I Know....Been Way Too Long!!

It is just amazing how time can really get away from you! Lots of things have been going on lately and we have been so busy enjoying our sweet boy that I just realized the other day it has been a month since I updated this thing! A long story short, the Lord has continued to bless our lives each day! Here's a list of new and exciting things going on:

- Tripp Ray is 3 months and 10 days old!!!! Oh how fast it has gone!

- He is rolling over, has discovered his hands and feet, reaching for and grabbing everything he can, smiling and babbling soooo much, growing so fast we cannot believe it, loves rattles, his little "floor gym", for us to read books to him, and has gotten lots more hair(that seemed to be turning blonde but as of 2 days ago has a VERY red color to it)

- Tripp also had his first round of coughing and congestion...we took him to the doctor and she gave us two different prescriptions to help his little cold run its course...and he is much better now. :)

- He now weighs over 13 lbs. and has gotten MUCH longer...I forgot to have them measure but his clothes are fitting very snug in the way of length! Also, he is still on the monitor just at night and probably will be until he's at least 6 months....and since he has started grabbing things he now pulls at the wires...so we will probably be jarred out of sleep when he starts pulling hard enough to disconnect them!!!

- A couple weeks ago, school was delayed due to weather and I turned my car over on my way to drop Tripp off....God is always watching us because we were both just fine! When I crawled back to turn Tripp's seat around he just looked up and smiled at me. I was obviously very scared and told him this was not funny but he seemed to enjoy the ride anyway...and thank you Lord for car seats! Needless to say, my car was history and I now have a Yukon XL that will hold 3 more children if I can ever convince Levi to have that many! :)

- We are excited to announce that two more of Tripp's friends have arrived! Last week, Jack was born on the 11th and Noah was born on the 12th!!!! They are both big, healthy, and just precious! We are so grateful to have them and their parents in our lives and praise God for safe deliveries and healthy babies! Can't wait to watch them play together!

- And.....one of my best friends, Laura, found out she is expecting in October!!!!

- We are at the end of Spring Break and Tripp officially had his first few days at MeMe and PaPa's without Mama and Daddy! We went with them to Dallas to visit my Grandma "GG" and for her to meet Tripp...then Levi and I were off to Ruidoso. My parent's were so excited to keep him for a couple of days! It was very hard to be away from Mr. Tripp Ray but we had a great time together and got some needed rest!

Well, I'm sure there's more but as you can tell we've been busy! Levi and I are doing wonderful and Tripp is just the light of our lives! Now....we do have one request before ending....we have really been in prayer for God to guide us and His will to be done in our lives whatever it may be...please just have it in your prayers for God to continue guiding us. Thank you for being in our lives and we love you all!

It was hard to choose this time so here's a "few" pictures!

2/22/10 - Outside with Mama for some fresh air on a beautiful day!

3/8/10 - Oh yes he IS a TECH fan!

3/11/10 - Grandaddy loving on Tripp!

3/14/10 - MeMe and Tripp at Cabela's - naturally he loved it there!

3/15/10 - He looks so grown-up in this one!

3/15/10 - Melts my heart! He is really a happy baby and this is what he does most of the time!

3/15/10 - Playin' with Daddy

3/16/10 - Mama was not happy about this one...he may only have things with 4 wheels... :)

3/16/10 - Heehee :)

3/16/10 - Telling PaPa something very important before bath time!

3/18/10 - The family - not the best but we will have some professional ones made soon!

3/20/10 - Is this not the most adorable baby in the cutest outfit you have ever seen?!

A little of this and that....

This post is a little overdue but things have been pretty hectic around here! Last Thursday, we were suppose to take Tripp to get his 2 month shots but we were blessed with a snow storm! I know some people hate cold weather and are tired of all the snow but I love it! Levi and I have been thanking God so much for all this moisture! It is such a blessing and every drop will help farmers around here! So...since the roads were bad Thursday we ended up taking him Friday morning. He is doing sooo good....he weighed 10 lbs. 10 oz. and was almost 24 inches long and he was pretty calm about getting his shots! I think it hurt Mommy and Daddy more to see him get them! :) His pediatrician also decided it would be OK for him to just be on the monitor at night now but he will need to keep it at least 2 more months. I also started back to work Monday and WOW...I forgot how much energy those little 13 Kindergartners have...but they quickly reminded me and we had a busy week. It was VERY hard to leave Tripp each morning and I really miss being at home with him but Miss Lisa is taking such good care of him and just loves on him all day. She is a great lady and has made it a little easier. Well I guess it's time for some pictures so some are of the snow...it was so white everywhere and I thought it looked pretty in the fields around our house, Zoie our English Mastiff agreed and decided to "smile" for the camera, and then of course a picture of Mr. Tripp at 9 weeks old!


View from our "front yard"


View from our "back yard"


This is what Zoie does when you tell her to smile! Haha. I know she looks a little scary but she is the sweetest dog ever!




She is just the best dog! We love her!


We can't believe how much he is changing...


So precious!

The Many Faces of Tripp!

