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.

Some more tidbits

Our little lou-who, who will be 10 months old on Friday, has been sick for almost 3 weeks now. It's been somewhat off & on. . . we've been to the doctor three times, too! It's just a cold that won't let go! Here's somewhat a picture of our house. My mom took it on my birthday (November 1st) in our living room. You can kinda see the texture on the wall; it looks like suede. When I was painting, the wet paint reminded me of cake batter, which explained to me why Will chose it, my baby LOVES chocolate!
This pic is my aunt Mona, cousin Carrie & of course Lilyanah at Mona & Rick's anniversary party that I wrote about earlier.

This year at our Masquerade party we dressed as a past or future version of ourselves. Now since Corey hasn't had an ounce of fat on him since he was a baby I have to assume that this picture is of a very-far-in-the-future him!

We Masquerade party we had on the 28th of October. We all dressed as ourselves from the past or the future. I had to include a picture of Corey because he dressed as himself in the future with an old-man belly! The next pic isn't a great one of Lilyanah but she has more hair than she will for at least 7 years I'm sure, if not longer! Aunt Kelsey is holding her before the party (you can't see but she stuffed her belly too & came as a future pregnant Kelsey). It's not a great picture of Lilyanah but it's the only one I have of her with that silly wig on! She was actually a little sunflower, though we all thought she looked a little like the dressed up version of ET. I hope you are all enjoying your November! I'm getting giddy about decorating our new house for Christmas! I'm not sure how we'll work the tree with Lilyanah~ It'll all work somehow. My question for you all is what are your Christmas or holiday traditions? Love you all! ~Wendy

Happy fall. . . .

I absolutely LOVE fall! Growing up we had pine trees in our yard so I never had to rake a yard, so October 21st was pretty much a first for me. You see, we have a big beautiful maple tree in our front yard & it amazes me how many leaves we have to show for it on the ground. I'll look out of the front window sometimes & the way the leaves are falling to the ground reminds me of snow! It's beautiful. Sometimes I even catch Lilyanah looking out the windows with the gleam in her eye & you can just tell she's amazed.

Anyway, Will & I decided it was time for us to jump into a pile of leaves for the first time. We actually fell back into the pile, not such a good idea to all of you considering it! After our first & last free fall into the leaf pile the real task was at hand. . . . trying to fit ALL of those leaves into our yard debris can. Let's just say Will repeatedly picked me up put me standing in the container so I could jump up & down to fit as many as possible in. It was actually really fun though I was a little disoriented after each time he threw me back over his shoulder & put me back on the ground. As all of you veteran yard rakers know since we did not wait for the tree to be bare we will be raking again this weekend. I actually loved it, there's just something about the crisp air with the sunshine on your face. UMMMM I LOVE IT! After we were done with taking care of the front yard we headed out to Mona & Rick's 30th anniversary party. My mother was a bridesmaid, 8 months pregnant with me. Yeah, which means yours truly is going to turn the big 3-0 this year. But back to the anniversary party, Carrie described her parents as 'a united front'. I loved that; I hope in 30 years that Lilyanah & any other kiddos we may have can say half the things that Mona & Rick's kids said.

This is a picture of Lilyanah & her Mema (Will's mom) on a visit at the end of September. She came to see Lilyanah, us, & our new home (probably in that order), who can blame her!? We had such a nice visit, mostly shopping for house goods & painting the living room. The picture below is of Lilyanah crawling in the living room. See, now none of you can say I haven't posted pictures of our new home! Isn't she the cutest little crawler! She's wearing one of my birthday presents from her uncle Corey last year. Anyway, her mema got her a beautiful rug for her bedroom that she loves to play on, as well as some goodies for us for the house. Thank you again, Linda, for blessing us in so many ways!

And now I must go, we're at Mom & Dad's celebrating my father's 52nd birthday. So I hope you are all well & just a quick question . . . . What do you collect? I'll answer for Lilyanah because while Linda was visiting I got Lilyanah the ornament we'll give her this year & next year out of a collection I'll be getting for her & just hopes she loves--Krinkles from Department 56. It's a very whimsical collection. . . The artist, Patience Brewster, has a wild imagination! Crocodiles wearing high heel shoes & boas, frogs in ballerina tutus. . . . how can you not love that!? I tried to download a picture from a website & am gonna have to talk to my cousin Katie about that 'cause I cannot figure it out! Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you all! ~Wendy.

