High Five, Lydia!

Our amazing little girl is no longer 4! She now utilizes every little digit on her hand to express how old she is! High 5 Lydia! Happy birthday!

We have had a very busy last month with adding a new little angel to our home and facing every manner of illness, from head lice to 2 different stomach bugs. Luckily I had anticipated some of the craziness of having a new baby and Lydia agreed with us to have a "small party" this year. She was allowed to pick 3 friends to have some fun at Chuck E Cheese with. We still had a minor set back when she woke up birthday morning with yet another stomach bug and ended up spending the day on the couch. I'm not sure that it was a complete disappointment though. She got to watch all of the shows that she requested and got carried everywhere she requested. Our little princess was certainly pampered. By evening her stomach was feeling well enough that she still got to blow out some candles and enjoy some of her "Pinkalicious" cupcakes. And she still got to have her birthday party a couple of days later at Chuck E Cheese :). I'd say that, despite the set backs, her birthday was a success!

Dear Sweet Lydia,

This year has been full of all sorts of fun things! You've tried your hand at soccer, ballet, preschool and KidBiz (a song/dance group). I have loved watching you develop your already spunky attitude and shake those hips as you get down to the oldies! Your creative side is constantly being shared with others when you pull out you
r art box and get to work! This has been emphasized even more as you have started bringing empty juice boxes home from school to make things out of (sometimes even collecting your friends' empty boxes as well). Everytime you play outside, you come in with something new to put into your "collection box". This ranges from rocks and flowers to leaves and bugs (we put a stop to suffocating the grasshoppers very quickly)!

You have learned so many new things this year! You can recognize and write most all of your letters. You are constantly asking how to spell things so that you can write letters to your friends. You also recognize the sounds of most letters and are starting to sound out words. I am so excited to watch you learn to read this next year! You are also learning some basic math skills. You can work out some simple addition and subtraction problems. You are learning the values of different types of money and are also learning principles of time. Our biggest challenge right now is teaching you to hold a pencil correctly. I regret not correcting it when you were first learning to color and now it is a nasty habit that makes your teachers cringe! However, your teachers, Miss Cassie and Miss Dolly, are completely infatuated with you otherwise! You certainly have worked your charm right into their hearts and I think that they have definitely worked their way into yours as well!

Sweet Lydia, you are such a sensitive and loving little girl! It makes you cry to see others sad and it makes you happy to share your talents with others. You are so shy when meeting new people, but can talk constantly with someone you know. You have a wild imagination consisting of "black deer", princesses and musical productions. You love all things sparkly and pretty. Your favorite place in any store is the floral department. You could spend hours there smelling each individual flower. You are just as social as you have always been and would prefer to spend every waking moment playing with friends. Your best friends right now (based on the 3 you chose for your party and that you spend most of your playtime with) are Carly, Ava and Jadyn. Luckily you get to see them frequently at both school and church!

A few of your favorite things right now are:
Food: Macaroni and Cheese
Treat: AirHeads
Books: Pinkalicious and the Bible
Movie: The Little Mermaid
TV show: Curious George, Wild Kratts and Angelina Ballerina
Toy: Princess Barbies, Dress up, and craft stuff
Game: Matching games
School: Playing at the gym
Color: everything except black
Event this year: getting the pets
Random things that excite you: Hand sanitizer, chapstick, craft activities, playing with friends, school and anything active or social.

Lydia, it has been such a blessing to have you in our home. Your smile and excitement for life brighten our lives! We love you so much and look forward to many more years watching you grow and to share more happy moments with you.

Love,
Momma

Welcome to our Newest Little Angel!

Sweet EmmaLee,

Welcome to our crazy home! We are so excited to have you officially here in our lives! The past 9 months have definitely had their trials of nausea, varicose veins, heartburn, exhaustion and many other forms of discomfort. And the months and days leading up to your birth were plagued with many different illnesses and trips to San Antonio so that I could be with Grandma Anderson through some of her treatments. I hardly had time to get bored or nest at all during your pregnancy. But, rest assured that we were all happy that you had a relatively uneventful birthday and joined our family healthy and strong! You politely waited until I could be at the hospital for induction day and made your appearance after just a few short pushes. The most complicated part of your birth was that you chose to keep your right hand up on your face as you came out, causing me to tear more and you to bruise a little on your nose and cheek. You came into our family at a strong 8 lbs 6 oz and 20.25 inches, a huge surprise to us all! Still not sure where you were hiding all that weight in there!

