Elanoir Grace 18m

Miss Ellie Grace 18M

I can't believe my babys this close to being

2.

It's crazy how fast they grow up isn't it?

I know everyone says that..and used to get annoyed

when people would say that "be careful, they'll be grown up

before you know it!" "Cherish every moment..they won't be

little forever"

yea yea yea...

But, its true! I guess it's different when they're you own

babies.

I was talking about this last night with Chris..

next year Isabella will be in 1st grade! 6 in June..where has

time gone? I can't believe we will have a 6 year

old!

Ellie has learned so much in the last month.

She's started running..and she's quick too!

It's so cute to see her little legs and body woddle

as she runs from you.

We've been enjoying her so much..

It's the little things she does...

Cuddling up with you on the couch to

watch Nick Jr, kisses as we go bye-bye,

yelling 'maaaaam! or daaad!' from her room

when she wants to get out of bed..

The amount of words she says has definately gone up

in the last week or so.

Mom, dad, (mumbo jumbo) for Isabella-but its the same mouth

full everytime she refers to her, up, jump, mamaw, starting

to say papaw. She can meow like a cat, bark like a dog, and

mooooo like a cow. She's learned how to undress herself..and redress for the most

part. She enjoys taking her diaper off as well. Funny story-This week

Chris was at home with the girls, and he walked into the

laundry room to Ellie standing there completely nude. Diaper at her feet

filled with poo. He wondered then, what do I do? Wipe her off real quick or put her in the

shower?? And it's kind of hard to wipe her

standing up..she's already messed up the natural process

of changing a diaper. He left her there for a minute

and ran to her room to get a new diaper, before putting her in the

shower. As he returned she had pee'd all over the floor under her!

Needless to say he didn't think it was funny.

I think it's hilarious! Dads are so funny with their kids..

Oh bonus find this week at GoodWill, talking Dora doll for Ellie

$5.

Rate My Space

I have the hardest time making decisions sometimes. Especially when it comes

to color for our house.. I want all my rooms to flow..I hate walking into a home and

all the colors flow until you get to that one room and its like bright yellow or something that completely clashes. Who wants that?

I've been wanting to paint our basement apartment for a long time..

and it's going on 4 years since we moved in (looks like it may be a few more).

I think its time to paint and make it more homey. I want a color that will blend in and be calming. We have one large window in our main space that lets in a lot of light. To help me decide I recently made an account on the Rate My Space website. I uploaded some pictures and made some comments on what I was looking for, or what I think I'm looking for..

So we'll see, hopefully I'll be getting some good suggestions. While I wait on comments from others..its really fun to look at what other people have done with their spaces.

It's so inspiring. Others always make it seem so easy to pick and choose what they want.

We have a nice collection of a lot of different styles it seems. Ive found to beautiful fabrics

for this room and both are so different. Can I use both?? Maybe I should add some

pictures of them to this site and see what others think.

What do you think? Click Here

a can of peas

I have never been much of a reader. Well let me say I used to be years and years ago..when I was in middle/high school but, have become a busier woman since then. Life happens.

Work at cvg has slowed in the past couple of months, we have a span of about 3 hours with absolutely nothing to do..so I started reading again. At first things online but I quickly drew tired of that until my mom introduced me to Traci DePree. What a fantastic author..I've started with her Lake Emily series, they are such an easy read. The first book 'a can of peas' was great, I enjoyed the whole thing. Finished it in 2 weeks...which is quite fast for me! So if you are looking for a great read try this book out!

Our visit with Avry

This past Tuesday we drove to sister Sarah's house for a visit.

To maximize our time with new baby Avry

and since it is such a long tiring drive, we opted

to spend the night. We had a lovely time

visiting with Sarah and Aaron, their 4 dogs (small dogs) and

lil Avry. He's such a sweet addition to their

family.

He's such a strong baby too! When I held him he would just wiggle

all over and arch his back. His head was all over as if he were

looking around.

I was a bit worried how the girls would sleep, especially Ellie. We set up

camp in Avry's room. Ellie slept in his crib all night! Only

woke once and went back to sleep it was a great

relief. I didn't sleep much though. My other child is quite a squirmer..

she as all over the place. We slept on a blow

up bed and she was right in the middle of it all night..as was I. We were like two

peas in a tiny pod. Although I didn't sleep much

it was rather nice to get some cuddle time

with her. Even if she didnt realize it.

