CLARIFICATION....

I am so excited.....thanks to Kelly I just discovered I can do scrapbook pages online!!!! Are you kidding me?!!!!!!!!! This is the greatest thing I have ever seen. My scrapbook pages will look great and I won't even have to go crying to Sherri to help me. I am so excited. I DO NOT like scrapbooking but Raelynn loves her scrapbooks so much and I know Coop will too so it has been worth it. But now, I can do it within minutes with none of the mess and no need for me to pretend to be artistic. I love it!!!

Now the real reason for my update.... I need to clarify some stuff from my previous blog. Cody did not go with Steph to her prom. That would not be "cool" I guess. Everyone keeps asking me if what Cody was wearing in the picture is what he wore to prom. No, he did not go to prom. He just was home visiting and of course had to check her out before she spent the evening without him. Her and some of her friends all rented and limo and went together. They had a great time I am sure. Also I forgot to mention that Karli got to see the KU Men's Basketball Team play in Garden City last weekend. I guess they travel out to those small towns and play against certain teams. Karli got to visit with the players and even got a bball signed for Raelynn. Raelynn will be so excited. Karli told Kaun that his biggest fan was a 3 year old in Lawrence, I guess he thought that was pretty sweet. Anyway, it sounded like a great time!

Things have been hectic this week getting ready for the March for Babies on Saturday but I am very excited. I think we will have a great turn out this year. I am also excited to see my family again too!

IT IS FINALLY WARMING UP!!!!

Yeah it is finally warm outside!!! This gives me hope for the week ahead. Last Sunday night Raelynn got the flu. This was the first real hard core flu she has ever had so it was a learning process for us both. She did really great actually and became very good friends with what we call the "puke pail". It was really quite funny because she would not go anywhere without it. I may have overdone it when I explained to her that she could not throw up anywhere but in the pail. Anyway, when Daddy got sick later in the week, Raelynn had to rush home to make sure Daddy had the puke pail too. Even the flu becomes funny when you have a 2 year old. :) Luckily, Cooper and I have avoided it so far. I am deep cleaning the house now. I figure I will do a little each day and hopefully by the end of the week will be done. My family will be here this coming weekend for the March for Babies. This is a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. It should be a lot of fun!

This weekend was little Stephanie's senior prom. Can you believe in less than a month she will be graduating. She is so grown up and beautiful. The first picture is of her and Cody. He is a great guy! I have only spent a little time with the two of them but they really seem great and Raelynn is totally in love with Cody!

Well that is about all for now. Will have much to share after next weekend!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!~COOP UPDATE~SHERRI IS A CHANGIN'

Today is Mom's Birthday. I sure hope she had a great day. She deserves a relaxing day :)

My kids were with Sherri today because Lisa was out of town. Unfortunately her dog, Buster, is very sick so she had the treat of loading my 2 kids up and heading to the vet. They are keeping Buster over night and time will tell how he is. He is rather old, 13 years I think. I will keep you posted.... Of course this is not why I bring up that the kids were at Sherri's. It is rather to tell you that our Sherri, Mother to us all, is changing her ways. You see, in the past when I would pick up my kids, Sherri would have dinner made for us all and want to keep us there visiting as long as possible. She was always trying to "take care" of us. Well tonight, I arrived and she could not get my kids and myself back out the door fast enough. No it wasn't because she was tired of the kids or didn't want to visit with me......she was going dancing and had to get us on our way so she could get all "dolled" up!!! I LOVE IT!!! Any of you who really know my sister have to see the humor in this. I have always been the busy social one and now the tables have turned. I look forward to her and her kids coming to visit and made them dinner last time they were over. It is all really quite funny!!! Anyway, I love to see her getting out and she seems so happy. However, I am just a tiny bit jealous that I am the one home with the kids fixing dinner on a Friday night but it only lasts a second and is over as soon as I hear Raelynn say "Mommy I missed you today!"

