Christmas 2012

We've had a great time this past week celebrating Jesus' birth with spending time with our families and we have one more special time coming up that I'll share later. :)

The girls before and after pics on Christmas morning.  It looks like a lot, but honestly our girlies are easy to please and like smaller stuff.  Except maybe for the boots that they needed! 

Christmas day we went to Nana's house.  Bella was too cute in her Christmas dress and bow!

And Miss Harper is precious!

Aunt Tracy is always so sweet and gives out plenty of gifts for everyone!

Nana got the girls some Snuggies they have always wanted and some bootie slippers!

Anna was sitting on Bella's bed with the tent on top of them.  It was too funny!

Harper was a little fussy and was about to throw some tears after I snapped this one. :o)

Nana and her grand-girls!

Tonight we met with Brian's dad's side of the family and had a great time.

Brian's dad is doing so well after his transplant surgery!  He has lost some weight, but he still looks great!

The group shot (minus a few)!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus that came so that we may live!

As I close I'm going to share Brian's Facebook status that he posted on Christmas morning.  It says all that needs to be said:

"Merry Christmas! I am thankful that like every year the girls woke us up this morning to open presents, but it hit me that the folks in Newtown, Conn. had a very different experience this morning. I am also thankful that my Dad is doing so well with his liver transplant, but there is a family that is missing a loved one this Christmas. I hope everyone will take the time to remember families who are grieving this Christmas. Most importantly I am thankful to the Christ of Christmas who has saved me and is better to me than I deserve. God bless you all this Christmas!"

Christmas Play 2012

The girls were part of our Christmas play at church this past week.  Holly was the main character and the mom of three little boys and she did a great job!

Anna read a beautiful poem before the play started.

Dad and Jan came to watch the girlies!  Nana, Amber, Bella, & Harper also were there, but they left before I could get a picture.

Our Christmas Card

After years of just buying cards and 4x6 photos separately to send out to family and friends, I finally got into the photo card thing!

Of course I couldn't just pick one picture to use! :o)

We want to wish you a very Merry CHRISTmas!!!

Isaiah 9:6

"For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Amanda's Graduation!

Last weekend the girls and I went to Amanda's college graduation.  She is from Virginia and has been coming to our church since she started at BC.  It is so hard to believe that she is now finished!
We are very proud of her!

Here are just a few pictures from years past. :)

Her first year at Berea she broke both of her wrists while playing tennis!  She stayed with us one weekend during that time and we had so much fun!  Except for the time when she fell asleep and jumped up and I thought she had re-broken both arms - that was a little scary, but she was ok! :)

Love her!

Amanda is such a wonderful young lady that has a heart for God and serving Him!  I am looking forward to seeing what all God has in store for this precious sister!

We love you bunches, Amanda!!!

Painting, Trees, and Super Special Visitors

I just realized that it had been one month since I last posted!  Yikes!

I better get to posting or I'm gonna get behind.  Story of my life sometimes. :)

We had a very blessed Thanksgiving with family and ate far too much.  I cooked, so I didn't get very many pictures.  Then we put our tree up the week after Thanksgiving, after the girls and I painted our kitchen!  It went from yucky cream/white to a wonderful sage green.  It only took us painting it three coats!  That was after I decided the first color I chose was too light. :)  But we love it!

We had promised Holly that we'd use colored lights on the CHRISTmas tree this year, so we did!  My Mama only used color lights on our tree while I was growing up and looking at our tree this year brings back some good memories. :)

We had some pretty special visitors from Atlanta the weekend after Thanksgiving.
I love this picture of Pa with Aidan.  One of my all time faves!

Vicki, Trent, and Aidan came up and we had the best time!!!  I just love this little family so very much!

Look at that precious face!  Is he not the cutest kid ever?!

He is Jenn Jenn's silly boy!  I miss him very much and I can't wait to see him again in a few weeks!!!

We went over to the airport to pick up Aunt Pat.  Sadly I never got a picture of her. :(

I'm doing another post about our sweet sister Amanda's college graduation that we attended last weekend.

