2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

We love the Olympics (both Summer and Winter games) and having them in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada just makes the 21st Winter Olympics of 2010 even more special ... plus it's Kendall's first Olympics! It has been so fun to see Vancouver for the past 17 days ... I love to say "I've been right there!" ... we've been to nearly all the sites that the games are taking place ... we've skied at Whistler, Ash has skied many times at Cypress mountain ... and love visiting where Ashley grew up and his family that lives there ... and we can hardly wait for our trip there in June to see everyone and beautiful BC!

These Winter Olympics have been awesome ... we just finished watching the end of these games ... the crazy - amazing - nail-biting Men's Hockey game of USA vs. Canada (that determined who won the gold and who won the silver medal) and the closing ceremony tonight ... and I want to remember just a few things that I love about the Olympics:
... the Opening Ceremony & watching all the athletes from all the different countries walk in & be cheered for - they are all so proud to be representing their country ... this year the US sent 216 total athletes and Canada had 193 athletes.
... the history within the Olympics ... setting Olympic records, setting world records, little facts and tidbits of history (like this was the first gold medal Canada had won on their own soil ... they hadn't won a gold during the other Olympic games on Canada soil previously ... and we got to see it!)
... all the amazing stories that are shared about the different athletes (both American and from other countries) & where they've come from and how they've gotten this far ... I LOVE the stories!
... the Olympics' music that NBC uses during all of their broadcasting ... is that what every country uses or just the US ... regardless, I love it!
... the NBC website & the official Vancouver 2010 website for all things Olympics ... http://www.nbcolympics.com/ and http://www.vancouver2010.com/
... and WINNING! Team USA earned 37 total medals ... that's the most medals of any other country this Olympics ... winning 9 gold medals, 15 silver medals, and 13 bronze medals! Of course, we ... especially, Ashley ... were also cheering for Canada ... and they won the most gold medals of any other country of this Olympics, with 14 ... in the end, Canada earned a total of 26 medals!

(For history's sake, although, I don't think Ash & I will ever forget this game that we watched ... the Men's final Hockey game was INTENSE! Canada was up 2-1 on USA ... with 24 seconds left in the 3rd (and final) period, USA scored a goal to tie it up 2-2 ... so it went into overtime ... 4 on 4 playing sudden death ... and after many, many shots taken on both teams, finally a goal was made ... and Canada won the game and the gold medal ... their 14th and final gold medal of these Olympic games! Ash has been wearing his Team Canada hockey jersey (that his siblings had given him as a birthday present several years ago) all day today for the big game ... and now that they won, I don't know when he'll be taking it off! ha!)

2 more years til the next Olympics ... the Summer games in London ... and we're already looking forward to it! Go Team USA and Team Canada!

Dinner with the Adams

We invited Deanna & Drew and Brooke Adams over to our house for Friday night dinner! Ash made a great dinner and we enjoyed our time with them and playing with our girls! Ashley and Deanna work together at StaffCare and we had our girls around the same time last year ... we've hung out with them a few times ... went to their Halloween party & us girls went shopping one day, so we've been looking forward to spending time with them and getting to know them better. Brooke is 11 months old and is doing fun 11 month old things ... crawling, pulling up, walking holding onto the couch, standing up ... so I was really looking forward to observing her and getting ideas for helping Kendall continue to develop, as well. (Plus, I was really hoping Kendall would enjoy observing Brooke crawling all around and start to be motivated to be moving around too ... or at least, not dislike tummy time so much.)

Deanna & Drew

sweet Brooke and her cute smile ... she is turning 1 next month! This will be Kendall's 2nd little friend's birthday party to attend ... and I can't wait! Deanna bought THE cutest tutu that Brooke will be wearing for her big party ... it had just arrived in the mail so she brought it over so I could check it out! Kendall may be renting it from Brooke for her own big birthday party in May (unless Daddy lets Mommy get Kendall one of her very own ...)!

