Falling....Falling....Down

Ellie loves to jump and fall backwards. This kid is not afraid of anything!! I think most people would bend their legs when falling like this...not Ellie!!

Ellie has had a night cough for several months. It originally started the end of last winter. The put her on an Albuterol inhaler. The inhaler stopped the cough. The cough started back a few months ago. She would cough when we would first put her down at night and then in the morning when she got up. Every once in awhile she would cough in the middle of the night.

My mom took Ellie to the doctor for me when we were on the cruise. The doctor diagnosed Ellie with cold air induced asthma. She put her on two inhalers for five days and then just one inhaler until the end of February. The inhalers have stopped the cough. Its amazing!! I hope in February when she comes off the inhaler the cough doesn't come back. If it does come back, we have to take Ellie back in! I pray that it doesn't return!

Ellie is still not sleeping through the night. I think since Thanksgiving she has slept through the night 3 times. She has this fear of monkeys. They were singing a song about monkeys at school. It's a counting song....goes something like this...

5 little monkeys sitting in a tree.

Teasing that alligator

you cant catch me, you cant catch me.

Quiet as a mouse, the alligator sneaks around the tree

and snaps that monkey out of the tree.

4 little monkeys sitting in a tree......

I have asked them to stop singing it because of Ellie. It hasn't helped though. When she does wake up, I go in there and lay her back down. She says, "monkeys going to get me!" Every time I tell her that monkeys are not going to get her. She then asks if monkeys are going to get mommy and daddy.

We have told her that monkeys are not allowed in the house. I have also tried telling her that monkeys are nice and that they will give you hugs and kisses, but that hasn't worked either!!

I don't know what to do at this point.

I have a friend that said her little boy is having nightmares too. She was told that this is the age where they start to have them. Hopefully, she will get over her fear of monkeys soon!

FSSR Cruise 2008

My hubby and I

The beautiful ocean...

...more ocean

Atlantis

Hubby and I again...

...and again at formal night

The Fellers' men (sorry about the glare)

Some of our group....

Bobbi, Jerry and Randy

Brandy acting silly!

We had a great time on our cruise! We had great weather as well....it wasn't too hot!! Sunday it did cloud over when we were in Freeport, but it wasn't too bad. The closer we got to Florida the more windy it got. I think this is very typical while on a cruise in December.

Ellie had a blast with my mom. They ended up getting Braxton for the weekend as well. They went to the park, saw Santa Claus and were spoiled! Thanks mom for watching Ellie and the dogs! Christian and I appreciate it sooo much!!

Thanksgiving 2008

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Ellijay with Christian's Family. We had dinner with my family the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

The girls, Ellie and Haedyn, had a great time playing with each other....and tackling Papa! I think it was the first time that Haedyn and Ellie actually played together. Previously, they have been to young I think.

Ellie woke up both times during the night when we were there. Christian slept with her one night, and I did the other night. I thought she was just waking up because she was in a new place. We have been hom since Saturday night, and she has only slept through the night once. Saturday night she started coughing so hard that she threw up! Its always nice to clean that up at 11 o'clock at night! Ugh!

Christian and I leave for our cruise tomorrow. My mom is keeping her. I just hope Ellie starts sleeping trough the night again...at least for mom.

Surgery Update

A little blurry.....but bringing mom some tea! Mmm!

Ellie did GREAT!! Her surgery was scheduled for 9:30 am. They did tell us that the doctor was using 2 OR's so there was a chance she would be taken back early. I was worried about keeping her happy since she couldn't eat or drink anything. She asked on the way there, but I told her that she couldn't have anything until after the doctor fixed her ears. She seemed pretty content with that. Once we go to the surgery center, the toys distracted her!

They took Ellie back at 8:30ish and by 8:40ish the doctor and Ellie were back in our room. Ellie slept for about 10 minutes. She woke up and was a little groggy but happy!

We left there and headed to Ellie's favorite place....Chick-fil-lake (ie Chick-fil-a). We had breakfast with Meme and Papa Holden! Then we went and saw daddy and all of his co-workers. Ellie had a great time showing off for everybody! She loves the attention.

Lets just pray that these tubes stay in!!!!

