Ottawa Trip

Natalie decided to take Tatum and I to visit her sister Nadia and family over March Break. It was so much fun! We left on Wednesday morning and came back home on Saturday afternoon. When we got there on Wednesday after a long 6 hour drive, Uncle Ted made us some delicious hamburgers and we just relaxed. Tatum and her cousin Gabrielle got to enjoy some playtime too!

Thursday was a busy day. We visited Parliament Hill, where we went to see the Memorial Chamber.

Tatum and her cousin Gabrielle in front of Parliament.

After visiting Parliament, we went to Gatineau for some shopping before going for lunch at McDonald's...yum! After lunch, we headed to the Museum of Civilization where we spent most of the afternoon.

Tatum posing with one of the totem poles.

Tatum and Gabrielle playing a game of snakes and ladders!

This was my favourite part of the museum!

Such a cool effect! Looks like we are outside!

Old railway car.

Hard at work in school!

Riding the camel in the Children's Museum!

Gabrielle's turn!

February

I got to spend the weekend at Tatum's a couple weeks ago and we had a blast! We got to make homemade pizzas with her mama and they turned out absolutely delicious! Tatum is eating very well after her second dilatation surgery.

The pizza was delicious!

Harley and Harper wanted to share!

Sitting on Harper.

Tatum and I made some of our favourite cookies! (Or rather...I made them!)

We also got to go to Stratford with the Rady family to watch Jordyn and Jessye play hockey. We watched Shrek the 3rd in the car on the way there and had so much fun!

Tatum helped Jessye get all of her hockey equipment on.

Jordyn, Tatum, and Jessye waiting for the game to start.

After the game, we had to stop at the airport in London to drop Jamie off at work and he gave us a tour so we got to go behind the scenes at Air Canada Jazz!

The girls touching one of the wings on one of the planes in getting fixed.

Tatum and Jordyn sitting in the flight deck!

Jessye's turn!

Pose!

January

2012 has been a busy year so far! Tatum had her second dilatation surgery on January 6, followed by dental on February 1. Both surgeries went well and Tatum is now eating solid food well for the first time in months! A common problem for EB children is the narrowing of the oesophagus due to scarring of the tissue. This leads to constant dilatation surgeries, and in many cases, the eventual insertion of a stomach feeding tube.

Tatum and I got to enjoy some time together over Christmas break and we spent it well! Our favourite thing to do is watch HGTV and play The Sims 3...so we had quite a few days of that! Very relaxing. We also did some baking.

We had a blast teaching Harley tricks and playing in the snow with the neighbours, too!

We both love to cook with Mama, and after looking around on Pinterest, we found some fun recipes that we decided to try out! They turned out to be absolutely delicious!

 Crescent pizza roll-ups in the making.

These turned out great! So yummy.

Tatum showing off her pizza roll-up

Mozarella sticks. 

We also decided to make some baked pasta as well, which was absolutely delicious! It was an evening well-spent.

My Hero

My hero is not an actor or actress.My hero is not an athlete.
My hero is not a great historian.
My hero is someone with incredible strength and courage.
My hero is someone who inspires many.
My hero is someone who endures pain daily,  and still manages to go
on and even smile.
My hero is someone who may not seem beautiful, but to me is gorgeous.
My hero is someone who makes me laugh, makes me cry,
and makes me proud every minute of every day.
My hero is an EB baby, an EB child, and an EB adult.

-Brenda G. (taken from 'Living with Epidermolysis Bullosa')

For those of you who have not read Tripp's story, it is available here. He, like Tatum, suffered from EB; however, Tripp's EB was of the Junctional form, in which most children do not survive infancy. Tripp beat the odds and made it past his second birthday, but sadly lost his battle with EB on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at the age of 2 years 8 months.

Selena Gomez

On October 24, Selena Gomez did a concert at the John Labatt Centre in London, ON. We had a group of 7 of us all going! Tatum's neighbours, Jordyn and Jessye, their mom Jade, and "Yaya", Johannah, along with Natalie, Tatum and I all hopped in the car together. We went out for dinner first! It was really yummy, but such a long wait.

Here's Tatum and Jess in the car on our way!

After dinner we headed over to the JLC to find our seats!

The opening acts were Christina Grimmie and Shawn Desman. At the end of Shawn Desman's set, we went out to go purchase some souvenirs and took a couple of photos!

Finally, Selena took the stage!

Tatum had a blast!

Tatum's 5th Annual Walk for EB Awareness

On October 22, we held our 5th annual event to raise EB awareness in our community. It was a great day with so many family and friends (both new and old!) coming out to show their support. The St. Thomas Kinsmen Club showed their support with about 10 members showing up. They committed to support Tatum by donating $200.00 to the cause for every member that came out. This led to a total of $2,000.00 being donated by the Kinsmen alone!!!

We had a great day with lots of music to entertain all the people that showed up! Justin Maki came, along with Askher and C, Double L, and The Sidemen. Askher What She Said performed the song "Butterfly", which was written in Tatum's honour.

We had about 120+ people show up and walk with us, which was great! It was so amazing to see all the people when we were doing our four laps around the park, led by the MyFM Cruiser.



We also had several draws and Tatum and a few of her friends won! They were so excited.

At the end of the day, we ended up raising just over $7,400.00 after expenses! What a great day. Can't wait for next year!