Eye Surgery and Birthdays

September has been a whirlwind of a month so far.  I knew it would be, for one thing there are 7 birthdays between my family and Stephen's, one being our own cutie, Tanner.  I started doing preschool again with Porter.  We had to take a little break, but hopefully we will  be back to doing it on a regular basis from here on out.  One day we talked about apples.  This is a picture of him taste testing different kinds.

 Vance had eye muscle surgery on both of his eyes on September 11th.  I was feeling pretty nervous having him go through it, but he did great.  Recovery was rough at first, but after about the 4th day things got much better.  He decided he could open his eyes and that really helped.  I am so excited for him to live his life with out any more double vision, eye crossing issues.  I wish in a way we could have known that the less extreme options weren't going to work and had the surgery done 3 years ago.  Oh well, we can't go back in time.  His eyes look less red everyday and he is back to his normal school routine.

 Here is Vance the day after surgery.  His eyes hurt quite a bit so using a damp wash cloth at the beginning helped.  His Aunt Kimberly gave him the cute gold dragon and the hospital gave him the Green Latern blanket.

 Here he is feeling more normal.  I think he enjoyed being at home playing once he started feeling better.  However, he did become restless.

 Here he is a week after his surgery going back to school.

On Saturday we celebrated Tanner's 7th birthday.  He had a Lego Movie theme and I decorated his cake with candy that looks like Legos.  We try to make their birthdays a special day and enjoy some family time.  We had a little get together with some extended family at the church.

Here are some more birthday celebration pictures.

Happy Birthday Tanner!

Happy 7th Birthday Tanner!  Here is Tanner's birthday video.  Things here have been crazy and kind of weird, but I will post more about what has been going on at a later date.  I am grateful to have Tanner in our lives.  He is smart and funny.  He keeps me on my toes.

Back to School

Well, since the boys have been back in school for nearly two weeks I guess I should blog their back to school pictures from the first day.  :)

 Vance is in 3rd grade this year.  I can hardly believe he is that old.  Time goes by so quickly.  He has a sweet teacher and he seems to be enjoying it.  He already had his first injury at school.  He was playing tag and watching the kid chasing instead of what was in front of him and ran his forehead straight into a pole.  He had a goose egg the size of a golf ball.  Thankfully it went down quickly and even the bruise is healing quickly.

 Tanner is in 1st grade.  I think that is the hardest year to adjust.  He is at a new school on top of learning to adjust to being in school all day.  Kindergarten is only half a day and they spend a lot of it playing so it has been interesting for him to stay all day and get things figured out.  He is in a program that I think will challenge his mind more and I am grateful for that.

 Porter is home for one more year before he goes to Kindergarten.  It has been interesting just having him and me around all day long, but fun too.  We are doing some preschool as well.  Crazy to think this will be my last year of doing preschool with my own kids.  He is a good reader and this year I am hoping to help him learn to write his name well.

Stephen will be moving to a day schedule at work starting next Monday.  We are really excited.  I am especially grateful that the two older boys will get to see him longer than just a little bit first thing in the mornings.