Happy New Year

It has been awhile since we have had time to post. We all have had a different holiday this year. We were all sick and more home bound this holiday season. We like to get out and see lots of family during the holidays, but that just didn't work well this year.

The boys are busy growing and staying busy. Zac and Justin are doing well and enjoying school. Aaron is turning 4 soon and is very excited to have his birthday coming up. He has been counting the days since thanksgiving. Caleb is busy, busy, busy. He is talking more and doing many bigger boy things. He loves to run and play with his brothers. He and Aaron are very devoted to watching over Rebekah and making sure she is cared for. That brings me to Rebekah. She is doing well over all. We are looking to go back to Charleston (MUSC) this month for a heart cath. We are moving closer to surgery in a few months to hopefully repair her heart and lungs. Besides her heart problems Rebekah is changing and doing normal baby things every day. She is almost rolling over, babbling more and more, and playing with toys. She loves to touch faces, pull her brothers hair, and cuddle on the couch with Daddy. She sits up with a little help and enjoys watching all the things going on around her.

Mom and Dad are doing well too. We enjoy the time spent with all the kids. We love to watch them grow, ask questions, and try to figure new things out. Mommy tries hard to keep up with everyones busy schedules and keep things running at home. Daddy is enjoying his new job and working hard to provide for all this gang.

We are very thankful for all the blessings and many ways the Lord has provided and cared for us thru 2009. We look forward to what he has in store for us in 2010. We trust and know he will take care of us. There are a lot of uncertain things up coming for us with Rebekah's care , but we are confident that the Lord has already made provision for all of it. We look forward to his leading and guiding of our family.

D

A Little of this and a little of that!

Warning: This post might be a little all over the place as I attempt to catch you up on the last few weeks of happenings around here!

First, all of our boys are growing!! We are amazed at the amount of food they are beginning to pack away...literally, more than I eat most meals! These are some pictures of a recent Sunday afternoon when we opened our kitchen ice cream shoppe! :)

Zachary

Justin

Aaron

Caleb

We get comments all the time when we are out and about regarding the size of our family and the ages of the kids. One of the most frequent comments is how much the boys are like little stair steps. Well, we measured them yesterday, and there is a reason they look like little stair steps - because they are! Would you believe, each of the boys is exactly six inches shorter than his next oldest brother??!! In descending order, our children are 48" (Zachary), 42" (Justin), 36" (Aaron) and 30" (Caleb). How fun is that??!

Sweetly sleeping!

Rebekah did not have the greatest news at her weight check today. We will be meeting with a gastroenterologist (GI doctor) sometime in the next two weeks to decide on a new feeding plan. You can read all the details on Rebekah's blog here.

Yes, Caleb is in my pantry sorting and eating my potatoes!

Do any of your kids like to eat potatoes...raw? Apparently Caleb does! If we forget to latch the pantry door, this is what we inevitably find....a small pile of neatly sorted potatoes with a nibble or two taken from most of them. Last week, Drew even woke up to find a potato in our bed! We are still trying to figure out when and how Caleb got it there.

Yes, that is Caleb, and yes, he is in Rebekah's swing....

Along with potato-loving, Caleb loves his sister. And more than he loves his sister, he loves his sister's toys! We frequently find Caleb in the swing, in the bouncy chair, lying on her floor mat and in Rebekah's car seat. You know, when we don't find him in the pantry!

Eating breakfast on Zachary's first day of second grade.

The saying goes all good things must come to an end and that is exactly what this summer did! Today was Zachary's first day at Brushy Creek Elementary, and we were all up early to take him to school. Zachary's teacher is Mrs. Lewis, and we have been really impressed with her classroom management and organization. Zachary thrives on a schedule and routine, so we were very pleased about his placement in Mrs. Lewis' room. He had a good day overall and is looking forward to getting more books and learning something tomorrow.

Zachary is ready to learn!

At some point during the school day each of the students in Zachary's class had to give a brief "About Me" speech to the class. Zachary (who is never at a loss for words!) told me this afternoon that he told his class all about Rebekah and his brothers. He is such a sweet big brother! :)

I'm off to finish up a few chores and get ready for tomorrow. The alarm rings too early for our new school schedule!

Nancy

Charleston, meet the boys!

Over the weekend, the boys came down for a few hours to see us and meet Rebekah. While they were very excited about meeting Rebekah, the highlight of the trip was spending a couple of hours swimming in the hotel pool with Mommy and Daddy.

