Cookbooks are Here!!!!!!!!

Aiden's fundraising cookbook has arrived! I am so happy that I was encouraged to do this because it turned out so awesome. It was a lot of work but every second I spent on the book was worth it. Thank you to everyone who participated in making this book come alive! I couldn't have done it without you and I look forward to the day that I can show Aiden just how much he loved by his amazing family and friends!

In less than a month, we will be beginning Aiden's journey to remove his nevus through plastic surgery. He will be having tissue expanders placed that will grow new skin to replace his nevus skin. It won't be an easy process but I am confident that we can get through this with all of the support from our wonderful family and friends.

It's hard to believe that its coming up so soon. It seems as if it was just yesterday that I was calling the office to book his surgery. For those of you who don't know, Aiden's surgery will take place in Chicago with Dr. Bauer. After searching a ton of plastic surgeons, we felt that Dr. Bauer was the right choice for Aiden, based on his level of expertise in nevus removal. Aiden will need at least four surgeries so we will be spending a lot of time in Chicago over the next year or so. Several of my fellow nevus mommy friends have made these cookbooks to help them out with the costs of traveling out there and I fell in love with the idea. The cookbook also helps bring awareness to his condition and that is very important to me.

All of the proceeds from his cookbook will go towards medical expenses not covered by insurance, hotel, and airfare. If you are interested in purchasing a cookbook, please let me know. We are asking $20 for each cookbook. If you live in my area, you can stop by to pick one up or we can arrange for us to meet up somewhere. If you live out of town, the cookbooks are available to be purchased on the blog for $25 with shipping. You can also help out by letting your friends and family know about the cookbooks!

Thank you so much ahead of time for caring enough about Aiden to help us out. It means everything to us!

Here is what the cookbook looks like! It has 400 recipes submitted by friends and family! 

Nevus Pool Party

We had a nevus pool party at my house over this past weekend and it was a blast. I was so excited to be able to get to know some of our great nevus friends better and meet some new people from our area. There was 17 of us who were able to gather together for a fun day! 

It was a great day for swimming and most of the kids couldn't wait to get in! You should have seen this little four year old year named Jestine. She was unbelievable in the water. I thought for sure she had gone through swim lessons but her dad taught her himself. She jumped right in and off she was in the deep end, swimming away. She even dove off the diving board, which she had never done before. The other two girls, Brianna and Naomi had a blast playing with her! After a few hours of swimming and hanging out, my husband cooked up some hamburgers and hot dogs! The kids couldn't get enough of the pool so they went back in until the dessert came out! 

It was so nice to hang out with everyone! We had lots of laughs and good conversations! We can't wait to be able to hang out together again! We are hoping that each time we can continue to grow the group and meet more awesome people! Thanks to everyone who came out and joined in on the fun! 

Kids having fun swimming!

Adult nevus owners with the "Got Spots?" Cake

Some great friends!

Nevus owners minus Aiden...he decided to fall asleep for these pictures! LOL.

Family Fun with the Barba's 

Angel, Aiden & I