We're thankful for...

Brynt and I are thankful for so many wonderful things this season, especially when we think of the struggles we were going through this time last year with holidays and traveling and a colicky baby. We both have some really exciting goals we accomplished:

Brynt ran his very first 5k at Dexter's Turkey Trot. There were over 1,000 people there and he placed 339th with his best time of 25 minutes. I was so proud to see him work toward and achieve this goal he had been wanting to accomplish for so long with such little effort. He's such a great motivation for Lily and I.

I was accepted into graduate school and could not be more excited to get back to my studies. I will be attending Eastern Michigan University starting this winter for my Masters in Reading in hopes of becoming a Reading Specialist.

Now onto the the thing we're most thankful for... LILY!

If you've read my previous entry, you know Thanksgiving was pretty crazy for us. We didn't take very many pictures, but of course I was able to scrounge up a few to share!

If you're an outsider, I'm sure you think this picture is quite lovely.
Lily sitting with her smiling Uncle Lukie. Those of you who know
better are aware Luke only smiles when he is doing something
mischievous and you are right in thinking that. I would like to
turn your attention to Lily's lingering cry-face as she was just
pinched quite hard by her loving Uncle Luke for the first time ever.
It took her a good 45-50 seconds to actually start crying because
she was so surprised it happened. She has recovered, however, and
has chosen to let that one slide. 

 We took our annual trip to Kentucky for Thanksgiving and were blessed to be able to spend a few extra days there. She exceeded our wildest expectations with her willingness to nap and play in a new, strange place. She loved being the center of attention by all her loving and doting family members and I think that helped immensely in her cooperation. Again, I didn't do a great job with pictures, but here are a few.

Her favorite part of the trip were the kitties and, even more, the kitty toys. The cats were good sports
and put up with her quite nicely. 

She was able to get in some good quality time with her uncles.

My favorite part of the trip was our visit to the Kentucky Horse Park. They have lights set up throughout the park you can drive through. And we're not talking just wrapped around trees and bushes. It's the figures of snowmen and Star Wars and the Twelve Days of Christmas. Lily was so excited to see all of the lights (and also pretty geeked she wasn't strapped into her carseat). Afterwards you go into the gift shop and she showed interest in horses for the first time. If you know me at all you understand how thrilled I was to see this development. Every time she saw a horse she would say "nah nah" for neigh. I couldn't resist picking her up a small plastic horse to help continue this interest.

Post-Thanksgiving always means it's officially Christmas time!
We had a hard time getting things together for Christmas last year
as Lily was quite a handful for us. This year, however, we were on the ball.
We went and picked up a real tree that they strapped to the top of
our car and everything. It was very exciting. 

Here's a little Christmas time sneak peak
just to keep you coming back next time.

I always have to write about the awesome things Lily can do because a lot of it can't be explained in pictures. She has really become a chatterbox, it seems like she's learning a new word every day. (Again, keep in mind I'm behind on my posts so it's currently December 14th). She can say Elmo (Emow), Bye bye see you later (bye bye and then something unintelligible), shoe (shoo) and puppy (pupeee). Her favorite new word has to be "no." I was trying to teach her yes and no so she could let me know if she wanted certain foods or not because I felt like we were wasting a lot. But alas, she only picked up the "no" and uses it frequently. While it can sometimes be frustrating when she says it to everything, it is helpful with food consumption and much better than hearing the whine. She can blow kisses and has even started giving normal kisses with her mouth closed which is equally as sweet and not nearly so messy.

Someday I will actually write a post in a timely manner so I don't have to think a month back to what she was doing because I know I'm missing so many things. It's hard to believe she can learn so much in a month and how easily I forget it! Perhaps next time...

Peter Aaron

It seems odd to not be posting about Lily, but as this blog is entitled "The Ellis Family Story" I suppose I had better stay true to that name and tell you a story.

Brynt and I have the honor of being Godparents to Brynt's cousin's (Holly) son, Peter Aaron. She has always been an important family member so we could not have been more excited for her to experience parenthood. I also had the immense honor of being in the birthing room when she delivered, which turned out to be one of the biggest emotional roller coasters of my life. It is a day (or should I say three days) I will not soon forget.

To make a very long story short (in the loosest meaning of the word), by the time Holly went into the hospital she was 13 days overdue and had an induction scheduled. Things were not going very quickly, either, because she spent a total of 54 hours in labor. She had TWO epidurals put in because the first one wasn't in far enough so the first 48+ hours she was feeling the contractions more than she should have. Just when we thought things were turning around she got a fever because there was an infection in her cervix. It was all quite scary and very tiring but Holly was absolutely amazing through all of it. She never complained she couldn't do it, said it hurt too bad or wanted to quit. She was mostly just craving a Pepsi and a pretzel :) I brought a few things to help distract her and when she was feeling up to it, she liked coloring. We created these lovely masterpieces:



When things weren't going so well (like before her second epidural) this is more like how things were going:

Yes, this is me standing on the bed pushing on Holly's back.

