Christmas Morning!

What better way to start Christmas morning, than with a chocolate chip cookie and a new bike!

First bottle of wine? more like new spoons from Aunt Kim.
It was so nice to have everyone there for the day long opening. We opened gifts from 9am to 2 pm!

Uncle Jas and Scott with the girls.
Our little Chef!
Mimi, Papa and Lilah!
Lilah and Mimi have smiling exchanges, her first real smile-what a great gift!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to Aunt Kris's family's house which was nice since we usually miss their traditions when we are in MO.

It was nice for Mimi and Papa to see the NJ traditional Christmas
Mimi and Papa soaking up their last few days with baby Lilah
Of course Hannah loved being the center of attention! Uncle Jas and Hannah often go flying together.
Hannah and Aunt Kris are especially bonded these days.

Our Little Angel

Hannah Turns Two!

Ama got her the kitchen for her birthday and she loves cooking in it!

She was able to blow them all out by herself!
Fortunately Papa and Mimi, were here to celebrate-a real treat! Ama and Grandpa Ed couldn't make it that night because of the big snow storm.
Hannah first celebrated on her actual birthday- Cake #1

Hannah's 1st Snow 2008

Hannah made a quick recovery from Mono and was even ready to play in the first snow of the season. Of course, Ama was there to join her in the snow!
She hasn't yet decided if she is so keen on wearing gloves.

A big Scare

Before I start this post let me start by saying everyone is okay and healthy! Thank God!

Soon after we brought Lilah home from the hospital, Hannah seemed to be getting sick with a cold, fever, etc. I started getting nervous that Lilah was going to get sick too. Little did I know that Lilah was not the one to be concerned about. After 8 days of looking paler and paler, and on and off fever and multiple visits to Grandpa Doc. we decided to investigate further and draw blood. Anyway on Dec. 12 we got the blood results and my dad became very concerned that she could have a unusual virus or Leukemia and the only way to know would be to do a bone marrow biopsy. We immediately went to Hackensack Hospital. When we met with the oncologist she felt Hannah was to weak to get a biopsy done that night and first she would need a blood transfusion At that point more tests came back that in fact showed there to be some early cancerus cells and she was diagnosed with Leukemia. That night was hell. In the morning she got the biopsy and to everyone's surprise the biopsy showed that she did not have Leukemia but some virus. The error came from some misreading from another hospital. We could not believe it but were so overjoyed with this miracle we didn't care about the error.
While we were in the hospital our friends and family showed so much love, support, and concern. Everyone's prayers worked!!!!!! Thank you to everyone!
Aunt Kris (along with Grandpa Ed, Ama, and Colleen the doula) did a great job caring for baby Lilah while we were in the hospital. It was hard being away from my 2 week old but I knew I had to be there for Hannah.
Friday night, we came home from the hospital (and thanfully Mimi and Papa arrived from Missouri) after 2 blood tranfusions. We were so thankful to be home even if Hannah was still sick. Finally on Saturday when more blood results came back we learned that what Hannah had was Mono!
These smiles were rare those first days home. Hannah is wearing a bib because her throat was so sore that she couldn't swallow and just walked around drooling because it was too painful to swallow. Finally by Tuesday after a couple of days of very high fever, Hannah bounced back and started to feel better! We feel so blessed to have 2 healthy girls. This experience definitely put life in perspective for us!

Now A Family of Four

Scott and his girls!
Me and my girls!

Lilah Avery is born!

Hannah is oficially a big sister. Lilah was born on Nov. 25th . She weighed 7 lb 11 oz. .


Lilah ready to go home from the hospital.
Before we left, Hannah came to meet her big sister, so far she gave mixed reviews. It was very hard for her to leave and go home without us.

Fall Photo shoot

Last family shot as a family of 3.

She worked really hard to make that leaf blow away!
Yeah!
Mommy and her girl!
Blowing even harder!

Happy Halloween

For Hannah, this year Halloween didn't just come on Friday, her festivities started on Tuesday when we went to Scott's work Halloween party. On Thursday she dressed up for a playgroup Halloween party. Then on Friday she dressed up once again to go trick-or-treating with Ama and me and then we met up with her friends downtown Teaneck to do more trick-or-treating. She quickly got the hang of going door to door and saying "treat" and opening her bag and then getting candy and saying thank you "ding du".

So as you will see Hannah was a CAT. We felt this was only appropriate since "CAT" was her first word and since she loves her cats. As you will see below, thoughout this week, she had many opportunities to show all a cat's many personality traits, attitudes, and emotions.



The I'm so cute and adoring, you can trust me cat
The friendly but shy cat
The needy, please come scratch my head cat
The proud and excited, who just scored a treat cat
The sneaky but contented cat
The serious, focused and "hunting" for more prey cat
Hannah and her Teaneck pals walked around downtown Teaneck to go trick-or-treating.
Teddy, Ayla, and Hannah had a good time chatting and chasing each other around.
Halloween started for us on Tuesday when we went to Scott's Work Halloween party at Blue Sky. Hannah quickly got the strange but fun concept of going from cubicle to cubicle looking cute and in return getting candy.