All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!

Well, they didn't come on Christmas, but Lena's two front teeth made their appearance yesterday. Needless to say, she has been a little "testy" but we know she will love having four teeth. Think of all the food possibilities!!
Grace is having fun playing with all of her christmas toys. She is particularly fond of the lego set we bought her. I think Erik is quite pleased with this, as he has been waiting for her to be old enough for lego's, well since we found out we were having her! :)
Today my "niece" (my friend Karis's little girl) will make her appearance into the world. I am so excited, and can't wait to see pictures.
Hope you all have a Happy New Year. I work into the wee hours of the morning, but tomorrow Erik and I have the whole day off. We are looking forward to spending some time relaxing as a family. May God bless you abundantly as we begin another year.

Well it has been a very fun and busy last week and a half.

Last Wednesday our little girl had her first birthday! We had a great day with her. Erik was able to take a half day at work, in order to spend a little extra time with us. We took my family out for dinner at Applebee's and then came home for presents and cake. Lena was absolutely thrilled with her cake! And her favorite present would probably be the gloworm that my grandma got her. Grace was so enthralled with the gloworn that we had to find hers at the bottom of the toy chest- she had apparently long forgotten that she even had one!

Last Saturday I didn't have to work!!! So, we took my brother along with us to go to the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. We had a good time riding the train and carousel and seeing some of the animals. It was nice to be able to spend a special night as a family, and it was great to have Uncle Jo along for the ride!

Christmas Eve we attended a service at my parents Church where we met up with some family friends. Afterwards we had a good time at my parents house visiting with friends and enjoying good food!

We had a great Christmas yesterday! The girls had fun opeing up their presents at home in the morning. Grace was very excited over the movies she got. Both girls got baby dolls, and lena was so excited that she could hardly wait for me to get them out of the box!

Later we went to my parents house for a big Christmas brunch and opened presents with my family. Grace was hilarious because she passed the presents out and would ask everyone if she could help them open their presents. Well, she gave my grandma a present and said, "I need to help grandma because she is an old lady." I cracked up! Oh, the things she says sometimes- I definitely wish we would have gotten that part on tape!

We enjoyed a very blessed Christmas! It was a hard day for my dad, as we wasn't feeling the best, but I am so thankful that God has given him to us for another Christmas. Each one is such a gift!

Well, I work the next two nights, so they will be busy and tiring. Erik's mom and dad come for a visit this weekend to celebrate Christmas. We are looking forward to heading north in a couple weeks since we weren't able to make it for Christmas. Well I had better get the kiddos ready so I can get to work! Hope you all had a blessed christmas!

Well, the last week has been a little exhausting. First off, my dad is doing good. He was actually able to come home on Thursday afternoon. He was definitely happy to get home, and we are so thankful that he is making a good recovery. He is still in pain and every cough and sneeze is agonizing, but he is doing surprisingly well! Please continue to pray for his recovery. He will have follow up appointments with doctors in the coming weeks to see where he needs to go from here.

Last week Wednesday we took the girls to get their pictures taken in the Christmas dresses that my grandma bought for them. They turned out pretty good, but I wasn't that thrilled with the portrait studio. Oh well, at least I finally have a studio picture taken of my girls!

Wednesday night we went to a Christmas party for Erik's work. So, before we left I took a picture of the girls all dressed up, and of course now they decide that they are going to smile!

Grace had a great time getting to see Santa! She is absolutely thrilled to see Santa this year, and keeps asking everyday if it is Christmas yet!

Lena's favorite part of the party was a chocolate chip cookie! Somehow she managed to eat the cookie, and not get any on her dress! Way to go lena!!

Saturday morning we went with my mom to see Santa at her work. they had Christmas cookies and fun games for the kids. It was fun spending some time with my mom with the girls.

I worked most of the weekend, so I am glad I don't have to work again until Friday.

It is hard to believe that Lena is going to be 1 on Wednesday. We ordered her cake today. We decided to just have my family over for dinner and cake. It will be nice to not have the stress of a big party! I guess this is one of the downsides of having your birthday so close to Christmas! I talked to my friend Karis earlier today, and we agreed that her baby, Jane, should be born on Wednesday!!! Now Jane just needs to agree!

Well, on to cleaning- it always seems that everything is a disaster after I work all weekend. You never would have guessed that everything was spotless on Friday night! :)

I'll give you a quick rundown of the past 24 hours. Well, yesterday I finally took the girls to the hotel around 8pm and my dad was still not out of surgery. My Mom and Josiah were not able to see him until 10:30, which was absolutely crazy, as he was taken back for surgery at 1:30. The surgeon said that they were able to take out the pieces of his lung that they needed to, but they were located in different areas than they thought they were, and there were more of them. Well, the problems started when they were closing him up, and apparently they nicked his pulmonary artery. When this happened he lost more than 2 liters of blood and as the doctor put it, "it was pretty touch and go for a while." So, apparently God was in complete control, as he could have easily bled out! When I saw my dad first thing this morning, he looked pretty bad. His coloring was very bad, he had a breathing tube inserted, and did not look promising. As the day went on his coloring got better and he was finally able to get the breathing tube removed. Praise the Lord. He is still in the ICU but is now sitting up and doing exercises to strengthen his lungs. Since he was doing so good, and the girls were losing it we headed home tonight. It is good to be home but part of me wishes I could have stayed longer. Hopefully if he continues to make the progress that has today, my dad will be home at the end of the week. Praise God for protecting and strengthening my dad! It has been a very long and emotionally taxing two days, but I am so thankful that my dad is now on the road to recovery once again.

