Pumpkin Carving

Wednesday night we carved pumpkins and had a blast!! This is the first year that the girls did most of their pumpkin on their own!

Girls waiting for Daddy to cut the tops off!

They have their tops and are ready to gut!

Even Molly wanted to join in. She actually put her head into a few of the pumpkins, but my hands were either slimy or the camera was to far out of reach each time!

Sadie with her pumpkin; she carved the ENTIRE thing herself!!!! Her pumpkin was by far the biggest in the house; I feel like this picture does not do it justice.

Syrah really enjoyed carving this year and she cut the eyes and nose all on her own (we have special tools that aren't as sharp as a typical knife).

The Jordan Family Finished Projects!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween!

Family Birthday Party

Sunday evening we had a family party to celebrate the girl’s birthdays. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and the girls opened some gifts and then we had dessert!!! It was nice to be able to have family all together and able to catch up a bit with everyone. The girls had a great time and as always it brings me joy to celebrate them!

We had fun decorating the table!!

Syrah thought it was too funny that she opened a present that had the same sweatshirt she was wearing!!!

Of course there was singing... you can't tell Sadie was having fun!

Happy Birthday to our other "baby" girl

It's hard to believe that 11 years ago Sadie came into this world and since has been a joy each day. Sadie was the sweetest baby, she had a smile for everyone and loved people (sound familiar).

She has always been one that loved the cuddles and hugs! (Sadie at 8 months)

This was in those learning to use her leg days. She loved to take walks, to run and play!

(Sadie at 1 year)

Sadie loves to read, she has since she was little. This pictures she sat in the hallway and "read" this book out loud. (Sadie at 2)

I just love this picture; Sadie has always had a calming and caring spirit about her. She truly has a gift of giving love and touching peoples hearts. (Sadie at 4)


Sadie is a great big sister; she adores her sister and has since the day we welcomed her into the world. (Sadie at 8)

Sadie today, now 11!!!

First thing this morning; with a birthday call from her dearest friends!!!!

Sadie is a complete gift from God... she has blessed our lives!! Sadie has a huge heart that continually seeks the best in each person. Sadie loves to read, write and create (she is one of the most creative people I know and I love exploring the world through her eyes). Sadie enjoys art, music and playing games. We feel so grateful to be able to celebrate Sadie's life today - Happy Birthday to our beautiful young lady (aka baby).

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday after Syrah’s game we went to the pumpkin patch. Since Sadie was little we have been going to this small local farm. They only open their farm to the public during the Halloween season so it’s quite a treat. This is the latest that we have ever gone to the pumpkin patch and we were surprised to see how many people were there.

The girls got to feed some animals and pet some baby chicken, ducks and bunnies. One of the highlights for me is the fact they had chicks hatching on display… what an amazing process to witness! Also, just the day before we went some new piglets were born!! The mama was keeping them pretty close, but one was out just enough for us to catch a photo.

Once we made our way to the pumpkin patch itself we realized that coming late provides very little choices in regards to pumpkin pickin’ so we ended up at the local grocery store for our pumpkins this year. It worked out great though; there was a huge selection and the prices were great!!! Hopefully we can find some time to carve them before Halloween!

Final Soccer Game and Party

Syrah’s Soccer team, the Green Sharks, celebrated their successful season (meaning, they all learned more about the game and enjoyed their time playing) by having a celebration on Friday night. The kids each got trophies… Syrah is very proud of hers. They had a great night celebrating their season.

Syrah had a really great time playing soccer and has a talent there we didn’t know was there before. Saturday afternoon was their last game. One of the highlights of the game was one of the team members came out of their shell big time and found their inner soccer star – he made about 10 goals… it was amazing!!!



Syrah made her final goal!! You can’t see Syrah (promise she is there), but you can see the ball going through the goal and catch a small glimpse of her green shirt behind the other team.

Prayers for my Grandpa (updated)

UPDATE 10/27/2008: Grandpa was moved out of ICU yesterday!!!!!! He is doing much better and appears to be on the road to recovery. For the first time he is being allowed a “clear liquid” diet and some of the many tubes have been removed. He does have one issue that needs to be monitored, but he is the care of good staff! Thank you for all who spent out prayers for him. Hopefully he can continue to get well so he can come home soon!