The next day I took the kids to the store to get some cooking supplies.

It's so great to have someone cook for you when changes in life happen..

The first couple of weeks after having a child are so hard.

So we got supplies to make baked macaroni and cheese

and cheesy ham and potatoes. Oh and a box

of brownie mix, the best part!

It was a great trip. Not sure if Sarah and Aaron enjoyed all the

noice for a day and a half but, we sure loved being there.

Isabella was so excited to see her

new cousin from her favorite aunt. And couldn't

wait to hold him, as seen in the picture above.

Snow storm! and more to come...

Updates

Well our household is healing slowly. After a week of strep, I've got an annoying case of bronchitis. I don't think I've ever had it this bad....the coughing is just aggrivating! Not to mention not being able to breathe. Chris is healing nicely. He started driving again earlier this week and is able to get his own pants on now :D. Last week I had to help him dress. I think he said he can now bend his knee at a 110 degree angle. His therapy is going well and he is slowly getting back to normal. Its amazing, he told me, how much you need your leg and when you don't have it, how hard it is to adjust.
Due to this wonderful snow storm we had this week Isabella only had 1 day of school! She loves that. We went outside and played a few times in the snow. Yesterday we built a snow bunny and some miniature snow men. On the back of the snow bunny we tried to add a 'bunny tail', its actually a large mixture of snow and ice somewhat formed into a ball-from plowing the driveway. We stuck it to he back of the bunny and it just looked like he had a hump back. So we decided it would be a backpack. On top of this back pack Isabella added 'baby bunny', a small mound of snow and ice with a carrot sticking out of it's head. After adding the baby bunny the combination of bunnies became Sarah and her baby :D. So cute I thought. Sarah, you should feel loved. As my Isabella is in love with you.
Speaking of Sarah, she delievered a baby boy, Avry Paxton on Tuesday. Mom, Dad and I drove up to Dayton during the big storm as quickly as we could, mom and I really wanted to be with her during her delivery. When we arrived at 1245 she had been pushing for about 15 minutes..we waited by Aaron's side as she pushed and pushed and screamed in pain until baby Avry finally came into this world. It was such an exciting, emotional moment. Not everyone understands why I wanted to be in the room and I can't really explain it. She is my sister, I love her, she's my best friend and it's just something special to share with her. Most think it's just a gross moment...but, it's not like I was standing there in front of her like I was watching a football game, cheering her on! Mom and I were beside her encouraging her and helping to keep her strong..and to take those first moment pictures...Such an exciting time. He's so beautiful.

I started quilting this week..or atleast trying. Chris' mom made us a pretty quilt when we were first married...she quilted a little throughout the quilt, to insure the back and filler were tacked together. I'm just continuing on the detailing...After this? I'm not sure..How do you choose a pattern to stitch? The one I'm doing is sort of an oval pattern. Ovals after ovals in diagonal lines. Do I continue this same pattern in the opposite direction? Lots of questions. I'm enjoying it, it's relaxing. Much like I think knitting would be. I just don't know how to knit.
Oh, and I don't want to forget to mention the great bed we got Ellie at Ikea. LOVE IKEA! It's an expandable toddler bed, it grows with them...it's really great. I love buying practical things that you know are going to be use for quite a while. And I love Ikea design and prices!

Skype

Do you know how wonderful Skype is?? Or what a blessing it is when you have friends around the world that you can talk to for free? It's pretty awsome. We frequently talk to our friends in New Zealand, their daughter is near Isabella's age and they get to keep in touch also. Isabella just loves it. And what makes it better is, if you have a webcam you can see the other person while you talk to them. So Isabella and her friend can play together and show eachother their toys.
Thursday we Skype'd for about 4 hours, 30 minutes with our NZ friends and another 3 1/2 hours with my sister in Dayton. Isabella alone talked her ear of for about an hour while she knitted.
All I have to say is if you don't have it yet, get it. It's pretty awsome. Click Here

