Randomness

Hi there and sorry for the delay in posts! Many exciting things are happening in the Estep world and I wanted to take a minute to share with you. We received word on Sunday night that we had an offer on the house--FINALLY! These last few days we have become well-acquainted with the church fax machine and have had a great deal of practice in perfecting our signatures! But seriously, now that all of that is taken care of we are in the process of working on a closing date. It's so exciting for us to be at that place where we know we can really begin to look toward our future as a family without having the strings attached to a house we don't even use anymore. (I do have to admit, though, that it is a little bit sad handing over the keys to our very first house...the first house Braeden came home to and spent his first year. It's difficult but we've learned quickly that life brings a great deal of change and we have to move right along with it. So, ready or not...HERE WE COME!) Continue to keep us in your prayers that everything will continue to progress in God's perfect timing.
In other news (and I hope they don't mind me sharing this on our blog) but we also found out this week that we're going to have a niece and a nephew! A BIG congrats to Adam and Kendra on the good news that the babies are healthy and doing well! We can only imagine the fun Braeden and his 2 cousins will get into as they grow up together!
Well, I hope to have more pics to share with you in the near future. Until then, take care and enjoy the rest of your week!

Summer days

Here are some snippets of what Braeden has been up to lately...

A few weeks ago we received a package in the mail from Nathan, Matt's best friend from college/grad school, with an adorable hat from Baby Gap for our little Braeden! It's this adorable reversible hat with little straps so that the hat stays on no matter how much Braeden pulls at it (and we know this from experience!) Thanks for keeping me stylin', Uncle Nafey!


When caught these cute pics of Braeden with his grandma (Matt's mom) one night when he was in the happiest of moods! What a blessing to see him interact with his grandparents!


This is one of Braeden's favorite moves he likes to share with us from time to time. What good balance he has for an almost 16-month old!


Below you'll see some footage of Braeden trying to jump like his daddy. What a cutie!



A few weeks ago we had to take Braeden for some blood work and considering the fact that they had to stick him 5 times, he was a real trooper through it all. Here are some pics of our brave little guy!

4th of July and an update

(Bringing you up to speed on what we were up to for the fourth!)
It's hard to believe that we're already so far into July--my, how the summer flies! We enjoyed another wonderful time in Virginia with my family as we celebrated July 4th weekend. On Friday we had a yummy breakfast at my grandparents' house followed later on by some dinner at Chili's and shopping around Winchester. I had a giftcard to Living Branches that mom & dad had bought me for Mother's Day so I enjoyed using that to buy several cds--Israel Houghton, Michael W. Smith, and Kari Jobe-- if you couldn't tell, I am currently in a praise & worship mode! The evening ended with an exciting game of "Apples to Apples" with my mom and dad.

Saturday we just chilled around the house while dad did some yard work and family came over in the late afternoon for dinner. Braeden was quite the little entertainer as he chased a ball around the porch and used some of his new words for the family. He also has moments where being confined to a highchair is sheer torture for him and it was that way for dinner on the 4th. We're in the process of teaching him that dinner "on the move" will not be the norm in the Estep household. :)
On Sunday morning we went to WCOG and, as always, enjoyed an awesome service! Lunch at Grandma and PopPop's followed and before we knew it, we were back on the road to PA. Of course, it wasn't the same without Ryan, Ashley, and Chanel! It was great to talk to you guys on the 4th and we hope you are loving GA! We miss you very much!
Here are some pics from the weekend:

Heidi carrying raw meat...yeah, those serving skills DO come in handy!

PopPop with his infamous camera...as always he's ready and waiting!

Grandma helping to set the table

Some grilling action!

With daddy...aww!

The fam on the porch

Our grillmaster...then, our entertainment for Braeden

Priceless...there's no doubt that he was most likely listening to a detailed story from grandma (while holding the hotdog buns!)

Proud mommy and daddy


(I think Braeden was almost doing his sign for "more" in the pic to the left!)

Cool new gift from great-grandma and poppop

Mom's traditional 4th of July cake! YUM!


So, I also wanted to take a minute to give an update on Braeden. We had the chance to go and meet with a pediatric neurologist. She was very thorough and took detailed notes on what Braeden has been experiencing and even watched our footage of him having one of his seizures (after which she shared it with a colleague in order to get his input.) In the end, we decided to go ahead and try to rule out what it's not so that we might find out what it is that's causing this. Braeden has already had blood work and though it was very unpleasant, it was also extremely beneficial. We learned that although his iron levels were fine his ferratin level (storage iron) was low and so his doctor put him on an iron supplement. This has been known to help reduce breath holding spells. It will take some time for the iron supplement to truly take effect but since he's started it he hasn't had any seizure episodes. He has a 24-hour EEG scheduled (he gets it put on, comes home and does his "normal" routine and then gets it taken off 24 hours later) for next week as well as an appointment with a cardiologist for an EKG and an Echocardiogram to rule out any heart condition. Later on, he may be referred for an MRI. So, we're taking steps forward and it feels good to be getting answers.
We hope that all is well where you are and that you're enjoying your summer! Have a wonderful rest of the week! Blessings!