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Hello friend and family. Once again I have failed at posting our current happenings at the Ellis house so I will attempt to "update" you all with this letter. Lauren Started Kindergarten this last fall she has a great teacher and loves school very much. I find that because of the schools policy in allowing my other two children to come with me. I am up at the school volunteering or substituting about two days a week. Lauren's first field trip was to a pumpkin patch it was tons of fun.

Happy Halloween. Since I'm able to take Carson and Alex with me Carson has become one of the class. I'm not sure if it is good or bad as he may be really bored by the time he gets to Kindergarten.

Lauren is a bright and helpful girl. She loves to do all the singing and dancing that they do at school. She will complain about having to read her sight words but breezes right thru them. Now that she is a big sister she is always there to help. Alex is lucky to have a second mom around to meet his every need. When we are at school she always makes sure the other kids are not getting to close to him so "he doesn't get sick" and so they don't take any of her time to play with the baby away.

Lauren loves to carry Alex around. It is so nice to have the extra pair of hands to help out when I need her. When I took Alex to the Dr. Lauren kept telling him it would be ok when they gave him shots because he needed them to stay healthy.

Happy Thanksgiving! Miss you! Lauren loves to write, I find myself often spelling words out for her to write on various paper, notebooks, cardboard pretty much any writeable surface. Her first sentence she brought home from school was this one: I like to go to the cousins. Than drew a picture of her cousins. I thought it was so cute I had to add it to the letter.

This winter has been cold but we haven't gotten all the snow like we had in years past. But when it did snow we made sure to make the most of it. Carson found Zeke's hat with a face mask sewn into it and he was a snow ninja.

Carson likes to help out with Alex just like Lauren he just does it on his own time not necessarily when I need it. It is nice to have the older two kiddos who are self-sufficient so when I need to do things with Alex they can play by them selves.

Both of my kids have their blankets. Lauren's is a soft (well was when I first made it) with a silky binding and Carson's is fleece with tassels around the edges. Carson was all about sharing his blanket with Alex, at least until Alex got big enough to put everything he can reach into his mouth. Carson now tells me that he doesn't like Alex drool on his blanket and would I please get Alex's his own blanket.

Merry Christmas! Carson gives all of his things names. His blanket is named trainee as it is a train blanket. His penguin is named Pangie and his truck is names truckie. There is an exception to this naming trend and that is a hook that came off the end of a bungee cord. Instead of being called hookie Carson calls it hooker. I love it when he asks me "Mom where is my hooker?" when we are at church or anywhere in public.

Carson is a sweet kind hearted boy. He is willing to do anything you ask as long as there is candy involved. In the morning time this is how our conversations go. Carson gets up and walks into the kitchen or where ever I am. Mom: "Good morning Carson! How did you sleep?" Carson: "Mom can I have chocolate?" Mom: "No you may not" Carson: "Mom can I have candy?" Mom: "No you may not." Carson: "Mom can I have sugar?" Mom: "No you may not." Carson: "Ok can we compromise? Can I have syrup?"

Happy Valentine Day! Some weeks ago Carson got something in his eye and complained about it for two hours or so. I looked and saw nothing and when he didn't stop complaining about it I rinsed the eye. No relief, so I put on an eye patch and he went to bed. The next morning when he still said it hurt I made a Dr. appointment to see what was going on. He wore the eye patch the whole time till the Dr appointment. Once in the Dr office and the nurses had all given Carson their sympathy, he pulled the eye patch off and said, "I'm all better" and then the Dr walked in. It turned out Carson's eye was fine but he had strept throat so it wasn't a wasted doctors appointment.

For Carson Birthday he wanted a Ninja turtle cake, this year we made Raphael.

We were out flying kites and Carson was so excited to be able to fly his all on his own. When the wind turned and his kite fell to the ground he was quite up set. To solve his problem he decided that he would convey the problem the passing high school children. The passing kids just ignored Carson and kept going. He was so crest fallen that he gave up and sat down by his kite. It reminded me of the bushman on the gods must be crazy, when he took the soda bottle to the city and tried to give it away.

Happy St Patrick Day! Alex is our newest member of our family he was born Aug 21 2013. Around Halloween I was at Lauren's school and I accidently dropped so hot glue onto Alex's fingers and gave him 2nd degree burns. As a side note he has since healed perfectly. If you look closely you can even see the burns in this photo.

Alex started life sucking on his thumb, I tried to change his mind by putting a pacifier in his mouth. He would suck on said pacifier as long as it was held there.

Next Alex started sucking on his pointer finger. Again determined to not have a finger sucker I forced the pacifier. Again he would suck on it happily as long as it was held into place for the duration of the sucking time.

In the end Alex won the war, he sucks on his middle and ring finger, Its so darn cute so I gave up on trying to adjust his behavior.

Alex is a very easy going baby most of the time. Alex has the Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde persona, while at Lauren's school he is more that happy and content to sit in a carrier, the floor or where ever. Once taken home he turns into Dr Jekyll and would scream for hours on end. There are several ladies are Lauren's school that ask if he ever cries I just laugh!

