I Want Jesus to Come for Me!
December 7, 2009 by Ryan
Here’s a cute story for the holidays:
When we got home from grocery shopping tonight, Kimberly went out to play in the snow without her gloves on. As we were bringing bags in she slipped and fell on her hands which were very red. I was right there to pick her up but she was sad. She eventually started to feel her hands throbbing from playing in the snow and was crying because they hurt so bad.
Through her crying she said, “I want Jesus to come for me!”
I took her to the bathroom to run her hands under cool water and slowly warm them up. She was crying “Jesus, Jesus!” We tried to calm her down and explain that she could say a pray to help her feel better. So we said a quick prayer that her hands would stop hurting and that she could be calm. She calmed down and her hands were no longer so red.
Eventually, she started playing with the water and giggling. I asked her if her hands felt better and she said they were. We then said a quick prayer to thank Heavenly Father for helping her.
It breaks your heart when your kids get hurt but it was so sweet that she instinctively thought that Jesus could help!
Fun With Cars
February 16, 2009 by Ryan
We had some fun recently bringing the kids’ cars in from the garage and playing. I love making little movies so I took the footage and made this!
After watching the finished product we notice that the kids would crack up so we record that too!
I know this is a pretty lame way to get back into posting, but hey! I gotta do it!
My Little Family
October 22, 2008 by Ryan
It’s after midnight.
I’m up because both Kimberly and Jeremy have colds.
I’m sitting in my bed with Kimberly sleeping next to me, so cute, so peaceful…other than her occasional cough.
Next to her is Beth, with Jeremy sleeping on her chest. I’m jealous. I love when they sleep on your chest. He just giggled in his sleep! That’s good, poor little guy caught Kimberly’s cold. He really loves his mama!
Beth is asleep…I think. I think I might be keeping her up with my typing. She’s so good with the kids.
It’s so sad but sometimes it’s so sweet taking care of the sick babies. Every now and then they snuggle into you, or do something off the charts cute and I exchange looks of “Ahhhhh” with little half-frowns with Beth.
You might think that I’d be thinking, “This sucks!” Instead, it makes me think of how much I love being Daddy!
Nightmare Before Christmas…Tree!
October 13, 2008 by Ryan
Our Nightmare Tree
You know, I think this Christmas thing
is not as tricky as it seems!
But why should they have all the fun?
It should belong to anyone!
Not anyone, in fact, but me!
Why, I could make a Christmas tree!
And there’s not a reason I can find,
I couldn’t have a Christmastime!
I bet I could improve it, too!
And that’s exactly what I’ll do!
-Jack Skellington
“The Nightmare Before Christmas”
Halloween Trees are all the rage these days. My wife sees them in tons of the countless Mama/Crafts/Design blogs that she subscries to. Trendy or not, I think it’s cool and we had fun making it which is what really counts! We found the branches outside my work, brought them home, spray painted them black and did this!
Halloween has always been a holiday. Nothing beats the excitement of those nights trick-or-treating! Running from door to door trying to get as much candy as you can stuff into your pillow case (Yes, experienced Trick-Or-Treaters know that you don’t use the wimpy Jack-O-Lantern buckets, you use the pillow case because it hold like 10x as much!) I remember how fun it was to run around with all my friends, the McCraes and the Sundbergs, way back and then Robbie & Andy when I was older but still old enough to get away with trick-or-treating.
Back in the day, my house had quite the reputation! My dad was working for M&M/Mars and come Halloween he laid out two huge tables filled with boxes of full-size Snickers, Twix, Milky Ways, etc. and we’d invite everyone to come in and grab a few. We would have kids that would switch masks and come back over and over. We’d have people that would drive just to come to our house! It was funny the year my dad switched companies and we were relegated to handing out the “normal” Halloween candies. I remember over hearing a few kids say, “They must have moved!?”
Somewhere between then and a few years back Halloween lost it’s excitement for me. Then I married a Halloween fanatic! Add to that kids coming into the ages that it becomes really fun and Halloween is back to being a really exciting time. We’ve been watching a ton of The Nightmare Before Christmas especially because of the new anniversay edition. We put the digital copy it comes with on our little Archos video player for Kim and bought her some headphones for car trips, but she loves it so much, she’ll watch it on her own some days. If you ever get to talk to her about it she calls it Halloween, Halloween.
Serenity…In Life’s Challenges
July 29, 2008 by Ryan
Our experience with Jeremy’s spina bifida has been a trying time in our lives: learning the worst-case scenarios, not know the extent of the paralysis or problems, moving only two days before Jeremy was born, the harrowing race to the hospital, watching him go through surgeries to close his back and place his shunt. People that have been under similar kind of stress know what that pressure is like. Luckily, we had tremendous support from family, friends, doctors, nurses, and work. I really needed to talk about it. Sorry to those that had to listen, but it helped to relieve the burden I felt.
