Please bear with me

I know I haven't updated lately & I do have pictures of how we helped Bryce celebrate his birthday. Which I hope to have on here by this weekend. (cross your fingers)

I have started a new part time job at Kohl's at the Merle Hay Mall location, which has been going great. Training is getting completed & I having fun learning my new job. I still sell Signature Homestyles www.signaturehomestyles.biz/danette which I can schedule my kohl's hours around. I also am still active in both of the kids schools, in MOP's & my bible study.

In other words I have to get into a routine. So again please bear with me.

Build-A-Monkey

Please welcome the newest member of our Family & read on how he came to us.
We'll Matt & I decided that this year for Bryce's birthday we would finally let him build the monkey he has been wanting since Emma built her bear when she was 3.

Thursday afternoon we hope in the car & drove to the closest Build-A-Bear workshop & Bryce knew exactly what to do. He grabbed his monkey's skin & headed to the stuffing machine.

Once stuffed & the heart placed inside he headed over to the fluffing "bath" where he enjoyed brushing his monkey all over.








Then the all important clothes, you know monkeys can't run around naked! First he found a pair of "Bear boxers" then decided on the Superman costume. He also picked out an Iowa Hawkeye tee shirt & shorts.












Then to come up with a name?? Whats in a name? Well when we asked Bryce what he wanted to name him he said "Sally" we asked why "because" then I suggested some other names & he decided his monkey looked more like a BoBo instead of a Sally.

Per his birth certificate Bobo was born on 09/11/07 (so to share birthdays). He weights 12 ounces & is 18 inches long, with Brown fir & Black eyes. Bryceton is so proud of him too.

Once we got home Bryce immediately changed into his Superman pajamas that way the could be twins . BoBo has became Bryce's best friend & has gone many places with us since last Thursday. Bryce can't wait until he can get more outfits for him in the future.

Happy Birthday Bryceton

Bryceton,

Happy birthday sweet little man of mine. You turned 3 today

On this day, a day that many people are full of sorrow over what happened 6 years ago. I am full of joy & excitement that I rejoice the day 3 years ago you came into my life. You showed me a whole new way of looking at life & all the new experiences that come with having a boy. It is true the saying that boys & girls are a night & day difference (at least in our home). I wouldn't change anything about you & hope you continue to be that ornery little cuddle bug you so love to be. You know when to smile & then again you know how to use that to your best advantage. You are very smart, silly & very outgoing .

You are my Buddy, Mr. Man & I Love you,

Sweet little man of mine today you turned 3

Love Mommy

Made for 4?

This past Saturday since the weather was nice Matt & I decided to clean the garage for fall & winter seasons. We ran to Lowe's to get a wheel barrow holder & another holder for shovels & rakes. we got all the toys organized & put away along with our wheel barrow is now hanging on the wall. he storage hooks came in handy for the snow shovels & our folded lawn chairs. Now the only things on the floor in our garage is the things that can't be hung.

Our garage looked so much bigger.....

Since we are storing Matt's moms vehicle & Matt's not sure he wants to scrape off his work van yet we decided to try to fit all four vehicles in our three car garage.

It worked, it's a tight fit & we are all getting used to holding our doors when getting in or out.

Thank you recovery

As you have seen from a few posts ago that we had a trip to Ohio. On Sunday afternoon our digital camera popped up a screen that I have never seen before. So I mentioned it to Matt, not expecting anything to be done since the book was back here in Iowa and the fact that I could still take pictures I wasn't too worried. Matt decided to play around with it to see if he could figure it out....

OOPS!

Was the next thing I heard from his mouth. While he was trying to get the screen to get off the camera he some how deleted the 247 pictures that My brother, cousins & I had taken all weekend. Needless to say I wasn't happy, but I wasn't going to make Matt feel any worse than he already did. My cousin Sam & my Aunt C.J. told us to try a recovery software, we look around & most people had no clue what we were talking about. So online Matt found it & we downloaded the software & hooked up the pictures.
It worked, I got my pictures back!!!

It cost about $40 for the software, I was able to recover them & the memories that came with them. So here are a few I'll share with you.

My Grandma Yarian who help get this whole family started

Grandma with Her Kids & now with their spouses

And of course don't forget the Grand kids & Great-Grand kids

(minus 10)!!

It is such a wonderful feeling having so many family members together, having fun & being such a large part of our lives. We love you all!!!

We saw spots???

Back on July 21st we noticed that Emmersyn had a few white patches of skin under her arms. We always new she had two spots, but we noticed a few more, then some more. Matt & I got on-line & started doing some research to find out what might cause loss of skin pigmentation. We could only find one thing, Vitiligo. On Monday July 23rd I took her to the doctor just to make sure nothing was really wrong.

He looked at the spot & told us there are only a few things this could be, so lets treat the lesser of the two & see if it clears up. So we got a body wash type medicine that we had to put on her for 5 minutes then wash off. We were told we would have results almost immediately & to use it for two weeks. Two weeks came & went, not better & little worse.