Well, I was sure right about the strep throat. She had it pretty bad. Poor thing. Ellie started getting it also later in the week AND I got it. I'll tell you what, the house seems to stop working when mom's not 'working'. To top it off my husband had (minor) knee surgery on Tuesday morning to clean up a re-injury. So he was and still is unable to do much more than sit and rest. Luckily it all worked out just fine though...as it always does. My sweet parents made us a lasagna and some chicken noodle soup 2 days in a row...what a blessing. I sure did not feel like cooking..
I found myself relying on the One above more and more this week. As I had little strength and energy to calm cranky sick children in the middle of the night AND remembering to retrieve the ice pack for my husband once an hour. And do you know how hard it is to remember a medicine schedule for 4 people?
Isabella and Ellie-antibiotics every morning and night.
Ellie-tylenol every 4hrs and motrin twice a night or every 6 hrs.
Chris-pain meds every 6 hours, on the hour! AND an anti-inflamatorys twice a day.
Amy-antibiotics twice a day + ibuprofen every 4.
May not sound like too much, but man that made my head hurt. My brain hurts now just thinking about how I kept track of it all feeling as bad as I did. It wasn't like everyone got their doses at the same time, we were all several hours off from eachother. BUT, I did everything because Christ strenthened me. Chris' mom asked me at one point when I gave someone their last dose and it took me about 5 minutes to answer...to say the least, I'm sure glad that week is almost over.
Chris is still hobbling around but is able to get small distances without his cane or crutch. His knee is still extremely swollen and painful. And, As I sit here and type to you I am gazing outside at the snow covered ground, so beautiful and calm. Can't wait to get home and play in it with the girls....

Updates

Sleeping this week has gone well! I took Ellie to see Dr. K on friday night AGAIN about her ears. I was full expecting them to tell me she had an ear infection..it turns out she did not, again. It was simply fluid. I went on to tell her though that she has been tugging on her ears since the end of December and that I had already been in once before at the beginning of January with what I thought then, was an infection, but was only fluid. I said she hasn't slept well in a month, could there be anything else going on possibly?? Only after that did they do a Typanometry, a test to see if she had any fluid in there that they could not see, and infact she did. Dr. K gave us a prescription for C-Phen, a decongestant. And you know what? Since then she has slept in her bed, in her room, mostly alone. Friday and Saturday night one of us had to sleep in there on the floor with her..but she slept and didn't wake up screaming. Then last night, she woke a couple of times, 1 out of habit and the other-her diaper leaked and made a huge mess! Other than that she slept completely alone from 830pm-7am. Such a huge difference!

Tonight I'm taking Isabella to see Dr. K, you'd think they would be tired of seeing me! She's been badly congested for a week and her bad cough hasn't gotten any better. She went to school all last week, not having a fever, or feeling too badly, I figured she better go. This weekend she seemed to have gotten worse though. What I thought was a cold has I think turned into strep throat. The reason I'm thinking this you may ask!? The internet.... After noticing that she was getting worse yesterday I quickly got online and google'd the symptoms of strep.

• white patches in the throat? YES
• difficulty swallowing? YES
• swollen glands?! YES!
• stomach pain? YES
• fever? YES, off and on..
• general discomfort, uneasiness, or just ill feeling? YES
• loss of appetite or nausea? A little..
• rash? not that I've noticed

SO I'm really only guessing that's it by process of elimination.. I was thinking on the way to work today how funny it is that as mom's we always try to figure out the symptoms of our children and be the doctor. I'm not always right. Sometimes I'll really be thinking I know for sure what something is and we'll go to the doctors and I'll be wrong. Just like with Ellie twice now..but yes, it was something with her ears. I talk to the girls at work and they all do the same thing..trying to figure out what their kids have. Maybe moms should be able to go thru a basic medical class FOR FREE, just so we can help out the doctors. Oh and I think Amoxicillin should be over the counter! Seems to be what they give them for everything anyway! So anyway, Isabella is thoroughly enjoying being off school for a few days.
What other medical issues do we have going on you might ask? Well funny you mention it, Chris is having his knee scoped tomorrow..seems he injured it many many years ago and should have had it fixed then, but didnt. And it's just gotten worse each time he's used it for anything 'sports' related. He's got a lot of tissue floating around that needs to come out. So we have that to look forward to tomorrow morning. The good thing about scoping is how minor of a surgery it is. They do put you completely under but, have you up and walking on it and doing therapy within 2 days. He's doing therapy on Thursday and Friday already. So hopefully this will be a quick fix and he will be back to normal soon. I've got to think of some good movies to get for him since he may be couch or bed ridden for a few days! If you've got any let me know.
As for me? I'm all good...busy playing doctor mom :). I'm enjoying it though.