Parties and Beans...

Lily at Thomas's preschool party

Thomas ready for a cupcake...

Costume parade at preschool...

Is that a little "Bo Jackson?''

Sweet Big Bro...

Daddy and Lily at the church festival

Thomas ready to ride the pony...

Loving the pony rides...too cute

Lily eating re fried beans...She like them the last couple of times she ate them, but today she wasn't too fond of them...too funny!

In Sorrow...and Praise

I just received news that my friend's baby who was in the NICU with Lily, the only mom that I kept in touch with, lost his battle yesterday and went to be with the Lord. Words can't even express what I am feeling right now. This news has completely disturbed me to my core. Bringing back so many emotions that we went through while being in the NICU. It is such a tough place to be. Little RJ passed just two days shy of his first birthday, never leaving the hospital or getting to see his precious nursery that his parents designed just for him. I am aching inside and out for his parents pain right now. And selfishly I can't keep from thinking that could have been us. We could have had an even longer and tougher battle than we did. I quickly regret deeply all the times that I have complained about Lily waking up during the night, and being frustrated with her eating and vomiting and every other trivial matter that we have dealt with. Why? Why was God so gracious to us and saved our miracle baby to completion and not hers. I know these are normal questions to be asking as humans, but I also know as a believer, I will never know these answers and that I should be thankful. And believe me, as I was holding Lily when I received the news, I just shook. I couldn't hardly look at her, fearing what it might feel like for those parents. Thankful doesn't even begin to express what I feel. I honestly can't even complete a thought right now...Please be in prayer for RJ's parents and family and for those doctors and nurses that cared for him. Pray that even in their sorrow, joy will come in the morning and through their great loss God will be glorified and they will find a way to Praise Him through this Storm...To God be the Glory.

playgroup hayride

Going through the hay maze at steeplehill farm with our playgroup...

Lily on the hay ride...

Thomas riding the deer...

funny Lily on the hay...

going through the hay maze...

Lily and Mommy...

classic Thomas and Lily on the hay ride...

sweet Thomas checking out the animals...

all the kids on the hay ride...


This Wednesday our playgroup went to SteepleHill Farm for an hour long hay ride where we stopped along and saw several different animals and went through a hay maze. The kids had a blast and we had perfect beautiful weather. The farm was gorgeous and seeing all the beautiful tree leaves changing colors was such a welcomed sight. I didn't realize how much I have missed seeing the leaves change for the past 7 years. Love it!

Lily finally seems to be well and feeling good. She is constantly on the go and getting into everything! As I am typing this, she is pulling my magazines off the ottoman and tearing them to shreds so she can put it all in her mouth, ugh! That seems to be her new favorite hobby these days, putting small gross unidentified objects in her mouth! So gross!

Thomas continues to crack me up one moment and the very next moment he makes me want to scream! He is enjoying school and making some friends. He loves riding his skuut bike and we have had a few rough bike wrecks, but he is tough and gets right back up and keeps on riding.

Have a great weekend, enjoying this beautiful fall weather...

Lily at her first Auburn game/tailgate...sitting on the grass in front of Samford Hall...

Enjoying the view and hearing stories about Mommy and Daddy getting engaged at the top of Samford Hall...

My wonderful best friend L.A. drove from Tallahassee, FL with one of her daughters and husband to visit with us for the day in Auburn...We had such a good time, and it was sooo good to see them!

Didi and Lily at the tailgate...

Thomas resting after playing football at the tailgate...

sweet Lily...

Oh yea...the family pose, gotta have one!

Future Auburn football player...checking out where he will be entering and leaving Jordan Hare!

Famous Auburn van...drives around campus on game days playing the fight song and has been at this tailgate spot as long as I can remember...

We were so excited to get to take the kids to Auburn for a game day!! Greg has taught Thomas to wake up on Saturday and immediately say, "It's game day." So, Thomas was really excited to be going to Auburn. My best friend and roommate at Auburn, L.A. and her family drove up for the day to visit. We had a great time walking around campus and seeing all the changes, improvements they have made since we were in school there. So pretty and sooo much fun to be there again! We loved it! But of course, it wouldn't be an Auburn game if it didn't rain. Right before we were going to go to Tiger Walk, it started to storm and poor down rain. So we decided to pack it up and take the kids home. I really hated that Thomas didn't get to see Aubie or the Eagle fly. Thomas even "called" Aubie on his fake cell phone and I heard him say, "I just thought you were going to be there, Aubie." So cute, and sad. We will just have to go back again soon!

Fall update

Lily on her birthday in B'ham with the cake the hospital gave her when she was born...don't worry, we didn't eat it!!

