a year of ECFE

The first pictures is September 11, 2008 on our way to ECFE for our first class, Van is still livin in my belly at this point. The second picture if This past Thursday, the last day of class for Myla. Next year will bring a whole new adventure as Myla will be attending preschool 3 afternoons a week. Ohh how they grow.

a photo session

We had a awesome photographer take some family and kid photos 2 weeks ago. They turned out pretty wonderful and it is fun to see our family captured in photos. Follow the link to view them.
http://lmpreciousdesigns.zenfolio.com/m-v-may-2009

our new backyard

Lance and I have lived at this house for the past 7 years. Ever since we moved in I begged Lance to put in a tall fence in the backyard, ( we have some "interesting" neighbors). So finally last year we put it in and loved all the seclusion it provided.

This years mission was a sanbox for the kids. After discussing and researching we picked out the needed material. 3- 4x10 and some screws. On a sidenote, while at Menards loading the material we overestimated the give of a windshield and cracked it. We both felt pretty stupid to think we could have gotten it in there, but hey we have insurance and had a new windshield the next day.

We built the sandbox in about 1 hour, it is 5 x 10 and is holding 1 truck load of sand!! Myla loves it and plays in it whenever we are outside. It can accomidate 6 kids and still have lots of room to move around. So the sanbox arrival required more fencing in the back and we have gotten that done over the past 2 weeks. Lance's Mom was up for a visit and to help with yard work and relieving a brick sidewalk in our backyard.

Van's better than ever feet

The first picture is of Van's feet after birth and the next picture is his beautiful feet today!

Van's casts were removed last Thursday. Dr. Gordon was very pleased with how they looked and worked. We were given the good news that we were done with casts for a few years and will now get Van's braces. Those words felt so good and were such a relief. This is the moment we have been waiting for since we first found out about Van's clubbed feet when I was just 22 weeks pregnant.

I have been reflecting a lot about all that Van has gone through in his short life thus far. 3 surgeries, 15 sets of casts, 2 nights at a hospital and and lots of dr. visits. The amazing aspect of this is Van's wonderful attitude throughout everything. He has figured out how to sit up, rollover and crawl with castys on. He is an amazing boy and I am so excited to watch him continue on his journey, growing and healing.

The 1 pic is of his new braces that he received today. Van will have to wear them for 18 hours a day, which majority of that will be sleep time. We believe he will be required to wear the braces for nighttime for the next 2-3 years. He does not seem to bothered by them so far, hopefully that continues. The other 2 pics are Van at the Dr. office last Thursday with free feet.

The next pic is of his new air Jordan shoes!! Dr. Gordan told us to get him some high tops, to help strengthen and support his ankle. Well after trying on about 15 pairs of shoes-the ones that fit and were cute were these stylin shoes.

I also want to thank everyone for all of the love, support, prayers and positive energy sent our way other the last year. It was amazing to feel all of our friends and family holding us through all of Van's journey. I am now just waiting to see our little man walk...

slideshow of pictures

We have all had a busy week, with alot of pictures taken. So I put together this little slideshow of some memories in the making.

Crawling

Early this evening Sarina, Brittany and I were visiting in the living room with Van. All of a sudden we all watched as he figured out how to crawl forward!!!!!! We continued to watch for the next 10 minutes, dangling keys in front of his face to coerce him into more movement. Now all evening he was experimenting with his new freedom. And all of this movement is with the casts! Wow- babies are amazing and resilient. I will try and capture some video soon.