Happy Birthday Gracie Girl!

Dear Gracie,

I can't believe you are already two years old. You fill our house with laughter and joy everyday! We thank God everyday for blessing us with you. At the age of two, you already embrace life to the fullest. Your happiness is infectious to everyone around you. You make people laugh constantly. Oh, how we love you!

Your best friend is your "Jakey," as you call him. You adore your brother and are constantly asking, "You OK, Jakey?" You get mad at him quite often as well but are quick to forgive with a big hug.

You love all things dolls. You are the best little mother to your "girls" as you call your dolls. You take them for walks, feed them in the high chair, rock them, and read them stories. You also love dressing up and being a princess. Last week, you insisted on wearing your tutu everyday. You love Mickey Mouse and Dora and especially Boots.

You also aren't afraid to get messy! You're often covered in food, paint, crayons, etc...and it doesn't bother you too much. You love having "school" with Jake and painting pretty pictures and your face along the way.

Your favorite songs to sing are "Jesus Loves Me," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Holy, Holy, Holy," and "My God is SO Big." You've started referring to me as "Mom" instead of "Mommy" which makes me laugh but also a little sad that you're growing up so quickly. Every night after your prayers, you casually say, "Night, Mom" as you roll over to go to sleep. You have to sleep with your pink blanket and get sad when I even try to wash it.

We celebrate you today and thank God for giving us our precious Gracie Girl!

Hugging your Jakey

Blowing bubbles

This picture is "so Gracie!" We painted handprint rainbows yesterday and you're posing with yours for a picture. So funny!

The outfit was mine when I was your age. My Grandma Childress made it for me. She would have gotten so much joy from you, Grace! You insisted on wearing your sunglasses all day yesterday (even in the house) and you LOVE flowers! In fact, Daddy brought you home a rose for Valentine's Day and you said, "This is my FAVORITE flower!" and held it all night.

Playing outside wearing your tutu and tennis shoes!

This is much better than having open heart surgery today!

New Surgery Date

Jake's surgery has been re-scheduled for next Tuesday, March 1st. We go back next Monday to finish the pre-op testing and then he should be admitted on Tuesday. We will keep everyone updated if anything changes. Thank you SO much for your overwhelming support and prayers. We are blessed.

A President's Day Delay

Just wanted to let people know what's going on because we've found out today that Jake's surgery is being delayed to later this week or next week. An emergency surgery was needed on a baby and the Cardiac ICU unit @ TCH is full as of now so we along with 2 other families were bumped for tomorrow. This is the world of pediatric heart surgery. Yes, we were ready to go with the next 2 weeks all planned out (which I believe is still wise to do), family ready to come on the word it's a go (we're fortunate to have so much family support!), and were anxious to get tomorrow over with so we can begin the recovery phase. However, we have to remember we're not in control in much of anything in this life. This idea has come at us in a few ways recently so it seems like we should eventually get better at understanding this idea. Well, maybe a little better until we start seeing the magnitude of how much we're really not in control of and then I think then it might blow the mind of anyone on this earth?

So we will go on tomorrow as normal as possible. I know on my way to work tomorrow morning I'm going to be thinking of how tough it must be to be make decisions on a daily basis that have an immediate impact on the life or death of a child and their families. There are many families/children that are battling it out right now in the Cardiac ICU with the goal of making it to a room on 15 as soon as possible. Hopefully, they are all holding up well whatever the situation may be.

On the way home we saw a Lifeflight helicopter and I couldn't help but wonder if it was this baby who will have surgery tomorrow or possibly a new heart for someone waiting in the ICU. Yes, Jake's condition needs attention and attention soon but it's nothing compared to what many experience in this world of CHD's. I can only imagine what the baby's family must be experiencing right now but we'll more than likely meet them soon, learn of their story, and pray that we'll get to see just another miracle that the team at Texas Children's was able to assist with.

Until then, thank everyone for your prayers and support.

