HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLIE!! (yesterday :O)

We cannot believe 1 year has gone by since our little Elizabeth (it's kind of strange to call her that, isn't it?) entered this world! She has been and still is such a GREAT baby! We are blessed in so many ways to have had her in our lives this past year. And although we don't want her to grow up too fast, we're looking forward to watching her change and learn in the years to come.

We celebrated her b-day on Saturday with Brian's family and our good friends, the Viskers. Ellie wasn't too sure of the cake at first, but once we cut it up a little, she seemed to enjoy it. ;O)

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past fews days...Ellie's birthday celebration went on for days!!! We let her open our gift on Sunday and then I gave her a piece of cake w/ a candle (since I forgot to put one on Sat.) yesterday, her real b-day. What a lucky girl! :O)


pre-party hug

Yummy Costco Cake (that Hannah picked out...there was one w/ a princess on it and I asked Hannah if Ellie should have that cake. She said "no". I said, "Why, because you want it for your birthday cake?" She said, "Yes." I didn't fight her on it...this one was just as cute!)

Yay! Cake Time!




Her very own babies!! (that Hannah has been hogging since Sat. night!)


Sunday afternoon "party"...present and swimming...and just enjoying a gorgeous day!








Her "real" birthday!

1st Day of School...sort of.

Hannah had her 1st day of school today! It wasn't exactly a normal day of school, but it was the 1st time she was there. Today we had a special 1 hour visit w/ parent day. So, I took Hannah this morning to see her room, meet her teacher and play with the fun activities they had. She was so excited this morning to go, especially to ride the bus. She kept asking if the bus was here yet? However, when she found out that I was the bus driver and there really was no bus, she got a little bummed. But, she didn't stay down for long! On the way to school, she sang songs and was so thrilled to be a "big girl now" and a "schooler." :O) She loved finding her cubby to put her backpack in (which she had to hang up by herself b/c again, she's "a big girl now." Tomorrow I'll drop her off for her to stay the whole 2 1/2 hours on her own. I think it's going to be great and that she's going to love school! In fact, I think I'm more nervous than she is!!








As if school wasn't exciting enough, we had a tornado warning this afternoon! So, I reluctantly woke Ellie up from her nap so that we could all hunker down in the basement. Lucky for all of us, we have some toys down there so we weren't bored out of our minds! Ellie and Hannah enjoyed crawling through the tunnel to tease each other!

Tennis Girl

We had our first tennis match tonight and we won! Yay, for Wheaton Academy Girls Tennis! I got Hannah and Madelyn (the other coach's 4 yr. old daughter) little shirts to match the one's that our players are wearing. So, in true school spirit, Hannah wore her's today for the match! Doesn't she look so cute?!?!

Gabby

We decided to do surgery to fix Gabby's knees, so the poor little thing had surgery on both of her knees on Wed. We picked her up of Friday to take her home to start the recovery process. (which we're told is quite a long one) She finally started eating her food yesterday after we tried the vet's suggestion...putting cottage cheese in with her food. Who knew?! It worked! (we had given her some chicken the day before just to get something in her stomach)

We're giving her an anti-inflammatory pill, an antibiotic and a Glucosamine pill that will all hopefully help her get back to normal as soon as possible. They told us it will be about 10 days before she's walking (she's sort of walking already), 6-8 weeks before she's walking well and about 3 months for her to run again. We're glad we did it, although it's one more thing to think about and have to take care of. She's a young dog w/ a lot of life left, so we're happy to know that she'll be chasing her tennis ball again soon!

Okay, this is where you want to stop looking/reading if you don't want to see sad pics. (they really aren't that gross, but I just want to give a disclaimer in case some of you get grossed out.)

Busy days

This is a super fun water slide that a friend is letting us borrow...Hannah has been enjoying hours of fun on this thing! Thank you LISA!!!




Book Worm


Cuddle time before bed...




Sisters


I'm not sure what look Hannah was going for here?!


I started my tennis coaching job last Monday again and am very excited to be back at it! It does make life MUCH busier these days, but that's okay. I will admit that it takes me a little while to get back into the swing of things when life is busy, but I'll get there. (I was very forgetful last week...I'm blaming it on tennis! :O)

At the end of this week life will become even crazier when Hannah starts preschool!! She's growing up so fast! Stay tuned for 1st Day of School pics!

A day in the life...

This is our life...and we love it!
p.s. This is pretty long...sorry.

Ellie hugging baby (Hannah's baby...good thing Hannah wasn't around! It wouldn't have been in Ellie's arms long!)



Who can resist this face?!?!



Poor Gabs injured herself Tuesday night playing fetch with the ball (her absolute favorite thing to do...play fetch, not get injured! :O) We took her to the vet and the news didn't come as too much of a surprise...she has torn both her right and left hind leg ACL's. She's hobbling around a little more than she was the day after the injury, but still isn't doing much....until today. Again, she still isn't really walking that well at all, but we were all outside this morning and just like old times, Gabby grabbed her ball and set it down in front of me so that I would play fetch with her!!! I SERIOUSLY think that she as an addiction to that ball...is that possible? This picture is from this morning and needless to say, I didn't play with her. Crazy dog! (we're contemplating surgery and waiting on my friend's advice...she's a vet in IN.) I'll keep you posted.



This is Hannah's impression of a thirsty dog. She's headed for Hollywood!



Singin' in the rain!



Singin' in the garage...because she heard thunder!



I had to wake Ellie up from a nap the other day and this is how I found her in her crib!! I guess she thought it was too bright in her room.






Sportin' Daddy's t-shirt.



Pajama Head



Our Little Bugga-Boo



Thinking outside the box...well, actually inside the box.

E

I can't let Ellie out of my sight for more than a minute now b/c she heads right for the stairs...again and again and again!! Forget playing with toys, it's all about climbing the stairs!