Soccer

Xavier had his last soccer game so we all came out and gave him a cheering section!

The girls had their own little side game going.

Julia discussing strategy with Ellie to score on Jacob.

Ellie preferred digging in the dirt with her new friend.

Therapy

Ellie goes to a wonderful place for therapy now once a week for an hour.  The first half is physical therapy where she shows off her balancing skills.

And her reaching skills.

And her right arm!

Then off to speech therapy where she loves using a tablet for games that focus on receptive understanding.

Ellie's sense of humor - she wrapped herself up in the cover for her changing pad and looked like the cutest bundle you've ever seen!

Hello Little Ellie.

Mother's Day

It's been a while since I've shared any of Ellie's outfits.  Before church Sunday she resumed her normal position against the wall and started striking poses. 

At mass, a beautiful tribute to Our Lady with flowers and candles.  Honored to stand by her as an example of motherhood.

Back home I'm showered with homemade cards and "coupons".  We had some laughs over all that!

Mommy and her four blessings!!! 

Dr. Ellie

The doctor was IN this week at our house!  Ellie was busy listening to symptoms and writing her notes on all her patients.

"Mm-hmm, you say you've been feeling this way all week?"



"Let me just jot that down."



"Any wheezing with that cough?"



"I think I know what you need."



"Take two hugs and call me in the morning."



Remodeling

Hi everyone!


After 4 years of Holey Ellie being pink with the 5 birds flying off the page, some new designs came out that I just could not resist!


Would you allow the patchwork background and potentially "busy" theme to fulfill my enthusiasm for making the connection between sewing and Ellie's heart being "patched up"?


I didn't think you'd mind.  Thank you dear reader!  A cute picture of Ellie for your loyalty.  (extra large photos were part of the new design - woo hoo!!)

The doctors "stitched" me right up and I was all better!  Now look at me in these cute "threads"!

May Greetings

Happy May everyone! A lovely month ahead of us here of wrapping up school, winding down the year of hard work and getting in the mindset of summer!

Speaking of hard work - Ellie works very hard at her weekly therapy visits.  We're now on a schedule that's quite "doable" for our family which requires one morning out each week for an hour and typically we bring some school with us. Whether or not we get it done depends heavily on how much talking the therapist does to the other children.  They are very involved in her speech and physical sessions as "assistants" :).   Here we are in the car arriving to the place and the boys were working on a school book and didn't realize we'd stopped.

Another shot in the car, this time on a surprise trip to see family!  We took a day trip and surprised some loved ones and Ellie did awesome!  She eats little snacks and this time even played with the Kindle!  That Kindle was a gift to us in 2012 for our own sanity as parents and it has been a special tablet to us.  It's gotten us through doctor's appointments, travel and lots of school too looking up words, etc.  Ok, also looking up Nintendo character pictures for drawing purpose. I have to stay true to my promise to keep things real here at Holey Ellie.

And now, is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  It's........"SUUUUPER ELLIE"!!!  Ellie had this Easter towel and had seen the kids make capes before so she clearly communicated to me she wanted this on her back.

It was difficult to get her picture as she ran around the room!

And, she's off!

She would occasionally stop to land for a second on a surface and raise up her left leg.  I imagine it was some sort of ritual that made her feel she was indeed doing something brave and daring to save the world!

After her heroic adventures, our superhero was hungry!  Thanks to a new picnic table Ellie was given, she had a nice place to sit with her Daddy for a snack.

Another moment of keeping it real - what's outside the shot of the "table for two" is the older kids racing to the finish line with a video game they can't get enough of these days.

More time having meals with willing participants.

Julia and Ellie like to pretend to sleep on the floor together during school time :). 

Ellie had an awesome 4-year check up this week at the doctor and also had a cardiology appointment as well.  She's looking FANTASTIC all around!  All is well and we'll do some "routine" things this summer like annual ear, eye, thyroid checks.  It's all on "the list" and all paid for through our wonderful coverage.  Speaking of that - the next big project is to try to get Ellie some needed equipment in the house. I'll save that for another time when we hopefully will show you in pictures!  We like to make sure our girl has everything she needs!  

The other kids are doing great too - looking very much forward to the summer.  If I may recognize Ellie's brothers for their serving at mass together - this week was a special occasion of them doing it for the first time together.

We are so thankful for our four little "super" children.