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!
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Saturday, August 3, 2013

July Recap...

We have had trouble with our internet, but got it fixed today.  So here is a quick recap of the activities from the end of July...
Lily did acting camp again this summer!  This is her third summer in a row and she just keeps getting better and better!  This was her fifth play!  This year's play was Mary Poppins!  Lily truly knocked our socks off this year!  Her state presence was fantastic, her voice and motions were larger than life, and her singing was out of this world!  Way to go Lily!  You sure do make us proud!!

 Two days after Lily's play, Chris and I loaded Ava Grace up and headed to Cincinnati for surgery #3.
 We got there just in time to see a Red's game!
 It was so much fun!  Ava Grace LOVED it!
 It was very hot, so Ava Grace had to cool off with some ice cream... of course!
 Overall, we had a great night in Cincinnati and went to bed extra early in preparation for our VERY early rise the next morning at 4:00 AM our time.
 Ava Grace didn't seem to mind the early hour as we drove through downtown to the hospital to her awaiting room and, more importantly, toy bag!
 As if her bag full of toys wasn't enough, the nurses let her play with all of the equipment too!  I'm telling you, this place is the best!
 They always come in and let us pick a hand made surgery cap and a scent for her anesthesia!  They have something crazy, like 37 - I think - "flavors" to choose from.  We went with strawberry, since those are Ava Grace's number one favorite food of all time. 
 There is A LOT of waiting involved when we arrive at 5:30 (that's 4:30 our time) and surgery isn't until 7:30!!
 We walked her back, gave kisses outside the operating room, and then killed a whopping 20 minutes before we were paged back to the post-surgery meeting room.  Everything went great.  She was slower to wake up this time and we beat her back to her room to be there when she arrived... very groggy and slightly drunk.
This is the nurse and student that took care of us this time!  Everyone there is so wonderful!!  It was a great experience again!!  We head back for #4 in October!


The weekend after surgery, we prepped for house guests!! My parents (Grandmommy and Papaw) and my niece Bentlee came up for a visit!!
 It was great fun to see them!  We shopped, had a birthday dinner for Aunt Jan with Chris' whole family, and did lost of visiting.  We went the Corvette museum in Bowling Green and then picked Lily up from her week at her mom's.  Lily didn't know Bentlee was coming - it was a huge surprise!  Bentlee was beside herself with excitement and plans to surprise Lily and Lily was just as excited to see her! 
 They had great fun playing American girl and also putting on a dance show and a fashion show!
 When we were kids, mom had a bunch of dresses she had saved from being in weddings and such and we had so much fun playing in them!  For that reason, I have saved all my past prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and dresses from other formal events.  All those dresses taking up space, finally paid off!  Lily and Bentlee did a four round fashion show complete with jewelry!  It was so cute!
 Saturday of that weekend was Ice Day at the zoo!  We, of course, had to get in on that!  We had so much fun!!!  My parents and Bentlee came along, but we also hooked Chris' parents and brother and sister-in-law into joining us!  It was fun to see all the animals with their icy treats!
Ava Grace had fun as always and looked extra cute in her new go-to-the-zoo outfit!


The last leg of our July recap journey happened this past week.  Our amazing neighbors and friends (the one's across the street that keep Ava Grace) told me about the Sumner County Fair and encouraged Lily to enter some things!  We had just made the hair bows that I blogged about in a prior post, so we decided to enter the one Lily made...
...and look who got FIRST PLACE!  Lily was SO EXCITED!  We also entered our "Peanut-butter-Brookies," but they didn't win.  We are already planning our entries for next year!
Missy's girls had several entries as well.  Among them were some photos of Ava Grace!  They got first place too!!
 We went to the Fair Wednesday for some good, but not-so-good-for-ya fair food and some rides!  We saw Missy and the girls and even got to ride a ride with Kassidy!  It was a lot of fun!  Now we are gearing up for the Wilson County Fair next weekend!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

The last of the beach pictures...

