Favorites from August

Addie helped get Camryn ready on this day

Playing with the Leflers, Cullys and Farmers

Being silly

Our sweet teacher Linda from church

Play group at our house

Splash Pad fun

Camryn drinking the water

Celebrating Cari's birthday at Abuelos!

Open House night, meeting Mrs. Stalls!

Linz and I reconnecting with our A&M pastors, Kelly & Sara Davidson

Eating yogurt by herself

Playing with Annie on the last day of summer

Taylor even jumped off the diving board by herself

Addie did too but had a floatie on just in case

And they didn't freak out when they fell into the water

Jason helping Taylor get ready for school

Kaylyn's birthday party

Taylor was carrying Addie around in the pool

Watching Daddy mow the grass

She is really growing up

A pedicure before her first day of Kindergarten

Jason making homemade ice cream for the girls

Our meal preparation process for Kindergarten

Brushing her teeth

Braids the first week of school

With Taylor being gone for school, I've noticed that Addie and Camryn are playing a lot better together.  Camryn is getting older which certainly helps, but they have had fun playing together.  We went to the park and Addie kept telling me "Mom, I'm a good big sister to Camryn!"  They are so sweet together!

Love watching them get closer

Splash Pad with the Calhouns

Emery and Carmen

The joy of being a dad of 3 girls

Tea Party!

Someone got to the kids on Saturday before Mommy

Update on Addie's CT Scan

8/25 CT Review with Dr. Neal:
I mailed Addie's CT Scan to Dr. Neal in Georgia the day after the scan.  He called me on 8/25 after he had reviewed the CT Scan, and explained that Addie has a mild case of Eagle Barrett Syndrome (Prune's Disease).  He said he has never seen a case like this, especially in a girl.  Dr. Neal stated that Addie's muscle fibers on the front of her abdomen are extremely thin.  However, everything on her bladder and kidneys appeared to look good.  Usually the 3 of these things are the issues in the Eagle Barrett Syndrome.

I asked specifically what we should do for her umbilical hernia and he recommended to get that fixed.  There is a chance that it could need to be fixed again later due to her incredibly weak abdomen, but he recommended to correct it.  He said that he would call us back within a week to give a referral on who to take care of this because you don't just want anyone.  You want someone that does umbilical hernias often.

For her belly, he recommended to do an abdomen assessment every year.  He recommended getting an abdominal plasty for Addie but to have that taken care of between the ages of 6-9 years old.  I asked him if Physical Therapy or sports could potentially help, and he said no.  The muscle on the front of her abdomen are incredibly thin and can't be enhanced by Physical Therapy or sports.  Her core muscles and strength on the front of her belly are pretty much non-existent.

Dr. Hagood:
I have continued to call Dr. Hagood 2 times a week since the CT scan.  The nurse continues to tell me that she has relayed my messages to Dr. Hagood and he should be getting back to me.  In the last phone call this past Wednesday, exactly 2 weeks after the CT Scan.  I conveyed to the nurse that I was extremely frustrated that I had not received a call back giving me any direction on what the CT Scan said.  This is the office that referred us to get a CT Scan and whether or not Dr. Neal was there anymore, they took over Addie's case and should be trying to help us, or at least just tell us what the CT Scan said.  I really wanted to get a second opinion from this office on the CT Scan.  And the fact that it took them 2.5 months to even get us a CT Scan on the calendar, and now the runaround that I was getting, Jason and I decided to pursue a different opinion.

8/29 CT Review with Dr. Hannon:
I called Dr. Hannon's office earlier in the week and told them about the lack of response from Dr. Hagood, and asked them to get the CT Scan report (as the hospital would not give it to me directly).  On 8/29, Dr. Hannon personally called me to talk about the report.  He said that it looked like Dr. Hagood had ordered the wrong type of CT Scan.  Instead of focusing on the muscles, the CT Scan focused more on the blood vessels.  SO FRUSTRATING!  He recommended that we send the CT Scan to a Pediatric Surgeon in Little Rock and start the process with an expert.  I asked if there was a muscle type specialist for kids, and he said that a Pediatric Surgeon is the type of doctor we would need to see since this isn't just an issue with her umbilical hernia anymore.

So, the next step will be to wait until we get a referral to Dr. Smith at Children's in Little Rock and go from there…..

Golfing 100 Holes for Young Life!

