Natalie's Bum Foot (part 2)

Natalie had her temporary cast taken off this past week, and what we found underneath was a little shocking, and painful for Natalie. The cast had caused a pressure sore on her heel, which has now progressed into a huge blister. We hope that we have seen the worst of it, and that it will start to decrease. Natalie is still not able to walk yet, so I continue to be the resident pack mule. The most popular destination still continues to be the bathroom, and we are usually not a moment too late.




Kristin decided to give Natalie a treat that would take her mind off of her heal....painting her fingernails and toenails for the first time! Natalie was very excited for this, because she saw her friend Annie with painted nails at Church this past week. Most of the time she likes to match Annie (i.e. clothes), but when picking her nail color, she did not want purple like Annie, she wanted PINK. I guess I am not too surprised, as she has a pink room, and tries to wear pink whenever she has the chance.

Here are some pictures she gladly posed for:

Natalie's Bum Foot

On Friday, I took Natalie to Kidz Rule, an indoor inflatable playland, so she could play with a few kids from Church (Kate and Joshua). The last time I was at Kidz Rule was for Joshua's 2nd birthday party. At that time, Natalie was scared to climb out of sight in several of the mazes, and was even a little scared to do some of the slides. Well, things have changed in the months since then, because she was EVERYWHERE this time. She was leading the way to sections that were designed for kids much taller than her, but of course I got to be 4th kid to jump in and play, and help them through it.

We were about to finish up and go home, when Natalie's bow started to fall off. She looked through the mesh wall that was keeping her in the play gym and asked me to fix her bow. I told her that I would fix it when she got out, so she proceeded to the exit. With bow in-hand, she jumped off the inflatable onto a gymnastics mat (something she has done too many times to count). This time, she didn't judge the distance to the floor very well and didn't get her feet out far enough. When she landed, her feet curled underneath her, with her left foot taking the full weight of her body. She immediately started to cry, and I was right there to sit with her. I thought that she was just a little scared, but I soon realized that she couldn't stand up on her own. We iced her foot, but we didn't see any swelling.

We said goodbye to the other kids (and parents) and went home. Natalie fell asleep in the car, so I thought that she was going to be fine. We laid her down in bed when I got home, and then called the doctor. They asked us to take her to the ER to get it checked out.

The ER wasn't as bad as I had prepared myself for on the ride over there. We were in and out in a few hours. The most difficult part of the visit was getting Natalie to lay still on a metal table for a dozen X-rays of her foot. She did NOT like any part of that. The X-ray tech even had to "lead-up" and help hold her still.

They couldn't find any breaks, but due to her age and growth plates, there could still be one:


So, Natalie got fitted for a temporary cast, which you can imagine how much she "loves". This picture probably represents her complete opposite feeling for the cast....but we got her in a silly mood for the picture:




She can't walk on the cast, so we have to carry her everywhere. I think the carpet between the couch and bathroom is starting to show above-average wear.

We go back to the doctor in a few days to get it removed. If she walks like normal, we can move on without anymore treatment. If she can't walk, it is broken, and she will need to have a real cast put on. Say a little prayer for Natalie (and us), because we do NOT want to think about her in a cast for 6-8 weeks, and bringing a new born home.

Landon

Let the countdown begin!

Kristin had her last ultrasound this morning. It is hard to believe that she is at 35 weeks already! I decided to add a countdown to the scheduled c-section on the blog (on the toolbar to the right). This is of course assuming that she makes it to scheduled c-section, which we are all hoping and praying for!

For those of you that do not already know, we are going to name our son Owen James. We kept Natalie's name such a secret before she was born, but I have always heard that everything changes with the second kid...so we thought this could be the first of many "changes".

Here is one of the pictures that was taken today. It is a face shot, and as good of a picture as we could get without paying extra for the 3D version. And just in case you were wondering, no, we did not do the 3D for Natalie.



For the second picture, he put his right hand in front of his face, so you don't get a clear view. This picture was taken at the end of the session, so he might been fed up with getting poked.



24 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes, and 51 seconds....and counting.....

New Location for Movies

I have found a better place for me to post movies, instead of youtube. You can watch higher quality movies and even download them for your iphone, ipod, or computer. With this added functionality also comes added risk. For this reason, you will need a password to access these videos (I don't want anyone to download family videos, go figure). So, if you would like to view or download videos in the future, please give me a call or send me an email.

Here is a link to the last video.

Landon

Opal Luttrell

This post should have been made on February 2nd.

The biggest event that is going on with us these days is my grandmother, Opal Luttrell, passed away in January. I am making this post, not to be a big downer on a Tuesday, but to remember the relationship Natalie had with Opal.

Natalie and Opal loved each other very much, and we were lucky to live in Houston at the same time for the first year or so of Natalie's life. Opal called Natalie her "doll baby" and Natalie loved to entertain Opal.

Our family all met up in Arlington, VA at the beginning of February, as she elected to be laid to rest at the Arlington National Cemetery. One of the more memorable things we did was to take a picture of all the great grandkids surrounding Granddad:



I took a few other pictures during our trip, which can be found here:

Link to all the pictures in Arlington

I searched through all of the other pictures that I had of Opal and the family, and here are my highlights:

Link to pictures of Opal and family

You can download the album, or even add your own pictures to it.

We love you and miss you Grandma!

Video Update

Get your popcorn and enjoy!!

Exploring the wildlife in Pennsylvania

This post actually happened today, 2/28/09.

Today Natalie and I took a trip up into the Pennsylvania mountains to try and see some wildlife. Kristin stayed at home to "nest". Kristin is now 8 months pregnant and we are in the full stages of nesting. As an example, she dusted the chair railing in our dining room this morning...glad we don't have to worry about that project anymore! :)

We drove about an hour northwest of our house, right at the edge of the Pocono Mountains. Without even realizing it, we walked up to an unbelievable scene:



We tried to keep quiet and not to disturb the animals. We slowly walked away, and then we saw a black bear playing with a tree:



I think that the bear was partially watching the animals just up the mountain from him. Luckily, I have quick reflexes and a fast shutter speed on my camera. I caught this mountain goat jumping from one rock to another!



As we were coming down the mountain, we were surrounded by Elk, and since I hadn't put my camera away yet, I took another picture:



Well, thankfully we weren't outside for all these pictures, because it is still rather cold up here. We were actually roughing it in Cabella's!



I wanted to go and get a few camping items and Natalie was my shopping buddy. She was actually more interested in all the animals, and I don't blame her, they were very cool. She got to hang out with some Bison and wolves:



Natalie's favorite thing to do, by far, was watch the fish. You could buy fish food in a candy dispensing machine, but they were all out. She REALLY wanted to feed the fish, but all she could do is just watch them. Which we did for 20 minutes. You can see the fish in this picture:



I will leave you with my favorite picture, with a little bit of homework for you. Which one is Natalie, and which one is the 9 foot brown bear from Alaska??