Pictures are priceless!

We have been so blessed to have been photographed by 2 wonderful artists lately. Angela with Artistic Expressions came and shot the cousins pictures. She took the fantastic picture of my family at the top of the blog. I think it is just beautiful! Her blog is http://joplinexpressions.blogspot.com/ and if you scroll down to "The Gang" you will see us, Simon, Josiah, and the cousins.

Julie with Julie Ellen Photography took some great pictures of Zachary the other day, too. Her link is http://julieellenphotography.com/journal/ You can go and see some sweet shots of my naked baby boy. I know these 2 ladies will be sending me more pictures soon, and I will share with you all, as you all know how much I love pictures (especially of my kids). Hope you enjoy.

Zachary has his last home health visit this Thursday. We will miss Joan, who has been fantastic with us! He also has an ultrasound at Children's Mercy South Hospital on Friday, so say a prayer that all turns out ok with that. Not that major, but one that we need to be with a positive result. He then gets another Synergis (RSV) shot on Tuesday. I am thankful that he "qualified" for these shots and hope it will keep that nasty RSV away from our little boy. You see, each shot is $1,500 and if a baby is too little or born too early then insurance will cover it. I guess we are lucky, right? We will be meeting with our Parents as Teachers woman that week as well. She should help us make sure that Zachary is on track with his development. The following week he goes to a pediatric urologist. This is partly due to his 2 vessel cord and making sure that all his inner plumbing is functioning properly. We've had 2 positive ultrasounds, so that is a good sign. I think that is all his extra appointments for now until his follow eye exam this summer and the normal well-baby visits. We continue to be thankful for his continued health. We also are thankful for his demeanor. He sleeps so well at night, only waking when we wake him to eat, then drifting off to sleep again.

My sweet big boy got a new bed in his room this week. We placed the toddler bed in his room and Calvin is quite excited about "my big boy bed." He has both the bed and his crib in his room for a short while so that he can get used to the idea. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition. We will eventually need him out of the crib, as it is already spoken for in another room once we kick Calvin out :) Pictures to come of this transition bed.

Emerald and Calvin had dentist appointments yesterday. They both did so well and each got a special surprise. Emerald did an especially good job b/c she had to go back by herself to start the appointment and didn't bat an eye at me. She is turning into such a big girl! I can't believe she is going to be 4 in a couple of weeks.

It snowed about 3-4" or so here this weekend. We had fun playing outside for awhile Saturday morning. It was pretty dry snow, so not good for sledding or snow-ball fights. I don't think the kids minded at all, though. Good thing we weren't hit with the snowfalls of the east coast!! However, tomorrow is supposed to be 70 degrees, so hopefully we will be back outside playing. Cabin fever is really setting in!

Now go check out the so you can catch sweet pictures of my family! You can also see other gorgeous pictures that they have taken.

Oh, yeah, one more thing. I wanted to update you on Dawson. He had a major surgery last Friday and has been doing fantastic since. He came thru the surgeries well. He had a shunt put in and had hernia surgery. Everything seems pretty positive since and we continue to pray that Dawson and his mommy, Christy, get to go home soon. I know she is ready! She's been in the NICU since early November and hasn't been home to Hutchinson since then. I'm sure she would love to take her baby boy home soon, so prayers for Dawson, please!