Sweet Elsie

The last two months have been an emotional whirlwind for our family. Our 20 week anatomy scan for baby #2 was July 11. We already knew we were having a girl and were hopeful that our visit that day would end with "Your baby looks great. See you in four weeks." Instead we left with teary eyes, an awareness of an increased risk of Trisomy 18, and a two week wait for a confirmatory test. The following week we received results that we would never wish for anyone. Our sweet girl does have Trisomy 18, also known as Edward's syndrome. Several ultrasounds and doctor visits later, we now know that there are also a couple of significant heart defects. We hope and pray that she will be delivered live at term, although we have no guarantee of that. We have also been told to expect that she will survive for hours to a few days. As any parents would be, we are heartbroken. We believe God formed Elsie just the way He wanted, but we do not understand why.

We are so thankful for the prayers and support of our friends and family. We are thankful that Elsie's imperfect body is in the hands of a perfect God who loves her more than we can imagine. We will try to update as we learn more.

Mazatlan

That's where we went on our 1st date- March 10, 2003. He was leaving the next day for a mission trip to Baja and I was leaving a couple of days letter for different trip. I thought his music choices were odd on the way to dinner (I had never heard of Juliana Theory), but it didn't matter. I felt comfortable with him and conversation was easy. So thankful for God's timing in bringing us together and the blessing he has been to me for the past 9 years. Love you, James!

Long time, no blog

And I don't have any really good reasons, except trying to keep up with Andrew. I may go back and blog about our wonderful trip to the City of Children in November, Christmas and a fun weekend in San Antonio, but for now I'll just talk about how great my husband is.  


He was asked to speak to Lipscomb's Presidential Scholars this past Friday night, so we got to dress up and have a nice dinner at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Being the irresponsible wife that I sometimes am, I forgot my camera, but Daley snapped a shot from afar (which I will try to add later).We had a really good time and I know James enjoyed reminiscing about his days at Lipscomb and studying abroad in Vienna, and bragging on all his successful friends. 


I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day. James is off tomorrow so we will be enjoying some family time and possibly snow??!! Not gonna lie, I am pretty ready for some warmer weather and excited about hanging out at the beach next month with the Wrights and Tucker Bear!

Fall So Far

September started out hard for the little man. On Labor Day, Andrew slipped and fell into the end table in the den resulting in a trip the ER. He had on some hand-me-down pj's (don't get me wrong, I LOVE hand-me-downs) and the grippers had lost their grip...lesson learned for the mom. He was a champ though and stopped crying before we even left the house. I called James until he answered which took three tries and we made a stop by the adult ER so Doctor Daddy could confirm my fears...he needed stitches. We headed over to children's and went straight to a room...thanks to James' higher-ups :). I was handling everything fine until it hit me that Andrew would likely have to be sedated...I mean how else are you going to put stitches in a 15 month old's face? And he had just eaten...so they initially told me it would be 4 hours, which I understood. Fortunately they were able to just give him oral medicine to sedate him, i.e. make him drunk, and the plastics fellow happened to be in the ED for another consult and fixed Andrew right up. And James made it over just in time to be moral support for me :). Poor little guy! Hopefully the scar will fade with time. 

Waiting on the Versed to work it's magic...

Now we're feeling good :)

Good as new and enjoying a popsicle.

We also celebrated my 10 year high school reunion in September. Now that is an event that will make you feel old! I really enjoyed catching up with everyone and dinner at Maggiano's never disappoints! I am sad though that I did not take a single picture!

Andrew LOVES to be outside and has been having a lot of fun "helping" James with yard work.

We spent two weeks at my parents' house while James worked at Sumner Regional for his community rotation. It was a good change of scenery for all of us. Andrew chased my parent's dog around everyday yelling, "Cat, cat, kitty cat!" Very entertaining. 

We are looking forward to going to the City of Children in November. I haven't been since 2006 and that is way too long! I hope everyone is enjoying all the things that make fall my favorite season!

August

Decided to do a little catch up blogging. In August, James and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary and James' 28th birthday. We are now the same age for a few short months :). James chose the Gerst Haus for his birthday dinner, claiming that he has wanted to eat there since he returned from Vienna in 2003. We had some hits and misses in our ordering and would definitely know what to order if we ventured back there.

We had some fun in Ripley visiting Nanny and Gandy. These pictures were taken when they were still in the hospital, but they are BOTH at home now! Praise the Lord!

And the cousins had a photo shoot in hopes of getting a good shot for Nana's birthday present and it was a success! Here are a couple of the rejects.

I am obviously biased, but these are three good looking babies!

And Aunt Meggie came before the Katy Perry concert, but Andrew was a little unsure of her wig.

Knoxville

James and I made a quick trip to Knoxville last weekend for the wedding of one his high school friends. You might not know this about James, but he was Mr K.H.S. That's Karns High School. (He was also the middle school mascot which is a beaver- I'll try to locate some pictures of that). And the lovely Allison Clark was Miss K.H.S. so of course we wanted to be there to celebrate.

We drove down Saturday morning in time to share a burger at Litton's, one of our favorites, and then off to the wedding we went. James enjoyed having a mini class reunion a year in advance.

The good looking Karns crowd.

My handsome date rocking the bowtie.

 Andrew had a big weekend too hanging out with Nana and Grandaddy. I don't know exactly what they did, but I'm sure it involved blocks, Andrew saying "cat" 1000 times, and probably him handing them a book to read him over and over :). 

Deep Fried

Last Tuesday night, some of James's food dreams came true. We were in Jackson hanging out with Craig and Anna and the boys thought it would be a good idea to deep fry some different items. It started when the deep fryer came out to cook some tater tots and it was all downhill (in my opinion) from there. 

 The battering.

The frying.

And the finished products- Oreos, Almond Joy, Twinkies, Snickers.

They both agreed the Twinkies were the best.

Can you see their arteries clogging?

Anna mixed these Oreo Brownies up earlier in the evening (courtesy of Pinterest) and they were delicious! Brownie batter+Oreos+brownie batter=pure yumminess.

And I can't write a post without including this guy. He LOVES corn and he prefers to eat it off the cob. What a guy.