Papa and Grandma Neubrand came down this weekend to visit and we had a great time.  Saturday we went to downtown Franklin for the Pumpkinfest. We had a blast!  The highlights consisted of watching chubby boys do a scottish/irish dance, seeing Chewbacca, and waiting in line way too long for some way too tasty kettle corn!  Later that night we got Josiah and Susannah in costume. Since it was a bit chilly outside we decided to just take Josiah out.  Thank you to Shusha for finding our costumes this year-they were so cute!  At our first house Josiah threw his bag at the people as if to say, “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll fill it up!”  Then, at the second house there was a child handing out candy. I think Josiah felt more comfortable dealing with someone his own size.  When the other kid would put candy in Josiah’s bag, Josiah would take a piece of his piece (from the first house) and put it in their bowl.  He’s such a generous and thoughtful boy-we had to explain our strategy to him after visiting that house:  The goal of the evening is to get the most candy possible!!

On Sunday we celebrated my birthday!  We went to church, out to eat at Panera, on a fast paced shopping trip, and then Jed “cooked” dinner.  After dinner, Jed brought in some roses that he and Josiah picked out.  They are the most beautiful roses I’ve seen!

Enjoy the photos-

Papa and Susannah

At the Pumpkinfest

The Cowboy

Our little sunflower

Reading the Word before heading out to trick-or-treat

My Birthday bouquet

I have quite a list of things I want to make for the house, projects I’ve seen on other blogs that I want to create and other crazy ideas I have in my head.  I got to work and completed a couple of them and here they are:

After searching and searching for curtains for our bedroom, I just decided I would make some.  Here is what I came up with, but may add something else to them.  What do you think?

My Fall mantle project.  “Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  1 Thessalonians 5:18.  This display should last until Thanksgiving and then I will be ready to decorate for Christmas. 

This one is two-fold.  First, I found a great deal on this bookshelf at Target and put it together one Saturday.  We love the extra space for books and it adds just the right touch for the space.  The pumpkin on display was grown in our backyard!  When we moved in, I noticed a vine growing in our back “preserved” area and I thought it was a zucchini plant, but we never saw any fruit from it.  But one day I was sitting in the living room and looked out and noticed the plant again.  I went out and there was a small green pumpkin growing from the vine!  We waited and watched and waited some more until it was big and orange and then went out as a family to our “pumpkin patch” and cut it from the vine.  We are so proud of our pumpkin.

It’s been reported that I stink at blogging, so I’m attempting to do a better job and this post will be about our last month.

On September 20, Grandpa Coppenger celebrated 100 years of life and we all went to Arkansas to enjoy the party.  This was our first big road trip with both kids and it went a lot smoother than anticipated, considering Josiah had a double ear infection and we weren’t aware of it at the time.  He was a trooper!

The birthday man, grandkids and great-grandchildren

 Thanks so much for your prayers, calls, texts regarding Susannah and her appointment with the pediatric cardiologist.  We had the appointment on Wednesday, October 14  (sorry for just now getting this out), and the doctor did an ultrasound of her heart and he said that the bottom two chambers of the heart have a wall between them and where all of that comes together at the tip, she has a small hole.  He made it sound like this is very common and he told us that she is not in any pain or having any problems breathing/pumping blood to the body (we actually could see her heart in action and it was so cool!).  He said everything else with her heart looks perfect.  He couldn’t tell us exactly when it would grow together, being that it could be months or years.  He just told us that we need to keep monitoring her and that when she sees a doctor, let them know about the murmur.  Apparently as the hole gets smaller, the noise gets louder, so it may be that this is why the doctor noticed it at her last appointment and no other doctors had up to that point.  I think this is about all he said.  The main thing is she is healthy, the hole is not stopping her heart from functioning normally and the doctor said he shouldn’t have to see her again unless our ped thinks it is getting worse.  Praise God for being so gracious and kind to us!!  This is such a huge relief and we are so thankful for our sweet, beautiful Susannah!  And Josiah has been healthy now for about a couple of weeks.  His ear infections are gone and his hives have now been gone for a week.  We will still be doing his breathing treatments for his asthma until the cold and flu season ends.  He just got a new nebulizer and it has a purple dinosaur/monster mask which he really likes, so that helps the treatments to go more smoothly. 

Here are a few pics of the past few weeks: 

Susie B sporting her capris

Josiah decided he needed a turn in the exersaucer.

The kind of bath you give when Daddy is out of town.

We had a flat tire and Josiah was helping Daddy change the tire.

All dressed up for her appointment with the cardiologist.

“Josiah, where is your tongue?”

“Which thing am I supposed to play with?!?”

Susannah’s new friend.

