more pics

This is one of my favorite shots of Ellie!

Avie (that's what she calls herself, so it's our new nickname for her)
and Landy Easter egg hunting

Dad, JD (my brother's boy), and Mom

Avie again with her "Andy" (Landy) Easter at my Mom's

Check out how curly Ellie's hair is underneath?!?

My girls love their Landy!

More from the baby dedication.

Easter at Nonee and Poppa's

Our sweet, and tiny kitty, Hank!

When we visited in Murray, Ava got to play with Aunt Jenny's dog, Bernadette.
Ava is such an animal lover and Bernie was great with Ava!

update

So, I really need to post like a thousand pictures, but I thought I'd start with just a few.


My silly Ellie "posing" for Easter pics!

Believe it or not, Ava's fever was almost 104 not long after this picture.
It was the start of her hand, foot, and mouth.

She's so silly! (and awfully cute, too!)

My attempt at getting a good pic of all the grandkids Easter Sunday.

My beautiful babies at our Baby Dedication.

Silly Sisters
This was right before we left for Arkansas to visit Tishie.

I have the best mom in the world!!

My brother's kids and mine at YaYa's Island in Paducah.
It was such a great day! They are such good friends!!

Jeff's Dad "D" and the grandkids at his birthday dinner.
The weather was so nice that day and they all got to play outside together.

Trip to Indy for Spring Retreat with the college students.

swamped!

1. I am completely swamped! I can't keep my head above everything that I need to be doing - especially after last week.

2. Please pray for my aunt. My mom and my cousin went to donate white blood cells to her this week, along with my uncle (who is staying there with her).

3. The kitty is great - he only cries when he's hungry or needs to go potty, which is amazing considering how young he is. His eyes are not even open yet. The girls love him - especially Ellie!

4. Ava is talking up a storm! She'll put at least 3-4 words together to make sentences we can understand now. Pretty good for an 18 month old! She didn't talk much last week, but is back to talking and drinking - still not eating well.

5. Ellie learned how to do her cartwheel and got to ring the bell at dance class tonight!!! We've been working on it at home quite a bit and she has really been trying hard. I got it on video, so I'll post it one of these days.

6. This is random, but funny. Ellie has great communication skills - something both of my kids are good at. (Horrible sleep patterns, but Ellie is doing better and Ava will one of these days!) Anyway, when Ellie says something incorrect, it's so cute. The other day, she said something was the "more-est" instead of most! :-)

GOOD NIGHT! I can't stay up late any more because I know Ava won't sleep well and I am always tired when I get up, so I'm trying to get to bed earlier, even though I still have a ton of things to get done. They'll be waiting for me tomorrow, though.

sick, again

Good grief! It has been a rough week around here. My sweet Ava girl had hand, foot, and mouth disease - and if you don't know what that is, consider yourself very lucky. Ellie, Ava, and Jeff all had it to an extent last summer and it was not fun, but Ava must have had a really mild case because she has had it times ten this week! It's been awful! She was miserable and I hate to see my kids hurting. High fever, then really sore throat, then horrible mouth sores - to the point that she wouldn't swallow her own slobber because it hurt so bad. She has cried so much this week! She was hoarse and how she has pink eye, on top of everything else. She slept much better last night and drank some milk this morning, so maybe she is past the worst of it.

We also found out she has moderate sleep apnea and will be getting her tonsils taken out May 12.

Ellie has been so sweet this week. Very patient, helpful, and so far, healthy!

We got a new kitty yesterday. A friend called and had found some kittens whose mother died, so we took one. He is tiny - probably only 2 weeks old, so we have to set alarms to bottle feed him every 4 hours. He's pretty cute and Ellie is loving being his "mama". We're calling him Hank. Pictures soon.