Flower Girls

Last weekend we were in Idaho to celebrate the marriage of Josh and Jordan. Jordan, my cousin, is one year younger than me and we spend a lot of time together growing up. She was our maid of honor 10 years ago. I was honored to be a bridesmaid in their wedding; Ellie was a flower girl. Here are a few pictures taken after the ceremony.

The happy couple.

Showing off her flowers.

The flower girls together: Ellie and her cousin Abby.

Ellie did very well at the wedding, when you take into account that she is two and has a mind of her own. She was fantastic during pictures and the hour or so waiting for the ceremony to start. She and Abby walked down the aisle together and were adorable. About two minutes into the ceremony Ellie started talking (telling Abby to stop holding her hand) and growling very loudly... After a few attempts at quieting her on my part, and a hand placed over her mouth by Abby, Tim sneaked to the front and removed her. Oh well, it could have been worse!

The wedding was beautiful. Jordan's dress was stunning and her choice of flower girl dresses made for a very simple and classic look. We bridesmaids all chose our own black cocktail dress and shoes. The guys were in black tuxes, but not matching. It all worked so well together. I am excited to see the professional photographs when Jordan and Josh return from their honeymoon.

Library Concert

Ellie and I went to our local library a couple of weeks ago for a kid's concert. It just happened that the lady who taught her music class last winter was performing, so off we went. Ellie had a blast, even though it was hot on the concrete in the sun!



Singing "Old McDonald" - Ellie had a cow puppet.



After about 15 minutes we moved back to the shady trees. Not as good of a view, but much more comfortable. Ellie is holding an egg shaker.

Showing off her shaking abilities.

Sorry, No Pictures

Well, I don't have any new pictures to post, but I thought I'd update the blog anyway.

Ellie and I have been keeping busy with swim lessons and park trips the last two weeks. She has one more week of lessons and then we will be getting ready to head to Idaho for Josh and Jordan's wedding! Ellie is going to be a flower girl and she is very excited about it. She may not have a clue what it means, but still she tells us every day, "I am a flower girl!" After hearing a description of the dresses from Jordan, I am sure that Abby and Ellie will look absolutely adorable!

We have a nice family weekend planned to celebrate my birthday on Sunday. I can't believe I am turning the big 3-0 this year. I suppose you can't believe it either, Mom! Tim, Ellie, and I are going to try and make it over to a working "kids" farm tomorrow morning. (We were supposed to go with Hailey, Berlin, and Jamison this morning but they were closed. Three little ones were very disappointed!) The farm has lots of animals to play with, eggs to gather from the hen house, a big sandbox, lots of trikes, and tons of other things to do. Tomorrow afternoon Hailey has graciously offered to watch Ellie while Tim and I go see Harry Potter at the theater. We still haven't left Ellie with a babysitter; tomorrow was supposed to be the first, but Tim backed out... :) Luckily, Hailey came to our rescue!

We told Ellie that it was going to be my birthday this weekend. Ellie replied with, "Oh Mommy! Can I come to your party?" I believe that she is picturing something involving a bounce house... She also pointed out that she would get to eat cake. I hadn't really planned on a cake, but I don't want to disappoint her. Any excuse for cake, right?

Hopefully I will have some new pictures next week. We went on a beautiful hike last weekend, but forgot the camera. Ellie hiked almost two miles, and would have gone more if we hadn't put her in the pack so that we could move a little faster. She is our active, outdoor girl!

Overdue

I know that this post is long overdue. We have been so busy this summer that it seems like I never have time to sit down at the computer to update the blog. We spent the Fourth of July with Tim's folks (avoiding all the neighborhood fireworks here - maybe next year we'll stay home and let Ellie enjoy a sparkler or two). We've been spending a lot of time each day outside at the local parks, pools, and just playing in the front yard and alley. Ellie's big accomplishment is that she can pedal her trike by herself now. She figured it out last month while I was recovering from surgery and now it is hard to keep up with her!

I will be leaving Ellie overnight for the first time tonight. After Tim gets home from work I am heading south to go rafting tomorrow. Tim and Ellie will hold down the fort until I come home tomorrow night. I am halfway tempted to cancel my plans and stay home, but I am sure that they will be just fine without me!

Anyway, on the the pictures.

Ellie and Sebastian playing in the backyard:






Feeding the geese (4th of July):




At a wool market and llama, sheep,goat, etc show in a nearby mountain town:

Intentions...

I had fully intended on sitting down to update the blog right about now; however, we are having one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever been in. In fact, I am keeping an ear out for the tornado sirens to start! (Mom, Grandma, etc don't worry - they rarely mean anything around here. I know that all of you Kansas relatives are thinking, "They worry about tornadoes there? I'll tell them about tornadoes!")

So instead of blogging, I am going to turn off and unplug the computer until the storm passes!

Recovering

It has been two weeks since my surgery and things went very well. I just got back all my biopsy results today and everything was good (no cancer, etc). My doctor did say that my uterus was not in very good shape and it was quite obvious that it was not functioning correctly. Based on what he told me I am glad we had decided not to have any more children after Ellie; I don't know if it would have been possible if we had wanted to, and quite possibly would have led to much disappointment. In the end, it seems as though surgery was the correct decision.

My recovery is going well and I just have a small amount of lingering tenderness. It was so nice to have my mom here to help out during my surgery and for a few days after. Tim's mom, Cheryl, came up and entertained Ellie for me when Tim went back to work. I had a few wonderful friends who brought us meals during the week after Cheryl went home. I've been so thankful for all the help!

Last Friday Tim and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. It is amazing to both of us that so much time has passed since we said our "I dos." Tim, Ellie, and I went out to a nice Japanese restaurant near our house to celebrate. Ellie tried sushi for the first time and was determined to use chopsticks instead of the silverware. We had a very nice time spending the evening as a family.

Here are a couple of quick pictures from a hike we took the weekend before my surgery. Ellie hiked the entire one mile loop on her own and just kept saying, "We're hiking in the for-ust (forest) Mommy and Daddy! I love the for-ust so much. It is my favorite." The pictures are in reverse order. As you can see, by the end of the hike we had to pull out the rain gear.

Countdown

Well, I feel like the countdown to surgery day has begun. I spent all day today cleaning the house - I figure it will be a couple of weeks before I feel up to doing that again. Tomorrow morning I go to the doctor for my pre-op appointment. After that, over to the hospital for blood work and other pre-surgery tests. Thursday my mom flies in and Ellie and I make the drive to the airport to pick her up.

Then it is the big day... I have to be at the hospital at 10:30 Friday morning and my surgery is scheduled from noon until 4:00pm. Tim is going to stay home with Ellie and my mom will drive me to the hospital and back. We figured that would be the least disruptive to Ellie's schedule, since the following days are going to be a bit confusing to her.

My mom will stay until Monday, and then Tim's mom has kindly offered to come stay with us for a few days once Tim has gone back to work. I am hopeful that the recovery will only take a week or so. My doctor is using the Da Vinci Robot for the procedure (if you are a Grey's Anatomy fan, this is the robot they show in the season finale) and it is supposed to dramatically reduce recovery time from a standard hysterectomy.

I'm a bit nervous, but overall I am excited to finally be rid of the constant pain (and other things I won't go into detail about!).

I have some great pictures from our recent trip to Idaho and some of a hike Tim, Ellie, and I went on last weekend. I will do my best to get them up before Friday!