So Precious!

Lukey has become fond of this little girl in his Preschool class.  Her Grandparents know that Lukey adores anything to do with hockey.  A couple of weeks ago this little girl's Grandparents won a Flyers Basket at their church and they gave it to Lukey :)  He absolutely adored the Flyers Basket, kept talking about it non-stop to anyone who would listen :)  The basket has bobble heads, a mug, a street hockey stick (that was autographed!), an actual autographed photo of Bob "The Hound" Kelly, a windbreaker, and various other Flyer memorabilia.  Then, the children who made the Flyers Basket found out who it went to and heard how much Lukey loves anything hockey they decided they wanted to do something special for him.  These children asked their neighbor, who is non-other than Bob "The Hound" Kelly, to autograph a Build-A-Bear "Hound" and gave it to Lukey :)  What an incredible family!!!  Thank-You to everyone who thought of Lukey :)

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Lukey :)

More snow?!

OMW!!!  I feel as if we moved to Canada!  Kid you not :/  According to Channel 6 News, this is the 6th snow storm within the past 30 days.  At least it was a snow day for everyone, including the boys and Ron :)  The snowman they built was by far the best one yet, Ron told me this was "GREAT" packing snow, good for snowmen and making snowballs :)

Enjoy the photos :)

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Lukey :)

Oopsie...forgot to mention

We went to a GrandFather Frost Party on Sunday, January 9th, and the boys were in all of GrandFather Frost, its a Russian tradition.  They kept on asking us questions, such as was he related to Santa and what part of Russia does he come from?  SO adorable!!!  I adore our boys ages, so inquisitive!  Enjoy the photos :)

Today, we made a trek down to DuPont, Ohhh the joy with this drive :/  The reason?  Ryan had a follow-up appt. with his orthopedic surgeon.  It went well, all things considered that have been going on lately.  I told the ortho. dr. that Ryan and everyone in our house are sick right now with an upper respiratory infection :/  And, that 3 out of 4 of us in our house were on antibiotics :(  I told him that when Ryan gets sick he gets sick, as in not himself, uncoordinated, etc.  Also, what scares Ron and I most is that when Ry has his breakthrough seizure activity he gets like this too BUT in a different way...so difficult to explain, in all honesty you truly need to witness it for yourself.  However, with that said, it is our belief that Ryan is adjusting to his meds well, minus the side-effects of course, and we believe he has not had another break-through seizure since the last one.  The ortho. dr. brought up an excellent point...that the reason for Ryan's lack of coordination is perhaps b/c he is growing, height wise, and having trouble adjusting to the new height growth?!  I was amazed that I hadn't thought of this and yes, I do believe that this very well could be the case.  We will watch and see.  According to Ryan's ortho. dr. he would like to push back his hamstring surgery to Summer time, this way in case he grows (which is bound to happen b/c he's just an 8 year old boy) he can adjust to it, as best as his body will handle it.  B/C he seems to grow in spurts, as we all do.  Also, we are not putting any undo stress on Ry's already fragile body.  The ortho. said he won't miss any school either :)  Which may or may not stink for the pool this Summer :/

On the stuttering issue, which as you may have read on our blog, we believe is being caused from Ry's seizure meds.  I received a call back from Ryan's neuro. and she said that the DNA questions that I posed are definitely questions that genetics at Dupont could answer for us.  I simply told her the reason we were contacting neuro. in the first place?  Was b/c it was dealing with his seizure meds. and if not start with neuro. then who should we start with?  Neuro. told me this was great reasoning but genetics would be able to better answer the questions we put forth.  So, to make a story short, Ryan has a genetic appt. on April 4th...hopefully they will be able to find out if Ry is predisposed to stuttering.  I would LOVE to have any biological info. on our boys, especially Ryan.  Here is a website on the genes that were recently found that predispose you to stuttering, http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/56232/title/Mutations_may_underlie_some_stuttering.

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan & Lukey :)

Back to the Dr.'s we will go...

