Ending the Year with a Bang!

A New Family Addition

IT'S A BOY!

Jodi and Jerry are now the proud parents of Jaedyn Michael.
(I'm not sure the spelling is correct, but I think I am close.)

He arrived on December 28 at 7:55 p.m.

Welcome to the family little boy!
And yes, that is a head full of hair.
He weighs in at 6 lbs. and 5 ounces.

This is Aunt Teresa's first time holding him.

Noah is checking out his Momma holding this little guy.

He sure is a sweetie!
Congrats Jerry and Jodi!

Pappy gets to hold GREAT grand baby #13!

Christmas with Grammy and Pappy

The Lewis Family Christmas

Ginger and Luke gave Noah this Cars racer and he refused to open any other gifts after he got this. Do you know of a kid who does not want to open more presents? He sit quietly in the corner and kept racing. He still loves it. Thanks Gin and Luke!

This is Grandma and Grandpa Lewis or Grammy and Pappy if you are a great grand kid.
We were lucky to have Grandpa with us this year. He was just out of the hospital and quite tired but he spent some time with all us hoodlums any way. Aren't they sweet?
Merry Christmas you two!

A Crispy Christmas

Christmas with Mom and Dad Crisp

This year we had the Crisp Christmas on Christmas afternoon.
We were thrilled to spend a little time with Uncle Phil along with John and Shirley.
Thank you for the yummy lunch!

Madison sits patiently but can you tell she's excited?
Can you say "Cheese"?

Noah enjoys a very Thomas Christmas.
He has listens to this CD story when he goes to bed at night.

Avery Christmas 2007

Christmas with Mom and Dad Avery



Christmas at the Avery's is on Christmas Eve every year. Our tradition is a dinner with steamed crab legs, cheddar biscuits, and this year Dad through in a little shrimp scampi too. Thanks to Mom and Dad for hosting us every year.

Makayla gets the party started in her Santa hat.

These two take a moment to give us a quick pose with Santa Mickey.
Grandma decorated her tree with cartoon characters this year and the kids were thrilled to touch all the fun decorations.

Mickey has been good this year and Noah felt like he needed a hug.

Our family

My brother's family

A fun gift of character towels was a picture moment in the making.
Too funny to pass not posting.

Think she likes her Leapster? The face gives it away! We have barely seen her without it since she opened it. And Noah gets his own set of tools. Paul was tired of sharing his tools with Noah. (We found them scattered all through the house.) So, when Mom and Dad asked if this would be a good choice Paul jumped at the chance.

Uncle Scott and Aunt Jen got Madison and Noah a race track. That's the first toy to be played with every morning. Uncle Scott "shows" Noah how to race. Who's having more fun?

And no Christmas is complete without the classic kid in the box picture?
Thank you Makayla for making our post complete!

Christmas at the Crisp House

What's Christmas like at our house?

Well, it's filled with pajamas and bed head, but as Madison shows you below the excitement of opening gifts is quite entertaining.


What's Christmas without a little juice? Noah and Madison live for breakfast but on Christmas morning even breakfast waits until all the gifts are opened and played with a little. Noah needed a little hydration though to keep going. : )

Noah's big gift this year was Thomas the train tracks. Madison and Noah play with his set every day and even Daddy gets in on the fun Christmas morning! By the way, Madison received a digital camera and she shot over 200 pictures at just Grandma and Grandpa Avery's house.

We trust you had a lovely Christmas too as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.
Happy Birthday Jesus!

Give me a C H E E R!

Let's hear it for my CHEERLEADER!

Madison has started a new sport this winter. It's UpWard cheer leading and these are shots from her first practice. Can you imagine 6 Kindergartners getting their cheer on for the first time? Quite entertaining!!!




Madison is a natural! Below you will see her with her coach, Miss Stephanie. Her team name is the Angels quite fitting I would say. She is stoked about having a megaphone and pom-poms. I'll be posting pictures of her first game in the new year. For now we can send cheers of encouragement to Madison for trying something new and liking it!

Christmas with Kindergarten Style

There are 90 Kindergarten students enrolled at Kendell this year and here they are in all their glory! Just wanted to share with you a few pictures from Madison's Christmas program! Too cute!

Madison loves to sing and dance and you can tell from this picture. And below...they were wearing jingle bells around their necks. One of Madison's best friends is in the Santa hat in the front row.

There is nothing like the kids at Christmas!
What joy! I hope your holiday is filled with much joy too!

Redefining Thanksgiving!