9 months ALREADY!?

Tuesday our little girl turned 9 months old. And so I guess it's about time I let her write a little something on our blog. If any of you know what the below means, let me know! jvv78iyg6eerd....
./jjjjjjmnmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmb
078tjghh 6,,,,,,, h
vbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbkkkkkkkkk
k 908--j vb vb

Her 9 month visit landed right on the day she turned 9 months. She weighed in at 16 lbs 8 oz and is 27 inches long. The visit was uneventful until she had to get a flu shot. YUCK, of course any shot is yucky! But she took it like a pro! She truly is one tough girl, I guess she's had to be. She has to get the second half of the shot a couple of days before we leave for Oklahoma. The majority of Will's family lives in Texas so we'll be in Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving this year. We spent Thanksgiving 2 years ago with his family in cabins at Lake Texoma. We had a blast playing games inside & out. This year we won't be going to Lake Texoma until after Thanksgiving, but we're excited to still be going. I just wish there was some way to go 2000 miles without getting on a plane. Lilyanah has been amazing thus far on plane rides but this time she's much more mobile & may not be as content as on our previous trips.

On our way home from some errands after Lilyanah's doctor appointment I gave her a taste of her first baby biscuit. Surely there's a better name for them than that! She was a natural & LOVED it! And as you can see , she made a MESS! But "What a beautiful mess!"

Next Wednesday I have a CT scan again. It's hard to believe it's already been 3 months since the last one. It's such a reality check for me & I'd be lying if I said I didn't go into it scared that they may find something. It's so crazy to me that before you get cancer it never occurs to you that you may get/have it. But after you've had it , it often occurs to you that you may have it. Well, that's where I am, so if you get a chance please pray that what we hear from my CT scan will be good news. I will never be able to express to you all how much I covet your prayers. Well, tonight Lilyanah & I are over playing with my mom while the guys watch a guy flick at our house. Tomorrow we're going to a party to celebrate 30 years of marriage for my Aunt Mona & Uncle Rick. What a beautiful testament they are to how we married people are supposed to treat each other. I admire them both for so many reasons. Mona is truly truly the Proverbs 31 woman & I am so glad to have her as my aunt.
I could never ever fill her shoes but like her I was fortunate to have married a man who not only knows how to love, but how to love WELL. It brings me so much joy to watch him love on our daughter, to watch their little 'conversations' which sometimes are simply fake laughing at each other. Lilyanah just stares at her daddy with such adoring little eyes that it makes my heart overflow! I love our little family.

I'll leave you with this question, where will YOU be spending Thanksgiving this year & with who?
Love you all! Wendy.

Well hello again. . .

Hello to the dedicated who still, despite my serious neglect to this blog, check in to see what's going on in our family. Having a house is WORK! But we love it! We finished painting the last major room this weekend (the kitchen) & are thus done with the big stuff for awhile (YIPPEE!) I apologize for taking so long to get pics of our house, in the move the USB cable that enables me to download pictures from our camera got misplaced so it may be a little bit longer! I hope God is showering you all with blessings, we miss you all & hope to get the house done soon so we can have a party to celebrate the new home the Lord has blessed us with. I'm going to leave you all with a random question. . . . Halloween has got me thinking about fashion, (it's a stretch, I know, but. . .) if you could set the trend & bring back clothing styles from any decade which decade would you choose? I think I would choose the late 1700's (like the clothes Gwyneth Paltrow wears in Emma) Mostly only for the women though, the tight pants the men wore are a little creepy if you ask me! Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you! Love you all! ~ Wendy.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, It's OURS!

