Life in the 'sipp: 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!