Prayer Request

My youngest sister, Emily has been having some issues with her eye swelling and her vision being blurry over the past few days. Several years ago, both of her retina's detached and she had surgeries on both eyes. Today, she saw a specialist and he informed her that the buckle in her right eye that is attaching her retina is hemorrhaging. They are pretty sure that they will need to remove the buckle and they are hopeful that there is enough scar tissue to keep the retina attached. If there is not, there is a risk of blindness in this eye. She will go back to the specialist on November 12. Forgive me for not knowing a whole lot about the details on this--there are a lot of intricacies with the eyes that I just don't understand. Our prayers are for the hemorrhaging to stop and that if surgery is necessary that the retina will stay attached.

Two Months Old

Our sweet baby girl is two months old today. We are blessed beyond measure--Ellyse brings so much joy and happiness to our family--so much that we didn't even realize that we were missing. Here are some highlights from the past two months in no particular order:
1. Her coos and giggles
2. The precious smile that we get to wake up to--she LOVES the mornings
3. Watching her discover the world around her
4. The way she looks for Logan when she hears his voice
5. Watching her reaction when she's startled--arms and feet immediately out and in the air
6. She reaches and grabs until she finally gets ahold of a little piece of her hair
7. She grabs my hair and will not letting go
8. She grabs my hand with her long toes
9. She cannot sleep without some sort of noise--a fan, the radio, us being in the room talking and playing
10. The way being outside immediately soothes her--its like her whole body relaxes the minute she feels the fresh air.
11. We especially love that she is sleeping 7 hours at night most nights now!!!

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we met the McClure's and the Klein's at the Big Orange Pumpkin Patch. The kids had a wonderful time feeding the animals, going on a hayride and playing. It was the perfect fall day!

Elly 7 Weeks

Elly at Church

Elly's been to church all but twice since she was born...the day after we came home and one week when I was just too worn out to take her...most of our picture attempts are right when we get home and she's hungry and tired...so I had to put in the crying ones...I couldn't resist! Babies are just too cute when they cry (for a minute...and then you can't hardly stand to see it!) Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of her this last Sunday!

Elly Weekly

Here are Elly's Weekly Pictures with the football...she's already growing way too fast!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5 (no her clothes don't match...she was cold in her shorts, so they got booted)

Week 6

Catch Up

This is my new favorite picture!!

Since my last post, we've been super busy...but boy have we had a TON of fun. We had a cold front move through last week and the weather was unbelievable! Its amazing what cool weather does for the soul--all of us were happier than we've been for months (with the exception of the elation associated with bringing little Miss Ellyse into the world, of course...) We went to the park nearly every day, got to visit with our displaced hurricane Ike friends (the Jones') and their precious kids, and got to celebrate two birthdays (Kellen at the zoo and Brylie at her Fancy Nancy party--both SOOO much fun!!!) It really couldn't have been a better week!! Here are a few (okay, several) highlights...

Rachel, Ethan, Kellen,Logan, and Bonnie

Sweet Noelle & Ellyse (6wks, 4 wks)

Logan & Kellen

The boys are each a month apart agewise...

Kellen (Sept), Ethan (Oct), Logan (Nov)

Sweet Bonnie, Kellen & Logan ready to hit the park after Freebirds

Logan after the Fancy Nancy part-y

The next 2 pictures blow me away...our neighbors and good friends from Houston moved to Ft. Worth when the boys were 1. We were distraught that the boys would really never know each other, but God's plan was greater than we realized. Neither of us had a plan to be where we are today, but we have been SO richly blessed to now live close enough to go to church together and the boys are the BEST of friends. We have grown in our relationship with one another, grown in our faith, and we are watching one of our dreams come true in watching our boys grow up together! While we may no longer be neighbors, we are still close friends and a source of strength for each other--we love these guys so much! They both bring us so much joy!

Logan & Gabe 3 1/2 years (September 2008)

Logan & Gabe 1yr (February 2006)