Living in Georgia

I just got this photo from a wedding we attended on July 5th and loved it so much I wanted to post it for everyone to enjoy - since it is our anniversary today. Now, back to my champagne!!!

It's been 9 great years of marriage to Jason and to celebrate, I took the little boys to Six Flags this morning! We rode on 5 rides before being rained out (too exhausted to stay after that). Both Jack and Ethan rode on them with me and we had so much fun. Next year I will definitely be getting a season's pass (they have a new Thomas Town so of course Jack loved playing there). Tonight we're off to dinner to celebrate and I have a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge for after the boys go to bed. It was supposed to be to celebrate being 100% debt free, but I think we can celebrate both big events in our life with one bottle - especially since Jason is now back in training for the Army. Love to you all!

It's only Tuesday night and I'm already exhausted! Ethan turned 6 months on Friday and to celebrate, we have been going non-stop ever since. Weekends seem to be spent out and about these days. After going into Atlanta on Saturday for a day of shopping, we headed out to a park on Sunday for some swimming, fishing and a nice picnic lunch. Jack had a blast swimming in the lake with Daddy, while Ethan slept and I read a magazine. Then after drying off and having lunch, he managed to catch himself a little fish! Daddy didn't have much luck, though. Well, Jason's off traveling and the boys are sleeping, so I'm going to head to bed myself. Then get back up and do it all over again tomorrow.

It's been a busy week and I'm exhausted! TGIF!!! We had an especially busy day yesterday as we had Jack's regular weekly playdate and Ethan had his first playdate. We spent the morning at the home of another family with a 2 year old with Down's. It was really great to spend time with someone else who has been through what we're going through and to see just how typical this little girl is. McKenna is running around like crazy and very loving and happy. She was in love with Ethan (but then who isn't?) and couldn't stay away from him. Jack enjoyed being somewhere new and having lots of new toys to play with. McKenna's mom was also happy to have another family to spend time with and we're talking of starting up a monthly playgroup with two other mom's of Down's babies; an 8 month old and a three year old Down's babies. I forsee a very busy fall ahead of us and I'm tired already. Unfortunately, my house is what's really suffer

Well, we had the speech therapist come to evaluate Ethan today and the good news is that she's going to recommend he had it added to his sessions. The bad news is that she probably can't add him until October. But she gave me a bunch of tips on helping him eat and exercises for his face to help strengthen his facial muscles. Mostly, I'm just happy to have her coming prior to Ethan speaking so that she's in place as he starts to say his first words. Hopefully this will help him talk earlier and better than a typical Down's child. Anyway, we're off momentarily for Jack's gymnastics class. So much to do and so little time. Hope you're all doing well and enjoying what's left of summer. Kids go back to school here starting August 3rd (our county goes back the 18th this year but still too early for me!).

Hope you all had a nice weekend. We went looking for a playground set for the boys and found a massive one that we hope to have installed by the end of August (and just in time for Jack's 3rd birthday). We just need to get the area of the backyard leveled off first. Jack was having a blast playing on all the toys until he got stung by a bee. At least now we know that he isn't allergic to them! When I put Jack to bed I always ask him what he wants to do the next day, well, the other night he told me he wanted to go to the hospital. When I asked him why he said to get another baby. I guess that means he wants another sibling. Good news for Jason - who wants more too!!

Ethan tried carrots for the first time yesterday and he couldn't get enough of them!!! Guess I now have two veggie lovin' boys!! They take after their mom. In other big news for the Cornwell's, we finally sold the last of our rental houses and are officially debt free. I'm so happy that Jason's stress level has gone from off the charts to nothing. This takes the pressure off when he's gone doing his military training. Anyway, hope you're all doing well.

I can't believe the summer is halfway over! It sure has been busy for us down here - and getting busier all the time. Jack has potty trained and given up his naps (all in the same week, mind you) and Ethan has started eating real food (well, just rice cereal but we're going to be trying carrots today!!). Ethan still has a bit of trouble with eating so we're bringing in a speech therapist to help. The good news is that she'll be in place to help him with speaking prior to speaking instead of having to wait until there's a delay in speech. I'm learning so much about all the therapies available to special needs kids and quickly becoming a child advocate. You certainly take for granted having a "typical" child and how easy it is to raise them. Once you have one that needs a little extra help, you have to start battling the government agencies just to get the basic help your child needs. But we remain optimistic with how well Ethan is doing. He's

OK, Jason's got me blogging. I may never have time for anything else ever again!!! I hope to keep you all up to date with what's going on with the boys and our life. Should get crazy with all Ethan's therapy's, Jack's activities and Jason's military training. Hold on ... it's going to be a bumpy ride!!

Well, I'm trying to get Ellen set up so that she can share all of our pictures and stories with the family. We'll see how this experiment goes since she is not a blogger. Hopefully this catches on so you all can enjoy our stories even if we are across the country and the various ponds of the world from all of you. Jason