March Madness

So, before the big game tonight, I thought I'd write what March Madness means to our family. I should have known it would always be a part of our life. Our first kiss was after the final NCAA March Madness game, on April 2 2005, when Duke lost to I think Arizona. Robby and I had gone on 2 dates; the 2nd one being an all day ski date to Alta. I had then gone over to his house, "the Casa" two days later and watched General Conference with him and his roommates and their girlfriends. We spent a good portion of the day together just talking, and then he invited me over to watch the basketball game the next day. I could have cared less about the game, but I did like Robby, so I of course said yes. I think I got there for the end of the game, just in time to see his buddy Chad lose it when Duke lost. (sorry Chad).

Robby walked me to my car after the game was over and we held hands for the first time, and then as I was going to get in the car he kissed me! I was totally not expecting it. But I should have known then that basketball would be a big part of our life.

ESPECIALLY when BYU makes it into the tournement. I think most people who read this know that Robby is a slightly obsessive BYU fan-I would say football over basketball, though this year he has Jimmer Fever like everyone else. And Jimmer signed the banner that is hanging up in Lance's room, so even more reason to like him! Every year since we've been married we watch BYU lose in the first round of the tournament. Well, last year they were playing in Oklahoma City, 8 hours away, and Robby decided he HAD to go and support the team. So he drove by himself and stayed and stayed in a Motel 6 and was there when they beat Florida in double overtime to win their first round game in something like 15 years. So now that they're playing in New Orleans, and Robby's not there yet, but if they win tonight (fingers crossed) he'll drive Saturday to New Orleans to watch them play. And then, we would go to Houston if they won that game.

Every year we fill out our brackets and do a "friendly bet." Which I am so far winning this year! And then Emily and I would always watch the games together on Thursday and Friday during the first round of the tournament. So now, March Madness always makes me miss Emily! We do a tounament pick 'em with some of my family and Robby's and some friends. In the last 4 years my dad has been in Turkey and Afganistan, yet he still manages to follow what's going on. He's always overly optomistic when it comes to BYU-he always at least has them going to the sweet 16. But hopefully this year he'll be right-he's got them winning the whole thing! He had them winning the whole thing last year, too.

Our TEXAS Sized Weekend

I ended up with these pictures in reverse order. 2 weeks ago we had a good traditional Texas weekend. It started on Friday morning when I took the kids to the San Antonio rodeo. I was so excited to take them both to the petting zoo, and they both cried and cried. It has goats, sheep, a llama, chickens, a kangaroo, pot belly pigs, deer, etc. I think it was a bit overwhelming! And then a deer bit the back of Lily's shirt, and so if you ask her about the rodeo she tells you a "Deer bit my back!"

On Friday afternoon we left to go up to Fort Worth to go to the BYU-TCU basketball game. We stayed in a Courtyard Marriot about 10 minutes away from TCU. Here's the kids ready to go swimming Saturday night.

Here we are at the game. Lance was NOT HAPPY about the noise. There were more BYU fans there than TCU fans, and it was loud. He cried and cried and was only happy if Mommy was holding him, poor kid. Lily actually did pretty well. We had got salt water taffy earlier at the Fort Worth Stockyards, and as long as she was supplied with candy she was happy. We're great parents like that!

My favorite part of the game was these people who had a life sized cutout of Jimmer. People were standing in line to get their picture taken with it. It made me laugh. And in case you're wondering, we are in mourning at our house with the loss of Bradon Davies from the team.

We met up with my cousin Kathleen and her husband and cute girl, Lucy. These rides were 25 cents at the stockyards, so we let them go on a few. We went out to lunch at Joe T Garcia's afterwards, and waited for over an hour. The fajitas were good, and the company was great, but Chuys is definintly better, in case you're wondering. Mmm. Chuys.
On Friday night on our way up to Fort Worth we went to Salt Lick BBQ. AMAZING! It was so good, and in a beautiful location out in the middle of the Hill Country. I even liked the potato salad and cole slaw. It didn't have mayo like most do. The meat was so good. I think the turkey was my favorite. And then they had the BEST blackberry-peach cobbler. Here's Lance enjoying the beans. If you say Cheese and take his picture he gives you the cheesiest smile!

