Already September - Wow!!

Holy cow a lot has happened since the summer ended. Our family is busier than ever and it will only continue to increase over the next few months. Here is a quick  run-down to get completely caught up to this point in time because I do not have the time for individual posts for each of these topics.

Glaser Family Reunion- This year it was hosted in Altoona. We had a great time and loved getting to see everyone. There was a lot of fun memories that were made and look for the Glaser Family Group to appear on Facebook as soon as my life slows down just a little, you will understand as you continue reading. We did get to take Lucas to Adventureland for the first time and he seemed to enjoy it. I felt bad because he wanted nothing more, once we went to the water park, than to swim but having just had surgery and tubes put in his ears that was a no-go. He rode a ride or two, though, and spent some time with Easton.

Matt and Heather start back to school- Yes, you read that right. We are both enrolled in classes. Matthew just finished his online pre-requisit course and will enroll in the Verizon Wireless Business Prism class. I am currently enrolled full-time online through DMACC. I am going to finish my two year degree and then was also accepted to attend Mercy College of Health Sciences in the fall of 2014. We are very excited for what the future holds for us, but this has made our lives a little hectic trying to fit homework in between lunch time, playtime and bedtime routines with Lucas.

This is definitely his, "Come on mom, put the computer away and play with me already! "

Fantasy Football Leagues- This year Matt and I are both partaking in two leagues. One with the Warren/Coates/Porter/Dunn gang. (Wow, that really does sound like a law firm name). And the other with our friends from high school. We were invited over to Matt and Kassidy Small's house for the draft with our friends and had a great time seeing everyone and pigging out on all of the awesome food.  I am hoping to do better than 4th place this year, but that was a major improvement from the year before when I came in dead last place the day before Lucas was born.

Matt accepted a lateral position in Des Moines- Matt applied for a position at the Douglas location and wasn't chosen. So he applied for the gal's spot who did get the initial position. He accepted the offer on August 26th! We are so excited to get out of Fort Dodge and get back to the Des Moines area to be closer to family and friends. Even though it was a lateral move, technically, the Southeast Des Moines location has a higher volume of clientele and this keeps Matthew busier.

Great-Granny passed away- We attended the funeral service for my Great-Granny (87) who passed away on Saturday the 24th at about 10:30pm. We will deeply miss her, but I am at peace because I know that she is with Grandpa now and is happy. Her health quickly deteriorated after losing him to a heart attack many years ago. I have lots of memories of the two that I will share with Lucas, as I am sure my grandma and dad will too.

Great Granny with Matt and I on our wedding day, October 23, 2010. 5 generations is pictured in the photo on the right! Wow!







Moving- With Matt accepting the new position that means we have to pack up and move out. He is currently staying at my dad's house since it is very close to his work. I am currently bouncing back and forth between there and our home in Fort Dodge. I am also packing, packing, packing. Thankfully, my mom and Granny Annie came to help me pack up the basement one day. Also Kimmy and the boys came and helped pack up Lucas's room, the bathroom and the linen closet. I will continue to pack away in between trips to Des Moines, homework and raising and caring for Lucas.

Buying a house- My many trips to Des Moines is because we are in the process of buying a house. We looked at close to 15 different properties and think we have found the one we want to purchase. It is a very cute home that backs into Grandview University. It is a three bedroom one bathroom home. It has a lot of potential for our little family and will make a great starter home. If for some reason this home falls through we have another property that we are interested in that is located over in the Easter Lake area of Des Moines. It is a bigger home and with a bigger home comes a bigger price tag. We will just have to pray and let God. He has a plan for us.

Here a just a few pictures from over the last couple of months, because no posting is complete without some pictures!

  His 19 month Pictures by Katharyne Dunn Photography

 This boy loves to be outside and play in the dirt. He also enjoys going Geocaching and getting new toys to play with!! This is a great family activity to get us out of the house and outdoors!

