Granddaddy and his babies
They birthday cake Livie made...she really did! YUM!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Happy Birthday Granddaddy!
Happy Birthday Granddaddy! Thanks for being the best Dad, Granddaddy, and father-in-law ever! We love you!
Granddaddy and his babies
They birthday cake Livie made...she really did! YUM!
Granddaddy and his babies
They birthday cake Livie made...she really did! YUM!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween Weekend
WARNING. A LOT OF PICTURES!
We had such a fun weekend. It all started Thursday night when Chris and Livie carved our pumpkin. I had bought a carving kit earlier that day, thinking it would be something different and fun for them to do. Well, leave it to Livie to pick out the 100% most difficult pattern...a castle with a ghost in the middle, with lots of little windows in the castle! It took Chris about 2 hours from start to finish, and Livie whined the entire time because she wasn't getting to help. The finished product looked amazing, but I think we'll skip the kit next year and just do an old fashioned jack-o-lantern!
Friday night was Darrin and Michelle Hope's 7th Annual Spooky Soiree. This is one of those events I look forward all year long. We're with a lot of our closet friends, all dressed up and just having fun. Chris and I went as Beyonce and her Saturday Night Live skit "Single Ladies" backup dancer. I think this is definitely one of the best year of costumes there has ever been, everyone looked great. Of course, Darrin and Michelle went all out. Amazing food. They brought in a smoker this year and smoked some ribs, chicken, and pork tenderloin...way to go Blake and D. I see a new BBQ Fest team in the future! It was a blast, a party that never disappoints for sure!
Saturday morning, Chris took Livie to Halle Dodd's birthday party. It is so crazy to see all of our sweet babies getting older.
Then, it was time for the Trick-or-Treating festivities. Livie dressed as a witch this year and Jones went as Horton the Elephant. Livie, who dresses up at some point daily, had an extra fun time because I did her make up. Eyeliner, lipstick, eyeshadow and all...she is such a girly girl! Thank you CeCe and G Daddy for her beautiful witch costume! We were a little worried about Jones keeping his full costume on because the trunk on his headgear was really heavy and kept falling down in his face. We safety pinned it to the back of his bodysuit and it stayed out of his face the entire night...and he kept it on!!! Thank you MeMommy and Granddaddy for his super cute outfit! We did some soup and other goodies, and the Hopes and Parkers came over, along with the grandparents for the festivities. This was Juliana Hope's 1st Halloween and of course, in true Michelle Hope style, her costume did not disappoint. One of the sweet girls from church made her "Proud Peacock" outfit and it was amazing! Every door we went to, everyone went on and on about the precious little peacock! Livie took over like a champ when it came to trick-or-treating. She was on a mission and went from door to door like she was in a race! Jones finally got the hang of it at the end and started to brave up and walk to the doors himself. One of my favorite moments of the night was when Jones was a little unsure about walking to the door and Livie came back and put her hand on his back and gently encouraged him towards the door. What a sweet moment.
Then, to finish it all off for Livie, Brandy picked her up yesterday afternoon and took her to the Piperton Baptist Fall Festival. She got to dress up again, trick or treat for candy, and play lots of games with lots of other kids. It was a really fun way for her to end the weekend...thanks Brandy!
It was a great weekend with great friends and sweet times with our little family!
Let the carving begin!
Reaching in to clean out the pumpkin...look at that face!
Beyonce and her dancer
All the girls
All the guys
Excited about Halloween!
Our little witch ready to go!
The Proud Peacock, Juliana Hope
Beautiful Baby!
Best we could get of all three!
Johnny and Brandy
The Halloween favors Livie and I made
Horton the Elephant
"This is how you do it JoJo"
Riding along
"Go on JoJo" I love this picture!
We had such a fun weekend. It all started Thursday night when Chris and Livie carved our pumpkin. I had bought a carving kit earlier that day, thinking it would be something different and fun for them to do. Well, leave it to Livie to pick out the 100% most difficult pattern...a castle with a ghost in the middle, with lots of little windows in the castle! It took Chris about 2 hours from start to finish, and Livie whined the entire time because she wasn't getting to help. The finished product looked amazing, but I think we'll skip the kit next year and just do an old fashioned jack-o-lantern!
Friday night was Darrin and Michelle Hope's 7th Annual Spooky Soiree. This is one of those events I look forward all year long. We're with a lot of our closet friends, all dressed up and just having fun. Chris and I went as Beyonce and her Saturday Night Live skit "Single Ladies" backup dancer. I think this is definitely one of the best year of costumes there has ever been, everyone looked great. Of course, Darrin and Michelle went all out. Amazing food. They brought in a smoker this year and smoked some ribs, chicken, and pork tenderloin...way to go Blake and D. I see a new BBQ Fest team in the future! It was a blast, a party that never disappoints for sure!
