Seeding the greenhouse

This past weekend, Grandma, Aunt Amanda, and Dada seeded the greenhouse with the summer vegetables.  So we just ran around the farm and took pictures.  Claire is now obsessed with "driving" the tractors ever since Will visited last weekend and showed her how to drive.  

tractor girl

checking out the greenhouse 

driving the gator

loves her tractors!

fun!

She cracks me up!  She's a natural tractor driver

Claire and Dada

picnic lunch at the shop

And when a girl gets tired of carrying her princess drink, she sets it on Dada's tailgate.  

Love,
The Scott Family

Meowsic

So I NEVER just see something in the store and buy it for no reason.  Seriously.  I feel guilty when I spend money.  So when I was at Target and saw this "Meowsic" cat keyboard that was like $25, I just went wild and crazy and bought it for Claire.  She L.O.V.E.S. music and especially pianos/keyboards.  We had a little baby piano she still played with but I thought it was time to get her a big girl piano.  So "Meowsic" came home with me!  

And you would think I gave her the moon......

You can tell from the video why the keyboard is called "Meowsic" - as if the huge orange cat face didn't give it away too.  There is a button on the keyboard that makes all the keys play a meow noise for the notes.  Claire is obsessed with playing the piano in the meow mode.

It's been the best wild and crazy move I have made in a long time!  And I don't feel guilty about it.  She loves  Meowsic and loves playing music.  And I can't wait to see where she goes with her love for music.

Love,
The Scott Family

Activity Table

I found this picture on my camera today from a few weeks ago.  For those of you who read my post on Facebook about Claire's meltdown over the pajamas, you will know what this is about.  Not long after that meltdown, she woke up one morning and INSISTED that she take her activity with her to my parent's house before work.  So I had to haul her and the table out to the car and then she rode the entire way like this holding the table.

I told her how ridiculous she was acting but she didn't think so.  But in an effort to avoid another crazy meltdown, I complied. But I had to take a picture of it!

Love,
The Scott Family

TEAM JAX



Claire sported her TEAM JAX tshirt today.  She hammed it up for the camera (see below) as I was trying to take her picture.  We surprised Jax's mom with matching shirts for Layn and Jaxson too.  These kids have to support each other too!   And if you want to order a tshirt for your child, just let me know and I can tell you who to contact! 

 

 

Jaxson spiked a fever last night so they have started antibiotics.  Also the doctors at UNC are planning to have a conference this week to discuss the possibility of a bone marrow transplant for Jax.  Once they can get his spinal fluid clear of leukemia this next time, they are considering doing the transplant to hopefully help him.  Right now it seems that they are pulling out all the stops.  No other children's hospital in the US (St. Jude's included) had anything that they thought could help Jax.  So the doctors here seem to be doing everything they can for him.  They did an MRI yesterday to check for "clusters" of leukemia cells in his spine and brain, but did not find any.  If they had found clusters, they would have attempted radiation on those spots if they were able. 

 

 



 

Please, please keep Jaxson and his family in your prayers!  And our TOF heart friend Mason who may have to have heart surgery again....... :(

Love,
The Scott Family

It's a small world

It sure is a small world.  I mean, I already kind of knew that.  But this past weekend I was reminded of it again.  Claire’s friend from preschool, Will, and his family came over Sunday to play and have dinner.  I may have already mentioned this before on here, but Will’s mom Caroline and I actually were friends in elementary school.  She moved away to another town and I started going to private school, so we didn’t see each other probably after 3^rd or 4^th grade.  When I saw Caroline at Claire’s preschool open house she looked familiar to me.  So I started trying to figure out how I knew her without making her think I was completely crazy.  I asked where she went to elementary school and then we realized that maybe we did know each other.  Then she said she had a picture that included her and me from another friend’s birthday party!  Anyways, so we figured out that we had been friends many years ago and now our children were friends. 

So if that wasn’t coincidence enough, when they came to visit this past weekend, Caroline mentioned that her Dad said he was related to the Scott’s that lived where we lived.   We started talking about different names and I recognized them from the family history research I had done a few years ago on Trent’s family.  So then I was on a mission to figure out how we are all related! 

I figured out that each Scott family had about 10 children so it’s really difficult to put together a family tree that you can actually read the words on.  Also, about every other child in the Scott family was named William, Benjamin, Julia, or Edward.  So you have to go by birth dates to figure out which one is which.  So I started putting the tree together with the research I had done before Claire was born and realized that Trent and Caroline are actually 4^th cousins!  Trent’s great, great grandfather William Henry Scott and Caroline’s great, great grandfather Brice Scott were brothers.  To take it even further – Trent’s great grandfather Henry Edward Scott and Caroline’s great grandmother Julia Scott Pridgen were 1^st cousins, Trent’s grandfather Carl Edward Scott, Sr. and Caroline’s grandfather Roland Scott Pridgen, Sr. were 2^nd cousins, Trent’s Dad Carl Edward “Eddie” Scott, Jr. and Caroline’s Dad Roland Scott Pridgen, Jr. were 3^rd cousins, and now Claire and Will, and his sister Catherine, are 5^th cousins.  And Trent and Caroline’s great, great, great grandparents, Benjamin and Narcissa Scott, are actually buried on our farm.  I know that is a lot of useless information for a lot of you, but I mainly included it so next year when I cannot remember, I can look back!  Or Claire can look back and know the lineage.  Also we discovered that Caroline and her family live in a house that the Scott’s built and lived in many years ago.  It is funny how things come full circle, isn’t it? 