Early morning goldfish...
breakfast of champions!


First time on the beach ever!




We got into St. Augustine in the middle of the night, so after sleeping in we walked out to the beach before we went to breakfast!






Gotta love a big wide beautiful beach!


It's sea turtle season!



Papaw and Ava Grace chillin' on the beach!





It's hard to believe, but Lily had NEVER used a boogie board!  What?!?!  So, you know we had to teach her how to ride the waves.  She had a blast!



Lily was excited that her actual birthday was our first day at the beach!  She wanted a cookie cake decorated like the beach!  :-)


One of the things we LOVE about St. Augustine was what you see in the top of this picture.  My brother's car... ON the beach!  That's right ladies and gents... you can drive on the beach!  It was great to pack all our stuff in my brother's SUV and drive it on down right to our little spot on the beach!


Ken and Sarah (my Brother and Sis-in-Law) reading on the beach!  It was nice being able to take turns watching/chasing kids so that everyone got a little time to relax!



Bentlee, my niece.  She and Lily are the same age and great friends!  They enjoyed being at the beach together!


Ava Grace and her new Keens!  That girl loves some shoes... especially the hand-me-downs from her cousin Kenslee!


Lily wanted a typewriter like Kit.  We didn't get one quite that old, but we did get her a retro design!  The best part?  It was my Mom's very first typewriter and I used to play on it as a kid!  She has had a great time playing with it at the beach and here at home!

Monday, June 24, 2013

More from the beach... (post #3)

This post is just a few pictures I want to document.  Hope you aren't tired of vacation pictures yet... if you are, just come back in a day or two and I'll be on to something else, I'm sure.

Mom and Dad agreed to keep the girls one afternoon on vacation so that Chris and I could go to the World Golf Hall of Fame together!


I was so very glad we got to go there.  It was really neat!  We saw so many neat things and learned a lot too!


The whole area around the World Golf Hall of Fame was beautiful!  Lots of neat places to live and stay while visiting, beautiful golf courses, and there was, of course, a really neat restaurant and huge golf store!

Another neat thing we were planning to do was an Eco-Tour!  Our friends Scott and Beverly recommended it!  (They own the condo we stayed in.)


They told us that we were in for a treat and that Eco-Tours were a must do!  We were excited to see dolphins, manatee, and sea turtles among other things.


It was a HOT and HUMID Florida day and we couldn't wait to get on the boat and out on the water!  The tours are very personal and it was just our family on the boat with the captain!


We got there early and enjoyed looking at the boats and visited the little shop there at the marina.


Finally, it was time.  We checked the radar and they said we were clear to go.  We loaded up and off we went on our boat!  It was great!  The kids were loving it!


5 minutes into our trip the captain did an about face.  There was a VERY scary looking storm cloud brewing!  We headed back for the docks at full speed ahead and the rain still caught us!  It was our last day, so we didn't get to do the Eco-Tour.  We are looking forward to going back and scheduling another tour for a day with better weather!


My sister-in-law is the best at coordinating outfits!  She got the little girls and big girls matching bathing suits! I have pictures of my girls in them, but she got pictures of all four girls in them on the beach!  Hopefully I can share a few of those when I get them.  For now, you'll have to settle for my sweet girls in their navy stripes!



I think Chris had the most fun looking for critters!  From crabs to sand fleas, he was all about catching stuff to look at!


Ava Grace was all bout finding shells!


Lily just loved playing in the waves!


It was fun to watch her dance and sing in the surf putting on shows for an imaginary audience!  I remember doing the same thing when I was little!


Love this little super-star and her BIG imagination!


Everything is right in the world when you hold Daddy's hand!


Lily is getting so big!  I can't believe she'll be in 4th grade!  Looking at these pictures made me realize how much older she looks now!


My little beach bum!



These two love each other so much.  They are inseparable!  I'm so thankful that they have such a strong bond.