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!

No more commando!

Okay well I still do it sometimes, but I have figured out to craw up on my knees! In this video I was doing it Michael Jordan style!

Critters!

Okay so we've been here at the new house for about a month and a half. Let me just tell you we are loving the country life! It's so quiet out here (well when our neighbor isn't shooting skunks) (or our other neighbors aren't having target practice), but seriously for the most part it's peaceful and quiet. My room is painted but not completely done yet. There are officially no more white walls in our house, yay! My daddy has put up a lot of crown molding and it's all starting to come together. We feed the deer every night and it's just great.

Oh yeah the critters... I just wanted to give you guys a little taste of creatures that we've seen since we've been here, so here goes!
*black widow
*scorpions (quite a few, inside and out!)
*coach whip snake
*skunks
*opossums
*armadillos
*foxes (they visit our front yard almost every night!)
*cows of course and longhorns
*walking sticks
And I'm sure we've just begun!

Boo!

We had a fun Halloween this year (my first!). Kayson dressed up as Indiana Jones and I was an adorable (if I do say so myself) skeleton. We went to see all of my grandparents and great grandparents in costume. After that I was pooped so I stayed home with daddy and went to bed. Kayson and mommy went trick or treating. We even got special treats! I got a cool popping train and a see and say and Kayson got some awesome Lego toys. I love Halloween!

I may only have one...

kidney, but it is doing the job! On Friday I had a VCUG done at Methodist Hospital. As usual it took the nurse three sticks to get my IV started. (Even though daddy told the nurse to try my foot first! They didn't listen.) I was NOT happy at all during this process... then they had to put in a catheter... not fun! We got all of that situated and then I was papoosed down to the xray machine for 45 minutes while they took pictures of my urinary function. I was injected with radioactive dye so they could make sure I had no blockage or reflux. I made it through with flying colors and was quite a trooper (as usual!). Then we met with Dr. Bartholomew to go over the results and everything checked out just great... YAY!!!