What a day!

We survived a second round of eye surgery for Everett today. He's dealt with blocked tear ducts in both eyes since he was an infant. We had his first surgery about a year ago but it was not effective. That's normal in about 5% of cases. The first surgery is just a probe that goes in and opens the tear ducts. Today he had small balloon-like instruments inserted into his tear ducts and they were inflated for a few minutes to make sure the tear ducts would no longer be clogged. Hopefully this will work. In 1% of cases they have to do a third procedure which involves the installation of tubes in the tear ducts that stay in for 3 months. Hopefully we won't have to go there.

Today's procedure maybe lasted about 15 minutes but he had to undergo anesthesia which meant he couldn't eat anything 4 hours before his surgery. Since his surgery was at 12:30pm, he couldn't eat anything after midnight and only water or clear liquids up until 8:30am. After that nothing. I was so worried about keeping him happy all morning without anything to eat or drink. He really did great though. We started off watching Sesame Street, but the theme of the day was "eating", so we didn't stay home for long. We went to the park for about an hour but it started raining. Then we drove around I-285 for awhile until it was almost time for the appointment. He took it all really well. When we got home he ate and drank a ton and has been sleeping for the past hour.

I'll be so glad not to have to constantly wipe his tears anymore. Or have people constantly ask if he's crying. It's definitely a small thing, but I'll be glad to have it be "normal".

We went to the beach with Allen's family last week. It was a great time. There are tons of new photos on our Flickr page.

Here is a photo we took of Everett after church on Sunday:

Blog Backlog

Things have just been so busy lately, especially on the weekends...it's been crazy. I just posted a ton of photos on our Flickr site. Usually I'm so good about keeping up with that at least, but it's been over a month since I had posted any pictures. We went to Augusta for Mother's Day Weekend and we've pretty much been busy since and it doesn't seem to be slowing down much. We went to the beach for Memorial Day Weekend with our dear friends Trevor & Sam. My uncle was here from Indiana for my mom's 60th birthday in the end of May. Then we went camping with our Young Couples Sunday School Class last weekend. This weekend we're heading to Augusta on Saturday to see Allen's uncle. And we've got other things planned the next couple of weekends after that! I guess it's great to have all these fun things going on though.

We're all doing really well. Everett is changing so much. He's growing up, saying new words and doing new things every day. He's also becoming somewhat of a challenge with sleeping and with his temper now though. For the past month or so his wake up time changed from 8am to around 6am. The past two mornings he's done better though so I'm hoping it's changing in the right direction. His naps have been shorter and less consistent too, but yesterday he took a great nap, so who knows? I'm thinking because we've been traveling so much it's just kind of thrown him off a little bit. He's still such a joy...he's got this huge smile now that just lights up the room and makes my heart melt. He always wants to sing the itsy bitsy spider and do patty cake. He does the motions so well, but sometimes he confuses the two songs, which is funny. He's really enjoyed swimming and he's so brave in the water. He jumps off the side to anyone in the water and he's not afraid to go under water either. I'm hoping to take him swimming a lot this summer. The best thing ever is to watch him when we pray at dinner time. He holds our hands and bows his head and says, "Amen" at the end. It's so sweet and we didn't even really teach him to do it. He just learns so much from watching us. Exciting but also kind of scary. :)

Here's a photo of Everett on his first boat ride over Memorial Day Weekend. He loved it:

Everett's Organizational Skills

Everett decided to rearrange our cabinets the yesterday. It was pretty cute. I think he believes in sorting into piles when organizing. :)

Lynwood Park Parade

Last weekend Allen was out of town for Intown's men's retreat. On Saturday Everett & I went to Beth & Logan's neighborhood for a parade and festival. Tracey & Landon met us there too. It was a lot of fun, especially for the kids. We watched the parade and then the kids jumped in the inflatable castle and rode a ride. Everett liked the ride at first, but after a few minutes he started to cry. It was so cute though. They each ate popcorn and cotton candy and all sorts of other treats. It was very fun and a good way to spend our time with Allen out of town. We were all worn out when it was over.

Georgia Aquarium

Today we went to the Georgia Aquarium with our playgroup. It was very crowded, especially for the first hour we were there. After lunch though things were much calmer and we got to go back through a few of the exhibits and see a lot more, which was nice. It was great because we got discounted tickets through Allen's work. We had 8 moms come! Everett definitely enjoyed himself and was worn out at the end.

My 30th Birthday!!