Saturday morning, Chris took Livie to Halle Dodd's birthday party. It is so crazy to see all of our sweet babies getting older.
Then, it was time for the Trick-or-Treating festivities. Livie dressed as a witch this year and Jones went as Horton the Elephant. Livie, who dresses up at some point daily, had an extra fun time because I did her make up. Eyeliner, lipstick, eyeshadow and all...she is such a girly girl! Thank you CeCe and G Daddy for her beautiful witch costume! We were a little worried about Jones keeping his full costume on because the trunk on his headgear was really heavy and kept falling down in his face. We safety pinned it to the back of his bodysuit and it stayed out of his face the entire night...and he kept it on!!! Thank you MeMommy and Granddaddy for his super cute outfit! We did some soup and other goodies, and the Hopes and Parkers came over, along with the grandparents for the festivities. This was Juliana Hope's 1st Halloween and of course, in true Michelle Hope style, her costume did not disappoint. One of the sweet girls from church made her "Proud Peacock" outfit and it was amazing! Every door we went to, everyone went on and on about the precious little peacock! Livie took over like a champ when it came to trick-or-treating. She was on a mission and went from door to door like she was in a race! Jones finally got the hang of it at the end and started to brave up and walk to the doors himself. One of my favorite moments of the night was when Jones was a little unsure about walking to the door and Livie came back and put her hand on his back and gently encouraged him towards the door. What a sweet moment.
Then, to finish it all off for Livie, Brandy picked her up yesterday afternoon and took her to the Piperton Baptist Fall Festival. She got to dress up again, trick or treat for candy, and play lots of games with lots of other kids. It was a really fun way for her to end the weekend...thanks Brandy!
It was a great weekend with great friends and sweet times with our little family!
Let the carving begin!
Reaching in to clean out the pumpkin...look at that face!
Beyonce and her dancer
All the girls
All the guys
Excited about Halloween!
Our little witch ready to go!
The Proud Peacock, Juliana Hope
Beautiful Baby!
Best we could get of all three!
Johnny and Brandy
The Halloween favors Livie and I made
Horton the Elephant
"This is how you do it JoJo"
Riding along
"Go on JoJo" I love this picture!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Jones' 1st Asthma Attack
Nurse Blake taking Jones up to his private room
Exhausted from a long day
Peek-a-boo, I'm ready to get our of here!
Wow has it been a crazy couple of days. Jones had his very 1st asthma attack, and it definitely caught us off guard. First, we didn't even know he had asthma. We were suspecting he may have it just because of a few big factors. 1. He has had eczema since he arrived on this Earth. Eczema, allergies, and asthma are the three parts of the triangle as we have been told by doctors. If you have one, most of the time you're going to have one or both of the others. 2. Chris has had it since he was a baby and it is hereditary. Livie has also inherited this from her Daddy, so we were pretty sure our little Jo Man would too, extreme eczema considered.
But, with all of these clues, Jones had still never had one physical sign, respiratory wise, to be concerned...until Sunday.
We woke up with a fun day planned. Church, pumpkin patch, then the kids were going to Cece and G Daddy's while Chris and I went to small group. I love Sundays! But, we woke up and Jones was really rattling in his chest and had a bad stuffy nose. So, we cancelled going to church and the pumpkin patch and just decided to lay low. Well, as the day went on, the rattling got worse. We tried to put him down for a nap, but he wouldn't go to sleep...very rare for our little guy. I decided to fix a big Sunday lunch for all of us. Fried chicken, lima beans, and mashed potatoes. The reason I tell our menu, is because they think our little chicken fry might have triggered the attack. No, I didn't burn it! You know how it gets when you fry anything. It just gets a little smoky in the house. We had opened some windows and a door, but it was still pretty foggy in here. This was about noon, and by 1, Jones was really working hard to breath. He was retracting, and his little tummy was going in and out so fast. Chris became really alarmed, because he knows these signs. You could literally hear the wheezing. He called our pediatrician and took him in to the one office open until 2pm! Wow. He made it there at about 1:30 and they did a breathing treatment. It didn't work at all. His oxygen levels were down to about 92 and that is a sign the doctors look for. They never want them, for a baby, to be under 92 and after one treatment, they weren't going up. He was also breathing about 60 breaths a minute and that is a huge red flag. Normal breaths per minute are about35. Another reason for concern are that his heartrate was shooting up...a sign someone is having to work really hard to breath. So, with all of this major things, they sent them down to Le Bonheur.
So, I was panicing by this time. I had no idea it was this bad. I am about to run Livie to my parents to get to the ER at Le Bonheur with them, but Chris wanted me to wait to see how long it would take. We were thinking they would do one treatment and them send him home. WRONG. Ends up, this was a bad attack.
