Our wonderful 'holiday' in South Wales

DONT FORGET TO WATCH LEW'S VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/user/SmnthJeynes

We just arrived back late last night from our last minute 'holiday' to South Wales (Rhondda Cynon Taff) to visit Angela, Len, Kelly, Jenna, Ashley and Hannah. And not forgetting Roxy and Rocky the hamsters! We also got to meet Pete and Margaret (next door neighbours) who Lew also adored! The Rhondda Valley is absolutely breathtaking and the people are lovely, so friendly! While we were there, Ashley had her 18th Birthday party (although its actually her birthday today HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY!) so we had a great night where Angela cooked a splendid chinese meal! It was just like being in a restaurant, except the food was better!

Hannah, Jenna, and Birthday Girl Ashley at Ashley's 18th Birthday Party

Lew fast asleep in bed, he couldnt stay up for the birthday party!

Jenna and Hannah!

Ashley and Jenna.

Hannah and her mum Angela (who does not normally have pink sparkly hair!)

The 'chinese restaurant'!

Preparing the chinese restaurant in the garden!

Hannah and Lew.

Ashley, Angela and me at Angela's beloved cafe in Ponty!

Rocky the hamster! Roxy was fast asleep in bed!

Lew having some contact with Rocky.

This picture is Lew's first sight of Hannah the morning after we arrived in Wales. He was soooooo excited to see her!

Lew surrounded by gorgeous Welsh ladies!

Lew after sneaking some chocolate mousse! Complete with Welsh rugby playing Winnie the Pooh!

Beautiful views from Angela's back windows.

More Welsh ladeeeeeeeeees!

Thank you so much to Angela and Len for inviting us to stay with them and for making us feel so very welcome. Thank you Angela for being the most amazing cook! And thank you Jenna and Ashley for making Lew feel so very special and for treating him so normally! It was so lovely to know that you were speaking to him like you would any other 3.5 year old. It meant so much to me. A huge thank you to Hannah for being Lewis' second mother while we were in Wales! You will make a fantastic parent one day, but until then I hope you consider using your skills in a career in nursing, you are brilliant!

Thank you Margaret and Pete for the lovely Wales cap for Lew and my gorgeous gorgeous Wales salt and pepper pots which I love!

And thank you Jenna for Lew's Cymru rugby shirt which he looks sooooo gorgeous in, but I cant at the moment find the photos we took of him wearing it!

A few more thank yous:

Thank you to Sian for her letters and photographs! Always a pleasure to receive your parcels!

Thank you to Mel Counert for the lovely card!

Thank you to those people who have started sending in their sponsorship money for The Lewis Jeynes Fund from Mike Bennett's fantastic marathon run in Germany. Once we have collected all the sponsorship in, we will let you know what amazing amount Mike raised with his hard work and effort. We will also try to thank everybody individually once we are a bit more organised!

Finally, but never forgotten (although I did forget to send a card) HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOLANDA! I am sooooo sorry I forgot to send your card this year, but I will remember next year I promise! I hope you are having a lovely day! Lots of love always xxxx

Quick Update

Lew and Andrew the guinea pig!

Some exciting news from the Make A Wish Foundation!!!! http://www.make-a-wish.org.uk/

A while back, we approached Make A Wish on behalf of Lewis and just recently we had a visit from 2 very lovely representatives from Make A Wish who came to meet with Lew and to talk about what kind of wish he might like. Well, without going into details just yet, we had a telephone call from Sandy at Make A Wish on Monday evening to say that Lewis' wish has been GRANTED!!!! Please do have a look at the Make A Wish website and help if you can. We will let you know more about Lewis' wish when we have confirmed the details!

This week Lewis enjoyed visiting the hydrotherapy pool at the hospital and I have added a video to our You Tube webpage (http://www.youtube.com/SmnthJeynes)

The Marathon Man!!! Mike Bennett managed to run in and finish the Monschau Marathon on 12th August! Well done Mike! If you did sponsor Mike, please do get in touch about handing over your sponsorship money!

Mike before the run ....

Mike after the run ... !

Mike make good time and he did really well to finish the very difficult run so thank you Mike, well done, and we hope you are enjoying a well deserved rest now!

Mike said - 'I made it round in 4 hours 5 minutes, which I was quite pleased with. I had hoped to beat 4 hours but in the end it just wasn’t possible. It was a great experience but undoubtedly the most difficult physical challenge I’ve ever done. I had a great time though and was really pleased to able to raise some money for such a good cause. Lots of people have been really touched by Lewis’s story and I know some people have been really moved by the blog. I’d like to say thanks to all those who supported Lewis by sponsoring the run and thanks to James and Samantha for letting me do it. '

Lew and the Bookstart bear at our local library!

Lew and his super cool iTeddy!

Fireman Lew!

Lew in Daddy's glasses!

Hello, just a quick update and some photos for you to enjoy, plus some thank yous as well!

First of all though, Lew was ill over the weekend with high temperature, sickness and diorrhea and we ended up having to go to hospital in an ambulance. He is fine now, but it was very stressful for a couple of days!

Some thank yous now:

Thankyou to Gifford Ltd for their tuckshop donation! I hope the tuckshop is selling healthy seeds and pulses and not naughty sweets and cakes, but whatever they are selling, the very generous and regular donations to the Lewis Jeynes Fund are very very much appreciated!

Thank you to Rachel, Nick, Phoebe and Heidi Ashcroft for their very generous donation to the Lewis Jeynes Fund. Your donation will go a very long way! Here is a photograph of Pheobe and Heidi enjoying a ride at Disneyland Paris earlier this year.

