Moving

We have outgrown our house and will be moving into a new house next Saturday. If anyone is free on Saturday and wants to come and help, we would be very appreciative. Our new house is only 4 miles from our old house so hopefully we can get things done quickly.

Sick Owen

Owen has a really bad cold. Even though we have elevated his bed he is still having a hard time sleeping. Preston grabbed Owen out of bed to let him sleep upright on him while he works on his Sunday School lesson for the morning. Owen is sad he is sick and will have to miss some childhood (in the NICU) friends birthday party tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to get together with them soon.

All dressed up

This afternoon Preston, Logan and I went to Jan Kennamer's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time. I wanted to show a picture of how well my two big guys clean up!!!! Nathan and Owen had fun staying with my parents at our house. Owen was not feeling well. He enjoyed his special time curled up on Oma's lap. Nathan had fun playing with PaPa and eating some green beans.

Newborn Follow-up Clinic

The boys had Newborn Follow-up Clinic (NFC) today. This appointment is always very LONG but this time I was prepared. I brought the boys yogurt mixture they love to eat for breakfast and also brought some formula for Owen and our bottle warmer. NFC is for any child born under 1000 grams in our area. They have specialist focused on premature babies. I actually made it out of there in a little less than 4 hours. I was very excited.

One of the things I love about NFC is I get a chance to talk to a Nutritionist about Nathan and Owen. She weights them, charts them, figures their grams per day weight gain and then we talk about what they are eating, quantity, etc. Owen: made it to the 3rd percentile for his corrected age! This is huge since it is the first time the boys have been on any chart. Owen is now 18 pounds. All of his calorie intake is going well and he will be able to switch to regular milk in just two months, when he is 12 months corrected. We will probably add a little carnation instant breakfast to his milk just to give it a little more calories. We also got a few tips to help him sleep a little better with his reflux. So far (his nap this afternoon) the advice is working. Nathan: has not made it to the charts yet but he will. Nathan's weight is actually not progressing as well as they wish. Nathan does not like the bottle and does not take one. That needs to change. We need to add one bottle of neosure formula a day for him. In two month when it is time to switch to milk, unless he has a great weight gain, he will not switch to milk but will switch to pediasure.

It takes a village

We abused this phrase to its fullest yesterday. On Wednesday the boys had in-home physical therapy from noon until 1:30. Logan finishes with school at 1:00, so Preston took his lunch time to pick up Logan from school and then dropped him off with Sarah Cook, so Logan could play with Gracie and James. Nathan and Owen then had speech therapy at Children's on Third from 2:00 until 3:30 and then we stopped at home for the boys to get a little to eat and then headed to the doctor to get our monthly synagis shot. We were finally finished with everything around 5:00. Sarah kept Logan until church and took him with her to church and fed him dinner. Logan was in such a good mood and had so much fun with the Cooks. After music and mission friends we brought Logan home for a little while and then he went and spent the night with CiCi so that she could take him to school this morning. The boys had another appointment from 8-noon and we had no easy way to get Logan to school. Thank you for all your help.

We really appreciate all the help we get from all of our friends and family. There are so many more people that help and I am sure one day soon they will end up in a good helping story on here too!!!

By the way, still have not found the camera charger.

Back in the swing of things

Now that Christmas holiday season is over we are back in full swing with all our activities.

Logan:
Logan is enjoying being back at school. He had a really fun time at one of his school friends birthday parties this past weekend. The party was at Painted By You. When we get the airplane back that he painted I will be sure to put a picture up for everyone to see. He is also registered for T-ball. His games will be on Saturday mornings starting in late February. Logan really enjoys science. Last week we ordered several science experiments and have been trying a different one out every afternoon. He is Logan the Science Kid, just like Sid the Science Kid on PBS.

Nathan:
Nathan's eyes continue to look better and better. The red is almost entirely gone. I think he enjoys being able to see better too. He had another audiology test and they were able to fine tune his hearing aids a little more than before. Nathan loves to talk back and forth with every one in the family. He loves playing with all his toys and has really been trying to feed himself. He loves drinking white grape juice out of his sippy cup.

Owen:
Owen is doing well. He is getting very close to sitting on his own. He can now, if you count the little 10 second moments of balance!! He is growing really big. I can't wait until we go to the doctor next week and get his official weight. He might just break the scales. He will soon outgrown his mini-crib, so we will be buying another crib...after we move in to a bigger house (already looking). So, this will make the 6th crib we will purchase for our 3 children (1 for Logan, 3 in China: Nathan, Mia, and Owen, 1 mini-crib for Owen and then the new crib makes 6). I think we have invested much more money in cribs than most families!!!!

