Warrior At Rest

Let me just start by saying that my sister is the best! For Christmas she sent me this amazing painting by her friend and co-worker, Kate Wagner. Kate paints warrior women and this depicts one such woman who has just engaged in an intense personal battle and is finally at rest. Her eyes are closed and her heart is open, ready to breathe again. Lauren sent me a letter ahead of time letting me now why she chose it for me. The minute I opened it my eyes filled with tears. I instantly connected with it and felt its beauty and meaning. Every day this warrior woman will remind me that the worst of my battle is behind me and that living with my heart wide open will fill my life with beauty.

Christmas 2010

We had a really great Christmas this year. Christmas Eve was a relaxing and refreshing night for the 3 of us as we ate a yummy dinner, opened some presents and played while listening to Christmas music. Christmas Day started early for us; 1:30 am, 4:00 am and then 5:30 am to be precise. It took a while to shake off the sleepiness, but we had a great day together that ended in a fun party with some of our friends here. We made pizzas and had a dance party (a dance party in our house is more like a race around the house. Isaiah uses it as a chance to do his biking moves).

Christmas Eve (the first gift of Christmas)

IJ excited to open a race car from Uncle Jordy.

Isaiah got quite a few "Cars" movie race cars from Grammy Debi, Papa Jon and Uncle Jordan, so upon opening them, there was an immediate line up to show them off.

Sonny and his "shake shake bridge" from Grammy Trudy and Papa Mehdi

IJ on Christmas "morning"

Reading books and sporting his Lightning McQueen backpack (with sleeping bag) from Grammy and Papa B

Snuggling in his tent from Grammy Trudy and Papa Mehdi.

Zenz/Razavi Love Feast

During my chemotherapy we received so many kind and generous gifts. Among them was a very large gift card to the Cheesecake Factory, so we made plans with our dear friends, the Zenzes, to feast together. We had a great time and as you can see from the pictures, the kids had no shortage of fun!

Sweet Betsy and two of her girlies, Haven and Eden

Our little family :)

Andy and his Mercy

Mercy, Isaiah and Eden

Funny face time! IJ with something unique.

And Mercy with the pig face

And Edie with the tongue and a pinched cheek

All at once now!

Cutes and Patoots.

I Love These Women

Meggan, Betsy and Sarah have carried me in word and in action for the last 6 months and a couple of weeks ago we celebrated with chicken enchiladas and sweet conversation. I couldn't be more blessed to have such amazing friends.

A Girl's Dream...

...well, at least this girls dream! I've always wanted a shiny Kitchen Aid mixer and for Christmas my sweet boys got one for me. Please be prepared to receive lots of baked goods.

Brotherly Love

Oh Tannenbaum!

We Razavis have a lot to celebrate this Christmas! We made it through the darkest valley of our lives so far and have come out cancer free! There are bumps and bruises from the journey that we'll be tending to for awhile, but we wanted to live in gratitude this season by celebrating in a "big" way. And when I say "big," I mean 12 feet of evergreen goodness. I went to a doctor's appointment and wished Isaiah and Ramin luck as they went out on their tree finding adventure. When I called them to see how it was going, they informed me that they would need my car to transport it and that "by the way, it's 12 feet tall and about 6 feet wide." After picking my jaw up off of the floor, I laughed at the constancy of my hubby. Hasn't it always been "go big or go home?" Has there ever been room for anything other than a real time display of his general passion for life? No. I learned, though that "mini-me" was the one behind the tree selection. Ramin had picked a more standard looking tree, but was quickly directed to "the" tree when Isaiah pointed and said, "Holy Silverado!" After that sort of passionate declaration do you have any choice but to purchase it? Once again, No. So, the tree made it home and with a hand from our friend Jason, we managed to get it up in it's tree stand. We all laughed and marveled at it's magnitude and how it took up a whole room of our house. We've since gotten it positioned a little further back and it is now decorated (thank you Martha Stewart for your 101 shatter resistant bulb package). True majesty. And there will be parties. Oh yes. Can you have a tree like this and not wear awful Christmas sweaters and drink egg nog around it? Merry Christmas everyone!

Little people. Big tree.

Our light engineer.

How many strands are we on?

So festive.

Line Ups

One of my favorite things about Isaiah is his love for lining up his cars. His love affair with cars began in earnest when he was 2 and he's still loving them and lining them up. Here he is on his 2nd birthday lining up his first car installment . As you can see from the second picture, taken not long ago, he's procured a few more cars since then.

At 2.

At 4.

Thanksgiving Shuttle Run

We had a great Thanksgiving. We loaded up with a cranberry apple pie and some whole wheat rolls and headed to Denver to the Annual Feast of the Unloved. Ramin's running buddies and their families created this event four years ago to give those who weren't traveling a sense of family and tradition. We ate good food, Sonny played with trains, and we ran-after dinner (counterintuitive to most of us, but perfectly normal for runners, i guess). They call it the FOTU shuttle run. They put on racing jerseys and flats, pinned on racing bibs and went out in sub 30 degree weather to race (crazy?). Anyway, Isaiah got in on the action and I captured some pics of the event.

The racers-one with an incredibly strange expression

Isaiah and the other cutie 4 year olds getting ready to race.

Go Zai Zai, GO!

Baldies

This picture was taken a few weeks ago when my brother was here, but I had to post it. He came to help us out and arrived with a bald head-one of his ways of standing in solidarity with me. What a great brother!

Rally Racer

Isaiah recently discovered his Travis Pastrana, Subaru rally racer outfit again and was inspired to rally around on his bike in the back yard.

Checking to make sure everything is working right.

Rally racers can still look cute.

On top of the dirt hill, ready to shred.

Ready, set...

...Go!

Go Pechuca!

Isaiah had a great soccer season! When he started, he wasn't sure how he felt about playing with other kids and sharing the ball, but by the end of the season he was a good little player, passing and dribbling and running the field with the rest of them. Here are some pictures from his last game.

Go Pechuca! The Pre-Game cheer.

Isaiah chatting with the opponent.

Winding up for the post game cheer.

Yeah! Good season Pechuca!

Our sweet friend Emy came to watch Isaiah play.

Sammy was there, too.

Sam and Emy came and sat in my lap unprovoked. Needless to say, my heart melted.

Johnny came to support his buddy.

We Had Some Fun...

...at urban outfitters...

What is Raking if there's no Jumping?

Yesterday my Dad and I raked up some leaves so that Isaiah (a.k.a Cam McCaul-famous slope style mountain biker) could ride his bike and do jumps into the piles. We had a great time enjoying the timeless simplicity of watching Isaiah play in the leaves.

coming up for air after the first jump...

is there anyone in there?

i see green leg...

aha! there's the boy!

winding up to make us a part of the action...

and throwing!

does it get any better?