So, I went down to be with Jones and his amazing Daddy who had done all of this by himself from about 1:30 to 7:30. They did 4 treatments in the ER, then admitted Jones for the night. He had a steroid every 12 hours and breathing treatments every 4hours through the night.
Jones was in pretty good spirits once we left the ER respiratory unit. Nurse Blake put him in a red wagon and took him up to his private room...he loved that! Blue Bear never left his side, or should I say, Jones never let go of Blue Bear's tail the whole time. One side effect of the breathing treatment medicine, Albuterol, is it makes most kids that are on it very hyper. Jones was no exception. He wouldn't settle down, and hadn't taken a nap all day. So, at about 11:30 pm I got in the crib with him, hilarious mental picture I know. He literally ran laps around the crib, with me laying in the middle, for 30 minutes straight. RAN. I know from the outside he had to have looked like a caged animal. Bouncing off the walls of the crib, throwing himself from side to side. Very funny, but frustrating at the time for a daddy and mommy who were both physically and emotionally drained. Finally, he went to sleep at 11:58. The nurse came in to give him his next treatment at 12:01. He did stay asleep through the breathing treatment, but when they put the oxygen on him, it scared him and he flipped out. So, we were awake and settling back down for about another 45 minutes.
I stayed and "slept" in the crib with him all night just to keep him calm and make sure he was breathing ok. 4:00am, then 8:00 am we had treatments. The doctor that was on call from Memphis Children's Clinic was Dr. Stancil. We had never met him before, but ends up we all kept talking about how familiar we all looked to each other and figured out that he and his family go to our church with us! Small world and awesome encouragement! Jones was doing better, so they extended his treatments to every 6 hours.
Finally, they did his last treatment at 2:00 pm, observed for a few hours and decided we could continue his treatment at home. We were sent home last night with a pretty back to normal and non-wheezy baby and with the for sure diagnosis of asthma.
It was scary. We are so blessed. We know God was faithful through all of this and are amazed at his work in all of it. Praise Him for a recovered baby boy who is back home with us. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers through this. And thanks to Bandy and Johnny for making the trip all the way downtown, and then when they got down there, the hospital wouldn't let visitors come in to the respiratory unit of the ER. Y'all are so thoughtful and the act of coming down means more to us than you'll ever know. Hopefully, now that we know what's going on, and have the right medicine, he won't get to this point again. Also, have to give a shout out to all of the nurses and doctors at Le Bonheur. They were all so sweet, compassionate, and thoughtful the entire time we were there. Yay for great medical service!
Feeling better!
***Sorry about the quality of pictures, taken on my phone!***
Loving the ride
Not so sure I like this whole hospital thing (his face is cracking me up!)
Our bed!
Our bed!
Exhausted from a long day
Peek-a-boo, I'm ready to get our of here!
Wow has it been a crazy couple of days. Jones had his very 1st asthma attack, and it definitely caught us off guard. First, we didn't even know he had asthma. We were suspecting he may have it just because of a few big factors. 1. He has had eczema since he arrived on this Earth. Eczema, allergies, and asthma are the three parts of the triangle as we have been told by doctors. If you have one, most of the time you're going to have one or both of the others. 2. Chris has had it since he was a baby and it is hereditary. Livie has also inherited this from her Daddy, so we were pretty sure our little Jo Man would too, extreme eczema considered.
But, with all of these clues, Jones had still never had one physical sign, respiratory wise, to be concerned...until Sunday.
We woke up with a fun day planned. Church, pumpkin patch, then the kids were going to Cece and G Daddy's while Chris and I went to small group. I love Sundays! But, we woke up and Jones was really rattling in his chest and had a bad stuffy nose. So, we cancelled going to church and the pumpkin patch and just decided to lay low. Well, as the day went on, the rattling got worse. We tried to put him down for a nap, but he wouldn't go to sleep...very rare for our little guy. I decided to fix a big Sunday lunch for all of us. Fried chicken, lima beans, and mashed potatoes. The reason I tell our menu, is because they think our little chicken fry might have triggered the attack. No, I didn't burn it! You know how it gets when you fry anything. It just gets a little smoky in the house. We had opened some windows and a door, but it was still pretty foggy in here. This was about noon, and by 1, Jones was really working hard to breath. He was retracting, and his little tummy was going in and out so fast. Chris became really alarmed, because he knows these signs. You could literally hear the wheezing. He called our pediatrician and took him in to the one office open until 2pm! Wow. He made it there at about 1:30 and they did a breathing treatment. It didn't work at all. His oxygen levels were down to about 92 and that is a sign the doctors look for. They never want them, for a baby, to be under 92 and after one treatment, they weren't going up. He was also breathing about 60 breaths a minute and that is a huge red flag. Normal breaths per minute are about35. Another reason for concern are that his heartrate was shooting up...a sign someone is having to work really hard to breath. So, with all of this major things, they sent them down to Le Bonheur.