There is reason to CELEBRATE in Kazakhstan!!!

Thank you to all of you who jumped on board to support children in Kazakhstan. Because of your ministry support the Ideas in Motion department was able to raise enough money to provide warm clothes and coats to 18 children at the AppleTree house this winter. What a blessing to be part of this project and what a blessing to children in need.

If you did not get a chance to be part of this project you can start your own and it's easy). If you are interested in learning how just click on www.co-missioncatalog.org to see what projects still need your help.

A Very Avery Christmas!

All I Want for Christmas

We had the privilege of having Thanksgiving and Christmas with Grandma Avery over the weekend. Friday the ladies of the family made a mad dash to get all the presents and supplies to pull off Christmas on Saturday. We had a fabulous time and Madison is counting the days when she will get to open presents again. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the family pictures. Enjoy!

Some of the Avery guys hanging out together

Our family photo

Noah looks like he is up to no good : )



Abby is playing with Noah's Christmas present. Can you say Little Drummer Girl?

Makayla and Grandma Shirley share a moment.

And to our family unable to be with us we missed you.

A Slight Set Back

Monday's ER Trip

We had a slight set back in Noah's progress on Monday. He went to bed as normal on Sunday and when we woke him up on Monday we found that he had tore off his bandages. "Oh no!" became the theme of our morning. We called his surgeon and found that he was out of the office for the week and the docs office asked us to take him to Riley just make sure the wounds are clean and there were no signs of infection. So off we went. We received good news when we arrived. Every thing looks good they say. The wrapped Noah back up with bandages and wouldn't you know those came off even before we left our ER room. We all enjoyed a big laugh and they wrapped him again and sent us home with lots of supplies because they anticipate more wrappings. We re-wrapped on Monday night and so far so good he has left the bandages on. However, he is two (need I say more?) so we'll be in touch...

Hooray for Bath Time!

Leaps and Bounds!

Noah had a wonderful evening and I wanted to make sure you all knew. We had our usual bath time and this time around we were tear free!!! He was excited again to take a bath and he willing went feet first into the sink. He kept his little arm back out of the way just as I had showed him to do last time and he even washed himself. Your prayers are working! Our little guy rocks!

Bumps and Bruises

Share the pain!

Noah has found himself with a few more bumps and bruises since his surgery. We have found that our toddler is struggling to use his hand to catch himself and unfortunately his noggin is taking the blunt.

He thinks Madison should share in the pain and
suffering so he offers her a turn with his ice pack.

Doesn't he just scream, "Feel sorry for me!" ? He did better today taking his bath from the sink. It took me 3 towels to soak up the water after his splashing fun, but there quite a few less tears.

Bring it on!

YUMMY!

I just wanted to share a couple photos with you of Noah taking his medication.
These were taken on the day after his surgery.
I am so blessed that neither one of my kids struggle with taking medication.

I think it is funny how far he opens his mouth for me.
He makes it look easy!

Say Goodbye to the "M" Word

No More Meds!

Noah made it through the whole day without pain medication. Hooray! If you ask me, that is a great achievement. We are now four days after surgery and the only time Noah is really acknowledging his bandages is when he changes his clothes. He thinks they should come off every time he changes his shirt, but when I tell him that it is not time yet, he does not argue.

My parents and I took the kids to the Bee Movie tonight. This was the first time Noah has been to the movie theatre. He did a great job for the most part. Towards the end he got a little restless and he drank all of his soda and his sisters, but that's far from being the end of the world. : ) By the way, I'd give the movie a big thumbs up! The movie was really cute and certainly kid friendly (it kept Madison's attention). If you got some free time this weekend - go check it out.

Warmer Kids in Kazakhstan...

Three more kids in Kazakhstan have been been given warm clothes this winter since my last update. As you can see we are 73% of our goal. Even $10 can make the difference in the life of an orphan. Place your donation now at www.firstgiving.com/kazakhkids!

Getting Back to Normal

Noah is hanging in there!

Yesterday I returned to work and he returned to his normal routine of being with Grandmom. She reports that eating soup at lunch was pretty tricky for him. He wanted to use his bandaged hand as guide. I am sure you all can imagine.

Last night I discovered a couple other things he has adapted to promptly. Whenever I take the kids out I ask them to hold hands so that I can keep them together (especially in a parking lot). He discovered he can't hold Madison's hand with his bandage. He didn't complain; it was just a lesson for me. How many times in life do we get frustrated and feel sorry for ourselves? If anyone deserves to be frustrated I'd say Noah pulls rank but he is taking his surgery in stride. He has redefined tough for me. So, thank you Noah!

