His Name is Jake - Our entry for the March of Dimes Video Contest

Thanks Dad and Mark for doing an awesome job on this...

Just go to http://www.youtube.com/mmelloan to watch it!

Fun Weekend

The kids and I met Anne and Nolan for lunch at Panera on Friday...it was nice to catch up on things with them since we hadn't gotten together in a few weeks and then Friday night was PF Chang's and Graeter's with the Joneses...Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch all the kiddos for us...we had a great time.

After getting in late last night, Jake deciding to wake up at 5 this morning, piles of dirty laundry, and weedeating and edging that James needed to get done...well, we decided to go to Holiday World for the day. We had a great time...we rode rides, we drank tons of free Pepsi and lemonade, had ice cream (Dippin' Dots for James...he loves them), and Jake won a stuffed Spiderman and Addi a stuffed monkey at the fishing game...what could be better than that?!?! :) Addi says her favorite thing of the day was the log ride (she and Daddy rode it twice)...apparently she loves a big drop...I'm not too big on it. Jake's favorite thing was the merry-go-round and the airplane ride. He and I also rode the little cars and he got to steer while James and Addison did the Howler (a mini roller coaster). She definitely takes after her Daddy when it comes to riding...she loves it...I on the other hand got very sick-feeling after riding the Eagle's Flight (some big bird things that go around in a circle - believe me...it was worse than it sounds).

It's been a great weekend so far and hopefully to top it all off...naps tomorrow afternoon after church! :)

Thankful

Last night after dinner we were all sitting around watching some of the home movies of Jake after he was born, in the hospital, etc. We are planning to enter the March of Dimes Video Contest (actually Mark and Dad I guess would be the ones actually doing the video) but anyway we were looking at video to hopefully use for the contest. It reminded me once again of how good God has been to me and to James and to our entire family. I have always known that I was very fortunate to have been blessed with a wonderful family and friends, but sometimes I still take it for granted and get worried or frustrated over silly things that are going on in our lives. The fact remains that God answers our prayers and Jake's life is a constant reminder of that to me every single day. The picture of Jake on the ventilator and in the "Baby Buggy" getting ready to be taken from me and transported to the hospital in Louisville reminds me of a time filled with fear, uncertainty, and sadness, but almost 18 months later and thousands of prayers later I can only be thankful and totally amazed once again by what God can do.

Preschool Picture Day

Monday was "Picture Day" at school...Mommy picked out a very cute sweater vest, matching hair bow, blue jean capris w/a pink belt (like you'll even see any of that in a school pic!)..anyway, a very cute school outfit...as you can tell from the look on her face...Addi wasn't impressed. Oh well, I'm sure it will be fine...especially since James took her to school and so he got to pick the background for her picture - plain solid background or fall theme (apples, leaves, etc.)? hmmm...the choice I would have made is so obvious...to everyone except for James apparently...we'll have a very cute picture of Addison frowning because she didn't like her outfit with a fake apple orchard and leaves falling in the background! :)
Addi went swimming with her best buds "the Burns girls" and another neighbor friend yesterday...who ever said summer was over?!?!
Addi is having her usual Wednesday night sleepover at Grammy and Granddaddy's so Jake snuck into her room, grabbed her toothbrush, and started brushing...she would not be too happy about that!

Fun, Sun, and NO Sleeping!!!

Well, we just got home Friday night from a weeklong family vacation to Daytona Beach. It was Jake's 1st time flying and he did really well thanks to the portable DVD player and his "Praise Baby" DVDs...Addison loved it until we started to land and her ears starting really bothering her and she got pretty upset...luckily by the time we got ready to fly home she had pretty well forgotten about that part. We spent the week mostly by the pool or at the beach. The place we stayed has a great kiddie pool area with a tube slide, sprinklers, basically everything you could want, a lazy river and a slide for people taller than 42 inches (Addi is not - Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Nicole are!) Addison built lots of sand castles with Daddy or Granddaddy and Jake got to sleep in a chair by the pool...that's what you do when you've been out walking the boardwalk at 2 AM with Daddy or when you've gotten up to go eat breakfast at McDonald's at 5 AM...needless to say Jake was a little off schedule while we were away. In order to keep him from waking up everyone in the whole condo with his late night tantrums James would take him out whether it be 1AM, 2 AM, 3 AM, or all of the above. Mom and Dad got to take him for one night and spent some quality time with Jake jumping on the bed, running around the room, etc. from 3-6 AM straight. We did finally figure out part of his problem...he cut two upper canine teeth sometime during the week, so I'm sure that had something to do with his allnighters, but James was definitely ready for the late night/early morning outings to cease!

We did have a great time and it's always good to get away with our family and away from our normal day to day distractions and spend time together. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us all on a great trip to the beach!

Labor Day

We spent the day yesterday in Hart County visiting family. We went to Granny and Granddaddy's for lunch - they fixed country fried steak, biscuits and gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, and cole slaw...it was so good - definitely one of my favorite meals ever! We also went over to see Nanny and Aunt Mac for a while and ended up going to McDonald's for supper (as you can see from the picture of Addison with a mouth full of fries, and by the way...Jake likes diet coke...Addison wouldn't drink a coke, sprite, anything carbonated if you made her, but not Jake...he really likes a McDonald's diet coke...I wonder where he gets that?).

Lazy Saturday

Since Jake's rash has still not cleared up and James's cold is still hanging around we spent the day here at home just hanging out, playing, and watching TV. We did venture out for walk around the neighborhood (Addi rode her bike) and she went over and swam for a bit at the Burns' pool before dinner. I have been cleaning out closets and boxing up "too small" clothes of Jake's and Addison's...not a whole lot of fun, but it feels good to get things like that accomplished. Since we're heading back to the beach Friday with Mom and Dad and Mark and Nicole I decided to post our picture from a year ago at Daytona...we are really looking forward to it...it'll be Jake's 1st time flying...should be interesting! :)