Like mother like daughter-she loved the cobbler.

Here's Lily at the petting zoo.

And I just thought Lance was too cute in this little outfit.

Things are going well here. Lily is watching an Elmo's World about going to the potty that we just got at the library today, and just had an accident. While she's watching Elmo talk about going to the potty. I don't think she sees the irony of that, but I sure do! Lance started crawling last week, so that's fun. Lily loves that he can follow her around now. I'm missing normal spring weather-it's beautiful here today, but over the weekend is was in the 80's, which I don't appreciate for the end of February. I planted daffodil bulbs in the fall, and I actually now have daffodils! It's amazing. I think it's one of the first bulb things I've planted since being in Texas that's actually grown. I think all of our freezing temps really helped them.

My dad is back in Afghanistan, working in radio this time. It's an American company, and they have a good record as far as no loss of life, so that's good, I guess. He's not sure how long he'll be there. My mom's in Washington. We'll see him at the end of June in Utah.

Our Lonnng Valentine's Day

We had a really fun, though long, day today, and I wanted to write it down so that I can have it when I turn this blog into a book. The day started for me at 3:30 AM, when I woke up to check on Lance. I then tossed and turned until 4:30, when he woke up to eat. And then tossed and turned again until 5:30, when I got up and left to register Lily for preschool. Apparently last year their were lots of people there, so the reccomendation was to get there early! It's not that I feel like she HAS to go to preschool next year, but it's a great price and would be fun for her and nice for me. I got there at 5:45 and was first there, so I left and got some bagels to keep me company, and then went running about 8 miles, to pass the time. When I got back it was about 8:00, and then Robby brought the kids by on his way to work. So we waited together and ate bagels until 9:00, when I could go in and register. The 3 year old class was already full (from kids who are already in the 2 year old class, and parish members), but we're first on the waiting list!
So then we went and got some food at Sun Harvest-their produce is SO much better than HEB. Along with some steaks to grill for dinner and flowers for Lily. We had fun this afternoon hanging out, and then Lily took a 2 hour nap! I'm pretty sure it was because she got to wear her monkey pajamas (thanks, Terrie). I took a little nap, and was woken up by my visiting teacher dropping off chocolate! That's the best way to wake up from a nap! Then after piano lessons I made chocolate covered strawberries-just dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted, but it was VERY tasty.
Robby surprised me with a dozen beautiful roses. He's also taking us to West Side Story on Broadway. And got some chocolate fudge from Costco. I went to Coscto on Saturday and then sent him back to buy some for me!
We gave Lily and Lance their presents. Robby made Lily a Valentine's card, which she was very excited about and put on her door. I got her a dress and the DVD Beauty and the Beast- She was much more excited when she thought it was a book!

The funniest part was tonight when we had family night. We talked about love and being kind, and then she wanted me to play Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes on the piano. So I did, and then at the end she did a perfect summersalt! I don't know how many times I played it so that she could do the actions and then do a summersalt at the end. We were laughing pretty hard. And then she took all my piano books out of the piano bench and got her baby and put her baby to bed. By putting her in the BLACK piano bench and shutting the lid. If you use your imagination just a little bit you can imagine what it looked like she was putting her baby in! We got it on the video camera-it felt much more like Halloween than Valentine's Day. Seriously a little morbid. But of course she was clueless. She calls Lance "Baby Lancey." We think that's what our friends must call him, because we've never called him that! She sure makes us laugh.