Talking to Santa

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A few weeks ago I was drinking a Coke out of the can. The can had Santa on it. Ellie had asked who he was. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to tell Ellie about Santa. So, I told her. I told her that if she is a good girl Santa would bring her presents. Everyday since then she has been asking when Santa is going to come see her.

Last night Christian got the idea of calling the house form his cell phone and talking on the answering machine to her. We did it several times. I wish we could have recorded the one before this one. She was just talking to Santa like he was in the room.

On another note, Ellie has her surgery tomorrow. I will not know what time until later today. For some reason, I am more nervous this time. I know everything will go fine!! I will update as soon as we get home.

Cute Story:

When Ellie is crying, we will tell her "that's enough." The other night Christian was pestering her. Ellie looked at him and said, "that's enough daddy."

I had more stories, but of course I cant remember them now.

I hope everybody has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

ENT Follow-up

This picture was taken 1/17/2008

This picture was taking 10/17/2008


I cant believe how much she has changed in 9 months. In the first picture, her face has baby features in it. In the second picture, she looks like a little girl. She is growing up way too fast.

Christian took Ellie to the ENT yesterday.

Bad News:
She still has an ear infection, which Christian and I already knew.

Good News:
They did a hearing test on her and the doctor said it was better than what he thought it would be considering what her ears looked like.

Bad News:
She is going to have to go under anesthesia again.

Good News:
She is getting a new set of tubes that have some sort of "wings" on them. There is only a 5% chance that they will fall out. They will be in her ears for approximately 3 years.

Bad News:
She will have to have surgery to remove the new tubes...unless she is in that 5%.

Overall, we are glad but frustrated that she is getting another set of tubes. She does great when they are in. She doesn't get the infections until they are falling out (which is what they are doing now) or when they are completely out.

For some reason last night Ellie kept waking up. Finally, after the 4th or 5th time of her waking up, I scooped her up and took her to the spare bedroom with me. She slept great the rest of the night. However, I learned that she talks in her sleep, a lot. I also got several sweet kisses throughout the night.

She was up at 5:15 am. I was just getting out of the shower. I gave her hugs and asked her if she had a rough night. She said no. I said, yes you did because you kept mommy up most of the night. She looked at me and said, I'm sorry mommy! Ugh! How sweet was that!! I told her she didn't have to apologize to me. That's what mommy's are for! She is so sweet!! Hopefully, tonight will be better.

Saturday at the Park

Saturday Denise and I took Braxton and Ellie to the elementary school playground that is right by our house. It has a huge field, and we thought it would be a great place for the kids to ride their cars. Denise and I had a BLAST laughing at these kids. They are so funny.

I think Braxton hates having Ellie ride in the car. At first he would let her, but about an hour in, he would get out of the Jeep and go get in her Mustang or vice versa.

There is a link to Braxton's website over on the right towards the bottom of Ellie's website. You have to go there and watch the video. It doesn't matter how many times I watch it I die laughing.

Let me also give you the story before you watch the video. We see Braxton over in this one area, and we are not sure what he is doing. Denise realizes that there must be a puddle. Denise thinks that he is running his truck through the water like his daddy does with his truck. By this time, Braxton has driven off from the puddle. Denise tells Braxton to "go get back in the water," so she can get a video of it. Now you can watch the video! Haha!!

....Bummed

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It is hard to hear what she is saying. All of a sudden on Thursday night, Ellie started singing her days of the week. I love it when she learns new things.


On Friday the 24th, I took Ellie to the doctor because she had zit like bumps on her left leg. It turned out to be the start of a staph infection. Along with the staph infection, she had an ear infection in her left ear. She went on a antibiotic for 10 days.


Christian took her back to the doctor on Wednesday for a recheck. Still an infection. She had to do her first urine sample too. Poor Christian!! So back on another antibiotic. I went ahead and called the ENT and set up an appointment.


On Thursday, they called and said her urine sample didn't come back good. So, back to the doctor on Friday. They are not sure if she had a UTI or not, but the antibiotic that she is on will clear it up if she did have one. I think it had already started killing the infection, so that's why the results were not definite. The doctor also said that her right tube is just sitting in her ear canal and there is so much fluid in her left ear, they cant tell if there is a tube or not. On Thursday at the ENT, they will probably take the right tube out and suction the left ear out.


I think Ellie is on her way to her third set of tubes! Ugh! Poor child. The good this is Ellie doesn't seem to be bothered by the ear infections. We will see what the ENT says on Thursday.

