Catching up!

Some friends told me they love seeing pictures so I thought I would do some pre-Lilayanah's birth fill-in's. This one was taken about a week before we got married. Will graduated with his accounting degree from UCO in Oklahoma on 12-15-02 & Gano & Dawn ( my uncle & aunt) threw an engagement party for us after we flew in from being at his graduation. Boy do I miss having hair sometimes! Can you believe that we have a daughter with bright blue eyes!?

The one on the right is the day we got back from our honeymoon, December 26, 2002. We headed out the next day on our cross-country drive to Washington D.C., where we lived for 6 months while Will worked at the Guard Bureau (for the Air National Guard). What an amazing opportunity God gave us to do that. We had a FABULOUS time & if given the chance to do it again in the same scenario, we'd do it in a heartbeat!


Here Will & I are on December 8, 2005 at Mom & Dad's. Mom wanted a profile of me & Will decided he should do an impersonation of me pregnant. This next picture is such an attractive one of both of us in our 'we're gonna have a baby, get-up'! It wasn't long before we headed to the Operating room to deliver Lilyanah. I guess some people think I had her C-section, but such is not the case. I was induced on the 16th & had her the next day after a very restful night. Yeah, I will be getting no sympathy from her when I tell her about how long I was pregnant & how long I was in labor! "I carried you for 7 months & endured 26 minutes of pushing to bring you into this world!" God blessed us in so many ways when we were in the hospital & what I call a 'cake' delivery was one of them!

So here are Papa & Gg with Lilyanah on January 24 (one week old) in the NICU. She wasn't wearing what we called her "Vader suit" which was really sad, so many tubes & stuff all over her. Gradually the IV's & the breathing tubes up her nose came out. . . the last step was her feeding tube & I can't tell you how thankful we were the day that came out. Boy am I ever thankful that time has passed! Now all she's plugged into is her pacifier, which she cannot live without! I have an entirely new appreciation for why they call it a 'pacifier'. The doctors in the NICU really encouraged us to use one & said it would help with her development. Just so long as she doesn't use her fingers! Because I can take the pacifier away, but the fingers are there to stay!

The last picture is of Lilyanah holding Jeremy's finger. I teared up when I saw it for the first time. Have I said before how talented of a photographer my brother is? He took the picture of Will & I at our wedding on the "O Happy Day" blog entry. We're very fortunate to have him documenting our lives! So I hope you enjoyed all the pictures. Sorry we're always so posed!