Asher's Army

On Friday, Februrary 18 we loaded my mom's Expedition (b/c it is larger than our Mountainier) and headed to Houston in support of baby Asher. My college roomate, Courtney, is Asher's mommy.  Asher was born 5 weeks early on Februrary 16, 2010 with a heart defect called. tetralogy of fallot. He had his surgery in July when he was 5 months old and after a longer stay in the hospital than expected and a few little bumps in the road he has been doing great ever since. Praise the Lord!! So Courtney asked if we wanted to donate or come down for the actual walk to benefit heart research. She said that undiagnosed heart defects kill more people than cancer, but cancer has more funding for research. Courtney would like to see every newborn get an echo on their heart. Congenital heart defects is the #1 birth defect. They are very common, 1 out of every 100 babies have one! Her and Tommy were telling of about a friend of theirs that had a heart defect since birth, but never knew it until she ran a marathon, seized and passed out at the finish line and had to be put in a medically induced coma. If she had had an echo as an infant she and her parents would have known early on and could have treated it.

On a side note, we vacationed in Galveston with the Higgins family in June and have decided to make it an annual get together. This summer we are thinking of vacationing on a lake for a few days. Any good lakes and cheap places to hold 2 families of 4?

Anyways, the kids did great on the long 5 hour road trip to Houston. Kellyn mostly read books and Rhett was in and out of sleep most the time. We left during his nap time plus he had thrown up 3 times the day before so he was pretty worn out and trying to recover. I don't think he had the stomach bug because he threw up after he drank milk then slept great through the night and never threw up again until 3 days later on Sunday when we gave him milk from that same carton again. We threw that carton out and he has been fine ever since. Poor little guy.

We arrived at the Higgins home at 7:00 p.m. and ate pizza with them then headed over to Courtney's mom's house to spend the night. Kellyn really wanted Isaac to spend the night over there with her like he did in Galveston. This is a picture of them when I told them that Isaac gets to sleep at his grandparent's house with us! They were pretty excited. She said she remembered how fun it was to sleep on the floor with Isaac in Galveston.

Good Morning! We were up at 7 a.m. on Saturday ready to go to the walk. Kellyn said she would only wear a camo colored shirt if she could wear a pink skirt with it and evidently her diva sunglasses. Kellyn is only 6 months older than Isaac, but gosh she is so tall!

This was the only picture I got of Kellyn in the double stroller. She never got back in it again. I don't know why because she sat in it on Thursday when we took Miss Lily for a walk and she loved it. Please notice the chocolate milk Tommy brought for us to drink with the donut holes he bought for the race, just what we want before a 5k :)

Family pic with Rhett standing on his cast.

Roomates together again!

Me, Mary and Courtney.

Walking with Mary and her family, Michael,
Marin (2), and baby Stella (2 months).                      And Max and our kids walking with Tommy and Isaac.

The big kids holding hands, so sweet.                                                The mommies with thier babies.

We finished! And Kellyn was so proud of herself for walking the entire way.

Kellyn and Isaac.

The Dixons and the Higgins

These pictures were taken about 15 minutes after getting in the car for the trip home. Rhett crashed immediately and Kellyn wanted to eat.

After about 2 hours on the road we stopped in Maddisonville at Bucees for gas. This place had everything, candy, deli, popcorn, artwork, toys. clothes. It was like a mini Target at a gas station.

On the road again.
You may have noticed that Kellyn is wearing something different. This is because I told her she could wear her pink dress after the walk for wearing camo green during the walk.

I love that my kids just wanted to read books in the car.                       And they drew lots of pictures.

We made it home safely and went to bed early.

Looking forward to next year's heartwalk and seeing the Higgins' in June.