Why is it SO hard to blog? Honestly! I keep asking myself and think I've finally figured it out. It's because it takes FOREVER for the pictures to load!

Yikes, that happened from biting your nails?!

In February Jake started complaining that his thumb was swollen and it was hurting. I didn't think too much about. I figured that he hurt it in athletics, lifting weights or during soccer. Finally after about a week I decided to take him to the doctor. They thought it was an infection, but there was no cut or anything in his thumb. HOWEVER, Jake does bite his nails and so that caused an infection. He was prescribed a topical antibiotic and an oral one. He complained that the ointment burned his thumb and neither antibiotic seemed to be working. His thumb still hurt and it was becoming more swollen. Back in we went and it was decided that they would try and drain his thumb. Two incisions were made on either side of his thumb but nothing came out. So Mr. Ward cut all the way thru and stuck something in there in hopes that it would cause it to drain overnight and gave him a shot of antibiotics in his butt, which he was NOT too happy about. Nice way to spend your Valentines day huh?! We went back in the next day and nothing had drained out so he got another shot in the butt and an appointment for the next day. Well as I was in Walmart with an overflowing basket of groceries, I get a text from Jake in a panic because he felt something weird and thinks it may have drained, so I race to the check out, tell the cashier what is going on in hopes that she'll be speedy, no such luck. I go get Jake and head to the clinic. When they take the bandages off his thumb it was one HUGE ball of puss. It was so GROSS!! They immediately refer us to a surgeon and he agrees to see us even though it was closing time. He takes a look at Jake's thumb and asks us what we are doing the next day. Jake says going to school and I say not much and he says WRONG, you are going to the hospital for surgery. WHAT?!! Yep he had to have surgery to cut all the infection out. The surgeon was a bit afraid that Jake might loose the tip of his thumb, but luckily he didn't. It is continuing to heal and we feel VERY fortunate that things turned out the way they did. Thanks Dr. Burney for taking such good care of Jake's thumb! And on a side note....Jake NO longer bites his nails!! Guess this is one way to break the habit.


***WARNING PHOTOS ARE GRAPHIC***
(sorry some of the pictures are not the best quality. They are from my phone)



His right thumb is swollen


Mr. Ward cutting his thumb so he can drain the puss out. Jake is NOT to thrilled about this and almost passes out.


When nothing would drain out he sticks a piece of something in it hoping it will drain overnight.



This is two days AFTER trying to get it to drain! It's completely covered in puss!


Getting ready to go into surgery. He would NOT let me take his picture.


Being whisked away to surgery.


At this point he is still feeling the effects of the anesthesia and that is the ONLY reason I was able to snap this picture. He even gives me a small smile!


Two days after surgery. In one spot the doctor had to cut down to the bone! When Jake saw this he became VERY pale and needed to sit down.


This three days after surgery. It is healing quite fast.


Different view. Four days after surgery.


We were amazed at how quickly his thumb was healing.


Nine days after surgery and it's looking good!


I was TOTALLY freaked out when I saw this! It looked like the top of his thumb was completely dead. It turned out to just be dried blood and dead skin.


This was after the doctor cut all the dead skin off. It looks SO good!

There's something magical about a snow day!

Yes, there truly is something magical about waking up to snow! February 11th that's just what happened to us. We woke up to snow and it showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. The flakes where HUGE! The kids were loving it and were out playing in it before we left for school. They couldn't wait for school to get out so they could have snowball fights, do snow angels and build snowmen. It snowed all day and they even cancelled school the next day. It was was fun to see all the kids and parents out playing and building snowmen. It really was magical!


This is what it looked like when we woke up.

Taylor out playing before school and making a HUGE snowball she hoped to hit Hunter with. Note her wet hair, she just got out of the shower!


Hunter lobing his snowball at Taylor.

Love his ghetto gloves....SOCKS!!

Our friend Gabby chucking her GINORMOUS snowball!

It was a direct hit!!

It snowed like this ALL day and most of that night.

Hunter enjoying a bit of snow.

At least now he is wearing gloves even if they are too big!

This started out as a snowball,

but it became too big for Hunter to move.

Note his gloves...one is a glove and one is a sock....hahaha!!

Amber thought Sadie was cold so she put her Gap sweatshirt on her.

Honestly she was NOT cold, she has a fur coat on!!

Taylor spent the night with her friend Julia.

They stayed up all night making this SWEET snow woman!!


The kids loved throwing snowballs at Dave!

