Cake, Horses and the Heart Walk

 A little late, but here they are!  On April 25th we had Lily's first birthday party.  Everybody came to help us celebrate this little miracle turning 1!  She had a great time with everyone!  She was a little weary of opening presents, but big sister Ellie was such a great help with that!  Once Lily got a little taste of her cake she didn't want to let it go.  She was actually pretty neat about eating it, but then she started getting tired, and started rubbing the eyes and soon cake was everywhere. 

This week the girls got a special treat!  A good friend and co-worker of mine had asked me if the girls would like to come out and see her horse Samara.  Well, Ellie has been talking about ponies for the past two months since there are quite a few that live very close to us and we see them on our drive home everyday.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for her to see the horses up close.  I honestly never thought she would get on one, especially once we got there and she wouldn't even touch the horse.  But to my surprise they both rode with Kristen.  And when Lily wasn't on the horse she kept herself busy by eating grass and munching on the gate!

 

Just a last minute reminder that tomorrow is the Heart Walk.  Registration begins at 8 am and the walk begins at 9 am.  If you are interested in walking with Team Lily please meet us at the Thermo Fisher parking lot between 8-8:30.  I am so excited that we were able to see 101 Team Lily t-shirts.  In addition, Thermo-Fisher, staff from Mazzuchelli Catholic Middle School, Ladies Clutch and relatives have given additional donations.  I really think we can reach out goal of $1000!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Lily!!

Yesterday was Lily's 1st birthday. It is amazing to see how far she has come in one year. Prior to Lily's birth we met with cardiologists and neonatalogists who all said many of the same things: your baby will probably have feeding problems, your baby will thrive to grow, sickness will be very tough on her. She has overcome each of those. Lily is 20.2 lbs, she eats more than her sister most days and she overall has been a very healthy baby. She is our little miracle.

For Lily's birthday we went out for pizza at Pusateri's and as usual her bright red hair made her the center of attention and she was just eating it up! After pizza we went up to Beecher's for ice cream. I was kind of disappointed they didn't have my favorite-Old South Fudge Pie. Now if that does scream "unhealthy" I don't know what does? Finally we took the girls over to Asbury Park and let them play, although it wasn't for long since it was getting dark. Both Russ and I thought it would be Ellie we would be pulling away from the park kicking and screaming, but it was our little birthday princess who was the one that was upset. By the time we got home it was time to clean up and go to bed.

On April 16th our family attended the Loras College Dance Marathon.  The Dance Marathon raises money for the University of Iowa Children's Hospital.  The Dance Marathon provides things for the families staying at the U of I such as the healthy food vending machines in the family waiting rooms.  We were so exicted to be able to share Lily's story to give the students a reason to continue to dance through the night.  The Dance Marathon went from 8 pm-8 am.  It was amazing to see so many college students giving up their Friday night to benefit our families  Ellie really got into the dancing, even went up on stage with dad a few times.  Lily was asleep for most of the time we were there so unfortunately I have no pictures of her.

The girls have had to start at a new daycare since Amy (our daycare provider) is due to have a baby any day now.  I know the girls miss going to Amy's but they are having a blast out at Stacy's.  Ellie is there with her friend Addelyn who also happens to be in the same gymnastics class as her.  It was funny, Addelyn's mom and I were sitting in the waiting room yesterday waiting for the girls to be done and the only names we could hear were Ellie and Addelyn.  Seems they get a little goofy when they are around each other.  And to make things worse, Ellie's gymnastics instructor is one of my current students, but she swears she wasn't misbehaving in class, just being a goofy 2-year old!

I almost forgot to mention:  The Heart Walk is on May 1, 2010 on the RiverWalk behind Klauer Manufacturing.  We would love to have everyone join us that morning.  We have Team Lily t-shirts available for purchase.  They are $10 with the proceeds going to the American Heart Association Legacy of Life.  So far we have sold 83 t-shirts!!!  How awesome is that?  Please let me know if you are interested in walking with us or if you would like to support Team Lily by purchasing a t-shirt.

I will leave you with a few random pics from the last couple weeks!  Have a great weekend.

With Love,  The Duves

Easter...The Hunt Is On!

Our first Easter Egg Hunt of the Year

University of Dubuque Campus

Over 30,000 eggs with all proceeds going to Children's Miracle Network

It didn't take long for Lily to catch on!

The girls went to Grandma Karen's after the Easter Egg Hunt.  Dad went 4-wheeling while I ran some errands.  I should remind myself never to go grocery shopping while hungry...I decided on homemade macaroni and cheese for supper.  You can't go wrong with that.  This is the first time I let Lily actually feed herself the mac n cheese!

Finally, off to bed in anticipation of the Easter Bunny coming and more Easter Egg Hunts!  The Easter Bunny was good to both girls...Ellie LOVED her Max and Ruby DVD and all of the other goodies she found in her basket.  Lily enjoyed her Yogurt Bites,  Apple Wagon Wheels and Banana Cookies!  Seems that Easter Bunny also hid some eggs in our living room this year and filled them with MONEY!!!  I thought maybe he would leave one for Mom and Dad with a couple thousand in it, but no such luck...maybe next year!!  Next, it was off to Uncle Jake and Aunt Katie's house for Easter brunch...and you guessed it...another Easter Egg Hunt.  Ellie just couldn't get enough of the Easter Egg Hunts and she was the first one to find all of her eggs and bubbles too!  She even helped Lily find her mini eggs!

After all the Easter Egg Hunting the kids had a great time just playing and enjoying being outside.

 

For Easter, Grandma Mihalakis got each of the girls adorable yellow sundresses.  We just had to try them on...and of course get a few pictures.

"Mom, I'm tired.  Can we go home now?"

Happy Easter and Spring Blessings!

Love,
The Duves (Russ, Jesi, Ellie and Lily)