Christmas time

This time of year is my favorite for many reasons, and I am so happy that I've got 90% of my decorations up! The only thing missing is a tree. This year, we're opting for a small 4 ft or so tree to save money, and because we're going to be in Roosevelt for Christmas.

As I have grown older, I have realized more and more the importance and true meaning of Christmas and I can't help but say that I feel I have been blessed beyond all measure throughout my life. Even when I feel like times are tough and I may not be able to have everything I want, I am so thankful to have the basic necessities of life. I have definitely taken this for granted, and I hope that as I continue to mature and age I can realize the tender mercies and beautiful blessings around me more.

One thing I am extremely grateful for at this time of year is my family. I am so thankful to have all of my family within a few hours drive. It brings about a sense of security that I didn't know I had until we moved all the way across the country for the summer.

Our future is very much up in the air right now and I want to be able to have no regrets about the time I have left living so close to family and having that support near-by. Because this may or may not be our last Christmas in Utah, we are trying to do many fun things here and spend a lot of time with family and close friends before we're off to other adventures!

I'm looking forward to the upcoming month of December. I am so excited to start some traditions of our own with our little family and teach Ellie the traditions we each have brought into our family. I'm extra excited for Ellie's reactions to things like the Christmas tree once it's all decorated, the present opening and the toys that Santa will be bringing her!

This year went by SO quickly and as I think about how November is leaving us and December is knocking at the door, I'm feeling very bittersweet because that means my sweet little baby is turning 1! I am so thankful for her and every single day I get to stay home with her and watch her learn and grow!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and you all get to do amazingly fun things this year!

November 2011=sick month 2011

Holy Moly!

Can I just say I'm SOOOO ready for this month to be over? I think we've had maybe 5 days when everyone has been healthy at the same time. First it was David with a cold at the end of October that carried into the beginning of November, then Ellie got an ear infection around the same time. Then the ear infection wasn't getting better, then she got hand foot mouth disease, then another ear infection.

Then, after we had like 3 days of no medications, and everyone healthy, Ellie got the stomach flu--the day before Thanksgiving. Then I got it ON Thanksgiving day, then David got it Thanksgiving night. Whew! That's a whole lot of sick going on!

I'm so ready to finish cleaning everything/washing all bedding and getting the remaining bugs out of our house so we don't get sick anymore!!

The only blessing in disguise was that David got sick when he didn't have to miss any school or work, and I was sick while David was home to take care of Ellie!

Thankfully, we're all back to normal now and happy and healthy!

Rough rough week

If you've followed my facebook posts, you know that things are crappy for us, and mostly for Ellie with her being all sorts of sick and in pain. The worst thing is, is that the sickness she has now isn't the first bad thing to happen to her this week!

The first rough happening for this week was on Monday evening, when Ellie decided to walk toward the TV at our neighbor's house. She fell forward on her face, started screaming super loudly, and then I noticed that blood was pouring out of her mouth! Such a scary sight! Apparently, she fell on her binky just right and cut the piece of skin that holds your top lip to your gums.

After getting her to calm down, and after stopping the bleeding, she decided to try to walk to David at our house, and lo and behold, she fell AGAIN--doing the SAME EXACT thing she had just done, but this time, she bled for over an hour, screamed like crazy, and we were freaked out pretty badly. I couldn't get her to calm down because of the pain, and she wouldn't fall asleep without a binky, and every time she sucked on it, she bled more! (talk about a HUGE mess!!!) Then I had a revelation! Why not put oragel on her sad little mouth so it would be numb and she could sleep! Worked like a charm!

In the morning, we cleaned up all the blood (luckily it came out of the sheets, crib bumper, towels, rags, and clothes she bled on!!) and she was good as new! No sign of even a bit of a fat lip!

The next crappy thing to happen happened when she was with David. He set her down so he could put something away in the fridge, and she walked into the fridge and hit her eyebrow on one of the shelves! (UGH!) More screaming, NO BLOOD, and a little bit of calming her down and she was good as new!

