Beach Trip 2009

We made the trip down to Ocean Isle Beach for a week this past week. Dan had to stay back to work, so it was my parents with all the grand kids and me. We had a blast. This is the first time in years I have been able to spend a whole week at the beach. It was such a nice week, no rain and, it was not hot. Plus we had a pool. This was Ellie's first beach trip, and lets just say we didn't spend much time on the beach with her. If she wasn't eating a fistful of sand, she was screaming her head off because she hated the ocean. We spent a lot of time in the pool, she absolutely loved the swimming pool.
Dan got to come join us on Friday, so we drove to Myrtle Beach and spent the day shopping. I have to say one thing I miss at the mall is the Disney Store, the kids loved it. On our way home, we stopped at the outlets in Myrtle Beach. and Dan went off chasing my nephew and heard a "kerplunk", and Madison had fallen into the fountain. It was hilarious! Anyway, it was a really good week. Here are just a few highlights.

Sea foam made from the hurriacane. They loved palying in the bubbles!A friend in Myrtle Beach got us into an awesome water park!

Sleepless nights ahead for us!

Ellie and Madsion riding in the Barbie jeep

Madison has had a croupy cough for about 2 weeks, and Friday night she was so restless and screaming her ear hurt. Finally we got some Motrin in her and kicked daddy out of the room and got a little sleep. Saturday we woke up and Madison was completely fine, we had a good shopping trip to Burlington ( I must say I LOVE Peaches N Cream). We get home and go to bed only to wake up to her screaming her other ear hurt, GREAT! we got about 3 hours of sleep Saturday night. Of course, we wake up Sunday and she is fine. I decided maybe we need to see a doctor on Monday. We of course can't get an appointment until late in the afternoon, and BINGO double ear infection. Now the cough we are not sure what it is. She has no congestion or another cold symptoms. It could be asthma another GREAT! So, we are on antibiotic for the ear infection and possible whopping cough, and no to make it all better Albuterol. Which I am told turns your kids in to monsters. So please pray we adjust to her being on albuterol.

In Ellie news - this is what we woke up to the other morning.

Yes Ellie is now pulling her self up and standing. She is growing up way too fast.

4th of July

We came back from vacation a day early so we could take the kids to the fireworks. This was of course Ellie's first ,and Madison has not been in a couple of years. Last year Dan's grandfather passed away, so we didn't get to go and the year before we were on vacation. They both did really good. Ellie was not scared a bit and watched about half of the fireworks and then fell asleep. Here are a couple of pictures of our little sparklers!

Summer

WHEW! It has been a while. This summer has been so busy that my little blog has been forgotten. Dan was gone for a week in June, and it totally through me off being a single mother for a week with 2 kids. WOW! that was not easy.

I quit my job at Polliwogs so I can be home more during the day. Working those long hours were just too much and I wanted to be with my babies and spend time with my husband this summer since he is off. It really is a fun place to work, but 8 hours days is a lot when you have to come home to two little ones. I will be working at the girl's preschool 2 days a week for the summer.

Last week we went to Smith Mountain Lake for a week with my family. I LOVE the mountains. It is so peaceful and relaxing, and we just had the best time. Here are some pictures from vacations.

First and Last Day of Preschool

Today was Ellie's first day of preschool. I decided to put her in school two morning a week just to give me a break (actually she will only be going one day a week since I now work at the preschool on Friday with her). I was so upset when Madison went her first day, but with Ellie it was some what of a relief. I just felt like I needed one morning a week to take Madison out with just her and no crying baby. We had a blast today I took her shopping and let her get some new pajamas and we just had fun together. I forgot to take a picture of her on our way to her first day this morning, but obviously she had fun because this is when we got home.

Each year at the end of the school year the little ones put on a show for the parents. IT was so cute this year, but sad. Madison's class did their performance along with the graduating 4 year olds. I realized that next year it will be my baby walking across the stage graduating preschool. She is growing up to fast. I could not get my videos to upload for some reason, but here are a few pictures.

Daddy's Kids Cuisines

For preschool this year, Madison received a little "yearbook" from her teachers. The title was Kid's Cooking" In it were pictures of all her friends, and they asked each kid "what is the best thing you mom/dad cook and how do they cook it?" This was what Miss Madison had to say:

"Daddy goes to the store and buys 10 Kid's Cuisines. They go in the refrigerator. He uses a microwave. He picks out the dinner I eat. I like nuggets best with corn, pudding, and spaghetti. It cooks for a ling time and stops. He has to turn it on again. When it stops, it's done and I eat it hot."

Some of these responses are so funny. I know this is a book we will keep forever.

Happy Mother's Day!

I always wondered why we just take one day out of the year to honor our mothers. I mean shouldn't everyday be Mother's Day? After all mothers do hold the most job titles of anyone -doctor, cook, teacher, psychologist, the list goes on and on. I am so grateful for my mom. She has taught me so much, and I would not be the mother I am today if it was not for her. So, thank you mom for putting up with me and being there when I needed you most. I hope you honor your mothers not just today, but everyday and pray for them and thank God for what they have taught you.

As I celebrate being a mother of two today, I look back at this time last year we never even thought Ellie would be here. Well 6 months ago to the day a phone called changed our lives forever. We had no idea. So here is the story of Ellie:

About 8 months ago we received an email from our social worker that was sent out to several families. The email told us about a white female and a black male that were due in October and where given the baby up for adoption. The birthmother had done drugs and was incarcerated for 3 months and had just been released. They would be showing profiles to him and her this week and needed to know who would be interested. Also, we had been informed a week earlier that the little boy Dan and I were adopting and the mother changed her mind a day later was being put back up for adoption, but they wanted a home with no other kids ( we were once again very hurt). Anyways, back to Ellie. several weeks went by and I just figured they had picked another family. Well I went to work on Monday and about 11 my cell phone rang and it was the social worker and she reminded me of the situation and that the baby had been born and tested positive for cocaine and opiates and they needed to know if we were still interested. I had to call Daniel and we had to make a decision right away. Oh, we didn't know about her because she is actually 1/4 Cherokee Indian and they had to have a tribal council to approve her adoption. Well obviously we decided to go for it, after all they were just showing our profile to them. WRONG! They had actually picked us, and wanted us to be the parents of their baby girl. To make a longer story short, we were told to come pick her up the next day. So we spent our last night of sleep putting up a baby room.

As many of you know the drugs made it a very difficult transition for our family. There were nights we would put her in the car at 2 and 3 am and drive around to get her quiet. We cried a lot, and learned to have more patience because we had to. Today she is perfect. She is one of the best babies and I could not have asked for more perfect kids.