Tis the Season!

Ok well it is definitely the season to run around like a chicken with your head cut off!!! I am done Christmas shopping, Christmas mailing and Christmas wrapping! Now getting ready for the unwrapping!

We had an awesome time with the Lambert's again! We went to Helen (a tourist alpine village here in north Georgia) We got pics with Santa! It was really funny! I love the pic of Justice and Santa, he has this smile on his face like "hurry up take the dang picture so I can get away from the weirdo with the beard and his creepy wife!" We couldn't convince Riley to go anywhere near Santa and her daddy made her cry trying to carry her over to Santa to get a candy cane! Laura and I were reaching for Riley going NOOOOOO bring her back! Poor baby, bad daddy!

No really we had a lot of fun! We are either very brave or very stupid I have yet to figure out which! Laura's crew consisted of 2 adults, 3 small children and a Zoro; my crew was 1 adult, 1 child and 1 insane service dog! We toured the village and then went on a small hike to Anna Ruby Falls which was great and Blue did awesome with the tethering! I am so glad I had Erik tethered because he lost his balance on the trail and almost fell down a gully into the creek below, which would not have turned out well for him! So hey tethering doesn't just keep your child from running away from you it is a emergency repelling rope as well!

We came back to our house and celebrated Christmas with the Lambert crew it was great!

Erik recently started having some seizures again! We have upped medications and gone for blood test and made the weekly call to Jeremy for help in guiding Blue in seizure work! Thank God it looks like we will not need to train Blue at this time it has been 5 days since Erik had a seizure so I am hoping the medications have kicked in and we can go another year or so without them!

This has also been an amazing Christmas season because for the first time since Erik's regression and diagnosis of Autism I was able to buy Erik Christmas presents! Not just Spongebob DVD's even though we have the new ones also! I was able to buy toys that he enjoys playing with at other peoples houses and at school! This is really special also because as many of you know Erik has been attending the Marcus Institute for a long time, longer than the program he is in was supposed to last. Do to the economy and our state budget cuts to special needs programs Erik's program is being cut to half days and he will probably be discharged from the program at the end of summer. So a lot of the toys I was able to get him I can use to continue working with him as best I can the way Marcus does! I am planning on going through parent training! Please pray for this situation, there is a lot more too this then just the cutting of his program, way more than I can go into on a post! Thanks for your love and prayers!

We wanted to tell everyone Merry Christmas! We love you all and have thought about each of you this holiday season! Many of you I was able to send Christmas cards too some I was not but we wanted to wish all of ya'll an amazing Christmas Holiday and New Year!

With all our Love

Deanna, Erik and Blue

Thanksgiving with the Putnams!

Thanksgiving was very special! Our friends from West Virginia who we met through 4 Paws came down for a visit and brought their service dog Ajax! Many of you may remember Ajax, he was a service dog to a little boy named Matthew and they came to many of our fundraisers. Matthew is not an active child, he wanted a dog that was smaller and more cuddly (Ajax weighs over 100lbs) so they returned Ajax to 4 Paws. Ajax has been placed with the Putnam family and their son Tristen and they adore Ajax! Ajax is a great tracker and that is exactly what Tristen needs so all has worked out beautifully and Matthew will get his new smaller service dog in January!

Samantha, Nathan, Tristen and Rebecka all came and stayed with us! We ate an amazing meal and of course we ate too much! My parents smoked a turkey and made the vegies! I made the desserts! The kids played outside and Blue and Ajax romped around and really enjoyed having another dog to play with. We did a track where we mixed up who hid with the kids! Nathan hid with Erik for Blue's track and Papaw did the track, both Blue and Papaw did awesome! They were dead on and Papaw read Blue and didn't just run for all he was worth or loose the lead! I hid with Tristen and we made it a long track! Tristen did great we sat in the woods and I told him a story about a boy and his dog! Ajax booked it the whole way and as usual was amazing!

