the girls.

brian and i decided to take the new camera (that we still don’t really know how to use:)) to the lake to capture the girls playing yesterday afternoon.  here’s what we got…

addie: “mum, make her stop!” this is impressive for addie.  she wouldn’t even stick her paw in the water when we got her!never thought we’d see addie in deeper water than rylea! crazy rylea! super dogs with their dumbo ears!searching for the frisbee after rylea sunk it.it took about 5 minutes to calm them down enough to get them to sit & we got one picture
out of the deal – oh well!

home & getting back to more normal than before.

brian’s dad has been home for a few weeks now and is doing really well.  he had a pet scan done right after getting out of hospital that would scan his entire body and should turn up any other cancer hot spots.  the results came back and were as good as we could’ve hoped for.  the doctor’s found nothing that was glaringly wrong.  so where does that leave everything?? right now, jim is undergoing radiation treatment for the tumor in his back (apparently these days they give you little dot tattoos at the spots they are targeting instead of using a permanent marker – i don’t know about you but that would be more scary to me than the radiation!!).  after the radiation is done, he will start general chemo.  they don’t have anywhere to target with this so we’re hoping that it will kill off anything else that might even be thinking about forming elsewhere!

as far as jim’s back, it seems to be doing really well.  he is able to get around by himself with his back brace on.  that will stay on for at least the next couple of months while he builds his strength back up.  this last weekend, he was able to drive himself around the neighborhood and is now driving himself to appts, etc - got to be an exciting step after being stuck in a hospital bed for 2 weeks. 

we are so excited about his progress and feel so blessed by everyone who has been praying for jim and all of us.  those prayers have definitely been felt and are being answered.  we also appreciate everyone who has been taking jim & cindy dinners – they have been so helpful (& so yummy!!).  we are constantly amazed at how sweet & caring everyone has been.  thank you so much!!

going home.

brian's dad is heading home today. still a long way to go but at least he will be home and able to shower and get a good night's sleep in his bed! we're very excited for him!!!
brian's grandfather also had back/neck surgery today and seems to be doing well. he will be in icu for at least a night and then will be transferred to a normal room or rehab for a bit. we're getting to be pros on the ins and outs of the hospital :) we're just glad everything seems to have gone well & look forward to him getting out of the hospital as well!

update on brian’s dad.

jim has been doing really well lately.  he was able to get up for the first time since surgery on friday and spent an hour and a half today out of bed.  it’s tiring for him after being in bed for nearly two weeks but he’s really excited about being able to get up and around with his brace on.  hopefully he will be discharged sometime this week!  thank you everyone for your prayers – they mean the world to all of us :)

it’s a…

well hopefully you can tell from that picture but if not, we’re having a little boy!!!! we’re so excited & can’t wait for our little man to get here!  let the shopping begin!  we also got a 3d ultrasound while we were there (they have always freaked me out because i think all of the babies look like aliens and this time was no different – except this time it was my alien :)).  he even gave us a few gig ‘ems!  we have a ton of pictures and videos but here are the highlights.  hopefully you can tell what they are :)

all curled up & acting shy.gig ‘em!his little foot.

brian’s dad.

the reason we have been so busy since england is that brian’s dad, jim, has had to have 2 back surgeries.  there’s a lot of different things involved but the short version is that he had a compression fracture in his spine that had to be fixed.  the surgeries have gone really well but it’s a long recovery and there are other factors involved.  please keep him & our family in your prayers.  we love him so much & can’t wait for him to be back and better than ever!!

the rest of england.

we’ve been back for awhile but i haven’t had much of a chance to update (i’ll get into why in another post)…

here are some pics that sum up the rest of our trip (the rest are on our picture site – link to the right)…

winter wonderland.the boys cooking at the house in the isle of wight.  
the house in the isle of wight.
anna & i. the offical drink of the england trip. a walk on the isle of wight. ventnor on the isle of wight.the girls (anna, bobby, me, & mum in sandlin on the isle of wight.  tourist london picture.
 
the drunk sisters on new years.drunk soulja boy on new years.

sparklers after nearly blowing up the house with bigger fireworks new years.  the church where nanny is buried.
 
the boys & anna went to a chelsea football match.