Update on Bryan and Dylan

Here's an update from Sonny's (Bryan's brother) mother in law:

Little Dylan is still in very serious condition but we are encouraged by what is happening. He is still heavily sedated but he has been breathing the whole time on his own, which is very good. He had surgery to place a trach on Tuesday but it was purely a precaution. He responds when he hears his mother's voice or the machines beeping by turning his head toward the sound. He had pigskin grafts to his neck, chest, and abdomen yesterday. We were very encouraged that they did that so soon. His little eyes are still swollen shut but the doctors' believe that they will be okay when the swelling goes down.

His daddy, Bryan, is going to remain in Hermann Hospital in Houston for a while. He has second degree burns to his arm, shoulder, and side and third degree burns to his ankles and legs. I do not know how far up his legs the burns go. All the skin was burned off the bottom of his feet. He is in a great deal of pain and, of course, is very worried about his son and feeling guilty that he could not get to him. Sonny spent a couple of days helping his dad tear down the part of the house that was burned. The Baptist Men on Mission, a group of retired men from our church, are going to help them rebuild the house. Wiley had built the house himself the first time. Several benefits are being planned. One is a barbecue at the VFW hall in Cleveland on April 5.

God answers prayers; thank you for your prayers (I know the family appreciates them more than we know) and please keep praying!

Prayer request

This family needs all the prayers they can get, so I'm asking everyone I know to pray. "On Sunday Afternoon March 8, 2009 a house fire broke out in Tarkington leaving Dylan Mills (17 months old) and his father Bryan Mills seriously burned. Dylan was flown by helicopter to a Shreveport Burn Center, and Bryan is in Memorial Hermann’s Jones Pavilion Burn Unit. They are both undergoing multiple surgeries and could use all the help that we can get. Any and all donations are greatly appreciated! Please keep the Mills family in your thoughts and prayers."

Bryan's parents house also burned down in the accident and they didn't have homeowners insurance. Obviously, that isn't the main concern right now, but the entire family is going through a LOT right now and all need our prayers and support.

There are two accounts set up to for the family.

Wachovia Bank under Bryan and Dylan Mills in c/o Jennifer Wood& Chase Bank under Dylan Mills

Please contact Jennifer Wood or Amy Ayers for any other information regarding donations or the family:
Jennifer Wood – 281-659-7492 or jenicwhe@yahoo.com
Amy Ayers – 936-402-4317

Please also pray for the family of Paul Mitchell, who passed away on Jan. 29th, especially his wife Joanna and young children, William and Ashlyn. Another request is for the family of Brad Wims, who passed away on March 2nd, including his wife Jenny and their young children, Zeke and Kaelyn. www.thewims.blogspot.com

This is all so sad, and all I want to do is cry and let the weight of these tragedys get me down. It's ok to be sad, but I know that I cannot let the devil keep me in dispair, because it is he who puts these negative thoughts in my head. For we know that GOD calls us to cast all our anxiety on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). We know He listens to our prayers and answers them in His own time and in His own way. All we can do is offer them up to heaven and trust His perfect grace to see us through. This last paragraph is more for me than anything; somehow writing it out is therapeutic and reminds me of God's promise. But I hope it comforts you as well in these troubled times. We have to treasure every moment God gives us!

Logan's first haircut

Logan got his hair cut a couple of weeks ago. It was sort of unplanned so we only have pictures with the camera on my phone (sorry they are so small), but at least we captured it some how. My mom was watching Logan that day. I was supposed to get my hair cut at 4pm and my mom was supposed to get hers done at 5pm, but she got the times confused and showed up before I did. So she went ahead and had hers done since Sela, who cuts our hair, is pretty fast. Logan sat in her lap with the little kid's cape on and was apparently very well behaved.

Then I showed up and got my hair cut. Then Sela shaped both our eyebrows and offered to cut Logan's hair. He just needed a little trim in the back, but I figured I would take him to one of those kid salons so he would tolerate it better. He was feeling right at home, though, so I figured, "what the heck?" He sat in my lap in the chair, she put the cape on, and went right to work. He was busy playing and didn't even notice until she pulled out the trimmer (you know, the buzzer thing) at the end. He was curious, but didn't fuss at all and was pretty still. Now he looks just as precious as ever and doesn't have a crazy-wavy hair when he gets out of the bath tub.

Logan's 1st Birthday

Logan turned one on December 18th, but we celebrated on December 13th with family so that it wasn't too close to Christmas. It was great! I wanted to keep it small so he wouldn't feel overwhelmed; he's going through that stranger anxiety phase right now and even family that he doesn't see often enough are "strangers" to him. I know he'll outgrow that soon enough, but I wanted his big day to be special for him, not just us. He warmed up to everybody really quickly, though, and enjoyed his first taste of Chick-fil-a nuggets.

He didn't really open his presents. I felt silly opening presents I wrapped, but I have a feeling I won't be doing that again next year. Plus, he got a lot of great presents from other family members. Once the paper was off, he was very curious about each gift and would get so engrossed in a toy that he didn't even notice I was opening a new one. He was a little overwhelmed by all the new toys, books, and clothes and so were we. We are so blessed with such generous and loving family and friends.

This is the first gift he opened (I opened) and he was so fascinated that he couldn't focus on anything else.

