Ellie's one year pictures

My friend Bev is so great!  She is alwasy willing to take pictures of Ellie for me when I ask.  She took pictures of Ellie when she turned one.  They turned out so great!

Alexa and B.J. Wedding

 

A.E.'s brother B.J. got married on the 25th. It was a beautiful day and we are so happy to have Alexa in the family. Congrats you two!

Ellie's Eyes

            This post has been a long time coming.  I wanted to make sure things were for sure before writing a post about it.  You have probably noticed in pictures that Ellie's eyes are a little crossed.  At about four months, we noticed that her eyes just weren't straightening out like they are supposed to.  Since things like lazy eye run in my family, I immediately became worried.  I asked my mom and other people what they thought, and they suggest we get it looked at.  I took her into her pediatrician and told her everything we have noticed and how things like this run in my family.  She told me that they don't normally look at their eyes until six months but because of our circumstances we should definitely get a second opinion (thank heavens for good doctors.)  We scheduled an appointment with Doctor Petersen who is one of the best in the state and just happens to be my sisters eye doctor.

            Our worries were confirmed and he told us at the moment her eyes were just far sided (she can't see things up close) but he wasn't too concerned about lazy eye.  He wanted to wait until she was nine months to see how things played out, so we scheduled another appointment and waited. We took her in at nine months and the change was so drastic that he suggested we get glasses.  She is still just far sided and luckily we aren't looking at lazy eye.....yet.  He gave us a prescription and we went to get her glasses ordered.  She got them the weekend I ran Ragnar so I wasn't there to see them the first day but they were sending me pictures to let me know how cute she looked in them. We took her again last week and her eyes are showing so much change with the glasses that we don't need to worry about surgery or patching yet.  This makes us very happy.  We are so thankful for good doctors who didn't just push us aside and really took the time to look at Ellie's eyes.  They sooner we get her in glasses the better her eyes will get.  Hopefully they continue to work and we don't have to worry about surgery or patching.

She does look pretty dang cute in glasses:

Since getting glasses, many people have asked us questions so I figured I would answer them on here.

1.  How long will she have to wear them?  If everything goes as planned and we don't have to deal with surgery or patching, she could be out of glasses completely by the time she is twelve.  Just in time for Junior High.
2. How did the doctors know that her eyes were bad?  I have no idea how it works.  They measured her lens and other parts of her eye.  One thing I do know is that they are excellent at their jobs.  They went to school for it so I figure they know what they are doing.
3. How do you keep them on her?  We don't.  She has to be really distracted or they come off the minute we put them on.  I was working extremely hard to try and keep them on ALL THE TIME.  As you can imagine I was exhausted.  I told the doctor this and he told me I was working way to much and that as long as she wore them for an hour each day, they would work.  Needless to say I am not as stressed.
4. How are we handling this?  I think I am more emotional about it than A.E. but I have surprised myself.  I thought I would be way upset but I guess I figure there could be way worse things wrong with her.  On a scale of bad this is minimal so we are just thankful for that.

Hopefully they continue to work and her eyes get better fast.

Ten Months.

Ellie,
You are now in the double digit months. We can't even believe it.  You are really starting to grow up into a fun little girl.  Just this month we notice that you are not a baby anymore.  You are thinning out and losing your rolls.  You talk all the time and are getting more mobile by the minute.  Your sweet personality is really coming out and you are still charming everyone you come in contact with.  We love you so much and can't believe you have been ours for this long.  We can't believe you chose us and feel like the luckiest parents in the world.  Love you little stinker.
Love,
Mom and Dad

• You started crawling today for real.  You are now a speed crawler and love that you can get anywhere you want to go. 
• You pull yourself up to your knees and love to grab at things that are in your reach.
• Speaking of reach, we have to be fast or anything and everything goes in your mouth.
• You love drinking from a sippy cup and eating everything we give you.
• You now say Mama, Dada, Hi, Hello, Ow.  Your little voice is so cute.  You also wave hi and goodbye and give kisses.
• Whenever you hear Daddy you get SO excited.  You are such a daddy's girl.
• You are so so so ticklish and giggle like crazy when we tickle you.
• You ride in a toddler car seat still facing backwards though.  You outgrew your other car seat.   You love this one way more.
• You are so fascinated with earings and things on people's heads.   You will anything in your power to touch whatever is on their face, ears, head, etc.

My dad and Ellie

                                       To say they liked eachother is a huge understatement.

My dad.

(This was the last and only time my dad saw Ellie. Needless to say these pictures are priceless.)

In less than a week my dad will be back in town. He moved to Dubai for work for the next three years and we don't get to see him very often. My mom will be joining him in March and it feels very bittersweet. I am so excited to see my dad and see how Ellie responds to him. He left the day after she was born and it breaks my heart to think how much she has grown since he left. We skype a lot but it is not the same. Long story short....we will be spending every waking moment we have with my dad for the next three weeks. Love you papa. Can't wait to see you.

Five years.

(I love this picture because no one makes me laugh like you)

Being married to this man for five years has been the best!
We went to dinner last night (because when you are over your due date you fear doing anything big) and talked about how year five has been by far the best and hardest year yet. We talked about how we love eachother way more than we did when we got married and that it feels really good to know that our love is stronger than ever.

A.E.,
I have loved being married to you every second of every day. I would marry you all over again if I had to. I can't imagine life without you.
Love your wife.

We had a party.

Since A.E. graduated from college we just knew we had to throw a party. Thank you to all those who came and sorry to those who got blown away by the wind at the end. I am so proud of my husband and can't believe we are both college grads....It seems so unreal to me.

A.E. really excited about his U of U canopy that his family gave him.

A.E.'s brother and neighbors
A.E.'s best friend Austin
Some cousins

Again I have the most amazing niece in the world!

Some of my family. Nice face Nate.

My grandparents and dad

A.E. and I at 36 weeks pregnant.

Some of his aunts and uncles.

The set up. A.E.'s awesome U of U canopy his family gave him.

These two are in the exact same place as us right now. They are due with a baby a week after us, and Justin just graduated from the U as well. Plus me and Linds are both teachers! I love having friends like this.

Day 17: A hobby.

I have blogged about this before I kind of feel like I am repeating myself so you can go and read about my hobby of sewing under our blog post titled summer. I would link it but I don't know how. If anyone wants to help me figure this out feel free.

Day 13: a picture of someone/something that has had the biggest impact on you

Easy.

Day 8: A picture of you and your friends.

I couldn't resist posting just one picture. These three girls have been the best friends anyone could ask for. I can count on them for anything. I love you girls.

Morgan I wish I had a picture of you on my computer because I would put one of you up here too.

The wedding.

A.E.'s brother Chris got married in August to Ashlee. We are so excited to have Ashlee in the family and me and Katie were excited to get another sister. The day was perfect (although it was a little hot outside) and the sealing was amazing. I always love attending weddings because it helps me to remember what was said at our wedding. They even had the same sealer as us so that was pretty cool. Ashlee looked stunning and we all agree that she is perfect for Chris. Congrats guys! We love you both. Enjoy the pics.

Her bouquet.

Sisters.

All the siblings.

The orginal Harris children.

The newlyweds!