Well...at least we tried...

Since Ellie was sick during the last time we had enough snow for sledding, I promised her that the next time we had enough snow that we would go sledding no matter what. Well, I wasn't really counting on that next time to be over 12 inches of snow! But when our friend called and asked if we wanted to go sledding, I knew I had to keep my promise.
It did NOT work out! After wrestling both girls into two layers of clothes and snowsuits, hats, gloves and boots, we trudged slowly over in the truck to pick up our friends. (Hurray for 4-wheel drive!) We couldn't figure where the entrance to the parking lot was to the playground in our neighborhood (with perfect sized sledding hills) so we ended up parking on a side street farther than we anticipated. We then had to get all the girls (ages 4, 4, 2, 1, and 10 months) along with all the sleds to the hill. Josie fell in the snow and completely lost it so I ended up having to run her back home to Eric and by the time we got back, our friend had already made the first attempt to send one of the girls down and realized that it was just too deep! The sled would simply not budge. This resulted in every one of the girls crying hysterically while we tried to get us all walked back to the truck and, once again, loaded in. Whew! What an experience!

I at least was able to get one picture of Ellie sitting on a sled to be able to prove to her later in life that we at least tried...because after that experience, it may be quite some time before we try anything like that again! :)

Okay, seriously, they have completely melted my heart today! They shared this little moment just before bed. I now have a fully documented day of nothing but sweetness between them. Please, oh please let it continue... :)

Even MORE Cuteness From Today

I don't know where all this sisterly sweetness has all of the sudden come from, but it actually continued once Ellie got from home school and throughout the rest of day! I have never seen them hug and play and dance together so much as today. I love it!

Patience

It seems as if we are always so rushed in the mornings which often results in me not being as patient of a Mommy as I want to be. So this morning, I decided not to stress and practice a little more patience with the girls. It made for such a happier morning and the girls actually had time to be loving and act silly together! I even took time to take pictures. So what if we were 15 minutes late to preschool...we thoroughly enjoyed our extra 15 minutes at home! :)

Cooking Fun

One of the few things that Ellie and Josie play really well together is pretend cooking. I love watching them actually share and make things for each other to "eat". It's been their favorite activity for the last few weeks and I hope it continues!


playing at their new table in the playroom (that stores all the food!)


at the Children's Museum (with their friend Maia.)

Our "Real" Rock Band

I mentioned last week how much fun Ellie and I's first experience playing Rock Band on PS3 was so now I want to share video of the girls playing the real drums! Eric just recently moved the entire music studio from the unfinished side of the basement to the finished side- resulting in a much safer place for the girls to be down there and try all the instruments out. Ellie has always loved the studio but Josie just now has been able to experience it. We now find her often just standing at the basement door waiting for one of us to take her down! Here are our little drummers...

Ellie, standing so she can play the bass drum too.


Josie's turn...notice how she is trying to figure out how to play the bass, also, at the end if the video.


Here they both are apparently playing the "Cymbal Only" song!


Ellie also just got her very own microphone and was so excited when it arrived! Here she is practicing with it...



Stay tuned...I'm sure there will be a lot more videos of our "Rock Band" to come!

Another Rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle by Ellie

This time on the xylophone!

Chef Josie

Josie is following in her Daddy's and Ellie's footsteps in becoming a chef! She loves to pretend cook and it is so cute to watch her take "bites" and give an emphatic "MMMmmm!"

Rock Band!

Ellie and I got our first experience playing Rock Band on PS3 while in NC. It was a blast! Check out Ellie's rhythm on the drums!

Ellie's First Plane Ride (that she remembers...)

