So much to be thankful for

 

A friend of mine suggested we have a "Ryan" tree and make an ornament together as a family every year.  What a wonderful idea.  We have chosen to do this on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  It will be the first tree we put up each year and the last one to come down.  All the kids helped and we enjoyed decorating the tree with our new ornament and various Texas Longhorn ornaments I have found online.   

 

 

 

 

 

 We had a nice Thanksgiving weekend with lots of family.  I would be lying if I said it wasn't hard.  I shed many tears and am so thankful to all those who remembered our family.  It was hard to not have Ryan around to share in the feast.  He would have loved to have gone bowling with us and to hang out with his cousins.  I know he would have enjoyed holding his baby cousin Benjamin and going to a late night movie with the big kids. We miss him so much and things are just not the same without him.  We do have so much to be thankful for and I have so many blessings.   

Life could always be worse and so I am thankful for all that I do have.  I haven't lost Ryan for good- he's just away for a little while.  Hopefully that little while will get easier.

 

 

Ethan before his cast was taken off.

 He got dog poop on it today so it was coming off either way.  The dog poop ended up being a blessing because look what was found inside his cast....

Yep, it's a piece of glass that was about 2 inches long.  It is a miracle that he wasn't cut and didn't have an infection.  We asked him how it got there and he said he stuck it in there.   Duh!! He said he got it at the neighbors.  He had complained a few times briefly about his arm hurting.  Maybe it was because he had a huge piece of glass in there???  I just figured it was because the bone was broken and healing-- silly me. 

As you can see his arm hasn't completely healed  (to the right and a little lower than the blue dot)and so another cast must go on.  Darn, another 2 1/2 weeks of no baths and trouble wiping himself.  Oh well, at least he has an arm... right?? 

 

 
The saw that is used to cut off the cast is pretty amazing.  It only cuts when it comes in contact with a hard object.  The doctor showed me by putting his hard up to it and it didn't cut him.  Regardless, I was still very nervous when it cut through the cast and looked like it should keep going through his arm.  Ethan was so brave and didn't move.

Then pliers and scissors are used to do the rest. Ethan's arm wasn't in to bad of shape once it was out. It didn't even stink to much. He was excited to be able to wash it and move it around a little.  The doctor told him to kiss his arm good bye before he put on the other cast.  Ethan did.

 

 

The crazy little boy with his blue cast and on the infamous little slide.  Now all he wants for Christmas is his arm to be better.

 

 

I special thank you to all those who continue to follow our family through our journey of life.  It really touches my heart to see the number continue to go up and know that so many still care about our family.  Thank you.