He-Man.

Remember him? I am sure Wyatt is stronger and more brave than He-Man!

For those of you who aren't aware, Wyatt has a rare type of hemangioma which has been growing quickly since he was about two weeks old. Hemangiomas are a birthmark and the most common benign tumor in children. His does not look like the typical kind -- his has more of the internal component. With these types of segmental hemangiomas, they have found that some children have other vascular abnormalities. After an amazing intervention (on God's part) the MRI was condensed and moved from two four-hour tests in July to one test this past Wednesday! The MRI was necessary to ensure that there were not any other malformations present.

We were supposed to arrive at eight a.m. but I was anxious and didn't want to take a chance on being late and having to reschedule. So we left the house at 5:45 to stop and get him some apple juice before the 6 a.m. cutoff. We got to the clinical care center at 6:45, got registered and were done with the initial assessment, x-rays and IV insertion by 8. Wyatt slept most of the time when he wasn't being bothered. The MRI got started a little after 9:30 and only took an hour to complete. We got to wait by his stretcher until he woke up; he seemed a little irritated and weak but otherwise came through just fine. We were on the road home before noon.

The dermatologist called yesterday afternoon with official results... everything is perfectly fine! There was some question as to whether or not there might be some small malformations so another radiologist who 'specializes' in hemangiomas looked at his pictures. She said other than being a pretty good size, "it is a beautiful hemangioma!" What a blessing! Our next step is to see the dermatologist again this coming Friday so she can remeasure and take pictures and determine if we need to start medication to cause the capillaries to constrict sooner than they will on their own.

Free Family Day

at Pine Cove camp in Tyler Saturday, May 8 from 1:30 - 5. Parking is limited so you have to register online. Activities include: barn swing, zipline, horseback riding, canoeing, fishing, dunk tank, face painting, carnival games and a critter room. Robby Seay Band will be performing and there will be free food and drinks. Maybe we will see you there!

Temporary home.

The kids and I are still staying with my parents. Our Houston home went on the market two weekends ago and by that Monday afternoon, we had two offers on it! We signed the contract a few days later and are set to close May 17. We made an offer on a house here a week or so ago and it fell through. Yesterday we made an offer on another house with 11 acres and are waiting to hear from the bank that owns it if they accepted.

The boys (and Audrey) have been spending most of their days outside riding bikes, playing cars in the dirt, 'driving' the tractor and lawn mowers, climbing on the haul trailer, playing on the king-size play structure, building with legos and making the world more colorful with sidewalk chalk.

Some recent Luke-isms: Are you going to bring Wyatt outside for a bit of fresh air? (Upon finding a dead rat in the basement at Nana and PaPa's house and me asking him how long the tail was) It's twice as long as a giraffe's neck! (When checking the temperature outside before getting dressed for the day) It's 1% cold and 2% hot. (After Audrey tore a page out of a school workbook) She'll do anything to be bad. (When he was not patient enough to wait for Gran to open the door with the child-proof cover) I command you!

Audrey's vocabulary has exploded. She is talking in sentences and repeats anything! Wyatt is TEN weeks old now! He has slept through the night twice (from eight o'clock or so until five-thirty!). In the past few weeks he has started to coo and talk to us. He loves the bouncy seat with the musical light-up toy bar and prefers to be on his back to play.

I still get the "you've got your hands full" comment when I am out by myself with all four of them... if only those people knew how full my heart is!

Take your mug!

FREE Starbucks coffee on tax day when you bring your own mug... you could enjoy it while at a tea party!

Life.

It has been more than crazy the past few weeks. We finished "staging" the house and got it listed this weekend. We have already had two showings! The rental market is not as abundant here so we've yet to find a semi-permanent shelter; I looked at a house Friday and we hope to hear that we are 'chosen' soon! Until then, we are cherishing the time at Gran and Big Daddy's out in the country -- lots of fresh air, room to run and nature to explore!

We are beginning to get planted here... church on Sunday and my first Mothers Of PreSchoolers meeting tomorrow. We spent the weekend in Tyler with Tommy's family... I've never seen kids have so much fun playing in dirt! The boys are looking forward to swimming at my Aunt Melanie's in the coming months. We stopped by there today to stick our arms and feet in to see how warm (or should I say cold?) the water was. The boys got to help Big Daddy mow on the Kubota tonight and Audrey got her fill on the swing.

I uploaded new pictures onto the computer when I was home last week but the computer quit working before I was able to post. Nana ('Goforth' link on the right of the page) has Easter pictures on her blog if you can't wait.