Our Christmas Tree

We put up our tree last night and I think it is the best one yet. It is not quite finished though because I need to get a star tree topper. I usually put the abominable snowman on top of the tree but I have put him into retirement this year. I LOVE putting all the ornaments on the tree. Every year when it is time to put the tree away, I wrap each ornament in tissue paper and stack them in gift bags and boxes. That way when I go to put the ornaments on the tree the next year, it is like opening tiny treasures and I am surprised all over again by their beauty.

This year was extra special because we were not at home for Christmas last year so there were no decorations. And Christian received several sweet ornaments for his 1st Christmas from family and friends as well as strangers who donated ornaments to the NICU. I put a snowflake ornament on our tree that has a picture of Christian taken on the day after Thanksgiving last year. He barely weighed 2 pounds. His daddy was holding him for the very first time. That ornament has special meaning. It is a reminder of our miracle.

I love this picture of Christian looking at the lights as I put them on the tree. His crawling skills have improved greatly and he has been zooming around everywhere at lightning speed. Good thing his daddy put up the baby gate last weekend.

His Grandpa and Grandma already sent over gifts to put under the tree and tonight Christian was ready to play with them. It was very cute so, of course, I recorded it.

NOTE: The video has a surprise ending ala Christian. :)

Happy Days!

Christmas Bizarre

Christian went to his first Christmas Bizarre this year at the fairgrounds in Kennewick. I had never gone before so I was not sure what to expect. So we loaded up the Explorer with our gear and Christian's Grandma and his Great Grandma and headed for the bizarre. (It's always a good thing to have extra Grandmas' in tow).

When we arrived we each paid our 5 dollars to get in and decided we were ready to shop till we dropped. Even Christian seemed to share our excitement as he bobbed his stocking hat head and kicked his little legs that were dangling out of the stuffed stroller. When we entered the building

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many booths filled with all kinds of goods and goodies on display for sample and sale. Talk about a great place to get some really good Christmas shopping done!

It has already been decided that we will definitely be making an appearance next year.

Christian really loves it when Grandma carries him like this.

After we loaded up from the bizarre we had lunch and several other shopping spots left to hit. I needed to get to Toys R Us for a baby gate for our stairs. We left Christian in the car with his Great Grandma so she could feed him. Sherri and I went into the store and about 5 minutes later we got a phone call saying that Christian had thrown up everywhere and she needed help. BOY DID HE! Man, this kid had a massive explosion of formula erupt from him like he was a volcano. Sooooo that was fun to clean up. It really scared the bajeebeez out of his great grandma but I assured her he was fine and she did a good job.

Christian received lots of attention from all the ladies he came across, so I am pretty sure that counts as a fantastic day in his book!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008!!!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's house today with all my brothers. It was a great day filled with yummy food. It is tradition to eat pie for breakfast in this family so we start and end the day with pie! Yaaaay! Casey and Esmeralda showed up with about 4 trays of the best appetizers I have ever had. I mean, they looked and tasted like they were made by a professional chef. It has officially been decided that they are to make appetizers for all future family gatherings. :) Of course dinner was fabulous as always. There was soooo much food that we will be eating it for at least a week. That is not a complaint by the way.

After dinner there we played our family BINGO game for prizes. This year they were all edible prizes...sort of the theme for the day, huh? It was great fun. All 3 of my brothers won twice. Hmmmm maybe we should have checked their cards????


We played several games and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Then Christian ate his turkey.
And I snuggled with this handsome guy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is for Chubby Papa

Here is a video of Christian taken this morning for his Chubby Papa who lives so far away but loves him so very much!

Christian crawling

This is Christian crawling around yesterday. He weighed in at 15 pounds 6 ounces on Tuesday when I took him in to get his Synagis shot. He has only gained 6 ounces in the last month. He eats a lot of food and formula but this little guy is always on the go. The doctor does not seem to be concerned about it. She says he is burning more calories now than ever before because he is so active.

