All Things Thomas Boys

Christmas 2010

2011-04-09T00:04:00.001-05:00

This Christmas was so filled with love and joy and happiness. We are just in such a different place than we were last year and we were just so filled with hope and thankfulness for the blessings that God has given us. This was also our very last Christmas with Just Jonathan. We knew that everything was about to change for him and for us, and we wanted to make this Christmas super special. Jonathan will always be our first born son, my baby, my sweet baby love.

Christmas was wonderful. Mark and Jonathan did a great job decorating the outside of the house. I was a little OVERLY pregnant to be of any help, but Jonathan was a great helper to his Daddy. The two of them decided that we needed MORE stuff in our yard, so they made a trip to Lowe’s one day and came home with two huge inflatable’s for the front yard – Santa and Frosty. Jonathan loved them and they guarded our yard for the entire month.

Jonathan was very excited about Santa this year. He saw him three different times – church, preschool, and at the mall. Each time he asked Santa for a Spiderman toy that shoots webs and things, a Superman toy that flies around the room, and a radio to listen to music in his room. Well, someone must have known what he told Santa, because one of his friends got him a cool Spiderman toy that shoots webs. Also, Santa had a very hard time finding a Superman toy. So Santa decided to bring Jonathan a very cool Spiderman mask and gloves, a Toothless and Hiccup dragon, and a radio. Jonathan questioned a little why Santa had changed his list, but was very excited by his toys.

Jonathan and Daddy at church waiting to see Santa

Jonathan with Santa at church

Putting the star on the top of the tree. VERY important job.

Seeing Santa at preschool.

Santa at Park Plaza Mall

My parents and Mark’s parents were able to come spend Christmas day with us. We had a great time being together and opening a TON of presents as usual!! Jonathan had a blast with all of his new toys. Mark gave me a beautiful new pearl ring to go with my pearl necklace from when Jonathan was born and my pearl earrings from our wedding. It is beautiful and was such a nice treat. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see a little blue box from Sissy’s under the tree!

Cookies and eggnog for Santa. Jonathan stirred in the nutmeg himself.

Checking to see if the reindeer ate their carrots.

Toys from Santa Claus

Darth Vader mask from Aunt Kim

Beautiful pearl ring from Daddy and Jonathan

Art desk from Grandad and MaMa Deb

We went to Portrait Innovations, a new budget photography place, to take some pictures for our Christmas card. It was a fun night and we got some really good shots. Here are my favorites.

Christmas Card 2010

I used the Creative Memories digital scrapbooking software to design our Christmas card this year. I have had so much fun designing scrapbooks for Jonathan and cards for different holidays. I was really happy with how this year's card turned out. Next year's card will have pictures of sweet baby Daniel on it!! Excited about that too.

December 2010

2011-04-08T22:58:00.021-05:00

December is ALWAYS a busy and wonderful and tiring and special month for our family. There is always just so much going on and we are usually exhausted by the time Christmas break rolls around. This year was no different. But we had a great time with lots of great memories.

December normally starts for our family with Jonathan’s birthday party. This year we had his FOURTH birthday party at Wonder Place. We decided to do it on a Sunday afternoon (December 5th) so that we could rent the entire building. I’m so glad that we did, because we had a TON of kids and even more adults show up for his party. We are so blessed to have made such great friends here in Little Rock and so blessed that Jonathan has made such wonderful friends as well. The kids had a blast with the water table, sand table, vet area, grocery store, kitchen area, arts and crafts, blocks, wind tunnels, etc. The big event for me was finding THE cake that Jonathan wanted. When asked, he said that he wanted a SUPER HERO cake. But he didn’t want just one super hero, no, he wanted ALL of them. I checked out different places and the only place that would/could do what I wanted was Kroger. Yes, you heard me, Kroger. And let me tell you, that cake rocked! The lady did an awesome job. Jonathan loved it and so did the rest of the kids. It tasted great too, which is always a plus! Both sets of grandparents came up for his party as well which was special too.

It just so happened that Jonathan’s first choir concert for church was that Sunday night as well. Needless to say, it was quite the busy of days. The concert went…well pretty good… and Jonathan had fun. That’s the important part! None of the kids sang very much, but I think they had fun playing on the stage. We had fun and Mark’s parents were able to stay and see his first performance. After church, Santa Clause made a special appearance at church. That was a lot of fun and Jonathan sat on his lap to tell him what he wanted. Here’s the list: a Spiderman toy that shoots webs and things, a radio to listen to music in his room, and a Superman toy that flies and stuff. Those are his words. He told Santa three different times this list.

December 8th was our sweet Gracie girl’s first birthday. It just doesn’t really get easier. Changes yes, but we still miss her each and every day. So much. So very much. Her birthday was a nice day though. We spent some time out at her garden. Put new flowers on her marker. Ate cupcakes that Mommy made and just remembered her and her life.

That weekend, I had my second baby shower given by the girls at my work. We had a great time at Carrie’s house. They had planned a bunch of silly games and the girls truly showered Daniel and our family with some super cute gifts. Special props to Mandy for the personalized diapers. It is a long standing joke from when Jonathan was born. We didn’t know if he was a boy or a girl, so she didn’t make him any. I’ve been harassing her about it (in fun) for the past four years, so she and I were both glad to be able to put Daniel Andrew on the back of a diaper!! They are very cute and everyone was so very loving towards our family.

The next day was the December birthday celebration for children in the preschool at our church. Mrs. Susan always does a great job remembering the children’s birthdays. Jonathan loved singing “Happy Birthday” again and having MORE cake!

For Jonathan’s actual birthday on the 21^st, I made his cake. He has been very big into Superman lately, and my good friend Edie let me borrow her Superman cake pan. Mark very sweetly bought me some new cake decorating supplies so that I could decorate the cake a little easier. It was hard, but I had fun, and I really think that the finished product turned out really nice. Jonathan seemed to like it anyway!! I had also gotten him a Superman card for his birthday. When it got time to open presents, he decided that he needed to put on his Superman costume from Halloween to open his presents. It was so cute and we all had fun watching him play with all of his new toys.

Most of the month was spent in anticipation and preparation for the arrival of our new baby boy. Mark worked so very hard on his room. He painted, put up a chair rail, new base boards, and new vertical boards in Daniel’s room. We bought some new furniture for his room that matches the baby furniture in Jonathan’s room. So now the furniture in both of their rooms match and can be switched out as we need to. I am just so happy with the way that Daniel’s room turned out. It is exactly how I had it pictured in my head and just a happy place for me to just go and sit. We had saved all of Jonathan’s clothes from when he was little. Opening all those boxes, washing the clothes, and then putting them away was such a nice trip down memory lane of Jonathan being little and preparation for new memories of Daniel in those same clothes. Of course, so many people gave us so many new, wonderful things too. And, then there would be the things that I bought. I’m not going to lie, I had fun buying baby clothes and stuff for him!

I was just convinced that Daniel would come in December. Just seemed to be the month for our kids. I left work every day prepared not to come back. At our appointments, the doctor was seeing progression, and even she thought he might come early. Her words were, ‘after Christmas, but probably New Years.’ Well, we were all wrong! All those intermittent contractions were truly just practice! My work is closed the week of Christmas and I thought he’d be here that week. Nope! He had his own ideas!! Of course, that is just fine. We just wanted him to be safe, and happy, and healthy. But his story is for another post…

Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-01T23:49:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving was fun and busy. Jonathan's class had a Thanksgiving Feast at school the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They were given the choice to dress up as Indians or as Pilgrims. Jonathan thought he was one hot Indian! They also had personalized placemats which were very cute. There was enough food there for an army and of course all the kids wanted to eat was the sweets. It was a very fun party though, and I was glad that I was able to go.

We left Wednesday night and headed for Monroe and my Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. We missed our family so much last year, so we were very thankful to be able to be with everyone this year. Jonathan had a blast playing with all of his cousins, well really, he had fun playing with everyone! We had a great Thanksgiving dinner and went to my Uncle Danny and Aunt Ninette's house on Friday night for some delicious gumbo and jambalaya! I got to do a little shopping on Friday morning, but didn't buy hardly anything. Just too tired and too pregnant to shop it hard this year. I did get to spend some time with one of my best friends, Melissa, and her Mom, though while I was shopping, which was so nice. I hate her living so far away, but we always have a good time when we are able to get together. Mark did get up and get us a new fancy remote at Best Buy. That was probably the best thing we bought all day!

Jonathan playing with Grandad.

Our Family Picture. Grand Bode was feeling so bad that she's not in the picture and we are missing Christine's bunch.

Our silly family picture. :)

The kids saw the BIG kids climbing up in the tree and wanted to get up there too. Jonathan and Preston LOVED it, but Kendall was not too sure of being up that high.

Jonathan did not want to get down. I think he would have stayed and played up there all day.

My cousin Athena (30 weeks) and I (33 weeks) have been sharing this pregnancy journey as well. It has been a difficult road for both of us and we are just so thankful to have these two babies coming to our homes. They are so loved already. Addison and Daniel, we are ready to meet you!

We left Saturday morning and drove to Monroe to Mark's parents house for Thanksgiving Part 2! We had another great feast and enjoyed spending time with Mark's parents, his sister's family, and his Aunt and Uncle. That afternoon, Jonathan and Lacey decided to roll down the hill in front of the house. They must have rolled down that hill 50 times! They had an absolute blast and I'm just glad that they enjoy playing together. We drove to Clinton that night to see Tangled at the theatre. Unfortunately, Jonathan passed out in the car on the way there. He was just exhausted and couldn't make the drive. So, we ended up turning around and driving back home. He was so disappointed when he realized we missed the movie but I promised him we could go to the movies in LR the next week. We headed back home Sunday night. It was a very busy couple of days, and we were exhausted when we got home, but we really did have a very nice time with everyone.

Paw Paw had fun watching the action, but for some reason decided not to roll down the hill with them!

November 2010

2011-01-01T23:19:00.000-06:00

November ended up being just as busy as October! Probably don't have as many pictures, but trust me it just FLEW by. The month started off with Mark working on the baby's room. He thought this was going to be a weekend project... Hmmm...well it was a weekend..or two..or three! It turned out to be a bit more work than either of us had realized, but the finished project is completely worth it. Mark did a fantastic job and he had a great little helper. Jonathan painted one entire wall blue and really did a great job painting. Here is step one of the process: painting the room blue. Many more steps to come!

We had another baby shower at work for Michelle, another PT. She is two weeks ahead of me, expecting a little girl. The shower was a little bittersweet as her husband has gotten a new job in Dallas and they will be moving at the end of the month. She has become a great friend to me and they live in our neighborhood, so I will be very sad to see them go. But it was fun to give her fun gifts for this little girl.

We signed Jonathan up to take the Big Brother/Big Sister Class at Baptist Hospital where we will be delivering. This class is supposed to help them with the transition to having a new baby in the house as well as alleviate some of the fears of seeing their Mommy in the hospital. Jonathan just absolutely LOVED it, every single part of it. I have to say that Mark and I highly enjoyed ourselves as well. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time as watching Jonathan and the other children answer questions, change diapers, and play in the delivery room. He made a great card for Daniel's crib in the hospital, fed a pretend baby a bottle, changed a diaper, had a birthday party for the baby, went to visit a labor and delivery room, visited a mother/baby room, and even got to see a real live baby through the glass in the nursery. I have to say the class was great and I would highly recommend it to other Big Siblings!

Card he made for Daniel

Feeding his baby a bottle

His Big Brother certificate and pin (we also got him a t-shirt).

Jonathan went to a birthday party the next weekend for Megan. It is so hard to believe that she is 3! Seems like she was just born yesterday! Jonathan had a great time playing with everyone at the party and did a great job decorating his crown all by himself.

That same afternoon was my baby shower from the girls at church. It was so very nice and just so filled with love. They had done a bear thing which I just loved. From the invitations, to the decorations, to the food, it was just perfect. My Mom and Mark's Mom and Aunt were able to come share the special day with us as well. Everyone had a really nice time and I am just so appreciative of the love that was shown.

Me at the shower - 32 1/2 weeks pregnant

(See below for more posts!)

October 2010

2011-01-01T21:19:00.000-06:00

As always, the start of fall means that our family is on the go...constantly! This year was no different as Jonathan had a TON of fun activities and my belly was expanding pretty rapidly as well!! We had a blast with everything and managed to survive the chaos that seems to reign this time of year. Here are a few highlights from the month. (Oh, and there is another new post below this one. Trying to divide them into months...)

This picture is at 26 weeks. I have gotten involved in the Holy Sews ministry following the death of our Gracie. The group had the opportunity to do an interview for the local news station here in LR. I had gotten dressed up for that night, so we decided to take a few pictures. The interview was a huge blessing as we were able to reach several hurting families, make connections with new hospitals here in Arkansas, and recruit a few new volunteers as well. There is a link from the main website to the interview. http://www.holysews.org/ It is the "Feature Story on Today's THV."

The October bulletin board at Jonathan's preschool. My good friend Edie designed this one and did a great job. Each "spider" is the kids hand prints, which they then painted. It turned out great and Jonathan loved pointing out his spider every day.

The first weekend in October we decided to go to the Johnston Pumpkin Farm in Greenbrier. Unfortunately, we picked the absolute HOTTEST day to go. It was just miserable. I just cannot tolerate the heat and felt so bad the entire time we were there. Jonathan tried so hard to play, but he was just burning up as well. We had fun, but I will honestly admit it was not our best pumpkin patch experience to date. We just could not fit it in on another weekend, so sometimes you just make it work...

I think our favorite activity at the patch this year was painting a pumpkin. Jonathan just loved it and I had a great time watching him. He wanted to paint the entire pumpkin - the top, bottom, AND the stem! He actually liked it so much that we let him painta another one. The 2nd time he picked a little bitty pumpkin.

Jonathan and Daddy sitting in the patch.

Our family!

Jonathan has gotten very into taking pictures. He has taken pictures of everything, including himself. It is always interesting to download the camera and see what he has captured lately. His favorites seem to be whatever is on tv. He likes to take pictures of his shows.

We had a baby shower at work for one of the other PT's, Carrie, and her husband, Kurt. They are adopting twin girls who are just absolutely beautiful! The shower was a lot of fun to buy everything in two's. So happy for them both!

Jonathan decided he wanted to be Superman for Halloween. He was so excited when his costume came in. Mark flew him around the living room for weeks! He is also wearing his light-up Superman ring that I found as well. (It has super powers in case you didn't know!)

We said goodbye to a member of our family this month as well. We bought the Jeep Liberty in 2003 in anticipation of starting a family (and because I wrecked my Mustang). It has been a great SUV and we have really enjoyed it. The 4WD has gotten us out of some places and it has kept my baby safe for the last 3.5 years. However, it will be a little tight with two car seats in the back. Plus, we would not have any room for people to ride with us when they come to town. All of this led to us researching a new car/SUV/van.

We ended up getting at 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan. Trust me, I have gotten harrassed by everyone who sees me for driving a van, but you know, I really kind of like it. I'm not lying, I would like a big Suburban or Yukon, but that is just not in our price range right now. This van meets all of our requirements for a car, at about $30,000 cheaper!! Mark has become a big fan of Dave Ramsey, so we are trying to follow his money management plan to get out of and stay out of debt. In the mean time, I have auto-open/close doors, a drop-down DVD player, and several other fun extras in my new van. We ended up buying it in Shreveport, so we made a weekend trip down there. Stayed in a hotel, had a great dinner, and did a little shopping before coming back home.

The next weekend we went to Vicksburg and Jackson for Mark's sister, Kim's, engagement party. While we were in Vicksburg, we stopped by to see Johnson. Unfortunately, we have not been to Vicksburg or been able to see her in a long time. So, we were very excited to spend some time with her. We even got to take her to run a few errands. Jonathan loved having her ride in the back of the van with him, he thought that was pretty hot stuff.

Saturday night we went to the engagement party. My sweet little boy told me, "Mommy you look so pretty" as we were getting ready. Just made my whole day. For a Mommy who is getting bigger by the day, it was such a sweet and loving thing to say. He took this picture of me himself. Such a sweet little boy who is going to be such a great big brother!

That Sunday we drove back to Little Rock for a special memorial service at Baptist Hospital. This service was to remember every baby that had been lost this year at this hospital. It was a beautiful service. At the end, each family wrote a message to their little one and tied it to a balloon. So many balloons floating away, so much love, so much loss, but still so much love and hope for the future.

Jonathan's class at school asked each of the kids to decorate a pumpkin for the Fall Fest. Jonathan has been on a BIG acorn kick. He collects them everywhere we go. So, we decided to make "ACORN"ucopia as our pumpkin. He told me where to put each acorn and I used the hot glue gun to put them on the pumpkin. We both had a blast and I think his little friends at school liked it too.

Jonathan's preschool puts on a Fall Fest every year a few weeks before Halloween. All of the kids dress up and play games all over the preschool. Jonathan loved wearing his costume and seeing all of his friends from school.

This is his best bud Sam. They were too cute in their matching superhero outfits. There was also a baby there that night dressed as Superman. He thought that was so cool that there were two Supermans.

The next night our church had their Fall Funfest. So, once again, Jonathan dressed up and we went to the church for a ton of games, candy, and treat.

He did really good at throwing the darts at the balloons. Boys got good aim, baseball here we come!

The NEXT day (yes, all three of these events happened in the same week), Jonathan's class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. This time it was not hot thankfully. I did not get to go, but Mark and my Mom were able to go and enjoy it with him. The field trip was very neat as they had a couple of learning activities for the kids to participate in, not just walking through the patch.

Mrs. Meagan's class at the pumpkin patch. Jonathan's on the top left side of the step.

MaMa Deb (my Mom) was able to come spend this entire week with us and go to all of the fun Halloween activities. On Friday, Jonathan decided that they needed to make a pumpkin pie. They worked really hard and made an excellent pie. I don't think he ate too much of it, but he really did enjoy the process of making it!

The Friday before Halloween Jonathan's preschool did Trick-or-Treating around the building. Jonathan loved it, especially all of the candy!!

Jonathan's class after Trick-or-Treating time.

The PT's at work usually do a theme. This year we were a little lazy and just bought matching t-shirts. As you can tell, Michelle (32 weeks) and I (29 1/2 weeks) are both getting rather big and prego here. Kim did a skit with another group, thus why she's not wearing the shirt.

After the trick-or-treating, Jonathan and his friends changed back into regular clothes. They then had a pizza party with green punch. They had a blast and especially loved the cd of Halloween music during the party. See the dancing below!

Finally, Halloween arrived, and Jonathan went trick-or-treating. We went through most of our neighborhood and he got a TON of candy. Oh my, the candy. We always have fun on Halloween, though, and this year was no exception. I do miss giving out candy at our house, but nothing beats watching him have so much fun.

Our family trick-or-treating

Superman Jonathan

Jonathan and his loot from trick-or-treating. This does not include any of the candy from the Fall Fest at preschool, Fall FunFest at church, or trick-or-treating at chuch. Yes, we have waaaayyyy too much candy. Yes, yes we do. :)

September 2010 and Labor Day

2011-01-01T18:25:00.000-06:00

Just a few quick pictures to finish out September. These first two pictures are from the playground at preschool. Jonathan and his friend took these play kitchens and turned them down on their side. Made them into their very own recliners. It was ABSOLUTELY hilarious!! This is how I found the two boys when I got there. Then their sweet little girl friend came to sit in between them. Jonathan was not ready to leave with me. Just wanted to sit and chill. A couple of other Moms and I decided they just needed some magazines, a cooler, and a TV to watch the game! The making of a man is right here. Oh my, it is hilarious!!!!!

The other big trip of September was our Labor Day Family Vacation with Mark's family. We met his parents, his sister, her fiance and daughter, and his brother's family at Lake Guntersville, Alabama. We had rented a lake house there that was gorgeous and huge! Lots of room for the kids to run around and play, plus plenty of beds for everyone to sleep in.

On our way to Alabama, we stopped and spent the night in Corinth, MS. Actually found a decent hotel there and we decided to go the next day to the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center. This park area is part of the greater Shiloh park and was extremely interesting. Mark had a relative from Meridian who fought in this battle, so we enjoyed looking at the exhibits.

21 1/2 weeks

Jonathan and Lucy having fun watching tv before bed time.

Mark and his Dad on the back porch. His Dad had just had his rotator cuff repaired. He had managed to separate his bicep tendon from the bone. Can you say OUCH!!

Mike, Kim, and Lacey watching a little tv.

It was about an hour from where we were staying to Huntsville. The Space Center there was having a STAR WARS exhibit and Mark really wanted to go. Jonathan has become a big fan lately as well, especially of Darth Vader. Not really sure why Darth, but he does like him the best!! Unfortunately, my lovely stomach virus returned that day and I was not able to go with them. I really hated to miss it. Mark took a ton of pictures for me so I

Happy Birthday Gracie Lynne

2010-12-08T19:20:00.000-06:00

Today is Gracie Lynne's birthday. One year ago today she entered and left this world. We know she is in Heaven with our Lord Jesus, but we still miss her here on this Earth...every day. So Happy Birthday baby girl. We will always, always, and always love you and miss you every day until we see you again.

We did take some time today to go to Gracie's garden to celebrate her life and remember her. We are thankful for a peaceful place to sit and just be. We took out some new flowers and a little happy present for her. Also had some pink cupcakes in her honor. Not nearly good enough as having her here, but it is what we could do to keep her memory alive in our hearts and minds.

Mommy loves you.

September 2010 - Preschool and Veggie Tales

2010-09-26T14:57:00.000-05:00

Jonathan is absolutely LOVING his new preschool class. His teacher, Mrs. Meagan, is great and he is learning a TON of stuff already. It is so much fun to watch him try to write his letters, sounding things out, picking out letters on signs, etc. He is very into learning and reading, which is a true blessing. They do a bulletin board each month. For the first month of school, they did Mrs. Meagan's Monsters. Jonathan has gotten very into monsters (not scary ones) lately, so this was perfect for him. He made a great scary monster face for his plate and then decorated it with green paint and blue string hair. He has decided that monsters should be blue. Not sure why, but he colors all of them blue now.