Brooke enjoying spaghetti noodles

The Girls interacting with one another ... Brooke was so sweet to Kendall and just sat there and watched her ... and then there was Kendall (I'd like to add a "bless her heart" here), who kept reaching out for Brooke's face, cheek, eye ... you name it, she grabbed or at least tried to grab it ... oh, I hope Kendall learns "gentle" soon!

When Kendall wasn't sitting within a couple of inches of Brooke (and trying to grab at her), the girls really did well playing with each other and sharing all the toys ... this was really Kendall's first time to have play time with someone near her own age. (We just haven't gotten to do very much socialization due to health reasons, but we are nearing the end of that ... April is when we are allowed to start letting Kendall go to the church nursery, etc.)

Love this picture!

We had a fun evening and look forward to doing it again soon! Kendall had a fun time too ... she has made some major progress this week with tummy time, holding her body up with straight arms, reaching further and going for toys more while on her tummy ... and Friday night, she even pulled up to being on all 4's (like she was going to start crawling) for a few minutes ... this was the first time she'd ever done that! (We've been trying to get her into that position, but she hasn't been able to hold herself up before.) Yay, Kendall!

Random bits from this week

Just a few bits of random things from our week ...

Snugli Baby Carrier ... Daddy & Kendall have used the baby carrier a few times now ... and Miss Kendall is all smiles when she's in it! (We're gearing up for our big trip to Canada in June ... yay!) All strapped in and ready to go outside to play Frisbee with Cassie ...

Her 1st Aquarium ... we got the Baby Einstein Sea Dreams Lullaby Soother as a shower gift that we had registered for and we LOVE it! We'd had it out to look at while having tummy time when she was longer, but now Ash attached it to her crib (like it's designed to do) and it provides great fun! Kendall loves to watch all the fish swim by and listen to all the music ... it's really nice to have her happily occupied, in her crib, while I am working in her closet or room. We also are loving the remote control (which is one of the reasons why I registered for this particular one) ... you can turn it off from the door, if we need to. The aquarium will play for over 30 minutes, gradually dimming the light to off, stopping the fish swimming, and lowering the music volume until everything is off ... it's got a lot of neat features and she loves it! (We don't use it to put her to sleep very often, but it helps drown out extra noise in the house, especially in the afternoons when she's going down for a nap while our 2 neighbor 1st grade boys are here.) Pardon the bed-head ... just woken up from her 1st morning nap ... and so smiley, as usual!

Mirrors ... what can I say here ... simply ... our daughter LOVES mirrors! Oh, dear ... it's already starting ... I thought we would have a few years before this happened, but apparently not! We have a large mirror hanging over a couch in our living room and every time we walk in front of it (holding her), she looks at herself and smiles or laughs ... it's hilarious! She also loves looking in the mirror in our guest bathroom (which, I guess, is her bathroom now) when we are getting her ready for bath time. She used to just look at us & smile in the mirror, but over the past couple of weeks, she has realized she's looking at herself in there too ... and now, reaches out to the sweet little girl that's lookin' back at her ... LOVE it! (Pardon her mess of hair in these pictures ... it was definitely BATH time!)

Bath time in the BIG Tub ... okay, well, her baby tub inside the big tub ... baby steps here folks, baby steps! For the record, I hunted and searched (online and in stores) for a bath seat for the big tub ... she's been sitting up so well, for so long now, that we were thinking it was past time to move her into the big tub because she is really just too big (length-wise) for her baby tub now (especially since she loves to splash & wants to sit up instead of lying down!). I finally found a bath tub seat ... and we love it, but Kendall is just so small & skinny sitting up in it, she was falling over with all the bath water around her, so that's not working for us right now. So, it finally dawned on me that she could sit up in her baby tub (using the other side) and put that tub into the big tub ... I know, that thought really deserves a "duh". (Now normally, I'm not this slow to think, however, it appeared that as soon as I was pregnant with Kendall, I noticed a delay in my thinking ... like my brain was being sucked away ... and then I blamed my brain (or lack of) on the spinal drug & pain meds after the c-section and those crazy hormones that I was experiencing ... but, truthfully, my brain has just never come back to me (and now she's nearly 10 months old) ... oh, sad if this is really going to be my new "normal"! ha!) Regardless, here is Kendall taking a bath ...

