Thursday, December 10, 2009

Little Dude Turns 1!!!

Sorry for the lapse in posting...it's been a busy few weeks! On November 18th we celebrated TJ's 1st birthday! It was a fun day with cupcakes (decorated by Charlotte and Clay), presents (dump truck, cymbals, dinosaurs, & a toy Blackberry!) and fun family time. We love you, Thaddaeus!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Family helps...

This past Thursday my family lost the first of his generation - my grandfather. The youngest of 4, he was the first to leave us, my first grandparent to pass. It still is quite surreal and a strange thing to wrap my mind around, probably because we live so far away and haven't been involved in the happenings of the last few days in California. However, my dad still decided to come up for a visit, which was probably the best thing for all of us. A quick visit, it was full of fun meals, a trip to the aquarium, time on the playground, hot cocoa, movies, and snuggles. I think we all needed it - when you're mourning the loss of someone you loved, family helps.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Halloween Fun!

Halloween this year was so much fun! We spent the day doing fun things with great friends. The day started out at the Botanical Gardens, where they have a kids' scavenger hunt to find the 'spooky' plants and the helpers passing out candy. After lunch we hit the Fall Fair at our church, which was lots of fun and had indoor and outdoor activities. To top it off was trick-or-treating which, in a neighbourhood where kids are required for residency, was absolutely crazy!! We heard there were around 400 kids that night...we definitely ran out of candy! Charlotte loved her first trick-or-treating experience and is already talking about her costume for next year!The 3 Musketeers: 2 fairies and a dragon
Clay has become such a huge fan of TJ!
Our families walking through the gardens
Charlotte was terrified of this girl's skeleton hand!
TJ managed to open a box of Nerds, which the kids picked off his lap and shoved in his mouth
Clay admiring the snowberries
Little Farmer Dodd!
The scary spooky tunnel through the gardens
Our friends' daughter, Lilly - such a cutie!
Clay and Justin in the jump house at church
Construction worker Sara and park ranger Jesse took the kids on a nature walk on the trails behind church
My cutie butterfly girl!
One of my dear friends, Polly, who was about 37 weeks pregnant here - like her pumpkin?
2 of Polly's boys - Micah and Caleb - I love these guys!!
'Our 3' right when I opened the door for them. They were so excited!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Applebarn!

Last weekend we headed out to Abbotsford to the Applebarn, a fun pumpkin-patchy, hayride-y, apple farm-y, kid friendly family farm. We got our pumpkins, went on a hayride, visited the petting zoo, drank fresh pressed apple juice, did the zipline, rode a pony...it was so much fun!

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Arm Update

Since the last post, Jonathan had a revisit to the ER for what looked like the beginning of an infection in his arm OR a possible allergy to the metal. After a round of antibiotics, he is back on the mend and got the staples (all 43) removed on Friday. He is diligently doing his rehab - good, since proper use of one's arm is pretty important! Here are the before and after shots of the xrays. The bottom one was taken just before the staples were removed - you can see them on both sides of the arm. Thank you for your prayers and care for us during this time!

Friday, October 9, 2009

Brokenness

This past Monday Jonathan was in a golf tournament at the UBC Golf Course and after finishing his round at around 7pm he went to return his golf cart. Unfortunately, he never made it there, for the sun's glare in the windshield caused him to 'miss' seeing a tree root that has pushed up part of the cart path - he tried to swerve out of the way and also tried to slow down, but stepped on the emergency brake by accident. This caused the cart to swing around and then flip over to the left. Jonathan put his arm out to break his fall, resulting in his arm taking the full weight of both his body and the golf cart. His ulna and radius both broke completely through, resulting in his arm taking on an 'S' shape. He was taken by ambulance (precautionary) to Vancouver General, where I met him after receiving word of the accident from his boss. 2 orthopaedic doctors pulled on his arm from opposite ends in order to straighten it as much as possible for the overnight wait until surgery. Tuesday afternoon J had surgery in which a long plate was attached with screws to each the ulna and the radius, involving 2 incisions. He spent 3 nights in the hospital and then came home on Thursday. The recovery is going well - his hand and elbow are still quite swollen but he is going for longer and longer time between taking his meds, which is great. We are doing all right - this event has caused us to look at our near future with different eyes and has forced everything to slow down (esp. the rate at which I wash dishes!!) We have seen areas in our relationship that were broken a long time ago and never got 'fixed', J has seen broken areas in his life with a new lens, I am more aware than ever of broken areas in my attitude/heart...so this injury has brought out all of this brokenness and we are already seeing God's gracious love as He draws us near to Him and we allow Him to gently mend our hearts and lives. I will write another post tomorrow of God's amazing provision during this time - it would take up too much space here, but I MUST brag on my friends a little!

Of all the times to not have my camera!! Thank goodness for camera phones and obliging ER Trauma nurses :)
The view out of J's hospital window as he awaited surgery
Beautiful trees in front of the hospital!
Maybe this recovery waiting area hosts some incredibly tall people at times
Early morning visit with Daddy the day after surgery (no, that's not a tattoo -it's the Dr's initials to make sure they operated on the correct arm)
The meds had just kicked in - smiles for a little while!
Visit from 'Mr. Matt' - what a great friend he is to JD!
Hmmm...looks a little swollen...
It's so Frankenstein-y! The longer incision has 15 staples and the shorter one has 28...don't know how that really works...they'll come out in 2 weeks
Please pray for quick healing!! Thank you all!