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.

Birthday Pictures (From Jan. 17th)

Here's our little princess on her first birthday! We were blessed to have my Aunt Mona & Uncle Rick as well as Laura, Troy & their girls, my parents & my brothers (Corey with his wife) over for dinner & some birthday cake. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the group, just the main event. So, I thought I should show how the night progressed. In the first picture she's actually clean! It was so cute because about 10 minutes before this picture was taken Laura's little girl, Violet (almost 2 years old) was trying to feed Lilyanah the rest of her dinner. We fed her in the living room & her food was still on the coffee table so Violet just picked up the spoon, Lilyanah pulled herself up so she was standing against the table & Violet was feeding her. It was the CUTEST thing! We got it on video but unfortunately did not get a picture so I can't show it to you on this blog. This next picture is obviously after we let her let loose into her cupcake! We did angel food cupcakes with whip cream frosting & banana on top. We tried to do low sugar ingredients but Lilyanah didn't go to sleep until 11pm she was on such a sugar high. It was actually really funny cause' she was SO silly! Plus it was my sweet husband who stayed up with her for the last hour!
Speak of Will, here's a picture of him giving Lilyanah a bath in the kitchen sink after dessert was over. It was much needed! I think Will got almost as wet as Lilyanah! Last, but not least. . . the Sunday after her birthday we had more family over for Sunday lunch to celebrate again! She's sitting in the high chair her Papa, Gigi, Gano, Dawn, Jack, Rick & Mona all got her as a birthday gift! It's a great high chair (thanks again all!)
She has a fluffy hat on my dear friend Lecia made for her so her little princess tiara would stay on her sweet head without hurting it! It's not the greatest picture I have of her from the day but she wasn't a big fan of wearing her hat so I had to take what I could get! Anyway, I have now fulfilled my promise of posting some birthday pics. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! Love, Wendy.

Close up

I was looking at the pictures I've recently posted on this blog & realized none of them are really great close ones of Lilyanah. So, what's a mother to do but post a picture!? Mom took this one last month right before Lilyanah turned around to climb up their stairs. She LOVES climbing up & down the stairs. You can actually see the gleam of excitement in in her eyes!
This picture was taken just moments later so you can see what she was anticipating.
What does a little loo-whoo love more than climbing up stairs. . .
being CHASED up the stairs!
I love how you can see her trying to look back at Dad
while trying to hurry away from him.
I guess you'd need to see a video to get the whole adorable
picture but this is the best I can do.
Thank you thank you to all of you who comment on the blog. If I never hear from you I have no idea you're checking in ~ and I love hearing from you all probably more than you enjoy hearing from me in these posts.
Have a GREAT day!
~Wendy.

This Time Last Year

Last weekend I went with my dear friend Lecia New to the EXPO center for a day of scrapbooking. SO. . . the entire day before I went through photos, cropping them, changing them to black & white, all that fun stuff. So I wanted to post some that I love. This first one was February 5th, 2006. Just 3 days away from being a year ago! That boggles my mind. Lilyanah weighed a little over 5 lbs. Now, a year later she is 19lbs 5oz & no longer 17 3/4" long but 28 1/2". . . Can you imagine growing over 10" in the course of a year! I guess teens don't really have to imagine. . . Anyway, that was our sweet little family not long before we loaded Lilyanah up & took her home for the first time since she was born! Now that was a good day! Too bad the Seahawks lost. But this year, GO COLTS!

In the next picture she was simply sleeping, (something she did quite often), but I thought it was so cute how her lips were pursed.
The next picture was taken nearly 10 months ago. That was a common scene us resting together! We were two tired girls! Gone are the days when Lilyanah had more hair than me! I'm just excited for her to get more hair than herself when she was a newborn!

