He is getting big!

Guess who is 11 months old now! It's crazy how big he is getting!

January

Trying new foods!

Cole has been so good about trying new foods, as long as he can feed himself.

Spagetti

Gram crackers

Green beans

Vanilla Wafers

Gabe is so excited that Cole is getting big enough to start playing with him. Here is their hunt that they played in all morning. Love these two buddies.

We celebrated Mark and my brother Chris birthdays at my sister's house. My sister sure knows how to throw a party!!

Eric was so excited to hold Cole.

This is Cole doing food therapy. Ever since the Beef and Beef Gravy, Cole will not eat baby food. So we have an OT come and see if he could give us some ideas. He wants us to let Cole play with the food and really enjoy it. Which I think he did. We decided that it's not a texture thing it's more of a trust thing. So hopefully he will start trusting us again.

Athena's Butt-day!

Happy 1st Butt-day to this beautiful girl!!!

We have been so blessed to have Athena and Heidi by our side the last year.

Here is Heidi's post-
One year ago, this beautiful back-side made it's debut to the world. Her lesion was closed by an amazing team during fetal surgery...then she was tucked safely back in my womb to grow stronger until she was ready to be born! Athena showed us her strength that day and every day since. We could not be more proud.

Fetal surgery was the scariest...and most peaceful decision we've ever made. We could not have done it without the love and support of so many. Thank you ALL for being on this journey with us. We are forever humbled and grateful for you all heart emoticon

Catch up!

We have been enjoying the snow. Luke made this snowman all by himself! 

We celebrated Mark's birthday! We are so grateful to have him as our Dad!

Cole's hair is getting long enough to do some pretty cool hair dos!

Side view so you can really appreciate it. I think it kind of makes his head look even bigger so I don't think he will wear it like that ever often. But it was fun to try it out.

Happy Fetal Surgery Day!

Happy Fetal Surgery Day!

 One year ago today was one of the most scariest days of my whole life. I pretty much closed my eyes and stepped into the unknown. I had courage to do it because I felt the Lord by my side. We have seen miracles because of the surgery that Cole had done while still inside my tummy.With that all being said we couldn't have done it without the support of friends and family. We are so grateful for their love. I can't wait to see what the future hold for our sweet boy. He truly is a gift from God.

 All my spina bifida friends would call today Cole's Butt day. Because in most SB Fetal Surgery's the babies butt are showing during the surgery. But because Cole's legion was so high, his would be a back day. Which doesn't sound as cool. So we are sticking with Fetal Surgery day! So HAPPY FETAL SURGERY DAY TO YOU ALL!

Cole and I threw a party for the family. We wanted them to know how grateful we are for all that they have sacrificed in the last year. Lucky to have such an amazing family

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

The kids had a great time making gingerbread houses. Tay and Gabe were a team. Their's was rightfully awarded the Candy Lodge.

Drew worked really hard on his. He burned through two or three packs of gram crackers trying to get it just right. His was awarded the Candy Cottage.

Luke had his friend over.They were awarded the Candy Shacks.  Everyone seem to love to eat the candy as much as they did decorating with it.

Gabe had his Preschool Christmas Program. He did an amazing job singing. He knew all the words and sang them loud and clear!

He was in heaven when it was his turn to sit on Santa's lap. He told Santa that he had been a good boy and would like a lego police truck.

On Christmas Eve it is a family tradition to go to Mark's parents and have dinner and do Christmas activities. Cole with is aunt Jenny and cousin Harley.

Grandma and Grandpa Spencer

Our activity that we were in charge of for the night was decorating gingerbread men. Here is our cousin Layney showing off her's.

Tay and cousin Zoey.

Cole loved hanging out with his grandma and grandpa.

We had to get a picture while all the grand kids had their elf PJ's on.

Well Santa came to our house! Everyone seems to be very excited about their presents.

We had a great Christmas day. We enjoying hanging out and playing with toys, but most of all we enjoyed be together. Thinking back to last year at this time we where just getting ready to be apart for a month. It's amazing our different this year is. We are so grateful for Cole and that he is with us now. We are to grateful that he has been doing as well as he has. The Lord has truly blessed us.

We were very lucky that is finally snowed Christmas day. The boys were very excited to get our 4 wheeler out and take it for a spin around the circle.

More December Fun!

Cole has not been feeling well. His brothers have been coughing and still giving him kisses.So we have learned our lesson, we hope the kids have at least. That Cole will get sick if you are sick and kissing on him. I took him in because of Christmas coming up and sure enough he has an ear infection. So glad we could get some meds going, so hopefully we can fully enjoy Cole's first Christmas.

On Monday we had an appointment with the Cardiology. Cole's heart is looking good. The Dr was glad to have only good news to report. We will be having a bigger test done at the beginning of next year to rule out any issues. Hopefully we won't have to come back for a very long time or maybe ever again after the next test.

Basketball is what our Saturdays are all about anymore. The boys are doing very well! Cole, Gabe and Tay are having a great time cheering them on.

Here is Luke shooting and making a free throw.

Miles is a great point guard. 

Drew is great at bring the ball down the court and making a shot.

Cole LOVES baths. If he hears the water running he starts to smile and flap his arms. So when his brother asked if they could take a bath with him, he was way excited.

We are having a hard time in the eating department. We feed Cole a couple of weeks ago some beef and beef gravy. In which he did not like at all. He didn't even have it in his mouth for more than a second and he started dry heaving, then he projectile vomited. Ever since then he will only eat yogurt. When we try to feed him anything else he closes his eyes and turns away. I talked to our PT  about it. She thought it might be a good idea to have the Speech Therapist come and see if they could help us out. The sad thing is he was eating baby food so well that I had just gone to the store and bought tons of baby food. I hope that we can get him liking baby food again.

A little over a week ago we went and meet a family that just had a little baby girl with SB. She didn't qualify for fetal surgery, her legion is at the very end of her tailbone and they still haven't done surgery. I think they are waiting for her to get a little bigger. It was great to meet them. They have such a cute family. It will be fun to watch their little girl grow up and do amazing things.