Update and Keep the Prayers Coming...

I know a lot of you are praying for my nephew (thank you SO much) and I just wanted to post an update from my brother in law. Keep the prayers coming! Thanks!

Another couple of days have gone by and Billy continues to amaze us. He's showing a lot of strength right now. He's up and mobile, moving around the house a few times a day. Mostly restroom breaks and dinner.He's eating better, but not as well as we would like. Unfortunately, the extra layers of skin are tight and have adhered to his skin, causing pulling and some pain when trying to open his mouth. He can't eat anything much larger than a dime because he can't get his mouth open wide enough. Drinking through a straw and cutting things really small seem to be the answer. Unfortunately, it even hurts to laugh and smile. The good news is, this will get better over time. One of my daily duties is to cut away the skin as it dries and releases itself from his skin. Not a fun task at all. I've been so nervous cutting around his mouth, nose, and eyes. I've also been keeping the netting trimmed; I even cut out a spaghetti stain the other day.

Michelle and I are working hard every day to continue to focus on the mental healing with Billy. You all are helping wonderfully with your voice mails and emails. We think there are two ways to stay on top of the mental healing, visitors from friends his age and adults. While we have to limit it, we want to try and start scheduling some limited visitors each night to stop by and spend some time with Billy. Call us if you would like to come see him. He just wants to talk, watch TV, play games, and get his mind off of his bandages.

Important: Please don't plan time with Billy if you are not feeling well or if you have been exposed to anyone sick. We simply can't take the risk. You'll also need to go through Michelle's Sanitizing Ritual (MSR) before you can go into his bedroom. Infection is still our largest enemy.

Billy has a doctor’s visit on Thursday. The Burn Center from Augusta has an extension at Cobb General and Billy's surgeon comes here on Thursday. They also have centers in FL, SC, MS, and AL that they visit once each week. That keeps us from having to make the trip back to Augusta and allows Billy to see the same individual that started his care. Our hopes are that the bandages will come off and give us our first look at the healing. This visit will determine if additional surgeries will be necessary, such as repairing skin graphs.

Sammy finally made it home after fighting off the flu and staying at my parent’s house. He had his first glance of Billy since the accident. Young kids are awesome; he jumped in and played games with Billy like nothing was different. Yesterday was Sammy's 6th birthday, so we had a mini-birthday party with him at the house. He loved it!

Michelle and I want to thank everyone again for your help. We knew we had it special here and are now confident in the over-sized heart you all have. The dinners have been great, although we are feeling a little plump from all the great eating. I need to get out and start running again; I still haven't seen the neighborhood damage from all the flooding.

Thanks Again!Bill and Michelle Rose

Prayers Please...

As most of my blog readers know, my nephew, Billy, has been badly burned in an accident. I would like to reach out to all of you and ask for prayer for my nephew, Billy, my sister, my brother in law and my nephew, Sammy! The prognosis is as good as can be expected, but there is a long road to recovery that lies ahead for them.

Thanks!

Par-Tay! :)

Well, my baby is officially ONE! It's bittersweet. We went home to celebrate with family and friends.

Getting the party started the night before! She figured out how to make the party blowers work. It was so funny!
Me, Mom and Abby decorated cupcakes all night! :)

The little cupcakes are clowns...they turned out SO cute!!

The history of this dress: This dress is 38yrs old and has been worn by the girls in my family on their first birthdays for years. My cousins wore it, I wore it, Abby wore it, and now Liv. I hope I have a grandaughter in it one day! :)

Timmie, hanging with the dogs! That's Cuz, my newest nephew and Tabor, my other brother! haha!

The bigger kids played some games!

Liv is so funny. She is so wild, but she has such a chill personality. She could have cared less about anything that happened that day...haha! She did enjoy her gifts and the paper, though! (Some of you reading this probably remember when Britt was a baby! Can you believe she is almost 15!?, the girls just LOVE her!! I wish I could move her here so I could have a babysitter ;)

Ok, the look she is giving me in this picture is TOTAL Olivia...'what the heck are you doing? and what is the big deal!?' hahahaha!

Yum, Cake! Abby wouldn't touch her cake and she still doesn't eat or like sweets, but we knew Liv would have no problem eating her cake! :) But, she wouldn't touch it until we cut it up for her! haha! Then, she tore in!

'Come here, Abby...I've got a little icing for you!' :)

My Birthday Girl!!

All the little party guests! :)

The girls! The girls were definitely out numbered. (Abby's got the death grip on poor Kensley..haha!)

Playing in the gift bags and paper! I told everyone to just get her paper or water bottles!

