New Year's, chocolate, toenails, and Lilly

Lilly turns 11 tomorrow! She was lucky to be born in Y2K. The year everyone thought everything was going to stop working...

I tried so hard to go into labor before January 1, so I could stop being pregnant! I scrubbed my shower on New Year's Eve, but no, Lilly didn't come until more than a week later.

That's ok, she's perfect just the way she is. :)



I put the pictures on here backwards.

Today, Lilly had her friend, Brianna, over for a manicure/pedicure party.

After we did nails, we went upstairs to decorate the chocolate cupcakes.



Lilly with her creations.

Bri's creations...the chocolate is the dad, the sprinkles the mom, and the mixture is the child.

Having fun

The finished toes. The girls all chose the hot purplish color. It was fun.

Bri and Maggie had the purple fingernails and Lilly chose the pretty green for hers.

Anthony had chemo this morning, so slept soundly for most of the nail decorating time.

Josh played the arcade outside the laundry room. He said he'd let us paint his toenails for one night only if I paid him $20. Smart boy, but no, I didn't do it. :)

Soaking feet before the foot scrub and massage.

Anthony loves going to therapy.

At speech, he was playing with the rain stick last week.

Isn't he so cute?!

In the waiting room before therapy. I came prepared with paper towel rolls.

If I bring toys, he'll throw them. Books hit the floor now too. So, I don't bother with typical entertainment anymore.

Auntie Jenny~notice the eyeshadow and sparkly eyeliner Lilly has been wearing since Christmas. Santa brought those for her. ;)

Lilly's bracelets that Santa brought.

She and Maggie wear their bracelets all the time, but when Anthony is fussy, they don't hesitate to let him play a little with them for a few minutes.

Having fun at the Seattle eye doctor.

New Year's Eve at the Seattle Ronald McDonald House means karaoke!

Maggie and Lilly went up and sang MANY times. They mainly sang Taylor Swift songs.

I'm so proud.

Our friend was in the hospital again. We love little Topher and his family. They are family to us now.

We went to visit, so Maggie went on the computer there and Lilly went cycling through the halls with Leslie, Christopher's big brother.

Lilly and Maggie love the blue gloves and often don them when we have clinic appointments.
The sweet ride Lilly is on reminds me of Henry.

Henry was a patient and fellow RMH-housemate. Henry and his mom, Lihua, fought a long, hard 2-year battle with cancer. Henry passed away last month. The RMH is not the same without Henry and Lihua.

One of my favorite memories of Henry is when we were in-patient once. Henry was in-patient at the same time. He knew we were there, so one day he got on the 4-wheeler and rode around the entire unit looking for the door with our last name on it. His nurse was hurrying along, pushing Henry's IV pole, trying to keep up.

Anyways, Anthony's adoption wasn't final yet, so his last name was different than ours. Henry didn't see our last name, so he cycled around the whole unit again (pretty big area, even on a bike), looking for a "J" for a first name on one of the door labels. He finally found us, and was so excited to just have found us. :)

New Year's Eve, there were so many extra people at the RMH, I put Anthony's bubble over the stroller. It has vents, but with the plastic cover, people just don't touch him as much!

After several months of not baking, I made cookies, cinnamon rolls, and cupcakes this week.

I think that our COUNTDOWN to going home is making me feel domestic again, maybe...

After today's chemo, we have 5 more chemos before going home!!

This puts us home sometime in early February, as long as Anthony's counts grow soon enough. Whew!