On Tuesday, we found out some grim news, and that was that a little boy our neighbor goes to babysit from time to time had come down with Hand Foot and Mouth Disease! This meant that the neighbor's baby, Lexi was exposed to HFMD, and earlier that day, Ellie had stolen a binky from Lexi and sucked on it! UGGGGH! We knew that it was pretty much inevitable that Ellie would eventually come down with HFMD, but we were crossing our fingers anyway!

Wednesday came and Ellie hadn't shown signs, but then Thursday hit, and she was starting to be crabby. Then last night she was up every 4 hours on the money. It seemed strange to me that she would be so miserable and she almost acted like she had another ear infection. This was also odd to me since we just BARELY finished her antibiotic on Monday!

So today, Friday, I got an appointment for 3:50 p.m. and boy oh boy, it was the LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE! Ellie had been screaming all day. Really. All. Day. Long! I knew it was more than just the HFMD! And I was right! She DOES have a mild ear infection on top of teething, HFMD and just having a rough week.

The poor girl. I feel so bad for her and I just want her to be able to feel OK! She's having a hard time nursing and swallowing, which hopefully doesn't turn into dehydration!

Even though we've been hit with such crappy things, we're still thankful that we're parents to this amazing little girl! She's so much fun, and I can't wait until she gets better so we can all get some sleep and be happy again!

Ellie ten months old!

Time just keeps flying, and Ellie just keeps growing up! She's 10 months old today, and she's such a big girl! As each day goes by, she's becoming more and more independent and more of a toddler instead of a baby. She's so fun and has so much personality!

We got her dressed in a cute outfit & went to put her in the crib to take some pictures and she thought it was bedtime, so she cried and cried! Then we just scratched that idea!

Here is a little about her at 10 months:

• She sleeps from about 8 to 8 most nights, which is AWESOME for us!
• She takes 2 naps a day, varying in length from 1-2 hours.
• She has just learned to "give loves" to things, and is frequently hugging her stuffed animals and us.
• She likes to give kisses to you if you ask for them.
• She's wearing 12 month clothes, but they're still pretty big on her. She's also wearing size 2 & 3 shoes & size 3 diapers.
• She nurses 4-5 times a day, eats 3 "normal" meals consisting of bread, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, peas, sweet potato fries (home-made & her favorite!), cheddar-broccoli nuggets (home-made), string cheese, yogurt, water, chicken, and just about anything else we let her have. She LOVES food, and I'm always amazed at how much she can really eat!
• She stands up for up to about 1 minute at a time and has taken a couple steps here and there, but isn't really interested in learning to walk.
• She loves to point to her nose when you ask her where her nose is.
• She loves to play in the bathroom, and if the door isn't latched, she'll go in there and put anything she can in the bathtub.
• She's just started to climb (UH-OH) and we had to take the shelf off of our coffee table, because she can climb on to it! She's starting to climb into the bathtub (another uh-oh) and tries to climb onto anything else she can reach.
• Getting into the kitchen drawers and pulling everything in them out is one of her favorite pass times.
• She can say "mama" "dada" "uh-oh" "baba" "whatsthat" "go" and "nana"
• She's still learning to say mama and dada to the right person, but she's getting close!
• She STILL doesn't have any teeth, or any signs of any teeth...
• She weighs 18 lbs 7 oz
• She loves to turn the light switches to "off" whenever I carry her out of a room
• She is starting to point at things more and talk as she points
  

She's such a joy to have around, and we love her so so much! She's such a blessing and we're so thankful we get to be her parents!

Today she climbed in her toy bin and I covered her with her toys. She thought it was pretty fun. p.s. check out that yellow ring mid-fling!

Giving her kitty "loves"

Standing and pointing. When she points it's usually like this and super quick with her pointing and then putting her arm back down.

Standing up all by herself but too timid and busy to take a step!

Happy ten months old, Ellie!