December 2012

Ellie still needs to be upright after she eats and reading is a favorite activity while she's stuck in her highchair.

Just because it's cute!

We took pictures the Sunday before Christmas.

Ellie wasn't cooperating with her brothers but they were looking good!

It snowed a lot the week of Christmas, which was perfect because we had time to go sledding a lot. We can sled on the hill that is behind the elementary school, as long as you stop before you hit the brick building :).

Ian and Levi made this snow tunnel.

Christmas Eve, after our candle-lighting (and flashlight for Ellie) ceremony.

Christmas morning!

John took the boys sledding Christmas afternoon, and while there were several families sledding, Ian was the one the photographer choose to put on the front page of the newspaper the next day! He was going over a jump, which he surprisingly didn't get hurt on (until later in the week, that is).

Ian did not do this sledding, but in movement class at school. We thought it might be broken, it was very swollen and bruised, but no, just sprained. He tried to write with his left hand for a few days but thankfully it got better quickly.

Caleb and Levi sang in their winter concert in December. Levi wasn't feeling too well that day, but he really, really wanted to be in the program. He went and made it through, but I took him home right after, he was pretty miserable. But this is the first time he's been sick in at least the past year and a half he's been in school (probably in the past 3 or so years) so he's not doing too bad!

June 22, 2013

We have a bike rider! Levi mastered riding a bike today!

And, we have another bike rider - Caleb mastered it today, too!!

And, we have a little bike rider! Ellie spent quite a while today trying to pedal. It's easier to make herself go backwards, but she went forward sometimes too!

And, so that he's not left out, Ian rode around most of the afternoon, encouraging and helping his brothers as they rode up and down the street.

Caleb and Levi can't wait to be able to go on a real bike ride with the whole family!

And, I realized this is post #100!

November 2012

We took a trip to visit family in November, and this tank is at a place we stopped to feed Ellie. The boys love it.

Helping the grandparents rake up their leaves! Caleb and Levi figured out a good way to get the leaves into their buckets!

Even Ellie enjoyed the leaves, which I was surprised at.

She saw her brothers playing hide and seek in the toy box......

And had her first real experience with bubbles! She was fascinated.

This is for Grandma, who gave her the shirt....it says, "I'm always on Grandma's nice list!"

She loves to wear my shoes!

Levi is reading a book to Caleb and Ellie.

We made cookie turkeys again this year. And for the first time, Caleb and Levi got to participate in the school's turkey trot. Ian and Levi were on the same team, Caleb was on a different one. They have one child from each grade on each team, but the kindergartners don't participate. Then they race by grade, and each child is given their number as they come in. The team with the lowest overall score of all team members added together wins turkeys. Ian, Caleb, and Levi did not get very low numbers, but they all participated and they all finished. Levi and Caleb were a little nervous about it, and Caleb said, "let's hold hands and race together." They didn't, but they stayed close the whole way.

Taking Christmas card pictures!

Levi and Caleb built this man, and even gave him a face.

They could not wait to put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving! They all tried on the Rudolph antlers and nose. This is Levi.

And this is just cute :).

Ellie was really helping Ian get his reading done :).

And this is for Ellie's aunt. We got these adorable pink camouflage pants from Ellie's aunt, I'm sure both of Ellie's older red-headed cousins wore them but they moved into the same town as us when the younger of the two was Ellie's age and I totally remember her wearing these pants. It's fun to see Ellie wearing clothes her cousins wore!

October 2012

Making applesauce! We went (well, mostly John, we've had a lot of sickness in October) to pick apples again this year and make lots of applesauce. There are three jobs while straining the apples, so the boys take turns and rotate through the jobs. They are getting to be pretty good helpers! This year Levi helped to fill a lot of the jars, too.

I just thought this was cool, with the sun coming in the window. Caleb is on the stool, Levi in back.

I have lots of pictures of them reading, but that is what they love! Levi and Caleb were listening to this story on a tape, "Big Pumpkin," one of the best Halloween stories!

