6.20.2010

Does anyone remember what they were doing 5 years ago on 6.20.2005? Well, most likely not, unless it was your birthday or wedding or some other special occassion. For us, 6.20.2005 was the day we heard some very good news - Jay was cancer free. That year of our lives (2005) seems like so long ago, but at the same time, in some ways it feels like yesterday. I don't remember all of the details of the day, but I do remember waiting with Jay in the dr. office room...waiting....and waiting....for the dr. to come in and share the results of his latest blood work and CT scan. I remember thinking that since we were waiting for so long that the news might not be good. I was nervous and stressed but was trying to be brave and strong so that we could deal with whatever words were going to come out of Dr. Ducker's mouth.

And finally we heard those sweet sweet words of "cancer free"

WOW. Five years ago today. The first half of 2005 was a rough rough year (while we were planning a wedding no less!), but it was an experience that brought us closer together and made us really examine our lives and what was important to us. Don't ever take anyone or anything for granted. Live and learn. Be brave. Do hard things. And (our favorite) LiveSTRONG.

p.s. This photo was "after cancer" taken in July 2005

One year pictures

We ventured up to Baxter/Brainerd this weekend to visit our friends Steve & Gretchen (and family). Gretchen took Ella's one year pictures! Ella wasn't in the best of picture-taking moods, but Gretchen was able to capture some of those cute expressions that we love. See some more shots at Gretchen's photography blog: http://www.gretchenennis.blogspot.com/

Twins Game!

Jay & I went to yesterday afternoon's Twins game at Target Field. Unfortunately, they didn't win & the sun wasn't shining, but we still had a good time. It was my first time seeing the new stadium, so that was fun too! Best Buy has a photo booth somewhere on the main level concourse, so if you're going, be sure to check it out! It was free & they emailed the photo to us.

Eye Dr.

Took Ella to the pediatric eye dr. this morning. It went surprisingly well. Ella even had her eyes dialated! The dr. checked her eye muscles and also reactions to light. This appointment stemmed from Ella's 1 year dr. visit b/c she continually holds her head to the side. Ella did great and everything checked out just fine (whew!) Now that we've ruled out an eye issue, it's likely that the neck muscle is really tight. She has good neck movement and head control and doesn't have a flat spot, so it's sort of strange, but I think we might check back in with the chiropractor and see if she is able to do some adjusting that might help. Otherwise we'll have to line up an appointment with a physical therapist.

12 month stats

Ella's trip to the dr. was this morning. It was a LONG appointment. We were there for 2 hours! Jeez.... She now weighs 21 pounds, 13 ounces (75th percentile) and is 31 inches long/tall (97% percentile). That was the easy part. We met with the dr., which went better than our last visit. Ella is starting to get over her stranger anxiety I think, but she was still a little scared. The dr. is still concerned about her neck/head. She wants us to visit with a physical therapist to look at her neck muscles. Ella has a tendancy to hold her head to the side. The dr. isn't sure if it's due to the neck muscles or if it's an eye issue. She also wants us to meet with a pediatric eye dr. I guess we'll see....not too excited about these. Then came the dreaded shots. On top of those, Ella had to have her blood drawn (boo) because of those lovely chicken pox. They took her blood to confirm she now has the immunity to the chicken pox. We'll get the results in about a week. Hopefully she has the full immunity. If not, then Ella will have to go back and get the vaccine (yuck!). To make matters more difficult, Ella appears to be a bit dehydrated today. She's not having many wet diapers so far today, and she woke up this morning with a completely dry diaper (unusual). When they finally found Ella's little vein for her blood draw (oh man, that was NOT fun) Ella's blood just dripped ever so slowly, so it took longer than any of us wanted it to take. :( Hopefully some Pedialyte and maybe some watermelon at lunch will help.

So, that's that. Enjoy the weekend.

Happy Birthday Ella!

She's One. Unreal! I never believed this past year would go by so fast. I have learned a LOT about babies (acid reflux, colic, even the chicken pox!) Times flies. I could say I've loved every minute of it, but let's get real here - some days were (and are) too crazy to even get into. But Ella is a sweet little girl and a blessing to Jay and I that we're very thankful for. I can't wait to watch Ella continue to grow & learn new things!

To celebrate Ella's first birthday, we headed to the Mall of America this morning for a little shopping & strollering (Ella LOVES to people watch). Ella took a ride on a mini-merry-go-round. We had lunch at Chili's and headed home for some relaxing (and a few more Minnie Mouse pictures....see below). It's been a fun past few days of spending time with family & friends. Tomorrow it's a dose of reality - back to work! Ella's One Year dr. visit is on Friday morning - check back for her stats.

Ella's First Birthday Party

I can't believe it's over! Yesterday went SOOO fast. We had a fun-packed day of party craziness - Minnie Mouse syle. I was so excited for this party I could hardly wait for everyone to get here - and neither could Ella!

I think this picture is hilarious. She's sitting there with her party balloons like "what in the world we doing?!?"

So the long anticipated cake situation. If you follow the blog, you know about the test cake I did a few weeks back. The icing is and was my enemy. I got all freaked out about doing that cake for her actual party (What if it didn't turn out!) So....I compromised with myself. I made cupcakes and left icing the "big" cake to the professionals. Turns out, we didn't even NEED the cake - I had enough cupcakes. I think they turned out super cute & everyone said they were delicious. I used a new frosting recipe with marshmellow creme (super yummy!) If I have to make future cakes, I will be using this recipe - it was super easy to make & spread perfectly.

Cute right?! I used pre-made fondant for the mouse cutouts! (but I wish I would have had time to frost pink bows on these!)


(this is the "professional cake" with my cupcakes)

I also baked & frosted Ella's "smash" cake. I made buttercream frosting for this one, which was more difficult to spread, but I did my best!

Enough about the cakes, let's see some party pictures!!

Wait - where are your ears?!?!

Okay - that's better!!

Everyone attending the party had to wear the mouse ears for pictures with Ella. It was a lot of fun & everyone was a good sport about it.

A few pictures of Ella opening gifts. She wasn't too into having to rip the paper, or really do much of anything related to the gift opening. She had some pretty comical expressions throughout and was sort of frustrated with the whole thing. But, she's been having fun checking out new toys.

Happy Birthday to you....happy birthday to you....

Ella ate a bunch of icing (so it must have tasted good!) but she needed some help to start digging in the cake. Once she got rolling though, it was pretty interesting. She basically started to shovel cake out. A few times she'd get handfuls of cake and then squeeze her hands as hard as she could.....really nice & messy!

Mom...I have sticky stuff on my hand - will you get it off?

Ahhh.....a full tummy & utter exhaustion led to a mid-afternoon nap....

And then, some playing!

I think Ella had a good time! We did too! Now we're looking forward to June 2nd to celebrate with her on her actual birthday - day. :)