Crazy Hair ... we took these pictures just after a bath ... she is getting some curly hair and I have NO idea what to do with it! Thoughts, anyone? My hair has always been straight as a stick and does very little, so curly hair is a new thing for me! When she was first born she had a ton of hair (which we were VERY surprise at, since she was only 29 weeks along) and eventually, nearly all of her hair fell out. She's been growing new hair pretty good for the past several months and now it's got some curl to it. Currently I've been brushing it out straight, but if she sweats or gets it wet, then that part curls back up and just looks like a big mess ... crazy! I'm thinking about just letting it dry out curly to see how that looks for a day. (If you look closely at the 2nd hair picture, you can see Kendall showing off her 2 bottom teeth!)

Cassie the dog ... Kendall continues to LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our sweet Cas-Cas! Poor Cassie is nearly 7 years old and has really been favoring or not even using her left hind leg (at times), due to the beginning stage of hip displacia ... it makes us so sad! She continues to love to be as close to Kendall as possible and Kendall continues to LOVE that! We've been having a LOT of tummy time and floor time to work on Kendall's non-interest in "locomotion" and Cassie always joins us in lying as close to the mat as possible. Over the past 2 weeks, Kendall's really made some big progress and this week, I think I found the best thing for her motivation ... Cassie! Kendall was sitting up in the middle of her mat ... she purposefully reached out forward to fall on to her tummy & caught herself and then, rolled herself over to get over to Cassie ... well, helloooooo locomotion! (I guess I need to bring Cassie with us at Kendall's next therapist evaluation appointment!) I was so proud of all that Kendall had just done that I grabbed the camera to catch them playing! (Fun Time was OVER when I looked away from them for a second (I was checking out something on our camera) and when I looked back, I saw that Cassie's enormous tongue was firmly grasped by both of Kendall's hands! Cassie didn't bat an eye ... she was just letting her ... but that is not something I want Kendall to get used to! There is no reason Kendall needs to be grabbing any dog's teeth or tongues! We are really going to have to work on "soft touches" with Kendall!)

Lunch Date with Daddy ... Kendall & I had planned to have a Valentine's lunch date with Daddy on the Friday before V day, but that Friday was a crazy day with all the snow and having no electricity, so we postponed it ... to Thursday! Kendall & I picked up Daddy at his office and enjoyed a little lunch at Red Robin ... helloooooo, banzai burger!

catching up on a little light reading while we ate ... I love that she enjoys sitting up in the highchair & entertaining herself (and us) ... and she loves looking (really, it's staring) at everyone and then flashing them her big smile & 2 adorable teeth

behold ... the banzai burger!

This evening, we are having Drew & Deanna and their 11 month old daughter, Brooke, over for dinner ... I'm really excited about getting to hang out with them and watching our sweet girls interact with one another! Stay tuned for (I'm sure) adorable pictures of our evening with them!

Fun with the Rocha fam

Saturday evening we had the Rocha family over for dinner & some family fun! We've known Tom & Leesa, Luke and Erin Rocha for 4 years now ... through the Upwards sports program at Richland Hills. Every team that Ashley has coached in the past 4 years, Luke has been on the team ... soccer, football, and basketball! I love that he is on all of our teams, so I get to hang out & cheer with Leesa and Erin (and Tom, too)! They've loved Cassie (Erin loves to help me with her during the games) ... and they adore Kendall!

Ashley made his mom's famous BBQ Meatballs (kind of like mini-meatloafs), mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and salad ... I made our version of Chili's yummy Paradise Pie (that would be a warm cookie brownie topped with Braum's vanilla ice cream, a bit of whip cream, with Hershey's chocolate syrup drizzled over it, and topped with nuts ... yummy)!

