Happy Birthday, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Wow we cannot believe that Drew is already 1 year old! Last month on November 16th, we celebrated Drew's first Birthday. It was an awesome day, but also a little emotional for us. With the busy days that we have had since Drew came home in March, we had not really had a chance to truly reflect and talk about the day that our son was born. On his birthday we read some of the things that we wrote when Drew was born and looked at the first pictures that we took of him. The emotions of that day filled our hearts and it was an experience that is difficult to describe. We were extremely happy, and grateful yet there was a solemn feeling. One of our good friends told us this past week that nobody is immune to adversity and that it is a part of this life to strengthen us and at the same time humble us. We hope that the feelings and emotions of Drew's birth will never fade and will continue to carry us. Here are a few words from something Eric wrote on the day that Drew was born, "today I became a Father. today I came closer to Jenn than ever & together we took a giant step closer to our Heavenly Father. Weighing only one pound four ounces and measuring almost 13 inches, Drew James Towner has touched so many hearts & forever changed our lives. Drew is a very powerful and sweet boy, we love our son." Drew now weighs around 19 pounds and he is doing really well. His laughter seems to make time stand still and we couldn't imagine life without him. As you can tell from his pictures, Drew insists on NOT wearing his glasses:) We are trying to keep them on more, but he is very determined to win the battle. Thanksgiving was another kind of emotional day, as we could remember exactly what was going on during the hard stages of Drew's life a little after he was born. It is really weird to think that this time last year Drew was in the isolette (incubator) and on a ventilator. We will always be thankful for our little miracle. Time flew in December and Drew enjoyed every minute of the Christmas season. He crawled all over the house pulling down decorations and tried to eat the pine needles off of the tree:) He is at a very fun stage right now and it is a lot of fun to teach him new things, such as turning on and off the light switch. It was fun to watch Drew play the "baby Jesus" part in our traditional Nativity Scene. Eric was one of the sheep! Drew went sledding for the first time and of course Eric wanted to take him down the hill and over a little jump. So they went down and instead of ramping off of the jump they plowed through it and snow flew up all over Eric and Drew:) Drew got a little scared and started to cry but he got over it quickly. We all joked about how Drew looked like the little brother from the movie "The Christmas Story" all bundled up in three snow coats! On Christmas day Drew was spoiled by his Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles with more toys and clothes than he knows what to do with. We had a wonderful Christmas with our little guy, he can always put a smile on our face. This was an extraordinary year filled with a lot adversity, tears, laughter and joy. Every time we see our little Drew boy we are reminded to put things into a grander perspective. He reminds us to think of what really matters in this life. He inspires us to strive to be a little better.

Fun Fall

Drew has been having a blast this fall. He loves going to his Uncle's high school football games. For Halloween Drew dressed up as a lobster:) It was so cute, he kind of picked out his own costume. When we were at the costume store he got really excited when we showed him the lobster costume:) Drew is a really happy little boy. His favorite tv show is sponge bob! Ya, he really does like to watch sponge bob for a couple of minutes, especially the opening song. He learned to scoot around on his tummy a couple of weeks ago and now we can't leave him in the room alone. He can army crawl across the family foom now and he seems to get into everything that he is not supposed to. It has been a little difficult to keep his glasses on him, hopefully he will start to leave them on soon. On Sunday Drew will turn 1! We cannot believe how fast this year passed by. We love our precious little guy so much.

Sweet Glasses

Drew boy has some new bling on! He was prescribed glasses to help correct a minor lazy eye and near sightedness. Both of these conditions are common affects from the laser treatments that he received while in the NICU. He is so cute with his glasses, it really makes him look a lot older which is kind of sad. Sometimes we wish that we could just stop time for a little while or atleast slow it down. As you can see in the pictures, it is a lot of fun trying to keep the glasses on his face and out of his mouth:) Hopefully he will get used to them soon. This Summer was a lot of fun for our family. Drew loved our trips to Lake Powelll and he had so much fun hanging out at the pool. Drew has been doing well with almost everything and he is starting to move all over the place. He hasn't quite learned to crawl yet but he rolls all over the house. He loves to eat his baby food and he is so interested in what we eat. He is extremely curious and wants to check out everything he sees, and of course put everything in his mouth. Jenn took Drew to Gardner Village to see some pumpkins and to take some pictures, he decided it was a good opportunity to lick the pumpkins:) This past weekend we had a blast carving pumpkins with Jenn's family. We think Drew enjoys Halloween, we'll see how long he lasts in his costume. Tonight was Monday Night Football for the Broncos and Drew was pretty sad that they got destroyed! He doesn't really like it when Dad yells at the TV so this season will be a little more mellow in our house:) We enjoy every day with our little guy, he bring us so much joy.

Fun Summer

Wow, we have really dropped the ball with the blog! Well Drew has had a very fun summer. Drew now weighs almost fifteen pounds and he is doing awesome. It is impossible to forget what we experienced when Drew was at the NICU, but it seems like such a long time ago. Everything seems to be fairly normal now with our little guy. We are still a little cautious with him, but for the most part we are just enjoying taking him to all of our favorite places. For the fourth of July we took him to his first Salt Lake Bees baseball game and he really enjoyed the fire works afterwards. We put little baby ear plugs on his ears and he just stared at the fireworks with a curious look on his face. Drew loves boating, golfing, and hiking. We took him to the Champion's Challenge Golf tournament at Thanksgiving Point where Drew got to watch Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sorentstam and Deron Williams play golf. The highlight of our summer was swimming with him at Lake Powell. He loves exploring and experiencing new things. We cannot imagine life without him; he has brought us so much joy. Drew's uncle Ryan came home from his mission and Drew was so excited to see him. Drew was also excited to attend his Uncle Tyler and Aunt Rachel's wedding! This summer has been a lot of fun for our family and Drew has made it so joyful. In a couple of weeks Drew will have another eye checkup, so we hope that will go well. Drew had his first little cold last week and he got an ear infection also:( Other than being a little grumpy he handled it pretty well. Drew is working on sitting up and is trying so hard to scoot on his tummy. He lies on his tummy and kicks so hard and then looks around but he hasn't quite learned how to actually move anywhere:) He has had a lot of support from various specialists who work with his development. We are still amazed at his progress and grateful for everyone who has cared for our sweet son. Hopefully this week we will find some time to take him to go see all of his nurses and friends at the NICU!