Happy Birthday, Sabrina

My adorable niece, Sabrina, is two today!  Wow!  I cannot believe it!  

On birthdays of the little guys, I love to remember all the details of that special day - the day she was born! We were not in St. Louis the day she was born, but I remember lots of phone calls that day, anticipation and celebration!  We got to see her the weekend after she arrived - she was almost a week old.  Babies are such blessings to our families, and we are so happy to have our sweet Sabrina! 

Of course, I have to share some great pictures of this little chick-a-dee!

You know how I am with the newborn shots.  This part just doesn't last long enough!

Look at all that dark hair!

Sabrina's first birthday!  

Delicious!!!!

 We are having so much fun watching our 3 kiddos become such good buddies with "Sabrin-o" - as Eli has nicknamed her!  

Susanna and Sabrina are both into Elmo, so the Elmo party this weekend should be a lot of fun. 

(I just hope Susanna is not too bossy and shares a little bit!)

 Some pics from our FL trip...

  

What a good lookin' trio!  Love you guys!

Happy Birthday, Sabrina (AKA Sabrin-o and Bina)!!

Can't wait to celebrate this weekend!

 

Good News!

Praises today!  The ENT office called to tell us that Susanna's blood work all looked NORMAL!!!  Hooray!  No horrific allergy level and no immune deficiency.  So, we will go back for our sinus recheck next Wednesday.  I'm very excited for that visit - if nothing is showing up in bloodwork, why is she staying sick?  She has been on an antibiotic now for 2 of the 3 weeks and woke up this morning with drainage coming out of one ear.  The ear drops will moisten that stuff to prevent her tube from clogging - the tube is doing the job of draining any infection from sinuses and ears.  I can't wait to hear what our next step is!  Thank you for all your prayers!

I had to share this video of her. When we take and pick up Madeline from school, there is a crossing guard who stops the traffic.  Susanna loves her! Well, one day, we got out of our car, and she looked at all the cars on Goodlett and put up her little arms like the crossing guard and yelled for them to STOP!  She is a funny girl!

Last weekend I took the big kids to see the Cinderella ballet at the Orpheum!  Ballet Memphis does this wonderful thing where you can get $5 tickets to see their shows.  The seats are typically along the sides of the theater, but really, most seats are great in the Orpheum.  We could see everything!  Otherwise, at $70+ a ticket, our kids would not be going to a ballet anytime soon!  The ballet was awesome - I'm always amazed at what they can do with their bodies.  Wow - I can't imagine!!!! The kids were at good ages to pay attention and enjoy the show - Eli didn't fall asleep this time, so that was a big improvement over the Nutracker!

 Snack at intermission - might be their favorite part of going to shows at the Orpheum!

After the show they had an autograph signing session!  This was so fun!  Both Eli and Madeline enjoyed getting the signatures, but only Madeline liked the photo ops!

Cinderella and the Prince...

The Fairy Godmother...

One of the dancers, Rachel, who we saw when she was Dorothy in Wizard of Oz a few years ago.

The Stepmother....

When we got to the stepsister, Eli was all about getting a picture.  He thought they were hilarious!  (Only one was out giving autographs.)  We read in the program that often times ballet companies will play men as the stepsisters.  They do really funny things pretending to be these clumsy girls!  Eli LOVED them!!! At one point, one of the wigs fell off - I really thought both the kids were going to fall out of their chairs - they were belly laughing so hard!

 Have a great weekend!  Hope to update again soon!

Happy Birthday, Dacee!

Our sweet little niece, Dacee is 2 today! Wow, time flies (I'm sorry I say that ALL the time!)! We haven't seen her since last June, and that's WAY too long - they live in South Alabama, and with all of us with young children, it's hard to make the trip more than once or twice a year!! She is adorable and getting so big! She, Susanna and her little brother Ryen are going to be so tight - so nice to have cousins so close in age!

I can't resist sharing the newborn picture - it's always so amazing to me to look back and see how much they've grown and changed!

Dacee on her first birthday!

Here are some pictures we've gotten recently!

Happy Birthday and we love you, Dacee! Wish we were there to celebrate with you!!! Can't wait to see you soon!

I need more pictures - I love pictures!!! (Hint, Hint!!!!!)

Elmo, etc!

Wow, I'm so sorry, AGAIN!!!!!! It's been almost three weeks. I promise I will get back to the blog more consistently! My goal is to post twice a week. I apologize I've been so lax......

Well, we have been up to some fun things! We went to Elmo Live which was really fun. Susanna - and really all the kids - love all the characters. We bought the CD of the music from the show and every time the first song comes on, she says, "Elmo.... Live... Good!" I think she liked it!

Sticky cotton candy fingers!

We bought these binoculars, too! We do like to get souveniers from things we do, but definitely like it to be something we don't end up throwing away a couple weeks later. We still have a pair of binoculars my Aunt Stephie got Madeline from the zoo 3 years ago. Hopefully he will get a lot of use out of these!

Madeline's class did their skit for Family Gathering at school. Each class does this once a year. They acted out "People Smart!" They showed examples of caring, sharing and concern for others in the form of a news cast on CNN - Campus News Network! Very cute! Madeline and Frances were dressed up as older people at a retirement home that the kids were visiting. Abby is a soccer player playing as a team and Ruby is a PhD expert on People Smart!

A friend from church, Katie Futrell, had a fun Easter egg hunt at her house! It was great to see the kids having so much fun with all their friends from church! It was nice to hang out with the moms and dads, too!

The weather has been beautiful! We've been trying to enjoy being outside, but with our family and their allergies, it's really tough. Poor Eli has been miserable despite being on 2 allergy meds, a decongestant perscription, a nasal spray AND allergy shots! The allergist put him on a steroid for 4 days to get him over the hump of this pollen season. He does seem to be quite a bit better now. These allergies really do a number on Eli, Sus AND Tim! I finally convinced him to go to the allergist to be tested. He did this last week, and he is just like Eli - allergic to "life," as the doctor put it - My poor boys! Tim will be starting shots soon, too, and is already feeling better with some allergy meds more tailored for him!

Here we are at Kite Day for Eli's class!

Our beloved, Miss Alyson reading the boys a book. We just love her and are so thankful for how she loves and teaches our kiddos.

Speaking of allergies .... Susanna just got diagnosed with another sinus infection yesterday. She was on an antibiotic for 3 weeks, it cleared, and now, it's back. She is on allergy medicine and a nasal spray.... Since this is the 5th sinus/ear infection she's had since January, we are going for bloodwork tomorrow at Le Bonheur. Eli had this done, too. They are looking for an immuno-deficiency (most kids grow out of this) which means she would need to be on a low dose antibiotic for a while to keep infections at bay. This test for Eli showed he did NOT have an immuno-deficiency, but it did show his severe IGE level - allergy level (supposed to be under 150, his was 497 - YIKES!) Anyway, so we'll see what this shows - hope to give you a report next week!

Oh, and Madeline got diagnosed with strep throat Monday after school. She is feeling much better now! She missed one day of school and was back at it full force on Wednesday! As my friend Shannon says, "You can't make this stuff up!"

I promise to better about updating!!!!!