Thursday, May 27, 2010

18 Months!

Our peanut is 18 months old! Amazing huh? How time flies...

Daddy's all ready for his fishing trip to Canada (my brother & dad-also going on the trip-are currently sporting fu manchus and cut-off flannel shirts too...pics to come).
Look closely at Lyla's romper :) :) :)

Lyla and Uncle Faz

Swinging at the park with auntie & uncle :)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Cutie Pie

New dress from Auntie Suz :)


I just had to take a picture of Lyla's outfit...Daddy dressed her. :) Note the pink onesie with brown polka-dots, purple pants that are a bit too short, and yellow socks. Gotta love it!

Down by the river

Good times with dear friends--we grilled out on the Mississippi this past weekend with our friends Mark & Karn and their adorable little man, Nelson. We're actually having a few days that are starting to feel like summer around here!

Nelson & Lyla

Princess Lyla and her escort daddy :)

Nelson=cuteness!

Lyla checking out the campfire

Eating a graham cracker...mmmm

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Day Trip

Lyla and I took a special trip the other day to meet the newest edition to my friend Susan's family. His name is Grayson Lucas and he is such a handsome little guy! It was so fun to hold a newborn again--so tiny...

Lyla, Susan, and Vivianna


Grayson :) (16 days old)

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Doctor appointments...

Lyla loves her Scout (thanks Janet & Lyndon!)

Well, this morning Lyla had appointments with her primary pediatrician, her pediatric orthopaedist, and her pediatric nutritionist. It was a busy morning! Every day seems like a busy day lately... Anyway, in a nutshell, she is doing amazingly well. Both doctors commented that Lyla is writing her own book on Trisomy 18. They are continually amazed at her progress, as are we. Lyla's primary doctor said that Lyla is by far the valedictorian of her class. Lyla's orthopaedist actually said that when she saw her 3 months ago, she never thought that she would be doing what she is now. Sometimes I think that maybe the medical professionals see Lyla as somewhat of an anomoly because she is doing so much better than the vast majority of Trisomy 18 babies. The truth is, that's not it at all. I know with all my heart that Lyla is not only here with us today, but also growing and getting stronger and stronger for one reason--God is doing a miracle in her. He has heard and continues to hear the many, many, many prayers for her from both adults and children on a daily basis, and He has chosen to do a miracle in our Lyla. That is the reason she is doing so well. It overwhelms me, and humbles me, and gives me a grateful heart. I can't say thank you enough for all of your prayers, and I can't say thank you Lord enough for all that He has done.

She now weighs 18 lbs 5 oz and is 29 inches long. She is starting to get up on all fours, she sits up independently for long stretches (35 minutes the other day!), she stands next to the couch independently, she can stand up from a sitting position, and she's starting to take steps when we hold her hands. All this from a girl who wasn't supposed to make it to birth, or age 1, much less be on her way to walking! The miracles continue. Thank you Lord. And thank you to all the people in her life who have worked with her (and with us) here to help teach her all these things and to help her be as healthy as she can be--Grandma and Grandpa Alameida (2 of the 4 best grandparents in the world), Auntie Bryana and Uncle Faz; Tanya (PT), Cynthia (OT), and Jackie; Theresa (care coordinator), Dr. Jedele, Margie (nutritionist), Dr. Winterstein, Dr. Londergan. You are all amazing and wonderful and have helped us so much--we are so thankful for you and we will miss you! There were some tearful goodbyes at the clinic this morning. We are praying that we will be able to find as great of care for Lyla down in AZ as she has here. Sometimes it's hard to imagine... but we'll let God take care of that.

Enjoy the vids!

She really was taking some steps earlier!

Getting closer to crawling--we'll see what she does first!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Updates

Well, in case you haven't heard, my dad's lung spot is still there, but he's going to have a needle biopsy done in awhile since it's not a big enough spot yet, rather than have surgery. Hopefully it will be benign. We continue to pray for him!

In other big news, we sold our house! This takes us one step closer to AZ! We will be closing on May 25th--so we'll have all our stuff, furniture and all, moved into our storage unit and Joel's parents' house by then. Joel is then going on a fishing trip to Canada for a week with my dad and brother on May 28th. I am going back to on-call status at my job on June 1st. Then, Joel is best man in another wedding on July 10th, and hopefully we can move to AZ asap after that! It's going to be a very busy few months for sure... Also, we are soooooo close to being done with painting the exterior of our house and it looks awesome--just when we get it how we like it, we'll be moving out! Anyway, I will post before and after photos soon.

Anyway, enjoy this cute pic from the wedding!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Wedding!

On Saturday May 1st, Joel's brother, Joshua, married my now sis-in-law Bryana. It was a beautiful day, and an amazing wedding--altogether wonderful! Here are a few pics of the wedding and the events leading up to it....Enjoy!

This is Lyla just being her cute self at one of Bryana's bridal showers.



A few pics at the rehearsal dinner.



And the big day!

Lyla did so well going down the aisle! :)



They're hitched!

The happy couple




Uncle Daniel checking out Lyla's glasses :)