Decorating Time

Decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving was always my family's tradition when we were growing up. Seeing as I'm scheduled to have a baby next week, we decided this was definitely a good day for decorating. My feet have grown incredibly huge in the last few days, and I was so tired early in the day, so I decided I really needed a nap before I'd be up to decorating. I slept for a little while, and when I got up, most of the house was done. My wonderful husband had drug all the decorations out of the attic and set up almost everything. He left the tree because I really love decorating the tree every year. We put Clayton down for a nap and did the tree together. Clayton was so excited to see it completely decorated when he got up. He spent about five minutes showing me every colored ball on the tree. He also immediately found an ornament he received from GiGi last year that has Scooby driving a snow plow. Within a few minutes that ornament had to move higher up on the tree.



Tonight Ryan and I sat around by the light of the Christmas tree and several lit strands of garland, listening to Christmas music and enjoying this little time of peace before the new baby arrives. One week to go. Healthy is our only prayer.

Waiting for that third baby.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope everyone had a great holiday, and more importantly, we hope you had a lovely feast. We were so blessed host Thanksgiving at our house this year. Ryan's training schedule and the baby mandated that we stick close to home this year. Several of our classmates were in the same situation, so a group of us got together to celebrate. We had eight adults and two toddlers and tons of food.

The ladies got together last week, and we divided all the cooking among us. I made one dessert on Wednesday and threw together two casseroles Thursday morning, and that's all I had to do. It was great. The group came over early in the afternoon. The ladies got all the food together while the guys entertained the kiddos in the backyard. It was a gorgeous 65 degrees, and the kids had a blast. We ate at about 5:00. Clayton was a big turkey fan. He ate a little sweet potato casserole, a little mashed potatoes, and a ton of green beans, his favorite. After dinner the guys did most of the clean up, for which I am forever grateful. Then there were marble brownies, pie, and ice cream. Yum!

Cardiology Visit

We had Clayton's six month cardiology check up this morning. Getting vitals is always a challenge, and today was no exception. After that apparently traumatic experience, Clayton did great. He had an EKG, and he actually assisted the nurse in the placement of his stickers. Getting the stickers off is usually painful, but he did really well, and didn't even really complain until the last sticker or two. The cardiologist listened to him for a while and decided we could skip the echo today. That makes me a little nervous, but at the same time, it means he sounded really good, and there's no real need to check that tricuspid valve, which has been our main concern during this Glenn period.

We spent the majority of the time discussing Clayton's weight, or lack of weight. In the past month Clayton has been experiencing a lot of acid reflux, which has done nothing for his weight gain or appetite. Our pediatrician is currently in the process of getting us in with a GI doctor, and the cardiologist agreed it was needed. He said he would look forward to hearing any GI recommendations. Hopefully they will be able to find the cause of the reflux and help us with some weight gain. I'm getting so frustrated. Sometimes I actually find myself regretting not getting the g-tube placed when Clayton was an infant.

Other than that, Clayton's doing great. We talked a little about the new baby, and he said just to call him if we have any concerns after the baby is born. Then he said he'd see us back in six months and that we'd be in touch over the GI concerns.

Have I mentioned how much I love this cardiologist? We've met a lot of pediatric medical professionals in the last few years. You wouldn't believe how many don't make any effort to show they actually like kids. It takes a special person to be a doctor and have good bedside manner, but it takes an extra special doctor to have good bedside manner with a frightened two year old. This guy is always so friendly and compassionate. He really does a great job of distracting Clayton and making him feel a little more relaxed. Everytime I leave his office I'm so grateful for Ryan's assignment here, and for the string of people that led us to find this doctor.

Pumpkin Patch

It's that time of year, and I was really dreading chasing a toddler all over one of the many big pumpkin farms around here. Luckily I drove by a local church that had a mini pumpkin patch fundraiser. It was perfect. Clayton and I went over there this morning. I had visions of sweet pictures of Clayton in the pumpkins. Clayton had visions of running free, playing in old splintered crates, and pushing around wheel barrows. These days it's hard to even get a glance at the camera, especially when we're outside. At least I got a couple of shots to prove that I did in fact take him to see some pumpkins, and you can tell he had a really great time.

News from our Family

I just realized that my first real post included some pictures of me, obviously expecting a baby. It's true. Ryan and I have been hesitant to spread the word, as we've been very nervous about the health of this baby, but surprise to all who didn't know... I'm expecting a baby, due December 15th. This baby is one of the most viewed babies of all time, and so far everything is looking as it should. I've had four fetal echocardiograms now, and they all appear to show a healthy, four chamber heart. I'm always cautious, as these defects are easily missed, and sometimes the angle or shadows on the ultrasound can mask things, but so far, so good. Each echo and ultrasound have also shown this baby to be a BOY, so that's three boys for us! I have sadly come to the conclusion that I may never get to buy anything pink for myself, so I've been busy buying up all the pink for my niece Lizzie. My doctor is planning another c-section around the 5th of December, so we'll keep you posted. We are very excited to add a new baby to our family, and I think we'll both breathe a sigh of relief when the baby arrives safely and passes his first echo on the outside.

Our Trip to Aggieland

Two weekends ago we were able to get down to Aggieland to see our Aggies lose to Kansas State. We went into the game with low expectations, so we weren't really too disappointed. Besides spending a lot of time with family, we got to spend game day with many of our classmates and their families. We had such a great time catching up at a wonderful little house the T family rented just across the street from Kyle Field. Ryan and I determined that taking Clayton to the game would just be punishment for us, so he stayed with Aunt Meg and Uncle Luke and helped babysit Cousin Lizzie. Then we picked him up so he could join in the post game festivities.

Here is myself, Kalli, and Candace. We're all expecting babies in December, within ten days of each other.

We're not really sure when these guys are due.

Ansleigh gave Clayton his first kiss!

I don't think he minded!

Moving to the Blog

In the interest of making things easier, I've decided that Clayton's website should be converted to a family blog. I think I will be able to update it more often, and hopefully this will inspire me to post a few more pictures. Blogging looks to be a great way to keep our friends and family updated on the events of our lives, and I hope you enjoy reading our updates. I'm a little sad to lose some of the content from our old website, but we have it saved in numerous places on our computers, and I think I'm probably the only one who looks back on old posts anyway. Maybe I'll include bits and pieces here and there to remind us of where we've been and how far we've come.

Thank you to those who have followed Colin and Clayton's websites from the beginning. Your love still means so much to our family.