This is a pitcure from our "Drive-in Movie Night" that we hosted with Jacoby, Jonah and Lucas. It was a lot of fun and they boys all loved their "cars"! I cannot wait to be back closer to them to get to do more fun things like this with them more often! 

Here is a couple more pictures of him - At the zoo and eating corn on the cob for the first time! 

 I hope you all have had a great summer and are ready for Football, Fall and Halloween! I cannot get over how quickly this month has gone. It's already 1/2 way gone. Wow!! Well, that's all for now. I will update again with I find the time. But in the meantime, take care and God Bless!

With love, 

Matthew, Heather and Lucas

 

Oh yeah, I got bangs! I love them, what do you think?

**Catching Up** - Lucas's Second Surgery

After about the 6th double ear infection his pediatrician finally referred us to an ENT here in 

Fort Dodge. We took along the video of him snoring (below) so that the doctor could clearly make the best decision for our little man. 

When we went for his consultation he wanted no part of them touching him, poking him, etc. The doctor looked in both ears, down his throat and up his nose despite every attempt Lucas made to prevent him doing so. Then he sent us to have Lucas's hearing tested. It took me and two other nurses to restrain him. He didn't like being forced to sit still. It came back that his right ear drum was completely collapsed and the left ear drum had fluid behind it. This meant that he was entirely deaf in his right ear and limitedly deaf in his left. Even though Lucas had just had strep throat for the first time the doctor decided it was in his best interest to refrain from taking out his tonsils until he is older if they continue to give him problems. He was also dead set on giving him tubes in both ears and removing his adenoids so he could breathe while sleeping instead of snoring or gasping for air throughout the night. This decision meant we had to schedule another surgery for Lucas. 

The day of the surgery, Nonna and Grandma Audrey drove up to be here with us! This one wasn't as nerve-wracking for me at least. We waited for it to be his turn in his room. We watched movies on the iPad, played with his Endless ABC's app and watched Mickey Mouse Club House. He got dressed in a hospital top and slip resistant socks.

Then it was his turn. It required three female nurses and one male nurse to restrain him and take him back to the operating room. He's a strong little boy. 

His surgery went great and the Doctor was very pleased with his outcome. He said his adenoids were the size of a walmut. Holy cow! I can only imagine that would have been uncomfortable - like a huge bugger that you couldn't retrieve. 

This is his stuffed animal from Grandma Audrey that the nurses wrapped up with a surgical mask, gauze and gave stickers to. We thought it was really cute. 

After the surgery he was so upset. He kept trying to rip the IV out of his hand. As you can see in the picture above, we had to wrap it up and keep it away from his other hand to prevent him from pulling it out and them having to start all over. 

Once they took the IV out of his hand he completely settled down and was able to rest and wear off some of the anesthesia.

Fort Dodge's outpatient hospital isn't as congested as Des Moines's and we were going a bit stir crazy waiting for the doctor to arrive to release us. Once we were released, we went to get his prescriptions, lunch and then we went home to settle in for the day. When we got home I turned on his favorite cartoon so he would settle on the couch, and soon after the program started he said almost as clear as day, "Bubble Guppies". I was completely shocked. I hadn't heard him talk that clearly ever. 

Soon after the show ended he fell back to sleep on me. But then I got too hot and snuck out from underneath him. He slept for four hours. 

When he woke up he was very hungry. He was limited to soft food diet, which wasn't a problem because he absolutely loves yogurt. 

After his drowsiness wore off, he was running around and acting 100 times better than he had in quite awhile. 

Luckily he has done very well with his tubes, so far. We only hope that it continues. He will go back to the doctor six months out from his date of surgery, but at his one week check-up Dr. Delucca said he looked excellent. 

Praying for good health! 

With love, 

Matthew, Heather and Lucas

**Catching Up** - Second Trip to the Science Center

Next year we are hoping to be in Des Moines to be able to get a pass to the Science Center, the Blank Park Zoo and Adventureland! This trip we went with Grandma Cyndi, Casey Mallory and Keira. 

