A Festive Photo Collage! If you like looking at pictures you'll LOVE this one!

Well, I can't believe that it is only 7 days until Christmas! Where has the time gone? It seems like it was only Thanksgiving yesterday. In short, we have put up our outside lights, put up the tree, started Christmas shopping, done some baking and making of treats, did some scrapbooking, and started a new job. YES, and started a new job. Part-time at one of my favorite places Archiver's. In between we have attended many Christmas parties and saw Santa at all 3 parties! Boy was that fun! We also have a wonderful little elf that has been visiting our house and he sits up on high places around the house. His mission...to report back to Santa every night about how well Gwynny has been behaving. Each morning we wake up to find him in a different spot! How does he do that? Hmmmm... well let's just say we are all having fun with that one. We also have managed to visit several of our docs at the clinic and Lily successfully passed her swallow study on the 7th! I was shocked to say the least but she is now able to start working on trying to take thin liquids without the ol' Simply Thick! Yeah for Lily! We are so proud! She is really growing up fast! They also increased her night time feed from 320ml. to 380ml. to help with weight gain and growth since she has seemed to stall out a bit. Other than that she is doing fabulous! Waving hello and good-bye and trying to say the words. Clapping and smiling like crazy! It's so sweet! She just melts your heart when you see it! All in all we are having a hectic, crazy, but fun December! Here are some pics of all the socializing we have been doing and some of the photo shoot with the Christmas dresses. Above and below this was our first encounter with Santa. This was a party at the assisted living where Bill's grandmother resides. They always have a Christmas party of some sort each year and these are the pics from this year. Not the same Santa as in the past but Gwynny was in awe of him so much that she was speechless and couldn't tell him what she wanted for Christmas.

Lily is less than thrilled with her first Santa Claus encounter. Classic!

Mmmmm..punch anyone?

Here DaDa have a spoon! Whack!

I just gotta get up and DANCE!

Ok, I love this princess dress so much I had to wear it again to the next party for the Up Side of Downs! This party happened to be in a greenhouse and it was really neat! Lots of food, fun, and crafts for the kids at this party. Gwynny got a few Christmas tattoos while we were there!

Each child that came received a toy. Gwynny and Lily both got Barbie Thumbelina dolls.


Santa encounter #2! Lily is a no-show. Gwynny well...she managed to tell Santa this time that she wanted a Barbie.

Today we went to a party for through our counties "Help Me Grow" program. They had a lovely luncheon for everyone and each child also received a toy. Here Lily is wearing her black and white checkered dress that matches her big sissy! Grandma and Grandpa came with us too!

Gwynny waiting in line to see Santa and get her toy!


Santa encounter #3...ABSOLUTE HYSTERIA! Please someone get me away from this BIG, FAT, RED-SUITED MAN! Gwynny is just happy to get her treat bag! Grandpa..well you be the judge.

Everybody say "CHEESE"!!!

All that Santa hype has completely worn me out! I'm out! Thanks for the toy though BIG, FAT, RED-SUITED MAN!


In mid November we took the girls to have their Christmas pictures done. Here are some of the best of the bunch!





Lily in the Box!




We also shared the photo shoot with Gwynny and Lily's two cousins Grace and Elena. This is one of the pics of all 4 of the girls.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and don't get too stressed out! I'm off to get some sleep.

We Are Alive but very, very busy!

Hey everyone! No we haven't fallen off the planet, but we have been extremely busy. When I get an actual minute to sit down and upload some pics from my camera I will do a little photo post of everything we have been doing for the past 2 weeks. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't abandoned blogging I just can't seem to find a few minutes when I am not exhausted to do a decent post. Talk to everyone soon...I hope. Good Night!

Oh Where, Oh Where, Has My Bunny Rabbit Gone?

Whew! It has been one busy week. I have been so tired at night that I haven't posted since Monday. I have to tell you about a very CRAZY thing that happened yesterday! Many of you read my post about Liliana's Bunny Rabbit and how much she loves that thing. I think I even said in the post that I don't know what I would do if anything happened to it. Well, my worst nightmare almost came true yesterday.

We were having my in-laws over last night for dinner since my mother-in-law's birthday was on Wednesday. I dropped Gwynny off at preschool and stopped with Lily at our local grocery store Giant Eagle. Lily has been a bit more cranky than usual probably because she has a nasty runny nose and is getting more teeth! Her two front teeth to be exact. Anyways, she has been a bear lately. So I brought her bunny with us to help comfort her. She had the bunny in her arms as we entered the store. I went to the bakery and picked up a cake and then got a few other items to complete our meal. I was somewhat distracted in the store because Lily's nose started running like a faucet and of course whenever that seems to happen I never have a tissue. So I went to the front of the store and asked a woman who was cleaning with a roll of paper towels if I could have one. She gladly gave me one. I wiped Lily's nose and not even thinking began to unload my cart and check-out.