Thanks, so much for all of the Birthday wishes and to everyone who came out to the party! We are so blessed to have so many people in our lives that love and care for our kiddos so much!

My Faves from Molto Bella!

So, I know I posted a link a while back, but we got our pictures back yesterday and I had to post my MOST VERY FAVORITES! :)

(I really wish Liv was looking, but still love the pic! :)

This cracks me up...this is SO them! Abby very serious and Liv looking like, 'what!?'

We haven't had a professional picture of the 2 of us since our wedding!! I really love this one!!

Thanks, again, Stacy!! We love them!!

Busy weekend!

We have had one jam packed weekend. But, we have had lots of fun. Saturday morning, one of my squads kicked off their competition season with a competition at Six Flags!!!

They did SO good. We took third place! :)

Saturday night was Trentonfest, so we headed out to the parade.

Mom and Abby on the big slide! She LOVED it! It was so cute! She wouldn't ride anything else, though. (fine by me, the fewer germ-filled rides she rides, the better-haha!)

Big landing!

With the Grizzlies mascot!

Mom and Dad came this weekend, and Friday was Dad's birthday, so we had a little surprise party for him Friday night, too. And, we are finishing the weekend off with tired kids, one with a fever, BUT I am making potato soup, so that will make all things better (for a few minutes, at least...ha!)

Our little one!

I can NOT believe that Olivia will be 1 in just 6 days!!! She is growing up more and more every day. She is walking a lot (and, I think we are just days away from it becoming her preferred mode of transport), she's SO funny, so wild and just the sweetest little thing.


I don't know what is going on with her eye color. They aren't light anymore, but they aren't brown, either. And, when she wears green, they are just as green as can be! I LOVE it!

Sweet Little Liv!

Grandparent's Day!

Last Thursday Abby's class celebrated Grandparent's Day, and the kids invited their grandparents to visit their class. Mom and Scott's parents came in town for it. Abby was SO excited. All the kids had to make goodies for the visiting grandparents, so we decorated sugar cookies...YUMMY!

Showing off her school stuff and classroom! :)

So much fun! Thanks, so much for coming. Abby was BEYOND thrilled!! :)

Back to dance...

FINALLY!! Abby asked almost every day this summer, 'do I have dance tonight!?' I danced for years and years for Hawley at Invitation to Dance, so I am pretty critical of dance studios, but I think we have found a good one this year (Where she was last year...not so much! All I could think was, 'OMG, if Hawley saw this recital, she would stroke out!'....haha!). After just the one night at our new place, though, she was already learning the different ballet positions. She had a BLAST!

Telling Gi-gi and Googy good-bye. You know she's excited about something if she willinginly leaves the Grandparents to go!

She looks ready to me! haha!

With her friends before class.

**We were cracking up...Abby is a child that takes things very seriously...if you teach her something, she will work at it until she can do it...if you give her a task, she will get it done. Well, you should have seen how serious she was in class. The moms were like, 'she's like a little mini-professional!' hahaha! She had to make sure her arms were JUST like the teachers, she would ask exactly where her feet needed to be, etc. Sometimes I just want to say, 'Abby...chill out!' But, I can't say a word...she gets it honest! 'She get it from her momma!' ha!

PreSchool Chatter...

Some of what Abby tells me about school....

*She sits at the table with Avery, Cole and Austin. We know Avery and Cole, but I haven't met Austin, yet. We run into her little friends when we are out and about, and it so cute.

*She plays most with 'a boy that is tall and has curly hair!' She says he is REALLY nice. She gets very silly when she talks about him....a little crush, I think! ha!

*When she 'colors and writes her name, all the kids and the teachers say, Good Job, Abby!' haha! I have a feeling this one might be fabricated a bit. Who knows, maybe they do, or, knowing her, she probably tells them to say that! ha!

*When they play tag, she tags all the girls first and then all the boys! haha! She is pretty fast, so I would give anything to witness this.

*The teacher picked her to be the door holder and 'then the teacher said great job and gave her thumbs up!'

*When I dropped her off today the teacher said, 'Oh, look....Abby's here, all the girls are waiting for you!' and they all came running over to her. It was SO sweet! There is only Abby and 5 other girls in the class. All the rest are boys, so the girls must be banding together already! haha!

*Her favorite part of the day is singing funny songs, but she won't tell me what any of them are.

*'We do say our prayers at school, but we pray for nothing!' ha! I keep asking her to tell me how their prayer goes, but she won't tell me that, either.

*This morning she told me, 'I don't need to eat that breakfast, Mom...they will be giving me snacks in a little while, anyways!' Good try, Abby!