Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Thou hast a wondrous message.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
Thou hast a wondrous message.
Thou dost proclaim the Saviour's birth.
Good will to men and peace on earth.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
Thou hast a wondrous message

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree in all its splendor. Each year, I realize how much I love Christmastime. I love christmas music, I love to give and see smiles on faces. I love that it's a celebration of our Savior's birth!! I love to see Kateli's face light up with cheer as she announces that "Jesus birthday is coming up, mommy!" I am looking forward to baking a birthday cake for Jesus' birthday this year. I'm looking forward to it, because I'll have my best chef side kick with me. I know that Kateli is going to enjoy baking the cake!! I could go on and on...and on and on but I'll save you from my rambles and quit now!!

I pray that you are getting into the spirit of Christmas and enjoying each day with family and friends. As you can KIND of see in the picture above, we have lots of gifts under our tree already. That's because for the first time ever, I've done all my christmas shopping and wrapping well before the last minute. They are not all for us, mind you. No, we have to ship a few and pass out another few around town.

15 month check

well, he was 15 months on November 12, but we had to postpone his 15month well child check up because...well, he was just not WELL!!! So, we went in to see the doctor this week to get Joshua's 15month check up done. Turns out the little guy is doing very well, he is growing, eating, running around and talking a whole lot. I was happy to hear that he is once again back up in the weight percentile curve--he had dropped to the 25% ile at 12 months, so the doctor made it a point to tell me that he was once again up on the curve (I don't know exactly his percentile now, but I know it has to be higher than 25%). Joshua is now weighing 22lbs 4ozs and measuring 31 inches in height. Hard to believe that he is only about an inch away from hitting his head on the corner of our dining room table--so we need to start emphasizing "cuidado/careful" to him when he's crawling or walking under the table!!

I mentioned that the little guy is talking--he truly is, he is picking up the words...amazing!! Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking when the doctor asked me how many words Joshua spoke. I quickly answered, "oh, probably about 4" and then I proceeded to say the words out loud--I was impressed to know that he has more than FOUR words in his vocabulary, he speaks 8 words now!!! He says "ma-ma, da-da, cho (chucho/dog), push, luz, ball, pancake and baby"

What a blessing that little guy is to our family. Just looking at his little face makes my heart smile. I love him to pieces. His sister and daddy love him to pieces too. And you know what else?? While he can't say "I love you" quite yet, his actions and his demeanor shows each one of us how much he loves us, especially his big sister. There is a special connection between the two that is so hard to put into words. Kateli adores her little brother, takes such good care of him, and watches out for him like a hawk--and Joshua responds to her. Sure, they don't always agree on who has what toy at what time of day, and they tend to argue (or scream at each other) a lot during the day, but they also play well together. Just to give you a little glimpse into how these two operate, let me share with you what happened this morning. I loaded the kids in the van, because we were heading out to one of my bible studies. I actually was heading out with 3 kiddos--Kateli, Joshua and baby Max who is 2 1/2 mos old (we watched Max today, as his mommy had to finish up some work stuff) Anyway, so on the drive to church I wondered how I was going to manage unloading 3 kiddos 3 years and under, and get my two kids to their respective class at church. When I got to church, I decided to unload Katherine and baby Max first. I asked Katherine to stand with Max inside the church while I got Joshua out of the car--and she did. When I came back in carrying Joshua, Kateli was standing in the same spot I had left her, watching Max intently. I put Joshua down to walk, and picked up the carrier. Immediately Kateli approached Joshua and grabbed his hand. She lead him by the hand all the way down to his classroom. She walked at his pace, and said "let's go Joshua" as they walked--they giggle all the way!! What a sweet and tender memory; just thinking about it makes me smile.