Today we went in for Susannah’s four month well baby check-up and her pediatrician discovered a heart murmur.  He said a lot of things to me, but after I heard “heart murmur” a large lump developed in my throat and I was trying super hard not to have an emotional break down right there in front of him.  Here is what I can remember him saying:  He pointed to where he heard the murmur, which he described as a high pitched, shrill noise.  He said based on the noise, he would say there is probably a small hole.  He told me not to get too worked up because if he were to evaluate it today he thinks it’s just a hole and that holes grow up on their own.  But he’s not a heart specialist, so we have an appointment next Wednesday, October 14 at 2:30 pm to see a cardiologist.  They said the procedure should take around 30 minutes.  Our ped said that on a scale on 1-6 (6 being the worst) that her murmur falls between a 2 and a 3.  Her blood pressure and heart rate are great.  He said it’s not bothering her.  But it could also have something to do with the valves and other stuff that I can’t remember.  Please be praying for her and the appointment next week.  Please be praying that this is just a hole that is going to grow together on its own and that she will be perfectly healthy soon.  Please be praying that the doctor’s have wisdom in dealing with this situation and that we have a game plan as soon as possible.  Praise the Lord that Dr. Brooks caught this murmur today.  In the midst of all the tears and uncertainty, I am so thankful that he discovered it.  He seemed surprised that a doctor hadn’t heard it up to this point.  We will keep you all posted on her appointment and any progress.  Thank you so much for your prayers!

Today I drove the route to the pediatrician’s office with my eyes closed.  No, not really, but at this point I could probably do so.  We went in today for our sixth visit in five weeks.  The first two visits were for well-baby check ups and immunizations.  But our poor baby boy has been fighting the evil world of viruses/infections/colds for almost four weeks now.  We went two wednesdays ago because he had cold like symptoms and a low grade fever.  I was sure he had swine flu.  They tested him and it came back negative.  They said it was probably viral, but keep up his breathing treatments.  We did that, but the fever continued.  We went back the following Tuesday and he had a double ear infection, the left ear being infected pretty badly.  So we started amoxicillin and the doctor said that if his fever wasn’t gone in 72 hours that we should come back.  Well, 72 hours passes and his fever would disappear during the day, but come back in the evenings.  So I called this past Tuesday morning because I thought maybe the ear infection was still hanging around or he caught something else.  Go back in, the doctor checked him out and yes, ear infection is still in the left ear.  He said sometimes the body doesn’t respond to amoxicillin, so he wrote us another prescription. 

Wednesday morning we started the new medicine.  He really started acting better and actually napped during the day.  Last night was the first time he didn’t have a fever in the evening in two weeks!  I was giddy!  Praise God!!  The medicine was working and little man was getting better.  Not-so-fast…

I went to change his diaper this morning and he had hives/rash all over his tummy, back, behind his knee and along his diaper line.  I called the doctor because I thought maybe he was having an allergic reaction to the new medicine.  So, we drove to the doctor this morning and they are quite sure it was an allergic reaction and he is now taking benadryl and a new antibiotic.  Poor little man!  His bumps look just awful and he was itching like crazy.  Good news is that his ear was starting to look better already.  They think this new medicine should do the trick and hopefully we don’t have to see the pediatrician for a while………oh wait, we go back next week for Susannah’s four month check-up!  Good thing I like these doctors and good thing Josiah gets a new sticker every time we check out.

We finally got in for our check ups with our new pediatrician.  It’s unbelieveable how busy pediatricians offices are during the month of August, plus it takes a couple of weeks for records to be transferred, so we were a little behind on our visits. 

Susannah’s stats for 2 3/4 months:

Height:  23 3/4″ (50%)

Weight:  12 lbs 5 oz (50-75%)

Head:  15 3/4″ (50-75%)

She is doing great sleeping at night-usually goes 10 hours between feedings-and does great during the day.  Then 5:30PM hits and she prefers to be in the arms of someone she loves.  She really likes to work out the lungs for a couple hours in the evening, but she’s starting to get better at self soothing.

Josiah’s stats for 18 1/2 months:

Height:  30 3/4″ (10%)

Weight:  22 lbs 5 oz (10%)

Head 19 1/2″ (75%)

The doctor said he doesn’t look like he’s missing a meal, and he’s moving along the curve as he should, she said he’s just short for his age.  She wanted to know how tall Jed was, apparently she’s thinking Susannah may get the height in the family.  Great!  The good thing is that most boys don’t really hit a growth spurt until jr. high/high school.  Until then, we will just be excited to know that he’ll always be on the front row in group pictures!

Here are a couple pics of our house.  Everything is still under construction, but here is the living room and kitchen.

Josiah is starting to dress himself:

Josiah and friends:

Smile Susannah!

Sweet girl

Eating rocks as an appetizer

We met Jed at LifeWay on Wednesday, got a quick tour, saw his office with a window, and then headed to Centennial Park for a picnic on the hottest day of the week.  It was a great time!  Hopefully we can go again when the weather gets a bit cooler.

There have been massive requests for more pictures of the kiddos, so here are a few until I have time to write an actual post.

Here they are-our growing, crazy, fun children:

We celebrated Susannah’s 3 weeks birthday this past Thursday.  So amazing how quickly the time is passing by.  She is performing well as a Coppenger and Josiah is adjusting to sharing Mama and Dada.  He does not like for her hands or feet to touch him or any of his things, but when she cries he becomes very concerned and let’s us know by saying, “baby”.  Susannah just had a doctor appointment on Friday and she now weighs 8 lbs. 13 oz. and is 20 inches long.  She’s growing so well.

Leaving the hospital

First bath

GaGee sent Susannah beautiful roses!

Josiah enjoying a pork steak!

Josiah LOVES the slide!

Daddy walks are Josiah’s biggest highlight of the day.

the little sister

I think he likes her

3 weeks old

Happy boy