We are so excited to report that Tripp has more new friends that have finally arrived!! It has been so much fun to visit Guy, TAC, and Graham and now we will meet Slayde! Just anxiously waiting on Noah, Jack, and a few more! Once they are all here I will post all the pictures I have been getting of them together. Levi and I are so amazed by and grateful for the way God shows his glory through little ones. They are such miracles! Not much else has been going on...just enjoying every minute that Tripp is growing and doing new things. He is really "cooing" and "talking" a lot and seems to be very interested in watching our mouths when we talk to him. He just looks at you like "how are you making all those sounds and how do I?!" it is toooo cute! We think his favorite color may be green since he stares at things that are green and either gets really still or smiles every time...which makes his Daddy very happy because guess what color his favorite tractors are..haha! He has also been giving us the biggest, most adorable smiles...which could be why he is getting so spoiled because it just melts our hearts. He sleeps through the night most of the time :) and is really such a calm, happy baby; although we would love him just as much if he wasn't, it sure has been wonderful!! When he's not smiling and making new noises he's usually making funny faces...the pictures of him in the orange and white onesie was a day he was being such a "ham" for the camera and I couldn't pick just one! There are several pictures this time...we just wanted to share a few pieces of our little gift from the Lord! Enjoy and have a blessed day!

Tripp loves getting his pajamas on after his bath

Look how "fluffy" he is! hahaha

"OH YEAH!"

Love our blue eyed boy

Hahahaha...this one cracks me up every time!

"OK Mommy...that's enough for one day."

But...I couldn't resist a few more and this is my favorite!

"Hey Daddy...I'm over here!"...scary how much they look alike

Even though his face isn't showing it :) Tripp LOVES bath time

He loves sitting up on the couch so he can see and he looked so content I had to get a pic!

YAY! I'm 2 MONTHS OLD today!!!!

Just Growing!

Well Tripp will be 2 months old next week! We cannot believe how fast he is changing. Every minute has been such a blessing and he is doing so good! We've had several friends have babies recently and several more on the way. It has been wonderful to share all the new joys and experiences of parenthood with all of them. There are also several more babies on the way! Please keep all these parents and sweet babies in your thoughts and prayers as many of them have arrived early and some with complications so we are hopeful that the rest of them will be right on time without any suprises. Not much else has been going on except spoiling Tripp rotten....which Mrs. Lisa probably won't appreciate very much once she gets to keep him all day!! :) We did have some newborn pictures taken of him...if you would like to see them you may go to www.ballentinestudios.com , click "enter site", go to "client proofing" at the bottom of the page, and enter "roberts" as the password. Here are some other pictures from about one month old to now!

This is his "What you lookin' at Willis?" look! Hahaha!








Just smiling, kicking around, and trying really hard to roll over these days!


Look at that double chin! :)

This is the face he makes when you turn on the vibration in his bouncy seat!


This look says, "Ok enough of this....I'm hungry!!"

Christmas and Answered Prayers!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and hope everyone else did as well!! It was so much fun celebrating sweet baby Jesus’ birthday with our own little miracle! Tripp received waaay TOO MANY gifts and we had a hard time finding space for them….Levi got me a gun so I can go hunting with him and I got him a gun as well. It was kind of funny exchanging the same gifts with each other and we can’t wait to have a chance to go try them out! Here are some pictures of Tripp’s first Christmas…

This is what Tripp did most of his holiday and Daddy decided he would just join him

Sleeping...again...but with an adoable smile this time!

The HAPPY family!

On top of all the holiday excitement we had doctor appointments Tuesday morning. We saw the pediatrician first and got a great report…Tripp had grown almost an inch and gained 1lb. 4oz. in just over a week!! Dr. Landry was very pleased with his growth but wants us to keep the monitor for a little longer. The monitor’s main purpose has always been to serve as a precaution for Tripp’s SIDS risk because he has a hard time breathing in certain positions, sometimes gets too relaxed when he sleeps and does not take enough breaths, and was on oxygen for several hours after birth. The monitor does give us valuable information about his heart’s activity but is not primarily for his heart. Some people have had questions about his monitor and why his SIDS risk is so high…we cannot explain why because SIDS is still something no one understands but everyone should be cautious about with any baby. The monitor and other precautions help lower the risk considerably. We were so happy when we left the pediatrician’s office and our next appointment was with the cardiologist to see if Tripp’s heart had progressed. They ran another EKG while we were there and…ALL OUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!!!! He has made awesome progress and the results are looking normal! He will not have to be on medication or have any procedures! Glory goes to the good Lord! We feel so blessed with this news and will be forever grateful to everyone for all the prayers. We truly believe that faith and prayers are what has turned things around for our sweet boy…who turned 3 weeks old today…by the way! Now more pictures…

All dressed up for our first time to church with Tripp

Just enjoying some play time

3 Weeks Old Today!!!

Oops!

Read the "Faith" post before the "Gifts from Above" one for everything to make sense. I posted them at the same time but it will help if you read the second one before the other. Thanks!

Gifts from Above

I just wanted to post some good news the pediatrician gave us Thursday afternoon! We went and had Tripp weighed and he has gained back 3 oz. in 2 days! Mommy was very proud because we have been strictly nursing and so everything must be working right! The most exciting thing was that she said the cardiologist called and said he is thinking Tripp's Long QT syndrome may be something he will grow out of!!! They were both a little suprised by his progress because they say most babies who are diagnosed with this do not progress this quickly or grow out of it. We will continue praying and hopefully this will turn into a wonderful miracle for our little boy. If he does not keep up the progress they will begin considering medication as he gets older and either way he will be fine and we will deal with whatever comes our way. The pediatrician also made Mommy's day by letting Tripp be off the monitor during feedings and times he is alert or being "admired" by others. He must be on all times he is sleeping, in the car seat, or we are in and out of the room he is in but he will get a break every once in a while. The monitor has only gone off one time when he was in his swing because he was not taking enough breaths.....so no more swing until he gets bigger. Other than that he gets more adorable each day and makes the funniest faces! Here is a picture of him at ONE WEEK OLD! We are so proud. :)