I have to also share with you what Joshua thought about our Christmas tree when we put it up. I was a bit nervous about putting it up, as he is just at that age where I knew the ornaments would be coming off the tree incessantly. But I braved it, and put it up anyway. The tree went up a few days ago, and Joshua was intrigued the most when the lights went up. As I was in the process of checking the light strings before putting them on the tree, Joshua came and sat next to me. He said "luz" and pointed at the strings of light, and then did the funniest thing. He blew on them, he blew on the lights as if to blow them out!! It was so so so cute!!! The next morning, when the kids got up they got up to see the Christmas tree completely lit and decorated--guess what Joshua did?? He went straight for the ball, shiny ornaments. He'd pull them off, say "ball" and then chuck it across the room. For a day or so, I was constantly saying, "no, no sir, these don't come off the tree" and now he hardly comes close to the tree. He did shatter two ornaments though...but that may have been my fault, I think I set him up for failure. I was trying to capture images of the kids in front of the christmas tree and put him down with a few ornaments in front of him. I was able to capture one cute picture of him before he smashed two together and shattered them. You've seen the picture, it's on the blog.

Anway, I think this tells you just a little bit more about our little man who is growing up much to fast for my liking. Each day is more fun than the last. Our house is full of laughter, and the pitter patter of little feet.

Practicing for our xmas tree pic

Fun shoot with the cousins!!

Just a sneak peek!

Birthday month...

November is a busy, but fun month for us. Not only does it indicate that the holidays are upon us, with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner from each other, but there are lots of birthday celebrations in our family...So, let me just start this out by sending out birthday wishes, hugs and kisses!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to
Tio Walter, Cousin Jack, Tio Dave, Cousin Jim, daddy and of course we cannot forget our little princess who turns 3 at the end of the month!! (If I've left anyone out, I'm sorry....birthday wishes and kisses to you as well :) )

Last night we went out to eat with friends to celebrate Daddy's birthday. Dan didn't know it, but the staff from the restaurant came out and sang Feliz Cumpleanos to him, and made him wear a sombrero!! You probably guessed it, but we ate Mexican. We had lots of fun!! It's amazing how our group of friends has grown over the years. It was just our small group, except 2 couples who couldn't make it. When Dan and I started in a small group about 5 years ago, we were all either newly married or engaged and there were no kids. Over the years, that's changed. Some couples have moved away or left the group, and others have joined our "family" but now we all have kids. A few years ago it would have only been 8 adults out to dinner; last night the kids outnumbered us--we were 8 adults and 9 kids under the age of 5!!! Needless to say the kids have a blast when we get together. They enjoy playing together, and getting into trouble together!! :) So anyway, after dinner we all came back to the house for some cake, some adult time and more play time for the kiddos. Joshua went to bed on time, while Kateli enjoyed staying up late and playing with her friends. Here are some pics from last night.

Happy Birthday daddy!!

Kateli "helping" to frost the cake :)

The end is in sight...

Hard to believe that this morning was our last weekend training run before the big day. It's been quite the journey, training for this marathon, and incredible to believe that next Sunday is THE day. The thought of participating in a marathon was one that had merely crossed my mind, without much contemplation a few years ago--when my dear sister trained and completed hers (she did the Hawaii marathon with the Arthritis Foundation). Anyway, while I admired her dedication and determination to complete such a feat, I honestly thought she, and the rest of the runners were out of their mind. I was a runner in school, on the long distance team at that, but 26.2miles?? that was more distance than I could wrap my mind around. I was that person that just watches, and while admiring the runners' accomplishment, I would say "Oh, I would never do that..." Yes, that was me, still on Feb 13th this year. And then the life wrenching twist in our lives--finding out about Katherine's illness. It was like we were picked up and thrust into a whirlwind--still kinda feels that way somedays, but we've adjusted to this fight. Feb 14th still seems unreal--I think back and still can't figure out how we managed to get through it. The emotional turmoil we were thrust into is like nothing else I had ever experienced. With the news came the fears. Cancer? Cancer, in my mind, was terminal--I knew nothing else. Horrible thoughts filled my mind, unthinkable feelings filled my heart and as the days went by I seemed to numb up to what was going on in our family. And then, that first dose of chemo that I saw Katherine receive in the hospital brought me to my knees all over again. I cried, and I cried, and I hurt again. It was so real, this was really happening. The nurse came in wearing a special gown and special gloves to protect her hands from this drug that she so calmly injected into our baby girl. And I knew that was only the beginning. We had a long road ahead of us. Katherine would have to endure over 2 years of this treatment, and our attitude had to change. We had to come to grips with this and we had to be strong for each other, but most importantly for Katherine. We prayed for strength. We prayed for endurance. We prayed for wisdom. We prayed for understanding, and peace. We prayed and prayed and prayed. And we continue to pray ceaselessly, because we can't do this alone. To you, our regular blog readers, THANK YOU for YOUR prayers. Thank you for your continued support through this. For caring enough to come back time after time to read our blog, to stay up to date with Katherine's progress and to find out any specific prayer requests that we may have.