We came home. Lily was fed and went to therapy. Mind you I still don't realize that anything is wrong. After therapy we go pick up Gwynny and head home. We have lunch and play for awhile. Then it is almost 2 pm and time to go in for a nap. Where is Lily's bunny? I begin searching everywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, out in the van, but no bunny could be found. I am beginning to panic at this point. So I decide to call around to the places that we went in the morning. Both therapy and Giant Eagle said they didn't see anything. I was SICK ! So what did I do but bundled the kids up loaded up the car and headed over to Giant Eagle because I just had to see for myself. I really felt that if I lost the bunny it had to be at Giant Eagle because that is where Lily took the bunny in.

Well, I scope out the parking lot with no luck. I even asked a guy that was gathering carts if he had seen anything and he said no. So into the store we went in the cart that looks like a car in the front, yet drives like a tank. Gwynny loves that thing! Anyways, we searched the store, tracing the steps I had taken earlier. Then what to my wondering eyes should appear but a pink, long-eared bunny rabbit sitting in a Jello pudding display box down the baking aisle! What it's Lily's bunny! Gwynny cheered, "Yeah!" We probably looked hilarious cheering in the store, but man was I happy! I texted Bill when it happened and he was really up too. He began looking on E-bay to see if he could find another one. Well, just our luck they don't make that one anymore. Bill did find one comparable to the one she has so he went ahead and ordered it just so we can try to get her used to it so we have a back-up.

In the end, I am glad we found Mr. Bunny and I sure learned a lesson yesterday. Never bring Mr. Bunny Rabbit into a store again because Lily will inevitably pitch him over the side of the cart. Also always have a back-up.

Thankful A-Z: Zealous

This past year I feel like I have become a more zealous person in many areas of my life. Of course, the most obvious is taking care of Liliana's needs and realizing that I am her #1 advocate. If I don't speak up for her no one will. She depends on me for so many things. Her day to day care, her medications, her feedings, her doctor appointments, I could go on and on. I have to be on top of my game or else everything will fall apart in an instant. Bill has been a zealous daddy too! He is such a support to both Lily and me. We could not make it without him. It hasn't been easy to become a more zealous person at times but God is showing me that my diligence and perseverance will pay off. Oh, and for the most part I have been a zealous blogger for over a year now and I am pretty proud of that. Well, hope you have enjoyed my thankful A-Z posts and honestly I am ready to just blog about whatever I feel like blogging about for the day. God Bless!

Thankful A-Z: X and Y

Hi everyone! Sorry I did not post yesterday but I had a birthday party at my house for my niece that just turned one and by the time I could sit down to post I was exhausted. So I have to make up for lost time and I am doing the letters X and Y.

X is not an easy one so the only words I could think of were x-rays and xerox. X-rays absolutely have been a God send in Liliana's life. I remember the early morning when she was sent back from the step-down unit at the Cleveland Clinic to the PICU and how sick she was. We almost lost her. I remember one of the docs there that I really liked, pulling us out into the hallway to look at the x-rays they had taken of her lungs after she had aspirated. It was obvious that she had a lot of junk in there because you could see the spots all over her lungs. Getting x-rays while she was in the hospital was a regular thing for her. I am so thankful that we have had the use of x-rays in our lives because without it I believe our Lily would not be here.

Y is for year! I am thankful that even though 2009 started out a little rocky for us, with Lily still in the hospital recovering from her third OHS and all, we still made it through that chapter of our lives and we are much stronger people for it. God has a way of using our circumstances and people around us to make us stronger and show us how much he loves us. I thank God every day for this past year and I look forward with hope, and love, and joy to what 2010 will bring. We are absolutely enjoying every single minute with our Lily and we can't wait to see all the new challenges she will overcome. Thank you Lord for a wonderful 2009!

Thankful A-Z: Wild Weather!

Yes, Cleveland is a very interesting place to live. We get a lot of different kinds of weather here and I am very thankful for that. I love the change of seasons here because we know that we will see sun, heat, rain, freezing rain, and even snow! Yes, I said the "S" word! We don't have a really long summer so we cherish every minute of the 80 degree temperatures we get while they last! Spring....hmmm spring here is sometimes very short or it sometimes seems like we didn't even have one. Fall here is probably one of my favorite times of year! This fall the weather was unusually gorgeous! The leaves were just fantastic with all their beautiful colors. Winter is always long and living by the big Lake Erie snow making machine can cause some pretty treacherous situations. All in all we love our Cleveland weather and though it's fun to visit other warm tropical places we still love to come back home.

Thankful A-Z: Happy Thanksgiving! Vacation Time!

First let me start by saying, "Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there!" We had a wonderful meal tonight at my in-laws and I am stuffed! Poor Lily... I think she may have caught some stomach virus because she started throwing up today. It started out slow and then as the day went on she got worse. She can't keep anything down. We didn't even give her her last feed of the night and we are afraid to run her continuous night time feed because it probably won't stay down. So we are just going to let her sleep and hope that she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night starving.

Anyways, that said I am very, very thankful for vacations! I love vacation time and even though I enjoy going places away from home I am also thankful for the times when we spend vacation at home such as right now for Thanksgiving. Bill took Wednesday off and then he was off today, Friday and the weekend. It's always nice to have some extra family time together during vacation whether it is on the road or at home. Our next away from home vacation will be the first week of February when we go to Disney World! We can't wait!