Wonder Pet
Oh, great. Jada really DOES look like Linny from the Wonder Pets....

the gals are gettin bigger!
Yes, I've fallen a bit behind on the monthly growing pictures. Jada has decided to ditch the Pooh doll and opted for Grover. She loves Grover (Joli picked it out for her). She snuggles him at night. My sister Mari has also decided to nickname Jada as "Linny" -- why, you ask? Well, she thinks that Jada looks like a little gerbily-guinea pig, and there is a little guinea pig named Linny on Nickelodeon. In truth, Jada does tend to look like she has a storage of food in her cheeks, and she does hang on with her little hands when you carry her. We luv her!! She's so cuddly!

One Big Happy House!
Andy, Marie and Lily just moved in with us this week, and we're so thrilled! The girls are having tons of fun, and even Lola and Lolo came to visit and see them! You can be sure there will be lots of pictures of the two families soon!

Here is a cute picture that Alonso took of Joli and Mia at Paul and Kirsten's wedding... aren't they adorable!


Jada news: Jada is now 14 pounds 8 ounces and 28 1/2 inches long. She's so amazing and sweet! Hardly ever makes a peep! She can steadily hold her head up, and she even chills in the Exersauser! Woah! She loves the Grover doll that Joli picked out for her. Grover helped to comfort her when she got her 3 little shots yesterday!

Even more..
Our pal, Matt -- he's James's dad.

Joli wearing her "Survivor Girl" t-shirt! Yes, hija, you certainly are!

Mia Jewell was not a fan of the Elmo ride. Jon did a sweet job trying to soothe her, but she was just not havin' it. We'll try again next year, Mia!

More pictures!

Big yawn after a long day at Sesame Place! Joli's on a park bench with her little buddy, Dylan!

Despite having packed tons of nutritious snacks like carrot sticks with hummus, sandwiches, water and juices -- everyone still wanted McDonalds....

"MOM! Look!! It's ELMO!!!"

Family picture with Cookie Monster! Oh great... where's Jada???

Toddler friendly water slides with Cousin Mia!

Yay! Junk food!!

Mia, Joli, Jada and Jorge hangin' with Ernie and Bert!

It takes a real man to ride the Elmo Flyin' Fish ride! Joli loved this ride....

Sesame Place -- woo hoo!!
Just arrived home from Sesame Place after a painful 7 hour car ride there, and an 8 hour car ride home! But, thankfully, the kids were amazing in the car! We had SO much fun this year -- we were joined by Mia, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Jon, Tita Ligaya, Mia H., Dylan and Melissa (oh, and JADA!). I just checked last year's blog, and Joli was only 34 inches... this year, she popped into Sesame Place at a whopping 39 inches ( 40" if you count her afro!):


Alright, it's going to be impossible to post all these pictures and tell all the stories, so here are my highlights of the busiest trip ever!:

First of all, you all probably realize that it's Joli's ONE YEAR anniversary of being cancer free (cancer diagnosed? I have no idea how to really phrase this.). We met up with our friends Matt, Melinda, Ellie and James -- a very dear family to us who happens to have had a similarly challenging year. Their little guy, James, was diagnosed with cancer around the same time as Joli. He had a few surgeries, did the whole chemo thing, had a port, etc. etc.. So, where are the pictures of James - aka, "sick cancer boy"?? Well, that little fella recovered so well, he ran circles around everyone!! He moved way too fast for me to even take a picture of him!!! Anyways, if you saw him, you wouldn't even realize he had the type of year he had. GO, JOLI AND JAMES!! James is coming up on his 1 year, too. The two of you are amazing!!

We basically hung out at the park for a day and a half. Jada rocked -- she was all about hanging out in her stroller and watching her friends and cousins run around the park and splash all the adults!

Jada loved the parade!

Joli hates taking a shower, yet she loved this "watering can" area!

* for some reason, blogger won't let me post more pictures... so you'll have to enjoy these for now!

HAS IT REALLY BEEN A YEAR????

Tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary when Joli was diagnosed with cancer. And, while, of course, there is so much to be thankful for, it's hard not to feel a sense of sadness. So, we're outta here! We're going to go have some fun for a few days to take our minds off of it. It's just amazing to think about our journey this year -- it seems so long ago yet just seems like yesterday when we were at Mass Eye and Ear. Has she really been without an eye for a year now? It seems so far away, yet when I think about hearing the news from the doctor for the first time, all those raw emotions come flooding up from my gut to my throat to my watering eyes.

Now that we're facing a similar journey with Mari, I want to give a huge shout out to all the people we know -- and the many that we don't know -- who helped us this year with emotional, parental, spiritual, and financial support. I can't imagine having to go through this year without our family and friends and even strangers helping us. As a family, we always donated to "fundraisers" and such, and we even sponsor 2 young girls over in Africa, and I never really thought about how that help impacted those people. Well, it does.