Daddy, Mommy and the boys

Fun in the pool

Zachary loved jumping in - the more splash, the better!

Justin is doing a great job swimming!

Aaron is getting braver - not holding on to someone is a big deal!

Caleb relaxes so much he almost falls asleep in the water. :)

Rebekah and her brothers

Naturally, the time went way too fast for all of us, but we enjoyed getting to see the boys. They are struggling a bit with being away from us, but will be back home in familiar surroundings on Tuesday. In another week, Drew's cousin, Hayley, will be down from New York to stay for a week and play with the boys. They are really looking forward to seeing her and playing with her. :)

Nancy

Waterfront Park, Charleston

We had a fun couple of hours this afternoon walking around Waterfront Park in Charleston. Although it was VERY hot and humid, there was a nice breeze off the ocean. We were enjoying watching some of the sailboats and other boats in the harbor when we realized there was an airshow over the ocean. For an hour we watched these planes dip, dive, twist, loop and drop. It was so much fun!

This was an aircraft carrier farther out in the bay. If you look closely, you can see the planes parked on the deck.

We watched several small fishing boats like this one come in and out of the bay.

Lots of sailboats like this one were all over the place. We just found out that Drew's cousin Stephanie sailed in on a boat like this today. We may get a chance to see her in the next couple of days before she sails out again on Wednesday.

The Sheriff's Office has a patrol boat that was out following the planes. It even had flashing blue lights on top! :)

There were several small red Tow Boats. We thought the boys would enjoy seeing a picture of them.

This was by far the most exciting boat to see. It is an old US Coast Guard ship. Zachary and Justin, this is kind of like your Lego Coast Guard boat!

We are in the hospital, and I am having quite frequent contractions (2-5 minutes apart). We'll see if this little girl decides to arrive in the middle of the night or holds off till morning. Either way, we will post an update and pictures as soon as we are able to! Check Rebekah's blog for the latest delivery updates. :)

Nancy

Rebekah

Rebekah is coming soon! Check her blog for the latest details: Bound by Grace

Nancy

Something's missing around here.....

Wow! I leave for an hour or two, and came back to find a very significant part of Justin was missing - his tooth!!! Justin lost his first tooth today, and was so very proud of it! I barely had time to get adjusted to him having a loose tooth, and now he has a lost tooth! We had corn on the cob for supper last night, and Justin kept complaining that his teeth hurt when he ate his corn. We checked and found that his tooth was VERY loose, and he hadn't even realized it! I wish that I had my camera in hand when it dawned on him that he was going to lose his first tooth. I don't think I've ever seen his eyes get so big! :) Anyway, he had a loose tooth for less than 24 hours before it came out (with a lot of wiggling on his part!). He was very excited about what the Tooth Fairy might be leaving under his pillow tonight!

Showing off our new smile!

In other news, our little turkey has taken to sand like he was born for it! For all of his issues with textures, Caleb loved playing in the sandbox this morning with his friends, Trevor and Peyton. When all was said and done, he had sand from his toes to his hair and loved every minute of it!

And if you are looking for an update on Rebekah, check out her blog here for the latest scoop. Just a month left until we get to meet our little girl! :)

Nancy

A Long Week

Well where to begin.  We have had a very long week.  I guess first of all since everyone has been asking. 

 

My interview of a couple of weeks ago.  I did here back from the company.  They are unable to do anything right now.  They are still interested and told me they are waiting on securing a couple more contracts before they would be able to bring me on.  They also mentioned some staff changes maybe will be coming up in about a month.  They have an intern leaving soon that i know about.  So we are going to wait and see what might or might not happen.  We did get some good news that we have a new house to start on Monday at the company I am currently working at.  So I should have rough framing work for another 3 or 4 months.  

It has been  a long time since I have done any rough framing, but it comes back to you like riding a bike.  At least I am not stuck in an office or store some where.  I have always enjoyed working outside in the fresh air.  I also have the privilege of working with some very good friends. 

Now for the rest of the family.  Justin and Zac are working hard at finishing up school soon.  They also are enjoying memorizing there verses and key truths for kids 4 truth on Wednesday nights at church.  Especially Justin.  Mom and I are very proud of them.  Justin had a good report from school and is more then ready for K5 next year.  He is also very excited about going into K5.  

Aaron got to keep Mommy company on all the many doctor visits this week.  He is doing well and growing like a weed.  He is enjoying riding his big boy bike and we tried playing catch last night for the first time with his new ball glove.  