Pandas, Penguins, and Pirates

Last week at Mommy School J & G learned about pandas, penguins, and pirates: the letter P! Our first day we learned about Pandas. Youtube really is the best resource ever as Jake watched videos about Pandas for about an hour. I then decided to get creative and let the kids make Panda cupcakes. I have a great cupcake cookbook called Hello, Cupcake that gave us the idea, but I'm sad to say our cupcakes fell way short of the ones in the book. I am NOT Martha Stewart nor am I a perfectionist of any kind so unfortunate craft projects are a regular occurrence at the McCathran house. The kids did have fun making them though and even more fun eating them. My main problem was I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients. Also, a two and four year old were assisting and "helping." Here's what the pandas were supposed to look like:

Here's the McCathran version:

sad panda

The next day we learned about penguins. I wish I would have videoed J & G walking like penguins all day…so cute. We watched more youtube (lots of fun videos of penguins falling over) and made construction paper penguins.

We also had pirate day. I was pretty sure that this was going to be a huge hit. I had a treasure hunt planned and everything. But, by the end of the week, the kids were tired of humoring my attempt at "Mommy School" and weren't so thrilled with pirate day. They didn't think making hats and eye patches was as fun as I did. They didn't find the treasure hunt interesting either. But, later in the weekend, Jake did put on his pirate hat and played "treasure hunt" quite a bit. Guess it just had to be on his time :)

the pirate princess with the treasure map

Jake dressed himself up for his own treasure hunt

I definitely don't know how homeschooling moms do it. It's hard to get your own children excited about school everyday. We've been trying to work on Jake writing his name, and he can actually do it pretty well now, but he hates me asking him to do it. It has to be his idea. I'm pretty sure that "P" this week wasn't just for pirates, penguins, and pandas, but was for patience, too!

Super Fun Visitors

Around Thursday of last week, boredom was beginning to set in. The kids were getting tired of "mommy school" and getting cranky. Mommy was getting cranky, too. But, help arrived! Thursday morning, Jake's two teachers, Ms. Nedra and Ms. Ashlan, came by and brought Jake all kinds of surprises! They brought him a laundry basket full of goodies from his class at school…puzzles, coloring books, playdough, paint…lots of fun! One of his friends had made him a build-a-bear with a surgeon's outfit that had a message for Jake. They also brought balloons, flowers for Mommy, and dinner. It was such a wonderful surprise! We all felt very loved and are thankful for the wonderful Christian mother's day out Jake gets to attend. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of Jake with his teachers. I did a bad job all weekend of not taking pictures.

The Basket of Fun!

Dr. FeelGood

Friday night we had more fun visitors. Pops and Nonnie came to visit us and play with the kids so Ty and I could run some errands. The kids had a blast with them: they took them on a walk in the stroller, for wagon rides, and played outside with them. Nonnie had the good idea to have the kids go on a pinecone hunt. They loaded up the wagon with pinecones from the yard and helped Daddy out a bit, too with some yard work :) A fun weekend!

Saturday night Ty's old roommate Ray came for dinner. He just got a new Viper which Jake loved sitting in:

Then, Monday, Jo Jo came over for the day and made Valentine treats with the kids. She bought lollipop molds and chocolate and they made chocolate heart lollipops. The kids love anything chocolate so they loved that and spending the day with Jo Jo.

The long weekend of visitors definitely perked us all up! We just have one week to go until surgery. Monday we need to be at the hospital at 7:45 for Jake's pre-op day and then his surgery is scheduled for 8:30 on Tuesday.

Week #1

We survived and even enjoyed our first week in…just two more to go until the big day. Being a teacher, I've had a great time making lesson plans and coming up with fun crafts and activities for J and G. Jake's pre-school teachers had sent home his lessons he'll miss, and last week they were learning about letter "O." So we learned about it at home, too!

We learned about the ocean and watched lots of youtube videos on oceanlife which Jake loved. Jake painted his version of the ocean complete with orange and yellow fish, sand, and a purple octopus.

We made an octopus out of a paper bag and streamers and had octopus hotdogs for lunch. That was quite easy and the kids LOVED them! You just cut a hot dog in half lengthwise about 3/4 of the way up. You then cut those parts again and again and you have 8 legs! Boil them and they'll curl up and look like an octopus.

We made orange print paintings…

We talked about obeying and learned about Jonah. We made fish puppets and little Jonah's out of pipe cleaner and the kids would swallow Jonah up and then spit him back out. Jake spent most of the week reminding Grace that she was supposed to obey, too. :)

Going fishing to find Jonah's big fish

It was freezing cold all week (literally) so it was a great first week to be stuck inside. Ty got to be home with us on Friday during the BIG Houston ice storm of 2011 (insert sarcasm here.) We were disappointed we didn't see the snow they had promised. Jake spent all day Friday asking where it was.

