Cute Videos

Valentines Day!

Valentines is fun when you have young kids...the school parties and the junk food they get tanked up on and the chance to have a "date" with your child. I got to be Joel's date to his school party and while Jeff and Claire had "Daddy/Daughter Date Night" at our church on Feb 13. They got dressed up (I did her nails!). Jeff came to the front door with flowers and walked her to the car and off they went to dinner at Jason's Deli and had fun and activities with dancing (yes at a baptist church!). Joel and I grilled a steak and danced around our den! Good Times!

23, 51 and CMV...

What do these things have in common? JOEL! Our 23 month old has run a low grade fever for 51 days now and in the words of that great Medical Professional Doc McStuffins, "We have a diagnosis!" CMV (Cytomegalovirus). He has been tested and tested over the last 7 weeks...3 rounds of blood work, 2 urine samples, stool sample, chest xray and abdominal ultrasound...We've had 2 visits to Dr. Kevin Cassady at Children's Infections Disease clinic and he called today to confirm why Joel has had this asymptomatic low grade fever - CMV. Very common, we all probably have antibodies built up to it...common in kids who go to day care...But can you sing Hallelujah with us?!?!! thank the Lord for no long term issues with this virus and that he's doing what his body should do and build up the antibodies to it. He has never looked or felt sick in any of these 51 days...the only reason we checked his temp the very first time on Dec 28 was that he was clingy and fussy around dinner time and he never does that...(he used to with ear infection but he has tubes now). It was 100.5 then and we kept checking it to see if we could get passed the 24 hour fever free mark and we never did...3 weeks into it we met with Dr. Cassady and he cleared him to return to school and assured us that he was not contagious or immunosuppressed. Joel basically has hit 101-101-5. for the last 51 days...including today. Jeff and I played tag team for most of that first 3 weeks and had help from our sweet friend Sarah from our Sunday School class! Joel still asks for Mrs Sarah! So many thanks to all who have prayed for him and us as we journeyed through a forever fever and can take a deep breath of relief that we now know what he's been fighting! So encouraging to have such great family and friends who have checked on him/us so regularly! What a blessing from God! So we want to name a new Superhero after him...Instead of Superboy we have FeverBoy!!! So from here we "press on!"

January Highlights

2015 Jan - Kizoa Video Maker

FUN Stuff this month...Claire started Dance/Ballet with her friend (since 7 months old!) Sophie. They are adorable and loving it! We got a visit from Anna Morgan (Friends since freshman year at MSU!) and her 2 daughters (Joy and Mary Katharine) as they came to town for Joy to compete in a gymnastics meet. What a special time to enjoy her and her girls and Claire LOVED getting to play with the big girls and do gymnastics with Joy. The timing was perfect in that they babysat Joel and Claire for us as we went out to dessert fondue at Melting Pot with the Hintons and Stephens to celebrate Jeff turning 40! Handsome as ever! In his birthday card I wrote down the 40 things I loved about him and it took me about 40 seconds to come up with it! We are grateful for these 2 couples and such a rich and real friendship with them and their precious children! We also celebrated my bday since Jeff and I are one day apart...my milestone was 2 years ago :) Later in the month we got the pleasure of having Whitney (friends since my Jr year at MSU/her SR year H.S.) and her son Luke since they were in town for several days! Some friends can stand the test of miles, moves, marriages and mayhem (only M word I had for children!). She and I share the same birthdate - Cool! Along the way you'll see snaps of our morning at the zoo on MLK day with Jack (Jen and Sam were somewhere!) and a trip to the playground (Joel wants to go everyday!!!) and finally a visit from Grandmommy and Granddaddy! They picked quite the weekend to come...little did they know that within 6 hours of their arrival, Claire would come down with stomach bug and 24 hrs later after that, Jeff would have completed his GUT-wrenching experience! I have never prayed so hard to stay healthy! Not sure Joel was ready to take over for us all if I'd taken the dive! PRaise the Lord, I was spared...Poor Grandaddy made it back to Baton Rouge but the next day, had to deal with it. YUCK! Sorry Granddaddy! Memories..some so precious you could burn them on your soul, others, maybe you will laugh about someday :) Sooo blessed!

Happy Birthday Bro!

Today my brother turns 36. Looking good! Happy Birthday! Salute to a great husband and great daddy and talented Occupational Therapist. He's always up for any adventure Andrea can get him on :) We are diffent people but I have learned a lot from him! Hope you have a great one and I love you!

Christmas 2014

We left on Sunday before Christmas to start our Christmas celebrations and slid into our own beds by Fri night 12/26 around 10:00. We travelled to Baton Rouge and enjoyed lots of fun things...time to play at the park, a neat play place called Lil Bambinos, play at the Mall, and even mommy and daddy got a date night. We enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve Service at First UMC (Jeff's parents church) after Uncle Bob arrived from Charlotte. We continued with our little family tradition of crawling in bed all together on Christmas morning and reading the Christmas Story from Luke 2 together...then after breakfast it was time for discovering what was under the tree. We took turns enjoying seeing what everyone opened...especially Claire and Joel! Jeff almost got away without having to put something together but Joel's Big Wheel needed some assembly. Claire's scooter was ready to ride! We enjoyed a delicious traditional Christmas meal which I am amazed how my mother-in-law can get it all to the table, hot and good! THe afternoon was filled with opening up the gifts and discovering how to play with each thing. Dec 26 started a journey home with 2 big stops...first in Brandon, MS to see my extended family (Lacey Family Christmas - my mother's side) and meeting up at my mom's house to do Christmas with her and Jim and Robert's family. My aunt Bobby managed to coordinate a family photo of 28 people and feed us all in less than 2 hours. Dirty Santa games always bring some laughs. We ended our evening with Mom's BBQ and homemade mac and cheese and a room full of paper flying as the kids ripped into their gift bags of toys and all got rainboots! Brodie (7) and Ellie (3) are growing up so fast and so cute! They too had been on the road all week making their southeastern tour. Those cousins love each other! Such fun ages! On another note: Each Christmas I like to find one aspect of the Biblical Christmas story and ponder it through the season. This year it was Luke 2:14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE among those with whom he is pleased." (ESV) (emphasis mine on Peace). This was the exclamation of the multitude of angels as they surrounded the Shepherds proclaiming to them the Good News that the Savior was born. They gave God the glory for something only He could definitely do...bring us the Savior...and the result of that Glory and that Savior was PEACE...I pondered why PEACE and not...on earth JOY...on earth LOVE...on earth SAFETY...on earth HEALTH...(you see what I'm doing here)...It was PEACE we needed, and when we are at PEACE, the rest of those things and more are covered...Only in Christ do we have real PEACE. Glory to God in the Highest...

Getting Ready for Christmas

Here's some random fun we've been having...Enjoying Christmas PJs, went to a Santa Party hosted by Jack (and according to Claire who she's going to Marry!) and you can see reaction by Joel to Santa...Claire would only stand by Santa if Jack did too. Claire got her Christmas haircut and we've been to see Big Daddy to do Christmas with him. Each night we are doing a "project" guided by an ebook called Truth in the Tinsel...check it out...helping keep the focus on Christ as we move through the holidays...Also having interesting discussions about Santa...we are taking this approach shared in THIS blog post...we grew up on Santa and don't want to take the fun out but want to be truthful too...,hard dance to dance...Looking forward to more "Joy to the World" to come...

2014 Dec Christmas Fun - Kizoa Video Maker