Happy Birthday Daddy!

Jason's birthday was February 8th, and we invited his parents, grandparents, brother and sister in law, and nieces over for lunch on Sunday, February 17th to celebrate.  I feel beyond blessed to have Jason as my husband and best friend.  I pray that he knows just how much we appreciate and love him...not just on his birthday but every day!   Happy Birthday Jason!  We love you very much!!!

Basketball Season 2

Brody played his last regular season basketball game for this season on Saturday, February 16.  After the game, Coach Bram passed out trophies while the team enjoyed donuts and juice.  Brody played up an age group this season to be on Coach Bram's team.  He had a little frustration at times with being the youngest (and smallest), but he worked hard and definitely improved some over the last couple of months. It has been a fun season, and we are looking forward to the tournaments starting in 2 weeks!  

Coach Bram had an extra trophy that he presented to Colby, and Colby could not have been more excited about it!!!   Colby went to several practices asking to practice with the team.  Despite the fact that the ball is much bigger than him, he got out there and tried his hardest to keep up with the big boys.  Coach Bram said it perfectly when he said, "Colby plays like he is 12 feet tall!" I hope that never changes!

Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Lunch

On Tuesday, February 12, we went to Vanderbilt for a Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Luncheon.  There were kids with CHDs and their families, 2 adults with CHDs, doctors, nurses, and other staff.  We were all very happy with the big turnout!  It is so nice to be surrounded by a room full of people that all know how it feels to be on this CHD journey.  I'm looking forward to the hospital getting a CHD family support group back up and running after not having one for over a year. It will be so helpful to everyone affected by CHDs!

Chik-fil-a catered the event and did an amazing job!  Who doesn't love Chik-fil-a?

Chasity brought heart picture frames for the kids to paint, which was a big hit!  Colby painted two and wanted to do a third one.  He loves to paint and color! 

Catherine worked really hard on getting a proclamation signed by the Governor declaring the week of February 7-14 Congenital Heart Defects Awareness Week in the state of Tennessee.  As moms to heart kids, we are always trying to find ways to spread awareness of congenital heart defects.  Our hope is that with awareness comes funding for more research, and with more research comes better "fixes" or maybe even a cure for our kids!!  Erin, an adult living with Tricuspid Atresia and a real inspiration to us, read and presented the proclamation to Dr. Doyle.

We were very excited to have Jennifer Johnson from News Channel 4 at the event.  She interviewed Catherine about  CHD Awareness and Suha about Nadia's journey.  Having Fox 17 cover our Blood Drive and Bake Sale Saturday and share Colby and Cain's stories and then Channel 4 cover this event on Tuesday with Nadia's story was amazing! We are so thankful and happy to have made small steps toward increasing awareness of congenital heart defects!

We love Dr. Doyle and Dr. Israel!!  We have been blessed with the most amazing group of cardiologists at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  We will never take for granted how lucky we are to have this amazing facility so close to where we live!

5th Annual Blood Drive and Bake Sale

The 5th Annual Blood Drive and Bake Sale in honor of Colby was great!!  I've said it every year, and I will say it again...we are truly blessed with some amazing family and friends!

There were 79 people who registered to donate blood!  Unfortunately, 18 people were deferred this year during the screening process.  This is the highest deferral number we have seen.  The Red Cross did successfully collect 61 units of blood though!  Thank you to everyone who came out to donate blood.  We really appreciate you taking time out of your Saturday to give in honor of Colby.  You saved lives by donating!!

Once again, we were overwhelmed by the number of baked goods!!  Thank you to everyone who made or purchased delicious treats for us to sale.  With all of your help, we were able to raise $2,744 for Congenital Heart Defects Research at the bake sale!!  A few people have mentioned wanting to still donate money, so we will hold this for a couple of weeks.  Please let me know if you would like to mail us a check, and I will get you our address.  Please make checks to "Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt" and write CHD Research on the memo line.  Every dollar helps!

We were blessed to have 3 other heart heroes join us at the Blood Drive and Bake Sale this year!  They are all featured on the "Little Heart Heroes" poster that we made to honor so many others living each day with CHDs.  Thank you Gabe, Cain, and Kael for coming!!  All 3 of you are warriors and true heroes!

Thanks to everyone who came to the event on Saturday!!  We truly appreciate your love and support!!  We want to say a special thank you to several people who really helped make the day successful.  Thank you Catherine Wiggleton for coming early and helping me get the bake sale ready and balloons out.  Thank you Misty Benz for also helping get the bake sale tables set up and ready.  Thank you Teresa Burrow (Poogie), Ethel Hackett (Nenny), and Brody for helping me at the registration table.  All of you helped make the blood drive run very smoothly!  Thank you Sarah Farley, Kelly Brandon, Maggie Callahan, Kate Witherington, Melissa Holdren, and Cecili Smith for running the Bake Sale throughout the day.  Thanks to Jeremy Hitchcock for bringing us some lunch.  Thank you Jason Rowell for helping us get the gym cleaned up at the end of the day. Thank you Joan Dell (Nana) for taking some baked goods to work with you and helping us raise a little more money.  I hope I have not left anyone out!  We appreciate each and every one of you!

The kids had a blast playing all day long!  Thank you Tim and Wendy Hinton and Steve and Carol McClure for letting us borrow your bounce houses again this year.  This is always a highlight for the kids that come!!  Colby and Brody think it was just a big party!!