Lily and her number one balloon!

Lily

Thomas having fun on the firetruck at a fall festival

Ok, so it has been awhile since I last posted, sorry. September was a crazy, busy month! Besides celebrating Lily's first birthday, we also visited family and friends for a week in B'ham, took the kids to an Auburn game, played at the lake and tended to a sick baby Lily. We also left Lily for the first time and Thomas for the weekend with my Mom, step dad, and sister Shelby so that Greg and I could go meet some friends in Knoxville for the Auburn game. It was a little hard to leave but once we were gone there was no turning back!! We had a great time and it was a much needed get away with some wonderful old friends!

Lily was sick for the very first time. We were so glad and actually a bit surprised that she made it this long without picking up something. She has had an ongoing ear infection for the past two weeks and this past week went back to the doc for wheezing. After our second antibiotic and some breathing treatments she is doing much better. We are all finally sleeping in our own beds and sleeping through the night again, yea! At her last doctor's appt. she weighed 14 lbs 7 oz. She had a lost a little after not eating as much and throwing it all up for awhile. She is now eating much much better, which is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I have been making her food and she seems to like it better, who would have thought??

She is lightening fast at crawling and very quiet so she can quickly disappear which is always a little scary! She seems happiest when she is pulling up and standing. She is getting more vocal and loud! This is probably a direct result of having a loud big brother! Speaking of Thomas, he is not too thrilled that Lily can crawl over to his beloved trains or any of his toys actually. We are struggling with teaching him to ask for help instead of just laying Lily out! There is no doubt she is very tough and will be fighting back very soon!!

Here are some random pictures taken over the past month. Hope you all are doing well. I will try and update more often. Have a great weekend!

Lily crawling...into everything!

Happy first birthday Lily!

Lily Cate Dickinson...9-22-08...1lb. 6oz.

Lily 9-20-09, over 14lbs.

Lily's birthday cake, and cupcake

getting ready for some cake...

Wow, I can't even believe that it has been a year since Lily was born! Is that even possible? In so many ways it seems like it was only yesterday that Houston was a mess from hurricane Ike and I was on the phone with Greg calling from my hospital bed telling him that Lily was coming. I can still remember exactly how I was feeling, so many thoughts, emotions, questions going through my mind in a matter of seconds. I can honestly say that even though that was probably the scariest moment of my life, I never doubted that I would have my precious baby girl and that I would have her complete and would bring her home. In the midst of so many doctors asking me a million questions all at once, IVs being started, and being prepped for surgery, God gave me a peace that everything was going to be ok. I don't even think I realized then what was really happening. I think for a long time, even after she was born, I was in complete denial that I really had a tiny preemie baby. Of course I suffered horrible guilt, wondering if I had only done this, or if I hadn't done that, then maybe she wouldn't have come so early. But Greg was always quick to remind me that this was God's plan and that it didn't matter what I did, He had bigger plans for her.

While it seems like it was only yesterday, it also seems like it was forever ago. When I think back to when I first went on bed rest. I had a 2 1/2 year old that was still sleeping in a crib and wasn't potty trained. By the time Lily came home, Thomas was completely potty trained (thanks to Greg and his school), and sleeping in a toddler bed. I felt like he grew up before my eyes. It seems like forever ago, when Stephanie, Lily's nurse was calling me to tell me that Lily was opening her eyes for the very first time. I remember how I felt holding that tiny little body for the very first time. Her sweet little head not even filling my hand and even then filling her feisty little self kicking me as I held her. Wow, so much to remember, so many experiences, but most of all I remember how truly faithful our loving God was and is today. Several times today, I just started to cry amazed at how truly blessed we are and how He completely delivered our precious little baby and how she avoided so many major problems that she should have had. It also made me think about how much I don't deserve His grace or His unconditional love and how much I know I let Him down. But yet He still loves me just like He loves each of you. I did nothing to deserve it.

I wanted to take this time to thank all of you who so faithfully prayed for our family and the specific requests that we had. You all have been a huge part of Lily's healing and growth and we will forever be grateful. I also wanted to thank the amazing doctor's and nurses that took such special care of her while in and out of the hospital. I know without a doubt that we were in Houston so that Lily would have the best possible care, and she did. To Jacqui, Stephanie, Chelsea, Dr. Wong, Dr. Jimenez, and Dr. Nawab, and the amazing staff at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, I will never be able to express all the gratitude I have for all of you. You all are amazing at what you do and you are truly changing lives every minute of every day. I thank God for you and for placing you in my life and Lily's. May He bless you in all that you do!

