Birthday month

  March contains two of the five birthdays in our family. Abigail and Andrew. Abby's is in the 2nd and Andrew's is on the 15th. It's nice having two close together.  The girls get very excited and the excitement carries over to the next birthday.  It's a lot of fun.
  Abby turned three this year! I can't believe the time that has passed; and yet she's so grown up, sometimes I'm surprised at how long it took to get here. Abby is talking like a pro and has been for the past forever. She is learning her letters and numbers, knows how to spell her name, pray by herself, is fully potty trained, and as of last week can swing by herself, among other things. She adores baby Ellie and is eager to help. She's quick to laugh and puts up a good fight for anything she deems worthy fighting for. I'm excited for what this next year of her life has in store for all of us.
  We celebrated her birthday by throwing a party in our back yard and inviting our closest friends and family. It was mermaid themed, as Abby loves playing mermaid with Kate just about every single day. She puts her legs into her pillowcase, with the pillow still in cased, and insists of being carried to wherever she needs to be. I will indulge her make-believe a few times before I tell her she can turn into a human to get where she needs to go. If I call her Abby during this playtime she responds with, "Not Abby. Mermaid." 

  A week before Abby's party, her new mermaid swimsuit came in the mail.  I think she wore it for 2 days straight.  Her and Kate were so fun to watch as they played pretend.  

  I digress. So, party. It went great. Abby was so excited leading up to it. It was adorable to watch her so happy. She would go around the house and tell each of us, "You can come to my party!" Like I said, adorable! 

  The party went great. We had our bouncy castle up in the back yard along with an inflatable baby pool filed with ball pit balls. Between those two play stations, our play set, and a couple frisbees, all the kids and adults had a great time.  

  Abby blew out her candles like a pro and enjoyed taking a slice of cake to everyone. 

Afterwards, she was delighted to open her presents and play with her new toys.

Kate was excited to watch Abby open her present. :)

After all the presents were opened and her friends had gone home, Abby plopped herself onto the recliner and glued her attention to the tablet.  Oh technology.  Ruining children's childhoods but preventing .  As long as there's moderation in all things, am I right?

  Andrew's birthday went well.  Jared and Kristen threw him a surprise birthday party two weeks before his actual birthday.  He was totally surprised.  We then did our own family celebration on his actual birth day.  It was simple and sweet.  The girls were more than happy to help their daddy with his presents.  

Two birthdays down for the year, three more to go.

Christmas in Florida

  I don't believe in the whole "better late than never" mentality. At least for some things. Writing about our Christmas is one of those things. Once February hits, it's too late. So, here we are!
  Christmas this year was so great! Jon and Noreen came out and we had a wonderful time with them.
  Here is a picture update of all we did:

Grammy came to visit at the beginning of December! Here she is with the girls doing a snowflake craft.

 Posing in front of the tree before taking Grammy to the airport.

We saw Santa!  Bass Pro continues to have great Santas.  Surprisingly enough, our extrovert was the one who was afraid of him this year.  The girls all left with a smile though, after being given candy canes.

The ward Christmas party was a hit.  It was catered and everything was delicious.  We had a great time together and were happy to have Aunt Rachael and Uncle Jared with us.

While the two ambulatories (as Andrew likes to call them) were off running around, Andrew and I were able to get a nice picture with our perfect little Ellie Mae.  She brings us so much joy with her happy little personality!

We went to go see the lights at the zoo with Aunt Melissa, Uncle Jared, and Aunt Kristen (way back during Thanksgiving Week).  While there I dropped my phone.  It broke, ...so I couldn't take pictures for 2 weeks till my new phone arrived.  It was nice to be disconnected from the world for a while but equally as nice to get my new phone in the mail.  We went to the zoo again a couple times and were able to document our trip with all the pretty Christmas decorations.

Ellie loved all the colorful birds.

Aunt Noreen and Uncle Jon joined us for Christmas!  It was so wonderful to see them and their growing bundle of joy.  The girls really enjoyed having some extra someones to cuddle and play with.

Jon and Kate verses Noreen and Abby in a game of Connect Four..  The latter team won!

Our friends gifted us a gingerbread house making kit.  Kate and Abby LOVED putting it together. 

 Kate and Abby still adore Ellie which makes me happier than words can describe.  I love finding them "helping Ellie Mae be happy" and taking turns holding her.

I caught Kate and Abby in Ellie's room after she woke up from a nap.  They were jumping around the outside of her crib, trying to make her laugh.