Yes, I turned 30 on Saturday. It was a wonderful day. I wasn't the least bit sad about turning 30 and I don't feel old. I celebrated big time that night with a party at Twisted Taco. Thanks to my dear husband for planning and to all of our great friends for coming. It was a blast.

Here are some of the photos:

Everett's New Jeep

Papa and Mimi brought Everett a new jeep this weekend. He's really loving it so far. He's drives a lot like his mom...fast with no hands. :) He hasn't quite figured out the whole steering thing yet. It's so cute to watch him drive though and he looks so grown up in it. Now when we see a jeep on the road he says, "jeet". So cute...


Checking under the hood...

Latest Happenings

I got to go to California last week to visit my new nephew, Elliot Christopher Prentiss. This is my sister's fourth child. She's amazing. He's a cutie pie and it was so fun being there. Allen's sweet parents kept Everett all week for us in Augusta and Allen was home alone! I got to spend really quality time with my sister and the kids. It's fun to be in their house because with a 7-year-old, a 6-year-old, an almost 3-year-old and a newborn, there is always something exciting going on. It suprisingly made me excited about having another baby...although I don't think we'll ever make it to four, like my sister.

Here is a sweet photo of Elliot
















I got home on Friday and we had a great time celebrating Easter. We went to the sunrise service at our church because Allen was running sound for it. It was FREEZING! I ended up having to go inside with Everett because he was not a happy camper out in the cold. After church we had some friends over for brunch and the kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. It was very nice and the weather actually warmed up enough to be outside. It's been nice to just be home this week with not much to do. I'm ready for this cold snap to be over and for the warm weather to come back now!

Springtime

We had a wonderful women's retreat this past weekend. It was so refreshing and refueling for me, physically and spiritually. I was the co-cordinator for the retreat and things went so well and I'm so relieved. There are photos from the weekend on my flickr page. We were praying for great weather and God sure came through on that one! It was 80 degrees and sunny all weekend. Although the pollen was in full effect. My car is now completely out of windshield washer fluid. Barbara Barker was our speaker and she really made me realize how much God cares about the small things in our lives. And how important it is to fix our eyes on him in everything we do.

Allen is so great to keep Everett alone on weekends like these. It was funny because when I got home he told me that he realized that I must pick things up all day. He couldn't believe how much things could get cluttered in such a short time. The house actually looked pretty great when I got home though. He's awesome!

My sister had her 4th baby last Wednesday, Elliot Christopher Prentiss. He's adorable. You can see a photo of him on my sister's blog. I'm heading out there next week to visit them and help with their other 3 kids. Everett is staying with Allen's parents for the week. It worked out really well because Allen's mom has spring break that week and she graciously agreed to watch him, even though they are renting out their house for the the Master's tournament and staying at her mother's house. Allen's going to have our house all to himself the whole week!

I bought 6 Easter eggs at wal-mart yesterday for our playgroup's Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Everett is already loving playing with them. Wait until tomorrow when there are surprises inside! :) He's cuter than ever these days...check out new photos of him on our flickr page. Here's my favorite photo as of late:

Everett's Words

Everett is adding so many new words to his vocabulary every day. It's been fun now that he is really beginning to communicate.

Every morning lately we wave bye-bye to daddy as he leaves for work in his black car. On Monday Everett and I were out and saw a black car and Everett pointed to it and said "da-da". Every black car we see now, Everett says "da-da" and points. I wonder if he thinks that all Allen does is drive around all day.

He's loving hats lately...always wearing them backwards. He's so cool. :) He loves pointing out construction vehicles and big trucks, even though he calls them cars. He also loves pointing out planes that pass overhead. He loves climbing up on his step stool to wash his hands at the sink. He loves dancing and "jumping" and clapping to any music. He loves doggies and cars and of course balls.


Here is a list of all of his words so far:

cracker
choo choo
more
car
Landon (his friend)
paper
book
uh-oh
thank you
bye-bye
da-da
ma-ma
night-night
bath ("bafpf")
shoes
socks
cheerios ("eer-e-or-ee-os")
banana ("no-na-na" with his tongue poking out)
1-2-3
snack ("nack")
teeth ("eeth")
ouch
blankie bear ("blank bear")
cookie
bottle
poopie
doggie
tiger
ball (his first word)
balloon
diaper
ice
apple
no
yes
cold
hot (with hands waving)
waffle
baby
quack-quack
go
outside ("side")
slide
swing