Christmas Card Outtakes

I had it all planned out in my head.... we were to get family pictures taken... we'd print our cards using those pictures and then I'd have them in the mail by the 15th! We went and had our family pictures taken, and less than 20 minutes into the session, it started pouring rain. We don't see much rain, and we love it when it does, but did it have to rain during our photography session??

I was forced to forgo my perfect plan and decided to improvise. On Saturday morning, at 8am, we took the kids down to the park and snapped some shots of our own. These are the outtakes! If you want to see the outtakes from last year... click here... our babies have grown so much this year!

Now, for a quick update...

Owen is standing up and trying SO hard to pull to a stand. He'll walk if he hold both of his hands, he says 'sssaaannnndddd', and he is so excited to be up on his feet. We are THRILLED!!

We went to Cardiology on Monday and Dr Stock was happy with Owen's cardiac output. We are both a little concerned about the puking, which is constant. Some days, like today, he has puked five times or more. He's still gaining weight at a rapid rate, but I still worry. We scheduled an echo for Jan 25th to make sure his heart is doing okay, and we'll do it sooner if necessary. In the meantime, I started him on Prevacid again and we'll take it day to day.

Kamryn is counting down the days until winter vacation. No school for three weeks!!! She has her school holiday party today and her 4th grade musical is tonight.

We are done shopping, still baking and are totally excited for next week!!

Get Togethers

Tis' the season to stay busy and enjoy time with family! I have a few posts in the works, so I will be doing blog overload this week. This past weekend was full of fun and family time. We had the pleasure of having my family and the Cerneka's over so that we could see Mister Luke.

Without going into too much detail....

My sister, Kelli, had a baby boy about 10 months before I had Owen. She made the selfless decision to give him up for adoption at birth, as she was not able to care for him. His adoptive parents are Wonderful, seriously amazing, and Luke is the center of their existence. They are so generous to allow our family to enjoy time with Luke and to let him know his biological Mom and her family. Owen thinks he's pretty cool too.

We love you Mister and we love your mom and dad for loving you SO much!!!
And this is Miss Livvy, my niece, also my sister's daughter. She doesn't like me much, but I'm not Mom. We are so proud of Kelli for making the choice to take control of her life so that she can now enjoy the many blessings of Motherhood.

The day before our fun get-together, we took the kids to the Phoenix Mended Little Hearts party at the Athertons. I had NO idea how big this party was going to be! Snow, Santa, food, and great company! It was great to meet many other heart families from our area, to visit with the Atherton family again (we had the pleasure of hanging out with them at Stanford in Oct) and to visit with our old heart friends. Such a great time! Kamryn and Owen wanted nothing to do with Santa, we had to bribe them to sit on his lap. Owen was more interested in chewing on his oxygen cord and Kamryn kept saying "Take the Picture already!"
This week has been full already, and there is so much more to blog about! I'll try to squeeze in a new post everyday so that I can stay caught up! I hope you are all enjoying time with your family and friends!!

This is what happens...

.....when Owen attempts to butt-scoot away from his oxygen tank.