Bikini

Amelia's first bikini!!!

Feathers Family Christmas

After we spent the morning as a family, we went to Nathan's parents house to celebrate Christmas with his parents and siblings. Since Ezekiel and Amelia are the only grandchildren and nephew and neice, they made out pretty well :)

Christmas Morning

This year we woke up and spent Christmas morning together just us four. We opened presents and then had a nice breakfast. Ezekiel was so cute, he would open a present, want to open it up and play with it, and then would ask for another present. It was quite funny, until of course there were no more presents. No just kidding, when he was done, he just went straight to playing with his new toys. This year we had a theme to all his presents. He is a big fan of the CARS movie, so most of his presents were related to the movie. We got him all the CARS cars, the movie of course and some other CARS stuff. He was pretty excited!!

Watershed Christmas

Here are some pictures of our first Christmas season with our new church, Watershed. This is a picture of some of our core team members. And then for our Christmas Eve service Nathan and Luke lead us in communion and a time of journaling.

Santa Comes to Town

This is the first year that Ezekiel understands the concept of Santa. We've never taken him to see Santa, but this year Zeke asked if he could see Santa. So we took him to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. He was so excited!!!!! However, when we got up to Santa, Zeke wouldn't smile for the camera. Little shy!

All Smiles

Amelia has been smiling for awhile now, but finally I caught a picture of it. Actually not just one picture, it took me about five minutes and twenty pictures, but none the less, here it is.

Our Little Musician

A family that we go to church with gave Ezekiel a set of drums for Christmas. Their daughter got a new set, and they wanted to give Zeke her old set. They brought them over and can I tell you how excited he was!!!! Our son is quite the musician. He loves anything that plays music (especially the drums). So he has enjoyed them quite a bit. And might I say, his drumming actually sounds good. Not bad for a two year old!

Go Bucks!!!!!!

Thanks to his Uncle Ryan, Uncle Jeff and dad, Ezekiel is a Buckeye fan. During the games, he will shout, "Go Bucks", cheering for his team. It's really quite cute. And his other Uncle Ryan (from MI) tries to get him to say "Go blue", but Zeke is a true fan and refuses. It doesn't keep Uncle Ryan from trying though.

Potty Time

And...so it begins, potty training. Zeke is doing pretty well, although I think he would be okay peeing and pooping in his diaper for the rest of his life!!! He's been really cute throughout the whole process. And believe it or not, he prefers to run around the house without anything on, but we're really trying to get him to wear his "CARS" underware instead :)

Watershed Thanksgiving

This year we had our church (Watershed) Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Our team is so great and we couldn't have planted this church without them. God has trully blessed us with them all.

Thanksgiving

This year my family came to see us for Thanksgiving. My parents and my sister Annette, nephew Dakota, and brother David all graced us with their presence!!!! It was such a great day. And then my sister Gwenda and brother-in-law Ryan came for Thanksgiving weekend. And surprise, surprise Gwenda and I almost got all our Christmas shopping done!!! Anyway, it was a great Thanksgiving.

The Shunt

Just wanted to update you all on Amelia's surgery. On Tuesday morning we went in, and Amelia's surgery started at noon. Of course we weren't in there with her so we waited in the waiting room. The surgery didn't take very long. Dr. Elton was in there with her for one hour and came out with the good news...the surgery went well. He said she was a trooper and took the anesthisia very well. The surgery was the "easy" part he said. Easy for someone who operates on the brain all the time I suppose!! Anyway, we stayed overnight at the hospital so they could monitor her (a rough night might I say...she was in some discomfort, of course). And they discharged us the next day. Since her surgery, she's been a bit fussy, but who wouldn't be :) The tylenol does the trick. So, Amelia has a small incision on the back of her head and one in her belly. Our only real concern now is the risk of infection. So please still keep Amelia in your prayers. And of course, keep checking our blog for more updates :) Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!

