Family Pictures

Here are a few of my favorite pictures that we had taken in December. To see all of the pictures, check out my facebook page!

Notice the fingers in Payton's mouth? It's her first two fingers on her left hand....they are rarely NOT in her mouth unless she's playing or talking!

I can't believe how big and grown up Preston is! These past three years have flown by!

I love this picture! The real reason Payton is crying is because the camera lady pulled her fingers out of her mouth! I kept telling her just to leave them! This is what happens when the fingers are disturbed! :)

As I hung this picture on our entry way wall, I found myself thinking, "Wow! Can I really be grown up enough to be married with two beautiful children?" I can't believe how fast the past 8 years have gone by and how blessed my life has been through the addition of a wonderful husband and fantastic children! I only hope the next 8 years aren't so fast.....but I"m holding on because I know they will be!

Andy Update

Well, great news. Andy was released from the hospital yesterday! I was able to speak with Amy for a few minutes on her way to the hospital. She retold me the stories from surgery day, and I was pretty accurate for the most part. Here's the skinny:

Although they had complications with his leg (see blog below), everything else turned out fine (including the leg stuff). I guess the doctor reporting to Amy that he may not have pain relief and things didn't go well was just a resident and didn't know exactly what he was saying. The "real" doctor said things turned out great and he should be able to live a pretty normal life!

They were not able to replace the discs they were hoping for, but the did fuse several discs together. Amy said he should gain about an inch in height! :)

Andy was excited to go home and said he was already feeling relief in his back! Praise the Lord!! He stomach was pretty painful, but I guess that's what you excpect when they cut through muscle and take your inards out! Yuck!

So, THANK YOU for all of you praying for him and his family. Keep the prayers comin' during the long recovery time. I know it will be hard on him to not hold his children and hard on Amy and the kids to not have daddy up and going. A small price to pay for a "normal" life again!

****On another note, I have not had school the last two days!! This weather is CRAZY right now. For over two weeks we had temperatures in the negatives....like -15 and more! It was SOOOOO cold. THen, all of a sudden, God must have heard us praying for warmer weather an He delivered! In about a two day period, the temperatures have warmed up to the upper 30's and lower 40's. THis makes for freezing rain, melting snow, and refreezing streets at night time. Needless to say, school has been closed because of ICY ROADS (and extrememly high winds). THis is just crazy to me! I mean, come on...I DO live in Alaska! We've NEVER had schools closed for icy roads in the 8 years I've lived here and only had them closed for snow a couple of times! I'm certainly not complaining though...I've definately enjoyed my time off!

And now, I'm headed out on a red eye flight with the family to go to the great state of Texas to visit mom and dad for a week. We are so excited. More to come later....

My Big Bro

Most of you know my big bro Andy. He's 32, a husband and a dad of three. He's WAY to young to be having serious back problems. He's been in a considerable amount of pain for the last two years (maybe more...I can't remember). The doctor told him he has the worst back he's ever seen in someone his age. They think part of it is genetics, but they are attributing part of his problems to flying on a Hovercraft in the Navy for a number of years.

Andy had surgery on his back yesterday, Monday. He was SUPER excited about the surgery because the doctors were optomistic it would bring relief to him. What was suppose to be a 4-6 hour surgery ended up being over 9 hours. They went in through is stomach (yuck!) to get to his spinal column. They were planning on fusing some discs and placing titanium rods in his back. However, his discs were in worse shape than the doctors had anticipated. They were not able to fuse the discs, or replace them. I'm not exactly sure what they did (I'm getting all the info from my mom and haven't talked with Amy or Andy directly yet). During surgery, Andy lost all feeling in his left leg. At one point, the doctors weren't sure if he would regain feeling. By the end of surgery, it appeared that he had regained this feeling, but the doctors weren't feeling near as optomistic about his outcome. What they hoped would bring wonderful relief of pain, they were now saying might bring SOME relief.

The bible says "His mercies are new every morning" and that's what I've seen happening today. Andy has regained feeling in his leg (although I guess it's pretty painful) and they've had him up and walking a couple of steps today. They took an x-ray this morning and the doctors were happy with what they saw. They are sounding more positive and are hopeful about the outcome, although I'm still not sure to what extent he will feel relief. The downside is, what they were hoping would be about a 3 month FULL recovery time is now looking more like a 6 month full recovery time.

