Br. 9 mo & Our 4th Anniversary

When I was going through some of our pictures I found  few unposted pictures from July 4th weekend, so here they are. We did a short little 3k on the morning of July 4th, then that night we headed out to watch fireworks. The last one is all the cousins together before church.

 

Brighton turned 9 months old on the 20th and so I snapped his 9 month pictures:

This kid is so fun y'all! This morning he not only waved back to me when I was waving hi, he also said hi too! He thought it was pretty fun and we kept doing it for at least 5 minutes (which is like a year in baby time.lol)

Siena also "learned to wink" a few days ago. Joel taught her to wink and even do the click.lol It's pretty cute!

On the 21st Joel and I had our 4 year anniversary! It's crazy to think we are on our way to being married for 5 years already! Time is flying and life is only getting better as the time goes on!

We did lots of fun celebrating. We started our day off with a hike up to a lake with the kids.
It was beautiful and a fun way to start off our fun day.

Joel's brother Ryan came and graciously babysat for us that night while we headed off to Cheesecake factory for a fantastic meal and then walked over(in the rain..:/ ) to the theater to see Wicked! This was my 3rd time seeing Wicked, but Joel's first. It was fun to share that with him! I think this was my favorite portrayal of Glinda of all of them that I've seen too.

Before leaving the house for our anniversary date:

At Cheesecake Factory.. we might have splurged and gotten 2 cheesecake pieces.. Funny thing was that Joel and I could only eat about 1 bite of each before feeling completely full after already eating all the bread and our pasta. So we had an awesome treat after lunch the next day!:)

 Outside the theater, getting ready to walk in to see Wicked

 The picture we snapped before they told us we weren't allowed to take pictures of the set..

We had such a great 4th wedding anniversary!

Engagement photos:

 Wedding:

Britghton's 8 months(a little late...), Tumbling, and lots of new milestones!

 I'm a little behind.. Brighton will be 9 months tomorrow and I am just now posting this 8 month picture.lol Hopefully I'll get the 9 month picture taken soon and get htat one up a little earlier next time..:) Brighton has turned into quite the little wiggle worm!  These next pictures were the best ones I could get because he was ALL OVER THE PLACE!:)

Siena took a little tumbling class and absolutely loved it! It was so fun to watch her learn all sorts of new things such as head stands(which she can do on her own now!)

Trying to do the bridge (which she can now successfully do on her own as well!):

Siena was the smallest in her class, but probably had the best attention span.lol

 This next one is blurry, but you get the picture.:)

 Joel got off work early so he could go with her to her last class.

Brighton had an eventful week a few weeks ago. He learned to crawl, got his first tooth and we discovered that he could sit up on his own all in one week! When I say crawling I guess I really mean army crawling, but it gets him around!:)

We have had Joel's brother Ryan in town this last week and we got to head over to the Ogden Temple open house this last weekend (I realized that we didn't get a single picture with him in it.. whoops).

Life is treating us well. I am now a little more than halfway through this pregnancy as well (around 22-23 weeks?). I can't believe how fast time is flying!

Club Foot Appointment Update

I was so excited to head back to our old Doctor's office here in Utah, but slightly nervous knowing that Dr Klatt was no longer living here and wouldn't be her doctor. I was pleasantly surprised though when I met Siena's new Doctor. She was so helpful and gave me a TON of information, which was what we loved about Dr Klatt. I learned more at this one appt than I did at either of the appts with her Doctor  in Dallas. Anyway, I guess I'll just regurgitate as best I can everything that I learned.

They did X-rays, which I thought were so cute.. getting to see her cute little bones. Ok yes, I find little kid bones cute, I'm officially a mom.:) Siena thought it was pretty cool too. She has a Franklin book (the little turtle character) in which he has to go to the hospital and get X-rays, so she was excited about them as well.

This is just the far away picture that shows that her hips are in place and doing well. It also shows that her Femur bones are bout the same lenght. It is her fibula and tibia that are shorter. If you look at the bottom part of the bone by the foot, you can really see the difference. Here is a close up of those:

We discussed once again the lengthening and the shortening, although we didn't go into much detail on the shortening one because the Doctor thinks there will be a larger difference in height than is allowed to do the shortening. The leg shortening happens if there is a 2-3 inch difference in the leg lengths (or a projected 2-3 inch difference that is). They will take X-rays over the next couple years and keep an eye on it as well as chart it and get a good idea for the length discrepancy and what they think her projected length will be eventually in the future.

Siena's right leg is 1 inch shorter than her left leg right now, and the discrepancy continues to get bigger over time and that is why the Doctor thinks there will be a greater difference than 3 inches.

For the lengthening of the leg she said that they can only do 20% (of the length of the leg i believe) of growth in one go and then they do it a second time later on down the road if needed again. She said this would typically happen around 8 years old ish for the first time and then around 13 years old for the second time.  It would basically be 2 big rings around her shorter leg, one at the top of the bone, one at the bottom, and they cut the bone and then over time you basically crank it and the bone grows in between the gap. She said this process can be as short as 6 months, but she has seen it as long as 2 years.

Doctor Holmes also mentioned a few other things that could possibly happen in the future and would need surgeries if they occured.

Knock Knee- Siena already has this a little bit, so the Doctor made it sound like this is probably going to need some help in the future. Basically the inside of the knee grows faster than the outside and so they would go in and put a "clamp" on the growth plate on inside of her knee for some time until the outside caught up. She said this would probably have to happen multiple times as the leg/knees continue to grow.

Ankle joint, or bone ball and socket- the Doctor said that Siena has some luck on this because she has 4 toes on that foot. Some kids that only have 2-3 have a much higher likelihood of having issues with this. Basically there is a bone that connects from your foot to your leg, and it is usually square-topped, but sometimes with  either fibular hemimelia or a club foot (sorry I can't remember which one usually is the cause.. I think it's the fibular hemimelia though) that bone can be rounded and can cause the foot to turn inwards/ roll inwards. If this happens there is a surgery, and in some cases they amputate.. That kinda freaked me out a bit, but that's just an extreme case and it's not even something that she will for sure have, so no need to fret about that. The Doctor said that her foot was looking really good though, so that's good. One stride at a time!

Also, I have gotten questions from some people about if she needs a lift for her shoe, and the Doctor addressed that today. The Doctor said that sometimes parents choose to get one, but most kids don't and there's no evidence that it messes up the kids backs. She said that if we wanted to we could, but it definitely wasn't necessary. If later on down the road Siena started complaining about pain or something we could do something then and be just fine, but she said that rarely happens.

Anwyay! There is my LONG spiel with all the info! We have some interesting times ahead (poor little siena!:/ ) but she's strong and adapts to everything so well. It's nice to have an idea for the future though so we can plan and such though, so I'm thankful that this Doctor was so helpful!