Updates

Merry Christmas!!! I know I'm a little behind posting that, but I'm trying to catch up! We have been really busy as it seems to be one thing after another.

Some updates:

Last week, a few days before Christmas, Nate's grandmother passed away. It was very unexpected and made the holidays a little tougher to get through. Please keep Nate's family in your thoughts and prayers.

Christmas went well for us. We started off the day quietly at home and made it up to my grandmothers in the afternoon for dinner. Ayla got tons of toys and clothes, and although she didn't really understand what was going on, she was happy and enjoyed the day.

Saturday we drove up to Buffalo NY to see the Patriots game on Sunday. I got 2 great seats 4 rows from the field for Nate's Christmas present. The game was very cold and windy, but a lot of fun! I have never been so close to the players before. It was amazing! Unfortunately (since nothing seems to go smoothly) we had some issues during our trip. Sunday morning it was pretty windy and our car was hit by shingles flying off the hotel roof. Apparently the roof was re-done a few months ago, but not done properly. It scraped up our car and damaged the windshield and now we have to try and get the hotel to pay for the damages. I am praying that they agree to a settlement and we don't have to hire a lawyer, but it looks like they may try to get out of paying for it.

With all this going on, and a lot more I don't have the energy to type out...we need some quiet time! It seems that 2008 is going out with a bang, but not in the way I had hoped. I am really hoping 2009 brings some better things.

Makayla's Video

Here's a little video of Makayla cruising around the furniture,making faces. Don't mind the mess in the background of what is supposed to be my living room.... Ayla finds that the most fun can be had by taking everything off shelves and out of boxes and throwing them around the room. Ahhh, oh well....I give up :)

Digital Scrapbook

I was recently introduced to the wonderful world of digital scrapbooking! I would never have the time, space, or patience for traditional scrapbooking.... but I really wanted to create something special for Gabe and Ayla. Right now I am working on finishing Gabe's and will soon start on Ayla's. I have done about 30+ pages of Gabe's and have another 20 or so planned out. I have uploaded them all to Gabriel's website, so if you are interested in seeing more check it out here:

Gabe's Scrapbook

For now I wanted to share a couple of pages. Hope you enjoy them!:

Blankets for CHERUBS

As most of you know, we started the Gabriel's Gift Bags project with CHERUBS to provide new and expecting CDH parents with a gift bag filled with comfort items for their baby's NICU stay. One of the main things that we are including is a blanket. We would really like to include a handmade blanket which can be knit, crochet, or quilted. These blankets take a lot of time to make and we cannot do it by ourselves! There are too many parents out there who need these for us to keep up with, so we are looking for volunteers who would like to make small baby blankets to include in these bags. If you are interested, in doing 1 or 100, please let me know! You can email me at Chefrinny@gmail.com or join our yahoo group by clicking this link:

knittingforcherubs

If you can, please consider doing this, it can really make a difference for those families in need of a little comfort.

Makayla Pics

Someone mentioned that I haven't been posting enough pictures of Makayla lately so here are some more:

Truffle Mania

It's that time of year again...truffle time. Last year I decided to do a "small" fundraiser selling homemade boxes of truffles. I started in September and ended up selling them through the holidays. By the time I was done we had sold over 700 boxes (6 per box)! My house was covered in chocolate and I never wanted to see another truffle again. This year I decided to do it again, but more organized. We had a variety of flavors including Andes Mint, Orange Creamsicle, Chocolate Banana, Peanut Butter, Double Chocolate, Key Lime, Coconut, Chocolate Raspberry, and Mocha. We sold them in boxes of 6, 15, or 40. We did extremely well and sold over 2200 truffles, raising over $1000 for the Gabriel's Gift Bags project. I am very excited to have done so well and am extremely happy that we will be able to fill so many bags this year. I am also thanking god it is over! This year went so much smoother than last year, but it was still A LOT of work.

And for everyone who has asked- Yes I will be doing a truffle sale for Valentines day, but it will not be a CHERUBS fundraiser. You can email me at Chefrinny@gmail.com for more information.

Here are some pictures of the truffle mania:

My New Nephew

Sunday night my sister-in-law had her third son, Joshua. We went up to see him last night and he was gorgeous! Seeing how little he was made me realize how fast Makayla is growing! It almost made me want to have another one right now.... and than I thought about how wonderful it is to not have to get up ever few hours for feedings. :)

Here's some pictures of the cute little guy.

National Children's Memorial Day

Today is National Children's Memorial Day, a day to remember ALL chidren lost. Everyone is encouraged to light a candle for an hour at 7pm local time to keep a continuous wave of light around the world in memory of these children. Today as I think of Gabe, I think of all the other angels up there with him, watching over all of us here on earth.

Thanksgiving weekend

Last weekend we took a trip up to New Hampshire to relax. It gave me a lot of time to think and reflect on what I have to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my daughter. She is truly amazing. I look at her each day and cannot believe that she is really mine. The love and pure joy that comes from her smile leaves me speechless.

I am thankful for my son. I am thankful for every moment I was able to share with him, and all the lessons he taught me in his short life. Because of him, I am a better friend, a better mother, a better person.

I am thankful for my husband. He has been there with me through these last 8 years, which hasn't always been easy, but with him I know we can make it through anything. He gives me strength and courage to go on, I couldn't imagine life without him.

I am thankful for my friends and family. I know I have so many wonderful people who surround me with love and happiness. I don't know what I did right to deserve all those who have touched my life, but I am very thankful for every one.

