Lexi Update.......

For those of you who haven't seen my facebook updates I thought I should update about Lexi. Her surgery went well. She was released from ICU yesterday and is now in a normal room. Doctors were going to let her go home today but then she started running a fever. They are keeping her overnight for more observation. Hopefully she can go home tomorrow. She is up and walking around and so glad to be out of the bed. She couldn't get comfortable laying down and is glad to be mobile. These pics are from Saturday and I have seen more recent ones of her and she looks even better. She is such a strong girl!

We took Adi and Lyvi to Build a Bear on Friday and the kids made a bear just for Lexi. They named it Hearty. (With some help from Clay)

This was our first time seeing Lexi. The only appetite she had was for popsicles.
Lexi, Pam (Lexi's mom), and Adison and Alyvia (her 2 sisters)

You can see she is hooked up to several tubes. It hurt her pretty bad when they took them out but it was much better for her once they were gone.

Here is Adi reading the many cards that she made for Lexi. She read "you are the best sister I could ask for" and then started crying. We all started tearing up. It was so sweet!

Thank you all for your prayers over the past few days. Please continue to pray for her recovery. I am so humbled as a mother to watch Pam take care of her child through this situation. I don't know what I would do if I had to watch my baby boy go through what Lexi did. I am so proud of Pam and Lexi and their amazing strength. It is amazing to watch how God has given them the ability to get through this difficult time in their life. God is good!

Pray for Lexi....

Clay's 13 year old cousin Alexis (Lexi) is going to have open heart surgery tomorrow. I say cousin because that is the technical relationship but she is more like a niece. When Lexi was born she spent the first few months in a hospital and had open heart surgery when she was only a few months old. They have known she would have to have another one at some point, and tomorrow is the day. Here are a few pictures of her.

Here she is in our wedding in 2005. She was a jr. bridesmaid.

A picture of her and her 2 sisters, Adison and Alyvia, also in 2005.

Lexi with Cooper at the hospital when he was born.

At Cole and Jessica's wedding - her and Adison were at the guestbook.

Last weekend with Cooper at the park. She was sneaking him some of that water and he was loving it!

Here are few pics from her Pre-Op yesterday. (I stole these from her mom.) She doesn't like having blood drawn. I don't blame you Lex!

Isn't she beautiful? Pam and Brent are going to have to fight the boys off!

And this is how we know her, crazy, silly Lexi!

Please keep Lexi, her family, and the doctors who will be tending to her in your prayers. We love you Lexi!

July

Clay made a life size poster of this picture and we had it hanging on Cole and Jessica's door when they got home from their honeymoon in Hawaii.

We started out the 4th of July weekend by going to some friends house for swimming and fireworks. Cooper loved watching the fireworks. I was afraid he would be scared by the loud noise but it didn't bother him at all.

It was funny watching him try to follow the firework from the ground to the sky.

I think Clay had more fun with the fireworks than any of the kids.

On the 4th we went with my mom to her 30th year class reunion. Here is Cooper with Trey- he was fresh back from a mission trip to Africa and had a ton of awesome pictures.

Clay and Deegan.

Todd, Marlee, and Cooper

The husbands had enough. They were such good sports.

No nap for Deegan though!!

Mommy's little firecracker!

I actually think he kinda looks like me in this picture. His eyes and his cheeks when he smiles?

We took the youth group to Lake Arcadia for the evening. Cooper is enjoying his first ride in the swing. We keep saying we need to get one of the plastic swings you hang up in the tree.

Take a look at those chunky thighs!

Cooper has started rolling everywhere. This was the first time he actually rolled too far off the blanket. He started on his belly right in front of his toy and ended up like this.

We went to Bill and Amy Bryan's to see new baby Kaitlyn. The guys watched the UFC fight. Me and Amy talked about babies. Here are the boys and their babies.

Cooper went to his first VBS. He liked the puppets.

Since Cooper started sitting up on his own we decided to break out the high chair. That and his thighs get stuck in the bumbo chair when we get him out! Here he is trying it out for the first time.

Yeah this is great - I'm done.

His first meal in his high chair.

Such a big boy!

On July 30th he was 6 months old. Its SO hard to believe!! It was his first time to eat baby food. We started with green beans.

He would make really funny faces but he kept eating them. I heard that his poop would be nasty after he started food. That is true!

I'm not a huge fan of green beans either Coop.

He is starting early. What else should I expect? He sees everyone else doing it.

Forget the keyboard now I want the camera.
Ok 2 posts on 24 hours. Am I forgiven?

June - Yes I'm Alive

Yes I'm alive. And I have a lot of catching up to do. I have felt overwhelmed about blogging because I have so much to catch up on but I decided I will just start with June and skip the month of May. Quick update- I made it back to school 4 days before I decided to take a leave of absence from teaching this year. I wanted to do that all along but was worried that we couldn't afford it. After 4 days back to school it didn't matter to me I just couldn't leave my little boy! Clay was so supportive and said something I will always remember "we had never had to just put our trust in God and take a leap of faith." That is what we did and God has blessed me with two part time job opportunities that will allow me to earn some income and Cooper will spend time with my grandma and his daddy! Okay here we go. Here he is at 4 months.I took so many pictures (trying to get a good one) this one cracked me up because it looks like he is trying to get away from the camera!

We celebrated Clay's first father's day. He is the best father/husband I could ask for! Cooper adores him!

He started grabbing for things and loves to pull on my flowers. He also likes to watch himself in the mirror. A little vain?

June marked the month for his first cereal! It was so runny the first few times it was like feeding the milk from his bottle to him with a spoon and it would just run out.

Not too sure about it.

He made some really funny faces. Too bad the video camera wasn't charged.

Not so bad after all.......

My brother changed his first diaper. Not the first diaper to change of Cooper's but the first one EVER. I had to get this one on camera.

One of my jobs is working for my mom in the office at her convenient store. Here is cooper working with us.

Apparently he loves doing laundry. I am glad someone in our family does. If only he could fold the clothes.

Cole and Jessica got married this month! Here we are getting ready for the rehearsal dinner. I love how he props his arms up on the side.

My sis in law Annika, nephew AJ, me and Cooper at the rehearsal.

His buddy Arpoika was being naughty and sneaking Cooper some water. Actually Cooper grabbed the glass and brougt it straight to his mouth. Of course he kept wanting more.....

He looks drugged.

The groom and his nephews.

Cooper and the bride, Aunt Jessica.

Nana and Cooper at the wedding. She was on baby patrol if he got fussy. I didn't want him to be the screaming baby in the wedding video. He did great though!

Me and the bride. I am embarassed at how white I am. Newborn baby = no time in the sun for me. Enough about me, Jessica was gorgeous!!

Lexi, Adison, and AJ. (Sidenote: Lexi is 13 and will undergo open heart surgery on August 20th. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. More on her later.)

Mr. and Mrs. Cole Bryant, Finally!!

After the wedding festivites we spent some time at the pool. Cooper LOVES the water!

In all his gear ready to go.

Getting use to the water with daddy.

His floatie makes animal noises. What will they think of next?

Well there is a quick wrap up of June. We also spent at week at Quartz Mountain Christian Camp with Clay, for some reason I didn't take many pictures. He had his 4month shots and weighed in at 16 lbs 15 oz. He has his 6 month appt on August 18th and I can't wait to see how much he weighs. Hopefully I will make time for a July update soon. I just need to get the pictures downloaded.

It's nice to be back in the blogworld........