Preparing her snowball!

I LOVE this picture of Hunter.

He is wearing Jake's shorts,

cowboy boots and refused to zip up his jacket.

And not to mention his expression!! TOO funny!

Their snowman.

UGH!!!

Once again I have fallen WAY behind on blogging. I was just getting ready to blog about the snow days in Feb. when I wake up to find MORE snow! OH well, just one more post to add to the growing list! Happy Spring everyone!

Daddy wanna dance?!

February was the third annual Daddy daughter dance at the elementary school. Last year Dave got really sick at the last minute and Taylor ended up going with her friends and their dad. This year she was SUPER excited to go with Dave. They had a GREAT time even though Dave was left at the table most of the night while Taylor was with her girlfriends getting down on the dance floor!


Taylor was SO excited that Amber did her hair. One of the many bennies of Amber going to beauty school!


Amber did a GREAT job and Taylor LOVED it!


LOVE this picture of Taylor! She is so happy and SO dang cute!


Getting a bit sassy!

Big G, littl o, GO,GO!!

Cheer leading here in Texas is almost as big as football. Well, actually competitive cheer is big here. Almost all little girls do cheer. I was surprised when Taylor came to me and wanted to sign up. I wasn't really excited about getting involved with the competitive cheer thing, but Upward was doing sign ups for cheer leading for their basketball program, so I signed her up. She has really enjoyed the experience. Her cheer leading team is the Allstars and she is the oldest girl on her team and also the tallest! Although there were fourth graders on her team they were all pretty short. The Upward cheer program, like basketball was VERY positive. The girls also received stars for their participation, leadership, memorizing the weekly scripture and Christlike attitude. She had a VERY sweet coach who had the patients of Job!! Because they cheered for both teams so did everyone in the stands. At one game the orange team had a boy who wasn't as coordinated as the other players. He didn't get the ball much and when he did the blue team managed to take it from him. After multiple tries his orange teammates were throwing him the ball and the blue team was backing off so he could score. After a few attempts he was able to score and the ENTIRE gym including BOTH teams yelled and clapped for him. The look on his face as he ran back was pure joy! It totally brought tears to my eyes. It truly has been a GREAT experience....




Getting ready to do the halftime cheer.


Ready....hit it!


"come on crowd get loud...yell lets go upward"!


THE whole reason Taylor cheered and Hunter played basketball....post game nachos....YUM!!

Upward Basketball

Hunter has always played soccer. But this season he decided he wanted to give basketball a try. I signed him up with Upward. I had never heard of it before and didn't know anything about it. It is sponsered by the First Baptist Church here in town and I MUST say it has been a WONDERFUL experience! The teams were evenly balanced with kids with all skill levels so no one team was stacked. It was competitive, but not ugly competitive and that wasn't their only focus. They really tried to teach the kids how to play, improve their skills, and be a team player. Hunter's coach tried to make sure that each player had the opportunity to score each game or during the season. Another one of their goals is to help bring kids closer to Christ thru sports. The kids got a card each practice with a scripture on it and halfway thru practice they would sit and discuss the scripture and how they can use it in their lives. On game days, after they introduced each team they would gather them in a circle, talk to them for a minute and then offer a prayer. LOVE IT!!! Also, at half time someone from the church would give a half time spiritual devotion. Last week's was pretty good. The man told how he was a bus driver and he thought he had dropped all his kids off and so he started to belt out a popular song by a Christian singer only to realize there was still one kid on his bus. He and the kid were a bit embarrassed, but at that point he realized that when the Lord puts a song in our hearts or words/thoughts in our minds we need to speak them because you never know when what we have to say or sing might be just what someone needs to hear at that time. Anyway, I have really enjoyed these devotions. After the games, they are given stars to iron on to their t-shirts they wear under their uniform shirt, which promptly fall off! They each get a star for participation and there are stars for best defense, offense, leadership, Christlike and team player I think it is. Hunter has had the BEST time playing and has scored several baskets! GO BOBCATS!!

Next up is Upward soccer! Stay tuned




Probably one of Hunter's favorite parts of game day....hearing his name and number called and running out to high five his coach!


After all the players are introduced they say a prayer. LOVE IT!





LOVE the faces that Hunter makes when he plays!


Hunter shoots and SCORES!!!


Hunter is ALL about intimadating the guy he is suppose to cover....look at that stare down! He had that boy shaking in his tennies!!


Hunter can't quite keep up the intimadation! He is trying not to laugh.