Stitches!

Well, the other day we were heading to the hotel for Grant's meeting. We got checked in, went to the room and laid all the bags down. Immediately three kids started yelling, "Two beds, the room has two beds!!" Ok, you ask why do they even care if the room has two beds. It's very important that the room has two beds, because that means they get to jump from bed to bed. Over and over and over again. This is just a little tradition we have when we travel, anywhere. It's not like we are seeing something tremendous or even visiting a famous site. It's just that this is something that they are not allowed to do anywhere else, EVER. So we let them have a little fun jumping around and laughing and acting up. It really is so much fun. Sometimes even Grant and I jump too. Now that is quite funny to think of. LOL! We have a great little time and then we settle it down. That is exactly what we did. Everyone was settling down and getting ready to go to sleep. It was very late and I was so tired and very much ready to lay down and get some well-needed sleep. Since the children are still young, they are small enough to fit into one bed. They end up sleeping in every-which-way and they don't even know it. So they snuggled down together. It's so much fun too. All tucked in and ready for prayers they waited. I had gone in the bathroom. Grant was waiting patiently for me to return. Austin decided he needed me for something and hopped out of the bed as he normally does and when he did, he pounced right off and into the luggage table sitting next to the bed. Out I dashed and Austin says, "I'm alright, I'm alright, Mom." They all said he was alright. We lifted his hair up a bit and sure enough he looked alright. All that took about 3 seconds. We put his hair back down and all of a sudden, out it all poured. Spurted, actually!! All over his face came this flow of red blood and down his neck and then everywhere!! Good gracious!! How did it just start so fast. We rushed him into the bathroom, sat him up on the counter, placed something against his forehead and pressed hard enough to get the bleeding under control. Grant immediately went to get some ice. All the while Austin is saying, "I'm alright, and it doesn't even hurt." He was very calm and wanted to 'see it'. Grant came back in with the ice and we applied it to his face. We couldn't even see anything yet, so we didn't know how bad it may have been. I lifted the ice off slowly and took a look. It seemed to be small, but the bleeding was so much I wasn't sure if that was the only place. We looked him over and didn't find anything else. Thank God. He was starting to get a bit antsy now and wanted to 'see'. We turned him around and out it spurted again. "We have to keep ice on it," we told him. After about 30 minutes, the bleeding had completely subsided and we placed an bandage on it. He stayed awake for about an hour and a half, then went on to sleep. This was about 1:30am. We ended up taking him to the ER and they triaged him immediately and they gave him 3 little, baby stitches. Oooo.....oooo. All I could say is, "It will be alright and Jesus will take care of you." Ooooooo......ooooo. He could have had more, but they didn't want to put him through anymore pain. The three did the trick. They took such good care of him and he was a big boy. (we were in and out in about 45 min) Although, he cried out, "Mama, are they done? Are they done yet??" It was so pitiful. It broke my heart. I didn't know they have to stick a needle directly into the wound to give stitches, did you. Oh, that was terrible. We made it through it and now he's not even noticing he has them. He's getting the stitches out tomorrow. Lord willing :) Kids are so resilient!!

At Guntersville this weekend!

This past weekend we attended a function with the Hardee's company. We stayed at one of the beautiful hotels in the area and were able to enjoy some quiet time together. It overlooked the gorgeous Tennessee River that flows through the Guntersville Lakes. We spent the day taking portraits of the kids and eating some of the most wonderful food. We took a drive over to a local outlet center and searched for some good deals. We didn't really find any, but that's okay, because we had such a fun time together anyway. Later that evening, we met the group and had dinner at a great little spot overlooking the lake. There was about 50-60 in our group. Everyone brought their families and we were able to meet some of Grant's peers. Thanks Hardee's for a great weekend!!

1st Lost Tooth

Last week Austin's front teeth were hurting. As we looked in his little mouth we could see his two front bottom permanent teeth had already come through. They were behind the baby ones. He immediately decided to wiggle them and within a few moments he had pulled BOTH of his teeth. This was his first time to loose a tooth. He was so funny. He wanted to get those things out so his new big-boy teeth could show. Now, not only did he loose one tooth, but two teeth at the same time!! WOW!! We were all so excited that we had to take this pic of him to show everyone how proud of him we are. He was so brave! Now his big boy teeth will come in nicely.