After multiple Dr appointments and trial and error we found that he has some gluten intolerances. For the most part as long as I don't eat white fluffy goodness he does ok. So no bread (exception being rye and pumpernickel) pancakes, waffles, and muffins. He can tolerate tortillas which is very nice. He also does not tolerate to much citrus very well.

Alex is very animated in his expressions. Some photos need no explanation.

Alex is a very cuddly baby, he loves to be held and will curl right into your shoulder. He also started giving hugs and kisses. The kisses are more slobber than anything but darling just the same.

I have a friend that tries to save all stray animals. So when she calls and says, "I found..." I know its going to be good. Last fall she called and said she found some abandoned ducklings that needed a home.(Abbie I'm sorry I don't live closer I would have called you.) It turned out that she found someone else to take them that had other ducklings. So a few weeks ago when she called again and said she "found" I was excited to hear what she was going to say. She told me that there were some stray chickens. (Is that even correct to say? Chickens that were stray? It doesn't exist they don't last long enough to become stray.) Anyway I told her that I wanted them and would come over to catch them. When I got there I found that they were not people friendly and would not let me close enough to attempt to catch them.

I went back the next night around dusk when my chicken were bedding down. I found the chicken in an abandoned yard. I watched them until it got dark which took about two hours. My friend and I took sticks and were able to push the first chicken out of the tree than catch it when it landed on the ground. The second chicken proved to be more determined to stay right where it was at. We pushed and poked, shoved and prodded and still the chicken sat. We were able to wiggle the chicken out on twigs coming off the main branch and it clung on. After 45 minutes or so when I was thinking of giving up the chicken hopped on to the end of my friends stick and was lowered to the ground where we grabbed her and put her in the cat carrier along with the first chicken. They are both now at my house and doing well. I have not let them out of the pen for fear they will fly but soon we will let them out and see if they stay or fly away. I am not sure where they came from as no one in the neighborhood has chickens.

The first of March Alex got RSV. When he first got it we went to the Dr and they sent us home with a nebulizer and breathing treatments. After a couple days we found he was not doing well on just that and had to take him to the ER. They did x-rays and admitted us to the hospital where he was on O2 and more breathing treatments. We stayed 2 ½ days and 2 nights. He was doing better so they let us go home.

Alex did well in the hospital he mostly slept. Even had a fancy bed.

Once he had some oxygen and breathing treatment Alex was all smiles while we were there. The nurses kept asking me if he was really sick or wanted a holiday. The hospital was nice but not that nice.

We took a detour on our way back from Zeke's mom's house and stopped to see Big Brutus. It is a really big mining machine. Carson was fascinated by it. Lauren wanted to know what it was made of. Zeke was bummed that we could no longer climb up to the top of the boom.

At my house Lauren and Carson love to play and watch movies on the i-touch. It was Carson's turn to hold the i-touch as the movie played and he needed to go to the bathroom so to make sure Lauren did not watch the movie without him he took the i-touch to the bathroom with him. Well the rest is kind of fuzzy as far as the details go but the outcome was the i-touch was dropped in the toilet and than flushed to make it go up into the holding tank behind the toilet. I questioned Carson about why he would flush it not that it mattered and did he in fact flush it??? As I was not convinced that he could flush it down the toilet. I was wrong he did and it went down the toilet, it than got stuck in the trap. We pulled and grabbed, but it would not budge.

We finally decided that in order to remove the i-touch we needed to take the toilet off and get it out that way. So I think ok, I will have Carson help so that he sees how disgusting it is and will be thus encouraged to not flush anything down ever again. We take off the toilet and he says "OH that is COOL!!!!'" not the response I was looking for but what ever. I took the toilet and turned it up side down and shook it to remove the i-touch.

When I took the i-touch out and sat it on the counter Lauren comes into the bathroom and asks in the sweetest voice if she "Could pretty please have it for her very own?!?!?! And could she not have to share it with Carson?!?!?" I said yes she could. She took it from me and pushed the power and looked at me pushed the power button two more times. And looked at me and said "Mom I wonder when it will turn on?" Poor child had no clue!!!

I often get migraines and upon one of those times I was laying down on the couch with my hair thrown over the edge of the couch. Carson came in and told me my hair was very long. I replied I know I need to cut it. Now I had been growing my hair out for three years and was very happy that it had finally gotten longer than my waist as it seems to get there and just hang out for ever with no further growth.

Carson came around the couch rubbing a chunk of my hair down the length of his face. I asked where he had gotten the chunk of hair knowing that it had to of come from my head. He said that he cut my hair for me... Dear sweet child had heard of my problem and went to remedy the situation. Thankfully he had not cut it to my scalp and we both survived the event. I will say now that my hair is shorter I have to turn more often in the shower as my back gets cold if I don't it is also nice to not have to move my hair out of the way when I urinate.

Hope this finds you all doing well. Love the Ellis group

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