NOTE: Usually when I record a video on my digital camera the sound does not come through. It has been a big mystery. BUT for some reason it worked this time so PLEEAAASSSE excuse my very HIGH PITCHED and annoying, excited voice that comes through on this video. Yes, it has been confirmed that I am a complete geek. Thanks!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving just around the corner I can't help but stop and think about all the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful to be blessed with a son who brings so much joy and light to our lives and who is such and inspiration to us and so many others. I am thankful for his smile and sweet personality. I am thankful he is crawling and learning new things everyday. I am thankful for the time I get to spend with him everyday being his mommy and snuggling him. I am thankful that he is energetic and strong and curious and kind and funny and smart and oh so adorable.

I am thankful for silly times with giggles and smiles that make even the worst days turn bright. I can't help but think of God's love when I look into the eyes of my son. It is ever-present. I am so thankful for that. Thank you God!

I am thankful for my loving husband. He works so hard to provide for us. He is great at being a daddy. I am thankful for his hugs. I am thankful for his strength. I am so thankful for his love.

I am also thankful for my family and friends. All of us have our own triumphs and struggles that we are dealing with. Thank goodness we have each other to lean on. I am thankful for those shared cups of coffee, those games of monopoly or racko or triominos, the phone conversations and emails, the late night shared dinners, the smiles and the hugs, the prayers. I am thankful for YOU!

What are YOU thankful for?

Jason's Parent's Anniversary

Happy 25th Anniversary!

We love you!

Thank You

I would like to send out a love-filled "thank you" to everyone for all of your sweet comments, emails, and phone calls in response to my "worried" post. After many stressful conversations, tears of frustration, and unfortunate encounters with a person who clearly does not like her job, herself, or people in general (which I am not even going to get into that), I finally spoke with a kind woman at SSI this morning. Her name is Tia and she actually took time to listen to me. She answered all of my questions and was very willing to help.

Unfortunately, I was told that Christian no longer qualifies for his SSI benefits, although still considered disabled (temporarily), and he will lose his secondary medical coverage through the Oregon Health Plan on 11/30/08. We always knew, since the beginning, that Jason's income alone was too high to be considered for benefits. What we did not know was that the reason Jason's income did not matter before was that Oregon Health Plan is given automatically to a preemie baby during his/her first year of life (you still have to go through the application process and it is VERY difficult AND your baby has to be born at a low birth weight of 1 kilo or less I believe). Now that Christian is 1 he is no longer eligible for benefits.

I called our insurance and found out that Christian has more coverage left than we had expected. He still has about $175,000 left until he reaches his $1 million cap. The good news is that we are going through his insurance a lot slower now that he is out of the hospital. I feel a lot better after finding out that he still will have coverage for a while. I thought we were closer to the edge of being capped off.

Thank you all for being there for me when I was feeling so overwhelmed. And thank you Tia for realizing that I am a real person with a real family and a unique situation.

Christian finally fits into his Converse shoes that his Uncle Casey and Aunt Tita bought him. Can you say CA-UTE??!!!

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Happy 33rd Birthday to my big brother Jamie!!!!

Love Sis xoxoxox

WORRIED

This past week have brought me several heavy burdens to bare. I thought it would do me good to write out my worries so that I can face them and hopefully work through them. Here goes.

1. I am worried about my brother's current health issues.


2. I am worried that I won't be able to speak with someone about Christian's special needs at the Social Security Dept. who will be patient, willing to listen, and actually CARE about our unique situation.


3. I am worried that I only have until the end of this month to work through the appeal process that determines Christian's (temporary) disability and if I fail we will eventually have no insurance coverage for our son. I only found out last Friday that his secondary insurance will no longer be in effect as of 12-1-08. Our primary insurance has a 1 million dollar lifetime benefit cap, per person, which Christian has almost met.


4. I am worried that the state of Oregon will not deem Christian's situation as medically necessary for insurance coverage and we will have to eventually declare medical bankruptcy.

5. I am worried that someone I love very, very much has started smoking again and I fear that it will actually kill him. (You know who you are)

Lord, please hear my prayer. I need You Lord. I need Your help with these burdens. I am sorry that I am not better. I am not worthy of Your grace and love. I am sorry that I seek You more in times of need than I do in times when all seems right with the world. I know that You know me. I am Your daughter. You know my heart is Yours always. I am not perfect. I can not do anything without You, Lord. You are my strength. Please hear my prayer. amen

Banana Bread Morning

Yesterday morning I baked, for the first time ever, banana bread. I decided to put chocolate chips in it because, in my opinion, chocolate makes just about everything a little bit more delish. It turned out pretty good too. I think I will leave the choco-chips out next time though. It is weird because I used my mom's recipe and it did not taste anything like hers(and I LOVE hers). Hmmm...it is amazing how two people can follow the same recipe and get two different results. Anyway, making my own banana bread is one more thing on my list of things to do eventually that I can check off. I see lots of banana bread in the future for the Lee household.

