Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. Evan liked eating all of the "big boy food." He especially liked the sweet potato casserole. We got to spend a lot of the weekend with family and friends, which was nice. We also stated to get ready for Christmas! We put up the tree and we have decorated both the inside and the outside of the house. We also started Christmas shopping. Carl's parents also held a winter photo shoot for Evan, which went well. We now have pictures for our Christmas cards! What a great weekend!

Evan recently got very sick with a virus. Thankfully, he is well now. We could tell he was miserable, but he was still SO GOOD! He really is amazing! Evan has 5 teeth now. He crawls ALL OVER THE PLACE and he loves to climb the stairs. He really is a blessing!

Below are some recent pictures. There are pictures from Thanksgiving, as well as some other pictures of Evan doing things like feeding himself and just being silly. Also, I was able to get my hair colored and trimmed this week! You can see my new "do" in one of the Thanksgiving pictures!

Pictures

I had some trouble uploading some of my pictures when I posted last week. Here are some pictures. As you can see, Evan and the dogs love each other! Also, Evan loves to hold his own bottle now. The final picture is of Evan's baptism.

Pictures

I had some trouble uploading some of my pictures when I posted last week. Here are some pictures from Evan's fall photo shoot.

Update for October

Unfortunately, our computer was broken for several weeks, so I have not been able to post any updates. I am REALLY excited to finally be able to post an update today!

A lot has gone on over the past few weeks! One very exciting thing was The Race for the Cure. My team worked hard and was able to donate over $3000! Also, it turns out that my team won a first place trophy for participation in the "Family and Friends" category. (We left before the awards ceremony, so I didn't know we won until a couple of weeks after the race!) I had a great time at the race. I am so excited that so many of my friends and family were able to join me for the race. Thank you to everyone was that donated and/or participated in the race!

Evan, Carl and I went to Huber's Farm with my Young Survivor's group. We had a lot of fun! The most exciting thing was getting to pick our own pumpkins! Evan also enjoyed seeing the animals and going down a big slide with Carl.

As you all know by now, Evan's Grandpa LOVES to take his picture. He came over last weekend and took lots of pictures of Evan while he played outside. We have some great pictures from the photo shoot. Evan's favorite part of that day was trying to eat the leaves!

Evan was baptized this month. He was so funny during his baptism and he even played in the baptism water! He made everyone smile and laugh!

Evan can now crawl and he has three teeth. He is a very happy baby and is extremely laid back. He went for a check up yesterday and he is very healthy! He weighs 24 pounds (95 percentile) and he is 29 inches long (90th percentile).

Evan had a lot of fun going to several Halloween parties, including the "World's Largest Halloween Party" at The Louisville Zoo. Evan was a giraffe for Halloween this year and he had several of his friends over for a party on Halloween.

In other news, "phase one" of the basement is VERY close to being finished. The drywall is up and has been mudded. The walls are painted and we have ordered the carpet. Once the carpet is installed, we can actually use the basement! We are all VERY excited about that!

Here are just a few pictures from last month!



Evan in the pumpkin patch.



Evan is a giraffe!



The Swann Family



The Koontz Family



Alpha Gam Girls

News Update and Commercial

There is a new air date for the WHAS 11 story that I did about my battle with breast cancer. It will now air on Wednesday, October 1st at 6:00. If you live out of town or miss the news that night, you can view the segment on www.whas11.com after the story airs. Also, my commercial is currently running on WHAS 11. I have not seen it yet, but apparently lots of people have!

If you have not signed up for The Race for the Cure, you still have a few more days! Please check out the post below for instructions on donating or joining my team.

Race for the Cure Information

As some of you already know, I did a segment with the local news (WHAS 11) about using the Caring Bridge site and about my breast cancer story. I now know that the segment will air on Friday, October 3rd during the 6:00 news. If you miss it, or live out of town, you can see the segment on www.whas11.com after it airs. I also taped a short commercial for the Komen Louisville Race for the Cure. It will begin airing next week. If you watch any shows on WHAS, you just might see me!

I will be participating in the Race for the Cure this year. I am super excited about this! If you would like to join my team and walk with me, you can register online by following the directions posted below. You can also make a donation online, if you are unable to join me. 100% of the money raised goes to breast cancer research. I hope to raise a lot of money and help find a cure for breast cancer!

Donate online:

- Go to komenlouisville.org

- Click on Race at the top of the page

- Go to Register or Donate

- Under the heading “Donate Online”, click on find a participant or team to support

- You can either enter, Heather Nickel, to “search for participant”, or Rachael Koontz, to “search for team” (either way, both of our names will appear at the bottom of the screen), and you can select either

- Click on Make a Gift under “Dollars you have raised”


To join Team Rachael Koontz:


- Go to komenlouisville.org

- Click on Race at the top of the page

- Go to Register or Donate

- Click on Join an Existing Team (right hand margin)

- Type in Rachael Koontz under Team Name (Self-explanatory from here)

You may choose to do the 5K or timed run, though we will be participating in the 1 Mile Family Walk .

Early registration for the Race for the Cure goes through Sept. 29. After that, I believe the price goes up $5.00. If you are going to walk with Team Rachael Koontz, you MUST register by Oct. 2 @ 5:00. My sister will be picking up race packets and shirts on Oct. 4, and will be distributing them the week before the race, or on race day if needed. Please remember that you must register online to join the team. I hope to see many of you at the race!

Evan

Evan is now 7 months old! He is one of the happiest babies I know and he is very laid back. He got his first two teeth a few weeks ago. He can now sit up on his own. He tries to crawl, but doesn't quite have the hang of it yet. He does roll over all over the place though! He loves to "talk" and he has said "mama" and "dada!"

Evan's grandpa enjoys taking Evan's picture. Here are some of the most recent pictures that he took.