My baby, I mean big boy, turned 3 on the 12th. Just seems like yesterday when my water broke, 2 days earlier then the planned c-section date. I called Jeff and off to the hospital we went, forgetting our camcorder, and to find out they had no rooms available for the surgery. We frantically called Kelli asking her to pick up Anna from preschool and Christa to pick up Emma from Kindergarten. We were sent to the first floor operating room where the nurse informed me if we seem like we don’t know what we are doing it is becasue we don’t usually have babies down here. Everything went great and that Christmas was a blur. I remember on Christmas Eve being worried and sharing my concerns with family that there was something more wrong with Trey and that I felt by 12 days later he should be over his newborn jaundiced. And here we are 3 years later.

When looking back at all the outcomes that could’ve been we feel truly blessed.

Trey had labs almost a month ago. Most numbers were good, the numbers most out of range being his white blood count and those darn platlets which has dropped to 80. I know it is not a huge concern yet but I can’t help but wonder is there something else going on causing them to drop that everyone is missing. I also know that his enlarged spleen can be eating up his platlets and the doctors once mentioned removing the spleen. I try not to worry. Overall I recently have felt a sense of relief and it looks as if we are moving on from the hospital stays and sickness. But in the back of our minds we know that there is always a chance of rejection, and kidney failure and other side effects that can come from the medicine. It was UNMC that told us our goal is for Trey to live a normal life and we will continue to pray that God will let that happen.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Gulzows in Grand Island and had a great day. The next day mom did a little shopping and we spent the day with some of the Buettners eating Jeff’s delicious smoked ribs and watching the football game.

The following weekend it was grandpa Buettners families turn to host the Buettner Christmas for his 10 brother and sisters and their families. Trey and the girls enjoyed running wild with the other children. Aiden was kind enough to share his gift of big feet slippers with Trey and he had so much fun with them. We shared with everyone a calendar of the Buettners, with pictures and birthdays marked for 170 relatives. It was a lot of fun.

While in Columbus we celebrated Trey and Christas birthdays. Trey liked his step stool and race track he received.

And the following weekend we celebrated with grandpa and grandma Gulzow, great grandpa, Shane, Rob, Kelli, Mya and Carter. We had a feast and enjoyed Trey’s wish of a Scooby cake and Trey loved his gifts of Hulk Hands, basketball hoop, Geo airplane, and viewmaster.

Trey is asking Santa for a tool bench and another flashlight. Anna’s top wish is horse riding lessons, pixos, bendaroos and more. Emma would like a laptop computer and Little House on the Prairie movies. We might go to the mall tomorrow to visit Santa.

He can’t wait to get out and play in all the snow. We keep telling him it has to warm up some first, but every chance he can get he will run over into the snow and stomp through it.

We’ve been busy, we enjoyed Emma’s Christmas concert and attended Anna’s concert also. Anna was chosen to be one of 6 stars having ligns to say in her Christmas concert, which made her happy. She did a great job and we were very proud of her. We also attended the Christmas Program at Capital City Christian Church which was fantastic.

Trey has improved a lot with his speech. The teacher is pleased with his progress and it appears soon he will be caught up.

If we don’t update before we hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and New Year.