Happy Birthday, EK!

Our sister girl is 8 years old today and we are loving celebrating our sweet girl!  It's been a busy 365 days for EK and here is a quick recap of some of the highlights.  She was baptized this year and she has been completing the "I'm a Christian, now what?" program at church.  Amazing and so, so proud of her. She blew second grade out of the water. All A's, over 5 million words read and she's racked up countless AR points...she's a beast! She danced in her first Nutcracker performance and participated in a 2 week, 50+hours of dance intensive this summer.  Dance is truly her passion...well, pretty much anything in the arts could be considered her passion! She is so creative and I love to see her mind at work. She constructs incredible Lego creations and she can sew way better than I could ever dream of doing! She also had a good year in tennis but is choosing to hang up her racket to make time for more dance. She has had to learn to be brave and strong when faced with a challenging "friend". She is incredibly sensitive so it is a daily conversation to remind her that her worth is not determined by the words of others but only in the One who created her. It's been a journey for sure but I'm so proud of this girl. She has the kindest heart and the sweetest spirit. She is compassionate and she loves deeply. I'm so grateful to have been given the gift of being her mama and I have no doubt that the Lord has big things in store for our girl!

I did our little birthday interview with EK, so here you go. A look at EK.....

1)  What is your name:  Ella Kate Nelson
2)  What is your nickname:  Sis, EK
3)  What makes you happy:  making others happy
4)  Where do you like to go:  Barnes and Noble, the library and the craft center
5)  What is your favorite food:  biscuits
6)  What is your least favorite food:  ham

7)  What is your favorite animal:  puppy

8)  What is your favorite bible story:  I don't have a favorite because they are all great because they tell us stories of how to live

9)  What is your favorite TV show:  Ever After High

10)  What is your favorite movie:  the live action Cinderella

11) What are you really good at doing:  dancing, reading, writing, and making people happy

12)  What is your favorite color:  blue, green and pink

13)  What is your favorite song:  True  Colors

14)  Who is your best friend:  Sienna

15)  What do you like to do with mama:  watch Miss Mississippi, and go shopping

16)  What do you like to do with daddy: play games and hug him really tightly 

17)  What do you like to do with Walker:  shut him out of my room

18)  What do you like to do with Emma:  play dolls

19)  What is your favorite sport:  dance

20)  What is your favorite book:  they are all great

21) What do you want to be when you grow up:  a teacher

22)  What was the best part of being 7:  having Ms Mann as a teacher

23)  What is your favorite thing about school:  learning while having fun

24)  What are you excited about in 3rd grade:  meeting a new teacher

25)  What are you afraid of:  tornadoes and hurricanes

26)  What makes you mad:  when Walker annoys me

27) Where do you want to go to college:  MSU, of course

28) If you had one wish, what would it be:  that everyone would know to follow God

29) If you had a million dollars, what would you do:  give it to the poor

30) If there was anything you ever wanted, what would it be:  that there would be no orphans and everyone would have a family. 

Our sweet EK, you are so very loved and we hope you have the best birthday!  I can't believe you are 8!!!!!!

Summer Bucket List 2017--June Edition

The kids suggested we make a Summer Bucket List for us to complete this summer. They worked hard to create a list of things they wanted to do and we are having a big time checking their items off each day.

The kids had a camp out in the living room⛺️....let's be real, it's hot and there are bugs...who would want to camp outdoors?  Not anyone related to me, for sure!

We enjoyed some yummy sno cones🍧.

We played at the Strawberry Patch Park and had a picnic lunch.

We loaded up on some new reading material at Barnes and Noble📚. I bet you will never guess who requested this activity!

Eat at a restaurant🍔  was a pretty easy one to check off the list!  We accomplished this several times like when we celebrated Father's Day with my family...

And when we celebrated Haley's birthday together🎉. 

The Livingston Sweet Shop🍭🍫 was a fun and tasty little adventure. 

Our trip to the library was even more fabulous when we were able to catch the magician one day! 

These 2 loved their time at the movies 🎥 to see Cars 3. 

They passed on  the traditional popcorn snack at the theater for dippin dots 🍦 

Speaking of ice cream🍦, it definitely made the list and multiple trips have already taken place. 

Walker and I had a date👫where  he chose a trip to CFA, the Children's Museum and Campbell's bakery. We had the best time together. 

Sweet treats seem to be the theme of this bucket list, so it's no surprise that Campbell's Bakery🍪 was a must. 

Visiting Aunt Carolyn🏖 was a big item on the list for the summer. I'm fairly certain the multiple post from our trip show how much we loved our time with her! 

June is almost over but we have a couple more activities in the works including the birthday of an almost 8 year old😳.  We adore you summertime!☀️

Emma the Brave

Emma had her 6th surgical procedure a little over a week ago. She was feeling extra brave in pre op since her American girl doll got a new outfit for this trip to the "rainbow hospital."

This visit to the OR was for T tubes and a sphincter pharyngoplasty.  Due to Emma's complicated cleft palate, it has taken multiple attempts to get enough closure in her mouth for proper speech. Without proper closure, the air just goes out of her nose instead of out her mouth with enough pressure to make the sounds correctly. This procedure basically closed off her throat except for two openings the size of her nostrils so she can breathe. She did amazingly well during surgery and in her recovery and we were able to be discharged after a one night's stay. She is back on the soft foods diet for 6 weeks and then we will proceed from there with lots and lots of speech therapy. She has developed some lazy speech habits due to her physiological deficits, so it will be a process to get her to use her mouth in the correct. We are able to hear her say sounds she could not say before but she is still hypernasal. Hopefully it will improve and we can take a break from surgeries for a little bit. 

She is just so tough. We are always on the same floor during recovery so it is nice to see so many familiar faces. We had a new nurse this time and when we described Emma as a beast when it comes to recovery, she laughed and said she had already heard the exact same description from all the nurses. We love the staff on 2C!

We are so blessed to have an incredibly gifted surgeon and precious staff at Batson, but we are all excited when we hear the magical words that we are free to go home! (Even if Emma doesn't look so excited in this picture. She was not happy when they took out her "magic button" IV so she was not feeling my picture.)

That's better!  Let's go home!

The staff at Nelson Home Health is pretty spectacular as well!

We are thrilled to have this one behind us and now we can enjoy the rest of our summer. So, so proud of this little girl. She is absolutely amazing!

BSL Fun Part 4

We enjoyed a delicious dinner downtown overlooking the harbor one night. Walker was fascinated by the boats and asked no less than 4.3 million questions about Hurricane Katrina.

We snapped a couple of pictures by the "angel tree". During the storm, 4 people who were staying at a bed and breakfast across the street from this spot held on to this tree for hours until the eye of the hurricane passed over and they were able to get to a safe location. The tree was relocated across the street and has beautiful carvings in it....you just can't see the, in the pics bc I cute them off with my amazing photography skills😉

What better way to cap off dinner by the water than by playing in the sand for a few minutes?!?!

We rounded out our evening with yummy popsicles. 

Bay St. Louis, we had an incredible visit!  Thank you, thank you, thank Aunt Carolyn for being the best hostess and treating us to such a fabulous time. Also, a huge thank you to Haley for hanging out with us!  It takes a lot of hands to keep up with this wild and rowdy bunch, so I'm beyond grateful to the Aunts for all their help!!😉  We loved every minute and look forward to our adventure next summer!