We had our 23+ week appointment with the High Risk OB clinic on September 17th. This appointment was specifically to check on the baby's heart. Let me tell you, this one was the most stressful of the three we have done. First a regular sonographer came in and did a mini-ultrasound of the baby in general. She measured him, checked him out again, and gave us some great pics of him. We even got to see him in 4D which was VERY cool. I have to say, he looks just like the baby pictures of Jonathan. Too little peas in a pod I'm thinking. But, the 4D was very comforting. So very real to see him that way and just imagine him here with us in just a few short months. After she left, another cardiac sonographer came in and did an ultrasound/echocardiogram of his heart. Let me tell you, that was hard. Mark and I had no real idea of what she was doing or seeing and she was not allowed to tell us anything. So we are basically just sitting there in silence for 30-45 minutes while she looks at his heart. Then she left. Didn't give us any inclination good or bad. Whoah, that was hard! After her, the high risk OB came in to tell us that everything on the regular ultrasound was great and that the baby was doing great overall. She said the heart doctor would be in to talk to us about his heart. She left and the pediatric cardiologist from Arkansas Children's Hospital came in. She watched the video of the entire ultrasound that the girl had done. At the end, she finally told us that his heart looked great. She did not see any problems and did not feel like there was anything there to be concerned about. She was super nice and we both really liked her a lot. She did say that there are a few problems that you cannot see on an ultrasound and to make sure that the pediatricians check him out good when he gets here, but she did not expect for there to be any problems. Wow, the stress level in the room dropped by about a million! We are so very thankful and blessed and happy by this news. The other great news is that we are officially discharged from the High Risk clinic. We will now just be followed by our regular OB (who we love) until this little man gets here. Wow. What an amazing blessing. Seriously. I just cannot thank God enough. We will keep praying that things go well and that he will come here healthy, happy, and on time (not early!). Thank you so much for praying for us. We know how much God is here with us and we are so thankful.

This appointment was even more appreciated in that we had had a scare the week before. I had gotten a stomach virus the first week of the school year from the kids. Of course. I always end up getting the stomach viruses. Well this one did not seem to want to go away. After a week, I called the OB's office and they suggested I go to the regular doctor's office to check things out. When I got there, they did a urinalysis and saw blood in my urine. Well, of course, this completely freaked me out. He, not being an OB, didn't really know what to do. He thought it was an UTI, but he wasn't sure. Well, this led to me leaving his office and driving directly to the ER at Baptist. Of course, I had taken Jonathan with me as preschool was over for the day. Poor, sweet baby was such a very good listener through everything. We called my best friend Karen, and her kind Mother in Law came and picked up Jonathan to take him to Karen's house. Mark was in Pine Bluff at work when I called him with all of this. He immediately heads for home, but he is an hour away. The ER has no desire to get involved with the prego (me), so they immediately send me up to Labor and Delivery so that they can monitor the baby. Let me tell you, it was some very, very bad deja vu to be back there, NOT wanting to have a baby, and knowing that things could go very badly, very quickly. Poor Mark was just beside himself. He kept saying how much he hated it there. So sad when the L&D unit should be a happy place. Anyway, they hooked me up to the fetal heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor. After a while, they decided that there was nothing wrong with the baby and that he was not in any distress. This was a huge blessing and relief to us. They did look at me, though, and said, "He is fine. You, however, are very sick." That I knew, but it was still kind of funny. It ended up that I did have a bladder infection (from the stomach virus) and severe dehydration. Four nurses tried to start an IV before they finally had to call in an anethesiologist to get one started. Let me tell you, that wasn't much fun. My poor hands and arms were bruised for a week. They ran two bags of fluids and a bag of antibiotics. About 8 hours later, we got to go home. In the mean time, we sat there and listened to the baby's heart beat on the monitors. It was a beautiful sound and, trust me, the highlight of the day. He wasn't a huge fan of that monitor and kept kicking at it or moving away from it. This made us laugh. The nurses kept having to move the monitor around to find him. He is just so little right now that he can definitely move away from it. They are used to term babies who don't have much room left to move!! Anyway, it was a very exciting and scary day, but a blessing still that the baby was good.

I have a couple of new prego pics, but of course, they are still on the camera. I'll have to work on downloading them soon.

This past Wednesday, his class took a walking "field trip" to the other playground at Easter Seals. They rarely get to play over there, so it was a big hit with all of the kids. I sent my camera with his teacher, and she got some great pictures. There really are some very nice things about working at the same place as where he goes to preschool. He has made several new friends in his class (of which I'm very thankful for) and really likes going to school every day. I thought these pics turned out great. Now if only I can get caught up with scrapbooking so I could make a page of them!

Thursday night was the highlight of Jonathan's week. Our church sponsored "Veggie Tales" to come in and do a show. It was an absolute blast. As soon as the music started, he just got giddy. He jus loves Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber. He could not believe that they were at HIS church. I was so glad that we were able to go. Mark had gone on a lightning fast trip to Chicago Wednesday morning to give a speech. He flew back to Little Rock at 5:20pm Thursday. The show started at 6pm on the complete other side of town from the airport...during rush hour. Thankfully, his plane was right on time and he hadn't checked any bags. He walked into the sanctuary at 5:58pm. Jonathan was so glad that Mark was there and I know Mark was glad he hadn't missed it either. I bought Jonathan a "Super Larry" hat and a cute t-shirt. He looks so cute in this silly hat, cracks me up. At the show, some of the children were standing in the aisles so they could see better. Jonathan started in the aisle, and then slowly moved closer and closer towards the stage. He eventually ended up on the steps. The stage manager on either side of the stage gently told him he couldn't stand on the steps. He went and had a conversation with each of them to see where he COULD stand. Such a little negotiator. But he did, listened, and followed their directions. I was very proud, but it was hilarious watching him talk to these two guys. I couldn't hear what either of them said, but I can imagine!

August 2010 - New Year of Preschool

2010-08-27T18:56:00.000-05:00

August has started with a bang! This month has FLOWN by and I cannot believe that it is almost the end of August already!!

Jonathan started a new class in preschool this fall and it has been absolutely wonderful. He loved his old teacher and class, but I think he is feeling pretty special being in the "big boy" class. The only down side is that he is not with the same kids. He skipped a class and quite a few of his friends did not, unfortunately. But, the teacher is wonderful and I know that he will make some new friends quickly. He comes home almost every day telling me the new things they have done and what they are going to do tomorrow, etc. Mark and I are sooooo very thankful that he likes preschool. It makes it so much easier for me to go to work knowing that he is happy. (I have enough Mommy guilt as it is, don't need an unhappy baby making it worse!). I bought him a new shirt to wear to the first day of school. I went to Gymboree planning to buy ONE shirt. Just one.... Well...of course they were having a sale....and it was Gymbucks time....and there was cute stuff for the new baby.... Let's just say that I now have two Gymbucks and quite a few new clothes for Jonathan and for the new baby. I fully admit to a spending problem when it comes to things for my children. Children, wow, that's a new word in my vocabularly and I'm loving it!! Oh, stopped and got a double doozie cookie at Great American Cookie in the mall too. Love being pregnant and not worrying too much about calories/fat. That puppy was good!!!!

Anyway, preschool is going great. The Kinders came for a show at the end of the first week. They are a husband/wife team who have written quite a few kids cd's and do concerts for big events around town. Jonathan and the rest of the kids had a blast listening to the music.

Here is the next prego pic. This one is 17 weeks. We had our 18 week ultrasound the next week with the High Risk OB Clinic. We had done a nuchal translucency test at 13 weeks and they were thinking we might be having a boy. Well, our 18 week ultrasound confirmed it. IT'S A BOY!! I am now completely outnumbered at my house! But also completely blessed beyond compare. Even more importantly, there were no problems noted at the ultrasound. The baby appears to be completely healthy and there were no problems. I cannot even begin to tell you how much of a relief that is. Mark and I had both felt that this baby was ok, but it was wonderful to have some confirmation. Thank you Lord for our

many blessings. We have another appointment scheduled at 24 weeks with the High Risk OB's for an echocardiogram to look specifically at the heart. They think all is well, but this will give us more information. After that, it will just be regular OB appointments and waiting for the baby to get here. Come on January!! My friend, Michelle, at work is having a girl as is my cousin Athena. Plus, also found out that three of the ladies that I've gotten to know from Holy Sews are pregnant as well. One is due in November with a boy and the other two are due about two months after me. It is baby mecca around here. Pour on the blessings Lord!!

Thanks for checking in on us. Here's hoping I can stay a little more caught up....well, at least I'll try!!

July 2010

2010-08-27T17:50:00.003-05:00

We started off July with a little Christmas time! Christmas in July is always a plus for me!! I had bought a kit to make rice crispie snowmen last December. Unfortunately, with so many other things going on, we never got around to making the snowmen. Well, Jonathan found the kit in the pantry and wanted to make it. So, we did! It was so silly but we all had fun. The kit came with edible paints to paint the snowmen with. Jonathan loved that part the best. We ended up making Christmas trees to go with the snowman which was fun as well.

I usually buy Jonathan a new t-shirt for the Fourth of July but just didn't get around to it this year. Plus, the ones that I did see were just not what I wanted for him. So, instead, I dressed him in a cute red polo shirt and khaki shorts to wear to church. He was so handsome and we had a nice day at home, just the three of us.

I stopped at a local Farmer's Market one afternoon and got some beautiful looking tomatoes. I decided to try and make something that I have never dared to do before. I got out my Vicksburg cookbooks and braved the infamous Vicksburg Tomato Sandwiches. Now, if you're not from Vicksburg, then you wouldn't understand, but they are kinda a big deal! It was the one must have item, food wise, for our wedding, for my wedding shower, my baby shower in Vicksburg, and pretty much any other important event I can think of. I am not saying that these were up to that caliber, but they were good! I didn't do the homemade mayo as it has raw eggs in it (not a good thing for a prego) but I did the variation one. (Of course, now with all the egg drama recall thing going around, I'm glad I didn't do the raw egg thing). Mark will not eat raw tomatoes, but Jonathan seemed to like my sandwiches. Yum, yum, yum!! Now, if only I can convince my SIL Kim to have them at her wedding in January then life will be good! I mean, seriously, we can drive them from Vicksburg down to Hattiesburg right!?!?!?!?

Jonathan's preschool had an end-of-the-year "fair" at school to celebrate the end of the summer. They had mini-corn dogs, juice, snow cones, read books, went fishing for prizes, bobbed for ducks, played with bubbles, saw a 'fortune' teller, and had just an all-around good time. He had a blast with all of it. Oh, and they did temporary tattoos. He picked Spiderman, that was probably the highlight for him. And that silly thing lasted for 4-5 days. Took us forever to get that silly thing off.

I love this picture of Jonathan and my Daddy. My parents came up to visit at the end of the month and Jonathan just loves spending time with the both of them. He sat down with my Daddy to watch the tv and they just looked too cute sitting there together. And that is a good end to July!

June 2010

2010-08-27T16:38:00.000-05:00

Here's the update on June! We didn't take a lot of pictures this month as we didn't get out and do much. Pregnancy has this love-r-ly effect of nausea and vomiting and profuse tiredness on me! But, here is a run-down of what did happen!

The month started off with a fun start. We had our first doctor's appointment where we got to see the heartbeat of our sweet little baby. Nice and strong! We also had a fun surprise while we were there. We ran into one of my coworkers Michelle and her husband, Brian. We knew they had been trying but did not know that she was pregnant. Nor did she know that I was pregnant! So it was a fun surprise in the waiting room to run into them. We decided that we needed to plan something special to tell everyone at work. After trying several different ideas, we finally came up with this.

We decided to take a picture of the two ultrasound pictures up against our respective bellies. I'm the one in the peachy-orange shirt. We had a lot of fun showing the picture to everyone and having them try to figure out what was going on. Then, when they finally figured it out, we all had plenty of laughs and hugs to go around. Michelle is due December 29th and I'm due January 11th. VERY close! Will be a little low on PT's at the beginning of the year with us both out on maternity leave too! About a month later, we found out that one of the OT's at work is also expecting...with twins! It is baby central around our work. Don't drink the water!!!!

My cousin Athena is also expecting another little one! She is due January 30th, so just a few weeks behind me. Her little boy, Preston, is about 6 months younger than Jonathan, so it is pretty exciting to have our newest little ones coming so close together again. Thank you for all your prayers for our sweet baby and we ask you to please remember the other little babies on the way as well. We know that God hears all of our prayers and that he will be with us and guide us always.

The other BIG news of June is that Mark and his Dad were able to finish Jonathan's playground. This structure is big and soooo much fun for Jonathan to play on. He is so very happy to have his very own swing, slide, fort, etc. The only problem is that it has been so unbearably hot here this summer that he has not had much of an opportunity to play on it. Mostly late at night, which unfortunately means mosquitoes. Here's hoping that it will cool down soon! He has been asking and asking for friends to come over to play with him, so we are hoping for some cooler weather.

Here is one of the first prego pics that we've taken. I was ten weeks here in this shot. Look more pregnant than that I know, but remember, this isn't my first baby!

I know more happened in June, but I honestly can't remember what it is, so I'll just have to leave you with this! Here's hoping that maybe it's in my calendar or that Mark remembers so that it isn't lost for all time!! But unfortunately, there is not pictorial evidence of whatever it was!!

May 2010

2010-08-23T20:26:00.000-05:00

Well, things are going a little better at our house, so I figured it was about time to try and get (slightly) caught up. At least finish May! Then maybe next time I have a few minutes I can do June!!

At the beginning of May was the annual Preschool Art Show and fundraiser to raise money for the preschool and for the PTA. They display art from each classroom, which is judged, and also have tables for silent auctions of classroom art, donated baskets, etc. Jonathan won a First Place ribbon for his ladybug art and a Third Place ribbon for his Thanksgiving turkey placemat. I made a scrapbook page of Jonathan's class that was auctioned off as well. Of course, I spent MUCH more money that my page raised buying his classroom's art! It was a fun week as always.

We made our first and only trip to the AR Traveler's baseball game in May as well. It has just gotten waaaayyyyy too hot to be outside for a game, which is unfortunate as we all love to go to the ball game. The game was a blast. Mark got us fantastic seats behind the visitor's dugout two rows back. Jonathan was super excited as he "caught" a baseball in his hat. Actually someone caught it and gave it to him, but all he saw was it landing in his hat, which is all that really matters. He was so excited and kept a tight hold on the ball the rest of the night. The game was also part of my Mother's Day present. A great present I might add! My sweet boys also gave me some beautiful flowers for Mother's Day. I love a pretty bouquet of flowers.

We made a trip to Madison to see my parents near the end of May. They decided to surprise Jonathan with a Slip and Slide! It was hilarious. I think Mark had as much fun as Jonathan did. Jonathan really liked when someone pushed him down the slide.

The last weekend of the month, my MIL and SIL came up to go wedding dress shopping!!! We went to Lowe's in Brinkley, AR, which trust me, is one massive wedding dress mecca. We were there ALL DAY long, but it was well worth it as we found THE dress. Obviously can't put any pics up, but trust me, it is gorgeous. We are all looking forward to the wedding in January.

Speaking of January, we are looking forward to another BIG family event to happen that month. We are expecting another baby!! We are so excited and so blessed beyond belief. Mark and I have prayed long and hard before deciding this was the path we wanted to take. We truly feel that God has not closed this door for us. And while we know that we are not promised a good outcome, we are promised that God will hold us and be with us through all that will come, good and bad. In the mean time, though, we are just excited about a little brother or sister for Jonathan and a new baby for us and our family! We would like to ask for prayers for this precious baby and for the Mommy, that he or she will be happy and healthy and safe and that the Mommy will stay well during the time to come.

Of course, we found out about the baby right after we found out Kim's wedding date. Which, of course, was planned for the same weekend. Wanting her family to be able to be there and be a part of her big day, she graciously moved the wedding back a few weeks. So hopefully we all be there! Mark and Jonathan are in the wedding and we are all very excited for the big day.

Well there is the condensed version of May 2010! Time to put a happy little boy to bed, but hopefully I can catch up June and July soon!!

Field Trip to the Zoo

2010-05-15T17:15:00.001-05:00

May has come running in with a bang! It is only half-way through the month and it seems like we have been so busy already. Our first big trip was Jonathan’s last field trip of the year, to the Little Rock Zoo. Now, as zoos go, this one is not the best, but it’s not the worst! And, for a bunch of three year olds, it is more than sufficient!

I decided to take the entire day off to just spend some extra time with Jonathan. Usually when we go on a field trip, I am rushing back to work to treat kids and miss out on some of that time with him. Not this time! We had a great day with his friends, and then a great rest of the day just the two of us.

Jonathan’s Class and Teachers

Ready for the Train Ride!

Mommy & Jonathan on the Train Ride

We left the zoo with his class and had sack lunches on the picnic tables outside of the zoo. After his class went back to school, Jonathan and I went back into the zoo for a little more fun. The first thing we did was to ride the carousel or the merry-go-round as Jonathan would say. The horses do not move on this one, instead the floor moves up and down at some funky angles. Jonathan really liked it, but I was not a big fan. I kept picturing him sliding off the back of his horse!!

The next place we stopped was the giraffes! This was the animal that Jonathan had been asking to see since being told that we were going to the zoo. We had briefly seen them with his class, but we went back to really spend some time watching them. Jonathan loved the giraffes.

The last thing we did was make a swing through the gift shop. He had been such a good listener and such a sweet boy all day that I told him he could pick out a toy. He was very excited and ended up picking out this animal umbrella. He has taken it with him EVERYWHERE! Luckily for him, we have had quite a bit of rain, so it has come in handy lately! Of course, on this day, it was just nice to block a little of the sun!!

Two more new posts after this one! Keep reading for more fun!!

Preschool Gymboree Class

2010-05-15T16:46:00.001-05:00

Jonathan’s preschool is very lucky to have Mrs. Valerie from Gymboree come in on Friday to teach a movement/gymnastics class. Jonathan absolutely loves the class and Mrs. Valerie as well. Since the Gymboree Play and Music closed in February, he hasn’t been going to a class and has really missed it. We are very glad that they have this smaller option available at his preschool. She has been teaching the kids to do forward rolls, headstands, running jumps, broad jumps, and all other kinds of fun stuff. Jonathan has gotten pretty good at most of it. When he first began doing a roll, he would mainly roll to the side or sometimes over his head. Now, he really gets a good push off with his feet to roll straight over his head. And the headstands are too funny, but he is definitely developing some good trunk control. (The PT in me is proud!)

Jumping off the Spring Board

Ready to Jump

Hands Up

Hands Down and Up to a Headstand!

Ta-Da! Superstar!

Ready to Roll

Dancing with the Rainbow Rope

Cute Picture that his teacher used for my Mother’s Day card.

((See post below for more new stuff!!!))

Arkansas Children’s Week, Fence, and Park!

2010-05-15T13:20:00.001-05:00

Jonathan’s preschool celebrated Arkansas Children’s Week on April 19-23rd. Each day had a theme. Jonathan and I had a blast coming up with different outfits for him to wear each week.

Monday was INSIDE-OUT DAY. He wore his pants, shirt, hat, socks, and even his underwear inside-out! He thought it was hilarious!

Tuesday was 80’s DAY. Let me tell you, this one was a challenge. I asked everyone and just couldn’t think of any good ideas. And then, we finally had one. Put a rat tail in his hair. It was a priceless idea and we did it up right. We went to Walgreens with the plan to buy some fake hair. That stuff is $18.99!! Needless to say, we didn’t buy that. What we did buy was a $3.99 baby doll and cut off one of it’s pony tails. Much cheaper and actually matched his hair better anyway. That night I was trying to decide what clothes to wear. I pulled out his Blue Angels t-shirt from this summer in Pensacola. I put labels on the back, “Maverick,” “Goose,” “Viper,” “Iceman,” and “Jester.” In case you didn’t get it, they are the call signs for the movie Top Gun. How much more 80’s can you get!?!? Anyway, it was hilarious. Jonathan absolutely HATED the rat tail, but it was so great. Everyone loved it. They had an 80’s Dance Party that morning as well. Jonathan rocked it out in his outfit and was even brave enough to ask his main girl Nasya for a dance!

Wednesday was BOOK CHARACTER DAY. Jonathan (with a little encouragement from Mommy) decided that he wanted to be Curious George. This was great as he had an outfit and I didn’t have to come up with anything for him to wear. He brought one of his favorite Curious George books with him to school. That morning, each class went on a parade through the halls with their outfits on. It is always so fun to watch all the kids having fun.

Thursday was ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S DAY AND PICNIC. The kids wore their Arkansas Children’s Week t-shirts and then their class went to a different playground for a special treat. After playing for a while, they had a picnic on the grass with a sack lunch.

Friday was PAJAMA Day. I had a cute set of Mickey Mouse pajamas set out, but Jonathan insisted on his alligator ones instead. He still looked cute, but the pants are getting a little short! The boy is just soooo tall!!

Mark and Jonathan also began PROJECT FENCE this month! Let me tell you, this is one never-ending project! My boys have been having a blast doing manly things outside. When we moved into our house, the fence in the back and on one side was complete. But, we were still missing one side and the small parts to the house itself. It has never really been a concern, but now that Jonathan is older, he is wanting to spend more time outside. Soooo, fence it is! Mark has done a ton of research and decided that he could build the fence himself. So, he is, with a little help from a three year old, and a little supervision from the Mommy! Mark has been traveling so much and it has been raining so much that the project is dragging out, but they are having fun, so it is well worth it. This project has also given Mark an excuse to buy and use several tools with his air compressor (Christmas present). Here are a few pictures from the beginning of the project. More pictures to follow when the fence is completed…hopefully soon!!

The Thursday of Arkansas Children’s Week, Jonathan and I had a play date at a little park with Mrs. Edie, Ali, and Asa. The kids had a wonderful time playing together. Edie and I had a great time talking, as we always do!!

Well, I tend to ramble on, so I will stop this post now! Plenty more to say, show, but it will wait. Time to put a little man down for his nap! Happy weekend everyone!

Gracie’s Due Date

2010-04-28T00:14:00.001-05:00

Saturday, April 24, 2010, was Gracie’s due date. So many hopes, dreams, desires, and yet done of those things did we have, or no, that’s not right. We do have them, but they are just so very different than what we thought they would be.

Every pregnant person is a reminder that I am not. Every little infant is a reminder of just how empty my arms are. My guest room should be full of pink and purple, ribbons and bows, teddy bears and baby dolls. I should be up half the night feeding and rocking an infant. I should have beautiful pictures of her with her Daddy, with her brother, with me. Singing lullabies and giving whisper soft kisses. But, I’m not. And that is hard.

The last few weeks have been almost unbearable. Moving towards this day, her day, has shaken me so deeply. I have been horribly emotional, hard to deal with, weepy, mad, sad, frustrated, tired. I just knew that Saturday would be an absolutely horrible day. I had tried to prepare myself for it. But I knew it would be bad.

