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!