Mr. Caleb has had a very busy week.  He is getting taller and into everything.  He is a very busy boy who loves the outdoors, now that it has gotten warmer.  He is talking more and more.  He loves to play and chase his brothers.  Caleb had a good one year check up this week.  He also saw the Allergist this week and had allergy testing done.  Not so good news there.  He tested positive reaction to most of the tests.  He is allergic to soy, wheat, milk, and a whole bunch more.  They are doing some more testing to confirm that the 1st test was accurate.  He had to have blood tests done to do this.  I guess this in its self was an adventure.  He had to have blood drawn from his arm.  Nancy had the joy of wrestling him to be still while they did this.   Hopefully we will not have to do this to often.  

Nancy was very busy as a taxi service this week to get to all these doctor appts.  She also saw her regular baby doctor this week.  She had a good check up but is still measuring small.  So far Rebekah is still growing at a normal rate so they are not to concerned.  We are now down to every two weeks check ups.  It won't be long now and Rebekah will be here.  Time flies.  

Mom is also enjoying sleeping in today and badly needs the rest.  She is getting excited about Rebekah coming soon and trying to think of all the things she needs to get done by then.  

I think the boys will have a little slower week this week.  Nancy, I and Miss Rebekah will be taking a trip to Charleston on Wednesday and Thursday this week.  We will be meeting several new doctors and the staff at MUSC.  We are hoping to learn where we will be for delivery and surgery and make any final arrangements we need to to prepare for Rebekah's coming.  

I am sure if i missed anything Nancy will correct me with her version.  I hope you all have a great week.  

D

Rebekah

I just updated Rebekah's blog with information from our doctor's visit today, and some new pictures!! :) You can click here or click on the button on the right sidebar to visit her blog. 

Nancy

Interview

We have a busy week ahead.  The boys are back to school and hoping to finish up for the summer soon.  We get a chance to go see Miss Rebekah on the ultrasound tomorrow.  I have an interview with a local custom builder on Thursday morning at 9:30.  We are praying and trusting the Lord will lead us to the right place of permanent employment.  This will be a exciting week to see the Lord's leading and direction both in our work situation and with the continuing situation with Rebekah.  

- Drew

Quick Update!

I just wanted to update and let you know (if you don't have it already) that we have started a new blog just for Rebekah and information about her Truncus Arteriosus.  You can read about her cardiology appointment at her blog www.rebekahgraceellis.blogspot.com.  As of about 6:30 this morning, we already had almost 1500 hits on the blog, and we have only given out the address for two days! This little girl has prayer support from all over the country! :)

Nancy

This 'N That

So this post is a little all over the place, but I had some cute pictures to post.......

Two Saturdays ago we went to the park for a picnic lunch.  This was Caleb's first park visit that he was really old enough to do anything more than sleep in the stroller! :)  He is addicted to slides, and we found that he really loves the swings, too.  Big surprise there.....all of his brothers love to swing, too! :)

Don't you just love that cheeky little grin??? (Caleb's, not Daddy's! :)

Justin completed his first school report about two weeks ago.  His teacher assigned each of them a different animal to research.  Justin had to answer questions about the cheetah - what it eats, where it lives, how it moves, what it looks like, and what sound(s) it makes.  He then colored some of the cheetah pictures and cut all of them out and glued them on the paper.  He was SO proud of his project!!

As you can imagine, we have no lack of bicycles around this house, and there is a bike for every size!  Aaron was getting a little big to be riding the Big Wheel plastic "bike," so Drew recommended that he try the little "big boy" bike.  He loved it!!!! He can pedal all over the cul-de-sac all on his own power. He is so proud to be riding a "real" bike like his brothers!! Of course, Zachary and Justin had to show off their bike skills, too....complete with gunbelts and six-shooters!  :)

Two very fast-pedalin' little hot shots!!

And our happy boy....little Caleb.  He loves to play (especially when his brothers leave him alone long enough to play with his toys!).  He is officially walking now - meaning he walks more than he crawls! Talk about proud of himself....his grin stretches from ear to ear.  Drew even found him "running" from one end of his crib to the other tonight after we put him in bed!! No lack of energy and activity at this house! :)

Miss Rebekah has some activity of her own this week.  Tomorrow morning at 9:15 we will meet with her cardiologist for a level 2 ultrasound (mainly of her heart) so the cardiologist can view it for himself and give us his opinion of what is going on.  We will be sure to update you all with any news he gives us.  For now, she is content to continue gymnastics practice with her flips and wiggles.  :)

Nancy

Bekah's Room Phase 1!!

