11 months

I can not believe how fast these last 11 months have flown by.  Our little girl is desperate to walk, a speedy crawler {especially when she hears the word "bath," she drops whatever she is doing and moves as quickly as possible to her bathroom} she doesn't really cry much besides those fussy moments right before bedtime.  Talking to herself in her crib, her "alone time," is one of her favorite past times.

Some of her other favorites are, but not limited to:

-cheerios/ yogurt for snack time

-she understands she is not supposed to touch the Christmas tree so she just waves in that direction.  She will also come to me and wave to the tree when she wants me to pick her up and show her all the ornaments.  {we do this about 45x a day}

-when she finds leaves {dragged in by her furry, puppy sister} she is proud of her findings and lifts it up for us to see.  Of course, mischievously, if we don't notice she quickly puts it her mouth.

-high fives

-clapping for herself after she has done anything

-still adores elmo

-turning off light switches

-going with us to get the mail

-singing

-dancing

What an absolute joy she has been in our lives.  We both could not love or adore her more.  

hazel lately

Our darling little girl continues to change right in front of our eyes. Meet her best friend...

At 4 months I introduced Hazel to who would become my saving grace in the middle of night terrors, teething, difficult feedings and that uncontrollable fussy time. She immediately giggled. Since then she adores Elmo. Elmo songs, elmo dolls, elmo books, and anytime we ask where is elmo? If he is not on, she looks at the tv dissappointed. I have never known a child so young be so interested in a tv character. It makes the both of us laugh a lot.

She and I have been going on what I like to affectionately call "Mother daughter dates." Which is really just an excuse for me to go to girly places with her that her father wouldn't totally appreciate it. Here her titi (auntie) V is joining us for lunch. {btw all of these pictures her titi v took} I love the way our family loves this little girl.

"How big is Hazel?"

"Soooooo BIG!"

This is her response to anytime the word "big" is used. Big bites, big dogs, big girl, etc. I love it! {I also realize she is in her christmas pjs, just wanted her to use them before she out grew them :)}
She has been standing all by herself for a couple of months now but is still a little scared to take a step forward. She will walk all day long if she has something to hold on to. Her first few sounds were "dadada," and I think that sealed the deal for this papa here. We think we may have even heard a "hi, dada." Which only made me a tad jealous. She did start saying "nanana," that I took as mamama. Hazel is learning some signs, the one she has down is "all done," and she even says a-da.

Lastly this little girl can't get enough of books. She loves to open a book, especially the touch and feel books, and touch them and turns all the pages.

kisses



A very rare moment...this little one NEVER stays still. The only time she is cuddly is a little right before she goes to bed.

3 years

In three days, we will celebrate that we did this 3 years ago.....

My how things have changed in 3 years. I thought I loved him then....I feel so crazy blessed to have such a husband in him and a father for her. By God's grace, I get fall more in love with him each day.

aaaannnnnnnddd we are BACK!

I cant promise we will be consistent, but I will try. Praise God from whom all blessing flow! We are back in FW, we are home, we are healthy, and we are so grateful! Thank you for those who prayed, loved, encouraged, provided, hurt, helped, and all together walked through this journey alongside us. God used you all to make sure along with Him, we were never alone.

This is my now 6 month baby! (only she was 5 months in these pictures) God's provision is perfect.

counting backwards

this is a beautiful movie made by my dear cousin, who also stars in it. you must check it out and put it on your queue in netflix. it will be available april 26...do it! you can see the trailer here

i have quite the talented friends and family if i do say so myself :)

apt therapy contest

hello friends! i know it has been sometime since i have been on this blog of mine but i wanted to tell you all about one my dear friends, ellie, has gotten her cute carriage house into apartment therapy teeny tiny contest. its a beautiful place and she has done such a fabulous job decorating! please vote for her here!!

thank you so much!

hope to return when my life is a little more predicatable...in the mean time thanks for your prayers!

fyi

we also have another website to help raise donations in order to assist us with medical expenses. if you feel led to please check out this website

http://funds.gofundme.com/the-wooten-family

we still have many prayer requests and we so covet those. you can see those again at this website

www.caringbridge.org/visit/claywooten

a new blog

my dear friend lizzie has assisted us in better communicating with our loved ones by creating this blog/journal--

we will be using this to update everyone as we begin our journey through this messy chapter of our lives.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/claywooten

we continue to covet your prayers

update on our familia

"do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God..."

Philippians 4:6

clay my dear husband, hazel my sweet little baby and i have been through quite the whirl wind these last couple of weeks. clay has been diagnosed with an aggressive kind of lymphoma. we are in desperate need of prayers. only before we go there we would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all the love and support so many have shown us. we are so thankful for it, b/c the only thing worse than having to go through all of this is having to go through it alone.

the biopsy this week revealed the cancer was lymphoma the non-hodgkins kind. more specifically they think its burkitts lymphoma which is a very rare and very aggressive type of lymphoma. the doc said there are about 12 different types of lymphoma and burkitts makes up about 1 to 2 percent of those types. It is typically found in smaller children and do to its aggressive nature needs just as aggressively. since it is so rare we all decided that going to MD Anderson in Houston is probably our best bet and the treatment plan that Clay will be going through is one week in the hospital of constant chemo and one week off. the time frame of this treatment is unknown. the latest that we will have our appointment at MD is in a little over a week the earliest is early this coming week. our oncologist, Dr. Nugent, spoke to the head of the lymphoma department at MD and i believe he will be our contact over there his name is Dr. Heigemeister. On top of chemo we will need a bone marrow biopsy and maybe another biopsy on my abdomen. If after all the chemo treatment there is a recurrence he will probably need a bone marrow transplant.

