New Things

When we were in Illinois this past weekend we got Ryan's step stool that he had as a child. Lily and Wyatt love having it at home. Lily will push it around so she can see in the bathroom mirror. Today I put it in the kitchen and they stood looking out the window together.

Lily and Wyatt also got Halloween bags from Grandma Patty of fun "toddler" treats. It was full of things that the kids had never tried before: Gerber Graduates fruit snacks, fruit bars, and cereal bars; juice boxes, and teddy grahams. They LOVE the treats! Thanks Grandma Patty.

Head Banging and Christmas

Here are a couple new videos of the kids. I have one more on the camera that will not download and it is my favorite. Hopefully Ryan will be able to figure it out for me later.

For some strange reason, Lily and Wyatt love to hit their heads on different things. Lily especially finds this hilarious -- hope it makes you smile.

Yesterday afternoon I had the television on when the kids came down from their nap. They saw the commercial for the new Hallmark singing Christmas figure (the one on the sled) and they got super excited. Great-grandma Jean gave me the Hallmark Christmas figure two years ago for my birthday and I actually have it at the townhouse (99% of our Christmas stuff is in storage at my grandma's house). I got it out for Lily and Wyatt and they think it is GREAT! They both know how to turn it on and if you watch carefully you will see that Lily is holding hands with the snowman while he sings. It could be a long month and a half until Christmas. :)

Weekend in Illinois

We went to Illinois this weekend to celebrate both Grammy and Grandpa Steve's birthdays. We were super busy, like usual, but we had a great time. Lily and Wyatt are really starting to remember people and warm up more quickly. They both had colds for our trip, but they did great! It was so good to see a lot of friends and family, but there are so many people we don't get to see when we come back to visit. Hopefully we will be able to see more people during our longer Christmas visit!

Lily had fun reading Grammy's birthday cards with her.

Wyatt thought that Grammy was quite funny while reading books!

They both had a great time getting into trouble any way they could at Grammy's house: climbing stairs, opening cupboards, picking up breakables.

Lily and Wyatt love playing out at Grandpa Steve's. They got a special treat this visit -- Grandpa got out his tractor! Lily took 1 1/2 rides and although Wyatt LOVES tractors he would not take a ride (except on Mommy's lap). They were also able to go exploring in Grandpa's BIG yard. They both love to walk through all the leaves on the ground.


Wyatt had to have faux-hawk like Uncle Mark!

Wyatt and Lily were being goofy with the different discoveries of Grammy's cupboards. At one point, Lily was walking around carrying a can of soup under each arm. She was so proud of herself!

U of M

We have received an update on our going to the University of Michigan for Ryan's transplant evaluation. I was delighted to open up the mailbox and see that we had a packet from them. They scheduled us to go in for the appointment next week Thursday, November 8. Unfortunately they did not contact us to see if this would work and it does not. Ryan will be in Kentucky next week Wednesday through Friday (Nov. 7-9) for work. Ahhh! Ryan did call to reschedule and they have us going on Thursday, Dec. 20. They only have evaluation days twice a month and the 2nd one for November would be on Thanksgiving and the first one in December is booked. I am thankful that we now have a date scheduled and that my mind can be somewhat at ease. Please be praying that Ryan is able to start the 6 week exercise program before we go; it is my understanding that he has to complete that before he can be listed.

Getting Rid of Pollution

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: ... to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

I tend to struggle with making quiet time a priority in my life. I know that it is important, but I manage to find so many other things that are more "important". In reality, what is more important that my spiritual health and my relationship with my heavenly Father? What is more important than teaching my kids what it means to have a personal relationship with my savior? The answer is: NOTHING.

The verse above is James 1:27. James is probably my favorite book of the Bible and I have read it several times, yet yesterday was the first time I took notice of this verse. I know the best way to keep myself from being polluted by the world is to spend time with God. I just need to make sure that I am doing it.

Lily and Wyatt's 1st Jack O Lanterns

Lily and Wyatt's 1st Jack O Lanterns!

Auntie Val carved the pumpkin with the star eyes and I carved the one with the crazy mouth. Ryan was in charge of camera duty and Lily and Wyatt took care of being cute!

Wyatt and Lily experiencing the pumpkin innards for the first time!

I put a table cloth on the floor and Wyatt did NOT like that. He refused to step onto the table cloth so it took him a little while to get into the fun. Lily, of course, was in on the action right away! She was sticking her hand into the pumpkin, carrying around the "gick" and even eating the pumpkin seeds (oops). Wyatt did eventually enjoy putting his hand into the bowl of pumpkin innards and even had fun flinging it around; He too tried eating a pumpkin seed.

Enjoying the finished product.