Will you join me in praying for my brother and his family? Here are a few specifics to be bringing before the throne of the Lord:
- no infection in the surgery site
- pain relief both temporarily as he's healing and long-term
- strength, hope, and endurance during this long road of recovery
- a refreshed and renewed relationship with the Lord....this is often hard to do during stressful, painful times
- a positive outlook
- a fast recovery than the doctors predict
- endurance for his wife and family during this recovery time

I know the Lord is the ultimate Healer and I am trusting that he will heal Andy and give him many, many years of pain free fun with his children! Eventhough most of us are so far away, let's encircle him and his family in prayer! "For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord!

A Blast from the Past

If you would like to see a glimpse of me from the past (inHigh School), click here http://wheathayes.blogspot.com/. A friend decided to post these pics on her blog (thanks Wheaties)! All I can say is I wish I was still that skinny....oh, and I know I have such a sexy stance in the second picture! :)

Enjoy....

Christmas

We had a great Christmas together as a family...can't you tell by Payton's face? Actually, this was two days after Christmas. She was SO tired from all the going and having fun. She grabbed her blanket (that she is way to attached to), put her fingers in her mouth (it's rare that her fingers are NOT in her mouth) and about feel asleep in the middle of the floor!

This is Payton with her Uncle Scott on Christmas Eve. She LOVES Uncle Scott. He gets to keep her twice a week when I work. They have a great bond and she squels when he leaves the room!

This was pretty much what Payton did all of Christmas while we opened presents. She was really into the stocking stuffers that were on the fire place, and her spilled cherrios...but not so much the presents or paper!

Preston had been asking Santa for a basketball hoop and a telescope since this summer. I guess he's been a good boy this year because Santa delivered! We've been shooting hoops together in his room the past few days! He's getting good at the slam dunk. :)

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve with Darron's family at his parents' house. Payton was already sacked out in bed by the time we opened presents. Grandma and Grandpa got the three youngest (except Payton) an activity tray, coloring books, and a big pack of Nerds candy (thanks Grandma for that one)! The kids had a great time playing together and watching Polar Express. We even let the stay up until almost 11:00! We all had a great time with our gift exchange and playing cards. It was a great night together!

I bought Preston and Darron a Nerf Dart Gun Tag game to play together. It was really cool. It came with two vests that had targets on them, two dart guns, and these safety glasses. While Darron was getting it all out, Preston started putting on his gear. I grabbed a gun and shot at him. Appearantly I'm not the best aim and shot him in the neck. Well, although they are NERF guns, I guess they still hurt. Preston started crying and complaining that it hurt. I thought he was just being whimpy (nothing new here), so I tried to show him it didn't hurt by shooting Darron in the neck. After Darron complained that it hurt and I saw I big red whelp on his neck, I felt pretty bad! Needless to say, the Nerf Dart Tag didn't turn out to be a hit just yet, but as you can see, the glasses are still cool! Oh well, a mom can try! Maybe he'll give it a try in a few months....

On Christmas Eve, Santa came for a surprise visit at Grandma and Granpa's house! Santa (Uncle Scott) was a huge hit! Preston screamed as Santa walked in and ran right up to him! When Santa asked Preston what he wanted for Christmas, Preston answered, "Um, a dolly for Payton!" Ahhh, makes a mom proud! :) Santa gave each of the little kids a gift (there are 5 teenage cousins too). Although you can't tell in the picture, Payton was actually NOT scared by Santa. She sat in his lap just fine and played with a toy and his beard (she was close to pulling off the beard and revealing Uncle Scott). Santa went to put Payton down and we decided to have Preston sit on his lap again for the picture. Payton got mad that she didn't get to crawl around and was picked up again....that's the real reason she's crying!

We've enjoyed the past few days with family and friends. We've tried to keep the "reason for the season" in mind and we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus on Christmas. We hope you too, have had a wonderful Christmas. Now, time to start losing all the Holiday Weight I've put on....

Be sure to check out the new post about Preston's birthday below...