When you're 10 and your uncle drives a limo, your birthday is pretty cool!

My favorite Griffin just turned 10. How is that possible? 

I guess seeing that he had heart surgery and all, his parents thought they would give him a big birthday bash. So, they rented this: 

Yes, that is a stretched Hummer.

How awesome is that?

They asked Griffin what he wanted to do for his birthday. He wanted to take some friends from school to Laser Blaze and play laser tag. So, Jenny sent out invitations and told Griffin she and Travis would pick him and his friends up from school last Friday. Yay, right? What they didn't tell him was that they rented a limo to ride in.

G's face was awesome as he walked out to the car rider line...

The boys screamed in excitement and rushed to jump inside!

I guess it's a pretty cool thing when your uncle has connections and can drive the limo. ;-)

Travis and Jenny were strong in their selfie game.

After a 30 minute drive, we had a whole lot of kids READY TO BURN OFF SOME ENERGY!

Suited up and ready to shoot people...

I'm thinking Eric and Travis were taking their sniper positions a little too seriously. I half expected them to break out some hand signals and throw some grenades. 

After shooting people, it was time for the kids to use up some tokens. I guess Travis felt it was his responsibility to show everyone his sheer strength. 

Yes, Travis, we are proud of the tickets you won.  Now, let's move on.

And, what evening would be complete without the girls wanting a picture in the limo WITHOUT all the stinky boys?! Too sweet :)

Happy 10th birthday, Griffin! We love you!!

Friends, Easter and a little Griffin update!

I love Easter!  It is right up there with Christmas or Thanksgiving for me.  I love the food, the activities and I especially love it when the weather was like it was this weekend -- SO GORGEOUS!  

Friday evening, I spent some time with my sister and some of our first friends.  I love that we have stayed in touch during our adult lives.  I adore my sister.  She has THE biggest heart of anyone I know!  She is a beautiful person, inside and out.  We are so different in a lot of ways (for starters, she works at the jail and takes grown men down to the ground daily -- if people treated me the way she is treated, I would cry!  She just laughs and brushes it off).   

Lisa, on the left, has been our friend since we were toddlers.  Jill, on the right, has been our friend since Middle School.  

We met for dinner because our friend, Karrie was in town.  She's all the way on the right.  Karrie and I have been friends since birth.  Ha!

When we get together, it's as if time has stood still. 

In reality, 30 plus years have passed.  We've all married.  We all have kids.  We've gone in different directions, but we've kept in touch and still have a beautiful bond.  I love these girls!

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Saturday morning, we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at my parent's church.  They throw a big shindig and the kids look forward to it every year!  This year, G and the kids met up with us.  I'm so glad they did!  It sucks when your bestie lives two hours away and you don't see her that often.  So, short visits are good, too.

The kids had a great time!  

A quick little update about Griffin:

Lots of people continue to ask me how Griffin is doing.  Thank you so much for continuing to remember him.  He is doing really well!  He was back to school ONE WEEK after his open heart surgery.  He still has some restrictions such as how much weight he can lift, can't run, no baseball for a while...but other than that, he is doing wonderful!  He is back to the happy, silly boy that we know and love.  His sister, Emmy, had a great report at the cardiologist yesterday.  They had her checked out, just to be safe, and while she has a murmur, it is normal.  Praising God for the miracle he did in our family.

  

^^ Mags is just thankful to be able to hug Griffin again. :-)

On Easter, I had to be at church really early, so Eric was to take care of getting the kids ready.  He did bring Maggie to the choir room so I could do her hair! Ha!  I asked him to get a really cute pic of the kids in their Easter clothes and this is what he sent me:

 I ABOUT DIED.

He did make up for it after church and got this for me.  Love my kiddos!

So thankful for a weekend to celebrate our risen Savior!  He is risen indeed!

A few more pictures to savor

I have a few more sweet pictures of Griffin to share.  I know my blog has been bombarded with pictures of him, but I can't help it!  Who wouldn't love to look at this sweet face?  A reunion with his sister...precious.

Family photo while in Peds ICU

This was taken the day after surgery when the cousins came to visit.  The staff let ALL of us back in the ICU to see him.  There were 14 of us crammed back in his little corner!  My sister started a project for G -- a box of prayer cards.  Several area churches, some schools, and many friends wrote cards for Griffin.  SO SWEET!  Thank you to everyone who helped.  I think she had around 600 cards...maybe more!

My niece's school did a "caring thoughts" paper chain for him.  Each student in their school filled one out.  My dad does security at the school one day a week, so they called him in during the morning assembly and presented it to him. How sweet is that?

This little man right here could NOT wait to get in and see Griffin.  He was really worried about him.  :)

First meal request post op: a sammich from Jimmy Johns, compliments of Papa and Grammy.