And yet, it wasn’t. Even in the midst of all that I felt, thought, did, GOD was and is always right there with me. He never left my side. He is holding my hand and pulling me up, out of my grief, to find the joy and peace that I desire. Let me tell you the story of our weekend…

First, I would like to tell you about some very good friends of mine. Some new and some old. First, my very best friend Karen. She can sense my feelings and thoughts better than I can myself sometimes. On Thursday of last week, she brought me the most beautiful arrangement of flowers. They are the most beautiful shades of pink and purple, with a beautiful purple ribbon, and three butterflies stuck into the arrangement. Butterflies for rebirth and life and hope and happiness. The flowers are beautiful, but the love and friendship that comes with them are so much more, so very much more. The really funny part of it is, Mark, Jonathan, and I had gone to Hobby Lobby the previous Saturday to buy silk flowers to make an arrangement for Gracie’s vase. What did I buy? Pink, purple, and white flowers, with silver accents. Also, two beautiful butterfly stakes to put in the ground next to her marker. So, it made the real flower arrangement that much more special. Like it was my own version to have to remember her. I thank God for Karen and her family. They are just wonderful, wonderful friends.

The next group of friends would be from our church. The Lord truly led us to Immanuel Baptist, and we have made so many wonderful friends here. They have been with us, prayed with us, and helped us so much in the past seven years, but most especially with all of Jonathan’s medical problems, and now with the death of our Gracie. So many people have prayed for our family. Do you know that feeling when prayer becomes palpable, it is so strong? I know what that feels like, and let me tell you, it is awesome. It is God. It changes everything. Our Sunday School class has held us up so much. Fellowships, prayers, and again, much love. I have also started a new Bible Study class, and so many of those ladies have been praying for us as well.

On Friday, as I am about to leave, flowers appear on my desk. The beautiful and wonderful ladies that I work with had gone in together and made a donation to the March of Dimes in honor of my sweet baby girl. They had also brought a bouquet of bright hot pink daisies. They are happy flowers, not sad flowers. Remembering her life and how much she is loved. And I’m crying typing this, that they cared enough to remember her and me and my family and my baby. It is just overwhelming and I will be forever grateful that the good Lord has provided me with the ability to help others’ little ones, but also that He has given me such Godly and kind friends to do it with. One thing I have always said, is that I wanted flowers when I delivered my baby. It just didn’t happen with Jonathan and everything else that happened that day. And Mark brought me beautiful, beautiful flowers when Gracie was born, but they were still a little bittersweet. Knowing this, they brought me flowers. Happy flowers. Thank you. Thank you for knowing me so well, thank you for your gift, thank you for your friendship.

There is another friend, a new friend, who God has also sent my way. The funny thing is, I have never met her! She is a member of the Holy Sews group that I talked about in my last post. She saw my facebook post on the group’s page and sent me a message. She, too, lost her twins at 19 weeks. I feel like I have found a kindred spirit in this journey of loss. As much as I hate that we have this in common, it is so nice to talk to someone who has been there, who understands, who knows the hurts, the loss, the pain, and the joy. Hard to explain unless you’ve been there, but trust me, it is nice. I am hopeful to attend the next work day for the group, and finally meet her. In the mean time, I’ll just thank God for her and the wonderful help she has been to me.

Thank you also to all of our friends and family who remembered us on this day. I thank God for you and that you are a part of our lives.

So, on to Saturday. There was so much going on this weekend, but we decided to just be gentle with ourselves and lay low. The one planned activity we had was the March of Dimes walk here in Little Rock. Registration was at 9am and the walk was scheduled to begin at 10am. We didn’t know much about it, but it seemed like a great way to remember our little girl. We all wore our Discovery Space Shuttle t-shirts that Mark had brought home from the launch. Nothing really to do with Gracie or babies, but we matched, and we decided we were “blasting off” for her and for a happier tomorrow. I had also made bright and happy pink ribbons with “For Gracie” on them to wear on our shirts. We got there about 9:15 and it was sprinkling on and off. We had brought rain jackets so we didn’t care. They had a ton of sponsors and booths set up. There was a pink fire truck (breast cancer awareness) and a fire house where they used a smoke machine to teach kids about fire safety. Also, each of the NICU’s in town had a booth for a chance to reunite with the graduates. We saw a lady from church and she asked us what hospital we were at. My answer: St. Vincent’s, Baptist, and Arkansas Children’s. She didn’t quite know what to think about that answer, but Mark and I got a kick out of it. Jonathan colored a handkerchief at the St. Vincent’s booth and talked a little to the ladies there. Then, at about 9:30 or so, the floodgates of Heaven opened, and it began POURING! Normally, my response would have been to get angry that our plans were being ruined, that things were not going like I wanted them to. But, I didn’t. God was in control. The rain was beautiful. (I don’t think everyone thought so, but I did). We stood under the tent, and smiled, and laughed, and just enjoyed being together. They had to cancel the walk, tents were blowing over, people were running for their cars, but we just stood there. Smiled, laughed, and loved on our Jonathan.

Mark finally took a break in the storm and went for the Jeep. He pulled up to the tents and we got Jonathan loaded in. We decided to go have brunch at Denny’s. Of course, by the time we got there, it had stopped raining. The day turned out beautiful. Perfect weather and just a beautiful sky. We had such a nice time eating together, acting silly, just being a family. Jonathan found a new friend at the table next to us, and just talked and talked to this little boy.

We then went to get Mark and hair cut, to Sear’s for some parts Mark needed for his fence project, and then home for a nap. I made cupcakes while Jonathan napped, and he helped me ice and decorate them when he woke up.

We went out to Gracie’s Garden that afternoon. We brought the flower arrangement that I had made and some soft blocks that were Jonathan’s gift to Gracie. We also took our cupcakes for a little party. It was so nice and peaceful to just sit there, talk a little, laugh a little, and remember her while enjoying a cupcake. We also met a couple who were there remembering her little brother who had died 15 years ago in utero. Sweet people. We shared cupcakes with them and a little of our story. Hopefully shared a little of God’s love too. Thank goodness I always plan for more when it comes to desserts (and Mark!) and had brought extras out there with us.

The funniest part of the entire day came as Mark was cleaning up from the cupcakes. There is a trash can near the pond that is very close to Gracie. Mark walked over to throw our trash away. He said that when he got close to the can, he heard a hissing sound. Stopped and then realized it was a Momma goose sitting on a nest on the other side of the can. He quickly threw the trash in and started moving away from her. About that time, the Daddy goose dive-bombed Mark! I hear him yell and turn around to see him running back towards us. It was hilarious. Poor Momma goose, I’m sure Mark scared her to death, but the Daddy goose scared Mark! Jonathan fed the rest of his cupcake to the ducks and Daddy goose and had a great time throwing sticks into the water. I think he could do that for hours honestly!

We left there and went to Samurai Steakhouse and Hibachi for dinner. It is one of my favorite restaurants and just a fun atmosphere and show. We ordered Jonathan a meal for the first time, and he took it out! He absolutely loved the soup, ate a ton of fried rice, both of his shrimp, and some of his steak. It was so fun to watch him trying so hard to use his chopsticks too. He wasn’t half bad at it either. We met this wonderful family at the restaurant as well. It was a Daddy with his three kids (Mom was out of town at a church retreat). The middle child was a little girl and she was sitting next to me. Let’s just say she was a talker. She kept me entertained the entire meal. I don’t think I got much of a word in, and we all know I can talk! Her Daddy kept apologizing, but it wasn’t bothering us. We had a blast. Jonathan was having fun talking to them as well. He eventually got up and they were playing while everyone was paying the check.

I looked at Mark at the restaurant and smiled. I looked at Jonathan and I smiled again. I told Mark that I thought this day would be horrible, but it honestly was not. It was nice. I was happy. I had a wonderful time being with the two of them and just spending time together. Mark agreed that he had had a very nice day as well.

I know that the reason we had such a nice day was because of God. He heard our prayers, he knew how much we were hurting. Each prayer and thought that someone had for us, for our family, for our baby, God was there. God heard each one. He was with us the entire day, smiling through the rain, laughing at the goose, enjoying the dinner. I was so amazed and so utterly thankful.

God has never left us. He never will. He is right here with us. And Gracie is ok. She is in Heaven with Jesus. Dancing and singing songs, learning all the Bible stories first hand. Safe. Happy. Whole and complete with the Lord. Forever and ever. And that is a wonderful thought and truth.

Jeremiah 29: 11-14 (NIV) 11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.

I Corinthians 13: 4-8, 13 (NIV) 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

II Corinthians 12: 7-10 (NIV) From Paul 7….there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

These verses just seem to speak to me right now so I thought I would share. None are really talking about our situation, but they are still applicable I think. Not to say that I am perfect in any of these things. But God has given me this word, His word, to read, to study, to learn from, to strive for. And thank you Lord for that.

One last song to leave you with. This is the new Brandon Heath song, Love Never Fails. If you made it this far with me, I hope you will listen to it and really hear the words. What a beautiful image this brings to my mind. So much love, God given love.

Love, thanks, and prayers to you all. Thank you for being a part of our family. Thank you for remembering our little girl. Thank you for allowing God to use you to bless my family.

Jennifer

Memorials for Gracie Lynne

2010-04-17T14:09:00.001-05:00

As we are approaching Gracie’s due date, April 24th, certain things are just at the forefront of my mind. We miss her so very, very much and we are just at a loss sometimes of what to do or where to go, or how to find our way there. We are just in constant prayer for peace and understanding and for joy. Things have been better, but moving towards this date, this day that was supposed to be so happy, but now isn’t, is very hard.

There are a few things though that I just wanted to share with everyone. God is, was, and always will be with us. I know this, and even when I couldn’t find Him, He was there. There are a couple of organizations that I would like to share with everyone that God used to help us.

When we were at Baptist Hospital delivering Gracie, they had a cart that had been paid for and donated by another family who had experienced the loss of a child. This cart was full of information on memorializing your child, dealing with grief, etc. It also had stuff to make mementos of your child. Let me just tell you that having ANYTHING, no matter how small, to remember your child by is HUGE, …no… it is everything. The wonderful Labor and Delivery nurses that we had took such good care of us and they also were so helpful in making these wonderful things for us. The very best thing was a plaster molding of Gracie’s foot. It is the most perfect thing you have ever seen and such a tangible reminder of her for always. You can see each tiny toe and definition of her foot. They also made a tiny bracelet with her name on it. Every little girl needs some jewelry and hers is very special. The last nurse we had, Nicky, was so kind. Her Mom had crocheted blankets and hats for babies, and she presented us with a beautiful little blanket, hat, and small teddy bear. We also were given a little box to put these mementos into. The cart also had a digital camera. The nurses worked so very hard to capture some beautiful pictures for us of our little girl. They burned the pictures onto a cd for us. We want to say a big thank you to Suzie, Vicki, and Nicky, our nurses at Baptist. They truly were God sent. Also, for the care the hospital gave us in providing us a quiet room away from all the noise that accompanies this floor. And, for Dr. Hubach. She has been with us through each baby, and we could not ask for a better OBGYN.

The other thing we were given in the hospital was a full layette by the Holy Sews group. This group of ladies makes clothing and blankets for extremely premature babies who do not survive. Let me just tell you that it was so wonderful and just so needed. She was so very tiny, and all the clothes that I had bought ahead of time were never going to work. But what they had made was perfect. They had made a beautiful little dress with matching hat and a matching blanket. They also had given her a teddy bear. This is what we buried her in. I don’t know what we would have done without this gift. It was just perfect, she was perfect. We are so blessed to have been given these gifts for our child and for our hearts. The Holy Sews group has a facebook page under the Causes tab and I have recently been in touch with two of the ladies. They seem like such wonderful people who have unfortunately been brought together by this tragedy in their lives. They are already a blessing to me and I am hoping to get to know them better. They provide layettes to hospitals across the state of Arkansas, and get together once a month for a work day. I’m hoping one day I will feel like joining them and helping others as they have helped me.

These are two wonderful and worthwhile organizations that have done so very much for my family. I wanted to share our story and theirs as well with you. If anyone would like more information, I have included it below.

Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church
Holy Sews
1003 North Tyler
Little Rock, AR 72205
501-663-8632 http://holysews.org/ http://www.causes.com/causes/363931

Baptist Health Foundation
Share Program for Perinatal Loss
c/o Colleen Woodruss - Director of Women & Children's Dept.
9601 Kanis Dr.
Little Rock, AR 72205
(501) 202-1717 http://www.baptist-health.com/womens_center/bhmc-lr/grief_support/default.asp

Thank you for remembering our little girl, and for praying with us and for us. We love you all. -Jennifer, Mark, and Jonathan

Addy’s Birthday Party

2010-04-12T22:16:00.001-05:00

Seems like this has been the Spring of birthday parties! Jonathan has been to quite a few parties lately and has had so much fun at all of them! Unfortunately, I have been out of town for a few of them, so Mark has been such a good Daddy and taken Jonathan.

Jonathan climbed up the rope ladder all by himself!

Luckily, I was home for Addy’s 5th Birthday party. She is such a sweet little girl and a good friend to Jonathan, even though she is two years older than him. She had her party at River City this year and it was a great place for a party. The kids all had a great time and wore themselves out playing. Isn’t that always the point of a great party?!?!

Jonathan & Addy, the Birthday Girl!

Time for Cake

The Birthday Tag that I made on my Creative Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software

Happy Easter 2010

2010-04-12T00:14:00.001-05:00

WOW! Easter was busy this year as always, and we are so blessed to have so many blessings to share and be thankful for.

The week started off with a field trip for Jonathan’s preschool class to Jump Zone in Maumelle. We had never been there, but it was a blast! Jonathan had a great time jumping, bouncing, and playing with his class. The kids were so worn out that they just sat still as could be and ate their lunch. By the time they got back on the bus to go back to school, their eyes were just glazed over they were so tired! I think we will have to make some return trips there when we need to wear little man out!

The real fun began on April 1st. Jonathan had the first of many Easter egg hunts at school. I was not able to go this year, but he had a great time with his friends, and one of his teachers was nice enough to take pictures for me.

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We had another hunt that afternoon at our house. Jonathan’s good friends, Katie and Megan, came over with their Mom, Karen, and we did a hunt in the back yard. The kids had a great time running all over the yard looking for eggs. Megan was the best though. She was only concerned about what was INSIDE the eggs. As soon as she found a piece of candy, she would stop, unwrap the candy, and eat it. Would not move until that piece was gone. Then she would move on to the next egg and the next piece of candy. Karen and I had a nice time sitting in the shade and watching the kids. They are such precious gifts and we are two proud Mommies.

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Mark’s parents, sister, and her boyfriend came to town for the weekend. Of course, Jonathan came home from school Friday afternoon running a fever. He ran a fever and felt bad Friday night and Saturday morning. He woke up from his nap Saturday feeling much better. Never had any more symptoms, which was nice. However, was sad that he wasn’t feeling well while everyone was here.

Our church had a HUGE Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. They hid over 5000 eggs. There were a ton of people there, but thankfully they have the field marked off into age groups so the big kids are not running over the little ones. Jonathan was not feeling very well, but he so wanted to go, and I didn’t want him to miss out on the fun. So we went, and he did have fun. Needed a little help from his Mommy and Aunt Kim to get some eggs, but we had fun. And even bigger news, he SAT with the Easter bunny!! I was so surprised and proud. He sat with Santa, but it was a looonnngg process. The Easter bunny at the hunt was busy, so it was in, snap a few pics, and out. But he did good and seemed to be happy about it. He took a great nap when it was over.

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We left carrots for the Easter bunny Saturday night. He ate ALL of them and left a basket of presents for Jonathan in it’s place. Jonathan and I didn’t get to go to church Sunday since he had been running a fever Saturday. Didn’t want to infect his entire Sunday School class! He didn’t wake up until 10:15am! Poor baby was just completely worn out. He was so excited when he finally got up and saw all of his prizes. He had an Easter Thomas the train, two Veggie Tale DVD’s, a couple of puzzles, Curious George markers, Sherriff from the Cars movie, and just a few small chocolate bunnies in his basket. Of course, Grandma had gotten him a basket FULL of chocolate as well. So he was well set on candy and prizes for the day. (Of course, this doesn’t count all the candy from school or church!)

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Since he didn’t get to wear his outfit to church, I got him dressed up that afternoon to do an Easter Egg Hunt in the backyard. Unfortunately though, he was not really into it. He found a few and then just wanted us to hold him while we went after the eggs for him. He was still just not quite himself. Mark and I ended up hunting the eggs, but we did get a couple of good shots of him in his outfit.

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We also read the story of Easter out of the Bible and tried to explain it to Jonathan in terms a three year old would understand. Not sure he really understood, but we’ll keep trying. The Veggie Tale Easter video was good though, and he seemed to really like it. (I did too for that matter!)

Mark’s Mom did not have to work on Monday, so she stayed Sunday night with us which was fun. Mark and his Dad had left to go to Florida (another blog post) and Kim and Mike had left to go home to work Monday.

So all in all, a great weekend and lots of fun for all. Thank you Lord for our many blessings and for the gift of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins. Thank you for the HOPE that is Jesus.

Pictures

2010-04-11T19:19:00.000-05:00

Added more picutres to the March and April 2010 folders on Jonathan's picture website. Waayy too many to post on here, so feel free to look there if you want to see more of him and all the fun and crazy stuff we've been up to lately! Lots more pictures from Wye Mountain as well. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjt011mark

Wye Mountain Daffodil Festival

2010-04-10T23:34:00.000-05:00

My Mom was here for the week of Spring Break. She and Jonathan had such a wonderful time. She had planned to leave Friday afternoon. Mark was off on Friday, so we decided to do a fun outing before she left.

We drove up to Wye Mountain for the Daffodil Festival. It was beautiful as usual and we all had a really fun time. Jonathan was glad to show his MaMa Deb all the flowers and to enjoy time with her. I had brought Jonathan's Easter basket for him to take pictures with. But, we decided to do a little Easter egg hunt as well. It was so much fun and he had a blast hunting eggs over and over and over! We even found an egg that someone else must have left out there, so we came home with an extra one!

We took a million (and one) pictures of course. Not all of them turned out so well, but they'll do. We REALLY need to learn how to use our camera better (and apply the stuff that we do know).

Anyway, enough talking...enjoy the pictures!

Mommy and her Sweet Baby Boy

MaMa Deb, Mommy, and Jonathan

MaMa Deb is about to steal some kisses!

MaMa Deb and Jonathan checking out the flowers

Daddy & Jonathan Checking out the Easter eggs

The Thomas Family

So much fun for us to be together. We missed you Grandad!

Mommy and HER Mommy!

Peek-a-boo, I see you!

Hunting Easter eggs!

Look at that face, how could you NOT love him?!?!

March 2010

2010-03-28T19:35:00.002-05:00

March started with a fun night at Chuck E. Cheese. The PTA at Jonathan’s preschool had a fundraiser night. There were a ton of Jonathan’s friends there and he had so much fun running around playing with everyone and playing all the games. He has not quite realized that all the tickets equal a prize, but that’s ok, he just enjoys playing the games. We actually ate the pizza this time since the PTA got a percentage of all sales. Let’s just say that the pizza is not much better than it was twenty years ago. But it was edible. His teacher, Mrs. Ellen, was there as well.

The first weekend in March, I went to another scrapbooking weekend at Petit Jean. This time, though, was extra special. My cousin, Athena, flew up from Houston to go play with me! I don’t get to see her as much as I would like, so it was super fun to have time to be with her. One of the girls I work with, Carrie, decided to come try it out too. We all had a great time visiting, scrapbooking, and just having some good girl time. Of course, everyone has a different scrapbooking style, and we had fun ribbing each other. These weekends are also fun in that we get to share information and ideas and help each other out when we get stuck on a page.

Gracie’s marker finally came in as well. It has been three months and we are still dealing daily with the loss of our sweet baby girl. The feelings come in waves it seems. Sometimes the tide is out and things are going well. Then, deep in the night, or at the most random times, the tide comes in. The waves swell, and the feelings can be crushing. It was a good and yet a sad thing to see her marker finally placed. I think that it is beautiful and perfectly remembers her, yet it is so very, very final to have a piece of granite and bronze there for always. Plus, just seeing her name written out was very hard for me. I have longed to have a little girl and name her Gracie for so very long. Practiced writing it, thought of how I would have it monogrammed, etc. I just never thought that I would see it written this way. Anyway, just wanted everyone to be able to see it and how nice it really is. We decided to get a vertical marker. It just seemed less depressing and we liked the way that it was laid out better. The words at the top say, “Our Most Precious Gift from God.” This is the phrase that we have always said about both of our children, regardless of anything else that may/did happen. We did not get to keep the gift of our Gracie for very long, but she was still a gift, one that we will treasure for always. We know that her life was important, had significance and she was a part of God’s plan. Our hope and prayer, is that we can follow God’s will for our lives and allow her life to be a part in furthering God’s kingdom. The second picture shows the Valentine wreath and the Christmas doll that we have gotten for her. Mark decided to put th doll in the vase, and it actually looked pretty cute. Eventually, I will get some flowers to put in the vase, but for now, the doll will do.

The day before my birthday, I decided that we needed to do something fun for me and my little man. We decided to go to a little park not too far from my work. We invited Katie and Megan (and their Mommy Karen) to come join us for a little fun. The kids had a great time swinging, sliding, and going ‘round and ‘round on the Merry-go-Round. All in all, it was a great way to start my birthday!

To continue with our birthday hat necessity (per Jonathan), Mark got me a Cinderella princess hat and he and Jonathan Mickey Mouse ears. They were super cute and we had a good time wearing them. We had planned to go out to eat, but everyone was just too tired to get dressed and go. So instead, Mark picked up Outback to go. Rather silly, but it was nice to just sit around the house in our pajamas and have dinner. We got our usual, a blooming onion, salads, and their yummy bread. Totally enough food without making you feel yucky. The highlight, though, was my birthday cake. Mark and Jonathan had driven all the way to Conway to get me a Dairy Queen Birthday cake. There are NO DQ’s in Little Rock. Ridiculous, I know. Anyway, he got the Blizzard cake and trust me it was delicious!! I love ice cream cakes, but none live up to the DQ cake. I’ve had Baskin Robbins and Cold Stone, but no, DQ is the best! Jonathan had picked up some rocks and mini-pinecones that weekend at the park that were the ‘candles’ for my cake. He really wanted to put them on the cake, but we convinced him that beside it was ok too. I did have to blow out those candles too, though!