You are my Sunshine

Halloween 2008

Sabrina and Mason Halloween 2008

This year, Halloween meant Christian's first birthday. For details on that fabulous party please see the post below. But Halloween also meant leaving a sleeping baby with his Papa and Nana Peggy and heading to the HAUNTED CORN MAZE!! Jason, Shela, Dave, Sherri, and I went bravely to the haunted corn maze to face the ghouls that lingered in the corn (and get lost too!). I must admit, I screamed my head off! There is nothing that can scare me more than a masked man with a chain saw jumping out of nowhere in the dark. AND you hear the chainsaw before you see him??? SCARY. It was very dark and the corn was soooooo tall. We easily got lost several times. I love being scared though. My screams are almost always followed by hysterical laughter. It is a love-hate type of thing.

I also felt a sense of pride that our small town community had something this entertaining and fun. It was well worth the $7 dollars to get in and all around us we heard groups of people screaming and laughing and just having a great time in general. It did disturb me to see some parents with young children who were clearly beyond frightened. I mean, a corn field is scary period. BUT throw in pitch black darkness and grown men in frightening costumes with chainsaws who are getting paid to hide in the corn and jump out when you least expect it? To those parents I say next year leave the kiddies at home or enjoy the corn maze in broad daylight when it is not haunted. Despite the disappointment of seeing a few terrified little kiddies the corn maze was a blast.

On Saturday we drove to LaGrande where my aunt was hosting a family Halloween Party. We got dressed up and played games, ate some fun and tasty food, and enjoyed being amongst family. Here are a few pics of the party:

Our Halloween Birthday Boy is ONE!

It is hard to believe our Turkey is one. His party was fantastic (if I do say so myself!). My dad and Peggy showed up and totally surprised me on Thursday afternoon. I have never been so surprised. My dad had told me that he was not going to be able to come for Christian's birthday because of work. He kept calling me and asking if the package he sent Christian via UPS had arrived. I had been cleaning house all day Thursday and was expecting my girlfriend, Misty, to come by at any moment to spend the afternoon at my house. I had told her to just come in when she got here. Well, I was on the phone with my aunt when Cleo started barking and I heard someone come through the front door. It's Misty, right? NOPE. Here comes my dad and Peggy peaking around the corner. I literally screamed into the phone "it's my dad, it's my dad!" and started crying. It was so awesome. I knew Christian's birthday would be great but having his Papa Horn here made it a perfect day.

I made a movie on my computer and burnt it onto a DVD of Christian's first year. I tried uploading to my blog but after 10 hours of the screen saying it was downloading the video, I turned the computer off. :) It did turn out great and I showed it at the start of his party. Our home was full of family and friends. Christian ate up all the attention.

There were gifts and balloons, monster cupcakes, killer punch, aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grandparents, cousins and gummy worms, roasted pumpkin seeds and caramel spiced nuts, bean dip and guacamole, homemade tortilla chips shaped like bats and ghosts, laughter and tears (me), and a VERY happy one-year-old, smiling little boy!

This is one TIRED LITTLE DRAGON.

This is my cute friend Carrie. Isn't her costume awesome? And you wanna know something? This girlie is soooo cool that I did not even have to ask her to pose. She just did! Love that gal!




This was Christian right after I finished taking his picture in the leaves outside. He was so tired. We had planned on taking him around to a few houses to deliver treats to friends and family but it did not look like that was going to happen. When I went to lay him down and change his diaper before bed, he woke up with a little burst of energy. I put his costume back on and put him in his new wagon. We wheeled him over to my mom's house to Trick-or-Treat. I mean, it was Halloween and he needed to at least trick-or-treat at Grandma's house!

Happy Birthday Christian! Happy Halloween Too!