Spring Break

"California here I come...right back where I started from......Open up that Golden Gate...California here I come!"

So yes, for spring break the girls and I went to CA.  That song was in my head as I was packing the night before.  Of course, as I wrote it just now, it occurred to me that not everyone knows it!  Ha!

We stayed for over a week and had such a great time!

We bundled up and headed for CA:

The girls watching for the airplane.

It was cold, wet, rainy and wet when we got there.  (Did I mention it was wet??)  I laughed that when I was packing, we were in shorts and t-shirts with the AC on, and yet I was packing long pants, jackets and fleece pajamas! Out of 10 days when we were there, it was only sunny 3 (which includes the day we left CA to come back home). But even though it was rainy, we still had a wonderful time!

Pouring rain as we drove on the freeway from the airport.

We were able to have lots of fun "inside activities".  My mom is pretty creative and made this great puppet theater for the girls:

My Grandma and Ella putting on a show.

And that was a video of my mom and Abby putting on a show.  Such fun!  The girls also LOVE to play both the piano and organ at Grammy and Grandpa's.  I think every day there were several concerts!

We were not used to the cold, so my dad built a fire (a fire in March?! We had the AC on back home!) and the girls spent many days over the heater.  (Yes, they are their mommy's girls!  I did the SAME thing as a kid!)

Since it was so wet, Grammy got the girls their first pair of rain boots!!  They were SO excited!!!!!  When the rain stopped, we would go outside and they had lots of giggles as they jumped and splashed in all the puddles.

Then, one day there was a freak hail storm!! Seriously, I had NEVER seen it hail like that there before!! It was unreal!! They girls were a little unsure at first, but then loved it!  They had never really seen it before, and the best was when Abby said, "It is ICE falling from the SKY!".

It seriously looked like snow!  EVERYTHING was white and it was about 2 inches of it!

We were lucky enough to spend one morning with my cousin and her son.  She has 2 boys similar in ages to my girls, and they love playing with each other!!  Ella and Abby could not wait!!  Miles ended up getting sick =(   but we were glad that Jack was still able to get together to play!  He and Ella are quite the pair!  They had fun playing in the "hideout", playing restaurant, and just running around and giggling.

FINALLY one afternoon it was sunny and we took full advantage of it!!  We spend the whole time playing outside!  The girls loved to ride their big wheels, dig in the dirt to collect "treasures", play within the trees calling it the "jungle", climbing on rocks, and dropping sticks and flowers into the creek to watch them float under the bridges:

One day we even met my dad out for lunch at our favorite place.....Cheescake Factory!  YUMMY!!!!!!

The fun thing about going back, is that the girls get a chance to be with their great-grandparents.  Since both my grandma, and my grandparents live in town, it is really nice to be able to see them often.  I just love that they are creating such wonderful memories that will always be cherished!

Here is a wonderful video of Ella singing with her Great-Grandpa when we went over to my grandparents house to visit:

We also spent some time with my Grandma Eleanor which was nice.  The girls adore her and love playing with her!  We went over for our "traditional tea party" one day.  Grandma had a cozy fire going in the fire place, and they loved playing, dancing, doing art, and even got to help her get all her Easter stuff out:

When it was time for tea, Grandma got two little helpers with her in the kitchen to make all the goodies:

Then, their FAVORITE part.......TEA PARTY!!  Look how happy they are:

After some rain, and more rain......

Creek rising very quickly in the front yard....

...it finally let up some.  Since it was still wet out, we had lots of fun playing inside:

Then the last weekend we were there, my mom and I threw a bridal shower.  It was SO much fun to do that with her!!  It was for a friend's daughter that I used to babysit.  And now she is getting married!!  Boy...did I sure feel OLD!  I remember babysitting her and her little sister often (I met her as a baby and remember seeing the ultrasound picture of her sister!) and have memories of watching the Spice Girls movie with them, pushing them on the swing in their backyard, and playing with their toys.  Now she is getting married!!!  Okay, back to the shower:  So my mom and I (with the help of 2 of her friends) their a great luncheon shower!  Everything was so pretty!  We were really pleased with it all.  =)  It was WONDERFUL to be able to do!!

 The girls had fun being a part of a "grown up party" (well....until the people all came and Ella said it was too crowded for her.  ha!) and loved being able to dress up:

The last day we were there we celebrated some birthdays.  My brother and grandpa's birthday are back to back, so we had a family dinner to celebrate with them!  My brother and his fiance drove up for the day and it was fun to see them.  All the grandparents came over as well.  I am kicking myself that I don't have pictures of it!!  However I was quick to get the phone out and take this shot of the girls with their great-grandparents:

The pose didn't last long (ha!!):

So all in all, it was a WONDERFUL trip!!!! We had such a great time and are looking forward to the next one!!

Staple Fridge Items...

After a week and a half of "sickies", I am ready to get a big fumigation tent and fill it with Lysol.  This weekend I really thought our family was over the worst.  Nope, I spoke typed too soon.   Ella seemed to be on the mend, but poor Abby just couldn't get rid of her fever.  It would linger all weekend, even when she was given medicine. She also was hardly eating anything all weekend. So back to the doctor we went on Monday morning for her.  Good thing though because turns out she developed an ear infection since her last visit the Thursday before.  (And lost a pound too! Poor thing!)

