Some cool BMX shots of Jacob

I've been meaning to scan these for a while, but haven't had the time. I wish we had a better scanner. These were professionally taken by MJT Designs at the Cajun Nationals and Texas State Championship Finals. Our scanner doesn't do these great shots justice. Enjoy!

Peace! Shane

Recent Happenings

These are some of the pictures that we had taken recently of Bryce and Jacob. It took a whole hour to get these. Jacob was a great help!

Our favorite picture is the one that I am using on the blog.

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Thursday, I took Jacob to get his permanent cast on. It is neon green. He loves the color green and just about has me talked into painting his room green. The problem with green is that his bedding has various shades of blue and tan in it so green doesn't match. I see some shopping in my future.

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Bryce had a doctor's appt. on Friday. He weighed in at 15 lbs 3 oz and was 24 1/2 inches long. He is such a big boy now. The appt. was to go over the tests that we had done on him. All tests were negative or normal. He is doing so well right now. The doctor and I agreed that it must be due to the Prevacid that he is on. Once we changed him to that med and upped the dose, he became a new baby. He is smiling lots, cooing, babbling, razzing. Our plan is to keep him on all meds until 6 months of age and then we can see if he is ready to come off of them.

Please keep his progress in your prayers. Also, pray for his sleep schedule. He is finally sleeping through the night but he thinks his day begins at 5am. We don't get him up until 6am so he goes in and out of sleep until 6am or later. This is hard on us. I am forced to go to bed early so that I can get up with him. Shane and I alternate the early mornings which is really helpful for me. Our hope is that as we get him going to bed earlier and earlier (we are at 9:15pm right now) he will sleep in later and later. But I just think he is wired for early morning wake up...Ugh!

BMX Track Claims One Broken Arm

You read it right, but the accident didn't even happen on the track, it happened on the stinkin' play set. Jacob was playing tag with some other boys on Saturday night at Pearland Speedway before the main event when he fell off of the play set and broke his arm. Apparently, he had climbed over the railing and was preparing to drop to the ground from the platform and his foot got stuck and he fell, breaking the fall with his arm and landing ultimately on his head. Some nice bystander carried Jacob about 50 yards to the stands where we were all sitting (Jacob weighs about 75 pounds) and handed over the sobbing youngster. Laura did what any good mother would do and panicked ;-) OK, she didn't panic, but let's just say that I don't get too worked up very easily over a hurt arm. I mean there weren't any protruding bones or anything. We put some ice on it and he proceeded to cry harder. We decided it was time to get out of there so Laura asked me to carry Jacob to the car, but they were calling my name for the main event; I was getting ready to miss my main, and I was in first place for the night (my first first place!) So I had Jacob start walking and instructed him to head straight to the car where I had planned to send my friend Larry to meet him, which is exactly the way it went down. I found Larry on the gate with Ethan and sent him straight to Jacob who had walked less than a minute on his own. Larry said he found him, not crying, but headed for the truck as instructed. As soon as he saw Larry, he started sobbing again. Larry is a motocross rider so he has seen his share of broken bones. Jacob wouldn't let go of his arm long enough for Larry to take a look. By the time, I got back to Jacob, he was still sobbing with Larry trying to check him out. I was probably separated from him for a whopping 3 minutes, but honestly, I did feel a bit guilty and did apologize for splitting on him while he was hurting. I know some of you are thinking, what a bad dad I am, well, its easy to look back and think of how we would do things different in any given situation. In hind site, I would have still raced given that the time was upon us but I should have just had Jacob wait in the stands for that three minutes and I could have came and picked everyone up with the truck. I knew he was going to be ok, and well... I did end up with first place :-) We ended up driving all the way back to our side of town to Cy-Fair hospital, where we were in and out in under 2 hours. Regardless of what you may have heard or experienced at Cy-Fair in the past, let me tell you, these folks have a well-oiled machine over there. They are extremely courteous and extremely efficient. Not sure if/when we will have another emergency visit, but if I have a choice, I will go back to Cy-Fair. The x-ray tech is not allowed to comment on the x-rays, but I knew it was broken when she said "hold on a minute, let me burn you a CD." I said "you just answered my question, thanks :-) Jacob has what they call a buckle fracture of the right radius bone, which is the most common type of fracture in kids. The doctor at the hospital said he would be in a cast for 4-6 weeks, but my research shows more like 3-4 for this type of fracture. He has a temporary cast and will see a pediatric orthopedic doctor this week for his permanent cast. We hope it comes of soon, so we can get back to training for the BMX Grand Nationals in Tulsa, OK on Thanksgiving week. That is the big finale for the whole year and riders will be there from across the nation. This is "the year" for Jacob as he is at the top of his class as an 8 intermediate. He will be expert next year and the level of competition at that level is unbelievable. It becomes very difficult to even qualify for the main event at "The Grands." We expect it to be difficult this year as well and will be extremely happy just to see him qualify. Hopefully we will have the cast off and be riding soon. Here is the pic that says it all. You can see the break at the top of the left bone (radius) near the wrist.

Children's Museum Trip

A couple of weeks ago, my cousin Elan and I took the kids to the Children's Museum. Daniel is 2 and both babies (Bryce and Joy) turn 4 months old this week. Jacob was great at playing with and entertaining Daniel. Daniel especially loved playing in the ambulance. We didn't get to do everything as it is so big so we will have to go back soon.