Yellow River Game Ranch

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We took Ellie to the Yellow River Game Ranch on Sunday. We all had a lot of fun. I was surprised to see all of the different animals. It has been years since Christian and I had been there.

The deer would walk right up to you. I was a little afraid when the bucks would walk up to Ellie. They didn't have their racks, but it still scared me a little.

Trick or Treat

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We went to Chris' house (Christian's best friend) to go trick or treating. Chris has a niece, Abigail, that is about 3 weeks younger than Ellie. Ellie loves Abigail, so it was fun getting together with them.


After every house, the girls would ask, "Are we going to another house?" Very cute!! Jenny (Abigail's mom) and I were very proud of our girls. They would say Trick or Treat and then would say thank you. It was sad to see that 10 and 11 year olds were not saying thank you.


The girls had a great time, and Ellie was exhausted when we left.

Our Little Black Cat

Ellie got to dress up for school today! She looked so cute! In her class at school, there is a mirror over the kids sick. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and then would die laughing. She would then pick up her tail, and look at it in the mirror.

I will get more pics of her tonight for her first Trick or Treating!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Pumpkin Patch

The bunnies were so tiny and cute!!

There is a pony in the back right of this pic.

I took Ellie to a little Pumpkin Patch that is right down from the house. Ellie could really care less about the pumpkins. She was more interested in the animals. She is definitely go to be a veterinarian when she gets older. She LOVES animals. It doesn't matter what kind!! We were at the park last weekend and there was this huge dog...the size of a Mastiff (but it wasn't a Mastiff). Ellie walked right up the dog and gave it a hug. Thank goodness the dog was nice!! Otherwise, we would have been in trouble!!

We had the carpets cleaned last week, so we had to move all of the furniture out of the living room. Ellie loved running around with no furniture. The first morning she ran out and asked what had happened. The second morning she ran out and said, oh no! Daddy moved the couch!

We have been really working with Ellie to listen to us. She is very stubborn like her daddy! If we ask her do to do something, she typically doesn't do it the first time we ask. We have to say listen to me please and then she will go do it. With that being said, I am very bad about picking at my lip. It drives Christian nuts when I do it. I was sitting on the couch last week picking at my lip. Ellie looked at me and said, no bite nails mommy. I put my hand down and then a few minutes later I started doing it again. Ellie looked at me and said, no, no mommy. No bite nails. She came up to me and took my hand away from my mouth. I started picking my lip again. Ellie pointed her finger at me and said, Mommy you listen to me. You go to time out. She then proceeded to point towards timeout. Oh my gosh!!! She cracks me up!! Christian and I lost it!

She's Getting So Big!!!

Ellie had her first big fall the other night. It really wasn't that big but more traumatic for her! Christian and Ellie had gone on a walk. While they were out walking, they saw a large wild rabbit. Ellie was SOOO excited. She came back to tell me. She wanted me to come see it. She turned around (we were in the driveway) and started to run and SMACK! She fell and was on the ground. Her knees were pretty bad. She was of course crying. I took her in and try to clean them and get medicine on them, but she wouldn't let me touch them.

I thought taking her back to see the rabbit might make her forget about her knees throbbing. We went down there, and she starts screaming. She was in the stroller, so I leaned it back to her. I notice that she is getting one of her top molars. We head back to the house...Ellie is still crying. She continues to cry for about an hour! I felt horrible for her, but she would let me put anything on her knees. I gave her a wet washcloth, and she started sucking on it. That's what calmed her down! Christian and I were talking later and I said that I swore I heard a thud like she hit her head. He said he thought he heard it too. I lifted her bangs, and she had a small knot on her forehead. You could see small gravel indentions. I asked her if her head hurt, and she shook her head. I felt awful! Her knees, her gums and her head were all hurting her.

Ellie loves to fall asleep in "mommy and daddy's bed." She had a rough night. She deserved a treat! So, these are pics from her falling asleep in our bed! We move her to her bed after she is in a deep sleep!

The above pictures were taken this morning. I cant believe how big she is getting. They really do grow up too fast!!!!

The Pix's

The Pix's

The bride and her bridesmaids

Christian and I

My best friend, Keri, got married this past weekend. It was a beautiful wedding at Lake Lanier.