Poor Little Thing

Well, Maggie was in the Hospital at 14 months, so Courtney had to one-up her. We noticed that Court was not using her right arm last Thursday, after another little girl accidentally fell on her earlier in the day. We decided to take her into the ER that night, instead of waiting until the next morning. Our thinking was, "She seems fine, but what if she wakes up in the middle of the night and then we have to drag Maggie out of bed and take her to the ER?" I mean, seriously, if you had seen Courtney that afternoon, you would never think that anything was wrong with her. Boy, were we in for a surprise!!

Apparently, Courtney had broken her humerus bone, about an inch above her elbow. Because she is a baby, and babies heal incredibly fast, they did not put her in a cast. She has this nifty sling that is fashioned out of a stockingette and safety pins. Yes, this was created and approved by the doctor...I was a little nervous about my baby having safety pins allover, but they haven't cause any problems. We were so thankful that we had a terrific orhopedic doctor to take good care of Court and that Melissa graciously took Maggie in while Mark stayed at the ER with Courtney and I that night.

She has begun to start using her arm a bit in the last couple of days, and we will see the doctor again next week. We are hoping that she'll be 100% soon.

Lotsa Pictures

It's about time, right?? Okay, so, I am just going to bite the bullet and put a bunch of random stuff on here...I've been kind of random lately anyway, so I might as well follow through here. Enjoy!

We went to Californina at Christmastime. Maggie tremendously enjoyed baking with my mom. Any chance she gets to cook with me or bake cookies with Mark, she is right there beside us. She hardly ever has a real smile for a camera, but, as you can see, she was very happy here!

While we were there, Mark's folks came down and took Mark and the girls to The Wild Animal Park. Courtney was excited to get out and see the sights and smells of the zoo. Or she just really liked looking at the colorful chain.

After getting her face painted, riding on Grandpa's shoulders and taking in the sights, Maggie paused to watch the birds for awhile. (I don't really know if that's what happened...I wasn't there, I'm just making this up by what I see in the photos..)

On Christmas Eve, Maggie was super excited to learn how to use Grandma Julie's apple corer/slicer. She could have cored and sliced an entire orchard that morning, if given the chance.  

After several attempts to get the perfect Christmas photo of the girls, I think I was just happy that they weren't screaming and crying. Don't they look cute in their matching jammies, though?

Which is Which?

I couldn't wait until Courtney could fit into this little sleeper and be able to take picture of her and compare her to Maggie. Everyone is always asking me if Courtney looks like Maggie did. I honestly wasn't sure. Until I did this little experiment.....

Can you tell which is which?

Is She Really Four??

Our little girl turned four this week. It was really strange, thinking back on the last 4 years. Four years ago, we were living in California, I was working at on OBGYN office and Mark was still in sheet metal construction. Maggie was born and soon after, we were on our way back to Washington. Now, Mark is working for the DOT, I'm teaching 5th grade, we have a 6 month old daughter and our "little girl," Maggie is in preschool. Maggie is such a great little girl! She is so bright and articulate, and has the best sense of humor. She loves to tease Mark, and is a great big sister. We are truly blessed that God chose us to be her parents and look forward to continuing to watch her grow.

One of Maggie's favorite gifts was from Grandma and Grandpa. It's a Princess tent and sleeping bag set. She was so excited that she had to have it set up and she really wanted to use it in bed that night. In the picture above, she is posing for a picture for Grandma. Once she fell asleep, I took the picture that you see below...

Can You Believe It??

This year, there were 7 of us ladies at church that were pregnant. We were all surprised and shocked as each one of us found out that we were all carrying girls.

Trying to get 7 babies, from 3 to 9 months old, to "sit" on the couch without falling over was pretty comical.

From L-R, Livia, Rynn, Rene, Courtney, Ally, Lylah and Grace

Courtney wasn't quite sure what to make of all of this.

Halloween

Courtney was a little flower for Halloween. I found this little sleeper at Wal-Mart and couldn't pass it up. Knowing that she was going to be in the carseat or the Bjorn all night, I didn't think I needed to spend a ton of money on a costume for her.

This year, Maggie wanted to be a pretty pink fairy for Halloween. I was a little nervous, because, as a child, I was always scary things and wasn't quite sure how to do the whole "pretty" thing for her.  As I started picking up things for her costume, I was more and more excited about it. I think I had as much fun "decorating" her as she did being the fairy. (And, yes, those are tattoos on her face.... )

Bath Time to School Time

Maggie loves her little sister.

Courtney at 3 months.

Maggie, on her first day at school.

Where Did I Leave Off....?

For Father's Day, Mark and his brother Matt took Maggie and Matt's son, Camden, to a Mariner's Game. Afterwards, they got to run the bases. Mark and Matt felt that the kids needed some adult supervision and snuck their way into the line of kids, as well. :)

Of course, Maggie enjoyed all aspects of the game, from cheering on the team and eating lots of tasty snacks.

Fourth of July

Mark's parents came over on the Fourth of July and we had a nice BBQ on our patio. Grandpa Mike bought this cool water toy that we got to enjoy on our nice grass. Maggie didn't want to try it at first and convinced Mark to crawl through it with her. Maggie loves her little sister a lot and is always asking me if Courtney can sit next to her. This is about the time that Maggie picked up her new "smile" that she has for the camera.

Photo Up-Chuck....I Mean Up-Load....

Okay, so I was getting a bit razzed by Tyffany tonight, so here are some pictures from the last 5.9 months.... :)

Shortly after Courtney was born, it was time for some Maggie and Mommy time. I took Maggie to Monkey-Dooz for a haircut and a manicure. Maggie was very excited to have her nails done, and it was fun to do something special with her.