First came the taping and prep work.......

Then the trimming (and trimming and trimming and........).

Then the rolling - strictly Drew's job.  I just tape and trim.  :)

And the finished walls! :)  If you look closely, especially toward the bottom of the picture, you can see the difference in color in the two walls.  The wall with the window is a shade darker than the wall on the left.

I am LOVING little girl dresses hanging in the closet!!!!!!

After several hours of work (more on Drew's part than mine!!), Rebekah's walls are all painted! We have a little bit of touch-up work to do, and then I want to paint the baseboards and door casings just to freshen it up.  But the biggest part of the job is done. The boys all thoroughly approve, and we like it too! :)  Now, we  just wait to see if Bekah likes it.

Nancy

Drew's Perspective

Drew and I have discussed many times in the past few days how blessed we are to be given such a special little girl to take care of.  Yesterday, Drew pretty much summed up our feelings in this post on his Facebook page, and I asked him if I could also put it on the blog (with a few....ahem....minor grammatical corrections).  :-)

"I want to thank all of the church family and our friends for the encouraging words and phone calls this week as we found out that we are embarking on a new adventure. Something that struck me as I read many of your posts on Nancy's page is that many of you expressed that you are sorry about Rebekah's heart defect. I understand that everyone is expressing their feelings and support, and I appreciate that.  Your support and encouragement will continue to mean even more in the days ahead. But, we are choosing to see things in a different way.  Rebekah's heart defect is not something to be sorry about; it is the Lord's will.  Whatever His reason, He has been preparing us for this and would not have allowed it to happen if we were not able to meet the challenge.

The Lord has been very gracious and has been preparing Nancy and myself with various challenges in the past few months to draw us closer together and cause us to rely more on Him. He has taken a lot of "securities" away to bring us to a better place of totally trusting in Him for everything in our lives. I know without a doubt that He has my little girl, who He gave to us, in His hands, and He can heal her if that is His will. It may be a long road, but we will be okay with the Lord leading and guiding in our lives.  There will be many trials and needs, but I pray that we will faithfully rely on the Lord to meet each of those needs. One of our biggest goals in this trial is to touch someone else's life along the way. Rebekah's heart defect is very rare, and we would like to be a testimony and encouragement to anyone else who walks this road behind us.  I am very grateful for all the kind words and encouragement.  I felt that we should share how we are looking at this new challenge and intending to walk forward - with the Lord leading us and your prayers and support behind us."

Drew

Rebekah

Here she is!! Introducing Rebekah Grace.....in pictures! :-)  I had a Level 2 ultrasound today at my high risk OB, and they can put the pictures on CD, so here we go!

During the ultrasound, the technician seemed to have some trouble finding the two vessels leading out of the heart - one that loops blood through the lungs and back to the heart (to oxygenate the blood), and the other that supplies blood to the body.  A little while later, another tech came in to see if she could get a clear picture of the vessels, and she couldn't see them clearly either.  So, Dr. Greig came in to look and concluded that Rebekah has a heart defect called Truncus Arteriosus.  Basically, when her heart formed, the two vessels did not separate, leaving her one large vessel.  So, while Bekah is in utero, everything is fine because her blood supply and oxygen are coming through the placenta.  Once she is born, she will be facing open heart surgery within the first 8 weeks of her life.

She almost had her thumb in her mouth here!!  We will be meeting with a Pediatric Cardiologist sometime in the next two to three weeks for him to look at an ultrasound of Rebekah's heart and determine how severe he thinks her defect is.  Most likely, a final determination of her heart defect will not come until after birth when the doctors can determine how critical or stable she is on her own.

So, for right now, the tentative plan is for her to grow, grow, grow!!  Based on what Dr. Greig suspects the cardiologists will recommend, we were told to prepare for a delivery in Charleston, SC, where the Pediatric Cardiology unit is and where Rebekah will ultimately have her surgery.  We will be meeting with the NICU doctors, the PCICU (pediatric cardiology intensive care unit) doctors and nurses, the pediatric cardiologist, the pediatric cardiothoracic surgical team and the high-risk OB doctors in Charleston sometime in the next 2 or 3 months to meet them and familiarize ourselves with where things are and how things are going to progress once Rebekah is born.

Dr. Greig's biggest concern is for Rebekah to grow as much as possible in utero, and based on my past history of NOT going into labor on my own, he said they will wait until 38 or possibly 39 weeks to schedule my induction at MUSC in Charleston.  Once Rebekah is born, we will be looking at one of three scenarios:

1) Rebekah is very critical at birth and will have surgery within hours or a day or two of birth to repair the vessels.