Doing his first lap around the nurses station - a little CRAZY to me how quickly he was up and moving around!! 

We went back for more visiting on Wednesday after school and the boys got into an intense game of Battleship. ;)

LOVE THIS PICTURE:

Oh, and these are strictly pictures for me.  THE BEST no bakes around and the hospital had a Starbucks.  Thank you, Jesus.  

LOVE.

On Thursday, I guess G-man was doing so well, they really couldn't keep him any longer.  It was time to pack up and go HOME!  They seriously could have fed a small army with all the goodies people brought.

A little nap before it was time to head out - priceless picture.

Going home. :)

Griffin is doing great!  We couldn't be happier.  Thanks for your continued prayers for his healing. 

And, I'm gonna take a proud momma moment for a second.  This is an email that Levi's teacher sent Eric on the afternoon of the surgery.  I cried.  Times like this make you think you are doing something right.  

I've prayed all along that God will be glorified during this time.  I think He is.

Griffin's Surgery: Kicking open heart surgery in the rear!

Proud Aunt alert...

Griffin's surgery was Monday and he was a ROCKSTAR!!!

The surgery was originally scheduled for 7:30 am, but got moved back to 11:00.  We all started trickling in around 9:00.  There were grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, pastors...we seriously took up half of the surgery waiting room! 

Griffin's name (bottom left hand corner) - I cannot tell you how awesome KCH is!  The "C" stands for Children's and that is exactly what they cater to...children.

A nurse came to get Griffin shortly after 9:30 to get him registered and take his vitals.  Since all his grandparents were in the waiting room, they let him come back out and hang with us until it was time to get ready for surgery.  

Somewhere around 10:30, they took Griffin back to get him prepped.  Watching that little dude walk away was A.W.F.U.L.  I can't imagine being Travis and Jenny and watch him roll away into the operating room.  Ugh.

After they got him settled, they let family come back two at a time and visit with him.  

He was pretty funny...telling Jenny to stop crying, making bets with Uncle Eric on if Papa Bobby had cried yet that morning... Good stuff!  Eric won the bet, saying that Papa had cried already, to which Griffin replied, "Hey, you can't take my money...I have a hole in my heart!"  Ha!

Love that picture!  However, I think this more accurately portrays my brother:

And, then, we waited.  And waited.  WAITING IS THE WORST, even when you have a good family to hang with.  

We got word that they moved the surgery back again until around noon due to an emergency that came in.

We started to amuse ourselves with selfies...

And even resorted to some silly fun.  My poor dad! Ha!

A short time later, Travis sent a pic that they had just wheeled him off.  Oh my word.  

They told us it would take about an hour to get him all ready and the actual surgery would be about an hour and a half.  They took us to a separate, private waiting room which was for families of heart patients during surgery.  It was nice to just be us.  MORE WAITING.  Some tears.  Lots of laughs and smiles.  More tears. At some point, a nurse came in to tell us Griffin was on bypass.  I'm not gonna lie, that kind of took my breath away.  MORE WAITING.  Same nurse told us things were going well and the hole was huge.  The surgeon was patching the hole and would be in to talk to us soon.  Before too much longer, the doctors came in and I could not have been more impressed!  They were awesome!  Talked to us for quite a while, answering questions, explaining things as they went along.  In case you don't know, Griffin asked one of the doctors if they could take a picture of his heart so he could see what it looks like when he woke up.  Not only did he get one, he got FIVE! 

From recovery, they transferred him to the PICU and said Travis and Jenny could go back to see him within the hour.  I could see the anxiousness on their faces to just get in and see him.  Travis' Facebook status summed it up great:

"Finally here in the ICU.  He's extubated.  Not on pressors.  Will open his eyes and answer questions.  I feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  I can finally breathe a sigh of relief.  My deepest gratitude to everyone for keeping us in their thoughts and prayers.  My family has been tremendous as has the staff at KCH.  I'm truly humbled here today."

Pretty sure this is one of the most precious pictures I've ever seen.  

Travis posted this one which was taken about 8 hours post op.  He was doing great! 

Travis' morning update:

"It was a long night.  We had trouble controlling nausea.  The IV pain medicine fentanyl causes lots of nausea.  It's hard on a kid to yak after open heart surgery and hard on the parents to watch.  But other than that he is doing great.  Sitting up in a chair, a line out, foley out.  And they are planning on kicking us out of the ICU."

It is now more than 48 hours post op and the kid is doing incredible!  He has been up walking, sitting in a chair, reading books, and playing Battleship.  Each passing moment, he seems more and more like himself.  He still has quite a bit of pain, but they are managing it pretty well.  I know I speak for my whole family when I say that words cannot describe how truly blessed we feel with all the prayers that were prayed over Griffin.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  Griffin is one special kid and we love that you love him, too!  Thank you.