Happy Birthday Catherine Ellis! It is a joy to be your parents - thank you for blessing us!
The First 365 days
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Friday, April 9, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Almost a year ago...
Wow - it's almost here - one full year, 365 days of being parents and having a child that combines (we hope) the best of both of us. It's been such a whirlwind that it's hard to believe a full calendar year has passed - but believe me, there have been nights and weeks when we wondered if we'd ever make it out of the newborn stage - but we survived and we made it through the first year with lots of great memories.
What a ride the past year has been. I've got some cute surprises in store for Friday, but until then we'll just start the countdown and reflect on the many blessings we have a year later - we're thankful for our little family of 5 (Emma and Cain count!), our parents/in-laws, aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, our friends and co-workers that have weathered the changes and helped us make it through those times we thought we might not make it if we had to stay awake even one more minute, our jobs for keeping us sane and providing us insurance to cover all of Catherine Ellis's needs with worrying at all, and last but not least, our precious first-born baby girl.
So, this is what we looked like this time last year:
I was not convinced she was coming that week - I thought it would probably be another weekend before she arrived - my mother on the other hand just knew she was going to be born on April 9th - also my brothers birthday, and he just happened to be born Easter weekend on a Good Friday too! I remember laughing and telling her she was a nut - well guess who arrived the next day?
What a ride the past year has been. I've got some cute surprises in store for Friday, but until then we'll just start the countdown and reflect on the many blessings we have a year later - we're thankful for our little family of 5 (Emma and Cain count!), our parents/in-laws, aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, our friends and co-workers that have weathered the changes and helped us make it through those times we thought we might not make it if we had to stay awake even one more minute, our jobs for keeping us sane and providing us insurance to cover all of Catherine Ellis's needs with worrying at all, and last but not least, our precious first-born baby girl.
So, this is what we looked like this time last year:
I was not convinced she was coming that week - I thought it would probably be another weekend before she arrived - my mother on the other hand just knew she was going to be born on April 9th - also my brothers birthday, and he just happened to be born Easter weekend on a Good Friday too! I remember laughing and telling her she was a nut - well guess who arrived the next day?
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Unexpected Easter
Normally my posts are all sunshine and no rain, but we've had a rainy kind of weekend and we're just going to admit it. Not all days in the life of an infant (almost toddler) are glorious and this weekend was a true testament to that. Actually, this past week has been a tough one for Catherine Ellis - our normal, playful, into-everything, fun loving girl has been kidnapped by a sick, irritable, restless and lifeless version of our sweet girl.
It all started Sunday - we thought she was cutting her molars and just dealing with side effects of that - and in our defense she is cutting her molars. She was restless all night, cried out on several occasions and sometimes couldn't be comforted back to sleep. By Wednesday night we knew something was up, but still thought it was just a bad case of teething. We gave her some Motrin and that seemed to help - by Thursday morning she woke up with a 101 fever and we kept feeding her Motrin and it would seem to break - Friday morning it never broke and they finally called from school to tell us that she needed to go home. We still headed to Jasper, she has no other symptoms of illness - no runny nose, no sore throat, we didn't think it was her ears - didn't seem to be pulling on them, no cough -nothing that we could see was wrong, so we carried on with life as we know it.
Saturday morning mid-morning she took a turn for the worse and her fever spiked at 105 - scary! We immediately called our doctor - they said come back to Birmingham to Children's - so we did and spent the rest of the afternoon at Children's. They ended up having to catheterize her for a urine specimen, prick her and draw a vial of blood for all these tests to try to determine why she had a high fever but no other side effects (visible to the human eye). As you can imagine, none of this was fun for our sick baby and it has to be one of the worse feelings in the world to have to sit there and watch her in pain when there is nothing we can do. They finally came back and said she has a UTI - we didn't even know babies could get them. Apparently they can and that explains the high fever she's had and the spike yesterday morning. They gave her a shot of antibiotics and she slept until they okayed us to go - when we arrived home she was MUCH better - so we decided to head back to Jasper so Sam (David's Dad) and Stacey (David's sister) could spend a bit of time with her - they are both missing her birthday next weekend because they'll be back at work. The ride back was not fun, but once we arrived she seemed to have a bit more life. Another rough night - its hard to sleep when you're burning up (fever hovered around 103) and we knew Easter was not going to be as planned.
