Elf Yourself!

I don't know why I love this so much! Dane thinks it's dumb & annoying! Take it or leave it! I love it! A good laugh!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Why has Jenn fallen off the face of the earth?!

any guesses???

Pledges for Porter

As many of you know, Porter had a stroke before he was born. He's had many struggles in his development, yet he keeps his happy demeanor! With the therapy he's been receiving, he's been making some progress, but he still struggles with walking correctly at nearly 2 1/2 years. Along with his right arm, which Porter forgot existed -- until recently. And as of now, a 6 month old can still do more than he can with his right hand.

We heard of a company in the area, (actually within walking distance from our home!) that does intense physical therapy and are very innovative in their methods! Intense therap means that they work with the kids for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 to 4 weeks. Patients come away with more concrete and consistent results. The company is called the Now I Can Foundation. And you can see their website HERE: -------------> http://www.nowican.org/

A friend of mine with a son who has very similar limitations as Porter knew about their work and she had her son in their program -- and LOVED it! Her son is a year younger and already having MUCH better progress than the current therapy Porter (and her son) received.

The issue here is that the cost for 1 session (3 weeks) is $6,000... and they don't work with insurance. I got an email this last weekend from them with a special deal for Porter. We came in about 2 months ago for a consultation - to see the facilities and what they can do for Porter. There was an opening available for 2 hours a day for half the normal price -- so instead of $6,000, Porter can get in for $1,500!

We felt that we couldn't pass up this opportunity -- so we told them to sign him up! It started the 2nd of November and goes through the 20th. They are willing to work with us, still that's $500/week. We've paid the first payment. When we drain our emergency fund, we'll still be $500 short.

As Dane and I talked about it, we had an idea come to us to see if anyone wants to Pledge for Porter. If we can get just 10 people or families to pledge $50, we can have the therapy paid for! If there are more pledges than this, it'll help keep us from going in the hole and nixing Christmas for the kids... as well as equipment for Porter after the therapy (at home program).

Unlike the call-in-and-donate-to-such-and-such-fund, where you don't know who's getting the help and how they're doing... you can follow Porter and his progress. Here's Porter's therapy blog! ----------> http://portertherapy.blogspot.com/

Our gift to you!

If you would like to help us out -- and have fun watching Porter get stronger -- drop us a line or an email. ANYTHING will be appreciated!

All of us,

The Gilson's

Dane, Jenn, Debany, Myanna, and of course...

PORTER!!!

Happy Birthday, Debany!!!

After dinner, we had a little birthday party for Debany.

Sometimes it's the simple things they like the most:

She got the barbie she's had her eye on: 'Wedding Barbie'

... the second Tinkerbell Movie

... chocolate covered raisins (like Daddy got)

... and a song book with a bunch of her favorite songs in it

(including her solo performance song: 'In My Own Little Corner')

'Happy Birthday to you...'

Though she didn't get the specific cake she wanted, this was how she wanted her candles...

Such good kids! They know exactly what to do with candles after you blow them out!

Halloween '09

For Halloween this year, we wanted to do a family-themed costume idea..

so we threw something together:.

We had the 3 little piggies---

The Big Bad Wolf ---

And little Red Riding Hood!

--- Sorry, we weren't completely dressed up yet here. We had to finish dinner still before we left. I'm just waiting for our Trunk-or-treat pictures to come back. We won the best family! (even though the cave family was WAY better!)---

Story behind it:

Little Red and the 3 little pigs caught the Big Bad Wolf

(Hence, the ball & chain around Dane's neck)

---I crocheted the pig ears onto headbands and tails to attach with safety pins.---

Here's some of the great costumes that we saw trunk-or-treat night

(the night before Halloween).

(I didn't get as many pictures as I would've liked, and the ones I took aren't showing up right -- I guess that happens when you're on the activities committee and not in charge of pictures!)

Time to plan for next year!

Brick Oven Birthday Tradition

It's becoming a tradition to take the birthday person to Brick Oven!

We fill out the kids' birthday cards and they mail it out to you just before their birthday.

So this time was Debany's turn!

She's 6!

YUM - O!!!

We love this restaurant!

We got to sit right next to the last functional brick oven -- the girls liked to feel how warm it was and go and see them put the bread into the oven!

Princess Debany

---here she is sitting in the comfy 'barber' chair in the waiting room with her lollipop 'scepter' --

Can't forget the birthday song -- our waitress was AWESOME!!

Stellaluna

For Debany's birthday, we took her to the Scera Theater.

She got to see a play called:

A favorite children's book that they put to music and used puppetry to tell the story.

Debany was mesmorized by it the whole time!

Here's the stage...

This was one of the actors/singers -- she played Stellaluna's mom and one of the birds (Pip).

It was a wonderful surprise!