What can fix everything?

I know this isn't a chronological update, but I had to post a sad event that happened for Ella on Friday. It started off a relatively normal day. Not normal part of the day...Ella decided not to nap, which is the first day that has ever happened. Really, no big deal. But, Jeremy had to get home late, I had no food for dinner, no nap and I was by myself....I thought it best to get out of the house. So, the kids and I decided to have a night on the town and check out the new Chick-fil-A that just opened. Ella brought her baby doll along which she has been the best "mommy" to this week. Ella loves to have her window down in the car. So, on the way, I rolled it down. About a minute later I hear "my, baby, my baby..." I didn't respond initially because, well as many of you know, you can't respond to everything with kiddos 24/7 or you loose your mind! So, I hear it again "my, baby"...but a little more frantic now... Then it clicks in my mind! I ask what happened to your baby Ella and she says "she fell out the window". Weird thing about this is that earlier this week I had this fleeting thought that maybe I should not roll her window all the way down for fear that she could throw something out the window...and then it happens. I am sure she didn't throw her baby out on purpose. She probably wanted the baby to see out the window and the air sucked her out. Nevertheless, I knew I had to go back and find her. I had to go back a ways because I didn't really know when the baby fell out. A mistake of mine was to ask, "Ella, why did you throw your baby out the window? She could get run over by a car." First, I know I shouldn't ask "why" because they never know why or tell you why they do things at this age, but second, she hadn't thought of that yet. So, the sobbing and tears started and "Mommy, find my baby!" over and over again. I started to feel a little panicked...I was so sad for her because I knew her heart was so hurt about loosing her baby but then also, the longer it goes, the more unsalvageable and harder baby will be for us to put baby back together. Fortunately, I found the baby about 1/4mile back laying in the middle of the road. So, as much as I hated to leave them alone in the car by themselves...I had to do it. I ran back to get baby but I had to wait minutes before I could find a break in traffic during rush hour. I have no idea how I did not cause an accident. Baby did not fare too well; she had been run over. She had black marks all over her legs from being smashed into the pavement and one leg was torn half off. I tried to clean her off the best I could with wet wipes before I gave it back to her, but there was not much I could do. Ella didn't seem to notice how bad she was at first...she was just glad to have her back. Ella said "Her legs are black...mommy, we need to clean her off." I assured her I would try again when we got home. Then (second mistake), I pointed out the fact that her leg was half off. This brought tears again and "She needs a Band-Aide". Two things I can learn from this...before you roll windows down in the car, tell your kid not to drop something out of it and second, Band-Aides can fix everything!

Growing Up

'We have not posted in a while...but, just wanted to share a quick picture of the kids. Caleb is already 9 months old and started crawling last week. They are such a blessing to us. Will catch up with more news soon.

Help yourself to an apple!

One day I came back out to the playroom where Ella had been playing by herself for a while only to find that she had helped herself to an apple! This picture is when I found her.... I had no idea she knew how to eat an apple like this. She's been watching Daddy since Mommy only eats apples with the handy apple slicer!

New Years Visit

We spent New Years Day visiting family in San Antonio. It is rare to have everyone there at one time - all the way from Minnesota, California and Germany! It was a fun day. Ella met her 2nd cousin Coleson and they played at the park together. At the park, Ella found something fun to play with...

Christmas

This year we were up in the Dallas area visiting my side of the family. Before we left though, we had a little Christmas evening with just our little family. We gave Ella a play kitchen for Christmas, but honestly, she loved her candy cane almost as much! Ella enjoyed so much all the Christmas decorations outside. She talked about snowmen and baby Jesus all the time and frequently thought Santa Claus was Noah. She still wants us to sing "Away in a Manger" before she goes to bed at night. Here she is holding baby Jesus from a Fisher Price nativity at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma Boo and Grandpa Martin bought a rocking horse to have at their house when the grandkids visit and Ella had a lot of fun!Ella got to spend a lot of time playing with her cousin...each time they see each other they are more and more interactive...it is fun to watch.

Ella helped decorate Christmas cookies...well, she honestly ate more icing than she spread on the cookies, but she did a really good job. Here she is peeking up to see if Grandma Boo is watching her take another taste of frosting even though she knew she was not supposed to!
Here are a few of Caleb...

Here are a few family pictures. The first is me, my mom and my sister. She is due with her baby in middle January. The second is my mom and my stepdad, Martin...with Caleb. The third is my brother Cory and his wife Stephanie - they were just married in July.

A few before Christmas...

The weeks before Christmas seemed like a very busy time this year, but we managed to get some pictures worth sharing.

Caleb playing...

Ella loved seeing snowmen this Christmas season...of course not real snowmen but decorations! :) There was a huge blown-up one at a neighbors house that she talked about and wanted to go see everyday. We would have to explain to her that the snowman would "go to sleep" during the day and then "wake up" at night because she didn't understand why the snowman was not inflated during the day. Here she is with her neighbor friends.

Caleb eats cereal! Because Caleb is already so big (over 17lbs and wearing 12mo clothes) the pediatrican said to start giving him cereal. Here is his first taste of yummy rice cereal. He was not a big fan at first, but has recently starting doing better with it. He is now up to 2tbs at bedtime and opens his mouth for them.

Thanksgiving

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We spent the weekend in Plano visiting Cami's family.

Here's everyone!