Ouch!

WARNING! This post contains some extremely graphic pictures. If you have a weak stomach or just don't want to see pictures of absolute grossness, you'll want to skip this post. If, on the other hand, you are completely intrigued by this disclaimer, read on! (For the faint hearted, you can still go ahead and read the post; we'll make sure to give you a warning letting you know to not scroll down any further.)

Here's our oldest son, J. He was supposed to be at Scouts. As you can see, however, he was in the hospital instead. Here's the story.

Last Wednesday, Jay was making dinner (a lovely concoction involving Ramen and broccoli; don't judge), when he heard, "Get Dad! It went through my foot!" Now, that's not a normal thing to hear, so he went out to investigate. The kids were all outside screaming such nice-to-hear phrases as, "He's dying!" and "We love our brother! He can't die!" Jay rushed to the scene of the commotion and saw J. on the other side of the fence with a rod STICKING THROUGH THE TOP OF HIS FOOT!

Jay hurried in and told Sherrie to call 9-1-1, then ran back to help our son. Jay held J. in his arms to keep him calm, and told him, "It's alright." J.'s response was, "It's not alright! It went through my foot!" OK, it's a bit hard to argue with that kind of reasoning!

You're probably wondering at this point just how in the world this happened. It went like this: J. was outside with his younger brothers and sister and a friend, playing football. It was a beautiful summer day, and we really do have nice grass, so they were, of course, barefoot. The ball went over the fence (It's only 4 feet tall), so J. hopped over the fence to get it. He landed right on a 1/2" thick utilities grounding rod, and it went completely through his foot! He was effectively nailed to the ground.

The paramedics and sheriff arrived within only a few minutes. In order to get J. free, they had to dig the ground under his foot and snap the copper rod with the Jaws of Life. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance (for the 3rd time in his life, we might add!) and the wonderful doctors removed the rod. Thank you, wonderful doctors! That rod was really in the way.

Now for some amazing things. Amazing thing number 1: despite the ridiculously high amount of bones, tendons, and ligaments in the foot, the rod missed all of them. There will be no permanent damage, other than a couple of really cool scars! Amazing thing number 2: J. did not cry during the entire ordeal. He certainly let us know he was in pain, but he did not cry. Actually, there were a few tears, but that was only when the doctor said he would be in the hospital until Sunday; he had been looking forward to seeing his cousin for weeks, and his cousin was only going to be in town for the weekend. The thought of missing out on playing with his cousin is what made him cry, not the HUGE HUNK OF METAL IN HIS FOOT! Amazing thing number 3: J. was out of the hospital on Friday, so he didn't miss a second of being able to play with his cousin. Amazing thing number 4: If you're a really sweet 10 year old boy, who doesn't complain at all about one of the most gruesome injuries ever, nurses give you all the ice cream you could ever want. Even if that amounts to about 300 a day. Amazing thing number 5: J. didn't die of ice cream overdose.

Alright, now for the good parts: the pictures! First, some non-graphic pictures:

Now for the really good part: the graphic pictures. So here's the promised warning:

WARNING: If you continue to scroll down, you will see some pretty nasty pictures!

You can still turn back if you don't want to see!

Last chance!

Congratulations! You made it to the gross pictures!

And here's the wound without the rod. It's healing up nice!

Our Happy Family!

We have the best family in the whole world! We cannot even begin to describe how amazing these kiddos are. They make us laugh with the fun things they say and do, and they always impress us with how responsible they are! Families are forever, and we are forever thankful to be a part of this family.

(And for those of you who are wondering, Sherrie took this picture! She put the camera on a tripod, told us where to stand, hit the timer, and ran to her spot. She's awesome!)

Lynne & Kent: FAMILY

We have known this wonderful family for a very long time.  They are great.  It has been fun to meet new family members as they have joined the ranks.   

And a special Congratulations goes to this happy couple that will be getting married in August.

Thank you for letting us share your evening, eat fabulous homemade ice cream, and document your wonderful family.  We love you guys!

The Apple of his Eye

Translation:

The apple of my eye is my mom because she helps me with my homework and she makes sure that I don't get hurt ever. I love her.

Mr. Mister

It makes my heart smile.

Sisters

The Princess of Awesomeness waited 10 long years to get her baby sister. After four brothers, she was ready. She loves her brothers, but there is definitely a special bond between these sisters. I love it. I love to see it, and I love to document it. They are so fun and so amazing.

We love these girls!

John & Holly: Family

This is one of the most amazing families you could ever hope to meet! John is Sherrie's brother, and we love him and his family. They are the kind of people who never think twice about helping someone in need, are always cheerful, and genuinely love each other. Not to mention, they are a lot of fun! We live a few hours away from them (which is quite a few hours closer than we used to!), and we love getting the opportunity to see them as often as we do. It helps that they have the same number of kids as we do; each one of our kids has a corresponding cousin in John and Holly's family that is within a few months' age of our kids (and no, we did not plan it that way! :D )

We were thrilled when they asked us to document their happy family. After all, the family pictures they had on the wall needed some serious updating. (Actually, we can't say much about that, which is a bit ironic since we're photographers. We once had some friends where she was a massage therapist, and we commented to him about how nice it must be to get professional massages all the time; he said she never gave him a massage; since she did it all day it was the last thing she wanted to do when she got home. Kind of like that for us, except without any massaging. And we don't do it all day, either. And we actually still like taking pictures. So, it's nothing at all like the massage people--we're just pathetic. OK! We'll change our ways! :D)

So, after all of that, here are the pictures of the awesome people (and if you are ever thinking of marrying a massage therapist, do it because you actually love the person, not because you are hoping for some massage benefits!)

This is a classic example of what we like to see in a family picture. Check out that air! If we ever take your family's picture, expect that we will probably ask you to do this. Can you catch this kind of air? And don't forget the arms and legs at crazy angles! It makes it awesome! You have been warned. So when we tell you we want to do a jumping picture, you know what we mean. It sometimes takes people a while to finally get what we are talking about. So this is it! Do that kind of stuff! Oh, and if you happen to have any sort of physical problem that might make this kind of stuff difficult or painful, like, say, a knee problem (*ahem*, Layne!), let us know BEFORE the jumping commences!