The Lump

Back when Davis was 15 months old (July) I noticed that he had a lump on the side of his neck. We had just had his 15 month appointment the day before so I didn't want to go back in unless it was necessary. So, I called Davis' pediatrician and asked what she thought and she felt that it was just an enlarged lymph node since he was a little sick, but she said that if it didn't go away in a week that I should bring him back in. Well, I stopped noticing the lump and kinda forgot about it for a while. Right around Davis' 18 month check up I noticed the lump again and at this point I was feeling terrible because I was questioning, "was that there the whole time?" I took Davis to his 18 month check up and his Dr. checked him out. He was sick this appointment too and she said, to keep and eye on it again and if it didn't go away after his sickness was gone to call back and get an appointment. This time I was much more aware of the lump. Davis seemed to be sick on and off for a few weeks after his appointment. At just about 19 months I noticed the lump was still there and he was definitely no longer sick. I called the Dr. and she had us come in. She didn't like that the lump had gotten bigger and she didn't like that it was still there after 4 months. She started some basic testing to see if we could figure it out. She did a Tuberculosis test on him first which came back negative. We then did a course of antibiotics which also didn't cause the lump to go down or go away. At this point, she set up an appointment at a pediatric surgeons office in Atlanta. They were able to squeeze us in for an appointment the very next working day.

At this point I am a little more nervous about everything because we got the specialists appointment very fast and Davis' pediatrician seemed a little more concerned but I was trying to stay positive and optimistic. The surgeon said she didn't like that it had gotten bigger and that it had been there for 4+ months either. She said that doing a biopsy would be inconclusive. If the biopsy came back positive then they would have to remove the lump, if it came back negative it still wouldn't rule out that nothing was wrong. The only way to be sure that nothing was wrong was to take out the lump completely. Surgery was then scheduled for Dec 7th.

Thanksgiving!

We had a pretty low key Thanksgiving. My parents were in Germany over Thanksgiving and my brother Chris was still in California. Josh's brother ended up getting really sick over Thanksgiving so Josh's parents, Grammy and Grampy came over so we had a small intimate gathering! Despite there not being very many people, we definitely had a spread!! The food was great and we enjoyed leftovers for quite a while.

Road trip to North Carolina

As the holidays started approaching, Josh and I realized that this year he was getting the entire week of Thanksgiving off. We definitely wanted to take advantage of his time off so we decided to hit the road for an impromptu road trip. The last time we went up to North Carolina was 3 years ago. We had gone to Elon's homecoming when Lily was 6 weeks old. We thought traveling with a 6 week old was a lot of work, that's nothing compared to traveling with a 3 year old and a 1 year old for 5 days. We had a lot of fun along the way and got to see a lot of old friends that we wish we could see A LOT more often. Here was our itinerary!

FRIDAY

Leave Friday afternoon 11/19 and drive up to Charlotte (stay with the Powells)

SATURDAY

Wake up and have breakfast with the Powells!

Drive up to Elon

Walk around campus and reminisce (Wow have things changed)

Eat lunch and head over to the football game

Watch Elon play their last game of the season

Drive from Elon to Salisbury (stay with the Jones')

SUNDAY

Eat breakfast with the Jones'

Drive from Salisbury to Winston-Salem

Hang out with the Williams'

Spend the night with the Williams'

MONDAY

Went to the Children's museum with Becca, Isaac and Joseph

After lunch and naps (for the kids of course) drive back to Charlotte

Stay with the Powells and the Bautes

TUESDAY

Eat breakfast with the Powells and Bautes

Get back on the road and drive home.

Make it back to GA around 1pm Tuesday!!

SO MUCH FUN!! We loved seeing all of our friends from our college days! Must say a big thank you to the Powells, Bautes, Jones' and Williams' !!!!

Professional Family Pictures

We had pictures done by a very talented photographer, Tammy Maglovsky (www.lastingmomentsbytammy.com) I think they turned out great and I love getting our family to get pictures together each year!

Rounding Out Fall 2010

We stayed busy this Fall. Besides going to Corn Dawgs we also went to the Hoschton Fall festival, helped and participated in the Braselton Fall festival (put on by our awesome church The Vine!), carved pumpkins, went Trick or Treating, ate lots of candy, had a "book character" costume day at preschool, had a Halloween play date with our church mommy friends, and just in general enjoyed the fabulous transition from summer to winter. The leaves this year were outstanding!! One of the highlights of Fall for us was our trip to North Carolina. I will leave those details to a separate post!

My Little Red Riding Hood

Davis was a Lemur (who wouldn't wear his hood)

Nana and Lily at Braselton's Fall Festival