and it came to pass that fall had finally arrived

I am trying to want to do better at the blog thing.  But I struggle.  We are just busy! Time spent blogging, honestly could be used sleeping.... which I am in desperate need of.  Ellie is mostly all over her sickness, it took a good 3 1/2 weeks to finally get rid of that sad cough, and the coughing fits.  But now she wakes up around 2 or 3 every morning, just to fuss a little. I stick her binky in and she goes back to sleep, but if it pops out, she fusses again.  I end up sleeping on the floor in the girls' room, just so I don't have to hop in and out of bed.  I am surprised at just how comfortable the floor is, or I must just be so tired that my body doesn't care where I sleep, just as long as I sleep.  I am attributing the restlessness at night to maybe her coughing fits, or possibly her immunizations.  The whole fussing in the middle of the night did begin after she received her 6 month shots.  And 2 days after that she received her first dose of the Synagis shot, to help prevent RSV.  Bless her little chubby legs, no one deserves so many shots!!  But, after that long bout of sickness, whatever I can do to prevent... I will!

Ellie is growing and changing so much.  She squeals and chatters all the time now.  You may think I am crazy to say, but she sings!  And I have proof!  I included a video of her singing, at the very end of this post.  You will have to forgive my terrible singing in the video, that wasn't one of the talents I was blessed with, though I truly wish it were!  But she sings a long with me. It is the most precious thing, and I am so glad I was able to take a little video of it.  We spend a lot of time in the car, picking up and dropping off at school and swim team and scouts and whatever.  We were waiting in car rider line when we started our duet!  I know Ellie's birth Mother is very musical and I hope Ellie inherited that from her!

This is Thanksgiving week, and school is out!  We are trying to cram in a lot of fun while the kids are out of school.  We are staying home for Thanksgiving.  But we will be headed to Utah for Christmas!  I am so excited! I am so excited for my family to meet Miss Ellie. I am excited to meet a few new nieces I haven't met yet, who aren't quite born yet! And I am excited for the mountains and the snow!  I am excited to see my friends out there. But I am most excited to have Ellie sealed to our family for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple!  That is where Thomas and I got married, so it only fits!  The neatest part is that all of us will be in there, Me, Thomas, Porter, Addie and Ellie.  I am so excited for Porter and Addie to witness such a beautiful thing at their young age.  They will remember it forever!

I hope to do better keeping a record of our new life with Ellie.  But I do take pictures and videos, so that is somewhat a record!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

Addie's homework is my favorite. She is great sounding out words and reading and writing phonetically.
I do like Cinderella too!

Addie got a hold of my camera and took a few pictures....

Selfies start young

Ellie adores the bath! Her face lights up when I run the water.  She has figured out how to almost daily
get a bath too.... I put her in the Bumbo for any length of time and she has a blow out.... almost every time!
I should learn to strip her down when she is in there! Ha!

We are attempting cereal.  With Ellie's adjusted age being 11 weeks younger,
she reaches milestones later.  She hasn't quite mastered eating from a spoon.  She still has the
tongue reflex that pushes all her food out. But she watches us eat and you can tell she wants to eat so bad!
Soon baby, you'll figure it out!

School Pictures for Porter!  He said he wasn't quite ready and they took the picture early.
Hey, it is hard to get a genuine smile for a stranger who is pushing to take 500 different kids' pictures!
He such a handsome sweet boy. And he is so sweet to Ellie.... I am hoping one day some of that same
love for her will show up for Addie too!

Sunday Outfit of Choice. A little snooze before Church on the bathroom floor.
Sleep is nice work when you can get it!

This is a picture of the super moon on my phone.  I woke Porter up to see it, he loves science and things like this.  I said "Porter, are you awake? Come see the super moon! " He wrapped himself up and we looked at it.  He was sleepy eyed, but impressed.  "Pretty cool, huh?" I ask him.  "Yeah.... but what did you say about Superman?!"  Haha! It's hard to hear clearly when woken up from a deep sleep.  And if ever there is a chance to see Superman, you go!