Donating money to organizations means so much more to me now. And, when I don't have the money, I try to donate my time. From the receiving end, I know how much each dollar, each penny, helps a family in need. So, please, if you're faced with information that a family needs help, please help them. Please try to donate a dollar (ideally more!) or services or something! It makes a difference... it made a difference to us.

So, more pictures when we return! Thank you for all your love and support this year!

JOLI AT THE BEACH!

We miss Joli terribly, but she's having a grand old time Grammy, Pops, and Uncle Ped!
Enjoy, Joli! (thanks to Pops for sending us these pics so quickly!) We can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

Hangin' with Jada!

We're doing well here. I went back to work and felt very teary leaving my gals! Although, once I got to work, I realized how MUCH there was to do, and before I knew it, I had worked through lunch and it was 3:45pm!

Here are some great pics of Jada recently! Joli is loving hanging out with her cousins, but she needed some quality NY time, so she's getting spoiled over there. It's been so much fun with all the cousins and seeing how everyone is changing so much!

Please keep Mari in your prayers as she heads in to chemo... yet AGAIN.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARTY!
We've been having tons of fun these past few days celebrating birthdays! It started with lots of presents being delivered for Joli (and Jada!)

Then, Jada surprised us all by discovering that her hands were actually tools -- she started grabbing the toys on her swing! Now.. she's trying to grab her feet.


The cute thing is that now she actually sucks her thumb! How cute!


Joli picked out her special "party dress" which happened to be 3 sizes too big, but we let her wear it anyways:


The kids had lots of birthday cake (again)

And even Superman delivered the cake to the girls!! What a surprise!!

We had so much fun! Thanks for coming to the party, everyone!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOLI!

It's official -- she's 3 years old! Joli had a great birthday! She started out the day with a suprise of balloons and gifts at her bedroom door.

Then, Mia, Uncle Jon, Gavin and Tita Mari came over for lunch. By the time Uncle Paul arrived, Joli was exhausted; however, she didn't want to be away from him, so she decided drag her bean bag into the livingroom to be closer to him and take a nap!

We then went to Lola and Lolo's house where one of Joli's gifts was a "video karaoke". The kids went wild (and the adults did some cameos, too!).

Then, it was time for cupcakes.

The kids had a great time... especially Gavin.
Let's see... year in review? Since her last birthday, we moved to our new house, went on a great vacation to Sesame Place... oh, got diagnosed with cancer... had eye removed... began 6 month course of chemotherapy.... could pronounce words like "stethoscope", "Heparin", "chemo", "Boston", "traffic", "blood pressure", "flush my tubes", ... met baby Gavin and baby Lillian ... had lots of friends and family support us with a hugely successful fundraiser... had more MRIs/Bone Marrow Punctures/Exams Under Anesthesia than most people undergo in a lifetime... got a "special eye".... received even more love and support during Christmas from total strangers... learned how to write my name! ... learned how to use the POTTY... became a BIG SISTER!! ... went to a wedding... and TURNED 3 YEARS OLD!! Hurray!! yea, it's been a good year! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOLI!!!

I'M ALLLLMOST THREE YEARS OLD!

Just a few more hours until Joli turns 3 years old! She spent her last 2-year old hours on the couch, eating popcorn, and watching Calliou. It was the episode where the power went out, which was appropriate because our power had just gone out! Wow -- remember when Tigger was BIGGER than Joli????

Joli has been lovin' that her cousins are around. Here they are at the park --Uncle Jon and Dad are being super-manly and pushing all the kiddies on the swings while Mari, Jenny and I sat and drank slushies.

Here are the girls practicing for their "monthly" photo shoots:

Jada is so happy to be Joli's little sista (Jada.. by the way.. has officially outgrown all of her 0-3 month clothing ALREADY!)!:

Fun with the Cousins!
We're so excited to finally have the cousins around! check out some of these great pictures from their rather trouble making adventures!

Gavin LOVES to snuggle Jada and sneak kisses to her. We're teaching how to be g-e-n-t-l-e, though (he smacked her in the face the other day...!)

"Get me out of this playroom! I want to see the world!!"

Joli and Mia are doing a pretty good job figuring out how to be playmates. They've spent so long being the center of attention on the different coasts, so it's a learning process! They're doing well so far as they learn about what makes the other one annoyed, etc. They're pretty smart -- they figure out really quickly what gets attention from parents and everyone. It's definately nice to have the two of them together!

There are also some great pictures of the first time to the zoo as a traveling bunch!