BLOOD DRIVE and BAKE SALE

BLOOD DRIVE

We are ready to schedule appointments for our 2nd Annual Blood Drive. The drive will run from 9 am to 2 pm on February 20, 2010. Time slots are open in 15 minute intervals. If you would like to sign up, you can do so by going to the Red Cross website (follow my directions and link below) or you can send me an email to jbbhitchcock@gmail.com and I will take care of everything! Please include in your email a contact number or email address, your home zip code, and the time you prefer. I will send you an email confirming your time once I have added your name to the official schedule.

To sign up on the Red Cross Site, please go to www.givelife.org and follow these directions:

• enter the sponsor code: HvilleCC19. Click "search."
• Click on "Hendersonville Church of Christ."
• Find the time you would like to donate. Click on the blue "schedule" button next to this time.
• This will pull up a message box that says you must register. Click "OK."
• Create your profile by filling in your information. (To save yourself time, only fill in the required fields.)
• Click at the bottom when you are finished entering your information, and you are scheduled!
• You will receive an email confirmation from the Red Cross.

Please let me know if you have any questions by email or by commenting on the blog. I really hope we book all of these appointments and more. Again, Jason and I would love to reach our goal of 75 donors to honor Colby!

BAKE SALE

We will also be doing the bake sale this year. If you are interested in helping out with this, please send me an email to jbbhitchcock@gmail.com. Please just let me know what you would like to make (or buy) for the sale...cookies, brownies, muffins, candies, breads, cakes, cupcakes, trail mixes, etc.

VOLUNTEERS

If you are interested in helping out on February 20th, we would greatly appreciate it! Please just send me an email to jbbhitchcock@gmail.com with the time you would be available. Thanks so much!

"Here I Go..."

Colby has made huge progress with his motor skills in the last three weeks. We should have known he would master these skills in his own time...just like everything else! We are so proud of him and how quickly he is "catching up." I heard a quote the other day, and I think it fits Colby perfectly:

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." (Mahatma Gandhi)

Colby may only have "half of a heart"...he may have already endured 2 major heart surgeries with two different incision sites...he may have less strength than other babies his age because of these things...he may even get out of breath doing simple tasks, but none of these things matter to him. He has a determination that is truly inspiring.

We think that if Colby could talk, he would probably be saying something similar to the following:

"not when you want me to but when I decide to...I'm ready now...I think I can...here I go!!!"

Colby started crawling up the steps on January 1st. By January 5th, he was climbing our entire staircase (about 18 steps) by himself. Good thing we kept that baby gate that we used with Brody!

By January 6th, Colby was pulling himself up to a standing position with no problem at all!

Colby "cruised" a couple of steps for the first time by himself on January 7th.

During Colby's last therapy session on January 19th, he had so much fun using a walker to help him walk. It is so impressive that after only a week and a half of "cruising," he is walking and pushing toys great!

By the end of his therapy session, he was feeling really good about walking. He even decided he was ready to let go of the walker with one hand to wave. He is going to be walking around everywhere before we know it, and we can't wait!

Mark Your Calendars

The 2nd Annual Blood Drive in honor of Colby Chance will be held on Saturday, February 20th from 9-2. The drive will take place at Hendersonville Church of Christ again this year. We are really excited about doing another blood drive. We were completely overwhelmed by the response that we had last year and are hoping to meet or exceed that this year. There were 75 people signed in to donate and 65 successful donors. So, this year, our goal is to reach 70 successful donors. With all of your help, we can do it!

We were also overwhelmed by the amount of baked goods that were donated last year. Several people mentioned that we should have done a bake sale to raise money, and Jason and I completely agree! Since the drive is in honor of Colby and it is in February, Congenital Heart Defect Awareness month, our hope is to donate the money to a CHD research project at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. I have a good friend and Nurse Practitioner at the hospital looking into this for us now. Since Colby's birth, I have told Jason that I want to do whatever we can for CHD research. Maybe one day, they can find a way to make these "heart babies" journeys just a little easier. So if anyone would like to donate baked goods again, it would be greatly appreciated!

Please feel free to send me an email if you are interested in giving blood, donating baked goods, or volunteering at the blood drive. We are hoping to have a Red Cross schedule posted online where you can sign up to give blood directly. I will post that information as soon as I receive it from our Red Cross Representative.

I want to thank everyone again for making last year's Blood Drive such a huge success. Our hopes is for this blood drive and bake sale to be just as successful! We are very thankful to the Red Cross for supplying the much needed blood for Colby after his two surgeries, and we want to show our thanks by helping them to replenish their blood supply. I would hate to think what would happen if Colby did not have the blood he needed available.

Monster Trucks

On Saturday night, Jason and I took the boys to their (and my) first Monster Truck event. We went with the Head Family and were fortunate enough to sit in a suite, which was great! Thank you "Mr. David" for the generosity!! Both Brody and Colby absolutely loved every second of it. The trucks were extremely loud, though, and I was nervous the whole time that they were not going to be able to hear anything when we left. Neither of them would leave in their ear plugs. I am happy to say that I think they are both okay...they still only hear what they want to hear!

Colby and Cain

Catherine and I were finally able to get our boys together to play, and I think they had a blast! It was great seeing them play and actually interact with each other. Colby kept doing his little growling sound, and Cain would laugh every time. I wish I had a video of this. They were so cute! I love that Colby was able to play with a friend so close to his age...he normally only sees Brody's friends. This was actually the first time Colby has ever had a friend over to play, and he absolutely loved it! Thanks for coming Cain and Catherine. We need to do it more often!

