Birthdays, Bandana Ball and Baby mode!

Things have been moving full-speed ahead around here. Between birthday parties, doctors appointments and finally getting the urge to start putting the baby's room together, I am constantly on the go. Only problem is, my energy isn't keeping up with all that I want to do. And I crash. Hard. Like go to bed by 8pm crash...

But...life goes on and there doesn't appear to be a slow down any time soon so I have to just do what I can!

Here's the latest:

• Last weekend was Ethan's 5th birthday party. A while back he came to me out of the blue and said that he didn't want to get presents for his birthday, he wanted to donate things to the kids at the Ronald McDonald House. It was a proud moment - however I will admit that I didn't mention it again as I was waiting for him to change his mind. He never did. So we decided on a "magic" theme and included the request for his guests to bring wish list items for the RMH on the backside of the invitations (which were sooo cute, by the way). We hired a magician to make the day super special. Everyone had a wonderful time and we hand delivered the donated items the next day. The staff at the Ronald McDonald House was so impressed with Ethan's generosity :)

• We got to meet the wonderful Lynch family on Friday! Their little girl Mary Cate was born in December with Apert Syndrome and that is not where the similarities end. After they contacted us (from finding our blog!) we found out they live on the South Side of Chicago, where my mom and her family grew up. Then, further into the conversation, we realized that they live on the SAME STREET as my aunts and uncles, just TWO BLOCKS away! What a small world! Anyway, they have been doing their best to research doctors to care for Mary Cate just as we did in those early months. During our chat, we told them about Dr. Fearon and just how much we have loved and trusted him with all of Aiden's medical needs. They decided to email him for his opinion and then made arrangements to come meet him in person. We drove up from Austin to meet them for lunch before their appointment and couldn't wait to hear how it went. Afterwards we were so happy to learn that they loved him just as much as we do - and they will be returning to Dallas in the coming months to begin their daughter's treatment with Dr. Fearon. So happy for them to have found some comfort in choosing a team. And my goodness, that little Mary Cate is just an absolute doll. Those cheeks...I just wanted to squeeze them! I have no doubt there are good things to come for her!

• I attended my first SXSW event today as part of the Austin Bloggers group. For those of you not familiar with SXSW (South By Southwest) - it is a music, film and interactive conference that attracts more than 32,000 registrants every spring in Austin to share ideas and innovations in those creative fields. Today I got to go to the PBS Kids Breakfast to learn "What's New for Today's Digital Kids". We were given the opportunity to get a sneak peek of a new show to air on PBS this fall called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. It is an animated show modeled after the beloved Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. You can check it out here.

• In less than 2 weeks I will be donning my cowboy boots and hanging out on the ranch. The annual Bandana Ball is March 31st and as auction chair this year, I will be responsible for making sure the auction goes off without a hitch (with the help of my fellow committee-members of course!) It's been a lot of work of the past few months and I'm so excited to see it come together. I just hope it is a huge success just as it has been in years past.

• The week before the Ball, Ricky's sister and her husband will be visiting from Indiana along with our adorable niece Presley. We are so looking forward to having them in town - Ricky will be taking a few days off work so we can take them around Austin and do all kinds of fun stuff. This will be their first visit to Texas so we want to make it worth while!

• We had a small scare as far as Aiden's health is concerned. A few months ago he had a specialized eye test that his craniofacial team is using as a fairly new diagnostic tool for catching increased intracranial pressure. While we were not expecting to get bad news, we got a call from his surgeon with just that. He said his results were abnormal and he suspected increased pressure, which, would mean scheduling a skull surgery pretty quickly. The next step was to see a pediatric neuro-opthamalogist to determine if pressure was effecting his optic nerves. Luckily there was no indication of pressure based on that exam, however he will still need the skull surgery this summer, just not immediately like once thought. We've scheduled it for May 1st. More on that later.

• Because Aiden won't need surgery right away, both boys will be able to start playing t-ball for the YMCA as planned this month. This will be Aiden's t-ball debut and he is so very excited. He and Ethan will not be on the same team, so our Saturday's will be split between both boys' games, but we cannot wait to run from field to field cheering them on!

• I am officially in "nesting" mode. I've made a master-list of all the things that need to be cleaned, organized and done around the house (much to Ricky's chagrin). Little things that we won't have time for - like adding hardware to our kitchen cabinets - to bigger projects like installing bead board in the nursery and painting various rooms.

• Finally - I'm counting down the days until my mom, sister, aunt Cakie and my nieces Lilly and Avery drive down from Kentucky (and Chicago) in June. The last time I saw them I was barely showing and felt miserable. By that time I will be 7 months pregnant...and probably feeling miserable once again. But that's okay because it won't stop us one bit!

Whew! I'm tired just from writing all of the things we have on the horizon. I truly hope I can muster up the energy to get through it all!