Then we opened a Build-a-bear dog from Aunt Holly. She recorded a message so you hear her say, "happy birthday, Logan" when you push his paw. He thinks it's pretty neat, but you can see he's still got his hand on that piano.

So I just took the piano away so he would pay attention to me opening other presents and then we opened a lawn mower and it had his undivided attention. Uncle Rick couldn't get it put together fast enough. They were trying to figure out how to get the handle to stay up and finally realized it's not supposed to. Logan didn't care either way, as you can see.

And here is your stereotypical 1-year-old playing with one of the boxes. (It wasn't a computer) :-)

We sat him in his high chair and sang happy birthday to him and he just loved it. He got this big grin on his face, like he was thinking, "all this, for me?" Then I blew out his candle and set his little mini-cake on his tray. He just looked at it and wasn't sure what to do. I guess he knew Daddy was watching and he had better not make a mess. I finally fed him some with a fork and he decided it was not half bad. The only sweets he had had before that was a few bites of pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving. Needless to say his little taste buds were in shock, but in a good way. There's no turning back now.

He eventually tried to turn the plate over, so we put his cake right on his tray and he went to town. He never really got icing everywhere, like I was expecting, but I did find blue icing in the cracks and crevices of his high chair the next day. He absolutely loved it and ate almost the whole piece, mostly cake not all icing, thank goodness. And the best part is he still eats his peas!

He wasn't too sure at first...

When he realized how good it was and how he had everyone's undivided attention and how we all laughed when he made this face after taking a bite, he did it every time.

Whoops!

I want to thank all of our family for helping me with Logan's party, including Michael's dad for taking the great pictures and letting me use them on my blog. His are the ones with the border. He says he's not good at indoors and photographing people, but I have to disagree.

SNOW!

It actually snowed in Baytown, as many of you may know, on December 10th. It was such a good surprise, because I knew it was going to be really cold that night, but I was expecting sleet, not 3+ inches of snow! And the funny thing is we would have probably missed the whole thing if it weren't for the girls, our furbabies :-).

Logan had already gone to bed and Michael went to let the girls out to go potty one last time before we went to bed and when he opened the door it was snowing! My mom had called earlier from my sister's house in La Porte and said it was snowing, but I was skeptical until I saw it myself. I wanted to wake Logan up, but Michael said, "how you you like it if someone woke you up out of your peaceful sleep to take you outside in 33-degree weather?" When he put it that way it didn't sound like such a smart idea since he's not old enough to appreciate it anyway.

Bailey just loved it once she got over the initial cold shock. Zoey & Bailey both ran around like wild animals, but Zoey was ready to go in after a few minutes. Here is Bailey trying to get Zoey to play. Z looks pitiful, doesn't she?


Here's B trying to bury her "bird" in the snow. It's actually a rope bone they they play fetch with.

We had to make her come inside and then Michael let her go out again a little later and we took more pictures because the snow just kept falling. Here's a picture of the palm tree in our back yard the first time we went outside.

Here's the poor thing when we went back out an hour or so later.
Here's our house the next morning.
The pictures I took that night of the house didn't turn out too well. I couldn't figure out how to get the camera to focus on the house and not the snow that was falling right in front of me, especially in the dark. That's definitely something I'd like to learn how to do, but not a technique I will be using very often.

I wish Logan could have seen and played in the falling snow, but I'm sure there will be many more opportunities for him to experience that. Hopefully the next "big" snow fall won't follow a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast. I guess the snow surprise was God's way of helping us forget, if only for a few hours, the horrible aftermath of Ike and reminding us that with Him, anything is possible.

Logan's 1st Thanksgiving

So, I'm behind; what's new. I finally have a chance during lunch to put the few pics I have up. My mom has a couple of cute ones of him standing, but I don't have them electronically yet.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Here's Logan pre-lunch in his AgHorn shirt.

Talk about a confused baby! Michael and I argued over what he would wear for the big A&M/UT game and he ended up wearing neither school's colors. He was asleep before it had been on an hour anyway. I did sneak in an Aggie paci, though, and notice the table he's sitting at. :-)

Logan loves sweet potatoes (especially when they are coated in sugar) and rolls, but he tried some other dishes, too. He actually eats pretty healthy (green peas are his favorite finger food) and Thanksgiving, with all it's delicious sides, isn't the most healthy meal.

Here he is with his sweet potatoes in my high chair from when I was a baby. Holly and I both used it. :-)

It was a very good Thanksgiving. After all, we do have multiple blessings to be thankful for: a healthy, happy baby; our families; our friends; our health; and always having what we need. And I got to eat most of my meal before Logan decided he was done and it was nap time!

25th Percentile!

I just wanted to share Logan's good news before I get too far behind since I haven't even posted Thanksgiving pics yet. Michael took him for a weight check the day before Thanksgiving since he's been in the 5th percentile since he was 6 months old. We've been having to go in for weight checks every month since then and he's stayed consistent at 5-10th percentile. But now he is in the 25th percentile! Michael said the nurse was so excited and said he looked really good. Honestly, we didn't think he was skinny before, but apparently babies should be downright chunky to be considered "healthy." Too bad that expectation changes as you get older, huh?

Hopefully I'll get the Thanksgiving pics up soon. It hasn't been at the top of my priority list, with Logan's birthday and Christmas coming up. But I did get my blog background changed!