Jason and Mark golfed 100 holes again this year to raise money for Young Life!  This was Mark's 5th year to do this and Jason's 3rd.  They completed 100 holes in record time, only 11 hours at the Paradise Valley Golf Course in Fayetteville.

The fundraising really meant a lot to us this year since Jason and I joined the Young Life Committee to get this amazing organization in the Bentonville and Rogers schools!  Raising money was super uncomfortable for Jason, but we have amazing friends and family that really partnered and supported Jason through his efforts.  It was that support that really helped him to make it through the 100 holes with a bum shoulder!  

Results:

·  Completed 100 holes (rounds of 85, 86, 85, 83, 84, 42)
·  0 Eagles
·  39 Pars
·  2 Birdies
·  23 Greens in Regulation 

Here's some pictures from the day:

They looked pretty exhausted when I arrived at 2pm

Trying to make every putt count

Mark keeping his spirits up!

Unfortunately these guys saw a lot of bunker shots but still pressed on!

Around the 80th hole, they now have their game face on!

Starting the 100th hole!

And they finished!!!  Way to go!

Supporting wives!

Taylor Starts Kindergarten!

Taylor started Kindergarten last week and she was so excited!  She couldn't wait for it to start and talked about it all weekend.  She picked out her outfit for the day and made sure she had all of her stuff together.  She was worried that we were going to be late, but Jason and I continued to assure her that she would get there in time.  Luckily, Uncle Josh was at our house on the big day, so he took a few extra pictures for us.

I really thought that I wouldn't be one of those moms that gets all emotional on this day.  Both Jason and I were so excited for Taylor and this new adventure she was starting, but we continued to wonder how this day had finally arrived.  It really has gone by way too fast.  However, on the way to school, we started to pray for Taylor and her day.  Taylor prayed out loud that she would "be on time for school" but then also prayed for herself to "have a good day, and to be happy and have friends, and to stay safe."  When I heard Taylor praying for things that we continually pray together as a family, I started to lose it.  So much for being able to hold it together!!!  

Taylor was never hesitant when we got to school.  She went into her class, got her crayons as the teacher told her to, and sat down to color.  It went so smoothly that it was almost awkward for Jason and I to stay there any longer.  Success!!!

Taylor will be taken to school everyday by Jason and then will take the bus home.  School starts at 7:30am and lets out at 2:30pm.  We chose to let her take the bus home for several reasons:

1. Taylor's school gets out at 2:30pm which is right during nap time.  People get in the line to pick up the kids at 2pm.  
2. The school bus that Taylor will take only goes to the Shadow Valley neighborhood and will arrive to our stop by 2:55pm.
3. Taylor has begged us to let her ride the bus for the last year.
4. My teacher friends and neighbors all told me that they had let their Kindergartener ride the school bus, and continually assured me of the bus and safety precautions that are taken.

So, Taylor rode the school bus home that day and loved it!

There is a 45 minute "rest" time for the first few weeks of Kindergarten.  Since Taylor has continued to take a 1-3 hour nap everyday up until the first day, we were thankful for a rest time to help with this transition.  Here's a picture that a teacher friend sent me on the first day:

After we dropped Taylor off at school on the first day, little Addie was pretty sad that her big sister was going to school and she wasn't.  So, Mommy took Addie and Camryn to get a few donuts at Krispy Kreme!

After the first day, Taylor got off the bus and just looked exhausted.  We sat outside for a few minutes to talk about her day.  After she had a snack, I started grilling her with questions and she said to me "Mom, can I just go inside and rest for a bit?"  Bless her heart, she was so tired!!!

Eating her snack

She just looked so exhausted

Addie took this while we were chatting

The first week of Kindergarten continued to go well!  Taylor described her favorite part of the day as "riding the school bus."  But when we asked her about the worst part of the day, she would say "the boys screaming on the school bus."  We told Taylor that she always needs to sit in the front of the bus.  On day #2, she told us that the bus driver had told her to sit in the back of the bus so that the loud boys would sit in the front.  She said "I told the bus driver that my daddy said I had to sit in the front or I couldn't ride the bus anymore.  And he told me to just sit in the middle then."  Haha, I'm sure we will have lots of fun stories from the bus!

Gator Day - Taylor and her friend Brighton

Gator Day - Taylor's class

We were so proud of Taylor this week.  Although she was exhausted and was a little extra whiny, she had a great attitude about school, got all smiley faces in her progress report, and had a great time!