Future babysitter in the making ... Erin reading one of Kendall's favorite books to her ... Erin is in 1st grade ... and she is soooo sweet with Kendall!

It's Tea Party time ... we had such a fun time playing with lots of Kendall's toys ... and Kendall LOVED to sit and watch Erin!

Yummy plastic plate ... who needs the Tea Party treats when the plate tastes so good!

Leesa and Kendall

And while us girls were having our Tea Party, Luke and Ash (or "Coach" as Luke and Erin call him) played XBOX 360 games ... boys will be boys!

Luke with Cassie

We had a great evening with them and can't wait to get together again! So glad the soccer season is starting up in a couple of weeks!

Praying for sweet Baby Cox!

We have another HUGE prayer request that I wanted to pass along and ask you to join us in prayer ... and this one hits soooo close to home for us ...

Early morning Wednesday, Feb 17th, Rod & Kamara (Tate) Cox delivered their sweet baby girl at 24 weeks! She (who is to be named soon, they've said) is doing good ... as well as can be expected as a 24 weeker. She weighed 1 lb 10 oz at birth! At 24 weeks, their doctors have told them she's got a 50% chance of survival ... she has made it through the first few crucial days of her life like a champ ... apparently, she's quite a fighter ... the way they are describing her in their blog, it reminds me a lot of how Kendall was ... which is what you want!

My heart ACHES for them ... I am still crying with overwhelming emotions for them ... as I know exactly what it feels like to have a sweet baby girl at 29 weeks (with a 90% chance of survival) ... and that is nothing, compared to having a 24 weeker. God has awoken me from my sleep at 3am this morning and my heart is soooo heavy for them (as it has been since I found out the news last night around 7pm)! I was laying in bed just thinking about them and praying for them and have really felt nudged to email them ... to offer them any encouragement from our similar situation that God has brought us through ... so, it's now nearly 6am ... I've written & sent an email to Kamara's twin sister & husband (Tami & Zach Pruett ... I've known Zach since high school, through his sister, Lauren, one of my best friends. Tami & Kamara also went to ACU when we were there. Tami listed her email on their blog as a contact.) ... I'm praying that it will be of some encouragement to them as I shared a small bit about our sweet Kendall! I know that hearing from other families who had extremely premature babies was encouraging to us ... some days it was what got me through a rough day that we were having ... that and knowing that hundreds, thousands of people (people we knew very well and people we didn't know at all, who lived in different cities, states, and even countries!) were praying for our sweet Kendall and for us ... and that God was in control and that God was taking care of everything, no matter what!

So, please pray, pray, pray for this sweet family ... for Kamara & Rod, Aubrey (their 20 month old daughter) and their new precious baby girl! According to their blog, they've already gotten to touch her during the touch times, so that is awesome! (When all you want to do is actually be able to be a mommy to your precious baby girl who is lying in the incubator ... actually getting to put your finger inside Kendall's incubator to finally at least touch her tiny little hand is something that I count as one of the best things I've ever experienced! That and, getting to change her diaper, take her temperature, HOLD her in my arms, feed her a bottle, nurse her, see her entire face without a tube, tape, or anything else on her precious face, put her in clothing, put a big bow on her sweet head ... and the list goes on and on and on ... trust me!)

They have a long road ahead of them ... probably about 6 more weeks than Kendall's 8 weeks that we experienced, so please continue to pray for them!

Thank you for joining us in praying for them!
To God be the Glory ... Great things He has done!

This and That from this week

Here are just a few random things from this week (that I don't want to forget) ... and of course, some pictures!

Kendall's 2nd tooth appeared on Tuesday ... I had just seen it under her gums and then the next thing I knew (or felt), it had already cut through! So, she's gotten her 1st and 2nd teeth within 1 week ... Wowzers, Kendall! She's been a little fussy this week ... but nothing like we were afraid of or expecting after hearing other parents describe their babies first teeth. (I know she's got lots more teeth to go, but she's really been easy with the teething so far.)

