Christmas PIctures Galore

Well I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas, I know that I did. We started our holiday by going to my mother-in-law's for the weekend before Christmas. We went and visited with Tony's grandmother, went to the Merry Go Round and had a family dinner with Tony's family. On Monday we headed up to Birmingham. My brother came down on Sunday from West Virginia, and Tuesday Isabella had her cast removed. Having the cast removed was a little traumatic for my princess. She was sore, smelley, whiney and slept for most of that day. We took her to my dad's house and we bathed her off and visited with my brothers, sister, my grandmother who came up from Ellaville, and my Aunt Michelle who came to visit for the night from Carrolton GA. Needless to say it was a busy but fun Christmas week. Enjoy the pictures...

Visiting with Nanny...

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Most of you know that my hubby gave me a digital SLR camera for our anniversary 2 years ago (it is a Digital Canon Rebel XT). I have used it for the past couple years and not really known how to use all the features, so I have decided to start learning! I have started reading photography magazines, books and websites just trying to learn how to take better pictures. I will be posting most of them here, well the ones that I think are worth sharing and I would love any comments on them from anyone! I will mostly be taking pictures of MY kids because they live with me and the depend on me for their food and shelter so I figure I can take a couple pictures of them, though I know that Dylan usually makes the sillest faces when he sees my camera. I am also going to try and talk my friends kids and animals into posing for me, or not posing, I like taking pictures when my subject doesn't know I am taking it, unposed and natural.

The pictures in the slideshow above is from yesterday morning, Isabella woke me up at 1:30 am, she then went to sleep but I couldn't so I got up and read photography websites and decided to take pictures, then when the kids got up I took pictures of them. We went to Dothan for doctors appointments so we took Izzy to the mall and took her picture with Santa, they let me stand off to the side and take my own pictures for free.

Oh and just a little update::: Isabella will be having her cast removed on Tuesday! We are all excited and it will be just in time for Christmas, which we are spending with my dad, mom, 3 brothers, 1 sister, 1 sister-in-law, my 2 kids, my 2 nieces and my nephew... 14 people in one apartment, crowded but it will be FUN! I can not wait!
Merry Christmas to those of you that I will not be seeing this Christmas.

Thanksgiving and Stuff

Well for Thanksgiving this year we went down to Brunswick (for those of you who don't know Brunswick is where I went to middle school and high school before running off to Alabama to be with Tony). The whole family went down and had a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner at my sister-in-law's house, and I mean the WHOLE Family... There was my mother-in-law and father-in-law ... My sister-in-law Alice and her hubby Patrick and 2 girls, Constance and Cheyenne... My brother-in-law and sister-in-law Chris and Cyndi and their 3 girls, Shelby, Stephanie, and Lora and their son Logan... My Niece (Stacy's oldest daughter) Lacey, her boyfriend and his 7 month old son... then there was us, Me, Tony, Dylan, Isabella and Gene ... and of course Stacy (my sis-in-law) her Hubby Mike, her son Ezra and her youngest daughter Kirsten, and all of stayed in her house! We had a great time, the kids were back and forth playing the Wii Fit and Dance Dance revolution, and the adults were just talking and enjoying everyone's company. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, a picture session with MOST of the family at the beach and an overall great time visiting with family. I know that Stacey enjoyed having us all there, but I am sure that she was more than ready for us all to get out of her house too.

We left Brunswick on Sunday morning, and what should have been a 5 hour drive ended up taking us about 10 hours. We kept having to stop for bathroom breaks, and the baby was fussy and we played lottery :) for a little bit, and then I remembered that I forgot to put my new insurance card in the car and we need that to get onto post, so we drove around Dothan trying to figure out where we could get our new card printed and finally got it at Office Max, well then Tony needed to get a haircut and we wouldn't have gotten back home in time for him to go to his usual barber so we stopped again at wal-mart and he got his haircut (after having to wait over an hour!). We finally got home about 7:30, sat down and ate some $5 little ceasars pizza and all went to bed.

