Surgery Success!

I plugged my memory card in to upload pictures from the week...and realized I'd missed some from last week!  I did better than I thought!  We've really been enjoying summer at our house...trying to make the most of every day!  Here are some of the things we have been up to (a mix of last week and this week)!

Painting tractors!

Mason picking out a stencil to use on his tractor

Picky picky!

Bryce watching his brothers!

Tractor time!



Buzz Lightyear (a.k.a. Mason)

Luigi (a.k.a. Zane)

Masers playing with his tractors

And Bryce watching them play!

Thursday Zane and Mason had their yearly checkups at the pediatrician.  They both did great!  Both are healthy and growing as they should be!  At every checkup we hear a heart murmur in Zane.  We've discussed having it checked out to be sure it's innocent...and just haven't.  This time we went to a new doctor's office...and this doctor said he'd really like us to check it out to be sure...so we will be going on to make sure his murmur is innocent, as we believe it is.

Reading the ads...

I ADORE these hands!

Such a serious face!  (Ignore the booger)

Mason playing hide and seek with me!

Sprinkler time!  LOVE the looks on their faces!  Priceless!

Mason trying to sneak through without getting wet!

LOVE the pose I captured here...

Friday was the "big day."  The day I'd been dreading.  The day I'd been praying about.  Bryce had surgery.  My parents came down Thursday evening so they could be here to stay with the boys.  We reported to the hospital at 6:30 a.m.  We weren't allowed to feed him from 2:00 until after surgery.  So I woke him up at 1:00 and fed him.  He ate...while still sleeping...but it made me feel a little better to know he had some food in him.

Isn't he adorable in his hospital gown?

And the obligatory...view from behind!  :o)

So from 6:30 until 8:00, lots of doctors, nurses, etc, came in to prep Bryce for his surgery.  He was so good.  He smiled at everyone.  He talked to us.  He only got a little bit fussy right before they took him back...but he just fell asleep in my arms!  When they came to take him into surgery, they took him out of my arms and told us they'd take good care of him.  It was SO hard to walk away from him...knowing what was going to happen!  We went to the waiting room and man time just about FROZE at that point!

He was very intrigued by the bracelet they put on his ankle!

About an hour later, they told us the surgery was over, and the surgeon came to talk to us.  He told us everything went well.  Bryce not only had a hernia on his left side, he also had one on his right side.  So he had to have two fixed!  So next we headed back upstairs to get him.  That also seemed to take forever.  All of a sudden I heard his cry...and it broke my heart.  The nurse came out carrying him wrapped up in a blanket.  His eyes were closed and he was MAD!  She was trying to feed him glucose water and he was not interested in it at all!  She took us to the recovery room and I got my hands on him.  He seemed to settle down once he heard my voice and we got him a bottle!

My sweet, sweet baby!

For the rest of the day he was a little "out of it" and just not quite himself.  By that night he was really back to normal!  For the rest of the weekend...you wouldn't have known anything had happened!

The older two boys were surprised when we told them they were going to leave with my parents to go to Iowa for the weekend!  Matt's parents took the camper and boat to the lake!  So they got to go camping/boating all weekend!  Big news of the camping trip...Matt's mom fell when getting off of the boat and broke her arm!  She now has a cast up to her elbow!

Zane-isms

• Zane seems to say "huh" or "what" quite often...and we have to repeat what he said.  The other morning he said, "huh" after I said something to him.  When I asked him why he always has to ask "huh," he said, "Well, Mom, I like the sound of your voice so much that I want to hear you say everything again..."  Wow!