Tuesday, May 18, 2010

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 :)

Friday, April 23, 2010

This & That...

Lyla and I recently visited some dear friends...
Joyce & Lyla

My friend Sarah & her youngest, Mac

Lyla & Mac

And Joel, always so festive, celebrated Earth Day by shooting a wild turkey...

He's a handsome one, isn't he? (my husband, that is!)

Joel letting Lyla check out the turkey (note: mom was at work and was not aware this was going on, thankfully)


And here is Lyla's new way of getting around :)

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Spring has Sprung!

Lyla fell asleep on our swing with Grandpa

Joel's first bass of the year!


Little wiggler :)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

A Princess Preview & A Prayer Request

Here is a sneak peek at our little princess...she's in the dress that she'll be wearing for Josh & Bryana's wedding on May 1st. And our prayers have been answered--she is most decidedly sitting up independently now (we were praying that she would be by the time the wedding rolled around!). She's also making great progress in other areas, ie standing and getting closer to crawling--thank you Lord!

photo courtesy of Auntie Bryana :)

And a prayer request...as many of you probably already know, the results came back from my (Jenny's) dad's CT and PET scans. The spot on his lung grew and there is an 80-85% chance that it is cancerous. It is in the 1A stage (caught it as early as it could've been caught-PTL) and it is too small to biopsy. So basically he's going to have a small piece of his lung removed (called a wedge resection) and then they'll send it to pathology to see if it is truly cancerous. The doctor said that even if it is malignant, the chance of cancer recurring in Dad's lung is 5% or less. So, like my dad said, it is the best bad news he could have gotten. My parents are doing great and are very optimistic and, as always, we are trusting the Lord with his care. All this to say, we would love your prayers for my dad and his lung cancer situation. As we know so well, prayer is powerful and the Great Healer is listening.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter

Hope you had a wonderfully blessed Resurrection Day! We had a little Easter photo shoot--enjoy...





















Friday, April 2, 2010

Good Friday

JESUS had no servants, yet they called Him MASTER...
JESUS had no degree, yet they called Him TEACHER...
JESUS had no medicine, yet they called Him HEALER...
JESUS had no army, yet KINGS feared Him...
JESUS won no military battles, yet He CONQUERED the WORLD...
JESUS committed no crime, yet they CRUCIFIED Him...
JESUS was buried in a tomb, yet He LIVES TODAY...