I put up my Christmas tree yesterday but we have not gotten it decorated yet. I am hoping that I can get it all decorated today.

AWW CUTE PICTURES

Pictures of Dylan

Isabella Pictures - 11-23-08

New Cast and other things

Well Novemeber 16th was Dylan's birthday and he turned 7! It is so hard to believe that he is 7, seems like the past 7 years have just flown by. We didn't have a big party for his birthday, for a few reasons, 1) Dylan almost didn't get a party at all for getting bad notes sent home from school, 2) It costs a lot of money to have a big birthday party!  We decided to have a small little get together at the bowling alley. One of Dylan's best friends Skylee, her Mom Stephanie, one of my good friends,  and little brother P.J.(3 weeks old) came, along with our friends Randy and Christy. We had the get together on Saturday, Nov 15, which happened to be Randy's birthday. We all bowled, and sang Happy Birthday to Dylan and to Randy. The adults were competing to see who could bowl the best game and of course the boys won (I do not bowl well at all!).

On Thursday, Novemeber 20th, Isabella got her last cast change!! We are so excited that she will not have to be put to sleep again anytime soon. Her cast is Crimson Red this time, to show support for the family favorite College Football Team, currently ranked #1 and undefeated in this season, Alabama University Crimson Tide! ROLL TIDE! Izzy will have her cast removed 2 days before Christmas, Dec 23, and we couldn't be more excited, but the doctor did say that she will have to be in another brace for several more months after the cast comes off. Which is something that took us completely by suprise, but it is ok. She will be able to take the brace off for up to 4 hours a day to exercise her legs.

On another note, me and Izzy have been having some troubles breastfeeding lately. I am not sure what is going on, but sometimes she refuses to nurse even when I know there is some milk available for her, and then sometimes she will nurse and still act like she is starving after she is done. She also has started waking up throughout the night and screaming, sometimes she will want to nurse and then sometimes she refuses but still screams not wanting to sleep. She is also fighting her sleep for her daytime naps, sometimes she will only get about 4 hours sleep in a 24 hour period. SHe is wearing mommy out! I started taking some herbal supplements that are supposed to increase milk supply, Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle. When I first started taking the blessed thistle, I developed a rash on my legs (which is supposed to be a reaction in only a few people), but I guess I am getting used to it now since it went away. I have not seen any significant increase in milk yet but I am hoping that I will soon and that me and Izzy will both get some rest.

Well I guess I better go, the little princess is screaming at me again, so i need to see what she needs. I will try to post some pictures later today. Ta-Ta for Now....

A Day at the Park

I went to have breakfast with my friend Regina a couple of weeks ago and she told me about a park in Enterprise that was really nice and had a pond where the kids could feed the ducks and geese. Me, Gene, and Stephanie took the kids to check it out and since I had just recently gotten my camera back I took some pictures. ENJOY!

Pumpkin Patch Adventures Oct 18, 2008

Stephanie and I decided to take the kids to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins for Halloween. We got there and Dylan and Skylee ran all over the field picking up lots of pumpkins looking for the perfect one. Then they decided that they needed sunflowers, Skylee picked a modest sized one and Dylan decided that he wanted 2 stalks of sunflowers, each stalk had about 4-6 big sunflowers. Enjoy the pictures.

Halloween Pictures by Mom

Well, we finally got the kids their costumes and the pumpkins, though they are not carved yet, AND I finally got my camera fixed!!! SO out in the yard we went to so that I could torture the children with me taking their pictures for about an hour. Dylan just eats it up, but little Miss Isabella gets a little cranky with mom after a bit.

