Birthday Baby

I can not believe that my little angel turned one today. It hardly seems possible. All day I kept looking at the clock and thinking about what I was doing each hour one year ago. I went to the hospital around noon and had Ella at 8:41pm. As I looked at the clock at about 9:30 I thought, wow this is about the time that my life was turned upside down. I can still remember it just like it was yesterday. It's funny, sometimes it really does feel like it was just yesterday and I still feel raw from all of the emotions. But then sometimes it seems like a lifetime ago, and really it was. Our lives have changed so much in this past year, for the better no doubt, but it was a hard road.

I look at my beautiful baby girl and I know that I would not change a single thing about her, not one little chromosome. She is perfect. She has by far made me a better person and has already touched so many people in her one short year. Ella is the sweetest baby, but boy she is fiesty and has a temper!!! This is the one baby that you can truly appreciate attitude, and it is a big one!

Ella wasn't really in the celebrating mood today, I'm not sure why except that she didn't really nap. She is still recovering from her sinus infection and was also put on some allergy medicine that they said may make her agitated, let me tell you if today was any indication I will NOT continue on the meds. Anyhow she was a beauty in her peach dress that her Mimi bought her, despite the dark puffy eyes. We had some friends come over and gave Ella a cupcake. (Ella and her 2 friends will be having a birthday party in 2 weeks.) I wasn't really sure how Ella would do with the cupcake, she has only fed herself Gerber Puffs, but she ate it like a champ, and believe it or not she ate the WHOLE thing, frosting and cake all!!!!

Soccer Champ!

Today Hunter started soccer. It was SO cute!!! Since they are just 3 and 4 year olds they don't really have any games they just get together once a week and "practice." There team is called Little Kickers, cute cute cute : ) Besides it being 98 degrees out, he had a blast! Today was his 3rd day of pre-k and he is still loving school and even gave his teacher a big hug today, so I take that as a good sign.

Tomorrow is my sweet little Ella Grace's first birthday. It hardly seems possible, she is so big. I will definetly write more tomorrow and post pictures of her!

My BIG Guy!!

My baby boy started 3 year old Pre-K today!! I can't believe it. I thought we were going to have a melt down this morning, Hunter said " I can't wait to see my girlfriend." Well his girlfriend, Emily, is 4 and in the 4 year old Pre-K. So, I explained that to him and he was kind of bummed but he did great! Chris came home and we both took him to school, we walked him into his class and took him to the seat with his name and he sat right down and started coloring, no big deal. We stayed for a few minutes and I thought, okay now he is going to get upset as we gave him hugs and kisses. I walked out really slow waiting for him to cry but he never even looked up, what a big boy! When I picked him up after 3 hours, the teacher walks them outside and hands them over to the parents one at a time, he ran to me and gave me a big hug. I said "did you have fun?" He said "Yes, I ate crackers!" In the van I was trying to get him to tell me all he did today but he just told me again about the crackers (must have been really good,) and that he played outside and that a boy got in trouble three times, but that he didn't get in trouble at all. I said do you want to go back tomorrow? and he said "yes, my teacher said I can!" I tried to get some pictures, but it was 101 degrees today and he was too excited or annoyed or hot to stand still for me! Here he is outside of his classroom, (trailer.)

Here he is inside!

Poor Ella on the other hand.... we spent 5 hours at the ER on Saturday night. She has another sinus infection. I HATE taking her to the ER but she kept vomitting, had a fever that wasn't responding to ibuprophen, and couldn't drink her bottle cause she couldn't breath. So I called the ever so helpful nurses line for after hours and of course they said take her to the ER, all I wanted was to know what meds I could give her to make her breath. UGH. What really annoys me is that I KNOW when she has a sinus infection, I want to just be able to call and get a prescription! Anyhow, she is feeling a little better, still sounds horrible but is able to eat now! That's it for today. Hunter starts soccer on Wednesday so I'm sure I'll have pics from that!!!

Pig Tails for Gabi

I read the story of a precious 7 month old little girl named Gabi who had Down Syndrome and passed away recently. Another blogger came up with the idea of Pigtails for Gabi, where bloggers post pictures of their daughters in pigtails, to honor her. Pigtails were Gabi's "signature do" even when in the hospital. You can read her story at http://www.gabrielesheridan.blogspot.com/

Kuspuk - take 2

I tried to get some more pictures of Ella in her Kuspuk, so on our last day in Alaska I took these pics.

We made it home safely!! The kids were great on the plane, Hunter slept the whole time and Ella was good but she really wanted to get down and move. It is SO hot here!! Yuck.

Found out today that Hunter does get to go to preschool!!! He is so excited. He will be going everyday from noon - 3. I also was able to sign him up for 3-4 year old soccer on base. I imagine it will be pretty cute. They don't need cleats or shin guards, just learning the basics.

Mrs. Deena, Ella's Early Childhood Interventionist, is coming over tomorrow, I am so excited to show off all of Ella's new tricks!! We LOVE Mrs. Deena!!! I'm trying to talk her into moving to Spokane with us!

Ella turns 1 a week from today. I am kind of depressed about it. I feel like I missed out on the first couple of months because I was so messed up. The rest of it went by entirely too fast! Where has all of the time gone? Where did my little baby go?

