Ok, so here it comes...

Well, it has most certainly been a long time since I've posted. A lot has been going on so I'm going to try and update a little at a time. Here goes...

Emerson's hair grows quite quickly and so I have to cut it more often than he'd really like. Here are some before and after pictures of one of his most recent cuts. As you can see, the kid accumulates a lot of hair.

We've also been working in our yard a lot building a garden and a fence to separate the garden. We will also be adding a greenhouse and cobble path around everything. It has been quite the project so far, but fun. Emerson absolutely loves helping in the process, as you can see below.

Our neighbor has two little tiny dogs and Emerson likes to peak at them through the fence.

This is just a funny picture of Emerson and his tongue. He likes showing off!

In bigger news, I have had quite a change the past few months. As some of you know, I went to see an orthopedic surgeon about three months ago because my foot has been in so much pain. After a soccer game it just throbs and is almost unbearable. I've had to wear a brace on my right foot since High School whenever I play in order to stop my ankle from constantly rolling. Nobody has been able to tell me what was wrong with my foot, so Brent suggested I see an orthopedic surgeon. Well, he made us an appointment and after only one x-ray, he discovered a birth defect in the top of my foot. Can you believe that?! I had a birth defect the whole time and nobody noticed when I had x-rays before. What happened was tht some time during development (I must not have been a very good swimmer) two of my bones fused together where they shouldn't have and created a bone longer than it was meant to be. The end result was that I had to have surgery so I did that on the 6th of May. The surgeons went in and cut out about and inch and a half of bone. At first I had to wear a horrible dressing called a Jones dressing. It was huge and uncomfortable, but I did get some great drugs prescribed to me. Five days later I got a purple cast, yes I did get to pick the color, and that was better than the dressing, but still uncomfortable. I was not allowed to put any weight on it and that was hard, but insurance paid for a little scooter. This past Tuesday the cast was removed and now I am in a big black boot going from toes to knee. It is basically like wearing a cast, but I do get to take it off and wash my leg and foot. I was told I can start walking on it as much as I can handle. At first, it was quite painful, but I'm getting better. Well, that's where things stand now and I should be back to 100% around September or October and my doctor says I should never have to wear a brace playing soccer again. I am just so happy and fortunate that someone finally found out what the problem was a knew exactly what to do to fix it. I can't thank the wonderful people at Intermountain Orthopedics enough!

This is the Jones dressing.

This is what I looked like when the dressing came off.

This is my beautiful cast.

This is what legs look like when one hasn't been used for three weeks.

This is what it looked like last night. I sure like being able to take off the boot and air out my leg and foot. I had quite the heat rash when the cast came off.