  

It's Christmas Card time of year!

It's pretty amazing, this time last year we were just 'a hoping to adopt...
and here she is, in my arms!! Miracles happen!

Sweet Addie.  Being 6 can be tough, but she is such
a sweethearted little girl! I am so grateful for her!

Seesters!  I am so glad they have each other.  There is nothing like a sister!

I didn't know I could love this much!  My cup runneth over!

Being silly

Da Girls

Aren't you so impressed that Thomas's tie and Ellie's dress match?!?!
A friend of ours wore that tie to church, and I told him we had to have it for the pictures,
he was kind enough to oblige!

My handsome boys! Don't know what I would do without them!

My Addie

Two little monkeys swinging in the tree...

She loves her Daddy

Ellie singing!

Ellie is 6 months old!

It has been a crazy few weeks.  Ellie's bronchiolitis is still hanging on.  The doctor said the symptoms can last for weeks, and they have.  And all we can do really is treat the symptoms.  Albuterol, Rynex, Tylenol for fever.  The doctor is going to try Pulmicort, it is another medicine that is used through the nebulizer.  Hopefully it can help.  Ellie will have coughing fits, where bubbles come out of her mouth and she coughs until she gags, and usually spits up/throws up some mucousy milk.  It is so sad and pitiful to watch her struggle.  She is still sleeping through the night, but has at least one coughing fit during the night.  That is when I give her an albuterol treatment and she sleeps through it and eventually the cough calms down.  I have never had such a sick kid that lasted so long.  We are into week 3.  Of course Ellie is a special case, being premature and all.  Hopefully the dreaded RSV will leave us alone (which this very well could be).  We are going home to Utah for Christmas, I would hate for it to happen there!  Since Ellie has been sick, the other two kids have been displaced from their rooms.  With the coughing fits at night, I decided to move Addie out of the girls' room, to the top bunk in Porter's room.  And Porter, for some reason, feels like he would rather sleep on the couch in the living room?!  He is getting to be a big boy, I get it.  But I do not like my living room to be a mess of blankets.  It will be nice to get everyone back in their rightful room.  But for now, I am the only one that really needs to be woken up by Ellie's coughs.
   We have been to the doctor several times, mostly because I am a worry wart!  But, it is nice to see that she still is growing like a champ!  Last week, she turned 6 months old and weighed 17 lbs 2 oz, less than a week later, I brought her to the doctor again and she is up to 17lbs 8 oz.  She isn't quite ready for solid food yet... I think she wants to be, but her little tongue reflex to push things out is still pretty strong.  I keep trying to offer her single grain oatmeal cereal.  Hopefully she will begin to be able to eat it soon.  Her head circumference is 42 cm. And she is 2 ft 1/2 in tall.  Her weight is in the 70th or so percentile.  Her head, maybe 50th? But her height is like the 6th! ha! My short little cutie!  Some days she is real chatty and smilely.  And others, she is real stoic and seemingly annoyed by goofiness! hahaha!  I want her to feel all better. It breaks my heart to see her sick.  She is improving. And I got to be patient..... why haven't I learned that yet?!

Here are a few pictures of our goings on!....

It is always fun to work out on Halloween day all dressed up! Try doing a burpee with wings, it's a blast!

Game Night Birthday Fun for those awesome October born gals!

Albuterol.  At least she can suck her binky during it!

She IS a Little Cutie!  And darn it, has the fastest growing, sharpest nails this side of the Mississippi!

She has found her fingers!  They keep her content when
she remembers where they are!

November Birthdays movie Night.  We saw Miss Peregrines home for Peculiar Children. Let's just say the book
was waaaaay better, and the movie was a little.... meh.

At the doctor.  Doesn't she look sad and sick :(

She is praying that the Doctor won't give her a shot!

Praying hard!

Girls Slumber Party!  Porter and Thomas went on a camp out and the girls had a blast!!!

You better believe we checked off every last box on our list!

She's oh so pretty.

Sweet Porter.

November birthdays lunch!