A Bunch of Random Stuff!!!

I think this will mostly be a story of pictures. I can't believe that it has already been a week since my last post. Life has literally just been cruising along with no big things going on to post about I guess. I know I should just be thankful that life is simply "cruising along". But this coming week will be full of things to blog about. First on Thursday...we get to go to Disneyland and spend the day with Jax and his family. We can hardly contain ourselves!!! And then on Sunday, we will make the drive to Camarillo for Zoey's big 3 year old birthday bash!!! So much fun in one week hardly seems fair. So you know there will be fun pictures to post after that.

So now on to the pictures. I have a friend whom I have known literally since birth. We are two months apart and our moms were best friends then. We don't see each other often but have kept in touch off and on over the years. We have daughters that are 3 weeks apart (my first, her fourth) so that is fun too. Well, it just so happens that she babysits a little boy with Ds who is exactly one week older than Ella. Last week, we met at Chuck E. Cheese to get the kids together since it was suppose to be a rainy day. I was only able to get one picture of the kids together. I was blown away by two things...this little guy just sat on her lap and ate bite after bite of food off a spoon. And then to top it off, he did not even consider touching all of the containers of food that were sitting literally inches away from him. Ella would have had EVERYTHING on the floor within seconds....who says that boys are rougher!!!


The next couple of pictures are what I found when I walked in to the living room. Ella had picked up the Wii microphone and was singing away!! She even tried to get mommy to sing along with her :)

Does this child not look like a teenager!! She is only 10 going on 11 and she wants to sit up on our hill and write in her journal......and yes, we realize that the hill needs some weeding done!!!

Here is Ella watching her Signing Times video. She will literally sit there for an hour watching it. It is so cute to see her copying what they do. I was only able to catch her doing the "more" sign but she will do a lot more of them while she is watching.

This next picture is a bittersweet moment for me. This is Dasha from Reece's Rainbow. She is the little girl that I have been in love with since day one. I immediately noticed both her and Sofia because they were so close in age to Ella. But Dasha has always been the one that I truly hoped could someday join our family. Thankfully, Sofia recently found her forever family. Last night, I was on Reece's Rainbow as I am every night and realized that Dasha's picture was gone. Then I found her under the "my forever family found me" list. This knocked me right to my knees. I feel like I lost her even though I never had her. The reason I say this is bittersweet is because I think I knew that realistically we wouldn't be able to adopt her as we have some financial issues to sort out before my husband would ever even consider bringing another child in to our home. By the time we actually got our act together, it may have been too late for her anyway. So obviously, I am thrilled that she has found a family but I had always hoped it would be our family she would join. Now, I am just praying that this family will have a blog that I can follow as I hope to be able to contribute to their journey to bring her home and I want to see her grow up!! So, yes, even through my sense of loss...I am beyond thrilled for her to have a family. I literally could not stand the thought of her being in that orphanage any longer!!

And finally, these next two pictures are of the child who REFUSES to put any food in her mouth. Can anyone tell me why she will put a stuffed carrot and a napkin in her mouth instead!!!

Look What We Found.......

A new Angel friend who just happens to have Down syndome!!! This is Taylor and she is 3 1/2 months old. Isn't she precious??? Ella and I got to go visit her the other day and are so excited that she only lives about 20 minutes away. She has two older sisters so Ella was in heaven that she got to follow them around and I was in heaven getting to hold this little sweetie. She does have a heart defect and will most likely be having her heart surgery in the next month or so. Her mom does have a blog that she is trying to keep up with but I am hoping that some of my blog friends who have been through this heart surgery can hop over to her blog and give her some advice/support of what is to come. Please go to http://litterals99.blogspot.com/ and see some much cuter pictures than the ones I got.

Here is Taylor and her sweet mom Erin

Ella giving Taylor "some love"


She just can't keep her hands off of her!!

Here is another question......Ella has been a good sleeper all of her life. That is, until about 3 months ago when she started waking up during the night. At first, I thought it was related to her anemia issue but when it didn't stop after that, I started wondering. In the back of my mind, I wonder if it is a teething issue as I have no experience with this since my other kids just poppped out teeth like it was nothing. I know Ella has been getting some molars but is 3 months a long time for this to be going on? Or is it an almost 2 year old bad habit that she is developing? I will gladly accept any input :)

Other than that, Ella's blood continues to look "normal" for 2 months in a row now. I never get too excited about being in the clear, but it is nice each visit to see the smile on the oncologist's face. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

Happy Valentine's Day

Where Could She Possibly Learn These Things?

Do you think that she is learning these things from me? Surely not!!!!

Superbowl Fan

I figured I had better hurry up and do another post before people start boycotting my blog because of those snake pictures. Boy, there sure are some queasy people out there....geez!!!

So, today for the Superbowl, we just stayed home and had our own little party. Of course the older girls didn't have much interest in watching the game. They just wanted to know who won because they had each picked a team and the winner got to choose dessert. But, of course, Ella joined us for most of the game. I have a rocking chair that was Abbey and Emma's when they were little and I finally brought it downstairs for Ella to sit in. She must have sat in it for at least half an hour thinking that she was hot stuff.

Here she is reading a book during one of the commercial breaks

The game is back on and she is anxiously awaiting the

decision on whether or not that was a touchdown or not

for the Saints (yay...it was!)

And here is an extremely blurry video of Ella rocking out

in her rocking chair to the halftime show. See if you can

catch her little scrunchy face at the end.

The Snake Charmer (not for the weak of heart)

Emma's third grade class has a pet snake named Queenie and on the weekends, the kids are allowed to take turns bringing her home. My husband HATES snakes of any kind but since we let Abbey bring the snake home once the year she was in this class, we figured it was only fair to let Emma do it once. Ironically, all of the girls in this household, myself included, don't mind the snake at all. We weren't sure what Ella would think as this was her first time meeting Queenie. But as usual, there was no fear in this little girl. She was absolutely mesmerized by it. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to spend much time with it as she is way too rough and Emma is worried that she will hurt it (as am I)

Ella Playing with Her Baby

Ella is starting to really enjoy playing with her baby dolls. She kept taking turns taking a pretend sip out of her cup (because heaven forbid she actually eat or drink anything for real) and then she would "feed" the baby. Soooo cute!! Once again, I have to apologize for my blurry video but its all I have.