Family Pictures

With Christmas only 12 days away, I figured we had better get our family Christmas card picture taken so we can get cards made. So we hurried really fast this morning before church to get all of us ready and in good moods. It almost worked. I had to bribe Thomas with a piece of candy, but he was pretty good. I dread the day when candy no longer has the desired effect and we have to move on to something bigger.

So here are our family pictures.

Brady is Here

Brady James is here! He was born December 10, 2008 (12-10-08, isn't that fun!) at 10:53 am. He weighed in at 10 lbs even and is 22 lbs long. Jodi is doing well and is feeling great. Her back is a bit sore at the epidural site. We are all glad to be back at home as a family.

No Baby Yet. . .

So still no baby. Some contractions have come, but the don't come often or regularly. I have changed my dr appointment from wednesday to tomorrow. I will be hopefully scheduling a day to be induced if I am not in L&D by then. I'll try to keep this site updated.

A plethora of pictures

I have been hounded by family for pictures, so here are some of the pictures from the last couple of weeks.

This is a picture of Thomas seeing Santa in Springdale, AR. He wanted as far away as possible. I couldn't even bribe him with the reward of a candy cane

This is a picture of me taken 11-30-08, so I was a couple days shy of 39 weeks.



This is a picture of Thomas at the Hobby Train Display the Night of Nathanial's 5K. He loved the trains. It was so fun for him to just stand there and watch. We are definitely going to have to go back another time.


And this last picture is Nathanial, Thomas and Santa Clause after Nathanial had finished the 5k. Thomas still won't get near the Jolly Old Elf. Nathanial took 10th overall in the race and 1st in his age group.

Hope that will satisfy everyone for a few more days!

Oh the things a 2 year old can come up with

So Thomas is getting an imagination. He is learning all about is world and how things interact with in it. He is really doing well with his vocab and the sentences he creates are rather funny. But today he really hit the roof.

Just to warn you, I don't know where he comes up with his crazy ideas, it is definitely not from me or his dad. But the last few days he has had gas. We are trying to teach him to say "excuse me" and be polite. So Nathanial is in working on the computer when I hear him come running into the kitchen laughing his head off. Apparently Thomas had passed a little gas and Nathanial asked him what he did. Thomas kept playing with his cars and in his manner-of-fact voice "I sneezed with my Bum." Ok. Poor child. What craziness is in his future!

He finished!

Today was the long awaited Half Marathon. Nathanial got up bright and early (thanks to Thomas) and was ready to go. The race started at 8:00 this morning. Thomas and I went and did our weekly grocery shopping during the race. We actually got to see Nathanial running around the 4.5 mile marker. We were stuck at an intersection for 10 minutes while waiting for a break in the runners.

Nathanial finished strong. I was really lucky to even be able to see him finish. I was expecting a 2:30 finish with everything else that has gone on this week. His unofficial official time was 1:52:13. That is about a 8.5 minute mile. Which was great. His goal was to stick with the 2:00:00 pacer the whole way, but that was just a bit too slow for him.

I am proud of him and his hardwork to reach this point and am even more glad that it is over. Now on to bigger and more important things...

Oh what a day!!

Tuesday was quite the day. One I can truly say I NEVER want to ever repeat again in a million lifetimes.

Nathanial had the day off, due to having a scheduled colonoscopy at noon. So not fun for him. Around 10:00 we left, dropping Thomas off at the Charleton's to play with his friends while we were gone. We got to the parking lot and I thought to myself, I should've gotten something to eat before we got here. But, alas, it was to late to go and get anything.

We then go back and Nathanial does the regular pre-op, only it isn't the normal pre-op. As they inserted the IV, he fainted (which we were expecting, the nurses weren't though). The nurses were a bit frantic trying to figure out what needed to be done. I was perfectly calm (on the inside, I was freaking out. I had never seen him faint before). Finally they decided to take him back to the procedure room and monitor him there until the doctor was ready.

They took him back and hooked him up. The heart monitor kept going off so they kept readjusting the leads. After about 6 tries, they decided that it wasn't the leads that were the problem, but his actual heart. So they called in the doctor, who takes one look at the heart rate and says "Hate to tell you this, but we aren't doing the procedure today." They sent in a tech to do an EKG and they found his heart was in Atrial Fibrulation, which in english means that his heart isn't working right. This sends both Nathanial and I into kind of a panic. Especially when they told us they wanted to admit him to the hosptial.

After about an hour, they finally got a hold of his cardiologist who sent him home with an appointment to come back the next day. We drove over to Nathanial's work to request the time off for the next day, and then were going to go to lunch. We were both starving!!! As we went to leave the office, the car decided not to start. After many attemps, we called a tow truck and sat to wait. Longing for food, we sat, and sat. The wrecker was on its way, but got called out to an emergency. We sat for 2 hours waiting. Finally he showed up to take the car. Just as our ride arrived to bring us safely back home.

So we drove home with no problems, other than a bit of traffic, only to come to realize that we had no keys to the house and the garage door opener was still in the car. We were locked out. Luckily, one of the windows was unlocked and we were able to break in. We made it home at 6:00.

So our day ended, and we finally got to eat. What a blessing leftovers are. Now, don't fret too much. Nathanial's heart is fine (as far as the doctor can tell) and he has been cleared to run the Half-Marathon on Saturday (though I don't know why he would want too). And after replacing the fuel pump, the car is home now, and runs pretty nicely.

During the heat of it all, I have to admit I was overwhelmed. But looking back, it is easy to see the Angel's here on earth that help us when we struggle, as well as the blessings of the Lord that seem to always be there, just hidden a little below the surface of our trials.

I hope you all have had a better week than we have, and that you can take a minute to recognize the Lord's hand in your blessings. Sometimes we get too busy and it takes a bit of stress to really evaluate your life and remember what is important.