beds". Every night, Mary asks if she can go take a nap in the "dunk-bed". We have to explain to her that she doesn't have a bunkbed in her room, and they are just at camp. Then she asks if she can go back to camp. I have a feeling I will be buying a "dunk-bed" in the near future. . .

Here are some pictures from the weekend (we took about 250!):

Mary arrives at camp and is greeted by MJ!

Jackson in the "dunk-bed"

Mary on the first night of camp, very excited!

Mary sharing an ice cream cone with mommy!

Getting ready to race her friend Conner!

Mary bowling on her first night, her other favorite activity!



Look at the concentration!





We found a frog that night too!



Mary hanging out with the girls. . .

Drawing an Elmo picture with mommy!

Painting a dog with daddy!

Waiting to ride horses . . . (does Jackson look bored??)

Mary loved the horses!!





Saying "thank you" to her horse, "Mac"



Mommy and Mary after the horse riding

Getting ready for a manicure. . .

Mary wanted to give daddy a "man"icure!

Warming up after a swim. . . .

The whole family!

Getting ready to go home!

Signing the poster. . .

One more bowling game before we leave

Mary Bowling

Mary has been super excited all week about going to camp. She got a bowling set for Easter and she has been practicing all week so that she can bowl for real at camp.
Here is a little video of her bowling a strike:



Notice how she even spins the ball, just like the pros!!

I think she bowls better than me!!