Still in Surgery

It is now 7pm and my dad is still in surgery. We haven't heard anything for a while so we are getting a little worried! Hopefully we hear something soon as he has been in surgery for more than five hours now. I think we are all getting a little over exhausted and the girls are losing it! I'll update when we know anything.

Update

My dad's surgery was delayed a few hours as a result of earlier surgeries taking longer. It is definitely hard to be patient!!! They took him back about 1:30 and Started surgery at 2:20 so hopefully we will get an update from the nurse soon. Thanks for the continued prayers! OH, the girls have been good and are both sleeping right now! Praise the Lord!!! We pushed chairs together to make them both beds, I have to admit it is a little cute! I'll update when we know more.

Today's the Day

The girls and I are about to get on the road to Indianapolis to be there for my dad's surgery. His surgery is around noon and we don't know how long it will take, as they have two directions the surgery could go once they get in there. Please pray for my dad- he has a great attitude and is very positive, but I think with each time it is more discouraging. Pray for his quick healing. Pray for the doctor's wisdom. Also, I know this is completely selfish but please pray that the girls are well behaved over the next couple days. We are going to spend all day today and tomorrow at the hospital, which could be stressful with two little girls! Well, I am sure my brother will take his laptop with him, so I will try to keep you posted on what is going on.

No Cavities!

Grace had her first trip to the dentist today! At first I didn't know if we were going to have to leave the office without a tooth even seen :) She eventually warmed up and did a great job. I took her to a pediatric dentist and she was absolutely great with Grace. It was pretty impressive. The office had video games, movies, and aquarium in the waiting room; and while she was getting her teeth worked on she was able to watch one of her favorite movies, The Polar Express. So, her teeth are healthy and she had no cavities!!!! So hopefully she will follow after me and not her dad when it comes to healthy teeth! :)

The last week has been a bit of a blur. Last Wednesday my mom took Grace out to lunch and shopping for the day to give me time to get everything ready for thanksgiving. My little girl cam home with two adorable dresses, two pair of shoes we could never be able to buy her, a necklace, and a princess crown. Grace definitely enjoyed her time with Grammie and I definitely enjoyed the time I was able to spend with the quiet that comes with only having one child to wrangle! :)

The Genthers, Uncle Matt, Jeff and Louise all came into town on Wednesday night. We were treated by the Genthers to a wonderful dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The funny thing is, that in the more than two years that I have worked there, this was the first time I had been a patron in the restaurant. Grace was thrilled to spend the night in the hotel with her beloved cousins.

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. Seventeen people in my small apartment! I had to be crazy to undertake such a feat, but it all went great and we had a great time with both of our families together. My brother even made the trip from Kentucky for Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately I was too busy to take many pictures but here are two from the day.

Grace decorating her gingerbread house. Later Erik finished the house by designing a maize and blue M out of m&m's on one side of the house. I have to admit, it was the perfect touch. :)

A picture of my girls and their cousins in front of our Christmas tree. If you can tell, I finally "spaced out" the ornaments!

Friday Erik was the only one to hit Black Friday sales. He was able to get some good gifts for the girls. We hid the gifts in our closet, which has a child lock and is usually shut. Well, the other day Grace comes running out to the living room and says, "Mommy can I have my prizes?!?!" I was laughing to the point of tears. Growing up I always found my Christmas presents well before the holidays, so I guess this is my pay back! So, Grace received her Tinkerbell sleeping bag, and was thrilled!

My Grandma took the girls and I out shopping to find Christmas dresses for the girls. We went to Carter's and found the most adorable Red dresses and sweaters for them. They are going to look sooooo cute. I already made an appointment for them to get their pictures taken next week, which is something that I have wanted to do for almost a year now. Oh well, better late than never.

Yesterday was my hubby's 28th birthday. He had a pretty crummy day at work, and got out late so instead of going out for dinner we ordered pizza, which I think made him happier anyway since this is his all time favorite thing to eat. Grace was so proud of the cake she made for her daddy. She put all the ingredients in the bowl, mixed the cake batter, and put the batter in the pan! She did a great job. We also watch the new Narnia movie, which we got him for his birthday. It wasn't a very eventful birthday but it was a nice quiet evening at home with family!

Two quick cute pictures of my adorable girls!

Now for an update on my dad. Yesterday my mom and dad traveled to the cancer research center in Indianapolis for an appointment. They really liked the doctor and he had them come back this morning for a consultation with the surgeon. Well, my mom just called and they scheduled surgery for Monday. Everything is moving pretty fast, which is good, but at the same time I think my dad is a little shell-shocked at how soon this major surgery is. Hopefully they will be able to extract the cancerous mass in his lungs orthoscopically, if not they will have to remove another major portion of his lung. Please continue to pray for my dad, my mom, and for the doctors wisdom!