Oh yes, after 3 years & nearly 9 months of marriage Will & I are now officially home owners! Wow, it feels good! It also feels tired, or I should say WE feel tired! Saturday we spent the majority of the day painting the third bedroom where Jeremy is going to stay. Jeremy has been living in my parents rental house in Lake Oswego for the past 7 years. Now the house is on the market & Jeremy is going to live with us for at least 6 months, which we're very happy about. So Saturday was all about getting his room ready for him since he'll probably move into the house before we do either tomorrow or Thursday. Sunday we went to his house after we 'churched' as my cousin Katie in Oklahoma says; (If you ever want to be entertained check out her & my cousin Ryan's blog www.ryanandkatie.blogspot.com) and helped him pack as much as we could. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Home Depot getting stuff for the house (so much fun!). It wasn't until 7:30pm that we made it to the house to start to work. We want to get all of the painting done before we move in, mostly b/c we don't want Lilyanah around all those fumes. We painted until 3:30 am. Not one of the smartest things we've ever done. Let's just say we won't be doing that again! We had music playing so we could 'whistle while we worked' & I fumbled up some words. So I decided to list some words I got completely wrong to some songs. . .

My # 1 worst offense is thinking for at least 27 years that Neil Diamond was singing about Reverend Blue Jeans. I never got that until I found out it was 'Forever in Blue Jeans', the song makes so much more sense now!

My next offense is Kenny Rogers "Lucille" I thought he said "400 children & a crop in the field" not "4 hungry children & a crop in the field." My heart went out to him when I thought it was 400!

Here's one of Will's, he thought "Islands in the stream, that is what we are". . . was "Islands in the street, . . . ." He stuck to his guns until mom confirmed it was in fact stream.

Okay so mom decided to contribute, do you remember the Beach Boys. . . in their song Good Vibrations she thought when they said "The clothes she wears" was really "schweres"

I seem to have song block, I can't remember any of the other songs, kinda ironic that I can't remember songs I don't know the words to. I'm sure once I post this blog they'll all come back to me. . until then, I hope you all are having a GREAT day. And my question for today is pretty obvious. . I would love if you would share some songs you botched the words up to! Oh, & the pictures, the top one is our little family on Corey's birthday (July 28th), the next one is Lilyanah chugging along in her little walker. The next one is Jeremy & Lilyanah outside Mom & Dad's house looking at the fish & the last one is me & her on Oahu after a day at the beach. Well, that's about it, love you all! ~Wendy.

American What!?

Here are just a few updates. . . Last Friday the phone rang a little after 7:00 in the morning. It was my sweet aunt Kathy with an offer that we couldn't refuse! For the second year in a row she had won tickets from a radio station to the American Idol concert at the Rose Garden and since her boss had already bought tickets for her & all the girls in the office, she offered them to Will & I. Let me just say that they were amazing seats & we had a really great time. The last time I went to a concert was Shania Twain in 2000. Anyway, a big thank you again out to you Aunt Kathy & to Don & Peggy (her boss & his wife) who treated Will & I to a yummy dinner before the concert.

I haven't written much about an adventure we're in the middle of because I wasn't sure how it was all going to go, but we're in the process of closing on a house. We actually sign the papers tomorrow. But, right now most of our stuff is packed away in boxes. Well I found the shoes on Lilyanah's feet in a box of her stuff & wanted to see if they fit. I know it's an interesting outfit but the look on her face was too cute for me not to post the picture! She loves to hold your hands & be walked around. Can you believe we are blessed with this smiley face every day!? The house we're getting is still right here in Newberg. I'll have to post some pictures soon! We're so excited about getting the keys in hand & starting to make the house our home.

The last picture is from Lilyanah's first time to eat 'real' food. And I think 'real' is a stretch, it's just her first rice cereal. She took bites like a pro, we were so proud. You see that hair on my head! My brother Jeremy says I finally look like a college kid who cuts her hair short. I went from looking like Cleopatra right after we shaved my head to a 90 year old man when it was first growing back to a 6 year old boy a week ago. So I figure a college kid is a compliment! This picture lets you see how Lilyanah responded. She wants to touch EVERYTHING in front of her, the food was not exception! Anyway, we're having a good time. I want to apologize again for being so bad at keeping up at this. I seriously think blog entries in my mind that never make it to the screen. Hopefully once everything slows down I'll become more consistent! Of course when do things ever slow down!? I hope all of you are enjoying the beginning of fall! I love every season & am always ready for the next one to come around. Fall, I love the gradual cooling of days & occasional sprinkle. I love the changing colors of the leaves & the approaching of autumn & winter holidays. . .
So my question for you all is what do you love about fall? ~love you all! Wendy.