So, in the midst of our own education about Katherine's illness, I kept coming back to the LLS and the fundraising opportunities. I found myself pondering the thought of training for a marathon. Suddenly, 26.2 miles didn't seem impossible. In fact, it seemed insignificant compared to the journey ahead. Dan and I both committed to doing this. I signed up with the LLS to raise the funds for the foundation and we've been training for the last 16 weeks or so. We've certainly logged in the miles, each one of us has a couple hundred miles under our belts--or is that shoes? :) and while it's been fun training, we are both anxiously waiting to finally cross that finish line. Neither one of us could have done this and be where we are at without you. So, THANK YOU!! Thank you for your prayerful support and for your financial support towards my fundraiser.

So, next Sunday we will be two people in the middle of a mass of runners--specifically 30K runners. Yep, you read right. The race was closed at 30,000 people. It will begin at 7:25 with wheelchair participants taking off. Five minutes later, at 7:30 they will begin the wave start for the runners. There will be 30 "corral" groups, with 1000 participants each that will be released every 15 seconds or so. Our corral grouping was determined by the estimated elapse running time we put on our form. We estimated about 4:30 hours, which happens to be average time for this event, so we're in Corral 16, smack in the middle of the sea of people. There will be 14,000 people in front and 14,000 people behind our group. I don't think I've ever been in the middle of such a large group, so I'm a bit nervous about it.

• Please pray for us, as we are getting nervous and anxious.
• Please pray that we all stay healthy, through this next week especially.
• Please pray for our travels. We will be driving to my parents, and then on to San Antonio.
• Please pray for the kids. The plan is to leave Joshua with my parents overnight, and take Kateli with us. We couldn't NOT have kateli at the finish line so she will be hanging out with Tia Marta during the event and hopefully be at the finish to greet us.
• Please pray for our bodies to stay strong, and in one piece before, during and after the event.
• Please pray for quick recoveries from the run.

Falling leaves, Changing colors

Like I said, this I think has to be my favorite time of the year. I marvel at the beautiful fall colors that surround us, and all the leaves that have fallen and continue to fall. The weather is just beautiful, even better when the temps are mild as we have seen over the last few weeks. We are in November, it's INCREDIBLE!! The holidays are around the corner. Time to spend with family is near, and a few birthdays are on the way in our family!!! Last weekend we went out to take some fall pictures of the kids. While it was quite a challenge to get them to sit still for long, they turned out pretty cute. You can check them out on the photography webpage

Enjoy!!

Oh, just a side note. Our MARATHON is less than 2 weeks away. Our training has been fun, yet challenging some weekends. It doesn't help when you are sick either, and so far I've had TWO colds during this training, in the last month!! The fundraising goal has been reached. We are tapering down on our training runs and just getting excited about the 16th! Please continue to pray for us as we approach the date, and especially the weekend of the 16th, as we will be travelling, leaving Joshua with grandparents overnight, and of course running the longest distance of our life...Kateli will be with us; and I look forward to crossing that finish line and running over to her and just lifting her up in our arms and loving on her!! She's my inspiration!!