Ellie, my Mom, and I took a quick little mini vacation to North Carolina over the weekend to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We had so much fun and Ellie loved flying! She got a "First Flight" certificate (she did fly once as a baby before she could remember...) and even got to go in the cock-pit and meet the pilots. She came down with strep throat the day before we were to leave but insisted that she still wanted to go. I'm glad we did!


at the doctor waiting to see if she has strep...she doesn't look sick!


waiting for take-off and very excited!


we flew into the sunrise which was really neat


meeting the pilots


"First Flight"


in front of the plane we flew in on the way home


toy plane that she got as a souvenir from the airport

Preschool

Ellie started preschool again this year. We promised her when she was two that she could start going when she turned four. At the time, four sounded so grown up but when her first day came all I could think is that my baby isn't old enough yet to send out into the world without me there to protect her! Of course I had nothing to worry about. She fit right in and the teachers say it's like she has always been there. Ellie loves school and would go every single day of the week if it were up to her!


first day of preschool


dancing with her class

Josie's EEG

Josie had her EEG on Wednesday and it went well. They wanted her to sleep during it so we scheduled it at her nap time and I woke her up early that day just to make sure she would be tired. She did not like the "hooking up" part one bit but all her fighting completely wore her out and made her fall asleep almost instantly as soon as the lights were out. Then I just sat and held her for about 40 minutes. It was actually really nice...it's not that often that I have nothing else to do but to just hold Josie for that long.

I called on Thursday to see if we had any results yet and the nurse said that the doctor was looking at it and so far everything looked normal. She called back on Friday to answer some other questions I had but said that the results had not been recorded in the file yet but that she "was pretty sure they were normal." I was waiting to post until we knew for sure but now that won't be until Monday. But we are pretty sure they are normal. Thank goodness!

As of now, we are not going to be doing anymore testing unless Josie shows us otherwise that we need to. There is blood work that the neurologist would still like to be done but we are having a really hard time getting it. Josie has now been stuck 6 times (9 if you count the ER visit) and they have only gotten enough blood to fill 1 vial. There is eleven that need to be (partially) filled in order to test for everything the neurologist would like her to be tested for. Eleven! One of the phlebotomist at Riley said she has 27 years of experience and that Josie's veins are just very, very difficult. We are going to Riley where they only draw blood from children so I trust what she is saying. Of course it is traumatic for Josie during all these attempts. She screams and fights and it takes three of us to hold her still enough to even try. I made it through the first three tries (the day of MRI) but during the next three (after her EEG) I broke and was crying right along with Josie. It is so hard to put her through that when there is likely nothing even wrong with her in the first place. That's why we have decided to wait and see if we really do need to keep trying for those labs. She goes back to visit the neurologist in 4 months so I don't plan on doing anything else with her until at least then. (The neurologist agrees that we can wait as long as we are not seeing any other symptoms with Josie.)

For now, I am believing that she is just the same happy, healthy girl that she's always been, with the same large (but healthy) head that we've always loved, and the seizures were just "one of those things" that may never be explained but we will never see again.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers and I will be sure to update if anything changes with Josie.

Our healthy, HAPPY Josie!

Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve



for Santa


Christmas Day



Ellie only asked for a "super duper fire truck!" so she got a fire scooter and Josie got the ride-in fire truck.


Josie's favorite gift was a puzzle...


and Ellie really liked Josie's fire truck.


Here we are at Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas evening.


Presents with Mamaw and Papaw on the 27th.


Presents with Nana yesterday.


Rocking chair from Great Grandma

It was a wonderful Christmas for all of us in 2008. We just wrapped up the season yesterday and had two final Christmases- one being with the girls' 100 year old Great Grandma! We are so blessed to have so much wonderful family to spend the holidays with.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

Ellie turned four on December 28th. It is really hard to believe! She is very happy to have reached this milestone. She is still singing several times a day "I am sooo happy that I'm four...!" The morning after her birthday, Eric found her asleep on the floor in the loft instead of her room. When he asked her what she was doing out there, she told him "Because four-year-olds can sleep where-ever they feel like it..." Being four is pretty big stuff to her!

Here Ellie is the morning of her birthday. She is so excited!


She made her own chocolate raspberry cake (with the help of Daddy and Nana).




We then did a little treasure hunt for her. She searched for several little princess figurines throughout the house which then led her to her new...


princess castle!


She was very, very happy which you can see in this adorable song.


Happy birthday Ellie! We love you so much!

MRI Results

We just found out Josie's MRI results and everything is completely normal! Thank you God!

Happy New Year!

The girls did not stay up last night so we taped it and replayed it tonight at 8pm. Ellie didn't know the difference and Sara thought it was fun to celebrate New Years twice.

We wish everyone all the best in 2009!