Out of Order

I was going through my posts and found a bunch that I never published.  So I did that today and they are very random and out of order.  Sorry.  My goal is to do a better job with the blog. 

Christmas 2010

Here are some pictures from Christmas.  We went to Indy this year.  We took a trip to the Children's Museum as well. 

Ellie's 1st Birthday

Ellie's 1st birthday was on August 21st.  Nick's mom and dad and brother and his family came down for the weekend. They got here on Saturday afternoon.  We spent some time hanging out and then went to Gatti Town for dinner. 

Sunday was Ellie's party.  We ended up having our family over. It was a lot of fun.  Ellie really enjoyed eating her cake.  Ellie got a lot of neat presents.  She got a big girl car seat.  She got some really nice outfits too.  It's hard to believe that my little baby is one years old. 

Ellie still isn't walking, but she is taking lots of steps. She is saying a lot of words too.  Mama, Dada, Elmo, snack and night night are her most common words.  The twins are very talkative.  Marley and Sam can say their ABC's and can count to 12.  (Thanks Sesame Street)  I am so blessed to be a mother to 3 wonderful kiddos.  I'm looking forward to seeing them grow up. 

I stopped nursing when she turned one.  It's been a challenge for me to figure out how to eat like a normal person.  I have been either pregnant or nursing for 4 years so it is going to be hard to change my diet.  I've been used to eating a lot of sugar.  I need some discipline!

We are really enjoying having our foreign exchange student with us.  She dislocated her knee cap 2 weeks ago, so we are trying to figure out the best way to help her heal.  I found out yesterday that she was in the opening ceremonies for the Torino Olympics.  Pretty cool! 

Exhaustion!

On Halloween, Sam and Ellie were sick.  Ellie was sick in the morning, and Sam got sick at night.  Ever since then, Ellie has been randomly throwing up.  Last Tuesday she ran a fever and threw up all day.  Saturday, she was throwing up again so I took her to Urgent Care.  They had to do a strep test, which Ellie did not enjoy.  Then they pricked her finger for blood work.  I didn't think she was going to recover from that one.  Her bloodwork showed a viral infection.  She was fine Sunday and Monday and then today after lunch she threw up again. 

I'm simply exhausted.  I've counted 9 different days where she has thrown up at least once in her bed over the past 2 1/2 weeks.  I have done more loads of laundry in the past 2 weeks than I can count.  I can't really go anywhere because I dont' know if she is contagious or not.  I love going to Mommy & Me at the Y and have missed the last 3 Mondays due to sickness. It's only November!  Usually my kids are healthy, so I don't know what is going on.

Ellie's 12 month pictures

Here are a few of the pictures from Ellie's photo session with Jessica Bernardin from September.

May 2011

May has been a very busy month. This past weekend Nick and Sam went to Indy to see his parents and the girls and I stayed here.  Nick and Sam left on Friday morning and came back yesterday.  On Saturday, they went to the Indianpolis 500 parade.  Sam had a blast.  Nick said as Jillian Michaels went by she pointed at Sam and said, "So cute!"  Grandpa Steve got Sam a little train set and he has been playing with it non stop. 

The girls and I had a great weekend.  We went to the Farmer's market and picked strawberries.  The girls had a lot of fun.  We went to a party with Nicole on the far west side of town.  The water was too cold to swim, but we still had a good time. 

Yesterday, we went swimming at Cindy's house.  Nick and Sam joined us and it was a lot of fun.  I forgot to reapply sunscreen and the twins got their first sunburn.  It's not too bad, but I still feel pretty bad about it.  The twins are now able to swim with arm floats on.  This is a big relief for me.  Before I had to have a lot of help.  Now I can manage all 3 in the pool at once.  Ellie doesn't really like the water. Hopefully that will change this summer. 

Today I signed the kids up for the summer reading program.  I'm trying to limit their time in front of the tv.  They love to look at books, so hopefully it'll be a good distraction.