* Walk In His Ways *: Birthdays, Big Boys, Broken Bones, OH MY!

Well, it certainly has been an eventful few days. These are just the highlights...

First of all, today is my baby girl's 4th Birthday!!!!!!!!!!

Um... how did that happen!? Lydia Marie is 4 yrs old today, and she is just the angel and princess of our home! She is sweet, kind, caring, very funny, playful, silly, curious, imaginative, artistic, loving, compassionate, considerate and just plain perfect. We love her to pieces!! I can't believe she is 4 years old already, but sometimes it seems like she is 14 ;) haha. She's getting the little girl "tude" already, but mainly is just beyond priceless. She is such a joy to be around ALL THE TIME and I love getting to spend each day with her and watch her grow. We love doing GIRL THINGS like baby dolls and tea parties and painting our nails. She also can play ninjas and monsters with the best of them- c'mon, she's got brothers around! and she loves to build LEGOs since that has rubbed off from her big brother.
She is my special gift from God... He knew I'd keep hounding Him until I got a girl! ;)

Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet Lydia Marie! We love you so very very very very much!!!

Just look at this girl! She is gorgeous!

Benjamin is a BIG BOY now...and is potty trained! We still have the occasional accident here or there, but he goes days at a time all dry and we are so proud of him! He is proud of himself too, and the extra M&Ms and lollipops help of course. ;) It's basically just adorable to see him running around in his BIG BOY underpants. (Ben, I'm sorry if you're 16 and reading this some day and really embarrassed, but trust me, you're just SO CUTE!!) Sometimes I wish you could stay 2 forever. You are so sweet and you light up my world every day.

Now, on the real adventures of boys!

Josiah, our sweet and adventurous imaginative 6 yr old, was jumping on the neighbor's trampoline this past Sunday, Sept. 2nd, and he landed all his weight wrong on his left ankle. I heard the scream, and went running. Being Mommy, I just knew that scream... and I knew it wasn't good. Once I saw his ankle, I knew for sure! We took him to the ER where they did X-rays of course, and ruled out an acute fracture but said he better see a pediatric orthopedic in a few days, especially once some of the swelling had gone down. They gave him a plaster type brace with an ace wrap temporarily.

Due to the Labor Day holiday I couldn't even get anyone on the phone until Tuesday, but then got him an apt today with a pediatric orthopedic.

It was still very swollen, very bruised, and well, you'll just have to trust me, I looked at it when they took the ace brace off and I shuddered! OUCH!

He was so brave while she checked him out and they took more x-rays.

Did you know that growth plate fractures don't show up on x-rays for up to 12 to 14 days? Yeah, well, I didn't know that either until today! Anyway, she thinks she may have seen a hairline fracture in the growth plate in his ankle, and rather than bringing us back and forth several times, she said at this young age it's best to just treat it as a fracture. So ... hence- our first cast!

Josiah got his bright orange (very cool) ;o) cast today and will have to wear it for 3 weeks. Then he will be in a boot for a couple weeks after that. Getting his cast was unfortunately VERY painful. They had to straighten his foot back up to neutral position and he hadn't had it there for days. All those sore ligaments and pulled muscles and all that was strained, got some use and he was a mess :( It's so hard to watch our kids in pain, isn't it? But anyway... he was so brave, and was finally able to calm down with the promise of medicine and a milkshake!