But, as all of us know, plans don't get us anywhere most of the time. So, we rolled with the punches. She did feel good enough to get up and head to church after a nap - she looked precious but there were no smiles, not much laughter, and LOTS of irritability. We made it through Easter, even if it's not the way we had it planned. However, we'll take it. We have a child that is almost a year old that has been sick (more than a cold) twice now in her short life - we'll take that. I know lots of Mommies that have had to deal with lot more than two illnesses within the first 12 months of life. We are blessed. So, like the saying goes, after every storm there is a rainbow - and that's ours. Thank you Lord that she can be cured and will feel better in a few more days. Thank you Lord for doctors that figured out what was wrong with her the first time. Thank you Lord for in-laws (and parents) that care enough to pray us through it, help us take care of her, and soften the blow. Thank you Lord for a child that even when she's sick, still is not too difficult to deal with - it could be so much worse. So while Easter didn't turn out the way we expected it to, we're on the road to recovery and are so thankful that our Lord has Risen.
We love this verse so we thought we'd share it on this Easter Sunday - John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
We did take some pictures and a few turned out pretty well for a sick little girl:
The Cains
Pop with his children and grandchild
It all started Sunday - we thought she was cutting her molars and just dealing with side effects of that - and in our defense she is cutting her molars. She was restless all night, cried out on several occasions and sometimes couldn't be comforted back to sleep. By Wednesday night we knew something was up, but still thought it was just a bad case of teething. We gave her some Motrin and that seemed to help - by Thursday morning she woke up with a 101 fever and we kept feeding her Motrin and it would seem to break - Friday morning it never broke and they finally called from school to tell us that she needed to go home. We still headed to Jasper, she has no other symptoms of illness - no runny nose, no sore throat, we didn't think it was her ears - didn't seem to be pulling on them, no cough -nothing that we could see was wrong, so we carried on with life as we know it.
Saturday morning mid-morning she took a turn for the worse and her fever spiked at 105 - scary! We immediately called our doctor - they said come back to Birmingham to Children's - so we did and spent the rest of the afternoon at Children's. They ended up having to catheterize her for a urine specimen, prick her and draw a vial of blood for all these tests to try to determine why she had a high fever but no other side effects (visible to the human eye). As you can imagine, none of this was fun for our sick baby and it has to be one of the worse feelings in the world to have to sit there and watch her in pain when there is nothing we can do. They finally came back and said she has a UTI - we didn't even know babies could get them. Apparently they can and that explains the high fever she's had and the spike yesterday morning. They gave her a shot of antibiotics and she slept until they okayed us to go - when we arrived home she was MUCH better - so we decided to head back to Jasper so Sam (David's Dad) and Stacey (David's sister) could spend a bit of time with her - they are both missing her birthday next weekend because they'll be back at work. The ride back was not fun, but once we arrived she seemed to have a bit more life. Another rough night - its hard to sleep when you're burning up (fever hovered around 103) and we knew Easter was not going to be as planned.
But, as all of us know, plans don't get us anywhere most of the time. So, we rolled with the punches. She did feel good enough to get up and head to church after a nap - she looked precious but there were no smiles, not much laughter, and LOTS of irritability. We made it through Easter, even if it's not the way we had it planned. However, we'll take it. We have a child that is almost a year old that has been sick (more than a cold) twice now in her short life - we'll take that. I know lots of Mommies that have had to deal with lot more than two illnesses within the first 12 months of life. We are blessed. So, like the saying goes, after every storm there is a rainbow - and that's ours. Thank you Lord that she can be cured and will feel better in a few more days. Thank you Lord for doctors that figured out what was wrong with her the first time. Thank you Lord for in-laws (and parents) that care enough to pray us through it, help us take care of her, and soften the blow. Thank you Lord for a child that even when she's sick, still is not too difficult to deal with - it could be so much worse. So while Easter didn't turn out the way we expected it to, we're on the road to recovery and are so thankful that our Lord has Risen.
We love this verse so we thought we'd share it on this Easter Sunday - John 3:16-17
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
We did take some pictures and a few turned out pretty well for a sick little girl:
The Cains
Pop with his children and grandchild
Pop and Catherine Ellis checking out the blooms
Cains minus Gran (we swapped)
Rare Family Photo of all 3 of us
Even more rare - Mommy & Catherine Ellis (I'm usually the photographer)
Rise & Shine & Give God your Glory Glory!
Funny Daddy...he did a great job today (it was hard to make me smile)!
Yay for good doctors and medicine!
Yay for the Easter Bunny!
Wait, who is the Easter Bunny? This guy?
Blowing kisses
Happy Easter Everyone!
Look what The Easter Bunny left me!
Rare Family Photo of all 3 of us
Even more rare - Mommy & Catherine Ellis (I'm usually the photographer)
Rise & Shine & Give God your Glory Glory!
Funny Daddy...he did a great job today (it was hard to make me smile)!
Yay for good doctors and medicine!
Yay for the Easter Bunny!
Wait, who is the Easter Bunny? This guy?