2) Rebekah is somewhat stable at birth or can be stabilized with medication and/or medical equipment in order to allow her to stay in the PCICU for a week or two to grow before surgery.

3) Rebekah is much more stable at birth than the doctors are suspecting and she is allowed to come home for a few weeks to grow prior to her surgery.

Because each person is different and reacts differently, the doctors will not be entirely certain of which scenario we will be facing until Rebekah is born.  The one thing we know for sure is that she will need at least one open heart surgery to correct the vessels, and possibly two or three more as she grows depending on the extent of the birth defect and how it is repaired during the first surgery.  She will visit a cardiologist at least once a year for the rest of her life in order to monitor her heart and stay ahead of any potential problems.  However, the long-term prognosis is very good.  Rebekah should have no restrictions or limitations due to her heart defect.  She should be able to grow, develop and play like any other baby.  She should even be able to participate in sports programs if she wants at some point.  And, some really encouraging news is that there should be no reason that she can't have children of her own some day, although it will require a little more monitoring of her heart than an otherwise healthy pregnant mom would have.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something or not answering everyone's questions! If you have a question, leave me a post, and I will try to answer it (or find the answer!!).  The links below should also provide more information:

http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/cardiac/truncus.html

http://www.pted.org/?id=truncusarteriosus1

We would certainly appreciate all of your prayers as we approach Rebekah's delivery in July and the surgeries that follow.

Nancy

Happy 10 months!

While I knew that Caleb's 10 month birthday was coming up soon, it didn't occur to me until around dinner time tonight that it was today! I just hadn't stopped to look at a calendar...

Anyway, our big boy is getting bigger and bigger! He is over 19 pounds and is 28 and 3/4 inches long.  He is almost walking on his own, and if he doesn't think about it, he will take a step or two without holding on to something.  It seems that when we are trying to get him to take steps then he realizes what he's doing and plops down to crawl! :)

Caleb waves bye-bye almost everytime you say the word now.  He also starts waving bye-bye when we walk up the stairs for naps and bedtime.  Caleb loves to shake his head "no" and even if someone mentions the word no in a sentence, Caleb is likely to start shaking away! It is really funny!!

This is how Caleb is playing peek-a-boo now.  He sometimes will cover his eyes with his hands, but a lot of times will scrunch up his face and close his eyes waiting for you to ask, Where's Caleb?

Then he pops his eyes open and starts laughing while waiting for you to respond  There he is!!

In other news,  all of the boys are thoroughly enjoying a Western/cowboy phase right now.  Papa and Nana gave them Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy DVD's for Christmas, and they choose those for every movie time. Uncle David gave the older three cowboy pistols and holsters for Christmas, and I probably buckle and unbuckle gunbelts more times in a day than I can count! Aaron races through the house shouting "Woy Wod-gders, where are you?"  And then, "I just put the bye-guys (bad guys) in jail then locked the door so the bye-guys won't skape (escape) away! (To bad guys: The rule is - you can't come out!)  Justin can't be outdone, so he rounds up his bad guys and tells them "You're going to prison and they have guard-er people to make sure you don' get out!"  Yep, the Wild West is alive and kickin' here at the Ellis Dude Ranch! :)

Some other common sayings from Aaron these days: "Come here! I wanna have a cummersation (conversation) with you!" and "It's not meeeeee! I didn't do anything!"  And we know that he was probably up to something when the first answer to our question is "It's not my fault! It's just not my fault!!" I wish I could follow Aaron (well, all the boys, really) around with a recorder because there are so many other cute things they say that I know I'm not remembering.

And, not to be outdone by her older brothers, Miss Rebekah has started getting in on the action with a few definite flips and wiggles of her own! The boys haven't been able to feel her move yet, but I sure can!!  Maybe I see gymnastics in our future! :)  Our next check-up is this Thursday.

I think that's about all the news from this ranch. Hope you all have a good weekend!!

Nancy

IT'S A........

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  Our OB office doesn't have the equipment to burn the ultrasound pictures to CD, and our attempts at scanning the black and white pictures have not been too successful.  If anyone has successfully scanned the pictures and would like to share how to do it, feel free!! Until then, you'll have to live with a text-only post! :)

Rebekah Grace is measuring right on target and is now 6 ounces.  Her estimated due date is July 18, 2009. Everything is looking great and we are very excited!

Nancy