Preston is enjoying his job a lot. He will also begin teaching at Samford again in February. This time his classes will be Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Half marathon training is still going well. After the 1/2 marathon we still have 2 more races we are planning to run. So, we will take a little break but not much of one. Sarah and I have tons of fun running together, so I am glad we are planning to continue after the half marathon. I am also really enjoying being one of the room moms for Logan's class. It is so much fun to get to plan parties and go on all the field trips. I think Logan really likes me being there too.

Yes, we are looking to move. Our house was fine when Preston and I bought it...with just the two of us. It was even okay with 3 of us, but 5 just do not fit in here very well. If anyone else out there is looking to sell or rent, let me know and I will pass our real estate agent, Jason Cook, information along to you!!!!

I have to find my battery charger for my camera to get my pictures off the camera. As soon as I do that, I promise lots of pictures.

Red Nose Run

My friend Sarah (in the blue jacket) and I (red head band) ran the Red Nose Run 10 mile race this morning. We had a great time running together. It was pretty chili but once we got running we warmed up quickly. We are still training for the Mercedes 1/2 Marathon and just used this as one of our weekend training runs. All proceeds from this race go to the Ronald McDonald House Charity.

Nathan's surgery follow-up

Nathan did well with his surgery. His doctor felt like everything went well. He will spend the rest of the day recovering at home and should be back to feeling well tomorrow. Right now he has a fever of 100.5, but that is to be expected. His fever should go down by tomorrow. We are giving him tylenol and motrin. He is also getting eye drops 3 times a day for the next 5 days. We took a few pictures on Preston's phone and I will post those as soon as I get them downloaded to the computer. Thanks so much for all your prayers!!!!

Nathan's surgery

We will be leaving in just a few minutes to head to Children's Hospital for Nathan to have surgery on his eyes. His actual surgery will probably be around 7:00. The surgery will take about 1 hour and then he will have another hour or two for recovery. Afterward, we will be on our way home. Nathan's eyes will bother him for most of the day and he may not want to open them. He will not require any patching and should be feeling back to his old self by tomorrow morning. Thank you so much for praying for him this morning. We really appreciate it. I will update you when we return home.

A few new things for the new year

Just a few random new things I thought I would post, so I will remember them later.

1) Owen said mama several times today!!!! Preston heard it too so it was not just my imagination.
2) I changed running shoes. I have only run in Adidas for the past 10 years. The other day I thought I would give Saucony a try. I have only run with them once, but so far so good.
3) I ran my longest distance yet, 11 1/2 miles.
4) Nathan and Owen are now wearing size 3 diapers.
5) Logan continues to be a great big brother. He was the most helpful yet, trying to bring us things he anticipated we would need for his brothers.

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas Day. Preston's Mom, CiCi, and Paw Paw Bill came over early on Christmas morning. We made a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon, pineapple, eggs, juice, etc.
It was delicious. Logan did not wake up until after 8:00. As soon as he woke up we did our Santa presents.
The only thing he kept asking Santa for this year was a bell off his sleigh (just like the one in Polar Express). After Logan opened all his presents I told him to be sure there were not any more around the tree. In the back, he found a present in a familiar wrap (the same wrap Santa used on the Polar Express). Santa had remembered and his bell is now at our house. Logan is very excited.

After our delicious breakfast and Nathan and Logan opened all their presents (Owen decided to sleep late - until almost 10:00, so he did not open his presents until later) we packed the van and headed to Changed Lives Christian Center to serve and eat Christmas dinner with those who are less fortunate. Some of you may begin to recognize the name, Changed Lives Christian Center. This is a project that Preston worked on for quite a long time. It was the first big project for Place Design Studio.


After lunch we headed to the Brookwood NICU to see some of our nurses and deliver little presents to all the families there. So many of our close nurse friends were working. We loved getting to visit with each of them!!!! We feel so blessed to be where we are today compared to where we were last year. God has truly delivered through so much. (Reminder, Nathan had an unsuccessful surgery last Christmas Eve and the boys were at two different hospitals, still very critical.)

Our final stop was to my parents house. My sister, Ranae, and her family were there also. We had a wonderful time together.