Jacob is the checker and Daniel and Elan are checking out in the grocery store

Bryce along for the ride

Jacob building something that I think we didn't get to work right

Working hard


Jacob and Daniel....Daniel isn't quite sure what to think of his hyper older cousin :)

Texas State BMX Finals

This past weekend we went to Desoto (outside of Dallas) for the state BMX championship. On Saturday they had a double points race, which we wanted the boys (we were there with Jeanette and Ethan...Larry came up Saturday night) to race to get used to the track and to check out the competition. He was in 1st in the first moto but the kid in 2nd place ran into him and they both crashed. He qualified in the 2nd moto and took 2nd place in the main. And then there was the stomach cramp. Jacob immediately started complaining of a stomach cramp when he came off the track after the main. It quickly escalated and he was doubled over in pain, which we are not used to seeing with him. At that point I (Shane) decided we needed to see the paramedics seeing as how Jacob was writhing in pain. I carried him to where I thought we would find them on site (they are usually there for big races) but couldn't find them. I asked a track official and they called the paramedics for us. Luckily there was a firestation literally next door to the park. About 5 minutes or less later a fire truck and ambulance roll into the park. Jacob's pain had subsided a fair amount and they checked him over and decided it was just a cramp. Better safe than sorry as they say. Jacob recovered quickly and was like new less than an hour later.

Sunday was the big race. We had to be there at 8am. Racing started at 11am and didn't end until about 3pm. We had so much fun watching the kids race. Jacob had a bad gate (meaning he came unclipped and was in the back of the pack) in the 1st moto. He qualified in the 2nd moto in 1st place. He took 2nd place in the main. Basically what that means is that he is ranked 2nd in the state of Texas for his class....8 intermediate. The kid that beat him was racing at his home track and is also the only other 8 intermediate kid faster than Jacob in the state. Actually he did win but you will see in the video that Jacob is the faster of the two riders judging by the 1st and 2nd straightaways. Jacob just got out maneuvered in the turns and rhythm section by the local kid who knows the track. This is called local track advantage :-)

We are so proud of him. He is very fast on his bike. What he lacks at this age is strategy. That is something that is learned and we can already see him learning some. Here is a video of the main event. Jacob is in lane 3 from the right out of the gate and is first into turn 1, then the race get's very interesting. He is wearing the white/orange/turquoise team jersey.

Bryce did really well both days at the track. He just checked out all the people and did lot's of smiling. Unfortunately, nighttime was not as pleasant. Sleeping in the same room with a 4 month old that doesn't sleep through the night is not easy. Essentially, we threw all the sleep training out the window. Every time he made a peep we plugged him with a pacifier. It wasn't all bad, but we were tired when we got home. Our friend Jeannette was a big help with Bryce at the track (Thanks Jeannette!) Also, our friends, really more like family, Sherry, Jack and Steven from Dallas came to watch Jacob race. It was cool to have them there and Sherry won the 50/50 drawing for $250! Made the trip well worth it for her. Here are some pics of the weekend.

Chillin' like a villain...

Our dear friend Jeannette helping out with Bryce

Team Thor/Stmpo/AFX

Goofball 1 and Goofball 2 :-)

Shane and Jacob

Recent Pics of Bryce

Bryce is now 4 months old. He just started sleeping through the night this week. Hallelujah!!! He still gets up at 6am but we are working on getting him to bed earlier and earlier. My hope is that as he is going to bed earlier, that he will start to sleep in a little later each week. He does enjoy going to the bus stop every morning. Shane is real good about taking him and Sadie on walks in the morning after the bus stop.

Now that Bryce is feeling better, he just smiles and smiles. He is a very happy baby. He does not entertain himself for too long so we try to keep busy every day.

Here are some recent pics of him:

Goodbye Sidney

This morning, I put to sleep our 14 year old cat, Sidney. Her health had been deteriating over the last month but even more so in the last week. When we returned from Desoto Sunday night I had a strong feeling that this was it for her.

I have only had Sidney for 3 1/2 years. She was my shadow. She was always in my lap. She slept on me or next to me every night. She liked to wake me up at night for lovin' (something I didn't care for but happily obliged her). Many a night I would wake up with her laying on top of me. I guess I am saying that it will be an adjustment for me to not have a cat sleeping with me at night. Moose and Boo sleep in our room sometimes at the foot of the bed. Maybe Boo will start laying next to me now that a spot has opened up.

Sidney did not like it when I sang. She would attack me! Good thing she was declawed. I think she didn't like my voice any different than a talking tone. She liked Jacob and would lay with him when I was not around. She tolerated Shane (I don't think she liked men too much). Shane took this personally :)

He did go with me to the vet this morning. I am a very emotional animal lover and he knew it would be hard for me to do on my own. How can anyone do this on their own? I feel emotionally drained today. I know each day gets better and better but knowing that we will be doing this before too long with Sadie, who is now 13 and failing, is more than I can bear.

Jacob took it pretty hard. He cried when he got home from school for a while. I told him she was very sick yesterday and he and I loved on her for a while. I was glad that she gave him a few kisses and laid by his side on our bed. I hope he will remember that as her goodbye to him.

Please pray for us as we adjust to life without Sidney.

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I will post tomorrow on Jacob's race in Desoto....he took 2nd place. Just have to get Shane to show me how to insert a video again.