Finley's School Christmas Program 09

December 09: Finley's A.R.L.A. (school) Christmas program. Finley and her classmates had reindeer shirts with their names on them made fom their hand and footprints. Super cute.  Each class took the stage to perform a song.  Finley had been singing hers at home for weeks: Jingle Bells. She sung it all the way to the program. Then she reluctantly got on stage and sat quietly the entire time. After it was over she wanted to go back on stage and sing and dance her heart out.  Guess she just needed to warm up! It was really cute.

Afterwards, we came home and saw "Spunky" our neighbor cat who Finley loves. So we hung out outside with him when Finley saw the snowman on the front porch. She decided he needed a hug. From then on, whenever she saw Mr. Snowman, he needed a hug.

Santa

December 09: We took Finley to the clubhouse to see Santa who was visiting for brunch. This is how she felt about him and therefore, the only photo "with Santa" we have this year :)

Climb on in

November 09: Finley loves her stuffed animals so much, so decided to climb on in with them!

Halloween 09

It was a warm and muggy Halloween... but it didn't stop us from pulling the kids around the neighborhood in fur and fleece. It only seemed right that Finley should be a bunny as bunnies have been a favorite over the past year and a half. Koen was a fuzzy puppy dog , Brett was a spider and Jake was a lion.  We pulled them around in the wagons and Finley LOVED that. She also loved watching all the other kids on the street trick-or-treating. She like collecting the candy although she didn't know what it was. And she especially had fun afterwards in the bath with her buddy Koen, making sure to "rinse" him and read to him. She talked about everyone's costumes for the next several weeks. I was afraid she might not like the costumes because she had been very scared of a lion mask they had at her school, but she loved it all, even wearing her own head to toe fuzzy bunny costume! HAPPY Halloween!

A trip less planned...

About a week after coming home from our West Virginia trip for the Nelson family reunion, Grandma told us something was wrong: She had a mass on her ovary and needed to see a specialist. Mom and I took a flight out soon after the appointment was made without word we'd be arriving unannounced.

My Grandma loves oranges from Florida. The kind that are on the trees NOT the ones you buy in the store. So we packed some oranges and when we arrived late the night before her appointment we came in with the bag of oranges and said we just had to fly up to deliver them... perishable as they are.

The next morning we drove to the Gynecologic Oncologist in Pittsburgh who told us she had Ovarian cancer and would need surgery. She was scheduled to be admitted to the hospital that Sunday. On Sunday morning, Grandma, Pap, mom, myself, Aunt Shelli, Uncle Scott and Andrew all went to Grandma's small Presbyterian church service with her. In the middle of the service the pastor asked for prayer requests and/or praises and I was in awe and admiration that people began standing one by one to personally speak their requests. After a few had stood and made requests or praises, my Grandma stood up. She said nothing of herself. She said: "I am so thankful for all of my family who are with me here today". Then she sat down. That's Grandma. No prayer request for her hospital admission that day, ovarian cancer, or surgery... just gratefulness. Selflessness. Beautiful and complete faithfulness.

There aren't enough words to say how strong and faithful and beautiful Grandma is. The surgery is over and chemotherapy has begun. She doesn't talk about how difficult it is though... she laughs instead while explaining that the shoulder-length brown wig "just wasn't me". And then adds "but I'm sure it would look real cute on someone".

Although my inclination is to ask for your continued prayers... in honor of Grandma I have a praise instead:      I praise God for my Grandma, our family, and His amazing love for us. We have felt His peace and grace through this journey and we are so grateful.

Nelson Family Reunion

Toddler Bed

Ok so we're reeaalllly behind on posts but here are some photos of Finley when we first converted her crib to a toddler bed. On October 10th, the same day I said out loud "Oh, I plan on keeping Finley in a crib for a long time", she got out of her crib. And then did it two more times.The next day we converted the crib to a toddler bed much ealier than we had planned!