The Adventure has Begun...

Today, one month before Drew turns 3, a new adventure has begun. The day I have been dreading since Drew was born, has finally arrived... Potty Training Day! We had absolutely nothing planned for today so we thought it might be a great time to start potty training. Believe me I wanted to back out, I wanted to find someone I could pay to take on this task, but at 7:00am we dove in. And to be honest... it hasn't been too bad.

His first success came after a whole glass of orange juice at about 8:00am, followed immediately by an accident. By 11:00am he had gone in the potty 5-6 times, and in his Pullup 3-4 times. He really loves the Skittles we bought him as a bribe, and he is trying so hard to keep his Tow Mator Pullups dry. He has even started telling us when he needs to go, before it is too late. Sometime it is a false alarm, but that is alright. He stayed dry all through lunch and nap time (from about 11:30-3:30) and went like a pro when he woke up! We are so proud of our little man! We are even letting him pick dinner tonight!

I will keep you posted on the progress. Yea, for our little man.

Easter Weekend

This weekend was Easter weekend. Since we spent last weekend at the ranch, we got to relax and hang out around the house this weekend.

On Saturday, Andy got a lot of work done in the garage, and Drew kept him company by riding his "bike" around. He loves that little tricycle, and is even getting pretty good at peddling. While I was drifting off to sleep in our room that afternoon, Drew decided to play in my laundry hamper. I was woken up by him saying "I'm stuck, Mommy". Of course I had to grab the camera before I could get him out.

These pictures were taken before we left for church. After church on Sunday, we got some much needed rest and relaxation at home. Drew was in a great mood all day! We really enjoyed some low key family time.

I hope everyone had a great Easter.

Spring Break

We started out our Spring Break by taking a trip to the Ranch. Drew had a great time playing with his 5 (soon to be 6) cousins. He and Ryan are starting to play together more and more every time they are together. Drew loves playing at the "tree tops" (that is what he calls the playground that Granddad built.) On Saturday the kids all had a Easter egg hunt in the front yard. They had so much fun finding eggs and especially eating all the candy. The weather was perfect all weekend.

We made it back to church on Sunday and spent the rest of the week just hanging around the house. Drew got to spend some time at Grandma and Grandpa's house, he even spent the night so that Andy and I could go to the Stars game. He love it, and so did the grown ups.

On the 17th I had my 11 week baby appointment. Everything is looking good so far. I got to have another sonogram and I could see the baby moving around. I also got to hear the heartbeat, and get measurements taken. The baby is already 2 inches long! Only 29 weeks to go. We should get to find out if it is a boy or a girl at 18 weeks.

The big news...

I know it has been a while since I updated this... but I really didn't have much to update until recently. I will try to do better from now on.

Right now all is going relatively well. In January we found out that we are pregnant again. We told a few people (okay, more than a few) after the doctor confirmed it with 2 blood test. We waited to tell the masses until we could have the first sonogram done. We had that sonogram on February 21st. Everything looks good, we got to see the heartbeat and confirmed that there is only one baby in there. The sonogram also confirmed our due date as October 6, 2008. Needless to say, we are all very excited... Drew included. Here are a few fuzzy sonogram pictures to show off our little bean.

Here are some cute pictures of Drew and Andy as well.

I will update with more pictures later.

Christmas Day

Okay, so it took me a few days to actually get around to posting our Christmas day photos. But at least they are here now.

Christmas morning we were lucky enough to wake up before Drew. Andy woke up first and cooked blueberry muffins. After I got up Andy went up to get Drew. We had a great time opening gifts and watching Drew play with all of his new toys. Santa gave him a tricycle, and a remote controlled car. Unfortunately, one of the key pieces of the tricycle must have gotten lost in Santa's slay. At least he was able to sit on it.

After we got done with all of our presents, we headed over to Mike and Barbara's city house for Christmas with the Milliorns. Again, Drew had a great time playing with all of his cousins, and new toys. The first picture is Meredith (1) playing with the new doll we gave her from Disney. The next one is Madeleine (4) with her princess jewlery. The last one is Cara (2) and Brenna (4.5) praying with some of Granny's old toys before we opened gifts.

Christmas Update

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated this, but I really haven't had much new going on. Here are a bunch of pictures from Christmas.

These pictures are actually from my birthday celebration at the ranch with Andy's side of the family. That is Drew and Madeleine (4) playing on the horse swing, Drew playing with a bow, me with my new Christmas dishes (this one is a pie server I got from Matt and Sharee). Drew always has such a great time at the ranch.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my family. They came over for lunch with Mark and me doing most of the cooking. Okay, it was mostly Mark, but I helped a lot. We had a Mexican feast with fajitas, empanadas, tamales (Andy steamed those), and chips and queso. We were so full after lunch that we didn't even eat any of the 4 pies we had.

After we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, the Stringers came over for a birthday party for Jesus. We ate pizza and cake, read the Christmas story, sang happy birthday to Jesus, and just let the kids play. It was really a fun time, we hope to do it every year! Drew had a great time playing with Cameron, Sarah, and Rachel. I really wish I had taken more pictures. Maybe next year I will remember.

I will post again later with all the Christmas day festivities. I hope you all had a great Christmas.

Jacob Cochran

I just wanted to post a few pictures of my cousin Josh and his wife Tracy, and their son Jacob (Jake). I thought it might help to put some faces to the names of the people you have been praying for. These were taken before the heart murmur was detected, in the 2 days were able to hold and care for their little baby. The last update I received was last night.

From Josh: "He's still doing very well. He's been taken off of dopamine, which is used to open up blood vessels to improve blood flow in cardiac patients. He's still on another IV heart medicine but it's being steadily decreased too. Once he's off both medications his heart will be working entirely on its own without any assistance. Absolutely amazing to me for a baby who had open heart surgery two days ago. He was also able to have some food today for the first time since Thursday afternoon, although it was given by feeding tube rather than from a bottle."

"The only minor setback he's had is that he had to be placed back on a ventilator early this morning. This isn't at all uncommon in patients who have been on a ventilator. Already he's back to the lowest level of sedation (necessary to keep him calm with the tube down his throat) and breathing with the assistance of the ventilator, rather than being dependent upon it. The nurses expect him to be taken off of it again tomorrow."

"Once he's off of the ventilator and all IV medications he will be moved from the ICU to a regular hospital room. That will be an enormous milestone in his recovery. I'm not willing to speculate on when that might happen but he's definitely making progress toward it."

"We're already noticing small things about him that his surgery changed. Several people commented on his hands and feet being a little purple and cold during his first couple of days, before his condition was diagnosed. Since the surgery they've turned a much more normal pink and are noticeably warmer. The incision from his surgery, which is just as gruesome as you might imagine, looks better than it did yesterday."

I have edited down Josh's post, but you can still see that this is going to be a long road for this family. Please continue to pray for all of them, I know they appreciate it, as do I.