Thank you sooo much to Catriona, Neil, Tilly and Eliza (and boy bump!) for Lewis' iTeddy! He loves it! Its great, and we have told all our friends about it and they all want one! Here is a photograph of Tilly and Eliza (aka Things!).A quick hello to Hannah Cann and her best friend Mollie who Lewis and I were very lucky to meet yesterday! You may recall that Hannah made a super card for Lew and as she lives locally with her grandparents, we arranged a meeting and went over yesterday afternoon for a lovely cup of tea and a chat! Thank you also Hannah for the Crazy Frog and Tiger toys which Lewis loves! It was lovely to meet you all and we hope we can meet up again soon!

Thank you to our super PostPals Sian and Jamie for the swim shorts for Lew and the cool Thomas the Tank Engine hat and of course for your lovely letters and finally the photographs! I will try to get them scanned in so I can put them on the website!!

Finally, thank you so much to Mary Appleton and family, the Jumbulance Trust and all at Bati About Kidz for inviting us to join them on a trip to Disneyland Paris Resort. It was wonderful to meet everybody, some very very special people. It was a very last minute decision to go on the trip, literally we decided on the day, yes we will go. I had put it out of my mind completely as it just seemed too much for Lewis to be able to cope with.

Well, we did go and we managed to have a good couple of hours at the Park before Lew got ill, and sadly the rest of it was spent in our room and then in the hospital. We did get some good photographs, but as Lew was feeling very rough when they were taken we didnt get any smiles. Mary and co have invited us to join them in future on another trip, if you havent heard of Jumbulance, it is an amazing coach/ambulance that has medical equipment on board as well as trolley beds for those who are unable to have a regular seat. It makes travel possible for adults and children who would not normally be able to go far.

Lew in the Jumbulance.

Lewis and Samuel on the Jumbulance.

On the ferry home.

At the Armageddon ride which James and Samuel went on.

Lew in hospital.

We cant remember all the names, but particularly hello to Natalia, Briany and Mo, to Christian and his mum and dad (we LOVE you Christian!), and to gorgeous gorgeous Abigail and her mum and aunty.

Just some photos

It's been so warm and sunny, we've spent alot of time outside, walking round the lake, feeding the ducks, walking to Asda (to buy more bread to feed the ducks!), and sitting in the garden, watching the cats do mad things (like wee in my seed pots) and watching the clouds and the birds in the sky! Lew and Samuel had their hair cut last week. We also met Lew's new Bluebell Wood Hospice carer, Joanne, who will work alongside Marie who has been looking after Lew for several months now. Yesterday we went to the cinema to see Transformers - if you like this kind of film (which we do) it was flipping amazing! This is Lew getting ready for bed the other night. This is Lew being entertained by our fantastic OT - she really is THE BEST! We had a rep out to try Lew in some new chairs as he has totally grown out of his JENX giraffe. In this pic he is seated in a Triton seat and he has a B&Q funnel on his head ... Jess (OT) had the other funnels on her head!

Sometimes when the weather is good, Lew and I lay on the trampoline and look at the sky.

We try to decide what the clouds might be and we watched the birds flying overhead. Its super relaxing!

This is Tabitha relaxing in the garden ...

We managed to get back to Musical Minis this week! It was so busy, and very noisy as usual, but Lew enjoyed it!

We went to visit Mandy and Kirsty at Fundays. Kirsty had her birthday last week too - she was 16! Lew was spoilt for choice over which gorgeous blonde to look at first!

One morning we went to B&Q and Marie treated us to a coffee in the cafe, very nice, particularly the bacon sarnie!

This is the chair we got for Lew from Freecycle! It makes a lovely change for him to be sat in a comfy chair (until his new seating system arrives). Thank you so much Karen!Lew got this super cool card from his Grandad Skinny! It was a well done card for winning the Best Brave Child Award.Lew also received this brilliant Get Well card from Hannah Cann.Portage loaned us a selection of cool sensory equipment for Lew to play with. One of the items was an insulation blanket (like you get if run a marathon!) and when Lew lays on it, as he moves about it crunches and crinkles! As we have to swap it all next month, I have been out and bought our very own crinkly blanket from the local camping shop for £2.50 BARGAIN!Look at this totally cute little ... coot .. or moorhen? Which one is it? I can never remember! These ones are born/hatched with little red heads but the adults have white beaks - any answers on the guestbook please!

This is Tabitha chilling AGAIN .. probably just after she weed in my seed pots!

Lew's tummy has been sore so he has been on antibiotics so not as many smiles as usual, but hopefully he will feel much better soon.

Just a few quick mentions for Lewis' friends:

Nathan just came out of hospital after some surgery. He's doing okay but please do think of him and visit his guestbook (link on this website) and send on your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery!

Declan always needs lots of extra love and kisses, cos he's just so scrummy! So please remember to visit Declan's website too (again link on this website).

Cameron has been a bit under the weather, and Jayne and Phill's cooker has broken! So they need some lurv too!

Thank you Sian and Jamie for sending my birthday cards!!! They were postmarked 25th June, but the arrived on 28th July!! Just a month late! But just as lovely to receive regardless of the late delivery!

And a huge thank you to our colleague (ex in my case!) and friend John Lockhart for his very generous donation to The Lewis Jeynes Fund. Thanks John!

PS I HAVE ADDED SOME NEW VIDEOS TO YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/user/SmnthJeynes