Precious EmmaLee Rae, your name was chosen specifically for the hope and joy that you brought. The months leading up to your birth were very emotional and challenging for me and our family. After a fun week in El Paso at Thanksgiving time with family, my mom, your Grandma Anderson, was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She immediately began chemotherapy treatments and I spent all the time I could at her bedside and helping out my dad and Uncle Neil in San Antonio. Though Daddy and I tried to have a wonderful Christmas with your sisters, it was difficult not knowing what was going to happen. Once I progressed far enough into my pregnancy and couldn't travel, our lives continued to get complicated. Many days somebody was sick in our home and I was busy trying to finally get things ready for you. Even the day before you were born was spent shampooing and combing headlice out of everyone's hair and washing and cleaning everything in our home. Not a dull moment! With everything going wrong in our lives, we needed something happy. And that was you. Our beautiful Rae of sunshine. Amidst all the storms raging around us, you brought happiness, joy and hope. We still do not know right now what will happen with my mom's illness. We have continued to have more illnesses and other complications. But you continue to bring smiles to those around you and help us remember that despite the tempests raging around us, there is always happiness and hope. I pray that you will always remember that as you go through your life. Satan is getting stronger and there is more sorrow and heartache than ever before. But there is also more joy and hope as well. Let your light shine to those around you and let them see that Rae of sunshine.

Another reason for your name, the inspiration to use it as it is, is from your Great Great Grandpa LeeRay Sorenson. I have fond memories of Grandpa Sorenson. He always had gum hidden in his filing cabinet to give the kids that came to visit. And he had neat handmade wooden toys that he would get out for us to play with. The name Ray or Rae was passed on in several generations after him. Coincidentally, your also have Lee in your name. Also, you have a Great Great Grandpa LeeRoy Matthews and a Great Grandpa Malcolm LeeRoy Matthews. The Lee is found in several names in your ancestry in many Great and valiant examples. I could tell many stories of these amazing people. And I'm sure I will someday. But just know for now that they are looking down on you and are so happy to have you continue their legacy.

Sweet EmmaLee, you have already been back to the hospital since your birth. At 12 days old your eye became very rapidly swollen and began to ooze nasty gunk. It went from me thinking that you had a simple clogged tear duct mid-afternoon to me questioning that more was going on just a few short hours later. As soon as I showed your daddy pictures of your eye, he packed you up and took you to the emergency room (and you should know that your daddy doesn't send y'all to the doctor for anything unless he is confident that a hospitalization is required). Sure enough, you were admitted the moment the doctors saw your eye and they immediately got you started on antibiotics. You spent the next 2 days in the hospital receiving treatment and undergoing testing to make sure the infection hadn't spread to your blood, urine, or spinal fluid. Fortunately, nothing was found. It was determined that you got a small infection while in the birth canal and that you would be just fine with no damage to your eye.

We are so grateful to have you as a part of our family. Your sisters have loved and adored you since the moment they saw you. You are constantly showered with loves and kisses. I have never seen anybody so excited to bring your clean diapers and wipes and throw away your dirty ones. I frequently catch them doting on you with kisses, high pitched voices and every toy imaginable. You have certainly found a special place in all of our hearts. We love you so much!

Love always,
Momma

ps: It took me long enough to get this letter posted that you had your blessing given on Sunday, February 15th. Grandma and Grandpa Dickinson and Uncle Matt came down from Washington, Grandma and Grandpa Anderson and Neil came from San Antonio, Aunt Brittany and Uncle Glenn came from Rexburg, and Uncle Josh and Aunt Ciera came from Waco. We were so blessed to have so much family there for your special day. You looked beautiful in your dress! Unfortunately it was difficult to get a picture with everybody in the group since people had to separate in different directions. But you can trust me that they all were there. Daddy, Grandpa Anderson, Grandpa Dickinson, Uncle Josh, Uncle Glenn and our good friend, Dave Halverson, all stood in the circle as your Daddy blessed you. You were blessed that:
*Heavenly Father knows you and always will. He knows your great potential. You were chosen to come to earth now to share your light with the world. And that Light comes from the Savior. It will be a beacon to those around you.
*You will grow in beauty, knowledge and stature.
*You will come to know the Savior. That will be the most important relationship in your life.
*You are a chosen spirit and He loves you.

