"Good-Bye Tonsils!"

Well, tomorrow is the big day- Jake is going to get his tonsils out! To prepare him for his upcoming surgery, we read the book "Good-Bye Tonsils." The book is more for a school-aged child, but it was all I could find in 2 days. It does it's job, though, and goes over what tonsils are, why they have to come out, what goes on before and after surgery, and what it is going to be like when you come home. Jake actually grasped it all really well, however, the part I don't think he understood well is that he'd be in pain and have a sore throat for several days. I guess he'll find out soon enough. :(

In the book, the little girl is given "Good-bye tonsils!" party the night before her "operation," so we did just that- with a "Good-bye tonsils!" cake and all. We even sang "Goodbye to you...goodbye to you...goodbye dear tonsils....goodbye the you!" Ha! Here's to hoping that all this preparation will make for smooth sailing tomorrow! Wish us luck!

Shazam, Spiderman! What a week!

Where to start? Well, Walker had his EEG on Wednesday, but we won't know the results until early next week. The tech wouldn't give any hint as to whether he had any seizures or not, instead, all she said was that he was very cooperative and only fussed a little. Tyson and I weren't allowed to stay with him, and it just broke my heart. It's never easy leaving your baby in a situation like that. :(

Jake had an appointment with ENT on Thursday, and he will have his tonsils (and possibly his adenoids) removed on Tuesday. I was really surprised at how quickly they were able to get us in, but judging by the surgeon's and nurse practioner's reactions, Jake's tonsils must have been really bad. :(

So anyway, that's what's been going on around here. As always, we would appreciate your prayers next week as we get the results from Walker's EEG and for Jake's surgery on Tuesday. Thank you! Have a great weekend!

I Have to Brag on My Husband...

Tyson just got named Special Teams Co-coordinator at UAB! (He'll share the duties with John Wozniak, who we worked with at Georgia Southern). We are so proud of Tyson and all of his accomplishments; he definitely deserves this title as hard as he works! Way to go, Tyson, and GO BLAZERS!

Ryan's Birthday

Look at this thing, "Big Man's Daddy" according to Ryan, that the Maddens had blown up outside of our houses! Ha! I had no clue they were doing this, and I almost had a heart attack when I saw that thing out of my window!

Twiddle dee and twiddle dum!

Apparently Jake got that right leg caught, and totally face-planted after this shot!

My buddy, the Ice Cream man. He comes by every Saturday and knows to slow down by my house! Ha! Too bad I'm not even kidding!

Apparently Ginger likes the Ice Cream truck, too.

How sweet is that with Ryan's hand on Jake's knee? He's probably having to hold Jake down to keep him from eating his ice cream, too!

The little girl (who is actually bigger than both Ryan and Jake), is Ryan's friend, Julia.

Twiddle dum giving twiddle dee a hug.

And....back to the ice cream.

Meanwhile, Walker and Kaitlyn have a little curbside date.

Brantley joins in on the fun as Ryan asks Julia why she's eating pink icecream. Boys.

The younger siblings have a little playdate inside.

L-R Walker 9 mo, Kaitlyn (Ryan's sister) 7.5 mo, and Bricen (Brantley's brother) 7 mo

Ryan's awesome cake that his Mama made.

Today is Ryan's birthday, and since his party isn't until next week, the Maddens had a little celebration at home that consisted of "Big Man's Daddy," ice cream via the Ice Cream Man, remote control cars, and a Diego cake that Ashley made. We had a blast! In fact, Jake had so much fun, he didn't want to leave and let it be known. Aww...welcome to the 3's, Ashley and Mike! ;) Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Boys will be boys...

...and boys will climb....

...and jump...

...and chew on the furniture!

Oh, and they will hold their little brother's head still for a picture!

3 Year and 9 Month Check-up

Today, I took Jake for his 3 year check-up and Walker for his 9 month check-up. It was the most stressful appointment ever, so I'm just going to cut to the chase on both of them.