So, I was panicing by this time. I had no idea it was this bad. I am about to run Livie to my parents to get to the ER at Le Bonheur with them, but Chris wanted me to wait to see how long it would take. We were thinking they would do one treatment and them send him home. WRONG. Ends up, this was a bad attack.
So, I went down to be with Jones and his amazing Daddy who had done all of this by himself from about 1:30 to 7:30. They did 4 treatments in the ER, then admitted Jones for the night. He had a steroid every 12 hours and breathing treatments every 4hours through the night.
Jones was in pretty good spirits once we left the ER respiratory unit. Nurse Blake put him in a red wagon and took him up to his private room...he loved that! Blue Bear never left his side, or should I say, Jones never let go of Blue Bear's tail the whole time. One side effect of the breathing treatment medicine, Albuterol, is it makes most kids that are on it very hyper. Jones was no exception. He wouldn't settle down, and hadn't taken a nap all day. So, at about 11:30 pm I got in the crib with him, hilarious mental picture I know. He literally ran laps around the crib, with me laying in the middle, for 30 minutes straight. RAN. I know from the outside he had to have looked like a caged animal. Bouncing off the walls of the crib, throwing himself from side to side. Very funny, but frustrating at the time for a daddy and mommy who were both physically and emotionally drained. Finally, he went to sleep at 11:58. The nurse came in to give him his next treatment at 12:01. He did stay asleep through the breathing treatment, but when they put the oxygen on him, it scared him and he flipped out. So, we were awake and settling back down for about another 45 minutes.
I stayed and "slept" in the crib with him all night just to keep him calm and make sure he was breathing ok. 4:00am, then 8:00 am we had treatments. The doctor that was on call from Memphis Children's Clinic was Dr. Stancil. We had never met him before, but ends up we all kept talking about how familiar we all looked to each other and figured out that he and his family go to our church with us! Small world and awesome encouragement! Jones was doing better, so they extended his treatments to every 6 hours.
Finally, they did his last treatment at 2:00 pm, observed for a few hours and decided we could continue his treatment at home. We were sent home last night with a pretty back to normal and non-wheezy baby and with the for sure diagnosis of asthma.
It was scary. We are so blessed. We know God was faithful through all of this and are amazed at his work in all of it. Praise Him for a recovered baby boy who is back home with us. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers through this. And thanks to Bandy and Johnny for making the trip all the way downtown, and then when they got down there, the hospital wouldn't let visitors come in to the respiratory unit of the ER. Y'all are so thoughtful and the act of coming down means more to us than you'll ever know. Hopefully, now that we know what's going on, and have the right medicine, he won't get to this point again. Also, have to give a shout out to all of the nurses and doctors at Le Bonheur. They were all so sweet, compassionate, and thoughtful the entire time we were there. Yay for great medical service!
Feeling better!
***Sorry about the quality of pictures, taken on my phone!***
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Hey Jo Jo, do you like the Tennessee Vols?
This happened a few weeks ago, I have just forgotten to write it down.
My dad started this, but we have added to it and think it is absolutely hilarious. We are obviously NOT Tennessee fans. AT ALL. So we will ask Jones, "Jo Jo, do you like the Tennessee Vols?" And, he will shake his head no, very hard. So much so, you would think his little head is about to pop off. We, of course, think this is so funny and ask him to do it often. Well, the other day, Jones, Livie and I were sitting on the floor of his room and I asked him. For some reason he didn't respond right away, so I asked him about 7 times in a row, "Jo Jo, do you like the Tennessee Vols?" He finally shook his head no, we laughed. Then Livie looked at him, trying to play along, and asked(dead serious) "Jo Jo, do you like tennis balls?" I love that girl!
Memphis Madness '09
I can't believe basketball is right around the corner. I guess since so much crazy stuff happened in the off season this year for the Tigers, it seems like last year just ended. I am so excited...and ready. We took the kids, with my mom and dad, to Memphis Madness on Friday night. It was packed....they actually had to turn people away because there were no more seats...at the FedEx Forum...18,000+ seating...with a brand new 32 year old coach...and only 8 scholarship players...this was huge. I am so proud of this city and the fans for coming out to show their support for Coach Pastner and the players. It was amazing to watch and be a part of. The kids LOVED it and Jones stood up and jammed out to Yo Gotti when he got up to perform...maybe we have another homegrown Memphis rapper in the making! Livie loved the cheerleaders and as she said when we asked her what her favorite part of the whole night was, "watching the boys put the ball in the rim". That's my girl!!! It's been a rough off season for all Tiger fans, but I don't think the end result and excitement for this season could be any higher or exciting...Go Tigers!
Friday, October 16, 2009
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