You can call her ... Little Miss Jump, Jump, Jump-aroo! Kendall LOVES her "Jumping John" contraption ... and so do I! This past week she's really gotten into the whole jumping part of it and just jumps & laughs at herself as she spins herself around. It's so fun to watch her learn new things each day! We are so thankful for her continued development that we are seeing on a daily basis! (These pictures aren't that great ... it's difficult to catch her being still long enough to take a picture. And as you might imagine, Cassie always comes over to check things out ... and Kendall does not complain about that either!)

On Wednesday afternoon, my dad came by to visit us for a few minutes after a job interview he'd had before driving back to Abilene. It was nice to see him and Kendall always enjoys playing with her Pops ... even if it was for a few minutes! Then, Kendall & I picked up Huni (Ashley's mom) at the airport ... she was flying in from Canada ... where she just came back from attending the Olympics in Vancouver (where they lived for more than 20 years before moving to the Ukraine) ... we ate her last American meal at Chapps Burgers (one of their favorite burger joints) and watched the Olympics (on tv) & played with Kendall. She flew back out to the Ukraine Thursday morning, so we had a very short visit with her this time. And we miss her already and can't wait to see her & GranGran again soon!

This week, Kendall completed the "1st vegetables" (carrots were the last ones she tried and really likes them, too) and started her first "1st fruits" (which was bananas). So far, she's eaten sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, peas & carrots, and now bananas (and rice cereal, too). No allergies to any of these so far, although, I think she wishes she'd have an allergy to peas, so she wouldn't have to eat them anymore ... they are, by far, her least favorite food ... and I don't blame her ... I don't really like peas that much myself ... and when I get them ready for her to eat, they have such a strong odor ... they nearly take my breath away!

Kendall has shown some major improvement with her tummy time over this past week or so ... yay, Kendall! She still doesn't LOVE it for very long, but is holding herself up much, much higher this week than she's ever done before ... and for longer periods of time too. She seems to enjoy the "commando crawl" exercises more now and is motivated to go after the fun toy we are trying to encourage her with. She still LOVES to sit up on her own and is braver about reaching out further and further for a toy, even if it means landing on her belly. She "talks" most of the day and I love to hear it ... she squeals with delight ... screeches ... and babbles da-da-da, ga-ga-ga, ba-ba-ba, but has not - not even once - even tried to - say ma-ma-ma ... in fact, when I say it to her to encourage her to say it back (which is about 100 times a day), she just laughs out loud (or will at least smile, depending on her mood)! Poor sad mama! She LOVES playing pat-a-cake (my version and Daddy's shorter version) and playing peek-a-boo ... she is ALL smiles and laughs ... it is precious!

Love, Love, LOVE. THIS. GIRL! And this week, God has just constantly reminded me of how blessed I am to have this sweet baby girl to take care of and be her mommy! He chose ME to be her mommy ... how did I get sooo blessed?!?! We've had a heart-aching week finding out about several friends who are dealing with health issues, but we know that God is God and He is in control of it all ... and He is here with all these families going through these different health issues ... giving them comfort, peace, hope ... and loving them through it all! And we continue to pray for Jenny, Jason and sweet Baby girl Cox and their families!

Websites for Jason Rogers & Jenny Bazillion

We wanted to pass along 2 special websites ... there are 2 precious people who are requesting prayers & sharing their health updates ... they've both been on our hearts constantly since we've found out their situations and we are asking you to join us in praying for them!

Not sure how long these type of awesome websites have been around (probably several years now), but I've never seen one ... these websites are fantastic ... I sooo wished we'd of known about a website like this last year when I was unexpectedly put on bedrest in the hospital, delivering Kendall nearly 11 weeks early, and having her 8 week stay in the NICU before coming home with us. We know first hand, how having hundreds, thousands of people praying for you feels ... Mighty is our God ... He is Mighty to Save! These websites have pictures, their stories, updates on what's going on during their health journey, and a place to leave them messages!

