HEMANgioma

Reid is a HEMAN!

He has an awful time with his stomach and the Beck Temper comes out in full, but somehow he still finds time to smile at me several hundred times a day....even in the midst of a battle with the ol' bowels.

He doesn't even blink when Garret bounces around him and occasionally on him.

He bathes with his older brother which basically means he is also learning to swim long before all of his friends.
He just turned three months yesterday and has already been clear across the country to Florida and taken a 9+ hour roadtrip to Texas.
He is strong, and brave and has a love for adventure (especially the types of adventures where he stays nestled in his mother's arms).

See what I mean? Reid is a HEMAN!

Well, like all other superheroes this Heman has an Achilles' heel.
Besides his Hulk-like temper, Reid has a HEMANgioma (found in 10% of infants and 100% of Hemans)
Hemangiomas are basically benign tumors that show up in some infants, grow fairly rapidly in the first year and then slowly go away within the next few years of the child's life.
Not usually a big deal.
But Reid's hemangioma causes a bit of a problem because of its location.
Reid's hemangioma showed up as a small bruise under his right eye at about 1 month old, but the bruise look never really changed or went away. At his two month check-up I brought it up and they sent me to the dermatologist in Durango, who then sent us to the pediatric dermatologist in Albuquerque.
After two trips to Albuquerque, one MRI and one EKG, we discovered that our sweet little Heman's hemangioma is going to have to be taken care of.
Luckily we found it early enough and  live in an awesome time of modern medicine so Reid will need to just take some medicine twice a day for 6-9 months and this Heman will be hemangioma free and his superhero vision will stay intact.

(if you look closely you can see the bump under his right eye)

(our little Heman trying to hold really still for the EKG)

(a few tears were shed by both mom and Heman)

We are so very grateful for answered prayers and the love and support of so many people.

Our little Heman has a divine mission on this earth and not even a hemangioma can keep this superhero down.

Phone Pics From Florida

Sometimes we take pictures with our phones and then forget ALL about them. So here are few more gems from our March 2013 trip to Florida.

 Small airports are the best! We flew out of the Durango airport and the Pilots brought Gar to the Cockpit and let him push all kinds of buttons and take pictures. Greatest day of his life.....if he even remembered it.

 Loves all things that move.

 Torturing Brody by not letting him in his kennel. Have you ever heard of the term Cruel and unusual punishment?

 First time shooting an airsoft gun...for both of us. We never hit the target.

Garret and his amazing G'ma. She gives and gives and gives to this little boy, his brother, their cousin and all of us rotten kids who call her mom or mother-in-law.

Love and miss you Christine!

Florida/Easter/Surprise

Besides missing our flight in Florida, we really had a GREAT time! It was so much fun to catch up with family and to enjoy some warm weather. Ace and I are so blessed to have wonderful people on both sides of our family and we truly enjoy spending time with each and everyone of them. 

Garret looked like this most of the time with his pal Brody right on his heels.

He did put on clothes long enough to help Aunt Asia and Uncle Austin move.

He loved loading items into the big truck and would run and grab more things saying "More! More!"

We loved our trip to Florida!

Then we got home and a few days later it was Easter! We colored 5 Easter Eggs (one of each color). My sisters family colored around 4 dozen eggs so thats were we headed for Easter day. But we did take Garret to his first Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter. Garret wasn't a very ambitious hunter. He got three eggs and then said "All done." So he just opened them and ate the candy. Good thing he has a competitive mother.

Surprise!

 Last summer Ace had to cover a benefit concert for Red Cross. Our beautiful state was on fire and so The Village People came and put on a fun show to help raise funds to fight the fires.

We combined business with pleasure and made it a date.

Ace surprised me last week with this picture. 

I have some great memories with Mr. Stryker and we just keep making more each day!

The Terminal

 The above picture makes it look like Garret was spending a day in the wonderful world of Disney. But alas, he was not. This picture was taken in the Orlando Airport where we lived for 2 FULL days.

  Tuesday March 26 we were suppose to fly back from Florida where we had spent a wonderful week with family and where we were able to see my friend, my old roommate, Ace's sister and my dear friend marry a wonderful man in the Orlando Temple for time and all eternity. It really was a wonderful trip but when we missed our flight that Tuesday it led us to a series of unfortunate events.
1. Missing our flight made it so we couldn't fly back into Durango until Thursday
2. Missing our flight was stressful for not only our little family but for parents and siblings on both sides.
3. Missing our flight made it so that when our dogs escaped while we were gone we  were unable to go look for them. When they were found they ended up costing a pretty penny to get them removed from the humane society.
4.Missing our flight was EXPENSIVE for our little family and for our parents who lovingly helped share the financial burden.
5.Missing our flight made a WONDERFUL trip feel so far away. We definitely got home feeling like we needed a vacation.

  The list could go on and on but really there were quite a few blessing as well. For example, this particular airport had a hotel in it. We were able to stay right in the airport and were able to sleep in beds instead of on the hard airport floor or chairs. And this particular hotel in this particular airport had a swimming pool so we were better able to entertain Garret with something more then the moving walk-way and escalators. Our families were a great help and great support. We had phone calls, financial help and upon our return we received dinner and continued phone calls. We were definitely bummed about the missed flight but we were reminded that we are blessed beyond measure by loving family on both sides, and this gift is priceless.