Definitely Davis: 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

A New Chapter

I have used this post title before to announce a new pregnancy. I wish that is what i was doing today. Unfortunately, this is a new chapter of my life, one i have never even entertained thoughts of and definitely not a pleasant one.

About a month ago, my ENT discovered i had a Cholesteatoma in my left ear. This is benign tumor growing in the middle ear on the hearing bone. As it grows, it eats away the hearing bone causing hearing loss. If left alone, it continues growing while destroying all hearing and eventually growing into the brain, causing death. That's it in a nutshell. There is a proceedure a surgeon does called a Tympanomastoidectomy (I think??) where they go in behind the ear, drill a microscopic hole through the skull, and clean out the tumor. They can add prosthetic pieces where damage has occured. Then they take a skin graft from behind the ear to create a new tympanic membrane (eardrum-mine is destroyed). Facial paralysis is the biggest concern as they are working right along that nerve. It is about a 2.5 hour day-surgery under full anesthetic. I will not be able to nurse Nathan for 24-48 hours : ( which will probably be the hardest thing for me.

So...neither option sounds good to me. I sought out natural health options and am currently undergoing cranio and body massage work while combining homeopathy, herbs, and essential oils to treat specific issues in my body. But what i have come down to, is that my husband has been adament from the beginning that i needed to have the surgery, and i realize now that i need to follow his leadership and trust him and the Lord with this decision. I am still doing the other treatments in preparation for the surgery.

As of now, my surgery is scheduled for Friday, August 12th at 1pm. The Lord has shown me so much through all of this, and i know that His will will be done. I do not know what that will look like, and i will be honest that it scares me, but i am daily, minute by minute having to choose to trust Him with my life. After all, our lives are not our own anyway, nor are we guaranteed tomorrow. I am doing my best to live each moment as if it were my last, just in case. We all should!

Please pray for us.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Caverns

We had a great time exploring Natural Bridge Caverns in May. If you're ever in the New Braunfels area, it's worth the drive! Cody especially enjoyed stumping the employees with questions that negated evolution. It was his first encounter with evolutionists. Thanks to the Jonathan Park audio series, among other things, we were amazed at how well he held his own creation science point of view!

Pic Updates-3 & 4/2011

Sweetie Kate

Owen's 8th Birthday

Strawberry Heaven!

Kate & her friend Parah

Nathan loves strawberries too!

Baby Sitter Brothers

5k Run for Compassion

Cutie pie Nathan~

Free pig rides!

Claire really wanted a sister-
look in his hair!

Claire & Cody mountain climbing

Kate's animal report on...
can you guess?

This is why we call him Bruiser!
Look at his forehead.

Easter 2011

"Here kitty, kitty~i promise i'll
be gentle!"

Bros

We teach 'em young!

More Pics-May 2011

Look Mama, i can climb!

I can climb this too!

I figured out how to climb on Cody's bed
to get his Lego's!

Mother's Day Sweeties

Mother's Day

Mohawk Man! Claire loves to do
hair~Kate & Nathan are her willing subjects.

How many Davis' can you fit in
a go-cart??

Claire begged to make Nathan's birthday
cake. She's wearing as much as she made!

Nathan digging into his cake on his birthday!

Another cake-blue icing should be banned!!!
Family party.

Party with Nana & Pop T

Big 1 year old!

Monkey see, monkey do!
CLaire like to hand wash stuff, Nathan
does whatever the big kids do!

Back yard pool~wonderful after hot days
working in the garden!

Some of my favorite pics~
sleeping babes!

May I help you???

Claire's Babysitting Services~
"We do whatever it takes!"

Long summer days are exhausting!

2 times in 1 week-she is really asleep
in both pics!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Nathan at 9 months

Here are a few of Nathan's 9 month pictures. So, these are a little late, as Nathan is now 13 months, but i just got a cd of them today ; ) My friend Lamar (Wrapped in Light Photography) took these. She just took new pics today of all the kiddos, so hopefully i'll be able to post them soon.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Davis Animals

Currently we have a lot of animals! We are not animal people but really want our children to have the experiences of owning, caring for, training, and enjoying animals.
Here's the run down (in case you can't tell what the pics are):
~Clementine-sheep-Nathan is enamored by her but she wants nothing to do with him!
~Maggie & Daisy-yellow labs and chicken killers-not sure what we were thinking bringing home bird dogs to live peaceably among chickens!
~Blue-kitten~named after his crystal blue eyes that are now gray ; ( He recently started pouncing on our chickens, it better just be a phase!
~Katy-cat-still sassy as ever, although, she hangs around more now that Blue is getting all the attention.
~Wilbur & Hammy-pigs (future dinner and current eaters of everything left over from our garden-nothing gets wasted around here!)
~Lucy-buff orpington chicken that got broody so we put eggs under her and she hatched 7 of them-she's a good mama! It was so much fun to watch the whole sitting/hatching/training process. We have 2 more hens that randomly lay their eggs somewhere on our property that we currently can't find. If they don't start pulling their weight around here, adios to them!
~Snowball-Owen's rabbit
~We also have been blessed to get to watch 2 sets of baby mockingbird's hatch and grow, as their mother's built the nest's down very low in our trees. This provided hours of real nature science right in our back yard.

With so many kids and animals around here, there's never a dull moment!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Davis Family Summer Garden

We have been very busy lately working outside. We planted a garden this year that is 50 by 100 feet with the hopes of preserving enough vegetables for the next year. With the blessings of the Lord upon us, we have harvested and preserved an enormus abundance of food with buckets left over to share with others. What amazing life lessons we have shared with our children through the process of planting and tending our land. Here's a few pictures of our fun!