The Christmas Eve Trifle Masterpiece, by Em

All-Bran Mornings

Every morning the kids clamour for Big Bill's attention, and for his bowl of All-Branny goodness (with raisins, of course). This morning Benjamin and Jackson beat Sophie to the lap.

We're here!

Praise be to God, most truly, we are in Hot Springs. On Tuesday morning the Dr.'s examination of Harry was fantastic. He said his lungs/chest were "crystal clear", and that he was really surprised with the improvement he'd made from Sunday. Now he's barely coughing, hasn't thrown up in days, and is looking nice and chubby/healthy. Thank you, Lord! So we began looking for plane tickets for the weekend, thinking we'd give him a few more days to recover. But based on availability and price, Wednesday or Christmas Day were our only options, and after much debate, here we are! Amazing! Thanks for your prayers.

Brotherly Love - A Christmas post

Jackson is regularly bringing Harry little gifts. We'll find him surrounded by tractors and trucks, stacks of books, his leftover dinner. . .

This week's gift was Jackson's favorite snack lately (as we've had them in abundance).

Harry's Health, and Ruthie's Christmas woes. . .

Well, let's put it this way - I came out of the appt. this morning in tears, with everyone in the waiting room trying to look away. What's wrong with her child? Did she find out about some terrible illness? No, she was crying despite her child's increasing health. He had maintained his weight as of yesterday, had no fever, and his cough is sounding better and better (though still gross and mucousy - for some reason he sounds worse in the dr.'s office than at home), but the Dr. said "if it were my child, I wouldn't go anywhere for Christmas". The tears I tried desperately to hold back (as I was within 2 ft. of the Dr.) were met with what I assume was an attempt to comfort (but made it worse, poor man), when he said something to the effect of "your child's health is more important than where you are on Christmas - you can make up for it next year." So here we are, trying to decide what to do. Sarah will leave tomorrow morning, as she's greatly missed in Hot Springs and needs to get ready for the crowds that are expected. We see the Dr. again on Tuesday, and probably on Thursday, and I'm hoping to fly out by Saturday. We'll see. Please pray that the Lord would guide (and, of course, that his guidance would be for Hot Springs for Christmas!). Love you all.

Harry's Health Update

This morning's appt. yielded good results. He maintained his weight, his fever was low-grade, and he sounds tremendously better. They did run some tests, which were great too! So now that Harry's on the up & up we're antsy to get to Hot Springs, but every doctor we've seen wants us to wait until the end of the week. Aaaargghh! Thanks for your prayers & emails!

Thank you for all your emails wondering where in the world we are. Well, we're surviving. . . here in Princeton, though the plan was to fly to Hot Springs today for a 3-week Christmas break. We've had quite a time these last few weeks. We've all been sick, including Harry, who is the real concern. We took him in to the Dr. on Tuesday and were told to go to the ER last night (Thursday), where bronchiolitis was the diagnosis, normally not too scary, but a concern for a 5 1/2-wk. old. They did a breathing treatment, x-rayed his chest, etc.. As of the Dr. appt. this morning, he's lost 6 oz. from Tuesday morning, and we were told that if he lost any more weight he'd have to go into the hospital. So please pray for him, that he'd hold down his feedings (he eats really well, but then starts coughing up mucus, has a gag reflex, and projectile vomits everything he's got in his little system. He's only kept down two, maybe three feedings in the past 24 hrs.), and please pray that we won't have to go to the hospital. Our insurance here isn't too great, and we've already racked up quite a list of bills from the birth, dr. visits, and now airline change fees. Thank you!

Uncle Dave

Jackson is infatuated with his Uncle Dave. He came to visit last week, and now "Dave" is regularly discussed, as well as spotted at the grocery, on the sidewalk, in mail order catalogs. . . anywhere a tall male with brown hair might be. A few nights ago when J woke up crying in the middle of the night, guess who he called out for?


Dave brought with him a 2nd birthday present from he and Lynn. Do you think he liked it?

Don't forget about me!

Poor Harry hasn't gotten a fair shake. So for all Harry fans out there, here's a little smirk for you!

Thanksgiving Day

We have so much to be thankful for! We were on our own Thanksgiving week (Matthew got barely anything done, poor guy! I'm still not sure how I'm going to handle 2 kids by myself when all help is gone. I'm a wimp.), and we celebrated the actual day with our friends the Michelsons.

Celebrating with Ruthie's family

My mom, Bethany, and Laurel on an evening walk in downtown Princeton. . .

Harry and my sister Laurel have the same birthday, November 6, and Jackson's birthday was November 10, so we waited for Laurel's arrival to celebrate. . .

The Birthday Buddies. . .

Morning Excursion with my family

This morning my family (Mama, Daddy, Laurel, Bethany) took Jackson to the orchard/petting zoo while I slept. . . the middle picture is Bethany and Harry yesterday. . . tomorrow or tonight we'll celebrate Jackson and Harry and Aunt Laurel's birthdays! Yay for fun and family visiting!

"Tea? Coffee?"

Jackson has recently entered the world of pretend, as evidenced in this video we took at the hospital (note my bare feet hanging off the bed!!). He kept offering us either tea or coffee (toffee) and then going to the cabinet to fetch it, but never quite delivering - just taking our orders over and over. We finally took out the camera for a video.

Home again, Home again

Jackson reading Dobson's Temper Your Child's Tantrums, eliminating the middle man for us

Settling into life with "bay-bee" "Hawee"

Hello, Harry!

Passing the time before surgery

You asked for it!

Here's me the evening before. . . less than 24 hours until the big moment!

Autumn Chicken?

Every Monday I attend a brunch for mothers of babies (Jackson is the oldest by a few weeks) with other ladies from our apt. complex. Yesterday was the Halloween celebration. Behold our little Spring Chicken!

Wednesday's Harvest Festival

A Saturday afternoon walk around campus

Terhune Orchards; first pic is with friend Joel Michelson

Our day at the NJ Shore (Island Beach State Park)