so cal trip

yes, we made ANOTHER southern california trip this last weekend. it helps that we have family down there, but tim's cousin graduated from biola, so his entire family headed down for a long weekend of disneyland fun. we had a blast seeing our friends the andersons, going to disneyland (of course), and walking around balboa with tim's parents and sister's family. we discovered that amelia is not yet a road warrior, but we had fun, none the less. kate experienced her first ride on dumbo (we were pleasantly surprised that she liked it:), her first corndog at the funzone on balboa, and did awesome on the long car trips. she's getting so old and grown up (as much as a 2-year-old can be).

my sweeties

kate LOVES to be the big sister. here she is posing for the camera.

spencer

i know that some of you are praying for our nephew spencer and want to stay updated on his progress. i thought that it would be easy to update you on all that is happening, but his situation is still critical and lots changes every day. if you are interested in staying connected with what's going on, and want to know how to pray specifically, you can go to his website. it's carepages.com and the keyword is spencerlewis. thank you for your prayers and encouragement!

crazy hair contest

my mom sent me a link to a contest that disney is holding. the winner of the best "crazy bed hair" wins $5,000, so i thought i'd give it a shot. i think that we might have a chance with our little kate-kate. the sad thing is is that this is her "normal" hair in the morning, so you can understand why i am so proud of myself for getting her hair in piggies (let alone getting an active 2-year-old to sit still long enough:)

happy mother's day!

Happy mother's day to all the mommies who read this. isn't being a mommy the hardest, yet sweetest job there ever was. i hope that this day you feel appreciated and loved. i am spending mine on the couch with the flu-oh well:)

another spencer update

a lot has happened since i last wrote. spencer went in for emergency surgery wedensday to replace the valve in his heart because his ventricle decided that it didn't want to pump like it should. his kidneys and liver were failing, so the doctors saw this as their only option. he is now making urine, which is a sign that his kidneys are kicking back in, and the doctors are just trying to keep him stable. please continue to pray for little spencer-he truly is a fighter and we are so looking forward to the story he might share one day. he is truly a MIRACLE! thanks God that you have spared him thus far!

update on spencer

thank you to all of you who were praying for spencer. we have just recently heard that the surgery was a success. the surgeons were able to use spencer's own tissue to repair his leaky valve, with only mild regurgitation as a result. they are pleased with this. they also successfully completed the fontan surgery and are now letting spencer rest. he will remain on the ventilator tonight, but everything else looks good so far. we will be continuing to pray for quick healing, no infection, wonderful caring nurses and other staff, as well as comfort for little spencer. i will continue to update as i know more.

prayer for little spencer

please be praying for our little nephew spencer. he is having open heart surgery tomorrow (monday) morning. he has a sydrome called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a very rare and serious heart defect. he is 2 and 1/2 years old and this is his 3rd surgery to repair his heart. tomorrow will hopefully be his last surgery, but it is very complicated as the doctors are going to try to repair a leaky valve in his heart, as well as do some other very intricate "fixing" of his heart. spencer goes in at 6:15 am eastern time, so hopefully we will know something by midday. i will keep this updated as soon as possible. we know that God has a great plan for spencer and we are praying that He would be glorified through this little boy's life. you can also be praying for tim's brother andy and his wife katie, who are spencer's precious mommy and daddy.

our garden "help"

it's so fun to see how kate loves the things that we love. we are finding that she loves to " help" wherever and however she can. she takes such pride in doing the things we ask her, whether it be to bring me a burp clothe for amelia, set the table, or water the plants. she has loved being a garden help and i know that summer will provide many more hours of fun outside.

while we were gone...

while we were out of town, our house projects moved right along. the addition is now getting all the attention. it has been framed, windows are in and the subfloor down. the electrician and plumbers are doing their thing, and it is really starting to look like a master suite. it's fun to see that we will have a bathroom that both of us can be in at the same time, and a closet to store all of my, i mean our, clothes:)

happy 60th dad

many of you know that we flew down last week to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday. it was a blast and he was shocked that we all came down to celebrate with him. we had such fun being with my sister and her family, as well as many other friends. we did a day at disneyland, played outside in the pool, and laughed lots. here are some pictures of our week.