Happy Halloween

Yes, it's late posting, seeing as how we are already in NOVEMBER...and the clocks have been set back an hour!! I love this time of year. Seasons change, colors get vibrant reds, oranges, yellows and some brown. Leaves begin to fall off the trees, and the masses of leaves on the dead grass invite you to run, jump and kick leaves around, or just to toss them up in the air and watch them fall around you! The temps are dropping, and the air is crisp!! Oh, I just love it. I wish it would stay like this year round--you have to remember, we are having MILD temps in Tulsa, so that's not to say that I'm asking for 40's and 50's as my year round temps, but I would not mind 60's to 70's!! So, I wanted to post just a couple of pics of the kids in their halloween attire this year. As most years our plan is not real concrete when it comes to halloween, and we are not sure how really to treat the holiday--hm...is that the right word?? is Halloween a holiday? Anyway, in the beginning we were leaning more adamantly towards not dressing up our kids and doing the whole "trick or treating" deal, but THEN it became a fun way to get out of the house and visit daddy at work. Each year, since kateli was born they have hosted a "bring your child in costume" to work on Oct 31st...so we participated the first year...and then the second....and now the third...and well, you know where this is going. This year was a bit different though. In the past, we had not taken the kids trick or treating to homes in the evenings; this year, we joined some friends to do just that. It was actually fun, and Kateli seemed to REALLY enjoy it. She really had fun this year, both in wearing her costume, and taking part in the whole trick or treating ordeal. How timely that the day before Halloween, The Barney show was all about trick or treating and wearing costume...so guess what Kateli did?? She asked for "dulce like in Barney mami..." "twick or tweat" she'd say in a sweet voice....So, costume wise, I'm sure that you are wondering what the kids were this year. Thanks to my very kind friends, we had plenty to choose from as I didn't have much time to go out and find something once we decided we were going to partake in the festivities. So, Kateli had several to choose from--a lion, a flower, a bee, and a spider--she chose to be a BUMBLEBEE!!! a CUTE bumblebee at that!! Joshua was dressed up as FLASH the superhero....and boy was he the superhero of the night. That little guy wore his costume like a champ. I think it got up to about 80 that day, and he was wearing fleece...and a mask!! the mask stayed on his face from the time I put it on to the time we'd take it off...he walked around with no problem!! Joshua didn't quite understand the trick or treat part of the deal, but we quickly learned that he grasped that "candy is GOOD"...oh yeah, on the drive home from daddy's office he managed to get a snack size twix open and devour it before we got home. No way he could have hidden that from momma, seeing how his entire face and hands were covered in melted chocolate! Here are a couple of pics from the day....

kids at the pumpkin patch

Yes, we have made our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch this year!! I was a bit fearful we weren't going to make it this year, as it seems the days just fly by. However, last weekend, after finding out that our small group was not meeting, we decided to make it a trip to the pumpkin patch. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and we decided to take advantage of that. We went with friends, and had a great time. Katherine loved climbing on the pumpkins, riding the pony, and feeding the animals. Not so much taking pictures...but what was I expecting, right?? This was Joshua's second year to the pumpkin patch, and he seemed to enjoy it a whole lot more than last year (he was only 2 1/2 months last year when we went). Joshua enjoyed the pumpkins, but I think he had more fun just hanging out by the white fence that encompassed the entire patch. He also was entranced by the animals, and was not fearful of petting the animals. I have so many pictures, it's not even funny...but I have not finished going through all of them, so I will leave you with just these....enjoy!

At the park...

lil' sluggers...lil' goofballs :)

Some pumpkin carvin...

We joined some friends last Saturday for a fun evening of pumpkin carving and great fellowship. We were a bit late, but late enough that everyone was mostly completed with their pumpkin carving....so I didn't think we were going to have a pumpkin by the end of the evening. HOWEVER, dear hubby was diligent in getting our "Charlotte's web" pumpkin completed, and boy did he do a wonderful job. Here are some pictures of the fun evening...check out all the fun pumpkins (minus some) that the group ended up with by the end of the night....

Sugary fun!

No need for a write up when you can get the story here...
http://321-letsgo.blogspot.com/2008/10/cupcake-fun.html but here are the pictures that go with the fun. Enjoy!

Haikey Park

This morning we joined some friends at a new park in town. We had lots of fun playing, and were ready for naps when we got home. There were swings, slides, monkey bars, a sandbox, and of course just area to run around in!! Here are just a couple of pics that I got of our outing...

Some of Kateli...

She's a goof ball and sat still for about 20secs so that I could take pics. These are a couple of my faves...can you see her personality?
ENJOY!