Prayer Request

I found out today that my dad has prostrate cancer. Luckily, they believe that it is not in an advanced stage and they found it early enough that they have 3 options to get rid of it. They told my parents that they can either have my dad do hormone shots which has been found to shrink the cancer and then they usually go in and do surgery to get rid of the rest of it. Radiation is another option and Surgery is the other one. My parents were give a big book with lots of answers to questions they might have. They go back to the doctor in 2 weeks with what they want to do. My dad seems to be doing pretty good, but I'm sure he is very scared. I know I am. It sure is hard to see your parents go through hard times, but they are strong Christians and lean on God. Please pray that they make the right decision on what to do next and for them to find peace of mind.

Basement

So as some of you know we have been finishing our basement the last few months. We started with an completely unfinished basement with block walls. Kyle built 2 bedrooms and a living room/game room. We also have our furnace room and a storage room that will be unfinished. This project is going to double the size of our house! The nice thing is that Kyle has been able to do all the work himself. He built the framework and did all the electrical work late last summer and of course hung and finished the drywall. This past week he has been putting primer on the walls and this weekend we will probably pick paint colors. I know the kids are excited to pick out their own colors. The boys will still share a room, but it will be much bigger. Hannah will have the smaller bedroom downstairs, but it is also a little bigger than her room now. The living area will become our game room. We can put all our board games on shelves and have a TV with our video games in a central location. Once we are done with the basement we will start tackling the upstairs. We are moving the location of the kitchen and tearing a wall out to make it more open with the living room and dining room. New flooring throughout. It will be like a new house when we are done. Of course we are doing it slowly so we don't incur any debt. We will still have 2 bedrooms upstairs and the boy's old room will become our office/craft room. I can't wait to have a scrap booking area set up all the time. Maybe I will get caught up on my albums. Anyways just wanted to share what we have been doing. I posted a few pictures of what it looks like right now. I will take pictures when we are done too!

Emily at play

We went to my parents house for my birthday dinner and Emily sat at the table and ate vanilla ice cream. She was sticky, but had fun trying to feed herself.


Emily found one of her brother's sunglasses and wanted them on. She is such a ham with them on.


Hannah rubbed a blanket on Emily's head and this is what happened!! Static hair. It was so funny. The kids were laughing at her, so of course she performed for them.

Teething

I have forgotten how much fun teething is. Emily handles it pretty good. She got a top and bottem tooth in the past 3 weeks and I just discovered that she is now working on her top Molars! They are both starting to poke through the gum. She is such a drooler right now and has a nasty running nose. Of course everything she can get in her mouth goes in. I can't believe she will have 10 teeth soon and she is only 14 months old. Hopefully these teeth coming in don't bother her to much.

I'm so excited!

Just wanted to do a quick post to say how excited I am. Kyle quit smoking a week ago! I am so proud of him and I know the kids will be too. I know it can't be easy to quit cold turkey, but he is doing great! I was a little scared he might be grumpy but he hasn't been. Guess it's time for me to give up my Diet Coke addiction.

Brayden's Wrestling Tournaments

Here are the results of Brayden's last 2 wrestling tournaments.



Last Sunday we went to Grand Ledge for a tournament. He ended up taking home a 3rd place medal! He wrestled very hard and won 3 out of his 5 matches!





Today we traveled to Dexter. The roads were a little slick on our way there and we saw lots of cars in the ditches. We even slid a little when we tried to exit the highway. This was a huge tournament. Brayden wrestled kids he has never wrestled before since we were out of our region. He did awesome! He won 3 out of 5 matches. He had one pin and two techs (a technical fall is when you are more than 15 points ahead of your opponent). He has been doing great and even loses his matches with great sportsmanship. We are very proud of him and look forward to the many more tournaments this season.

Another year older!!

Well I turn 33 today. It's amazing how fast the years fly by when you get older. I don't mind turning older. My mom asked me yesterday if I was excited to be 33. I told her that it's good, it means I am still alive and I am hoping to have many more birthdays to come! I remember when my mom turned 40. We had a surprise party for her. I must have been about 8 years old and thought my mom was so old at 40!! Sorry mom. Now I am 7 years from 40. I am changing my opinion on that one. 40 is the new 20!! Anyways as usual it is very cold on my birthday. It says it is -11 on my computer. Brrrrr I like winter but this is a little crazy. At least I am not sick. It seems like every birthday when I was younger I had a horrible cold. So I am very happy and blessed to be having another birthday. You have to stay positive about being old!!

Wow, it's really 2009!

Well I have not blogged for a week or so. Been a little busy plus we were having our second round with the nasty stomach flu. I think we are finally done with it. WHEW! Nothing worse than a sick little one who can't tell you where and what hurts.

So last Thursday on New Year's Day we took all the kids ice skating at the Summit. We met Kyle's family there. The kids had a lot of fun. The next couple days we just hung out at home in our pj's. We played some new board games that the kids got for Christmas. Brayden had his first wrestling meet on Sunday the 4th. It was the big Sparten Country meet at MSU. There is about 900 kids! He did not win any of his matches but Kyle said he wrestled very hard and that's all that matters. I stayed home with Emily since she had not been feeling very well. Work has been slow for Kyle for the past month. It can be tough when your self employed in the construction market in Michigan. He will actually be starting the drywall job at my mom and dad's house next week.

Emily turned 14 months old today! Wow, time sure flys by. She is such an active and happy little girl. Just the other day we discovered her sitting in the middle of our dining room table playing with our cribbage board. It was hard not to laugh and smile at her, but I scolded her and got her down. She is saying a lot more words now too. She throws her own diaper's away will go to her door when you tell her it's time to go "night night".

Well I think that's all for now.

Happy New Years!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year in 2009! Hoping everyone is happy and healthy.