Still trying to find room for all of the stuff we acquired while we were in Alaska. I'm going to go through the kids rooms today and get out all of the clothes that are too small. We are going to have a garage sale in 2 weeks and I want to get rid of a lot! That's it for now, lots to do!

Kuspuk

Here are some pictures of Ella in her Kuspuk (an Alaskan Native dress.) I wanted to get some pictures of her in front of some Fireweed, a beautiful wild flower here in AK, but as usual I waited too long and they have all died for the season. So, we went up to the University and took pics of her in front of their flowers. We are going to try and take some more at my parents house.

We are leaving tonight to go home. I'm looking forward to seeing my hubby, but NOT to flying 12 hours with the kids : ( Fortunatly it will be in the middle of the night so my kids BETTER sleep!!!!

On Saturday my dad was gone before the kids and I woke up so when he came home Hunter said "look, we are twins!!!!" He was so excited that him and Grandpa matched even though we didn't plan it that way. So of course I had to take a picture!!!

Then, at the end of the night we noticed that Nana also matched so we had to get pictures of them all in their Camo pants : )

Still here

It's been awhile since I have posted anything so I thought I would just fill everyone in on what we have been up to. We have only 5 days left here in Alaska so we have definetly been taking advantage of being outside, as it is still sweltering in Texas. It has been in the 60's and 70's here, poor Hunter is going to be so sad when we go home and it is too hot to play outside. He won't be sad for long though, he will hopefully be starting preschool on the 27th. I say hopefully because even though the school is only a block away from our house we are not in their district, so we are on some waiting list and should find out tomorrow. He will be going for 3 hours a day. Hunter will be so heartbroken if he doesn't get to go, he has talked about it all summer, plus his girlfriend Emily goes there. (we didn't know until 2 weeks ago that he was wait listed, and we regiested in April.) Also Hunter will be playing 3-4 yearold soccer on base, which will be fun to watch, I can just picture the kids all going for the ball it is sure to be hilarious.

Ella is doing wonderfully!!! She is definetly moving forward, army crawling, though she gets tired and reverts back to log rolling but there is no question that she gets where she wants to be! She has had a VERY vocal week. She is so funny she has started doing this thing where she stretches her neck as far as she can looks up and howls. Very cute!!! My little Ella Grace will be one, two weeks from today, I can't believe it!

I have been walking a lot, yesterday my friend and I did 6.1 miles with a lot of hills. Our goal is to do a 10K a day for the next four days (we thought we had done one yesterday, 10K is 6.2 miles, but when we were done and drove it to measure we came up .1 mile short.) We will all have a lot of adjusting to do when we get back home. Chris will be working so I have to remember how to take care of my kids by myself, it has been 7 weeks after all : ) Hunter, oh Hunter, he is going to probably have the hardest time. The only person in this house that says no to him is me, so he gets his way A LOT!!! Always has some one to play with, and enjoys bossing people around, so he will definetly be in shock. And then there is Ella, she has done pretty good but she too enjoys being the center of attention!!! She will definetly miss her Nana, they have a pretty incredible bond ( My mom did a lot of the care for Ella in those first couple of weeks when I was in shock and heavily medicated.) ANyhow, that's about it sorry there are no new pics, I do plan on taking some this weekend so I will post when I get back home.

PS My parents computer is slow so I haven't really been reading anyone else's blogs, so I have a lot of catching up to do when I get home. Sorry. But that's why I haven't commented. Hope everyone is doing great!!! Oh yeah and I guess I got a blogging award from Michelle at Big Blueberry Eyes, not sure what that is about but Thank You so much!!!!!!!!

Busy, Busy!!

We have been having a great time up here and have been very busy. On Friday we went on the Riverboat Discovery which was really fun. It takes you on the Chena river here in town and you get to see Susan Butcher's dog kennels (a famous Iditarod dog sled champion) an airplane takeoff and land on the river, an Alaskan Native fish camp with the fish wheel set up, and you stop for an hour at a mock Native village where they show you how they live. It was really cool, Hunter still can't stop talking about the "huge ship." Yesterday we went to the state fair which is always fun, this is the first year Hunter has been on the rides, it was not so much fun getting him off of them, he threw a fit! Other than that we have been taking walks, shopping, and just visiting with each other. Here are 2 pics my brother took on the Riverboat, Hunter watching the airplane take off and Ella just being cute in my front carrier.

Last week we went to the Botanical Gardens at the University with some friends of mine. Hunter had fun until he fell into the waterfall. He was climbing on rocks which I had repeatedly asked him not to and slipped and fell face first into the bottom of the waterfall. Thankfully it really isn't very large and he landed on the rocks at the bottom, almost knocking out his teeth, but after I washed all the mud off of him with about a hundred baby wipes he was off and running. I tried to get good pictures of the kids because it was just so beautiful up there, but no such luck. I would sit Ella in front of some pretty flowers and she would immediately pick one and shove it in her mouth, I can't tell you how many petals I pulled out of her mouth that day. And as for Hunter, he just would not stay still, period! So here are the few pics I got of Ella that day.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Ella is starting to do an army crawl!!! She moves forward, not very far but I think in about a week she will be full steam ahead!!!