

These our pictures of our friends Ian Kastner and Zach Sabus. I call Ian's picture Cookie Monster as I captured him on film while he was enjoying a treat.- Ian is all boy and was enjoying eating, wrestling, and playing. The second photo is of our new friend Zach Sabus -he's checking out the presents at the Kastner's. Zach celebrates his 5th birthday on December 6th.

Brock getting attention from Carol Peterson at the Up With Down party.
On Sunday Brock and I attended the Up With Down Christmas party in Des Moines (Jay was home with the flu - he even missed out on most of his deer hunting trip, but was there long enough to shoot a 3pt 1/2 antler deer - anyone want sausage????).
With over 80 people in attendance the Christmas party was quite an event! Brock was the youngest person in attendance with Ds, but we met three other babies born this year. We also had the chance to meet Mia Peterson who now lives in Des Moines. Mia is 32 and is the Chair of the National Down Syndrome Society's Self-Advocate Advisory Board and works for Iowa Protection & Advocacy. While I learned just a bit about Mia at the meeting, I've read a lot about her on-line by googling her name and Ds. It is awesome to know that such a fantastic role model like Mia lives in our neighborhood!
We are looking forward to the next Up with Down event.
Busy busy busy- over the weekend we also got together with our neighbors Michael & Nadine Kastner, their boys Joe & Ian (6), and Andrea, Kevin and Zach Sabus. Nadine & Michael live down the street from Jay and I, and their son Ian also has Ds. They were the first family to reach out to us when Brock was born. Andrea and Kevin's son Zach (5) also has Ds. It was fun to get together - Ian and Zach enjoyed wrestling with Jay, while Brock just had to watch (
soon Brock soon!)