We had a blast letting the kids play on the tractors and eating supper and just visiting.  Caroline’s chocolate dessert was the talk of the evening for Trent.  I think I will have to get that recipe and make it for his birthday! 

Prayers for Jaxson

Jaxson is in need of lots of prayers!  He is back at the hospital for round 4 of chemo and the leukemia has returned in his spinal fluid.  AML is highly unique in small children, so the doctors are doing all that they know to do to treat him.  But it does not seem to be "working" to get rid of the leukemia.  So they are calling around to other children's hospitals to see if doctors there have any suggestions or treatments (even experimental) that would work for Jax.  But so far, no luck.

So please pray for miracles for this sweet little boy.  I was able to steal some of his sugar last week before he went back for chemo and I want to be able to steal his sugar for a long, long time (way past the age that it embarrasses him!)

Love,
The Scott Family

Wheat crop 2013

 You might remember these pictures I took last year this same time of Claire in a wheat field near our house.

What a difference a year makes!  Here she is this year in one her DaDa's wheat fields.

The cows that live nearby even came to visit Claire.  She was so happy she wanted to go up close and pet them!  

Love,
The Scott Family

Play Day with Aunt Amanda

Claire got to spend last Friday with Aunt Amanda.  They went on not one, but two field trips!  They went to the NC Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and then went to Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern.  Claire had lots of fun!!!!

As you can see, it wore her out!

Love,
The Scott Family

NC Pulse Oximetry Bill - on it's way to being law!!!

It passed in the NC Senate today!  Yay!  I am not sure how long it will take to finish through the process to become law in NC to test every child for congenital heart defects with the easy pulse ox test.  Here's the link if you want to check it out.  It does say:  Note: a bill listed on this website is not law until passed by the House and the Senate, ratified, and, if required, signed by the Governor.

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2013&BillID=S98

So I am not sure how long it will take to be ratified and signed by Governor McCrory.  But this is very exciting!  There is also a "fiscal note" that explains how requiring this test to NC babies will not affect the states budget, which was interesting to read.  http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2013/FiscalNotes/Senate/PDF/SFN0098v1r1.pdf

picture from American Heart Association website in article about NC Pulse Ox Bill

Love,
The Scott Family

Some catching up to do

We have been really busy lately!  I have not been good about updating the blog, and I apologize.  So here are some pictures to catch up!

 Pollocksville Volunteer Fire Department had a fund raiser dinner a few weeks ago.  Claire loved the bluegrass music and running around and around the firehouse a million times with me chasing her.  Those of you who were there can vouch for that.  She really liked the violin....is this something she gets from her mother????

And this is a rare look at how Claire's hair looks first thing in the morning.  So you can see how difficult it is to get it fixed, right?  Don't judge.

DaDa got new business cards and a banner made for the farm.  Claire approved!  

This is what most of my pictures look like now.....

Claire wanted to play dress up for the first time ever the other day.  She wanted to put her pajamas on over her clothes, wear her new pool hat, and we eventually put the Ariel socks on that she is holding.  Too cute!

This is another view of what our life looks like.  A running blur....

More up close pictures with dirt around her mouth...

And I now have to hide my phone from Claire.  She is in love with watching videos of herself for hours it seems.  And she meltsdown when I take the phone away.   I thought these pictures were funny because this is probably what we all look like now reading emails and texts on our smart phones.  

And we were trying out our new headbands the Easter Bunny brought and wearing the orange one to show support for our friend Jax....who by the way is home again for a few days!!!!  YAY Team Jax!  And I got to steal some of his sugar tonight too.

And Claire is looking more and more grown up each day.  So cute getting ready for church this past weekend.  

Enough pictures mom......

And she can wear her hair in a full pony tail now!  So cute!

We've been busy but it's been good and fun!

On a side note, please continue to pray for Marie and also please pray for Baby Drake who is at Duke and was born with a CHD that his parents did not know about before he was born.  And from what I have read, his nurses did the pulse ox test on him and realized that his sats were low and this is how they discovered his heart defect and then airlifted him to Duke.  So see how important this pulse ox test is y'all?!?  It probably saved his life.   He has already had 1 heart surgery and are expecting another one soon.  Baby Drake's family is friends with Claire's Aunt Julie and Uncle James.  I know he is being looked after up there at Duke very well.  :)

Love,
The Scott Family