Deak's Run for Hope

This is my little guy Deakon. Deakon is an amazing boy (as you can tell by that smile!) who happens to have Ring 18, like my little Emily. He and his family live in Davis County, Utah and his mom is putting on a 5K (3 mile) race in Deakon's name, where all the procedes will go to the Chromosome 18 Registry and Research Society. And I don't know if everyone knows, but the headquarters, the only Chromosome 18 Research Society in the world, just happens to be here in San Antonio, TX! It was what brought us to Texas-when Robby was offered a job my sister reminded us that the Registry was here, and that was enough for us to say yes! They are the only center that conducts research for the Chromosome 18 (other than Trisomy 18) So, I'm writing this post to encourage EVERYBODY to click here http://deaksrunforhope.blogspot.com/ and read more about Deakon and the 5K race they are doing over Deak's 5th birthday. If you live in Utah, go run this race for Deakon and Emily! And if you like to run, but don't live in Utah, you can be a Spirit Runner http://deaksrunforhope.blogspot.com/2011/01/spirit-runners.html Which is what I am doing. And if you don't live in Utah, and don't like to run, but would like to donate to the Chromosome 18 Registry and Research Society, click here https://www.chromosome18.org/Support/MakeaDonation/tabid/150/Default.aspx
This picture was taken last March, when we went to Utah for my grandpa's funeral. It was so fun having Lily and Deakon meet!

This was July 2008, 6 months before Em passed away, at the Chromsome 18 conference here in San Antonio. We brought Lily to meet the other kids there with Ring 18, and she was so alert, awake and happy. It was like she was meeting her best friends for the first time!

Lily.

Lily is just sometimes more energy than I can handle. At least patiently handle. She has had a few adventures the past few days that I just have to laugh at. I need to write them down so that I can have them when we turn this blog into a book again-I was really happy with how it turned out last time. So, back to the adventures. We'll start with church.

We've been potty training Lily, so we tend to have to leave sacrament meeting a few times to go to the bathroom. We've also been sitting in the back of the chapel because though we get to church on time, it's not before everyone else gets there and saves benches for their families. So last Sunday when we were coming back in from the bathroom Lily ran in front of me, and I thought she was just grabbing her Elmo toy she had dropped. Oh no. She saw her little friend up front and took off running. Clear up to the front row. Luckily she stopped there, and I didn't have to chase her unto the stand. We went outside and had timeout after that. Then today there was a little girl sitting behind us, and so through the whole meeting Lily kept yelling "MINE!" Though the little girl was not even trying to touch Lily's things. "Mine," and "I do it!" are her two favorite things to say.

Next, potty training. So, a few weeks ago I decided to potty train Lily. We spent an hour in the bathroom drinking juice and singing songs until she went, and then the next few days stayed home doing pretty much nothing but going potty and getting stickers and M&M's. She's now doing really well.

However...#2 is a different story. We're running a 30% success rate I would say at making it to the toilet. That 70% is NOT FUN! Especially 2 nights ago when she decided to "clean it herself." I was feeding Lance and realized Lily wasn't in the play room. But I could smell something! I went into the bathroom and she had taken off her pants and underware, making a mess on the floor, toilet, cabinets, shoes, etc. in the process. So we had a talk about getting Mommy when we have an accident, not "doing it herself." My friend suggested throwing away the underware when it happens, but when we tried that tonight Lily didn't seem to care.

Last night Lily woke up at about 5:30 saying she wanted a quesadilla. Seriously. I told her I'd get her milk instead. And then she wanted the milk, "Nice and warm," so I had to warm up her milk.

About a week ago Lily tried to drink cinnamon and sugar that we had in bowl. It got in her eye and really irritated it. So now if you tell her to stop doing something, or if she gets hurt, she's tell you "I got cinnamon in my eye." It's pretty funny.

We've been trying to read scriptures as a family before Lily goes to bed. Just the Book of Mormon stories with the pictures. Lily would not sit still, so last Sunday I told her her Elmo blanket was her scripture blanket, and we'd get it to read scriptures and cuddle on the couch. I was so proud of myself for thinking of this, and then she lost the blanket on Wednesday. We looked and looked and looked for it. Our house doesn't have too many hiding places. Then yesterday I was trying to find a cookie cutter and looked under her kitchen in the cuboard, and there it was. I thought I had looked there, but I guess it was the one place I missed. She was so excited.

Her favorite toy these days is a box that had her carseat. I showed her how its a house and she can play in it, and she loves it. She'll get in it and then say, "Come in, come in, " until you come in with her.

