ellie turns two!

Ellie is TWO!

How can our precious baby be two years old?  Mommy didn't take off work this year because I was off so much with Grandma Mary in the past few months, but Aunt Lisa and Bailey made sure she had so much fun that day at Chuck-E-Cheese.  We actually had two parties for Ellie since my grandmother's passing happened really close to her birthday.  We had our close friends and family over on her actual birthday for pizza and party hats, and then we had a bunch of our friends and family over for her themed birthday party.  Pretty sure this momma isn't have a big birthday party for a while :)

Our original party date was supposed to be the 10th, but we pushed it back a couple of weeks to give my family a little time to recover.

One of her two year old portraits :)

 

She made everyone wear party hats.

Love this little munchkin to pieces!

 

 

we love you, grandma mary!

Grandma Mary had been in the hospital for the most part of the year, with only a few days at home.  She was getting sicker and sicker.  On February 17, she had open heart surgery and a quadruple bypass.  She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure back in December, and nothing really positive happened since then.  It was so hard to see her in so much pain for most of the time.  At one of her many stays in the CVCU (Cardiovascular Care Unit) in Floyd Memorial, we sent Grandpa Bud home and I spent the night with her.  I will always treasure that night and her waking me up every half hour because she had fallen down in the bed and her toes were on the edge.  After Easter, it was decided that she would go home under Hosparus care and out of the continuous hospitals and rehabs.  I spent the next week pretty much working, and then staying with my grandma.  Finally, on April 30, she took her final breath.  I am such a much better person for knowing my grandma and for her helping raise me.  I will never be able to thank her for everything she did in shaping my life, but I know she knew I loved her with all of my heart.  The days were really rough, but I have such an amazing support system of family and friends, and her funeral services were a testimony of how much she was loved.  We truly are a blessed family unit.

At my baby shower in March 2012... She loved Eliot so very much.