The End of 2008 - A Whirlwind

Me and Kendal at Thanksgiving visiting family.

Kendal playing with the paint used to paint Christmas ornaments.

Me and Kendal doing some shopping with Aunt Tara. As always, Kendal is trying to entertain the "passer-bys".

Nana, Grandpa, and Kendal (in her Christmas dress) on Christmas Eve.

James helping Kendal unwrap a gift on Christmas morning.

I can't believe it is already 2009. I'm so excited about the new year and what adventures it might bring. We have been off from work quite a bit in the last two weeks and loving every minute of our time at home. I am posting a mix of pictures from the last month to show some of the things we have been up too.

We were able to visit with so many people for the holidays. We had dinner with my dad's side of the family, my mom's side of the family, my sister, her husband, and the girls, James' family, and some good friends of ours that moved to Houston earlier this year. We hate that we aren't able to see some of these people on a more regular basis - we had such a great time visiting!

Kendal only had therapy one day this week due to the holidays but next week we will dive back into our regular schedule. Tuesday we have another appointment with the neurologist for a checkup. Kendal has contracted the oral Type 1 herpes virus and has had cold sores continuously (moving around her mouth) for the last month. Although it doesn't seem to hurt her, I hate that this will probably continue to be a problem since she drools so much. When the geneticist saw her, he immediately noticed the inflammation and wanted us to talk with the neurologist about possible medications to help control the drool. Excessive drooling is common with Angelman Syndrome, and although the geneticist said he does not normally recommend medications for this problem (side effects are not worth taking the medication in many cases), he thought it was something we might need to take a closer look at because of the herpes virus. Topical medications are useless because we cannot keep her mouth/chin dry. She will probably be one of those kids with a bib on in every picture, although I have been better about removing it when the camera comes out!

I hope everyone had a fantastic New Years and best wishes for 2009!

BTW - Has anyone seen any big increases in their electric bill? We just got ours and it's up $100 from last month and $120 higher than December 2007. What's up with that?