what we've been up to

downtown evansville

my flash went off, but the sunset was perfect

ava stands on her tiptoes all the time now

ava had fun running, but I was nervous because we were so close to the river

ellie thought the word buoys was SO funny!

right after we got home from the surgery center
I was watering the flowers and Ava enjoyed being outside

my dad's beard is always a big hit!

Avie running in her new gown.

Issy smelling Mom's flowers - she LOVES flowers!

Dizzy and her friend Cailyn with Hank

my avie and me

my ellie and me

JD - he is SO happy and well behaved!

sweet girls - my girls love their DIZ

I've tried to post this picture twice and it keeps rotating it??
oh well, it's cute

ellie loves to drive the tractor with papa

Mother's day with my sweet babies!

Ava would only ride the tractor if someone carried her on the back.

down by the river last night

Jeff's mom came to visit and we went for a walk down by the river while he was at work.

18 months

chillin' on her couch

she says, "mine toes, pretty!"

so serious!

this picture wasn't rotated when I loaded it...oops!

ELLIE

So, Ava is 19 months old now and this month is passing by just as quickly as the others, but I never posted her 18 month pics. I'm editing some right now, but here is a sneak peek, plus one of Ellie when she was 18 months for comparison.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Hope all the moms and moms-to-be reading this had an amazing Mother's Day! I can't thank my mom enough for all that she continues to do for me! We have become great friends over the years, but she started as my mom and remembered that as she raised me, instead of being a friend when I was growing up. That's how it should be and I try to remember that with my girls. I had such great examples of being a mom, first of all from my mom, but also from her mom (Nannie) and her sister (Tishie). I practically lived with them growing up. I didn't spend as much time growing up with my dad's mom (Meemaw), but we lived in different cities and we hung out when we could. I also have great sister-in-laws who I hope my girls can look up to as they grow like I did with my aunt, and I have a great Mother-in-Law who is a good example for my girls. I am so thankful to have such a close family and hope that we can continue to be a close family in location and in relationships. As my girls grow up, I hope they have the influences that I had as a kid so that when they become moms, they can be as thankful as I am for great examples! I love you Mom! I don't say it enough. I have some pictures to post and will get them up one of these days.

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.

Hard at Work

Ava is such a hard worker. She loves to problem solve and figure out how things work. She gets really frustrated if she can't figure something out, though. She loves to sit and do puzzles and she was trying to learn how to strap herself in to the stroller here.

We have been busy around here, as usual. And sick, as usual. Ava had her sleep study, then Ellie had strep again, then I had a stomach bug, then Ava got the stomach bug and Jeff says his stomach isn't quite right today...I was hoping it would end with Ava and me.

I did get a new camera and have loved taking pictures with it, just haven't had enough time to post many of them. I did put them on shutterfly, so I'll share them one day soon.

Please pray for my aunt, Tishie. She is back in Arkansas to try to get her cancer under control.

Sleep Study update

oops - I uploaded in backwards order - this was this morning after they took everything off and we were at the hospital to get x-trays of her adenoids - smiley as ever!

my sweet girl, wrapped up like a mummy

the lady worked around her ponytails, which worked out nicely because she could get to her skin easier, plus Ava could still twirl her hair in the night

I had to be super careful and didn't sleep much because Ava kept turning over in the night and all of those wires would wrap around her neck - she did so well, though!!!

Ava and I went to her sleep study last night to check her for sleep apnea. Although the dr. hasn't read the results yet, the unofficial word from the lady doing the testing is that she will for sure have her tonsils taken out because at the very least, her oxygen levels dropped way too low several times last night. Ava was such a trooper. She never cried, just didn't like some of it, but sat and let me read to her while the lady put all the wires and gauze on , the I told her which colors people liked on the wires, since there were probably 30 or more. She would grab a pink one and say Papa and a blue one and say Sissy, which was opposite, but she had fun listening to me tell her that Nonee liked yellow and Daddy liked gray.

The Wheels on the Bus

sleep apnea?

on our way to the ENT check-up

I found the girls like this, laughing hysterically!

can she get any closer without falling off??

Landy and Ellie :-)

Landy came to visit Sunday and went to church with us,
so I had to get some good shots of everyone dressed up!!

So, we found out yesterday that our girls' tubes look great and Ellie took her failed hearing test (after her left ear ruptured twice) and passed with flying colors. However, we talked to the doctor about Ava's sleep cycle and some concerns we were having. I had discussed with our previous pediatrician the fact that she stops breathing sometimes and was assured that it was not sleep apnea. I was not convinced. For several reasons similar to this one, we switched doctors, I had a conversation with Ellie's old Occupational Therapist, and decided to ask the ENT about sleep apnea. Sounds like our sweet girl has a classic case, so Ava and I are headed to do a sleep study. Not sure when yet, but I'll let you know. More than likely, she'll get her tonsils taken out and that will be the end of it. Seriously?? I wish we had known that in December when we had her put under for tubes in her ears?!? Oh, well. If any of you have any insight on sleep apnea, I'd love to hear it. The only comments I've heard so far are, "I didn't know someone so young could have sleep apnea" and "it's only sleep apnea if she doesn't breathe for at least 20 seconds", which is not true. That is way too long to stop breathing, especially consistently! I'll keep you posted...

Valentine's Day, a little late

Ellie's class at Mother's Morning Out:

she and I took cookies to decorate and a tub of goodie bags.
My cousin Landy came to play with the girls, so that Jeff and I could go out for Valentine's Day. We ate dinner together at home (I don't even remember what I cooked), then Jeff and I went to a friend's house to watch Fireproof. Great movie, especially if you are married!!

My sweet Valentine's!

I just think my girls make holidays that much more special!!!

I do remember what I fixed for breakfast.

I (heart) U pancakes for Ellie and chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes.

And our favorite, strawberries!!

My pictures are a little out of order, but this was Valentine's Day morning. Our girls play so well together!! This rocking horse was made by Jeff's "Uncle Buddy". He is also fighting cancer right now, so pray for him and his family. He makes our kids such great wooden toys - a pull toy that is a duck, a truck to push, a pull toy that is a grasshopper and his legs actually move...and I think there is a baby cradle for the girls in the making. I don't always talk about Jeff's family on our blog - I don't mean to leave them out and it's not to say that they aren't as special to us, it's just that we don't see them as often, so I don't always have stories to tell or pictures to share.

What a great Valentine's Day! Our girls enjoyed our gifts to them - new art smocks and paint to use with the easel they got from Jeff's parents for Christmas. They also sent them money, and so did my parents and my Nannie, so we put that money toward tickets to see Playhouse Disney Live!!! Fun times - pictures coming soon...