We took Maggie and Courtney to the WestFest at the end of May. It was way too hot for us all to be outside, but Maggie liked riding the pony, so we stayed for about an hour.

Here is a picture of Courtney when she was just a month old. She is definitely too cute!!

Over a couple of weekends in June, Mark put in this great patio in our backyard. It was a great place over the summer to sit in the shade and have some bbq's with family.

Matt and Tara came over with Camden and Shelby in June and we had some family pictures taken. It is so nice to have 3 Lee men with some fancy cameras that can take great pictures!!

Okay, so this was a bit staged by us, parents, but still, it turned out pretty darn cute!!

I really liked how nice this picture turned out. Maybe we'll use it for Christmas cards....Although Courtney has gotten considerably bigger since this was taken!

Okay, so this isn't all of my pictures that I need to catch up on, and we took some great pictures of Maggie last night (for Halloween) and we had a baby-fest photo-op tonight so I am determined to get them up ASAP. So...stay tuned! :)

Sisters

From the beginning, Maggie has been so excited to be a big sister. One morning, just a week before Courtney was due, Maggie woke up and the first thing she asked was, "Mommy, when will my baby sister be here?"

So, I guess we shouldn't have been surprised when Maggie saw Courtney for the first time. She was so gentle with her and so excited to see her. She seems to have a very natural mommy-instinct. I just can't put into words just how blessed we feel that she is such a wonderful big sister! The only way to help "explain" it is to put up this picture and let you see for yourselves.

Courtney Marie

After 9 months of waiting, Courtney Marie made her appearance on the day she was due, May 3rd, 2009.

I woke up on May 2 feeling some light contractions. Of course, Maggie was wide awake, and since Mark had been working a lot of overtime and doing a lot on the Honey-Do list, I thought I should let him sleep a bit longer.

Maggie and I went and played in her room. We prepared a Royal Picnic for breakfast and then woke up Mark. I wish we had taken some pictures, because we had a great time on the living room floor (on our picnic blankets, of course) eating cantalope and cut-up Costco muffins. Maggie took a few etiquette lessons, you know, because she was supposed to be a princess and princesses don't talk with their mouths full or grab handfuls of cantalope at a time. :) While we are sitting on the floor, my contractions got a little stronger and closer together.

Throughout the morning, I had contractions from anywhere between 4 minutes to about 20 minutes apart. Since they weren't anything regular, we decided we would get Maggie packed, just in case, for Grandma's house and head into town. We went to Big 5 and then went to Target and did some wandering for an hour or so. By now, my contractions were regularly about 15 minutes apart, so we headed to Mark's parents house to drop off Maggie. We stopped and picked up lunch for all of us and by the time we got to his parent's house, my contractions had seemed to stop. At one point, I went 45 minutes without a single contraction. I took a little nap at Grandma and Grandpa's house and when I woke up, Mark suggested we take Maggie for a walk. Our friends, Jill and Marcus, live near Mike and Lonnita's, so we walked over there for a little visit. By the time we got back home, it was close to 5:00 and my contractions had picked back up. We decided we should probably go to the hospital, just to get checked, before we headed back home.

When we got to the hospital, they checked me and I was only dialated to 3 cm. The nurse had us walk the halls for an hour, to see if anything changed. I don't think any of us were expecting that I would have progressed to 4cm during that hour, but that's what happened. At 7:00 pm, they called the doctor and decided to keep us there. That's when the fun really started!

My contractions got stronger and stronger and closer together. Now, mind you, I had really wanted to try to have another epidural-free child birth, but at this point, the pain was getting pretty bad. The nurses gave me some Stadol (?) to take some pain away and let me sleep a bit. I know I didn't last long and quickly passed out. At midnight, I woke to a sharp pain and a "pop" and knew that my water had just broken. The nurses quickly came in to check me, and I was still at just 6 cm. A half hour later, I was begging for an epidural and the anesthesiologist was there and had me set-up by 12:48am. (How do I remember that...I have no idea!!)

Okay, so the guy just set-up the epidural, and 48 minutes earlier I was only at 6cm. However, I knew this baby was coming and I started telling the nurses I needed to push. I don't think they really believed me, and they gave me this, "Okay...okay...we'll check you..." kind of response. They checked and were surprised to find that we needed a doctor ASAP! Once the kind doctor got there (thank goodness he lives very close to the hospital!) I began to push. Three pushes later, at 1:15 am, Courtney Marie joined our world.

The Phone Call

Well, yesterday I got the call I have been dreading for a few weeks. I knew it was coming, but still wasn't quite prepared. My mom called and told me the results of my dad's last doctor's appointment. Cancer of the Bladder. With this diagnosis, there is good and bad. The good part is that all of his scans show that the cancer is contained in his bladder, and actually can come out in urine. So, they are very optimistic that once the tumor is removed, the cancer will be as well. The bad part is that Bladder Cancer frequently reoccurs. Which means that my dad will be subjected to some really fun testing every 3 to 6 months, probably forever. Apparently, he is thankful that Polariod Cameras aren't used as the doctor's camera of choice.
Now my one concern (and I'm hoping my parents don't mind that I'm talking about this in "public") is that both of my parents smoke. From what I have seen regarding Cancer of the Bladder, smoking is a major contributor to this particular type of cancer, and can interfere with cancer treatments that a patient is given. So, if someone has smoked for as long as my parents have, and you are dealt with this kind of diagnosis, how is it possible to quit smoking? Now, I am not judging them because they smoke, those that know me well, know I have done far worse things than smoke a cigarrette. Besides, it's not my job to judge. It's my job to love them, pray for them, and support them in whatever way I can. I just worry that my Dad will go through whatever treatments he needs to to get rid of this cancer, only to have it continue to return because of smoking.
Well, I'll keep you posted whenever I hear anything more and would appreciate any prayers.