Praise the Lord

Thank you everyone soooo much for all the good vibes/thoughts/and PRAYERS that were sent our and Coopers way! She was released from the Hospital on Friday around 4:45 PM. The doctor totally surprised us! I went up to take her and my mother lunch and when he walked in he asked if we wanted to go home that day... we were totally surprised and grateful! Cooper didn't want to take her decorations down or her PIC line out, but after 3 of us hold her down to get it out,  we were ready to go! It only took 3 trips to the car with a cart full of suitcases etc to get the room emptied out... my mom was in my parents Mini Cooper so it was a good thing that I had come up! My FX 35 was packed to the roof but Cooper was soo excited to get home and see her puppies! She only lasted about 5 minutes in my car before she passed out but it was a great day! The Lord is good! Thanks again everyone!

Thank you OAKWOOD BAPTIST!

Coopers Pre-K class sent her flowers today! It was SOOOOO sweet and much appreciated! She was so excited because she has missed her friends at school sooo much! She has been "studying" at the hospital so that when she gets back to the classroom she isn't behind lol

Practicing writing her letters

The flowers were shaped like a little westie puppy! Which is too perfect because Cooper thinks that my little westie girl Lexi Lu Lu is her dog! Thank yo sooo much to her class and teachers for thinking of Cooper! It meant so much to her and to our family! Keep the prayers coming! It looks like she will be coming home on SATURDAY!! WOHOOOOO!!!!

Thank  you !!!

She loves her flowers!

Coopers Surprise

On Tuesday night, when I went to visit my best friend (Cooper) she requested a brown and soft dog. So Aunt Tandi found an awesome stuffed animal and brought it down the next day. As soon as Aunti Tandi gave her the stuffed animal Cooper said... " I thought I was getting a REAL doggie". LOL ....Cooper is obsessed with dogs.I don't think she has ever been away from all the dogs this long minus one trip 2 years ago to the hospital for 12 days!  Uncle Derek and I have 2 westies, Mom Mom has a yorkie and grey hound and Gigi and Pop's have 2 Great Danes and 3 dachshunds. Lets just say she has lots of play buddies that aren't human! So for the past week while she has been "locked up in solitary" she has really been missing all of her friends! The Great Danes especially! So on Wednesday night the Nurses asked GIGI if Cooper would enjoy if the therapy dogs came and visited her today. My mom thought it would be a GREAT surprise and Cooper LOVED IT! A beautiful Golden Retriever named Cindy came and visited her! It was the first time since Thursday that Cooper was allowed to leave her room besides chest x-rays or something like that. She got to walk the dog up and down the hallways and have a "love fest" with her. She really enjoyed it and was great to see her eyes light up again! She was disappointed when the dog had to leave but it was definitely a wonderful surprise for out little Super Cooper!




Cooper walking Cindy

Rainbow toes

On Saturday Cooper requested that she have "rainbow toes"... leave it to our little Cooper to be high maintenance! lol I don't know where she gets it from.... Anyways GIGI and Aunt Da went shopping on Sunday before going back to the hospital to find Rainbow toenail polish... and of course we came through like normal... sometimes I think she throws a curve ball to see if we can still hit a home run lol Here she is at the hospital today painting Auntie Tandi's nails and having her pedicure done!! Who says that because your in the hospital,  you cant be fierce and fabulous??!?!?!?!?

Concentrating!

She even got flower decals to put on her nails! What a special little diva!~

Splinters

This should have gone before the hospital posts but I was a little pre-occupied with her being sick last week. With the heat and the drought that most of you are aware of this summer in Texas, my parents deck in the back yard has been giving everyone splinters.... espcially little 4 year olds who run around with out shoes one ( I take full responsiblity for this... im barefoot 99% of the time, but I blame that on growing up on the lake and rivers) anyways Cooper isnt too fond of needles and getting splinters out has become a norm around our homes with her lately.. her she is with a pair of Auntie Tandi's light glasses on.. I thought they were adroble lol

I LOVE THIS! She is such a dork !!!

Can you see my splinter now GIGI?

She is gonna be a surgeon!

Fun at the Hospital

So we are now on day 4 at the Downtown Chirstus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital and Cooper is doing well! I am beyond exhausted and I speak for the rest of the family as well! Her chest x-rays came back looking better than they did on Tuesday so that is awesome! Cooper is in good spirits and we are trying to make the hospital as fun as possibly can! I mean seriously.. can any of you imagine keeping a VERY active 4 year old in a small room hooked up to an IV ALL day long.... but she is handling it OK! She just keeps requesting presents! There are a few other CF children on the same floor as Cooper and its very sad.. they rarely have any visitors. I cant imagine leaving Cooper alone.. someone is with her 24/7 from our family (and I'm pretty sure she is LOVING all the extra attention and presents from everyone) Yesterday Auntie Tandi and I took her the flowers that she requested (one red and one pink rose), fun arts and craft projects, Goldie the Unicorn from Pinkaliscious, and some HOT PINK feather extensions for her hair (she has been begging for these for months) I figure since she isn't in public they would be OK. We took her a bunch of movies too and had a good time! She finally got to have a shower today and that was definitely an experience! She doesn't like anyone messing with the arm that has her pic line in it, so, needless to say she wasn't to found of me when we had to put a bag over it... but eventually we ended up getting to color a fish on it and practice on Aunt Da and she did fine! She also realized that she got to disconnect from the IV machine and run around the room for a few minutes! Here are a few pictures from our hospital adventure!