I love the warm winter weather we are getting here.  Kate and Abby go outside to play all the time and I enjoy not having to bundle them up each time.

Kate and Abby opened their gifts from Grammy and Paka on Christmas Eve so that Grammy and Paka could watch them on their Christmas morning in Beijing.  

Abby loved her magnet book and didn't want to be distracted by anything else until she was good and done playing with it.

And adorable little Kate! Ha, this girl!  She was so excited to get her Elsa cape, gloves, crown, and scepter.  She even put on her Elsa dress to complete her ensemble. 

Santa did a great job filling the stockings and putting the presents under the tree. 

The girls were delighted to open their stockings in the morning!  It was so fun watching them come around the corner and getting so excited at all the presents under the tree and in their stockings.  Kate looked back at Abby and said, "Look Abby!  Santa came!  And he brought presents!! But we can't open them, just look."  :)

Their excitement eventually took over and they dug into their stockings

I'm glad the girls got up when they did otherwise it would have been near impossible to pry them from their new gifts from Santa.  We were able to convince them to step away for a moment to get ready for church.  Right after getting back, we took family pictures.  

The girls had little interest in opening the presents under the tree once getting back from chruch.  They were ready to play with their new toys first!  While they played, I began to prepare Christmas dinner.  

Once dinner was at a good spot to take a break, we opened presents!

Ellie Mae looking adorable with her new Koala Bear

Kate painting her nails by herself with her new Frozen nail polish.  And Abby running around in Kate's new Frozen wings.  Two cuties!

 Kate got this butterfly pillow craft from Santa.  She poked each little piece of fabric into its designated numbered spot, just like the directions directed, and it turned out perfect!  We were so proud of her for finishing the project and for doing it all by herself!

Little miss Abby got the flu over Christmas.  It didn't stop her from eating all the chocolate she could get her hands on though!

Abby passed her germs onto everyone else in the family.  Except Andrew, thank heavens.  Kate got it next, then me, then Ellie. Once Ellie started coughing I knew that she needed to get seen by a doctor.  I took her to the Emergency Room on New Years Day where she tested positive for both RSV and the Flu.  My poor baby was so miserable, moaning constantly, coughing, congested and not comfortable anywhere.  We were sent home with a prescription, however, we couldn't get it filled because it was a holiday.  That night I stayed up all night with Ellie trying to comfort her.  She would not let me set her down so I stopped after the second attempt.  After hearing so many tragic stories of babies dying from common diseases, that's all that was running through my mind.  That this could be my last night with my precious baby girl.  

So I held her, all night, praying for her and trying my best to comfort her.  Andrew set his alarm so that he could be at the pharmacy right when it opened.  A few hours after Ellie got medicine in her system, I could see a little improvement.  The next day she was feeling well enough to smile again and that evening she was laughing.  

This picture below was taken after five days of medication.  Little Ellie Mae was so excited to take a bath!  Ha, how I love this baby girl!  What a total cutie!

By mid January we were all back to our healthy selves.  Gosh, being healthy is such a huge blessing.  You don't know how good you've got it till your stuck in bed all day, sick.  Or...trying to take care of sick kids while also being sick yourself.  

Beach day

  I'm hoping today is the last day of the year that the temperature gets up to 80 degrees. I love hot weather, but not around the holidays. I want chilly weather followed by snow so that I can wear sweaters, and coats, and scarves, and boots. And I want my Christmas tree up a week after Halloween, but if it's not cold out the tree looks silly. As does everything else Christmas-y. Even on Christmas day it all feels silly if it's 60 degrees out. Oh well. Tis my life for the next 5+ years. I'll just blast my Christmas music, close the windows, crank the AC, and pretend it's snowing outside.
  Kinda got off topic. Back to the warm weather... which we did enjoy today, at the beach. We brought lunch with us and as soon as we opened up the food, seagulls flocked to us like it was raining manna all around us. Kate started running with her gold fish, spilling them all around her as she ran, and I swear those seagulls were going to snatch the bag right out of her hands. It was funny and scary to watch all at once. The girls did enjoy scaring them off after they were done with their lunch though. 

  Oh, and it was super windy. Red flag day today. Almost lost our tent while I was setting it up. Much more enjoyable for me when it's windy though. The sand doesn't stick to all of our sweaty bodies and therfore get sand all up in and over my car. Annd, it's much more comfortable nursing Ellie when I'm not so sweaty.