Today is Friday and Lukey needed a follow-up from his ER visit the other night, SO I was thinking why not bring Ryan along too b/c he was not getting any better either :(  That is exactly what I did...it was successful in some areas but not in all :/ 

Let me explain...we saw the same pediatrician as we did on Monday and he said "Oh your back"!  Yes, like I had any other choice :/  He finally put Ry on antibiotics b/c according to him he now had a sinus infection.  I seriously want to throw my hands up in the air, b/c nothing has changed with Ryan and he had the same exact symptoms that he had when I brought him in on Monday :/  I am not complaining but my goodness!  Okay, I am complaining!

The pediatrician was shocked to hear that Lukey actually had a concussion, as were we.  But, everything with his follow-up appointment went great for the concussion, he checked out neurologically...everything was great, right?  Not so fast, I asked the dr. to check Lukey out b/c he still has that cold/cough.  As a matter of fact, some of the other Moms at Lukey's preschool refer to this particular cold as the "COUGH"!  The cold is being spread throughout the preschool.  The dr. checked him out, his lungs were clear, his ears were good...so no antibiotics :/  What I don't understand is how the pediatrician can put one child (who lives in the same household with the child who has a sinus infection and they share everything and yes I do mean everything) on an antibiotics but not the other?!  I specifically asked the dr. if he would put Lukey on an antibiotic BUT he told me I can treat it with over-the-counter medication.  So, tonight Lukey is irritable, has non-clear mucus (in other words its a pretty neon color) and is just miserable :/  We will definitely be back at the pediatricians office sometime within the next week.  Can you tell how happy I am?!  LOL!

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan, & Lukey :)

ER here we come...

LOL!  Its not what everyone is thinking...we went to the ER tonight for Lukey, believe it or not!  Not for Ryan!  Funny, huh?!  I have to laugh to keep from crying at this point :/  Apparently, Lukey hit his head and as a result suffered a concussion and that is why we were in the ER.  I feel awful b/c I didn't actually witness it!  Lukey was being silly and fell as he was taking his jacket off in our foyer and literally fell down two steps and all I heard was two big thuds.  I didn't even think anything of it until he started saying weird things, such as I hear ringing in my head, do you hear that Mommy?  Or I really don't look right do I?  It was extremely bizarre, even for a silly kiddo like him.  And, then after that he started vomiting, he did vomit twice, which not only scared him but it terrified me.  So, I then called his pediatrician and after much delay the dr. on call did get back to me and told me to go to the ER. By the time we went to the ER they didn't even think it was necessary to do a CAT scan or an x-ray and he checked out (neurologically) okay :)  The ER just told us to watch over him for the next 24 hours and told us not to send him to preschool.   I always thought that Lukey's first concussion (if and when he were to get one) would be in hockey and he would be much, much older :/


Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan, & Lukey :)

Only Ryan :/

Ryan has picked up Lukey's cold/cough, which normally I wouldn't be concerned about BUT (and that's a BIG BUT!) it definitely started unlike other colds that Ry has had in the past.  With Ryan we can almost always tell when he is truly getting seriously ill.  He gets these deep dark circles under his eyes, he starts ticking, he acts a little more uncoordinated than usual, he sleeps more than usual, acting strange...when something is happening to Ryan, his body cries out and its up to us to notice what is going on.  In everyday life this isn't as easy to detect as it would appear :/  It is our opinion that Ryan has Mito. crashes and spirals sometimes out of control, to the point of an ER visit or a hospital stay :/  Last year, I will state that we managed to keep Ry out of the ER and the hospital all winter!  I suppose our luck had to run out?!  Honestly, I thought that the reason we were not at the ER at all last winter was b/c of the move from a house that was over a 100 + years old to a new house (were we reside now) but, this theory has been blown to smithereens.  I will say, that after spending 4 or 5 winters in the ER and eventually the hospital it was a pleasant surprise when we didn't need to go last year at all during the winter. 


I brought Ryan to the pediatrician today for help with this cold but the dr. said it was "VIRAL" and that this cold needs to run its course :(  UGH!!!  I told the pediatrician that we would be back to see him or we would wind up in the ER (as we have before).  I truly despise the words its only a "VIRUS"!  We shall see what happens with Ryan.

