Christmas Morning

Santa came just like predicted and boy was he good to the kids! Tyler got EVERYTHING...just like he asked! Samantha's babies have everything they could possibly need to be comfy cozy in her bedroom. It was a great morning watching Tyler get so excited with every new present and Samantha rip them open piece by piece.
The best was when Tyler saw a bag of balls with a note attached from Muddles our elf. Muddles wrote a note to the kids that said to take the balls downstairs and that he will see them next year. When Tyler went downstairs he was amazed to see that muddles gave him the greatest gift ever...a jumper! Dan an I are even enjoying muddles christmas gift...how will he ever top it next year? Muddles set the bar a bit to high.

Robs Birthday Celebration

Robs birthday is December 23rd and every year Tonda takes us all out to dinner. This year Dan and I decided it was going to be an adult only evening. We got a babysitter and headed out. We had dinner downtown at Shakespears and then went to Bells.

Can't tell there brothers :)

This is Rob after recieving his birthday snowball.


Jim and I at Bells....I love you Jim!

Christmas Week!

The chaos of the Holidays is over and the christmas decorations are being taken down, but the memories of this holiday season will last forever. Our holidays are so much like everyone elses, occupied by coming and going from place to place. Visiting and traveling all over. Most importantly we were surrounded by people who we love and love us the entire week of Christmas.
Tyler was fun this year, from believing in Santa, to talking muddles our elf every night before bed, to helping Sam open her gifts. He was a joy to be around all week.
Sam was a charmer. She knew how to warm everyones hearts at the Christmas parties with her pretty blues eyes. She would go from person to person to just to give hugs.
I could blog hundreds of pictures, Aunt Kathy's Christmas Eve, Grandma Tondas, and Grandma and Grandpa Cow's but I will pick a few that sum up our holidays.

We opened presents at Grandma Tonda's Christmas Eve morning which was nice because we then had breakfast and got to spend the day relaxing and playing. Tyler can't get enough of being around Uncle Rob and Uncle Jim...and Sam couldn't part from Aunt Sara.


My little princess...you should see her walk in heals!

Tyler has a hat to match Uncle Robs...he is ready for a trip to the mountain!


We went to Aunt Kathy's Christmas Eve night for a family party. It was a BLAST! Kelly and Jeremy were home from Florida, Rob, Jim and Sara home from Oregon, and Grandpa was even home. With all the food, the kids playing, Guitar Hero, and a mini engagement celebration for Rob and Sara, the night was perfect.
Lucus, Tyler, and Sam

My Rock Star!

Welcome to the family Sara!


CHEERS! Its squirt...I promise!


There is more....but I am tired! Do more tonight.

Grand Haven Christmas

Thank goodness we have Muddles, our Elf on a Shelf. We told him to ask Santa if he would come early to Grandma and Grandpa's....and he did! Santa came to Grand Haven Saturday night. Another year older and another year wiser definately holds true with 3 year old boys. He new that Santa came with the reindeer and brought the presents because he had been good! Unfortunately, Santa forgot some bells on grandmas deck but we will put them out next to the cookies Christmas Eve so he can get them back. Sam just went along for the ride. She opened gifts only because Tyler was...monkey see monkey do!
Of course we had a great time. My mom made fantastic food, bought tons of presents, and we all enjoyed relaxing together (if you count playing my new Wii, relaxing) :)

Samantha's Dedication

Zephaniah 3:17
"He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Samantha Houston was dedicated to the Lord on 12.06.2008

Thank you to all who came and to those of you who sent your prayers. We are so blessed to be surrounded by great family and friends.

Samantha Dianne you are our Angel...may God watch over you and sing in your heart forever! May you learn to listen and hear His voice.

Prayer Request.

I have a prayer request to all that read this blog. I have a girlfriend Reba who has a 12 year old daughter Morgan. The week of Thanksgiving Morgan had been complaining of a headache...and to make a long story short. They brought Morgan to Bronson Hospital while there they found a tumor on Morgan's brain. She had immediate surgery and after a couple rough nights things looked well. She was at church that weekend after being told she would not walk and talk.
Unfortuately things did not stay well, Monday Morgan returned to Bronson Hospital and has been there since. Morgan has had acerebral fluid leak and they had to put a lumbar drain in to relieve some pressure off her brain so that it will allow the leak to heal itself. If this doesn't work she has to go back in for more brain surgery to repair the leak. Any and all prayers would be a gift. We pray that this works. They are giving this 2-5 days but today the darn lumbar drain started leaking. This is a 12 year old yound lady. There Faith is strong and there attitudes are unbelievable. I ask you all to pray...pray...and pray some more!
This is the last email I recieved from Reba...this says it all:
I am having a hard time with this morning’s update as last night was the worst night she has had in this entire ordeal. The neurosurgeon told us last night that her drain was not working correctly yesterday, that is why it was draining so slowly. That is a complete different story from what he had told us in the afternoon. We weren’t too surprised because he hadn’t spent enough time with her to ascertain what was really going on. As a result he reconfigured her drain set up and set her to drain cerebral fluid 20cc every hour. This began at about 9 pm. The pain was horrifying. She was pleading for us to pray for her and vomiting. It was horrible. This went on for hours resulting in her heart rate and respirations bottoming and an exhaustion so deep she couldn’t even move. She was so exhausted that she requested they stop medicating her because it made it too hard to breathe. Our poor nurse was beside herself. By about 1 am they determined her heart couldn’t take anymore and they called the neurosurgeon. He allowed them to give her a 2 hour break from draining and dial back the fluid releasing to 10cc an hour. Finally, by 2 am she was resting. She has been resting rather peacefully since then. She awoke enough this morning to tell me that she didn’t want any more medicine because it frightened her so much last night. She was afraid she would stop breathing because she didn’t have the strength to breathe. I told her that they fixed all that to just rest. She told us she loved us, asked what day it was and when we told her it was Friday she said ,”Good Tessie (her best friend) might come today” and went back to sleep.


We pray last night was just a bump in the road. That would mean we are still on track to clamp the drain tomorrow and see if her body will not leak so that she could go home by Monday. A new neurosurgeon is flying in from Texas today and everyone here informs us he is great. We are looking forward to that. Who knew the secondary recovery time would be worse than having the tumor removed.

Finished Product!

Here it is....all done! We have steaks, jerky, and burger! We had a great night at home just hanging out. The kids played while we ground up venison. I turned on some music and Sam shook her booty....you can't see her face but it was hilarious. She was watching herself in the slider door..she would giggle and then run away.