Noah's Surgery

Hi family!
I just wanted to ask ya'll to start (or keep) praying for Noah. He is having surgery on January 5th. He has a branchial cleft cyst in his right ear. We've seen two doctors and got the same answer from both of them--and surgery is the only way to fix it.

Essentially what it is, is his ear did not form right in utero. What I've been told, and what I've read is that early on in utero, babies have slits in the sides of their neck, kind of like fish gills--for lack of better explanation. They are supposed to close up, but sometimes they don't and it can be years before anything appears. There are 4 or 5 levels of these branchial clefts cysts depending on which slit or cleft did not close properly. Noah has the first degree or level which is up around his ear, and is extremely rare. Basically, he has an extra ear canal in his right ear which doesn't lead anywhere, but only serves as a bacteria catcher--thus the cysts.

The doctor won't know exactly what they are dealing with until they put him to sleep and probe his hear with a camera. We're praying the extra ear canal is very short or shallow, b/c that'll mean an outpatient surgery. If they get in there and see that it is a long canal, that's when it gets complicated and starts interfering with facial nerves--which would mean a cut along the outside of his ear. And he'd have to stay overnight.

We're wondering if his many, many lymph-node infections in his neck are connected to this somehow. The doctors seem to think it's very likely--not that he's has more cysts in his neck, but that his body has been fighting the infections in his extra ear canal, which is making his lymph nodes swell. It'd be great to finally have an answer to that too!

Please just pray that everything goes smoothly--that only minor surgery is required---that he does well with the anesthesia--that he'll heal quickly--and anything else you can think of. :)

Thank you and we love you all!
Love,
Eddie Dedra Noah and Caleb

These are just some pictures I took of Noah a couple weeks ago---some of my favorites!

Our weekend in the Mountains in Georgia

Noah's first time fishing---he watched every move Eddie made!

Just melt your heart!

He was actually quite patient for a 2 year old!

The beautiful fall colors were everywhere!!

The view from our cabin's back porch.

On top of the world!

My cuddle-bug!

Noah's first fish!

You know us cowgirls..... :)

My favorite picture

Today was the kids first day of snow and all so fun!

Mikayla fell apart when she was trying to help by patting the snowmans head and it rolled off and fell apart.

She was clapping when he was put all back together but she wouldn't even go near him for fear he would break.

Trying out different material backdrops for school pictures.

New pictures of our boys

Noah showing Caleb how to squeak a toy.
Smiling at Daddy (Guess who bought him that shirt!) :)
I just thought this one was sweet.
Notice how Caleb is almost as big as Noah. :)
An 8 week old wearing 3-6 mo. clothing....can you say butter ball?!

Harray!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it?! After weeks of trying to open this - to read, to post to look at new pictures - I tried one more time before contacting our provider that we could not view our family blog and SHAZAM I finally get in. Thank the Lord!!!!

Love you all!!!!!!

PS - Happy Birthday, Rhesa!!!!!!!!

pics

ti let's the kids drive the "tractors" at work :)
angel's turn


elijah's turn

they pick which one they want to drive :)



and they're always doing this...

ti has gotten almost all the new flooring laid in our bedrooms of our rent house! so we are about to be able to move in. we are so excited. the house is about three times bigger than our apartment! it's older, but we've already updated it quite a bit. it's going to be a great place for you guys to stay when you come visit!

we love you all, and Dee, i promise i'm returning your call tomorrow!!

love,

shan

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Family Pictures

Just wanted you guys to see some family pictures. Becca will come and stay with us the first part of December. Steve will join her later and we will get to spend Christmas together!!

New...new...new

Look at his tummy! Check out this hilarious face!

My sweet, pensive boy!
Giving him kisses on his fuzzy head.
Yup, I chopped it off!

Hey Everybody! Caleb had his 1 month drs. visit on Tuesday. In a month he gained almost 5 pounds and grew 2.5 inches! He's a big boy! Noah's favorite things to do are give him kisses on his head ("It tickles!"), and yell, "Baby CALEB!!" as loud as he can to wake him up--so far it doesn't even faze Caleb, he just keeps on sleeping.

And yes, I got my hair cut today! Yeah, I chopped it off! It was time for a change--I don't have time any more to curl my hair and make it look presentable every single morning....so I talked Eddie into letting me cut it. :) When my hairdresser swept all my hair into a pile on the floor, it looked like a small animal all curled up into a fuzzy ball! My head feels 4 lbs. lighter!

By the way Elijah, Uncle Eddie says you have a good lookin' haircut--he really likes it!

Love you all muchisimo!

hair cut!!

just wanted yall to see elijah's hair cut! he wanted it like daddy's!!







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Caleb's a sweet boy! He cries when we change him, if he's EXTREMELY hungry, or if he's getting out of the bath tub and is cold....other than that, he's so peaceful and laid back! He still has his beautiful blue eyes like his daddy! Noah is getting more used to him---even wants to give him kisses!

Excitement at our house

Josiah needed stiches, but no doctors in town, so nurse mommy came to the rescue with a butterfly strip!

Josiah and daddy were running upstairs to see the new bed, he slipped and went into the corner of our night stand! OUCH!!!

An electrical fire broke out! Luckily we were in the next room when we heard the snap crackle pop of the electricity, and were able to get the extension chord out the door and nothing was burned! PTL!!!

A picture of our new dishwasher!!!!

A picture of our kitchen and our floor scrubber in the background. It is amazing how dirty the floors get sooo fast! We bought the hood above the stove, and our landlord installed it. It was funny, the whole landfamily came over when he was installing it. I guess to see the new fangled thing. His wife kept asking questions about it, and then proceeded to tell her husband that she needed one for her kitchen. I thought that was cute and funny!

Apology

We apologize for not blogging recently. Today is the first day in over a week that we have been able to get on with our dial up connection. We are working on getting high speed internet, so hopefully that will help.

tractor pull

here are some pictures of our evening on tuesday! if you go to my blog www.dinosandpigs.blogspot.com you can read about it! we love you all!!

CALEB - you still cookin'??? we're praying for you, dee.

--shan