The girls from work took me out to eat for my birthday on Friday. We ate at Copelands and had some wonderful cheesecake for dessert. The girls were very sweet and got me a DSW (shoes) gift card for my birthday. So, of course, after lunch, we made a trip over to the shoe store. Funny thing was, I didn’t buy any shoes! Crazy for me, but I just didn’t see any that I really wanted. Oh well, try again later. I am very fortunate to have a great bunch of girls that I work with. It really makes the day a little easier and I am blessed that God has placed these people in my life.

The weekend after my birthday, we went to the bowling alley for another fun-filled day. The place we go to in Maumelle is just perfect for kids. They have bumpers that pop up when it is Jonathan’s turn, and then go back down for Mark and I’s turn. Jonathan is getting better every time we go. He just has to work on pushing hard on the ball to make it go a little faster. His aim is not bad, just needs a little more force behind the push! And in case, just bowling in and of itself wasn't fun, I won both games! Cracked me up as I never win! I'm really not very good at all. But my back had been hurting, and I think I was being very cautious of that, so I guess I was holding my body frame a little tighter. Or at least that's the story I'm going with!

That afternoon, I went to ANOTHER children’s consignment sale, Rhea Lana of Greater LR. I had already been to Rhea Lana of WLR and Duck Duck Goose. Finally, at this one, I found some decent clothes for Jonathan. He is just getting to that age where little boys have worn their clothes out. Oh well, I have fun going and looking for the good deals. Always find some fun toys or books too. We went Saturday night to Boudreaux’s in Maumelle for boiled crawfish. I wish I had a picture of Jonathan trying the crawfish. It was hilarious. Mostly, he just ate his chicken strips! Mark and I enjoyed it, though we are still in withdrawal from a true Cajun cooking it for us. Plus, they were sorely lacking in corn, potatoes, onions, and all the other things that Mark thinks should be cooked with the crawfish.

My Mom has been here the last week for Spring Break. She and Jonathan spent the entire week together and had a blast. I think she had at least one toy and one book for him every day of the week! It was hilarious, but he just ate it up! They finger painted (not a big fan) and water color painted (loves it) and who knows what else! She took him to Wonder Place one day and to the Big Dam Bridge park another day. Momma also bought him his very first board game, Candy Land! He absolutely loves it, and we have played it 100 times already. He is actually a very gracious player and is excited for you if you win. Such a sweet spirit he has. The only thing that he didn’t do so well was SLEEP for MaMa Deb! He just refused to take a nap for her. It was too funny as he went straight to sleep for me when I got home from work. Oh well, Grandmas are not supposed to be enforcers anyway.

Momma also brought my birthday presents, so we had another birthday party Thursday night. She made a yummy banana pudding and Jonathan had everyone singing “Happy Birthday” again. She got me a couple of scrapbooking books, some new jewelry, a t-shirt, makeup head scarf, Cinderella Christmas ornament, and cold hard cash! So, that was a lot of fun. Jonathan is very into “helping” to open presents, so he had fun as well. Now I just have to decide what to spend my money on! I’m thinking some additions to my digital scrapbooking software, but we’ll see. Oh, and I forgot to say what Mark and Jonathan had gotten me for my birthday. I’m getting a new laptop. Mine is not very old, but it just has not held up very well. It has Vista on it, and obviously that is a problem. Plus my mouse button is broken, Internet explorer randomly dies, Quicken randomly dies, one of my USB ports doesn’t work, the battery will no longer hold a charge, need I go on?? So, my sweet, loving husband has bought me a new and improved (and much bigger) laptop. So I am excited to get that and hopefully get some more scrapbooking done. I need to get caught up, that’s for sure!! I’m presently scrapbooking March 2008, so I’m a good two years behind!!

February 2010

2010-03-27T22:29:00.001-05:00

As promised, here are the recaps for January and February 2010. Scroll down for January's post. I've gone picture crazyand there is no way to post them all here. So, check out his picture website for more pictures!

February is always a busy month at our house. Lots of fun stuff. Mark turned 32 this year on Feb. 7th. I cannot believe he is 32. Wow, time has definitely flown by since that day I first met Mark (he was 17)!! Jonathan and I went to Kroger to pick out a cake for Mark. Jonathan picked out this Batman cake. He was very insistent and it was quite funny. Especially since he has never seen a Batman show and because his Daddy is really more of a Superman fan. But, nonetheless, we went with it and bought matching plates, cups, and party hats/masks. Party hats are a MUST in Jonathan’s mind anyway. Grandma and Paw Paw were here to celebrate Mark’s birthday with us. They brought him a couple of fun presents. Jonathan and I’s present to Mark is a trip to Cape Canaveral in April for a Space Shuttle Launch. This is the last year that the shuttle will launch and Mark has always wanted to go. Unfortunately, I have NO leave from work, so I will not be able to go. But his Dad is going with him so they will have a good time. (Blog post about that to follow I’m sure!)

Mark’s birthday was also the day of this year’s Superbowl. We invited some friends over to watch the game with us and cheer on the Saints to victory! Not everyone was for the Saints, but we compromised with special seating for those fans (in the bathroom).  We had a King Cake Fed-Ex’ed in from New Orleans and I even tried out a few new recipes that were a ton of fun. Jonathan had a great time playing with baby Kate, Megan, and Katie. They are all such good friends and we are so lucky to have them around our little man.

February was also the time of SNOW! We had a couple of big snowfalls. Jonathan had so much fun playing in the snow, building snowmen, and most of all eating icicles! We had a lot of fun building our snowman. He stuck around for almost a week! It was crazy to have that much snow here in Arkansas. Of course, we missed a couple of days of work as well. Would have loved that, except for the fact that I have NO leave! It seems like as soon as I can gain a day, it is spent again. Oh well, that’s life I guess.

Valentine’s Day was an absolute blast. Jonathan had a Valentine Day party at school. Any excuse for a party, food, and candy is always a good thing right?!?! Check out the loot he came home from preschool with. It is absolutely crazy! Mark and Jonathan got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and some great cards. I got Jonathan this super cute shirt at Old Navy. The Ladies Love Me, how cute is that!

We drove to OKC on V-day for a doctor’s appointment Monday morning. What would a holiday be without a drive to Oklahoma? Seriously, we have driven there on Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. Jonathan had a great check-up with the doctor and we do not have to go back to Oklahoma for an entire year! That is just crazy to even type. I cannot believe it! But I know that God has heard our prayers and is healing my sweet baby. I am so very, very thankful for this blessing. Jonathan had fun at the hospital as they had PA students doing art projects with the kids in the waiting rooms. Jonathan got a weed eater from Toys ‘R Us as a special prize for doing so well at his appointments.

The end of February was also the end of an era for us. Our Gymboree Play and Music closed its doors. Jonathan has been taking a class there since September 2008. We were so sad to have to stop. Jonathan has had so much fun learning, playing, and making friends. I have loved having a set time that we get to play every week. No distractions, no excuses. Now we are trying to decide what we want to do next. There are a couple of different options, but the timing just hasn’t seemed to work out yet.

Fortunately, Mrs. Valerie, who owned Gymboree, is going to continue doing a movement class at Jonathan’s preschool. He loves going to this with his friends as well.

January 2010

2010-03-27T22:03:00.002-05:00

We’ve had a bitterly cold winter, but we’ve tried to give Jonathan a few opportunities to get outside a play. He loves to ride his bike all around the neighborhood. His favorite place is near the front of our neighborhood. There is an acorn tree there. He loves to pick up the acorns and rocks and sticks and put them in the little cart on the back of his bike. When he gets home, he wants to plant all of the acorns. So, it is possible that we might have a few trees sprouting up this spring!

A wonderful Mom of a child I treat made these special treats for Jonathan. A car garage to put all of his Lightning McQueen cars in, and a super cute “tie” t-shirt. She also made a most special gift for me. A memory box for all of our Gracie’s special things. It is beautiful and just the most perfect size for all of our mementos.

I went scrapbooking at Petit Jean January 15-17th. As always, I had a blast and actually finished an entire book! I decided to do a whole book for Christmas 2007. It was Jonathan’s first real Christmas and we had a TON of pictures. Still waiting to get it back from the printers, but it was good to get it done. My friend Edie that I always ride with was staying til Monday for MLK day, but I had to be back to work. So Mark and Jonathan drove up the mountain to come get me. We had a great time driving to the various waterfalls and overlooks in the State Park. I got some absolutely gorgeous shots of Jonathan playing. We will definitely have to go back and explore more of that park.

Jonathan had his very first dentist appointment this month. It was absolutely hilarious, trust me. At first, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with any of it. All he kept saying was, “I no get a shot.” We kept telling him, over and over, that dentists don’t give shots. (At least not to three year olds anyway). He finally warmed up when the dental hygienist let him squirt water into his mouth and ride up and down in the dentist chair. He never did let her clean his teeth, but he did let her and the dentist ‘count’ his teeth. Dr. Jones said that from what he could see they looked fine. We go back in four months for another go at it.

A couple of pics from our Gymboree Play and Music class.

MaMa Deb and Grandad came up for a visit near the end of the month. We had a fun birthday planned for Grandad’s birthday. We decided to go bowling. Jonathan absolutely loves bowling and we all had a great time. That night we had birthday cake and ice cream for Grandad’s big 60th! Jonathan also insisted that we have birthday hats. He was VERY concerned that we didn’t have any. Mark stopped on the way home from work to get some, but all he could find were Transformer hats. It was hilarious, but no one really cared, as long as we had hats! We continued Grandad’s airplane theme from Christmas with a couple more Blue Angels gifts from our vacation in Pensacola this summer.

Mark and I also broke down this month and got new cell phones. We have crossed over into iPhone land. I feel rather pretentious paying so much money for such a stupid phone, but oh well, everyone needs a few toys in life right? I have become addicted to the silly thing. It is just way too convenient to be able to check your email, have your address book linked to your computer, have both Mark and I’s calendars linked, and a perfect toy to keep Jonathan entertained at doctor’s appointments, restaurants, etc. He is so smart, he figured out how to unlock the phone and scroll through the apps faster than I did! He knows how to get onto the iPod, youtube, and several other apps that I’ve downloaded. There are a couple of fun games that I downloaded for him as well. Of course, my favorite game is Words With Friends. Scrabble against other friends. It is so addictive, and so fun! I have quite a few games going with different friends. The chat feature is nice to send a quick message to people too.

We had our first snowfall this month. We bundled Jonathan up and took him out to play. It was not much snow, but he had fun. We made snow angels and a mini-snowman, but it was not really good snow to make snowmen out of. Of course, we had no idea that more snow was to come in February!

Jonathan's Three Year Old Pictures

2010-02-21T00:40:00.000-06:00

What a wonderfully fun morning we had today. We took Jonathan's three year old pictures today with Danielle Davis. I know we are a few months late, but hey, better late than never. We heard about Danielle through a couple of friends at church. I figured if she could get all three of Tenille’s kiddos in one shot, surely she could get our one child right?!? Also, Danielle had taken such beautiful shots of Baby Kate as Jonathan calls her. They were just too precious, so we decided to give her a try.

We met Danielle downtown at the Clinton Presidential Center. They have some beautiful grounds outside. We had planned to go inside, but we never did! We got plenty of great shots outside, so we just didn’t bother going inside. Which means, of course, that we STILL have not gone inside the library. Sad, I know.

Anyway, we did a couple of fun and different things for this photo shoot that Danielle suggested. We got a huge bunch of balloons at Party City for Jonathan to pose with. Of course, in my head, I’m thinking, “we could put them behind him,” or “he can hold them in his hand.” Jonathan had much better ideas. As soon as we handed them to him, he stuck his head through the middle of the bunch and starts smiling away. Danielle immediately starts clicking away! It was just a perfect shot and so spontaneous and unscripted. Got to love when stuff like that happens!

I also bought a few pink balloons. I had been thinking of a way to remember our Gracie, and this just seemed to be the way. So we took a few pictures with our pink balloon, and then we let it go. Jonathan said that the balloon was going to Heaven to be with Gracie. What a thought right? Such a precious image to think of our little girl in Heaven holding her pink balloon. So those pictures were a little bittersweet, but I know that they will be some of my favorites as time goes on. And I’m oh so thankful that my Jonathan has such a beautiful, loving picture of Heaven and of his sister.

Jonathan has a sweater that I had bought a matching hat for. While we were in Branson over Christmas, he needed some gloves. Mark found the gloves and scarf that matched the hat and sweater. He just looks so cute wearing the hat. So, I brought them to see what Danielle could do with them. Unfortunately, the sweater is still waaayyy too big. So, we ended up just putting him in a long sleeve shirt with the hat and scarf. This may be my new favorite picture of Jonathan. I just love the expression that she caught on his face. I mean, I know he is cute, but these eyes! And you wonder why he is spoiled! I mean, seriously! Look at him!!

The other thing we brought was his bicycle. Of course, that was probably more work for her as she chased him all over the place, but I’m sure she got some good shots on there too. She didn’t send us a sneak peek of that, but they looked cute while she was taking them!

Danielle spent a good hour and a half with us snapping away. I can’t wait to see the rest of the shots. Check out her website at danielledavisart.com and danielledavisart.com/blog. See Feb. 9th for Baby Kate’s pics and Nov. 20th for the Rauls’ three kiddos.

After the photo shoot, we decided to eat downtown. We saw a new restaurant that we decided to try. The funny thing was, once we got inside, we realized that we knew this place! It is one of our favorite restaurants that used to be in Benton (suburb of LR). They had moved to downtown LR and changed their name a little. Pretty much the same menu though. They have the BEST chicken spaghetti, oh my goodness! I am just so Southern, I can’t help myself but order it every time we go. Mark got a feta and pesto burger that he said was delicious. We got Jonathan cheese ravioli with marinara sauce and told him it was spaghetti. If you tell that child that something is spaghetti and it has red sauce on it, he will eat it! He absolutely loves him some spaghetti. So, lasagna, ravioli, and anything else we can think of is spaghetti. But, of course, not chicken spaghetti, because that doesn’t have red sauce!!

We came home and had a great nap. Just got to love Saturdays like this. Tomorrow, we are going to church and then going to Katie’s 6th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Jonathan is very excited, 1 to be with Katie & Megan, and 2 to go to CEC. He LOVES to play all the games there. Could care less about eating and even less about the big mouse, but loves the games. He is just starting to realize that the tickets from the games = prizes (candy, toys) when we leave. So, we are excited to go play with our good friends tomorrow. Of course, it seems like just yesterday that Katie was born. We had just started going to Immanuel and to the Hooten Sunday School class when Cliff and Karen announced they were pregnant. And it was right after Katie was born that Karen and I started hanging out and shopping together. Here we are six years, and another two kids later! And what a blessing the McKinney’s have been to our family. There was many a day that I have hated living in LR. But good friends, Christian friends, like Karen and Cliff have helped make this our home. Funny how things work like that, isn't it!

So, I know I skipped a good two months between Christmas and my last post about Jonathan’s doctor’s appointment. Then continued to move forward with this one! I promise that I will try to go back and write something about January and early February. This year just seemed to have FLOWN by already and I am waaayyy behind with just about everything already.

This week has been hard, very hard, so we are just so thankful for a happy weekend. A nice time to just relax some and spend time together doing something different, something fun, something happy. A time to remember the most wonderful gifts that God has given us and to say thank you.

Thanks for checking in on us! May God bless you and your family now and always.

Jonathan’s Check-Up and Mr. Jones Funeral

2010-02-18T01:34:00.000-06:00

What a busy week we have had, and it is only Wednesday! This has been a week of ups and downs, highs and lows, questions and answers.

We left Sunday afternoon for Oklahoma City. Jonathan had the three month check-up from his last surgery. Each and every time we go is just a horribly stressful experience. We think he is doing well, but you just never know what they will see or find that we don’t know about. You just know that your life could change in a sentence, a statement that would change everything…again. Mark and I have come to hate the entire state of Oklahoma. We just don’t have a lot of good memories there or happy thoughts in going there. So each trip is just hard and just not fun. I spent a LONG time Sunday night sitting on the floor of the hotel room, praying and talking to God. I just could not go to sleep and go into his appointment feeling the way that I was feeling and thinking these scary thoughts. I finally was able to give my worry to the Lord and find some peace with the situation. Seems like giving it back to God is a reoccurring instance in my life and probably will continue to be for me. I am going to keep trying, though, and keeping praying for God to help me.

Anyway, on to the visit. Mark had enough points from his business trips for us to have a free night at the Embassy Suites. We really like that hotel as we have a little room to spread out. Jonathan can go to bed and we can still stay up and watch a little TV. They also have the best breakfast which is always fun! Of course, we were running late and just barely got to the hospital by our 8:30 a.m. appointment time. Mark drops us off at the door and I go tearing in with Jonathan. I sign us in and say hello to the receptionist to make sure she notices us and gets us registered. Twenty to thirty minutes later I go up to the counter to “check” with the receptionist to make sure she has us in order. She has been doing pretty much nothing since we got there. She gives me the “I’m in charge and you’re not look” and tells me that she will get to me in a minute. Another fifteen minutes later, she calls me up to the counter. She then proceeds to tell me that they have moved ultrasound and we are in the wrong place! I am fuming, and trying very, very hard to be a loving person. So, I ask her where it is, turn around, and walk out the door before I say something not so nice. Of course, she gave us horrible directions and it takes us forever to actually find where we are supposed to be. I apologize profusely for being 45 minutes late for our appointment and explain to the new (and much nicer) receptionist what has happened. She got us in and out of the ultrasound in less than ten minutes. Seriously. I mean, seriously. But, that’s ok, I don’t have to deal with that woman anymore!

We go upstairs for our appointment with the urologist after the ultrasound. We ended up actually being early for the appointment. The fun thing was that there was a group of Physician Assistant students doing volunteer work in the hospital. They had set up art groups outside several of the clinics to entertain the kids. There was actually one set up outside of ultrasound and outside the urology clinic. Jonathan was in hog heaven. He loves all art projects and loved all the attention from the students. After a few minutes, he looked up at me sitting nearby, and told me that I could go sit by his Daddy. It was hilarious. He obviously did NOT need me!

We finally got in to the room and saw the doctor. Oh, and they weighed Jonathan. He weighs 35.8 pounds. Boy is growing! Anyway, the doctor looked at his ultrasounds and said that they pretty much looked “normal.” Trust me, normal is not a word that we have heard very much in regards to Jonathan’s kidneys and bladder. I almost started crying right then and there. Jonathan also agreed to perform his tricks for the doctor and pee in the potty. The doctor was VERY excited at how well he was doing and how good he is doing with potty training. It was just amazing.

I cannot even begin to express how overjoyed we are with this good news. God is so good, no great, no awesome, and we are so very, very, very thankful. So many, many prayers have been offered up for our little boy and we thank you for each one of them. Please know how much that your prayers mean to us. We know and truly believe that God is answering our prayers. God IS healing my little boy. Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you.

We also learned at the appointment that the little boy who was born the day after Jonathan with nearly identical problems, and had surgery the day after Jonathan, is not doing as well. He has unfortunately had several of the complications that the doctors had told us were possible with this condition. This just broke our hearts for this little boy and for his family. We have thought about him over the past three years, but we know that we have not prayed for him as often as we should have. We will do our best to lift him up in prayer and ask God to heal his body. And for help and understanding for his parents as they do their best to care for their son.

We do not have to go back to OKC for an entire year!!!! I just hugged the doctor when he told us we did not have to come back for a year. It will be so nice to not have to make that drive and live with that worry for an entire year. Oh my, it is just overwhelming. Thank you Lord for healing my Jonathan.

The other part of this post is not as happy, in fact it is quite sad. Yet, even this story has many praises.

My very dear friend here in Little Rock, Karen, called me late Thursday night. Her Daddy was working in Louisiana last Thursday night. He was driving home to Texas when he lost control of his truck on the ice and snow. He was killed in the accident. I cannot begin to describe the unbelievable sadness that hit me for her and her family. My family had the utmost pleasure in meeting and getting to know Mr. Jones. He was a kind, loving, generous man, a wonderful father, and extraordinary grandfather. He had bought a piece of land in NE Arkansas to hunt on and spend time with Karen and her family. They had very graciously asked Mark if he would like to hunt with them. What a blessing that area has been to Mark and to all of us. We have made several trips up there and we always have such a nice time. In fact, we were at the cabin when I realized that we were probably pregnant with Gracie. So many good memories.

Karen has just been an awesome friend to me over the years. She is always here for me whenever I need her. She has been here through each and every problem with Jonathan and has been such a strength to me with the loss of our sweet baby girl. The Lord has truly blessed me with such a good friend, such a Christian friend.

Mark and I were able to go to Tyler today for the funeral. It was overwhelmingly amazing to see how many people were there to celebrate his life. Mr. Jones had touched so many people and was obviously very strong in his faith and walk with the Lord. I learned so much more about him than I had known, and I am so thankful that I was able to get to know him. I think that we could all strive to be a little more like him in our lives. He was a generous man, generous of so much. He gave without any thought of compensation and without strings. He gave with a joyful heart and only hoped to serve the Lord. I can only hope that people would have such things to say about me. Definitely gives you something to think about and to work towards. I know it will be on my heart for sure.

Please pray for Karen and her family. This was obviously so unexpected. I know that there will be many hard times to come for them. But knowing that he is with the Lord is a comfort.

On a personal note, this was the third funeral I have been to in three months. First Gracie, then a little girl in Jonathan’s preschool class, and now Mr. Jones. It is suffocating sometimes. The loss, the heart ache, the true pain, the questions…unanswered, the emptiness. It seems so unnecessary and just why? Why him? Why my little girl? Yet those questions will not be answered, not on this Earth. The preacher said something today that I really liked though. He said that it is hard to understand why good people die and others do not. He said that maybe those people had accomplished what God had in store for them and their lives. He was giving the other people a little more time to turn their lives around, to turn their hearts towards Jesus, to find God in this world. It’s a good thought, a peaceful thought. My new favorite song is from the new Steven Curtis Chapman cd.

