Merry Christmas!

Here's a little Christmas cheer from our sweet Suzie:

28th Week

As I enter my 28th week of pregnancy, tons of memories flood into my mind of a little over two years ago when I experienced one of the scariest and yet most joyful times in my life. At this time in my pregnancy with Suzie, I noticed that she wasn't moving as much as I had become accustomed to. For two days I would try to get her to move and felt as though her movement was becoming less frequent. Looking back, I can see the Lord's hand in everything that happened those few weeks and months when Suzie was born. I wouldn't have gone in to the doctor unless my nurse had called me to give me some test results. Had I waited even a day, it would have been too late and we would have lost her. I had the most wonderful OB who was not only incredibly skilled, but also a strong believer who kept telling me, "We know Who's in control!" We were able to get into one of the best NICU's and stay right across the street. Suzie was given a 40% chance of surviving and we were told if she did make it, she would most likely be moderately to severely mentally and physically disabled. And just look at her now! What a blessing she is to us and we wouldn't trade all that we went through for anything. We have been blessed far more than we deserve and every day Suzie is a testimony of how merciful God is to us wretched sinners.

People ask me all the time if I'm scared about this pregnancy. The truth is, I can be tempted to worry sometimes. Who's to say that the Lord doesn't want me to go through something like this again? And yet, I know and have seen that when you encounter a trial that seems far too great for you to handle, God's grace is right there to see you through every moment. And so, whenever I am tempted to fear, I look at my Suzie and see God's grace overflowing. I remember how scary it was and how the Lord comforted me all the way. And I do pray everyday for the safety of Sawyer, knowing how the Lord loves Him far more than I ever could! I praise God for allowing Sawyer to be quite the mover so I can have that little bit of assurance that he's doing okay. If I were to encounter a day when his movements decreased significantly, it would certainly be scary! But what a blessing it is to know that we can trust in our Sovereign and kind God.

I thought I'd post this picture of what Suzie looked like the day she was born, since Sawyer is about that size right now, and I still have a whole trimester left!

Suzie Lorraine; 7.18.08; 1 lb. 14 oz.; 13 1/4 inches

Is It December Already?

Well, I don't know where the time has gone. Thanksgiving came and went so quickly and we were so blessed to have our dear friends invite us over to their home for the holiday since it was our first Thanksgiving away from family. We were at their house from 10am to 8pm. I hope we didn't overstay our welcome! Suzie just loves the Eddins and will always recite all 7 of their names whenever we are on our way to their home. Here is a picture of her with two of their boys, Danny and Judson:


I said I would never get a fake tree, but some friends had an extra one that they gave us and I gotta admit, I love it! No mess, no hassle with the lights, no dead needles, no holes. Why didn't I convert sooner?

We don't have a fireplace so we had to improvise with the stockings:)

Our traditional Thanksgiving family picture. It's amazing to get one with no one's eyes closed!

Here's one of my favorite's of Suzie-Q.

And one more fun one...with Suzie's bedhead:)

We are doing great here. I'm 25 weeks now and feel more pregnant than I ever did with Suzie. I'm only three weeks away from where I was when I had her! That is just crazy. Kyle wanted to stick with the "S" names so we've decided to name him Sawyer. Little Sawyer is quite the mover which is definitely the best thing about pregnancy. Suzie's doing great and is officially doing therapy without mom around. I watch from the parent room and she is just thriving. She is walking more and more, probably 5-10 steps 6-8 times a day on her own. She does better at therapy. She is talking up a storm, knows all her shapes and numbers from 1 to about 13 and is even getting pretty close to knowing the whole alphabet (in the song, not by seeing the letters).

Since this really is my online scrapbook and the closest thing I have to a baby book for Suzie, I wanted to record some of the cute things she has been saying lately so I'll remember them years from now. Here are a few phrases she says regularly in her sweet little voice:
"Hi Mommy! Good morning to you!"
"Daddy!!! Suzie wants you!!"
"I get it for you."
"Hey! What you doing?"
"How are you?" Then when you ask her how she is she'll respond with, "Pretty good."
"I hurt. Kisses make it better."
"Twenty-two hours." (No idea where this comes from but she says it a lot!)
"Where are we?" She says this whenever we get really close to home and she wants you to ask her the same question back. Then she'll say, "Home!"
"Night, night darling."
"Bye sugar!" She says this to her therapist Pam when she's leaving.
If you go into the bathroom she'll say, "I go potty too!" Although she's not really close to actually using the potty:)
There are so many other funny little things she says, but that's all I can think of for now.

Thanks for continuing to follow us here on the blog. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Trunk or Treat

For Halloween our church went to The Boys Ranch, a children's home in Lubbock. The kids had all kinds of games and food and then they went around the parking lot to receive candy from all our trunks. The kids had a great time and ended up with TONS of candy! Here are some pics of our time.


Suzie went as a puppy dog but some people thought she was a cow:)



She keeps asking for her puppy shirt!




And I had to include a few videos of Suzie singing. So sweet!

She starts yelling in the middle because she is so impatient to watch herself on camera!

Praise the Lord

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Suzie's eye surgery! The surgery went very well and the doctor was pleased. Her eyes are very red and a little crossed for now, but we hope that once her eyes adjust to her new looser muscles, they will be a little straighter. After a few hours of fussiness and discomfort after the operation, she had a great night's sleep and seems to be back to her normal self. Praise God! We won't have a complete look at her alignment for another six weeks, but the doctor seemed pleased with how she looked this morning. We pray that she will not need another surgery for a very long time! Or at all would be nice:)

Please Pray

Please join us in praying for Suzie's eye surgery! The surgery is scheduled for 10:00am on Monday morning. They said for us to plan on being there all day and being able to bring her home that evening. Please pray for the Lord to protect her and for wisdom for the doctor. We will post how it turned out on Monday evening. Thank you so much for your prayers! What a blessing it is to be a part of the family of God.

It's a...

For those who haven't heard on Facebook...

Kyle is just thrilled!

I also wanted to post a little video of Suzie taking a few steps! We see more and more progress with her every day.


We had a great time with my sister and her youngest daughter, Ashley. Suzie liked Ashley a lot, although she kept calling her Shelby, but Ashley seemed a little afraid of Suzie. Suzie is kind of a rough little girl, so I hardly can blame her!



Suzie is officially a "Puggle" in our Awana program. Here she is sporting her new shirt and backpack. She's such a big girl!

She's already such a loyal Red Raider fan and cheers, "Go Raiders!" even when we are losing:)