FINISHED

Alright, alright...for those bugging me to post these, here they finally are. Ella's room is finished, and I am dang sick of it! I always have this image in my mind when I start some project, and for some reason it never quite ends up the way I see it, but overall I think it turned out fun and I'm happy with it.

Oh, the difference a couple of months makes...

Ella is FINALLY growing some normal hair. We were a little concerned there for awhile, I was seriously looking into toddler wigs. Just for a comparable, here is a photo about 4 or 5 months ago, and one taken the other day. Quite a change...we still have a ways to go, but at least we are making progress!

Before

After!

Our January Recap

So I've been a slacker with blogging lately, but just when you feel like you need some quiet time, life just seems to get even crazier! Plus, our computer broke, so I couldn't blog even if I wanted to. I know its already mid February, but here is a recap of our busy January. Matt left us for almost 2 weeks for work, so we went and stayed with my parents for a little bit. What was supposed to be only a couple of days, all of a sudden turned into a week! We were having too much fun and Ella LOVES Morgan and wants to be just like her, so it was a good fun break for all of us. Now on to the kids...Gage turned 6 months old, started sitting up (and now almost crawls), and has 3 new teeth. Ella started sleeping in a big girl bed (and loves it, WAHOO!), had an MRI done at Primarys (just a precautionary) and is now starting the potty training fiasco! Things have been busy, but good. Matt loves his new job, and we feel very blessed that we have it, especially now in these tough times. Here are just some random pictures of what we've been up to.

Just being cute!

Eating cereal with Morgan. I'm glad she'll have "my fun morgan" to look up to when she's older...she loves her so much.

Thank goodness for her DVD player...this scene was a daily occurance, as grandma and I carted the kids around on all of our shopping trips:)

At his 6 month appointment, Gage was 19 lbs. and off the charts for his height and head size:) So opposite of his sister...but I love it, wouldn't have it any other way.

Coloring on the STD pamphlet at grandpa's office:)

Playing with toys in our waiting room at Primarys. She did so good with the anestesia (?). She is such a tough little girl...I am so proud of her. I was really nervous to have to sedate her, but she did awesome. Hardly even cried during her IV (probably because she knew she got a toy afterward...I love that hospital, they think of everything). Afterwards she had to walk around and tell every nurse how brave she was!

Love her and her little mischevious smile:) Oh, and her MRI came back normal...another huge blessing.

And finally, I felt like I had to redo Ella's whole room, since she was getting a new bed (why, I'm not sure). Two months later, I'm still not done (more pics to come), but here is a little taste of what we've done. This picture doesn't really do justice, I know it feels like lots of pink...I still have to paint her nightstand black, but I am now officially obsessed with wallpaper (it is coming back people!). If now I can only convinve Matt into doing our bedroom...I have big plans:)

Christmas (mixed in with croup, flu and more croup!)

We had a great Christmas this year and got to spend it with both our families. Ella really got into it this year, so that was so fun to see. The day itself was great, but the days following...not so great. Gage got the croup really bad the day after and is actually STILL recovering. About 5 days into his sickness, I got the flu. The very next day after, Ella got the croup. So pretty much the whole Christmas break we were holed up in our house. We missed all the family get-togethers and our New Years party...but such is life with kids, I guess! At least they are finally starting to feel better. I feel like screaming for a "truce" or something right now...I think I need some peace and quiet in order for me not to lose my mind:)

My kids modeling my favorite Christmas present...the cheetah chair!

Now, enjoy all of our VERY blurry Christmas picures from our lovely camera. I should have asked Santa for a new one, but I decided I wanted new shoes instead...and a purse...and a cheetah chair:)

Grandma got him a bumbo, but forgot to look on the box and see what color it is:)

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and will have a happy new year!

What We've Been Up To...

We have finally started enjoying this holiday season...its definitely been a different one, it just seems like Christmas snuck up on us all of the sudden. We are enjoying spending time with family and friends and can't wait for Christmas to be here. Over the past month that has kind of been a blur, Gage turned 4 months old (he's now almost 5). I just wanted to write some things down so I will remember. Like I have said before, he is the best baby. He is so happy and will smile at anyone who will look his way. He is rolling like crazy and is even getting a little sturdy at sitting up. We started him on rice cereal, and of course he loves it! He is such an eater! At his 4 month appt, he was 16lbs 2oz and 26 in. He also just got his first tooth, and we have discovered that he doesn't do so well with the teeth thing:) (It's the loudest we have ever heard him cry!) He loves to play with toys now, and EVERYTHING goes in his mouth! We sure love him and are so happy he is part of our family.

