Brothers

Pajamas

We are still adjusting to getting 2 kids ready to go somewhere. Sunday morning was no different. We were unable to make the first service at church and since Scott had a tee time at noon, the second service was not an option.

Since we didn't go to church, why not let our 2 year old run through the sprinklers in his pajamas? After all, it was 65 degrees out! What? All I asked was for someone to walk out to the mailbox and get me my newspaper and it turned into a 9 a.m. pajama sprinkler party.

My husband never ceases to amaze me. Thanks for being a fun Daddy.

Welcome Home

Jake is lovin his little brother. I know it doesn't look like it, but I think Caleb secretly likes him also. Jake's favorite things are trying to play frisbee with him, feed him cheerios, and lay under the activity mat together.

Caleb received his last antibiotic treatment around 7 p.m. on Thursday night and they let us free! It is so wonderful to have our family finally all together. I'm still soaking in all that has happened in the last few weeks, starting with my Dad's heart attack. All I know is that God has been good to our family and I am so thankful to be surrounded by such awesome family and friends.

Today has been a fun Saturday at our house. We got to see MSU lose to Central and Michigan win over Notre Dame. Jake wore his Michigan apparel while Daddy taught him to say GO BLUE. And little Caleb...he slept through it all.

Caleb Update

Today has been a great day for little Caleb. During the night, Caleb started eating much more consistently. That has allowed them to gradually reduce the amount of sugar water that they have been giving him through an IV. Also, now that he is eating better, his own blood sugar has started to rise and regulate itself with each feeding. Hopefully over the next day or so, they can completely remove the IV of sugar water. In addition, they did another chest x-ray this morning, and the results came back about 20 minutes ago--his chest is completely normal! No signs of the pneumonia. Praise God! Caleb will need to stay in the hospital throughout the next week as they continue to administer the remainder of the 10 day antibiotic cycle, but all signs are pointing in the right direction. Again, we greatly appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers. Our family and friends have definitely helped us during these very stressful past couple of days.

Tara and Scott

Caleb Thomas

This little guy was born yesterday at 2:09 a.m.! 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 21" long, exact same as Jake!

After a smooth delivery, he got off to a rough start. His blood sugar was low as well as some other blood counts. For some unexplained reason he has an unknown infection. After a clean spinal tap and some x-rays they are thinking he might have pneumonia. They are treating the infection with antibiotics, fluids, and sugar water (to raise his blood sugar count). We are waiting for a blood culture test that will be available tomorrow morning that should have some more definite results and identify if there are any other infections. Hopefully that will come back clean and the pneumonia is all we are worried about. We do expect Caleb to be in the hospital several more days, but are definitely encouraged by the progress he is making.

We are so thankful for the amount of prayers, calls, and visits from family and friends. God is certainly our anchor and keeping us ever mindful of his grace, mercy, and unfailing love.

We have learned how quickly word can spread through our tech world. Facebook wasn't the way we initially intended to share our exciting news of Caleb's arrival to close family and friends. I'm sure there was a lot of confusion as to what was happening. We are, however, SUPER grateful for all the words of encouragement and most of all, the prayers!

Nesting

Unfortunately I haven't blogged much about this pregnancy. I'm not much of a journal person. I wish that I was. As with Jake, I wish that I would've taken more pictures, wrote down pregnancy milestones, etc. Here I am in the home stretch and once again I am already looking back and regretting the lack of updates.

Up until a couple weeks ago, I really haven't done much nesting. Then it was like all the lack of had caught up to me. At 35 weeks pregnant, I convinced Scott to purge the house with me and have a garage sale. My anti-garage sale husband agreed. He even allowed me to throw our (his) family room recliner in the drive-way. I was pleasantly surprised by our efforts and the money we "made."

Then my hormones kicked into super high gear. I was convinced that we could simply take our garage sale earnings and invest in something to replace said recliner. Nope. I first needed a new cable jack on the opposite wall so I could keep my options open for furniture layout. So, my sweet husband called our friend to come install the new jack. They even moved the couch for me. Of course, I didn't like it. I wanted to paint the kitchen, install new floors, replace pictures, and paint the entertainment center....aaahhhh, let's just sell this house!

Yes, I might possibly be crazy. Or just 37 weeks pregnant. We settled on taking the old furniture from downstairs (sofa and loveseat) upstairs, buying slipcovers and throw pillows from Target...and calling it an afternoon. Oh wait, I did re-frame our kitchen pics too. O.K., Scott did that too, I just bought the supplies.

At the end of the day today. I'm satisfied. The slip-covers make me feel a little college-ish but we have more seating, different color palette, and a change in scenery.

Let's see what tomorrow brings or see what switch flips when I go back downstairs and see the disarray. I might have to pop some meds.

Fasten your seat-belts!

YFC Chicken BBQ

Community Chicken BBQ

Where: Downtown Zeeland
When: This Friday, August 7
Time: 5-7 p.m.
Cost: $8.50 includes 1/2 chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, watermelon, roll, beverage, and chocolate chip cookie.

This annual event is in conjunction with the 3-on-3 basketball tournament hosted by The Bridge Ministry.

Kate and I have worked really hard planning this event. Proceeds help our West Ottawa and Zeeland Middle school ministries.

I'm not gonna lie, this is some good eats. I would come even if I wasn't one of the coordinators! If you want tickets, leave me a comment and I'll set some aside for you. I might even give my blog readers an extra cookie. Don't tell.