ABC5 Thanksgiving

When you can't be with family on Thanksgiving, it's nice to have great co-workers. For the second year in a row we enjoyed a meal together complete with all the fixins'.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving with lots of food, family, and fun!

Amanda

akrenz@myabc5.com

Living History Farms

This weekend I ran Living History Farm's seven mile cross country race. I went with my two running pals Heather Yost and Sarah Danik. As you can see we went as flappers. We went all out and ran through the creeks and scaled muddy hills. Some parts were ridiculous but fun! The best part is all the creative and funny costumes. We saw Ken and Barbie (even in boxes), folks dressed up as bananas, Santa and his reindeer, hunters and deer, power rangers and so many others!
This is what I learned about the race after running it two years:

1. Plan on getting very dirty and wet (you run through about 6 creeks and some are deep).

2. Knowing how to claw your way up a hill is very helpful if not essential for the race.

3. Don't plan on running it fast, there's way to many people and a lot of time you feel like cattle being herded.

4. Don't be shocked if you see folks in inappropriate but funny costumes.

5. Expect to be cold.

6. Its always a blast no matter what the conditions are!

Below are the after pictures.

Rachel Pierce

rpierce@myabc5.com

My Nephew's Story

I've debated on how to write this blog entry because it’s a topic so personal to me.

Saturday night, just before midnight, my sweet little eight week old nephew Barron Christian Battles passed away. He died peacefully in my sister Magdalena's arms and next to his dear dad Justin.

Barron was born a beautiful healthy baby boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes. He was the sweetest, so content and you could tell he just absorbed everything around him. It wasn't until he was four weeks old that his health started deteriorating and he was transferred to a Marshfield hospital where they started testing him for everything. It was discovered he had a genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type One. SMA is actually not that uncommon, but, there are varying degrees and Barron had the worst kind. Some studies say one in sixty people are carriers of the SMA gene. Usually for a child to get it both the mother and father have to be carriers. There is no cure for SMA and the earlier the onset the shorter the life expectancy. Some people show symptoms as adults and live normal lives, others like Barron only live weeks. Here's more information about it: http://www.smafoundation.org/

My sister and her husband are experiencing the unimaginable, having to bury their first child. To go from thinking you have a perfectly healthy baby then weeks later holding your baby while he takes his last breaths…it makes me cry thinking about it. I could go into all the stories of heartbreak through all of this like when Magdalena, Justin and Barron were at a hotel in Minneapolis and Barron went into full cardiac arrest. Justin had to perform CPR on his six-week old baby until paramedics arrived. He saved his life. There has been so much joy though too. Justin and Magdalena would play, sing and read to Barron all day and get huge smiles from him. You could tell he just adored his mother and father.

Through this whole process we are so thankful for the amazing medical teams at Marshfield Hospital, Minneapolis Children's Hospital, the services Caring Bridge and the Ronald McDonald House and all the support of friends and family.

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

Have you seen these holiday cards?

They are designed by Iowa children with cancer. The Children's Cancer Connection sells them during the holidays to raise money for their organization which helps children and families affected by cancer by providing programs for education, recreation, and support. It's a fantastic group!

ABC5 is proud to help them promote this effort.

What a wonderful, unique idea for your Holiday cards this year!

Click on the links in this blog to learn more about how to purchase the cards and where your money will go.

Amanda

Ready for Halloween!

As you can see my little girl Lydia is going to Halloween as a monkey. My husband wants me to add pink bows on the ears so people know she's a girl. I think she looks so darn cute, of course very biased. We plan on taking her to a few houses in the neighborhood, just really to say hi to the neighbors. And then my 6 month old will help us pass out candy at the door.

My dogs have costumes too but my one dog Mason literally won't move when you put him in it. He just stands there like a statue, I figure it's animal cruelty for him so this year we will just skip it.

From Amanda: I have a little Buzz Lightyear and a baby giraffe this Halloween. We dressed the boys up a couple weeks ago for a fun Halloween day at the Salisbury House in Des Moines. It was a great opportunity for Maddox to wear his costume. He was Woody last year and has wanted to be Buzz for about six months now. I found his costume on Ebay. Mercer's a giraffe because that's what Maddox was about three years ago. Poor Mercer, he got stuck with the hand-me-down. He doesn't seem to mind :)

Sprucing Up the Set

(Above: Before the "spruce up". Below: After)

(Above: After the changes)
(Below: During renovations)

You may have noticed ABC5 went High Definition a few weeks ago. It was a long process and took a lot of work for staff here plus it involved so much new equipment. The process continued today with revamping our set. Look for the changes tonight and we all hope you are enjoying our better picture!

Rachel Pierce

rpierce@myabc5.com

A "Sucker" for Sophie

So, I've been hearing all about this teething toy named "Sophie" the Giraffe. Rachel told me about her originally (she blogged about her too). Then I just started seeing, hearing, and reading about her everywhere (it's all the rage with celebrity babies). For some reason I never heard of her when my oldest son was a baby. I was baffled why anyone would pay $20 for this rubber giraffe. Well guess who bought one today...

I couldn't resist the temptation, I had to know what all the hype was about. Also, Mercer seems to be the prime age for kids who like this toy. Before I took the leap, I did some research. Sophie is made in France with 100% natural rubber derived from the sap of the Hevea Tree (whatever that is). But get this, she's been around since 1961! She's exactly the same today as she was when she was first 'born.' Obviously there's something about this cute little piece of rubber if she's this popular almost 50 years later. If you want to read more about this wonder toy click here. So far, Mercer seems to enjoy her company :)

Sidenote: You can't find Sophie just anywhere, more specialty shops. I found her at KangarooBoo in Valley Junction, what a cool store! I'll definitely be stopping in again.

Let me know of other cool 'must have' toys for kids.

akrenz@myabc5.com