Little Lassies

Last week the girls participated in their first ever dance recital held at a local high school auditorium.
They preformed one jig with their respective partners and both did a great job!

Due to strict rules about ZERO video or pictures during the recital we could
not capture them on stage.

The nearly three-hour recital included numbers from Riverdance and Lord of the Dance preformed by world champions and past and present Broadway participants who have / are students at the girls same academy. The instructors took the stage for several of these incredible numbers. Their main instructor currently holds to world champion title in the "male adult" division.

We were finally able to plant our garden after two months of rain!

The girls were enamoured with their new pets throughout the planting process. 

Avery begged and begged to keep the worms in her bedroom. 

It was darling.  
Rest assured the worms stayed in their natural habitat in the garden.

This year we planted less:

2 zucchini plants

1 strawberry plant

2 Cherry tomato

2 big tomato 

1 popcorn plant 

and lots of peas in the pod

Happy Harvest!

Hip Hip Hooray

Dearest Darling Husband,

In the past 9 years, since the time you began medical school, there have been many, many exams to study for and several of those exams have been board exams. 

You have always been diligent at balancing your numerous roles while undergoing rigorous studying routines, however, the expectations placed upon your shoulders for this exam have 

far surpassed any other while at the same time

the other life roles which you now carry are more demanding then they have ever been in the past.

(Brinley, Daddy, Avery 2009)

Since December I've observed as you have pushed the limits  

of physical, mental and emotional capacity.

Day in and day out you have put one foot in front of the other even in times when making 

that next step felt overbearing.

During this time not only have you undergone hundreds of board reviews, listened to thousands of lectures and studied countless cases in a variety of medical textbooks in addition to working and moonlighting

BUT,

since December you have also continued to make our family your priority. 

You have thought of ways to lighten my physical and emotional load. 

You have listened to my struggles and born my burdens. You have continued to be an 

involved father, brainstorming ways to make our home run more smoothly, playing with the girls, encouraging them with Saturday chore packs instead of doing Saturday studying. You have continued to attend to your church calling including weeknight evening meetings 

and teaching classes on Sunday. 

 

 (Cody and Brinley 2004)

 It was heartwarming and par for the course to see you this morning spending the last few moments of potential study time playing "Pretty Pretty Princess" and " Guess Who" with Avery and Aspen. The tears in Avery's eyes as you pulled away represent our girls  

profound love for their Daddy.

At times during this demanding medical journey I've worried about you...your lack of time to re-charge, to emotionally let loose; yet it has been through the experiences we have shared on this journey that I have come to deeply respect and admire you.

 It warms my heart to think of this challenging time in our lives being behind us,  

yet I am thankful for the unity we have developed by enduring it.

Certainly through this process I have done much more complaining, and you much more listening. 

You have never expected a spotlight, a pat on the back or a hip hip hooray, yet I feel that 

no one is more deserving of just that than you are right now!

 I am your biggest fan my darling and I will be there in spirit cheering you on!

XOXOXO,

Your wife

PS- Today I watched THIS video and felt like the luckiest woman in the world 

because I married man just like the one in the short film.

Announcement

The other day when I was experiencing morning sickness 

I came up with this little plan to keep the children occupied. 

They thought it was fun for all of 10 minutes and then were on to bigger and better activities.

I even left the packing paper taped down to the kitchen floor for the entire afternoon in hopes that they would come back and color more, nope, apparently not fun enough.

Well, perhaps they will find a baby sibling a little more exciting!

The newest addition to our family is set to arrive around December 30th.

Baby Grace

Precious little 

Grace Ginger Lewis

joined our extended family last Friday morning!

She weighed a healthy 6 lbs 10 oz at birth and upon arrival home quickly 

became the apple of her big brothers eye.

We are thrilled for Arian and Jill to have this third beautiful blessing in their lives!

In just a few months baby Grace will be making her way to England to visit her Daddy's school...

BUT FIRST she is coming here to visit our family and her Aunt Kelty in June! 

I can not wait to squeeze her in my arms and the girls will be over the moon to meet their new cousin.

A more detailed post about Grace found HERE.

Our Journey

Here is a little video I created

of Aspen's club foot journey.

ENJOY!

Below are a few recent clips that, for various technical reasons,

could not be added to the video above.

HERE is a informational video about the 

Ponseti club foot treatment 

presented by Dr. Dobbs.

Included is a description of a procedure that Aspen had in which her 

Achilles tendon was cut.