Things to be praying for:

-Quickly getting an appointment and first treatment at MD

-Strength and faith to endure the intensity of the treatment

-That everything would work and the cancer would be gone completely from clay's body

-Strength and faith for me during this hard time

-That God would be known more, worshiped and glorified throughout all of this

my love

does it get any more precious than this boy impressed with this catch but not interested in getting too close to touch it?

ugh this boy has stolen my heart...only i didn't know him then. i met him when i was 14. we went to different high schools. but we had some mutual friends, and i had heard of his name before. my friend actually liked him at the time. she used to call me after school to tell me about the times that she talked to him and how cute he was.

then as many 14 year old relationships do it fizzled. then i was a sophomore and saw him at a party. he was so cute. i had to get a picture with this boy. i sucked up the courage to ask him to get a picture with me. he was sweet and humored me, luckily knew who i was and agreed for the picture.

that night i went to my friends house loving that i had gotten to hang out with him and that he knew who i was! we continued on with our very separate lives until that fall, he still hadn't really left my thoughts...and for some reason i decided that enough was enough i was determined to date this boy. now don't get me wrong as though i was this aggressive teenage girl. quite the opposite. my parents were very adamant in raising me and my sisters to be lady, never calling boys and the boys responsibility in regards to girls.

then he came to one my high school football games, with a mutual friend. i. died. i could not believe it. we talked. even flirted. he invited me to church. i told him to call me and i would come. he said he didn't have me number. i told him it was cause he didn't ask for it. it was only the beginning....

and slowly as the Lord held us in His hand growing us in Him, challenging us in different, hard, unique ways we somehow still ended up together. that was almost 11 years ago...

here we are. the man of my dreams. my soul mate. the man who is not perfect but is perfectly made for me.





i love him so dearly

and now he has become a father. and what an amazing father he is to our little girl.
i know that this maybe late but he is my valentine, my hubby, my love.

she is here!!!

she is here! she is here! hazel's beautiful cousin charolette bradly wooten!! i. die. and oh my if this picture would only do justice to those lips, you would die too! we are so in love with this new little family--and hazel is just dying for her cousin to play with her :)

1 month

on feb 14, my baby girl will be 1 month old. i read a quote on a friends blog that continues to resonate with me"the days are long, but the years are short" and although we have not experienced a year...a month sure flown by!

my sister {who is so talented} and i had a little photo shoot with hazel yesterday. we sorta went a little crazy but here are some fabulous ones...

look at that smile! she has grown so much. i am doing my best to take pictures and write things down that she is doing, she is changing everyday. i saw somewhere in the blog world about writing a sentence everyday about her on a calendar, i'm not good at being consistent like that but i may give that whirl. even if i remember to do it here and there i know i cherish to look back on it. i'll let you know how that goes ;)

sweet sleepiness

absolutely there has been nothing greater than seeing my sweet baby's eyes, faces she makes, hands, and wiggly self. there are times where i just feel like i can never put her down, i don't want to miss anything. as much as i love her, this whole only sleeping a couple hours at a time has been taking its toll. day and night very much blur together for me, i get cabin fever often and am starting to hate tv. i came across this while trying to stay awake during a late night feeding, from the valley of vision

"Thou blessed Spirit, author of all grace and comfort,

Come, work repentance in my soul;

Represent sin to me in its odious colours that I may hate it;

Melt my heart by the majesty and mercy of God;

Show me my ruined self and the help there is in him;

Teach me to behold my Creator,

his ability to save,

his arms outstretched,

his heart big for me.

May I confide in his power and love,

commit my soul to him without reserve,

bear his image, observe his laws, pursue his service,

and be through time and eternity

a monument to the efficacy of his grace,

a trophy of his victory.

make me willing to be saved in his way,

perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus:

Help me not only to receive him but

to walk in him,

depend upon him,

be conformed to him,

follow him,

imperfect, but still pressing forward,

not complaining of labour, but valuing rest,

not murmuring under trails, but thankful for my state.*

Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,

and the principle and medium of all godliness;

May I be saved by grace through faith,

live by faith,

do the work of faith.

Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption."