To Hannah at 2 Years Old!

I know this is super delayed. But I wrote this letter for Hannah last May and never posted it. And I just have to post it officially before I put up Lydia's birthday post and EmmaLee's birth post. Hannah is definitely not forgotten or loved any less!

Sweet Hannah,

I think that I have a harder time believing that you are really 2 than I have at any point in your development so far! You are my baby girl still! And yet your development is definitely proving otherwise! You have definitely gotten down the 2 year old attitude quickly! In fact, I think that you spent the months prior to your birthday practicing.

Despite your 2 year old attitude, you really are a sweet little lady. You LOVE taking care of your babies and I often hear you singing to them. I think this is my favorite thing to see you doing. Well, that and when you randomly decide to hug your sister and tackle her to the ground. You have a great career in wrestling! Your favorite thing to do first thing in the morning is to sit on my lap with your sippy of milk and snuggle as we watch a show. The show is not always necessary, however the blanket draped over our laps is! It doesn't matter how hot it is. You must have your "bobbee" (blankie). You also are very very strongly attached to "Aiee" (I don't know how to spell that pronunciation, but it means her owl snuggly). It is carried everywhere at home, often accompanied by thumb sucking and has also found her way into the car whenever we leave the house. Luckily I have convinced you that it does not leave the car into stores, etc in fear that it may get lost (and I don't ever want to face that trauma!). Aiee has already had very severe reconstructive surgery, and I anticipate several more before she finds her death bed.

A few month ago you had a very unpleasant experience when you tripped on your nightgown getting down from a chair. You fell flat on your face and chipped your tooth clean in half. We were able to get you into a dentist office within a few hours and you were well on your way to recovery. It was a terribly experience though! Unfortunately you had chipped your tooth all the way into the pulp and needed to get a pulpotomy (baby root canal) before they could put a composite crown on it. Because of your age, they chose to strap you down into a papoose and perform the procedure with you awake. I could hear your screams all the way across the office the full 20 minutes. It was so hard to hear you in such pain and know that I couldn't do anything to help you. After they brought you back into my arms, I didn't want to let you go. I wish I could keep you from many of the pains that you will experience in this life! But I know, as I knew in the waiting room at the dentist office, that I cannot. They are there for you to learn from and grow stronger (and to keep your tooth from getting infected and falling out). However, please know that I will always be there to comfort and love you!

We went to the doctor last week for your 2 year old checkup. It was a VERY traumatizing visit. The moment that we stepped into the back for your weight began a huge wrestling match and it didn't end until we walked out the door to leave. The only thing I can figure is that you are still very much traumatized after your bad encounters with the dentist recently. Either way, the only way we were able to get your weight was for me to hold you on the scale and then put you down to figure out the difference. And we had to pin you down and stretch you out like a newborn to get your height. And that was only the beginning of the visit. Sigh. I am so glad that you didn't need any shots this time! Sigh. After talking with the doctor, we did determine that you are definitely behind in your speech and we are now taking the steps to get your evaluated by a speech therapist and an audiologist. I don't think that you have any problems with hearing, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder. So we'll see about that soon. You do say several "words", however the only ones that anybody else would understand is "bye bye" and "no". However, even "no" is often very confusing because you also use it in reference to any form of beverage. So, even that is deceitful. Hopefully we can get this squared away soon! And despite the battling, we were able to get your stats. You are falling into the lower percentiles, but the doctor isn't concerned yet because your body is still in good proportion. You are a teeny little lady though!

Height: 2 feet 8 inches (19%)
Weight: 23 lbs 9 oz (12%)
Head circumference: 18 inches (20%)

A couple more of your favorites to end on a happy note:
You LOVE to get dirty! You got to go to the beach in Galveston a couple weeks ago for the first time since moving a year ago and you HATED the water. Just like you don't like swimming pools or even bathtubs. But you were in heaven playing in the sand! Everytime we go outside you find the dirt to play in. You love exploring in it.

You still LOVE slides. And really anything at a park. You are very good at holding onto the grown up swings and love rocking back and forth in them. You love the freedom of running around and doing new things.

If I had to pin down your favorite food, I would say Mac and Cheese. That is always a guarantee. Along with most any fruit.

Sweet Hannah, you are such a fun, energetic and silly little lady! Without you, our family would not be complete. I love you and am so excited to see what the next year holds!

Love,
Momma