Lucas's first IMAX movie!

He fell asleep watching the Elephants & Chimps on the IMAX screen

Lucas really enjoyed the "Get Moving" Exhibit. He liked putting the balls of all difference shapes and sizes into the air stream and watch it float (or not). Daddy had to help - and played too!

The kids really had a blast in the "Toying with Science" wing. Mallory had fun shooting off her paper rocket over and over and Lucas couldn't get enough with the lego cars and the ramp. Then they found a train table and both enjoyed playing with the train cars on the tracks! We let them play with that while we did the "Drop the Egg" experiment. Matt ended up winning - cheater, cheater! Ha! 

Memories like this are so fun! Lucas probably won't remember going at this age but thanks to my need to photograph EVERYTHING he will have the ability to look back on this! If you haven't been to the science center I recommend going - There are such neat exhibits and plenty of things to entertain the whole family for an afternoon! Plus there is the IMAX theatre which is cool unless you are like me or my brother and get physically sick from all the motion/sound etc. 

With love, 

Matthew, Heather and Lucas

**Catching Up** - Minnesota Bound

Macie and Aunt Lindsay joined Lucas and I for a quick trip up to Minnesota to see Great-Uncle Scotty and have our eyes checked before Lucas's 18month check-up. We had a great time and made lots of memories and it was really nice for Lucas and Macie to get some quality time together. 

Miss Macie talking on the phone with her shades on

My little "Starbucks Boy" - he actually is obsessed with straws and HAD to have mine when I finished

Macie's picture of her mommy - Passing time!

 We finally made it to Minnesota, and then some to Kendall's baseball tournament, but that was after many "Are we there yet, H?" questions. When we arrived both kiddos had to release some energy and thankfully there was an awesome playground area for them to play! 

 All of the playing wore Lucas out and he needed a nap during Kendall's second game. He napped in their camper like a rockstar with his feet hanging out over the edge! Goofball!

After Kendall's game we loaded back up and made the rest of the trek to their home. 

My Aunt and Uncle's home is gorgeous! It sits in the middle of a corn field and yields complete privacy just outside of town! Now just have to keep helping Matt stay focused so one day we can own a home like this ourselves when he strikes it rich with Verizon ;) 

The next morning we took the kids into get their eyes checked first. Macie's were perfect! Lucas was diagnosed with "Marcus Gunn Jaw Wink". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Gunn_phenomenon)

To summarize what Wiki has to say, basically the jaw muscle and ocular muscle are crossed somewhere. This is nothing to be worried about and is something that should correct itself over time. The only time it is even noticeable is when he sucks on his sippy cup, bottle, or opens his mouth really wide. When we go back next year Uncle Scotty will be able to look at his eyes a little better, but overall despite that phenomenon, his eyes looked great! 

Then we went out for brunch and afterwards headed back to the house to pack up! 

The kiddos enjoyed playing with Hallie, their little Morkie. Lucas liked that she would actually bring the bone back to him once he threw it. Something Jaba wont do with him. 

 To kill sometime in between packing up and Lindsay and my's appointments we took Macie and Lindsay Geocaching for the first time. We ended up finding two geocaches! (www.geocaching.com)

Lucas snuggled his Auntie while I tried to help Macie point the compass in the right direction. And then at the second park they wanted to swing! It was a little hot so we cut that short and headed to the office for our appointments. Lindsay went first and ended up needing two pairs of glasses - one for distance, one for at the computer/reading. I went last and really realized how blind I am!! Oh my. A pair of glasses were necessary for distance and up close all thanks to my astigmatism. Hoping this doesn't get any worse in between this year and next because the glasses I picked out are so cute! See below.

If you haven't had your eyes checked yet this year, I highly recommend it! And if you are ever in Minnesota I recommend looking up Crow River Eye Care Centers in either Glencoe or Hutchinson (http://www.crowrivereyecare.com/).

Love to all, 

Matthew, Heather and Lucas