A Birthday Girl

Seven years ago on Friday, we welcomed this little cutie in our home:  

 We'd had a hard time deciding between Abigail and Eliza for her name, but after spending a little time in her presence knew she was supposed to be our Eliza Sandra and that we would call her Ellie.  From day one, the name seemed to suit her personality perfectly. 


She has a cheerful and creative personality and loves connecting with people.  She wears a perpetual smile and because of her laid-back tendencies is by far the least likely of all the kids to get grumpy. 

Her birthday celebrations this year are getting stretched out over a couple of weeks.  We had her traditional Daddy cooked birthday breakfast of crepes and Nutella on Sunday while Spencer was still at home, then she picked out this box of Cookie Crisps for her school morning breakfast.  She was pretty darn excited about eating little mini cookies for breakfast.

Another one of her classmates was sharing birthday treats the same day, so we opted against the fancy homemade cupcakes we usually make and went for these cute (and easy) store bought cookies!

She opened a couple of presents today (a dress and some Pokemon cards) and will open a couple others on Sunday when we finish celebrating her birthday together as a family here at the hospital.  We'll also eat her birthday dinner of choice together, Turkey Wafflewiches, which also happens to be a favorite of Spencer's.   


Speaking of Spencer...despite the ten year age difference between them, these two have always had a special bond.  They laugh a lot together and seem to have a connection than transcends the years.

Happy Birthday Ellie!

We love you!

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SEVEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT SEVEN-YEAR-OLD ELLIE:

1.  She's been counting down the days to her birthday for weeks on end now.  
2.  Ellie LOVES stories.  She loves reading them, loves telling them, and even loves writing them. 
3.  She's the only one of my kids that doesn't love food.  Even as a baby, she wouldn't gain weight and we had to convince her that she wanted to eat. 
4.  Although I was induced and had the 2nd longest of all my labors with her, it was still by far the most pleasant of all my pregnancies and deliveries.  I had no morning sickness at all. 
5.  Ellie completely ADORES her school teacher!  
6.  Ellie has always had her own unique sense of fashion, which has often served as entertainment for our family.  Her current clothing trend is to wear dresses or skirts 9 days out of 10. 
7.  While creativity is a concerted effort for me, Ellie's brain naturally thinks creatively.  She frequently comes up with projects and ideas that would never even cross my mind.  

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UPDATE:

• Spencer has been experiencing pretty significant chest pain today.  They've run a number of tests and determined that it's nothing to be concerned about, so now it's just a matter of treating the pain.  They believe it may be pleurisy, which is a harmless inflammation of the chest cavity that just needs to run its course.   Unfortunately the best treatment for pleurisy is ibuprofen, of which cancer patients aren't really allowed to have because of their low platelets and other blood levels. 

• Cami scored her first goal ever in her JV lacrosse game yesterday!

• Today I picked up a bunch of our old videotapes from 2002-2004 which I had taken to Costco to get digitized.  I can't believe how cute and little my kids were! 

                                                                Adam and Emma (2003)

• We've discovered that Pizza Hut will deliver pizza straight to the room!    I am sensing they will be visiting us a few more times before his treatment is done. 

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Heavenly Father, are you really there?
And do you hear and answer every child's prayer?
Some say that Heaven is far away
but I feel it close around me as I pray.


Pray, He is there
Speak, He is listening
You are His child
His love melts around you
He hears your prayers
He loves His children
Of such is the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven

  Janice Kapp Perry
(thanks Candice)