Silent Night

Merry Christmas, y'all! Ellis is feeling much better and has had a great Christmas so far. I'll post lots of pictures in a few days after I finish taking them.

Here are a couple of videos to show you how excited Ellis has been about Christmas coming. This was a couple of nights ago, when she decied to give her new bear a tour of the house. These are a little longer than the videos I ususally post, but I thought it would be funny to give you a glimpse into our typical evenings. You'll notice Conan on tv in the background. Not the 11 pm Conan. That's for babies. This is the 1 am replay of Conan for big girls like Ellis. (I'm joking, of course. Anyone have suggestions for how to make this child sleep?)

Special thanks to friends Jess and Vickie for the sweet bear, sent to Ellis along with all the beautiful flowers when my uncle passed away.

We hope you all are having a blessed Christmas! More pictures soon.

Fa La La La La

We are so ready for Christmas!

What a bad time to get sick! Ellis has developed a stomach virus AND a respiratory virus, so the festivities in our house have had to slow down for a bit. We hope she feels better in time to enjoy Christmas. And we hope that Greg and I can get some rest soon so that we can be awake for it.

Here's the sweet baby, last week before the sickness set in. She loves to swiffer with me.

Jingle Bells

This has been a CRAZY week in the Hite/Harris/Hosfield houses. Sorry I am just now catching up in the bloggy world. Thank you all for the cards, flowers, calls, and visits in this difficult time since my uncle passed away. Your support means more to us than you know. There are still some uncertain days ahead, so we appreciate the continued prayers.
In spite of all that, we are gearing up for Christmas and are trying to make sure Ellis has a memorable holiday. We are looking forward to family visiting soon. Oh, and that jolly old elf Santa will probably stop by as well. ;)
Here are some pictures I took of the sweet baby in her Christmas dress at Granny Janny and Granddaddy's house.

Prayers

Please pray for my family this week. My uncle passed away early this morning after years of dealing with serious health issues. Because of his health problems and our inability to travel with Ellis, she never got to meet her Great Uncle Danny. But we are certain they would have gotten along just great. Her favorite stuffed bear is one that Danny gave to me when I was very young and kept all these years. We frequently sent him pictures of Ellis, which seemed to cheer him up quite a bit. Please be in prayer for our family as we handle his affairs and try to remember him as he would want us to.

Ellis Is Seventeen Months Old!

In celebration of Ellis's 17 month birthday, this post is all about the things that Ellis loves.

The sweet baby is full of energy today! We got to go outside for a bit, enjoying what sunshine we can even though it is chilly. Ellis loves her swing and signs to ask for it all the time. Thanks again to Grandpa George & Trish for this thoughful gift!

Blowing kisses! She loves to show love!

One of Ellis's favorite things to do now is to go in her closet and get hats to dress up in, even at midnight in her pjs.

 This girl loves her accessories!

Something else Ellis loves lately is this silly ipad app with a talking cat. She loves to smack him in the face then laugh and laugh. I just love that she is laughing.

We are looking forward to seeing Robin Granny and GreatGrandMamma this weekend. Ellis also loves company!

Knowin Owen

Today we are asking you to pray for one of Ellis's sweet friends, Owen. He is having surgery today and we are praying for successful outcomes and a quick recovery. Ellis and Owen were in the RCNIC in Cincinnati at the same time after they were born and since then we have had the pleasure of getting to know him and his amazing parents. Their faith and strength have been inspiring to us and everyone else they have encountered along their journey. Click here to go to Owen's blog and follow his progress.

Owen and Ellis on their most recent playdate. We love his happy feet!

Celebrating Small Victories

We are celebrating Ellis's latest accomplishment! She is now able to wear her Passy-Muir valve 60 seconds at a time, exhaling through her mouth and sometimes making real baby sounds as she does it. The process is bittersweet right now. We are getting to hear her sweet voice for the fist time in over a year, and that has brought tears to my eyes every time. Most of those sounds right now are cries, however, because she hates it. Really hates it. It is scary for her to breathe in a different way and she looks at me and Greg like we are trying to kill her. We do the valve trial once a day, usually five times in a row. Some times go better than others, but for the past few days she has been tolerating having it on for around a minute each time. This is great progress from a week ago, when she could only stand it for about ten seconds before spitting up from anger or ripping it off herself. We hope it will get easier on her the longer we try and that she eventually will work up to wearing it all day.
Going along with the celebration theme, here are some funny pics from Ellis's very own Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, courtesy of Joe & Moe! Thanks for sharing the fun!