Around 11 p.m. they finally gave her the go to start pushing and we all got a new burst of energy. We could all feel the excitement finally start building after three days of waiting in the hospital. We had a really good rhythm of breathing going and she was a super duper pusher. FOUR hours of pushing later a doctor finally came in and laid it out. Because of Holly's exhaustion she had two options. They could use suction to get him out, but they couldn't guarantee he would fit and if he didn't fit there might be damage. Or they could do a c-section which was risky for her as it is a major surgery. All of the fatigue came crashing down on all of us then and we were devastated. We all knew how worried Holly was about having to have a c-section as any Mom would be and she had been so brave through everything, we couldn't believe it had all culminated to this moment. But she endured once more, pulled herself together like a good Mom would and went into surgery around 4 a.m. 

I felt like I never had before. I was devastated and exhausted and physically hurting and so worried about Holly. This is the part where things kind of turned into a movie for me. The nurse said it would be a few hours before we would get to see baby or Holly because baby would be going into observation because of the infection and Holly would go into recovery. I decided to go home for a few hours to rest as I had my Schroeder family Thanksgiving that day. I had just entered the hallway when I got a call from Holly's sister. "He's here and he's pink and he's screaming!" she yelled. "I'm coming right now!" I yelled back as I ran back past the man at the desk, up the elevator and into the room. Not even 30 minutes later they said we could go back and everyone was doing great. Holly's amazing family let me go back with her Mom first as only two people were allowed back at a time and they knew I had to do Thanksgiving in a few hours. We assumed we were going to see Holly since Peter Aaron was being monitored but as we walked through the doors and turned the corner, there he was. The sweetest, calmest bundle of baby just waiting to see his Aunt Lamb. It was then that everything hit me again but in the most amazing way possible. I had honestly not given much thought to this little bundle of joy since the labor began. My main concern was Holly because if Holly was okay the baby was okay. So when I saw this sweet baby lying there he represented glory and relief and everything that was right with the world and it took my breath away in the most literal sense. You expect your wedding day to take your breath away, you expect your own child being born to take your breath away, but it's those unexpected moments that take your breath away you can't possibly ever forget. Needless to say Aunt Lisa and I were a mess, sobbing all over each other and, as much as we could, over this tiny being that had somehow just changed our lives in that very short moment. Through my swollen tear-filled eyes I could see him turn his head and try to look at me through his swollen and goopy eyes and it was then that I fell in love with this tiny baby boy.

It isn't often we get to witness things as amazing as birth, and I just hope and pray I never take for granted the fact I was invited on this journey to witness a miracle from an outsiders perspective. It's things like this that remind me how important it is to keep your head up because good things come to those who wait.

Dedicated to Peter Aaron born on November 18th at 4:36 a.m. weighing 8 lbs 8 oz

The List

This blog was created to help me preserve my memories from, what I believe, to be my golden years. I don't want to forget anything about this time in my life and I have found it is very easy to do when you don't write it down. That being said, I am going to go out on a limb and write about something honest, and perhaps even a little uncouth. To anyone who might read this, please know I am writing this to help preserve something wonderful and lovely in my eyes.

So here's the honest part: sometimes I create a list of favorite people in my head. I find it helps me keep things in perspective because I'm able to prioritize what is truly important and am therefore able to stop worrying about chores and errands and other insignificants.  I try to keep it to a top five (usually adding a few more along the way) to I make sure it's only the really really important ones. I have been able to trend the fact that it's always family; the ones who have stuck with you through the good and the bad, the ones you spend your holidays and create the most special moments with. The ones who leave your heart feeling extra warm and cared for when you crawl into bed at night. The ones you pray really hard for because you want them to be given every single wonderful thing in the world. Needless to say, these people have also been in my life a significant amount of time- through the really really good and also the really really bad- but a very long time nonetheless.

And here comes the epiphany: It's been a while since I had gone over my list of favorite people so when I started it last night I was almost surprised to find this new addition. It was a Lily. This teeny tiny being who has been in existence for an mere 15 months has somehow wiggled her way into my top favorite people. How is it someone who can't even string together a sentence has completely and utterly changed my whole life? How can someone with approximately 8.75 teeth and hair constantly hanging in her eyes become my all? Of course I knew, even before she was born, what an impact she would have on my life, but thinking about the other people on my list and how long I have known them and everything they've been through to get on this list made me shake my head a little. This tiny creature climbed right up to the top of my list of favorite people the moment her beautiful blue eyes met mine that sunny August afternoon.

I just couldn't stop thinking of my list pre-Lily. There were typically the same top people but then always a huge slew that I always felt guilty about because I really wanted to add a 4.5 and a 4.75 just so they could make the top 5. There are so many awesome, influential and down right beautiful people in my life who I cherish with every part of my soul. So I still feel a little dumbfounded that these babies who we essentially don't know a thing about are our number ones, no questions asked, no ifs ands or buts about it. You just know they were put on this earth to be loved by you and that takes over as your most important job in the world.

So Lily, if you are reading this ten years from now, kudos to getting to the bottom because you're only 11 and this is really long. But I also hope you know how much you mean to me and how much you've always meant to me. I never thought twice about the fact that you were brand new to my life and we hardly knew one another. I know your heart better than anyone in this world because it is made from mine.