Grandma & Grandpa August 2008

My Grandpa Harold went into the hospital on Tuesday the 14th to have a minor operation on his heart. The operation was not successful and they told my grandparents that he would have to undergo open heart surgery the following day. This came as quite a surprise as a minor "cleaning of an artery" turned into triple bi-pass in a matter of hours. Grandpa underwent the bi pass on Wednesday and was recovering well. He had some bumps here and there in the road as many do after surgery. In the last few days he has hit some pretty big bumps that has put him back into ICU to be watch closely and a few more procedures have had to be done to help his body heal and help him feel better. I am asking for that you pray for his health and his spirit; that prayers go out to my grandma, his wife of 52 years who obviously is concerned for him and who could use her own spirits lifted. Also, prayer for all their kids (all my aunts and uncles); they all have been down with him over the last week+ and generally hospitals and the stress of all the ups and downs take their toll. Please keep them, especially him and his doctors in your prayers... thank you!!

Young Chef Birthday Party

The girls celebrate their birthdays so close in days that we often do parties combined; this year the girls decided that having their party at Young Chef Academy would be fun. We have never been there before and were pleasantly surprised when we walked into a bright and cheerful placed that had Happy Birthday Sadie & Syrah posted up for them. Both girls invited some friends and they made personal pizza's and enjoyed some green alligator cupcakes. We had a great time and felt that Young Chef was very friendly, organized and considerate to any and all of our needs (even when I forgot the candles)!

We had so many great pictures it is hard to share!! The girls had a great birthday party!

~~Our 100th Post~~

So I was informed there is a blogging tradition with your 100th post that you are to share 10 things about yourself. Well, this 100th post crept up on us the last week or two, but we have been talking as a family about things we would like to share:

Our family:

~We strive daily to live a life that is Christ centered; each day is a process to walk on the path He has laid before us and to strive to give all glory to Him

~We love family time: time with family and friends and each-other.

~Our family enjoys family games, current favorites: Whoonu, Uno, Blokus & Ruckus.

~We swam with dolphins this summer!

~Our family loves the outdoors, be it in friends/families yards, hiking, being at the park or taking walks.

~We have a cat named Molly.

~We are first time homeowners as of this year.

~Favorite family dessert is brownies!!! yummy

~We take an annual trip to Medford each Thanksgiving.

~Our family eats dinner together at the table each night.

Billy:

~Loves Baseball (all baseball, but is a true M's fan).

~Lived in Sacramento, California for a few months.

~Is afraid of heights.

~Loves pugs and wants to make this our next family dog (long time from now).

~Favorite card game is 13.

~Has driven across the country.

~Had a mullet (business in front, party in back).

~Loves old cars especially old Volkswagen's (has owned four and hopes to own another someday).

~Has been to Mexico and Canada.

~Took psychology in college.

Theresa:

~LOVE her life... love being a wife and mommy!

~Likes tattoos and wishes she had more.

~Wanted to be a lawyer (took some classes in college) when she grew up.

~Rarely cries!

~God stopped her in her tracks in 1997 - He is good!

~Would love to take photography classes.

~Forgets movies easily (even really good ones; except I am Legend which is sadly burned into her memory).

~Misses having a dog (still miss Holly's companionship).

~Busyness is a constant obstacle and keeping life day by day is a daily work (pun intended).

~Total Rock-Star (yes, I am just that good).

Sadie:

~Loves to go on family vacations.

~Enjoys board games.

~Has a huge love for animals (especially dolphins, monkey's, pandas and dogs).

~Likes chicken fried steak, macaroni and cheese and tuna fish casserole (not all together).

~Enjoys building things with legos and clay.

~Loves art.

~Wants to own a doggy day-care when she grows up (has a huge plan in place all ready).

~Enjoys reading (read over 60 books this summer).

~Wants to travel to Paris.

~Her favorite color is green (any shade).

Syrah:

~Likes to be silly.

~Enjoys playing soccer.

~Loves to play on monkey bars (had calluses to prove it).

~Loves her family!

~Wants to visit the moon.

~Sleeps in a loft bed.

~Likes to paint or draw alligators and mice.

~Has a huge collection of build-a-bears.

~Her favorite color is every shade of yellow.

~Loves pickles (ate a 1lb pickle in Disenyland -not really sure the weight, but it was HUGE)!!!