And, they build with a lot of blocks. They were making houses for the Mr. Potatohead people.

This is my boy! I fall asleep with a book in my hands most nights. I caught Ian doing it when he was sleeping in the living room one night (leaving the boys' bedroom to whoever was sick that night).

Caleb's air tank. This empty pop bottle got a lot of use!

Soccer! I was crazy and signed all three boys up for soccer this fall. Levi and Caleb are on the same team, but they played M/W and Ian played T/TH. Ellie was pretty sick of going to soccer after 6 weeks! But the boys all had fun and learned more about how to play (this was Levi and Caleb's first season). Ian had a chance to play all the positions and got better at playing (this is his third year). It got pretty cold for some of the last games, their very last game was super short because it was pretty much dark when the game started. And with no overhead lights anywhere near the fields, it was pretty hard to play.

Halloween! For the first time we went trick-or-treating downtown. It was pretty nice. It was in the afternoon so it was light, not very cold, and we were home before dinner time. Most of the businesses had signs in their windows and they would just walk in and get some candy and move on to the next business/store. Levi was a black cat, Ian was a spy, Ellie was Piglet, and Caleb was a cowboy.

Also this month, Ian earned his Bear rank in Cub Scouts! He also got his gold arrow point, and still has four months to earn more arrow points. Way to go!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ellie!

Ellie is two! It's crazy that it's already been two years, it's gone by fast, yet there have been many days with her that have seemed to never end. She is 22 lb 4 oz, and 33" tall! She's quite tall and finally on the bottom of the chart for her weight!

New shoes :).

She's not happy about the bear, she's scared of him. But I wanted a comparison - she was the length of the bear, but skinnier, at birth. It's completely amazing how much she has grown!

Ellie loved having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her!

She even played with her cupcake! We won't show me trying to get her to try ice cream, she was not happy about that. But at least she touched the cake!

It's still hard sometimes to not think that Ellie needs her hair cut because it's too long! Girl's hair is still novel to me. It can get pretty wild in the mornings after having pig tails the day before!

Ellie does not like to eat. She has reflux, and her stomach doesn't empty as fast as it should. So, her stomach always hurts, probably, and eating is not comfortable. So, she doesn't like to eat. But she has to. It takes a lot of distractions and bribery to get her to eat usually, and she has to be on a strict schedule. She's taking 8 (and it should be 9) doses of medication daily. One medication I put in her bottle, four doses of one med are before meals, and three (should be four but there is not enough time in the day) of a third med has to be on an empty stomach - but her stomach can take hours to empty, so it has to be timed to have enough time for her stomach to be as empty as it can be, but then she needs 30 minutes for the med to sit in her empty(ish) stomach, then time to eat, and then stay upright for 45 minutes (at least) after eating before going to bed, and she still naps. She eats four times a day at the same time every day. Getting off schedule is a very bad thing. And with all that she still loses her food 3-5 times per day. Every day. So, any type of playing with food or even putting things to or in her mouth is progress. She does not feed herself or hold her own bottle. She eats pureed foods and drinks bottles still. But here she is with this huge bottle and she put it to her mouth all on her own! We rarely drink pop, so she's probably not ever seen one before. We had this when everyone - except John - got the stomach bug.

And this was one of her finest moments. You can't tell very well, but she has oatmeal on her face. She took my spoon while I was eating (normal occurrence) and put it in her mouth! And she did it several times! This never happened again, but it was a wonderful thing. I had to email her therapist right away and she was delighted (she has a therapist who comes each week to see her). Her therapist came originally for physical delays, but Ellie is now caught up in all areas except eating.

And this was the same day - she got out these paper bowls and spoon and sat there and put the spoon in her mouth! There is hope she may do this for real, all the time someday!

This was Ellie's first Halloween costume, a hat I made her while she was in the NICU. It was too big for her head at the time.