Also, a quick update on Ella. I want to thank so many of you for your thoughts and prayers. She is doing really well, and we know our prayers were heard and answered. She has finally adjusted to the medication she is on now (we have our spunky little Ella back:), but fortunately, and unfortunately we will be switching her to something different after Christmas. The good news is, no more weekly blood tests (every time we go to the doctors, she starts crying saying "mommy, I'm all better, I'm all better!", it breaks my heart), but the bad news is it will take a little while for her to get used to this new one. Its just sort of like a guessing game with these seizure medications, some work for some, and others make the kids totally loopy. You just have to keep trying and figure out which works best for your child. Some of the side effects can be pretty scary, so of course I worry about that, but I know she is in good hands with her doctors. We went to Primary's a couple days ago for an appointment, and I just get so emotional every time we go there. Most of the kids there are so sick, it makes me feel guilty for ever thinking what we have is hard. I know those kids are such amazing little spirits though, its humbling to be in that hospital. Anyway, we are so blessed...Ella is doing great, and as the doctor told me, "don't you dare treat her like a sick child, she is not sick!" That was good for me to hear.

This is what happens every time I try and take a picture of her. She will say "sminle mommy!", but won't ever look at me.

Another attempt...

And yet another...

This is hilarious...I think he'll be bigger than her before we know it! He's so cute though, he looks so uncomfortable, but just looks up at her and smiles! I love the little bond they have.

THANKFUL

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I decided to write about how thankful I am for all of my blessings in my life right now. I will warn you this might get a little sappy, but after the experience we went trough last week, I feel like writing it all down is a good outlet for me at expressing what I am feeling right now.

It all started on Thanksgiving morning when I was giving Ella a bath. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that out of the blue she fell back and hit her head on the tub. I ran to pick her up, and noticed she was convulsing. I screamed like I never have before, and Matt came running and I called 911. Like out of a movie, I was crying and screaming to the lady on 911 that my child wasn't breathing and "where the hell is the ambulance!", while Matt was trying to get Ella to respond to something. The ambulance arrived and put her on the stretcher to take her to the hospital. They were thinking that she might have had a seizure, but weren't sure. I rode in the ambulance with her to the hospital, all the while hearing the response team in the back yelling, "stay with me Ella, honey stay with me." I was numb, and honestly thought my child was dying. We got to the hospital and they determined that she had had a seizure, and that it was probably because she had the flu and a fever. Well, about an hour after we got there, she had another one. I was on the phone with my mom in the hall, when I saw everybody running back into her room - I ran in and saw Matt crying like I have never seen. Fortunately, she got through it pretty quick, but determined that they needed to get some serious tests done and we would probably need to go down to Primary Children's to have them done. In the blur that was becoming of this day, we drove by ambulance to Primary's and waited in the ER to see their doctor. For some reason they were really busy that night, and we waited in the room for over an hour before the doctor came. She was finally awake and seemed to be doing really well. I was finally starting to calm down, when all of a sudden she started to have another seizure on the exam table. I completly lost it and ran out of the room screaming for the doctor to come in. Again, this one was very brief, but obviously something was going on with her, and they admitted us up to the Neurological Unit. We stayed there for a little over 24 hours, while they did every test, needle prick, poking and proding imaginable to my little girl.

Here is where I start with my thankful feelings (I promise there really are some). I am so thankful to this hospital for taking such good care of my baby, when I felt like I was totally drowning because I thought I was losing her. I am so thankful for my husband and that he worthily holds the priesthood so he could give our daughter a special blessing when she needed it most. I am so thankful for our amazing families for dropping everything and coming to be by our sides in our darkest moments. I am so thankful for my dad who also honors his priesthood, who gave me the most beautiful blessing I have heard, and to hear from his mouth that, "Melissa, I do know for certain that she will be alright." I am so thankful for the spirit. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband who literally picked me off of the hospital floor and held me when I didn't think I could handle any more. I know for certain that this experince has brought us closer together and has made me appreciate him more than I ever thought I could. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing my little girl to be a fighter. She went through more torture than I could imagine, and is now doing a lot better. I know our prayers were heard and I know she will get through this.

She is now on medication for her seizures, and probably will be for quite a while. The medicine makes her really tired and ornery, so she is not quite herself right now. But all the doctors keep telling me that this is completly normal, and she should be back to herself within a week or two. As fresh as this still is in our life, I want to be able to remember how strongly I have felt the spirit and our Heavenly Father's love these past few days than I have ever felt in my life. I know how blessed I am and I know that the most important thing in this life is family.

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures done about a month ago by my super talented cousin (I hope you don't mind that I stole these from your blog, Mary!) Just thought I'd post a few, you can check out more of her awesome work here.

(mom, go to her website, click on middle picture, then clients, and type "ella" to see the rest.)