But I must admit, I like hearing that it is an ear infection.  Why? might you ask??  Well because THAT is treatable with antibiotics! I hate hearing that it is "just a virus" because there is nothing that can fix that.  An ear infection is at least fixable.   After a day or two on her antibiotics, her fever was gone and she was eating more.   Both girls still have some coughs (especially when they are more active) and Ella is just finishing up her breathing treatments.

Tonight when giving Abby her medicine, I came to a realization:  Must families have the same "staple" products in their fridge.  You know, like milk, eggs, butter, cheese, etc.  Nope, not our family.  Apparently our staple product is amoxicillin.  Seems that the last 3 weeks we have always had a couple of those pink bottles in there.  First it was for Ella for after her surgery.  10 days 3 times a day.  Now we have a new batch for Abby for the next 10 days as well.   Might seem odd in the next week to open the fridge and not see that pink bottle next to the milk and eggs...but I will be happy to see the vacant spot!

Fevers, and coughing, and breathing treatments.....Oh my!!

Well....the dreaded icky flu bug hit our house this week.  HARD!  I was thrilled earlier because it seemed like a few weeks back EVERYONE around us was getting sick, and the only thing that happened here was Abby and I got a touch of a cold the week before Ella's surgery.  Whew!  We missed the sickness boat, right?? WRONG!

On Tuesday Ella had a bit of a cough and then a low fever that night before bed.  We didn't think much of it till that night when she was up with a high fever of 102.  The next day her fever and cough were still there.  I knew it was bad when her fever was going UP when she was on medicine, and not down.  Thursday she woke up with a fever of 104!  (Makes that "high fever of 102" the day before look good!) Right away an appointment was made for the doctor.  Then I felt Abby and she was a bit warm too.  (Her cough started the evening before.)  Sure enough....fever.  Called the doctor back and was able to get them both seen at the same time.   I was told that both girls just had a virus and Abby's cough was just breaking up congestion.  Ella however was wheezing and needed to be on breathing treatments.  =(  Right away my mind went back to when she was 10 months old:  She was really sick with a fever and ear infection and then I was told by the doctor she needed to be on a nebulizer for breathing treatments.  I remember crying in the doctor's office as I was holding the mask on Ella with the nebulizer running to give her her first treatment (to make sure it would work and wasn't something more serious...), and she was scared and crying. That was a hard moment.   So back to the present, and the doctor asked if we had a machine and mask, and luckily we still did from when she was a baby and needed the treatments for a couple weeks back then.  

Thursday night was our worst night as the girls were up often with high fevers, needing medicine, needing water, and at 3:00 in the morning Ella needed a breathing treatment.  By chance Eric had the day off Friday and that was HUGE because then I could get a nap in and then we were both able to help take care of the girls. (He is such a GREAT dad!) Ella was getting a little better on Friday and Abby's fever got worse (104 at one point!).  By today both girls are much better.  Both still have a cough, but the fevers seem to be disappearing.  (Thank goodness!!)  

Ella is a real trooper with her breathing treatments.  The machine is loud and it is a little scary to have that mask on with the medicine "steaming" out. But with each treatment she is more and more brave.  This afternoon she even wanted to hold it herself!  Such a brave girl!

I will say though:  As hard as it has been having both girls so sick for so many days....I am really glad that they are sick together.  It would stink to have one sick, then get better, and then a week later the other one get sick.  Plus, I didn't need to keep anyone away from each other.  They were great little buddies!

Here's hoping we can start the week off fresh and HEALTHY! (Bring on the Lysol!)

Reading!!!!!

Today my Ella was reading.  Like READING!!!!  On her own!!!!  I was SUCH the PROUD mommy!!! She has been able to read some word family words that we write for her, so we thought we would try some books. We got her these great phonics books called BOB books:

She LOVES them!!!  Right when she opened the box she took out the first book and started to sound out the words and READ it!  WITHOUT help!!!  When she realized what she was doing, she was SO proud of herself!  This picture says it all:

She and I sat and she read the first 4 today.  I was incredibly proud of her, and yes, I shed a little tear as she was figuring out the words and reading the sentences:

These books have become her new favorite.  She loved being able to read to us and even read some stories to Abby (if only I had my camera for that!  Next time...).  Tonight for story time I read some stories to the girls, and then she wanted to pick out one of her new books and she read to us!  But this is my favorite picture:

I walked by her room and caught her reading out loud one of her books.  She didn't know I took this picture because she was so into her reading.    But.....I guess I should have known she was always a reader:   =)

Ella at 5 months "reading" her animal book.

Never too early....

Looks like it is never too early to help with housework!

Today while doing the girls' laundry they asked if they could help.  Help with housework??  Well you don't have to ask me twice!  So Ella decided to get her stool and REALLY help (not just push the wet clothes in the drier like they do before).  Basically I stood back and they took over!  It was fun to watch. Hmmmmm....wonder if next they want to help mop the floors......   =)