This is not how it should be
This is not how it could be
This is how it is
And our God is in control

This is not how it will be
When we finally will see
We'll see with our own eyes
He was always in control

And we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God
And we will finally really understand what it means
So we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God
While we're waiting for that day

This is not where we planned to be
When we started this journey
But this is where we are
And our God is in control

Though this first taste is bitter
There will be sweetness forever
When we finally taste and see
That our God is in control

And we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God
And we will finally really understand what it means
So we'll sing holy, holy, holy is our God
While we're waiting for that day

We're waiting for that day
We'll keep on waiting for that day
And we will rise
Our God is in control

(Holy, holy, holy) x2
Our God is in control
(Holy, holy, holy)
Our God is in control
(Holy, holy, holy)

What an awesome thought. God is in control. We do not get it, I don’t anyway. But God is in control. God hears our prayers, he sees each tear that falls, he feels our pain. God is always with us, He is holding us, He will never leave us. These are the thoughts that I am clinging to right now. Music is just so powerful to me right now. So many songs are just speaking to my heart. Another song is Casting Crowns, “I’ll praise you in this storm.”

I was sure by now, God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away

Chorus

I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Chorus

Well that is probably enough for one night. I have poured out my heart to ya’ll enough for one day/night! I need to get to bed as the rest of this week will be busy as well. Mark’s Dad came up to keep Jonathan for us while we went to Tyler. He is going to stay until Friday which will be fun for Jonathan. Since he will be able to pick up Jonathan at preschool, I am going to be making up some time and working til 5pm Tuesday and Thursday and til 3pm on Friday. I haven’t done this since before Jonathan was born, so it will definitely be a long day! I normally work til 3pm M-Th and til 12 on Friday. My work has really been great to let me make up some of the time as I really do not have much sick or vacation time left. I used almost all of it up after Gracie and then we have had several illnesses and ice days that have eaten up the rest of it. Mark and I are really hoping that I can build some up so we could take a fun trip somewhere this year.

Thank you for being a part of our family and for being our friends. Each of you mean so very much to us and we thank God for each of you. Please do continue to remember our family as we move through the grief and loss that is still so much a part of our lives. Join us in praising God for healing Jonathan and continue to seek his healing power for Jonathan as he grows. Also, please remember Karen and her family with the loss of her Daddy. And lastly, we ask that you say a prayer for the little boy who was with Jonathan in the hospital, that God will heal him.

One closing prayer: Thank you Lord for all our many blessings. Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers and for healing our little man. Please Lord direct our path. Guide us to Your path for our lives and help us to trust You in each and every storm. Thank you Lord for the people you have placed in our lives. Please help us to be a blessing to them as they have blessed us. Please forgive us where we fail you. Thank you for our Jonathan, our family, our friends. I love you Jesus. Amen.

Merry Christmas 2009!

2010-02-13T19:54:00.000-06:00

Wow! Hard to believe that it is February already! Where is the time going! I am, obviously, two months behind in blogging world, but I do so want to say a little about our Christmas.

Jonathan was very in to the whole idea of Christmas this year. It was so much fun to see everything through his eyes and truly experience the magic and wonder of Christmas. For the very first time, he was EXCITED to see Santa Claus. We took him to McCain Mall in NLR as that is where Santa likes to hang out. When it was his turn, Jonathan walked right up to Santa and told him what he wanted for Christmas. Santa talked to him for a few minutes and then asked Jonathan if he wanted to sit on his lap. Jonathan looked at him, thought about it for a minute, and said, “Yes, I will.” He climbed up there, turned around, and promptly smiled and posed for the camera. Hilarious! Such a ham! I, of course, am frantically snapping the camera as fast as it will go. We HAD to buy a picture since he finally consented to see Santa.

We left the mall and spent some time looking at lights in Sherwood. They have the best community drive-through lights display and also one of the best neighborhoods that goes all out decorating. We also found THE tackiest Christmas house you have ever seen. It was completely full from the road to the house and from one property line to the other with Christmas decorations. Most of them were the blow-up powered ones. There was also all kind of things hanging from the trees. It was so great that we had to drive by it three times to take it all in.

Jonathan was a big helper in putting up the tree this year and helping to decorate it. He did a really good job too. Stacey Clayton made a new Christmas ornament for our Gracie for us. She is such a good friend and such a talented artist. She is the one who painted the step stool, clothes tree, and small toy box for Jonathan when he was born.

Jonathan and I also spent some of our time at home doing “art projects.” He absolutely LOVES to do anything art-wise. He works very hard at it and it usually turns out really well. Here is one of our examples of the reindeer ornaments that we made and put on everyone’s Christmas presents.

We put out cookies and milk for Santa. Jonathan was very excited to see that they were all gone the next morning. He did tell me, though, that Santa made a mess and left a lot of crumbs. He said that Santa did not like crumbs. Too funny, seeing as how I left the crumbs on purpose!!

As you can tell, we had quite a few Christmas presents under our tree. It was a blast as usual and I think everyone had a great time. As usual, it took us several hours to open all the presents. We were so glad that MaMa Deb, Grandad, Grandma, Paw Paw, and Aunt Kim were able to come and spend Christmas with us.

Jonathan and Aunt Kim had a great time playing. They were pretending that Jonathan was putting Aunt Kim to bed. He covered her up, read her a story out of the Bible, prayed, and went to sit by the door and sing her a night-night song. It was so precious, and exactly how we put him to bed. He could recite the Bible story pretty accurately as well, which was really neat to hear.

Melinda, Mark’s boss, sent Jonathan a bunch of fun Nativity art projects home. He has had so much fun playing with all of them. He is truly starting to understand more of the Christmas story and we have had so much fun sharing it with him and telling it over and over and over. He also loves all Christmas music and we have sung our way through the month of December.

Jonathan's Birthday

2010-01-22T19:53:00.000-06:00

Our little man is THREE years old! It is so hard to believe. He is just such a big boy and so very, very much fun. Does not seem like it has been three years since he was born. I knew that I loved him that day, more than life itself, but somehow I love him infinitely more now. I guess some of that comes from getting to know him and watch him develop into this wonderful little boy, this precious loving child, this most perfect gift from God. Thank you Lord, for our little boy and for the blessing that he is to our lives and to those who know him.

We decided to have his birthday this year a Gymboree Play & Music. He takes a class there on Tuesday nights and absolutely loves it. We had the party December 5th. We do it early in the month in the hopes that more people will be able to come. December birthdays are hard! We invited is entire preschool class, some friends from his old class, friends from church, and a couple of friends we know through Mark's work. Both my parents and Mark's parents were also able to come. We had a GREAT turn out at the party. Jonathan was so excited to see each of his friends. He talked about the party for weeks and kept asking when we could go to Gymboree and have his party. Too funny! His regular teacher from Gymboree led the party which was nice too. They did a couple of organized activities and had some free play time as well. She had all the kids play musical instruments and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jonathan. Then she asked him what song he wanted to sing. He told her, "Jesus Loves Me." It just touched my heart that he wanted to sing that song. And how precious it was to hear this group of 2-5 year olds singing to God. What a blessing. The party had a "Cars" movie theme and he got a TON of fun presents. We had a "Cars" cake, pizza, and ice cream to round out the party. It was an absolute blast. I do have to say, I LOVE parties somewhere other than my house. It was so much less stressful than it could have been. They had everything taken care of before and after and Mark and I were able to just enjoy the party. Here are some pics from that day!

Jonathan's Birthday Invitation that I made with my scrapbooking software

Enjoying some cake and ice cream

Jonathan and his "Cars" cake

Rainbow rope fun with friends

Jonathan LOVES the monkey bars!

Jonathan had a LOT of help opening presents, and I mean a lot!!!!

Sweet baby boy is so big.

Looking out the door to say goodbye to friends.

Jonathan opened presents from my parents and a few from Mark's parents that night at home. He was so excited to open "more presents" and was a big, big fan of the tool set and puzzles.

Jonathan's actual birthday was December 21st. He opened the presents from us that day. The highlight was a train track set for his train table. A friend had given us the table about a year ago and Jonathan has loved it. He has loved playing with the train tracks at other people's houses, and we thought it was about time to get him his own. He absolutely loves it and has had so much fun playing with it.

I have made him a cake each year for his birtday. This year, I decided to get adventurous and make one of those cutesy cakes in the fun pans. Oh my goodness!! I about drove myself insane! I am waayyy too much of a perfectionist to do this without wanting to correct each and every mistake. However, life's not perfect and NEITHER was this cake!! But it was fun, and he loved it.

On Christmas Eve, Mark's parents and sister came back to town. Of course, they were ready to have birtday fun wit him. And, that means MORE PRESENTS!!! It is so funny, I really think that Jonathan believes that the entire month of December is all about him and giving him presents! He had fun opening presents from everyone and playing with MORE new toys! He even liked the shirts that my MIL got for him, which was hilarious. Last year, any time he opened clothes, he would throw them on the floor. This time, he ran to put them away in his dresser. Too funny.

I got a little distracted lately by our life, and forgot to schedule Jonathan's Well-Child Visit. We finally got in the middle of January. Dr. Lu thought that Jonathan looked great and was doing great. He weighs 35 pounds and is 40 inches tall! That is the 79th and 93rd percentiles respectively. Our boy has always been tall, but is hard to believe that he is almost 3 1/2 feet already. A long way from the 7 pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches long that he was at birth! They did a vision screen on him and he passed with flying colors. That was a HUGE relief to me. I am afraid that might be the one thing that the child actually get from me, the bad vision!! But so far, so good. Jonathan had a great time charming Dr. Lu and all the nurses. However, he was a little mad that he had to get his second H1N1 shot. Of course, he hated the band-aid more than the actual shot. Jonathan has hated band-aids his entire life and will fuss until you take them off.

We also started the New Year with one big resolution for Jonathan...POTTY TRAINING!! We are committed and working hard this time to make it work. He has been doing great. He has stayed dry at school the last few days. At home, he is still having 1-2 accidents at night but we are getting there. Now, #2, that is another story. Anyone have any great ideas? Totally open to them! Of course, potty training is a blessing in and of itself. Knowing Jonathan's medical history, we are very thankful that things are progressing at such a timely rate. Thank you Lord!!!

Gracie Lynne Thomas

2009-12-22T04:23:00.002-06:00

Well, it's 4:30 in the morning and I'm not asleep. For the last five months I've been asleep by 8:30-9pm and now it seems so hard for me to get to sleep. So much has happened in the last month since my last post. I have been wanting to write it all down, but it is just too hard. Sort of like if I don't write it, it didn't all happen, that it's just a bad, bad dream. But it did happen, and it is weighing on my heart to share it all.

My last post ended with requests for prayers for our ultrasound. I know God heard our prayers, but things did not go as planned. Our appointment with the high risk doctor and the ultrasound revealed some very serious problems with our sweet baby. He left us with very little (none really) hope that the baby would survive. I think a part of me died right there in that room. I kept watching the screen, knowing that so much was wrong, and yet not really believing that this could be happening. Mark and I cried and prayed and cried and prayed. We finally were able to come to the point where we were able to pray and ask God to heal our baby. But if that wasn't His will, then we prayed that God would allow the baby to not hurt and to heal our baby by taking it home.

We made a conscious decision to enjoy the time with the baby that we had. So we did. Each kick was a sweet and precious memory, a most perfect gift from God. We savored it all and did all the things we knew we wouldn't be able to do later. We sang the baby all the songs that we have sung to Jonathan, read books, played the piano, went shopping, snuggled, hugged, talked, laughed, loved. Love, that is what we did each day. We told our baby just how very, very much we loved him or her and how very glad that he or she had come to be with us, even if he or she couldn't stay for long. Jonathan felt the kicks, talked to her, kissed my belly, and was a wonderful big brother.

Two weeks later, she was gone. Her heart had just given out, and I lost another piece of mine. Watching another ultrasound screen, and seeing no more movement. Such an empty, empty feeling. We went in for delivery and it was such a different experience. With Jonathan, we were so nervous and excited and happy and scared. This time, we were just sad. The nursing staff at Baptist was wonderful and took such great and tender care of us. Our sweet baby girl, Gracie Lynne Thomas, was born at 12:55am on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 20 weeks. She weighed 1 pound 1 ounce, and was 10 inches long. She is beautiful. Mark and I have prayed for another baby for so long and we love Gracie with our whole hearts. We were very blessed to be able to hold her, to love her, to talk to her, to sing to her. My Mom and Mark's Mom were there with us and were able to hold her as well. The nurses took pictures for us to remember her by and gave us several beautiful things as mementos.

We buried our baby girl on Thursday. We buried our child. I went to the funeral of a little boy I had treated last year. I understand now, I feel the pain that was in his mother's heart for it is now my own. Mark and my Mom planned the entire funeral and it was beautiful. She had a pink dress and blanket, a baby doll, a pair of shoes, and pictures of our family while we were pregnant. So many people sent flowers that it was breathtaking. And so many people came. It was bitterly cold at the graveside and there were all these people. The absolute hardest day of my life and I felt so, so much love from our family and our friends. Thank you, thank you, for coming, for loving us, for praying for us. My heart will never never forget.

I've had a hard time finding God and His will. It just seems so pointless that she had to leave us. But Mark has been a rock for me and is helping me to find God in this and through this. He reminds me of little things that were part of God's plan to take care of us and hold us through our pain. He said, "Gracie's in heaven now and doesn't need anything. God's not worried about her. He's worried about us, He has His hands around us." We told Jonathan that Gracie was gone and he said, "She went to live in heaven with Jesus? Cool." The faith of a 3 year old child. The perfect, unfailing, unwavering faith. It is something to strive for.

We are slowly, slowly moving through this. I don't think that this hurt will ever go away. Those pieces of my heart went with her and I won't see them again until I am in heaven and can hold her again. I do know, though, that God has a plan for our lives. I am holding on to that promise. I want to seek His will and His plan for us. I just don't know what that is right now.

I finally downloaded all the pictures of her from the camera tonight. I wish you could have seen her, she is beautiful. She has Jonathan's nose, and what a cute nose it is. I miss her every day. I miss her kicks and the little bit of her personality that we got to experience while she was in my tummy. From the first ultrasound, she was a mover. We said she was going to be the Dancing Queen next to Jonathan's Dancing King. I mourn for the fact that I will never get to see her dance, never see her run and play, sing, cry, play with Jonathan, give kisses, smile, or grow up.

Thank you for being a part of our family. For sending flowers, food, cards, emails, love, prayers, thoughts. They are all appreciated so deeply. I never expected such an outpouring of love. It really has helped heal my soul. Please do continue to remember us in your prayers. Two weeks later, we are doing some better. But we are not whole. Each day is a struggle of it's own. Jonathan brings us so much happiness. But there is a sadness of knowing that she is not here to share in that happiness. Pray that we can remember her without becoming consumed by the sadness. Pray that our hearts can heal. Pray that we can find happiness and joy again. Pray that this time will help us to grow stronger as a couple, and as a family. Pray that God will reveal His will for our lives to us and guide us on the true path for our lives.

December is always a busy month for us. In the midst of all this was Jonathan's 3rd birthday party and today was his actual birthday. My sweet baby boy is three years old. My heart is full of thankfulness for the gift that he is and will be. God truly heard our prayers with regards to Jonathan. Three years ago we were so scared and afraid when we learned of his birth problems. Now we can see just how wonderful he is. How God has and is healing his body. How far we have come. It gives me hope to know that God will help us in this storm as well. That he will bring us through it and above it for his glory. Thank you for always remembering Jonathan in your prayers. God hears them all.

Christmas is in just a few days. This year will be so different than what I had planned or hoped for. But I do hope that we can make it a happy one, that we can remember another baby, Jesus, that came to free us from our sins. Another mother who knew that one day her son would have to die as well. And we will make it happy for our Jonathan.

Hopefully I will feel like making another post before too long. I want to share about Jonathan's birthday and Christmas. The happy things are just so important right now. Thank you for reading our story, for being with us, for remembering us. We will remember you and your family and pray that each of you has a very Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year.

Jennifer

Halloween Fun

2009-11-22T12:53:00.008-06:00

Well, once again it's been awhile since my last post. I'm telling you, it is not much fun to feel so very bad. "Morning" sickness is such a misnomer for what I have been experiencing. All day nausea, vomiting, exhaustion would be a better name! Thankfully, it is starting to subside, and I am mostly feeling bad in the evenings. This is good in that I can work and not be sick, but bad in that I am doing NOTHING around our house. Thankfully, Mark is a trooper and has stepped up to the plate.

Anyway, on to what we have been up to! First, Halloween!! Jonathan was sooo excited about dressing up as Handy Manny. He was so handsome and had a great time trick or treating at school and around our neighborhood. After each house, he would look in his bucket and then look at me and say, "Mommy, my buckets not full yet. We go to 'nother house?" He had a wonderful, wonderful time as did Mark and I. We just love being with that little boy and enjoying life with him.

Handy Manny

Jonathan and his loot!

Jonathan and I also went to the church Fall Fest with our very good friends Karen, Katie, and Megan. The kids all play so well together and had a blast with all the games. It was also very nice to have Karen there to help me with Jonathan as I just got more and more nauseous as the night went on. Thank you Lord for good friends!!

Megan, Katie, and Jonathan

We watched a good bit of the World Series. Jonathan just loves baseball and had a great time "playing" in the living room. He has several baseball bats and a couple of soft balls, but no hard balls (not quite ready for that one yet!!). Anyway, one night he put his Cardinals hat on, backwards of course, and takes his bat, and goes after the soccer ball. Funny thing is, he could hit the silly thing across the living room! He was so incredibly cute and had a lot of fun playing with the team on tv. He kept telling everyone, "Swing batter, swing."

My baseball player

Mark's Mom came to town for the weekend and took this picture of the three of us after church at Olive Garden. We haven't had a group picture in a while and this one is decent, even if I do look nauseous and pregnant!

Our Family at Olive Garden

The next week was just about sick people! Mark flew out to New Orleans for a fast business trip. He calls me from down there and tells me that he isn't feeling very well. That same afternoon, Jonathan gets home from school and asks me to hold him. That is never a good sign as this boy is a mover and a shaker, not a sit and cuddle baby. I picked him up and he was a fireball, temperature of 102. Poor baby. Mark calls me from the airport to say his ears won't pop and he feels horrible. Needless to say they went to their respective doctors the next morning. Jonathan had a double ear infection. Mark had an ear infection and a sinus infection. I had an OB appointment that afternoon. The baby was doing great with a heartbeat around 140 beats per minute. I kept asking myself, "How did I get to be the well person in this house?"

Of course, never should have asked that question!! Never, ever question being well. I ended up with a stomach virus this week. Let me tell you, very lovely. Like I haven't been throwing up enough being pregnant, that now I got to throw up with a stomach virus!! I think the doctor is going to give up on me ever gaining any weight! I can't win for puking!!

On a happier note, we are going for our Level 2 Ultrasound and meeting with the Perinatologist tomorrow. They are doing a high level ultrasound to make sure that this baby is ok and not having any of the problems that Jonathan had. The doctors all assure us that it was a fluke and will not happen again, but still, we are checking to make sure. Please remember us and most especially this baby tomorrow. Please pray that all is well and that there are no problems. We are trusting in God's will and believe that all will be well, however, we do appreciate each prayer that you speak for our little baby. We will also be finding out if we are having a girl or a boy which we are very excited about!!!

Thursday, of course, is Thanksgiving, and we have much to be thankful for. Thank you for checking in with our family. I will post soon and let everyone know if it will be pink or blue!!

Check out Jonathan's picture website for a TON more pictures. Just not enough room here and it takes me waaayyy too long to upload them.

Big News!

2009-10-24T08:35:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe it, but it has been two months since my last post. I promise we haven't fallen off the face of the Earth, but in some ways it does rather feel like we have! It has been an eventful couple of months to be sure.

Our biggest news is that we are having another baby! Jonathan is going to be a big brother and he is so very excited. Hopefully, he will continue to be this excited once the baby gets here!! Our new little one is due to arrive on April 24, 2010. Of course this date is fun to me as Jonathan was due on December 24th. Obviously the 24th is a good due date in our family! Jonathan came on the 21st, so we'll have to see if this little one comes then too. Mark and I are both very excited as well to have another little one and to have a little sister or brother for Jonathan.

Of course this pregnancy will tell you the reason I have been largely absent from my computer for the past three months. This pregnancy has been VERY different from the first one. Unfortunately, I have been very sick with lots of nausea and vomiting, all day, every day. We kept hoping it would subside by now, but unfortunately not so much. I am feeling better in the mornings, but afternoons and evenings are just not good. I just keep reminding myself that the end result will be well worth it!! Thankfully, Mark has been in town lately and has really stepped up to take care of me, Jonathan, the house, supper, and everything in between!! I am sure he will be glad when I do feel better. I have lost several pounds as of our last appointment. All you girls out there will understand when I say it was quite depressing -- The only time you get on a scale and DON'T want to have lost weight! Of course, I know I will as the nausea subsides, but still!! I wish this wasn't the diet that worked for me, ya know??

I am seeing the same OB as I did with Jonathan (Dr. Hubach) and we just love her. She is very calm and easy going, but very on top of things. As ya'll know, calm is not usually a word associated with me, so she evens out some of my craziness which is very nice. I am 14 weeks now and just so very thankful that things are going well. The first ultrasound at 9 weeks was just so precious as our little one was squirming around and you could see the little heart beating away. Jonathan never moved during that first ultrasound. Mark said we might be in trouble if this baby is a mover already!! We went back for another appt. at 13 weeks and got to hear the heartbeat at 154-158 beats per minute. We took Jonathan with us and he thought it was pretty neat to hear the heartbeat. Of course that was a little bit of an adventure for us trying to keep him still, so that may be his one and only visit with us!!

So much other stuff has gone on that it is hard to remember everything. Jonathan is really liking his new class at school. They sing fun songs in circle time and it is really fun to peak in the window and watch him doing all the hand signals and faces with the songs. He is also a BIG fan of being a 'helper.' They have a lunch helper, nap mat helper, line leader, weather helper, etc. He thinks it is pretty cool and loves to tell me all the helpers when he gets home.

We went on vacation over Labor Day and the next week. We spent the weekend in Gulf Shores with Mark's parents, sister, her boyfriend, and his little girl at the beach. Everyone had fun lying around the beach and being bums. The girls spent some time at the outlet mall but unfortunately we didn't come home with very much. (The joy/pain of being pregnant is that there is no point in looking at clothes for yourself). We left from there Monday and went to Pensacola for the rest of the week. We loved the condo we stayed at and had an absolute blast just hanging out as the three of us with no set agenda. We spent one day and saw the Blue Angels flight team due a practice set at their air base. It was fantastic and Jonathan absolutely LOVED it. They signed autographs afterwards which he thought was pretty cool as well. They have a wonderful naval air museum there that we spent the rest of the day at. The only down side of our vacation was how nauseous I was the entire trip. Did limit some of our dining out, but we still had a nice time. And Mark ended up with a sinus infection while we were gone as well. Luckily we were able to get him some drugs and he felt better after a few rounds.

