Christmas Gift…

This week my family received a Christmas gift of the happiest sort.

A little background story-  My family has been affected entirely too much by cancer.  My Grandpa died from Lymphoma and I witnessed my Mom struggle with a very late stage breast cancer.  I remember on multiple occasions walking in her room and seeing her so sick and lifeless that I thought she had died.  Thankfully, she fought hard and beat it.

With that said, we were scared when we found out last summer that my Dad had Prostate cancer.  We waited for a while and last week Dad finally had his radical prostate removal surgery (where they go through your abdomen) at UCLA medical center and had it removed.  We heard back today from UCLA that his Pathology report came back with clear margins and with clean lymph nodes!

I couldn’t think of a better gift this Christmas than to know that the people we love are healthy and blessed.

   

Way to kick cancer in the butt, Dad! Amelia-Jayne is so lucky to have you as her “Pappi!”

We love you!

Aunt Who?!

Thought I’d share a funny little story about my favorite little 2 year old that turned 3 last week.

This is Andrew.  Aka, the Drewski.

Every one of my nieces and nephews knows me as “Aunt Mimi” in our family.  It started out with my 1st nephew, Josh, not being able to say Miranda when he was a baby…and that’s what he came up with.  What a trendsetter, that Joshy.

Anyways, one night shortly after we moved back from China I came in from the rain with my hood on.  Mom and Dad said, “look who’s here, Andrew!”  Andrew looked up and yelled out “JESUS!” as he ran over to me. 

At the time we figured it was probably the long hair sticking out of my hood and the fact that I was kind of backlit when I came in.

However, it didn’t stop there.  My parents have each couple’s wedding picture on the wall going down our staircase.  So, it’s tradition for Andrew to name the people in the pictures every time he comes down the stairs…. “Nathan, Jen, Jon, Kim, Daddy, Mommy, Jordan and….Jesus.”

I guess if I’m going to be mistaken as a man, Jesus is a pretty good one to be mistaken for.  :)

Happy Birthday, Drewski.

xoxo, Aunt Mimi

H-Town…

We got to go to H-town last week for the babycakes to meet J’s family.  H-Town is always a fun place and this time it felt even better, as a good “get OUT of Vernal” trip was needed.  Don’t get me wrong, I love this place…but every once in a while it’s nice to ride in the car for more than 5 minutes and have some options besides Wal-Mart.  While we were there we got to enjoy conference (wasn’t it wonderful?), introduce the babycakes to lots of family and friends, have a fun naked-baby shoot thanks to my cous, Susie, of Adelaide Photography, and do a little shopping (yessss). Unfortunately, I only got a few pics on my phone of the rest of the trip…but here they are!

 

(The Hastings’ side will have 3 new babies within 6 months of each other…and little Ann loved giving her cousin sweet kisses that were too fast to catch)

My brother, Jon, and his family even came for a quick visit so they could meet Amelia-Jayne.  I was so happy to see them! (My two nieces finally have a girl cousin on the Arnold side now!)  Thanks for coming!