Sick kids

Several weeks ago I commented on how lucky we had been, in regards to getting sick...neither Caleb or Ella had been very sick in the past year, when other families I knew of were battling colds, flu, strep throat kind of things all the time. I should've been knocking on wood, because that jinxed us big time.
The weekend before President's Day in February, I got Ella up on Saturday morning and was met with the ominous smell of vomit when I opened her door. This is never a good sign. She had puked all over her crib and for who knows how long was sleeping in it. Eww. I cleaned her up and that was that. She seemed ok for most of the time but didn't eat like normal. Sunday morning, same exact thing happened. I was dreading opening her bedroom door! Monday I had the day off, Ella was getting pictures taken at JCPenney and I also had an appointment to do our taxes. She didn't wake up with puke, so I figured we were good to go. She still wasn't acting herself but no fever, no more puking....we went to pictures with Auntie Dua. Ella was scared at pictures, I had to sit with her at the beginning of the session..and I recalled doing almost the same thing with Caleb at that age. She warmed up a little and we got some okay shots. That night, I woke up feeling nauseous and sure enough, starting throwing up too. I spent hours in the bathroom and knew for sure I wasn't going to work on Tuesday. Ella seemed fine again so I brought the kids to daycare and headed back home to sleep. As I was driving home, Denise (our daycare provider) called with the news that Ella had thrown up! No!! I had to pick her up and we spent the day trying to recover. That afternoon Denise called again...Caleb was in the bathroom puking. My mom went to get him and he stayed home that Wednesday with Marshall, who by now was sick too. This thing was taking over our family! Ella went to daycare that day but Thursday morning threw up again. It seemed to be neverending. I took her to the doctor and they assured me it was just a nasty bug...nothing to do but wait and keep her hydrated. The rest of us were fine after 24 hours or so but this hung on for over a week for poor Ella. She had diarhhea for a long time, ended up with a fever for a day or so and on top of all this, cut her first molar! It was a rough couple weeks. Below are some pictures I took during that time....you can see in their faces they just don't feel right! Poor kids.

Valentine's Day

Here are some pictures of my little Valentines. They had a party at daycare on Valentine's Day...exchanging Valentines with all the other kids. Caleb brought paper airplane cards and Ella's were puppies and kitties. Caleb had a fun time getting these ready to share! I bought the kids each something little, my parents always did this for Valentine's Day so I want to continue the tradition for my kids. Ella got a Elmo book and Caleb got his first real Bakugans (as opposed to McDonald's Happy Meal Bakugans)...Caleb was SO excited. It was a hit. I don't really know what bakugans are or what they do, but he thinks it's pretty cool and couldn't wait to tell the older boys, Ethan and Dakota, at daycare.

Ella's birthday party

We had Ella's 1st birthday party the weekend after she turned 1...so the last weekend of January. Marshall's dad and stepmom were able to come down from North Dakota so Caleb had a sleepover at their hotel and spent the day (before the party) swimming, hanging out and even going to a movie! He had such a great time and really looks forward to their visits...he had been counting down for days beforehand.

The big party was held at my parents' house..we decided to do it there for a couple reasons..we knew Marshall's stepmom would be coming and she's very allergic to our cat, so this made it easier for her to be there. Also with all the snow we've had, parking in front of our house would be a challenge for a lot of people. Luckily, my parents had no objections to helping us out! My mom and brother made pans of lasanga and like always they all helped me with all the preparations. I am so lucky! (I think I've mentioned that a few times.) We had a great turn out of family and friends...ALL of Ella's grandparents were there, Aunt Laura, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Joey, Aunt Chelsea, my Aunts Karen, Kathy, Ellen (and her friend Bob) and Louise (and Uncle Ray), my cousins Angela, Jenna (and her husband Mark and daughter Kate), and Michele (and her husband Todd and son Nicholas) and my friend Nicole and her kids, Sammy and Chase. We always feel so blessed when surrounded by such special people who love our kids so much! Ella really enjoyed her day and loved all the attention...she was super hyper by the end of the night and just funny to watch. She got into opening gifts (she got a lot of nice summer clothes, toys/books and even her own little chair!) but she was still pretty wary of the cupcake. Aunt Laura (Dua) made the beautiful princess cake and cupcakes!! It turned out so nice for our little princess...we had such a fun day.

Dua and Caleb

Just a quick post...here's a cute picture of my sister Laura (aka Dua) and Caleb. My sister is so good to my kids...so glad she's around this year at home to see them on a regular basis(well, when she's not working or at school!). Caleb loves to spend time with Dua. And Ella too! We really have the best family. :)

Cupcake time

Here's a few pictures from Ella's actual birthday, January 20th. I'll have to post party pictures later! We had cupcakes after dinner that night and Ella had no interest in that at all. She opened a couple gifts (clothes from me & Marshall and a baby crib from Caleb..which he picked out, with my help) and she was really into that! She loved taking off the wrapping paper and she really likes all her baby stuff. She puts her babies in the crib and tries to push it around.

Mr Caleb

Here are some recent pictures of Caleb...almost 4 1/2 now I guess! He's been doing just great lately...growing like a weed, sometimes he looks so much older than 4 to me! He seems really tall. He's outgrowing clothes super fast these days. He really enjoyed Christmas this year (ok he loves anything that has to do with presents!) and in some of these pictures you can see him enjoying new toys...the kitchen was a Christmas gift to both Ella and Caleb from my parents. He's also dressed up like Mr. Napa using a tool set my dad bought him...he asked me recently if he could have a Napa t-shirt! He loves that kind of stuff, always interested in tools and fixing things. One of the things I looked forward to the most before Ella was born was to see Caleb interact with a sibling...and it's been great. He's so good with Ella and often tries to play with her. And as I've said many times, she loves him SO much! I'm so happy about that.