My Fairy Princess!!!

First of all I want to draw attention to my new header at the top of my blog... Isn't it the CUTEST!!! Thank you so very much to my blogging buddy Bethany at Life with Bubba, Chicky, and Nika who made it for me!!

Back in November my mom was at a craft fair and came across a lady who had a booth setup and was taking pictures of girls dressed up in a Fairy outfit. So, of course I went the next day! The pictures turned out cute, but in some of them you could really tell that Ella had been crying (red face), and in others she had squinted up her eyes. So, I called the lady and asked if she was doing this set up on another day, luckily for me she was!! Now before I post these pictures I want to tell you what happened after.... A couple of weeks after I had received the proofs in the mail I still had not ordered pictures so I emailed Mia Coffey (the photographer) and told her that I had not forgotten about the pictures, that I was indeed going to order some, I had just been busy and of course I attached the link to my blog on the end of it : ) Well, a couple of days after that Mia called me. She said she wanted to ask me something and that she didn't want to offend me ( which always puts me on guard.) Anyhow she said that a lot of photographers are specializing in something these days and was wondering if I thought the parents of other kids with Down syndrome in the area would like to have their children's pictures taken for free. Um, YEAH!!! So, this spring she is going to be doing just that! How cool is that??? Then, a couple of days after that she called me and said that she had been really looking through my blog and just couldn't imagine all of the joys and trials that I had experienced. She said a lot of really sweet things, and then said she was mailing me a CD with all of the pictures she took of Ella with a copyright release attached to it so that I can print out the pictures myself. The pictures are so incredibly beautiful!! I wanted to post them on the blog the day I got the CD but I printed some out, framed them, and gave them as gifts to family members for Christmas. So, here they are....

Photos taken by: Mia Coffey, Divine Images Northwest

New house, Christmas, new friend, and a girlfriend

Weird title I know, but that's the pictures that are going on this post, and they are all from today!! Ella had speech therapy this morning, at the same time this cute little guy named Silas has therapy, so when the kids were done we all went out to lunch. Here are Ella and Silas before we left their school. Silas is 9 months old

After lunch I went and picked up Hunter from his school and drove him over to a retirement home where his class had their Christmas program today. Yes Christmas today. They were of course supposed to have it BEFORE Christmas but we were snowed in. The program was very cute. Hunter did a good job of singing all of the songs (and of course memorizing every word!!!) but he was way to cool to do any hand motions, he mostly stood there with either his hands in his pockets or rubbing a corner of his shirt between his fingers, (something he has done forever with any fabric.) The pictures of the program aren't so great, we were sitting to far away, here's the best we got...

Talking on my

cell during

the show

Watch out Nana!!

There is a monkey

on your back!

While we were there I of course had to get a picture of Hunter and his girlfriend Emily. Now, these two run very hot and cold. Emily has told her mom that Hunter makes her heart feel funny and that she is going to marry him one day. However she has told him several times that she is not going to marry him!! Last week I picked Hunter up from school, in the van he tells me "Emily's not marrying me anymore. " I say oh no, why not? " I threw 3 snowballs at her when we were outside." I tell Hunter that girls don't like it when you throw things at them and he says "Well, I missed her 2 times." Oh so very funny. 4 year old love is rough! Anyhow Emily is a cute little girl and I do mean little!! She is the same age as Hunter but she is a tiny little thing. Oh yeah, and she happens to have a big brother with Down syndrome. How's that for a coincedence? Here are the love birds (not sure if they are currently together or not)

After the program the kids had cookies, Ella's favorite part : )

And last, after going to sign yet more paper work for the house, we just had to drive by it to make sure it's real. Luckily I had my camera with me still from the days events so here are some pics of the outside of our new house (won't get keys till we close.)

Isn't it cute?

The side and

the fence in

the back!

Woo Hoo

To make a long story short, the first house that we put an offer on is not ours, the builder would not go down $3000 to meet our max. Turns out to be a GREAT thing, because we went out found an even better house, bigger yard, finished extra family room etc for CHEAPER, and our offer was excepted within 2 hours of submitting it. So, we are home owners!!!! (Well technically in 30 days when we close.)

Here are a few pics of the kiddos that I took last week.