The next weekend I flew to Dallas for one of my best friends from college, Liz's, baby shower. It was so much fun to catch up with her and be there as they get ready for their little one. Of course, I was sick most of the time, but that is just the underlying theme of everything right now. She and her husband have decorated this little girl's room so beautiful. I have to admit I have been thinking of copying some of it if this one of ours turns out to be a girl!! Little Madeline Grace was born this week and is just beautiful. Now I need to go back to Dallas to see her!!

The next Friday we took Jonathan to Alltel Arena to see Playhouse Disney. They had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Tigger and Pooh, and Handy Manny there. Of course, that is ALL the kiddo watches on TV so he was in hog heaven. He had an absolutely great time and we bought him WAY too much stuff at the souvenir stands. We obviously need to go to Disney World!! I think half of Little Rock who has a child under five was there as well. It was hilarious how many people we ran into!!

I was supposed to scrapbook that weekend at Petit Jean but had to cancel as I felt so bad. I also canceled out the next weekend on my planned trip to New Orleans for Melissa's birthday. Being sick is no fun!!

We took Jonathan to the Johnston Pumpkin Patch in Greenbrier the second weekend in October. He LOVED it. Of course, it has done nothing but rain here for weeks on end, so the pumpkin patch was really more of a muddy mess. Thankfully, everyone was dressed for this so we just had a good time and didn't worry about it. They had a great petting zoo, a hay ride, jumpy houses, and of course...pumpkins!! Jonathan spent the entire time looking for Spookley the Square Pumpkin. If you have not read this book to your little ones, then BUY IT!! It is an awesome little story about a square pumpkin who is different from his friends but saves the day in the end. Jonathan loves this story and I love the underlying message. We didn't find a square pumpkin, but we did come home with a BIG pumpkin, a small pie pumpkin, a Cinderella pumpkin, several mini-pumpkins, and a few gourds as well. Can you tell that we get in to this whole holiday thing!! And that Mommy feels very guilty for having been so sick lately that she hasn't done much with her little man?

Mark spent last Saturday at the deer camp. He hunted with his muzzleloader but didn't have any luck. He saw quite a few turkeys, but of course AR canceled the turkey hunt this year. Poor Mark has the absolute WORST luck of any hunter I have EVER known.

Tuesday, the 20th, Jonathan had another outpatient surgery in OKC. This is all a continuation of the problems from when he was born. Hopefully, though, this will be the last surgery. This one was much shorter and less traumatic but still scary to watch someone put your child to sleep and know they are about to cut them open. He did very well though and they discharged him that afternoon. We spent the next day at the hotel in OKC and came home. Mark's Dad was able to come with us which was nice to have the extra help. I, of course, threw up the entire time, so we were very glad someone was there to help Mark out. Jonathan has done very well and is just a little tired and sore. We go back on Monday for a check up and to get the stitches out. We are so very thankful for God's healing of Jonathan's body now and over the past three years. God has been so infinitely good to our family. It has definitely been a test of patience and faith but it is nice to see the fulfillment of the promises He has given us. We are also so very thankful that God led us to Dr. Kropp and that God has guided him in how best to care for Jonathan. Thank you to everyone for praying for him. We know just how much each of those prayers mean to our family.

Next Saturday is Halloween and I hope we will be ready. Jonathan is going to be Handy Manny and I have pieced his costume together but he hasn't tried it on yet! I really need to work on that soon!! I do love this little boy and enjoying things like Halloween with him are just such a joy to me.

I know this post has no pictures. I will try to add some soon. Half of them are on my computer, half on the server, and half are still on the cameras. Just thought an update would be a good start. Thanks for checking in with us. I hope that each of your families are doing well.

Mississippi, Deer Camp, and Preschool...Do those go together?

2009-08-23T14:42:00.003-05:00

We have been so busy these last few weeks that I haven’t had to time to even get the pictures downloaded off the camera, much less blog about them!

We went home to Mississippi the first weekend in August for my UMC Physical Therapy class reunion. We had so much fun visiting with old friends and seeing how much everyone’s family has grown in the past six years. We had a family pool party lunch in the morning and then the adults had dinner at Mint in Madison that night.

Pool Party Fun

We went to a really nice park in Madison Sunday morning. Jonathan loved it. We had the whole park to ourselves and he had so much fun running all over the place. It was a really nice and big park/playground. Wish we had something similar here in LR!

Fun with MaMa Deb

Playing with Daddy and Grandad at the Playground

My parents are living in Madison now, so it worked out really well for us to be close to everything. Jonathan was sooo excited to be at their house and play. They had a ton of new toys for him to play with and they even set up a baby pool outside for him to play in. They kept him while we went to dinner, so it was a nice night out for us as well.

Little Pool at Grandad and MaMa Deb's House

Jonathan wanted EVERYONE to get in his pool!!

Playing tools with Grandad

The next weekend was the Croppin’ 4 Kids scrapbooking fundraiser weekend for Easter Seals. This one is always a lot of fun and for a good cause (since I work there and all!!). They give out a lot of freebies, have a silent auction, and enough food to feed an army!! My friends Edie & Jodi, and Linda that I work with were there, so we had a great time.

Sunday afternoon, I went to the first of the big children’s consignment sales here in Little Rock. When we first moved to LR, all everyone could talk about was Duck Duck Goose. We went while I was pregnant, and were completely overwhelmed by how much STUFF was there. They have it at the State Farigrounds (inside) and it is HUGE. Since Jonathan was born, he and I have hit them as often as we could. We are usually able to find a ton of cute stuff, some new, some used, but most of it in good condition. Usually get Gymboree, Gap, Janie & Jack, smocked church outfits, etc. Anyway, all that to say that I hit Rhea Lana West Little Rock on that Sunday. Now that Jonathan is getting older, it is harder to find good quality stuff. Little boys just wear everything out!! But I did find some stuff new with tags, so we did good. Of course, now it seems like there is a sale every week for the month of August & September (everyone’s trying to capitalize on this game). I won’t hit all of them, but definitely do my share to keep Jonathan’s clothing budget low but quantity and quality high!

Mark’s Dad also came up Sunday afternoon to keep Jonathan the next week (August 10-14th). Preschool was closed so they could get ready for the new year. They had a great time at home and played and played. I don’t think they ever got bored. I do think Jonathan wore Paw Paw out!
Tuesday afternoon, we had the ultimate pleasure of meeting baby Kate. Our friends from church, Jennifer & Chris, have been trying to adopt a baby for the past two years. They have been so faithful to God, trusting in His guidance and in His timing for this child. She was a week old when we met her. She is absolutely beautiful and such a blessing. Jonathan loved playing with her too! He laid her blanket out on the floor and then insisted that we lay her down so he could talk to her. He brought her cars to play with and then got his musical instruments out so he could make music for her. It was so very sweet to see him with a little baby.

Friday night we all drove up to Mark’s deer camp. Mark has been trying to plant his food plots for this season, but things keep conspiring against him! I was a little apprehensive about us ALL going, but we ended up having a nice time. There is a playground up there, and Jonathan and I spent the morning playing on the playground, playing in the dirt, and looking for animal tracks. We even had a deer grunt at us. I told Mark that was probably as close to a deer as he was going to get! Poor Mark just does not have good luck deer hunting. Obviously not in planting his food plots either. Some piece on the tractor broke on the tiller. He was able to mow the grass down, but could not till the field. Mark and his Dad spent most of the day outside trying to fix it. Jonathan was “helping.” I spent the afternoon working on my scrapbook and reading. Worked out really well for me! Not so much for Mark.

Sitting on the tractor with Daddy

Playground at the Deer Camp

Jonathan started his new year of preschool this past Monday (17th). He moved up to a new class with new teachers and some new friends. It was a BIG change for him and for me as well. He has been with the same teachers for the past two years, since he started preschool at Easter Seals. They have taken such good care of him and he just loves them so much. The new teachers are very nice, they just don’t KNOW him yet. I know it will work out, but still a little sad in the meantime! He decided to see who was boss and ended up in time out three times the first day. Now if you know Jonathan, you know he can be bad, but usually/mostly is a very well-behaved child. The teachers were very apologetic of having to put him in the corner. I was ok with it, get that attitude under control ASAP, but still love on my baby! He also is trying to play them with the potty training as well. Wet most of the day Monday, drive 5 of 7 times on Tuesday, and 50/50 the rest of the week. Ugghh!! He did, however, really like the new room and seems to be adjusting well to the new kids and the teachers. He gets to play on the big playground now and he REALLY likes that part to be sure. Now, if only I can get all of his teachers to spell his name correctly!!!!!

First Day of Preschool

Mark went to New Orleans for a big meeting this past week. He was really busy but had a good time eating his way across the city. His Dad drove down for a few days to be with him. I think he had fun relaxing around the hotel. Mark came home Thursday night and is leaving again tonight (Sunday). Needless to say, we are all a little tired of him being gone and ready for him to stay home for a while! The house could use a little love as well. It is just hard to keep up with everything without any help!

Jonathan and I have had a stomach virus this weekend. Welcome to the first week of school! He, of course, has been much sicker than I have been. He ran a fever yesterday afternoon, so we didn’t get to go to church today. He started a new class at church last week as well, so he was sad that he didn’t get to go back again today. He is feeling much better today thank goodness. Just hate him to be sick.

Thanks for checking in with us!

Summer Fun

2009-07-26T20:04:00.002-05:00

Nothing really exciting to report. I just had a few minutes, so thought I would write a quick post. My in-laws came to visit last weekend and Jonathan had a great time playing with them. He has decided now that Grandma needs to put him to bed whenever she is here. This is a nice break for me, but the never-ending bedtime! They read a dozen books, sing a dozen songs, and have a wonderful time together. No wonder Jonathan loves her putting him to sleep. Drags it out a lot more than our three stories, a couple of songs, prayers, and bed!

Saturday afternoon, Mark, my MIL, and I went to see the new Harry Potter. It was a really great movie and I was glad to have the chance to see it. My FIL and Jonathan stayed home and took a nap. They were both happy with that arrangement as well! Saturday night, Mark, Jonathan, and my FIL went to the AR Twisters Arena Football game with the interns from Mark's work. They had the Entergy suite so they had a good time. Food, private bathroom, and enclosed area for Jonathan to rip and roar, what could be better! My MIL and I went shopping instead. Good choice for us too. We got her birthday present and then had dinner at U.S. Pizza (I just love their salads!!).

I got a new necklace this week that I have been wanting for a loonnngg time. I got a Mommy necklace to remind me of Jonathan, even when he's not with me. I kept looking for one, but never could find what I wanted. Finally found this one. http://julianandco.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=122
Jonathan calls it "my baby feet neck-lass." He loves looking at HIS baby feet. It is so funny. The necklace is small enough to wear everyday, which is what I wanted. The only thing is, I have all these everyday gold earrings, and they don't really go with this necklace!! Oh well, just have to get some new silver ones!

Mark went to the deer camp this weekend to do some work to get ready for deer season. Jonathan and I stayed home and just chilled and played. We did go shopping a little on Friday. Went to the Inviting Co. wearhouse sale. It was fantastic!! Jonathan had a great time climbing up and over all the boxes. I bought a TON of stuff, for not much money. We got wrapping paper for a $1 a roll, cute plates & napkins for birthdays, baby showers, Christmas, etc., thank you cards, note cards, monogrammed stuff, and more! Even Mark was impressed with how much for how little I got (and that is saying something)! We stayed home Saturday and played. Also worked on potty-training. This is an adventure, that is about the best thing I can say about that. One of those roller coasters that seems to go on for forever, that you just wish would END!! Oh well, I will be patient. I know it will happen eventually.

We went to church today. A friend of mine and I filled in for Sunday School for four year olds. It was a lot of fun and completely amazing to see how much these little minds have already soaked up about the Bible and God. They are amazing! We went out to eat lunch with her as well and that was a lot of fun. We are so very blessed to have made some really good friends here in Little Rock. I know that this would be a completely different situation without the support and friendship that we have found here.

God is so good to us. I have definitely been learning some lessons in patience, trust, and faith lately. I know that God is in control and that He has a plan for us and our lives. But sometimes, it is hard to see that plan when you are in the middle of it and it just doesn't seem to be working out the way YOU planned. Of course, that's the point, right? God's plan is infinitely better than our plan. Oh man, but the waiting is hard! Please say a prayer for us that we will be faithful in our paitence for the fulfillment of God's plan, and that we will continually seek His will (not ours) for our lives.

Love to you all! Jonathan has his last week of the summer program at his preschool this week. They are 'going' to China, so it should be exciting. Last week was Africa and he absolutely loved all the animals on the wall and the 'safari' that they went on. This coming weekend we are going to Jackson/Madison for a reunion for my PT class. I am excited to see all my friends/classmates and catch up on their lives. It is so hard to believe that it has been SIX years since I graduated. Man I am getting old! Could I really have been practicing that long??? And that is all a fulfillment of God's promise and guidance. I do believe that God laid this path out for me to be a PT and to work with children. It does give me a purpose to be working, even when sometimes I would REALLY rather stay at home with Jonathan or just be a bum!

Thanks for checking in with us. I hope that everyone has a really great week!

Vicksburg Fun

2009-07-17T16:14:00.005-05:00

I know, I know, Long Time No Post! Well, here goes the check-up!

As of my last post, both of my boys were sick. We did end up taking both to the doctor the next morning with a general consensus of the $49 fever virus. (This is about what it cost to see a pediatrician and for them to do absolutely NOTHING for your child). I know, I know, "antibiotics are overused and becoming ineffective," but seriously, so is my pocketbook!! Anyway, the doctor declared them both ok and not contagious, so off we went to Vicksburg!

We had a wonderful time being with Mark's ENTIRE family. It does not happen very often, so it was really nice to see everyone and spend time together.

Lucy - my niece

Mark's brother's family came from Atlanta and his sister and her boyfriend came from Hattiesburg. We took Jonathan out to the levee on the lake for his very first fishing trip. He LOVED it. He was not very patient waiting for the cork to go under, but thankfully the fish were biting, so he didn't have to wait too long.

Jonathan's First Fish!

He also tried out the little kid rod and reel and did very well with that. We decided he is going to be a bass fisherman. Lacey had a great time fishing as well. We all fished until we ran out of crickets! Since he had done so well and had so much fun, we took him back out in the morning. Unfortunately, it got HOT fast and we didn't stay out there too long. Still fun, just very hot.

Jonathan & Paw Paw Fishing

Saturday night was Mark's parents' 40th Wedding Anniversary Party. We had the party at the Walnut Hills Nogales House.

The Thomas Family

It was a great location with wonderful food. Everyone seemed to have a really good time. The only problem was that the air conditioner was set on 83 degrees when we got there to set up. Unfortunately, MS heat being what it is, and being an antebellum house, it never really cooled off. You can tell from the pictures just how hot everyone was. But we survived. Mark and I put together a slide show of their lives together which turned out really well. Mark is so talented at these things. Mrs. MaryAnn Artz made the cake. She made our wedding cake, and everyone was really excited about tasting her cake again. The leftovers barely made it home before the rest of the cake was devoured.

Mark & Jonathan at the party.

Poor Mark is soooo hot!

Sunday, we had an early birthday party for our niece Lucy. She will be one at the end of the month, but we just went ahead and had a party while everyone was together. She had a GREAT time with the cake. It was hilarious watching her go at the cake. She really got in to opening her presents as well, which was fun. I made a scrapbook for her first birthday. I thought it turned out really nice (fun to do girl stuff for a change). Hopefully she will enjoy that in the years to come.

Lucy LOVED the cake!

Jonathan had so much fun playing with Lucy and with Lacey. We brought a little drum full of instruments, and he and Lucy went to town playing with everything. After the party Saturday night, Jonathan and Lacey played with Kim's old Barbie dream house. They crawled through it 100 times (yes through the house) and ran all around the house. Or at least, that's what I was told. I, unfortunately, came home from the party with a migraine, so I went to bed!

We went to visit Johnson Sunday afternoon. Jonathan had fun playing at her house and we had a really good time visiting with her. Unfortunately, we just do not get to Vicksburg as often as we would like, and when we do it is always too short!

Johnson & Jonathan

We ate dinner at our local Taco Casa, a true Vicksburg necessity. We love their chili con queso and crushed ice cokes. Their bathroom does leave a little to be desired though, so we drove up to the overlook to potty before hitting the road. We took a TON of pics by the river and up by the cannon. Jonathan loved the river, loved the boats on the river, loved the cannon, loved climbing on the cannon, and especially loved the train crossing the old bridge. All in all, a great 30 minute stop before our trip even started! Needless to say, it was quite late by the time we made it home Sunday night, but it was well worth it!!

Mississippi River Overlook

Happy Fourth of July!

The next weekend was the Fourth of July. We were both off on Friday, and we just enjoyed the weekend at home together. It was nice to just have some time at home without an agenda. We took Jonathan bowling for the first time on Saturday. There was no one at the bowling alley, can't imagine why?

Jonathan learning to bowl.

We went to Millennium Bowl in NLR and it was very nice and clean and family friendly. They have bumpers that popped up when it was Jonathan's turn to bowl and then went down for my and Mark's turns. (Of course, it might have been better if they had stayed up!) Jonathan loved bowling and kept telling us, "I do it by myself." He carried his 7 lb bowling ball for most of the two games. They also had one of the ramps that you could roll the ball down. That was a big help so it did not take the ball soooo long to get down the lane. We played two games and all three of us were completely exhausted.

Notice Jonathan won the Second Game!!!!

We discussed taking Jonathan down to the riverfront to watch the fireworks show, but it was just so hot and we were all just tired. So we started watching the different shows on TV. After a while, a couple of kids in the neighborhood started shooting off some bottle rockets, so Mark took Jonathan outside to watch (at a safe distance of course). Then they both come running inside for me to come. Our 'neighbors' two streets over were having a party and had bought a TON of fireworks to shoot off. We ended up sitting in lawn chairs in the back yard and enjoying their show. A Redneck Fireworks. It was hilariously silly, but we had a blast. We were far enough away that Jonathan wasn't scared of the noise, which was very nice as well.

I was very blessed to go on a Girl's Weekend to Branson last weekend with my friend Jennifer from church. Her parents own a condo/duplex up there so we had a free place to stay. We had a great time just being girls and taking a break from our boys! We drove up Friday night and ate dinner at the Outback that's not a chain Outback. It is a good place to eat. The next morning we got up and began our shopping adventure. We shopped for 12 hours with only a minor stop for lunch at Dairy Queen. I have done some major shopping in my life, but this might be a first. We did three malls: Tanger Outlet, Factory Merchants Branson, and Branson Landing. We had so much fun and completely filled up her Honda Pilot. Found a ton of good deals and some great Christmas/birthday presents for Jonathan. Of course, my feet were just tingling by the end of the day and my poor knees were shot. I was just groaning each time I stood up! Sad I know, that a 30 year old cannot hang any more than that! We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack that night. It was delicious! We had those new steampots that they have been advertising on television. I got the New Orleans one and it was actually good!! (Always afraid to try Cajun stuff when we are not down South).

While I was gone, the boys played! Mark took Jonathan to the movies Friday night to see Ice Age 3. He loved going to the movies again and especially loved the popcorn. Saturday they went to Wild River Country and had fun in the sun. Sunday they went to church. The other big news was that Jonathan stayed dry ALL day Friday and Saturday. Of course, as soon as I got home Sunday, he was wet. How is that!?!? And then Monday, wet all day long at school. Had been staying dry 75% of the day, then all day at home, then none at school. This potty training business is a little trying to say the least. I know it will happen, but it gets old fast.

I had some use or lose vacation time at work, so I took off Thursday and Friday of this week. Jonathan went to school yesterday and I tackled closets. I beat the bathroom cabinets, but our bedroom closet beat me! That thing has grown a life of it's own. I will have to continue working on it though, I am determined to clean out ALL the closets in the house this year. Jonathan's is always an ongoing process as he outgrows his clothes so fast!! We are all home today and just have been running some errands and playing around the house.

Thanks for checking in with us. Miss you all so much!

P.S. Does anyone know an easier way to do these posts? I am going crazy trying to keep the text centered/left justified and the pictures centered, appropriate lines between paragraphs, etc. This is a PAIN and time consuming. Any/all tips would be MOST appreciated!! I have got to learn how to do this an easier way!

Same fever, both boys!!

2009-06-26T00:40:00.002-05:00

So now they are both running low grade fevers. Mark was running a pretty good fever last night and ended up staying home from work today. He slept most of the day away and seems a little better tonight. Jonathan has randomly been sitting at 99 off and on this week. He has gone to school though, and been happy and playing. I brought him home to Mark this afternoon and went to get my nails done for the party this weekend. I call them as I'm leaving the salon, and Mark tells me that his fever is at 101 and Jonathan's is 99.8. Yeah. Way to ruin my relaxing salon visit! The nice thing is that Jonathan feels completely fine. Showing no signs of illness except that he is warm when you hold him. So weird...

So now they are both sick...sorta...and we are supposed to be leaving in the morning for Vicksburg!!!! Mark has an appointment in the morning with his doctor. I guess I will be up at 7:59am calling the pediatrician to try and get Jonathan in as soon as possible in the morning. (You have to start calling before 8am so you can be the first on the phone with the receptionist when they open. Otherwise we'll get the 4:30pm appointment or the crappy doctor and NEVER get to Vicksburg.)

Oh, and we're completely NOT ready to leave. Of course. Too much drama to get anything together. At least the majority of the clothes are washed and their are piles on the floor waiting to go into the suitcase. Well, back to packing. Please pray for my boys that they feel better and that this is just a virus. And please pray that we have a safe and fun trip to Vicksburg and that the party goes well for my in-laws.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Better?