Tristen and Erik really started to interact which was soooo cool! Erik's favorite thing to do was to touch whatever Tristen had and make Tristen scream then run away and laugh! He never wanted the toy he just wanted the reaction! The kids played and played! I was amazed they didn't pass out every evening! Tristen just loved Erik's powerwheel Jeep and actually knows how to drive it (for Erik we cock the wheel and he presses the gas peddle and goes in circles)! Erik loves when he has someone to drive him so they were in heaven! We have 2 batteries and they killed both batteries each day, haha! Papaw drove them on the tractor which is one of Erik's favorite things to do and Tristen loves tractors also!

Rebecka is precious! Boy did she love Papaw! Papaw took her for a ride on the tractor first! He would push her on the swing! She would constantly ask for "Papaw, swing"! It would be pitch dark outside and Rebecka would come to Samantha and ask for the playground and when Samantha said "no" she would then ask for Papaw! It was really cute! After we put the kiddo's to bed Samantha, Nathan and I stayed up way too late and played cards, laughed and cut up! It was a great time! We miss them!

Updateing Ya'll!!!

Wow it has been forever since I have posted and so much has happened! I will try to post over the next few days and get everyone updated!

Blue and Erik are doing well. I am having to crack the whip with Blue, I let my training laps over the past 3 weeks while I was studying for my Nursing state board exam and Blue has acquired some bad habits but now that I am done with the test he is falling back in line, even though he has had to spend a little extra time in the kennel for thinking that Build-A-Bears are really yummy and decides to take advantage of any opportunity my back is turned to indulge in one! Also he has gotten off of his poop schedule and we have had 3 accidents in public!!! I am guessing that Blue doesn't like Target and Kohls since those are his favorite land mine targets!Little snot head even when I give him the opportunity to go before we enter the store! Of course I made my weekly phone call to Jeremy and we are reducing the am food and feeding pm food earlier!

Erik is making some incredible advancements! He will mimic us when we try to get him to make sounds! Like Bunny, we ask him to say "Ba" when he does then we ask him to say "Nie"! He is trying to say them together but the "Ba" is coming out silently when he tries that. Also I will make the sounds of the alphabet and he attempts about 1/2 of the sounds which is awesome! I am really excited! He is showing a lot of interest in trying to talk! He is also showing a lot of interest in Blue! The other day (will post pic's later) I was in the kitchen taking a practice test and it was WAY TOOOOOO QUITE, in the living room so I snuck around the corner and Erik was leaning on Blue and they were both watching Spongebob! As soon as they both saw me they both jumped away from each other like ummm we weren't hanging out together or anything! I got them back settled down together and took some great pics.

Blue is an awesome tracker and has continued to amaze us! Papaw is finally getting the hang of tracking with Blue! I have laughed at him so much! When I first let him do a track I asked him if he needed any refresher and he was like "No" and told me that he was there listening to Jeremy and even did a track at 4 Paws! So off Erik and I went to hide and I saw Papaw and Blue take off! Blue was running full force with his head up grinning and wasn't on scent at all! Papaw was being drug behind him! They were about to pass us when Erik squealed out and Blue was like Oh! Hey! So we decided to try another track when we had a 3rd person so I could guide Papaw!!! Dang it if Papaw couldn't hold onto the lead! He let it go twice the second time Blue was on scent running for all he was worth! He over shot the 90 degree turn but came back to it and over shot the next turn and was down in the woods. We were calling him and I was trying to go in the direction I last saw him! He came running out of the woods without his tracking harness or his lead!!!! Jeremy gave us Houdini the amazing escaping dog, because not only can he get out of his harness but Blue can and will jump out of windows!!!

Oh and I took my state board NCLEX exam on Nov 25th and I passed so I am unofficially (until they mail me my license) an LPN! YEAH! I can get a job now! Please keep that in your prayers I am currently job hunting, most employers want 1 yr experience so I am applying everywhere!

Well I will post more later and I have a ton of pics to show ya'll! We had the Putnam's and Ajax down for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time, can't wait to tell ya'll about that!