Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Making Daddy a cookie cake...his favorite

I let the kids each pick out a color of icing to use to decorate the cake...Abigail picked red. She decorated the cookie cake with beautiful red flowers (for at least 30 min!!!!)

Finally it was Luke's turn. He picked blue icing.

Once Luke was finally finished, Abigail came running over to look at the finished product. Once she saw Luke's beautiful artwork ("blue snakes") she started crying! She said he ruined it!!!


*I don't know what happened to the bottom of the cookie cake!!!!

It has been snowing since early this morning.  It's barely falling, but it hasn't stopped. We could get 1-4 inches according to the lovely weather people.  I hope it's still here when Matt gets home!  

For real snow....

I posted way too early for the snow. It's really coming down now, but Eli doesn't want to go outside. He's counting my money! 

Snow Day!!!

Potty Training

Well, I finally started potty training Eli. I wanted to get moved in and settled before I started. I wasn't able to stay at home when the house remodel was going on. So, I started last Monday and he has done great! I am so proud of him!  It's been fun and exciting! He loves to put stickers up when he goes pee pee and he gets to put two up when he poo poos. I don't know how everyone else does it, but that's what I decided to do.  

This is him the first day of potty training...

Here he is at the end of day one.  He had like 5 accidents and then day two he had zero! 

Here he is this morning. He's all filled up.  I will take him a get a toy now.  I know he should probably have more stickers up cause I usually forget to let him put them up if he pee pees some where else.  

Also, thanks to Aunt Stephanie who printed off him a potty train chart the other day when she watched him for me. THANKS!  He loves it!

My Cousin's Sweet Little Boy....

Hello everyone. I just wanted to see if ya'll could pray for my cousin's  little boy J.B. (Jonathan Benjamin). Here is what my cousin Adam wrote on he blog tonight....  

I'm sure by now, the majority of you know what's been going on here at the hospital but for those of you that may not...Yesterday Amber had a C-Section around 2:45pm and our son JB was born. He weighed 6 pounds and 14 ounces. He was 19 and 3/4 inches long. For the first hour, all was well. He was moving well, had decent color, and his crying was comfort that he was breathing normally. When he was taken to the nursery, he was given his first bath and kept in the nursery for sometime for observation. After a few minutes in the nursery, a nurse noticed he was spitting up a little bit of blood and his color had changed dramatically. He was then taken down to the NICU for treatment.

     He was kept in the NICU all afternoon and the treating doctor (Dr. Lail) came up to the recovery room speak to Amber and I about his condition. To say her words were difficult to digest is the understatement of the century. She said she believed he had a "pulmonary hemmorage" shortly after birth, that could potentially be fatal. The cause and origin was unknown, and remains unknown. She had to remove a large amount of blood from his lungs and stomach and she didn't mince words about his condition upon arrival at the NICU.

     He was kept in the NICU overnight and placed on a ventilator. He was also given two separate IV's in his hands as well as a line going through his umbilical cord. We were able to go down to see him last night, which was the most difficult thing either Amber or I have ever had to do. The cords and monitors were too many to count. His little body fought to breath over the ventilator, so he was given some medication to sedate and calm him. They told us his status was "critical but stable."

     This morning the doctor was back in the NICU and we again went down to see our little guy. His condition this morning according to the doctor and treating nurses was "fair." He was still on the ventilator and still had the cords and monitors hooked up as they were the night before. Last night and this morning, a battery of tests were ran with no explanation for the hemmorage. We were left with the difficult realization that "these things just happen."

     This afternoon, we went back down to the NICU and a Cardio-Tech was doing an echo-cardiogram of JB's heart to see if there were any immediate issues. We left the NICU while the tech completed her exam with the understanding that she "didn't see anything immediately apparent, but that the pediatric cardiologist would review the exam." While we were there, his heart rate was elevated at around 175 and he was still trying to fight over the machines. He was given more medication this afternoon and we were told we would be called at 6:00pm with an update. At 6:00pm the nurse called up and said a test they ran to check for issues with the ventilator were negative and the cardiologist saw no issues at first glance with his heart, which was good news.

     We are getting ready for bed tonight with hope and faith of better news tomorrow. We have both come to understand that his condition will not be better over night. We are in a room on the third floor but our hearts are with our son in the NICU one level below. We have not been attentive to our phones and email, and we hope and trust that you all understand that we are dealing with all of this the best we can. For Amber and I we have approached this trial like we would any other of lives difficulties with each other as our support system. That is not to say that your phone calls, emails and text messages have not been received or appreciated. We know how blessed we are to have our friends and family to help us through this time. We know our son is coming home with us soon enough and we can't wait to share his life with all of you. Thank you again to everyone, and we will give updates when we are able.

Sincerely,

Adam and Amber

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Yes, there are more Disney pictures.

Drinking some hot choc in China (Epcot).  It was so cold that day. It was only 54 I think, but it had been in the 80's the rest of the days we were there. 

Hot Choc face.  Too cute.

We were waiting on the bus to take us to Hollywood Studios.  IT took forever!  I love this picture of the two boys waiting.

Eli at the big playground slide. Look at the faces coming up!

Meeting the Little Einstein's. He was scared at first, but loved them after a few sec.

Waiting in line for Playhouse Disney at Hollywood Studios.

My little model.

Matt making him make some crazy funny faces!  Super funny!

Haircut???

I am looking for a place to take Eli to get his haircut. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Even More Disney Pictures!