Friday, July 06, 2012

Ellie's first visit to the dentist!

Ellie had her 1st visit to the dentist-as a patient-a couple of weeks ago.  She did GREAT!!!!!!  She cooperated, and they were able to clean, floss, even take an x-ray (but not the kind where she has to bite down on that horrible piece of plastic...they said her mouth was still too small.)  She has been with us to the dentist many times, and I think that helped a lot just that she was somewhat familiar with the office, although I'm not sure she'd spent much time past the waiting room.  We go to church with one of the dentists & one of the hygienists, but neither of them were there, and she STILL did great!  I was amazed (& thankful!)






She wasn't thrilled with the water & "Mr. Thirsty," but she learned to live with it!  There were NO tears!  :)











One slight concern is that I'd noticed her 2 front teeth appeared a bit gray.  When they x-rayed them, they could tell that apparently there HAD been some sort of trauma to them at some point.  Ellie told me, when she heard me talking about it, that she had fallen in the bathtub, but I don't know if that's it or not.  I would think if she'd experienced a trauma big enough to cause her teeth to become discolored that I would remember it.  Anyway, not a lot to do about it.  She said she may very well lose them early.  Let's hope not TOO early.  Little children with their 2 front teeth missing are really cute, but I'd rather it not last years longer than it usually does before those permanent teeth come in.

Katie & Gracie had great check-ups!  No cavitites.  We've been visiting with the orthodontist for Gracie, and he wants to wait until about February ... and then it'll be BRACES time!  :/  I know it needs to be done, and I don't regret waiting until she's older (it's what the ortho recommended). I know it'll be an interesting time in her life (& an expensive one!) but the end result should be great!  :)  Let's just hope her mouth is ready by February.  I don't want to wait much longer, but her mouth just hasn't been quite ready yet.  We'll see what happens! 

Happy 4th Birthday, Ellie Hollyn Shanks!

Our sweet Ellie turned 4 on June 24!  She is a joy to have in our family, and we are blessed that God has allowed us to be her parents!

Ellie's favorites include Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse, ballet, dress up, princesses, pink, painting fingernails, 'macacheese,' milk, 'Pop Turts,' breakfast bars, cookies, etc.  There are many more, but those are some of them.  She is quite partial to men.  This could mean trouble later in life.  She loves Mr. Kevin, Mr. David, Mr. Hickey, and her Uncle Josh (she pretends she doesn't want him to tickle her, but she loves it!), and of course her Daddy!  She is very excited to be in "the 4's class" next year at her preschool.  She gets excited when she realizes it's time for Bible Class.  She is good at working on memorizing Bible verses.  She told me, with concern, this year that one of her friends at school had told her that God wasn't the most important.  This upset her because we tell her that God IS the most important.  I think they discussed it :) and I was proud of Ellie for realizing that her friend was wrong!  Some of her best friends are Jack, Lyla, Quinlan, Evia, & Coco.  She adores her biggest sister and enjoys playing with (& sometimes arguing with) her big sister.  ;)  She is a little diva for sure....we're hoping to keep her sweet & girly while also helping her realize it's not really ALL about her!  She is pure sweetness...with a lot of spunk & attitude, and WE LOVE HER!
We celebrated her birthday with Gramps & Gramme, who were in town, the day before her birthday.  She had requested a Minnie Mouse cake, so that's what she got!  That and 'macacheese!'  Interestingly, she much prefers the 'boxed kind' much better than my yummy homemade! 






















Katie was very proud that she made up a song to play for Ellie.  She took it very seriously. 


The cake.....I must admit, we picked it up at the last minute and stuck a picture of Minnie on top of it (what can I say....she's the 3rd child!) but Ellie found it to be YUMMY.

 Ooohhh...what's in here?!



Gracie drew her a precious Princess picture, and Katie made her a collage of pictures and got her a coloring book.

 Princess bike!!!!

Happy Birthday (morning!), Ellie Belles! 

She was so excited!



 Katie was so proud of Ellie's happiness over the coloring book!





















Our sweet Ellie Hollyn Shanks...4 years old!




 What a blessing to be the mother of these 3 sweet girls!
 First ride...here we go!






 1 crash...but she got right back on it!  :)
We love you, Ellie!

A Weekend In Galveston

Chris & I enjoyed a weekend in Galveston a few weeks ago.  (The previous weekend, I'd thrown him a SURPRISE 40th Birthday party...which is a WHOLE other post!) 

It was a great time to just enjoy being together without our kids (whom we LOVE) but every couple needs alone time every now & then! 

We stayed in The Tremont House which was a nice historical hotel.


 We enjoyed visiting La Kings...a great ice cream/chocolate shop!!!  It was right behind our hotel, so we were able to walk there (multiple times!)

 We enjoyed laying on the beach, under the umbrella...reading, eating, people watching, etc.!




We enjoyed taking a Harbor Tour.


 Fresh fish!




 We enjoyed a massage at the spa...very nice!





It was a fun weekend!