Welcome to the Family Izzy

My brother, Jared, has decided to get a dog. The puppy is Izzy. She is adorable! Porter wants to go play. I happen to know that he will want to play until he sees or hears the puppy and then he will run and hide or jump into Matt's arms.

Izzy is lots of fun and loves to go on walks and play at the dog park! She is also going to get a sister in November. That way she can have a playmate during the day when Jared and Carl are working.

Mary Kay...anyone?

I have decided to join the world of Mary Kay and become a Beauty Consultant. I am excited about this opportunity. I used to dream of playing with make-up and now is my chance to really learn about make-up and most important to me....skin care. I love the skin care products and thought it would be cost effective for me to be the consultant instead of the customer.

If you (or anyone you might know) would like to host a class (and earn free products) or just need to order products, please let me know! I would love to show you the wonderful line of cosmetics and skin care products. They even make great skin care items for men!

Dixon Update

We have another tooth. Still no really clear pictures though. He has a second bottom tooth. He appears to also be working on a top tooth...but not the front top. The next ones over.

In addition to fun with teething, well fun if you like cranky babies that don't sleep, he is going to get tubes for his ears this week. He has had over 6 ear infections in 8 months. He currently has so much fluid on his ears, he could not pass the hearing test.

We will have the surgery done outpatient and he should immediately start to get results. After the fluid is gone, we will retest his hearing and make sure there is not any nerve damage that could be affecting his hearing. Most of the time this hearing loss is the sole result of fluid and nothing more serious. My mother does happen to be deaf in one ear. Since there is a family history of hearing loss, his Doctor wants to make sure that they only problem was the fluid.

Keep him in your prayers, please.

Chef in Training

Porter comes by his culinary interests very naturally. Matt and I have been trying to include him cooking tasks that he can handle without too much mess or danger. He, however, has other ideas. On more than one occassion, he has been found with all sorts of 'recipes' all over my kitchen. His favorite toys seem to be my Pampered Chef gadgets. Reguardless of how many toy kitchen gadgets we get him, he always goes back to my utensil organizers and finds the 'perfect tool'! The scarest times are right after we watch Iron Chef America. He loves to find a 'secret ingredient' and then make his creations. I hope that we have him understanding that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to play with the eggs!

Some of his efforts are producing nice treats. One favorite new sandwich is Peanut Butter, Honey and Cinnamon. Another was a sorbet of sort...he mashed (with a tart shaper nontheless)bananas, blueberries, strawberries together with redi-whip and then froze the concoction. It tasted good. He is learning some helpful skills. Here are some pictures of him rolling out his very own homemade flour tortillas!!!!

More adventures await....I'll keep you posted!

Monkey Baby

Dixon is a little tiny monkey! He amazes us how he likes to climb...everything! He uses his long toes to manage some pretty impressive feats! He is very curious. He wants to get a hold of everything in site.

Porter Has Started School

Porter started Pre-K at the elementary school. He gets to ride the school bus to and from school. He is loving every minute of school! He has made new friends. The most amazing part of this newest adventure is that he will wake up and be dressed and ready for the bus in under 10 minutes! He seems so grown up to me....as if it happened overnight. I love to see the excitement in his face when he talks about school.

It has been fun to hear him sing little songs that he has learned. He even asks me, 'who is the author ?' when we read bedtime stories. It is funny because I know that he doesn't really know the authors it is just something his teacher must point out during their story time.

We have also started fundraising...yes in Pre-K!! We are selling Sally Foster (wrapping paper and such) so if anyone is interested.....let us know!

Here is my big guy ready for the bus!

Here is a picture from the 2nd day....

The second best part of school....I have time to get housework taken care of without a helper. It is wonderful to get the floor mopped and let it stay clean and milk spills free for a few hours! Dixon is too small to get into messes at this point.

There is a Tooth!

Dixon is now 9 months old and cut his first tooth yesterday. We have been looking for this tooth for months now. My boys are slow to cut teeth. He has been irritable this week and very hard to get to sleep. This is not normal behavior for him. He is an extremely happy and pleasant baby.

We are so happy that it was a tooth and not another ear infection.....which also causes irritability and sleep issues!

I have tried real hard to get a picture of his tooth but that hasn't worked out yet!

My Knee Problem

During Spring Break we took the boys out for a day of fun which included a ride on a train. Porter loves this activity. After the ride was over and when I was stepping down from the train, I hurt my knee. It sort of 'popped backward'. It hurt real bad and I was embarrassed with all of the attention from the employees who noticed my problem. I simply said that I would be okay and walked it off. After several weeks, I started to suffer with inflammation in that knee. I tried over the counter medication and just wearing a knee brace hoping that it would get better. As weeks have turned into months I finally realized that I was not walking anywhere at anytime without limping. I finally went to the Doctor for inflammation medication and he quickly referred me to an Orthopedist. I have had x-rays and MRI.

The x-ray shows an injury that I sustained while taking the young women and young men from Church on a white water rafting adventure years ago. That injury occurred when we were flipped out of the boat and I landed on a rock followed by being trapped under the boat (for a second or two). I knew I was hurt but never realized how hurt...until now. I simply bought the knee brace and wore it for a few days and thought all was okay. I now have 'bone spurring' and arthritis. The lesson learned....an x-ray at the time of the injury is always a good investment!

The MRI has indicated that my more recent injury from the step down from the train has tore my meniscus. This is the cartilage under the knee that keeps the leg bones happy. This is the reason for my current problems.

I will undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove this torn cartilage. It is outpatient and I should only need a weekend to recover. I am a little scared but have been assured that everything will be fine and this is a 'piece of cake'. I tried telling my Doctor that stay-at-home Mom's can't have knee surgery. He laughed and said this is better than knee replacement which is the alternative to not treating the problem now.

As the days pass since I have learned of my problem, I get more ready for the surgery. I am in increasingly more pain and discomfort...even when I am not walking it hurts. My favorite "me time" activity is to grocery shop. Currently it is torture for me and I just can't stand for that to be my future!

So....keep us in your prayers! I think that I have everything under control. Mom will come to take care of Dixon and Porter. Porter will actually be in school during the day. Porter is excited at the thought of getting to ride the school bus.