Tyson Hugh Hooper

Tyson Hugh Hooper
Our son, Tyson Hugh Hooper, was born with coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic arch, and a transitional avsd. His first open heart surgery reconstructed his aorta and was on day 9 of life. His second open heart repair was not anticipated to be needed until two or three years of age. Ty had other plans. We spent the vast majority of his first 3 months of life at Vanderbilt as he went into heart failure and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. As a result, the medical team concluded that he needed the repair much sooner than usually recommended, and at just shy of 3 months old Ty underwent his second life saving open heart surgery. God has already worked so many miracles in Ty's life and the life of our family and we know he is using our story. Because of this, we are grateful for Ty's special heart and feel beyond blessed that God chose us to travel this road. We ask for prayers as Ty continues to heal. We are praying for a full recovery and life without restrictions for Ty. We are praying for God to use our family and Ty for His glory.

Thank you to each and every person who supports us through prayer, giving, or just by loving on our family! We are humbled and blessed by all of the ways the Lord is providing for us and know that he is using Ty and his story to do great things!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Our little American Girl...

Lily is an American Girl!
Grandmommy got her that very first Bitty Baby several years ago and that's all it took!  Since then the collection and love of all things American Girl have only grown!  We don't go anywhere without one (or more) of our girls and she plays with them every single day!


My niece went to the American Girl store in Atlanta for her birthday in January.  Ever since then Lily has been telling us (and everyone else she knows) how much she wanted to go!  Chris and I decided right away we would take her, but we didn't know when.  You could say we had been planning to take her for months, but it wasn't until May that the perfect time opened up in the schedule and the budget for us to go... and how perfect that it was just a couple weeks before her birthday!

Lily had saved up about $150 to spend.  We both thought we'd be in the store forever while she shopped and tried to decide what to buy with the money she had saved.  Boy were we wrong!  Within 20 minutes or so she was ready to check out!  She walked around and looked at everything, picked out what she wanted, and she wanted to buy it and get busy playing!  She chose a "My American Girl" doll that you "design" and named her Addison!  She got glasses and braces and a booster seat and then we headed off to our hotel for even more surprises!

At our hotel, we had the Deluxe American Girl Everything Pink Package!  It was so neat!  After Chris and I checked ourselves in, Lily had to walk the pink carpet and check her and her doll in!
It was a little girl dream!  She even got her own "credit card" to use in their little store!  She had to sign her and the doll in just like a grown up checks in - it was really so neat!

The treats continued when we got to our room and EVERYTHING was pink!  The pillows, comforters, towels... everything!  Right down to pink trash cans and big pink bean bag chair! lol.  There was also a pink travel bed for her new girl to sleep in complete with satin sheets and an American Girl pillow!  The best part?  We got to keep the bed and sheet set!!  So cool!
Here is the newest member of our family!  Meet Addison!  Don't you just love her glasses?

We got all the other girls unloaded and set up on the bed for introductions.  Addison sat in the middle and introduced herself and then Lily had each of her other girls go in a circle to welcome Addison to the class and learn about each other!  We played for a good long while before it was time to head back over to the American Girl Bistro for a special birthday dinner!

We got the Birthday Dinner Package which included crowns for Lily and Addison, gift bags with American Girl shirt and balloon and birthday treats to keep!  Dinner was very fancy-shmancy!  We each got an appetizer and an entree...
(even Addison...)
...and dessert of course!


It came complete with a Birthday song...
...all in pink, of course!
We couldn't have planned a better "party" if we had tried!  They truly think of everything - it was a magical experience!
After dinner the fun was far from over!  Actually it was just beginning... we had a whole line up of fun evening activities back at the hotel!
For starters, there was a room service delivery of cookies and milk for Lily and her new girl!

Then...
...a American Girl movie with free popcorn and coke for ALL the families staying the hotel with the American Girl package!  There were little girls and dolls everywhere! lol.  We watched Molly's movie - it was really cute!
Next we headed to the pool for some swimming!  We were relieved that Lily remembered everything we taught her last summer and was happy to hop in and swim without a float!  She did flips and had fun swimming for a good long while!

After swimming and such a big day, we were all worn out.  We bundled up and headed back to our room for a little more play time before bed!
I think Lily was actually asleep before her head even hit the pillow!  She was wiped out!
After a good night's sleep we were up and ready to go to our breakfast - what a spread!  And, of course, with our everything pink package, we got a special table that was... you guessed it... all pink!  :-)

IT was a WONDERFUL birthday trip!  In Lily's opinion it was right up there with Disney World!   Now that's a fun trip! lol

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

We can't believe you are already 8 and we are so proud of the young lady you are becoming!  :-)

3 comments:

Allyson said...

Sooooo fun!!!! I can't wait to do this one day with Henley!! (by the way, can I confess I had never even heard of American Girl Dolls until about 2 years ago!?)

Sarah said...

sounds like it was a really neat experience for her! I'm so glad y'all got to go! And Addison is lovely! I do love her glasses!

Jennifer Burtram said...

Wow! Girls have all the fun! I bet there's not a Tonka truck or Thomas the train package anywere... Lily looks like she had a blast, and your post is great!