Merry Christmas!

Every night at dinner we say Grace/Prayer. The other evening I was finishing up our prayer and just as I was getting ready to say "Amen" out of Lily's mouth popped what sounded a lot like "Amen!"




"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." – Romans 15:13 (NKJV)

Happy 1st Birthday sweet Little Lily!

As I look at the time, right about now the Doctors are just beginning my C-section. (of course one year ago!) How nervous we were to meet Lillian. I remember praying that I would hear her cry, and that it would be a good strong cry. I prayed that she would have good apgar scores. I prayed that she would not be too ill from the fluid in her head. I prayed that she would be cognitive.

God has answered everyone of our prayers and MORE! Lillian has enriched our lives in more ways than I am able to express into words. About 6 months ago, I looked back over the prayer journal that I had kept and still mean too. Every one of my prayers have been answered. The prayers that I prayed were before we learned of Lily's diagnosis. They were prayers about my job, about Ken and other items. When I read those prayers, I knew that God had answered them with our Little Lillian and her diagnosis. I am forever grateful that I am capable of being able to acknowledge this. One day, Lily will be reading this "journal" in book format and I have this to say... My sweetest Lily, how we adore you. How you have blessed our lives. How thankful to God we are that you are exactly the way you are! You are fearfully and wonderfully made! We love you!

Happy 1st Birthday Lillian!!!



Ephesians 2:10; "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them"

Today, we celebrated Lily's Birthday...

I am still in awe that Lil will be one year old on Tuesday! What a scary time last year was. We are SO blessed to be on the other side and to have traveled the journey that we have.

I will post a full account of the days celebrations tomorrow but wanted to post a quick photo.. :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

One year ago today, I met with Lily's Neurosurgeon. I went alone, Ken had to work. This was a "meet and greet" appointment. Of course, Lily was still in utero. :) Well, it is also Kens birthday. How different his birthday was this year verses last!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful awesome husband! I am so glad that God sent us Lily and that you are her father... You ARE an amazing father. We LOVE you!

Here are a couple of photos.. I created the cake, This was my very first attempt to bake a yellow cake from scratch, with buttercream frosting. I am not a pro decorator that is for sure.. but practice makes perfect.. OK or better. I'm sure that I will get a ton of practice in the future years. I enjoyed baking! :D Lily was quite excited too. Her grammie and do-pa (Kens parents) came by to help us celebrate.

Teething Tantrums

Poor Lil-Lil. She is so frustrated with teething pain. She has also started to throw temper tantrums.... right now they are kind of "cute." I feel it is a blessing that she is capable of having temper tantrums. That she is able to express that she is upset when we have taken something away from her... this is actually one of my many answered prayers!

Two posts in one day!?

Ok... this is an "event" and I have to blog about it. Lily has learned how to clap. The first time I saw it was this morning.. funny b/c I told Ken yesterday that I thought she should be clapping by now. She must have heard me! LOL

So, I was able to get a video.. and in the mist of me squealing "Your a big girl" Ken and I both could have sworn that Lily repeated "Big Girl!" Twice!....

Yesterday, Lily was VERY busy! She wanted to explore every inch of our home. For the last week she has dropped an hour off of her morning nap. She is teething constantly. I am hopeful that she may get her third tooth by Christmas!? I am SO thankful that I get to watch her in action every day. I don't have to miss anything.. Materalistic sacrafice is totally worth that!

Santa.. Santa...Santa!

Ken and I took Lily to see Santa last week. We were not sure how she would react. We went in the middle of the day in hopes that we'd escape a large crowd. (Lily tends to overstimulate in situations like that) Santa was on break when we arrived. We needed to wait 45 minutes. Tori had been to the mall with one of her friends days before and had sent me a barrage of text pictures of items that she'd like for Christmas. We took advantage of the extra time and picked up a few of her Christmas gifts.

We ended being first in line to see Santa and Lily LOVED him! She wanted to keep looking at him. This is a huge difference from her first Christmas last year when she was in the NICU.

Here is her photo with Santa.

Practicing Patience.....

I am not the MOST patient person in the world. I have gotten A LOT better as I age. :) I have never been able to bead or craft things with tiny details. I get frustrated and things tend to get destroyed, crumpled, stomped on or pushed aside. I KNOW this about myself and I as I have gotten older I allow myself to try and take my time... every craft doesn't have to be completed in a day. So... I am starting small... I want to have matching bows for Lily's Birthday gift wrap.... I decided to make them.... It's a start! ;D

17 days and counting ...........

WOW.. I can still hardly believe that Lily will be one in 17 days! I wanted to post these pictures a while back and got busy and well.. sort of forgot. They were taken in November by my Best friend. One afternoon Lily and I met her at the park and here are a few of the photos that she took....










Whew... Now those are some photos! I still have a bunch of Christmas photos and her Santa picture as well.... coming soon!