HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!!!

A big happy birthday to my cousin Nick! I hope your birthday is fabulous!!!

Birthday Party!

Emerson had a most fabulous birthday full of lots of presents, some he opened prematurely when I wasn't looking. Here is a picture of the train cake I made. I couldn't even try to draw Thomas, so I just drew any old train. Oh well. A train is a train right? Anyway, I don't have any other pictures yet from his bday, but when I do I'll post those too. He had a great time and I think all the other kids did also.

Boise Zoo

We go to the zoo quite often because Emerson loves animals. The penguins are his favorite, but I'm sure you can tell from the look on his face!

that facial expression says it all!

Tovah and Eric Visit

Our friend from High School, Tovah, came down to Boise with her husband Eric and we had a great time. We journeyed to the Soul Food Festival in Julia Davis Park and had lots of good eats.

Tovah

Emerson loves walking on the greenbelt

wait for me daddy!

those were some very good ribs

we all got quite messy eating all the great soul food

Oregon Coast and Portland

I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog very regularly. I've been posting pictures to my Facebook account more often because I can post more pictures and more family members have access.

In July we ventured to Portland for Grandpa Jerry's memorial and decided to make a stop at the Oregon Coast first and then work our way back to Portland. We realized we had never gone anywhere with just the three of us. We always take trips with other family members so we had a lot of fun just spending time together.

Brent and Emerson in front of Niagra Falls

Brent and Emerson in front of the Spruce Goose in Wilsonville, OR

Emerson is practicing his chopper skills

Emerson loved exploring all the tidepools and seeing all the mollusks... we all did

a boy and his daddy... awww...

my two sisters and cousin (RtoL: Alex, Charlotte, Tricia, me)

there sure were a lot of Dietz's at the memorial

and a lot of Meacham's too

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Updates

Well, physical therapy is harder than I thought, but it is going well. The therapist says I'm doing much better than she would have expected and so that makes me happy. My scare is healing quite nicely as well so that's good.

Brent and I are just busy, busy, busy working and chasing Emerson around. We went to the parade on the 4th and had a BBQ at a friend's house from work. It was great fun.

Emerson was just waiting for the parade to start...

Brent's mom marching and playing in the parade

Emerson and his aunti Alex at Blimpies after the parade

Emerson really loved Grace's bunny

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.

Pictures of Grandpa

Here are a few pictures of Grandpa during his last week on this earth.

Grandpa Jerry

My grandfather died last night. We love you Grandpa Jerry.