blessed beyond measure

Thanks for praying for Trey. The surgery went well and he is recovering slowly. He's sleeping more than usual, eating less than usual, and moving around sluggishly. But he'll be back to full strength before too long. We'll post more later, I just wanted to make sure you knew. We truly felt your prayers strengthening us through the whole process. God bless you all.

We humbly ask you to pray for Trey, as his hernia surgery is Monday morning at 9:30. So many people have assured us that it is minor surgery. I'm sure that it is, and I'm very thankful that it is. Still, it's a big deal to us. That's our baby they will be putting to sleep and cutting open. And so we covet your prayers. I'll try to post again Monday evening or Tuesday to let you all know how it went.

I just have to brag on my boy. He is a little "behind" in the talking milestone, but now that he has started talking, he is learning so fast! Having already mastered T, X, E, D, and 2, Trey can now name 3, 9, and the letter O as well. For the letter J, he can't say it, but when he sees it he says "jump". Similarly for M, he'll say "mama" or "moon". For the number 2, not only does Trey identify it, he seems to know what it means. Whenever he is carrying two of anything, he declares "doo" (two). Trey also knows the color green. This most likely comes from his obsession with stoplights. He seems to know where the stoplights are on our most common routes, and about a mile before we get to them, he starts yelling "dop!" (stop). Then most of the time as soon as the light turns green, he yells "gee" (green) or "go". The video snippets you see on the blog here are just a tiny sampling of maybe 100 m...

This past weekend marked Trey's second time out of state, as we enjoyed a road trip to Raleigh for cousin Will's first birthday. Trey was great, given that we stayed around Will's toys most of the time. But it was such a nice party and fun to have some good quality time with our family. Happy birthday Will! Today has been one of those days. Tuesdays are hard for me anyway - it is one of my days to work from home, so I tend to be pretty much physically and emotionally drained by dinner time. Just with the normal stuff, like work, laundry, and entertaining Trey all at once. Don't get me wrong, I am so grateful to God for giving us such a great arrangement for Trey, and that I can be a part-time stay-at-home mom. But today... Who knows why, but Trey has been pretty fussy all day, not satisfied with many of the things he normally does when we are home. Apparently I don't know how tall he is. FYI, he can reach up to the kitchen counter. I learned this when he grabbed...

We haven't taken any pictures of Trey this week, and he's not really doing anything new other than working on all the words he knows. So to fill the blog void, I suppose a selfish rant will have to do. I have the fondest memories, mostly from my elementary school days, of waking up on a random winter morning to a white world outside my window - and no school! These were the days before I watched the weather, so every time it snowed, it was the most wonderful surprise. And still, even as I got older, it was so great to have a snow day whether I knew it was coming or not. Playing in the snow is ageless. Not that I was a cool teenager to begin with, but even if I had been I still would have donned my puffy snow suit and built snowmen, forts, had snowball fights. It's just what you do. I know I'm not really old, but in the good old days when I was in school, we used to have to go to school during Easter break because of all the snow days we missed. Fast forward to now....

Figured it was time for a big ol' Trey update. He is now eighteen months - who can believe that. And he is a such a joy. Sweet, funny, strong-willed. Here is some of what we've been up to lately. Arts Trey loves to color. He has finally gone from banging the crayons on paper to dragging them back and forth. The fascination is short-lived though, and once he loses interest in the crayons, he happily tears his masterpieces into pieces. Trey is a natural born dancer. We have three moves - bouncing, running in place, and the twist. All self-taught also. Granddad, the southern Baptist preacher, can only shake his head when the Sunday school teachers tell him that the minute they turn on the Veggie Tales CD, Trey starts dancing all over the room. Singing is very popular too, only now we have an actual English song. Sports This kid loves basketball. We so enjoy going to Brandon's team's games. Trey either sits there enthralled watching the game, plays with a basketball we ...

So 2009 has been interesting thus far. I got sicker than I have been in a long time with this nasty sinus stuff - sick enough to go to the doctor, which I hate to do. Yuck. What a miserable feeling to not be able to breathe through your nose, can't sleep if you want to. It just completely knocked me off my feet for a few days, and I even lost my voice for a while there. Fun, fun. Praise the Lord that He seems to be protecting Brandon and Trey from the worst of it, and I am finally coming out of it. I'll preface this next part by telling you my New Year's resolution for 2009, which was to spend money more wisely and save more this year. OK, here's what has happened in the last week or so. - Brandon hit a deer with his new car. Damage estimated at $2000. Praise the Lord for insurance. - My car is acting up, hesitating to start. Had the battery, starter, and alternator checked, all of which were fine. Who knows what's wrong with it or how long we can push our luck with...