Christmas Recap & Some

Our little Christmas Corner

Love watching this little beauty take her Saturday afternoon naps :)

Our little Weston is growing and growing!

Just beat-boxin and having some evening conversation time together with my precious girl :)

The big-boy cousins

The whole gang together at Christmas time!

Ready for the Christmas Eve Candlelight service!

Tessa absolutely LOVED the Candlelight service!

The lights, the music...everything just had her smiling and talking the whole way through!

Loved experiencing it right there next to her :)

What an incredible memory!

Christmas morning!!

His patience is incredible! ;)

(I think I took this picture at 9:00 a.m.)

Tessa had such a blast opening gifts this year!  

It was super fun to see her take such delight in everything!!

Toothless and his blanket were probably the biggest hit!

And Minnie Mouse was a big hit too!! 

She was grinning from ear to ear!!

Parker helped put Tessa's new princess toy together while she took a little nap ;) 

Taking in every minute of my Christmas Day snuggles!!

Tessa had so much fun with her duplo legos!!

We set her up with her own little section of the big lego table

The festivities brought on some much needed naps....

and down time/Wii time for the boys ;)

  Tessa was showing off her brother-tackling skills ;)

pretty good!

And I can't resist those daddy-daughter bedtime snuggles!!

And that HAIR!!! :)

We had such a great week together!!  We are so thankful for an amazing 2014. 

We love our little family and are so excited to be bringing in a new year knowing we have one more on the way!

An Incredible Gift

Honestly, I don't quite have words for this yet. But I don't think that we necessarily have to wait, to share what God has done, for when we feel like we have the perfect words.

How? Who? Why? I cried for a good long time yesterday and just kept saying out loud "How does this happen?" "Who does this?" "Why us, why now?" "Really?....$7,500....??"

Our goal has been met. Tessa's SJN school year has been covered. And all I can think is that I want nothing more than for the absolute love and provision that God has shown us, to be felt and seen by each and every individual that has helped us reach this goal for our sweet little girl. We are so incredibly grateful.

It resurfaces again and again: Ephesians 3:20 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."

http://www.gofundme.com/tessa

Our thank you to "Yukon HUD Charities":

Monika Anderson and  staff and customers at the Yukon Henry Hudson's...wow.  You have shocked us, you have blessed us, you have given the kind of gift that leaves  us speechless and in tears...joyful tears.  We have been saying "How?" "Who?" "Why?"  Your message of encouragement touched our hearts and your gift and the kind of love you have shown our family, takes us to a place of gratitude that we have never been before.   Thank you for all that you have done.  Thank you for providing Tessa with the opportunity to continue on at SJN for the remaining 2014-2015 school year.  Thank you for believing in what this school has done for our daughter...for our family.  Thank you for eliminating the financial burden that we were facing heading into the final 5 months of her school year.  Thank you for believing in us as her parents...for trusting in our decisions to take this financial risk for the sake of inclusion, opportunities and experiences for our amazing little girl.  Thank you for helping her experience life as a 4 year old little girl.  Thank you for providing so many more days of smiles, frienships and growth.  We know this message will fall short of showing our intense amount of gratitude, but we pray that you hear and feel our sincerity.  

With all our love and thankfulness, The Bynum Family! (especially Tessa :) 

Christmas Party Fun!

Two Christmas parties down and a few more to go! :)  

Darin and I had a fancy date night out Friday to the SandRidge Christmas party and Sunday evening we had the Hearts for Hearing Christmas party.  Both parties were full of lots of fun and great memories.

Our dear friends took care of the kiddos for us Friday evening and got some fun pics before we headed out!

SandRidge Energy Christmas Party

Hearts for Hearing Christmas Party

Tessa's reactions were priceless!

Oh my goodness...My most favorite picture of all!!!

(haha, clearly we did not all fit in the sleigh ;)

~Whitney

An Amazing Gift!

Tessa received an AMAZING gift at school on Monday!! A 'coat' for her wheelchair and a matching hat ~ so she can stay toasty warm outside with her friends on colder days. 

THANK YOU to all of the incredible women who put their heads together on this and to the incredible talent and creativity that resulted in such a beautiful & cozy chair cover for our sweet girl. 

The love you have for her, shines through her every smile!

My jaw dropped when I got home Monday and was able to see everything in person.  I mean, I could tell in the pics from school how amazing it was....but it was incredible to see the creativity up close and personal.  And the hat..the HAT!  I kept telling Darin...who would have thought!?!  The design is so clever and perfect.  I've always wanted to put a warm hat on Tessa but knew all the ones I would find would be too tight or interfere with her cochlear implants and headband, etc.  This hat is simply brilliant.  SO EASY for us to put on her and take off and I can tell she's not bothered by it one bit.  

Look at that face! :)

And the coat is just beautiful!!  Not to mention how simple it is to put over her wheelchair.  The coat fits almost every piece of equipment we have for Tessa....her special needs jogging stroller, her activity chair, her power chair, and of course her manual wheelchair she has at school.  We literally have an option to keep her warm regardless of what equipment she is in!

Somebody was making all the teachers a little jealous with her snuggly-self outside on Wednesday ;)

Again with the SMILE!

This kind of love, generosity and ingenuity from such amazing people, makes me feel God's loving arms wrapped all around our sweet Tessa Rayne!

~Whitney

Bynum#Five Is A...

B.O.Y. !!!

We are thrilled and my boys' faces definitely say it all :)

Me and my little buddy Weston are halfway there!!

So thankful

~Whitney