Good news... we are weaning him off his pain meds and he doesn't seem to be bothered by that at all. And last night I asked him to give me a high five and he hit me with his bandage so I thought that was a good sign. Thanks for checking in and I'll post more later.

One Day at a Time

Noah's 2nd Day

I (Kristi) went to bed last night prepared to get little sleep. I assumed that as soon as Noah's pain meds had a chance to wear off he would be waking us up. I was pleasantly surprised to hear him stirring about 8 this morning. That's sleeping in for Noah and I was greeted with a smile.

After a pancake, he started his first round of meds for the day. He played normally and even did some coloring with his left hand and since he normally does this with his right I was surprised. He did not ask me to take off his bandages today - again surprised.

He took a longer nap than normal but after his long day yesterday I am not too surprised. His worst episode came tonight. We were instructed to keep his bandages out of the water so this means no bath time. I let him put his feet in the sink while I washed him down. After he realized that was all the water time he was getting he argued and argued that he should be able to get in the tub. Now, if you know my Noah you can't understand most of what he says but the crying, pointing, and yelling was all the interpretation I needed. He did not think it was fair that Madison got a shower and all he got was feet in the sink. I suppose he will come to accept this too.

He has done great taking his medicine. I am so blessed to have kids who don't fight taking meds. He opens his mouth as wide as he can and points to his mouth for so I know were to put them in. : ) It's pretty funny. I hope to have a picture of this for you later.

Thanks for praying as you can see they are working. He's doing great and we know that it is because so many of you care and pray for him. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.

Our Riley Trip

Noah's Surgery Day

Our day began at 4 a.m. this morning. We had put Noah in his clothes to sleep in so we didn't have to fully wake him to get him snuggled in the car for the long ride to Indy. We picked up my (Kristi's) parents at about 4:45 and then we were officially Indy bound.


We arrived in the Riley parking garage around 6:15 a.m. or so and then it was off to the outpatient entrance. We did not wait there long until they took us back to Room 2 that would be our "home" for the next few hours. Noah received a dog from my parents that saved the day. He carried, loved, and pretend fed the doggy which kept him busy for spells.

Soon it was time to get to change into our fancy hospital pajamas. The doctor came in and marked his hand and hip (in case of skin graphs) to confirm the areas of treatment.

This is what his hand looked like before surgery and we have yet to see what it looks like now. Doesn't he look like a sweet little man in his scrubs?

The surgery was scheduled for 1 hour and 45 minutes. After 45 minutes Dr. Mih came back with a positive report. Initially they were going to remove extra skin between his two digits and then do exploratory surgery on his wrist to see about bringing a tendon down to the pinkie. Once inside they found that pinkie had a tendon it was just "stuck" to the bone so he removed it and thinks this will give Noah the mobility we had hoped for.

Still loopy from his meds, he returned to us all bandaged up. He is to remain with these bandages for 2-3 weeks. This has proven challenging for our 2 yr old thumb sucker, as he can't get to his thumb.

We let him sleep for awhile but they told us he could not go home until he got down some liquids. Once we woke enough to drink - drink he did! Three sippy cups of apple juice later we were packing up our belongings and heading out. Riley had a pharmacy on its first floor so we were able to fill his pain meds before we left. He had not eaten anything since 6 p.m. the night before so we stopped to get some lunch on the way home and he did a great job at eating. He finally napped some on the way home and awhile once we returned. He seems to be able to play for an hour or so and then he has to rest to regain his energy.

We'll be heading back for a check up and removal of the bandages in a couple of weeks. Until then I would ask that you pray for our little man as he adjusts to this bandage on his arm and that he would have patience with his mobility.

It was a long day, but a blessed one. We are thankful to be returning home with our little guy, calls of concern, and best wishes from many. Keep checking the blog and we will tell you how the journey goes from here.

Thank you for praying!

Trick or Treat

Halloween 2007


We had an adorable Sleeping Beauty and her faithful sidekick Elmo for Halloween this year. You can see below we did have tricks with our abundance of treats!





We took the kids to IWU this year and they were able to get their faces painted. Noah got a big black spider and Madison got a pink butterfly to match her princess dress.

We were able to go trick or treating at Grammy and Pappy's house this year. What a great picture of them all together!

We had a great Halloween and Madison is already planning her costume for next year. Can you guess? If you said a pig then you're right!