Surgery is Scheduled

I just got off the phone with the surgery scheduler Susan, who is a VERY helpful woman, and my surgery is scheduled for July 13th. And on Monday I found out that the test for my lymph nodes came back negative so I will just be having my thyroid removed. Praise God!

Blue White Game

One year ago we visited Penn State for the first time.

Little did we know then all that this year would bring us. We have spent much of the weekend thinking of all the fun things we did last year when we visited- meeting all the staff for the first time, visiting the lion shrine, Nav TV and the Blue White Game. We visited the lion again this year with Arlyn and Laura before Nav TV and then on Saturday we got ready to go to the Blue White Game...but it was kinda chilly and rainy and we had missed a lot of it already so we took some pictures and called it a day. Sunday we headed to the waffle shop to mark a year meeting our neighbors/co-workers/friends Jaime and Eric Staveness- we are so thankful for them! Here are a couple family pics from the weekend:

Two Months Old!

Can you believe it?! I hardly can! On Friday Olivia had her two month check up- where she weighed 11 pounds, 8 ounces and was 22 1/4 inches long. Her head was bigger too, but I don't remember the measurements. She was declared healthy and was a trooper for all her vaccine shots- she may have done better then her mommy who shed a few tears for her! The best part for Mom was that she slept through the night on Friday night- from 11 pm to 7 am!!! Although I don't think I slept the whole time cause I kept waking up, making sure she was OK! Haha. This month Olivia has learned to suck her thumb, has started sleeping in her own crib (instead of our room), can sleep often from 11/12pm to 4/5 am and then usually goes back to sleep for a couple more hours. Mom is feeling MUCH more rested. She can "play" much longer in her swing or on her play mat. She makes TONS of cute noises and smiles. We pretty much think she is the best and cutest baby ever:)

Visiting Aunts!

In the last month Olivia met all her Aunts!!! Its so awesome that they all made the time to come down and visit us:) This is Olivia sleeping with Aunt Hannah- this was back at the end of March- she was so much smaller then!Next came Aunt Liz for Easter (along with Grandma Bev too). Aunt Liz is a computer whiz so of course she had to show Olivia all about facebook!

Then this last weekend Aunt Laura and Aunt Arlyn came. Here Olivia is showing off her new skill from the week- sucking her thumb! Sometimes her hand covers her whole face, but her thumb is in her mouth! Its so cute:)
And doing what she does best with Aunt Arlyn- sleeping!

Olivia's First BATH!

Olivia's umbilical cord took awhile to actually fall off so she got sponge baths on her changing table for awhile. The night before Easter we got out her real bath tub and gave her her first real bath. She seemed to enjoy it! I am hoping she has a love for the water- we have swimming lessons at the Y in the fall!

Flowers!

Ok, so I have been very excited about the flowers we have grown outside that I want to share with you- check them out! This was taken pretty soon after they started to bloom in early April- they are still out and HUGE...though some are starting to die.

This was a surprise flower that we didn't plant- awkward placement, but pretty color!

I loved these little purple and white ones- they actually came out first. My only disappoint me was they didn't last very long:(

Nate's 30th Birthday Party

April 2nd was Nate's 30th Birthday so I threw him a little party. We invited our staff friends over for ice cream cake and snacks. It was a low key but fun shindig:) Blowing out Candles:

The "spread" - including embarrassing pictures of Nate growing up :)

The SURPRISE! I wanted to make Nate's 30th special so I tried to invite all his college buddies over to celebrate as a surprise. Unfortunately we were busy the weekend before and the weekend of was Easter and many already had plans with family. However, Ryan Casey made the trip from Baltimore for the night- so great of him! The highlight of the night was Ryan walking in our door at 11 pm and Nate's face red with surprise:) Unfortunately I was consoling Olivia and did not capture a picture. Ryan shared fun stories before heading to bed- including how he almost died when he fell off a cliff in CA but still made it to our wedding in Boston within the week! Saturday morning he and Nate got to play some Frisbee golf and made a trip to Myer's Dairy where he acquired chocolate milk- Ryan's drink of choice. Thanks Ryan for making Nate's Birthday so special!

PSU men's weekend

In Pittsburgh this weekend for a men's retreat. Missing my girls, but having fun at PNC Park with 60 guys from our Navs ministry. Tickets here are way cheaper that Fenway, but can we even make the comparison? Also shot a 12 gage shot gun today at some clay pigeons. I've never done that before. And did you know that today's the first day of trout season? ...the things you learn in good old PA. Had the privilege of speaking to 200 or so students last night at our Nav Night. I think it went pretty well. Sorry if you are reading this hoping for another picture of Olivia. :)

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Just waiting

Well, we're here in Hershey waiting for Caroline (Mommy) to come back to the waiting room. She's getting an aspiration of her lymph nodes around her thyroid gland. Please pray with us that they will be conclusive results this time!

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Eating one's hand

I think Olivia's showing some more coordination. And perhaps she'll be right-handed. Unless of course she chews off her right hand.

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Olivia

Last Saturday we ventured out as a family for our first dress up affair- the Navigators Semi-formal. It was fun to get dressed up again after being SO big for so long :) And Olivia slept through the whole thing! Honestly we were a little disappointed we didn't get to dance with her. But Nate did dance with me and that was SO much fun. During dinner, Michel Buble's song, Everything, came on which is the first song we danced to at our wedding. Nate took me to the dance floor and we had the first dance of the night! Mind you, no one else was dancing yet. It was VERY romantic and I loved it. He is a wonderful man:) And today is his 30th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Nate!!!

And this is just a cute pic of Olivia I think:) She is growing so fast! The last couple of days I have really been noticing that she likes to be awake longer and is interested in looking at things much more. She may have even grabbed at one of her toys on the changing table today. Nate and I both think she has smiled at us at least once- though hard to know if its for real, or just gas- which she also has plenty of! Yesterday afternoon she played two separate times for over ten minutes in her swings. And this morning she had tummy time for over five minutes. She is such a joy and we love her so much!

Flowers, Syrup, and Surgery

Three totally unrelated things- but things I want to share:)

Last fall Nate and I bought flowers to plant and my mother in law graciously helped me plant them in October seeing as I have never planted flower before. This last week they have started to bloom. I took this picture yesterday and with the gorgeous weather we are having - even more have blossomed! They are gorgeous and bring me joy:)

Last Saturday Nate thought it would be yummy to have waffles for lunch- I heartily agreed. He also thought it would be yummy (my word, not his) to have strawberry syrup- so I made some! It turned out so well. Since we have been married, it has been really fun to try to make all sorts of delicious things. Whenever we think of something, instead of buying it, we often will try to make it... although the only other adventurous thing we have cooked that I can think of right now are crepes- so good!

Lastly, my surgery. It will not be April 6th as we originally thought. That one test that we weren't sure about needs to be redone and they couldn't reschedule it that quickly. Basically they know there is cancer on my thyroid and will remove it. They see something that is suspicious in the lymph nodes near it so they biopsied them the last time I went in. The results were inconclusive so they need to test them again. Boo. We were hoping to get it all over with, but now we must wait a bit longer. I will go in April 15th to have them biopsied again and then surgery will be scheduled. I am expecting it to be in early May, but I will let you know. The up side of all this is that I should be able to recover more from having a baby before undergoing another surgery- here is to going on more walks and eventually running again!!!