Special Angel

A Newborn's Conversation with God

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."

The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy..."

God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."

Again the small child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"

God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."

"And what am I doing to do when I want to talk to you?"

God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."

"Who will protect me?"

God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life."

"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."

God said, "Your angel will alwyas talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Eart could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."

God said, "You will simply call her Mom."

4 months old!

Angelica turned 4 months old on 4/18. She is doing great! The biggest event of Angelica's 4th month was that she was baptised into the Catholic church. Besides that she has been doing all sorts of things. She has learned how to turn on her music machine that is attached to the side of her crib. She rolls over on to her side when she is sleeping. When she wakes up in the morning, she spins around and goes to the other side of her crib. She has started laughing, which I think is our favorite thing so far! Angelica has taken a few short road trips down to the University of Illinois where I have taken Rusty to the vet. She has started going to church as well. We celebrated Easter (pictures below in older post). She has outgrown another set of clothes and is now in the 6-9 month outfits for the most part. At her 4 month checkup, she weighed 14lbs 8oz and was 25 3/4 inches tall. She is also absolutely loving her jump-a-roo. Unfortunately Angelica picked up a little virus around the time of her baptism and still has a slight fever, so she hasn't had her 4 month shots yet. The Dr. would like us to do that next week as long as she is all better. Here are a couple pictures from Angelica's 4th month.

Sitting with Daddy in church on Easter Sunday.

She LOVES her jump-a-roo.

Sitting with Daddy while waiting for the Dr. to come in at the U of I vet school.

Every morning Angelica wakes up with a smile on her face. This is awesome for us as we are not really morning people. Now that we see her first thing in the morning, she gets our day started in a really good mood. She is so awesome and we are so graetful she is ours. :)

Angelica's Baptism

Angelica was baptised in the Catholic Church on Sunday, April 11, 2010. She was baptised at Our Lady of Knock which is the same church where we were married in May 2006. Deacon Tom Knetl performed her baptism, which was very nice as he was the principal of Memorial Jr. High when I attended there. We chose my sister, Lisa, to be Angelica's Godmother and Dennis's brother, Greg, to be her Godfather. We feel that both Lisa and Greg are positive role models and will set a good example for Angelica to follow as she grows up. Lisa bought Angelica's Christening gown several weeks ago. It is so pretty and suits Angelica's personality well.

Overall, the Christening was a blessed event. We felt very happy for our baby girl as she was baptised into the Christian faith. We hope that we will be not only good parents, but also good Christians and set a good example for her to follow as she grows up.

Here are some pictures from the day.

I love this picture. She looks soooo happy!

Here we are as we arrived at the church. Unfortunately, Angelica came down with a virus this day and she was quite cranky for most of the day. (After seeing the Dr. we are pretty sure that she had a stomach bug with a fever.)

Angelica with her parents and Godparents listening to Deacon Knetl.

After Dennis and I gave Angelica a blessing on her forehead, Deacon Knetl asked other loved ones to come forward and do the same. After blessing her, everyone stayed up at the alter to watch the baptism up close. It was nice to share the moment so closely with others. Angelica's cousins Nate & Tony, Godparents Greg & Lisa, and Grandparents, Kathy, Dave, Larry, Diana and Sue all came forward for the remainder of the ceremony.

Daddy held Angelica during the baptism.

Angelica was annointed with oil as well.

Angelica's Godfather lit a candle for her off of the church's baptismal candle.

The ceremony was a little rough on Angelica, so we didn't get to take a lot of pictures afterwards. Here is one shot we did get to take. (A special thanks to my sister's brother-in-law, Phil, for taking all of these photos during the ceremony!)

After the baptism we had a luncheon at our house. Here is the super tasty cake that we ordered from our favorite bakery, the Calumet Bakery. They did a beautiful job!

Lisa and I made all of the food. We served tuna salad and chicken salad sandwiches along with potato salad and pasta salad. It seemed like everyone really liked the meal.

Angelica received many special gifts for this occassion. We have already read through many of her prayer books and children's bibles. Her crib cross, night light and door hanger are carefully set up in her bedroom. She even got her very own pearl earrings, a glass bead rosary and a silver cross neclace that her great grandma Julie bought while in Austria! She also received a couple new outfits, books, water and sand toys, bathing suits and several savings bonds. Angelica is very blessed to have so many loving and generous people in her life.

After the baptism, Angelica changed into a different dress. Here she is with her Grandma Smith.

Austin, Nathan and Tony playing in the back yard.

Kaylea and Leanna playing in the backyard.

Rebecca and Jeffrey playing in the living room.

All together there were 50 adults and 12 kids at the party. All of the kids were so well behaved! (Wish we could say the same for the adults! haha) We felt very fortunate to have so many of our friends join us for this day as well. Since the baptism, we have taken Angelica back to church for a regular service. Sister Alban (one of the sisters at our church) was so excited to see Angelica at mass the following week. She picked her up and said "We have a brand new little Christian here with us today!" I must say, Angelica is our little angel, and I hope she will live up to her name as she grows up!