Update on Miss Isabella

Well I know that I have been really bad about updating on the baby and everything, please forgive me. Isabella had surgery on Thursday, Oct 2. The doctor went in and made a zigzag cut on the the tendon that goes from her abdomen to her thigh. It was too tight and causing the ball of the hip to be pushed out the back of her hip socket. They placed her in a spica cast (body cast) and it goes from her chest to her ankles. They cut out a hole in the potty areas and we have to use women's incontence pads as diapers. They say that she will have to be in the cast for 2 - 3 months and will have to be put to sleep every 3 weeks to change the cast due to her growing. The doctor says that if the surgery is a success and everything is corrected when the cast comes off then we will never be able to tell that she had to go through this, she should not have any problems with her hip, and she will be able to run and play and do anything that any other kid will be able to do. Isabella has been a little cranky since the cast has been on, but I guess that is to be expected, if both of my legs were in casts and I was unable to move them I would be a little cranky too.

On another note, we went and had Isabella's picture made last week before the cast was put on and I will upload those pictures and Dylan's school pictures to the computer soon so that I can show off my beautiful babies. :)

Dylan has been doing pretty good, I went to his parent-teacher conference and the teacher says that he is doing good and the only negative thing she had to say about him is that he needs to be more oraganized and keep his work area clean and clear of clutter, but she said that is a sign of brightness. He is reading on a 4th grade level and his math skills are that of a 3rd grader half way through the year. We are excited to find that we are not the only one's who thing he is brilliant! lol (you know the mommy and daddy vision of how wonderful your child is).

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Just another day...

Well Isabella will be 10 weeks old on Friday and she weighs 10 lbs. I can't believe how big she is getting. At her last appointment with her Orthopedic doctor in Birmingham, they informed us that her hip is not stabilizing the way they think it should be and unless there is a miracle and significant stabilization of her hip by her next appointment then they are planning to put her in a hard cast. In order for the hard cast to be applied she will have to be put under general anaesthesia so that they can place her hip in the socket correctly and she won't move it while the cast is drying. At first I was a little upset by this news, but I am getting used to the idea a little more now that I have had a couple of weeks to think about it. I know that it isn't going to be the end of the world or anything, but it is just hard to think that she will not be able to move her legs at all or be able to take a bath for 3 months, but this is better than her having life long problems with that hip. Other than that she is doing great.

Dylan is doing good too, he is still getting in trouble from time to time at school, but not everyday like before. We have been walking to school everyday with one of his classmates, Skylee, and her mom, Stephanie, who lives right down the road. I think the walking helps to him to burn off a little bit of his energy before school and hopefully that helps him to concentrate on his school work, and it helps me to get a little exercise in as well.

Tony and I are doing good as well. When I went to my post-partum doctors appointment, he noticed a skip in my heart beat, he said that it is probably benign but he sent me over to the hospital to get an ekg, and to get a halter monitor that I had to wear for 24 hours. There were apparently some abnormalities on the monitor when they read it so he sent me back to the hospital to get an echocardiogram (aka uktrasound of the heart). This has had me a little freaked out, especially with my family history of heart disease, but the doctor keeps insisting that everything is ok so I am trying my best to believe him.

(I will post new pictures soon)

Finally Jumping on the Bandwagon

OK well I thought that I would finally jump on the blogging bandwagon...

Isabella Paige Langley was born on July 4th and we are so happy that she is finally here. She was born with a little problem with her hip, called developmental hip dysplasia. She has to wear a brace that is called a Pavlock Harness. Here is a link if you would like to read more on the condition... http://www.massgeneral.org/ORTHO/Hip_Dysplasia.htm

Dylan will be starting 2nd grade next Thursday, I can't believe my baby is going to 2nd grade! He has enjoyed being a new big brother and he doesn't even mind helping with diaper duties (usually just throwing them away, but as if right now he still happily throws them away for me).

Tony finally went back to work last week and is working out at Lowe Army Airfield. I had gotten so used to him being home, (he hasn't been to work since before we left Hawaii) and it is so strange that he is gone during the day. As for me, I decided that I am going to stay home and just be a mommy and wife for a little while. Well that is all that I have for now, more to come soon.