Rhyan's Arm

As most of you know, our little Rhyan broke her arm about a week and a half ago. She was laying on her stomach rocking back and forth on a bathroom step stool, about a foot off the ground, and somehow she rolled the stool forward and fell on her arm. We knew it was sore but she was using it, so we thought it was okay. Either way, two days later it was still bugging her so we took her in and the x-rays showed a buckle fracture on both bones right above the wrist in her right arm. According to the pediatrician and the orthopedic doc we saw, they don't cast these kind of fractures because they heal fine on their own. It's just sore and she's in a splint for a few weeks. As little as she is, they say within about ten days it's not healed completely, but it's solid again. I wish us old folks healed that fast. She favors it a little but she is doing fine, and you can already tell its not bugging her as much as it was.

Baby Update

We went in for our big ultrasound on Monday right after we got back in town. I am currently 19 weeks along, and as you can see in the picture, the baby had a nice tan and looked nice and rested. The doctor said everything looks great! We counted ten toes and ten fingers so we know we're good there. There was more than one time where we caught the little stinker with its hand in its mouth though! Hmm...do we think there's another thumb sucker on the way. I think there will be an immediate stop to that if that's the case. We figure it was either that or this one is already hungry and will be a non stop eater when it gets here. It kept opening and closing its mouth. It's pretty cool how much detail you can really see in these ultrasounds. We didn't find out what we're having, we're just happy everything looks good. Besides, Larry & I both still think its a boy, so who needs to find out...

Dominican Republic Trip

Larry said he had a great time doing dental work in the DR. He says it is nice to be able to provide a service for these people that they really need, and to truly be able to make a difference in their lives. I think especially since most of the people they were working on this time were kids. They spent the first day in a tent...how would you like to get your dental work done there!! The others days they were in schools working on the kids there.
You can see Larry must have felt real safe...he was hanging out with their guards. You know your safe when men with a machine guns are standing at the door to protect you!

You can also see that there is a great need. There are just crowds of people who show up to try and get work done. Apparently they are in the middle of their presidential elections there, so they went out to dinner with the head of the senate there, and were kind of used as a political propaganda to say look what we are doing for the people. Larry said it was fun but that it also made it more hectic because they were dealing with media and things like that.

This picture shows the area they were working in. You can see it wasn't a well to do area and that the people need all the help they can get.

After Larry had been there about a week, I flew down with Becky and Sabrina to join them at the resort. It was so much fun!! The beach was beautiful, the water was warm, and it felt so good to be sitting in the sunshine in January.
The resort had a couple of restaurants and a big buffet that was open almost all the time...kind of like a cruise ship. For the most part, it was all inclusive, which is good because then you really don't spend much while you're there. Here we are with Becky and JJ after dinner at one of the restaurants. Some of the food is a little odd (mountain goat) but for the most part the fish was really good.





















We had the resident flamingos at the resort that I had to get a picture for Mayson. She loves the flamingos at the zoo, and would have loved to see them out like this.
As you can see, we had a very competitive game of mini golf while we were there. It was played by DR rules, which pretty much equates to "jungle golf"! It was a lot of fun for everyone, though I am pretty sure there was no method behind the madness when it came to the design on this course. We swam, sat on the beach and relaxed, ate lots of food, watched some very interesting shows at night, played beach volleyball, and did some snorkeling. We wanted to go scuba diving, but unfortunately I can't do that right now. Maybe next time. I have to say, beaches outside the USA give you the opportunity to see a lot more skin than you really want to. It was really quite comical, and it made for a lot of jokes and laughs between friends. All in all it was a really good time and I am glad that I went down to meet Larry. The trip was short, but I am grateful to our saint neighbors, who though they have no children of their own, got a good break in taking care of our three while we we gone. As much as we love them, it's nice to have a few days of couple time every now and then!

Mayson's Night Out

This year for Christmas Mayson got tickets to go see the Very Hungry Caterpillar play down at playhouse square. She had a lot of fun and asked if we could go again next year, so she must have enjoyed it. They did the Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Little Cloud, and the Mixed Up Chameleon. It was all done with painted sets that are exactly like the Eric Carle illustrations in his books, and the people were dressed in all black so with the black lights on all you could see were the puppets and sets in motion. After the show they showed the kids how they did everything. We went to Applebee's for dinner when we got done, and I think all in all we both had a great evening!!