Mike & Stacy: 2011

Stephen broke his leg :(

Mike, Stephen, and Libby were on the trampoline. Stephen landed wrong and started to cry. Mike brought him in. Our neighbor (EMT and Nurse) checked him out. He didn't have any swelling. He wasn't hysterical. He could move his ankle, bend his knee, and move his toes. We let him rest the night and kept it up. The next day he was still in pain. We took him to the urgent care center. They did an x-ray. Sure enough it was broken. They gave him tylenol with codine and said to wait until Monday and call an orthepedic surgeon. This was Friday evening so nothing was going to be open all weekend. They gave him a temporary cast. Stephen is such a good sport! He hasn't been complaining at all. We obviously have to help him everywhere around the house. He has asked to go play in the sand and be where the other kids are so we cover his temp cast with plastic and let him sit in the sand box. This is Stephen helping me peel veggies.

At the Doctors office. He is so silly (and medicated!)

Here is the break. You can see it about an inch down from the big part of the knee. The crack is horizontal pretty much all the way across the big tibia bone. Poor guy!!

Field Trip - Oil Ranch

The kids had a field trip to an oil ranch. I went with them and we had a blast.

Christsia and Jack on the train

The kids were able to ride horses.

Petting goats.

Carr Farm

We went to our friends' house for Family Home Evening. They have horses, chickens, roosters, and tons of cows. The kids were able to pet and feed the horses. They loved it.

Garden Time!!

We dug up the remains of last years garden and planted a garden for this year. We planted strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and potatoes.

Last year the birds at most of our tomatoes so this year Mike built a net cage around the garden with a door. Hope we get some veggies to actually grow. More to come later...

Camping and Caverns!!

We had the best time going camping. I realized that I hadn't gone camping with the family...probably ever becuase I have either been pregnant or had a baby for the last 7 years. So, we all packed up and went. It was so much fun!!!!

We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns near San Antonio

Here are the caverns inside....it is amazing to see. The kids loved it.

Mike carrying liberty

All the kids on the dinosaur sign.

House updates

We have several things we are working on in the house. This is the ceiling mike and my dad repaired after a leak. We need to texture and paint it.

This is our bathroom. Mike is rebuilding it with a tile shower. More pics to come.

This is the kids bathroom. We took out the old tile and replaced it. Stephen is helping take the morter out

The kids are measuring the new tile with spacers.

Half of the tile done.

The finished product! YAY! Our first tile experience is surprisingly a success...

Kids and random stuff

My precious libby lou!! Can you even get enough of those eyes?! So sweet.

Jack doing homework

Stephen....doing...uh...I don't know - LOL

Jack doing the same.

My neighbor is an EMT. He came with his ambulance and the kids were able to try a few things out in the back.

Christsia in her classroom

Jack in his classroom, by his rock experiment

Christsias classroom friends.

Jack's class room on Valentines day

Daddy and Libby

Making dinner for my friend with all of her sons for her birthday.

Jack and Christsia ready for school

This is what happens when Mike is the one that shops at the grocery store. It made me laugh when I opened the cupboard. It is very organized...not too healthy tho.

Jack and Stephen at Itz Pizza place riding the train.

Hydrocephalus

My poor dad!! He had a shunt put in about 21 years ago. The shunt drains spinal fluid from his brain to is abdomen. If the fluid gets built up in the ventricle in his brian he first gets a headache, then he starts forgetting things, then double vision, then gets way worse from there. He had some of these symptoms a few months ago....he went in on a Wed in Jan to get part of the shunt replaced. He went home. 18 hours later symptoms were worse. Went back to the hospital for surgery 2 on Friday. They replaced the shunt valve parts again. 18 hours later the symptoms were back again. Surgery #3 took the current shunt out and put a new one in near the front of his head. That didn't work. Surgery #4 was to take the piece of tubing from the shunt to his abdomen out to drain externally. Surgery #5 was to replace this part of the tubing. Wow. I went to Utah through this process and helped at the hospital every way I could. It was a long scary week. This is a pic of the tube draining externally.

Julie, my mom and I played games to pass the days while they figured out what they needed to do between surgeries.

Here are the incisions after all the surgeries. The final shunt remains in the top opening.

Shooting - who would've thought??

I got Mike some shooting classes for Christmas. We are in Texas after all, and you have to hold your concealed handgun license to purchase a house (just kidding). My boss teaches the classes. We had so much fun. I was afraid of guns but after the class felt like I could easily handle one. In fact, I hit the bullseye tons of times!