Wyatt likes to put his fingers into the different facial openings (a little dangerous with lit candles inside). Lily likes figuring out the puzzle of putting the tops back on the pumpkins. Thankfully neither of the kids is afraid of the pumpkins and they enjoy having them lit. The continually go to the kitchen table and point at them. I think Lily would like to carry them around like she does with her little pumpkins. Kids find joy in the simplest things!

Fun Fall Films

Here are some movies of Lily and Wyatt enjoying life. I must admit that I think you will enjoy the last movie the most, but unfortunately there are two less humorous movies in front of it. Please forgive my camera work...I am not very good at filming when I am moving.

Fall Frolic

I was driving past the park today and saw all the fall leaves beginning to cover the ground. It was beautiful and I decided that I should take Lily and Wyatt to explore. Last year at this time they were only 6 months old, not exactly the age of leaf playing so this was their first experience with leaves. Oddly enough, Wyatt seemed to enjoy it more than Lily; I put him down at the park and he just took off. They would both pick up the leaves and just look at them. The awe and wonder of one year olds is a good reminder of how we should view God's world.

Indian Summer

What a beautiful weekend that God gave to us! We thoroughly enjoyed the warm weather this weekend as a family. Yesterday morning the kids and I ran a bunch of errands with Grandma. Ryan was feeling good, so we were able to have some fun family time out on the town Saturday night...Applebee's and the toy aisle at WalMart :) Today all four of us were able to go to church...3 of us ended up in nursery, but that was okay we had fun playing with the other kids. Tonight we took full advantage of the Indian summer and went to Grandma and Papa's house to swing, although Wyatt didn't want to swing and Lily was in the swing for all of 5 minutes. The kids had fun watching the neighbor's dog play frisbee. I hope that you were all able to enjoy the great weather this weekend.


Lily and Wyatt walking with Grandma and Papa, trying to get up onto the big deck.

Lily had fun touching the pine tree in the backyard and Wyatt had fun exploring with Papa.


Look out, here comes Lily! Wyatt is watching the neighbor's dog run in the yard.

18 Months and Doing Well

We just got home from the doctor and he said that both kids were "doing well". The ear infections are all cleared up -- YEAH! I shared with him my concerns about the kids lack of words. He asked if they were understanding directions, jabbering, making animal noises, etc. Since I was able to answer yes to all of those things he said that he was not concerned and that they were doing fine. They did have to get 2 shots (one being a flu shot), but now we are done with shots until they are 4.

THANK YOU, GOD, FOR OUR HEALTHY, HAPPY KIDS!!!

Here are the kids stats from today:

Lily:

19 lbs. (3%)

30 1/4 in. (10%)

Wyatt:

24 lbs. 12 oz. (30%)

33 in. (70%)

A Little Like Mommy

I have to share a funny story about Lily with you and it will be funnier to those of you who know me and my need to have everything picked up and put away.

Lily has taken to picking up every little thing that she finds on the carpet and bringing it to me to take care of. She has the innate ability to find the most minuscule crumb or fuzzy and pick it up. She is also much better at picking up toys and putting them in the right place than Wyatt is. Lily also hates having anything on her hands, she will wipe them off herself and she loves to scrub in the tub.

All that being said, today I asked her to go put her milk cup in the kitchen. She would walk to the kitchen and them come back holding the cup. The kitchen counter is still a little out of her reach, so I figured that she would just set it on the floor in there or put it on the dining room table. After about the third time of going to the kitchen and coming back with her cup I heard a weird noise. I was sitting on the couch with Wyatt and turned to see that she had opened the dishwasher and put her milk cup in there all by herself! Apparently she is a bit of a neat freak like her mommy!

Little Elephants

Okay, so I was not sure if I wanted Wyatt to be the chicken for Halloween. I decided to try the elephant costume and I think that it is better. Ryan and I thought that it would be more fun to have our own "herd of elephants". Besides, we figure that we will only be able to dress them alike for so long.

The Elephant and The Chicken

In my opinion, the laughter of children is one of the best sounds in the world; especially if you are a mom and it is the laughter of your children. I hope that you enjoy the following video of Lily and Wyatt. I hope that it makes you smile. It is filled with laughter.

The reason for the costumes is probably obvious -- Halloween. We don't plan on taking the kids trick or treating, but there is a Halloween Parade at Ryan's work and we will probably go and see their cousins. We were planning on just having Lily be a Bear's cheerleader and Wyatt be a Bear's football player because we had those outfits in the house. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on Halloween costumes that they were only going to wear for a little while, but Old Navy has them on sale. Besides...we think they are pretty cute!

