Things I heard on the way to work

from Jakson in the car on the way to pre-school. Let me preface - Jakson is super excited to be getting a baby bro/sis and has his own ideas on the matter.

" Dad - I think we need to put the crib in my room - that way the baby won't be scared of the dark."

"We'll have to buy new pacies (pacifiers) - we gave mine away."

"I get to hold the baby after it comes out of mommy's belly."

"Dad - how does the baby come out of mommy's belly?"

37 days and counting

Until Disney! We decided to take a vacation back to Walt Disney World. Jakson is stoked. I can't deny that Karla and I are excited too. We have lots to explore that we weren't able to the last go around. And Jakson will be a little older and a little taller so we can experience a few more rides too.

Coming this summer...

Jakson is going to be a big brother.

Update on Dad

For those of you who didn't know, Dad was diagnosed with lung cancer over Christmas. Not the best present to receive, but we were blessed to catch it as early as we did. Someone was watching over him when he and mom travelled to Charleston to spend Xmas with Jeff and Lora and had the tests run down there. A tumor was found in his upper left lung, and by noon yesterday, he was done with surgery to remove that lobe of his lung, and now we are waiting in the ICU. He came through surgery with little complications (other than the now assumed fact that anyone with Santi blood can't tolerate anesthesia with getting nauseous) We did find out that the tumor was a little larger in reality than showed on the x-rays - so most likely a Stage 2 cancer, which will probably result in some chemo/radiation therapy. He has been awake and is in some pain, but with medications that is under control. Later today he'll move to a regular room and continue to get stronger. This was all frosted with about 3 inches of snow covering an inch of ice from yesterday. So I spent the night here (slightly unprepared) and Jeff got to relive his snow shoveling experience since moving to the blood thinning climate of South Carolina. I haven't heard that much complaining in a long time!

We thank everyone who has offered prayers and thoughts as we move to the next step of this experience.

Wintertime Activites

Since I have a spare moment, I thought I would share some of the fun things Jakson likes to do when it's cold outside.

We went sledding over Xmas in Owatonna. No bunny hills for us!

This is Jakson's vacuum. It really works too. It may not seem like a fun time activity to you or me (ok I can't judge, but I assume most people don't like to vacuum) Jakson loves to vacuum.

Last night it snowed. I was stuck in Sioux City at the hospital (more on the next post) so Jakson helped Karla shovel the driveway. Maybe today if I make it back home we'll go sledding or something.