5 years!

March 25th was a very special day for Will & me. We met on Sunday the 25th of March 2002. After meeting at church we went to Dwayne & Mindy Seeber's house to watch the Oregon Ducks play against KU in the Elite 8. So, this Sunday March 25th the Ducks were playing again in the Elite 8. Sadly they lost this year just like 5 years ago, but what a coicidence! So I decided to share some pictures from Violet's birthday party. She's opening presents on a sweet little table Papa & Gigi got her & in the background you can see Papa, my aunt Mona (Violet's grandma) & Rick (Violet's grandpa).

The picture of Lilyanah is from the beginning of the month. Still no more new teeth & very very very little new hair! Yesterday she crawled up on the bed, saw my water bottle, knocked it to the ground, looked up at me & very loudly said "uh-oh". She says that consistently. She still isn't saying Mommy or Daddy. You can say "fishy" & she'll smack her lips together, or say cow & "moo" & she'll make a hard to distinguish moo sound back. But I'll say Mommy after she's been repeating me & she just laughs. She's taken as many as 3 consecutive steps but as soon as she gets close to whoever she's walking to she just throws herself forward. I'm glad she's not in any hurry to grow up. . . I'm sure that won't last as long as we want it to.

There's a picture of Hazel (Violet's little sister) sitting on her aunt Becky's lap. Isn't she a little doll!? Hazel is a little over 5 months younger than Lilyanah. I love the picture in the background on the right of Violet loving on Hazel!

The last picture is of me, yikes! I was nearly 5 1/2 months pregnant when that was taken. I thought I should be fair & show my growing belly. I know you can't really tell but I had straightened my hair in case any of you were curious. It's still naturally curly. . . it takes a little bit of work to get the straight effect. And now you'll have to excuse me, I have a very tired little girl laying her sweet little head on my lap, rubbing her eyes. Love you all! ~ Wendy.

AMAZING technology!

Everybody meet little baby Mathias #2. The image is a little bumpy, she isn't but it's hard for them to get just the outer layer of skin. .. So one of the benefits to being in the hospital so early with Lilyanah was the incredible picture that we got of her with their 3D ultrasound. With this little girl we are having ultrasounds VERY often, every 3 to 4 weeks. I have to say while it's no fun being a high-risk pregnancy I love that we get to see our little one so often! And, at this last appointment they did the above 3D ultrasound of her (just because I asked), isn't that so nice of them! The doctor said everything is going great & that she weighs about 1 lbs 3 oz. I asked about what she was thinking delivery-wise, because the last time we met she made it sound like I was going to go close to full-term. She said that had I not been able to do the MRI's that they were probably only going to let me go until 32-34 weeks. (Different from the 34 to 36 weeks she'd previously told me. But since they are able to do the MRI's they probably won't induce until I'm 36 to 37 weeks along. So still an early baby but hopefully not so early that she'll have to spend time in the NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit) like her big sister.

Last weekend we bought our first lawn mower! Isn't that so exciting! We actually have a very substantial yard in comparison to most properties these days. I think it took a couple of hours to clean up fallen twigs & such along with mowing the whole thing. I can't wait until we can build a fence all around our property so we can let the boys (our 2 pugs) run around while we're working outside. After losing our first pug, our sweet little Amos, so tragically Will has been very protective of these boys & tries very hard to avoid dangerous situations. Like, having them outside while he's mowing the lawn. When he was a boy his dad was mowing their lawn, and even though Will wasn't even close to the mower it went over a rock and slung it across the yard and hit Will. So he made sure we weren't very close when he mowed.

We're having a . . . . .

I just realized I haven't told you whether we're having a little boy or a little girl. . . .

Oops! So, let the suspense be over. . . In less than 5 months we'll have another little girl. We've chosen a name. It's actually an ancient Celtic name but chances are you haven't heard it unless you've seen Four Feathers with Heath Ledger & Kate Hudson. . . . We're actually going between:

Juliet Evalina

(Evalina is a family name)
or
Ethne Louise

(Louise is a family name)

Ethne is pronounced like 'Beth' without the 'b' & then 'knee, so 'eth-knee'. I was looking the name up on the Internet & it actually said that Ethne has never ever been on any countries top 1000 names lists. How hilarious is that!

Onto a different subject, I spoke with my oncologist today & he said that the MRI I had last Friday came back clear! YIPPEE! He didn't know if I would have to do another one before the baby is born, hopefully not. I have to say I much prefer the MRI over the CT scan. They do a painful shot into the muscle in your arm but there's no IV shooting radioactive material into your body so that's good. I don't know how long they're going to let me carry this little lady. At first I'm sure you remember my doctor said they wouldn't let me go beyond 36 weeks (I'm 22 weeks as of last Tuesday.) but I think they may let me go to 38 weeks since they've been able to do an MRI & didn't find any cancer. But, who knows!? (Only God!)

Our next appointment is next Wednesday (the 21st). I don't like that I'm a high-risk pregnancy but I do love getting to see our little girl every 3 weeks! She's moving a lot more too so I get to feel her little kicks & shifts, I love that.
I included some pictures of Lilyanah while we were down in Indio visiting Papa & Gigi. We all got SO sick (that is mom, me & Lilyanah). . . but our little girl never let's not feeling well get her down. We all laughed at how much her little outfit from cousin Carrie looks like an old-fashioned swimming suit! In this picture she was almost 13 months old & the outfit is for 3-6 months. Granted the first time she wore it, it went down to her sweet little ankles! Alright, enough for now, love you all! And if you will please, pray for an 'unknown' for us. I'll write an entry about it later, but it's so important to us that it's all covered in prayer.
Thank you, thank you! ~ Wendy.