Coop is up to a big 10lbs 10oz and 23" long. The cardiologist said Cooper looks great and his SAT level was higher than it ever had been. However, they had us set our next appointment in 4 short weeks and at that time will probably schedule his Cardiac Catheter. This is a surgery that allows them to enter into his small body through an artery and take pictures of the blood flow through his heart. This will give them an accurate look at how his heart really is holding up. They are hoping that we still have some time before his next major surgery because he is still too small. The doctors all agree that Cooper is gaining weight very well considering his situation but unfortunately do not feel we have genetics on our side. Cooper just has a small structure to start will so "beefing" him up is slightly challenging without even considering his cardiac issues. We also met with our pediatrician this week and received fabulous news. After 4 months and 13 days we actually can go without waking him every 2 to 3 hours at night to eat. We can let him sleep up to 5 HOURS! 5 hours.....that is more sleep than I have gotten in one single night for months. I cannot tell you how happy we were to get this news. Of course last night Cooper woke up every 3 hours anyway but I am hopeful he will soon realize he can sleep longer.

This past weekend I made Coop giggle really very hard! It was soooooooooo cute. As Sherri said, it is funny to watch his 5 month old mannerisms and alertness in his small 1 month sized body!

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK! GO KU!!!

Ok so I know we are not to give specifics about our location and such in our blog but it has to be said.....Lawrence is a great place to be right now! We had so much fun this past weekend with all the basketball hype. Saturday night we went over to Tom and Jan's and watched KU kick UNC. It was awesome!!! After the game some of us took a ride down to Mass Street. There were some 30K people down there and it was crazy! Of course we had to watch the championship game at the Pollard's too, we wouldn't want to do anything different than we did from Saturday night :) I thought Saturday night's game was fun but last night was FANTASTIC! I was not around for all the excitement in '88 so I find this all incredibly fun! The really cute part of it all is watching Raelynn. She gets just as excited. Her favorite player is Sasha Kaun and when he was sitting on the bench at one point she asked me why he was sitting out. I told her he was resting. She told me he had rested enough and should be playing.....she is definitely my daughter.....no sympathy! Anyway, we all had a great time!!! Tonight I heard Terry already preparing her for next year with her new favorite player.....Cole Aldrich.

Tomorrow we head to CMH to see Coop's cardiologist again. Each time I just hold my breath hoping this isn't the time we start making preparations for his next surgery. He is really doing well. I think I had mentioned that we had started infant massage with him. Well I don't know that it is because of that, but he has really seemed to be doing better. We don't have crying outburst anymore and other than him fighting sleep he seems to be much easier to care for. He also wasn't much of a cuddlier but now is really starting to snuggle with us. Whether it is the massage therapy or not, things really started to change since we began the therapy. He still has had a some rough times with Lisa but I am hopeful that it will improve as he seems to be doing so much better at home. I am just so thankful for him. He is getting such a personality and is laughing and smiling and talking. I know I worry like crazy about his next surgery but I feel so fortunate to have the medical advancements to care for him. There is a family that is very close to some friends of ours that spent much time and money trying to get pregnant. Miraculously they finally did only to find out at about 19 weeks that their son has Trisomy 13. Those with Trisomy 13 have additional DNA from chromosome 13 in some or all of their cells. This causes several abnormalities and if they make it to birth, the usually do not survive past infancy. So I read this blog about this family and am humbled by the Mom's grace. She has completely turned the situation over to God and seems completely at peace with whatever she is given. Which leaves me wondering why I cannot feel completely secure with Cooper's situation. I have far less to be concerned with and yet it occupies so much of my thoughts. I have never felt anger with Cooper's situation. I have felt sad and worried and so many other things but never anger yet I find myself wanting this Mom to be just a little bit angry at the situation. So I have no idea why I am writing about all this except to say that this Mom is amazing and every time I get really scared or worried about what might happen next to Cooper I look to her for strength and she doesn't even know it. I think if she can trust God with what she is dealing with I can feel pretty certain he is looking out for us too. It just seems you find strength in different places and many times she is mine.

THANKS TO THE HAWKS FOR GIVING US A VERY FUN YEAR!!!