The disappointment of the week was that the kids and I missed Ty's Dad's big 70th birthday party. They had a big party for him in Marshall at Eric and Jill's lake house. We asked the doctors, but they thought going to a big family party two weeks prior to surgery wouldn't be a good idea. I know Pops had a wonderful birthday, and we'll celebrate later with him. Ty made an awesome video for his dad and had a wonderful time with his family all weekend.

The weekend ended great as my mom got to come in Sunday night and spend Monday with us. She was in town for a work conference and just came a day early to see us. Definitely a perk.

Something to pray about: the main thing right now is to pray for Jake to be healthy before surgery. We're working hard to keep him healthy by keeping him at home, but Ty and I will be in and out and we want to pray we don't bring anything home. Jake had a cold last week, but it seems to be better. Pray that it doesn't turn in to any kind of infection.

We're now starting week #2 and learning about "P." Here's to a great week of pandas, penguins, puzzles, and more!

And a sweet picture of Grace...

Grace dressed as Super Girl watching Mickey Mouse. The kids have worn different costumes all week. They refuse to wear real clothes. Hopefully, after all this is over, they will wear "normal" clothes again :)

A Photo Blessing

One of my college roommates and best friends, Randi, called me several weeks ago and said that she and her husband Lloyd wanted to give us a photo session with her friend Jodie as a gift before Jake's surgery. I would say that I was surprised by their kindness, but knowing Randi's heart, I wasn't surprised, but so touched by their idea and gift. When she called her friend Jodie to tell her the idea, Jodie said she would like to give us the photo session as a part of a new idea she had to give back to children with illnesses or such. Randi and Lloyd then decided they would then like to take care of the prints for us.

This is such an amazing gift! I have been wanting to do a really good family picture for sometime but hadn't and with the surgery coming up, I didn't think it would happen. With both kids' birthdays this month, it is perfect timing. Just such a blessing!

We had a wonderful time taking the pictures with Jodie. She's such a talented photographer and fairly recently moved to the Conroe/Woodlands area. Check out her website! She sent us the link for the picture gallery yesterday and I LOVE them! You can look at our pictures here.

She took great ones of each kid and the whole family, but also took some great ones of Jake holding a heart in front of his scar. They're beautiful!!!

Thank SO much Randi and Jodie for this beautiful gift!

Happy 4th Birthday!!!

I cannot believe that Jake just turned four! Our precious little man had his birthday on Tuesday this week. We are so very proud of Jake for his strength and courage and for his sweet spirit and heart. He'll tell you his favorite Bible verse is "Be Strong and Courageous and don't be afraid" and that pretty much sums up Jake. I've found that verse on a shirt I'm getting him for surgery day. He's a wonderful big brother to Grace. They definitely have their fights, but they fiercely love each other. If he gets a snack for himself, he always makes sure to give Grace one first. He gives wonderful hugs and kisses! Jake is quite independent now at his old age of four. He dresses himself each morning and now likes to make his own breakfast. He's toasts himself a waffle and then spreads the peanut butter on…he loves to make them for mom and dad, too :) He's come along way in speech therapy this past year and is talking more and more. He's doing well at pre-school as well. He's enjoying his first week of "Mommy School" as we've learned about "O" this week. His favorite activity was painting a picture of the ocean…he loves art. He also loves music and his guitar and drum set. He loves having dance parties with his "Go Fish" video and microphone. His favorite toys at four are anything "Toy Story"--he loves Woody and Buzz, his legos, and his cars and race track. His best friends are Jackson, Addison, Emery, Harper, and of course, Grace.

Happy 4th Birthday Jakers! You truly are an inspiration to your mom and dad! We love you!

Newborn Jake…4 years ago!

4 year old Jake!

Peaking out of his Mickey tent Lillie Beth and Jackson gave him for his birthday. We had cupcakes with the Babb's Saturday night and Jake had his first sleepover with Jackson. Claudia said they giggled for 30 minutes before falling asleep. We had Jo Jo over on Monday for Jake's birthday dinner, and Tuesday the triplets were supposed to come over for cupcakes, but Addison wasn't feeling well. They had planned a surprise party for Jake at our life group Sunday, but he was running a fever and we didn't get to go…we'll celebrate with them eventually :)

Grace, LB, Jackson, and Jake