I would also like to add a quick note to those who might have been worried about no longer being on my list of favorite people post-Lily.  Please let me assure you that Lily did not replace ANYONE on my favorites list, it simply became just a little bit longer.

Spooky scary

Happy Halloween! Lily is really excellent at two animal noises; one is a kitty and the other is an elephant. I knew I wanted her to dress as one of those for Halloween and it was quite the toss up but we ended up going with the kitty because we could buy the costume in pieces instead of buying those expensive sets at the Halloween stores. We were very happy with the results! 

Here she is at our church group's Halloween party.

First house she trick-or-treated at!

She wasn't incredibly impressed with the whole trick-or-treating
phenomenon as it was incredibly frigid and she had little sleep
that day. Once we got home and she got to go through the
candy, however, it was a whole new story. We didn't let her eat
any because she seemed more interested in playing with it, and
that meant we were able to eat it for her! 

This has to be one of my new favorites.
There aren't very many pictures of Lily and I
both looking at smiling at the camera as I'm
usually the one taking them, so this holds
a special place in my heart. 

Brynt wasn't feeling well here and it was so cute because Lily just wanted to lie next to him while he slept. It so very much warmed my heart.
This is just super cute.

Favorite things Lily does: October Edition. (Please keep in mind I'm writing this in the middle of November so the timing might not be entirely accurate).

She is saying so much more now. I love being able to communicate with her, it's a completely different experience. She can say Pop Pop for Grandpa, cackaaa for cracker (I would say this is her favorite because she absolutely loves club crackers), cheeeee for cheese, appa for apple, kkki for kitty, cra for crayon, and cukkie for cookie (usually as in Cookie Monster but sometimes the food). She can also use sign language for "more" and "all done" during eating times, which has proven to be quite useful, especially because she knows so many food words.

Singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider. For some reason she started absolutely loving this song. She puts the thumb of one hand into the palm of the other for the spider, and she does the rain coming down and then her favorite part is washing it all away. After that she doesn't seem to care since the best part already happened but she still claps at the end every time.

She was really into the show Yo Gabba Gabba, which is so bizzare but it was incredibly adorable when she tried to say it. Then after watching each episode four or five times and having the songs running through my head throughout the day and as I was falling asleep, I decided to switch back to Sesame Street. Probably one of the best decisions I ever made.

She is really into balls right now in any form. She loves throwing them and kicking them, and actually does a really good job. She can kick a ball through our living room, around through the kitchen and back again. I see a soccer star in our future!

I know there are a million more things because everything Lily does is amazing but hopefully we can get to those in another post, I think that's plenty for now! Adios!

Falling leaves and bright orange pumpkins

Keeping up with a blog has proved to be much more difficult than anticipated when I don't have my monthly deadline. I will split this one into two blogs and hopefully be caught up before all of those fun holiday festivities begin!

Fall time continues to be the Ellis' favorite season. There is just something about those bright leaves and crisp, sunny air that makes us feel all warm inside. In between our exchanging of colds and other such sicknesses, we have been able to enjoy many of our favorite autumn festivities.

Fall festivity favorite #1: Playing in the leaves

Not-so-favorite fall activity #2- Carving pumpkins. She wanted
nothing to do with the pumpkin guts...

...but loved the seeds once they were clean.

Playing with a not very impressed Lion.

Latest trick: horsey ride

The Ellis Family: True Story

Warning: I have decided to attempt a new writing format for the Ellis Family Story Blog! Focusing on Lily was such an important thing to do for the first year of her life when things were changing daily, and I truly hope she is able to look back on that with so much joy. I think, however, it might be nice to take a step back and focus on the whole of the Ellis Family in an attempt to preserve all memories. Coincidentally, our life seems to revolve around Lily, so for those who were thinking of giving up on this blog, have no fear; I can assure you will get more than your fair share of Lily news and pictures.

With that said here are some highlights since the last post:

We've been to the Toledo Zoo a few times trying to get our money's worth out of our membership. Plus, who doesn't love a quick trip to the zoo? Lily does, that's for sure. I'm so glad they have the new Elephant exhibit as that seems to be her favorite and we are able to get so close to them now. Her elephant impression is still the cutest thing ever (besides her kitty one).

My sister, Emily's wedding has been front and center in our lives for a little while and I regret to say that the only pictures I have of that event so far are of the Bachelorette party. It also seems we only have this one of her and I, but I can assure you there are many more to come.

We taught Lily how to say "Cheese" for pictures and apparently we close our eyes when we say it because this was her impersonation...

Lily and I had it rough for a few weeks, I think we went through 4 Kleenex boxes and slept more than most people do in their lives. The cuddle time was irreplaceable, however. Here she is with all her comforts: baby, blankie, binki and snacks.

When we named this dear sweet girl, we hoped in our hearts she would be as sweet as her name and that hope seems to become truer each day. She really is such a sweet Lily girl.

We had an impromptu trip to an orchard last weekend. Lily especially enjoyed the animals, namely this goat who she thought was hilarious. She also thought the pumpkins were balls and kept walking around saying, "baa, baa" then trying to pick them up and becoming increasingly frustrated each time she couldn't. It was incredibly adorable.