Pics of our Breakfast and our Winner

We are so excited to share the highlights of our pancake breakfast with you. Amy Lytle donated her time and awesome photography skills and we love the pictures she got back to us. What a great day it was and again want to thank everyone who contributed to making this a success!

Before doing that though we wanted to announce the winner of our necklace and brooch. We used http://www.random.org/ to generate a random number which came up with #1, so, Stephanie, if you will e-mail me with your address I would love to get these in the mail to you.

So. . .here are the highlights from the breakfast:

Do you know that all of these guys had to go and take a food handler's

test to be able to assist our caterer with the food? Thanks guys!

(Chris, Tom, Ian, Josh and Ryan)

Not sure what was so funny here, but I felt like it showed what a good time we all had.
(Suzanne, Rayel, Becky and Kathryn)

These girls ran our greeting/will call table and did an awesome job!
Thanks to Lisa, Bekki and Aimee.

The Lanee Legacy crew: Kathryn, Heather, Becky, Erika and Rayel

We really appreciated Suzanne Helzer, Bereavment Coordinator at Banner Desert Hospital coming and speaking. One thing that stood out in her talk to me was when she thanked everyone from future parents who would receive a box. It really is EVERYONE who came, donated, volunteered and supported us that makes this all possible!

Lukas from Movin' 97.5 was so awesome!! He really kept things fun! LOVED him!

The next pictures are from our kids area. Bounce U provided our face painter and Twisty Kristy did an awesome job with the balloons. She couldn't tie those balloons fast enough. The octupuses were a HUGE hit with the kids. Thank you to Arizona Jump for discounting the jump systems.

Thanks to Kilee, Nicole, Amber and David for taking care of our balloon release.

That was a lot of balloons and butterlies to tie!

It was so sweet to see the kids write their personal messages to their loved ones and release them into the sky. I thought this pictures really captured the sweetness of it. These are actually my nephews (Braeden and Cole) and my own children (Garrett and Taryn).

Garrett doesn't quite know how to spell DeLanee's name yet. But still so sweet. The kids LOVED the fireman and firetruck. Thanks Queen Creek Fire Department!

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day (giveaway)

First of all, I want to thank EVERYONE that showed their support by coming to our 1st annual pancake breakfast event and to everyone who volunteerd, donated and sponsored as well. It was a huge success and it would not have been possible without you! It was so wonderful to meet many of you that had wrote to us by e-mail and get to hear the stories of your sweet babies and feel the connection that has brought us together. It was such a great day.

We have already placed orders with our vendors for boxes and supplies and are very anxious to get started distributing them to hospitals and those that need them. As soon as we get the pictures back from our photographer we would love to share the highlights of the event with you.



Today, October 15th, has been proclaimed by the United States Congress as the National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. It's sad that a day like this needs to exist, but I am glad that it does. Healing does come through remembering. If you would like to visit the website of National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day you can find it here.

Here, in Arizona, Banner Desert Medical Center has organized a "Walk to Remember" that coincides with the National Remembrance Day for parents to walk in memory of their babies. For those that are local and would like to participate in this event, it is this Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. at St. Timothy's Catholic Community Church located at 1730 W. Guadlaupe Road, Mesa, Arizona (between Dobson and Alma School).

I have done a little research myself concerning pregnancy/infant loss and wanted to share some of my findings:

- According to emedicine, in 2004, 2,246 deaths were certified as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), accounting for 8% of infant deaths. SIDS is the most common cause of death in infants aged 1 month to 1 year.

- Also according to emedicine, the overall miscarriage rate is reported as 15-20%, which means 15-20% of recognized pregnancies result in miscarriage. Note that these are just the "recognized" pregnancies. Recurring Misscarriage Syndrome (RMS) affects more than 500,000 women in the United States per year.

- In the United States, there is approximately one stillborn baby for every 115 live births, which is roughly 26,000 stillbirths each year.

- According to the March of Dimes, in 2002, about 19,000 babies died in their first month of life(called neonatal death).

Simply put, many, many people are affected by stillbirth, miscarriage and infant death each year. If you are one of these people, I want to tell you that your babies life counts! I want you to know I grieve with you - and not just today. When I began this project 6 years ago, it was to validate a life. DeLanee was not alive for very long, but it was very important to me that she was not forgotten and to know that her life counted. The box I was given and everything inside it did just that. . .validated her life. It is my hope that anyone who receives one of our boxes feels that same way. That their babies lives count. Because these precious babies that are sent to us for only a short time are significant. They touch us so deeply and profoundly in a way that we will never be the same.

In honor of October 15th, Lanee's Legacy would like to hold a giveaway. Heritage House '76 is a wonderful company that is known as the "precious feet people". They have donated necklaces to go into our boxes for quite some time now and are a company that Lanee's Legacy loves. The saying that we use on top of the boxes is one about feet and we also include a metal plaque that goes on top of the box that has baby feet on them. So, the necklaces fit very well into our bereavement boxes. They have graciously offered to donate this brooch for our giveaway. We will also give you one of their matching necklaces as well.

By leaving a comment and sharing your story you are automatically entered into this drawing which will end tomorrow October 16th at 10:00 p.m. Anyone is welcome to leave a comment whether you are the parent, grandparent, aunt, friend, sister, etc. You are certainly welcome to continue leaving a comment and sharing your story after this time as we would love to hear from you.

So, I will start. . .

