Christmas Fun!

Once again, I deleted the pictures on my camera after I printed them... before loading them on my computer. I've put together some that my Dad had on his computer. It starts with a day of fun making Christmas cookies. We all went to Nana and Pop's house to start this tradition. Elyse is wearing my Christmas apron that I used to wear when I was her age. :-) They were so cute making the cookies.
Our Christmas was fabulous! We had so much fun with all of our family. Elyse is at such a fun age and she really enjoyed being around all the people, looking at all of the Christmas trees and opening presents! And we have thoroughly enjoyed being off with her these last couple of weeks! It was a very blessed Christmas break!!

Elyse's first UK basketball game...

... was probably our best UK basketball experience! Elyse's Mimi was scheduled to come stay with her tonight so Ryan and I could go to the game. This afternoon, we decided that we really wanted to take her, knowing it was not a big game and we could leave early if we needed to do that. So, we took her and we had a ball! Aside from being a bit scared of the starting line-up fireworks and loud noises that came with it, she loved every minute of the experience! She even got on the big screen, the "fam cam" during a time-out!! She was standing on my lap dancing to the band's music and then, there she was on the big screen in Rupp Arena!
At the end of the first half, UK was up by almost 30 and it was almost Elyse's bedtime. So we left, Elyse was disappointed, and Ryan and I were exhausted. But we are definitely up for this again and look forward to many more of these in years to come!!

Elysia Hope and Kylie Hope

We got to spend a few hours with my friend, Emmi and her two month old Kylie today. Emmi and I have decided that Elyse and Kylie are kindred spirits. I have never seen another baby so much like Elyse. I love being around Kylie because she reminds me SO much of my girl. Everything from the fussiness in the evening to spending thirty minutes taking her 2 oz. bottle, she and Elyse are two of a kind. We had a blast and Elyse loved playing with Kylie's toys and the dog. She did not enjoy me feeding Kylie her bottle, as she was overcome with jealousy. She was jealous when Ryan was giving Kylie one-on-one attention too. It is obvious that she is used to getting all of our attention. Don't worry Elyse, siblings are not near in the future!

Elyse and Blake's first visit to Chuck E. Cheese!

Ryan has got to be the best daddy in the world! I asked him where he wanted to eat for HIS birthday and his response was "Chuck E. Cheese because Lysee would love it!" So we went and of course Blake came too for the first visit and it was awesome! They had a blast, as you can see in the pictures. I'm pretty sure this will be the first of many visits there!

We are thankful for...

A good report from the cardiologist! It is SO easy to forget about Elyse's rare heart condition because she is so unbelievable "normal." I am reminded every time we see Dr. Cottrill how truly blessed we are. She still has no concerns about our girl and will continue to see her every three months for the time being. We know that the day will come when Dr. Cottrill says "it's time for the pacemaker." At that time, we know this will be the next step in God's plan for her. Until then, we praise Him because he takes such good care of her heart.

What a nice time of year to be reminded how truly thankful we are be for our little miracle!

Elyse's visit with Aunt Heather and cousin Hayden

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago when Aunt Heather and Hayden came to visit. It was one of the last warm days and Elyse had her first real interaction with bugs! Aunt Heather initiated this, of course, not mommy. :-) It was quite adorable but may not happen again until Aunt Heather and Hayden come back!

We want the warm weather back!

Elyse LOVES to play outside! If we accidentally say the word, she is headed to the door, waiting for us to open it. If we walk outside to get in the car, she is trying her best to get down so she can take off. Now that it's cold, we're trying to tell her that it is "too cold" to play outside. These are some pictures taken on one of the first cold days. You can tell she is cold and not finding much to play with but can't fight the desire to want to be out there. Luckily, after about two minutes, she did turn back to the door to head inside. The poor little thing has no idea she won't get to play outside for months. :-(

Fall Picture at Ms. Sherry's house

Thank you to Ms. Sherry for taking such a precious picture of our little girl! Our babysitter, Ms. Sherry, is such a blessing. She loves Elyse so much (even when she doesn't nap for her) and thinks she is a little princess. :-) She does art projects with her using her little fingerprints, takes pictures of her and sends them to us. We feel so good about leaving her there while we work and know she has so much fun with her friends Madelyn, Nate, and Hunter. Enjoy!

Elyse's 2nd Halloween!

I'm so sad because I accidentally deleted my Halloween pictures from my camera after I printed them. I forgot I hadn't loaded them on my computer. :-( Luckily I had some of her in her costume from a few days ago so I can share those. We had the best time trick of treating last night in downtown Wilmore. We went with friends, Ella and Madison and their mommies and daddies.We went trick or treating with them last year when Ella was 1 year old and Madison was 4 months and Elyse was 3 months. We loved reminiscing about how much they had all changed since we were at Jenny's house last year taking pictures of them. Needless to say, they were adorable in their costumes again this year. :-)

Our slideshow of the pumpkin patch visit!

Here are just a few of our pictures from the pumpkin patch. We had a blast! Elyse and Blake are at such a fun age, ... Enjoy!

Elyse's first trip to the pumpkin patch

We went to the Bi-Water farm pumpkin patch yesterday in Georgetown and had the best time! I can't get my pictures to download for some reason so here is just a short preview picture of what's to come. Blake and Elyse had a ball walking and exploring everything. The only problem was when it was time to get back in the wagon. Once they're free, they want to be free. i will try to download more pics later.

The mommy-daddy cruise

We have just returned from a wonderful get-away cruise! Ryan and I went along with my sister Amanda and Brad and friends, Nathan and Shana. We all have a child under 15 months and it was our first trip for all of us away from our babies! We missed them terribly but managed to have great "couple time!" Getting away really does make us appreciate our time with Elyse even more than we already do. By the end of our three night cruise, we were SO very ready to come home and get back to being "mommy and daddy!"

