Tanner {the first year...in pictures}

Tanner turned ONE today.

How did that happen?

Born April 8th at 8:33am

6 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches

(2 hours old)

(3 days old)

(10 days old)

(1 month)

(2 months)

(3 months)

(4 months)

(5 months)

(6 months)

(7 months)

(8 months)

(9 months)

(10 months)

(11 months)

ONE YEAR PICTURE COMING SOON!

(i left my camera --full of cute 12 mos pics-- at our new house. lame. i know.)

We can't imagine life without you, Tanner.

Happy Birthday little buddy.

We love you so much.

happenings

Admittedly, I've been a little quite in blog land.

So much has happened in the last month.

Here is a quick re-cap...

We took the boys to California....



We went to Disneyland...





We went to the beach...




We had a lot of fun...

Except for the ER trip we took the night before we left.

Michael had a blood clot in his leg.

It was scary.

He is doing better now.


We are moving to this house...



We are knee deep in remodeling said house.


Tanner, Michael, and most recently, Hunter, have all been to the ER in the last month.

Lovely.

We took Hunter in two nights ago because he had been throwing up all day and became very dehydrated.

He was one sick little buddy.

Thankfully, our favorite Doctor (my sister, Kendra) was working at the hospital that night and spent some time with us.



Hunter is still fighting off the icky bug, I'm sick, and Tanner is sick.

Stay away from us.

We are no fun.

Hopefully one day I will blog more regularly...

but until then, hang on....

I know you can hardly control the anticipation.

:)

thankful hearts

We are so thankful for God's protection over Tanner.

On Wednesday, Tanner fell down an entire flight of unfinished stairs to the basement.

15 stairs.

Wood.

At the bottom of those stairs is a slab of concrete.

I still don't have it in me to recount all the details.

I am just now able to talk about it without bursting into tears.

Michael had just stopped by the house (extremely rare during the day) which turned out to be such a blessing. He was a rock. He kept calm while I was a TOTAL basket case.

After Tanner fell, he immediately started crying at the bottom of the stairs (a very good sign).

My dad was literally down the street at a drive-thru when he received my panic call to come stay with Hunter. We were able to leave almost immediately for the ER. He was there within minutes.

Tanner was already showing bruising and had 3 lines in different places on his head from where he hit the stairs.

When we arrived, the staff was sweet and encouraging. The kept us calm and assured us.

The doctor wanted to do a CT scan of his head to make sure that there was nothing going on that we couldn't see.

There were lots of blessings that day but one was that Tanner fell asleep in my arms and I was able to lay him down for the scan without him waking up. If he had been awake, they would have had to strap him down and sedate him. He slept through the scan without a peep.

We waited anxiously for the results while MANY of you prayed.

They came back clear.

It was nothing short of a miracle. Truly.

He has a small concussion and we needed to monitor him over the next 48 hours (which is just about up).

Sweet Tanner has been his normal happy self - full of smiles.

He is crawling fine, eating fine, sleeping fine.

God sent an angel to hold him as he fell down those stairs...I'm just sure of it.

I cannot look at the stairs without wanting to throw up.

We can hardly think about what could have happened and how the outcome could have been so different.

It is simply amazing that no harm was done.

Simply. Amazing.

So, we count our blessings...we thank God for his protection...we thank you for your prayers...and we thank God (again) for answering those prayers.

tonsils and adenoids

Hunter had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids a little over a week ago.

He has snored almost his entire life and has never really breathed through his nose.

He was beginning to develop sleep apnea and when we took him to the ENT doctor she said they had to come out.

Actually, her exact words were, "I'm surprised he can even eat. These things are HUGE!"

Because Hunter just turned 3 years old and was one of the youngest, he was one of the first to have surgery in the morning.

We had to be in Denver by 7:30am, which meant a very early morning for everyone.

Papa and Nana came with us and Granny stayed back to watch Tanner.

We were thankful for all the extra help.

Hunter was pretty excited about the magnetic tables in the waiting room and passed the time until it was his turn.




He was such a trooper. I could tell he was a little nervous but he was pretty much all smiles the whole time.

He loved his "pajamas" and thought his green socks were "really neat."



All of the nurses loved him and took such great care of him. They even let Elle, his VERY loved Elephant, come with him for the surgery.



I was able to stay with him until he was under. I was really nervous and it helped to be with him until he fell asleep.

It took him awhile to wake up from the anesthesia but once we were able to see him he was already sucking a red popsicle and seemed to be doing well.

He was sooooo funny coming off of the drugs but still used all of his "pleases" and "thank yous". It was hysterical.

At one point the nurse asked if he would like to come home with her and he said,

"No, thank you. I'm going to go home with my mom, Michael, my nana and papa."

We were home by the afternoon and he was eating macaroni and cheese that evening.



We assumed recovery would be a breeze because he was doing so well that first day but it has come with its challenges. Hunter had a really rough week and still continues to be recovering.

We are hopeful that this next week will bring some relief for him and some "normal" for us.

He sounds so different and his once raspy little voice is now about 3 octaves higher :)

We thank God for protecting him through the surgery and trust that he will be feeling much better once he is all healed up.

Until then, it's been lots of resting, tons of popsicles & ice cream, and far too many movies.

I'm sorry I've been so quiet on here. So much has been going on. Lots more to update...

But for now...

to bed.

Merry Christmas

merry christmas week

So excited this week is finally here.

Looking forward to celebrating Jesus' birthday with these boys and relishing some family time.

Make it one to remember...

stalling and the coal project.

I'm so behind. Again. Not real sure if I will ever catch up at this point.

But one thing I know?

Christmas is almost here!!!

And I have been stalling.

Stalling on buying gifts, stalling on sending out Christmas cards, stalling on getting my act together, stalling on properly preparing my heart for the celebration of Jesus' birth!

I've got lots of excuses. LOTS. And some of them are pretty good.

But no more stalling....TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!

Have you heard about the Coal Project? If not you need to go HERE...right NOW.





This is the ADVENTURE I was telling you about in my last post...and I've been meaning to share how incredible and exciting this opportunity is...but...well...I haven't.

I'm hoping I'm not too late.

Did you click on the link to read about the Coal Project? If not, here is my very abbreviated version...

Each box of coal that you purchase buys a locally made charcoal-efficient stove for families in Haiti.

Did you know that everyday 3 billion people worldwide are exposed to toxic smoke while preparing meals??

Cooking on traditional stoves and open fires causes 1.9 million deaths every year. Especially children…who often lay tied to their mother’s backs for hours each day as she cooks. In fact, acute respiratory infection is the number one killer of children under 5 in developing nations.

Charcoal-efficient stoves cut the amount of charcoal needed in half, drastically reducing smoke emissions. It cooks food faster and at a higher temperature. Saving time and 20% of a families income!!!

The design, production, testing, distribution and sale of the stoves will all be done locally...providing jobs and spurring economic growth.

This is such a worthy cause and will not only affect families now but generations to come!

So if you are stalling like me...or if you know someone who needs coal in their stocking join us in this adventure.

Give a gift that REALLY makes a difference in someone's life.



Today is the last day for regular shipping...and if you buy 5 boxes of coal you get FREE shipping. You can read all about how that's possible HERE.

I just bought 5 people on my list gifts...in less than 5 minutes.

And you can too.

GO...