Elise's belated birthday and a busy, busy weekend

We had a busy weekend. Friday night we went to the YW/Scouting fundraiser at our ward, the chili cook-off and bake sale. It was quite a success! The ward made over $2000! James made a chili, but he didn't win the contest. I made an apple pie for the bake sale auction, and it brought in $15, which I guess is pretty good for the first year I entered one.

Saturday Julie had to work, but afterwards we went out to dinner to celebrate Elise's belated birthday and our belated Valentine's Day, since we couldn't celebrate either of them last week since Elise was in the hospital. We even saw a couple get engaged next to us.

Sunday after church we celebrated Elise's 1st birthday. It was fun, Elise was adorable. We had some friends over to help celebrate with cake and ice cream. Elise, of course, loved the wrapping paper that came with her presents, and she loved making a mess with the cake and ice cream, although she didn't eat any of it. Instead of eating her cake and ice cream she put each bit that she picked up directly into her hair. She didn't even try to eat any, nope, it all went directly into her hair.
Elise loves playing with Mr. Indiana Jones Potato Head. Who wouldn't?

...and, here's a video where Elise shows how smart she is with her new word...nose. She can find Mr. Potato Head's nose all by herself!

Here's the scouts at the bake sale/ chili cook-off...

...and here's Elise hanging out with Daddy during the bake sale.

Celebrating at the restaurant

Elise wearing the pretty dress aunt Jill gave her...

Happy belated first birthday, Elise!

Mommy made the cake and we put in one candle to blow out.

And here is a picture of Elise putting the cake and ice cream into her hair, bit by bit...she did this for 20 minutes!

A little video of Elise playing with her cake while we serve it...and putting it into her hair. What a funny girl!

Opening her presents...

...and having a lot of fun seeing what she got. (Notice the hair? That's what happens when you put all your ice cream on your head!)

Elise and mommy after her bath...clean hair at last!

Elise is home!

Elise was released from the hospital today! We're very relieved and very grateful that she is okay and that we have her home now. The doctors decided that the seizures were caused by the virus that she had contracted--all the tests they ran came back normal and didn't show the usual signs of seizure activity. So, they'll follow up with her in a few months and check her out again, but we can be fairly sure that she won't have any long-term effects.


Elise loved having her John Deere blanket and got quite a few compliments on it from the nurses--they all loved it and wanted to know where to get one. Too bad it's one of a kind...


When Elise got feeling better she loved playing with all the toys. See her glowing toe? She loved trying to pull it off and play with it and constantly set off the monitors. She'd play with it at night when everything else was dark.

A few firsts for Elise...birthdays and hospital stays

Elise turned one years old yesterday. Unfortunately, the celebrations have been put on hold and we'll have to have her party in a week or so since she isn't feeling very well right now. As some of you may have heard, Elise has given us a scare the past few days. She'd had a small fever and a runny nose for a day or so, and then on Wednesday, Feb. 11th, she took an ambulance ride to the local hospital after James found her unresponsive in her crib. They told us she'd had a febrile seizure and treated her for it and released her later that night. Thursday morning she was having a hard time holding her head up, crawling, or using her hands, so we took her to the pediatricians office to follow up, and he had us take Elise directly to the ER at the children's hospital for more testing. By the end of the day we'd been admitted so they could keep an eye on her. They found that most of her movement issues was just the prolonged effect of the drugs they administered in the ER the day before, but they still wanted to keep an eye on her. She kept her fever down and was improving so they released her Saturday night, Valentine's Day, and we were happy thinking we could celebrate her first birthday at home.

But we're back in the hospital again, Sunday morning we went to get Elise up and she wasn't responding to us again, and then she started having seizures. We put her in the car, drove her back to the children's hospital, and we've been here since while she gets the care she needs. She's fighting a couple different infections, which they think is the cause for the seizures. She'll have a few more tests soon to rule out other problems, tomorrow is an EEG, MRI and a few other things. The doctor says she'll be here till at least Wednesday or Thursday.

So, keep us in your prayers, Elise could use them right now.

A beautiful day to play outside

Today was a beautiful day to play outside. The weather was nice and warm, it was probably 50 or 60 degrees with the sun shining. While James went on a bike ride, Elise and I played out in the front yard. She loves being outside, whenever we open the door, even if it's just to get the newspaper, she starts crawling as fast as she can so she can get out before we notice. She's like a little escape artist!
Elise enjoying the sunshine...

She liked playing with her toys outside, but she didn't want to just have to stay on the blanket. Unfortunately, she has recently learned not to like the feel of grass on her hands, and since she can't walk yet, she doesn't like to crawl across the grass, which means she had to stay on the blanket. (Or, cry for Mom to hold her hands and help her walk to the safety of the sidewalk.)

Here's a little video of Elise playing on the grass, and trying not to touch it. She also found the stairs up to our front door and just had to go up them. She loves stairs as much as she loves being outside. Too bad she doesn't know how to go down them yet...