Update on Ella Brooke and her Birmingham Appointment

What can I say..... Ella Brooke did way better than I would have on Thursday with her procedure. The procedure was able you reveal another defect in her soft palate of about 2cm big. We will be having surgery on June 30th to repair this. They have given us 3 surgery options and at this point we are still weighing things out. I trust Dr. Grant. He has prepared us well up to now and will continue to help us in making the right choices for Ella Brooke. I can't say enough nice things about him and his staff. The entire Cleft Palate Team is AWESOME! Looking forward to getting this behind us and seeing the outcome....... These are some of my favorite and most recent pictures of her from this past week. She is a mess!!!!

Pray for Allie!!!!

Pray for my little Allie Claire. We are not certain of what is really going on with her at this point. She was admitted yesterday afternoon and has made a little improvement. They have ruled out spinal meningitis, viral and bacteria! What a prayer answered! Many other things have been ruled out also.... Still waiting on more results though. Just not sure of what has caused her wbc count to elevate so. Please pray that she will continue to feel better each day and that we will gert some answers soon. I will update again later on when we know something else.

There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother. ~Astrid Alauda

My little brother is 25 years old on Thursday! I can't believe it! He is such huge part of my life and he is so precious to me. He is why I am who I am today. He has taught me so many lessons in life and wasn't even trying to teach me a thing. His unconditonal love, determination, and outlook on life is truly an inspiration to all who know him. He has taught me what is truly signifigant in life.......and what is not. I love him dearly. He is my best friend.

Happy 25th Birthday Bubba!

Love,

Your Sissy

A day with my daddy....

Matt took Ella Brooke with him last Sunday to do some work on the hunting land. I expected him to bring her back pretty quickly,but boy did they surprise me. They had a BLAST! He said she was great help. She has asked him over and over again this week... "Daddy, when can we go ride on the tractor again.?" Good Times! Making sweet memories every day!

You can learn many things from your children!

I love these precious girls soooo much!!!

She has his heart in the palm of her hand.....

A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart. ~Author Unknown

When I say that my husband is the best father that I have ever known, this is not just small talk. He loves his girls with all of his heart. His eyes sparkle as he watches their every move. He is so attentive, funny, caring,and affirming. He is involved in every aspect of their lives. He will climb to the top of the tree house and pretend to be whatever Ella Brooke wants him to be. And the funniest is when he puts on his "tea party" attire. He dances, sings, teaches and the list could go on forever. I could only hope that my girls could find a husband as great as he. For a man who never knew his father... you just wouldn't believe how great he truly is. I think his father would be so proud of him. I know his mother certainly is and she has every right to be. What a great man she raised.

The Princess Dare Devil???

Ella Brooke loves to ride on her princess scooter. On Sunday, my mom asked Ella to go home with her after church. It was a pretty afternoon and they were going to ride the scooter. At about 2:oo that afternoon, I got a call from my mother and I could hear Ella Brooke screaming in the background. The mother instinct..... my heart just dropped. I just knew she was hurt by the sound of that scream. But boy was I wrong. My mother told me that Ella was pitching a fit b/c my mother( the worry wart who would never let my brother and I ride a 4 wheeler) would not let her ride her scooter down the drive way. Now ..... Let me set this up for you..... Ella wanted to get on my mothers driveway and ride really fast to the end. (mind you this is not a steep driveway at all) But Ella does not have real good control of the scooter to do dare devil tricks yet. ( this is so Matt) She an my mother had gotten into a disagreement about doing this!!! She is sooooo independent and you can't tell her anything these days. I ended up sending Matt to meet my mother and pick Ella Brooke up b/c she pitched such a fit. Needless to say.... when she got home we had a long sit down talk about her actions, not listening and the fit pitching. In return she wrote sweet, sweet mimi the cutest note to apologize.