Happy 2nd Birthday ELLE!!!!

Happy Birthday Ellie!!!

It was so much fun to celebrate your birthday!!!! You were SOOOOO excited to see all the streamers & your princess birthday cake. It made mom VERY glad she'd driven all over the county to find the ONLY black barbie with in miles! Your brothers didn't realize Princess Barbie was actually a cake....we haven't seen too many princess cakes at our house :)


One of the best parts was getting you ready for the party. You turned down the first two dresses I suggested....thank goodness I saved MY favorite for third! Thank you AGAIN Veronica for this one! It's GORGEOUS!!!! Then you insisted on picking out your shoes - of course they were the black patent mary janes - PERFECT for your dress. What an eye for fashion you have my dear :)

The only thing that got you more excited than the decorations or the cake or the shoes was when Auntie Jessie walked in the house with your PRESENT - but better than a present was the sweet DOLLY tied to the bow! We almost had to relent & let you open it immediately - the refrain of "It's my party I can cry if I want to" kept running through my head. But I remembered it's not REALLY a 2 year old's party if the honored guest doesn't breakdown at least once!!!

And the honored guests mama was a bit emotional too. I can't believe I almost missed out on the blessing of YOU! You've the most amazing little person. Your giggle is infectious! When you look at me & smile your impish - I just sat on grampa kitty grin - I literally MELT. I still tear up when you blow me kisses from your crib at bedtime. I think you might even love shoes more than I do...I've never met ANYONE who loves shoes more than I do...Caylene comes pretty darn close - but you my dear - I'm praying that if your feet don't get as big as mine - that they'll AT LEAST get as big as Caylene's - she does have some pretty fabulous shoes :)

In the midst of all of this thoughts of your birth mom kept coming to mind. One of my most heartfelt prayers is that she knows you're safe, and loved, and amazing!!! I'm so very grateful to her. She must have loved you VERY VERY VERY much. I know she wanted a better life for you than she could give you....and I so pray that that will come true for you!!!

Happy birthday Princess!!!

Summer Fun!!!

oh MY!!!! How the time has FLOWN!!!! I've barely had time to download the pictures from the summer - much less post them!!! Thanks for your patience!!! Hopefully these will be worth the wait :)
Have I mentioned how much Ellie loves the water???? Here Gabe's teaching how to stomp so hard you get mommy wet too!
She's gonna hate me for this swimsuit later - but isn't it CUTE?!?!?!
She made Dad go down the slide no less than a dozen times!

I've been eating a blue sno-cone - YUM!

Levi & Caleb.....2 peas in a pod doesn't BEGIN to describe these 2 best buddies!
To say she has a shoe fetish would be a GIANT understatement...they don't even have to be her size - as long as they match baby!!!
Is it sad that their favorite thing at the fair is the wheat box??? It's similar to a sand box, but instead of sand it's wheat.....and their favorite thing to do in the wheat box.....

I think I might have seen one to many Rams shown that day?!?!?!?! scary!
Gabe won Reserve Grand Champion (2nd place) with Frank! Thanks Brandon & Marty for letting us borrow him back :) He's one of the goats we bottle fed 18 months ago....we don't talk about what happened to the other goat....booo hooo hooo....that the part I HATE about living on a farm :(
Gabe, Ellie & cousin Eric posing by the goat pens.
I was across the goat arena when I zoomed in to take this picture.....I just thought it was cute she was so intent on watching big brother show his goat....it was probably best that I didn't know exactly WHAT she was doing!!!! I wonder if this is why her immune system is doing so great......

Cousin Annika & Ellie watching the ducklings....too bad they were already all sold...darn.....
Sportin' her new pink boots at the dance dance revolution booth!!!!

I can't believe she's been home almost 8 months! Everyone asks how she's adjusting.....I can only shake my head & point to heaven!!! God's grace has been so incredible! It's as if she didn't even HAVE to adjust....she's just always been our little princess....

So 2 quick little miracles & I'll be DONE! I promise!!!

Miracle #1 -
Ellie had her 4th blood draw on Tuesday. Driving in I was moved to say a quick prayer of "please Lord, if there's anyway you can help a nearly 2 year old have an uneventful blood draw - now is the time!" I felt a bit silly even requesting that - because DUH - I practically cry getting MY blood drawn. I had brought the bottle along - I know, I know - but if giving her a PONY would help her not to cry I'd do that TOO! So I pulled out the bottle when I sat her down on the bed. She simply stared at them & sucked while they put the rubber bandy thing around her arm. The lower lip quivered & a small whaaa came out when they poked her....about 1/2 way through another lower lip & whaaa.....and then we were done!!!! No alligator tears, no screaming until she's hoarse & you're deaf...just two little squeaks really.
God forgive me for not trusting you to help her through this!!!! Never let me forget that just because you allowed HIV into her life - you haven't forgotten about her!!!! She's more your princess than she is mine. I'm sorry. Thank you for the reminder of your faithfulness, even in the seemingly trivial things....which leads me to miracle #2.

Miracle #2 (not quite so incredible - but my husband still has a wife!)
So in the get all the animals to the fair scramble (and when I say ALL the animals - I mean - 1 pig, 1 sheep, 2 goats, 1 chicken, 1 rooster, and 2 ducks) Matt was short a stock trailer. Praise be to God our kind neighbor took pity & transported the pig for us in his trailer...but that still left quite a few behind....and I had the unfortunate privilege of being present for the loading of the remainder of the animals....it went something like this. Ben, where's the dog kennel? go get it. Grab the rooster, chicken, 2 ducks & cram them in it (it looked Noah's ark - the poultry version). Grab the sheep & goats and heft them into the back of the SUBURBAN (that's not a typo people - there was a sheep & 2 goats WITHOUT a tarp or ANYTHING under them in the back of my CAR!!!) oh it'll be fine yells my husband as he runs for the drivers seat & peels out of the driveway.....thankfully we live on a gravel road so he probably thought the smoke boiling out of my ears was just road dust. Meanwhile, I'm having visions of what it's going to smell like in my car after it's been sitting the summer sun all day.....my sense of smell has been really dulled down (???) I do have 4 boys living in a small house...but THAT?!?!?! does that smell EVER come out????
What do you know??? God is even in charge of a goat's colon!?!?!?!?! Those animals were in the back of my car for AT LEAST 15 minutes and not a DROP!!!!! Those things can't take 3 steps without something coming out of somewhere!
Needless to say - not that I don't trust God to do it again - I'm shopping for a stock trailer.....