The last picture was taken on October 31st, 2006. My very last night of being a 29 year old woman. Oh, how I miss those days! (I'm teasing) But that was a great night & I love this picture because it has all of us in it. Titus trying not to fall asleep at the bottom left. Gideon as close to me as he can get, like always. (As I'm typing he's laying at my feet with his little chin resting on my toes! ) Will, just being the amazing husband he always is & Lilyanah trying to fight getting sleepy by playing with my face. Of course I'm just enjoying being surrounded by 2 of my absolute favorite people & 2 of my absolute favorite dogs. God is good. I hope you all have a great weekend surrounded by those you love! I love you all! ~ Wendy.

Christmas pictures

I finally got some pictures on our computer to post! The first picture I know Gigi will LOVE! She was reading the back of the picture we wrapped for her to open on Christmas Eve. It's of us a couple of minutes after we found out about baby Mathias #2. Her face is priceless & pretty close to mine when I first found out so I couldn't resist posting it. I love you Gigi! Papa & Gigi are vacationing down in Indio, California for the winter. They love their home away from home, we just miss them BIG while they're gone. Just in case any of you in Indio read this, thank you so much for all of your encouragement & support through prayer.

The next picture is Papa with Lilyanah. Boy does our little girl LOVE her Papa! (I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual.) He can always make her smile! Of course that's kinda a funny face she's making in the picture. . . .

Here's our spoiled rotten little girl; or should I say our very LOVED little girl. She's wearing a dress from her Memaw & Pepaw. Her cousin Kaylyn in Lewisville, TX has the exact same dress! Lilyanah never did get into opening her presents this will probably be the only year I can say that! It was neat though to have her stop at every gift & play with the toy for as long as we let her before moving onto the next gift. I wish she'd do that every year but we're not holding our breath! Chances are next year she'll be opening all of our presents!

Christmas Eve we were at Papa & Gigi's for dinner & to open presents & play. All the girls got the same little pajama set & as fate would have it we stayed long enough for their bedtime to come & go so they all got to wear them. I believe my cousin Katie in Oklahoma may describe the scene that followed 'strawberry ruckus'. If you don't know what that means just imagine trying to coordinate an 11 month old, 21 month old & 6 month old!? That's cousin George on the left, Mona, Lilyanah, Hazel & Violet!

I really do have pictures from Lilyanah's birthday & other days. More to look forward to! That's enough for now! I hope you all are having a great day! ~Wendy.

Bombshell!

I'm writing a little bit shell shocked but in the last year you all have been my prayer warriors & so I write asking for prayer. (again) As I said before when I told my oncologist about our pregnancy he acted like everything was fine. Yesterday, however, we had a meeting with both our oncologist (Dr. E) & our perinatologist (Dr. L). I had never been told the actual percentage chance that I have of a recurrence of the cancer, until yesterday that is. Dr. E said that I have a 50% chance of it coming back and they are worried about not being able to monitor me while I'm pregnant. Of course the question was asked if we would consider terminating the pregnancy & of course our answer was no. Dr. L was pretty serious about us needing to consider the option saying that the most important thing was that Lilyanah had a mommy & that I was young & having more children 3 years down the road wouldn't be hard . . . . After our last meeting with Dr. E, I didn't expect any of this so I was floored & needless to say a little teary-eyed. It's important to understand that their ONLY concern is MY health. The baby is not increasing my risk of the cancer coming back, and the baby is in no danger. The simple problem is that they cannot do CT scans while I am pregnant so if the cancer does come back they won't be able to diagnose it until after the baby is born. Actually, Dr. L said they're going to look into the amount of radiation involved in the scans & will possibly be able to do one without the IV injection during my 3rd trimester.

