Life Is Good: Thanksgiving Celebrations

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thanksgiving Celebrations

We've had a great couple of days of celebrating our thanks.

We put up the Nativity in our front yard a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

Here is Ryan adjusting the camel.
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Isn't it pretty...

Do you think little puppies were actually part of the real Nativity?
By the way...I highly highly recommend the movie "The Nativity Story". It's fantastic!
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Ryan received new Harley clothes from his Gammaw and Pawpaw.

Because of that he had to pose on his new motorcycle (an early Christmas present from previously mentioned grandparents). Doesn't he look cool!
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After Dinner on Thursday we put up the Christmas tree.

Ryan is such a great little helper. He is our de-tangler of lights...or something like that. :)
I don't have any after pictures of our decorated tree. I'm still deciding what to do. Ryan undecorated the tree faster than I was able to get the ornaments on. He was kind enough to bring me his new found "treasures" to replenish my stock though.
I have a dilemma. Do I just decorate the tree...the top half, or do I decorate the entire tree and spend all day keeping Ryan away from the tree or is there some other way? (I'm picturing long days with many meetings between Ryan and the "Rod of Correction") If you're a Mom (or dad) what did you do? Ryan is just at that age where he is VERY mobile and can pretty much climb the tree, but he doesn't yet have that reasoning ability of an older kid to understand that you "look...don't touch"
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Ummm......

That's Eddy.
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We celebrated at Nana's house on Friday.

Nana fed Ryan a bowl of Cool Whip. This kid has had so much junk over the last few days it's unreal. I did discover something exciting about food though. I gave him a candycane and expected him to just suck on it. He chomped it and ate it like a pro. This kid can eat just about anything. I think our days of being extra careful about having extra mushy food are over.
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Nana's Tree...

"Ooooh...Pretty. I think I'll take this one."
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What better way to end a day...

than by sitting in the dog dish.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: I love your header! Now how did you do that? :) I want to learn.

When our kids were little they did the same thing with the Christmas tree. We usually put non-breakable things at the bottom and kept telling them "no, go put it back." Of course, we were kept busy with this, like you said! So you just have to do what works for you. It may not be worth it to you to put them on the bottom and have to deal with it all the time. By the way, our cat still hasn't learned! Last year one of them tried to climb it and knocked the whole thing over!; November 30, 2008 at 8:50 AM
Anonymous said...: Oh My! I have had the same trouble with our tree and 2 toddlers in the past. We did put our breakables on the top half but ulitmately, our solution....a smaller kid tree with non-breakable ornaments that can be decorated and undecorated again and again! It is complete with lights so it looks very much like our big tree. We also wrapped some big boxes with bells inside and put them around the edge of the big tree as a barrier. If we heard bells, we knew we had an elf on the loose! Have fun and Good Luck!!!; December 1, 2008 at 1:40 PM

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Brandy Danielle

Brandy is our firstborn, our precious angel baby girl. Her entry into this world wasn't without excitement. At 26 weeks I started preterm labor with contractions 5 minutes apart. With 10 weeks of strict bedrest, most of which were in the hospital, she made it to 36 weeks.
Brandy was diagnosed with "possible/probable" heart defect around 28-30 weeks gestation. After her birth she was whisked away to the NICU for monitoring and after a few days her defect was formally diagnosed and labeled...atrial septal defect and a cleft mitral valve.
Brandy, upon indications of failure to thrive and pulmonary hypertension, underwent her first of 2 open-heart surgeries at 4 months of age. A week after her surgery on the day of her anticipated discharge home Brandy coded for 13 minutes...a stoke.
From that point on Brandy's life was full of doctor's visits, endless crying, pain and suffering. She underwent another heart surgery, fundoplication and g-tube surgery, treatment for infantile spasms, and a mountain of tests and procedures. Her brain damage was extensive.
Upon counseling of our wonderful, most amazing heart surgeon, Dr. Christopher Knott-Craig, and many hours of prayer, we finally called in hospice and called off all of the extensive medical interventions and surgery needs that would prolong her suffering while possibly prolonging her life. Brandy, our precious baby girl...our angel...passed out of our arms and into the arms of her Saviour, Jesus at the tender age of 17 months.

Ryan Andrew

Ryan, our micro-preemie miracle, is a ball of life. After nearly a year of trying to conceive imagine our delight when we finally knew he was on the way. My pregnancy with Ryan was uneventful at first. It seemed perfect and with all of the precautions for preterm labor being taken and monitored we entered this pregnancy with cautious anticipation covered over by a whole love of naive excitement.
At 20 weeks we discovered our "Baby Peanut" was going to be a little boy. We began to make plans and began dreaming about the day we would meet our son.
Almost 2 weeks later everything changed in our lives. It wa a whirlwind of fear and emtions as I began to bleed, was sent for monitoring in L&D and eventually had an appointment with my OB only to find out that it was serious. I had incompetent cervix with hourglassing membranes. The doctor admitted me to the hospital immediately and an emergency cerclage was placed. The statistics were grim, but the hope was to keep our son inside for at least 10 more weeks. We only made it 10 more days.
Early in the evening of February 11, 2007 our son, Ryan, came into this world in emergency fashion at only 23 weeks 5 days gestation. He weighed 1 pound 8 ounces and was 12 ½ inches long. He was so tiny. All I could think of was “oh my goodness is he really that tiny? And is there any way he could actually make it?” I tried to hold on to hope, but in all honesty I had never met anyone with a baby born that early and that small that ever made it.
Ryan did make it! It was a long, hard road, but in the end he spent 90 days in the NICU. He was on a ventilator for 2 months. Finally on one fine glorious day in May we bundled up our 4 pound 4 ounce baby boy and went home...May 11, 2007.
Ryan is now a spunky, lively, strong-willed little boy. His laughter is contagious and his spirit is compelling. He is our miracle. There are no words strong enough to share our delight and joy that God has blessed us with this little boy.

Evan Alexander