Blowing kisses
Happy Easter Everyone!Cain and Emma say Happy Easter too!
The Easter Bunny visited us - he must be getting old because he visited us not once, not twice, but three times - Catherine Ellis is much loved!
Look what The Easter Bunny left me!
And last but certainly not least, we practiced a bit for our upcoming BIG day this week! This time last year (Easter was a week later) we brought our little bundle of joy home on Easter Sunday - in 5 days, we'll be celebrating her first birthday! What a joy this past year of our lives has been - so get ready for some walks down memory lane this week. I'll do my best to keep the blog fun and hopefully in the midst of my biggest event of the year (the day before CE's birthday) I'll find the time to enjoy and savor the memory of a full year with our little one!
Happy Easter and have a great week!
Happy Easter and have a great week!Sunday, March 28, 2010
Busy as a bee
We've been busy just like everyone else in the world getting ready for spring! We've been spring cleaning and preparing for a great party we hosted Saturday night for one of David's best friends and his fiance, Chad and Jackie! Catherine Ellis has had a big week visiting with lots of family and celebrating birthdays for friends! We're so glad spring has arrived and we're loving the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors with friends and family!
As David and I have been preparing the house for the party - Catherine Ellis has been continuing her job as tiny helper! Cain surely enjoyed her help as we bathed him last Sunday - can't you tell she's just loving it? Wish I loved washing the dogs as much as she does - do I foresee this as being one of her chores - you betcha!
Hey this looks like this could be fun!
GDaddy and Catherine Ellis
Friday evening before David got home Catherine Ellis and I enjoyed a little sunshine and blanket time out in the front yard - it cooled off a bit, but it was still a glorious afternoon!
I love being outside!
Saturday we enjoyed celebrating Tram's birthday party - Tram is the sweet 2 year old (almost!) son of one of my best friends from Auburn, Mandy! He was the best birthday boy and we had a wonderful time crawling and climbing all over everything at Gymboree! Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you Tram - it was SO much fun!
We had to wear our name tags on our back so we wouldn't tear them off:)
Catherine Ellis and Caroline Draney - two cutie pies!
Having a blast - I had a hard time getting her smiling since she was concentrating so hard on climbing onto EVERYTHING!
As David and I have been preparing the house for the party - Catherine Ellis has been continuing her job as tiny helper! Cain surely enjoyed her help as we bathed him last Sunday - can't you tell she's just loving it? Wish I loved washing the dogs as much as she does - do I foresee this as being one of her chores - you betcha!
Hey this looks like this could be fun!
Showing Mommy how to bathe my buddy Cain
Is this fun or what?
My Dad came to visit on Wednesday, so we lunched with him and Catherine Ellis had a great time showing him all the great new things she's learned to do since January!
GDaddy and Catherine EllisFriday evening before David got home Catherine Ellis and I enjoyed a little sunshine and blanket time out in the front yard - it cooled off a bit, but it was still a glorious afternoon!
I love being outside!Saturday we enjoyed celebrating Tram's birthday party - Tram is the sweet 2 year old (almost!) son of one of my best friends from Auburn, Mandy! He was the best birthday boy and we had a wonderful time crawling and climbing all over everything at Gymboree! Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you Tram - it was SO much fun!
We had to wear our name tags on our back so we wouldn't tear them off:)
Catherine Ellis and Caroline Draney - two cutie pies!
Precious! And look at all that hair Catherine Ellis is finally growing!
Two little ladies just chatting away!
Hey Mom, look at us!
Hanging out with my main squeeze - Uncle C
Hey Mom, look at us!Saturday evening we hosted a couples wedding shower for Chad and Jackie - it was so great to see everyone and we had a wonderful time!
David and friends Saturday night
This afternoon Catherine Ellis's Greats (my Aunt and Uncle) stopped by to see her and a good time was had by all - she's so much fun now that everyone spends most of their time either chasing after her or taking her outside! So we welcome all the extra hands we can get! Thanks for visiting us Auntie B and Uncle C - and for all of Catherine Ellis's new prizes!
Loving on Uncle C - look at that sweet face!
David and friends Saturday night
David and the boys listening to old school recordings from college - they were amateur rappers back in the day
This afternoon Catherine Ellis's Greats (my Aunt and Uncle) stopped by to see her and a good time was had by all - she's so much fun now that everyone spends most of their time either chasing after her or taking her outside! So we welcome all the extra hands we can get! Thanks for visiting us Auntie B and Uncle C - and for all of Catherine Ellis's new prizes!
Catherine Ellis and Auntie B
Hanging out with my main squeeze - Uncle C
Laughing at Catherine Ellis's crazy Daddy (in attempts to make her smile, David was jumping out from behind the bushes...the things we do...)
