Our Daughters Have Wings

O Christmas Tree ~ 16 days until Christmas!

This is a picture of our tree that I took using a new technique I learned from some other photographer friends of mine.  I'm having SO much fun with my photography biz!

 

Happy Holidays from Santa's Lil' Helpers! {Two Angels Photography}

I've recently acquired some studio equipment from my friend, Kristi, who has taken pictures of both boys and my maternity shots.

These are just a couple of practice shots - what do you think?

To see more of my work, visit my photography blog: Two Angels Photography {blog}

Thankful...

Three years ago, I had a difficult time finding something to be thankful for.  We had just lost our daughters, and I was pretty down... what a difference 3 years can make.

We have SO much to be thankful for.

That we got to meet our beautiful daughters.  Some parents don't get the chance to do that with their angel babies.

That we were blessed with our beautiful sons.

That our marriage has endured enormous trials in such a short time.

That we have a wonderful support network of friends (online and in real life) and family.

 

Update continued...pictures too!

Phew - my 'short' update ended up being longer than I had planned, but that's what you get when you haven't posted anything this month.

Father's Day was a good one, I think, for Nick.  He got to watch a little of the golf before they went back on the rain delay, and he liked the gifts I got for him (some t-shirts on clearance at DC Sports in Novi, a pair of shorts on clearance from Old Navy, and a ceramic picture frame that I painted at The Ceramic Studio, etc. in Howell).

We didn't get a chance to visit the girls' grave yesterday b/c we took the boys to get pictures done, and had to get home so Nick could put the ribs in his smoker.  YUMMY!

My dad came over yesterday, too, since he loves ribs and we were able to get some good shots of Grandpa and the boys as well!

Now for some long over due pictures! 






More can be found on my Flickr photo page: My Flickr Photo Sets

A Mother's Day Wish From Heaven

Dear Mr. Hallmark,

I am writing to you from heaven, and though it must appear

A rather strange idea, I see everything from here.

I just popped in to visit, your stores to find a card

A card of love for my mother, as this day for her is hard.

There must be some mistake I thought, every card you could imagine

Except I could not find a card, from a child who lives in heaven.

She is still a mother too, no matter where I reside

I had to leave, she understands, but oh the tears she's cried.

I thought that if I wrote you, that you would come to know

that though I live in heaven now, I still love my mother so.

She talks with me, and dreams with me; we still share laughter too,

Memories our way of speaking now, would you see what you could do?

My mother carries me in her heart, her tears she hides from sight.

She writes poems to honor me, sometimes far into the night

She plants flowers in my garden, there my living memory dwells

She writes to other grieving parents, trying to ease their pain as well.

So you see Mr. Hallmark, though I no longer live on earth

I must find a way, to remind her of her wondrous worth

She needs to be honored, and remembered too

Just as the children of earth will do.

Thank you Mr. Hallmark, I know you'll do your best

I have done all I can do; to you I'll leave the rest.

Find a way to tell her, how much she means to me

Until I can do it for myself, when she joins me in eternity.

~ by Jody Seilheimer ~

So I hope this poem reminds people that I'm a mother to FOUR - my beautiful girls in heaven AND my beautiful boys on earth.

Tomorrow will be my 3rd Mother's Day without my girls.  

I never stop thinking about them.  So if you bring them up - I'll appreciate it.  It means that you care.

I think Mother's Day will ALWAYS be bittersweet for me.  Always.

A brief update...life with two boys!

Sorry for not updating recently!  April 2009 has been a VERY busy month for us, as you can imagine!

Let's start with Christopher...on April 14th, we took him in for a recheck to the pediatrician.  He gained 28oz in just two weeks - or 2oz per day!  He weighed 9lbs 11oz, was 22.25" long on the 14th. 

I took him back to the doctor today b/c I thought he might have reflux - he's been crying during feedings, arching his back, having 'wet' burps, and spitting up quite a big, especially for a breastfed baby.  Well, he was up to 10lbs 7oz today.  So he gained 12oz in just one week!  What a chubber!  Unfortunately, he likely has reflux, so we'll be trying out an Rx of Zantac for him to see if it improves things.  Less pain for him will likely equal more sleep for Mommy, so I'm looking forward to trying the meds.

Here are a couple of pics of Christopher:


Now an update on Nicholas...let's see...new words include "Wow!" and "OK!"  We got him a swing set this weekend and Nick put it together, just in time for it to rain overnight Saturday and get cold and dreary for Sunday.  He did get in a few minutes time on it on Sunday, but not for long.