My favorite thing that Lily's done lately happened this morning before church. Lily figured out how to get water out of the fridge door. And our water dispencer doesn't have a lock on it. So I was making dinner before church, Robby was out home teaching, and Lily was filling up her cup with water from the fridge and then dumping it in the sink. I decided, after I'd told her once to stop, to just ignore her since she wasn't making a mess and see if she could just get it out of her system. After a few minutes of her doing this, I turned around to see the cup was somehow stuck in the water dispencer, pushing on the water button. Lily pulled on the cup, and a waterfall sprayed her in the face. The water had somehow got backed up and came rushing out, and so she was soaked. Her hair, face, and shirt were drenched. And she was crying, "I got water in my eyes!" I was laughing so hard I couldn't talk to her for a minute. I told her that's what happens when she does it herself instead of having mommy help her. We'll see if it did any good, but I sure got a good laugh out of it. Am I awful?

Lance is my little angel kid. Lily was too at this age though. Super easy, though he it totally against bottles, and just plays with sippy cups. He likes his mommy! He's nine months old, and Robby and I would really like to be able to go someplace for a night or two in May without the kids, so he needs to be done by then. I'm glad he's at least a healthy kid!

Robby's Poem-Emily's Experience on Earth

This is the poem Robby wrote that he shared at Emily's funeral. I try to post it on her anniversary of her death. Last year I made it into a book with pictures and we read it as a family today. Lily actually sat and looked at all the pictures and listened. Robby told her that Emily had lots of owies in the picture of her after heart surgery, and in looking at the book afterward Lily told me that "they were mean," (because Emily had owies-someone had to have been mean!) and leaned her cheek against the picture to give Emily a hug.

Emily’s Experience on Earth

Before I was born and I still lived in Heaven,
Heavenly Father explained how life would be.
He said that it would be full of challenges and trials,
But that I would have a family who loves me.

I would have friends and loved ones who would do all that they could,
To make sure I was joyful and happy.
And when I asked him what my purpose on earth would be,
He smiled, with a tear in his eye, and simply said “You’ll see.”

My life on earth had a difficult start,
I could no longer see nor hear.
But it didn’t take long to understand,
That my parents loved me so dear.

They stayed at the hospital for the first seven weeks,
And had faith that I could breathe on my own.
And eventually the wonderful day came,
They were able to take me home.

I made so many friends along the way,
I was able to learn so many things.
And although I had my share of pain and struggles,
I felt the joy and the love that the Gospel brings.

I have a Mother, who sacrificed everything she could,
Who did her best to keep me healthy and strong.
I have a Father, who provided me safety and peace,
Who’s whistling and roaring helped me as my life moved along.

I have a Sister, who loves and cares for me,
Even though she liked to pull my hair.
Who when the time came for me to die in their arms,
Gave my parents peace with her happy stare.

I have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins,
Who always treated me as one of their own.
I have classmates, friends, and fellow 18th Chromosome family,
Who reminded me that I’m never alone.

Through all of my challenges and obstacles overcome,
I began to realize my mission.
There would be so many people whose lives I could touch,
Even without hearing and vision.

And now I can tell them at the end of my earthly life,
That God has a plan for everyone.
That because of the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ,
We can return to him in glory and perfection.

Now I can run, and see, and hear,
I can talk, and help, and serve.
I can help others know that the Gospel of Christ,
Will lead them to the happiness they deserve.

As a final request to all who know me,
As we part, at least for a while:
That when they think of Emily Hammond,
They share with me a laugh and a smile.

Emily's Sunbeam Class!

My friend sent us these pictures today, and I'd never seen them! It was a perfect thing to see on the 2 year anniversary of Em passing away. This was Emily's Sunbeam class. She had 8 boys (one's missing) and 2 girls in it-her and Nellie, who's not in this picture. Robby and I were their teachers. It was a tough crowd-8 three year olds! But we loved those kids. Emily went to a little preschool co-op twice a week. She had her own preschool, so she and I would try to go for the last hour, after her regular preschool class. You can see her sucking her thumb in this picture.

I just love all these kids. This pic was in May, 2008. Alice and Nellie still talk about Emily, and little Cael, who's next to Em, would look after Em-he'd push her in her wheelchair and help her talk in Sunbeams, and in September they were in the same preschool class, and he'd push her to class each day. It has always done my heart good to know she had so many friends! Their parents were all great about helping them accept little Emily.