One of the many lessons I’ve learned from all this is that everyone has challenges that they are going through! My eyes were sort of opened to the situations around me. One situation that was very close in timing with our experience is that of Phil Burns’ daughter Serenity. I read one of Phil’s posts about Serenity’s chemo and it tore me up because my Kimberly is the same age! Phil has dedicated himself to fighting cancer however he can. One way is a blood drive. It’s tomorrow and I know most of you wouldn’t be able to make it, but it brings to my mind the importance of giving blood. I hate it, and my wife is much worse with needles, but it’s more important than that. It really is a shame how few people donate.
If you can make it, wonderful! But if you can’t, make it a goal to donate in your area. I’ve chatted with Phil a few times about the frustrations, fear and anger a father feels when he can’t protect his child. Hopefully, I’ve been able to share his burden those few times we’ve talked. Do the same. Take the time to notice suffering around you and offer a helping hand, or even just an understanding ear.
Little Angel
July 20, 2008 by Ryan
We recently went to an Orem Owlz game, and we went all decked out in Angels unis (The Owlz are the Angels’ Single A team). We were taking pictures and in these pictures it looks like Jeremy might have some red in his hair! It’s actually not too surprising because Papa Ottley had red hair.
Kim had a blast running all around the outfield grass seating and on the huge playground. She had a pink Angels jersey and wore here Daddy out.
Go Angels!
The Wii: Bringing Husbands & Wives Closer Together
June 3, 2008 by Ryan
So I was watching Last Comic Standing and one of the female comedians was making a joke about how Halo 3 destroys relationships…something about how her boyfriend spends all day with a headset talking to little boys online. I tried to get my wife to play Halo with my friends and I but she inevitably ends up spinning in a corner staring at the sky.
Then came the Wii.
Hopefully, you’ve all had a chance to do the bowling. And I do mean all of you because even my grandparents have Wii bowled with us. The beautiful thing about the Wii is my wife loves it! I can play video games and not only is she okay with it, she plays with me. We’ve recently come across some new games that we’re kind of excited about:
We’re Home!
March 11, 2008 by Ryan
We’ve had Jeremy home now since last Friday and it is wonderful! Obviously, much more comfortable to be home and to be together with our little girl too. She has been so sweet to him. I can’t believe how well Jeremy is doing! He’s an eater! We’ll get Jeremy TV back up and running here soon. Thanks to everyone for all their love and support!
Jeremy Aint Gonna Be a Leap Year Baby!
March 2, 2008 by Ryan
Jeremy Michael Miller was born February 27th, 2008! He has a little hospital stay to get through and so we have a live feed setup if you want to check in on how he’s doing (he’s doing great!)
Pray for Jeremy
November 27, 2007 by Ryan
It’s hard to describe the emotional rollercoaster my family has been through this last 2 weeks. For those of you who have not heard, we have some concerns for our little boy, Jeremy Michael. He’s due in early March. I’ve waited to write about this until my wife had and she did a good job of explaining what we’re up against.
We’re Pregnant!
When we found out we were pregnant it was a pleasant surprise: we weren’t trying, but we weren’t not trying. It actually was about perfect because the baby would be about two years apart from our daughter Kimberly. I really did not care whether it was a boy or a girl. If it was a girl, Kimberly would have a sister right close to her age. If it was a boy, hey! it’s our first boy!
Saying Hi to Jeremy
About two weeks ago, we went in for our doctor’s ultrasound. I just Twittered…
Just saying hi to Baby Jeremy @ my wife’s ultrasound!
After the ultrasound, I went to take care of Kimberly as Beth went to go talk to the doctor. The doctor called me in. She said us down and told us they saw some things that concerned her and that we’d need to go see a specialist. Needless to say we were in quite a bit of shock. I think I had always assumed everything would be okay. I think most parents in general think that way.
We went to see the specialist the next day, which was nice to not have this unknown hanging over our heads for too long. He did another ultrasound and then sat us down to talk about it. Again, I’m not going to rehash all the details, Beth did a good job in her post. From that discussion we were faced with that reality that our little boy had Spina Bifida and the possibility of worse. The doctor explained that there might be a chromosome defect and we then spoke with a genetic specialist. She told us that the most likely of the rare problems we could have would be Trisomy 13, which would most likely mean we wouldn’t have him for very long.
Perspective
I was going to write that it “hit us like a ton of bricks” but, honestly, we were fairly calm about all of it. There have been things that have come up in the last while that, I believe, happened to prepare us. We’re very blessed to have the perspective that we do. We know that whatever happens, in the grand scheme of things, we’ll be okay. We know that if he was only with us a short time, we wouldn’t be losing him forever. If we do get to have him, whatever challenges he’s going to have we can do it. Not on our own, but with the Lord’s help. We have wonderful families that will be there. We know that we’ve been seal as a family, and that we will be together after this life.
The Results
As it turns out, I have been writing this post here and there since that time and we found out that there are no chromosome problems! And we are so grateful and happy that there aren’t. I want to thank all those that prayed for us. One of the first thoughts that I had was to call my family and ask them to pray for Jeremy. And we still need those prayers and that faith. Now we know that Jeremy will be with us for a long time and now we are praying that he will be able to walk and not require a shunt.
I am so excited to have him. I love him already. Knowing how much I love Kimberly, I can’t wait to have my little boy!
