Merry CHRISTmas to all!

We are so blessed this Christmas! We have two fabulous boys. We have so many wonderful friends and family members who have supported us on our journey over the last year. We want you all to know how much your thoughts and prayers mean to us. We are so appreciative of every ooh and ahh that Kouper receives. We think he is perfect and all of you guys look at him that way too. We didn't think we'd get to this point so quickly, but we have.

May you have peace and love over the holidays. Enjoy all of God's blessings and remember the reason for the season.

Santa Claus!

Here are the pictures of Kayson and me around the same age (12 months). Both pictures were taken at North Star Mall with the one and only Santa Claus! Both of us had the same reaction, as you can see! I think he might have pinched us! Oh well... as long as he brings me some great presents all is forgiven.

Doing great!

I went to see Mr. Wenske on Wednesday with mommy and daddy. He added on to my conformer (which is a beautiful shade of blue!!!) to help expand the opening in my eye. He added about a 1/4 inch to the thickness of it. When he took it out it wasn't so bad... but putting it back in was another story. It took 3 tries to finally get it back in. It's so hard for me because daddy has to basically pin me down while Mr. Wenske puts it in. It's hard for mommy and daddy to watch me scream. But we all know that it's for my own good. There was some good that came out of the visit. Connie, who helps out Mr. Wenske, had a birthday present for me! She is in the photo above with me, but that was taken in September. She gave me a cool piano that I love to bang on! I love Mr. Wenske and Connie even though our visits aren't so fun. I also got to see Santa Claus... but I feel just like my brother Kayson did at 12 months... Santa is one scary dude! I'll post both of our pictures with Santa soon!

Why?

Why am I obsessed with trash cans? Who knows, but I love them. Especially the kitchen one, it swivels.

Prinka and me!

Not me!

No mom, that wasn't me who unrolled the toilet paper! Who could do such a thing?

Thanksgiving pics

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My great aunt and uncle came down from Arkansas and brought my cousin Cameron too. He is funny and likes to play with me. My uncle Todd also was here from Albuquerque. I was a little scared of all that hair, but I warmed up to him eventually. We also had the Stadtmuellers over and the Shaos. It was fabulous. After that we went to see my Meme and Popo in New Braunfels. Mabel their pet deer greeted us and she is so sweet. I got to see my cousins Audry and Ella and we had a fun time.

Where is that yummy stuff?!

I know that mommy always gets my food out of here! Where is it? There's got to be something delicious in my reach!

My party celebrating the first 12 months of life!

I had a fabulous birthday party at my house! As you can see I loved my eggless cake! Okay well maybe I didn't get to the actual cake part, but the icing was darn good! I had lots of family and friends over and they were all here because of me! How special did I feel that day? I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! Can I have my birthday every day??

Thank you Chelsea and Papa for taking such awesome pictures!

Thankful

My mommy and daddy wanted to take a minute to tell you guys what they're thankful for...
One year ago (on Thanksgiving! (we don't think it's coincidence)) Kouper came into our lives. Little did we know that he would turn out to be our very own miracle. We were totally distraught at first, not knowing if our little angel would be okay, not knowing where to turn. It was like a whirlwind, yet time stood still. All we knew in the beginning was that he had "multiple congenital anomalies". We were told he had heart problems, words like ventricular septal defects, heart murmurs and holes in his heart were thrown out there. What? Our baby? It couldn't be!? But it was. We didn't even know what anomalies were, or the impact that they would have on all of our lives. It took months to decipher through all of his "issues". We left the hospital with a ton of doctors to see and still questions about his eye and most everything else in our minds. What? Now what do we do? Is this really happening to us? No one ever thinks that their baby will have health problems. It can't happen to me! Yes it can, and it does... every day. The only thing to do is pray (a lot) and lean on your family and friends.

Well look at Mr. Kouper now! He is doing wonderful. Most of the holes in his heart are closed, he is sportin' one uh I mean TWO beautiful blue eyes, his solitary kidney is functioning great, his bladder diverticulum hasn't caused any infection, his scoliosis is okay for now and we are two very proud parents of one very little miracle.

We are so thankful for all of you guys who have offered prayers for us. Most of all we're thankful for our sweet, sweet baby boy... Kouper Shane.

Secondly we are so blessed to have Kayson too. He is the best big brother anyone could ever ask for. He is well mannered, kind-hearted, loving, generous, adorable, brilliant, hilarious, a great helper and we couldn't be any more proud of him.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Today is my birthday and I am one year old! It's hard to believe that it's been a year already. We've been through so much. I am ever so thankful for my blessed life. I am one lucky little boy, but my family is even luckier to have me! I hope to continue to receive God's blessings in my next year of life.

I pretty much rocked it!

I guess I am getting pretty good at this surgery thing! This time my mommy and daddy were very late to get to the hospital. It was so foggy the morning of my surgery we could hardly see a thing. It turned out to be a good thing for us though because we didn't have to wait too long in the waiting room. I was such a good boy, even though I was starving. I was taken back to the prep area in about 10 minutes and we talked to the doctors and anesthesiologists about what was going to happen, and then I was off! Mommy and daddy headed to the hospital cafeteria for some breakfast while I was having my surgery. Dr. Fry found a growth on the fat transfer in my eye so she removed it. Mr. Wenske took an impression of my eye and then put in my new BLUE conformer. That's pretty much it. When mommy and daddy came back to the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unite) I was still asleep. This was a big change from usual. At this point I am usually screaming my head off so they were a bit surprised. As soon as I woke up though it was screams as usual. After I was able to have some of mommy's milk I was good to go! All of the nurses were very nice and they let me go home as soon as I had eaten some cereal and pudding.

Send me some prayers, please!

On Thursday I will be going under anesthesia for I think the 4th time. Dr. Fry and Mr. Wenske are going to check on my eye and make sure that everything is doing what it should be. Mr. Wenske is also going to take an impression of my eye so he can make a conformer that fits me perfectly. The thing that I'm most excited about is that I'm going to get a new conformer that isn't clear! Mr. Wenske is going to paint it more like an eye for me! I am so blessed to have him. I know I'll do fine, but if you could just say an extra prayer for me, I'd appreciate it!

Weekend adventure!

This weekend we went to Ink's Lake. Daddy took off work on Friday so we picked up Kayson from school and we were off! We sure picked a cold weekend to camp, but we kinda cheated and stayed in a cabin (thank goodness!). We got there about dinner time so daddy made us sausage wraps. Well I ate some macaroni, but the sausage wraps sure looked good. My silly mommy forgot my play pen so they made me a little palette on the floor. We planned on going out on the lake the next day to fish and ride paddle boats, but it was way too windy. In the morning daddy cooked us a yummy breakfast on the fire. While it was cooking we saw a few deer near our campsite. They were not afraid of us so they must come around often. After breakfast we made smores. I only got to eat the graham crackers but it was fun anyway. While we were cleaning up we discovered a raccoon in the dumpster, isn't she cute? We checked out of our cabin and then we went on a nature walk. We were a bit chilly so next we wanted check out Longhorn Cavern. I wasn't too fond of the darkness, but everyone else seemed to like it. Overall it was a lot of fun and I look forward to going camping again!