11 months

Will is 11 months today!

My sweet Will,

• Your hair is growing so fast now and you have the cutest little curls!
• You can pull up easily now, and you are good at balancing with one hand. You can walk as you hold on to something...it won't be long before you are walking on your own!
• You've started climbing stairs, but haven't figured out a way to get back down.
• You are still holding steady with a 1-2 hour morning nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap, and you sleep from around 8pm to 8am.
• Your current favorite activities include swinging at the park, pulling down dishtowels that you can reach in the kitchen, splashing in the dog's water dish, high-speed crawling, and riding around on daddy's shoulders
• You don't like grass. If we sit you down on it, you will hold your arms and both legs up in the air so they don't "touch" the grass.
• You still get 4-5 bottles a day, but you are trying more and more foods - whatever your dad and I are eating!
• Your current nicknames include Wilber, Wilberforce, Little Man, Little Buddy, The Budrow, Budrow McDarto, and Doofus-la-roofus
• Your personality is coming out more and more and you are so much fun to be around!

Update

I wanted to give you an update on Matt's dad. This morning he went into respiratory failure and was moved to the ICU. He is in stable condition right now. Matt flew to St. Simons this morning to be with him. Matt's graduation is Saturday, and his brother Beau and Kate had planned to come up here this week for it. At this point, it looks like Matt will stay in St. Simons with his dad and siblings.

Matt doesn't start work until September, so we had already planned to spend the summer in St. Simons, and were planning on driving down there next week once graduation was over. At this point we think that either my mom or my sister will fly up here in the next couple of days and help me make the 17 hour drive with Will and our dogs.

I will try to keep this updated with how things are going with Mr. Dart, but we really appreciate your prayers for him and our family.

Will's baby dedication

Will participated in our church's baby dedication yesterday morning! Our church does a baby dedication once a year - it is a public commitment to raise Will in a home where Christ is honored. It's not about salvation or a special means of grace (this was not an infant baptism or a christening). We were called on stage with 8 other babies and their parents and our pastor, Jon, held each child and told what each child's name meant, and then prayed for each child specifically. It was really neat! And Will behaved really well throughout the whole thing! I was proud of him!

Our pastor gave us a copy of what he said:

Matt and Miller Dart are bringing their son William Pierce to be dedicated.

WILLIAM means protector/guardian; PIERCE means rock/stone

William Pierce,

May you be a man who is firmly planted on the rock that is Jesus Christ. May you be a man who hears God’s Word and obeys it. So, when the rains come, and the floods rise, and the winds blow, you will not fall, because your life has been founded on the rock. May your life of faithfulness serve to protect and guard others as you lead them to the Jesus - the rock of our salvation.

William Pierce Dart

He wore an outfit that the Monk's gave him - thanks Ashley:)

Our weekend, gluten free!

Our neighbors have a happy hour get together every Friday on one of the neighbor's front lawns. We thought it would be a good chance to get to know some of them, so we went and it was a lot of fun! They served dinner also, and Matt and I were asked to bring a dessert. Having never made a gluten free dessert, I wasn't really sure what to do. But we found this recipe on allrecipes.com for peanut butter cookies that don't have flour in them and they were delicious! Here is the recipe - they were ridiculously easy to make:

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

Combine and drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake for 8 min. at 350. (I also added a little vanilla)

On Saturday we went to Trader Joes - they had TONS of gluten free stuff. We've kind of loaded up on everything we can find that is gluten free, so maybe I'll give reviews of stuff as we try it and let you know what is good and not so good:)

Tonight we had all the couples in our Kellogg Christian Fellowship over for dinner. Matt made some awesome pulled pork and potato salad. And my sister sent me this recipe for a dip that I'd been wanting to make, and it was so good that I thought I'd share this recipe too!

Touch Down Dip

1 16 oz. can refried beans
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1 cup sour cream
2 T taco or southwest seasoning mix
2 cloves of garlic pressed
1/2 cup shredded cheese
diced tomato
2 sliced green onions
1/2 c ripe olives, sliced
1 Tablesp. chopped parsley or cilantro

In medium oval baker (1 1/2 qt) spread beans over bottom of sprayed dish. Combine cream cheese, sour cream, and seasoning, press garlic over cream cheese mixture. mix well. Spread cream cheese mixture over bean dip. Sprinkle cheese----Bake 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted. (350)
Sprinkle tomato, onions, olives, and cilantro or parsley on top just before serving warm. Serve with warm tortilla chips

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of all the food. Probably because I was busy taking pictures of the Davis' little girl Charlotte...

What a cutie! We've made some wonderful friends this year and it is going to be sad to say bye to them this week!

And to appease the grandparents, here are a few pictures of Will playing in the backyard...

Also, a quick prayer request - Matt's dad is really sick and is in the hospital. It is unclear at this point exactly what's wrong, but we should know more this week. Please keep him in your prayers!

Celiac

Thank you to everyone who prayed for my endoscopy last week. It really did mean a lot to me! It wasn't too bad. I remember the doctor giving me the anesthesia, and the next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room. I vaguely remembered trying to sit up and push people away and the doctor yelling "NO!". It seemed like a dream though, so when the doctor came in, I asked him if I had woken up during the procedure. He said yes, I had been combative! I guess they just gave me more medicine to knock me out. Ha! Afterwards I felt fine, other than being a little embarrassed:)

I heard back from the doctor this morning with the biopsy results, and I do have Celiac disease. It stinks, but I'm trying to be optimistic about it. Matt told me that if I can't eat gluten, he won't either (he said he wants to empathize with me). What an amazing husband I have! I am meeting with a dietician in a couple of weeks, and until then I will try and learn as much as I can.

This is a super busy time around our house...on top of the move, Matt's classes ended Friday and he has finals this week. And we have lots of social things going on as the end of Kellogg draws near and many of our friends move away. Time has flown by...it seems like just yesterday we were moving up here!

Moving, baseball, and a prayer request

We survived the move! We still have a lot of unpacking to do, but we are glad that the hard part is behind us! We won't have the internet hooked up for another week, so I am currently at a coffee shop!

We spent all day Saturday unpacking and by Sunday we were really worn out. We decided to take a break, and after church we went to a Cubs/Cardinals game! Our friend Adam pitched a great game and we had a really good time catching up with his wife Jenny. This was Will's first baseball game, and I was worried he would be cranky and wanting to take a nap, but he did really well! It was also Will's first tv appearance - Matt's dad said he saw him on tv!

On a completely other note, I have a prayer request. A few months ago a routine blood test showed that I may have celiac disease. With celiac disease you cannot eat gluten (wheat). So I went to see a GI specialist, and he said the only way to definitely diagnose celiac is to do an endoscopy.

So tomorrow morning, I am going in to have this procedure done. I'll be given anesthesia, and a tube with a camera on it will be put down my throat and through my stomach and a biopsy will be taken of my intestines.

This is not major surgery or anything, but I'm pretty nervous about it. I've been trying really hard not to be anxious, but it is hard! It may sound silly, but I am actually more afraid of this procedure than I am of having celiac. So please pray that it will go well, that I will not be anxious, and that the tests come back negative and I don't have celiac.

I'll post more as I'm able over the next week!