Ok, so sorry for the emotional stuff...this past Sunday we celebrated Lily's birthday with a lot of family and friends at Greg's parents house on Lake Martin. Even though the weather wasn't perfect and Lily wasn't feeling the best, it was a very special time for us and our whole family. I will post more pics of her party soon.

"I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.

I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O most High." Psalm 9:1-2

I read this verse a few days before Lily was born, and it is my hope and prayer that I will always be quick to tell of all that He has done for me and the miracle story of my sweet baby girl. Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

Lots of Firsts...

Thomas started preschool last Thursday. This is the best picture I could get on the first day...He was too cool for me to take any good pictures!

Sibling Love...at least for the moment!

Two peas in a pod...

checking out her mobile...she loves trying to push the different music buttons

Crawling wasn't enough for miss feisty...now she is pulling up in her bed!!! Look out!

This video is sure to make you laugh...Thomas wanted to get in Lily's doorway jumper...so here he is having the best time ever!

This is Thomas on his new Skuut bike...it doesn't have pedals. It teaches kids how to balance hoping they won't need training wheels and they can go directly to a real bike...in a weeks time he has just about mastered it. He now loves riding as fast as he can down hills, driveways, streets, etc...oh yea, and there aren't any brakes, just his feet! Thank goodness for helmets! He is definitely my little daredevil...the faster the better, yikes! :-)

Lily crawling!!!! Ignore me talking...I was on the phone and she took off down the hall after the dog, so I tried to video her while I was still on the phone! She had a harder time here since she was wearing a dress... too cute!

It's never that easy...

Family pic at the old farm house...Goodwater, AL

Mommy and Lily...checkout Lily's cute outfit!

I think they have had enough...

Thomas LOVED the tractors...Uncle Randall even let him drive! He was pumped!

Sweet blue eyes...

Ok...this video is old...Lily is now crawling! I have started so many times to update blog, and gotten side tracked... I promise to put the video of her crawling ASAP!

So where to begin...We have had quite a crazy couple of weeks lately! We haven't even done anything major but just the simple tasks are never easy! In fact, if I could write, I would write a book simply titled, "Nothing is ever Easy." This is the story of my life lately. For example, trying to pick up prescriptions from CVS. Apparently there is only one drive through line that you can pick up, who knew? Trying to simply go to McDonald's for lunch...forgot the wallet, oops. You would think that I would have learned after that, but no the very next day, I drove 20 min. with both kids to shop, no wallet, ugh! Don't even get me started on grocery shopping! I feel like I am preparing for a marathon every time I get ready to go, except that I never have a feeling of success when it is over! I try to get all possible snacks, drinks, toys, lists, etc... but it never fails that I will ALWAYS pick the buggy that doesn't roll easy and/or makes an awful noise. But who wants to unload two kids just to change carts? The best experience is when I had to let Thomas walk because I was running out of room for food (and he was squishing anything that got in his way). Well, Lily was unhappy and screaming the last 15 minutes, Thomas was running ahead of me, opening every freezer door, and finding anything that looked like a dessert and putting it in the cart. I think I got more sympathy looks and some that simply said, control your kids looks that day. And if that wasn't enough, as I was going to check out, Lily starts projectile vomiting everywhere!! All over herself, all over the food in the cart, the floor, etc. So while I am trying to quickly get her out so she doesn't choke, Thomas is picking up every piece of candy asking if he could have it! I had to wipe off food before I put it on the belt to check out! What a mess. So you would think that was it right? Oh no. Once we got to the car and I was finally about to end this nightmare, I thought to look for my iPhone. Couldn't find it anywhere. So I parked in front of Walmart, locked the car, started it with the remote so it would be cool and made a mad dash inside to see if I had dropped it. Of course I kept being sent in several different directions before I finally got to the right place to ask. And praise God for this wonderful woman who had found it in the parking lot and had brought it inside!! I couldn't even properly thank her because the kids were outside in the car. I quickly gave her a hug and ran to the car, literally. I'm sure those people were thinking, poor woman, I hope she makes it!

On to Lily. She is now 14lbs!! Yea! I can't remember how tall she is but she is pretty much just long and lean! She has some cute little cheeks and her thighs and arms are starting to get a little pudgy! She is just way too busy to eat, which always stresses me out. Lately she is eating baby food and oatmeal cereal. She is loosing all interest in her bottles. She has almost 5 teeth now! So funny to see this small baby with all of these teeth! And this weekend she started crawling! She is so happy with herself and now loves to crawl to Thomas and his trains. I am constantly hearing, "no Willie" 'don't get my trains" "put her away,mom!" Lovely.