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan, & Lukey :)

Our Future Hockey Star!

I realize that I have already updated family and friends BUT I absolutely had to update today!!!  Lukey has been accepted in The Future Hockey Stars on Ice Program, there was never a doubt in our minds that there would not be a positive outcome for this particular day-BUT there was a sense of relief when the coaches said YES we do accept him into the program!  WOOHOO!  I truly was proud of him today, he has worked extremely hard for this day.  He will learn the skills, fundamentals of playing hockey in the first 40 minutes of class, and have face offs the last 20 minutes of class.  He looked SO darn cute with all his hockey gear on, minus the shoulder pads, b/c we have yet to get them.  The shoulder pads are optional at this age.  Ron tells me it will help his Jersey to fit better, lets hope so :)  He is one of, if not the smallest child on the ice, and even though he is tiny, its hard to believe at times that he is just 4 years old.  He was given a Jersey and it was the smallest they had and it still came down past his knees, almost shin length :)  SO ADORABLE!!!

Classic Lukey...he came off the ice saying to Ron and I, "I SO HUNGRY"!  BUT and this takes the cake,
he wants a pretzel from the snack bar, and that he wants to go back out on the ice for public skate time b/c a friend of his is there.  He did indeed go back out on to the ice and proceeds to play "tag" with this friend for over an hour!  He came off the ice with his little cheeks incredibly chapped and red but he said, "Mommy that was a lot of fun"!

Love & HUGS,
Jenny, Ron, Ryan, and Lukey :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all :)  Honestly, I can't even fathom the fact that the holidays are

over? Where did they go?! It seems as though time speeds up the older you become, doesn't it? Just
yesterday it was the beginning of December and ALREADY its January 2nd...hard to believe!

Our holidays were great and I adore that the boys are definitely understanding more and more as they get older, especially Lukey's asking about Jesus, LOVE IT!!!.  This year, as always, it was packed full of relatives BUT how else are you suppose to spend the holidays?!?  We managed to squeeze in A LOT before the holidays and of course I took every photo that was possible.  You know its bad when your 8 year old asks if I will take his and his brother's photo at Modell's of them both sitting in an Eagles chair...it was an adorable photo but come on :)  LOL!!!  We saw many Santa's this year too but we never did take the boys to see Santa at the mall, it doesn't matter where you see Santa? It just matters that you did see him, correct?!

Christmas was extremely WONDERFUL this year b/c we gave my Dad a gift to Walt Disney World :)  He gives and gives to us and never has he once asked for anything back in return.  It was our turn to give him the world, just as he has given our family...well, Walt Disney World that is :)  He was shocked and didn't quite understand the present at first, it wasn't until I said, "WE ARE GOING TO WALT DISNEY WORLD DAD AND YOU ARE COMING WITH US"!  We told him that he better come b/c he was already bought and paid for, or at least his lodging/food/Disney Park Tickets.  My sister was shocked that I didn't let her in on this gift and told me it was about time ;)  And, you know what?  We should have done this much, much sooner!  My sister and her boyfriend are going to try and come down to Florida with us for that week...I hope her and Chris will be able to!  That truly would be an incredible vacation :)

I was saddened this year we didn't spend NYE at CoCo Key but also glad, know what I mean?!  I believe that it was too much last year.  So, this year for NYE (New Year's Eve) we spent it at The Discovery Museum in Cherry Hill and they did a faux countdown of New Year for the children.  It was definitely corny but the boys enjoyed themselves :)  The boys even rang in the New Year with hats, noise makers and balloons :)  Then, for the adult version of NYE we spent it at my Dad's :)  Lukey didn't make it to New Year but Ry did!  He is such a little trooper!  Its all those nights he sleeps over at Pop-Pop's and they stay up till at least 12 am :/ 

Then, on New Year day we went to Ron's parents, where we gathered with Ron's side of his family (extremely sweet!!!) and all of us ate pork and cabbage.  I'm reminded every year that this symbolizes "Good Luck" for the upcoming year :) 

Health and Happiness to you and yours!!!


Jenny, Ron, Ryan, and Lukey :)