Thanks for letting us share a little more about us!

Happy Birthday to our baby girl

This day six years ago at 1:44 in the afternoon we were blessed with the arrival of our beautiful baby girl Syrah. Syrah has brought so much joy in to our lives, she truly is a gift from God who brightens our days and makes our world a more beautiful place.

Syrah at 1 month

Syrah's first birthday!

Syrah's sixth birthday!

Syrah is full of energy, happiness, love, care, intelligence, compassion and gentleness. She always has questions about the world around her and wants to know the reason why things work the way they do. She loves to read, color, play games and be silly. She is a great little sister and no matter how many birthdays she has she will always be our baby girl.

WE ARE HOME!!!!!

More to come later, but we are home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for every prayer that went out for Sadie's health and for her to be able to come home. I will post more of an update later (maybe even tomorrow) on her site... for now, we are going to get settled in and enjoy some MUCH NEEDED FAMILY TIME!

Free at last...

Finally some good news.... at about 5:45 Sadie was taken off the IV!!!! She was told this morning that her part to getting home was to drinking lots and lots of fluids and man did she!

Here is her all un-hooked!!

Good-bye IV pole!

One Bad IV...

Today Sadie had a really bad experience with an IV which blistered under the dressing and caused her tons of burning. The entire story can be found at Sadie's site http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/sadiejordan- needless to say it was a long day today full of unexpected surprises.

After they turned medication off. The one that is creeping out of the dressing is the one we watched appear.

This is prior to the five injections in her arm.

All bandaged up!

Puffy Hand!

Last night Sadie was having a lot of pain in her IV hand. The nurses realized her hand was getting pretty puffy and it was time to take that IV out and start a new line. After it was out - Sadie had about an hour of being "free" from tubes!! Here is a picture of her hand (no knuckles, no wrist!). The nurse said it will take about 2-3 days for the swelling to go down. All ready this morning you can tell she has a wrist (still no knuckles).

Syrah's visits

No one under the age of 10 can visit Sadie; sadly this includes her sister. Syrah has made several waves from outside the window, but no matter which nurse, doctor or staff member I beg and plead with (which I have done several times); the answer remains no. So, yesterday Bill brought Syrah down and the three of us went for a bite and to walk around so that we could have some time together. (Sadie's Aunt Maria, cousins Jake & Nicole came and played games with her). While Syrah was waiting for the "transition", her and Bill walked around and took pictures with all of the "animals" in the hospital. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

I just have to make note to Syrah's bite... especially in the last picture you can really tell that her bite is changing!!

We really miss being all together as a family and are continually praying that this all goes as quickly as possible so that we can all be together again!

View from within...

Just thought I would share some shots of what we are seeing each day.

The pumpkin farm - field trip

Last week Billy was able to take a day off to go on a field trip (Syrah's first) with the Kindergarten class to the pumpkin farm. Bill said it was a blast and from the pictures it appears that it was.

Here are some of the kids with a few of the puppies at the farm!

Class photo!!!

~~Prayers for Sadie~~

Calling all prayer warriors; I am asking for prayer around Sadie. I usually keep all medical stuff to her site, but this is whats going on in our "family" right now, so it is important that I ask you all for prayer. Not having a church home to request prayer from is hard right now, it would be comforting to know that there are people out there lifting Sadie up to our Lord!

Sadie is on day two of her stay at Children's (she was admitted Thursday, but they don't count it since she got a late start on meds). She is sound asleep right now.. I type this while listening to her breathing. She has shown so much courage over the last two days and more patience than most. She has been woken up every few hours and had people moving her, poking at her, asking her questions (just what any person wants to deal with coming out of sleep).

My request is just for speedy healing... we were told originally about five days here should do it. Then yesterday we were told it could be 7-10 days. Far cry from where we were a year ago preparing to leave for Disneyland. We would all like to see Sadie come home as quickly as possible, I don't know anyone that enjoys the atmosphere of the hospital. We are pretty family oriented people and the fact that we can't all be together is quite hard on all of us... if we could all be here together it might just make it that much easier.

I will try to get some updated pictures on here soon... another fun zoo trip, Syrah's first field trip (to the pumpkin farm), view from our hospital room (which is actually quite nice).

Thank you for all your prayers and support.