Change...

Andrew put together this collage the other night and it shows the change that has taken place in Ellee in Johannah in the 6 months they have been home

What do you think???

Happy Birthday Ellee and Happy 6 month home anniversary for us today :)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Angel Ellee. Ellee is 6 today and we are so happy to be able to share in her birthday with her this year. Could you imagine going your whole life without even knowing there is a special day that belongs to you. That is what Ellee had to go through for the first 5 years of her life, but not this year. This year she has a family, a home, all the love in the world and a party that is going to be great (but she has to wait until tomorrow for that) :) 

Today is also another special day we have been home for 6 months today!!! :)

Happy 6th birthday my angel Mommy Loves you!!!

Buddy Walk and Team rEJoice

This year our Buddy Walk is on October 22nd and this year our team name is going to be Team rEJoice notice the E and J are capitalized that is for Ellee and Johannah cute huh I can't take credit my wonderful friend Courtney came up with our team name. Fitting for sure since we are rejoicing that our girls are home. If you are local and would like to join our team and walk with us please let us know. If you are not local and would like to donate then you can go here and make a donation in honor of all of those that were born with a something extra. Thank you to everyone who support us and have supported us with bringing home our girls!!! 

Down Syndrome Clinic Visit

We went to the Down Syndrome Clinic today at Vanderbilt in Nashville Tn, where we seen a team of doctors. A medical doctor, a behaviorist doctor, a speech therapist, a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. The girls had ekgs ran, ultrasounds of their stomachs, and echocardiograms done. We talked to the medical doctor about sleep studies, ear surgeries, weight/height, development, future tests to be done, the speech therapist gave us some great ideas to improve and build on the girls speech, the behaviorist doctor gave us ideas and pictures to use with the girls to teach them house rules and acceptable behavior, the occupational therapist gave us ideas on improving Ellee's feeding techniques and ideas to do with both girls to improve on their fine motor and gross motor skills, the physical therapist told us that both girls have flat feet Johannah's being worse and so now we have on order orthopedics that go in her shoes.
It was a long day we got their at 11:30 our appointment wasn't actually until 12:30 but we got there early so we could check in and then go to the cafe and grab some lunch, but they took us right back. The girls did great right until around 4:30 and then they both started to get very overstimulated, tired, hungry and all around cranky. We were out of there by 5 with lots of info to process.
Word of advice for future Down Syndrome clinic visits is to take lots of snacks and never expect to be there anything less than 5 hours.
We should be finding out when the sleep study is going to be done, and we go back to the ear specialist for Ellee's ear and then they will refer us back to Vandy for surgery if she needs it.

Johannah's first day of school

Johannah had her first day of preschool today. Andrew and I took her to school and she went straight into class and sat down at the table. She of course hammed it up for everyone. When it was time to say goodbye she done really good, until I walked out the door, and she started crying a little bit. After talking to the teacher this afternoon she said that she stopped after a minute or so. Her teacher said she had a really good day and that she did really good during each activity. She did have to sit in the teacher's lap because she is a runner, oops I forgot to tell them that. So she got to sit in the teacher's lap when it was time to sit in circle or whatever. Since I was at work my mom got her off the bus and mom said she bounced right off that bus. :) When I got home she hugged my neck so tight best part of my day :)

P.S. If anyone was wondering yes the girls wore the "same" outfit for their first day of school. They both got the same outfit from a friend of ours so I planned that out :)

Ellee's first week of school

Ellee had a great first week of school. She rode the bus for the first time on Wednesday and she LOVES it. She has been so excited to ride the bus. Today we were waiting for her bus, and I saw it come and said here comes your bus, and she waved it over and pointed her finger to her side. It makes me so happy that she enjoys riding the bus. I pick her up in the afternoons and she is so funny because yesterday we walked past her bus and she got upset with me because I wouldn't let her get on.

Tonight however Ellee is running a temp of 100.1 and went to sleep at around 6:30. I hope that she gets to feeling better by Monday. I hate having my kiddos sick it breaks my heart! :(

Here are a couple of pics from this week

All ready for her 2nd day of school

Waiting on the bus

Climbing up the stairs of the bus

Bye Mom

Ellee's first day of school

Today Ellee started her first day of school. I drove her to and from school and she seemed to really enjoy it. She walked right into class like she had been there a 100 times. I did call mid day to see how her day was going and her teacher said she was having a good day. When I went to pick her up she was happy to see me, but I think she would have stayed if she could lol Tomorrow she will ride the bus for the first time. I hope she does ok and that it doesn't scare her.

All dressed and ready to go 

Standing in front of her school

In her classroom