Fun times with Lysee

School started and that again means that I become a bad blogger. Thank you friends for reminding me that I need to post! I am home sick today with pink eye so I actually have time for blogging!
What can I say other than our little Lysee keeps getting bigger and bigger and stronger and stronger. She has taken her first steps and thinks she is the biggest girl when she does it. She also thinks it is hilarious and ends up falling after a few steps because she is giggling so much! It's funny how they know, even though they are so small, when they are doing something BIG! It's also amazing to see how much they "know" at this age. We never thought we would have to spell words so early to keep from getting a reaction from our 13 month old.

I am posting our most recent pictures that include fun snapshots from around the house, a playdate with Ella (who is enjoying giving Elyse a bottle), and Lysee standing in her daddy's shoes, of course. :-) Enjoy!

On a different note, praise God that Lysee's one year appt with Dr. Cottrill went well. She did an EKG, listened to her heart and then said she didn't think they needed to do an echocardiogram because she looked and sounded "wonderful." We go back in three months and then six months after that! This child is absolutely a miracle, to say the least!

More birthday pics...

I had to add a few more...

Elysia Hope is 1 year old!!

We can't believe it! Our little Lysee has turned one year old. As you can see, she had a blast at her family party! In fact, she ate so much cake that she was a bit sick the next day. We're determinded that she is very spoiled because our living room looked like Christmas morning when all the family left. :-)

We think back about Lysee's first year of life and we realize so much how truly blessed we have been. God has blessed her with great health this year and we stand so very thankful for that. I'm thinking back to the words we heard when I was 5 months pregnant, those being, "she will definitely need a pacemaker at birth" and "she will probably tire out much more quickly than other babies." Elyse is the exact opposite of "tires out easily." So often we look and her and say, "how can you not be tired enough to take a nap??!!" Anyone who is around her a while will tell you that she is quite the energizer bunny. And as for the pacemaker, we were so blessed by Elyse's good health as the pregnancy progressed, the doctors knew well before delivery that this baby was not going to need that pacemaker at birth after all. We know that the time will come when she will probably need one. That may be next month, next year or ten years from now. We stand thankful for the time she's been given without needing that and incredibly thankful that there will be that surgery available to her when she does need it.

So here we are, one year after our little miractle arrived and we want to thank all of you once again, who prayed for our little girl and who continue to pray for her. We always said prayer is powerful and Elysia Hope is definitely proof of that!!

Back to work...

I guess all good things must come to an end. What a great summer it has been for Ryan and I to be at home with our precious Lysee. Although she is a bit spoiled because of this, her first few days at the new babysitter's house went extremely well. I picked her up the first day and Ms. Sherry said, "Katie, she is such a good and easy baby!" Of course we couldn't agree more but who would've thought our little colicky baby would one day be called a "good and easy baby??" What a difference a year makes.

I worked most of last week getting my classroom ready but had my mind made up to take Friday off and stay with Lysee. We enjoyed our last official day off by spending time with good friends, Emmi, Jenny, and Jenny's daughter Ella. We also got a quick visit in with our beloved babysitter from last year, Nicole, and her girls, who as always, gave Lysee all the love and attention in the world. And to top our day, I actually napped while Lysee took her afternoon nap, which I never do and it was great!

And now I start to focus on next week, which holds BIG plans. Can you believe that in less than a week, our precious Elysia Hope will be 1 year old??!!

Our Disney trip!

We just returned from a great trip to Disney World! The kids were so good and I think it made for a wonderful retirement vacation for Mom. We ended up going to the parks for two out of the five days we were there. It made for a fantastic end to our summer.

Play date with Madeline

We had a play date today at my friend Sarah's house and with her 15 month old, Madeline. She is going to be at Ms. Sherry's house next year with Elyse so we wanted them to play together some before they start there. We are quite sure Ms. Sherry will have her hands full with our little blonde girls. They were too cute in their pink outfits and had a big time playing in Madeline's fun playroom!

About the slideshow...

that was the first one I've made and I didn't know how to write along with it so....

The first few pictures are of Elyse on the fourth of July. We went to a cookout in Winchester with some of Ryan's family. Elyse stayed up late for the fireworks and liked them as long as they were very far from her.

We spent the next day with our friends Jen and Nate, and their daughter Madison who is almost 2 months older than Elyse. Madison and Elyse are both pacifier girls and they were hilarious switching pacifiers with one another. They would try each one out and then switch and they never once cried for their own, but just went with whichever one was left. We were laughing hysterically. It really is so funny to get babies together and see what they do. We also tried the girls out with our new "walking wings," which are supposed to help babies learn to walk in a more natural way instead of the adult holding their fingers. This was also hilarious. Madison's daddy, Nate is reading them a book in one of the pictures. We had to take a picture of this because Elyse never sits still long enough to hear an entire book so the second she wanted to look at the book with Madison and Nate, we snapped a picture. Of course after the picture was taken, she was done and back to "exploring," as usual. She is the most active baby ever... :-)

Elyse's first Fourth of July

Pool play date

We had a fun play date at the pool today. We met our friend Jenny, who has 20 month old Ella, Jen, who has 12 month old Madison, and Emmi, pregnant with baby girl not yet named. :-) The water was freezing today and yet our little Lysee was fearless! She terrified me by crawling deeper and deeper in the water. She kept me running after her constantly! And I'm pretty sure I have the best husband ever because he took Lysee home for her afternoon nap and he told me to stay and lay out with my friends! Ahhh... I love the summertime!