This is the stool that Jake threw across the room after he got his shot! :(

Jake weighed 38.5 lbs (80%) and was 38.5 inches tall (90%); Dr. D was very pleased with his size and still thinks Jake may turn out to be 6 ft tall despite having a 5'4" mama. ;) Unfortunately, Jake's weight and height weren't the only things that were supersized today...his tonsils are huge, too!! Jake's been on a nasal steroid and an antihistamine in an attempt to reduce the size of his tonsils, so since our efforts have failed, we are meeting with an ENT next week to discuss taking them out. :( I'll let y'all know how that goes.

Walker weighed 21 lbs 14 oz (75%) and was 29.75" tall (95%). Looking back at Jake's 9 month stats, Walker is a little bigger than Jake at that age. Jake was 21 lbs 8 oz and was 29.5" tall...not too much of a difference, huh? Anyways, everything looked great with Walker. Unfortunately though, Walker will be having an EEG next week to evaluate that febrile seizure he had right before Christmas. Hopefully, his febrile seizure was a one time deal and isn't indicative of some underlying seizure disorder. We would definitely appreciate your prayers about this! Thanks!

"Behind"

O Tyson, Tyson! wherefore art thou Tyson? Oh yeah, you're recruiting...all week long and all weekend long until signing day. :( I'm not complaining, though, because I am so thankful for 1) Tyson's job, 2) a hard-working husband, and 3) the chance to stay home with my children (for the most part). I'm just stating the facts, though, people...single parenthood is for the birds! I say all of this because I feel the need to explain why I've fallen "behind" on blogging lately. :)

So please bare with me for a few more weeks until signing day, and then hopefully I can blog on some sort of a consistent basis. Until then, "baby got back"....

**FYI, there is another post below. Have a great weekend!

Tifton Photo Shoot Cont...

Walker has totally discovered his tongue and loves to stick it out!

Jake loves laying on Walker's lap! He pulls Jake's hair everytime, and Jake thinks it's hilarious!

I finally got the CD in the mail today with the rest of our photos from the shoot we had with cousin Jace in Tifton over Christmas. These are a few more of my favorites.

Snow Day

Jake ate about a gallon of ice by the time it was all said and done!

I think he might have eaten some yellow ice here!

Redneck and proud!

Playing in the ice!

Poor Walker was dieing to come out and play!

"Let me out or I'll lick your window!"

The Maddens came out to play!

Ryan and Jake...besties.

Tyson decided to try out the cookie sheet.

bwahahaha!

Jake's turn!

Jake wasn't a fan.

But Ryan loved it!!

Mama's turn!

Ashley ate it first...

And then I did. I don't know when I'm gonna realize I'm too old for this stuff!

What a crazy last 24 hours it has been! I was supposed to go to work at the hospital last night for 1 of the 3 whole shifts I was scheduled to work this month, and the boys were scheduled to stay at school all day so I could sleep. Well, their school sent an email Sunday saying they were closing Monday for inclement weather, so that's when the stress began. What to do with the kids? To make matters worse, when the weather gets this icy, hospitals will implement this rule where nurses have to stay at the hospital until the weather clears up. This happened when I worked in Atlanta, too, and I was stuck at the hospital's hotel for days...but that was back in my single days when I didn't mind much. Now that I have kids, staying at the hospital for days on end when you have a husband with a demanding job, it's just not cool. Long story short, after lots of praying, I ended up getting called off work and all of our problems were solved! And guess what? The weather was so bad that Tyson got "snowed in" at home! It ended up working out perfectly!

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of snow, but we did get to play in the ice. We made some redneck sleds (tupperware container lids) and slid around the backyard a good bit. Well, Mike Madden decided to step it up a notch and he pulled a little National Lampoon's and busted out some metal cookie sheets. We had a blast sliding down the driveway on the cookie sheets...I'm sure we were quite the site! :) So much fun! I love snow days...especially when I don't have to work! ;)