2009-06-23T23:55:00.002-05:00

Mark is doing better today. He wasn't running a fever this morning so he went on in to work. Crazy I know, but he has this HUGE project going on all week that they have been preparing for. He thinks he might have had a low grade fever off and on, but he worked all day. Came home and took Jonathan to his Gymboree class. After Jonathan went to bed, his fever was at 99.5. Gave him some more Tylenol and he seems ok now. Of course, this is almost exactly how Jonathan acted this weekend so I am sure it is a virus and will run its course in the next day or so. I just hope that Mark hasn't infected his entire office in the last two days. Could be a mass exodus!! So far, I feel fine, so knock on wood I hopefully will miss this one! It does help that I work with kids all day, every day. I have definitely developed some immunity to kid germs over the past six years. I think it helped Jonathan in the beginning to not be so sick in day care as a little baby. Ahh..the power of nursing immunity! At least, I like to think so anyway! Who knows, I could be full of it!!

Anyway, I am totally rambling now and it is way past time for bed. There is so much to do before our trip to Vicksburg, and I just don't know how I'm going to get it done!! So therefore I am just spending time on things like this to escape/ignore those things that really need to be done. Night!!

Same Fever, Different Boy...

2009-06-22T21:00:00.003-05:00

Thanks for the prayers for Jonathan. He is feeling so much better and is pretty much back to normal. He is still a little tired, but he is pretty happy. He doesn't have an UTI, just a virus.

Unfortunately....now Mark has the same virus. He sent me a text from work this afternoon saying he didn't feel very good. By the time he got home, his temperature was at 102.5 and made it up to 103. Tylenol, cold water, and bed in short order. Jonathan was so sweet and tried so hard to help his Daddy feel better. He tried to take his temperature with the thermometer and brought him a blanket and tried to get him to drink his water. I finally got him out of the room so Mark could get some rest. Temps now at 102 two hours later. Advil in an hour and hopefully that will help to bring it down. So please say a prayer for Mark that he will feel better soon. And someone please take the thermometer away from him! I swear he has taken his temperature a dozen times since he got home. So funny.

I just got finished watching Jon & Kate. Now this isn't a show that I normally watch. I have watched it from time to time but never a devout fan. TLC has done a good job though showing previews for the "Big Announcement" tonight. Unfortunately, it all played out the way people thought it would. I was just so sad to see their family falling apart. Makes me so thankful for my husband and the peace that I have in our relationship. Not that I am arrogant in any way to think that I am better than them or that it could not happen to us. I know how hard we have worked at our relationship and I also know just how much I love him. We've been and continue to go through some tough times; but, yet, I have never waivered in how much I love Mark and I have never doubted his love for me. I pray that Jon & Kate can find some resolution and happiness and peace. Hopefully some Christian counseling can be pursued to help their relationship. Ugghh...hate for anyone's relationship to fall apart. Having one child, much less eight, I know just how important each of us is to our child. I do admire their devotion to TRY to maintain some semblance of normalcy for their children. Here's hoping they are able to succeed.

Time to get off the computer. Need to clean the house and get packing for our trip to Vicksburg this weekend. Everyone needs clean clothes!!

Visitors, Swimming, Fever, and Father's Day

2009-06-21T23:14:00.003-05:00

Mark's parents went with his Aunt and Uncle on vacation this year to Yellowstone. They had a wonderful time and we were just sorry we didn't get to go with them. They were able to stop by our house on the way home. Mark's Dad stayed here for a few days to spend time with Jonathan. They have such a good time playing and just being together. It was pretty funny to watch Jonathan. He did not want to let his Paw Paw out of his sight! Mark had a meeting in New Orleans on Tuesday so he dropped his Dad off in Vicksburg on his way down Monday.

Mark's Mom couldn't stand not getting to spend time with Jonathan, so she came up Tuesday afternoon!! We had a really good time with her, and it was nice to have a little company and help while Mark was gone. She went with us to Jonathan's Gymboree class on Tuesday, and he made sure she was VERY involved! We were able to go shopping Wednesday to look for dresses for their Anniversary Party next weekend. Lucky for me, I found a dress, but we didn't find one for Mark's Mom. She stayed til Friday and left after Jonathan got up.

Mark came home Wednesday night and was off on Friday. We decided to go to Wild River Country water park Friday afternoon after Jonathan's nap and after I got off. We had a wonderful time. Jonathan just loves swimming pools of all kinds and was so excited by all the options there! He was a big fan of the wave pool. Sat, walked, played, pushed the tube all over the place. It was hilarious. And didn't get scared, even when the waves were on. He also liked the lazy river tube ride, but was ready to get out by the end. Of course, Mark and I could have spent the entire day on the lazy river! Jonathan's favorite thing though was the Little Kid Tube ride. One of us would get in the tube, put him in our lap, and go down the slide/ride. He was so very excited and just squealed every time. He LOVED when the tube would turn us backwards. Jonathan was very democratic and wanted Mark and I to take turns on who would ride with him. He would get off the ride with Mark and tell me, "Your turn now." After we would come down, he would look at Mark and say, "Your turn now." Hilarious. Of course, he was quite serious about it. Mark started walking with us one time and Jonathan stopped and told him, "No Daddy, Mommy's turn now." Turned around and continued walking back to the starting point. He definitely has his own ideas!! We probably rode the ride 20 times but it was WELL worth it for all the fun that he and we had. We ended up closing the park out and were one of the last ones to leave, he was just so excited that he had to tell every slide/pool good-bye on the way out.

Saturday morning, Jonathan woke up at 6am. Now he is NOT an early riser but I just thought it was one of those fluke things. He was happy all morning and took a good nap. When he woke up from his nap though, he was running a fever. Poor baby just wasn't feeling well. Mark and I got freaked out thinking he was getting another UTI and made an appointment at the After Hours Clinic. Ran him up there and did several tests. He has a red throat and enlarged lymph nodes, but the strep test came back negative. The urinalysis showed a possible infection, so we are waiting on the culture to come back. Of course, that meant that we came home and I had to call OKC to check in with his urologist. Needless to say, not how we planned to spend our Saturday night. However, after one dose of Tylenol, it has not gone back up that high. So, more than likely, NOT an UTI. His fevers always spike really high with that. Now we are thinking he just has a virus or cold and that we jumped the gun on taking him to the clinic. Oh well, better safe than sorry. And I know he would have gotten super sick if we hadn't have taken him. He has felt fine today and just had a low grade fever around 99 off and on today. Hopefully he will continue to feel better. This is the hard part of not having any family close by. We have to take off or someone has to drive 5 hours to keep him. Ugghh.. And of course, Mark and I both have a lot going on at work this week. Makes it hard sometimes. More importantly, though, we just want our little buddy to feel better and not get any sicker on us.

Today is Father's Day and I am so proud to have Mark as my husband and the Father of my child. I am so very blessed to have this wonderful man in my life. God has truly blessed me beyond my wildest dreams. Mark takes such wonderful care of us. He works so incredibly hard at his job to provide for our family and to prepare the way for our future. He commutes an hour to work each way so that we can live in a better place for us and Jonathan. He comes home and plays with Jonathan every day, cooks dinner most days, and has enough energy left to watch TV or talk to me after Jonathan's in bed. Mark keeps Jonathan home with him on his days off so they can have that quality time together. He never balked when I wanted to cut my hours after Jonathan was born, he just made it happen. Mark truly has stepped up and been the rock for our family. He never faltered through all of Jonathan's medical problems, he just did what needed to be done and never wavered in his commitment and love for Jonathan and for me. He loves his child unashamedly and prays for God's guidance in being a better Father. I am so proud of all that he has done and accomplished.

Also just like to send love out to my Daddy and Mark's Dad. My Daddy is a great man and a great Father. He always showed me love and guidance. I always hoped that I would be lucky enough to find a man like him when I grew up. I love you Daddy! Mark's Dad is a great man as well. He has always been there for Mark and I in our marriage and especially for Jonathan. We are so lucky that he is retired now and is able to help us out. God has placed each of these men in our lives and in Jonathan's life. They each teach him something wonderful and shower him with love. Love and thanks to each of them!

Mark's parents are celebrating their 4oth Wedding Anniversary this year. We are having a party for them next weekend in Vicksburg. We are so excited to be going home and spending the weekend with them, Kim, Russ, Katherine, Lucy, and the rest of the family. Should be a lot of fun. Plus the party's at Walnut Hills so we are guaranteed good food!! Love that place!!

Thanks for checking in with us. Please remember Jonathan in your prayers. We should have lots of pictures and stories next week after our weekend in Vicksburg. Hope that everyone else is doing well and that each of you has a wonderful week!

PICTURES!!

2009-06-11T00:07:00.003-05:00

Finally added some pictures to the posts: Family Fun, Rain, Rain Go Away, and Never Ending Fever. FINALLY! Still need to add pictures to the most recent post! But it is WAAYY late and time for bed now. I did, however, add a bunch of pictures on his picture website so check that out for many more pictures. I had to pay and upgrade our picture storage on Google as we had exceeded the free amount for the picture website and the blog! How funny is that, I think we take a lot of pictures. But I love every single one of them! Hope everyone is having a great week, things are smooth so far at our house which is a really nice treat.

UPDATE: Added pictures to the Praise God post. I think I might be caught up!! Oh wait, still need to organize the pics out of my temp drive and add them to his picture website... Well, still making progress anyway!

Praise GOD!

2009-06-05T23:02:00.003-05:00

So sorry to not have updated/posted sooner. Seems like the older Jonathan gets, the busier we get. I was under this misconception that as he got older, things would get easier, and life would slow down. Not really the way it works! In some ways, he is much easier, but he is also much busier!! Of course, I love it and him and all the things we do together.

ANYWAY!!! First and foremost, praise God!! We had a wonderful appointment in OKC. The appointments are always so stressful as we never know what they will say. WE think he is doing well, but you never know what they will say. It went well though and we are just so very thankful to God for the powerful healing of Jonathan's body. His kidneys looked great and they were very impressed with his progress. He will be having one more touch-up procedure in October. This is something we had known would need to be done, but they have been putting off til he was older and ready. So it is oddly satisfying to have made it to this point. This SHOULD be the last thing that will need to be done. Hopefully after this, then we will just be going for yearly check-up visits. How wonderful that would be! Thank you for praying for our little man. Please continue to remember him as we gear up for this last surgery.

May 25th was Mark and I's Eighth Wedding Anniversary. It is so hard to believe that it has been eight years!! since we got married. They have been wonderful and I just love Mark more and more as the years go by. The good Lord definitely knew what he was doing. Here's hoping for 80 more together!! We had a rather low-key anniversary as it was Labor Day as well, but we really enjoyed just staying home and being together as a family. We went out Friday night for dinner at Riverfront Steakhouse in NLR. They have a great steak and a really nice salad bar. The staff is always very polite and sweet to Jonathan, so that is always a plus as well.

My parents came to visit that weekend and Jonathan had a lot of fun playing with them. He is always so excited to be with them. Saturday morning was his friend Ali's third birthday party. The party was at Wonder Place and he had a great time playing with all the children. Ali's Mom, Edie, had done a great job on the invitations and party favors (she is my digital scrapbooking friend, and had done everything on the software we have).

Jonathan & Ali.

The party favors were very neat. The theme of the party was ladybugs, and for party favors, she had a bug catcher full of ladybugs for each of the children. They also got a huge bubble wand and bubbles. Jonathan loved the ladybugs. We released them Sunday afternoon and he thought that was so much fun. Did not particularly like the bugs landing on him, but other than that, he had a great time with it.

Jonathan & MaMa Deb. He was most insistent that she sit with him!!

Saturday night we took Jonathan to his very first movie at the theatre, UP. He LOVED it!! He sat so big in the booster seat and never moved. Had his eyes glued to the screen and would only move them for a few seconds to tell you something about the movie. He was VERY well behaved so I guess we will start going to a few more movies now. Hopefully there will be some acceptable movies coming out sometime soon! My parents went with us to the movie and had a great time experiencing this first with him.

Sunday night was the Burton's baby shower. Jamie has been on bedrest, so it was nice to see her and bring some goodies for the baby. The guys and kids stayed outside most of the night and had a great time playing. The girls had fun sitting inside and visiting. She's got seven weeks to go, so hopefully baby Jackson will stay in for a few more weeks!

This past Thursday was the Easter Seals Preschool Graduation. I usually go to see all the kids I work with. This year was especially special for a couple of different reasons. I was able to walk one of my kids across the stage in her walker to receive her diploma. To have seen where this child came from, it was a very special moment to see her actually walking on the stage. They always do a slideshow of the graduates and some of the kids in preschool each year. This year there was a wonderful picture of Jonathan from preschool. He is such a ham and just looked so cute! The real highlight though was a big surprise. I was the PTA Vice President this year. The President ended up moving to NC a few months ago, so I became the President. As a thank-you, the preschool made me a beautiful piece of framed art. When I went to accept it, they told me that Jonathan had made the art! It is just so wonderful and so unexpected. I cannot wait to hang it up in my office.

We had lunch today at Pinnacle Mountain with the co-op students from Mark's work. Mark ended up grilling the hamburgers and hot dogs. They were delicious and it was nice to visit with some of his co-workers. Jonathan had a great time throwing rocks, sticks, etc. into the little stream. He was also a HUGE fan of the M&M cookies. At last count, I think he had four. Only ate 1/2 of a hot dog, but four cookies! Not really a balanced meal, but oh well, he'll survive.

Once again, no pictures. We have had multiple computer problems lately and Mark doesn't want me downloading the pictures until he can fix our back-up drive. He's been working on it, so hopefully it will be fixed soon. We would be in so much trouble without his computer skills! Hope everyone is doing well. Send us a note when you get a chance and let us know how you are doing!

Family Fun

2009-05-17T19:01:00.008-05:00

Well, the weekend's not over, but we are having a good time so far! Thought I would write a quick blog post while everyone is sleeping!

Jonathan has a doctor's appointment Monday in OKC. We usually drive here Sunday afternoon after church. It is a lightning fast trip and not much fun. We have been trying to take a mini-vacation for the last few months. We wanted to go to Branson, but could never really make it work out. So, since we were coming here anyway, we decided to just make a weekend out of it. Not really the best of vacation places, but it works!

Of course, nothing with us really ever goes according to plans. Just see some older blog posts for evidence of this!! We had planned to leave Friday as soon as I got off work. Of course, that didn't happen. We were not really packed, so we had to do that first. Left the house at 2:30pm. Everything packed, we were off! Didn't even get across the river before we turned around and headed back home. The A/C in my car has been acting up lately and it was already blowing hot air that soon. So, back to the house at 2:35pm. Had to move EVERYTHING to Mark's car which took about an hour. Jonathan had fallen asleep in that few minutes we had been on the road, so of course, that made moving everything even more exciting and time consuming. Plus Mark's car is much smaller than the Jeep, so that also complicated things. Moved the car seat last while I held Jonathan. Left the house for the SECOND time at 3:30pm. Of course, Mark's car didn't have any gas (never does), so we drove up to Sam's to get gas. While filling up, we realized we had left stuff in the center console of the Jeep. Back to the house. THIRD time was the charm and we got on the road around 3:45-4:00pm. Due to all our delays, Jonathan's nap did not work in our favor as we had planned. We had hoped for him to sleep two hours of the trip. Instead, he slept about 1 hour. Oh well, that's what TV's are for! After several potty break stops and one stop for a suspected flat tire (stupid OK roads), we made it to OKC at 10pm!!!

The wind started blowing as soon as we started unloading the car. Evveerry single time we come here it is some kind of bad weather. We had barely made it inside before the rain started. And by rain, I mean torrential downpour.

Saturday morning, we slept in. It has been a long week for all of us and we just needed a break. Surprisingly, I was the first one up at 8:30am. Mark and Jonathan didn't get up til 10:30am!! Unfortunately, we slept through the good free breakfast at the hotel. We got dressed and headed to the Oklahoma Science Center. What a neat facility! Kind of like Wonder Place and Museum of Discovery in LR on steroids. They had tons of hands-on exhibits and displays and all kinds of fun stuff. Mark's favorite thing was riding the Segway. I was a little wobbly on it at first but caught on. They even let Jonathan do it while they steered. He did fantastic! Jonathan's favorite thing was the water table and the gymnastics mats. Of course, I'm thinking we could have done the water table at Wonder Place at home but hey, he was happy, so it works. I think my favorite area was the American Indian exhibit. They had a stuffed buffalo/bison that was so impressive. Also a couple of beautiful, beautiful headdresses and papooses. Just some amazing authentic things.

Mark on SegwayNorth American Bison

Came back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. Got up and went to the Oklahoma Redhawks minor league baseball game. Thankfully, I had brought a long-sleeved shirt and jacket for Jonathan. It got COLD at the game. Mark had refused to bring a coat, and he paid for it. He was cold by the time we left. The game was bad, they lost 8-3, and they were just a bad team. Completely deserved to lose. We had a good time anyway, and Jonathan ended up on the Jumbo Tron...again! He has been on the one in LR twice, I think. I know, he's just so stinking cute!! We got him a soft bat and ball that he had a wonderful time with. He even took the bat to bed with him last night! Mark and I love going to baseball games, and have really enjoyed the team in LR. The Travs are a good team and win more than not. Also, if you don't buy advance tickets, you will be sitting in the grass. There was just not that many people at this game. They have a beautiful brand-new stadium in a perfect location, and just did not have the crowd. Plus, it was so cold, and they were losing, that people just kept leaving. There were probably only 200 people there by the end of the game. Sad. We had fun and Jonathan was glad when the crowd thinned out so he had more space to play.

Jonathan & Mark at Baseball Game

Jennifer & Jonathan at Baseball Game

We got up a little earlier this morning, but didn't get out of the hotel any earlier. We are staying at the Embassy Suites (thank you Mark's work points) and we had to enjoy our breakfast first. Yummy, yummy, yummy! Then we left for the OKC Zoo. They have a really nice and BIG zoo here. We have been here before when Jonathan was about 6 months old. That time, we came in August, and it was just unbearably hot.

Jonathan on monkey statue.

We have another pic of him at six months on this same monkey!

This time, it was cool in the morning and perfect by this afternoon. Of course, we feel the need to do the ENTIRE zoo, so we wore ourselves flat out trying to see everything. We didn't. Not even really close. We did see all the things Jonathan wanted to see. He has said for the last few days that he wanted to see: Monkeys, Giraffes, and Turtles. So funny, but that is what he wanted. He loved the huge Galapagos turtles, the Gorillas, the giraffes, the zebras, and the rhinoceros. He is such a big boy and wanted to walk or push the stroller through most of the zoo. We rode two kid rides, the choo choo train and carousel that he greatly enjoyed. The end of the day was probably the best, we rode the BIG train that went through the grazing animal part of the zoo. He was so very excited to ride the train. The conductor was stop at the gates to let them open and again when through them to make sure nothing got out when they closed. Each time, Jonathan would yell out, "Stop just a min-ute!" He is such a sweet little boy. We each got an ice cream on the way out and he was VERY excited about that as well. New toy and t-shirt from there too. Can you tell that he's the only child and that we aren't going on a big vacation this year?

Jonathan and the big train.

Now, we are just hanging out in the hotel. Jonathan passed out in the car on the way back. Did not even move as we came in, up the hotel, changed his pull-up, and put him in the bed. Mark passed out shortly thereafter. I should probably take a nap, but just enjoying a little free time to veg out.

Jonathan in the swimming pool (after nap).

I have had that moment today where I am just filled with love and awe and gratitude for the beautiful family that God has given me. Thank you Lord for all our blessings and for loving and caring for us. Thank you for a turning a 2nd choice vacation into a wonderful time to spend together as a family. Thank you for the opportunity to have this time together. And as much as we hate coming here, thank you for the doctors we come to see and their God-given talents that have helped our son. Thank you for leading us to this point in our lives and in our walk with you. It is truly amazing to look back and see all the things that have happened that led us to this place. Thank you Lord.

Please remember Jonathan in the morning and pray that his appointments will go well. First one at 8:30am and next one at 10:10am. Thank you for praying for him. We could never repay any of you for the many prayers that has been said for our son. We know that God hears them all and answers our prayers. We have faith that God is and will continue to completely heal Jonathan's body.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

2009-05-13T21:04:00.003-05:00

I think I may be experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder. It has done nothing but rain here for weeks!! It is just yucky outside and so dark and dreary. Our grass is loving all the rain, but it is so wet that Mark hasn't been able to cut it. A little concerned we will end up with a snake in our yard, so want it cut as soon as possible. He was able to cut the front yard last Friday, and it already needs to be cut again! The back yard is just too wet to even try.

All this rain means that the playground at school is also too wet for the kids to go outside and play. Jonathan and his friends are a little stir crazy. Child needs to get outside and run off some of his energy!!

Jonathan and I have been enjoying spending time together this week while Mark is gone. We went to his Gymboree class last night and he did really well listening and staying on task. (Sometimes the need to run and play freely is just too strong to stay on task with the teacher.) This week is Teacher Appreciation Week at his preschool. We went to Home Depot today to buy some plants for his teacher. Within a minute of walking into the plant section, he found a rock and a puddle of water. By the time we left, his shoes and pants were pretty well soaked and he had mud all over his shirt where he kept wiping his hands. He likes to play in it, but he does not really like for his hands to be dirty. Funny boy! So we came home and got straight in the shower today to clean him up. He did well in the shower for the first time. I had him stand up on the little seat and he did better being a little higher up. He usually takes a bath, but I didn't want him to be sitting in all that nasty dirty water. So shower it was today!

Mark is coming home from Atlanta tomorrow. Thank goodness! We miss him!! He visited his brother and family while he was there and had a great time playing with our niece. She will be one in July and is just such a pretty little girl. Jonathan and I were jealous that Mark got to go without us!!

Lucy

Nothing else to really report. A short one!! Who would have thought it was possible!! Hope ya'll have a great rest of the week, and hope it stops raining...at least for a little while!!

Never Ending Fever, Swimmin' Pool, and Snakes!!

2009-05-09T15:19:00.007-05:00

Well the never-ending fever saga continues. Jonathan continued to feel better through the weekend after Disney on Ice. The following Wednesday was our last day of three times a day antibiotics. By Thursday night, he was running a fever again. So frustrating for everyone and just breaks our hearts to see him not himself. I kept him home on Friday and started the phone calls to all the doctors. Of course, they keep telling me that it is an unrelated virus, but the timing just seems to scream UTI again. And, of course, it all goes down on the weekend I am supposed to go out of town. I never leave, and the time I do, he gets sick! So, lots of drama later, the doctors decide to just watch him. Mark convinces me to go on my trip. As he kept telling me, he is perfectly capable of giving Jonathan Tylenol and Motrin. He ran fever Friday, low grade Saturday, and only right before bed on Sunday. (see end for the continuing saga...)

