March update

To continue with the medical theme we've had going the past couple of months, Levi had surgery at the beginning of this month. He had ear tubes put in, again.  He also had his adenoids removed.  The poor little guy.  It took him a couple of weeks to finally feel better from the surgery.  As soon as he recovered and was feeling back to normal Nelson and I immediately started to notice Levi's speech improve.  He started to say more words, pronounce words more clearly and say sounds he never had before.  It was so obvious to us at that point that he had not been hearing well before. Hopefully these tubes will do the job better than the first set did.
~On the 17th we started to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in true Susannah fashion.  The kiddos built leprechaun traps.  Rebekah decided on a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end to tempt the tricky leprechaun.  Half way through his project Levi decided that he no longer wanted to participate and stared to take his apart.  So no leprechaun trap for Levi.  Rebekah asked me if leprechaun's were real, so she now knows the truth about that.  She has been asking about all of those sort of things for the past few months, starting with Santa around Christmas time.  I told her it was for fun and she later came to me and announced that she had decided Santa was real.  Okay by me.  The leprechaun, however, did not get the same treatment.  She seemed to think it was too silly to be real.  Also, in the past she was scared at the prospect of a tiny mischievous magical man entering the house so I *may* have told her they weren't real at that time.  I set myself up, didn't I.
That afternoon we decided to all go up to Dallas with Nelson.  He had a meeting and we wanted to make a family weekend out of it.  It was a tough call, but I finally came to terms with having to miss out on celebrating the rest of St. Patty's Day.  We had a great weekend together.  The kids got to check out some cool airplanes and they were so excited to stay in the hotel.  They now keep asking when we are going to stay in a hotel  again.  We will definitely have to do a mini family vacation later this year.

Caroline at 11 months

This month Caroline

• Continues to play with her brother and sister
• Loves to listen to daddy on the phone
• Has begun to feed herself more and is more interested in other foods than before
• Loves bathtime with a passion.  When she sees the tub she gets very anxious.  And if she doesn't get put into the bath she lets us know how displeased she is with us!
• She still army crawls all over

February update

This month had some highs and lows. 
At the beginning of the month I had to get two root canals.  Ouch!  Actually, the pain had become excruciating, to the point that one day the kids and I were sitting in a parking lot while I was sobbing in pain in the drivers seat.  So needless to say - thank heavens for root canals!  Though my wallet has a different view on the whole situation.
The next week Nelson started to get a cold.  He was also very tired and after a few days his right eye started to feel weird.  He wasn't able to close it normally.  The next day he started to say that the right side of his face felt like it does when you get get Novocain at the dentist.  WHAT?!!  So this started the alarm bells off in my head.  The right side of Nelson's face was going numb and mildly paralyzed?!  So off to the doctor he went.  The doctor diagnosed him with Bells Palsy.  He got a couple of shots of steroids and antibiotics.  It ended up being a mild case - his facial muscles started to improve within a few days.  By two weeks everything was back to normal.  I am so glad that it was nothing more serious.  My imagination had been going in overdrive when this all started.
The rest of the month was filled with good things.
At school Rebekah attended a Suzuki workshop.  At the end of the week she had a concert!  Caroline and I were able to attend and it was so cute.  She did great.
Valentine's Day was also fun. Due to dental work on the 14th, we celebrated Valentine's Day on the 15th. Last year I decided to make a special dinner for our whole family. I quite enjoyed it and so I did the same this year. I grilled yummy shrimp, made a delicious salad, some rolls, and made some fancy schmancy steaks - so good. For dessert the kids and I made chocolate dipped strawberries. The table was set up nicely as well. When Levi and Rebekah saw the table and sat down they had this amazed, excited look on their faces. It made them feel special, which is what I hoped for.
On the 17th Molly and Chad, Ben and Jonathan and their families came to visit!  We all stayed at Sam's house and had a great time together there. We made yummy pizzas, went out for delicious Mexican food, went shopping, watched movies in Sam's theater room, played with the kids, and talked.  Shanna also graced us with her incredible talent and took family photos of us.  (Thanks so much!)  Some of us also went to the Houston Children's Museum.  It's amazing, rated the top in the country.  I was so glad to be able to share some fun activities that my family does, with some of my siblings.