Saturday, April 26, 2008

Jake and Alanna


Today Ty and I took Jake to the zoo with our friends, the Crawford's and their three year old, Alanna for "Its My Heart" day at the zoo. Houston has a great support group for families dealing with congenital heart defects called "Its My Heart." They have meetings once a month and various activities throughout the year so families with similar backgrounds can meet. Their biggest ministry is to deliver bags of goodies and resources to families when their children are having surgery--we got a goody bag back in December. Today "Its My Heart" had a zoo day so we took advantage of the nice weather and went.
A few months ago the Crawford's found out that Alanna has an ASD. Hers is in a different location than Jake's, but she will have a similar surgery to Jake, and they are using Dr. Heinle to do her surgery too. They are meeting with him this week, but think her surgery will be the end of July. What are the odds that another family at our church would be facing almost the exact same issue we faced just a few months later? I don't believe its a coincidence that we are friends going through the same situation--definitely God orchestrated the timing so we could support one another. Please be in prayer for Alanna as her surgery comes up this summer. She is the sweetest little girl and has such a positive attitude--I know she will come through her surgery with flying colors and smiles!

Yesterday was perfect zoo weather because it looked like it was going to rain, but it didn't so consequently it was overcast and cool. Alanna's favorite part of the zoo was the frogs...she waited all day to see them and thought they were so cute. Jake seemed to enjoyed himself as well...he blew at the elephants. He has some books with elephants in them and thinks they are so funny. I took this picture of this cute little bear--its one animal I didn't photograph last time. One of these days I'm going to develop a few of my zoo pictures for Jake's jungle themed bedroom.


Here are Ty and Dusty with the kids...Jake and Alanna don't look too happy, but I promise they were having fun :)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Like Father Like Son

Everyday (literally) someone tells me how much Jake looks like Ty, but I don't always see it. I know he does favor Ty, but to me he's just Jake, and I don't always notice the resemblence. Today, Jake and I were playing outside with his wagon, and it really hit me how much he does look just like Ty...a little uncanny actually. I think it was because I had put a hat on him to protect him from the sun, and Ty wears a hat almost everyday. I snapped the below photos and when I looked at them on the computer, he looked even more like Ty. He's definitely his father's son!
The picture above was taken on Sunday at a tennis tournament. Jake isn't really looking at the camera, but I thought it was cute nonetheless. Ty worked all last week at the River Oak's ATP Clay Court Championship Tournament. He has several great stories to tell about his adventures that could be another blog entry. He did get to talk quite a bit to James and Thomas Blake, and James had told Ty to bring Jake in the locker room on Sunday for a picture with him. We were sad that Jake was a little too warn out at that point and a bit cranky so we didn't get the picture. Plus, James lost in the finals to Marcel Granollers (a Spainard who specializes in Clay) after being up 3-0 in the 3rd set so it probably wasn't the best time to bring Jake into the locker room. I guess there's always next year...and maybe Andy Roddick will be there then. It would be great to get a picture of Jake with James Blake and Andy Roddick! I'm pretty sure there will be some tennis in Jake's future regardless...I'm betting Ty will have a racket in Jake's hands this time next year :)