Pumpkin Patch

I brought the kids to a farm stand today to see the pumpkins. Lily loved it, Wyatt did not (he still isn't feeling very well). We got some little pumpkins to bring home, but we will hopefully go with Ryan this weekend and get some bigger pumpkins to carve. Hopefully we will get better pictures of Wyatt and some of the kids together too.

Rock N' Roll

Lily cracks Ryan and I up whenever she listens to music. Hope that she (and Wyatt) bring a smile to your face as you watch this.

Ryan

I usually use the blog to update about Lily and Wyatt, but I know there are many people out there who wonder about Ryan too. I just wanted to let you all know that is about to head in to the hospital for his quarterly tune-up. While this is a good thing for him health-wise, it is always difficult emotionally (for all 4 of us).

Ryan will again be going to the hospital in Grand Rapids (Spectrum Downtown) on Friday, Sept. 28. I am glad that he will be close again and not in Chicago, but it is still difficult to have him gone for 2 weeks, and it will be a full two weeks this time (sometimes it is only 10 days). I am sure that the kids and I will make several trips to see him, but it is still not the same as having him home. The kids will miss their playmate (they get so excited when he comes home from work) and I will miss having my husband around (and adult conversation). This is a fact of our life, but it does not get any easier. I am not sure if it is the fact that he is going in at the start of a weekend or what, but it seems much harder this time.

Also, with this hospital stay, the plan (in our minds at least) is that they will be doing some of the preliminary testing for the transplant evaluation. We think that we will be heading to the University of Michigan sometime in the next month to have the evaluation done. Our best guess is that Ryan will be put on the "inactive" transplant list. This is good....it will allow him to easily be transitioned to the "active" list should the need arise, but it also means that he is too healthy to go "active".

Again we thank God for the great insurance that the state of Michigan provides to adults (and kids) with CF. They cover most of our CF related bills that are not covered by our regular insurance. We also thank God for all of you and for your prayers of support.
Thank you, thank you, God!!!

Note: Wyatt was attacking Ryan one of the days that he was home sick last week. Wyatt had also just said "Daddy" for the first time. It was a really good moment!

Be Careful What You Ask For...

Have you ever prayed for God to give you patience and then everything goes wrong? I always feel like that is God saying "I am giving you the patience to handle this situation, how are you going to use it." This morning during my quiet time, I asked God to give me patience and wisdom in my parenting. I received a situation today that allowed me to use it:

The kids were a little cranky (getting molars will do that) so I loaded them up in the car and we were going to go to the library and Michael's. I went to turn the car on and it wouldn't start (I left the interior light on yesterday). Hmm...okay, now what. I checked outside the garage and our landlord, Joe "just happened" to be outside. I asked him for help and he said sure. New problem...I couldn't put the car into neutral to push it out of the garage to jump start it. Okay, Joe is going to go and look for a battery charger or he is willing to go home and get one. He doesn't come up with one. I go inside, trying not to cry because both kids start screaming when I get them out of the car, and my phone rings. It is a friend of mine and she asks how my day is going. I tell her what is going on and she says, "Oh, my dad has one of those. I will put the kids in the car, go to his house and pick it up, and bring it over." She did, it worked, the car starts once again.

I could totally see God in my morning: Joe just happened to be outside (and willing to help), Kate calls right when I am about to cry, Joe is outside again later when I have another question about the charger, and the kids are having fun playing together without too much "fighting". Thank you, Jesus, for your faithfulness in all situations!

Amazing

I find myself amazed by my kids daily. They are continually doing new things. It is so fun to watch and see their little faces as they experience something new. Lily and Wyatt laughing together as they find out a new "trick" is one of the best sounds in the world.

Lily has decided that acting out her favorite book is very fun. She has little actions that she does for certain parts of THE GOING TO BED BOOK by Sandra Boynton. She normally does these actions without prompting whether we are reading her the book or she is looking at it herself (she was a little camera shy in the movie).

Wyatt has discovered that if he works together with Lily, he can move the blanket basket around the house. Last night we were able to catch a little bit of this on camera. I hope that you continue to enjoy watching the kids live.

While Daddy's Away We Will Play

Back by popular demand, Lily and Wyatt Sweeney star in their 2nd Feature Film: While Daddy's Away We Will Play. A bonus feature is a short film by Wyatt entitled: Wyatt Walks. We hope that you all continue to enjoy these brief glimpses into our everyday life.

1st Week of Football!

Sunday was like Christmas for Ryan. It was the first Sunday of football which is just a great day for Ryan. Ryan, Lily, and Wyatt were all decked out in their Bears gear (thank you, Grammy). Unfortunately we were unable to see the Bears game (the Lions played at the same time on the same network) and they lost.