Back to the doctor on Aug 8th, he said since it's not getting better he would refer us to a Dermatologist. The appointment get set for Sept 5th. Since we had almost a month to wait until we saw the dermatologist he wanted to try a stronger sulfide lotion medicine. This again we were to put on her twice a day & wash off 5 minutes later. Try this for two weeks, again results should be immediate. No luck.

Yesterday Sept 5 after Emma got out of school we headed to the Dermatologist, Emmersyn pointed out her spots & the doctor new that is was the skin disorder Vitiligo.

People with Vitiligo have little to No natural pigment protection. This disorder affects 1% of the population. It can be cyclic, intermittent or progressive. Spontaneous remission may also occur. They not sure of what the cause is. We also found out that treatment is difficult since there really isn't any. Treatment will only chase the problem it wont heal or cure anything. One thing that should help is make sure she is lathered in sunscreen whenever she is outside. If the spots start to bother Emma then we can use sunless tanner or make-up to cover them up.

If we feel the problem is getting worse we can take her back to the Dermatologist & start some kind of treatment with the knowledge that there is less than a 50% change nothing will change.

We will take this one step at a time, we are not too worried about it at this point. We were given some more information & a few website addresses that we can use too. We now have to remember the sunscreen all the time. If things change I will keep you updated.

Ohio Bound

This past Labor Day weekend our family headed East to visit my Grandma & other family. After the 9 hour trip there we pulled into Grandma's house about 3 am Ohio time. Since a few members of the family were up we talked a little while then headed to bed. Up again at 8 am to start the day. Saturday we hung out around the house, the kids played in the pond & around the yard. We planned to grill out for lunch so we took our "Road trip Grill) it worked great. For dinner we decided on spaghetti (Matt & I made the sauce on Thursday). 3 gallons of sauce & 5 pounds of noodles & you can cater to approx. 50 people. Saturday seemed to fly bye & thank goodness we had all day Sunday to spend with family too.

We were lucky to have 41 out of 51 of our family members there (we missed you Jeff, Angel & kids, Naomi, Chris & kids) & we enjoyed spending time with everyone.

As you can tell Bryce was enjoying spending time with my cousins Elisha & Ashley. Both the kids enjoyed the time with cousins. They also enjoyed spending time with our newest member of our family Anna. Anna is a beautiful 7 year old girl that now is a big part of my brother's family. We are all very excited to have her in our lives. She's pictured below in the wagon (middle)with some of the kids .

Sunday after church we had the "Dan Clan" reunion to attend this is a reunion of my Grandma's side of the family 2nd & 3rd cousins. We had lunch in the churches basement then we headed over to the Menchhoffer's Farm (more relatives), at the farm we got to pet the animals, go on horse back rides, wagon rides, play games & make ice cream & don't forget the bonfire.

Most of the day I spent playing hillbilly golf & Frisbee. I also got to spend some time with a second cousin of mine I haven't seen in at least 3 years. It was great to reconnect with Sean & see how his life has been going. It was also great to meet his fiance Lindsay & her son. Matt & I now realize that we are not as young as we used to be. On the ride home on Sunday we were feeling how old we were by the mussels in our arms, chest, shoulders & legs were. We did make it home by 5 on Monday evening, we ordered pizza & had the kids in bed by 8.

This past weekend was a wonderful weekend & I can't wait until we can all get together again. I hope to have more pictures of this past weekend & if all works out well we will be able to retrieve the pictures off Matt & my camera. We'll see.

Oh by the way Sean you still have yet to e-mail me!

Empty Nest (kind of)

Well another milestone checked off the list...

Bryceton started preschool today. This morning went by fast between 6:45am when the kids woke up and 8:20am when we started to load up the car to take both Emmersyn & Bryceton to school.

Bryce eat a little breakfast before getting ready in the clothes he picked out to wear. Then it was time for mommy to take pictures & then we were off.

After dropping Emma off at her school Bryce & I headed to his. We walked into the building & he started looking for his hook to hang his bag. He pretty much knew what to do since he watched Emma do it the last two years. Once the class room was oped for the kids to come in, he walked in as if he owned the place.

Once in the class room we walked around to find his cubbie, his "pond" to sit on & the sign in board. As you can tell Bryce was very excited for school & was eager to show off everything. Bryce remembered where the bathrooms were & that he had to wash his hands to start the day at school.

I wasn't sure how he was going to do this morning since he is very much a "Mommy's Boy", but after he walked around & kissed me good bye, he walked away & joined the class looking at books sitting on their ponds.

He's growing up way to fast. I can't believe how independent he already is. A few tears were shed another bitter sweet moment down in the books & I think we both handled it well.

When I picked him up his teacher said he did wonderful & was such a big helper. In his class of sixteen she said there were six of them crying most of the 2 1/2 hours, thankfully he was not one of them.

Note: I did have a meeting set up while he was at school so I still have yet to be alone during that time.