High in the sky!
Playing with Daddy
What a gorgeous afternoon and weekend!
High in the sky! 
Playing with Daddy
What a gorgeous afternoon and weekend!Have a great week everyone!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Tiny helper
We started spring cleaning this weekend and had a little help from our tiniest member of the family - Catherine Ellis! She loves to get into anything that she's not supposed to be into - you name it, she's there - it's like a magnetic force attracts her to things she shouldn't be playing with. Go figure!
We are hosting a party for one of David's best friends this coming weekend and realized that it had been quite some time since our poor yard had been tended to - probably over a year. It made us realize we'd been existing and things that didn't have to be completed or worked on - well they didn't make the list of priorities. David worked for over 7 hours in the yard Saturday and I worked for about 2 or so and it looks a lot better - but we still have a way to go. It was refreshing to feel like we'd accomplished something. Thank you Meme for watching Catherine Ellis while we worked. ....although she did sneak a help here or there from time to time.
We started out unloading the dishwasher and she really liked that:
Helping Mommy with the silverware
I got it, I got it!
Housework is so much fun!
Next while I was packing up recycling, Catherine Ellis cleaned the fire place (not really, but she climbed all over it):
Look at me - I can pull up on the fire place!
Daddy had a night out on the town - so we walked with a friend of mine and Mom, Catherine Ellis and I called it a night early. Daddy made it hope early the next morning and today we ate lunch out and ran errands in preparation for the week and weekend - of course it was freezing again today - in the 40's and raining - and they are saying we may get some snow, but unlikely - gosh, we're ready for spring! Only a day or so of this and we should be back to warmer weather. Catherine Ellis LOVES being outside, so we dressed up her in her new rain coat (thank you Pop and Gran) and headed out:
Styling in my new rain gear
Quite the charmer
We've also been preparing for our tiny helper to transition to the toddler phase - we've purchased her new big girl car seat (we have a few more weeks before she is riding in style - forward-facing) and sadly a new bathtub :( The infant bath that Aunt Sara and Uncle Daniel gave us has been so wonderful for a year and she still LOVES it - however, she's just about outgrown it - baths in the sink are so much fun though, so we've continued - until I found the perfect blow up bath tub for her last week:
A blow up DUCK bath!! If you know Catherine Ellis, you know she LOVES ducks!
Laughing at Daddy - Daddy is in charge of bath time - and I love it!
I'm so glad I have a duck to play in the water with!
We are hosting a party for one of David's best friends this coming weekend and realized that it had been quite some time since our poor yard had been tended to - probably over a year. It made us realize we'd been existing and things that didn't have to be completed or worked on - well they didn't make the list of priorities. David worked for over 7 hours in the yard Saturday and I worked for about 2 or so and it looks a lot better - but we still have a way to go. It was refreshing to feel like we'd accomplished something. Thank you Meme for watching Catherine Ellis while we worked. ....although she did sneak a help here or there from time to time.
We started out unloading the dishwasher and she really liked that:
Helping Mommy with the silverware
I got it, I got it!
Housework is so much fun!
Look at me - I can pull up on the fire place!Daddy had a night out on the town - so we walked with a friend of mine and Mom, Catherine Ellis and I called it a night early. Daddy made it hope early the next morning and today we ate lunch out and ran errands in preparation for the week and weekend - of course it was freezing again today - in the 40's and raining - and they are saying we may get some snow, but unlikely - gosh, we're ready for spring! Only a day or so of this and we should be back to warmer weather. Catherine Ellis LOVES being outside, so we dressed up her in her new rain coat (thank you Pop and Gran) and headed out:
Styling in my new rain gear
Quite the charmerWe've also been preparing for our tiny helper to transition to the toddler phase - we've purchased her new big girl car seat (we have a few more weeks before she is riding in style - forward-facing) and sadly a new bathtub :( The infant bath that Aunt Sara and Uncle Daniel gave us has been so wonderful for a year and she still LOVES it - however, she's just about outgrown it - baths in the sink are so much fun though, so we've continued - until I found the perfect blow up bath tub for her last week:
A blow up DUCK bath!! If you know Catherine Ellis, you know she LOVES ducks!
Laughing at Daddy - Daddy is in charge of bath time - and I love it!
I'm so glad I have a duck to play in the water with!I can't help but think of how fast this past year has flown by (I know I say it all the time, but it's still hard to process!). Tonight I asked David to take a picture of Catherine Ellis and I as I was drying her off - the last time we took this picture was October 2009 - look how much she's grown! We can't believe our eyes. So, get ready for a walk down memory lane (even if it is short) with us over the next few weeks as we prepare for her first birthday! Have a great first week of spring!
October 2009
March 2010
March 2010
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