Christmas and the Week After Photos

Christmas Eve: dinner at Anjuli and Ben's

Christmas Day: day at Keith and Lori's, evening at Aunt Jane's

Gwen is finally participating in cousin hugs!

Aunt Anji showing Gwen one of her nutcrackers

The girls got a hold of someone's phone.  I suspect Grandma.

So pretty

In her Christmas dress!

When you give a kid an ipad...

Annika and Willa

Gwen and the trampoline was a sight to behold. 

Matching Jamas!

We spent an afternoon playing at Jill's house

I made a kitchen for Gwen out of a vacuum box with an inset tupperware sink.
She likes to press the buttons on the stove with emphatic beeps.  This will work for now :)

We got up quite early to hit the road for our Christmas gathering at Dee and Barry's.
Note Gwen's beloved monkey and kitty in hand 

Can't wait to be done with these dark mornings!

YiaYia and Gwen having way too much fun :)

Love this place

Gwen's favorite dance move. I don't understand it either.

Gwen got to be in the kid huddle reading the Christmas story before presents

We played pictionary! 

Kaian and his shepherd

Jessie!

My best attempt at hospital humor. I was showing off my huge IV,
 just like the girls in Bethel hallways with new engagement rings.
This thing definitely helped save my life though. Respect!

Where it all went down.  My dad brought me a flower and came to visit after I woke up.

Wheelchairs are wonderful when you need them to get to the car.
This is my picture to say, "I survived and it was real."

December Photos

December 2012 began as a happy, albeit nauseous, month, and finished as a sad, painful month.  However, we had many happy memories with family, friends, new toys, and more along the way.  I definitely don't want to miss celebrating those happy times.  Also, I finally joined the smartphone ranks.  So, please pardon me as I figure out how to adjust my bogging to my new technology and now abundant photos.

Here are about a million visuals:

Gwen's winter-clothing shape is delightfully tubby.  Almost Oompa-Loompa.
We loved getting amazing hand-me-downs for winter gear,
but sometimes I have to do some deep breaths from all that pink.

Chillin with Ivy (this was just after they stopped dancing)

At the library

You can imagine the giggles going on here

At target (See! I've never before-smart-phone taken a picture inside target! Revolutionary.)

Morning milk on the couch

Gwen pointed to these two and said, "mom-mom and da-da"
Beth said that's good in the child development realm, but I just laughed really hard.

Jill's inspiring art wall that makes me want to read a poem or something romantic

Snow storm

Wearing special new shoes

So much personality

The girls at the piano

Elliot and Leah at our Kim Chi lesson

We made Kim Chi and learned a lot about gut health

Bert texted me this picture with the caption, "Godzilla!"

Special seasonal foods

A new outfit from Grandma, so cute

Play dough with Daddy

Discovering paint with water 

Weathering the challenge of a split-second mood switch

Playing with our old electronics

It's genetic. We like small spaces

All decorated up

Bert built an awesome stove to go inside his new canvas tent for winter camping.
And yes, he built the stove out of a mailbox.  Love that creativity!

Visiting Aunt Beth at her school

My beloved small group ladies at Wise Women, and our table that took 3rd in the decorating contest. Score!

A last, special visit with BB.  Miss you girl!

Opening presents on the 18th with my family, since we couldn't be bringing them to California with us. Gwen didn't mind opening presents early.  She was very mature about the sacrifice of tradition.

Getting a feel for how exponentially our messes would increase after Christmas toys enter the scene

"Cheers!" with Aunt Beth

Letting Gwen play downstairs ALONE. For the first time!

Driving home from a doctor's appointment

Gwen is developing a passion for serving tea

Another new passion in Gwen's life is bouncy castles!  Like this one at Lori's work party

Gwen opted for both of her hands to be painted, rather than her face

We had to keep reminding both girls not to get in the pool with the duckies

One night I couldn't find Bert anywhere in the house.
Then I looked out the backdoor only to see he had set up his tent and was playing outside!

Sisters and stinker-face

Breakfast at OPH with Shay is good for the soul

We went to a showing of White Christmas at our favorite local theater

Oakley rocked the lion cut

Got to go out for a special lunch, just us

Caught Gwen giving her reindeer craft mulitple, "high fives!"

A Successful Day

I know a lot of you are checking up on me and wondering how the climb out of the sick abyss is going.  (THANK YOU!)  So I am happy to report... we had a good day!  It was semi-normal.  I still got some assistance with Gwen from my parents during the day, but there were many amazing steps of progress made.  I didn't have to retreat into my bed overcome by nausea or exhaustion once.  I got close, but was able to sit for a while and recover when the aches and nausea were mounting.

Gwen and I even ate a pretty normal dinner!  The first dinner in a week including meat and vegetables instead of only broth and bread.  I even loaded the dishwasher after eating and got Gwen to bed myself while Bert went to a winter camping meeting.  Incredible!

I know these things are sounding small, but they are REALLY BIG to me.  I had been feeling like normal life and strength may never return and I'd be an invalid forever. So we have a lot to thank God for over here.

And if you have been praying for my recovery... here's a piece of recovery He said yes to.  So encouraging.

I've had a hard time standing while I've been sick, so it made me smile tonight when Bert complimented me about how I look good standing up, rather than curled into an L shape in bed. :)  Oh the grace of standing up on my feet again.


Also, these verses are in Isaiah 49 just for me:

14  But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

15  “Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.

16  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

17  Your builders make haste;

your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

18  Lift up your eyes around and see;

they all gather, they come to you.

As I live, declares the Lord,

you shall put them all on as an ornament;

you shall bind them on as a bride does.

19  “Surely your waste and your desolate places

and your devastated land—

surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20  The children of your bereavement

will yet say in your ears:

‘The place is too narrow for me;

make room for me to dwell in.’

21  Then you will say in your heart:

‘Who has borne me these?

I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away,

but who has brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

from where have these come?’ ”

Stomach Flu... Really?

I do not recommend throwing up violently after having surgery.  It is just not ok.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us.  There was a literal answer to prayer for me.  Within minutes of asking people to pray, my ibuprofen stayed inside my body and my pain (which was 8.5) slid down to a level 6 so I could breathe and lay perfectly still without writhing.  It was so wonderful.  So, really, THANK YOU.  It's cool to see God answer in such a moment of need.

And now.  Feeling numb about grief.  I know it exists like an elephant in the room, but it's like my brain has forgotten even how to think about it with all this other health stuff going on.  Focusing on resting, getting strong enough to lift Gwen out of her crib without hurting, and looking at tropical pictures online.  Is that ok? I hope so.  

Sometimes I whisper Ezra's name and remember that he was real.  And pictures of newborns make me want to cry uncontrollably when I think about how Joey would've looked today if he were here.  And then I shut down those thoughts.  Because they hurt too bad.

So here I am, quite numb for the moment.  Maybe that is grace too.