I am thankful for my health, my home, my animals, and all the small things I have in my life. When I take the time to reflect on all the positive things I have in my life, it makes all the negative not seem so overwhelming. I think I need to take more time to remind myself of the wonders in my life and spend less time worrying about the things I don't have.


Here are a few pictures from our New Hampshire get-away.

Turkey Dessert

I saw this cake a while ago and wanted to try it out, so here is my version of a turkey cake!



Here is another fall themed cake I did last week for a 90th birthday:

Holiday Shopping

I thought I would post this in hopes that some of you may take advantage of this easy way to shop and donate to CHERUBS at the same time! The best part is the donation doesn't cost you anything! If you are planning on doing some Christmas shopping online anyway, please consider doing this!

Donate to CHERUBS for free just by shopping in over 700 stores through goodshop.com!

If you shop on-line, please consider shopping through Goodsearch.com for CHERUBS.

Just go to http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=856932

You can shop on Amazon, Target, Sears, Wal-Mart, ToysRUs, and over 700 other stores just like you normally would, but the stores will donate a percentage of your shopping total to CHERUBS. It does not cost you a penny. If you're going to shop on-line for the holidays, why not give to a great cause at the same time! :)

Bowl-A-Thon

I've been meaning to post a quick update on how the bowl-a-thon went! This is what I posted on the New England CHERUBS Blog:

The Bowl-A-Thon fundraising event was a huge success! We had over 50 people in attendance, including 6 CHERUBS families and 3 beautiful cherubs themselves! We succeeded in beating our fundraising goal, but best of all were able to have fun and spread some CDH Awareness to the local bowlers. The staff were very interested in what we were raising money for, and asked us to come back next year to make it an annual event

A big thank you to all who participated and to all those who sponsored the event!

Makayla Update

We brought Makayla up to see her pediatritian today for her 9 month check up. She weighed in at 20 lbs even, and 29 inches long! She is right on target coming in on the 75th percentile in height and 50th percentile for weight. Everything is progressing on target and she was given the ok to start fazing out the baby food and move on to table food! It's so scary, I feel like she is growing sooo fast!

Here's a couple of pictures from our Christmas card photo shoot :)

Gabriel's Birthday

Happy Birthday my little angel. I miss you sooo much it hurts to breath, I still can't believe you would be 2 years old today. Instead of celebrating with cake and presents, I have to visit your stone and pray that you hear me. It is still so hard to go there, and I wish I went more often. I just can't even begin to describe the emotions that eat at my heart when I think about forever without you. My little baby angel, I would give up anything just to have one more day with you.

Baby why'd you leave me
Why'd you have to go?
I was counting on forever, now I'll never know
I can't even breathe
It's like I'm looking from a distance
Standing in the background
Everybody's saying, he's not coming home now
This can't be happening to me
This is just a dream
-Carrie Underwood

Gabe's birthday cake

Today I am working on getting ready for the bowl-a-thon tomorrow. I just finished the cake and wanted to share it.

Here it is:

New England CHERUBS Blog

I have created a blog to keep everyone updated on whats going on with CHERUBS locally. I am still working on putting it together but you can check it out at:

http://newenglandcherubs.wordpress.com

Eat Cake

Today I made a baby shower cake for a close friends sister. I really enjoyed making it and everyone seemed to really like it at the shower. As I look around for a job since it is near impossible to be a stay at home mom in todays world... I keep thinking this is what I need to do! I know It's something I'm pretty good at, if I can just get my business going... So I have made it my mission! By the end of this year I plan on having my business plan written out. I need a game plan on what I am going to do with my life. I hate the insecurity of the unknown. This week I am going to call the health department and start figuring out what I need to do to become licensed in Rhode Island. Than will be the search for an industrial kitchen to rent until I can get my own shop going. This is something I really need to do for myself!

Here is the cake I made for the shower today. The design was a bit of each element taken off of different cakes and pulled together by the mother-to-be's sister and mom. It's nice to be able to make thier cake vision come to life :)

Nana

Tonight I found out that my Nana (my great-grandmother) passed away. She hasn't been doing very well lately and having a lot of health problems, and I know she is in a better place where she isn't suffering. Still doesn't make losing her any easier though.

I have many very fond childhood memories of my Nana. She will be greatly missed. I brought Makayla up to meet her a few months ago, not realizing it would be the last time I got to see her.

Memorial service, gift bags, bowl-a-thon

Last sunday we went up to Mass General's memorial service for all the children lost. It really was a beautiful, touching, and very emotional service. It is so difficult to go back to the hospital, but at the same time I find peace in doing so.

While we were there we dropped off our first 2 gift bags! I am very excited to be able to finally have some of these bags put together and ready to go out to give to parents who may need them! If you are wondering what I am talking about check out more info on the Gabriel's Giftbag Project here: http://gabriel-nava.virtual-memorials.com/main.php?action=view&mem_id=8297&page_no=6

Next weekend we have Gabriel's Bowl-A-Thon planned. I really hope that it will be a success. I can't believe Gabe would be 2 years old already. It's crazy to think about how time flies by! I really hope he knows how much I love him and still think about him everyday. I miss my little guardian angel.

Here are a couple pictures of the gift bags we delivered.

Halloween

I think that I am going to start giving updates and posting Ayla's pictures here rather than on her website since I have run out of file space on her website and don't want to have to pay :( So here are a few Halloween pictures from last week.