April and May

I preparation for Lily's third and last surgery, we have had to keep Lily isolated so she doesn't get sick. She was supposed to have her surgery in March, but when we went up to Edmonton the surgeon didn't like the sound of her cough and wouldn't proceed and delayed the surgery until April, then her date in April was bumped due to an emergency surgery for a new born baby. Needless to say, we had to make sure she didn't get sick so her surgery wouldn't get bumped again. So we had to keep lily entertained in the house as going to the park could be full of germs. Once the weather was nice enough, we were able to take Lily for walks. We enjoyed taking her down to the river in her wagon so she could through rocks which she loved.

Of course we brought Hannah too, so here is her glamour shot, with milk mouth and all

The other thing we do to entertain Lily, is let her do her nails. She loves to be like her mom and be a princess with beautiful nails. Leah decided to let Lily try and paint her own nails. This took a lot of concentration but it ended with beautiful results.

Lily also loves to play with her dolls. Here she is changing the baby "Emma's" diaper and burping it. She loves to do what Mommy does with Hannah.

Lily also likes to play doctor. We bought her this doctor set so we could practise with her what the doctors do when she goes so that she will realize that the check ups don't hurt and she won't put up such a fuss. Here, she is practising on Hannah, and it looks like she needs some more practise as I am pretty sure that is not where Hannah's heart is.

Lily has a wonderful imagination as well. She lately has a necklace full of pixy dust which she remembers to put on when she takes off her clothes and changes into her pyjamas. If she does forget it, she has to go to her room, find the last shirt she was wearing at the time and pull it off that shirt and put it on. The great thing about imaginary necklaces of pixy dust, is that if she does by chance forget to put it on then she changes clothes and we have already left to go somewhere, it can magically and conveniently be pulled out of Daddy's pocket at any moment because I luckily remembered it when Lily hasn't. 

She also loves to play with her stuffed animals and dolls and her food. She loves to feed them, and set the table to have them all eat together.  One day she decided that her little table in her room was not large enough to hold them all, so she needed a bigger table. At least the treadmill is getting used for something.

Leah has been good at coming up with things to do with Lily to keep her entertained, by building with blocks, baking and crafts.  

I also have to pose this next picture of Lily. One day as we were dancing around the kitchen, I noticed that Lily kept lifting up her skirt. It perplexed me for a while, and then I noticed the next day or so while watching Cinderella, that when she dances with the prince she holds her dress with one hand. So I had to get a picture of Lily doing it while she was dancing with me. She is such a princess.

For Mother's Day, all Leah wanted was some nice photos with her and her daughters. So we went out and took some pictures on Saturday. We haven't picked out Leah's favourites, but here are some nice ones:

I had to get a few too:

So Lily's Surgery was to happen on Monday, just after Mother's Day. So in Edmonton at the Ronald McDonald House, we woke up, gave Lily her special bath, gave her the only breakfast we were allowed to, (Popsicles and Apple Juice) the breakfast of champions...

...only to get a phone call a few minutes after that her surgery had been bumped again until Wednesday.  Lily didn't mind as this gave her some more time to play at the house. lily loves it here at the RMHouse.  There are so many toys and doll houses etc to play with.

This is the play house, you can see how excited she is to go inside.

We have also had some great help with my Mom and Leah's Mom coming to help out as we go through this surgery. Thanks Mom's we appreciate you!

I have to add the fact that we went to the Olive Garden last night for dinner. It was nice, but what everyone thought was funny was that I forgot to change into my shoes from the Ronald McDonald house and noticed when we got there I was still wearing my old man slippers. So Leah wanted me to shuffle like an old man with my old man slippers.

This next picture is at the restaurant, I post is because you can see how good Lily is getting at drawing. Look at the activity sheet she was drawing on at the table, you can see her picture she drew of Mickey Mouse. It has eyes, a mouth, and a smile, and two ears on the top. She is really good at colouring and developing her talents.

Hannah Joy Gibb

Our greatest Christmas present came a little early. Well...early in the sense that it was before Christmas, but late if you ask Leah. She was born 4 days over due on December 19, 2012.  We are so excited she has come in time for us to celebrate Christmas with her and Lily.  Here she is... 

Ms. Hannah Joy Gibb

 When we got home and put Lily in her jammies, she was so happy that she matched baby Hannah and had the same Jammies as Hannah. When I was putting Lily to bed and we were saying our prayers before bed, she said the cutest things which melted my heart. I will help her say her prayers by saying, Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful and thank Thee for... then I let Lily say what is on her mind.  Last night she said the following:

1. That her Nu-Nu was washed (he little bunny blanket - she is always so grateful whenever we wash her bed sheets, clothes, or her Nu-Nu)
2. That Baby Hannah came home out of Mommy's Tummy
3. That she matched baby Hannah (her jammies - it took me a second to understand what she meant at first when she said that one.