My name is Becky. In January, 2004, we lost baby #2 to Dandy-Walker cyst at 28 weeks gestation. We met our precious daughter at 12:54 a.m. where we bathed, dressed and loved on her for 2.5 hours before she passed. We miss her everyday.

Silent Auction PREVIEW

We have had some really devoted and hard working friends and family who have spent lots of hours to ensure our silent auctioned items are a hit. They have put together some pretty amazing "themed" packages for you to bid on on Saturday.

All of our auctioned packages will start at a minimum bid of $50.00 except for our "camping/outdoor package" which will have a $200.00 minimum.

Here is a preview of what they are:

PLUM CUTE BABY
GIRL PACKAGE

VALUE: $160.00

Pillowcase Dress, Fabric Flower pin, Minky Blanket, Bib,

3 burp cloths, Taggie, Changing Pad, and Wipes Case.

PHOTOGRAPHY PACKAGE

VALUE: $380.00

Family Photo Session for 6 from Pied Piper Photography

Decorated Frame from Heidi Lynn @ Scrapbooks Etc.

RELAXATON/PAMPERING PACKAGE

VALUE: $340.00

Pedicure from Elite Nail, European Facial from Tantrum Salon, Massage from Linda Durney Cut and color from Blossom Salon, Gold Canyon Candle and Bed Head Products.

HOME IMPROVEMENT PACKAGE

VALUE: $520.00

(Must live in East Valley)
Pest Control, Carpet Cleaning, Home Depot Gift Card, Professional Housekeeping

Services by “Cynthia’s Cleaning,” 1 Month Free Pool cleaning by Aqua Pool Co., and

Black and Decker tool box.

GOLF PACKAGE

VALUE: $720.00

Two (2) nine hole punch passes good for 10 visits at Terra Grande Golf Club, Four ½ hour golf lessons from Michael Arrigoni at Western Skies Golf Course,
18 hole good for two at Las Colinas Golf Club, $20.00 gift card and custom golf club fitting from PGA Superstore, putter, head cover and golf puzzle from Joe’s Golf Shop.

FUN IN THE SUN PACKAGE
VALUE: $206.50
$25.00 Gift card to the Golden Spoon, up to 12 free children’s swim lessons from Carolyn Campbell-Westphal, free rounds of golf for six from Golfland, free punch pass to any Gilbert public pool after May 22, 2010 from Gilbert Aquatics, and beach buckets and towels.

CAMPING/OUTDOOR PACKAGE
VALUE: $250.00
Sportsman’s Gift Cards: $200.00
Dutch Oven

BIKE PACKAGE
VALUE: $60.00
20” blue Abyss children’s bike
* Band Aids
* Neosporin

GOURMET CATERED DINNER PACKAGE

VALUE: $500.00
Dinner for 10 from Arizona Party Wizards


So, don't forget your checkbook!!

. . .and the WINNER is!

Before I announce the winner of our contest, I just wanted to add a quick note here to tell you that anyone who has bought tickets to our pancake breakfast on Saturday through our paypal account, we will have your tickets available for pick-up at our "will call" table.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our "Night Out on Lanee's Legacy" contest that ended today at noon. It was a HUGE success and we were so lucky to get to fill our bucket quite full!

I didn't realize how much fun this was going to be!

Congraulations to Tyler Shelley! We will have your prize at the "will call" table and you can pick it up on Saturday morning. If you would like for us to get your prize to you another way, just let us know.

Now all you have to do is find a babysitter!

Announcements and Reminders

I have some big news! It's awesome news! I am so excited to tell you that each and every dollar that is donated at our upcoming fundraiser will go directly into the making of the boxes and donating them back to Banner Hospital because. . . .

WE ARE NON-PROFIT!!

Okay, well technically it's takes time to complete all the paperwork, but our needs that way are completely taken care of and we will be "official" in the very near future! Thanks to some very generous and tender-hearted men, we have both our legal and accounting needs taken care of and therefore freeing up any legal fees we would have paid towards becoming non-profit. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that all proceeds will go right back into helping grieving families. It's amazing! YEAH!

While keeping that in mind, I just wanted to remind you of a few things before Saturday. We still have our contest running right now where every $5.00 you spend enters your name into our drawing for a night out on Lanee's Legacy! Time runs out on Wednesday at noon to enter. Just use one of our paypal buttons to the right to play. As we've mentioned before, NOW is the best time to get your tickets for our breakfast because they'll double at the door!

Have I mentioned that we have over 70 raffle prizes included for Saturday's drawings? Your chances are great at winning some awesome prizes. Our silent auction is amazing as well, check back soon as I will be posting our "themed packages" available for bidding. They are truly great!

I am so excited and anticipating Saturday's event for many reasons. Knowing that all proceeds will directly benefit Banner hospitals as well as many grieving families is one of the reasons. But, Rayel, Erika, Heather, Kat and myself can't wait to meet so many of you that we have gotten to know recently and thank all of you for making this happen! You all are great!

. . .see you soon!

Babysitting NOT Included

Need a night out?

Who doesn't right? Well, this is pretty simple and all for $5! As promised, we are beginning a contest right now where all you have to do is click on one of our pay pal buttons and do your thing! For every $5 you donate (pancake breakfasts or donations), we will enter your name into a drawing for a night out on us!! Which will include:

$25.00 gift card to:

2 movie passes at:

and 2 shaved ice drinks from:

Sounds fun, right? So, each $5.00 you spend gets you entered as many times as you want. You have until Wednesday, October 7th at Noon. Good luck!