So off I went for a fun scrapbooking weekend on Petit Jean Mountain. It was just beautiful up there and so much fun to have a break, even if I did worry greatly about my little man. Mark finally told me they were fine and to quit calling so much!! Of course, it did rain the ENTIRE weekend. And being at a church camp, it was soaking wet and muddy and well...fun! Running through the rain in the middle of the night in your pajamas, umbrella, and flashlight. So silly but fun. I did get a lot done though during the weekend. I made a special present for my niece's birthday and made a Mother's Day card for some special ladies in our lives. (Have to post that next week sometime!!) Also did quite a bit in Jonathan's First Year Album Volume 2. Finished Volume 1 at the last scrapbook weekend- can only put 100 pages in each book.

This week is the Art Show and Basket Auction at Jonathan's preschool. I am the PTA President for his preschool and this was my first function as president. I was very nervous, in this economy, that it would not go well. So I was very excited when we ended up with 22 baskets plus the children's art work. Friday was the last day and I cannot wait to see how much we made. Several of the baskets went pretty high, Razorbacks went for $200, Darren McFadden signed shirt for $100, Jermain Taylor hat for $75, huge art supply basket for $180, game basket for $90. Plus, one lady bid $550 on four pieces of the kids art!! So exciting to know we will be prepared for next school year and all of our projects. Plus it is always fun to watch everyone fight over the baskets, just cracks me up! I ended up with a basket of note cards that the children in Jonathan's class made and a Baby toys basket that we are going to give away as a gift. So, all in all, a successful week.

Jonathan's class artwork - handprint sheep

I got my hair cut and colored yesterday. Be careful what you ask for and be specific. Obviously I did not FULLY explain what I wanted. No pictures of the hair as I am not in love with it in any way. Waaayyy too dark, waaayyy too dark. The cut is good, but the color is not really what I was wanting. I don't blame her, she just interpreted what I said in a completely different way than I meant it...unfortunately for me. Oh well, it is just hair and will grow.

Now for a couple of Jonathan stories!! Much more fun than stuff about me!

Thursday afternoon the little boy across the street came over and asked if Jonathan could come out and play. He is six, but plays well with Jonathan as long as none of the other big boys are around. If they are, he sort of forgets about my sweet baby. Unfortunately, Jonathan is starting to realize it and it just breaks my heart. The little boy isn't trying to be mean, it's just that he can actually play more with the bigger kids. Anyway, they started playing and were soon joined by the little boys next door. Eventually they all ended up in their backyard on the trampoline. Mark got in too (supposedly to keep Jonathan safe) and jumped with them. One of the little boys asks Jonathan, "Do you want to go see the dead snake?" So, of course, we all go to the front yard to see the snake. Sure enough, there is a dead snake in the gutter. Looks like the yard guys ran him over with the lawnmower when they cut our neighbor's grass. There was probably 4-5 little boys standing around this snake. They wanted so badly to touch the snake. Of course, I keep telling them NO, we are NOT touching the snake, regardless that he is obviously VERY dead. Mark goes to get a shovel and the boys wait for him. When he goes to pick up the snake with the shovel they got soooo excited. It was one of the funnies things I have seen in a very long time. They were just giddy and giggling and running after Mark as he took the snake over to the woods. Mark throws the snake into the woods and, of course, it got hung up on a tree. They loved that even more and were beside themselves when he had to take a few steps into the woods to knock the snake out of the tree. Then Mr. Eagle Scout proceeded to give a safety lecture on NOT touching snakes, dead or alive, and informing an adult of any snake sightings. He was so serious and it just really made me smile to see him as the grown up. Reminded me of something my Daddy would do and I just see over and over again: 1) what a great Daddy I have and 2) what a great Daddy Mark is and is becoming. For the last two days, Jonathan has been talking non-stop about the snake and the shovel and the woods. He cracks me up!!

The other great story from this week is about the "swimmin' pool." My MIL had given me a Gymbuck to Gymboree that she had gotten from the outlet mall in V'burg. I also had one from the class that he takes at the Gymboree Play & Music. I would be remiss if I let free clothes slip by, so I bought him a couple of new outfits and t-shirts and matching socks (being a boy, socks are about the best accessory we get). I haven't let him wear any of them as it has been so nasty outside. Finally, on Thursday, I put him in one of the new t-shirts, shorts, and new socks for school. They were working on Mother's Day presents at school and took the kids on the playground to put dirt in the pots with our flowers. Of course, Jonathan thinks playground=play so he takes off with another boy to find some fun. They make a beeline for the sandbox. Of course, it has done nothing but rain for a week. The sandbox was completely FULL of water. They don't worry about that and get in anyway!! I'm coming down the hall at work and see his teacher leading the both of them into the bathroom. Noticing how WET they both are, I ask Jonathan how he got wet. He tells me, with a HUGE smile, "I in swimmin' pool Mommy." So I ask him where the swimming pool is. He just smiles, but his teacher tells me how they were in the sandbox. So, not only are they wet, but they are quite sandy as well. Just cracked me up. They both had to be changed from head to toe and obviously we got a bath that night when we got home. His teacher didn't think it was that funny, but I rather did. Especially since I didn't have to clean him up. And Jonathan was quite proud of himself. No remorse for that one. We did have a discussion, though, about taking our shoes off before getting in the "swimming pool" next time.

Other stories...

As we are pulling up to the house after work the other day, Jonathan gets my attention and says, "Mommy, our house is pretty." Now how sweet is that. I get emotional of course and tell him "Thank you, I think our house is pretty too!" He smiles at me, turns his head, and says "Get mail now please." We get the mail and he stops and looks at the house again before telling me, "Put lights up there." He wanted the Christmas lights back on the house. Try explaining May vs. December to a 2 year old. But I was just so surprised that he even remembered them being up there.

After getting in trouble for not listening, he comes into the living room to play. A few minutes later he comes up to me and says, "I sorry Mommy. I be nice now."

He is such a talker. He is talking in complete sentences 90% of the time and is probably 80% understandable. Poor baby does get quite frustrated when you can't understand what he is trying to say. And when you finally do figure it out, he is doing a good impression of the word. He is also becoming quite the artist and loves to color. He has moved from scribble all over the page to vertical and horizontal strokes and circles as well. He loves to draw on his Magna Doodle board and for you to draw for him on it as well. Especially Christmas trees. Don't know if it is because that is when his birthday is or what, but he LOVES him some Christmas trees. Wants you to draw them with a star on top and presents underneath. (smart kid). Of course, I love to color too, so it has been fun to have a new activity that we are both enjoying. Makes for a fun way to pass some time.

The potty training has been going very well. The preschool staff has really jumped on board and it has made all the difference in the world. As long as you take him every hour, he is staying dry for most of the day. Still not consistently pooping on the potty, but it is progressive. He has even started telling us occasionally when he needs to go. That is HUGE for us and really means that things must be going well medically for him to be doing all this. We are so very thankful for all the blessings and healing that God has shown our little boy. Wow. Of course, now that we are going at this, we are becoming well-acquainted with the bathrooms at our most popular destinations. Thank goodness for Elmo and Diego potty covers!!

We bought some new furniture a few weeks ago and had it stained to match Jonathan's bedroom furniture. Mark borrowed Cliff and his trailer and they went to pick it up today. I am so excited and can't wait to see it in place. We got a bookcase for Jonathan's room to hold his books and, hopefully, some toys. He loves to read and we just have not had a great place to put his books. We found a really pretty bookcase that is wide and short, so he will be able to reach his books and toys and won't be tempted to climb all over it!! We also got a toy chest that we are going to put in the dining room/music room/new play room. We have his train/car table in there and are trying to transition some of his toys out of the living room to that room. So we got this toy chest to hold the toys. It is actually a hope chest, but it is going to be a toy chest at our house. And it matches his furniture, so if we ever move to a bigger house, we will probably put it in his room then. Mark found a special toy box lid support that will prevent the lid from slamming down on his fingers. He is working on that now, so hopefully it will work and we will be able to load it up this evening.

And the fever saga... We got up this morning and decided to just have a lazy Saturday. We don't get too many of them and we are all excited to just hang out around the house. Jonathan was sitting with me watching TV and felt a little warm. I took his temperature while he was eating lunch and it was 99-100 degrees depending on which ear you take it in. So that worries me that the UTI is coming back OR that he has one of the numerous fever viruses running rampant around here. Neither is good and I hope it doesn't go up any higher. Poor sweet baby tells me, "I feel better" when I asked him if he was feeling bad or hurting anywhere. We would appreciate your prayers that he will not get sick and that this will just pass on by. We are teaching his Sunday School class tomorrow at church so I am really hoping that he does not get any sicker and can't go to church. I don't think I want to keep 10 two year olds by myself!

My computer (Vista) has major problems and Mark is having to redo the entire thing. So I haven't downloaded the pictures off of our cameras. Hopefully he will have it fixed this weekend. He is going to Atlanta all of next week for work. He also gets to see our niece Lucy so I am jealous about that! Then we are going to OKC for the weekend and doctor's appointment on Monday the 18th. Please pray that they have good things to say and are pleased with Jonathan's progress. We know that God is healing him, and we have faith in His continued healing, but these appointments are always hard and scary and stressful.

Love to you all, and thanks for reading another one of my LENGTHY posts!

Happy Easter...Finally!

2009-04-27T21:50:00.008-05:00

Easter 2009

Oh my!! I have been meaning to write a post for several weeks now and just haven't been able to make time to get it done. Things have just been busy and crazy and all over the place! So, Tyanne, you are not the last to post about Easter, I am!!

We had a wonderful Easter week. The week started with fun pictures with Heather. She has posted several on her Blog and several more on her website. Password is Thomas1 if you want to check them out.

Jonathan had an Easter Egg Hunt at Preschool on Wednesday. Last year he had to be shown the eggs before he would even think about picking them up. This year, he was a man on a mission! It was so fun to watch him. The only thing was, he wanted to HOLD all the egg. Was a little afraid they would disappear if he actually put them in the basket. And did not want to hold the basket either, much better for Mommy to have that job! Of course, I didn't mind, it was too much fun following him around trying to convince him to put the eggs into the basket.
Paw Paw came to visit on Monday and Tuesday. Jonathan was so glad to see him. They had fun hiding Easter eggs in the yard. Jonathan wanted to hunt them, then he 'hid' them again for Paw Paw to find. So funny!

Hunting eggs at school...not putting any of them into the basket!

Paw Paw came to visit Wednesday through Friday. Jonathan was so glad to see him. They had fun hiding Easter eggs in the yard. Jonathan wanted to hunt them, then he 'hid' them again for Paw Paw to find. So funny!

Paw Paw holding the basket.

On Thursday, Uncle Harry's Country Critters Petting Zoo came to Preschool. This guy is so nice and so easy-going with the kids. They love when he comes. Jonathan got to pet the bunny rabbit and gave the pony tons of hugs. He talked about it for days. We saw Uncle Harry the next week at Larry's Pizza. Jonathan didn't quite know what to think about seeing him out of context, but when Uncle Harry told him he was going to come back to school in the fall, Jonathan was VERY excited!

Petting the bunny with Uncle Harry

Saturday morning was the church Easter Egg Hunt. Jonathan had moved up an age division this year and was in the 2 to 5 year old group. Poor baby just didn't have much of a chance. The five year olds mowed the yard. They were a force that the two year olds couldn't keep up with. Fortunately, Jonathan was not too worried about how many eggs he got. He was MUCH more concerned about what was IN the eggs. And by that, I mean the ones with the candy, not the ones with the Bible verses or stickers in them. Luckily the 'mowers' passed over a few on the back side of the trees, so we did manage to get some. After, he had a good time on the playground with all the kids from church. And, for the first time, he actually sat with the Easter Bunny...well, he sat in my lap and I sat with the Easter Bunny. Close enough, first time to go near someone dressed up so that was fun. My parents came in for the weekend and went with us to the Easter Egg Hunt. I think they had fun too.

An actual picture with the Easter Bunny!!

We hunted eggs at home Saturday afternoon. By the time we put all his eggs together from the various hunts, he had plenty and had a great time hiding them all over the yard. We hid them all several times and he just thought it was so much fun. When we came inside, he dumped the bucket all over the floor and just played with them there. And we still have eggs everywhere. Of course, I always loved hiding Easter eggs when I was little so we will just keep them out a while longer to play with.

Sunday morning the Easter Bunny came and brought Jonathan a basket of fun. He had some eggs with Little People Easter people in them and a Thomas the Train Easter train. He thought that they were lots of fun and insisted on taking Thomas to church with him. My parents and Mark's parents also got him several things for Easter. This child is not hurting for love or expressions of love, that's for sure!! We went to church and Jonathan had a great time talking about the 'stone roll away'. We have been trying hard to teach him about the TRUE meaning of Easter. It is a hard thing to teach a two year old, but he is getting a little of it I hope. Mark and I filled in for some friends and taught 4-year old Sunday School on Easter. So we were very blessed to have a small opportunity to help some other children learn about Easter. We also had to Escort new people around the building before the service, so were quite busy! Brother Gary preached a great message that morning that was just very uplifting and very confirming of God's power and glory and ultimate love for us. We ate at home for Easter lunch and had a great time just being together as a family. I was just so very thankful for our many blessings.

MaMa Deb & Grandad with Jonathan

The next weekend we packed up the car and headed South. We went to the Seal Family Reunion. They are Mark's Grandmother's Family. She passed away shortly after Jonathan was born and before he was able to meet her. So it was nice to see her family and meet lots of family that we had never met before. Jonathan completely charmed everyone there. We were in Luling, which is right outside of New Orleans. Some true Cajuns came in and cooked some wonderful food. We had Corn and Crawfish Bisque, Jambalaya, and Chicken & Sausage Gumbo. It was great!! We then left there Saturday night and had dinner at Middendorf's on the way back to Vicksburg.

The plan was to get up Sunday and go fishing on Paw Paw's lake before we came home. Of course, if you know us, then you know that our "plans" rarely come to pass as we thought they would. Jonathan woke up Sunday and almost immediately got sick. He was complaining of his back hurting and did not want to go to the bathroom and then started throwing up. I knew he probably had an UTI so I got on the phone with OKC trying to get a resident to answer the phone on a Sunday morning. As you can imagine, he was ooohhh soooo helpful (sarcasm) and would not call anything in. We started him on Tylenol and Motrin, packed the car, and headed home. He finally fell asleep and we booked it back to LR and a decent doctor. I called ahead to the After Hours Clinic at Arkansas Children's Hospital and they were able to see him. He did have an UTI and they got him started on an antibiotic. They were so nice and so helpful and got us in and out in about an hour. Fastest that has ever gone, that's for sure! We hightailed it to Kroger and got there with five minutes to spare before they closed. That night he started running a fever and kept running one continuously for three days and sporadically til Friday. Needless to say, it was a completely exhausting week and he just did not feel well at all. They had to switch his antibiotic on Wednesday after the culture came back. Of course he would be drug resistant to the first one. Mark was wonderful and kept him at home Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. We sent him to school Wednesday and Thursday thinking he was ok, but he just was so worn out that we kept him home again on Friday. Please say a prayer for our sweet baby that he will feel 100% better soon and that this medicine will do it's job and that this will not be a setback for him medically. We have come so far and this has just been hard. Everyone agrees that this happened because he is starting to try and potty train and that we just did not give him enough opportunities to stop and potty on the way down and back to Louisiana. Never been a problem before, he just would go in his diaper, but now he wants to go in the potty. Mark and I felt so very bad that he got sick, but who would have thought? He is feeling better, but still just really tired, as are we all.

Friday night was our true happy spot of the week. Mark had bought tickets several months ago for us to see Disney on Ice. I am so glad he did too, because we definitely needed something fun to do as a family. After the last month, we were all just a little down. We were on the second row from the stage and the show was just great. Mark and I enjoyed it as much as Jonathan did. Mickey and friends introduced each segment and Jonathan was just beside himself to see them. I would not have been surprised if he had gotten on the ice to get to them!! They then did an ice skating thing to a couple of Disney movies: Lion King, Lilo and Stitch, Little Mermaid, and Peter Pan. They were all amazing but we liked Lilo and Stitch and Peter Pan the best. Jonathan loved the aligator coming to get Captain Hook. He thought that was hilarious. Of course, even here, we had to have a little drama. Mark took Jonathan up to the bathroom at intermission (as you can imagine we are a little potty happy at our house). I could see Mark carrying him back down the stairs holding his shoe. I'm thinking, "Oh no, he peed on his shoe." Mark gets to me and says, "I can't find his other shoe." And the sad thing is, I had thought before we left the house, No crocs, he'll lose one, so he had on his tennis shoes. Now how they lost a tennis shoe, I have no idea. So Jonathan sat through the second half of the show with only one shoe on. Luckily someone turned the shoe in to the Lost and Found and we were able to get it after the show. Jonathan got a new spinny light toy, I got a picture of him with a plastic lifesize Mickey and Minney, and Mark got Jonathan's shoe back! So everyone left happy which was nice. We took it easy the rest of the weekend to let Jonathan's body have time to heal.

Jonathan with his light up spinny toy wearing Mickey Mouse of course (and two shoes!)

Back to school and work today. Busy as always. Mark presented at the student meeting for IEEE tonight at Lousiana Tech. Weird to be old enough that someone wants you to come back to your college and talk to the students. But also very nice that someone thinks that highly of him and his work.

So there you have the ups and downs of the last month. As always a little excitement (wanted or otherwise) here at the Thomas house. Thanks for reading, I know that I get too wordy. That's what happens when Mark goes out of town and I'm left to my own devices!!

ADDED EASTER PICS. STILL HAVE NOT DOWNLOADED PICS FROM REUNION WEEKEND. HOPE TO HAVE A NEW POST (AND PICS) SOMETIME THIS WEEK.

Easter Picture

2009-04-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

We took pictures with Heather Owens last Wednesday. She posted a preview picture on her blog site. It turned out too cute. Can't wait to see the rest of the pictures. Heather always does a great job. We know Heather from church. She also took Jonathan's two year old pics which turned out great as well. I'll post again when she gets the rest of the previews up on her website.

Check out her blog site: http://www.heatherowensphotography.blogspot.com/ and her website: http://www.heatherowensphotography.com/

Our Little Easter Bunny

I See Animals Mommy!

2009-04-04T22:40:00.001-05:00

Jonathan's class had a field trip to the Little Rock Zoo this week. It was supposed to be on Tuesday, but the weather had other ideas. Mark was planning to go with us on Tuesday, but he had to go to New Orleans on Wednesday and did not get to go the zoo.

Jonathan in the Bird Sanctuary

So, I got to go with Jonathan to the zoo. We had so much fun. We have not taken him to the Little Rock Zoo before. Now it is not to the caliber of the OKC or NOLA zoo, but it was still fun. Jonathan loved seeing all the animals. I think his favorites were the gorillas, the lions, and the giraffes. He was hoping to see the bears, but they were mostly inside. We did see a grizzly, but he was so far away, I'm not sure Jonathan really saw him. All of his friends had so much fun running around and playing together. They had a picnic lunch afterwards across the street. Jonathan was very excited to have a juice box and Lunchable.

Jonathan and Mommy

Jonathan was so hyped from the zoo that he did not take a nap after they got back to school. We ran home after school and picked up his Easter clothes, then ran back downtown to take pictures in the park. Poor baby fell asleep halfway there and got a fifteen minute nap before I woke him up to change his clothes. I was afraid I was about to waste everyone's time, but as soon as he saw Heather he perked right up. Such a ham! She is so great with him and he did really well. She had her girls with her and they were great assistants. They had him smiling and loving taking his picture. She had him sit in a chair, stand in the grass, sit on the bridge, and stand in the water. He kept saying, "the water's cold Mommy!" He was right, it was, but he looked so precious standing there! I cannot wait to see how they turn out. Heather did a great job on his 2 year old pics. She has a few of his pictures posted on her website: http://heatherowensphotography.com/ She took these pics at Allsopp Park. It was absolutely beautiful there. We had not been out there before but I think we will go back. It was just a beautiful area and just a ton of families enjoying the beautiful day.

Today was his friend, Addy Rose's, 4th birthday party. She is older than him, but they always have fun playing together. Her Mom, Stacey, is a great lady who is oh so creative. She painted quite a few of the things in Jonathan's room. And she, Mike, and Addy have always prayed for Jonathan from when he was very little. So, Jonathan was very excited to go to her party. Of course, he still doesn't quite understand that he is not supposed to be the center of attention as well. He wanted to sit next to her at all times. So sweet. The party was at Gymboree, which is one of his favorite places anyway, so he had an absolute blast. His teacher, Ms. Carrie, was there leading the party, which made it even better. He found the little boat that you can pull around with a rope. The little 2 year old worked so hard to pull around one or two four year olds. It was hilarious! He worked hard!!

Pulling the Boat AND the Kids

Jonathan and the Birthday Girl

We are teaching Sunday School in the morning (filling in for the Hartons and the Rauls). We are looking forward to that. Mark and I both just love being with the children. We are very blessed to be in a church that nurtures our little ones so deeply and just fills them up with the Holy Spirit and love of Jesus. It is truly an amazing thing to watch.

Well, I need to go read up on the lesson for tomorrow. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.
Love to everyone! We miss you all.

Sweet Boy with Mommy's Tulips.

He is wearing his new 'Jonathan' shirt.

A Few Bible Verses

2009-04-03T23:44:00.000-05:00

This verse was my Verse of the Day email a few days back. I just couldn't read and delete it. It has just been on my heart. At first I just didn't get it at all. I've read a few versions now and I guess the Lord is letting it sink into my heart. Just wanted to share with everyone.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

A few other versions off of BibleGateway.com....
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. (New Living Translation)
12Not getting what you want can make you feel sick, but a wish that comes true is a life-giving tree. (Contemporary English Version)

A few more...
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 7:4 Calm Down and Be Quiet. Do not be afraid. I am in control.

And the song that I keep singing, "I Will Praise You in this Storm" by Casting Crowns.
Here is the chorus for any who don't know this storm.
"And I'll praise you in this storm and I will lift my hands for You are who You are no matter where I am and every tear I've cried You hold in your hand You never left my side and though my heart is torn I will praise You in this storm"

It has just been one of those kind of weeks. But I know God is in control of each and every situation. I will pray for His continued love and guidance to keep me on the path He has laid out for my life. Thank you for praying with me.

Washington D.C. Pics

2009-03-31T19:42:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pics from Mark's trip to D.C. He had a great time!

Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool

The White House

Mark and Abe

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Memorial