So a cute story on how we decided to name Hannah.  A few months ago, we asked Lily what we should name the baby, and without skipping a beat she said "baby Hannah".  Ever since then, even though we were not sure on a name, Lily would continually refer to the baby in mommy's tummy as Baby Hannah. One day when we asked again what we should name her, to see if she would still say Hannah, Lily blurted out, "Hannah, come home, she my friend, yeah!" and began clapping. How could we not call the new baby Hannah, as Lily already seamed to know this baby as Hannah and was excited to have her as her friend.

When we first drove into the Garage while coming home from the hospital with Hannah, Lily was right there at the house door waiting for us. She bent over with her hands on her knees peaking into the car seat at Hannah and says, "Baby Hannah? You Home, oh...come" and grabbed the car seat and pulled it through the door while saying. "Hannah, I gotch you"

Although Lily is being a bit jealous whenever I hold her Hannah, she still loves her little sister so much and has been so excited for Hannah to come out of mommy's tummy and to come home.

Here is a glamour shot of Lily, just because she brings so much joy to our lives. The other day, I curled her hair one saturday morning for fun and then took some pictures of her dancing around our bedroom with her Lamby.

Merry Christmas to All. May you have a wonderful time with those you love.

Family Pictures

Leah really wanted some new family pictures, so we went out one sunday and had my sister take a few shots. These are my two favourites.

LILY'S BIRTHDAY BOW

We celebrated Lily's first birthday this summer. It was so fun to have a little party for her. It was so cute, Auntie put a cute pink bow in Lily's hair in the morning for her birthday and Lily wore it all day. Here are some of the pics from Lily's special day. Leah made a bunch of Birthday cupcakes for us all to enjoy.

Lily was given free rein to dig into her own cupcake and eat it however she wanted to.

She of course received some presents...

Here are some of our other pics from the week at the cabin. Lily had so much fun playing in the water, splashing in her little pool and in the lake, as well as floating in her little pink dingy. I know we got video of it, but I didn't get any pictures.

Lily also loves to play in the sand...

Loves to give kisses...

Loves to eat watermelon...

Loves to be tickled...

Loves to share...

and most of all she also loves to make funny faces!

I also have to put this picture below of Leah on the Blog because I think she looks like Bronco Mendenhall. Go Cougars!

Family Pics and update

I just can't help posting pictures of my cute little Girl! She brings such a smile to my face. Lily recently had to go on oxygen just before christmas, but we took off the tubes so we could get a few pictures. They turned out pretty good, I didn't even have to do any photoshop on them! You can see how blue her eyes are, and how long her beautiful eye lashes are.

Lily had an MRI before Christmas as well, and the Doctor told us her case would be reviewed on January 4 to see what priority level she will be placed on for her next surgery. They did review it on the 4th, but we still don't know when her surgery will be, except that it will be within the next few weeks. They will give us a week heads up, which doesn't help me plan to give my boss very much of a heads up so I can take the time off. It always doesn't seem like reality that we have to go through this again, I don't think it will hit until we are up in Edmonton again and have to give her a kiss as she is put under.

We had a great Christmas with lots of family around, however we did miss the Agnew's family trip to Hawaii. Leah's sister Caroline got married on the 21st in the Hawaii Temple, but we were not about to leave Canada without insurance for Lily, which we are not able to get yet because she is still considered to be high risk after a surgery as far as the insurance companies are concerned. We also didn't want to risk going somewhere when it is so close to Lily needing her next surgery. We were sad to miss out on the Agnew Hawaii experience and were sad we couldn't see Caroline and her husband Justin be sealed.

We did manage to take some family pics, I don't know if this is the best one or not, but I figured I should post one, because after all, my girls are the most important thing in my life and I love them dearly.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and that 2011 will bring lots of happy memories to everyone. Happy New Year!!

Heavenly Pictures

I just had to post these two pics of Lily and her parents. I am starting to figure out photoshop, and I think these onse turned out nicely.

Happy Anniversary

Today is Leah's and my Wedding Anniversary. We actually celebrated it last Friday because my parents offered to baby sit so Leah and I could go for dinner and a movie. Leah did make me a dinner tonight which she made to imitate the meal we would have if we went to The Keg. I figure it was a good time to update our blog, well, actually I have been meaning to for a while, but my sister sent me a request to update it as she mentioned she keeps looking at my blog for an update but keeps seeing Lily just after surgery which isn't the nicest memories. She asked for some more cute pictures of Lily, so this is for you Allaina. Since the surgery Lily has been doing really well. She has been putting on weight which is usually tough for cardiac babies post surgery. She completely breast feeds which wasn't expected, and the doctors say they won't even discuss surgery plans until she is at least four months and will be able to wait until the later of the 6 month time line for her next one. It is weird to think that she has to go through it all again as to me and those who know Lily, almost completely forget that she had to go through it. She is a happy normal baby, as you can see in this picture below.

I usually forget that she does have to go for more surgeries. I try not to think about it and enjoy the time between now and then.

She is smiley and an absolute joy to have as part of our family. Leah and I absolutely love her to pieces. Here are a few pics Leah took of Lily, and which I added a few effects with Photoshop.