We are all ready to celebrate CHRISTmas and the birth of our Savior!!!

What We've Been Doing This Fall

We have had a very busy, but very blessed fall season!  I've been blessed to take some photos for several families and that has kept me super busy too. :)

Here are some snapshots from my phone that hopefully will catch us up!

Some you'll recognize as Instagram pics  :)

The girls and I went with Brian before he went to work at 5:30 a.m. to vote!  I was the first one in our district to vote. :)

Then we had our traditional pancake breakfast.  Then went back to bed. :o)

The girls' youth group have been gathering items for the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes for the past year.  A few Saturdays ago they met and put them all together.  I think by the time they finished the total number of boxes sent from our church was 110!!!

We got to babysit a couple of cute little boys from our church a week or two ago and the girls got out their Playdoh.  Needless to say they kept is out for a day or two after and played a little more. :)

Brian's been busy gathering wood and he did a chimney sweep to get it all ready for winter!

The girls attempted to rake leaves, but our neighbors just wanted to play.  Ha!

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I loved it!  The only thing is I couldn't use the sand paper I bought (too coarse) so I ended up cutting the sides from the box and hot gluing them on the top of the lid.

Holly tried on boots for Christmas.

At WM the other day I made Anna pretend like she wanted this for Christmas. :(  

We hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving!!!

The Sheriff's Transplant

Brian's dad was put on the transplant list for a liver about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  We got a call to go last Wednesday to the hospital that they had a potential liver!  We waited around and were told at 2:40 a.m. it would be about 15-20 minutes before they came to get him, but around 3:20 a.m. the Dr. came in to say that the liver was a fatty liver and the Dr.'s weren't willing to risk the transplant.  So we all went home and waited.

Friday night the phone rang at 9:30 p.m. and it was Jerry's wife, Tracy, calling to say that they had another liver.  Only this time they were told to get the hospital ASAP!  We made a mad dash over to UK again and by the time we got there the transplant team and nurses were already in his room getting him prepped for surgery.  And Jerry and Tracy had only been there about 15 minutes before we got there!

We were able to visit for a minute and pray with him before they took him down for surgery.  It was funny, as they were wheeling him down the hallway we had people lined on both sides giving him a farewell.  Then we were able to all squeeze into the patient elevator and ride down together. 

I snapped this picture as one of the Dr.'s was having him sign the last of his paperwork before we got on the elevator.

Then we waited!

His surgeon came and talked to us around midnight and they were getting ready to start.

We were too loud for the ICU waiting room, so we had to move to the overflow room of the cafeteria. :)

They updated us every two hours and they finished around 8:00 a.m. that next morning.  The Dr. said that as soon as he got the new liver in and everything hooked back up (totally non medical terms, I know:) that it started producing bile and pumping blood!  Praise the Lord!!!

I snapped this picture of the entrance of UK Chandler Medical Center when Jerry was in the new ICU wing.  It's really a nice facility.

(Tracy updated everyone with this picture on Facebook Sunday morning)

He was pretty out of it on Saturday, the 27th, but by Sunday morning after they took out the respirator he was ready to sit up!  He didn't get any pain medication until Sunday around 2:00 p.m. - 30 hours post operation.  They were all amazed that he was feeling so good and already wanting to get up just 1 day after his surgery, but I say that God is an AWESOME God and is able!!! 

Sunday night he had to cough really bad and one of his small blood vessels that they had tied off busted open and they had to go back in and repair that.  But other than that little setback, he has been doing so great.  We just can't thank God enough for this!  We went to see them today and he may even get to come home Friday.  Our hearts have been so heavy for the donor, whose family so graciously gave the gift of life to others through their loss.  We have been praying for them also through all of this.

Jerry's twin brother also had a liver transplant about 5 years ago (he's the one standing behind Jerry in the first picture in the purple shirt).  They both had the same hereditary disease.  Here is the link to an article in our local paper about Jerry:

http://richmondregister.com/localnews/x1400202306/Sheriff-receives-life-saving-liver-transplant