Dear Grandma . . .

A picture's worth a thousand words - and the tears of joy you will shed when you see this picture!

Love,
Heidi

Your amazing and adorable grandchildren

P.S.  You're welcome :)

P.S.2  I have many more to share :)  :)

P.S.3  Click on the picture to bring up the full size image - then copy and save to your computer - well, if you want a copy that is :)  :)  :)

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Ryder's having a stellar year playing football.  It's amazing how much he is learning.  He started out the season as the new kid on the team, so they just used him to fill in on both offense and defense, but he has shown great improvement and is now a starting running back.  I just love this picture.  When Ryder first saw it his comment was, "Mom, Chase (red #77) is holding."  Love that he understands the game.

Here he is again.

He can also block bigger kids.

And recover fumbles.

And of course do the fun stuff like have everyone cheer for you as you burst through a banner! (Yes, they do have their own Pirate Cheer Squad!)

Life on the football field is good!

Not For the Squeamish!

Wow, have we had a time of it lately.  Normally we are super healthy and see our physicians only for immunizations and well visits.  Unfortunately, both Melanie and Ryder have had to make trips to the doctor in the last few weeks.

First, Ryder broke his finger at football practice.  Now, I know you may be thinking, "that's what happens when 2nd graders play tackle football," but it happened when another kid tackled him when he wasn't looking - goofing off.  Ryder doesn't usually cry much, and he didn't this time, but I knew when he didn't want to go right back in that something was up.  He sat out with it on ice for a while and then tried to play during his very favorite tackling drill at the end of practice, but he couldn't do it.  It just didn't seem to be improving, so I took him in to have it x-rayed that night.

Sure enough his right pinky finger was broken.  They put him in a splint and scheduled him with an orthopedist to have it evaluated further.  Fortunately a splint and no football for 2 weeks was all he ended up needing.

OK, now for the gross part.  Seriously, if you can't handle gross, don't look at these next pictures.

Melanie tells me she had a hang nail that she pulled off, but when she pulled it off she also pulled a big chunk of skin out from under her toenail.  Well, it swelled up like this.  We tried to treat it at home, but nothing worked, and she could hardly walk and certainly couldn't play volleyball.  So I took her in, and they numbed her toe up and removed a portion of her toenail. and gave her some antibiotics.

I took this picture while the doc was off looking for a silver nitrate stick to stop the bleeding.  When he was done he wrapped her toe up in this enormous bandage.

Do you think it's big enough?  Melanie wanted to go back to school that day, just to show off her ouchie.

I am so crossing my fingers that we are done with doctors for a very, very, very long time!