Mom was in the meeting & when I left with Dr. E for him to check my neck & ankles & such for englarged lymphnodes she asked Dr. L some questions. She was concerned about the size of the baby & wondered if they would monitor how big the baby was getting. (Since Will was born at a whopping 10lbs 11oz) Dr. L said the baby wouldn't have a chance to get that big because they will induce labor before it gets a chance to grow that large. Because they want to do a full CT scan as soon as it is safely possible the longest they will allow me to go is 36 weeks. Depending on how I'm doing they may go as early as 34 weeks. They just want to make sure the baby will be okay & since Lilyanah did so great being born at 32 weeks they feel like both of us should be fine with such an early delivery. After our ultrasound on the 10th they changed my due date by 5 days from the 22nd to July 17th. So I guess we should expect to have our little one somewhere around June 19th possibly as early as the 5th.

We trust that this baby is God's timing & that whatever happens is in His ALMIGHTY hands. Thanks so much AGAIN for all the prayers you have lifted up to our Lord in this past year & in advance for the prayers you have yet to pray. Lastly, we'll have OB appointments once a month & will most likely have an ultrasound at each appointment. Our next appointment is February 6th & since we'll be 17 weeks Dr. L said they should be able to tell whether we're having a girl or boy. One benefit of having a high risk pregnancy (cause' we have to look for the good) is that we get to see the baby a lot more often then most. We love you all & hope you have a blessed weekend! Until next time! Wendy.
p.s. & sorry there's not a picture!

SURPRISE

Every year at Christmas time Will & I pick out a word that encompasses the year that has passed. Our first year (2003) it was BELIEVE because after an amazing 6 months working in D.C. we came home to an awful economy in Oregon & it took many months for Will to get the job the Lord wanted him to have. The next year we chose MIRACLE because after almost a year of trying to have a baby we found out on our anniversary (December 21st) that we were pregnant. We lost the baby at the end of January but our Cana was still a miracle! In 2005 the word was BLESSINGS. . . Will had gotton a new job & a few months later, a promotion. . . & on July 10th we again found out we were pregnant, this time with our precious Lilyanah. This past year we decided the most appropriate word is SURPRISE. Surprise, Lilyanah came 2 months early, (and of course the great surprise that she was healthy & doing GREAT). Surprise, you have cancer. . surprise the cancer is gone. . . we got a new sister-in-law. . . a house, and our final surprise of 2006 was revealed November 26th when we found out we're gonna have another baby. God is full of wonderful surprises & where we began the year with some difficult ones, we ended the year with such a beautiful one. . . . At first we didn't tell anyone because we wanted to make sure the baby was okay. I wasn't sure how far along we were & I had that CT scan on the 25th of October (which came out GREAT by the way, all looks good). But they hook you up to an IV & I remembered that when I had my CT scan in the hospital before Lilyanah was born they didn't do the IV because I was pregnant. Anyway, we went to the doctor on the 11th of December & by the grace of God I even got to see my OB doctor from my pregnancy with Lilyanah. (She was actually in the operating room when they found the cancer.) It was an unexpected blessing because she was about a week away from her due date & they didn't think she'd be available. Anyway, we saw our little one & everything looks wonderful; there's nothing like seeing that heartbeat & knowing your baby is okay. So, since then I had an appointment with my oncologist, who had no concerns about me being pregnant so soon after my treatment. That was a surprise too. A good one of course. So now I've been assigned a Perinatologist (someone who specializes in prematurely born babies); I'm sure there's more to it than that, but it's because I'm automatically considered a high-risk pregnancy. I actually have a meeting on January 12th with Dr. Ellis (my oncologist) & Dr. Lubarsky (perinatologist) to talk about what we're going to do CT scan wise & probably with ultrasounds & such. I also have an ultrasound scheduled for January 10th where they're going to make sure we're right on with the due date & that I'm not further along than 10 weeks (as of December 24th). What a mouthful!

If I try to fit Christmas & New Years into just one entry, I will either fail miserably or end up with one of my EXTRA LONG entries. I put a picture from our New Year's Eve party, not everyone who came is in the picture. . . We took it right before we went inside to watch the 'ball fall' on the television. It was such a blast! And thanks to Nick & Kelly (3rd & 4th in from the left in the picture), we had the crowns to begin the new year in! (Also Mom is taking the picture.) I hope you all had a similarly FANTASTIC December 31st! My question is "What did you do for New Years?" Well, I know the date says it's December something, but I'm finishing this up to post on January 8th & the Tostito Bowl is on so I've gotta go, but I love you all & hope you are drenched in the blessings God is showering on you! ~Wendy.