I have no make up on and have barely slept but she doesn't mind:)Here are her HOT PINK feathers ! she LOVED THEM!!

relaxing watching the Fox and the Hound

Cooper has been asking for glow bracelets for awhile! Leave it to Aunt Da to find them!

getting her arm ready for her first shower since Wednesday!

Auntie Tandi found her a fun pillow friend!

Under the Sea

So tonight after I got off work I headed to Hobby Lobby and then to the hospital! Cooper was giving me the third degree about what was taking me so long ....4 year olds don't understand that you have to go to work. Anyways we decorated most of the room tonight, but still have a lot more to do! We made octopi out of our hands and finished her coral reef on her window ledge!We also hung up the seaweed that is hanging from the ceiling(this is made out of the fun garland beads you can get at Hobby Lobby)! We had a blast doing it and the nurses all said that Cooper has the best room they have ever seen.... She was very proud of that! The most important thing is that she gets better and I have heard that positivity helps~ So thank you everyone for all the sweet wishes and prayers! THEY ARE WORKING!!!

Here is the Coral Reef that I made for her window sill.. when the blinds are open the windows have blue cellophane on them too!

Mer Man in on the sea floor

Cooper and Da painted her fish that hang in her window!

She is busy coloring some of the fish for her ocean walls!

We LOVE creativity!

Making her Octopus

Here is some of our "art work" they are octopi made out of Cooper and Da's hands

Pneumonia Update!!

So yesterday morning mom mom dropped Coop off at our house and she definitely wasn't her chipper self. She was coughing and kept saying her tummy hurt. We had "love fest" and watched 20 minutes of Toy Story 3 and all of sudden she was ready to go see her dog Pippa Pepper at Gigi and Pappa's house. She was fine in the car but kept saying her tummy hurt. When we got to their house she threw up again outside and was giggling the whole time because all the dogs were trying to get to the puke... sick(I'm telling you... she is a rock star). At that point Kerby had already talked to the Dr. Curran (Coops CF doctor) and they had made the decision to admit her to Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital in Downtown San Antonio (at least its convenient lol yeah right!)

Here she is riding her toy suitcase ... she didn't realize we were going to the hospital yet...

 Poor little thing didn't get to eat or drink anything until 5 PM because she had to be put completely under to get her central line... you explain no snacks or drinks to a 4 year old all day! She was beyond unimpressed. They had to give her an IV first and that took like 30 minutes while she fought it the entire time and screamed bloody murder! They did something neat though.. before they took her they gave her a little doll and let her color it and explained exactly what they were going to do to her and even let her practice on the doll. (unfortunately this didn't help the screaming and tears).

here she is with her doll explaining how the IV works

coloring her doll

practicing putting the IV in with her doll

they put her IV in her left had so she couldn't suck her thumb.. not a happy camper! Good thing that was temporary!!

sleeping from the anaesthesia

after she got her PIC line... she was sooo happy she could suck her thumb again!

  After that we watched snow white and tried to relax. All the nurses were super sweet. She had a chest xray late last night and we should know something soon to see how she looks inside... She ate a BIG dinner and was a little piggy pudding! The hardest part is that we don't know how long she will be there so far.. looks like a minimum of 2 weeks.. not fun but it has to be done to get her healthy again! Ill keep you all posted! Here are a few pictures of our SUPER COOPER!!
Oh yeah she decided on theme for her room while she is there. We are decorating it so its fun and gives us something to do the next 2 weeks.. the theme is "UNDER THE SEA, LITTLE MERMAID". ILL POST PICTURES AS WE PROGRESS!

Special Child

I saw this today on a blog and thought it was AMAZING! No one ever thinks that their child, niece, grandchild, etc will be born with special needs. Noone ever hope for it. People take it for granted every single day that their children have 5 fingers and 5 toes, that they are able to express emotions, that they can hold their children without their screen creating blisters, or that their children are even still alive. I along with my family, get tired of hearing about people who are disappointed that they are not having the "sacred" first child as a boy or that the little girl doesn't have blue eyes. Be GRATEFUL! God has given you a gift! Don't take them for granted! The Zoeller family is a Christian family. We have never strayed in knowing that God had a plan when he gave us Cooper. But this poem spoke to me! Hope you enjoy it! And tonight when you get home I hope that you hug your child or children and thank God for them NO MATTER WHAT!!

