Poor Baby

Alathea got her 1st real sickness this past week. It's funny to me that it came after her first try at Children's Ministry...many Mom's warned me to wait until spring to put her down there because she'd get sick. My thought was that she made it a year with out getting sick, that she'd be fine. Last Monday morning she woke up with a nasty caugh...when I finally took her to the DR's on Friday it turned out she had a mild bronchiolitis. Now that a week has past she is feeling much better. The only way I know she is still sick is her four hour naps (yes, I said four hours!). I decided she needs her sleep so I don't wake her up. Although I obviously want her to feel better, I have enjoyed all the snuggles, cuddles and naps in bed together! She's on the move again, so I'm glad I enjoyed the short season :)

Mom's Journal - Entry #3

Here is the third entry in my Mom's Journal. She wrote this a few days after discovering her cancer was terminal. We still aren't sure who she wrote this for or why she did it...but we are so glad to have these nuggets of gold from her. This is a picture of my Mom & I when I was Alathea's age. I've got it hanging on her wall.

"The next thing God taught me is: His Grace is sufficient fr me in my weakness. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul asked God three times to take away his thorn in the flesh. God's response was His grace is sufficient in our weakness. Many times I have asked God for healing and so far his response has been His Grace. But don't ever minimize the grace. I know I can face the roughest storm, the worst news, even death and God's grace will carry me through.

I used to fear my Mom's death- even though I know the only thing I need to fear is God alone But how rich and real was God's grace as I walked through Mom's death. He gave me the strength to take care of her while she was dying and to plan and speak at her funeral. His comfort so relieved any pain of missing her. It truly amazed me, hoe sufficient God's grace really is in our time of need.

Grandma died well. She wasn't afraid of death and looked forward to being with Jesus."

...I can say the same for my mom!

Alathea's 1st Birthday

Birthday Girls...Aunt Mimi came in town from Florida...they share the same birthday!


Pop-Pop came in town from Maryland to spend the weekend with Alathea...yippee!


Birthday girl at her party...surrounded by toys already


She had a blast "eating" her cake...



My pink soccer ball from Greg & Hilary!



Pop-Pop is here!


The hats I made for the kiddo's...princess & frog prince hats


Drinking my milkshake


Playing at NorthLake


Dressed as a princess and ready for my party

I know Alathea's b-day was one week ago, but I am just now getting to posting about the day! It certainly was a day of celebrating...all day long. Alathea woke up to a special breakfast of strawberries, yogurt and chocolate chips...yummy. Then during her nap I went to get "Pop-Pop" (my dad) from the airport. He flew in to spend the day with Alathea! What an amazing grandpa. We took her to lunch at Northlake Mall, where she also played for over an hour in the childrens play area (her favorite), got a choclate milkshake (also a favorite) and picked out a present from Pop-Pop at the toy store. She did all this while wearing a beautiful "1st Birthday Princess" hat :).

Her day was fun, but the night only got better. At 5pm she had a big "Princess & Frog Prince" party over at Grammy & Grandpa's house. Joe's Aunt Mimi even flew in from Florida to be at the party (it was her birthday too!). All of the kids wore hats...wither princess tiera's or frog hats, and the girls even had wands. It was really cute. We did the traditional party stuff...ate dinner, watched a slide show of Alathea's life (which she was dancing too during the party), opened presents & ate cake. Alathea LOVED her own personal cake. She really loved having all the attention at her party...she'd start laughing as others laughed at her. We were blessed to have quite a huge crowd at the party. We didn't mean to have it so big...but after inviting family, Alathea's friends & parents and then her many babysitters, it kept growing. It was a big expression of love to us that people would show up to a One year olds birthday party...especially the babysitters...Thank you!

One thing that I love about Alathea's personality is that she is very girly, yet very active. Two of her favorite gifts were her baby dolls & their stroller (she immediately knew to hug them, put them in the stroller & push them around) AND a little pink soccer ball. I find it too cute to see her playing with both entusiastically in the same day.

Well, there you have her birthday...one big day-long celebration (thats what my Mom did for us growing up...we were treated like princes and princesses...its fun to carry on the treadition!).

Happy 1st Birthday, Alathea Joy!

Alathea turns one year old today! Amazing! I never could have anticipated one year ago that she would be such a bundle of joy, delight, so fun, so beautiful, that I would cherish her this much or that I would absolutely LOVE being her momma. I love you, baby girl! Happy 1st Birthday!

I read this today: "You know you are a real mom when you cheer your childs milestones but secretly wish they would stay babies forever". (How true!)

Alathea's b-day is Feb 10th (not the 9th like the above dates says :)

Lunch Time

This was Alathea's 1st day feeding herself with a spoon. It started out great...she had the idea. I think it started to take way too long, so she ditched the spoon and fed herself with her hands. By the end of lunch it was "drinking" her applesauce out of the bowl. She's soooo much fun. Tons of personality and an amazing amount of energy. She turns ONE on Saturday! Yikes!

Oh, and I'm "trying" this template for a little while. I really liked it on my friend, Eileen's blog, so I thought I'd copy her :) Thanks, Eileen. I think you can see the pictures better.

SNOW DAY

It really snowed in Charlotte...hard to believe! We knew the snow wouldn't last long (it didn't even last the entire day), so we bundled Alathea up first thing in the morning and went out to play. She enjoyed it so much that I took her out again after her morning nap and we lasted almost two hours! Her favorite thing was eating the snow. Since she had mittens on, she had to bend over mouth first to eat it...off the bushes, the rocking chair, the birdfeeder, the ground...I know its kinda gross, but I was laughing way too hard to stop her!

Mom's Journal - Entry #2

Here is the second entry in my Mom's Journal she wrote in May 2004. I miss her so much!

"2. The next thing God taught me is He is good & soverign & worthy of my trust. Philippeans 4:6-7 says to have NO ANXIETY about ANYTHING but through PRAYER to let my requests be made know to God and the Peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts & mind on Christ. This verse became real as I got bad news that the cancer had metastisized to my liver. But I learned t pray and give all my requests to God. I asked for faith & He gave it to me. It taught me to ask and pray more and what rich blessings God wants to give us. As I prayed and gave evryting to God and trusted in His Goodness and Soverignty, His Wonderful Peace surrounded me. Oh what a wonderful thing to trust in God and rest in His wonderful peace. I got more bad news about the carcinoid (cancer) spreading to my abdomen and contricting my ureter, BUT I was filled with His peace because I first understood the GOOD NEWS is the GOSPEL- not I'm free of cancer."

By the way, I LOVE this picture of Mom. She loved to dance, which she couldn't do at all the last two years of her life. Praise the Lord, she is dancing now more than ever before!