Our Easter Weekend!

Thursday Aydan had

SOCCER pictures!

He's so dang cute!

Gpa Snyder gave Traceon a sucker at Aydan's game!

Doing some push-ups!

Aydan kickin' the ball during his soccer game!

Friday was EARTH DAY! So we planted a little herb garden of parsley and basil!

Saturday was beautiful, so I let the boys play outside!

Then we got ready for the Easter Bunny! Here are the boys' baskets and all their eggs ready to be filled and hidden!

Easter morning came and Aydan and Traceon got right to looking around for their missing baskets and eggs!

They found Traceon's behind one of the couches!

Checkin' it out...

Bunny brought him Tangled, a BLUE CLUE'S Blue, a shirt, a puppy pez, a drink, and some green eggs filled with CANDY!

Finding more and more eggs everywhere!

Aydan spoted his basket...

It was under the sink!

And he LOVED everything he was given...and was speechless while pulling it all out one by one!

Bunny brought Aydan a trio of Batman, Superman, and a bad guy, a shirt, a drink, a comic book, a Spider man pez, and blue eggs filled with CANDY!

Unloading the goods...

Showin' mom the goods....

Dressed and ready to go to church!

Best Sunday Easter Service I've ever been to! AMAZING! What a day to celebrate what gifts the Lord has given us...and one gift in particular...eternity in heaven with him!

Best part of the Service was the end of the play, where real people came out with cardboard box signs! Written on these signs were some of their life struggles, and on the back was how they found the Lord, and how he helped strengthen them with his everlasting love! Beautiful! I bawled, it was so touching how people were expressing their love for their Savior!

After church we went to Gpa and Gma Snyder's house for a little while, and then we went to Aunt Gayle's and Uncle Ken's house for a feast and an EGG HUNT!

Here are the boys hunting down the eggs!

So...we were hoping that JUSTIN would arrive on Easter, but we were hoping like in the afternoon sometime. Well 9 o'clock rolled around and I got a call from the J-Man saying his plane would be landing at 11:30p.m. in IF!

The boys were asleep when I packed them into the truck to get their daddy...

I carried them in and checked the flight agenda...and it said that Justin's plane was DIVERTED! I about bawled, but I saw a plane land right before we came into the airport, and I knew it HAD to be his, so we waited! AND IT WAS!

Best feeling in the world is having your family back together again!

We saw daddy and ran to him! Daddy and Mommy were both crying a little, and I think we were weirding out the kids...but Aydan clung on to Justin and didn't let go! Trace didn't cry or anything but wouldn't go to daddy, and just STARRED at him! I mean didn't take his eyes off him for one second! Very cute!

First family pic in 8 months!

YAY! DADDY'S HOME! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Here are the boys at like midnight, watching daddy bring in all of his stuff! I thought it was so dang cute!

Little by little, Traceon warmed up to daddy. It was kind of more of a "You're really here, and not on the TV!" sort of warm up!

Then he went up to daddy and held out his little arms! He needed some loves. It was very special for these two, because Trace was only 10 months when Justin left, and he has changed a lot since then. Daddy has a little boy, instead of a baby to hold!

So, Justin and I wanted only the boys and I to be there at the airport to pick him up. 1st...it was late. 2nd...we wanted the boys to have ALLLLLLLLLLL of daddy's attention. We are glad we did it that way, because it was such a special moment, and so intimate, and we really needed to get re-acquainted. We all fell asleep on the couch downstairs watching Tangled together, and it was perfect! 3rd....we got to SURPRISE the rest of our family! We tricked everybody!

I knew that Justin's sister Jennifer had to work on Monday night (the night that Justin's plane was "supposedly" coming in) so I called her up and invited her to lunch! The boys and I walked in and sat down with her and I started talking about nothing, and Justin came up and SURPRISED her with himself! She cried, and it was cute!

Later, I told everyone else that Justin's plane was arriving at 7:10p.m. and that we were going to surprise him at our house when he walked in through the door! Well.......................WE SURPRISED EVERYONE ONE AT A TIME INSTEAD!

Justin hid in the back and when a group of people would arrive, he'd sneak out, until they spotted him!

I got some pretty funny re-united pics...as well as SURPRISE pics!

What a good time! It was fun and we thought it was so funny! I'm so happy to have my partner in crime back for a little while! It seems as thought we haven't skipped a beat, and....HE STILL LIKES ME!

We've been having so much fun together, and the boys don't even know or care that I'm here. They have been on Justin's heels since Sunday night! Okay...me too...but it's more like mauling him instead. I got a lot of snuggles and kisses to make up for............ya know?!

More updates later!

EASTER FUN, and an EYE UPDATE!

Today was a pretty good day!

I volunteered at Aydan's preschool this morning, and there was a bunny there!

Rowdy, the bunny from Ms. Mindy's in-laws house, came to visit the classroom for the day!