Rusty Update

I posted about Rusty back in February when I was traveling down to U of I to take him in for oral surgery. What started out as some really bad breath has turned out to be a diagnosis of cancer. Originally we thought Rusty just needed a teeth cleaning. When we brought him to our regular vet, she referred us to U of I as she had never seen a mouth in such bad shape. The weird part was that it got bad overnight. She feared he might have an autoimmune disease. THe U of I dentist performed his surgery. After 3 weeks, he wasn't healing and had developed weird scabs all over his back and in his ears and nose. Back to U of I we went to meet with a dermatologist. We thought it might be an allergic reaction or a severe infection. After performing 3 biopsies, it was concluded that Rusty has cutaneous lymphoma. His case is very rare as he doesn't have any tumors that could be removed or radiated. Instead the cancer is expressing itself all over the surface of his body. On a third trip to U of I we met with an oncologist. They told us that the cancer hadn't spread, but the prognosis, still wasn't good. They expect Rusty will live only a few more months. After many tears, we are realizing that there isn't much we can do at this point. We are just doing what we can to keep him happy and comfortable.

At first glance, you wouldn't know Russ is sick. He still loves to play. He does his tricks. He gets excited about eating and going for walks. But if you know him like we do, you can see there is a little less pep in his step and it is heartbreaking to see this. Rusty is the best dog I have ever had. He is so incredibly smart and loving and caring. He has a fighting and fearless attitude. He knows what he wants all of the time. He is not just a pet, but a good friend.

We are praying Rusty might have a chance to go into a longer than expected remission. So far, nothing has been "by the book." In fact this type of cancer is so rare in Yorkie's that U of I has only seen it one other time. It really sucks that our Yorkie had to get it. He is only 7 and we had expected to live another 10 years together with him. We are taking Russ to a holistic vet in the next couple of weeks just to make sure that we are doing every possible thing we can to keep him as comfortable for as long as possible.

I go back and forth. Some night I lay in bed and cry thinking about the inevitable. I really haven't had to deal with loss much in my life so this is especially hard for me. Rusty has always been there to go through things with me. I've gotten through some pretty tough times with Rusty by my side and we have had many happy moments together. It is sad that Rusty is soon going to leave us. But no matter where he might have been during his life, I am glad that he ended up with me. Even if it is ONLY 7 years, at least we had those 7 years together. Like they say, "It is better to have love and lost than to have never loved at all." Well I think that definitely applies here. Rusty is my buddy and full of unconditional love. He has made my life so much happier and I hope I have made his happier too. I am going to mis him so so so so much. :(

Russ loves hanging out with whomever is sitting on the rocking chair in the baby's room.

I love my little guy.

And he loves me.

Easter 2010

We've been waiting a long time to have a family Easter egg hunt. Angelica is only 3 and a half months old, but we figured, why not? Are we nuts? Maybe...but not that nuts...we only hid 6 eggs. We filled the eggs with money and later put it in her piggy bank. I imagine next year Easter will be a lot more fun. :)

Here Angelica is looking at "Roo" from Winnie The Pooh in her Easter Basket.

Here she is shaking an orange egg.

Daddy helped her to find a blue egg.

After church we went to Grandpa Brewer and Grandma Di's house. Grandma Di got a new camera, so we took lots of pictures. I just love this one of Angie and Daddy looking over the back of the couch! So Precious!

Angelica was REALLY into sucking her thumb on Easter. She spent most of the day doing it. I think it's cute. Here she is with her Grandpa Brewer.

And here she is with Uncle Mark.

Angelica played with the monkeys in her crib while we ate dinner. She is just starting to be able to reach them.

Here we are. Happy Easter!

Taking a little nap with Grandma Di after dinner.

Rebecca Turns 1

My cousin Jim and his wife Julie have 2 beautiful kids. Big brother Jeff is 2 and a half and Rebecca just turned 1 on March 23. They threw a party for Rebecca at Aurelios. It was a lot of fun. Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

I bought this little red dress for Angelica long before I was pregnant. I was so excited to see her wear it!

Rebecca wasn't quite sure what to do with her smash cake. After Julie gave her a spoon she went to town! I don't think she wanted to get messy!

Dad and Diana got Rebecca the classic turtle sandbox...and here are all the other presents filling it up! Jim and Julie just bought a new house in Frankfort. They are closing on it next week. We are super excited for them. This sandbox will be great in their back yard!

Rebecca and her buddy hanging out

Doug & Lisa's IL Reception

My sister and Doug got married in TN on Feb 27. They decided to celebrate with all of their family and friends on March 27 by throwing an informal reception at a local bowling alley. They were originally set up to meet on a blind date and they met at lane 9 in a bowling alley. Not wanting to go the traditional route of making everyone get dressed up to eat chicken breasts and do the YMCA and "electric slide" they opted for this. It turned out to be especially fun for everyone. Their invitation read...

We met on lane nine in August 2008
Bowling was fun on this fantastic blind date.
What better way to celebrate the start of our new life
Then to bowl again as husband and wife.
When the clock "strikes" 6 and the pins start to fall
You're invited to join us and have a "ball."

I loved this carpet and had to take a picture of it.

The people who own the bowling alley helped to get everything ready and set up for dinner.

The card box that Lisa and I made.

The wedding cake. It has white snowflakes embossed on the cake and then a ribbon of the blue snowflakes wrapping around. It was very tasty.

We had the entire bowling alley to ourselves.

Lisa and Doug in front of Lane 9. They started out dressed up, but changed into casual clothes after throwing out the first ball.

The food was catered from the Bierstube. It was EXCELLENT!

We set up pictures from the actual wedding cermony in the entryway.

The mother of the bride, choosing her ball.

Although it was quite noisy, miss Angelica slept most of the evening away in Great Grandma Julie's arms.

It was the first time Angelica got to meet Auntie Liz. She flew in from OH for the reception.

Lisa finally got to bowl at the end of the night!