Easter was a fun time!  We used plastic eggs, of course.  You will NOT find pictures of Nicholas dyeing Easter Eggs in this house, so we did what we could with what we had.  Dominick and Nicholas had an impromptu Egg Hunt in the backyard - here are a few pics of Nicholas from this month. 

The Easter Bunny visit was courtesy of the LAPOM Easter Party at Miss D'Anna's house.


Playing with a car from the Lo Iaconos:


Drawing with his MagnaDoodle (from the Easter Bunny):


And a pic of the earth family of four on Easter:


We did go visit the girls' grave and put out Easter decorations for them...I'll try to find the pictures - I thought I had uploaded them but can't find them!

Musings about my birthday and Merry Christmas!

So, Tuesday I turned 33 years old.  It's really hard for me to believe, since I don't always feel 33.  Notice I said "don't always" b/c certainly, some days I feel OLDER than 33.  Especially being pregnant with a toddler and it's winter.  My sense of balance is SO off!

Of course, Mother Nature had a WONDERFUL gift for me - it snowed ALL DAY LONG!  I don't know WHO puts the order in for snow on my birthday every year, but it seems to happen at least 50% of the time.

My friend, Heidi, came over to hang out with me.  It was so fun seeing her - she had moved to the Cleveland area after Pfizer closed their Ann Arbor campus, so I think I've seen her just a handful of times since about a year or so ago.  We got to hang out, and Nicholas seemed to REALLY gravitate to her as well! 

We went to dinner at Border Cantina (Yum!), stopped by to see the girls (and dig out their headstone from the 16"+ of snow that was covering it), and then came home and played the Wii for a bit.  I can see why it's such an addictive gaming system!  I am so proud, though, because I scored 222 on bowling!  That's my highest game so far!  Previously, my highest game was 176, which was scored when Jeff, Kati & Abby were here visiting.

 Yesterday was spent getting ready to host 'my' side of the family for our annual Christmas Eve celebration.

We were so busy prepping food, shoveling snow (well, that was Nick's job), and doing wrapping gifts that didn't get to run out to the store for a few last minute items.

It was a fun afternoon/evening.  We had dinner, opened presents and even got to snap a picture of the 5 living grandkids.

Today, so far, has been spent hanging out at home with our earth family.  Nick was so kind to me and let me sleep in for a bit while he got Nicholas breakfast.  After that, we looked at our stockings first.  Then he went down for a little nap, and when he got up we opened some more gifts, fed him lunch, and took him outside for a little sled action.  There wasn't much snow, but we did what we could with what was left!

So far it's been a good Christmas.  We'll finish off this week by going shopping tomorrow to find some things (hopefully at a great discount) for next year, such as our holiday cards, and maybe a few toys or things for Nicholas and Baby #4.  Saturday we'll celebrate Christmas with Nick's side of the family, as Tony & Marcia will be coming into town this weekend.

I hope everyone has had a good Holiday week so far (Hannukah or Christmas) and my thoughts are with those parents whose children are celebrating the Holidays in Heaven, instead of with their families.

Here are some more pictures of Nicholas:


He likes to tear very TINY pieces of paper off the gifts!

The stockings were hung...

Yes, I do realize it's before Thanksgiving.

Yes, I do realize we've got over a month until Christmas.

Do YOU live in Michigan?  If so, then you can understand why it ALREADY feels like Christmas is closer than it really is.

These 30-degree temps and snow on the ground is NOT something that makes you want to remember that technically, winter doesn't arrive until DECEMBER.

Anyway...we put up a smaller, skinny tree (pre-lit) in the corner of our family room since Nicholas' room is where we used to put our tree up (can't do that now, of course).  We also decorated our mantel.

What do you think?

Happy Holidays 2008!

With Thanksgiving fast approaching...we thought we'd take time out to say...Happy Holidays!

Happy Halloween 2008!

Nicholas' 2nd Halloween was a lot of fun!  We took him trick-or-treating to a few houses in our sub, mostly neighbors' that we knew would like to see him.

We dressed him as a skeleton this Halloween.  We carved a pumpkin for each of us, and had 'mini' pumpkins (gourds) for our girls.

Here's a pic of us on the porch:


And one of our pumpkins in the dark:


And the rest of the album can be found by clicking this link: Halloween 2008