Husband of the Year Award

My husband should get "Husband of the Year Award" for the past week. Wow - what a week. Honestly, even before this week, Nate has just been really, really helping me. He has always enjoyed cooking, but he has been really just taking over in the kitchen to help feed our family. He is helping pick up and clean - he is really amazing. This past few days, he has been the Chief Operations Officer of our home as well as the Chief Executive Officer. And when you have a two-year-old and a 7-month-old, those jobs are not quite as glamorous as they sound. :)

Nate is an amazing man. I am so blessed that he is my husband.

Seeing Daylight

After four very tough days, Carey and I were able to get an appointment in Springfield to deal with the headaches. After evaluation, our physician recommended and completed a blood patch. While we've only been back for a number of hours, it appears to have had an immediate impact and Carey is feeling much better (as long as she's not thinking of the numerous needles that have been in her spinal column in the last few days...). The doctors expect she will have moderate back pain in the coming days, but in eighty percent of patches, the headaches do not return.  

Thanks to all who have prayed, watched the boys and blessed us with encouraging words. 

Quick Update

I don't know about my spinal tap yet. I am hoping that my MRI tape makes it to Dr. Wong today for his review. We will schedule the spinal tap as soon as he has seen the tape. Stay tuned. Thanks for praying!

Cracking Me Up

Cooper has been cracking me up this morning. First, the trash man came to pick up our trash. The trash man coming is a major event in our house. We get to see Mr. Allen (yes - we know the trash man's name!) come to pick up the trash at Stephen's Pharmacy every Friday morning. This is one of Cooper's highlights. This morning, however, was a bit traumatic. For the first time, Cooper realized that the trash man is actually taking our trash away. He was very disturbed. He cried and said, "He needs to put our trash back in the trash can!" I tried to explain that the trash man was taking it to the dump, but I don't think we connected on that one yet. Oh well...

We are working on some catechisms with Cooper, and one of them, I say, "Who made you?" and Cooper is supposed to reply, "God made me." He is doing really well with that one, but when I asked him today, he replied, "Hank made me. Hank is a very good and kind engine." Hmm...I guess we're not quite there yet.

At lunch, Cooper held up one of his chicken strips and said, "This is Mary. She is watching for the wise men....can I eat Mary?"

Chavez

Chavez is the newest member of our family. Miles got a new monkey from Nana for Christmas, and we determined that his name is Chavez.

Today, Cooper built a lawn mower out of legos. I love how creative this little guy can be with his legos! THANK YOU Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Wade for sharing your legos!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, All! We had a special Christmas at home this year. Santa brought our family 2 gifts - games to play together - and also filled the boys' stockings. Nate hid the stockings after Santa brought them, so the boys had to find them.

Coop and Miles each got one new toy from us:

After we opened presents, we had a birthday party for Jesus with some super yummy coffee cake. Cooper and Nate blew out the candles.

While we were eating lunch, we noticed a bald eagle circling our house. So cool!

The eagle was very encouraging for me to see. It reminded me of God's promise in Isaiah 40:31

but those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

For those of you who do not know, I was diagnosed with MS on December 23rd. That news was heavy on my mind during our holiday celebration, and that eagle soaring over our house was such a neat gift for me. It gave me encouragement!

I'm going to create a new text area on this blog to share specific prayer requests as I journey down this road of having the gift of MS. This blog will most certainly stay focused on our family and the wonderful things Coop and Miles are doing, but I also thought it could prove a quick and easy way to share prayer requests. Thank you all for praying!!

The other morning, I walked in to Cooper's room and said, "Good morning!" and started singing our regular good-morning song. Cooper said, "SHHHHH, Mommy! Humphry and Hank are still sleeping!" He had them up on his pillow in sleeping position. :)

Miles is getting really good at sitting up! I can't believe my baby is getting so big!!

Snowman Nose

Last night at dinner, Coop was having carrots and dip. I heard him say, "Hey Mom, I have a snowman nose!" And he did!

Cooper and Miles met Santa!

Cooper and Miles got to meet Santa yesterday at a Parents as Teachers event. Cooper told me on the way to the event that he wanted to snuggle with Santa, but once we were there he wasn't so sure. We made all the crafts, and Cooper kept staring at Santa and waving at him. This is really the closest he got to Santa, which was closer than I thought he would get!


At one point, Santa was holding Cooper's hand, asking him what he wanted for Christmas. Cooper was asking Santa about his reindeer, and he said, "Will you hold my hand and take me to see them?" It was really sweet! Miles enjoyed sitting on Santa's lap! He really liked his beard...he almost pulled it right off!