Let us encourage you to check out their websites and pray for them! Here's the info ...

Jason Rogers
Jason is a friend from our ACU days! (Ashley & him knew each other their freshman year at ACU. His wife, Lauren, & I have been best of friends since high school.) Jason is a youth minister ... He & Lauren and their 3 kids live in Shreveport, LA. Here's a part of what's on his website ... "Jason is doing well and still recovering from his surgery. We will see a second surgeon on Tuesday morning about removing his lymph nodes around his kidneys. This will possibly be done in the next few weeks. After he has healed from this second surgery and depending on the path reports, we will start chemo. We will also be meeting with an oncologist soon."
His website is: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jasonrogers . (I think you'll need to become a member & sign in ... then you'll have access to everything, including receiving emails when they've updated his status.)

Jenny Bizaillion
We don't personally know Jenny, but she went to ACU (she's a year or two younger than me) and she is married to David Bizaillion (who also went to ACU who's Ashley's age) ... they have a daughter who is 8. She is in the ICU at the Baylor Hospital in Grapevine (where we were with Kendall) ... she has been in the hospital for 2 weeks now and is fighting "pneumonia that has turned to sepsis. She is now fighting for her life. Please pray for her and her family!" If you're on FaceBook, you can also join the group "Praying for Jenny Bazillion" for more information on her journey.
Her website is: http://www.carepages.com/login (I think you'll need to become a member & sign in to read everything & get emails when they post a new update.)

Thank you for keeping both of these precious children of God in your prayers!

Cutie-Patootie

We walk a few blocks down to the elementary school each weekday (unless the weather is raining or freezing ... then we drive instead) to pick up two 1st grade boys (that I babysit after school) ... Today the weather was sunny but quite windy & 49 degrees during our walk to school ... so I got her bundled & ready to go ... and today, she wore her adorable Carter's sunglasses to (help) keep the sun out of her eyes as we walk there!

I'm not sure how much these darling sunglasses truly help, but I do know she looks awfully cute sporting them! (And she didn't have to close her eyes on our walk there, as she normally does.) Hello, Cutie-Patootie!

I'm afraid Little Miss Kendall is just toooo cool for school! (Thanks to her Auntie E's keen shopping eye for accessories!)

Auntie E's weekend visit

We had a fun visit with my sister over this past Valentine's Day/President's Day weekend! Kendall & I hated to take E go back to the airport on Monday ... but, we'll have to wait until May to see her again ... she's coming back for Kendall's big 1st birthday party!

Here are a couple of pictures from our time together ...

Kendall & Auntie E on Valentine's Day

Kendall sporting her HUGE flower ... Auntie E gives Kendall a TON of adorable clothing and darling accessories ... this flower she's had for several months and we've been waiting & waiting for Kendall's head to grow to fit her (although, as big as it is, I don't know if it will ever truly fit ... ha!) We LOVE it!

Playing with Kendall's kitchen that Auntie E got her for Christmas

Auntie E - Thank you for coming to spend the weekend with us, even though it wasn't exactly how we had originally envisioned it, we're soooo happy that you were able to still come to Texas to hang out with us! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Kendall's 1st Valentine's Day!

Auntie E was here visiting us for the weekend & President's Day (lucky duck gets that day off since she works at a bank!) We went to church all together and then had a fun lunch at Chipolte ... E spent the afternoon with an old college roommate that she hadn't seen in years and we went grocery shopping (I know, I know, soooo romantic! but, we had fun and we enjoyed our time together.)

our little family

Daddy with his little sweetie

my little cutie-patootie

She just found out she wasn't going to eat any Chipolte like the rest of us ... ha!

Opening her little Valentine's card and present from us ... it's a ...

ladybug book! (by SoftPlay ... I found this book and had to get it ... the face squeaks, the wings are a different texture & they make a crinkling noise, one of the little feet rattles and it's also a soft book under the belly of the bug ... so cute and cleverly designed for fun & learning!)

She must like it ... she's already eating it!

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day, too!