Ella's 1st day of Kindergarten

Ella started Kindergarten last week. She was so excited to go to school. Since then the excitement has died. She says school it boring, all she does is sit and write and she can only play outside. (She has 1 30 min recess and 1 20 min quiet time) She complains that school is too long which I tend to agree with her. She is there from 8:00-3:40 Mon-Fri. Her school doensn't start until 8:20 but I drop her off at the front and then she has to walk to her classroom which in on the other side of the school. If she doesn't get there by 8:20 she gets a tardy and if she gets too many tardy's the she will have detention. Can you believe that? Detention for a 5 yr old? Any way I drop her off where she will have plenty of time to mosy on down to her class room. Hopefully the excitement will come back once she gets into the routine of it all.

Summer Update

Our summer started off really fun. The girls enjoyed playing outside with the sprinkler and going swimming.

Ella was on a swimteam for the first time. At first she wasn't sure if she would like it but she ended up having a lot of fun.

Then in mid July Ella had eye surgery. Here is the after results. You can tell that her eyes are just a little red. The doctor said that the surgery went so well that she didn't have to wear glasses anymore (for the time being.) She was so excited. We are so happy that the surgery was able to help!

For Ella's birthday we got her a dog. She has named him almost every name under the sun. It seems like every day she has a different name for him. Willow calls him "Big Boy" which is funny b/c he is so little. Shane calls him "Buddy" and I just call him "Doggie". He is going to be one confused dog.

After Ella's birthday she had ear surgery. Her ENT thought there was a cyst in her eye but when he opened he up he found no cyst. So the surgery was basically pointless. She had to wear this cup over her ear for 2 days. She still is recovering some but for the most part she is back to normal.

And then we have Willow. When Willow turned 3 something in her changed and she became crazy! Here she found a box of tampons and had a great time playing with them. I am not sure where her obsession with tampons came from but she loves them!

This past weekend, both girls decided to cut their hair. Ella's is not a noticable but Willow gave her self some bangs. This picture is after we went to have the hair stylist try to fix it.

I have been trying to style her hair in different ways but she has a little calic right in the middle of her bangs. I've been trying to retrain it to be normal.

Well that was our summer in a nutshell. Hopefully the fall is less eventful!

Baby #3

I had my 1st Ultrasound this morning and got some pics of our 3rd addition. The ultrasound technician said if she had to guess she thinks the baby is a girl b/c of the way the tail bone is developing. It's too early to tell for sure if this baby will be a girl or not but I sure hope so!

In two weeks Ella will have Strabismus Surgery.

Strabismus is a visual defect in which the eyes are not straight and point in different directions. The misalignment may be constant or intermittent. Strabismus is a common condition among children. About 4% of all children in the US have strabismus. Strabismus surgery is preformed by the ophthalmologist. It is an outpatient surgery. The ophthalmologist makes a small incision in the tissue covering the eye to reach the eye muscles. Specific eye muscles are repositioned during surgery, depending on which direction the eye is turning.

Ella got her first pair of glasses at 17 months. It was really hard to keep them on her and we struggled with that for the next 2 years.

Finally, right before her 4th birthday we found some glasses that she would keep on. We have had these glasses since then and even threw in a patch or two over time.

After this surgery Ella will still need to wear her glasses for a while but not the patch. Hopefully this surgery will be the end of it but it is not uncommon to have follow up surgeries. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Senior Photos

Recently I took senior pictures for a young woman in my ward. Here are some pictures from our session!

It has been a while

Well it has been a while since I have updated the blog. We have had some computer problems with our less than a year old computer so we had to send it in to get a new hard drive. Now that we have it back it is time to do a quick update. I posted a few days ago about a 5K that we attending in Austin. My family came to the 5k as well and we were able to meet up with a cousin of mine and his wife. It was fun to see them, I haven't seen Michael (cousin) in over 15 years at least. In this picture it is from left to right: Michael (brother), Dad, Mom, Willow, Michael (cousin), and his wife Britany, Emma (DJ's girlfriend), DJ (brother), and then Ella and me.

Here is a picture I took of Ella, she didn't have her patch on b/c she was getting to hot and sweaty. This picture is a great example of why we need the patch!

I thought I would add a few Easter pics. The Easter bunny brought both girls new books, a bathingsuit and a princess doll.

I thought this picture of Willow was too funny. She has been making the funniest faces recently!

We went to my parents house for Easter dinner. I took the girls outside to take some pictures in the yard.

This is another good example picture of Ella. You can see her low muscle tone in her face BIG TIME in this picture.

And here are just some random pictures of the girls. This one of Willow cracks me up. She put on her teddy bears shirt. I am surprised she got it over her head! She loved it and wanted to wear it all day. I can only imagine the clothes she will want to wear when she is older!

I love this picture of Ella. She wanted me to curl her hair like Sam on "iCarly". Shane and I took the girls to a play this night and she wanted to look her best. I think she looks beautiful!

5k for Lila J

Here are some pics that I took at the 5k for Lila J. Here is a brief history for those who don't know. Annie has been a friend of mine since middle school. We were college roommates and have been able to keep in touch throughout the years. 2 years ago her second child, Lila, was diagonsed with brain cancer when she was 3 months old. The past two years have been difficult for her family but Lila is now cancer free! Another good friend of ours, Jessica, organized a 5k where all the proceeds would benefit the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. It was a great event and for a wonderful cause! I am so happy that I was able to be a small part of it.

Annie & Jessica

Me, Annie, Mandy, Jessica, Brittni

(Wonderful college roommates who made the trip!)

Brooklyn (Jessica's little girl) & Ella

Annie & her sister Sarah

Annie, Lila, Ben, and big brother Jack

crossing the finish line

Lila

Lila is such a beautiful girl!

I love this picture!

The Howington Family

Annie, Lila, Ben, Jack, and baby Alice

Cute shirts!