Amelia's Surgery

Today Amelia had an appointment with the neurosurgeon. They did a CT Scan and found that she has more fluid on her brain than when she was born. So this coming Tuesday, Amelia will have surgery to put a shunt in. The shunt will run from her brain to her stomach and drain the excess fluid. Her surgery will be at 12:00 PM this coming Tuesday, so please pray that everything goes okay, that she recovers well, and that the shunt works properly. Thanks to you all!!!

Byron, Amanda, and Luke

This past weekend Byron and Amanda came to visit us from good ol' MI. Luke came in from IN too. It was a great weekend and really good to see them all!!!!

To Infinity and Beyond

This year for Halloween Zeke was Buzz Lightyear!!!! He just started liking Disney movies, and he loves Toy Story. Anyway,he was so adorable. He pretty much wore his costume all day (his request, of course). We went to story time at the library as Buzz with some of his friends, Caiden and Sophie. We also went trick or treating with Sophie. So, we practised, saying "To infinity and beyond" and "Trick or Treat" for when we went out for candy, but whenever we went to someone's door, Zeke got shy. Which for those of you who know him, shy is not a word we usually use to describe him. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and he got way too much candy, but its only once a year, right?

Big Brother Zeke

Ezekiel has done really well with his new little sister (whom he calls Mia). He loves to touch her and kiss her and hold her. Although he really only holds her for a few seconds before he says, "Done Mommy." He gets jealous of her some but never takes it out on her. He takes it out on Mommy and Daddy!!!! He is a little "needier" than normal too, but that's to be expected when he's not getting all the attention. Nathan and I have just made sure to make time for him one on one. Then he's pretty satisfied. All in all, I think he's gonna be a great big brother. Nathan says we'll give him until he's ten and put him on steroids so he can protect his little sister. We'll see about that!

Grandma Avery

My mom obviously couldn't stay away from her new grandbaby, so she made a trip out here to visit us. She was such a big help to me, and Zeke loved having his Grandma there to spoil him. And of course, she got to spend lots of time with Amelia. It was so nice to have her, and let me say, really sad when she had to go home.

The Name

Finally we've picked a middle name for this baby!!!! First of all, let me tell you why we picked Amelia. Since we had so many complications with Amelia while I was pregnant with her, we wanted to pick a name that really meant something (just like we did with Ezekiel). So we picked the name Amelia because it means "work of God", which is really true of our little princess. Nathan picked her middle name out. When she was in the NICU hooked up to all the "stuff", Nathan looked at her and begged God to give her strength and saw His strength play out in her live so far, so he wanted a name that means strength. So our little lady is now Amelia Skye.

Homecoming

Well, today we were able to take Amelia home. When she first was born and sent to the NICU, the doctors thought she would be there for two weeks. She progressed really well, and they discharged her a week earlier than they thought. What a huge praise!!!! Because of the surgery she had with her umbilical cord and the intesines coming out of it, she was unable to eat for the first five days of her life. They allowed her to begin eating on Thursday and said her discharge would depend on how well she ate. Obviously she's not like her picky-eater brother, Ezekiel, because she ate wonderfully. And now she's home with us!!!!!

Amelia's Arrival

On October 8th at 9:54AM our second little bundle of joy was born. Her name is Amelia (she is still at present, middle nameless). She was 4 pounds 8 ounces and 17 inches long. She was born c-section style and can I say, they worked really hard to get her out!!!!! It actually went really well.

Amelia, had some complications during pregnancy, and because of some of those things, she was "high risk". At birth, she was immediately taken to NICU at Children's Hospital here in Columbus, OH. Amelia was born with some of her intestines coming out through her umbilical cord. They have since done surgery and it went really well. They "made" her a belly button, and it looks really great. She also was born with a Dandy Walker Malformation on her brain. The doctors ran about a million tests on Monday and Tuesday, we are still awaiting some of the results. She will not need a shunt in her brain to drain the fluid from the malformation, so that's a big praise. The only thing we're waiting for is for Amelia to eat on her own, and we'll be able to take her home. So we're praying she picks it up quickly.