The End of October & November!

This seems to be the norm now doesn't it? I get caught up & don't blog for a month or more & then try to fit it all in one almighty entry! Well, there are some pictures I just got off my brother Jeremy's camera that I must post. The first one is Lilyanah's first Halloween (which is why Will carved a 1 into our pumpkin. I have some other cute pics but they're in my camera so I'll probably post them later. Lilyanah had reached her limit, it was passed her bedtime. . . But you can kinda see a little of our house. We were sitting in what I usually call our 'fireplace' room & can see our very humble dining room. I love decorating for fall, I think I said that before. . .
The next picture was taken at the Cheesecake factory on my 30th birthday. My sweet husband was thoughtful enough to organize the family getting together to spoil me for a night. After dinner Will took me shopping & one of the things he got me was a spectacularly soft robe, that I LOVE! My hair is still not long enough to cover my neck so 'baby, it's cold outside'. . . even more so to this girl! But my lovely robe has a hood that I sport that keeps me extra toasty! (Thank you baby for making that day so special!) For the record, I now believe that every woman should get a massage, manicure & pedicure on her 30th birthday, or as my sister-in-law Michelle calls every birthday after 29, the 1st anniversary of her 29th birthday.

We spent Thanksgiving in Texas. Can you believe that Lilyanah was only a little over 10 months when we went & our flight made it her 3rd flight since she's been born! She's a very well traveled little girl. The picture to the left is Lilyanah with her great-grandad (Clyde Vernon "Jack" Henshaw) from Ft. Worth. It was only the second time they'd seen each other, so it was especially special! After lunch at Grandad's house we packed up & headed up to Lake Texoma. They rented a couple of cabins & we had a great time playing games & visiting. The weather was amazing, it was in the 70's every day.
This next guy is her great-uncle Howie. Lilyanah was fascinated by his goatee & his hat! Howie has always been really special to Will & it was so nice for Lilyanah to finally get to meet him! Howie has mouth cancer & has gone through quite a lot in the last year and a half. Please keep his healing & comfort in your prayers! This picture was taken out in Grandad's back yard. Can you believe it was November & we were all in short sleeves! Howie took a picture of the entire family with his camera but I didn't know how to set the camera we had to take pictures so (sadly) I don't have that one to share.

Thank you so much to Lynn & Michelle & Grandad & Dee for all your work cooking Thanksgiving dinner & all our meals at the campsite! You guys always go above & beyond!
The next guy you see Lilyanah is Will's dad, her grandpa Mike. We drove down to his house in Whitney, Texas on Sunday & spent the night with him & his new bride Ann. We had such a fantastic visit with them. Lilyanah loved crawling around on their sofa & floor. Ann was sweet enough to give her a little stuffed Santa that she loved playing with. I had some cute pictures of her with a full smile but I couldn't pass up posting this picture because of the silly look on her face!

On our way up to Oklahoma City on Monday we stopped in at Cabella's. I hope I spelled that right or I'll get some serious smack from Will! They have amazing stuffed animals. You can see the elephant in the back. They're all REAL skins. All the animals seriously looked real. Well, you can probably tell from the picture. I have to admit I love how she looks with her head band on! There's still such a serious lack of hair on Lilyanah's head that no barrette would stay without some glue holding it on! It's actually finally starting to come in, along with her 5th tooth! We just took a couple of pictures where you can see her teeth & maybe even some of her hair! Well, thank you to those of you who still take the time to check on our blog! We love you all & hope you're enjoying your holiday season! And thanks to all of you who shared Christmas traditions, I loved reading about them! Until next time, Wendy.