A Special Child

You weren’t like other children,
And God was well aware,
You’d need a caring family,
With love enough to share.
And so He sent you to us,
And much to our surprise,
You haven’t been a challenge,
But a blessing in disguise.
Your winning smiles and laughter,
The pleasures you impart,
Far outweigh your special needs,
And melt the coldest heart.
We’re proud that we’ve been chosen,
To help you learn and grow,
The job that you have brought us,
Is more than you can know.
A precious gift from Heaven,
A treasure from above,
A child who’s taught us many things,
But most of all- “Real Love”

Prayers needed

Hi everyone! So Cooper made it one week at school ... she had to go to the CF clinic today after coughing bad all weekend. After the X-Rays came back, the doctors have said that she has pneumonia in her lower left lobe of her lung. They allowed GIGI to take her home today but if she isnt significantly better by Thursday she will be admitted to the hospital. This is not a good thing for a CF'er but our family will do whatever it takes to get her healthy! They have "tweaked" her meds and hopefully this will help! Poor little thing has NO energy and NO appetite but she HAS to eat !!! All she has wanted to do is spend the night at Da's house. Her little eyes have NO light to them but she is still feisty lol ... Here she is at the CF clinic this morning, its required for all CF'ers to wear these masks around each other because they are each others biggest problem! Isn't that a sick joke! Anyways .. please pray for a safe and fast recovery for our little SUPER COOPER!!!

waitng to see the doctors!

Hop Scotch

Last night , I went to my parents house to play with Coop and eat dinner. When I got there Cooper was ready to go do something! Being a typical 4 year old , the "Something" changed about 4 times in 2 minutes. We started watching Land Before Time V with the Great Danes, then she wanted to do a princess puzzle(until she realized that the Great Danes had eaten some of the pieces), then it was princess time, and finally she decided she wanted to go outside and play Hop Scotch. This surprised all of  us. We aren't really sure where she even learned what Hop Scotch is... but leave it to Cooper to want to do it.
So we ventured outside and she helped me make the Hop Scotch squares. We had to have numbers and letters (according to Cooper) and every color chalk HAD to be used at least once! She wasn't to impressed because the Great Danes wanted to help but once I put them back inside she was ready to hop!You can only imagine how great her skills at this are. Once I figure out how to upload video from my phone Ill put it on here!

Oh yeah on a side note.. once we were done with Hop Scotch we went inside to eat dinner. While we were eating my father, Cooper's Papa had Fox News on like he does every night! Gov Rick Perry came on and I asked my father , "Pop's do you think Perry has a shot at President or not?"... before my father could even answer Cooper said, " Who's Perry... Olivia's brother cant be president". For those of you unrehearsed in children's shows, Olivia is a show on television about a little pig (it just happens to be one of Coopers favorites) and Perry is Olivia's brother. Lol Oh the things that kids say!!!!

Oldies but goodies!

Going thru my computer I found even more pictures of Cooper that I had to share! Here are some from the first photo shoot with the AMAZING and SUPER WOMAN CARISSA HOOPES DUVALL! Aunt Da and Chris and Carissa have been friends for years since Chris and I worked at Tap Room together for 3 years! Carissa captures a child in a way that is beyond beautiful and Cooper looks forward to going to see them at least once a year! Here are a few images from  her first shoot with them!

First Day at Pre-K

So it begins. Cooper and Mom Mom made the adventure to Oakwood Baptist today to start her first day of Pre-K this morning. It is crazy to think of how far this little girl has come! Remember not that long ago she was born 2 months pre-mature weighing in around 3 lbs! Just for those of you who never saw infant pics of Cooper, so that you can get a real idea of how far she has come.. here ya go...

sleeping angel!

this was the day after she was born after her bowels were completely reconstructed!

she was a fashionista even then! look at the baby fo-hawk!

her feet were so small! she was the size of a beany baby!

Puts a whole other meaning to "wrapped around your finger! "

Gigi in the cream shirt with Aunt Kelle for bath time!

She had her new outfit on.. of course it was a fashion excuse for Aunt Da to to go shopping! Mom Mom had so much fun doing her hair and getting our Princess ready to go! She had her new Hello Kitty back pack and lunch box (her favorites) and was on her way. She walked in to the room with confidence and put her own back pack and lunch box up and found some new dinosaurs to play with... for such a girly girl she sure loves her dinosaurs! There was even another little girl playing with them too, so she has already made a new friend! She was totally fine and didn't cry or anything... not shocking she has always had a maturity to her way beyond her years!
 I cant wait to share with everyone that follows Coopers story to find out how she is growing in the Lord and how much she learns and matures in the months to come! Thank you to everyone who keeps our Super Cooper in your thoughts and prayers! She truly is our little miracle! Ill be updating after school to see what took place during the first day activities.

Walking in with Mom Mom

Ready to start her new Adventure!

Not 100% sure about this.... lol

playing with her new friend Emily

Coopers Hello Kitty Lunchbox

So I just got to see Cooper at lunch! She had sooo much fun on her first day and already made a new friend name Emily. She was excited she couldn't wait to tell me everything! They finger painted, colored, played dinosaurs, read, and practiced writing her name. The name part was easy because Cooper and I have been practicing tracing her name at home for awhile now! We are all so very proud of her! More updates soon!

Heres our girl ... already playing at school!