January in California

First of all, I want to apologize for all the people who live in climates that are SO cold right now. I honestly don't mean to rub it in that it's been gorgeous here lately. I just think these pictures are adorable and wanted to share them.

Evidently Fall comes in December and January in California. When we got home from Wyoming I looked outside our front window and noticed a bunch of lovely colored leaves on the ground. Since we don't get much of a Fall around here I thought I'd take advantage and get some pictures. They turned out pretty good!

Aaron just loves driving his truck around in our front courtyard.

It was so nice Aaron decided to relax a bit in the grass. So funny!

This was the best picture I could get of the two of them. Lately it's like pulling teeth to get a good picture of them together!

Megan LOVED the leaves! Of course she tried to eat them, but luckily didn't ingest any of them! Was pretty enamored with how they felt.

Love this picture! Believe it or not, it's a self portrait!

I had to steal Aaron's ball for a minute in order to get this picture with him! It was worth it!

Again, can you believe it's January here?

Hope you all enjoyed, and I hope for your sakes, that Spring comes sooner than later for you!

Christmas in Pictures - a little late!

This past December we were fortunate (I guess, only because it was SO cold while we were there) enough to be able to go back to WY for Christmas and to see all of our family! My awesomely sweet husband, and adorable son, did go ahead and put up our Christmas tree and a few other decorations while I was in the hospital with Megan. Was the sweetest surprise to come home to! We left a week after Megan had gotten out of the hospital!

While in Wyoming we...

got to visit Great Grandma Gwynn, aka Gramma GG,
got to see grandma,
got matching jammies,

got to read with Gramma GG,

did I mention it was cold there?

got to see Grandpa Nate (who Aaron lovingly calls Grandpa Ate),

did I mention it was COLD outside? Like in the negatives cold!

got to see Great Grandma Benson (and Bib the cat),

got to see Nana (sorry Nana, this is the best picture I got of you while we were there),

got to make gingerbread houses with Papa and cousins,

got to see Aunt Melisa (and Uncle Tabor, not pictured),

got to see cousins (who all got matching jammies for Christmas, but didn't really want to pose for pictures in them),

got to see Papa and Zoe the puppy (who Aaron played with almost constantly),

got to see Grandma Kris (who made an awesome breakfast for us as we were leaving the state),

got to see other cousins who we hadn't seen in over a year and hadn't even met the littlest man yet,

got to see Uncle JD and Aunt Heidi (for the first time for Megan),

got to see Grandpa Benson,

did I mention it was COLD ther? :)

overall we had a wonderful time and got to see lots of other people who weren't pictured, but were glad to get back home, where it was MUCH warmer!

Merry belated Christmas 2008!

Megan's Journey

I want to thank everyone again for all the thoughts and prayers that were given for our sweet Megan. I thought that you might find it interesting to see her journey in pictures and then get an update.

Here is Megan 6:30 in the morning. Just got her vitals taken and some nifty clothes to wear. She's in good spirits, all things considered.

This is about an hour later waiting for all the doctors and anesthesiologists to get everyone and everything in order. She was starting to get really hungry and tired here.
They took her back at 8:30 and we waited until 2:30 in the waiting room with a couple updates from the nurse that was in the operating room with them. We were extremely grateful for the updates. They broke up the time for us. Here she is shortly after she came out of the surgery and was settled into her room in the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). She looked great for just having gone through what she did! Doctor told us that the procedure couldn't have gone any better. Praise the Lord! He also told us that she looks good now, but to beware that there would be much swelling in her future.

Sure enough, the middle of that first night her face started getting more taught and less soft as it began to swell. Thanks to medication she seemed to be comfortable and slept a lot of the time, which was probably a good thing because she was VERY interested in all the cords and such hanging off of nearly every appendage.

By the next day her head was so swollen and her eyes were swollen completely shut. Her ears were also hugely swollen. She looked so pathetic as she lay there sleeping peacefully.

When she wasn't sleeping she was so frustrated that she couldn't see. That was so hard for me to see her that way. I would talk to her and she would turn her head toward my voice, but would get so frustrated that she couldn't open her eyes! Poor darlin'.

By the evening of the third day she was completely off of the Morphine and only on Tylenol, a big blessing, and you could tell she was starting to feel better. She started grunting at me, which was the first sign that she was on the mend. She would do that to me before we even went in. Was sort of a game between the two of us, grunting back and forth at each other. You can see why this simple gesture made me so excited!

Wasn't much longer after that when her eyes started to barely open. I was so extremely excited about that! The doctor told us that before we left the hospital she would have to at least open one of her eyes completely. I was surprised at how quickly they opened once I saw the first tiny little opening.

Here, they really started opening, along with a tiny smile to go with it!

This was the following morning and day 4, a few hours before they released her from the hospital. I was so extremely anxious to get out of there by then. Once her eyes did open and she saw all the fun things to pull on, ie. IV's and heart and oxygen monitor cords and whatever else she had attached to her, she would NOT leave them alone. I couldn't wait for them to take all of this stuff off of her and get out of there! Not to mention, the silly machines would beep in the night and would wake her up shortly after she had just fallen asleep.

I think she was ready to go home as well!

It has now been a little over a month and she is just doing GREAT! Her demeanor has changed since her surgery as well. She's a LOT more active, or at least desires to be anyway, and she has become a lot more vocal as well. The way my husband puts it, "it's like all those files in her brain have been unzipped and now she's able to do so much more because of it." Sure seems like it was affecting her at least a little bit anyway.

She's still a very happy little girl, for which we are grateful to as well! Her head is healing well and most of her dissolveable stitches are gone. She goes back to see the doctor the first part of February so we'll see how he thinks she's healing!

We're so grateful for our little pink blessing God gave us and look forward to how this impacts her life and how she can use this for His glory someday!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!!!

I hope everyone else had a good Christmas! Ready or not here comes another new year! It's always fun to look back on the previous year and remember how clueless we were on January 1st, 2008 of all that the year would hold for us. It's exciting and yet nerve racking looking at yet another new year. At least we have the hope that our great Savior, whose birthday we just celebrated, will help us to get through whatever 2009 holds! Happy New Year to you!

Update

I was actually waiting to download some pictures and then do an update post, but I didn't want to leave everyone hanging in suspense any longer.

Megan's surgery went very well. The doctor even said that "it couldn't have gone any better"! MANY prayers were answered and God showed Himself mighty in so many different ways through all of this! He is so amazing and so is His creation of the human body! I can't believe how much the human body can handle and how quickly it heals! All I have to say is AIN'T GOD GOOD!!! I'll try to get some pictures on here soon. If not, I hope you all have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thank you all for your faithful prayers! Praise HIM!