Santa brought Cain a Lightning McQueen car and Colby a Mater car for Christmas. Just like Lightning and Mater, I hope Cain and Colby are the best of friends!

Colby could not resist squeezing Cain's cute little cheeks.

Doughnuts with Dad

Brody's preschool had a "Doughnuts with Dad" this morning, which was a lot of fun. Brody was so excited for Jason to see his classroom and meet all of his friends. My boys love their daddy!

Snow Days

We were so excited to finally get some snow last week. This was the first time that Colby had seen snow, and I think he really liked it. Brody definitely liked it!! I had to make him come inside. Maybe next time it snows, we will actually get enough to make a snowman.

Since it has been so cold outside, we have been playing inside a lot! Luckily, the boys have plenty of new toys from Christmas to keep them busy. Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks...

By the way, the planning of our 2nd Annual Blood Drive has started! We are tentatively planning on Saturday, February 20th. I have the location reserved (Hendersonville Church of Christ), and I am now just waiting to hear back from the Red Cross with confirmation. I will post with more details soon!

Just Pictures from Christmas

A few people have told us that they are unable to watch the video of our Christmas pictures on You Tube for various reasons, so I have posted several pictures below. Enjoy!!

Christmas at Aunt Becky and Uncle Albert's House

December 21st

Christmas at Aunt Pat and Uncle Lee's House

December 23rd

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Christmas Night

Merry Christmas

(There is a link below to a video with many pictures from all of our Christmas events...enjoy!)

I guess I need to begin this post by apologizing for taking so long to get it done. I have wanted to work on it every day since Christmas, but I have just not been able to find a good time. Like every year for the past 4 years, Jason used some of his vacation time, so he has been at home with us every day for the past two weeks. It has been so wonderful having him at home!! We love being able to spend so much time together as a family playing with all of our new Christmas toys and just relaxing. Another delay in my posting has been me not feeling 100%. I want to say a big thank you to Jason for helping me out so much and treating me like a princess! The boys and I are going to be in for a rude awakening on Monday when we all have to return to the real world. We are really going to miss having Jason here all day!

Before talking about all of our many celebrations, I have to say that this has been an absolutely amazing Christmas!! The boys had so much fun. Seeing Christmas and Santa through Brody's eyes is priceless. He was so excited about his presents, but more importantly, he was so grateful for all of them. Jason and I were so proud of him for saying thank you to family members and taking time to really look at and appreciate a present before tearing into another one. One example of this is when he opened a present from my mom and dad. It is a remote control car that flips over and keeps driving. He wanted one last year, but it was a popular toy that sold out before Jason and I could get one. So, when he opened it from my parents this year, he got the biggest smile on his face and said, "Oh, thank you. I wanted this...so badly!!" He is such a sweet, sweet boy!

Colby also had a fun Christmas. He of course wasn't really into opening presents yet, but he seems to love playing with everything that he got. With Colby, I think the best part of this Christmas is just that he was able to really interact with all of our extended family. Last year, we were so worried about people holding him and playing with him, since he was only 4 months old and a couple of months post-op. This year he was just a "normal" kid playing with everyone. In fact, he kind of likes being the center of attention. It is so funny watching him get people's attention and making everyone laugh. It is almost impossible to not smile and be happy when around Colby.

We started all of our Christmas celebrations this year on the 21st at my Aunt Becky and Uncle Albert's house in Murfreesboro. Aunt Becky is my dad's sister. Unfortunately, we do not get to see them very often, so we always look forward to spending time with them around Christmas. This was the first time Brody opened any presents, and it was hilarious watching him. He was so slow opening, because he was worried about making a mess with the wrapping paper. He wouldn't even open a second present until someone got a trash bag for him to clean up the paper from the first present. Yikes! Poor boy definitely came by this honestly.

Our next party was at my Aunt Pat (Patty Cake) and Uncle Lee's house on the 23rd. Aunt Pat is my mom's sister. I always love getting together with Granny Shug, my aunts and uncles, and all of my cousins and their kids. I can always count on good food and funny conversations.

On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional dinner at our house with Nana, Nenny and Pa, and Jeremy and Tammy, and Emilee and Kylee. Since I wasn't feeling great, Jason pretty much cooked the entire meal, and it was fabulous! Brody was so excited this year about leaving cookies for Santa before bed. He didn't want to leave just cookies, though. He told us Santa was going to be hungry and would need a big snack. So, he put out cookies, milk, marshmallows, and fruit snacks. If you know Brody, you know that him sharing his fruit snacks is a big deal!! He doesn't share those with just anybody. He also left some extra marshmallows for the reindeer. He thought they might like those too.

Christmas day was great this year, because we stayed home all morning. We normally go to my parents after opening Santa's gifts, but this year, they came to us. Brody and Colby loved being able to relax at home and just play all morning, and believe me, they have plenty of new toys to play with. Santa and our families were very nice to them this year! After a great nap for all of us, we went to Jeremy and Tammy's house to have Christmas with Poppy. As always, Tammy prepared a great meal and the kids had a lot of fun playing.

After several days of playing with all of their new toys, I would have to say that Colby's favorite gift from Santa is the Mater ride-on toy. When I ask Brody what his favorite Santa gift is, he says it's his new CD Player for the bonus room. He has had so much fun listening to music and dancing around. Since I got a new video camera for Christmas, we have taken a lot of entertaining videos of the boys dancing. I will have to post highlights later.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJgB_7Yrtik