Before these next pics I just want to take a moment to say that Hunter is the coolest kid in the world. He is definetly very much a BOY!! Farting and pooping are normal conversation for him, he enjoys wrestling, loves playing with cars etc etc. BUT, he is also very very sweet to his little sister! Hunter likes playing babies with Ella, cooks with her in her kitchen, plays with her dolls in her dollhouse, reads her books, all in all he really is just so loving!! The other night I was here on the computer and listening to the two of them play together, when I turned around this is what they were doing.... Hunter said that him and Ella are babysitting these babies for one year : )

What a day....

We checked in to the ENT's this morning at 7, never a good thing for this family, and Ella was in and out in no time. The doctor did tell us that Ella's right tube was completly blocked (which we knew) and that her left tube had started backing out and something about the hole that was left hadn't started closing (I guess they usually do?) and that it will either be a great thing, another hole for fluid to drain from, or a bad thing and cause some hearing loss. So, they will test her hearing next month and if it's not good then the will go back in and close up the hole. Anyhow, Ella came out of her little procedure great, again you would never know anything was done!!

So, while we were sitting waiting for Ella to be done Chris started to feel really sick. By the time we left he was very pale, nauseaous and in extreme pain. So, off to the ER we went with Chris and long story short he has kidney stones. They prescribed him anti-nausea pills, pain pills and sent him on his way to pass it himself.

We had an appointment with our realator today at 1 that Chris insisted we keep. So we met her at the house we've been looking at. We decided to make an offer, so we followed her to her office, stopping on the side of the road for Chris to vomit, signed all the paperwork and now we wait till tomorrow to hear back. We are both so excited/scared. This will be our first house!!!

Anyhow, I took some pics of Ella today while we were waiting for Ella to be taken back for her ears...I did learn today that Ella is a tougher girl than her dad, ha ha ha ha!! (Don't lecture me, I'm joking.)

I'm so sad

just joking

listening to

my heart,

sounds

perfect!

my pulse ox

was what?

ha ha, my

fingers are

too cold : )

WAIT, YOU ARE
TAKING ME
WHERE??

These are a few pics of ELla climbing in the cabinets at the house

we put an offer on, I think she approves!

$$$$$$

Tomorrow morning Ella gets new tubes in her ears, to the tune of $487, that's our 20%(due tomorrow), not including the anesthesia. I know I have been extremely lucky with Ella's health, but holy smokes she is an expensive child! I really shouldn't complain though, we are blessed to have insurance and of course blessed to have Ella!! Despite not being able to hear correctly out of her right ear (tube is completely blocked) Ella has started saying some words and actually repeating them when asked!! I cannot tell you how much that excites me..... she now says, mama, dada, bubba, grandpa, ball, booK (she says the k very strongly, pretty funny), socK, peas (please), pretty, no, cheese, that's all I can think of at the moment, I'll have to start a list.
Oh yeah, and her new cool trick (cool to her, scares the crap out of me) is doing REAL forward rolls, you know somersaults. She totally looks like she is going to snap her neck every time she does them. Mind you, no one taught her this, she watched Hunter do it and that's all it took. Oh and yesterday Hunter was at school and I was doing something in my bedroom. Ella was in the playroom/kids' bedroom playing very nicely all by herself with her doll house. I checked on her after a few minutes and she was still playing great. A couple more minutes I come in to look at her, she was on Hunter's bed, a tall bunk bed. She climbed up a straight up and down ladder without assistance, was sitting up on the bed throwing Hunter's stuffed animals down with a huge grin on her face. That child will be the death of me, mark my words!!
Here are a couple more pics from Georgia that my grandad took...


eating, her
favorite sport.













sitting in the
back of the
truck.











my cool guy
just chillin













this one you will
have to click on
but I think it is so
cute, Ella looks so
big taking a walk!










This one too!
She looks so big,
not tall, but old!













Hammin it up
as usual















Swinging

Pics from GA

I of course took lots and lots of pictures while we were in Georgia. I figured I would go ahead and post some, and I will write later....

Hunter and Ella
waiting for Paige
to wake up








Paige is almost as tall
as Ella!!









Dressed up to
go to dinner.













The kids with
my dad.












Ella eating rice
at ShoGuns













Ella sitting with
my grandad and
being a bit dramatic,
she wanted to get
down and run!






Ella and Paige










Hunter and Paige
I can't tell you
how many pics
I have of him
holding her!










She is such a
ham









"Hi, Hi, Hi!"










Very drooly

Peaking in

Awww

My dad and Debbie

with the 3 grandkids

Me (yuck) and my

dad with my kiddos.











Hunter and Dad

cool dudes!