Asking favors.....again!!

I hope that each of you who read this blog know how much we appreciate your love, friendship, thoughts and prayers. I hope that we have expressed enough times that we know your prayers and fasting in behalf of our family have worked! Your prayers for us are such a comfort to our family. So, once again, I ask for your faith and prayers in our behalf. I'm not sure if any of your wards are doing the same as ours, but our fast Sunday is next week (Sept. 28th). I know it's a couple of weeks early, but Alex goes in for his testing (sedated echocardiogram and MRI) on October 6th in preparation for his surgery (Nov. 4th). We ask any who are able or interested to remember him in your fasting and prayers. We pray that as he goes for this testing, they will find that all is well with him, and that his status is appropriate for proceeding with surgery in about 6 weeks. We know that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. That has been proven to us countless times. We know that your prayers have been heard and we feel so blessed because of your service. And I'll just put it out there now, we would love your prayers and fasting for November, since Alex will be going into surgery 2 days later. Thank you again to all of you for your continued support!

Baby Toys or Big Boy Toys?

So we finally decided get the exersaucer out for Alex. When Sam was a baby he absolutley adored it. After getting it out, it's apparent that the adoration never went away!

Although it has provided Alex with a lot of entertainment, I think maybe it has done more for Sam! I think that Sam wishes Alex found it as exciting as he does. He is constantly trying to get Alex to grab all the toys and trying to shove them in his mouth.

Here are a couple cute pics of Alex playing by himself.

Time for a Treat!

Doesn't everyone love chocolate pudding?! Sam sure does!

We Gave In!

We finally gave in and bought a trampoline for Sam. He has had such a great time in the few short weeks we've had it. It was a tough decision for us considering that we're both nurses and have seen what can happen, but in this case, I guess the parent in us beat out the nurse. I searched for one of the safest ones I could find. The safety net is attached to the mat so it eliminates any injury made by falling through the springs. Now as for the other accidents, right now we are just pretending that those don't happen!!



Sam and Dad being Donkeys!



And of course, Dad has to do his knee flips. Although we're not impressed, Sam is!

5K/10K

Gary and I (oh, and the kids too) participated in our first race. Gary did a 10K and I did the 5K and pushed the kids in the stroller. Our friends Scott and Kari asked us to come and join them in the race so we gave in and had a lot of fun doing it. It was something different than we've done before and we were glad to join. It was the Classic Race in Layton and the money donated goes to support the heart program at McKay-Dee Hospital.



We still had muscles even after the race. Thanks Pounders for the invite. We had a great time!

IHH Walk

On September 6th we had the opportunity to attend a fun run/walk as a fundraiser for our support group. It was a really beautiful day all around. The weather was great, the spirit was strong, and it was a wonderful to see the families and children that are affected by CHD's. It's amazing that you can take that many strangers that are coping with the same type of struggles, and we can all come together as friends as if we've known each other our whole lives. We want to thank all of you who supported us in this fundraiser physically/emotionally and monetarily. Your love and kindness means so much to us. Words cannot express the emotions that we feel in response to your kindness and love. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I decided that it was easier to do a slide show instead of still pictures since we have so many to show. Sam received a "battle wound" as he was running the race with Joe. He wanted to be sure that we included a picture of it.



After the walk we stopped for lunch at Arbys with the family. Joe (as usual) kept the kids entertained or vice versa.

4 months old!

Can you believe it? Man does time fly. We certainly feel very blessed to be where we are now all things considered. Alex went for his 4 month check-up today. He looks great, and his pediatrician is "tickled" (his words, not mine)with his progress. Aren't we all!

He weighed 14 lbs 2 oz (50th percentile), and was 25 1/2 in. long (75th percentile). Right where he should be, and we couldn't be more pleased! He also gave us the go ahead on rice cereal, so we'll give that a shot tomorrow.

He is still smiling tonight because he didn't have to get any shots. The surgeons advised us not to get any immunizations 6 wks prior to or after his surgery. The bypass machine that they will use on his surgery has a filter that would filter out any immunizations given that close to surgery. He is right on the border of the 6 wks, but we felt that it would be best to leave him be, and not have to give him another needlestick/blood draw to check a titer on them. So he will recieve his shots at his 9 month check up. It seems a long ways off, but it will be here before we know it. He still is not rolling over, but we're not too concerned about that, it'll happen soon. We are so happy for Alex and so greatful for your prayers and love!

Brothers

Just thought I would post a few pics of the boys together. They are both growing like weeds. Don't mind the naked (sort of) baby pics. We decided that we should get as many pictures of Alex's scarless chest that we can, since that will change! They are such sweet boys. Alex is really smiley (when he wants to be) and has been starting to giggle. We enjoy our boys so much! Their sweet smiling faces always brighten our day!

First Day of Preschool

Sam started preschool on Wednesday. Hallelujah! It was definately time for a mix up in his life. He has had kind of a slow summer (life with a new baby), so he was excited to get started back again. Alex was born the same week that he finished preschool in May, so it was a big change to cut that out and add a new baby.

His teacher is Ms. Paula. I grew up in the same ward with her and her family. She has been teaching for 16 years, so she obviously enjoys working with children. She has already told me that she wished she had a whole classroom full of kids like Sam (GO FIGURE!!).

Sam told me on his first day back that he missed Alex while he was gone! Although I'm sure he enjoys some time without a crying baby, he sure does love Alex. He is such a great big brother!

Piano playing with Dad

Alex loves to play the piano with Dad. Sam was the same way when he was younger but now he's big enough to dance and sing while Dad plays. He loves for Gary to play "Follow the Prophet" and "Called to Serve" and its so cute to listen to him sing!

Sometimes adding a fist to chew on makes it even better! He has mostly been chewing on his fists, but in the last couple of days has decided to put the thumb in instead of the fist. Mom and Dad are trying hard to keep it a fist instead of a thumb, but we may have our work cut out for us!

Fundraiser Walk

Just wanted to put a reminder out there to anyone, that the fundraiser for our support group is this Saturday the 6th in Provo. We have heard from some of you that are going to participate, but thought that we would put it out there again just in case you missed our post from the beginning of August. If you missed our first post and want more info about it, scroll down to the older posts and you can read. If there is anyone that missed our first post and want to join us, could you please let us know. We are doing a little thing for those in Alex's group, and we would like to make sure that we have enough for everyone. If you have already let us know, then disregard this post. If not, then just leave a comment and let us know how many will be in your group so that we are prepared. Thank you to all of you for your continued support for our family!
By the way, the boys are doing great. I will post more in the next couple of days since I know it's been a while since the last one!!