Aydan totally got the courage up, and pet Mr. Rowdy. He was such a cute little bunny, with floppy ears! He was way soft too!

A sticky handprint on the floor, before I swiffered it! I'm taking motherhood all in, by thinking that this was sooooooo dang cute, and that I needed to take a picture of it! I love my sticky-fingered little boys!

Aydan and I did an Easter craft today with....

WASHCLOTH'S...?

Trace helped a little too...well basically tried to ruin our project! Turkey!

(Notice his eyes! Pay attention to the little dots of light in his pupil, and how they are in the exact same spot in each eye....more on that later!)

One of Tra's new words is "CHEESE"! He says it when I'm taking pictures of course! This is his "CHEESE" face!

More "CHEESE" face...

(Light in his pupils...it's important for his eye update!)

(Click on the pics if you want a closer look!)

Back to the craft made of washcloth's....

Can you guess what they're going to be yet?

 

BUNNIES!

I got this idea from my Aunt! It's "Towel Origami"! I bought a package of washcloth's at Walmart (that were on sale) for $2.50, and I already had every thing else, except pink "nose" pom poms, so we got some of them too! We made 2 girl bunnies, and 3 boy bunnies. One girl has a pink bow, and the other a pink flower! All of the boys' have bow ties! Ahhhhhhhhh.....so cute!

What do ya think? Fun right?

Side view...

My WONDERFUL helper, who decided, mid-craft, that he needed to change into his jammies!

Super fun stuff I tell ya! Yay for EASTER!

**********************************************************

Now for

LITTLE BOY BLUE

and his eyes!

I've put some pictures together to show you the progress he has made in the struggle with his crossed eyes.

This is Trace at 4 months, when we realized that we needed to start doing something to help him out. So we took him to see a specialist in Idaho Falls. Dr. Aaron Affleck; eye surgeon.

(Please take notice to the "lights" in his pupils (the dark black circle in the middle of his eyes) notice how they are NOT in the same place as each other?

Around 6 months we had to patch one of Traceon's eyes for about 2 months. One of his eyes (his left one) was stronger than the other, so we needed to make them equal strength to prepare them for eye muscle surgery.

This is Traceon at 10 months, the night before his 1st surgery. Oh, how he's going to HATE these pics when he's older, or maybe he'll be grateful...I don't know, but I think it's cute, but then again, I'm his mom! ; )

(Notice the "lights" in the pupils...)

Trace, minutes before his 1st surgery. Isn't his gown so cute!?

Right after surgery....: (

This is a couple of hours after surgery, at our house. His eyes were definitely better, but still not where they needed to be.

3 days after surgery...

(Notice the improvement, but still look at the "lights" in his pupils.)

This is Tra about a month after the first surgery. This is basically where they stayed until his 2nd surgery.

This is Traceon 6 months after his first surgery, (16 months old) his eyes have improved, but he definitely needed a second surgery.

(pupils)

Here he is minutes before his 2nd eye surgery.

(pupils)

About 2 hours after surgery. His eye muscles were in spasim (from being hurt) which is why is right eye is kind of going out a little bit.

("lights" in the pupils...pretty close!)

2 days after 2nd eye surgery!

(Pupils....LIGHTS ARE IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT IN EACH EYE!)

These last few are of Traceon today! Notice the "lights" in the same spot.....THIS MEANS HIS EYES ARE STRAIGHT AFTER A FULL WEEK AFTER SURGERY!

I know his left eye looks bad, but remember how I told you that his sutures stretched...it's okay, it's healing just fine!

I wanted to post this pic to show how he looks right....with BOTH eyes!

LIGHTS IN PUPILS ARE IN THE SAME SPOT!

I know you can't see his eyes in this pic...but he's so cute and happy! Oh how I do love him!

So I took Traceon to the doctor Monday morning and the doc was SO pleased with Traceon's eye results! Each day he stays straight, the chances of him going back crossed get lower and lower. After the first 7 days, if they don't go back crossed it's usually a VERY GOOD SIGN, and a very low chance that the brain doesn't like "straight"...which means it does, and it will keep them eyes straight and strengthen them to work on things like depth perception! The doctor didn't measure Traceon with prism's, (a little glass 3D triangle things, that measure where "straight" is) for the first time ever, because Trace has

 STRAIGHT EYES!

 I went through a series of fights with myself over Traceon and his eyes.

Like:

Was this my fault? Did I do something to cause this to my baby?

Then went through some confusion with God. I'm human remember?

First, thanking him for it not being disease, or something much worse, like cancer.

Second, asking why. Why my little boy? Why Traceon?

Third, putting my complete faith into his plan for Trace. Straight eyes or not.

Now I'm going through the third, with full prayer on Traceon's eyes getting stronger and stronger day after day. I'm so thankful for modern medicine, and how it can help!

I know that we're not quite through the woods yet...but we're close!

So, whew!

A real bunny.

Washcloth's made into bunnies.

Traceon's eye improvement.

Faith.