*i don't consider this time at all to be a state of trials, more so i want to simply be thankful for this season of life.

bringing hazel home

hazel is home. the last week and a half has been such a blur of night and day...i can not even believe its been that long. she has already grown so much. so before i forget some of the details (or before the need for sleep take over) i wanted to write about her birth story :)

the week i went into labor i had been 2 cm dilated. the week before my dr thought we were going to be having this baby two weeks early, but when nothing changed at my dr appt that week they thought i would hold out till my due date. that was on jan 11, then on jan 13, i wasn't feeling great and was feeling pretty huge to be honest. but i went to work and while i was driving was having intense contractions, but honestly nothing i hadn't experienced before. then they started coming about 15 min apart while i was in a session with one of my kids. i wrapped that up and called my husband telling him i was coming home, b/c i needed to lay down for a bit. when i got home they were about 10 min apart, but i was not interested in going to the hospital. i had contractions before and they would eventually pass, so i was just waiting for them to pass. clay kept asking me to go to the hospital and i continued to delay. i honestly just didn't want to be wrong and/or disappointed about going into labor. so after postponing it for almost an hour, i agreed to go to the hospital. clay had promised worst case scenario we will go out to eat and do something fun {such a patient man}.

we got to the hospital and i was walking in telling them i thought i was in labor. the nurses all kinda rolled their eyes since my water had not broken and i didn't seem to be in THAT much pain. moments later they checked me and i was dilated to a 4 1/2 cm. we called our families to let them know the baby was coming that night!

when i dilated to 5 cm, i was having contractions like crazy. super intense. clay was holding my hand as i was squeezing the bajeezes out of him. they came in to break my water, right in the middle of one of the worst contractions. it got crazy really fast. it was about then when my husband, who was recovering from being ill all week was holding my hand, and ran to the corner to throw up. i lost it. was crying. freaking out that my husband was going to be out of commission while i was in labor.

thank the Lord. he recovered. after that i got the epidural, and quickly progressed to 10cm. after a couple of hours of pushing at 1:10 AM hazel kathleen came into this world!

there was concerns of her inhaling her meconium, and potential jaundice, but after 24 hours, she was totally cleared. i know i am totally partial, but i just think she is the prettiest baby. i think she is going to be a carbon copy of her daddy.

hazel with her kiki

my sweet baby girl...oh my goodness i didn't know i could love her so much.

with her lola, this baby has so many people who love her

such a sweet baby

at home :)

hazel kathleen

welcome to the world sweet baby.... we are so in love with this bundle of joy!

full term

went to the doc yesterday :) got a great report! i am currently 1 cm dilated and am progressing along well. the dr couldn't speak for sure, as they never can, but didn't think i was going to make it to my due date. so Hazel cold be making her appearance any day now! i am trying to pretend i didn't hear those words though...i just keep trying to think long term, even past my due date. i just work better that way, instead of getting disappointed/super anxious if she is late.

i will say this whole 3rd trimester thing is not my cup of tea. i wish i could say i was one of those women who just loved loved loved being pregnant. but alas, i. do. not. now don't get me wrong i love everything that comes with being pregnant..ie.. a baby. but that's about it.

my life right now...

-clothes just don't' fit. few, very few do.

-i've been asked at least 3 times if i'm going to go into labor and someone is going to have to call an ambulance for me.

-i don't walk... i waddle

-every time i put my shoes on i have acid reflux

-i still love when she moves around

-my most favorite thing is when clay talks to her

Hazel we are so ready to meet you :)

bragging on the boy

my sweet hubby needs a little attention on this blog, b/c he has done good. for christmas i received this watch (only a little different with some rhinestones and buttons)

such a fun christmas gift!

bradly and hazel

during our thanksgiving celebration my sweet mother in law had a friend come over and take some pictures for christmas cards. i hadn't realized just how fun it would be to have these pictures when i realized it was bradly and hazel's first photo shoot. i'm anticipating many more to follow after seeing some of these results :)

they are going to be such good buddies

bradly's parents, just presh

hazel's mama and daddy

kiki, pops, and the whole gang....can't wait to meet you girls!

she's engaged

when we were wee ones, i used to have two pacifiers with me at all times. one for me, and one in case she cried. later i used to threaten to rip off her bear, spotty, arms off. as we grew up we fought, we hit, we yelled, we talked, we cried, we shared our hearts, and we came to know of His love around the same time. she came to baylor where we learned even more about our sin and His saving grace. we would share in moments often that only a sister can understand. when my world was falling apart she was there to walk through it with me....

and now she is getting married.

married.

he is her soulmate.

and i could not be more happy for her.

congrats veronica and jim! what a joyous time this is.

i love you both dearly :)

btw

we had the whole fam over to find out the gender of our baby. i had intended it to be just a surprise factor for me (totally selfishly) but as it turns out it was a really special moment to get to share it with everyone :)

the cake says baby wooten. funny aside... i know i'm not the only one who has thought of this...the lady who did the sonogram was totally familiar with what we were doing. despite this when i tried to explain to the bakery what we were trying to do and that i didn't want to know what the cake was--you would have thought i was speaking a different language. i was just thankful we had the doctor write on two envelopes in case they got it wrong...

so in conclusion...

ITS A GIRL!!!!

we are still a little up in the air about girl names...i am about 90 % set on one...just can't commit yet

my sister is a graphic designer and just started a blog. she played with a few of the names we are thinking about that you can check out here

--still don't have Internet at home...this is almost month number 2...hopefully at&t will get their act together quickly...