Lily is being seen by a educational therapist once a week at home. She basically plays with her teaching me new things to help her in her development and mostly to give me a peace of mind. We are meeting with a nutritionist this Friday who is also with ECI (early childhood intervention) to help me know what to do about her eating/growing etc. She has seen all of her other specialists receiving great reports. They all have been fabulous until this past Thursday. I took her to her pediatric nephrologist in Winston Salem to Baptist Hospital at wake Forest. Well, after waiting over 2 hours for the doctor. He finally came in. He didn't have Lily's old records, which was so annoying because I feel like Everyone in NC should have them by now. He was very hard to understand, and really didn't seem to know why he was even seeing Lily, ugh. I was in no mood to deal with this, especially since I was hungry, tired, and trying to entertain Lily for two hours. Anyway, he decided he wanted to do some blood work to check her kidney function. But because we had waited so long, the lab in their pediatric office was closed so we were sent to another building in the hospital to draw the labs. Well after looking forever for a good vein to stick, the lab tech opted to do a finger stick. This was fine with me, thinking it would be less painful and less difficult for lily. WRONG! Apparently the tech was nervous and Lily screaming didn't help. Her hand was covered in blood and it took him FOREVER to get enough blood in his tube! I mean I had never heard Lily scream like this! So after we finally got enough blood and had successfully gotten blood all over my shirt and Lily's, she became so upset that she started projectile vomiting EVERYWHERE! I am used to this but this time was a little different. She got a little choked and became a little gaspy with her breathing. Well, I suctioned her and watched her. I wasn't going to leave until she was calm and I knew she was OK. Well the tech wanted to call some sort of code and I just asked if a respiratory therapist could come and just make sure her O2 was OK and she hadn't aspirated any of the vomit. well, 2 minutes later here come 3 EMTs! Lily is still screaming and breathing a little funny so they wanted to take her to the ER to make sure she was OK. So here we go with me on the stretcher and holding Lily down to the ER! Really?? All I wanted was her to have some blood drawn and get the heck out of there. Needless to say, she was fine, even though I was not the least impressed with the care she received in the ER, but I wont go into to that. After throwing up several more times and finally going to sleep, we were sent home for me to drive her by myself 30 minutes to our house! Like I said, nothing is ever easy!!!!

Sorry for the long post. I just had to get that out! More new pictures to come soon!

My Thomas...

Thomas Caleb Dickinson...3 days old...

at the beach...4 months old

First Auburn game...yes, he LOVED it!!!

sweet little man, almost a year old...

a true "dirt magnet" to this day...2 years old

3 years old...

my funny little man...2 weeks ago in the backyard...sharing his pool with Samford

...and my dramatic little man, not so happy about Samford being in his pool...

While most of our posts, updates, and pictures have been about our precious miracle baby Lily, today I have to share with you about our strong-willed, handsome little Thomas. He is indeed as special, unique, precious and beautiful as his little sister.

Many of you who know me know that recently I have been struggling with him and learning how to discipline, etc. at this age of 3 1/2. He has proven recently to be very stubborn, impatient, manipulating, and just exhausting. However I know this is just a phase and he truly is an amazing loving little boy by nature. He has an uncanny and unique way of hardly ever meeting a stranger and his smile has a way of stretching from his eyes to the corners of his mouth causing anyone who sees it to melt and instantly feel loved.

He truly was our earthly rock while we dealt with Lily being in the hospital. He gave me a reason to get up and come home and a reason to maintain life as usual as I could. He gave me strength in each hug he gave me when I came home and in each prayer he prayed for his little sister that he never got to meet until the day she came home from the hospital.

He loves trains!!!! Or anything that he can make into a train. He can make a very real sounding train noise and loves to do it sometimes just to irritate is sister. He loves his plasma car and flying around curves, cars, hills and the dog. He has worn out almost every pair of shoes he has riding that car. He loves watching any movie with trains and or cars. Currently he is stuck on the GeoTrax movie that came with his train set. However I am quite sick of it and have it forever memorized, ugh... He says the funniest things and loves to make up stories that can last for days! He already bargains with us and comes up with alternate plans after we give him ours. He has adjusted well so far in our new home and will be starting his new preschool in Sept., not soon enough!

Even though he tests my patience daily, sometimes hourly, and makes me question my abilities as a mother on some days, I am forever thankful for him and so blessed by his little life. He and Lily have brought more joy to our lives then we ever dreamed possible. I know that God too has big plans for him and I can't wait to see what it is!

One of my favorite videos of Thomas...showing his true colors...dancing machine